Stories
The Connecticut River after Tropical Storm Elsa looked like a chocolate milkshake. And the reason is pretty gross: rainwater runoff and raw sewage. This dirty water makes its way into rivers because of century-old infrastructure called “combined sewer systems,” which merge stormwater and household water into one big pipe. And when it rains a lot,…
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Data has replaced oil as the world’s most valuable resource. But increasingly, our data is stored remotely “in the cloud” and climate change — challenging the resilience of the internet — puts access to our data at risk. Urban planner Duane Verner learned just how vulnerable our data are in the climate-changing world. When the COVID-19…
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Benny Lantigua has a deep connection to music and his work. At 12, he started selling auto parts with his uncle. When he got his first paycheck, he had a sense that he’d start something special. Lantigua owns Opus Lounge in Nashua, and has plans to start another business. This is a story of how…
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The world needs to get to net-zero carbon emissions by the 2030s to have a chance of avoiding the worst effects of climate change. That’s the stark message delivered in a sweeping report on the current scientific consensus on climate, released Monday by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report’s scope is global, but here are…
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On the shores of Lake Lashaway in central Massachusetts this summer, you’re likely to find kids frolicking in the sun, making pottery, fishing or talking to friends. It sounds like it could be any summer camp. But this is the Camp Atwater, founded 100 years ago as one of the first — if not the…
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Residents and business owners have been complaining about syringes littering the streets of some Boston neighborhoods for years. Perhaps nowhere more so than the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston — often called “Mass/Cass.” But a new program to clean up the needles appears to be making a difference. The program, known…
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After a Sunday service at the Church of God Christian Life Center in Dorchester, parishioners trickled into a pop-up clinic in the back room, where a nurse from Boston Medical Center prepared a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine for Irlande Aime, who fidgeted nervously in a folding chair. The 34-year-old Dorchester resident…
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On a farm in South Glastonbury, a tractor idles. It’s one of the most iconic farming inventions of the late 19th century, a tool that was invented shortly before Donald Preli’s grandfather came from Italy and started Belltown Hill Orchards. Now, more than 100 years later, Preli said a much newer invention could revolutionize farming…
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Close your eyes for a second. Listen. What do you hear? Do you notice the hum of a refrigerator? Are cars driving by? Kids yelling and playing? This is a soundscape. The sonic environment created by — and creating — the place where you are. “Our soundscape tells us a few things right away,” says…
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