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In March 2006, Northwest Environment Watch (NEW) changed its name to Sightline Institute. Why? We believe that the name Sightline better reflects what we do: help you see a clear way to the future we all want. We also believe the name has the qualities you’ve come to expect from us—credibility, pragmatism, accessibility, and optimism. And we know it will enable us to reach more Cascadian citizens than ever before....

Kristin Why does the media care so much about Hillary’s emails, but not at all about the fact that Bush’s tax proposals are a pack of lies? The path to plutocracy is paved with media stories about emails and outfits, instead of coverage of actual policy proposals and what they mean for the middle class (Jeb’s tax plan = really bad for middle class) and for the 0.1% (Jeb’s tax...

Bill Gates told Rolling Stone  that “climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.” Yet the foundation that bears his name—the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—has invested $1.4 billion of its endowment in fossil fuels. A Seattle campaign has just launched to change that. The Gates Divest campaign is asking the world’s largest charitable foundation to make another...

The oil industry’s plans to build new shipping terminals on the Washington coast could jeopardize a crown jewel of the Northwest’s natural heritage. The ecologically rich estuary of Grays Harbor fuels one of the western hemisphere’s most prolific feeding grounds for migrating birds even as it supports a major crab fishery and vital resources for the indigenous Quinault who have inhabited the area for thousands of years. The region’s welcoming...

Editor’s Note September 2016: Washington state’s democracy reform initiative, which aims to put everyday people back in control of government, is swinging into high gear as the November elections inch closer. But how does big money get into politicians’ pockets in the first place? Here’s our quick and easy primer. Political donations are a tangled web. Convoluted with layers of cryptic reporting categories and disclosure requirements, the public’s understanding of money in politics is...

Alan Durning: Biography Alan Durning founded Sightline Institute in 1993. He contributed significantly to Sightline’s effort to create a new regional index of progress, the Cascadia Scorecard, and has led many of the organization’s other successes. Alan has authored or coauthored more than ten Sightline books, including This Place on Earth 2002: Measuring What Matters; This Place on Earth 2001: Guide to a Sustainable Northwest; This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence (winner...

Serena Well, this is rad: startups to reduce food waste, largely founded by Millennials. My favorite one profiled here is Baltimore’s Hungry Harvest, which “recovers surplus produce from farms and wholesalers, and sells it in CSA-style boxes at a steep discount to what non-cosmetically-challenged produce would cost. For each box sold, a healthy meal is donated to someone in need.” A more sustainable way to die? Yes! Magazine explains. (And...

“Everybody outside the Northwest thinks that’s where energy projects go to die.” That’s the reputation our region has earned as an increasing number of proposed coal and oil export projects have encountered ferocious opposition. It’s what the backer of a proposed oil refinery in Longview, Washington, told reporters earlier this year after his company’s stealth proposal was outed by environmental groups. The Cascadia region has proven to be extraordinarily challenging...

Alan Rent control, like parking quotas, is as politically enticing as it is economically unattractive. Anna You hear a lot of talk about how to fix our education system, in particular, how to provide the same basic standards of quality and learning opportunities to African American kids that most white kids get in today’s public schools. And you mostly hear about failed attempts. But as Nikole Hannah-Jones explains in the...

Alan If you want to understand what is happening right now in Seattle’s housing controversy—the HALA-baloo—read this article carefully. What the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda committee has done is to offer a plan that would lead the city out of the trap it is falling into and which San Francisco is already deeply ensnared in. (Vancouver, BC, too is ensnared, though the trap is not identical.) HALA sketched a...