Category: Environment

Working Waterfront

For Maine, here comes the sun

Maine’s climate goals are to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. The residential sector accounts for the second-highest source of emissions in Maine (after transportation), making up almost 20 percent of the state’s carbon pollution. Solar power is one of many options… SEE MORE
The steamship “Victorian” is in front of the Taku Glacier in 1900.

Working Waterfront

Why thawing permafrost matters to Maine

As I sit watching the moon rise above the Alaskan skyline and mighty Taku Glacier, I can’t help but wonder how many years into the future this great ice mass will remain. Recent research suggests up to 60 percent of Taku will be gone in the next century if our climate… SEE MORE
Stonington harbor. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Lobstermen’s Association sues over whale rules

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in early September against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Secretary of Commerce in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the federal government’s ten‐year whale protection plan. The suit claims the plan will all but eliminate the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The Maine coast, 50 years ago

Thanks to the Farnsworth Art Museum for use of these photos shot by George Tice in several Maine coastal towns in 1971.     [caption id="attachment_28820" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bertram Peabody and son clam digging on Beals Island, 1971.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_28821" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Painted lobster buoys, Stonington, 1971.[/caption]   [caption… SEE MORE
A lobster boat cruises past some of Portland’s wharves in late fall. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

GMRI to buy Portland’s Union Wharf

The past and the future of Portland’s working waterfront will be melded together when the Gulf of Maine Research Institute completes its purchase of Union Wharf from the Poole family, owners of the historic wharf since at least 1861, later this year. GMRI announced the impending purchase on Nov. 15.… SEE MORE
Václava "Vendy" Hazuková poses withi senors used in her research.

Working Waterfront

UMaine student studies Greenland lakes

Next April, Václava “Vendy” Hazuková will go to an arid, treeless area in West Greenland to solve a puzzle. It’s not known how lakes there contribute to Arctic carbon cycling — the process in which carbon atoms move from the atmosphere to the Earth and back. Where carbon is —… SEE MORE