News release Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final Clean Power Plan to combat climate change. In response, Maine experts in climate, energy, and the economy, voiced their support for the plan on a telephone briefing, and called on local, state, and national leaders to do the same. They explained why the Clean Read More
climate change
Why There’s Cause for Concern with Maine’s Water Supply
By Mario Tesil and Kate Warner Bangor Daily News oped As other regions of the country struggle to find adequate supplies of clean water, Maine has abundant, and comparatively clean, water resources. Maine’s water is approximately 20 percent to 60 percent cleaner than lakes and streams in the rest of the United States, according to 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
Winslow Ordinance Could Open Door for State’s Largest Solar Farm
Ranger Solar in Yarmouth weighs a plan that could cost $25 million and take up 100 acres, but requires zoning regulation changes. By Peter McGuire, Central Maine Portland Press Herald news story WINSLOW — The town is set to begin drafting regulations that could pave the way for a solar farm potentially 20 times bigger Read More
Solar Power Project to Cut Electric Bill at Camden High School
by Stephen Betts, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story ROCKPORT, Maine — The Five-Town Community School District Board approved Wednesday night a solar power project for the high school that will continue to reduce the electrical costs for the complex. Facilities Director Keith Rose said the goal of students is for Camden Hills Regional 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
Creature Feature: Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin is among the most recognizable birds, and one of Maine’s favorites. Did you know that their nickname is “clowns of the sea”?
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