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A couple of years ago, I ran some numbers trying to figure out which was the better buy for the planet—a biodiesel Jetta or a hybrid Prius. And I came to the tentative, but perhaps counterintuitive conclusion that the best buy was…wait for it…a Toyota Corolla. The Corolla, you see, was thousands of dollars cheaper than the Prius (the runner-up), even after I accounted for all the savings on gas...

In 1998, shortly after Sightline (then, Northwest Environment Watch) published Tax Shift (pdf), Gordon Campbell, then BC’s opposition leader, invited me for a sit-down to discuss the book. He had read it and said he loved it. At the time, the New Democratic BC government was gearing up to do a pilot tax shift, inspired by the book. It was also about to be routed in provincial elections, to be...

I doubt that anyone who’s followed British Columbia’s real estate trends will find this news surprising: apparently, home ownership in the province isn’t as affordable as it used to be. Shocking, I know. But what does interest me about the article is this bit: The RBC affordability index measures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home…Across B.C., a standard two-storey home stood...

There’s something energizing about midsummer. If it’s not the camping trips, or the afternoon concerts in the park, then it must be the flurry of property rights campaigns gearing up for the fall election. Here’s the latest: In Oregon, the “Yes on 49” campaign kicked off yesterday. (Measure 49 is the state legislature’s referendum that will trim back some portions of Measure 37.) I can’t find a website for the “No on 49”...

Colleen McCrory died last weekend of a brain tumor. She was among Cascadia’s most fearless and successful campaigners for the conservation of our natural heritage—for the forests, rivers, and islands of British Columbia. If you weren’t blessed to know Colleen, you can read about her here in the Globe and Mail. Her astounding accomplishments as a campaign leader: “Valhalla Provincial Park, in the Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia; “Gwaii...

The Vancouver Sun has the scoop. First, the city of Vancouver just released a draft “eco-density” plan that sounds, at least to my ears, like exactly the right way deal with the city’s expected population increase: Vancouver should put high-density housing next to its major parks and along every one of its major streets, suggests the first draft of Vancouver’s ecodensity charter, released today. The city should also close down...

Despite record-setting gas prices, US drivers haven’t changed their gas-guzzling habits, says AP. Not only are we consuming as much as we always have, new vehicle sales seem to be tilting even more in favor of trucks than cars. But wait, USA Todaydisagrees. They say that drivers are, in fact, starting to cut back on how much they drive—a clear sign that higher gas prices are starting to bite. Who’s...

Every once in a while there’s a truth that everybody knows, but that no one will acknowledge. And when someone finally says it aloud, it sounds shocking. Like this: …what we’re doing now isn’t working. Not for drivers, taxpayers or the environment. We can’t tax and build our way out of this. That’s Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat in his column today, talking about what most people in Seattle already...

Here’s an interesting factoid from north of the 49th parallel: in British Columbia, birth rates for women over 30 recently overtook birth rates for women under 30. Behold, the pink line overtakes the blue! Historically speaking, this is beyond weird: women under 30 had always been the more fertile demographic group. Always. But no longer. In fact, if current trends continue, births to women over 40 may soon outnumber births...

Small brag moment: Findings from Sightline’s study of contaminants in the breastmilk of Pacific Northwest women were just published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere, and our esteemed research director (Clark) is one of the authors. We’ve already released the results, but they’re worth repeating to remind folks why this matters: We tested breastmilk donated by 40 Cascadian women for PCBs and PBDEs (toxic flame retardants widely used in products such...