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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,...

It’s a good day for sustainability news—which means tough choices for your Tidepool editor this morning. Hanford takes center stage. Last night, 60 minutes featured an investigative report on the hair-raising financial and environmental problems of the nuclear waste site in Washington state. Additionally, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer offers an excellent package of stories exploring the issue. Both are worth a look. Another great piece from the Seattle Times examines the...

This is week ten of the car-less in Seattle experiment (go here) and I want to talk about one of the greatest fears car-lessness unleashes for parents. But first, some big news: My wife Amy and I decided—with the support of all three of our children—to remain without a car for at least a full year. That’s right: family of five; busy schedule of work, school, and extracurricular activities; and...

Good day from your Tidepool news editor. In today’s edition: The papers mark the occasion of Earth Day with a number of stories exploring the angles of climate change and energy consumption. For today’s top Tidepool story, New York Times science reporter Andrew Revkin unpacks the media’s sudden acknowledgement of climate change in one handy article. (Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s editors snipe at environmentalists’ ongoing alarm-bells.) Closer to home,...

Today’s notes from your Tidepool editor: Two strong stories today on air and ocean pollution affecting our region in the Seattle Times. Also a journal piece in the New York Times on the Satsop nuclear plant. In BC, the Gitga’at First Nation of Hartley Bay gets a fly-in visit and an “award” from Premier Gordon Campbell for rescuing passengers from the Queen of the North—but all they really want is...

(I’m Kristin, Tidepool’s editor. I’ll be offering up some “cliff notes” to important Northwest news stories every morning, along with the daily edition of Cascadia’s sustainability news source.) In Tidepool today, the Salem Statesmen Journal reports on new efforts to clean up the Willamette—it’s ranked no. 3 in American Rivers’ annual endangered rivers report. (The Boise River is at no. 6, which I picked up from the Idaho Statesman in...

If you’ve found your way to the Daily Score, then you probably already know our news. The Cascadia Scorecard Weblog is now the Daily Score; Northwest Environment Watch has changed its name; and we’ve launched this nifty new website that we intend to be a phenomenal resource to exactly the kind of outspoken, active Cascadians that have been frequenting this blog (ie, you). We’re a little tired. The Daily Score...

With the introduction of flat screens and HDTV, Americans are expected to toss over half a billion analog TV sets and computer monitors—containing thousands of tons of lead and other persistent toxins—in just the next three years. This fact, combined with the momentum of e-waste legislation at the state level, means a new (big fat) liability has reared its ugly head on electronics companies’ balance sheets. A couple of weeks...

There have been a couple of interesting energy stories in the news for the last few days. First, from BC comes this story, about what happened when the provincial electric utility asked for proposals to ramp up generating capacity in the province: Green power projects, including small hydro and wind facilities, comprise the overwhelming majority of private-sector bids submitted to BC Hydro in an ambitious call for new sources of...

I picked up a copy of the March edition of Seattle Magazine the other day, and happened across an article (print only, I’m afraid) by the estimable Joe Follansbee. The article claims that Seattle suffers from an inferiority complex: whenever Seattle residents compare their home town with Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, BC, they always decide that Seattle comes up short. Follansbee argues that Seattle should just learn to love itself...