Solutions
The power, and limits, of local action
Somini Sengupta interviews Brad Plumer, and Maggie Astor on ways towns can transition to cleaner energy and the struggles many fossil fuel-dependent communities face.
Explore the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas
The Northwest Clean Energy Atlas provides regional stakeholders interactive tools to explore energy data relevant to deep decarbonization in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
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Local/Regional News
NORTHWEST CARBON MARKETS CAN’T SUPPORT LONGER TIMBER HARVEST ROTATIONS
That would take a New Zealand-style, all-forests cap-and-trade system
Nestled in the southwest corner of Washington, home to coho salmon and the occasional spotted owl, the Winston Creek carbon project is extending rotations on 10,000 acres of forest. By delaying harvest from 40 years to 60 years and letting these trees continue to grow during their carbon sequestration prime, Port Blakely, the forest owner, hopes to double the biomass of its forest.
Read the full story — by Kate Anderson
Local and Regional Newsletters
National Actions
Tell Congress: it’s now or never! Invest in clean energy and climate action now!
It’s time to seal the American Energy Deal
Send a letter to Congress, now
Tell the Postal Service to reverse course and pursue electric trucks!
Tell Biden: Don’t Sell Our Oceans to Big Oil
President Biden is breaking promises and caving to pressure from Big Oil. This administration’s policy on fossil fuel extraction from public lands and waters is nothing short of a climate bomb.
Help Ban the Transportation of Explosive Liquefied Natural Gas by Rail!
Are Oreos and Ritz Crackers Causing Our Rainforests to Crumble?
The market research is in: Some like it salty and some like it sweet, but no one likes deforestation and widespread misery. Mondelēz International — the maker of famous brands like Oreo, Tang, and Triscuits — gets an F on deforestation and human rights. Mondelēz has connections to massive, human-set fires for oil palm cultivation in Indonesia — fires that put 10 million children at risk. And the story keeps getting worse: Mondelēz suppliers have caused major deforestation in the Amazon — a planetary treasure quickly reaching no return.
National/International News
Origin of Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint. You know the term, right? But do you know where it originated?
The fossil fuel industry.
In other words … YOUR FAULT.
Sea level rise from climate change is threatening home septic systems and public health
One example is the Tidewater region of Virginia, where sea level rise is causing frequent failures of home septic systems. In Virginia alone, over 1 million homes rely on individual septic tanks.
BROOKINGS
The Build Back Fossil Free coalition is officially changing our name to People vs. Fossil Fuels.
What if the very thing we need to cope with the enormity of the climate crisis is itself threatened by the climate crisis?
Read full story
by Somini Sengupta — Global Correspondent, Climate
Is Vanguard Sinking the Climate Ship?
Vanguard is a major investor in some of the mining and oil companies causing irreparable harm to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples. Vanguard is not only financing destruction and rights violations in the Amazon but also financing climate catastrophe worldwide. Read full story
July 12, 2022, | Moira Birss | Eye on the Amazon
Opinion
Might Democrats Actually Be Showing a Little Fight?
Backlash is there for the taking
With its recent spate of wildly radical decisions, the Supreme Court in essence ruled that anyone should be able to carry guns, women should have to carry babies, and the atmosphere should carry ever more carbon.
These were body blows to American norms, each of them despicable—and taken together they offer a once-in-a-generation opening for the drifting, desultory Democratic party to find itself.
Read the full story
— Bill McKibben
Electric vehicles shouldn’t be just for rich folks
In the nearly 2½ years since I last wrote about electric vehicles, some things have changed — but too much has not.
Read the full story
Naomi Ishisaka — Seattle Times Columnist
Climate in Politics
70,000 Acres of Federal Land Were Just Handed to the Fossil Fuel Sector
WILLIAM CAMPBELL / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES) USA – BAKKEN OIL – MONTANA
In direct violation of warnings by the International Energy Agency that new oil, gas, and coal development should have ceased in 2021, and by UN Secretary General António Guterres that government support for fossil fuel production is “delusional,” the federal U.S. government closed out the second quarter of the year with thousands of acres of federal land on the auction block before oil and gas interests. In total, developers scooped up access to over 70,000 acres of lands held in public trust in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming for $22 million — which advocates say is a paltry sum when compared with the billions of dollars the climate crisis is estimated to cost annually in association with oil and gas extracted from federal lands.
Read the full story by Leanna First-Arai — Truthout
Inspiration
Could This Ancient Farming Technique Be a Climate Solution?
Photo by Dionisio Iemma — Getty Images
Terracing has been used for centuries to help prevent fire, moderate temperatures, and make farming possible even when water is scarce.
Surrounded by the waters of the Strait of Sicily in the far south of Italy, the island of Pantelleria is made up of 32 square miles of black volcanic rocks with no source of freshwater other than the 16 or so inches of rain that fall each year. Yet, traces of the first farming terrace on the island date back to the Bronze Age, 16 centuries B.C. On such terraces, Zibibbo grapevines grow in hollows to trap moisture near their roots. The olive orchards are low, too, and capers, the other major local crop, stick out from dry stone walls.
by Guia Baggi
Olympic Climate Action 