The Miyawaki Forest is one of the most promising developments today in the fight against climate change. “Miyawaki Forest” is a term for a dense urban pocket forest filled with native species of trees, shrubs, and grasses. It is named for Akira Miyawaki, the famed Japanese botanist who is no longer with us. As a…
None of us are strangers to the reports of the Gulf of Maine heating 97% faster than the world’s oceans. However, the actual reasons for this can be lost in the constant headlines about global warming and rising greenhouse gases. To explain this extraordinary phenomenon, let’s look closely at four factors: surface seawater temperatures, heat…
The anchor chain clinked and clanked through the hawsehole on the Dutch tall ship Oosterschelde until the large anchor set into white coral sands turned periwinkle blue by clear ocean waters. At first light, the volcanic mountains of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) had stepped out of the mist, turning from blue to green as they…
Introduction / Overview The Shaftsbury Solar Project is in Shaftsbury, Vermont, saddled between Hale Mountain and Harrington Cobble, on a property with 182 acres of mostly gently rolling fields and forests. Approximately 104 acres have been proposed for development into a solar electric generation facility. Solar panels for 20 MW electric generation will be placed…
With climate change, a 1% increase in watts per square meter of heat energy is warming the ocean, causing seawater to swell, currents to flow stronger, and greater storms to rage. Ancient Greeks believed Oceanus, the ocean river, separated the known world from the unknown where sea monsters like the Kraken dwell. The ocean remains…
Last summer, Boston suffered more than 20 inches of rain. This record, set when the weather service began rainfall records in 1872, was only surpassed in 1955 when two hurricanes brought 25 inches of rain. An estimated 1.5 billion gallons of water sluiced off the land, overwhelmed sewage treatment facilities, and surged raw sewage into…
The tall ship Tecla, a Dutch North Sea sailing herring dragger built in 1915, was bound for Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. It was tied by three heavy hawser lines to the ferry quay in Ullapool, Northwest Scotland, a town of white-washed buildings packed together for the herring fishery. We were ready to sail…
Consider the Earth Rehydration Drought Relief Carbon Offset Fund to fight climate change, increase climate resiliency, minimize human environmental impacts, and restore nature. The fund takes a two-pronged approach. The first part of the Fund focuses on slowing water down and restoring natural water cycles. In natural areas where the ground is covered in healthy soil,…
