Editor's Take: May 31, 2009
416style, flickr
Green buildings, two ways
Architects are making headlines with a race to build a "living building" that pushes far beyond energy savings. Yet some argue fancy green building showcases may be less effective than simply loaning money to finance efficiency upgrades. Meanwhile, battles are brewing in farm country with a proposed dam near BC and Washington's border and genetically modified beets showing up in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
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What one stimulus buck could do
Mother Jones Magazine
05/31/2009
What if there were a way to simultaneously revive the flagging construction industry, slash energy use, and reduce carbon emissions using federal stimulus cash? Instead of green building showcases, one architect is turning to bank loans and interest rates to boost energy and financial efficiency.
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The greatest green building race
Seattle Times
05/31/2009
Jason McLennan has launched a race among more than 60 teams of architects to build the first "Living Building" - one that that pushes beyond energy conservation to more broadly address the well-being of people and the environment. Really, his plan is nothing short of radically transforming the way the world builds.
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Losing WA's health care lottery
Seattle Times
05/31/2009
Steve Hill is about to make a tough decision that no one in state government wants to touch - including him. He must decide how to eject some 36,000 people from Washington's Basic Health Plan, the popular state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor, perhaps by a controversial lottery.
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Flood of anger in BC over proposed Okanogan dam
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/31/2009
A punishing drought, which gave the State of Washington a grim warning about global warming, has led to a US dam proposal that threatens to drown a British Columbia valley. It would provide more water in an area where irrigated organic orchards and vineyards have flourished as well as flood endangered species habitat in a proposed national park.
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Battle over beets
Corvallis Gazette Times
05/31/2009
Organic seed producer Frank Morton has been warning people for years that genetically modified organisms pose a threat to Oregon's Willamette Valley's vegetable seed industry. Now he thinks his worst nightmare may be coming true.
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Oregon farmers markets go hyper-local
Eugene Register Guard
06/01/2009
Once a staple of big cities that drew farmers from outlying areas, farmers markets are now cropping up in their own rural communities. Smaller Oregon towns are reaching out to growers to sell organic produce and flowers locally, while creating new gathering places.
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Software to save the planet
Los Angeles Times
06/01/2009
Through the "greening of IT," tech wizards behind many Internet companies are now hard at work building digital solutions to save water, energy, corporate coffers and maybe even the planet.
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Veterans struggling, homeless in Portland
Oregonian
06/01/2009
Charles Triblett doesn't hold a sign at Portland intersections saying, "Homeless veteran, out of work, please help." The 46-year-old college graduate looks more like the middle-class professional who would lean out the window with a few dollars. But his story helps explain why the number of homeless veterans in the Portland area has swelled 78 percent since 2007.
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How Obama made energy 'pop'
Washington Post
05/31/2009
President Obama has elevated energy and climate issues to near the top of his agenda and made them "pop" by packaging them as ways to create green jobs and reduce US dependence on foreign oil.
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Free carbon permits could cost consumers
New York Times
05/31/2009
Those free passes that the House climate bill gives to major greenhouse gas-emitting industries might not be so free for consumers.
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