Urban development used to bury nature to build cities. Beginning in the early 20th century, Baltimore, Maryland, gradually covered a stream called Sumwalt Run with streets, sidewalks, and stormwater drains. The city needed to make room for housing and cars, and turning a river into a sewer system was expedient. Out of sight, out of mind.
Our Global Future in the 21st Century is based on "The Third Industrial Revolution" which finally connects our new ICT infrastructure with distributed energy sources that are both renewable and sustainable
PROVINCETOWN – After over a year of drafting, Provincetown has released its Coastal Resilience Plan, a data-driven framework for protecting the town’s people, economy, and infrastructure from …
Urban development used to bury nature to build cities. Beginning in the early 20th century, Baltimore, Maryland, gradually covered a stream called Sumwalt Run with streets, sidewalks, and stormwater drains. The city needed to make room for housing and cars, and turning a river into a sewer system was expedient. Out of sight, out of mind.
A Senate proposal could force the sale of 3 million acres of public lands for housing, sparking backlash from conservationists, tribes, and outdoor advocates.
The Trump administration is finally going to spend a decent chunk of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds—but it’s going to be used to build an immigration detention center in Florida. An
Ecotourism is often hailed as a sustainable alternative to traditional travel—an opportunity to explore unique environments while supporting local communities and conservation efforts. Yet beneath its green image lies a more complex and often troubling reality. When poorly managed, ecotourism can inflict more harm than good, undermining the very ideals it seeks to uphold.
The ecotourism industry has emerged as one of the fastest-expanding sectors within global travel. According to the Global Ecotourism Network, in 2023, eco-travel accounted for an estimated 20 percent of the international tourism market, with projections indicating continued double-digit annual growth. In 2023 alone, the global ecotourism market was valued at over $200 billion. Economic predictions estimate that the market could reach between $759 billion by 2032 and $945 billion by 2034.
Despite this rapid growth and economic promise, ecotourism enterprises have faced significant criticism from conservationists and researchers.
MASHPEE, MA – Potentially toxic algae blooms have been identified at Mashpee and Harwich ponds, triggering warnings for visitors. The Association to Preserve Cape Cod’s monitoring pro…
SANDWICH – The Heritage Museum & Gardens in Sandwich this past week celebrated the grand opening of its new Barbey Family Welcome Center with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by communi…
Environmental scientists and conservationists have been slow to embrace artificial intelligence tools, in large part because of the enormous amount of electricity the technology demands. But that, some say, is slowly changing as the potential benefits of AI become clearer. “I’m not a huge AI fan. If I can avoid it, I do, because I […]
BOSTON – A federal judge in Massachusetts said Wednesday he plans to deny a motion by the Trump administration to dismiss a lawsuit over its blocking of wind energy projects, siding with a co…
Americans have long enjoyed the practical and romantic aspects of the West. The West has provided us with minerals, timber, energy and space to roam freely for generations. We have a wonderful asset in the West — our public lands — which are owned by the people of the United States and held in trust […]
I celebrated Eid Al Adha this year on Lagos Island, or Isale Eko as it’s commonly known. I was overstimulated by the loud music, the smell of raw ram meat, and the constant attention of family members and well-wishers coming to greet me due to my hyper visibility, making me stick out like a sore thumb. I popped in my AirPods to block out the noise and played Wordle on my phone.
Next to me was a young 10-year-old girl, who was watching me play the game over my shoulder with an increscent level of curiosity. I could tell she wanted to play, but was apprehensive to ask if she could join my game, probably assuming that I was an unfriendly foreigner. I quickly explained the game to her, tactfully explaining what the green, yellow, and grey blocks meant, and to my surprise, she guessed the word on the first try. This was a word I was stuck on. Impressed by her aptitude and intelligence, I quickly congratulated her.
The young girl asked if she could play again, but I explained to her that Wordle is a daily game, and they release a new game every day. I absentmindedly said, “You can ask your mum to play on her phone tomorrow, it’s called Wordle”. She replied back saying “My mum doesn’t have an iPhone”. I understood her to mean a smartphone and a wave of horror and shame came over me, firstly, how could I just assume that her mum has a smartphone, and secondly, why did I also assume that her mum would let her use it to play Wordle, then sadness flooded me as I awkwardly thought back to my second iPhone that I left at home. My privilege was blinding me.
Fast & Furious for kids + how AI hallucinates academic citations (Issue #348)
Climate dread is everywhere: the panic, the guilt, the looming sense that nothing we do is enough. But what if that mindset is part of the problem? What if urgency alone can’t carry us forward?
Eco-spirituality suggests that caring for the environment isn’t just political or practical — it’s sacred. Wildlife filmmaker and naturalist
Gonzalo Kern describes this practice as living in rhythm with the natural world. He writes about watching birds, composting scraps, sitting with decay. “A mysticism of the obvious,” he calls it. Attention becomes devotion. When you stay close to what’s alive, the impulse to control or extract begins to fade.
OCALA, FL (352today.com) – It was once billed as one of the largest civil engineering projects in Florida history. The Cross Florida Barge Canal, a massive undertaking that aimed to connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean via a 107-mile inland shipping route, promised to reshape the state – and Ocala was meant to be a key player in its transformation.
But like many ambitious dreams of mid-century development, the canal was stopped mid-dig. Today, it stands as one of Florida’s visible and controversial “what ifs” – a project that literally left a scar on the landscape and still sparks debate decades later.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus on “Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers,”by Caroline Fraser, which argues that lead poisoning might have created a generation of serial killers.
Watch Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation Intern, William Penni, as he explores the region's efforts to combat climate change. Hear about his journey of learning from local experts and how he’s preparing to shape his future career in environmental law.
The ceasefire between Israel and Iran seems like it’s holding, and oil prices have come way down over the past couple of days. Brent Crude fell by nearly 10% on Monday, and it’s spent Tuesday hovering below $67 a barrel.
But the cost of moving that oil around has been moving in the opposite direction. From Singapore to New York, the folks who buy and sell oil are betting Iran will not close the strait of Hormuz, and oil prices show it.
“You’re pretty much right where you were the day before Israel attacked a couple weeks ago,” said Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
The NAACP and an environmental group say the gas-fired turbines powering Elon Musk's Colossus supercomputer lack permits and are polluting the community.
President Trump posted two things on his social media platform this morning: One calling for “everyone” to “keep oil prices down” and another calling on the Department of Energy to “drill, baby, drill.”
With the caveat that that’s not how any of this works, oil prices have risen a bit in the last few weeks, since Israel, and then the U.S., attacked Iran. And higher prices could benefit U.S. oil companies — which, despite the president’s rhetoric, have been reluctant to increase domestic oil production in recent months.
Before crude prices began rising earlier this month, there was already a lot of oil on the market, and OPEC countries were talking about increasing supply even more. The outlook for global economic growth, and oil demand, was shaky, said Hugh Daigle at the University of Texas at Austin.
In the aftermath of the disastrous floods of 2023-24, FEMA is expected to provide over $200 million in capital assistance to Vermont's local governments. This won't be money for debris cleanup. These funds have been and will be used for concrete and stone, rebuilding storm drains and bridges. That $200+ million adds up, effectively, to "a generation of investment," Michael Gaughan, Executive Director of the Vermont Bond Bank, told me recently. The federal funds equal almost 40 percent of Vermont's total outstanding debt burden (~$640M) for the 170 local governments the state's Bond Bank serves, money that has been borrowed over decades.
If FEMA is "phased out” as President Trump plans, states that don't have other resources to draw on will be scrambling to fill gaps. Given the massive costs involved in repairing or replacing infrastructure, states will be highly likely to continue to rebuild exactly what's been knocked down, according to Gaughan, rather than investing in structures built to withstand future climate effects—like roads on higher ground, or more substantial culverts, or new communities away from floodplains.
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