3/28 Earth Hour, spill drift study, golden frogs, laser maps, polluting fireplaces, PDN paywall

Watch this and engage: Earth Hour 2014
Earth Hour is this Saturday. Chris Dunagan explains: "I admit it seems kind of quaint, but I look forward to turning out all the lights in my house once a year and sitting in the dark. It’s a time to contemplate all our marvels of technology while considering the needs of many people around the world." Earth Hour arrives this Saturday night  (Kitsap Sun)

If you like to listen: Salish Sea Spill Map Launched Ahead of Anticipated Jump in Tanker Traffic
.... In the Salish Sea, at the northwestern tip of Washington state, a proposed pipeline is expected to increase by 600 percent the number of tankers carrying tar sands oil. Concerned residents of the San Juan Islands have launched a drift card study to simulate the route of a potential oil spill in the Salish Sea... Captain James Slocomb navigates his boat, the Sea Otter, through near shore waters of the San Juan Islands, northwest of Seattle and south of Vancouver, Canada. The Captain and crew are on a unique mission, dropping drift cards into the water to simulate what would happen in the event of an oil spill. Tar sands oil from Canada is on the rise at refineries on the coast, adding to already heavy tanker traffic. If Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline is approved, the company estimates its tanker traffic would increase from 60 tankers a year to over 400. Martha Baskin reports from the San Juans. (Free Speech Radio News)

Vancouver Aquarium golden frogs get busy in race against extinction
A species of poisonous frog thought to be extinct in the wild is getting a leg up in Vancouver. Scientists at the Vancouver Aquarium say critically endangered Panamanian golden frogs have been bred at the facility for the first time in its history. The brightly-coloured golden toad native to the mountainous, higher-altitude regions of western-central Panama and have a distinct "wave" used in mating, the Aquarium said. (CBC)

Laser maps reveal slide risk with startling clarity, but few citizens know they exist
...Maps created by an aerial scanning technique called lidar (lie-dar) reveal with stunning clarity a series of giant scars and piles of debris left by past landslides up and down the valley, including one more than twice as big as the monster that ripped loose Saturday. Lidar’s ability to peer beneath the region’s thick vegetation and lay bare the landscape has made it the go-to source on a wide range of geologic perils, from earthquake faults to flood zones. But outside the circle of geologists, engineers and land-use experts, few people know the maps exist or how to access them. And though lidar can spot landslides that other surveys miss, counties are inconsistent in the way they incorporate the new information into their hazard planning. Sandi Doughton reports. (Seattle Times)

Beginning Monday, Peninsula Daily News will charge frequent users of its website
The PDN is the last of the daily Puget Sound papers to go behind the paywall. “Beginning Monday, we're joining more than 500 newspapers nationwide — including The Seattle Times and the weekly Port Townsend Leader — that charge for their digital content,” said John Brewer, PDN publisher and editor.

The Puget Sound's most dangerous polluter? Your old fireplace
It's hard to believe a crackling fire and romantic hearth are a major source of carbon pollution in the Puget Sound, but fine particulates released by old non-certified wood burning stoves and fireplaces are the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's biggest worry. “It's about one-thirtieth the size of a human hair and those particles can travel deeply into your lungs and even into your bloodstream," says the agency's Craig Kenworthy. The EPA has found that these particles are likely to cause breathing and respiratory problems, and do cause heart attacks, strokes and early death. The chemical cousins they're bound to, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), have been linked to cancer, weakened immune systems and reproductive problems. Martha Baskin reports. (Crosscut)

Now, your weekend tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT FRI MAR 28 2014
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. SW SWELL 4 FT AT 10 SECONDS. RAIN
 THIS MORNING...THEN SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF TSTMS IN THE AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT
S WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. SW SWELL 5 FT AT 8 SECONDS. SLIGHT
 CHANCE OF TSTMS. SHOWERS.
SAT
S WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 11 SECONDS. SHOWERS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF TSTMS IN THE AFTERNOON.
SAT NIGHT
S WIND 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING SW 10 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 9 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
SUN
SW WIND 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING 10 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 8 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato@salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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