Locus Focus

In a time of global pandemic, this summer's fire season - which is nearly

upon us - poses new dire threats. Federal and state agencies have resurrected

the obsolete policy of aggressively attacking all wildfires in all places in

order to limit wildfire smoke. This fire poli...

While the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the world is wracked by the

COVID-19 pandemic, another kind of pandemic threatens our region - an

increasing number of oil trains, each loaded with 3 million gallons of crude

oil, traveling down the Columbia River and through Port...

In the wake of proposals to build unpopular massive LNG and methanol projects

around the Northwest, the gas industry feels like it's under attack. In fact

a PR campaign being promoted by gas utilities in Washington and Oregon claims

that their industry is facing an existent...

When the Oregon State Legislature goes into a special session this summer to

address new COVID-19 policies, medical and public health professionals from

across the state are calling on Governor Kate Brown and Oregon lawmakers to

include fire and smoke preparedness measures ...

By the time this episode of Locus Focus airs it will be three weeks since

George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police and a wave of massive,

militant protests radiated from Minneapolis across the country and the world.

This amazing show of support for the Black Lives Ma...

This past week we are witnessing the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic,

economic collapse and unprecedented widespread, militant demonstrations

expressing anger and grief over the death of George Floyd—the most recent

manifestation of the systemic racism that permeates th...

The COVID-19 Pandemic is stretching the ways we need to think in so many

ways, economically, socially, medically and spiritually. On this episode of

Locus Focus we talk with Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow with the Post Carbon

Institute, about how the coronavirus pandemic p...

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic struck, there have been important developments

in the fifteen year struggle to stop the Jordan Cove LNG Export Terminal and

Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. When we last talked about this issue, the

state of Oregon had just denied two critical per...

This May 18 is the fortieth anniversary of Mt. St. Helens last major

eruption, which blew 1,300 feet off the top of the mountain and created the

largest landslide in recorded history. Exactly 40 years, one hour and 28

minutes ago from the start of this week's Locus Focus, M...

The COVID-19 pandemic is a brutal reminder of how out of balance our planet

has become. Decades of explosive human population growth and an increasingly

mobile population have put us in close contact, squeezed natural habitats,

and forced wild animals to occupy cities or pe...