Articles by Sightline

The Great Clog of '07: Seattle Met the Challenge

08/30/2007
Seattle Times

We've just experienced our own version of the Y2K bug: the partial closure of Interstate 5, the state's most trafficked highway, on a crowded stretch leading into the heart of the most concentrated employment district in the state.

Car-less In Seattle

07/18/2006
Planetizen.com

Pedestrian pioneer Alan Durning describes what his family of five is learning by living without four wheels in Cascadia's largest city. Can they survive without the essential currency of the modern American community?

Dangerous future if Roe is overturned

Alan Durning
06/25/2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

In 1973, when my sister was 12 and I was 8, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that decisions about early abortions are private ones protected by the Constitution. Now, my own daughter is 12 and the odds are greater than ever that the rightward-shifting court will overturn Roe. By Alan Durning.

In high-stakes airliner wars, Airbus wears the 'green' hat

Alan Durning
03/21/2006
Seattle Times

Boeing and Airbus' newest airplanes reflect different approaches to how climate change might affect future business.

Accounting 101 for Endangered Species

Eric de Place
03/01/2006
Tidepool

Dust off your sense of outrage, fellow taxpaying Americans. Endangered species are freeloading to the tune of $1.4 billion in state and federal spending, according to a new report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Making Our Cities Fuel Efficient

Clark Williams-Derry
02/28/2006
Tidepool

With gas prices that reached new, wallet-straining heights last year, fuel efficiency is back in vogue. But perhaps we need to pay as much attention to urban design.

Another Accounting Scandal: GDP

Alan Thein Durning
02/26/2006
Tidepool

On February 28, government statisticians will release their preliminary estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2005. Investors and policymakers will watch this semi-official national report card for the effects of Christmas sales and dipping gasoline prices.

Increasing Orca Population is a Sign

Eric De Place and Kathy Fletcher
09/20/2005
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

We are often besieged with bad news about the failing health of Puget Sound. With all the gloom and doom, it's easy to forget that we can repair the damage we've done to our ecosystems.

The New PCB

Clark Williams-Derry
08/31/2005
The Tyee

Flame retardant toxins show up in BC mothers' bodies.

Stop rewarding the guzzlers

Alan Durning and Donna Morton
07/15/2005
The Tyee

Canada's plans for reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol remain two bits short of a loonie. But one word buried deep in the recent federal budget holds the key to realizing Canada's climate promise: "feebates."

The 2005 anniversary that matters

Alan Durning
07/15/2005
The Bellingham Weekly

In all the hoopla over the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition--an expedition that survived only because it was rescued repeatedly by one Indian tribe after another, especially here in Cascadia--there's so far been a deafening silence over another anniversary that's upon us.

Current Thinking - Vigilant Efficiency

Alan Durning
02/28/2005
NW Current

The Northwest's energy system, long among the region's greatest strengths, has become one of its greatest security vulnerabilities. A lone terrorist could bring the Northwest's economy to its knees for days; an organized band could make it weeks or months.

Why B.C. Recycles Better than U.S.

Alan Durning
12/17/2004
The Tyee

One important but little-discussed difference between the Canadian and American parts of Cascadia is their different philosophies about trash. This difference has emerged in the last decade. And, sad to say, the Canadians have left the Americans in the dustbin, so to speak.

Down the Road to a Driving Tax

Alan Durning
11/18/2004
Los Angeles Times

Americans, and Californians above all, live in a motor-head democracy. More adults hold driver's licenses than voter cards, and taxes on automobiles have been disappearing as fast as Democrats from the U.S. Senate.

Fate of state forests rests in Olympia

Eric de Place and Joan Crooks
07/22/2004
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Over the next year, a half-dozen people in Olympia will decide the fate of forests vast enough to fill Mount Rainier National Park nearly nine times over.