For the second time this legislative session, Oregon Senate Republicans prepared Thursday to stage a walkout, denying Democrats the ability to pass legislation. It’s the latest step in a standoff over sweeping climate change legislation. Read More
President Trump has thrown his latest lifeline to the ailing coal industry, significantly weakening one of former President Barack Obama's key policies to address climate change. Continue Reading Trump Administration Weakens Climate Plan Read More
The amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere from forest fires in the U.S. West is being greatly overestimated, possibly leading to poor land management decisions, researchers at the University of Idaho said. Continue Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is stoking outrage and taking on his own party after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) unequivocally quashed his proposal for a debate centered on climate change. He's also refusing to take "no" for an answer. Read More
Inslee says the policies he's enacted in his state on the environment, the economy and health care are the same progressive actions he'd take if elected president. Continue Reading In ‘Opening Argument’ For Read More
In some places, homes and businesses in what's known as the 100-year flood plain have been hit by multiple floods in a matter of weeks. When these sorts of floods happen back to back, many residents might start to wonder: Why are they even called 100-year floods? Read More
Campaigning for president in California on Friday, Washington's Gov. Jay Inslee called for all new cars and new buildings to be carbon-free by 2030 and all electricity to go carbon-free by 2035. Inslee's announcement at a press event in Los Angeles marks his first concrete policy idea since launching his campaign two months ago on a platform of combating climate change. Read More
Nearly four years ago, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee touted a new company that was coming to Kalama to revolutionize the methanol market. But the climate change-crusading governor currently running for president may not have known that NWIW was selling a different story to investors — one less focused on producing cleaner methanol for plastics and more on an opportunity to Read More
As students around the globe participate in Earth Day, a new NPR/Ipsos poll finds 55% of teachers don't teach or talk about climate change and 46% of parents haven't discussed it with their kids. Continue Reading Most Teachers Don’t Read More
The new Netflix series takes a hard look at the effects of our behavior on the natural world. Series producer Alastair Fothergill says that this is a different, more urgent type of show. Continue Reading ‘Our Planet’ Read More
Washington lawmakers are developing a low carbon fuels standard. If signed into law, new rules would limit the amount of carbon coming out of car and truck tailpipes. Backers say it’s necessary to combat climate change. Critics say it will increase the price at the pump. Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has a well-worn set of speaking points when it comes to his 2020 presidential campaign: clean energy, clean jobs, a clean economy that works for everyone, and ending fossil fuel subsidies. Inslee calls these goals the four pillars of his climate change agenda. As of last week, he’s added a fifth: gutting the filibuster. Read More
Moving our energy sources away from fossil fuels to renewables is the most common go-to in mitigating climate change, but climate experts say more is needed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says keeping global temperatures within a livable range would be too expensive without carbon capture. Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Friday what political observers in his state have been expecting for months: He’s running for president, and focusing his campaign on climate change. But how strong is his record tackling, in his words, “the most urgent challenge of our time”? Read More
Broecker was an early advocate for reducing fossil fuels to avoid the disruptive effects of climate change and brought the term "global warming" into the mainstream. Continue Reading ‘Grandfather Of Climate Science’ Wallace Broecker Dies Read More
As Washington Gov. Jay Inslee inches closer to a likely run for president, he's starting to sound more and more like a candidate on the stump than a two-term incumbent, even when addressing audiences at home. At a recent legislative forum in Olympia, Inslee recounted his first foray into politics 30 years ago and told the story behind one of his first votes as a freshman Read More
If temperatures continue to rise, glaciers would begin to disappear, with a serious impact on the area's water resources. Continue Reading Report: Global Warming Could Melt At Least A Third Of Himalayan GlaciersRead More
Climate change is playing out in significant ways in Oregon, with evidence in the form of more severe wildfires, lower summer stream flows and diminishing winter snowpacks, according to the state’s fourth annual climate assessment report. Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will take his most visible step yet towards a possible bid for president when he visits New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state, on Monday and Tuesday. Continue Reading Jay Inslee Plans Read More
The 64-year-old Republican sworn into office earlier this month shocked some at the Idaho Environmental Forum by declaring that climate change is real and will have to be dealt with. Continue Reading Idaho Gov. Brad Little: Climate Change Is Read More
Warning that Washington state is at a "tipping point," Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday delivered a State of the State address that called on lawmakers to address carbon pollution, "transform" the mental health system and save Puget Sound orcas. Read More
For the last 35 years, the snowpack in the West’s mountains has resisted the impacts of global warming. But that could soon change, according to a new study out of Oregon State University. Continue Reading Snowpack In The West Has Read More
Concern over climate change rose in late November with the release of a United Nations report on limiting global warming. “An ear-splitting wake-up call to the world,” the UN said of the report: “It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are — and we are running out of time.” What do climate scientists have… Read More
The earth's climate has been warming for decades now. But 2018 brought several major new and markedly more precise reports from scientists about what climate change is doing to the weather and how dire they expect the consequences to be. Continue Read More
From mid-December to February, hundreds upon hundreds of bald eagles flock to the Skagit River in northwest Washington to feast on spawning salmon. It's one of the biggest seasonal concentrations of eagles in the Pacific Northwest, but this eagle watching hot spot is being affected by changing cycles of nature. Read More
The Arctic has experienced the "most unprecedented transition in history" in terms of warming temperatures and melting ice, and those changes may be the cause of extreme weather around the globe, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2018 Arctic Report Card. Read More
At a major climate meeting in Poland, nearly 200 countries are trying to reach a deal on dramatically reducing carbon emissions. But a recent U.N. report found that may not be enough to avoid dangerous impacts from the warming climate. In fact, the world is falling so far short of what's needed, it said, that it might be necessary to pull massive amounts of carbon dioxide Read More
Fishing groups in California and Oregon joined the legal fray by filing suit against 30 companies, mainly oil producers. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the plaintiff, contends that the fossil fuel industry is at fault for recent warming-related damages to the West Coast's prized Dungeness crab fishery. Read More
The Northwest is already seeing the effects of climate change, according to a new national climate assessment. Continue Reading Report: Climate Change Is Already Bringing Problems To Northwest — And It Will Get WorseRead More
Climate change is already causing more frequent and severe weather across the U.S., and the country is poised to suffer massive damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, health and the economy if global warming is allowed to continue, according to the most comprehensive federal climate report to date. Read More
Climate change is expected to increase drought and wildfire vulnerability in forests across the West. But new research out of Oregon State University shows that some places will fare better than others. Continue Reading New Research Read More
Newly published research predicting beer prices could double as rising global temperatures and more volatile weather cause shortages of barley created a big splash. But brewers and barley growers say you shouldn't drown your sorrows just yet: They have a plan. Read More
Increasingly hot and dry summers in Oregon and Washington have started to affect some of our most impressive travelers – the songbirds that migrate thousands of miles to breed here each spring. Continue Reading Old Growth Could Read More
Climate change is heating up national parks much faster than the rest of the U.S. That’s according to a first-of-its-kind study that looked all 417 national parks, including those in the Northwest. Continue Reading Study: Climate Read More
More than 40 researchers concluded that climate change would make ecosystems such as deciduous forests, grasslands and Arctic tundra unrecognizable. Continue Reading To Predict Effects Of Global Warming, Scientists Looked Back 20,000 Read More
Climate change might lead to bigger populations of hungrier insects. This could have serious consequences for grain-growing regions in the Northwest and across the world. Continue Reading Insects Could Eat Twice As Much Wheat By The End Of The Read More
Wildfire activity in the American West is likely to get worse in coming years. A new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to the lack of precipitation in the summer as the major driving factor when it comes to increasing fire severity. Read More
The cod population in the Gulf of Alaska is at its lowest level on record. Scientists say the culprit is a warm-water mass known as "the blob." Continue Reading Gulf Of Alaska Cod Are Disappearing. Blame ‘The Blob’Read More
For people living in the “wildland-urban interface,” wildfire risk is the new normal, and the risk is increasing as more people move into places where cul-de-sac meets forest or sagebrush. Continue Reading Four Read More
A warming climate is knocking nature's rhythms out of sync. High in the Rocky Mountains, scientists have been tracking the impact for decades. Continue Reading In The Mountain West, Spring Is Springing Sooner, Throwing Read More
While searching for seabirds in July of 2017, biologist Luke Halpin instead saw a sea bubbling with about 200 bottlenose dolphins and 70 false killer whales. It would be an unusual sight anywhere — bottlenose generally travel in much smaller groups — but Halpin’s sighting was made more remarkable by where it happened. These usually tropical animals were off the west coast Read More
Ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest seem to be returning to normal after a three-year spike in water temperature. It’s promising long-term news for fishermen who are looking ahead in the short term to yet another year of low salmon returns. Read More
There’s a lot less snow in the western U.S. than there was a century ago. That’s according to new research that found dramatic declines in snowpack as the seasons have gotten warmer. Continue Reading Snowpack Has Drastically Declined In The West This CenturyRead More
An Idaho Senate panel voted February 22 to retain all references to man-made climate change in proposed science standards for K-12 education, which could end a three-year fight over the rules. Continue Reading Idaho Senate Read More
Over the next century, sea level rise is expected to wreak havoc on the U.S. coastlines – and a new analysis shows that the Northwest is not immune. Nearly all coastal wetlands in Oregon, Washington and California will be swamped at the highest predicted sea level change. Read More
About 100 activists gathered Wednesday, Feb. 21 to protest Puget Sound Energy’s plan to keep producing electricity from coal until 2035. PSE is the company that likely keeps your lights and Wifi on if you live in the Puget Sound area but not in Seattle. Their main concern was climate change. Read More
While you may be able to easily change your coat when the snow melts, it’s not so simple for animals whose fur turns white in winter for camouflage. A new study finds they'll need to rapidly evolve to match a climate with less snow. Continue Read More
Early this year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said no to a massive oil-by-rail terminal proposed in Vancouver, Wash. The $210 million Vancouver Energy project, a joint venture from Tesoro and Savage, would have brought up to 360,000 gallons of crude oil a day on trains traveling along the Columbia River. Read More
As the climate gets warmer, sugar maple trees will have a harder time producing enough sap to meet demand. Luckily, scientists and maple syrup-makers are on the case. Continue Reading Climate Change Could Mean Less Maple Syrup For Your PancakesRead More
Carbon emissions by the tech giants that dominate cloud computing are surging, even as companies like Amazon and Microsoft take steps to tame their climate impact. Continue Reading What Amazon Doesn’t Want You To Know About The CloudRead More
