en-us Copyright Sightline Daily - all rights reserved newsfeeds@sightline.org newsfeeds@sightline.org Most recent Environment headlines from Sightline Daily, the Northwest news that matters http://daily.sightline.org Plone http://daily.sightline.org/logo.gif 427 69 As climate change, environmental constraints and growth continue to tighten the valve on California's water supplies, the rest of the state is going to feel the pinch too. Not just during droughts but all the time. The reason is simple. Compared to building new reservoirs, recycling or seawater desalination, conservation is one of the cheapest, quickest and least environmentally damaging ways for the state to get more water. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conserve24-2009nov24,0,1178521.story Climate Environment Food & Farms Water California 11/24/2009 Los Angeles Times The view from State Route 281, a few miles south of Quincy, Wash., doesn't seem like one of the world's more dramatic landscapes. Not to me, anyway. This is country to be endured (better yet, slept through) on the way to other, more captivating environments. The topography here is mostly flat, and whatever isn't paved is russet or beige or an irrigated green. http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.20/after-the-floods?src=feat Environment Cascadia 11/23/2009 High Country News Depending on how you view it, climate change is either the biggest problem mankind faces or its greatest financial opportunity. For example, McKinsey has become known as a climate-change consultant, thanks to its greenhouse gas "cost abatement curve" showing the relative opportunity costs of different abatement activities. http://www.economist.com/node/14952792 Climate Economy Energy Environment 11/24/2009 The Economist Earlier this month, the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge celebrated the restoration of the Nisqually River estuary. The cold salt water of Puget Sound poured onto the old diked pasture of the refuge at the beginning of October, undoing the late-19th-century "improvement" of the land, and beginning what refuge manager Jean Takekawa calls the largest estuary restoration in the Northwest. http://crosscut.com/2009/11/24/science-environment/19398/ Environment Water Washington 11/24/2009 Crosscut With no fast food restaurants or big box stores, the bicycle and pedestrian friendly Cowichan Bay in British Columbia has become North America's first Slow City. An offshoot of the Slow Food movement, it's a quiet resistance to drive-thru homogenization. http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00047&segmentID=4 Climate Economy Environment Food & Farms Sprawl & Transportation Sustainable Living British Columbia 11/22/2009 Living on Earth Frozen salmon is better for the planet than fresh, because it takes so much less energy to make it to your dinner plate than catching fish and flying them to markets around the world. The findings of a study by Portland-based EcoTrust may fly against conventional assumptions that fresh is always better. http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/11/frozen_salmon_over_fresh_why_i.html Climate Environment Food & Farms Salmon Solutions Sustainable Living Alaska British Columbia US Northwest 11/22/2009 Oregonian Ocean acidification could cause fish to become "fatally attracted" to their predators, according to scientists. A team studying the effects of acidification - caused by dissolved carbon dioxide - on ocean reefs found that it leaves fish unable to smell danger. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8369453.stm Climate Environment Pollution & Toxics Water Wildlife Canada United States 11/22/2009 BBC News More than 9,400 of the nation's 25,000 sewage systems have reported dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere. As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23sewer.html?_r=1 Environment Pollution & Toxics Sprawl & Transportation Water United States 11/23/2009 New York Times Since the 1997 Kyoto international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated - beyond some of the grimmest warnings made back then. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010334012_climatechange23.html?syndication=rss Climate Environment Pollution & Toxics Canada United States 11/23/2009 Seattle Times