News items for November 17, 2023

A top-four primary and ranked choice voting would give Washington voters more options.

• 1. Climate change is hastening the demise of PNW forests

  A drought-driven “mortality event” is the largest ever recorded in the region.

  Columbia Insight Climate Change, Drought, Forests

• 2. OR is underfunded, understaffed heading into 2024 election cycle

  Concerns about threats and harassment make it hard to recruit election staff. They are usually classified as clerical jobs, but election workers now have to do more outreach and public engagement, spending time debunking misinformation and talking to adversarial voters.

  Investigate West Democracy, Elections

• 3. WA’s climate woes: First wildfires, then debris flow

  Dry soil in burn scars can lead to roaring earthen rivers that are more powerful than mudslides.

  Crosscut Erosion, Wildfires

• 4. Areas once surrounded by fossil fuels are becoming clean energy hubs

  A little over a year after the passage of Biden’s landmark climate bill, the White House has delivered on a key front: A disproportionate amount of wind, solar, battery and manufacturing investment is going to areas that used to host fossil fuel plants. In Carbon County, WY, a county named for its coal deposits, a power company is building hundreds of wind turbines.

  Washington Post Environmental policy, Renewable Energy

• 5. The decade-old broken climate promise looming over COP28

  New data suggest wealthy countries may belatedly be providing a promised $100 billion in climate-related aid. But they’ve eroded trust in the process.

  Grist Climate Action, COP28

• 6. BC releases draft framework for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem health

  Conservationists say if done right, strategy would preserve most endangered, least protected ecosystems.

  CBC British Columbia Biodiversity, Environmental policy

• 7. The toll of climate disasters is rising. But there’s good news too

  A major government assessment lays out both the far-reaching perils of global warming and the cost-effective fixes that are available today.

  New York Times Environmental disaster, Extreme weather

• 8. OR’s first large-scale solar park and farm hinges on 50-year-old land use laws

  There is controversy around the attempt to add solar panels to 1,100 acres where ryegrass is currently grown.

  Investigate West Farming, Land Use, Solar Energy

• 9. Recycling’s critical role in fighting climate change

  In an America Recycles Day proclamation, the EPA announced that it will award $93 million in grants to tribes and intertribal consortia for 84 different recycling infrastructure projects and educational outreach programs.

  Smart Cities Dive First Nations, Recycling

• 10. The wonderful, lovable, so good, very bold jay

  Canada jays thrive in the cold. The life’s work of one biologist gives us clues as to how they’ll fare in a hotter world.

  Hakai Magazine Warming, Wildlife

More News from November 17, 2023

• Wildfires are thawing the tundra

  When permafrost thaws, it releases ancient carbon, which microbes in the soil then convert into methane—a potent greenhouse gas whose release contributes to climate change and the radical reshaping of Northern latitudes across the globe.

  High Country News Methane, Warming

• One solution to fight climate change? Fewer parking spaces

  Less parking could pave the way for denser housing and more accessible public transportation.

  Grist Parking reform, Urban Planning

• Waste pickers are fighting for recognition

  “Private companies are not capable of extracting anywhere near the amount of recyclables that reclaimers are.”

  Grist Recycling, Waste