Silent running

The Seattle city government's destruction of Hamm Creek wetlands (This Week in Precipitation, 2/13) was not an isolated case. A community group in Seattle's north end last month filed suit to stop the city from filling nearly six acres of wetlands in a park near the University of Washington:

The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle by Friends of Magnuson Park. It claims that proposed city plans to fill 5.86 acres of wetlands for the development of five lighted athletic fields violate the Clean Water and the National Environmental Policy acts. ...

The [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] last month gave Seattle Parks and Recreation the go-ahead for the project when it granted a permit, which included "special conditions" requiring the city to perform mitigations.

"The damned train"

In most areas of the USA we aspire to European levels of density and transit usage.  But Florence is an example of what they have to deal with when they attempt to add modern (relative to the 16th century) infrastructure; it could be an object lesson.

There is a plan to install a modern, at-grade (i.e., surface) light rail line in Florence.

The destinations--the Santa Maria Novella intercity rail depot, a hospital, the airport, and a piazza--all make sense. But they are all either outside or on the edge of the historic city center. The plan is for the airport LRT line to enter the city center where the Duomo and Baptistry are, then back out to the Piazza della Liberta. [ Info ]

More on Less Dissolved Oxygen

Scientists fear 'tipping point' in Pacific Ocean

Coast has seen deadly drop-off in oxygen levels for sea life

Where scientists previously found a sea bottom abounding with life, two years ago they discovered the rotting carcasses of crabs, starfish and sea worms, swooshing from side to side in the current. Most fish had fled -- and those that didn't or couldn't joined the deathfest on the sea floor.

Extraordinarily low oxygen levels were to blame -- swept up from the deep ocean into normally productive waters just off the Pacific Northwest coast by uncharacteristically strong winds.

On Thursday scientists announced they had documented that low oxygen levels that killed the sea life in 2006 were the lowest in a half-century -- and that for the first time, parts of the ocean off our coast were measured with zero oxygen in the water; 2007 looked only a bit better.

Strong winds and low oxygen levels have persisted for eight summers now, leading scientists to conclude that the ocean may be "poised for significant reorganization"-- their way of saying an ecosystem gone awry...

Read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article

All that's missing is the signing statement

When a City Hall is run like the White House

Maybe you've heard of Greg Nickels, Seattle's Green Mayor. Maybe because he's singlehandedly done the most to promote his leadership of a national effort to get American mayors to sign a Climate Protection Agreement. It's an end run around the Bush Administration's refusal to endorse the Kyoto treaty.

But there's green, and then there's green. Sure, he's cut the city government's emissions. Although in at least one case a source, a coal-powered electricity plant, was merely transferred to private hands, and continues to pump out the CO2.

Sure, he has an initiative to plant more trees. But city policy also continues to allow developers to cut trees down, if they're in the way of new retail or the crackerbox townhouses going up all over town.

A shopping card I can support

Are you like me? One of those people who refuses to get one of those infernal club cards from Safeway and other chains? Because shouldn't they give you a benefit for the simple fact that you're giving them your money???

Well in the Seattle area we have a sort of club card that benefits NGOs: the Puget Sound Community Change Card. You get a rebate when you shop at a participating store (restaurants too), and a donation goes to a nonprofit (18 groups so far in 12 categories).