by Stephen Mulkey for the Natural Resources Council of Maine “An essential paradox of wilderness conservation is that we seek to preserve what must change.” Steward Pickett and P.S. White 1985 “We must focus our attention on the rates at which changes occur, understanding that certain changes are natural, desirable, and acceptable, while others are not.” Read More
climate change
Energy Confab Features King
by Liz Graves on Environment, News, News-Featured Mount Desert Islander news story BAR HARBOR — A Climate to Thrive (ACTT), a group with the goal of making Mount Desert Island energy independent by 2030, presents a gathering featuring Sen. Angus King on Sunday, July 31, from 3-5:30 p.m. at the Mount Desert Island High School. Read More
What Qualifies as Scientific Authority?
“Listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change,” Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) “…this 97% [of climate scientists accepting human-caused global warming], that doesn’t mean anything.” Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert, satirist Recently I sat dumbfounded watching Marco Rubio tell South Floridians about all Read More
Higher Education in the Environmental Century
“….what we’re doing today with greenhouse gas emissions — which is just a moment when you look at the geophysical timescales — has consequences for decades, centuries, millennia.” —Ricarda Winkelmann, Climate Scientist, Potsdam Institute, 2016 “Mobilizing to save civilization means restructuring the economy, restoring its natural systems, eradicating poverty, stabilizing population and climate, and, above all, Read More
Tourism, Conservation, Public Health Experts Urge Support for Clean Air and Climate Protections for Acadia National Park and Region
Say ecosystems, public health, and economy all depend on effective Clean Air Act protections NRCM News Release Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park – With one of Maine’s most famous vistas at their back—the mountainous rocky coast of Acadia National Park—diverse speakers urged support for two important air quality standards that are needed to protect the Read More
Carbon Capture and Sequestration the Old Fashioned Way
This week the mainstream media and many of the social media outlets have hailed the experiment in Iceland that has demonstrated the ability to capture CO2 from the air and turn it into rock. The Guardian proclaimed “CO2 turned into stone in Iceland in climate change breakthrough” and the journal Science headlined “Inject baby, inject!”. Read More
NRCM Continues the Fight to Reduce Mercury Pollution from Power Plants
NRCM has been involved in federal lawsuits related to limiting mercury pollution and other air toxics from power plants for more than a decade. In fact, in 2004, we filed suit over the EPA’s mercury pollution rules. We first joined the suit against the Bush administration for failing to offer sufficiently strong regulations—and eventually won in Read More
Legislature to Consider $3 Million Bond to Study Ocean Acidification
by Andy O’Brien Free Press news story In the coming weeks, the Maine Legislature will consider several bond proposals, including a bipartisan measure aimed at tackling the monumental problem of ocean acidification (OA) in the Gulf of Maine. LD 998, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Parry (R-Arundel) and Rep. Mick Devin (D-Newcastle), would ask voters to Read More
Warm Waters Off Maine Point to Repeat of “Ocean Heat Wave”
With the worst of the cooling season over, temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are just slightly below the period of disruption four years ago. By Colin Woodard, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story With the United States coming off the warmest winter on record, scientists are monitoring the Gulf of Maine for a Read More
