Stories
Stephen Theberge grew up a few blocks from the harbor in New Bedford, Mass., and his memory of the waterway in the 1980s isn’t pretty. “It was abysmal,” said Theberge, recalling the sight (and smell) of raw sewage and garbage lapping the shores where he used to fish. One image still sticks with him: “The…
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In less than a year, an incinerator in Hartford that takes in roughly half a million tons of garbage annually is scheduled to close. But as the shutdown grows closer, there’s less and less agreement about where all that trash will go. Right now, the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) handles about one-third of…
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On a clear morning in early June, cotton sacks filled with shucked scallops hit the scale at Gambardella’s dockside warehouse in Stonington, Connecticut. They’re being offloaded from the Furious, a scallop boat just back from a 12-day trip. Owner and longtime fisherman Joe Gilbert runs four scallop boats out of this dock. Up in the…
Read MoreThe United States is poised for the birth of a brand new industry, one that will invest tens of billions of dollars in our economy, reshape our coastal communities, and one that could be one of the sharpest knives in our fight against climate change: offshore wind. It may also represent the first time truly…
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This summer, a Steamship Authority ferry will depart the terminal in Woods Hole 31 times a day. So on a recent Sunday morning, the surrounding area was packed with buses, taxis, and travelers sitting on luggage as they waited to board. “So the buses are diesel. You can smell them a little bit,” said Doug…
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Fisheries regulators in the Northeast are permanently putting some 25,000 square miles of seafloor off-limits to some types of commercial fishing, in an effort to protect sensitive deep-sea corals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a final rule this week that bars mobile bottom-trawling gear from vast deep-sea areas along the outer continental shelf…
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The emergence of the 17-year cicadas has dominated bug news of late, but in the northeastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, another cyclical menace has emerged that has the potential to do more lasting damage. Several weeks ago, Mark Boltz-Robinson started noticing that a couple of red oaks on his Vermont property were thinning…
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Fewer families are choosing burials for deceased loved ones and opting instead for cremation. It’s a funerary trend that is helping to forge a link between the Catholic Church and the solar industry. If you picture a solar field, what do you see? Probably a large open space. Flat and dry without too many trees…
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Since November, the bluff on which the weather station sits has eroded at a rate of 1.78 feet each week, on average. Now, all that stands between the building and the sea is 30 feet of sand. It’s a cruel irony: in this place where scientists study Mother Nature, she’s telling them to leave.
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Even the experts agree: no one wants to think about the sewer system. “Most people, all they care about is you flush the toilet, it goes away. You do the sink, it goes away. The water comes out, the water turns off. It rains, the water goes away. As long as it’s gone, nobody thinks…
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