Skagit Warming

Opinions vary on climate change and what should be done, and many of our readers have something to say. We invite you to share your thoughts here on the issue and the options for action.

Each flip of the switch adds up.

For one lightbulb, that’s just watts of power. But on your electric bill, it’s measured in kilowatts, and on the macro level, it adds up to megawatts.

* You: 1 in 6 billion

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

Various Web sites will chart your carbon footprint for free. Log onto any of these sites to take a quiz that…

* You: 1 in 6 billion

* Reducing your carbon footprint — one watt at a time

Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, loss of animal and plant life — there’s…

Sedro-Woolley converted its city vehicle fleet to a biodiesel blend fuel.

Burlington built a new City Hall and library with energy-efficient lighting and heating systems.

Mount Vernon…

* Power Matters

* Utilities look to wind, sun, tides for energy

Flip on a light, turn on a computer, punch on the television remote, and you’re probably contributing…

* Power Matters

There was a time when the 40-story cooling tower of a nuclear power plant might have loomed over Lyman from nearby Bacus Hill. Another plant was once envisioned for tiny…

* Rising Seas, raising questions

* Officials weigh impact of sea-level rise on low-lying locales

When a state agency named the lower Skagit Valley as one of two areas…

* Economic adaptation

* State poised to become key player in growing clean-energy industry

It’s a cold December morning on an old dairy farm north of Burlington where…

* Economic Adaptation

Seven years ago, Jeff Hammer opened one of the Skagit Valley’s first wineries in south Mount Vernon and later began growing wine grapes on an adjoining two-acre…

* Climate change already affecting Northwest forests and fish runs

Survival for salmon is a numbers game: Lay enough eggs, and some will make it to adulthood to breed.

Each…

* Threatened Icons
* Forests across Western U.S. face increasing insect, fire risks

Travel east on the North Cascades Highway, and you’re likely to see acres of…

* Water pressures
* Models predict less in summer, more in winter

Too much water in the winter. Not enough in the summer. This could be the twisted logic global warming…

* Our kids; our health

BY AUGUST KRYGER
and FRANNY WHITE
Staff Writers

Climate change isn’t limited to increasing global temperatures. It also has the potential…

MOUNT VERNON — Rare October sunlight streamed through the alder and evergreen branches and dappled Trumpeter Creek below. The leaves had turned; many had already fallen and littered the stream bed.…

* Facing a not-so-distant future

Mike King remembers the good old days, when it snowed more in the Skagit Valley.

“Even as a kid, when I used to live in Mount Vernon ... we…

Global warming is real. It’s already begun, and it’s accelerating.

Temperatures measured around the world show that 11 of the past 12 years have been the warmest since records were first…