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By Alice Grendon | TCAT Communications Coordinator  Many of us know trees play a critical role in creating a climate safe future. It is not enough to simply cease producing emissions. We must actually draw down Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) from our atmosphere and sequester carbon in the soil. Project Drawdown lists reforestation among the top 5 most…

By: Carolyn Treadway and Roy Treadway | TCAT Volunteers In the November 16, 2021, TCAT Newsletter, the final article “This Next-Generation Nuclear Power Plant is Pitched for Washington State.  Can it ‘change the world’?” by Hal Bernton of The Seattle Times seemed to advocate for the extremely dangerous and expensive Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as a…

By: Alice Grendon | TCAT Communications Coordinator  Like many politically engaged people living in modern times, I have an inner conflict between the desire to stay informed and the need to protect my nervous system from the onslaught of fear and horror which is frequently brought forth by listening to the news. This week the desire to…

By: Joanne Dufour What was missing from the COP26 Agenda? When the Kyoto Agreement was discussed in 2010, the United Kingdom proposed excluding military activities in calculations of their nation’s carbon footprint. The U.S. agreed and joined in omitting  military activity. In 2015 when the Paris Agreement allowed countries to include military activity or not,…

By: Cleve Pinnix | Thurston Climate Action Team Volunteer In early September my wife and I drove our Kia Niro Electric Car to Leavenworth to visit our daughter, Julia. Julia has a 240 volt outlet at her house which made it easy for me to charge up the EV while staying there. Julia gets her…

By: Alice Grendon | Communications Coordinator, Thurston Climate Action Team Every year more than 100 million trees are killed in order to send the average American household  848 pieces of paper that end up in the trash. That’s the same as deforesting three Rocky Mountain National Parks each year. Not only that, but the creation of…

By: Tom Crawford | Thurston Climate Action Team Board President The cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater, along with Thurston County, are currently examining how to implement the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP).  During this phase of the Plan (called Phase 3), a Climate Action Steering Committee (composed of elected officials from all four participating…

By Tom Crawford | Thurston Climate Action Team Board President In early September, Thurston Climate Action Team, with support from the Emerald Cities Collaborative, conducted two workshops to develop the outlines of a design that can be used in funding proposals for clean energy in our region’s residential buildings.  These workshops involved individuals with a…

The Role of Heat Pumps in Adapting to Increasing Heat Waves By Alice Grendon | TCAT Communication CoordinatorAdapted from Faith Action Climate Team’s Information for Congregations We’ve made it through multiple unprecedented heat domes, a summer drought, and the warmest Pacific Northwest spring on record. As we know, the warming will only continue if we do not radically alter the…

By: Lynn Fitz-Hugh | TCAT Community Engagement Director  Did you know that according to the book Drawdown, the most significant item that can change Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is something we all have right in our own homes?  Your refrigerator!  It turns out the Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases that are used in most refrigerators in the…