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Bicycles may be the most energy efficient, healthful, and affordable form of personal transportation. But they are only practical to the extent that our communities are bikable—that is, that they provide safe routes that connect the places we need to go. And the most important thing to remember about bike routes is that they are only as useful as their least-passable portion. A big hill can nullify an otherwise excellent...

Property rights activists are floating a new regulatory takings measure—this time in Alaska. A new ballot initiative is being proposed in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, an area north of Anchorage that is expected to experience rapid growth in the coming decades. Why a “property rights” bill in “Mat-Su”? Tough to say. Property is so lightly regulated there that the borough’s website prominently includes this explanation: Zoning, Land Use and Building Regulations DO...

(This is the first post in a new series.) In the fall of 2000, in broad daylight, I pedaled straight into the tail of a stationary Jeep Cherokee. The SUV, parked in a cycling lane, complained noisily: its alarm wailed. I dusted off my bike shorts (and ego) and checked the damage. The truck was unscathed, of course. My knee was lightly bruised where it had hit the ground. My...

Ooh, boy! It looks like Washington is one step closer to having a sane climate policy. The state House of Representatives just passed a climate policy that looks like it’s got some teeth: The measure, which passed 84-14 after a brief debate, commits Washington to shrink emissions to 1990’s levels by 2020. By 2035, the measure is supposed to lower emissions to 25 percent below 1990’s levels, and to 50...

In the aftermath of last year’s battle royale over property rights, some of Washington’s leaders in Olympia have come up with an interesting proposal: an attempt at compromise brokered by the nonpartisan William D. Ruckelshaus Center. My sense is that a sizeable chunk of those who voted for Initiative 933 might find their concerns addressed by compromise solutions. Many of the strongest objections to property regulations, at least in Washington,...

On the heels of the US Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant (some called it a strong rebuke of the Bush administration’s policies), George W. Bush saw fit to ramp up his language on the issue of global warming (hint: the new key word is “serious”): The decision (of) the Supreme Court we take very seriously. It’s the new law...

Good news on climate change has been creeping into the headlines lately: from carbon cap policies unveiled in BC and California to Al Gore’s stunning testimony before Congress two weeks ago. Still, many of the most sobering climate headlines—about future slumps in Northwest food supply, surges worldwide in mosquito-borne illnesses, or looming economic woes—might make a person wonder why she got out of bed in the morning. But solutions to...

Northwest endangered species have been generating a lot of ink lately. Rocky Mountain gray wolves are likely heading for de-listing. Meanwhile, Puget Sound’s orcas were recently added to the list. Even a recovery effort for a handful of rare rabbits made the news. There are plenty more examples, of course, but these species remind us that much of the region’s natural heritage relies on the protection afforded by federal laws. So it’s a...

Last week I reported on the wide and growing partisan divide in US public opinion over global warming: self-identified Democrats are 39 percentage points more likely than their Republican counterparts to rate climate change as a serious problem. But what puzzled me most was the 13-point drop in concern among Republicans since 1999. Call me naïve, but with all the scientific evidence that’s been piling up on the issue—accompanied by...

As part of our research on wildlife, Sightline monitors the population of the Selkirk caribou herd, the last population of caribou to venture south of the Canadian border. Last year, we even created a map showing the historical range of North America’s mountain caribou, and compared it to their much-diminished current range. (It’s on the left; a bigger version is here; animated version here.) Our map gives the continent-scale picture,...