Editor's Take: October 26, 2009
Bill McKibben, 350.org
Rallying for (climate) change
Across the Northwest (and the world) this weekend, people claimed car-free streets, held yoga throw-downs, staged photo shoots and formed a giant "350" with canoes and kayaks in the Willamette River to urge leaders to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The number refers to the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (in ppm) that many climate scientists say is the upper limit if global warming is to be reversed.
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Thousands rally for action on climate
Vancouver Sun
10/25/2009
About 5,000 people, including a shouting, sign-waving group of secondary school students, demonstrated on Vancouver's Cambie Bridge as part of the International Day of Climate Change. They were among millions of people around the world who took part in weekend demonstrations demanding government action on climate change.
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Senate climate bill cushy on industry?
New York Times
10/25/2009
The Senate bill aimed at reducing global warming pollution will initially grant billions of dollars of free emissions permits to utilities and industry but will require the bulk of the money be returned to consumers and taxpayers, according to newly released details.
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Food plants make comeback in Oakland
San Francisco Chronicle
10/25/2009
At a time when most industries in CA are suffering, Oakland's food business - including everything from tofu to doughnuts - appears to be expanding and hiring workers for living wage jobs.
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Portland harbor contamination poses risk
Oregonian
10/25/2009
Decades of industrial pollution in the Portland Harbor Superfund site have left high levels of contaminants in river sediment, an exhaustive survey concludes, posing risks to wildlife, fish and humans who eat fish from the nine-mile stretch of the Willamette River.
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WA company crafts a sleeker solar panel
Everett Herald
10/25/2009
Sometimes it's what you don't see that makes a product special. When you stand beneath a solar panel built by Arlington's Silicon Energy, Washington's first solar panel manufacturer, you won't see jumbled, ugly wires or opaque padding. You'll see blue from the silicon cells and sunlight streaming through.
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Survey: Safer roads=happy bikers
Portland Tribune
10/26/2009
Despite Portland's reputation for being bike-friendly, respondents in Eugene and the Bend-Sisters area reported using their bikes more, according to a new survey of cyclists in OR and southern WA. It also found that as bicyclists feel safer on the road, the number and percentage of weekly trips taken by bike increase significantly.
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Betting the farm
Mother Jones Magazine
10/25/2009
When the Waxman-Markey climate bill was written, power plants were covered. Chemical factories were covered. Refineries were covered. But agriculture? Not covered. At all. Farms can emit greenhouse gases until sea levels have risen enough to give Iowans an ocean view and never pay a dime.
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Energy Dept. aid for scientists on the edge
New York Times
10/26/2009
The federal Energy Department will introduce began awarding research grants for ideas like enzymes that will capture carbon dioxide and batteries so cheap that they will allow the use of solar power all night long. A new agency within the department will nurture these and other radical proposals, most of which will probably fail but a few of which could have a transformative impact.
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Views: Saying good-bye to the closet
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10/25/2009
The last 45 years haven't always brought out the best in America. Still, we've made strides in broadening civil rights while pushing government out of our bedrooms. Referendum 71 offers WA state - and nation - a chance to say good-bye to shadows of the closet and move into the sunlight of a relaxed and inclusive society.
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Views: The electric car and the road not taken
New York Times
10/25/2009
It's one of the most exciting design challenges of our time. It's a (very) rare opportunity to reinvent a ubiquitous object that is the most expensive - and, often, most emotive - thing that many people will ever buy except for their homes. It's also a chance to help to save the planet.
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