News items for August 16, 2024
![Chum salmon leaping by US Fish and Wildlife Service used under CC BY 2.0 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/6088542755) A fish leaps from the ocean water](https://www.sightline.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Chum-salmon-leaping-275x183.jpg)
Chum salmon leaping by US Fish and Wildlife Service used under CC BY 2.0
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1. 5 ways ranked choice voting could help climate action
A functioning democracy is essential to tackling any large-scale issue.
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2. Bringing salmon home to the Columbia River
An Indigenous-led, cross-border approach has seen great successes. But it needs BC and Canada’s ongoing financial support.
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3. A tale of two workers: What happened in OR and ID after heat deaths on the job
One state adopted worker protections and saw deaths drop, while the other took no action
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4. BC logging proposals threaten endangered caribou
The Columbia North caribou population has grown in recent years but logging plans in its core habitat could harm the endangered herd.
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5. 2 years after the Inflation Reduction Act became law, OR wins big
It’s been two years since “the biggest climate investment in the country’s history” was signed into law. For Oregon, those federal funds meant many of the state’s initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and programs aimed toward communities most impacted by climate change could get a significant boost. $285 million in funds are starting to arrive this year.
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6. How food banks prevented 1.8M metric tons of carbon emissions last year
Redistributing food before it’s tossed or wasted doesn’t just fight hunger. It also fights climate change.
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7. Portland doubles down, enters ‘new, permanent era of micromobility’
The City of Portland has doubled down on their shared electric scooter program. Portland Bureau of Transportation officials and their partners announced multiyear contracts with Lyft and Lime to expand the scooter fleet and upgrade the program to permanent status.
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8. A potential shake up in control over homelessness policy in King County
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and King County Executive Dow Constantine want to change who calls the shots for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
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9. Wildfires expose farmworkers to dangerous smoke
As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world, a new study shows that farmworkers are paying a heavy price by being exposed to high levels of air pollution.
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10. When is ‘recyclable’ not really recyclable?
When the plastics industry gets to define what the word means.