Dairy farmers in Massachusetts are using food waste to create renewable energy. Each farm produces enough to power about 1,500 homes. This helps prevent the release of methane, a greenhouse gas.Read More
Environment
Carbon emissions from global air travel are rising fast, and U.S. passengers make up the largest share. But some are vowing not to fly at all, motivated by guilt and concern for the environment. Read More
Biologists say, if things continue, salmon may be extinct from the basin by next century. That’s why they’re coming up with a plan to help restore the area’s 3,400 miles of streams and rivers – which are also home to the largest diversity of amphibians in the state.Read More
The environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper has sued dam operators along the Columbia and Snake rivers. They hope to reduce oil spills, require operators to monitor how much oil is leaking into the water and ask dam managers to look into using eco-friendly oil. Read More
A $2 billion methanol project proposed for the Lower Columbia River town of Kalama, Washington, hit a new roadblock Friday, when the Washington Department of Ecology said the environmental review did not adequately assess its greenhouse gas emissions and contributions to climate change.Read More
A new report from DigDeep and the U.S. Water Alliance found race is the strongest predictor of water and sanitation access. This has implications for public health.Read More
Carbon capture technology is slowly being integrated into energy and industrial facilities across the globe. Typically set up to collect carbon from an exhaust stream, this technology sops up greenhouse gases before they spread into Earth’s airways.Read More
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Stop B2H Coalition and Greater Hells Canyon Council, claims the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service failed to adequately evaluate the environmental impacts of Idaho Power’s proposed transmission line.Read More
Several studies have shown that microplastics, which are tiny pieces of plastic that make up other larger plastic items, can make their way into fish, crustaceans, clams, oysters and ultimately into us, the people that eat them. Read More
Insecticides and other chemicals found at the sites threaten long-term damage to ecosystems. California law enforcement, ecologists and others are cracking down.Read More
One of the habitat designations is specifically for Southern Resident Killer Whales, which spend about half the year in the Salish Sea north of Seattle. They feed on salmon. There are fewer than 80 of these orcas remaining. Read More
The number of people using goats to pack gear, game and food into the backcountry is rising rapidly, and national forests in at least 10 western states have proposed partial pack goat bans to prevent the spread of pathogens that could prove deadly to the west's iconic populations of bighorn sheep.Read More
Many are commuting to school in Paradise from surrounding cities and towns, including almost all of the town's high school football team, the Bobcats. The team is undefeated, and is about to find out if they are making it to the playoffs.Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency would give coal plants more time to close unlined coal ash ponds, and ease rules on wastewater. Opponents say that prolongs the risk of toxic spills.Read More
Washington state wildlife officials are asking that you slow down, don’t drive distracted, use your high beams when you can, and brake a little longer if you see just one deer, since often more deer will follow.Read More
Free-burning fire is the proximate provocation for the havoc, since its ember storms are engulfing landscapes. But in the hands of humans, combustion is also the deeper cause. Read More
At Hanford, in southeastern Washington, contractors have just completed much of the demo work at the site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. But now crews have to finish the job. And that’s the tough part. Read More
Bob Murray, the owner of Murray Energy, pushed the Trump administration to roll back numerous coal regulations. But he says the industry needs even more help from the government.Read More
Environmental and Latino groups are hosting a clean drinking water forum Saturday, Oct. 26. The goal is to help people learn how they can get their water tested – and why it’s important.Read More
Fertilizer runoff is fueling the toxic algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. Farmers could help by growing crops in rotation to reduce the need for fertilizer. But it's unclear who will buy them.Read More
At the end of the Obama administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came up with a plan that was supposed to shorten a backlog of species that might need a place on the endangered species list or need more critical habitat protected. But the Center for Biological Diversity says that plan has gone by the wayside under the Trump administration. Read More
When it comes to surviving the warming climate, scientists are finding that some plants and animals have an edge. The hope is that these "super adapters" can help preserve their species.Read More
The Yakama Nation and the states of Oregon and Washington are asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare a new Superfund site on the Columbia River at Bradford Island alongside Bonneville Dam.Read More
As the country's 14th secretary of energy, Perry leads an agency he once vowed to eliminate. He has emerged as a central figure in the impeachment inquiry of Trump.Read More
Companies are trying to figure out the risks to their profits from a warming planet. Some of them are turning to high-tech tools of climate science.Read More
The proposal, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, comes in response to a request from the state, which wants to be fully exempted from a Clinton-era rule that limits road construction and timber harvesting in tens of millions of acres of national forest.Read More
As the climate warms, many U.S. lakes are seeing more algal blooms, low oxygen levels and stressed out fish species. One team in Oregon hopes that pumping oxygen into the water can help.Read More
Standing on the banks of the Columbia River, near the remnants of Celilo Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, Yakama Nation Chairman JoDe Goudy traced the history of decrees, congressional acts and court cases that led to the damming of the river.Read More
The study found that across North America, 389 species, or nearly two-thirds of the continent’s birds, are vulnerable to the heat waves, rising seas, increased fires and storms and other disruptions that 3 °C of climate change could bring.Read More
Around 450 people filed into the AgriComplex building at the Okanogan County Fairgrounds Monday night. They wanted to voice their opinions on a draft plan to relocate grizzlies to the North Cascades.Read More
An ambitious Arctic expedition has reached a milestone. Researchers have found a floe to freeze into, where they'll construct an observatory and study Arctic systems from a ship.Read More
A new study finds that tuna harvests, including of some species considered "vulnerable," have increased by an astonishing 1,000% in the last 60 years — a rate some scientists warn is unsustainable.Read More
Environmental groups have been pressing PacifiCorp for years to close more of its coal plants sooner and speed up its transition to renewable energy. But leaders in states like Wyoming, where the utility’s coal plants are stationed, say the company would be hurting local economies and betraying their trust by closing coal plants early.Read More
Connecting different projects – like these large-scale fuels management ones – with efforts by homeowners down below helps make the landscape more resilient. It’s part of a larger effort to help central Washington avoid the fate of towns like Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018. Read More
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the southern mountain population of woodland caribou as endangered and confirmed 47 square miles in Idaho and Washington as critical habitat requiring special protection.Read More
Plastics in the ocean food chain has become a hot topic for local scientists, for similar reasons city and state policy makers and activists are debating plastic bag bans and how to reduce plastic straw and bottled water usage. All are concerned that the world's oceans are awash in plastic trash and fibers.Read More
In a letter to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind, Inslee asked that the state increase efforts to change guidelines that dictate when a wolf can be lethally removed.Read More
10 countries account for approximately 70 percent of the world’s emissions, and all except one — India — are not on pace to meet the climate goals needed to prevent 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Read More
Seventeen states sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block rules weakening the Endangered Species Act, saying the changes would make it tougher to protect wildlife even in the midst of a global extinction crisis.Read More
A new study on the nation’s Safe Drinking Water Act has found that low-income residents and communities of color are especially vulnerable to health-related problems because of unresolved drinking water violations. In the Northwest, 16 counties in Oregon and Washington were identified with the highest rate of drinking water violations Read More
Recently, there’s been a significant shift in our understanding of salmon genetics. Researchers have found a distinct area in salmon DNA where the spring and fall chinook differ.Read More
Humanity is not on track to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. Delegations from nearly 200 countries are meeting to discuss promises they made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Read More
The lawsuit comes two days after the Trump administration revoked California's ability to set its own rules for automobiles. The state's top prosecutor blasted the move as "arbitrary and capricious."Read More
The demonstrations, including those in the Tri-Cities and Yakima, were part of a global effort coordinated largely by students and young adults to draw attention to climate change and the need for elected officials, business leaders and individuals to take action.Read More
"We know it's happening. We need change. We demand better," an 11-year-old girl said at a march in Thailand. Protesters are calling for net-zero carbon emissions and other changes.Read More
Airlines like Alaska, United and Delta are looking into biofuel production. It’s a trend experts say will keep growing. The Northwest is playing a big role in several experiments airlines are helping fund.Read More
Climate change is causing people in Washington to spend billions of dollars in healthcare costs. That’s according to a new study that looked at how hospital visits and early deaths during a recent wildfire season.Read More
The partially melted reactor core from the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history could remain in Idaho for another 20 years if regulators finalize a license extension sought by the U.S. Energy Department, officials said Monday.Read More
The move comes as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the repeal Thursday of the Waters of the United States rule — the first step in a two-step rule making process. Read More
Grouse numbers also continued to drop in 2019 in Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. Weather can affect populations from year to year, and wildlife officials say those short-term cycles are most directly responsible for the recent declines.Read More
