2009 really couldn't come soon enough. If 2008 wasn't an already challenging year, the end (at least here in the Inland Northwest) is making us all look back to fonder times of campaign fighting, financial woes, and political scandals. So while you've been digging yourself…
There’s an interesting article in the Columbian about what builders are doing to make green homes affordable. “We’re not just throwing economics out of the equation and going full-tilt green,” said Vancouver City Council member and civil engineer Tim Leavitt. On his own home construction,…
Of all the Daily Tips we’ve ever done for Down To Earth, one of the ones that gets brought up most is whether or not it is ok to leave a lime wedge in your beer bottle for recycling. We’ve written about it (the answer…
While we’ve never been ones to play the entitlement card, 2008 had a certain sense of settlement in the air - after all we’ve gone through, the light at the end of the tunnel started to show. And then in November, the American people demonstrated…
Thank you for joining us in 2008 - it's been a wild ride. No year in retrospect is complete without acknowledging the phenomenal victory of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States America – for with that victory it sure seems that anything…
Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a GripImagine the worst case scenario of climate change – this 11-plus minute video from Plane Stupid activist Leo Murray titled, “Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip will lay it out for you. Packed with…
This is the first entry in DTE's year end roundup. We've decided to change things up a bit from our original plan. On Friday and Saturday we will run our best stories list and what's coming up in 2009, respectively. We started the year with…
Here a few stories to fill the time slot you previously had occupied with watching the bald eagles at Lake Coeur d' Alene, now that they are gone for the season. Take a break from your snow shoveling and enjoy Another Green Monday. A big…
Spokane non-profit the Lands Council, has named their accomplishments for 2008. It’s quite an impressive list. After reading, we realized how important the Land Council is to improving our quality of life in the region, and they especially deserve a big ups for the lead…
It’s that time of the year again. The time to look back. Beginning Monday, in addition to daily news, we will highlight another annual list of our collected works throughout the week. From a bizarre food competition to a chat with the Mayor, it’s been…
Since the online publication Crosscut apprehensively announced they were switching to a non-profit something has changed for the better: Their site is more frequently updated, with an abundance of top-notch environmental stories. One item that caught our eye: A list of book suggestions from 2008…
You can't put a price on silence or solitude. You can't quantify the beauty of wilderness. And yet that's not going to stop the Bush administration from trying to sell off what should be the birthright of future generations. - Robert Redford, in an article…
Photo courtesy of Grist.The holiday spirit is contagious at the DTE camp. Some even refer to this time as the Paulidays. (Not Bill O’ Reilly.) And once again, Grist has got the goods, featuring a dream team of sustainable chefs sharing a wide variety of…
The long, slow walk home on Riverside Avenue, across the street from the San Marcos apartments at 5:30pm last night.
In “Our View: Time to settle Hanford case, avoid costly trials,” the Spokesman-Review editorial board hits all the right notes, concluding “the legal maneuvering to avoid responsibility has gone on long enough,” in the case of the potential 2, 000 downwinders exposed to radiation from…
Mt. Spokane image courtesy of Washington Trail Organization.After a long wait, many are ready to hit the slopes but perhaps there's a little more you would like to know about the environmental policies of your favorite resort. The Ski Area Environmental Scorecard--- an independent assessor,…
Welcome to another installment of Spokane's wild winter! It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were writing about massive snow fall, and yet here we are again - buried in fresh powder.But there is nothing like a fresh, clean cover of snow to…
A wise man once uttered the phrase, “Clark, that’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year,” and though he was talking about a one-year membership in the jelly of the month club and we’re not Clark – the saying is timeless as is…
County Commissioners unanimously decided yesterday the vote for the much ballyhooed $142 million wastewater treatment plant will be on Jan.6 and CH2M is favored for the contract. As reported before, the county could find themselves in a contract without discharge permits, now arguing if they…
Welcome to a DTE mini-series on the economy. This isn’t going to be too high-concept, since we’re armchair economists at best, but we firmly believe that a way out of this downturn is in the possibility of clean-energy and green-collar jobs. The following posts will…
Ah bah humbug to this "Christmas" carol. Before you write us off as a bunch of scrooges, here us out. We love parodies (if you don't believe check out our impressive Weird Al playlist on the iPod) but something about this really got us annoyed…
1954 Hanford photo by Nat Farbman from LIFE/Google archive. Good news for Hanford downwinders’ lawsuit. Be sure to check out Karen Dorne Steele’s feature on the U.S. supreme court rejecting an appeal by Hanford contractors. This recent action raises the hopes of a settlement for…
In vino veritas. “In wine is truth.” Our Latin pretty much stops cold there. But one familiar story that always catches our attention and turns us sideways: The relationship between climate change and wine growth in Washington. Our state is second to California in premium-wine…
There is a big part of us that wants to say you should forgo the urge to update your friends and family each holiday season with Christmas (or Festivus) cards and letters because of the unnecessary paper waste that will inevitably end up in landfills…
*Photo credit - rejuvesite on Flickr Is it too much to ask for the county to go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to researching, educating and selecting what is believed to be the largest public works contract ever signed? We…
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