Daily Digest: Happy Earth Day from Cascadia! 🌎
Happy Earth Day! Celebrate by not taking a cruise
Today is Earth Day, and if you're looking to celebrate, volunteer, or speak out against the Trump administration's evisceration of budgets for the EPA, climate science, and renewable energy here are some events in the Seattle area, in and around Portland, in Eugene, Spokane, and Vancouver, BC. Residents of Juneau are celebrating by gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would place limits on cruise ships entering Alaska's capital city, including a 5-ship daily limit and a cap of 1.5 million passengers. If you want to learn just how bad Alaska cruises are for the environment, read this multimedia feature I wrote for Hakai magazine in 2023.
WA bans National Guard from invading
In one surprising act of resistance, WA governor Bob Ferguson signed into law a bill that would require permission from the governor before National Guard troops from other regions of the US can enter the state. "We cannot allow as a state to have armed forces come into our home and enforce policies that are against our core values," Ferguson said in a statement. Meanwhile, Cascade PBS takes a deep dive into how Trump's tariff war will impact Washington's agricultural exports. The upshot: it's going to devastate farmers.
The damage caused by denying residential school harm
The Tyee has a great op-ed by Robert Hackett, vice-president of the qathet Climate Alliance on how the rise of residential school denialism – diminishing the extremely harmful program of putting Indigenous children in boarding schools in the 19th and 20th century – is benefiting those who want to expand fossil fuel use. And the Narwhal reports that BC Hydro is looking to build even more dams – even in the face of the massive $16 billion spent on the Site C dam, which faced intense opposition from impacted First Nations.
Poetry by Lillian Emerick Valentine
At Pacifica Review, you can read "Arrival Elegy," a lovely piece by Oregon-based poet and farmer Lillian Emerick Valentine:
"Nothing
is synonymous,
not even with itself.
An Apple is not
another Apple, no
matter
how shiny,
how red. "
Happy Earth Day! (If you appreciate this newsletter, please consider a small paid subscription of just $5 per month. – Andrew Engelson)