Locus Focus

At the start of Portland’s first heatwave this summer at the end of a

traumatic week for our nation, longtime climate activist and journalist Bill

McKibben came to Portland to speak at a gathering sponsored by the Third Act

Oregon. In 2008 McKibben co-founded 350.org, which...

We are blessed in Portland to have a magnificent river flowing through our

city. But we haven't always taken the best care of this treasure. Fortunately

for many years there have been several civic organizations that have led the

way in promoting and producing river cleanup...

Since time immemorial the Yakama Nation lived along a stretch of the Columbia

River now known as the Hanford Reach. This area provided sources of food and

medicines and contains many sacred sites, like Gable and Rattlesnake

mountains, and the white bluffs that peer down fro...

Every day we hear that the upcoming elections are a referendum on whether or

not the United States remains a democracy. But for many years anti-democratic

– in fact, outright fascistic – tendencies have been threatening

communities around the country and definitely here in ...

The gravest risk to Portland and much of Northwestern Oregon is posed by the

enormous tank farms that line the North Reach of the Willamette River. These

tanks hold 90% of the fossil fuel used in the entire state of Oregon as well

as other hazardous substances. When a big e...

According to the fossil fuel industry, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is

recognized as a critical infrastructure project, essential for our nation’s

energy security and energy reliability. But for communities from West

Virginia to Southern Virginia this 300 mile-long pipeline...

Transportation generates the largest share of Oregon’s carbon emissions.

It's one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize because it involves changing

our daily lives. In order to achieve our climate goals, we need to not only

drive less, but to act upon the realization that ...

While Oregonians were fighting to stop the behemoth Pacific Connector Gas

Pipeline and Jordan Cove LNG Terminal in Southern Oregon, communities in

Virginia were facing a similar struggle to stop an even larger and longer

pipeline that would have crossed the Blue Ridge Mount...

Drax, a major British global manufacturer of wood pellets for bioenergy,

plans to build an industrial-scale wood pellet plant in Longview,

Washington.. The proposed siting of the Longview facility, along with two

proposed two large biomass mills in California, would mark a ...

We are at the precipice of a climate emergency. If we do not seriously begin

to cut our carbon emissions now we will be entering an uncharted territory of

climate chaos. But instead of accelerating the adoption of verified and

trusted climate solutions, governments and indu...