Stories
When Nelson Orr, 70, retired from his job as an X-ray tech at a Boston hospital, he knew what would come next. He and wife moved full-time into their gray-shingled beachfront home in the town of Barnstable, embracing its original exposed beams and decorating with an old wooden carousel horse in the entranceway. “This is…
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People living on and off the coast of New England will soon be at a greater risk from flooding due to heavier rain and rising seas caused by climate change. Global warming will put more pressure on the federal flood insurance program, which is already overstretched, prompting an overhaul to be completed later this year.…
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For Earth Day 2021, NHPR reporter Annie Ropeik hosted a roundtable of reporters from the New England News Collaborative for a special episode of NHPR’s The Exchange. They highlighted innovations and signs of progress in tackling climate change in New England, as well as the issues that are top of mind. GUESTS: Daniela Allee – NHPR reporter…
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In New Hampshire and much of New England, climate change is already causing a lot more of what’s sometimes called winter whiplash — rapid freeze-thaw cycles, from unusually warm to bitter cold and back again mid-season. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire are working to learn more about how this affects ecosystems and people.…
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Standing in front of her three-level house in Somerville, Lena Sheehan looks down at the construction of a new high school and transportation hub just a block away. “I can’t get over it, I haven’t been here in so long,” she says. “This is the new T — isn’t that brilliant, right beside the house.”…
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The rain started just before Mother’s Day, in 2006. It fell for days over the Merrimack Valley, causing the worst flooding in decades. Water reached to rooftops. Pipes burst in Haverhill, pouring millions of gallons of sewage into the rising Merrimack River. Streets flooded, highways closed, thousands of people evacuated their homes. Andy Vargas was…
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Catastrophic damage from climate change threatens coastal homes all over the Cape, and Islands, prompting regional planners to eye managed coastal retreat options Whenever a beachfront home goes on the market in Sandwich, it’s going to draw dozens of prospective buyers. “So this is all private beach, which people just love. They want their privacy.…
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At the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in northern New Hampshire, the pandemic broke a decades-long streak of field research. Now, scientists there are adapting with new technology – recording the sounds of the forest, which they hope will transform their long and influential record of a changing world. In late fall, Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres…
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The impacts of climate change could prompt millions of Americans to relocate in coming decades, moving inland away from rising seas, or north to escape rising temperatures. Judith and Doug Saum have moved already, recently leaving their home outside Reno, Nev. “It was with a view of the Sierra [Nevada Mountains] that was just to…
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