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Latest climate stories

As climate change increases tick populations, vaccine development, tick control efforts lag

Pfizer just completed a major step in its Phase 3 trials for a Lyme disease vaccine. Several other tick-borne illness vaccines are in the early stages of development.

Where can you see the Perseid meteor shower without light pollution? You’ll need to drive farther than you think.

For those who live in the city, light pollution is a given. But data show that all over Eastern Massachusetts, lights disrupt optimal viewing of the night sky, even on quiet suburban streets.

Vineyard Wind lays out cleanup plan for damaged turbine, but doesn’t say when wind farm will resume spinning

GE Vernova, meanwhile, is running a comprehensive check of all its Haliade-X style blades.

In the path of Debby, Vermonters brace, again, for flooding

The Northeast Kingdom has already been hit by flooding twice in less than a month. Now, residents are preparing for a third storm.

The Perseid meteor shower is this weekend. It could be one of the last times we see it.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend, raining as many as 75 meteors per hour across the night sky. But as light pollution worsens, advocates worry: How many more of these will be visible in Massachusetts?

Featured projects

As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines

Despite increasingly urgent international warnings, fewer Massachusetts residents see the climate crisis as a very serious concern than they did in 2019, a new poll from MassINC and the Boston Globe shows.
The Lobster Trap: Part 1

The lobster trap

The plentiful catch that brought wealth to fishing families is at risk, as climate change warms the Gulf of Maine. A way of life is on the line, but lobstermen can't, or won't, imagine another.
Climate change on Cape Cod

At the edge of a warming world

The flexed arm of Cape Cod has challenged the power of the sea for centuries, but the contest has escalated. Climate change is altering our vacation paradise in myriad ways, perhaps forever. The message in the sand is clear — if only we will look.

Accountability

Broken wind turbine blade, nearly the length of a football field, settles on ocean floor off Nantucket, officials say

The turbine was undergoing testing when it was damaged, Vineyard Wind said.
INNOVATOR Q&A

Founded by Newport socialite Doris Duke, this organization is keeping history alive while addressing climate change

The Newport Restoration Foundation in Rhode Island is still focused on historic preservation of Colonial homes, but isn’t hiding the effects of climate change on the seaside city.
PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

In her new book, the New Yorker environmental writer traces the history, present and future of climate change to get people to understand ‘it is coming for everyone.’

Boston’s defenses against rising seas lean on private development. What happens when the money dries up?

Several flood-protection projects like sea walls, berms, and elevated land are tangled up in large developments that now face slowdowns.

Climate Science

Tick-borne illnesses exploded in New England with climate change. Here’s how to protect yourself.
Climate change has brought new ticks to the region and allowed our native ticks to thrive.

MIT ice flow study takes 'big' step towards understanding sea level rise, scientists say

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

Politics and Policy

EPA awards $4.3 billion to fund projects in 30 states to reduce climate pollution

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine will get a total of $450 million to accelerate adoption of cold-climate heat pumps and water heaters.

Plans to redevelop pier on East Boston’s waterfront park scratched for now

The Trustees of Reservations is considering alternative sites for a green space in the neighborhood.

‘Why can’t they work together more?’: In Rome, Healey and Wu partner on tackling climate change. At home, not as much.

Outside the speeches and appearances at Vatican City, Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu are two different leaders who have different visions for the best way to tackle climate change.
CHESTO MEANS BUSINESS

On housing and energy, Healey’s big plans collide with local resistance

The governor is facing blowback from town officials on some of her top priorities, which could imperil their progress in the Legislature.

An interactive look into climate change

How Massachusetts feels about climate change in 12 graphics

The percentage of Massachusetts residents who believe climate change is as a very serious concern has decreased since 2019. That’s just one finding from a new poll conducted by MassINC Polling Group for the Boston Globe.

Maps: These parts of Boston, Revere, and Quincy are vulnerable to rising sea levels

One measure of a warming planet and human-caused climate change is rising sea levels, which Massachusetts’ coastal towns are increasingly grappling with.

Boston’s ‘heat islands’ turn lower-income neighborhoods from hot to insufferable

In a recent city report, officials noted that temperatures in leafier neighborhoods are often significantly lower than in more densely populated areas.

How-Tos

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

How to convert your home into a small power plant, and make your money back doing it

FOOD & DINING NEWSLETTER

Coffee has a serious carbon footprint. One R.I. brand is trying to do things differently.

More Climate stories

Indigenous history lies buried in far downeast Maine. The race is on to preserve it.

As climate change leads to higher seas, archeologists are racing to understand and preserve what they can before the ocean takes it away.

Fisherman captures whale ‘putting on an absolute show’ in Dorchester Bay

“It just sounded like something crashed in the water... I didn’t really understand what it was at first, it was a giant splash,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

RHODE MAP

‘Is it OK to have a child amid the climate crisis?’: R.I. Senator Kallman addresses the ‘Impossible Question’

State Senator Meghan Kallman, a Pawtucket Democrat, and Josephine Ferorelli have written a book titled “The Conceivable Future: Planning Families and Taking Action in the Age of Climate Change,” which recently won a Nellie Bly Book Award for journalistic nonfiction.

More federal money coming to help green New England’s energy grid

The award will go toward upgrades to the region’s electric grid to accommodate the arrival of offshore wind power and improve battery storage in Northern Maine.

INNOVATOR Q&A

R.I. startup is developing eco-friendly building materials from corncobs and cannabis waste

EcoForge is a startup in Rhode Island developing affordable and sustainable building materials.

From Brockton to Andover, teens are mobilizing to create climate solutions in their local communities

As climate anxiety rages among teens and young adults, many are turning to local activism as a way to push back against feelings of helplessness.

Mass. prides itself on being a leader on climate issues. So what happened to the climate bill?

What troubles many in the state’s climate community is that up until the bill failed, it had seemed so likely to pass.

It’s electric! In Boston, buildings are testing cutting-edge technology to transition fully to renewable energy.

From solar batteries to wind-powered heating systems, some local building owners are testing the latest green technology.

Opinion

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

In her new book, the New Yorker environmental writer traces the history, present and future of climate change to get people to understand ‘it is coming for everyone.’
IDEAS | JENNIFER NASH

A flock of birds gripped my hand — and pulled me back into the fight against climate change

Leila Philip

Let beavers get busy fighting fires — and climate change

Carroll Muffett

The world can’t recycle its way out of the plastics crisis

Michael E. Mann and Wanjira Mathai

UN IPCC report can lead governments to the climate action door, but they must walk through