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Vancouver-based mining giant Teck Cominco has agreed to study whether a mining operation in the province poisoned a 150-mile stretch of the Columbia River. This international lawsuit, filed by the EPA, was really the work of locals in Eastern Washington, according to the Washington Post. Tribal leaders took the lead and pressured the federal agency to take action. The public radio show Living on Earth broadcast an in-depth feature about...

Here’s a quick & easy way to encourage people walk more: give them pedometers (link may be subscription only—sorry). A pilot project in BC is doing just that—and according to one of the participating doctors… “[P]edometers may be as effective in changing patients’ exercise habits as nicotine patches and prescription medications are for quitting smoking.” Research shows that walking at least 5,000 steps per day reduces the likelihood of obesity,...

The Washington Post reports today that antiabortion forces in Congress are launching a new effort to ban mifipristone, the medicine that allows women to have nonsurgical abortions extremely early in pregnancy. The rhetoric from the abortion prohibitionists is all about safety: mifipristone, they claim, has caused death for four to eight young women. They’re calling their proposal to prohibit it “Holly’s Law” to honor one of these women. But such...

Just in time to enjoy the arrival of their Copper River brethren–flown in today on ice from Alaska for upscale diners—the Columbia River Chinook have finally arrived in numbers. Just two weeks ago the spring run was so weak that officials worried it could represent one of the smallest runs on record. Now, the spring run appears so robust that it’s exceeding even the original (pre-worry) estimates. The run is...

It’s a quiet day for sustainability news here in the Northwest, which meant a long hunt for the Tidepool editor this morning. Today’s top story at Tidepool illustrates a new trend for funding parks in California. The solution could apply to other places in our region dealing with population growth and sprawl. In a related article, the Portland-area Metro Council has chosen six tracts of land they would purchase if...

Tidepool‘s top story today, by Victoria-based writer Ben Parfitt, examines in-depth the future of our energy resources. Parfitt speaks to Simon Fraser University economist Mark Jaccard, who believes that coal will become the primary source of our energy needs. Anything else is fantasy. The essential question is: Can King Coal also be clean coal? In economic news, the AP reports from the second Forest Leadership Forum underway in Portland this...

Maps. I love maps. If I were Canadian, I would be a geographer. In the United States, geography is often just a high-school fluff course taught by a coach. (In my high school, it was the cheerleading coach.) In Canada, however, geography is a serious discipline. In fact, the University of British Columbia boasts one of the top departments in the world. Drawing on this geographical tradition, today’s top story...

Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will begin confirmation hearings for Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, President Bush’s nominee to replace Gale Norton as Interior Secretary. In anticipation of this event, the Idaho Statesmen continues its series on Kempthorne’s career, and what we might expect from him as chief steward of our public lands. Tidepool’s top story today sniffs out the money trail behind the governor. As we all know, money talks, and...

This post at The Oil Drum blog goes a long way towards explaining why oil prices have risen so sharply over the last couple of years. According to international oil agencies, global oil production has been pretty flat since the middle of 2004, even as economic growth around the globe has boosted demand. The chart below, derived from US Energy Information Administration figures, shows OPEC production only; but world figures...

The good folks at BC’s Centre for Integral Economics think taxes are like sex. Both sex and taxes exert strong influences and strange attractions. Taxation—by changing the prices we pay for things like income, or bicycles, or garbage disposal—influences decisions large and small: whether to drive or take the bus, whether to live in the suburbs or the core of the city, whether to buy local or imported carrots… Ultimately,...