Independent Journalist
Climate Change/Energy / Ecological Values / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published January 2, 2022 · Last modified March 30, 2022
“Sign up to stop climate change,” the mailer read: “Save the world with renewable energy.” Even simplistic sales pitches can draw in electricity consumers. Purchasing green power to accelerate the transition off fossil fuels...
Climate Change/Energy / Economics / Health / Pollution/Waste / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published December 5, 2021 · Last modified March 30, 2022
The plastic industry could soon surpass coal in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, its growing climate impact is largely unnoticed. Plastic is ubiquitous, filling stores, overtopping landfills and littering shorelines. It’s even within us,...
Climate Change/Energy / Economics / Sustainable Practices / Technology / Transportation/Travel
by Marina Schauffler · Published November 7, 2021 · Last modified March 30, 2022
Our family got an electric car two years ago and I have one major regret: I wish our previous cars could have been electric. Recalling years spent contending with the expense, pollution, noise, mechanical...
Climate Change/Energy / Ecological Values / Education/Family / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published October 24, 2021 · Last modified March 30, 2022
The leaf colors in our yard resemble a wine tasting, with shades from chardonnay to merlot. Amid this autumnal collage, incongruous pink and white cherry blossoms have emerged in response to the warm fall....
Climate Change/Energy / Coastal Issues / Ecological Values / Sense of Place / Sustainable Practices
by Marina Schauffler · Published September 26, 2021 · Last modified March 30, 2022
Along a stretch of shore I routinely visit, chestnut-gold rockweed and barnacle-encrusted rocks form a natural collage that is quintessential Maine. The sprawling rockweed encompasses two species: willowy manes of knotted wrack and the...
Climate Change/Energy / Economics / Sustainable Practices / Technology
by Marina Schauffler · Published September 12, 2021 · Last modified March 30, 2022
In the wake of Ida, a hurricane intensified by the warming climate, more than a million electric consumers in Louisiana and hundreds of thousands more households across the eastern U.S. lost power. It was...
Climate Change/Energy / Economics / Sustainable Practices / Technology
by Marina Schauffler · Published August 15, 2021
The U.S. electricity grid is a dinosaur, a huge, unwieldy relic of the past. Built with an expected lifespan of 50 years, much of its infrastructure is now more than 60 years old. Its...
Climate Change/Energy / Sustainable Practices / Technology
by Marina Schauffler · Published July 25, 2021
Switching on a light, you may not think about where that power is coming from – whether a gas-fired generating plant, biomass boiler, hydropower facility or one of the new solar farms springing up...
