Getting brighter about LED bulbs
“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” biologist Barry Commoner wrote in 1971, proposing that as one of four “laws of ecology.” We’ve had decades to absorb that lesson but it still...
Category: Pollution/Waste
Grieving Big Changes along Maine’s Shore
I walk the shore in a place I have known longer than memory stretches. There are wide expanses of rugged beach, a tide-tumbled assortment of small rocks, sand and crushed shells. From afar, it...
Lightening Your Laundry’s Load
Laundry lore passes down through generations. My grandmother shared a tip for removing fruit stains that I still use and have taught my children. (If you don’t have this priceless tip in your family’s...
Serving up Wonky Veggies
Who is not amused by a two-legged carrot or an eggplant with a ski-jump nose? Gardeners don’t expect perfection or uniformity, especially when growing organically. Yet supermarkets claim they can sell only flawless produce...
Saving Water without a Drought
Even in a spring dry by Maine standards, it’s hard to envision how parched some places can become. Water scarcity is increasingly coming to define landscapes and lives. By the start of 2015, NASA...
Solar a Sound Investment Compared to Fossil Fuels
It was not a morning for sunny-day optimism. Intermittent snow showers pelted down and a raw wind buffeted us as we stood in a long-abandoned pasture. Yet strangely, we felt warmed by a sense...
Decoupling Christmas from Consumerism
It was only two weeks ago, but I’m already nostalgic for Thanksgiving. I miss that tranquil time when nearly everything shuts down, and the only agenda involves the communal preparation and enjoyment of harvest-time...
Buy Less
There’s nothing quite like a camping trip to remind you just how many disposables have crept into your life, even when you thought you were being vigilant. You pare down to essentials for a...
