HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

Sunshine is Quite Nice

OK, I'm kidding; it's awesome! Yes, the sun was resplendent today. I broke out the shorts, causing neighbors to suffer snowblindness. They better get used to it, because it's supposed to be sunny for several days.

Walking my dogs near Poverty Bay Park I could hear the Bald Eagles calling to each other. Wednesday, one flew past my window!

The sun and warmth has its drawbacks, though: possibly (and come on, is there any real doubt) earlier and earlier occasions of spring, as the world warms. And warmest January on record here, and a whole mess of plant and animla activities are happening way earlier than norm.

The Washington Foundation for the Environment presents a roundtable discussion Effects Of Climate Change On Puget Sound

I can't make this one, but maybe you can....

The Washington Foundation for the Environment presents a roundtable discussion

Effects Of Climate Change On Puget Sound

With guest speakers Mary Ruckelshaus, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and Doug Myers, People For Puget Sound

Thursday, October 2, 2008 at REI – Seattle, 222 Yale Avenue N.
6:00 – 6:30 p.m.      Appetizers and socializing
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.       Presentation and discussion

By 2050, average annual temperatures for the Pacific Northwest could be up to 5 degrees higher than they were during the last 30 years of the 20th century. What will this mean for Puget Sound’s ecosystem and its human population? Hear from the experts. Dr. Mary Ruckelshaus, a research biologist with NOAA Fisheries in Seattle and chief scientist for the Puget Sound Partnership, and Doug Myers, science director of People For Puget Sound and former habitat specialist for the Puget Sound Action Team, will discuss this question central to the future of Puget Sound.

This is a free event.  For questions or to RSVP, please email [email protected].

Co-Sponsors:  People For Puget Sound and K&L Gates

Gas and More Hot Air

In global warming news, the Group of 8 Nations pledged to reduce greenhouse gases, but in the fine print, they actually committed to very little of substance.

It seems that George Bush made a rather unfortunate joke about global pollution. Some pointed out that the US is no longer the "world's worst polluter" (really, kind of a moot point, if you think about it.) as China has taken over the top (bottom?) spot. Take a look at the BBC video on that last post. Horrifying.

Meanwhile, if you've been feeling depressed and perhaps, like your life means less than it used to, cheer up! You're not sick. You've just been EPA'ed.

And, in the dorkiest mano a mano contest ever, Bill Nye takes on Ed Begley, Jr.

Good News (and Bad) For Salmon

I'm really getting the hang of spring now. You get one nice, sunny Saturday, then 3 weeks of rain. Sweet. I just don't understand why people move to Arizona. Here are some of the things I read about this weekend...

Good News For Salmon? Could global warming have a silver lining for our finned friends? But, just as I read that article this weekend, The News Tribune reported on killer squid, driven mad by global warming, invading waters off our coast and maybe, just maybe, feasting on Pacific salmon...or people!

Your Cheap Polluting Food
Cheap, imported food all the time. we've come to expect it as our right to have grapes, tomatoes, oranges in our produce bin year-round. Countries that are taking leadership on global warming are beginning to take aim at the transport and pollution impacts of the food that's zipping around the world. The results could be more local, or at least less international foods and, if my memories of my Intro to Econ class still serves me well, higher prices, at least for those grapes, tomatoes and oranges.

Retailers in the European Union have got their knickers in a twist over the issue:

Today’s retailers could not survive if they failed to offer such variety, Mr. Moorehouse, the British food consultant, said.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “we’ve educated our customers to expect cheap food, that they can go to the market to get whatever they want, whenever they want it. All year. 24/7.”

Global Warming (and other) Solutions

The first of its kind bicycle sharing program is starting in Washington, DC. With a $40 membership and a swipe card, members will be able to check in and return bikes throughout the city. (earlier free versions in Europe met with predictable problems). The new program is expected to spread to other cities, including Portland, Oregon. Said one DC'er:

“I’d probably use it more in the summer than winter,” said Dewey Archer, a senior. “But for $40? That’s cheaper than gas.”

Right on, brother! Pedal your way to oil independence.

Lets All Save Puget Sound (Part Trois)

I started out as a Puget Sound Partnership skeptic (It's got more sequels than the Police Academy series) and the latest grumbling and hair-grabbing from scientists hasn't convinced me otherwise. Let's rearrange those deck chairs one more time!

State Department of Ecology regulator Bill Moore stunned some participants with his straight-ahead admission that his agency has failed to fix the problem, calling the regulatory system for stormwater "fractured and incomplete and frankly not very effective as a consequence."

Moore, head of Ecology's stormwater unit, said solving the problem "probably means behavioral changes" by citizens, "which the regulatory system is not very well suited to."

Is this Save The Sound effort over before it started?

Buzzing About Bees

I've blogged previously about the threats facing honeybees, European immigrants working to pollinate commercial crops. A fantastic article in the NYT reminds us not to forget the plight and the majest of our native wild bees.

News about heading in the wrong direction in the atmosphere. Where's the blame? Well, we're certainly wearing our share of the carbon hairshirt, but look over Europe, where there's a new coal revival.
But it's not all carbon this and carbon that. Those pesky aerosols that we produce while going about life, are gathering at the world's poles, like Iron Man fans at the annual ComCon

Golly, let's file this one under "It's Just A Movie, Folks!" Somehow I think kids would get more lasting and profound environmental messages from having their parents take them camping for a weekend than they would get from watching the entire Disney collection on I-Max.

And finally, a tip of the Hyle-Cap to the folks at the city of Federal Way Parks Department and Surface Water Management Department for some award-winning parking lot making. Writes Parks Planner B Sanders:

We have been notified that our pervious concrete parking lot at the West Hylebos is a finalist in the Washington Aggregates and Concrete Association awards program, in the Sustainable category. 

Before anyone begins yawning, "sustainable concrete?!" let me say that 1) the idea of using pervious concrete at the park initiated with the Friends of the Hylebos, so pay attention, Chester, and 2) this is a model eco-safe parking lot. We need more of these around the city and throughout Puget Sound. So, well done city staffers. Good luck in the...well, finals. It's nice to see the Hylebos setting the standard yet again!

It's Friday, so get out and enjoy the weekend!

New Killer Fault

Local web-footers celebrated Wednesday with the discovery of a new killer seismic fault running right through the middle of Pugetopolis. On the list of Most Stupid Places To Live If You Don't Want To Die in A Horrific Natural Hazard from #1 to, well, #1! Congrats, Puget Sounders. Now find a doorway or heavy desk to hide under, while you adjust that party hat.

Scientists wanting to practice SCIENCE (!) finding interference from politics.

The brand spankin' new Seward Park Environmental and Audubon Center will provide kids a chance to mingle with the environment, rub elbows with the local critters AND learn about SCIENCE (!) without interference from political hacks. Bravo!

Nine days to Hylebos Day, folks! Mark your calendars!

SCIENCE!

Good morning, Hylebos! It's been a busy week, with preparations being made for a day that shall be known as Hylebos Day. More on that later. We've been working with the city of Federal Way's fine Parks Dept. on ways to improve management of the park known as the West Hylebos Wetlands (Why am I writing like that? Not enough caffeinne.)

Today's news sift starts with truly disturbing news. Long-beaked syndrome, a deformity of birds is being found concentrated in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Take down the we address. If you spot birds with this tragic deformity, contact the group.

Hey, we've had snow and strange hale showers in the past week. When is that global warming going to start? Guess what? A new study, featuring the newfangled discipline known as SCIENCE, shows that the American West is getting hotter, faster than the rest of the country. (by the way, the ALL CAPS, was supposed to simulate the sound of my voice shouting like Thomas Dolby in his famous song, "She Blinded Me With Science." Go listen to the song and then re-read if you have to.)

So, those of you who keep calling me when it snows and saying, "It's snowing in March, Chris. Whatever happened to that global warming you talk about." Just stop.

Oh, and speaking of helpful contributions to solving global warming, one of our own Washington dams is part of new climate exchange, selling investments in carbon offsets. I'm actually rather skeptical about this one. Even more studies, featuring SCIENCE (I'll bet you got it on that one) have shown that dams can produce more greenhouse gas than they offset in energy production. Dams produce greenhouse gases in two way. When they're first built, in the destruction of trees and vegetation more on this.

Finally, in the CITY THAT RECYCLES, the mayor has declared that consumers shall pay a 20 cent fee on all plastic grocery bags used at grocery and drug stores. I'm definitely in favor of action of plastic bags, but feel ambivalent about that taxation approach, particularly when its pointed at the consumer.

First, making environmental protection painful should be a last, last strategy. Yes, there are times when taxes and regulations are needed. I'm just not sure the benefits of sticking a finger in every consumer's eye every time they buy food fro their family is a great marketing strategy. It may work in Seattle, though, granted.

Second, it's a tax. And it's a regressive tax. And it's a regressive tax that hits families at a place they can't avoid - that is, if they want to feed their families.

The fee could prove a struggle for low-income consumers, advocates say.

"It is an undue burden," said Mike Buchman, a spokesman for Solid Ground, a nonprofit that serves families dealing with hunger and homelessness. While he applauds the mayor's environmental policy, "there are a lot of hungry people in our community, and every dime that can go to nutritional food is important," he said.

Buchman said more than half of seniors and residents in Seattle public housing have been unable to buy food at some point because of insufficient resources. The one bag the city intends to provide is not enough to hold groceries for a household, he said.

Perhaps there are some different strategies, short of a tax and short of trying to ban the bag. Hmm. Maybe someone will write about this...

Tough Ocean Conditions

New word on the collapse of some salmon runs in 2007. West Coast ocean conditions greeting Pacific Coast juvenile salmon entering the ocean that year, were grim due to  a disruption in the natural upwelling cycle that brings food to upper layers of the ocean.

Ocean conditions have improved somewhat since then, but it's early yet to say whether there'll be more downswings in the future.

Rumours, Grades, Plastic Bags and Political Animals

Rumour has it that a certain boggy nature preserve will be re-opened today. Stay tuned...

The US brought an environmental report card home and the news is not good. We ranked 39th of 149 countries. That's like a C. A solid C, not a C minus, but still, a C. While we're bright and have lots of potential, it turns out we haven't focused very hard in the areas of smog and global warming. Our greenhouse gas scores were in the bottom tier of all countries. Well, it looks like the US of A is going to get grounded for a month. No X-box or I-pod, and hand over that cell phone, young nation. Get to your room.

Plastic bags are in the news. Not only is the Washington Legislature considering a bill to ban plastic bags in grocery stores (previously reported here and a newer article in the FW Mirror here) but Whole Foods, the giant, well, whole foods store (isn't that the marketing equivalent of a shoe store calling itself Shoe Store?) will stop offering plastic bags.

As Natalie Angier reports in the NYT, scientists are beginning to understand that many animals - not just man - engage in politics. Interesting stuff. Follow-up research is attempting to understand whether other species also hire media consultants and do photo-ops.

And it's been awhile since I've written about bird flu, but it's still out there, lurking, as the NYT reports.

Widely Rambling Tuesday Thoughts

Water Shortage...Everywhere?
Last week I mentioned the droughts in the Southeast and Southwest. The NYT says, hey, don't forget about the Northwest and Northeast...and the world. Global water crisis.

But, What's the Upside?
Everybody always talks about global climate change like it's bad. Come on, Sunshine. Turn that frown upside down. Forget about the seismic shifts in regional weather, droughts, mega-fires, Hurricane Katrina-like storms, and spreading diseases, there's got to be an upside!
In Greenland there is. There, farmers have just been waiting...for well, the ice to go away.

When using the words “growing” in connection with Greenland in the same sentence, it is important to remember that although Greenland is the size of Europe, it has only nine conifer forests like Mr. Bjerge’s, all of them cultivated. It has only 51 farms. (They are all sheep farms, although one man is trying to raise cattle. He has 22 cows.) Except for potatoes, the only vegetables most Greenlanders ever eat — to the extent that they eat vegetables at all — are imported, mostly from Denmark.

But now that the climate is warming, it is not just old trees that are growing. A Greenlandic supermarket is stocking locally grown cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage this year for the first time. Eight sheep farmers are growing potatoes commercially. Five more are experimenting with vegetables. And Kenneth Hoeg, the region’s chief agriculture adviser, says he does not see why southern Greenland cannot eventually be full of vegetable farms and viable forests.

In the Things I'm Thankful For Department, Hannah Montana "rocked" Seattle last night and none of my daughters asked me to take them. They watch her TV show, so this one could've gone either way...

And speaking of dangerous activities, this video is just too good to pass up. Thank goodness, she's ok, but wow, is that funny.

And, finally, a Hylebos salute to The Puget Sound Clown, J.P. Patches, who is battling cancer but remains...still J.P. Sir, you are the finest clown of your generation. I and my fellow Patches Pals devoted hundreds of hours to watching you Boris, Gertrude and the others at the Seattle City Dump (I actually thought you lived there). May you live forever.