Crises Demand Plans
The coronavirus tragedy in the U.S. holds a potent lesson about governance: Facing crises without a strategic plan costs lives. The floundering on display in recent months – with conflicting federal guidance, states forced...
Category: Climate Change/Energy
Droughts and Downpours
“Never again will we have the climate system of the 20th century.” — Ivan Fernandez, University of Maine soil scientist and co-chair of the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee On a...
Tailpipe Living: Losing Federal Protections for Clean Air
Before getting new glasses this winter, I’d forgotten what it was like to see distant objects in sharp relief. The glasses improved my vision but far-off vistas remained hazy – until the pandemic shutdown...
Starting Anew
Last week’s storm decimated the trees in our yard, exposing raw tissue where limbs severed. Branches, graced by buds that will never open, lay scattered on the killing snow. Taking in the scene, I...
Glacial Melt and Rising Seas
Corks. Plugs. Floodgates. The metaphors used to characterize two glaciers at the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) – Thwaites and Pine Island – are tame relative to the scale of these...
A Steep Climb: Growing Solar and EV Use
On the road to all-renewable power, Maine is moving like a car near the base of a long, snowy hill. It’s accelerating now, knowing it may lose momentum and traction in the ascent. One...
Displays of Love and Grief
During a 2016 trip along Greenland’s west coast, Maine photographer Peter Ralston took this photo of disappearing ice. Ralston returned from that trip with what he describes as “a burning desire” to share his photos of...
The Face of Clean Energy in Maine
Ascending to his office in Pittsfield, Vaughan Woodruff treads on the same hardwood steps he walked as a third-grader in public school. Now the stately brick building houses several small businesses alongside the solar...
