Editor’s note: We’re trying out a new weekly post to share some of our favorite reads from the week—things concerning the Northwest, sustainability, or that are just plain entertaining. Let us know your favorites, or submit your own to editor@sightline.org.

  • While the Wall Street banksters who caused the Great Recession and BP execs who allowed the massive oil spill walk free, at Grist, Bill McKibben reports that federal courts have convicted a young man who tried to make a point about our foolish and self-destructive dependence on dirty energy sources.–Alan
  • In “Fair and Effective Carbon Prices,” economist Marc Lee argues that BC’s carbon tax isn’t high enough or fair enough yet. (Co-produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Lee’s shop) and Sierra Club BC.)–Eric dP
  • The perennially killer Center for Neighborhood Technology has an 80-page report on the value of green infrastructure (pdf). A good starting point for making the case we can save money by going green.–Eric dP
  • Reuters writes the obituary for the eastern Cougar. In Cascadia, more than a thousand species were in peril the last time Sightline assembled a list.–Alan