I’ve spent all morning trying to track down trash—namely, the single use plastic bags that Portland is considering banning. The American Chemistry Council (which represents the plastics companies that make the likely-to-be-blacklisted bags) fights bag bans across the country by saying that cities should focus on recycling the bags instead of banning them outright. Okay. […]
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Portland: The City that Parks.
I posted a last month about the first downtown Portland building to be turned into a parking lot. Surface parking lots downtown are an historic 1960s and ’70s legacy that current city planners trying to erase. A whopping 29 percent of Old Town is surface parking lots, but turning lots back into buildings is much […]
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Provocative Poll Shows Large Support for Ban the Bag… But is it Accurate?
On the heels of a big Ban the Bag protest at city hall on Wednesday, Mayor Sam Adam’s office will release a draft ordinance “in the next few hours” proposing a single-use plastic bag ban and five cent fee on paper bags citywide. This morning, though, the mayor’s office released the results of a poll […]
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Werner Herzog on the Immortality of Plastic Bags
Yes, you can hear Sam Adams detail the woes of using plastic bags. But it’s no Werner Herzog post-apocalyptic plastic bag love story. Via the Futurestates project.
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This is How We Protest in Portland: Anti-Plastic Bag Drum Circle
I just saw a man in a salmon suit record the mayor with a Flip camera. Also, on the heels of testimony supporting the Ban the Bag campaign in city council this morning, people dressed head to toe in plastic bags danced to the wild beat of a drum circle on city hall’s steps. Ah, […]
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Mayor Promises to Act on Banning Plastic Bags
I make a motion to ban cosutmes from City Hall. There is nowhere to sit in city hall. Blame the environmentalists. Over 150 people wearing blue “Ban the Bag” shirts are packed into city council’s chambers, turned out by a coalition of green groups who are trying to get Portland, and then the state, to […]
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After 10 Year Decline, Oregon Using More Gas
Sigh. For the first time in 10 years, Oregonians are using more gas. A report out today from environmental research group Sightline shows that this past year we’ve reversed a decade-long trend in declining gas use. In 2009, the average person from Oregon, Washington and Idaho consumed 392 gallons of gas, versus 389 gallons in […]
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Here Are Those 25,000 Barrels of Oil You Ordered!
Having trouble visualizing the mind-boggling amount of oil that (still, for fuck’s sake) is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico every day? Maybe this’ll help: A visual representation of 25,000 barrels of oil, stacked 15,000 feet in the air, collapsing. It was created using the Unreal technology that powers a ton of popular videogames, and […]
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BP Oil Spill Protest in Portland Tomorrow!
Mad about this? Like to do this? via Join the worldwide day of protest against BP tomorrow, June 12. Portland’s protest is supposed to run from 10AM-noon at Holladay Park (next to the Lloyd Center MAX stop).
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Random Environmental News Update
The good news— For one day this summer, the Portland Bridge Festival “will transform the center lanes of the Hawthorne Bridge into a public green space fit for a picnic of thousands.” It looks awesome. The bad news— Thanks to BikePortland, I am now aware that this product actually exists: The worst news— This Upright […]
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Bishops Collects Human Hair to Help Oil Spill
Local Bishops hair salons are offering a bizarre deal right now: get a haircut, help with the Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup. A man and his hair. Courtesty Matter of Trust. Apparently human hair sops up oil pretty well. And apparently there is a nonprofit, Matter of Trust, dedicated to collecting thousands of pounds of […]
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Setting an Oil Spill on Fire is not a “Solution.”
As The Seattle Times said: Worst. Earth. Month. Ever. How did we celebrate Mother Earth during April? We debated setting her on fire. That’s one of the options officials are weighing for the Louisiana oil spill, which each day is looking more and more like Exxon Valdez Numero Dos. I’m sorry. I thought we had […]