Posted September 2, 2011 from Seattle. Famed NOAA Climate scientist Jim Hanson says that if we approve the Keystone Pipeline—The Canadian pipeline that would bisect the country from North to South and deliver Canadian crude oil from Alberta’s tar-sands to Texas-- it’s “game over” for...
Posted August 21, 2011 from Seattle. It's almost a decade too late to influence the debate when it mattered and help forestall the tragedy of the ethanol mandate, but Scientific American has admirably come out with an article critical of biofuels in its August 2011...
posted August 11, 2011 The painting that will be on the cover of the 7th and last Birding Trail Map, featuring two Eagles on a snag at Cape Flattery, doesn't exist. Well, it sort of does. Ed Newbold began an Eagle/Flattery painting in the middle oughts and...
Posted June 22, 2011. When a Killdeer doesn’t want you to know where the nest is, it creates a distraction display and determinedly leads you somewhere—anywhere--else. The Killdeer shown below was getting excited in the early stages of a distraction display at Spencer Island in Everett,WA last...
The Seattle Times is ambling in the right direction with its June 20 editorial “End Ethanol Support,” which commended Senators including both WA Senators Cantwell and Murray for a largely symbolic vote to end the $6 billion subsidy for ethanol and the tariff against imported...
Posted June 12, 2011 from Seattle, WA In a feature story by Marilyn Geewax, NPR's Morning Edition again covered the rising-price-of-food story while barely mentioning ethanol. Geewax pegged the story on the weird weather that has diminished prospects for the US crop this year, quoting USDA economist...
Posted June 1: updated June 9, 2011 [caption id="attachment_854" align="alignleft" width="400"] Western Tanager, photo by Ed Newbold. Western Tanager is one of many North American birds that are to some degree dependent on shade coffee plantations.[/caption] Saving Birds like this has now become almost as easy as shooting...
May 7, 2011 In a story covering the release of a study linking higher food prices with global climate change, NPR failed to add any reference to that other huge vector force driving food prices up: biofuel mandates in the US and Europe. A list of...
posted April 28, 2011 Updated May 11, 2011 [caption id="attachment_760" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Photo from Leavenworth area by Janet Millard"][/caption] Here's an idea: Visit beautiful Leavenworth, Washington for the Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday May 12, 13, 14 and 15. Here is the link: http://www.leavenworthspringbirdfest.com/ARTS.HTM As part...
April 22, 2011 Susan, my print rep from Olympus Press in SeaTac, WA, holds up a press proof in the final minutes before we give the go-ahead for the my spring 2011 printing. Susan’s been my print rep for 21 years. Kone and Jason operated the press...
March 20, 2011 The Sandhill Crane Festival is this weekend in Othello, WA. Featured Speakers will be Jack Nisbet and Ken Bevis Friday and Saturday respectively. I don't know how booked up anything is. Check the website at www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org for availability of various tours. Thanks to the Othello...
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to be very hard to get a certain piece of information about the new tolls being installed on the Highway 520 bridge over Lake Washington. What will the collection-efficiency be? What will it be specifically in the 520 case,...
In a Feb 1 article on All Things Considered, NPR reporter Chris Arnold recounted events that have led to increasing desperation among the hungry poor of the world. Explaining the recent massive surge in commodity prices, Arnold listed as causes the drought in Russia, the floods in Pakistan...
There are many traditions associated with winter weather, Christmas and the winter holiday season. Riding in a one-horse open sleigh is an old one. There is a completely new one here in Seattle and the Northwest. Of course, it's a keeping the hummingbird feeders full and making sure...