The Pacific Northwest spans Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and neighboring areas known for old-growth forests, coastal ecosystems, and a mix of urban and rural communities. This archive gathers reported milestones from the region — covering conservation wins, clean energy progress, Indigenous land stewardship, and community efforts that point toward lasting change.
In November, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to ban natural gas in new buildings. On December 2, Oakland’s city council did the same. Now Seattle Mayor Durkan announced a proposal to ban natural gas in new commercial and large multi-family construction for space and most water heating.
Dozens of Native nations and tribal institutions in the United States have designed climate change plans that include formal strategies and initiatives to increase the resiliency of their communities.
Measure 109 apart it distinct from decriminalization efforts in that it offers a legal pathway to psilocybin therapy. It will establish a state-regulated program for using and obtaining them. In essence, accessing psilocybin as an adult in Oregon would be about as easy as signing up for counseling.
The last plant in Oregon, which opened in 1977, was pushed to close by a lawsuit filed against General Electric for air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions concerns.
The New Leaf project took 115 homeless people who were confirmed not to have serious mental or substance abuse problems, and put $7,500 in the pockets of 50 of them to see if they could turn their life around. One entire year later, most recipients still had $1,000 in savings and 67% were could still feed themselves every day.
Yakima Chief Hops (YCH), a 100% farmer owned hop supplier for the brewing industry, has announced their latest solar panel installation for a total of 3,706 solar panels, the largest rooftop solar array in Washington state.
The state of Oregon will officially vote on legalizing psilocybin psychotherapy in the upcoming November election, after well over 150,000 signatures were collected to secure the landmark ballot measure.
Advocacy groups like the ACLU have long raised significant privacy concerns regarding facial recognition. Researchers like Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and Deborah Raji have demonstrated that these technologies can come with built-in racial and gender biases.
The all-electric Cessna Grand Caravan 208B successfully completed its first test flight—and it is being hailed as a significant milestone in disrupting the transportation industry and accelerating the electric aviation revolution.
Starbucks is piloting cups that are just like the company’s normal cups, but the plastic lining has been replaced with a compostable liner, making the cups recyclable and compostable.
