Editor's Take: February 12, 2009
Credit: diego, Flickr.
Accommodating Climate Refugees
With climate change affecting the US, a new kind of refugee, the "climate refugee," is appearing. The Seattle P-I reports on whether or not Washington can handle the influx. Global warming is affecting wildlife too, as birds stay longer in Alaska, and the American pika is considered for federal protection. Sightline Daily will be taking a holiday Monday, but will return Tuesday with Cascadia's top news.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Christina Claassen | View All Today's News
Washington Not Ready for 'Climate Refugees'
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
02/13/2009
"Climate refugees."
It's a term we should get used to, researchers warned on Thursday, predicting a flood of new residents driven north by heat waves, fires and other calamitous effects of global warming.
Go to article.
Re-Envisioning Bellevue's Light-Rail
Seattle Times
02/13/2009
Bellevue is on the verge of giving the go-ahead for the region's first big development designed from scratch around light-rail stations.
Go to article.
Wal-Mart A Leader in Employee Health Care?
Washington Post
02/13/2009
Washington policymakers contemplating a fundamental overhaul of the nation's troubled health-care system may want to study the saga of Wal-Mart.
Once vilified for its stingy health benefits, the world's largest company has become an unlikely leader in the effort to provide affordable care without bankrupting employers, their workers or taxpayers in the process.
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Bay Area Transportation Benefits from Stimulus
San Francisco Chronicle
02/13/2009
Bay Area officials expect to devote about 70 percent of what the region gets on rehabilitation projects for streets, roads and highways, replacement buses, new ferry engines and repairs to Muni Metro light rail vehicles.
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PCB Hot Spots Pop Up Along Willamette River
Oregonian
02/13/2009
Oregon's first wide-ranging survey of sediment contamination in the Willamette River's downtown Portland stretch found seven potential toxic hot spots for PCBs and average levels of the toxic seven times higher than normal.
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Bill Seeks To Protect Northwest Wilderness
Missoulian
02/13/2009
After years of inattention, wilderness advocates hope a new federal bill will finally win national support.
On Wednesday, representatives Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., introduced the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, which would protect 24 million acres in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington.
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Global Warming Brings More Birds North to Alaska
Anchorage Daily News
02/13/2009
Long-term global warming is prompting North American birds to winter farther north - a trend more noticeable in Alaska than anywhere else in the nation, according to a new study by the National Audubon Society.
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US Agrees To Consider Protections for Pikas
San Francisco Chronicle
02/13/2009
The American pika, a furry relative of the rabbit that lives in the High Sierra, is the first mammal outside of Alaska that the federal government has agreed to consider for protection from harmful effects of global warming.
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Views: Melting Glaciers Are Clear Signs of Danger
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
02/13/2009
With salmon runs in trouble from California to Alaska, why not appoint a fisheries director within the Council on Environmental Quality? The director would be accountable to the White House, but based on the West Coast.
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The Rise of Pugetopolis
Crosscut
02/13/2009
As the US government gears up for a new census and the Puget Sound region faces economic uncertainties, what do the patterns of regional growth tell us about where we've been headed? How much has been sprawl? Where are we becoming denser? In short, how has the region been shaped or re-shaped in the last 50 years?
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