When it comes to meaningful wedding memories, small is beautiful
When the editor of Source invited a column for this sustainable weddings issue, I confess that my reply was flippant: “Can’t people just elope?” In terms of low environmental impact, a courthouse...
View ArticleWe live in a wired world, ignoring potential threats from our devices
When the topic of cellphone safety arises, common responses harken back to grade school – stopping just short of the fingers-over-ears intonation “I can’t HEAR you!” Our addiction to these captivating...
View ArticleSubsidizing solar power in Maine would cost us each less than $5 a year
It was not a morning for sunny-day optimism. Intermittent snow showers pelted down and a raw wind buffeted us as we stood in a long-abandoned pasture. Yet strangely, we felt warmed by a sense of...
View ArticleThe incredible shrinking lawn: It’s a movement that should grow
The lawn at our house is disappearing nearly as fast as delectable desserts do. Our half-moon metal edger has a big appetite. It nibbles back turf to enlarge perennial beds. It carves around the...
View ArticleA new approach to community food systems integrates conservation-minded land...
Nourishing food should be critical staple in every Maine kitchen, but it is not. One in four Maine children struggles to get enough to eat. The number of Maine residents who cannot consistently afford...
View ArticleTime has come to care for water like it’s precious
Even in a spring dry by Maine standards, it’s hard to envision how parched some places can become. Water scarcity is increasingly coming to define landscapes and lives. By the start of 2015, NASA...
View ArticleSupermarkets reject imperfect produce that could be eaten. Crazy!
Who is not amused by a two-legged carrot or an eggplant with a ski-jump nose? Gardeners don’t expect perfection or uniformity, especially when growing organically. Yet supermarkets claim they can sell...
View ArticleHit pause on a Maine sustainable farming seal of approval
Certifying farms for sustainability is an appealing idea. The bureaucrats in Augusta who hatched this plan for Maine undoubtedly envisioned nothing but positive outcomes. A state seal of approval for...
View ArticleOrganizers of sailing regattas make a wind-powered sport even greener
When Atlantic Cup contestants raced into Portland last month, ending their 1,000-mile journey from South Carolina, eyes turned to the sleek boats, huge sails and podium winners. Few spectators noticed...
View ArticleSkip the AC; here’s how to keep yourself – and the planet – cool
It has been a summer to savor – with an abundance of sunny days, dry air and invigorating breezes. The searing heat waves afflicting other parts of the country and globe can seem like shimmers of a...
View ArticleYour clothing and the Earth will thank you for cool laundry habits
Laundry lore passes down through generations. My grandmother shared a tip for removing fruit stains that I still use and have taught my children. (If you don’t have this priceless tip in your family’s...
View ArticleClimate change makes hurricanes, and predicting them, more challenging,...
As a child, Kerry Emanuel was captivated by thunderstorms – planting himself by windows to watch them. He has followed that meteorological passion through decades of research and teaching at the...
View ArticleSimple steps to save, for you and the planet
A recent skim of the book “365 Ways to Live Cheap!” made me realize that, without ever trying, I have mastered the art of being a cheapskate. That long list of tips sounded all too familiar. Like most...
View ArticleMaine heirloom apple trees bear satisfaction today, fruit for future years
“Pick your way through these piles of colorful orbs… and you will get a sense of the many things an apple can be, the many roles it can play in our lives. If there is one particular lesson the apple...
View ArticleAbsence of life on Maine shoreline brings grief and hope for action
I walk the shore in a place I have known longer than memory stretches. There are wide expanses of rugged beach, a tide-tumbled assortment of small rocks, sand and crushed shells. From afar, it looks...
View ArticleTalk about death with your loved ones before you think you have to
“I could see that they were slowly leaving the sphere of TV commercial old age… and moving into the part of old age that was scarier, harder to talk about, and not part of this culture.” – Roz Chast,...
View ArticleIn post-fact society, emotions and ideology increasingly squelch scientific...
It’s been a long campaign season, and many of us are ready for a respite from barbed political banter. So let’s take a high-altitude look at what this looming election might mean – for our planet....
View ArticleIs Portland, or any place, a place to avoid climate change? That’s a dream
“The man who is often thinking that it is better to be somewhere else than where he is,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “excommunicates himself.” The same might be said for those who ask, as Jonah Engel...
View ArticleUnder a Trump presidency, environmentalists must hang on to hope
“I hold one share in the corporate earth and am uneasy about the management.” — E.B. White, “Sootfall and Fallout,” 1956 Not long after the election, I fell down a 5-foot rock embankment. Losing my...
View ArticleMake season of giving more peaceful by letting go of stuff
It’s always an ironic postscript to Thanksgiving: the raucous Black Friday stampede at the starting line of a monthlong shopping marathon. How quickly our gratitude for blessings descends into a...
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