8/14 Tick, extreme climate, Trump's clean power, RCMP spying, Skagit mining, ocean garbage, Kitsap plastic ban

Western black-legged tick [NW News Network]

Tick Ixodes pacificus
Ticks are small blood-feeding parasites that can transmit diseases to people. Some types of ticks perch on the edge of low-lying vegetation and grab onto animals, and people, as they brush past. Other ticks are associated with rodents and their nests and may only come out at night to feed. Once aboard, ticks crawl until they find a good spot to feed, then burrow their mouthparts into the skin for a blood meal. Their bodies slowly enlarge to accommodate the amount of blood ingested. Ticks feed anywhere from several minutes to several days depending on their species, life stage, and type of host. (WA Dept of Health)

2°C: Beyond the limit Extreme climate change has reached the United States: Here are America’s fastest-warming places
.... Over the past two decades, the 2 degrees Celsius number has emerged as a critical threshold for global warming. In the 2015 Paris accord, international leaders agreed that the world should act urgently to keep the Earth’s average temperature increases “well below” 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 to avoid a host of catastrophic changes. The potential consequences are daunting. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if Earth heats up by an average of 2 degrees Celsius, virtually all the world’s coral reefs will die; retreating ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could unleash massive sea level rise; and summertime Arctic sea ice, a shield against further warming, would begin to disappear. But global warming does not heat the world evenly.  Steven Mufson , Chris Mooney , Juliet Eilperin and John Muyskens report. (Washington Post)

States Sue Trump Administration Over Rollback of Obama-Era Climate Rule
A coalition of 29 states and cities on Tuesday sued to block the Trump administration from easing restrictions on coal-burning power plants. The lawsuit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, argued the Environmental Protection Agency had no basis for weakening an Obama-era regulation that set the first-ever national limits on carbon dioxide pollution from power plants. That rule, the Clean Power Plan, required states to implement plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2022, and encouraged that to happen by closing heavily-polluting plants and replacing those energy sources with natural gas or renewable energy. Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is a major contributor to global warming because it traps the sun’s heat. Lisa Friedman reports. (NY Times)

RCMP 'sitting on' watchdog report into alleged spying on anti-oil protesters: B.C. civil liberties group
The RCMP has been sitting for two years on a watchdog report into alleged Mountie surveillance of anti-oil protesters, a civil liberties group charges. In a letter this month to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, a lawyer for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association laments the "inordinate delay" that has effectively obstructed the report's release. The association lodged a complaint in February 2014 with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. It alleged the national police force improperly collected and shared information about people and groups who peacefully opposed the planned Northern Gateway pipeline project and attended National Energy Board meetings. Jim Bronskill reports. (Canadian Press)

Groups oppose proposed mining
Twenty-nine conservation, recreation, wildlife organizations and businesses voiced their opposition Tuesday to proposed exploratory mining for gold and copper in the headwaters of the Skagit River in British Columbia. Together, they signed a letter sent to the chief inspector of mines for British Columbia’s Ministry of Energy Mines & Petroleum Resources... The letter by the Canadian and Alaska groups comes several months after others expressed opposition. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Ocean-surface garbage bins come to B.C.'s West Coast
It's a whole new kind of garbage bin. One that Brook Castelsky, chief operating officer of the Greater Victoria's Oak Bay Marine Group, says will make a significant step toward cleaning the area's ocean marinas of surface pollution. Last week, the company installed British Columbia's first ocean-floating trash bin at the North Saanich Marina on Vancouver Island. Called a Seabin by its manufacturers, it floats on the water's surface and gently pumps water into a catchment bin, filtering out pollutants like petroleum-based oils, plastics, and Styrofoam before pumping the water back into the ocean. Adam van der Zwan reports. (CBC)

Kitsap County next to ban single-use plastic shopping bags
Kitsap County is joining in on a world-wide effort to curb the consumption of single-use plastics by cutting its ties with plastic shopping bags. Kitsap County commissioners on Monday unanimously passed an ordinance to limit the distribution of thin, film-like plastic bags. The county will join the city of Bremerton in outlawing plastic bags beginning Jan. 1, 2020. Plastic bags have been the target of an environmental movement to reduce the pollution that single-use plastics have caused around the globe. Bans on single-use plastic bags are already in place in several jurisdictions, from countries like Madagascar and France, to the states of Hawaii and California, to cities like Seattle and Bainbridge Island. Jessie Darland reports. (Kitsap Sun)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  247 AM PDT Wed Aug 14 2019   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt rising to 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 ft or less building to 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon.  SW swell 3 ft at 15 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell 3 ft at 16 seconds.




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