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Eric Sara Bernard points out that, whoops, the Gates Foundation would’ve made billions if it had divested from fossil fuels. David Sucher does the math for Seattle land use and demonstrates that just one triplex per single family city block would make a very significant contribution to meeting the city’s density goals. Rolling out a new blog platform, Communitywise Bellingham casts a gimlet eye on the job creation promises for...

Kristin So you want to become a rich, modern, productive country? Here’e the secret sauce: universal government programs for social support and financial security. To have any shot at a stable climate, we need to force fossil fuel companies to keep $10 trillion in the ground. Have we ever done something at that scale. Well, yes, but it required a long and bloody civil war. Keynesian liberals and Ayn Radian...

As election results continue to filter in, most eyes focus on the big-ticket races—city council members, state ballot measures, and levies. Yet way down near the bottom of the ballot is one of the most important votes that we cast in the Northwest: the races for port commissioner. Historically overlooked by voters and pundits alike, the Northwest’s recent controversies over coal and oil have begun to shift some attention to...

If you’re like me, you’re usually unable to come up for air during the whirlwind months leading up to the holiday season. A few days ago though, I ditched my desk for a hike up Bandera Mountain. As I made my way along the meandering trail, I was struck by the vibrant display of changing leaves and fading wildflowers. The wind picked up and a familiar fall chill set in,...

What a week! The bad financial news for coal export prospects in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia has come almost too quickly to track. So for those of you who don’t follow the coal press as religiously as I do, here’s a brief summary of all of the goings-on in Northwest coal export finance over the last week or so… Arch Coal’s debt restructuring failed; bankruptcy looms. Arch Coal, one of the...

After the stock markets closed yesterday, Cloud Peak Energy dropped a bombshell announcement: the company now expects to put all coal exports on hiatus from 2016 through 2018. It was shocking news, coming from a company that had long made Asian exports the centerpiece of its growth strategy. But what made the news all the more shocking was that Cloud Peak is actually paying BC’s Westshore terminal NOT to export its coal. From...

Anna I thoroughly appreciated Daniel Person’s examination in the Seattle Weekly of the role Cliff Mass has taken on in the region’s conversation about climate science. Mass has gained acclaim and stature as a public figure, a translator of science for the masses. He seems to very much enjoy that platform. His giddiness about high traffic to his site makes me wonder whether he has other motives outside for playing the...

In 2013, when then-state senator Ed Murray was running for mayor of Seattle, his campaign asked Microsoft for the maximum allowed political contribution, which was $700 that year, and the company obliged. Murray was not alone in benefiting from Microsoft’s largesse: the software maker distributed similar contributions to a bevy of candidates that year and in the years since: $4,600 in the 2013 and 2015 elections combined, making it one...

Curious about small and sustainable housing? The Build Small Live Large Summit in Portland next month will explore the leading edge of the space-efficient housing movement where design, cost, and care for the environment intersect with the needs of today’s communities. The goal of this one-day summit is to increase the demand for space-efficient housing in the region by informing, inspiring, and connecting those interested in building small. Leaders in this movement will...

Maybe you heard? Pope Francis was making the rounds last week in DC, New York, and Philly. The buzz has been hard to miss. It’s no wonder. The Pope is the “faith boss” of every practicing Catholic on earth: 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide and at least 70 million Catholics in the US—that’s the largest denomination by far, 22 percent of the American population. (Interestingly, the second-largest US “faith” group...