August Green Drinks Announcement
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Co-Presented with Conservation Northwest
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309 South Cloverdale Street Suite A2
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Sustainable Seattle's Green Drink Happy Hour is back Tuesday August 13th at
Tin Dog's Brewery
located in South Park.
Join us this month as we partner with Conservation Northwest; an organization that works to protect, and restore wildlands and wildlife from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies.
Come connect with friends old and new to learn about Conservation
Northwest
Central Cascades Watersheds Restoration
which works to restore forests and watersheds from the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to Mount Rainier National Park. They're working in the headwaters of nine watersheds, including the uplands of the Green-Duwamish River which is important habitat for native wildlife and a source of drinking water for the communities of South Seattle.
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Our Sustainability Leadership Award, honoree,
yәhaw̓
, is closing their exhibition this weekend. Stop by the King Street Station for a chance to see live performances by Indigenous artists, a panel discussion featuring Asia Tail (Cherokee) and Satpreet Kahlon of the curatorial team, drop in or stay for the day with 3 back-to-back talks by 7 emerging Indigenous artists, and more!
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Northwest Film Forum Presents: California on Fire
Saturday, August 3rd @5pm
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This groundbreaking video and sound artwork by southern Californian artist
Jeff Frost,
follows catastrophic effects of climate change. Each of the film’s five chapters are based on the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance. Frost utilizes time and sound as mediums to reveal an undeniable reality: we are already in a state of climate crisis.
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Join Seattle Neighborhood Greenways as they transform a city street into a lively gathering spot to celebrate their mission: letting us re-imagine our public spaces that puts people first. There will be bike decorating, a short awards program, exhibit booths, scooter demos, a roving marching band and more!
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Join
Othello Park Alliance
for a free event that reflects our wonderful community’s various cultures. This will be an afternoon filled with music, dancing, food, art activities, booths, and a petting zoo!
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Introducing
Sustainable Thoughts
,
a reoccurring series that focuses on meaningful topics impacting our communities. Keep an eye out for future Sustainable Thoughts from our S2 staff, and community members!
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Thoughts of a Seattle Resident on Smoke Around the Sound
By Sustainable Seattle Communications Associate,
Jacqueline Sussman
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King Street Station and CenturyLink Field, surrounded in a smokey haze. Photo by Tyler Ung
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Like many people who call the Pacific Northwest home, I don’t like to think about the ways in which climate change will (continue to) disrupt and destroy the immeasurable beauty and vibrancy of our region.
Growing up in the Portland metropolitan area, the thought of wildfires never crossed my mind. It just wasn’t present. My first experience with wildfire was in Missoula, Montana, where I lived from 2016-2018. The 2017 fire season was the state’s worst since 1910. Over 1 million acres were torched throughout the state, and on August 31, a National Historic Landmark, the 104-year-old Sperry Chalet,
burned down in Glacier National Park
.
Living in Montana that summer felt like living in a near-apocalyptic land. The lively town went eerily quiet for a month straight, and I barely stepped outside for longer than 10 minutes at a time. We were experiencing cabin fever in the middle of summer. In the moments when I caved and gave in to my stir crazy, the chemical-scented air would sear deep into my lungs, leaving a perpetual soreness in my throat. Several of my friends and I experienced abdominal pain a few weeks into the smoke, undoubtedly from persistent “hazardous” air quality index levels, as classified by the Department of Environmental Quality.
Back in the Northwest, where Seattle is now home, it appears that inhaling wildfire smoke every summer is our new normal. In 2018, the
Puget Sound region experienced
24 days of poor air quality due to wildfire smoke, including nine days where the air was considered either “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or “unhealthy for everyone.” While the smoke that inundated Seattle in August of 2018 originated from the massive fires in British Columbia and eastern Washington, wildfire is becoming increasingly common on the west side of the Cascades.
With its abundance of lush and highly diverse habitats, western Washington hosts most of the state’s vegetation. The greater the vegetation, the greater the amount of particulates generated by wildfires. Though it’s a much wetter existence on the west side, we’re not immune to fire events.
In 2018, 40% of the wildfires fought by the Department of Natural Resources occurred west of the Cascades, and approximately half of the over 300 fires so far in 2019 also occurred on the west side. Based on current drought and forest conditions, the WA State Dept of Natural Resources expects to see a
record number of wildfires this year.
Wildfire activity is generally accepted to be the result of a
fairly simple combination
of fuel availability, ignition sources, and heat. But to take a step back and look at the broader history, is to be reminded that European colonization of what’s now called the Americas marked the beginning of a very destructive
anthropocentric
mindset and relationship to nature in Western culture. If early settlers had instead chosen to learn from indigenous peoples’ human-ecological land management techniques - such as the
controlled burning of land
to clear dead plants and weeds that serve as tinder, kindling and fuel to a fire - we likely wouldn’t be facing the accelerated presence of wildfires in the PNW today.
Since starting my work with Sustainable Seattle, I feel more hopeful that we can shift the current trajectory of experiencing increasingly severe impacts from climate change to one where we work as communities to bolster our resilience to wildfires and other climate-related disasters in the future. The push for greater
climate resiliency
and
disaster preparedness
is already underway in Seattle. If we can make this conversation one in which every resident feels welcome and encouraged to participate, we’ll find culturally-appropriate solutions that work both separately and as complementary efforts to make the Salish Coastal region a more climate-resilient home for the years to come. While I don’t like to think about the projected effects of climate change on our region, I am motivated and encouraged to work towards a different, and better-looking future.
Where to Learn More
Go see the film
California on Fire
,
showing at NWFF
on Saturday, August 3 at 5 pm.
Filmmaker and artist Jeff Frost trained as a firefighter, documenting more than 70 wildfires and shot 350,000 photos over five years. The film is divided into five chapters based on the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance. Frost utilizes time and sound as mediums to highlight the very real and visceral climate crisis we are already in.
Local Leaders in Climate Policy Change:
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