Hilary's Page

Hilary Franz Hilary has been a land use and environmental attorney for 10 years, with litigation experience on matters involving the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, Washington state\'s shorelines, critical areas, and agricultural lands. She has served on the board of the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP), and is currently on the board of the Washington Environmental Council and the Trust for Working Lands.

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Seeing the Forest for the Trees . . .

August 3rd, 2007

For the last hundred years, Earth has experienced a rapid loss of forested area. Reports continue to indicate huge forests losses.

Almost half of the planet’s original forest has been destroyed, mostly during the last three decades. Between 1990 and 1995, the net forest loss equaled 33 football fields per minute (112 600 square kilometers annually).

About 47 percent of the world’s forests occur in the tropical zone, 9 percent in the subtropics, 11 percent in the temperate zone and 33 percent in the boreal zone. In the tropics, about half of the mature forests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares, have been felled. Between 1990 and 2000 alone, natural forests in the tropics disappeared at an annual rate of fourteen million hectares, a rate of loss of an acre a second. Between 1960 and 1990, about 20 percent of total tropical forest cover was lost. Read the rest of this entry »

The Awakening

May 7th, 2007

Recently the New York Times released a poll that it conducted with CBS News. In that poll, 90% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 60% of Republicans all said that immediate action was required to curb the warming of the atmosphere and deal with climate change impacts. Only 1% said no steps were needed.

This poll, if representative of America, would suggest that we have arrived at a place of awakening. In part this is a relief. It is a relief that we no longer have to explain the science and numbers surrounding climate change to the masses. The public has become informed, and now there is a need for solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

The Earth Needs Your Help This Earth Day!

April 20th, 2007

Anyone with children has had the experience of waking in the middle of the night to a very sick child. I can remember one particular night, waking up to my child’s cries and feeling the intense heat radiating from his forehead. A tiny little body helplessly overheating. No thermometer was necessary – I knew by the temperature and his fast breathing that his body was waging a war against infection.

The Earth, like a small baby, is also helplessly overheating. We do not need a thermometer to know that the Earth has a fever. Read the rest of this entry »