"National Grid today released a plan to go fossil-free in order to meet Massachusetts’ 2050 net-zero climate emission targets. The company’s 'clean energy vision' is designed to transform the way the gas utility provides heat throughout its New England territory, while continuing to rely on its vast gas infrastructure. [...] By mid-century, if the company fails to change its business model, the net-zero requirements of the state climate law will essentially put it out of business. [...] The key to National Grid’s plan is using their same pipeline distribution system, but providing a different mix of gas, said Stephen Woerner, regional president of the utility: 'We eliminate fossil fuels and we replace them with renewable natural gas and green hydrogen.' Renewable natural gas — or RNG — is methane produced by decomposing organic matter. The utility plans to capture methane produced on farms, landfills and waste treatment plants and pipe it through its network. "Green" hydrogen would be produced by offshore wind farms that split water into oxygen and hydrogen, with no carbon emissions. The company envisions a new gas mix including 30% RNG and 20% green hydrogen by 2040, and 80% RNG and 20% green hydrogen by 2050. [...] Caitlin Peale Sloan, vice president of CLF for Massachusetts, called National Grid’s plan 'a false solution, just a way for the company to stay in business using their existing network of pipelines to distribute climate-disrupting gas. Any plan that still counts on burning methane is not a decarbonization plan,' Sloan said. She notes that methane, regardless of the source, is still a climate threat." Read More

"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is tasked with reviewing proposed interstate gas infrastructure projects and liquefied natural gas import and export terminals. When FERC reviews gas projects, it must consider the costs and benefits of these projects and only approve those that are in the public interest. But for too long, this balance has tilted in favor of fossil fuel companies. [...] FERC has long overlooked the environmental costs of gas projects while accepting unsubstantiated claims by industry about their alleged benefits. The agency has historically rubberstamped nearly all the gas projects that came before it, without seriously considering whether they are even needed. As a result, these projects have been vulnerable to litigation — and FERC and the pipeline industry keep losing in court. Most recently, the D.C. Circuit Court ruled in March that FERC failed to adequately assess the greenhouse gas emissions from a compressor station and gas pipeline in Massachusetts. Food & Water Watch and Berkshire Environmental Action team, a community group, filed a lawsuit challenging FERC’s approval of the project without considering climate impacts. The court agreed and ordered FERC to redo its environmental analysis. To improve its broken review process, FERC recently proposed two common-sense policies to consider adverse effects like greenhouse gas emissions and environmental injustice when it reviews gas projects. [...] Predictably, the fossil fuel industry and their political allies came out in full force to attack the new policies and pressure FERC to weaken and delay implementation of its policies. [...] Unfortunately, all of this overblown criticism worked. Just weeks after passing its pipeline policy, FERC took a step back and said it would consider changes based on industry feedback. And FERC decided not to apply it, or its proposed greenhouse gas policy, to pending projects while it takes comments and finalizes the policies. As a result, FERC may continue to approve new gas projects without a thorough environmental review or sufficient evidence that they are needed." Read More

"Peaker power plants are some of the dirtiest and most expensive sources of electricity on the grid. While many only operate during a small fraction of the year, emissions from these mostly gas and oil power plants can have an outsized impact on the health of surrounding communities, releasing dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants on days when air quality is often at its worst. Clean Energy Group’s Peaker Plant Mapping Tool provides basic information about the more than 1,000 peaker plants in operation across the United States and helps users visualize the disproportionate impact of peaker plants on people of color, who are more likely to live near the dirtiest peaker plants, and lower-income communities, where two-thirds of peaker plants are located. Upcoming Webinar: On Thursday, June 23 at 3 pm ET, Clean Energy Group’s Seth Mullendore will introduce the Peaker Plant Mapping Tool and provide an overview on how it can be used to explore the economic and racial disparities of peaker plants. UPROSE, a community-based organization fighting peaker plants impacting the Sunset Park neighborhood of New York City, and the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, who has been leading opposition efforts against multiple peakers in Western Massachusetts, will also present on the impact of peakers on their communities and the work they are doing to retire and replace fossil peakers with renewables and energy storage." Learn More

"Sir David Attenborough is a beloved broadcaster who has spent more than half a century bringing the wonders of the natural world into the homes and hearts of viewers. To celebrate his 70-year career, the UN Environment Programme awarded the 95-year-old with its Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award, the UN’s highest environmental honor. [...] Attenborough made his television debut on December 21, 1954, in BBC’s Zoo Quest, the UN said. He went on to present several influential documentary series for the network. 1979’s Life on Earth tracked the natural history of the planet and was viewed by around 500 million people. More recently, his Blue Planet II shined a light on the problem of ocean plastic pollution. He has also spoken up for the environment off the air, appearing at important summits like the 2015 climate change conference that led to the Paris agreement. In the last four years, he has become particularly outspoken about the climate crisis and the need to combat it, BBC News noted. Attenborough remains optimistic that human beings can act in time to prevent the worst impacts of their activity. 'The world has to get together. These problems cannot be solved by one nation – no matter how big that single nation is. We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them. All we lack is unified action,' Attenborough said on receiving the award, as the UN press release reported. 'Fifty years ago, whales were on the very edge of extinction worldwide. Then people got together and now there are more whales in the sea than any living human being has ever seen. If we act together, we can solve these problems.'" Read More

"I had to laugh this morning about what I witnessed just after posting about male Great Blue Herons collecting and delivering sticks for their nest. It occurred to me that I have seen hundreds of sticks being brought to nests, but I have never actually seen a heron in the act of collecting a stick. Lo and behold, today was my lucky day. At least one heron came up with an extremely efficient and energy-saving strategy for accomplishing this task. Being largely fish eaters, herons typically raise their young in wetlands where food is plentiful. Many of these wetlands are created by beavers, who set up housekeeping there as well. Herons owe not only their habitat to beavers, but also, in this case, their nesting material. A veritable goldmine of sticks is right underneath the heron nests, free for the taking right in the middle of the heron rookery in the form of a beaver lodge. Fortunately for the beavers, there is a limit to the size of the stick a heron can carry." Read More

"A survey of 10,000 young people found that climate change is causing severe 'eco-anxiety' in young people around the world. Climate news — like the grim UN reports of global warming intensifying— is ripe for 'doomscrolling,' a toxic habit of despairing over seemingly endless social media and information overload. Young climate activists in New England — which is heating faster than most regions of North America, studies show — are taking action in their local communities and at the state level, working to raise awareness of climate legislation and sustainable lifestyles in hopes of forcing structural change both global and local. According to research from a coalition led by the Yale School of Public Health, collective action helps combat symptoms of anxiety due to climate change. Sarah E. O. Schwartz of Suffolk University in Boston headed the study. 'Our findings about climate activism are promising as they suggest that engaging in climate activism may not only help address climate change but also may have individual psychological benefits,' Schwartz said. [...] 'There’s a lot of anxiety about climate change and I think people need to understand there is a solution, there is a way out of this, and there is a way to live around this problem. I think social media is a big sort of ease into the new world we’re gonna live in,' said Asad Syed, a 9th grader at Fairfield High School in Connecticut and mastermind behind the 7-episode series of educational videos on the harm of industrial farms." Read More

"...Bees are facing catastrophic declines. In North America, nearly one in four native bee species is imperiled, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, partly because of habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and urbanization. Lawns typically provide poor habitat for bees. But if allowed to flower, lawn weeds — perhaps better characterized as plants other than grass — can provide rare spring food for bees emerging from hibernation. [...] Appleton’s No Mow May initiative had a clear purpose: to save the bees — and not just honeybees (which are European imports), but also native bees, such as bumble bees, mining bees and sweat bees. [...] Two assistant professors at a local liberal arts college, Dr. Israel Del Toro and Dr. Relena Ribbons of Lawrence University, knew that No Mow May was popular in Britain. They wondered if the initiative might take root here, too. They began working with the Appleton Common Council, and, in 2020, Appleton became the first city in the United States to adopt No Mow May, with 435 homes registering to take part. Dr. Del Toro and Dr. Ribbons studied the impacts of No Mow May on Appleton’s bees. They found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species than did mown parks. Armed with this information, they asked other communities to participate." Read More

"...for wildlife, roads and structures – even fences around parks and other green spaces – represent barriers to the daily and seasonal movement they rely upon for survival. [...] Science has taught us that species and ecosystems can only thrive as part of large, interconnected networks. These networks can consist of parks, forest remnants, and other natural areas connected by ecological corridors. We all benefit when corridors allow animals to move and natural ecological processes like pollination to continue uninhibited. [...] Wildlife corridors come in several shapes, sizes, and types. Many are migration corridors that herds have used for thousands of years or riparian corridors that naturally follow a river or stream. Other corridors were repurposed from former uses. [...] One type of human-made structure is gaining popularity as a way to restore connectivity: wildlife crossings like bridges or tunnels designed to help wildlife safely cross roads, railways, and canals. Corridors can serve many purposes for wildlife, including seasonal migration, finding food and water, and access to mates to maintain genetic diversity. They can also provide ecosystem services such as increased water quality, human benefits like recreation, and advantages for agriculture such as pollination, pest control, and erosion protection. In addition, corridors can increase resilience to climate change. Animals and plants react to the effects of climate change – for example, the drying up of a water source – in only three ways: move, adapt, or die. Corridors can allow species and natural communities to respond to climatic changes and move to more suitable habitats. While many natural corridors still exist, the rapid increase in human development means that, more and more, humans need to proactively design and protect corridors. Because corridors can potentially serve so many purposes, the design of corridors must consider many factors to increase the chance that connectivity goals will be achieved." Read More

"Your March photos still included many snowy scenes, but a cheering number of spring sights as well, including spotted salamanders, trailing arbutus, osprey, and a beautiful comma butterfly. Michael Thiel shared a stunning scene, and a great explanation, of a wooded salt pond in Rye, New Hampshire. In Northfield, Vermont, Susan Stillinger captured an image of a fisher in the process of investigating a porcupine den. Also in this collection: a handsome merlin, a mouse track 'loopdeeloo' and a remarkable shot of a beaver tail 'pre-slap.'" See More Photos