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: Economics
Growing an Enduring Culture of Gardening
The current gardening boom has parallels to the widespread “War Gardens” and “Victory Gardens” grown during and after WWI, when the nation struggled with food shortages and the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more...
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...
Holding the Heat
Winter’s descent returns us to a primordial quest, trying to hold heat – that eternal escape artist – within our homes. In Maine, nearly two-thirds of households depend on heating oil, more than in...
Buried Treasure: Taking Farm Sustainability to a New Level
“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot,” Leonardo da Vinci is said to have observed roughly five centuries ago. Sadly, that statement still holds, according to geologist...
Reshaping the Energy Landscape for Resilience
During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hoboken, New Jersey “literally became an island,” recalled its mayor at the time, Dawn Zimmer, during a recent talk she gave in Maine. The city was 80 percent submerged,...
An Uneven Playing Field
Imagine yourself for a moment as a college student, seated around a seminar table with 19 classmates. If that room was on the University of Maine campus in Orono, nine of the students at...
Leading the Charge
Our family just joined the one percent in Maine: not the wealthy elite, but the select few who own plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicles (EVs). Now we’re wondering how to invite others along. Since...
