Spark Notes

Seattle's Move to Electric Heat Won't Kill the Gas Stove (Yet)

The city's poised to join a climate-conscious club.

12/14/2020 By Christy Carley

Feature

Will Northwest Seaweed Farming Finally Take Off?

The potential is vast—for the environment, for nutrition, for Indigenous food sovereignty.

11/16/2020 By Stefan Milne

Mindful Breathing

How Has the Coronavirus Shutdown Affected Air Quality?

A couple new studies show that, well, it’s complicated.

06/29/2020 By Stefan Milne

Earth-Approved

Seattle's Eco-Friendly Stores We Can't Get Enough of

Fast fashion is falling out of favor as conscious shopping gains momentum in the Emerald City.

11/13/2019 By Courtney Cummings

Pizza Piety

World Pizza Introduces a Reusable Pizza Box

Cardboard boxes are a staple in the pizza tradition but they usually end up in the trash. The International District's World Pizza is hoping to change that.

08/13/2018 By Grace Madigan

Light a Fire 2018: Promoting Health and Human Happiness

How Puget Soundkeeper Is Keeping Our Water Safe

Armed with hand nets and bags, 2,300 volunteers take to the water each year.

05/22/2018 By Rosin Saez

Explainer

How to Save an Orca Whale

The governor has assembled a task force to address Washington’s killer whale crisis. But saving our shrinking orca population is no small task.

04/20/2018 By Allison Williams

Explainer

Why the Hanford Nuclear Cleanup Is Still Happening 73 Years Later

And what the project stands to lose thanks to budget cuts.

03/27/2018 By Hayat Norimine

Snap Judgment

How Should Washington Spend Its Volkswagen Settlement Money?

The automaker owes the state $112.7 million for violating the Clean Air Act with cars that cheated emissions tests. While the Department of Ecology sketches a spending plan, locals weigh in on what we should buy.

02/27/2018 Photography by Trevor Keaton Pogue

Environment

Come July 2018, Seattle Says Goodbye to Plastic Straws

This new legislation could cement Seattle's role as a national leader in green policy.

10/18/2017 By Hayat Norimine

A Greener Footprint

How Tesla STEM High School Defied Trump’s Paris Climate Accord Decision

If he wouldn’t reduce carbon emissions, they would.

09/20/2017 By Ciara O'Rourke

Fecal Matters

Meet Tucker, the Ultimate Orca Poop–Detection Dog

In a new study, orca pregnancy failures are up, salmon stocks are down, and fecal samples are in—thanks in part to a black Lab on dung duty.

08/22/2017 By Rosin Saez

Swimming Against the Current

Seattle's New Seawall Uses Technology That Could Rescue Salmon

In a time of broken international emission agreements and losing climate change battles, Seattle sets out to be the model for cities living on shorelines—one struggling salmon at a time.

07/12/2017 By Hayat Norimine

Profile

Michael Foster Is Defiant

The Seattle climate activist who turned off the North Dakota Keystone Pipeline gave up his livelihood, his family, and quite possibly—after the upcoming trial—his next two decades of freedom. What drives someone to risk it all?

06/05/2017 By Kathryn Robinson Photography by Mike Kane

New Nations

Could a Cascadian Secession Actually Happen?

Postelection, the meaning of the region’s so-called secessionist movement depends on whom you ask.

05/15/2017 By Jake Bullinger

Snap Judgment

Would Breaching Dams on the Snake River Save Local Orcas?

Scientists at Friday Harbor’s Center for Whale Research say local orcas are starving and that the solution is to boost salmon runs by breaching four dams along the Lower Snake River. Junk science or a damn fine idea?

01/27/2017 By Matthew Halverson

Inauguration 2017

Sally Jewell Has Left the Building

Obama’s Secretary of the Interior is returning to Seattle. We asked her where that leaves America’s public lands.

01/20/2017 By Allison Williams

Environment

The Northwest Is Now "The Thin Green Line" of Blocking Coal Exports

Our local policies in Washington have global environmental impact.

01/19/2017 By Allison Williams

Explainer

What Is White Nose Syndrome and What's Being Done About It?

When hikers in North Bend found a sick bat in March, they made what to wildlife experts was a shocking discovery: White nose syndrome, which has ravaged bat populations in the eastern U.S. for a decade, had jumped to this coast. Here’s why it's so scary.

05/30/2016 By Matthew Halverson

Real Talk

Landfills and Laundry at Alki Beach

Earth Day art installation represents clothing’s impact on the environment.

04/21/2016 By Colleen Williams