According to the 2007 Cascadia Scorecard, Washington has made slow progress since the Scorecard launch in 2004, but still lags behind world leaders in trends such as energy use, which remains stuck at an unsustainably high level, and economic security. Washington has, however, made important policy strides, especially on climate and health care. The state can accelerate its progress through a combination of smart solutions outlined below.

Find out more about the Cascadia Scorecard 2007 here.

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Health

Steady improvements, but British Columbia leads

• Washington’s average lifespan increased to 79.3 years in 2005—the best record among Northwest states. Still, Washington trails British Columbia, where lifespans are nearly two years longer (81.1 years).
• Improving access to preventive medical care—as Washington State did in 2007 for lower-income children—could be a boon to health.
  
  

Economy

Progress on economic security stalled

• From 1990 to 2005, overall economic security in Washington improved little, even while the value of the Dow Jones quadrupled.
• In 2005, the most recent year complete data were available, Washington’s rates of poverty (10.2 percent) and child poverty (14.9 percent) appeared to be declining. The unemployment rate (5.5 percent) was also down.
• Washington’s median household income ($50,646), a gauge of middle-class well-being, has changed little during recent years and is still well below the highs of the late 1990s.
  
  

Sprawl

Slow progress toward healthy communities

• Only about 24 percent of residents of greater Seattle, and 10 percent of greater Spokane residents, live in compact communities, compared to more than 60 percent in Vancouver, BC.
• Because sprawl makes driving a necessity for most trips, residents of sprawling neighborhoods are more vulnerable to leading health risks such as obesity and car crashes. They also use more energy per person than residents of compact neighborhoods.
• Washington’s leaders are adopting smart, sprawl-busting strategies such as channeling new growth into city and town centers.
  
  

Energy

Stuck at full throttle, but surprising good news about gasoline use

• Washington residents consume the equivalent of 15.3 gallons of gasoline per person in highway fuels and electricity for homes and businesses every week, about a third more gas, diesel, and electricity per person than British Columbians, and twice as much as Germans.
• However, Washington’s per-person gasoline use has declined by almost a tenth since 1999—the equivalent of each state resident taking a one-month vacation from driving each year—and is now at its lowest level since the late 1960s. But the state’s per capita consumption of diesel

  

  continued its decades-long rise last year, while electricity use also ticked upwards.
• Key steps to make Washington’s energy system more secure and efficient include incentives that reward consumers for using less energy; aggressive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and making forward-thinking decisions about large transportation projects that will determine the region’s energy efficiency for decades to come.
  
  

Pollution

A big win for health in Washington

• In good news, Washington’s 2007 legislature voted overwhelmingly to create one of the strongest policies in the world to combat toxic flame retardants, PBDEs, which Sightline detected at elevated levels in northwesterners’ bodies in a 2004 study.
• But other hazardous toxics, such as PCBs, still persist in the environment; and new threats, such as methyl mercury, are emerging. Tests have found that Puget Sound Chinook have up to six times more PCBs than Chinook caught elsewhere on the West Coast.
  
  

Population

Small family size, but high rate of teen births

• Washington’s family size, two children on average, remained stable in 2005, the most recent year for which data were available. Family size (also called the total fertility rate) is a sensitive indicator of educational and economic opportunities for women.
• Washington’s teen birthrate fell again in 2005, to 30.7 births per thousand women under 20, a relatively low rate though three times as high as British Columbia’s teen birthrate. Universalized access to emergency contraception at pharmacies may help bring down teen birthrates and stubbornly high rates of unintended pregnancies.
  
  

Wildlife

Orcas struggle; caribou and salmon hold their ground

• In 2006, more than 200,000 Chinook returned to the Columbia, an improvement over the previous year, but still only about 7 percent of historical abundance.
• Orcas suffered a setback in 2006. Even as new orca calves were welcomed into the pods, four older whales apparently died. By the end of the year, only 86 orcas remained in the southern resident population, roughly one-third of their historical abundance.
• The Selkirk caribou herd, whose range includes parts of northeast Washington, still number only about 12 percent of their historical abundance. The caribou need strict protection and restoration of old-growth forests in the Selkirks.

Contact Elisa Murray, 206-447-1880, ext. 111, elisa@sightline.org. An online press room with the report, sources, maps, and press materials is available here.