Salish Sea News Week in Review February 25 2022

 

Aloha Skip the Straw Friday!
The Coral Keepers, a group of nine eighth grade students at Whitehall Middle School in Whitehall, Michigan, founded National Skip the Straw Day with their advisor, Susan Tate, in 2017, "to encourage Americans to give up the straw habit and help spread awareness about the damage caused by disposable plastics." National Skip the Straw Day encourages people to switch to renewable straws or to forgo straws altogether when drinking on the day—or on any day.

Pipeline expansion would increase the flow of natural gas through the Northwest
A Canadian company is proposing a project to increase the capacity of its pipeline transporting natural gas across the Northwest.

Nearly half of US bald eagles suffer lead poisoning
While the bald eagle population has rebounded from the brink of extinction since the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT in 1972, harmful levels of toxic lead were found in the bones of 46% of bald eagles sampled in 38 states from California to Florida

Banning toxic chemicals in cosmetics moves forward in WA
A measure advancing in Washington’s Legislature would ban the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in cosmetics.

Hundreds of new native bees species added to Oregon database
The Oregon Bee Atlas just got bigger. In an update announced this month, the largest bee and plant database in the state added hundreds of new native bee species that were discovered all over the state.

Flush with taxpayer dollars, Washington Democratic lawmakers release new budget proposals
The supplemental budget proposals make changes to Washington’s two-year, $59 billion state operating budget approved last spring, which funds everything from schools, prisons, parks and public lands to economic assistance, mental health services and other social supports.

Climate Change Could Increase Risk of Wildfires 50% by Century's End
A landmark United Nations report has concluded that the risk of devastating wildfires around the world will surge in coming decades as climate change further intensifies what the report described as a “global wildfire crisis.”

Save salmon, create jobs: A new plan for Snohomish watershed
State Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz has a 100-page plan for the Snohomish watershed.

Biden administration suspends approval of controversial Alaska mining road
The Biden administration on Tuesday said it found “significant deficiencies” in a Trump-era environmental analysis of a controversial mining road that would cut through wilderness and Indigenous territory in northwest Alaska.

US Supreme Court declines to hear Dakota Access appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by developers of the Dakota Access Pipeline seeking to overturn a mandated environmental review of their project, closing a years-long chapter in the legal fight over the pipeline.

Salish Sea providing a 'window' into the future of ocean acidification
WDFW is currently studying whether crabs could be impacted by ocean acidification, a process some scientists say Puget Sound is particularly susceptible to.

Tracking what we know — and don’t know — about the attack on a Coastal GasLink worksite
Following millions of dollars in estimated damages at a natural gas pipeline worksite in northwest B.C., no arrests have been made and many questions remain.

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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