Another Green Monday
Saturday morning, despite the predicted doom and gloom forecast, turned out to be just about perfect for rafting the Spokane River with 24 strangers as part of the Spokane River Forum's "Meet me at the River Raft and Kayak Passport Series". But rain or shine, when isn't it a perfect opportunity to recreate on the crown jewel of the Inland Northwest? Admittedly, we're not the experts in answering that question, for the nearly eight years that we've lived in this region, Saturday morning marked the first time we've seen Spokane and the Spokane River from on top of a boat of any kind. Yet for the way we write about the river, advocate for river protection, and urge others to take advantage of river opportunities, you'd think we'd have spent some quality river hours practicing what we preach. But that's the situation we found ourselves in Saturday morning when we met at Plese Flats with the Spokane River Forum organizers and other participants who we would soon be spending three plus hours with rafting from the Water Street launch spot back to Plese Flats.
This is the second year that the Spokane River Forum has organized rafting and kayaking opportunities. The goal of these opportunities is to first and foremost get people on the river, but more importantly is to teach people about the history, the environmental concerns, and opportunities to help protect the river. On this particular trip, a representative from the Health Department and from Ecology each spoke respectively before we launched about the environmental damage of the river, and what is being done to resolve that damage. For many on the trip, they were hearing about combined sewer overflows and heavy metals and toxics for the first time. And this was only one of the many firsts. Throughout the course of the morning, several members of our flotilla made comments about never seeing Peaceful Valley before, or seeing Riverside State Park for the first time. And one of our guides had a first as a couple on her boat got engaged as we made a turn by the Downriver Disc Golf course. It was an enlightening trip on many levels, and it goes without saying a thilling one as well - not to mention rewarding turning 24 strangers into great friends and contacts. We encourage all of you to take advanatage of this opportunity, for both recreational and educational purposes. And believe us whey we say it, there is a DTE raft in the near future. Watch out Spokane River! Here are some stories you might have missed last week.
Climate change and the White House. It's been an interesting week following President Obama and the issue of climate change. On Tuesday the White House released the most urgent climate change report to date, affirming what many of us already know and fear. Report co-author Anthony Janetos of the University of Maryland told The Associated Press, "There are in some cases already serious consequences. This is not a theoretical thing that will happen 50 years from now. Things are happening now." Meanwhile, a recent article in Vanity Fair paints a grim outlook for the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference in December claiming that if the US doesn't take the lead on climate change, which was failed in Bonn, Germany recently, that the uber important Copenhagen summit may prove unfruitful. According to Friends of the Earth international finance coordinator Karen Orenstein, the Obama administration has done little to cause hope for the December conference, "This is the second session this year. For the first one, Obama got a free ride and everybody was happy because it was such an improvement over Bush. But this was our first chance to see the content. We were hoping the content would be in line with what’s required by science, by justice, and it wasn’t at all.” Read more from this fascinating Vanity Fair article HERE. And for more on the climate report, read The New York Times HERE.
“The End Of The Line.” Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, DTE was raised to love fish. We might reexamine our consumption though because a new documentary titled “The End of the Line” narrated by Becker, er, uh, Ted Danson, examines overfishing which, unless reversed, could cause a world without fish in forty to fifty years. The film was instigated by the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna which happened thanks to the increasing western demand for sushi. It was “filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials,” according to the site. Go to the site HERE -- you’ll find trailers, ways to bring the film to your town and solutions like eating sustainable seafood. 
Blame Canada. How many caught Becky Kramer’s harrowing story on Columbia River pollution in the S-R yesterday? The little Washington town of Northport---330 people---is downstream from Teck Resources Ltd’s lead smelter, and has seen common cases of ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune deficiencies. Now the EPA will begin testing human health because, as Kramer writes, “For nearly a century, the smelter dumped 400 or more tons of slag, a byproduct of metal refining, into the river each day. The granular slag that created the Upper Columbia River’s black sand beaches contains 25 different compounds, including lead, arsenic and mercury. Liquid mercury from the smelter also went directly into the river; more pollutants came out of its smokestack.” The human health studies will also look at other communities along the river including members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and people who recreate on the Upper Columbia. Yep, that includes Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Full article HERE.
