Battered by super-wet “atmospheric rivers” coming in from the Pacific Ocean, western Washington is once again dealing with overflowing rivers, flooded streets and homes, and people needing rescue. More or less happens every winter, although it’s unusually severe this time, because [...]
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
November 17th, 2021 - 2:30 pm § in Environment
Western Washington floods: Bad for people, good for fish
November 10th, 2021 - 9:41 pm § in Environment, Science
The oceans need a rest
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle (bio here), 86, told the U.N. climate change conference (aka “COP26”, details here) the oceans so badly need a rest that the world’s nations should immediately ban industrial fishing. This is necessary, she said, not just to prevent the collapse of fisher[...]
Beef prices are soaring. Is that bad?
“Meatflation” is here. “Startlingly high” beef prices “are appearing in meat aisles across the country,” the tabloid Daily Mail reported on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, which is blaming supply chain backlogs, staffing shortages in processing plants, and social dista[...]
October 23rd, 2021 - 5:55 pm § in Environment, Misc.
Goodbye to Florida’s palm trees?
There’s a quiet movement afoot to replace Florida’s palms with native flora that suck carbon out of the air (story here). Scientists say it’s hard to find a tree that’s less effective at carbon capture than palm trees. The average Florida palm tree consumes only 5 lbs. of CO2[...]
Weather: What to expect this winter
Read story here. Also expect high heating bills due to soaring natural gas prices (story here). Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
October 13th, 2021 - 7:03 pm § in Biden, Environment
Biden bets on wind farms
“Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration,” the Guardian reported on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, adding, “The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to dep[...]
October 13th, 2021 - 1:06 am § in Economics, Environment
Can sucking CO2 out of the air save the planet?
Scientists, engineers, and businessmen are working on it. But it looks better on paper than it probably would work in real life. For one thing, it’s hugely expensive. And, most likely, it’s a desperate last-resort remedy for keeping the earth habitable. But it might be all we have left, [...]
September 30th, 2021 - 8:02 pm § in Environment, Politics
GOPers tried to block BLM nominee for tree spiking she didn’t commit
“The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Tracy Stone-Manning to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) despite a decades-old tree-spiking incident that led to GOP opposition to her nomination,” The Hill reported on Thursday, September 30, 2021 (read story here). The vote was 50-45. The[...]
September 28th, 2021 - 12:44 pm § in Environment, Science
Don’t be born after 1980
“A child born in 2021 will live on average through seven times as many heat waves, twice as many wildfires and nearly three times as many droughts, crop failures and river floods as their grandparents,” NBC News reported on Tuesday, September 28, 2021, based on a study “released Su[...]
September 16th, 2021 - 1:40 am § in Environment, Misc.
Don’t pet the cows
Northumberland, just below the Scottish border, is largely undeveloped moorland; and in an enclosed park at a historic castle famous for its alleged ghosts (read about it here), there lives a herd of wild cattle. Numbering about 90, the Chillingham cattle are born free, and live free. They’re [...]