Sustainability Action Plan: A Plan to Save the Future of Spokane
The Spokane Sustainability Action Subcommittee (SAS) has worked for the last two years on creating a Sustainability Action Plan for the City of Spokane. The draft version of the plan is now available for citizens of the region to review and provide feedback. Over the summer of 2021 we will be collecting feedback and making revisions, after which we will ask the Spokane City Council to adopt the plan in the fall.
Washington State Needs a New Plan for Transportation
By Andrew Kidde and Larry Luton As anyone dodging the potholes in Spokane’s roads understands, Washington State’s transportation infrastructure is failing. Traffic jams abound. Many bridges, like the Post Street bridge, are either out of commission or face deferred maintenance. Why? The cost of maintaining our roads is outpacing the gas tax revenues that are allocated […]
The New Green World of Fossil Free Investing
As a reader of this blog there’s a good chance that you’re concerned about the climate. As an American, you’re probably also worried about retirement, given that fewer than half of us have any kind of retirement savings account or access to an employer-matched 401(k), while less than 13% have a traditional pension—down from 38% just a generation ago. The need to grow our meager savings through self-directed investments in order to survive a long old age has never been so urgent.
Ten Ways to Write a Better Letter To The Editor
A good letter to the newspaper can work wonders for climate action, influencing leaders in government or business you may have trouble reaching otherwise, and educating lots of local readers as well.
However, any letter published must compete for attention with everything around it, and opinion pages are busy places. Here’s how to make your letter stand out
Should We Call it a Crisis?
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how we communicate about climate change. Note, this is not, a discussion about whether climate change is happening and whether, if we continue on our current trajectory, it will be catastrophic. Nor is it a discussion about whether this is an exaggeration. Anyone willing to confront the climate science will see that our current trajectory is catastrophic. No, what I’m interested in discussing is how we communicate about these rigorously established scientific claims and where we are presently headed.
Climate Books Worth Reading
There are a TON of great books out there that cover a variety of stories about the Climate Crisis. Here are a few recommendations from 350 Spokane
Climate Change and Inland Northwest Agriculture: Impacts and Possible Responses
Climate change is already affecting our lives in the Inland Northwest, especially in one of our largest economic sectors: agriculture.
We already see warmer temperatures, wetter winters, and different precipitation patterns. Overall, by the end of the century Inland Northwest temperatures are expected to increase between 5oF and 9oF and precipitation is expected to increase between 4.5 and 8.6%, resulting in still wetter winters and hotter, drier summers.
Spokane becomes the third city in Washington to commit to 100% renewable electricity
We did it! Before a packed room of supporters, the Spokane City Council adopted an Ordinance establishing a Sustainability Action Committee to plan for climate resilience, achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions, and support the goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. Spokane now joins 78 other U.S. cities in its commitment to the goal of 100 percent renewable electricity, including power from wind, hydroelectric, and solar.
Climate-Friendly Gardening: Some thoughts, and suggestions for reliable sources
My first real awakening to the importance of gardening came when we discovered a hummingbird nesting in our yard. After a rain, Mama hummingbird would roll around on rosebush leaves to take a bath in beads of water. The two eggs she laid were the size of tic-tacs, and I thought with babies smaller than a kidney bean, any chemical I sprayed on my yard might be picked up and carried to them.
On Biomass
Biomass is the burning of wood for electricity. Some claim this reduces carbon emissions because trees burned for energy eventually grow back, re-sequestering the carbon released by burning the fuel. For example, about half of the European Union’s renewable electricity now comes from biomass (and most of that wood comes from the American Southeast’s fast-growing pine farms).