7/23 Plantain, TMX insurance, sewage suit, Outdoors Act, grizzlies, border wall, global warming, migration, oil and gas climate

Ribwort plantain

Ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata
The lance-shaped leaves of P. lanceolata have several prominent ribs, giving rise to the name 'ribwort.' It was a highly prized herb in olden times, and the Saxons reputedly bound it to their heads with red wool to cure headaches. Old names like 'kemps' and 'cocks' derive from the Anglo-Saxon cempa or Danish kaempe for 'warrior,' because children used the plants to mock fight with. (They twisted the flower stalks around itself and pushed it up tight against the inflorescence until the flowers shot off.) (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast)

Zurich Insurance drops cover for Trans Mountain oil pipeline
Insurer Zurich has decided not to renew cover for the Canadian government’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline, said a spokeswoman for the project, which is opposed by environmental campaigners and some indigenous groups...Trans Mountain said it has the insurance it needs for its existing operations and the “expansion project”. (Reuters)

Suquamish Tribe announces plan to sue King County over sewage spills into Puget Sound
The Suquamish Tribe announced Wednesday its plan to sue King County for releasing untreated sewage into the Puget Sound, according to allegations listed in a press release. The letter gives officials 60 days notice of the tribe’s intent to file the lawsuit, which alleges ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit...The release says that public records show that King County discharged hundreds of thousands of gallons of untreated sewage from the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2018 and 2019. (KIRO)

Washington state expected to get millions more for parks, forests as Congress approves conservation bill
Congress passed sweeping legislation Wednesday allocating $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and an additional $9.5 billion over five years to address an urgent backlog of maintenance projects at the nation’s parks and other public lands. The legislation, S.3422, is a once-in-a-generation gift to the future, expected to more than double the money available under the program every year for parks and outdoor recreation of all sorts in Washington state. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times) See also: The Great American Outdoors Act Passes, Could Mean Big Things For Oregon  Erin Ross reports. (OPB)

Environmental group sues feds over North Cascades grizzly bear decision
An environmental group filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday for failing to release public records on the termination of a program to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington. U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt earlier this month traveled to Omak, Okanogan County, to announce his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to reintroduce grizzlies into the North Cascades. That surprise decision prompted the Center for Biological Diversity to file its lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. Nicholas K. Geranios reports. (Associated Press) See also: B.C. group asks court to revoke government's wolf cull permits  (Vancouver Sun)

Environmentalists ask Supreme Court to stop funding of border wall construction
Environmentalists are making a last-ditch effort at the Supreme Court to stop the continued construction of parts of President Trump’s border wall. The Sierra Club asked the justices to undo their decision from a year ago that allowed construction now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the administration’s use of funds for the wall is unlawful. Without the Supreme Court’s action, say lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, the Trump administration could simply run out the clock. Robert Barnes reports. (Washington Post)

Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenarios
The current pace of human-caused carbon emissions is increasingly likely to trigger irreversible damage to the planet, according to a comprehensive international study released Wednesday. Researchers studying one of the most important and vexing topics in climate science — how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — found that warming is extremely unlikely to be on the low end of estimates. These scientists now say it is likely that if human activities — such as burning oil, gas and coal along with deforestation — push carbon dioxide to such levels, the Earth’s global average temperature will most likely increase between 4.1 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2.3 and 4.5 degrees Celsius). The previous and long-standing estimated range of climate sensitivity, as first laid out in a 1979 report, was 2.7 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 4.5 Celsius). Andrew Freedman and Chris Mooney report. (Washington Post)

The Great Climate Migration Has Begun
Today, 1% of the world is a barely livable hot zone. By 2070, that portion could go up to 19%. Billions of people call this land home. Where will they go? Abrahm Lustgarten reports. (NY Times)

Major oil and gas companies set carbon emissions goal to address climate change
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an international consortium of CEOs heading 12 energy companies including Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum, on Thursday announced a plan to reduce the carbon emissions rate of members’ combined upstream oil and gas operations, cutting the ouput by 36 million to 52 million tonnes per year by 2025. The reduction, the group said, is equivalent to the carbon emissions from the energy use of 4 million to 6 million U.S. homes. Paul Takahashi reports. (Houston Chronicle)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  244 AM PDT Thu Jul 23 2020   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell  4 ft at 11 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell  4 ft at 13 seconds. A slight chance of showers.




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