go to mobile version »

Science / Environment

Crosscut highlights

Hood Canal: It's not always greener over the septic tank

Posted Tue, Sep 23, 5 p.m.

There are many contributing factors to explain Hood Canal's dead zone, and not all of them stem from human activity. Septic tanks have often been singled out as a main culprit, but it's not clear whether cleaning them up would clean up Puget Sound. Still, building more sewers might help, and it certainly won't hurt.

READ MORE 2 COMMENTS

Stymied by mosquitoes and bacteria

Posted Wed, Sep 3, midnight

Impatient for solutions to AIDS, tuberculosis, and infectious disease, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put out a call for anyone who thought they had an idea — and more than 4,000 poured forth. A second request for grant applications goes out today.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

Crosscut most recent

Meet the Pacific albus tree, harbinger of green forestry

Posted Tue, Dec 30, 6 a.m.

This fast-growing, light-weight poplar is finding a market in a more carbon-conscious forest-products industry.

READ MORE 1 COMMENTS

How to build a Northwest conservatism

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 6 a.m.

Conservatives in the region pay too much heed to national conservative themes and not enough to the deep values of the Northwest. These values do not necessitate liberal politics.

READ MORE 29 COMMENTS

Please pass the (road) salt

Posted Wed, Dec 24, 12:01 p.m.

A Seattle transplant sums up the region's snowstorm-response failings.

READ MORE 22 COMMENTS

Self-congratulatory environmentalism

Posted Tue, Dec 23, 6 a.m.

Back East, folks somehow think it's enough to carry a reusable bag to a farmer's market. That prompts a screed against saving the earth with symbols.

READ MORE 7 COMMENTS

A gift guide for the greens on your list

Posted Fri, Dec 19, 6 a.m.

Here's a set of gift book suggestions culled from the year's worth of new titles on nature and the environment.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

Reframing Northwest environmental issues

Posted Mon, Dec 15, 6 a.m.

Lacking top figures in the Obama administration from the region, area environmentalists are linking forest and salmon issues to a cause Obama understands better: climate change.

READ MORE 4 COMMENTS

Shot down in Shanghai?

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 6 a.m.

Another task Obama inherits is trying to bail out America's botched effort to have a pavilion at Shanghai's Expo 2010, the largest world's fair in history. There are reasons to hope that "yes, he can."

READ MORE 3 COMMENTS

How Wall Street is destroying the timber way of life

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 6 a.m.

The pressure for real estate and the short-term perspective of fancy Wall Street financial instruments have changed the old line companies utterly.

READ MORE 8 COMMENTS

Saving Puget Sound? Exactly how?

Posted Mon, Dec 8, noon

The Puget Sound Partnership has an Action Agenda, but so far no Answer Agenda. Here are some tough questions.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

The Gravy Train to nowhere?

Posted Thu, Dec 4, 6 a.m.

With Obama's new New Deal gaining momentum, let's remain skeptical of big projects that are touted as economic saviors. States like ours may be desperate, but a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.

READ MORE 8 COMMENTS

Trouble in Tatoosh

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 4:08 p.m.

The ocean's acidity around a tiny island off the Washington coast has been changing 10 times faster than expected. The surprising finding might reflect an oceanic hot spot, rather than a broader trend.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

The Navy wins on sonar, not that anyone's surprised

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 6 a.m.

Here's an analysis of the recent Supreme Court decision to continue allowing the Navy to use sonar in the presence of marine mammals. It's not as simple an issue as you might think.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

A court blocks an Arctic Ocean drilling plan by Shell

Posted Mon, Nov 24, 11 a.m.

A coalition of environmental groups just won a court decision, blocking Shell from drilling exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea. The ruling bears on the impacts of noise on bowhead whales.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

Restoring Puget Sound: It's the land use, stupid!

Posted Fri, Nov 21, 5 a.m.

The Puget Sound Partnership has produced its draft action agenda, tempered by the fiscal realities of the coming Legislature. It locates the real challenge: how we treat the land around the Sound.

READ MORE 6 COMMENTS

The Bag Tax Rebellion

Posted Sat, Nov 15, midnight

There are risks in thinking small while trying to make a greener city.

READ MORE 21 COMMENTS

The science of chocolate

Posted Thu, Nov 13, midnight

A Fremont shop will show you how chocolate goes from bean to bar.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

Joe the Bigfoot Hunter

Posted Mon, Nov 10, 6:46 p.m.

The campaign symbol that got away. Plus: tales of ravenous locusts, obese bears, Bigfoot's B.C. invasion, and more animal news.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

How climate change is affecting Mount Rainier

Posted Sun, Nov 9, 11:12 p.m.

Author Bruce Barcott, who wrote a book about the mountain, recounts the visible effects of climate shifts: plants growing higher up, melting glaciers releasing rocks and silt, climbing routes turning from ice to rock.

READ MORE COMMENT NOW

Seattle never 'misses a chance to miss a chance' on light rail

Posted Thu, Oct 23, midnight

The only thing keeping it from succeeding here are the myths propagated by foes, says this economics journalist. Here's a line-by-line debunking.

READ MORE 80 COMMENTS

Little Mo builds on the Guvometer

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 5:04 p.m.

Three minor events and some media breaks earn Gov. Chris Gregoire one more click on the Crosscut (not-exactly-scientific) measuring device.

READ MORE 3 COMMENTS

Other media

Got wind, please send power lines, says Montana Some worry that a vast expansion of transmission lines to the sunny West could end up producing a boom in coal-powered utilities.

Federal gas tax boost: an idea whose time has come? It's only been proposed since 1980, but now the political planets seem to be lining up.

Bush to protect large reaches of south Pacific Ocean The protected zones near the Equator and American Samoa amount to vast stretches larger than Oregon and Washington combined.

The Green New Deal starts to make economic sense States like Michigan, desperate to spur economic growth, are looking seriously at retooling America with green collar jobs. But will Obama oblige?

As with Clinton era, Team Obama has two camps on climate issue One wants to take urgent steps, while the other is wary of the effect on the economy. Typically, Obama has empowered both perspectives and left unclear how he will mediate.

Blog posts

Coal ash for a Christmas gift in Tennessee

Posted Sat, Dec 27, 5 p.m. 2008

The clean coal debate just got a new twist, after a dam holding an ashy sludge breaks in Appalachia.

MORE

Sobering lessons for Puget Sound clean-up

Posted Mon, Dec 29, noon 2008

A Washington Post story indicates that after a major multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar effort, there's little or no progress in saving Chesapeake Bay.

MORE

Oregon State University: front and center for marine science

Posted Thu, Dec 25, 4:26 p.m. 2008

Jane Lubchenco's designation to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), signals Barack Obama's intent to get serious about climate change. It is also recognition of Pacific Northwest leadership in marine science.

MORE

Dear Barack: Here's your handy green agenda

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 6 a.m. 2008

A large group of environmental organizations send Obama suggestions for his first 200 days or undoing Bush policies and getting serious about modern forest protection.

MORE

Can Ken Salazar clean the stables at Interior?

Posted Thu, Dec 18, noon 2008

The office has attracted scoundrels who shamelessly favored private resource interests. Also, it's become a chance for presidents to make a political statement.

MORE

Is this any way to protect Puget Sound?

Posted Mon, Dec 8, 3 p.m. 2008

Gathered on the shore of Maury Island, residents wonder how we could be allowing Glacier Northwest to start loading nearly 3 million tons of gravel a year.

MORE

Christmas Treehuggers

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 9 a.m. 2008

Go ahead, cut that tree, and feel good about your environmental footprint.

MORE

Closing the open season on trees

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 8:54 p.m. 2008

Seattle considers new, and over-due, limits of tree-cutting on private property.

MORE

Two Thanksgiving toasts

Posted Thu, Nov 27, noon 2008

Pinch yourself this holiday.

MORE

Dam big science

Posted Thu, Nov 6, 12:36 p.m. 2008

Scientists take a pulse before Elwha dam removal.

MORE

Subscribe to Newsletter About Crosscut Advertise Web Feeds