Category Archives: environment

Cliff Mass’s updates on the smoke, fires and global warming

The following is from his website: Click here for more If you want to escape smoke, go south of Olympia or head to the coast. Now the bad news.  Today is the good day for air quality around Puget Sound.  The … Continue reading

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August 3 smoke pours out of British Columbia

Most of the smoke comes from just north of the top of the picture.  Without much wind to mix and thin the smoke, much sits in river valleys, almost as if it were flowing down the Fraser River.  But the … Continue reading

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Sunrise in the east—do my eyes deceive me?

 From Ann Milam  

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Red levels of air pollution

The red dots are Stay Indoors for seniors.  Those fires up in BC have been active since spring.  That’s the area devastated by the mountain pine beetle, which has had  a population explosion in the last decade thanks to warmer … Continue reading

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Air quality continues to deteriorate as B.C. wildfire smoke fills Washington skies

“SEATTLE (KOMO) — A thick, smoky haze from wildfires burning in British Columbia continued to blow into Washington on Wednesday, giving the skies an orange-brown tint and degrading the air quality. Air quality monitors with Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and … Continue reading

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Celebration on 8th Avenue next Tuesday August 1st

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Seattle’s new seawall: Holding back the tide, protecting salmon

From Crosscut: “Thousands of tourists migrate to Seattle’s waterfront each year to experience the ferry rides, kitschy stores and sweeping views of Elliott Bay. Jeff Cordell says they’re overlooking something that makes the waterfront even more special: filamentous microalgae. “Brown … Continue reading

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Robotic cars may be coming – and may not help our traffic!

From Crosscut: “The robot cars are coming, like it or not. And local researchers say Seattle better be prepared. From BMW to Ford, car companies say they aim to introduce fully automated cars in only a few years. More conservative … Continue reading

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Anxiety in Eastern Washington Orchards

From Crosscut: “In the Yakima Valley, nestled east of the Cascades, the fruit trees are waking up. Signs along State Highway 24 advertise openings for “piscadores,” or harvesters. At the Doornink Fruit Ranch in Wapato, expert hands prune hundreds of acres … Continue reading

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Human evolution lectures now on streaming video

https://plus.google.com/collection/0IJzmB All five lectures are collected at that URL.

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A message in a sand castle & “fake news” from Pogo

A wise message from a State’s rights small government President. Wonderful to find this quote on a Coronado beach. A similar corollary is from Walt Kelly through Pogo (below). We need to say this over and over again: The “enemy is … Continue reading

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Spinning Ice Disk – pretty cool

 

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Seattle nostalgia

From Crosscut: “The media is full of stories bemoaning change in Seattle. Old cafes closing, landmarks demolished, efforts to save legacy businesses like that dive bar down the street. There are more construction cranes dotting the skyline than in any … Continue reading

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In Mexico, Murray joins united front against Trump

From Crosscut: “MEXICO CITY — Continuing his defiant tone following the presidential election, Mayor Ed Murray insisted that Seattle will continue to press forward on climate change whatever the policies of the Trump administration. On his first official trip to … Continue reading

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Human population through time

From Aeon: “From our origins in Africa, humans began migrating around the globe roughly 100,000 years ago. But it was only with the advent of agriculture about 12,000 years ago that our population started to swell to more than a million. This data … Continue reading

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ATTEND THE CONVENTION CENTER ADDITION PUBLIC BENEFITS OPEN HOUSE 12/7

To build the Washington State Convention Center Addition project, the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC) is requesting that the city vacate three alleys and underground portions of Olive Way and Terry Avenue. The project will pay for these rights of … Continue reading

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Seattle’s tech boom is just getting started

There interesting commentary in Crosscut discussing the silicon valley and San Francisco tech growth problems. Seattle is beginning to look more and more attractive, perhaps not to the new hires who sleep on futons, but certainly to the more mature tech … Continue reading

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From National Geographic: “The candidates for president of the United States, particularly on the Republican side, have hotly debated how to handle the roughly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border between the United States and Mexico. “Donald Trump has famously and repeatedly promised … Continue reading

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How Seattle blew its chance at a subway system

Tom Gibbs sends along this article from Crosscut: “The question is no longer whether we will grow, but only how we will grow.” “So said attorney and civic leader Jim Ellis, in a speech at the Seattle Rotary Club. As … Continue reading

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Tree-planting robots could save Northwest forests

From Crosscut: “In the summer of 2015, Grant Canary, an entrepreneur with two startups under his belt who was looking for his next venture, was brainstorming ways to make a dent in carbon dioxide pollution, one of the main culprits … Continue reading

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License to kill: How Washington may lose its right to wipe out salmon

From Crosscut: “So you’re a salmon heading upstream this fall. It hasn’t rained much for months. The water is low. You reach a culvert that takes the stream under a state highway. The culvert was installed higher than it should … Continue reading

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Winter in Seattle – remembering when

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Local Hikes

Sometimes I’m asked about hiking in the Cascades or Olympics. There an incredible hiking web site from the Washington Trails Association, http://www.wta.org/. This gives you all the information you need: easy hike? elevation gain? trail condition and recent reports? It will … Continue reading

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Sunset

Sunset at Coronado, CA. Please send me your favorite nature pictures!

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The green problem in the Olympic pools

Something sounds fishy to me. Did someone dump green dye in the diving pool. But then I remembered from high school chemistry that copper compounds are greenish. That’s probably going on – too much copper in the water looks OK … Continue reading

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