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After a recent spill at a British Columbia marine coal export terminal, the general manager was quoted in a local newspaper saying: There’s a lot of misinformation around coal. Coal is a naturally-occurring mineral. It is not toxic. Leaving aside his non sequitur—plenty of naturally-occurring minerals are toxic—he’s right that coal is subject to a lot of misinformation. There is a lot we should know, but don’t, about coal. For...

Eric My top recommendation this week is “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,” a feature piece by Michael Moss at the New York Times Magazine. I have a pronounced weakness for certain kinds of junk food—chips most of all—so I found it especially alarming to read in some detail about the well-funded research that develops foods specifically targeted to make us eat far more than we should. That the...

Editor’s Note 5/19/16: In celebration of National Bike Month in the United States, Sightline is bringing back this cargo-bike classic. Since this article was published in 2012, cargo bikes have gained popularity and are seen all over Cascadia and beyond. Do you own a cargo bike? We want to know what you tow! Email us a photo at editor@sightline.org. It’s been a hard few months for us fossil-fuel-addicted societies: calamity in...

It was a long and brutal campaign season for the Northwest, as for the rest of the United States. In the end, it brought a historic vote on marriage equality, a new approach to marijuana regulation, a small leftward shift in the Oregon House and the Northwest’s Congressional delegation, election of a strong champion for clean energy to the governor’s mansion in Olympia, and an awful lot of the same people—or...

If you’re concerned about coal export proposals in the Northwest, now is the time to speak up. Government agencies are now accepting public comments about two of the five coal export plans: Port of Morrow, Oregon. A coal terminal on the Columbia River proposed by Ambre Energy, an Australian coal company, appears to be on a fast track for approval. Read more about the very serious problems with this scheme...

Eric H: Check out this infographic/comic, exploring the astonishing depths of our oceans. Slate has a fantastic series up on walking: why Americans don’t do it, the science of sidewalks, and more. Here’s part one of four. Nicole: I just came across Elaine McMillon’s engaging short documentaries of communities in the southeastern US. This short film about the Muscogee tribe’s fight for federal recognition in Washington’s catercorner national neighbor, Florida, caught...

If you have commuting costs for parking, transit, or biking, you could be eligible for a federal tax subsidy. The IRS allows companies or employees to contribute up to $230 per commuter for monthly parking or transit commuting costs, a benefit that some 3 million people nationwide take advantage of. For the last two years, the pre-tax limits have been the same for parking and transit. But it wasn’t always...

You hooked up a 55-gallon rain barrel to one of your roof downspouts. You were glad — maybe even a little smug — about tapping that free water to keep some of your plants happy this summer. Are you ready to kick it up a notch? There’s increasing interest around the Northwest in rainwater harvest on a bigger, bolder scale. Stretch that little rain barrel into a 550-gallon cistern installed...

The Health Department didn’t show up when I made dinner for my neighbors last night. Fortunately, our health and safety laws don’t usually dictate how we prepare food in our personal and private realms. But humans have a natural tendency, an urge to feed each other, and the shareable food movement is taking that to new levels—levels that bring up some legal curiosities.

Four summers ago, Sue Cudd couldn’t keep a baby oyster alive. She’d start with hundreds of millions of oyster larvae in the tanks at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts, Oregon. Only a handful would make it. Sometimes, they’d swim for a couple of weeks. But they’d stop developing before they grew a critical shell structure, or maybe the foot or eyespot. They’d feed poorly. One day, the larvae...