News Release Today, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) released the first detailed survey of electric car owners in Maine. The release comes a few days before an annual Drive Electric Day celebration to be held Sunday September 13, noon to 4:00 at South Portland Community Center. This event is sponsored by NRCM and Read More
Climate Change
Climate change and global warming pollution harm Maine people, wildlife, and our environment. Global warming, also known as climate change, is caused by a blanket of pollution that traps heat around the earth. This pollution comes from cars, factories, homes, and power plants that burn fossil fuels such as oil, coal, natural gas, and gasoline.
Climate-changing pollution knows no boundaries. It enters the atmosphere, spreads across the globe, and traps heat around the earth for 50-200 years after it is emitted. That is why we need to reduce global warming pollution now, because our children, and their children, will still feel the effects of global warming for years to come. Currently, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are at their highest levels in hundreds of thousands of years.
Learn how you can reduce climate-changing pollution and advocate for a cleaner, healthier Maine.
Lobster Population Shifting North as Ocean Temps Warm
The dropping numbers in Connecticut and Rhode Island have put many lobstermen out of business. By Patrick Whitte The Associated Press news story The lobster population has crashed to the lowest levels on record in southern New England while climbing to heights never before seen in the cold waters off Maine and other northern reaches Read More
Report: Clean Power Plan Key to Protecting Drinking Water, Wildlife Habitat
News release of the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Council of Maine MAINE (August 18, 2015) – Maine’s and America’s waterways are already being stressed by climate change and President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is urgently needed to protect them. This is the conclusion of a new report by the National Wildlife Federation, Read More
Legislature Blocked Several Measures that would Have Hurt Progress on Climate Change
By Tom Tietenberg Kennebec Journal op-ed Several recent reports, coming from very different perspectives, have made a strong case for the world to take action to diminish the risks posed by climate change. These include the papal encyclical, which makes the moral case; a recent EPA report, which quantifies the economic case; and the report Read More
Supreme Court Remands EPA’s Health-protective Mercury & Air Toxics Standards
High Court decision will further delay reductions of toxic air emissions that will save thousands of lives and provide important health protections News Release Washington, D.C. — This morning in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever national standards for mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal- and oil- Read More
Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change: Guided by Morality, Backed by Science
“In this encyclical,” Pope Francis writes, “I intend especially to engage in a dialogue with everyone about our common home.” As a Catholic, it’s exciting for me to see Pope Francis putting climate change at the top of the Church’s agenda. Climate change has disastrous implications for our common home—God’s creation—and for the world’s poor. Read More
6 Species that Could Disappear from Maine Within the Next Generation
By Seth Koenig Bangor Daily News column In 2011, the journal Science published a groundbreaking study that tracked the recent habitat shifts of nearly 1,400 animals, plants and insects, and the results were striking. Researchers found that the species were moving away from the equator and into higher elevations two to three times as fast Read More
Saving Canada’s Boreal Forest
by Scott Weidensaul and Jeffrey V. Wells New York Times op-ed STRETCHING from interior Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland, and sandwiched between the prairies and the Arctic, North America’s boreal forest is a mind-boggling 1.5 billion acres in size — bigger even than the vast rain forests of the Brazilian Amazon or the Congo. And Read More
Report: Climate Change Threatens America’s Cherished Outdoor Experience
Stressful Weather Conditions Exacerbate Pests and Threaten Health in Maine News release by the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the National Wildlife Federation Augusta, MAINE, May 27, 2015 – Climate change is creating favorable conditions for many bothersome pests, including ticks, and is increasing their numbers and expanding their ranges, according to a report Read More
