New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Just Announced an Ambitious Ban on Plastic Bags

E. Fudd

we saw these birds, many, many years ago – not long after that movie came out (that was how we knew) – we hiked to the top of Telegraph Hill from the back side, and there they were, hanging out in a big conifer – weird to see parrots in a tree like that. Anyway, despite their being effectively an ‘invasive’ species, glad to see they are hanging in there…

San Francisco’s wild parrots branching out throughout city

E. Fudd

Connelly: Pruitt EPA loophole for polluting trucks reversed after Washington AG’s suit

F Scott Pruitt!

E. Fudd

Reintroduce the North Cascades grizzly bear

E. Fudd

Please sign this petition to help protect Seattle’s Trees!

Petition by Treepac Board Member Richard Ellison, MS Botany (click link to sign)

The City of Seattle wants to encourage single family homeowners to build additional ADU’s (accessary dwelling units, sometimes called mother-in-law units), both attached and unattached. Currently, you can build one or the other, but not both, on the same property. The City proposes allowing both, while also reducing minimum lot sizes from 4000 sq ft to 3200 sq ft and increasing the backyard structural footprint from 40% to 60%.

We believe the ADU-DEIS is highly flawed in claiming there will be no significant impacts to Exceptional Trees, Significant Trees and Tree Groves as a result of the proposed changes. Cumulative impacts, unavoidable adverse impacts, impacts to critical root zones, increased stormwater runoff, urban island heat effects, are all issues poorly addressed, if at all.

It is inconceivable to us that the ADU-DEIS cannot identify even one adverse impact, considering Single Family (SF) zones are 67% of the land and have 72% of Seattle’s tree canopy on 135,000 lots. The DEIS is silent as to how increases in lot coverage and reductions in minimum lot size, among many other issues, will be such that “No significant adverse impacts are anticipated to land use; therefore, no mitigation measures are proposed.” (The DEIS in 4.3.3 Mitigation Measures, Page 4-120 notes)

E. Fudd

Sweden starts construction on fossil fuel-free steel plant

BERLIN (AP) — Sweden has started construction on a factory that will test whether it’s feasible to make steel without burning fossil fuels.

Utility firm Vattenfall said Tuesday it has teamed up with steel company SSAB and mining firm LKAB to build the 1.4-billion Swedish krona ($158 million) pilot plant.

Existing plants produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, when coal is used to turn iron into hardened steel.

The new factory being built in the northeastern town of Lulea by 2020 will use hydrogen instead of coal and coke. The companies’ joint venture, called HYBRIT, aims to have an industrial process in place by 2035.

Vattenfall said the technology could potentially cut Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions by ten percent, helping meet the country’s goals under the Paris climate accord.

E. Fudd

Closure to Snow Crab fishery to protect North Atlantic Right Whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

So I’ve been volunteering at the U District Food Bank over on Roosevelt (right across the street from decades-long fave store Scarecrow Video) – was there today watering, thought I’d throw up some pics – looks like a bountiful harvest coming later this summer! You can click on a pic for an even bigger image…

Way up there in front on the right is a beehive; behind me on either sides are compost bins and storage, watering hose is in the middle (the one I use, anyway) – they are getting a drip irrigation system set up but it’s not running yet, afaik. Enjoy the view!

there is a special place in h-e-double-hockey-sticks for you, Pruitt. It’s a melting plastic vat of oil waste…..! FIRE SCOTT PRUITT!!!

Judge Rules Pruitt Must Provide Evidence for his Climate Denial

E. Fudd

Bring. IT.

From The Seattle Times:
King County sues big oil companies for downplaying global warming

E. Fudd