If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the U.S., according to the World Resources Institute. So far, the 24 cities and three counties that make up Metro, the Portland-area regional government, are addressing this issue, as are the cities of Eugene and Salem. As one of Oregonâs 10 largest cities, itâs time Corvallis joins them.
Facilitating this is a youth-led Corvallis group, Youth Climate Action Now (YouCAN), which is preparing to bring a âCorvallis Loves Food, Not Waste!â initiative to the City Council on Feb. 16. This initiative would require businesses to compost and recycle using existing infrastructure through Republic Services. While businesses already have the option to use composting and recycling, it is relatively expensive and underutilized. This initiative will call for the city of Corvallis to renegotiate its contract with Republic Services to make composting and recycling easier an
Cascadia Was Poised to Lead on Climate. Can It Still?
BC, Washington and Oregon all aimed to slash emissions. After epic battles, they failed. First in a series on creating a zero-carbon bioregion.
Peter Fairley is an award-winning journalist based in Victoria and San Francisco, whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, NewScientist, Hakai Magazine, Technology Review, the Atlantic, Nature and elsewhere. SHARES Aji Piper, now 20, was 15 when he joined a lawsuit against the US government for failing on climate change. Here he wears a mask during one of Washington s climate-driven smoke emergencies.
Photo by Alex Garland. [Editor’s note: This is the first in a year-long occasional series of articles produced by InvestigateWest in partnership with The Tyee and other news organizations exploring what it will take to shift the Cascadia region to a zero-carbon economy.]