9/23 Climate strike, UN climate summit, Puyallup River pollution, oysters, Sierra Club BC, old-growth forests

Climate strike, 9/20/19, Bellingham [Amy Nelson]

Climate protests: Marches worldwide against global warming
Millions of people around the world held a global climate strike on Friday, inspired by activist Greta Thunberg. Protesters across continents waved placards and chanted slogans in what could be the biggest ever demonstration over global warming caused by humans. "Our house is on fire", Ms Thunberg said at a rally. "We will not just stand aside and watch." (BBC) See: Climate change: Impacts 'accelerating' as leaders gather for UN talks  The signs and impacts of global heating are speeding up, the latest science on climate change, published ahead of key UN talks in New York, says. The data, compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), says the five-year period from 2014 to 2019 is the warmest on record. Sea-level rise has accelerated significantly over the same period, as CO2 emissions have hit new highs. Matt McGrath reports. (BBC)

Climate change: UN summit opens without key leaders
Several key world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, will not take part in a special UN climate summit opening in New York. UN Secretary General António Guterres said countries can only speak at the summit if they come with action plans to reduce carbon emissions. Brazil and Saudi Arabia are also among the countries staying away. (BBC) See also: Who’s Speaking at the U.N. Climate Summit? Several Champions of Coal  Among the first countries to appear at the summit meeting on Monday will be India. The vast majority of its electricity comes from burning coal, and it continues to develop new coal mines and new coal-fired power plants, often with state subsidies, even as it ramps up renewable energy. Later in the morning comes Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal. China, the world’s coal juggernaut, will follow later in the day. So, too, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya — three countries where Chinese state-owned companies are building, or want to build, coal-fired power plants. Somini Sengupta reports. (NY Times)

The Puyallup is the 2nd most polluted river in the Puget Sound area. Salmon runs at stake
The Puyallup is one of the most polluted rivers in the Puget Sound area, and the contaminants are hurting the river’s salmon. Scientists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released their Vital Signs report, which details the health of different aspects of the Puget Sound area. In 2016 they measured a host of different indicators, including toxins in different fish populations. Juvenile chinook in the Duwamish River had the highest levels of PCBs, toxic chemicals which can impact the fish’s ability to grow and fight off diseases. Juvenile chinook in the Puyallup River had the second highest levels of PCBs. “The second most contaminated river in the whole Puget Sound area is the Puyallup,” said Sandra O’Neill, lead biologist at the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The researchers are planning a followup study focusing specifically on the Puyallup. They hope to determine the source of the river’s contamination. Kate Iida reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Baby oysters can't build healthy shells in Washington's acidified waters
Oysters are one of the iconic foods of the Pacific Northwest. But their survival is under serious threat thanks to ocean acidification, sometimes called the “evil twin” of climate change. Local shellfish growers are seeing the devastating impacts on oysters and other shellfish. Ruby de Luna reports. (KUOW) See: The tiny but mighty Olympia oyster regains a foothold in Washington waters  Five years ago, Chris Burns wandered the tidelands of Sequim Bay, searching for remnants of the native Olympia oysters that once carpeted shorelines throughout the Pacific Northwest. He found a few dozen individuals, scattered survivors hanging on against the odds. Today, tens of thousands of their descendants dot the bay bottom like small, brown nuggets — hard to spot at first, then impossible to miss. Sandi Doughton reports. (Seattle Times)

New book details 50 years of the Sierra Club in B.C.
In some ways, the British Columbia of 1969 had some striking similarities with the British Columbia of 2019: it was a time when many people in the province were concerned about the environment and had a desire to make real social change. It was against this background — fighting for the protection of wild spaces like the Nitinat Triangle and the West Coast Trail in the early 70s to the great logging battles on Vancouver Island culminating in the War of the Woods in 1993 — that the Sierra Club of B.C. developed as an influential force for environmental change in Western Canada. Diane Pinch, a Victoria, B.C.-based writer and long-time volunteer with the environmental club, has documented the club's history from its beginnings in the province in 1969 to present day in a new book called Passion and Persistence: Fifty Years of the Sierra Club in British Columbia. (CBC)

How restoring old-growth forest in Washington state could help fight climate change
Standing between nearly uniform rows of hemlock trees, scientist Tiara Moore clutched a tiny vial of evidence. Filled with dirt and no bigger than her pinkie finger, the vial contained traces of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of creatures that had oozed by, crawled past or fluttered into this tiny corner of the Ellsworth Creek Preserve. The microscopic flecks of DNA — from insects, amoebas and mushrooms — could help tell the story of a forest trying to regrow to its former might. These forest forensics, part of a fast-growing field called environmental DNA, will tell researchers what’s living here, which, in turn, tells forest managers if what they’re doing is working here. The soil where Moore dug for DNA was once rooted with old-growth trees common across the coastal Northwest, before decades of clear-cutting stripped them from the land. Restoring landscapes like these helps take up and store more carbon, part of the solution to reduce the impacts of climate change. Evan Bush reports. (Seattle Times)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  315 AM PDT Mon Sep 23 2019   
TODAY  SW wind to 10 kt becoming SE in the afternoon. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 11 seconds. A chance of  showers in the morning then showers in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt becoming SW to 10 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 13 seconds  building to 7 ft at 10 seconds after midnight. Rain in the  evening then rain likely after midnight.



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