NASA and Boeing chase jet contrails with science of climate impact in doubt

By  Dominic Gates  Seattle Times aerospace reporter Scientific debate is getting heated over what to do about airplane contrails — the wispy lines of water vapor you often see trailing behind a jet. Those harmless-looking vapor trails sometimes spread out to form thin cirrus clouds. Environmental activists and nonprofits focused on climate change routinely assert

The secret dispute behind cleaning Seattle’s only river

By  Lulu Ramadan Seattle Times staff reporter This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network and The Seattle Times, with support from the Investigative Journalism Fund. Sign up for Seattle Times newsletters and alerts and ProPublica’s Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Times Watchdog stories dig deep to hold power accountable, right wrongs and

Environmentalists and industry weigh in on how to decarbonize aviation

By  Dominic Gates  Seattle Times aerospace reporter Under intense political pressure, the aviation industry has set itself a daunting challenge to decarbonize flying by 2050 and laid out a road map to get there through technological innovation. For environmentalists, especially in Europe, that prolonged switch to clean energy technology is not good enough. “It takes