The Changing Face of Electricity Generation
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...
Author: Marina Schauffler
Taking the Future into Their Hands
The climate crisis is disrupting more than ecosystems, economies and societal infrastructure. It’s inverting the normal developmental progression from youthful optimism to an acknowledgment of limitations with advancing age. Older people – with diminishing...
The Next Solar Frontier
Shortly after passage of a 2019 bill, construction of community solar farms began ramping up in Maine and the search for subscribers began. These farms hold great potential to help Maine transition off fossil...
Wind: The Overlooked Wild Card in Climate Change
The 1,157 wildfires that occurred in Maine during 2020 included a fire at Baxter State Park that was controlled after 45 acres had burned. Since wind-driven fires tend to be most damaging,wind speeds are...
Investing in Place
The balance of deposits in Maine’s financial institutions is roughly $45 billion. That figure raises an obvious question to experts in socially responsible investing like Scott Budde, who runs Maine Harvest Federal Credit Union:...
Launching a Sustainability Accelerator
As the Maine Climate Council concluded work on its climate action plan last November, one legislator issued what Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cape Elizabeth) recalled as a “plaintive plea: ‘We have to figure out how...
Ending the ‘Silent Spring’ on Commercial Forest Lands
In timber operations, like this one in Allagash, herbicides are typically applied after clearcutting to kill emergent hardwood species and foster growth of planted forests. Photo by Hilton Hafford. At a public hearing...
Conserving Land to Save Our Future
The ethereal refrain of the white-throated sparrow runs through memories of childhood. My own children have rarely heard its call. Bird populations in the U.S. have plummeted since 1970, with 1 in 4 birds...
