Salish Sea News Week in Review October 29 2021

 

Aloha Lemur Friday!
World Lemur Day celebrates lemurs and spreads the word about the need to conserve them; it inspires a love for them and actions to save them from extinction. It also celebrates Madagascar, the island nation located 250 miles off the east coast of Africa that lemurs call home.

Can This Tribe of ‘Salmon People’ Pull Off One More Win?
....The Lummi, whose fishing grounds include most of the Salish Sea, count more commercial fishers among their 5,320 members than any other Indigenous nation in the Northwest. Their relationship to this catch, though, is more than financial:

‘Receding before our eyes:’ Vancouver Island glaciers likely to be all gone by mid-century
Glacier melt is accelerated because the Island ­glaciers are small to start with, and recent events like this summer’s heat dome and sustained temperatures above 30 C have put their demise on fast-forward.

Guilbeault to become Canada's next environment minister as Trudeau unveils new cabinet
Long-time environmental activist Steven Guilbeault will be Canada's next minister of the environment and climate change, CBC News has confirmed.

Wildlife agencies to cancel Trump endangered species rules
President Joe Biden’s administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel two environmental rollbacks under former President Donald Trump that limited habitat protections for imperiled plants and wildlife.

U.S. District Court judge weighing merits of Navy EIS for Whidbey Island
A U.S. District Court judge heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit over the Navy’s expansion of its EA-18G Growler jet fleet at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Latest National Climate Plans Still Fall Far Short, U.N. Report Warns
The latest plans by the nations of the world to tackle climate change over the next decade fall far short of what’s needed to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday.

Big shippers promise zero carbon by 2040. Too late, say climate activists
Major shippers including Amazon, Ikea, and Unilever say they will stop putting their stuff on ships that burn fossil fuels in the next 20 years.

The ‘glaring gap’ in B.C.’s new climate plan
Environmental groups say while the province has made important gains in new roadmap, it’s still not clear how B.C. will tackle emissions from fracking and LNG.

North Vancouver couple put up $1 million for wilderness protection
A North Vancouver couple is putting their money where their hearts are – in the wilderness. Al Collings and Hilary Stevens have donated $1 million to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The hopeful orca study, and the backlash that ensued
Researchers at the University of British Columbia published a paper that found an abundance of Chinook salmon in one area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca where the southern residents forage for food. Researchers here in the Seattle area "stomped on it," according to Lynda Mapes, who covers the environment for The Seattle Times.

Puget Sound meets 2020 bulkhead-removal goal; new indicators will chart the future
In a turnabout that offers hope for Puget Sound’s nearshore ecosystem, old bulkheads are now being removed faster than new bulkheads are being constructed, according to permit figures provided by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Canada underestimating 80 megatonnes of emissions from boreal logging: report
New research finds that by overcounting the carbon storage of intact forests and undercounting emissions from logging, the Government of Canada is vastly underreporting the climate impacts of clearcutting in one of the country’s greatest carbon sinks.

Most of Canada’s marine protected areas still threatened by oil and gas, dumping and trawling: report
A new assessment from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society finds only a fraction of established ocean conservation regions actually enjoy enough protections to meet goals of preserving or restoring marine life.

These news clips are a selection of weekday clips collected in Salish Sea News and Weather which is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe at no cost to the weekday news clips, send your name and email to mikesato772 at gmail.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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