Cascadia today: $2 billion Hanford deal raises questions + Portland bans foie gras + the last fire lookout in BC

Good morning, friends! This week I wrote about how the union of employees at REI, the Cascadia-based outdoor gear co-op, joined with more than 70,000 co-op members to stage a boycott of REI to protest its unfair labor contract and union-busting practices. North America's largest consumer co-op, facing declining sales and negative profits, has become more like a run-of-the-mill corporation rather than an organization designed to serve its members. I wrote about participating in boycott with fellow members who'd like to see REI return to its values.

Why is REI acting more like a corporation than a co-op?

Faced with several years of profit losses, REI co-op has started to act like a typical profit-hungry corporation.

Cascadia JournalAndrew Engelson

$2 billion deal to enrich uranium at Hanford raises questions

Columbia Insight has a big story about the feds' murky $2 billion deal with two private companies (including one in which right wing billionaire Peter Thiel is on the board) to begin enriching uranium in a derelict building at the Hanford nuclear site. There are very few details on the deal, no environmental review, and no plans for what to do with waste generated. Washington's Hanford site is North America's most toxic waste site, and the GOP Congress recently proposed deep cuts to the multibillion dollar cleanup.

The feds need to live up to their obligations and clean up the site, as well as make public any details of deal with their cronies to generate even more radioactive waste at Hanford.

Bill to limit Seattle data centers advances

A bill that would place a one-year moratorium on new data centers in Seattle passed out of committee and will face a vote in the general city council, KUOW reports. If you live in Seattle, find your council members here and tell them you support a pause on these energy-sucking monstrosities. In related news, OPB reports that Portland General Electric announced a 29% increase in power rates for data centers and a slight decrease for residential users.

Portland bans foie gras

The Portland Mercury reports on the Portland city council's vote in favor of banning the sale of foie gras – the delicacy made by force-feeding ducks and geese – in the city. That puts Portland in line with other cities including New York and Pittsburgh that have banned the fatty liver dish. Look, it's not my first legislative priority but yeah, y'all can probably do without a dish that requires immense cruelty to create. BTW, I've had some of the best vegan food of my life in Portland, including the phenomenal dumpling restaurant Jade Rabbit.

Gray whales struggle as ocean warms

Oregon Capital Chronicle has an in-depth feature on the disturbing decline in gray whales off Cascadia's coast. More than 900 gray whales have been found dead off the coast of North America since 2019, and marine biologists say it's because ocean warming due to climate change is decimating populations of krill and other food sources for the whales.

One BC's last forest lookouts

CBC has a profile and video documentary about Bart Vanderlinde, one of British Columbia's last working fire lookouts – who's stationed on Sinkut mountain near Prince George. A network of fire watchers across Cascadia once lived in mountain-top cabins spotting wildfires and radioing reports back to fire officials. Those jobs have largely been replaced with satellites and remote monitoring and now most of those remaining are historic sites. A tradition of poets living in Cascadia fire lookouts emerged in the mid-20th century, with Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, and Gary Snyder all finding inspiration from their remote posts.

I cannot remember things I once read
A few friends, but they are in cities.
Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup
Looking down for miles
Through high still air.
--from "“Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout" by Gary Snyder

Thanks for reading. Keep fighting and keep loving. --Andy