Environment & Sustainability

people sit on the grass and splash in the water of Lake Washington with the Seattle skyline in the distance.

Seattle Is Decades Away from the Heat Mitigation It Needs

Dr. Jeremy Hess saw burns on the legs of paramedics who kneeled to care for heatstroke patients during last year’s deadly heatwave in Seattle....

Puget Sound Gateway Project Reveals State’s Lack of Freight Vision

The State has a role in defining the market for freight and charting emissions reductions with a shift to rail. When the Washington State Legislature...
A parking lot on a hot day in Northgate, with Thornton Place behind

Why Climate Advocates Should Be Urbanists, Part 2

Part 2 of this four-part series examines arguments against focusing on land use in climate policy and provides counter arguments. Ignoring land use changes and relying on electrification alone is a slower and riskier path to decarbonization.
Cute Twitter posts, one rainbows saying "Don't set the state on fire." The other a leaping salmon saying "Live, laugh, lay eggs, and die."

Connecting DNR’s “Many Great Stories to Tell” Through Amazing Social Media

I first encountered the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Twitter account when it popped up on my feed, already uncommon for a...

Sunday Video: An Urban Planner Plays SimCity

https://youtu.be/LUQaCoxybW8 In this extended short, Dave Amos of City Beautiful takes on the old school classic SimCity from the perspective of a professional planner 20...

Electric Vehicles Could Help Combat Disastrous Power Outages

Across the country, climate change-fueled extreme weather events are causing increasingly frequent power outages and are presenting a growing threat to our nation’s energy...

The Urbanist Podcast: Let’s Go Bird Watching in Seattle

In this week's episode, co-hosts Natalie Argerious and Ray Dubicki are joined by conservation educators Hanae Bettencourt, Josh Morris, and Kate Lanier from Seattle...

Will Sizzling Heat Finally Spur Seattle to Act on Tree Canopy Protections?

Urban Forestry Commission Chair Weston Brinkley weighs in on why Seattle needs to act and what can be done to better protect the city's...