Puget Sound | Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

The IPCC Sea-Level-Rise Report: The Oceans Are Breaking – The Atlantic

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Al Bergstein

This is our future if we don’t act now.

And this ecological upheaval of climate change is not limited to the seas. “Many glaciers, particularly in Washington State and the Mountain West, will disappear within the next decade and—at the latest—within a century,” said Regine Hock, an author of the report and a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, at a press conference this week. That has implications for water security across huge portions of the American West: Phoenix and Los Angeles both rely, to some extent, on water from mountain glaciers.

Sea-level rise will become unmanageable, and life will flee the world’s tropical oceans, if carbon pollution keeps rising, a new report from the UN climate panel says.
— Read on www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/09/ipcc-sea-level-rise-report/598765/

and from the New York Times

Written by more than 100 international experts and based on more than 7,000 studies, the report is the most extensive look to date at the effects of climate change on oceans, ice sheets, mountain snowpack and permafrost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/climate/climate-change-oceans-united-nations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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New UN Climate Report – Oceans rising faster

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Al Bergstein

For those of us who live on costs around the world the news could hardly be worse. The future of virtually every coastal city and more than 2 billion people around the world are going to be significantly impacted this century and perhaps as soon as mid century if the worst case scenario continues to play out as they seem to be every time a new report comes out.The planet is looking for leadership from China and the US and we have no one except a 16-year-old coming to our rescue at this moment. It’s up to us folks. There’s no one else going to lead us out of this mess. As far as Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula goes, we better be planning for alternative water sources, and significant changes to downtown planning in the near future. The likelihood of Water Street truly becoming a water street appears to be quite high.

The fate of our fisheries right here, as well as work being done on habitat restoration all around the Sound could be put at risk.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/25/new-un-climate-report-massive-change-already-here-worlds-oceans-frozen-regions/

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German coal mine expansion threatens to displace villagers, even as country charts green energy future | CBC Radio

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Interesting story comparing the various issues at play in Germany, the leader in renewable energy use.

A dozen or so historic villages in Germany are about to be swallowed up by open-pit coal mines in the coming years. Meanwhile, a neighbourhood in the city of Freiburg has forged its own reputation as a leader in energy conservation, solar power and green building standards.
— Read on www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-september-23-2019-1.5293685/german-coal-mine-expansion-threatens-to-displace-villagers-even-as-country-charts-green-energy-future-1.5291570

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Extreme Weather Displaced a Record 7 Million in First Half of 2019 – NY Times

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Al Bergstein

An interesting article by the New York Times documenting how many people have been displaced by climate change related weather in the first half of this year alone. The only question left to ask is, who’s next?

www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/climate/extreme-weather-displacement.html

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How to Save the World: Is individual action pointless in the face of climate change? – BBC News

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

It’s a question more and more of my friends are discussing.

How to Save the World: Is individual action pointless in the face of climate change? – BBC News
— Read on www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-49756280

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EVENT: #ClimateStrike in Port Townsend FRIDAY SEPT 20TH 10AM Baseball Field

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Support our youth as they stage a strike to raise awareness of the climate emergency. All of us can learn something, do something more than we are doing now.

For those new to town the baseball field is the ball field on the “north” side of the high school, along F Street and Fir. Walk, bike or car pool if you can. Try not to drive!

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The Battle Over Fish Farming In The Open Ocean Heats Up, As EPA Permit Looms – OPB

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

The Feds look to open up aquaculture into the open ocean. While this project is in the Gulf of Mexico, the threat to us here is very real. After watching the incredibly incompetent way that our legislators allowed the industry in this state to function with virtually no over-site because they fashioned the laws back in the 70s/80s to split enforcement between two different government agencies (Department of Ecology and DNR) ending in the disastrous blow out of the Cypress Island pens. This finally led to regulation and a shutting down of the industry in this state, and we will never know the true cost of what allowing these pens into our waters meant to our endangered salmon. Old timers I interviewed talked of how wild runs collapsed in the Agate Pass area after the pens went in to the south side of Bainbridge Island. They suspected the wild fish were somehow compromised by the pens. While many other issues were simultaneously showing-up, rampant development, over-fishing in the Strait, etc. the old timers thought the timing highly suspicious. Now this. Whatever could go wrong?

States control up to three miles offshore from their coastlines, but between three and 200 miles falls under federal control. Attempts to introduce aquaculture in federal waters have so far been stymied by concerns about aquaculture’s impact on ocean ecosystems and wild fisheries.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-the-battle-over-fish-farming-in-the-open-ocean-heats-up-as-epa-permit-looms/

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Feds seek expanded habitat protection as salmon, orcas battle climate change, habitat degradation – Seattle Times

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

While this is very welcome and overdue, it does, of course, exempt the military from this designation. So the Orcas can be protected against everything, except our military running secret experimental bombing, which by their own admission in their environmental review documents, will lead to death of wildlife. We consistently do not hold the military to the same environmental standards that we hold all other citizens. Without doing that, this is just more of the same, fiddling while nature burns.

The designation requires review of federal actions within the areas that could affect southern resident killer whales, providing additional oversight by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/feds-seek-expanded-habitat-protection-as-salmon-orcas-battle-climate-change-habitat-degradation/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=mobile-app&utm_campaign=ios

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How climate change threatens our health in the Pacific Northwest -Seattle Times

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Ongoing coverage this week of the effects of the emerging Climate Emergency.

“I’m seeing things that I did not think would happen until 2050,” said Dr. Kristie Ebi, a professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. “Climate change is coming at us much faster, and the speed of change and how that’s going to affect extreme events is going to be very problematic.” Heat waves and floods are becoming more frequent and intense sooner than expected, she said.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/how-climate-change-threatens-our-health-in-the-pacific-northwest/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=mobile-app&utm_campaign=ios

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New tactic against Navy training expansion – loss of use of property

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Al Bergstein

A new lawsuit has been filed by homeowners that claim that the expansion of the Navy training on Whidbey Island constitutes a “taking” of their property because it has made their home unlivable. These are folks who knowingly bought in the flight path, before the Navy decided to expand the program.

Whidbey Island residents sue over expansion of Navy training flights
When Marge Plecki and her husband built their retirement home on Whidbey Island in 2002, they were aware the Navy conducted training flights at a small airstrip nearby. The noise was bearable, though, and she planned around it by running errands or doing other chores while the jets roared. That changed dramatically in March, when the number of EA-18G Growlers in the skies vastly increased. The noise has sent Plecki and more than three dozen other residents of Whidbey Island’s Admiral’s Cove neighborhood to court, filing a lawsuit that seeks compensation for what they say is their inability to use their property. The neighborhood is a small enclave less than one mile from the end of the landing strip, just beneath the final approach and take-off path for the jets. Gene Johnson reports. (Associated Press)

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Growth Management Hearings Board Sides With TRC – Jefferson County’s Commercial Shooting Ordinances Invalidated

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Al Bergstein

It is indeed sad that our county could not have understood this to begin with, rather than force the Tarboo Ridge Coalition to file a lawsuit for something so clearly out of line with the law. This is probably the low point for our county commissioners in my mind. A true failure to do the right thing and expect the courts to clean up the mess. I would like to have a county commissioner get interviewed to explain themselves.

NEWS FLASH 9/16/2019

Growth Management Hearings Board Sides With TRC

Jefferson County’s Commercial Shooting Ordinances Invalidated

Tarboo Ridge Coalition’s appeal of Jefferson County’s “commercial shooting facility” ordinances, passed in late 2018, were struck down by the GMHB in a 21 page report issued late today.

The Board agreed with TRC that both ordinances (Title 8-Health and Safety Code and Title 18- Land Use Code) were indeed land use regulations that expand the size, scope and types of land allowed for gun ranges. The Board further noted that the cross references in the two ordinances between the definitions and the permitting and appeals processes also make them both land use regulations.

The Board also found that Title 8 was adopted without SEPA review, in violation of the law. The Board found that the failure to conduct SEPA review resulted in a substantial interference with the Growth Management Act’s environmental goals, in that the County didn’t even ask what the environmental impacts of Title 8 would be.

The County was instructed to take action by March 2, 2020 to fix its violations and report to the Hearing Board on March 16, 2020 what actions it took.

TRC is grateful for the opportunity to start over and is dedicated to keep working with all of you for a sensible and fair ordinance that includes specific siting criteria with bright line rules about the location, size and intensity of new gun facilities. We also believe any proposed new ordinance must pass muster with the Planning Commission following rigorous environmental review.

THANK YOU TO THE HUNDREDS OF SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE CARRIED US THIS FAR. TODAY YOUR EFFORTS WERE REWARDED! **

**The full 21 page decision is posted on our website. We will provide additional information there and by e-mail in the days ahead.

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Climate change is already here. You have one last chance to stop it – Los Angeles Times

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Al Bergstein

This week, all across the globe, news agencies are focusing on climate change. This is late, but needed. The time has come to change the narrative and get everyone involved. We have just witnessed 70,000 Bahamians become climate refugees. Last year it was those in Northern California. And that’s just the big ones. This article talks about what the country and each of us individually need to think about. “Is that next plane flight really needed?”

The world climate is in crisis, and it is all our own doing. And we must through concerted global action end our reliance on fossil fuels before time runs out.
— Read on www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate-change-crisis-global-warming-part-1-story.html

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Most American teens are frightened by climate change, poll finds, and about 1 in 4 are taking action – Washington Post

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Al Bergstein

In the 1960s and 70s we faced the very real thread of nuclear annihilation. Now we are back at a very real threat that is much harder to find ways forward. As a child, I was very afraid of being blown to bits. It caused many of my friends to not want to engage in the society, and to do drugs because, “what’s the use?” There are children suffering now with the facts being presented to us. And there are children, like Greta Thurnberg that are standing up and taking action. Let’s support our children when they ask about going out on strike this Friday. The answer should be, “do it, can I join you?”

….A solid majority of American teenagers are convinced that humans are changing the Earth’s climate and believe that it will cause harm to them personally and to other members of their generation, according to a new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Roughly 1 in 4 have participated in a walkout, attended a rally or written to a public official to express their views on global warming — remarkable levels of activism for a group that has not yet reached voting age. Sarah Kaplan and
Emily Guskin report. (Washington Post)

Most American teens are frightened by climate change, poll finds, and about 1 in 4 are taking action

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Washington state officially launches first new construction in effort to electrify ferries – KNKX

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Washington state starts delivering on a “new green economy” by creating green jobs to move us away from fossil fuels. Hundreds of blue collar jobs helping get us to the new world off of fossil fuels. Thanks to Governor Inslee and the Democratic majority in the state capital. Will there be some hickups along the way? You bet. Is this better than doing nothing? Absolutely.

Washington’s ferry system runs on diesel fuel that causes more air pollution than anything else the state transportation department operates. That’s changing as the state Department of Transportation works to convert two of its Jumbo Mark 2 ferries to hybrid-electric propulsion. And now it has officially launched the first new construction of a hybrid ferry, amid much fanfare…The Legislature has so far authorized funding for only one new hybrid electric ferry, but transportation officials say they have up to five more in the pipeline. The cost will be roughly the same as for a traditional diesel Olympic Class vessel: $160 million dollars. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Washington state officially launches first new construction in effort to electrify ferries

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Trump Administration to Finalize Rollback of Clean Water Protections – Washington Post

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Al Bergstein

Moving us backwards in time. All I can say is that after he’s gone we’ll have to rewrite even better laws next time.

The Trump administration on Thursday is expected to complete the legal repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation, which had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and water bodies. The rollback of the 2015 measure, known as the Waters of the United States rule, has been widely expected since the early days of the Trump administration, when President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to begin the work of repealing and replacing it. Weakening the Obama-era water rule had been a central campaign pledge for Mr. Trump, who characterized it as a federal land-grab that impinged on the rights of farmers, rural landowners and real estate developers to use their property as they see fit. Coral Davenport reports. (NY Times) See also: Administration finalizes repeal of 2015 water rule Trump called ‘destructive and horrible’ Thursday’s move will revert the nation to 1986 water pollution rule governing wetlands and small streams. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report. (Washington Post)

Trump Administration to Finalize Rollback of Clean Water Protections

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