Metaboston

Otters Return to the Charles

In another sign that the Charles River is becoming healthier otters have been seen in the Charles River near Needham.

They are not found in areas that are contaminated or polluted," said Norman Smith, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton. Improved water quality and wetlands preservation have sparked a resurgence of river otters, which, at least in Massachusetts, are not on endangered or threatened lists.

Inside the Big Dig House

 

A visit to the Lexington house constructed from discarded Big Dig materials, now under new ownership.

[T]he Big Dig House features a tour de force of reused material: steel columns, beams, and concrete for its frame and floors from the demolished I-93 off-ramps. A painted 27-inch wide girder from the walls of Storrow Drive even helps brace the roof. Concrete roadway was reused for the floor, and the home uses radiant heat which supplements modern Runtal radiators. The home's strong steel and concrete frame can support two roof gardens, including a Japanese garden with trees over the garage.

(Image:  Single Speed Design, the house's architects, who have a lot of interesting information about the house on their site.)

E. Coli in the Charles River: The Movie

An animation model of e. Coli moving through the Charles from Ferdi Hellweger.

Oysters to Eat Charles River Sewage

The effort to clean up the Charles River turns to 150,000 oysters to consume the ... sewage in the Charles River.

"[The] colony of seed oysters should grow at an inch per year. If they're lucky, they'll live as long as a decade. As it eats, an oyster can filter 30 gallons of water per day, [project organizer] Jay said. The shellfish potentially stand to process 3 million gallons of sewage-tainted liquid every 24 hours, slowly purifying the Charles.

Free Online Course from Mass Maritime Academy

The course on maritime pollution is an experiment from the Academy

Students can begin enrolling in late September, with all tuition paid by the grant for the first two cohorts. To earn the certificate, students will complete a sequence of five, three-credit courses designed to raise environmental awareness within the maritime industry, both at sea and ashore:

• Ecological Consequences of Marine Pollution
• Marine Pollution and Vessel Engineering Systems
• Marine Pollution and Deck Operations
• Legal Issues in Marine Pollution
• Public Relations, Pollution, and the Maritime Industry

While the course isn't for everyone it shows how online education and free online education is really proliferating.

Harvard Square's Wind Turbine

In a symbolic gesture, Harvard will install a wind turbine above the Holyoke Center in Harvard Square.

The turbine will be a symbol of green aspirations at Harvard more than a highly productive energy asset

Harvard is planning to install small-scale wind turbines on top of the Holyoke Center and a parking garage, according to a media report.

While the wind turbines are not expected to generate a significant amount of electricity for Harvard, they will function as “outward symbols of our commitment to renewable energy and sustainability here on campus,” James Gray, associate vice president for Harvard real estate services told The New York Times.

Interestingly, the Holyoke Center itself was built to improve a passageway that was described as a "wind tunnel." (Image of the Holyoke Center by Paul Kelleher)

Is the Atlantic Wolffish Endangered?

Boston's Conservation Law Foundation thinks so and wants to protect this unusual fish whose jaws can snap broomsticks and has an "antifreeze element" in its blood but are vulnerable to fisherman who drag nets across the sea floor trying to catch other fish.

Boston Greenfest 2008

Boston will hold its Greenfest focusing on ways to increase sustainable efforts around the city with lectures on topics like green architecture and economics on the schedule.

Info:
Time:  September 26-27, 2008, 10 am - 5 pm
Location:  City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
Cost:  Free

Global Warming Increases Lobster Supply

Another contributing factor in falling lobster prices:  increasing supply as lobsters benefit from global warming.

“Lobsters, crabs, squid, and other invertebrates are becoming more common while populations of bottom-feeding fish are plummeting, according to a long-term trawling study of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay.

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Scientists from the University of Rhode Island (URI) say rising sea temperatures linked to global warming is the primary cause of shifts in the abundance and types of species living in the bay and adjacent Rhode Island Sound

Lights Out for Boston Buildings

Boston is turning off the lights in its skyscrapers in an environmental stunt that will be of help to migrating birds that can be confused by city lights.

"The program is also timed to take effect during the fall's migratory bird season, when many bird species are thrown off course by lights emanating from skyscrapers along the East Coast. A top executive at Mass Audubon, which helped plan the initiative, said scientific studies have documented the impact of city lights on migratory birds, spurring several major cities such as Chicago and Toronto to institute lights-out policies.

"We have an incredible array of birds that migrate along the East Coast, and it's clear the bright lights confuse them and cause them to circle or run into buildings," said Laura Johnson, president of Mass Audubon. "A lot of species are threatened, so if we can do anything to help them along the way, then we should do it."

Somerville ArtBeat: July 18-19

The theme of this year's ArtBeat festival in Davis Square is "Green" emphasizing sustainability and biking.

"Green can convey many things: the environment; greed and money; newness and growth; and the Green Line T coming to Somerville. We hope to explore questions like: What is our relationship with the natural environment? How can nature inspire creativity and artistic production? How can we protect and preserve our natural world? Other interpretations of the theme might evoke questions like: How can money shape, support or corrupt artistic production? How might the Green Line coming to Union Square shape urban development and design?"

Urban Gardening at Providence Artspace Firehouse 13

Sarah Zurier set up Green Zone, a "wartime" garden installation, at Firehouse 13 in Providence.

"America has a long tradition that links cultivating gardens on the homefront to wartime conservation. Posters and other propaganda from World Wars I and II show Uncle Sam urging Americans to grow their own food in Victory Gardens. On the other hand, in the aftermath of September 11 and throughout six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Uncle Sam says: "Go shopping." The message persists in 2008, via stimulus checks from the IRS, despite worldwide food shortages and record-high food prices.

Green Zone at Firehouse 13 is an organic vegetable, herb, and flower garden planted in the detritus of wartime consumption: old tires, shopping bags, shoes, and other repurposed containers. The plants are mostly leafy (herbs, kale, beet greens, lettuce) or develop their fruit underground (radishes). Most of the tires were pulled out of the Woonasquatucket River during the Earth Day cleanup in April 2008.

Green Zone grows all summer long. Firehouse 13 residents will share its produce. Stop by anytime this summer, and look out for Provflux V, August 7-11. Special thanks to Southside Community Land Trust for starting many of the plants from seed"

Edward O. Wilson's Novel and Other News

79-year old Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who caused controversy in the '70s with the idea (now conventional wisdom) that genetics influenced human behavior) is at work on his first novel and causing new controversy with the idea of group-level selection that "natural selection operates at many levels, including at the level of a social group" rather than with genes alone.

Fishers: Aggressive Weasel Species in the Suburbs

Once hunted for their fur, fishers were re-introduced to northern New England to help control porcupines.  Since their reintroduction they've been spreading out as far as Rhode Island, Connecticut and suburban Boston.

"Sinewy, with bushy tails and beady eyes, fishers weigh 5 to 15 pounds and live on land and in trees. They are mainly carnivorous, typically eating squirrels, mice, voles and other small animals, as well as nuts and seeds. Fishers are also one of the porcupine’s few enemies, killing it by attacking its snout and flipping it on its back.

“Fishers are pretty vicious,” said Michelle Johnson, the animal control officer in West Greenwich.

The fisher belongs to the mustelid family, which includes weasels, otters and wolverines. It has the aggressive, carnivorous temperament of a wolverine and can climb trees like a marten. Like weasels, a fisher will kill multiple animals at a time in a confined space. Fishers are nocturnal and not easily spotted."

Although fishers can be dangerous to small pets and livestock they aren't a threat to humans.

"In suburban Lexington, Mass., officials hung fliers in the common area of a condominium complex urging residents to keep cats and small dogs indoors because a fisher was spotted in nearby woods. In Northborough, Mass., officials put a warning in the newspaper asking that residents seal all garbage cans and refrain from putting out food for animals." (Image:  Fisher by John James Audubon)

Herring in the Charles

Mark Jaquith notes herring have returned to the Charles River to make their annual run.

"If you go down to the south coast of Cambridge these says you can see this year's herring run in progress. It looks the best run in several years. There aren't nearly as many fish as I used to see in the 1990's, and orders of magnitude below numbers seen before the river was dammed and polluted.

If you go to the dam just upstream from Watertown Square, you can see them trying to jump the dam and swimming up the fish ladder. It is a pretty cool sight. There are hundreds of fish below the dam trying to get over. You can see them trying to swim up Laundry Brook from the footbridge on the south bank. Also present are dozens of herring gulls and cormorants taking advantage of the traffic jam."

He also points to an interactive map of the current herring run (image above).

Burt's Bees, Roxanne Quimby and the Fight Over Maine's North Woods

After Roxanne Quimby grew Burt's Bees into a giant business (and sold it to Clorox) she searched for a mission in life and found it in buying vast swathes of land in Maine for a future national park:

"Most of Roxanne's red rectangles are east of the park. She is stitching her own crazy quilt. These are plots of land she has bought. There are others she hopes to buy. Some are scattered and separate. By bargaining and swapping, she is trying to put together a whole. In concert with RESTORE, what she has in mind is a national park. "I feel like my reason for being put on this earth will have been fulfilled because this will live on after me. A park is a demonstration that there is something in America that I can love," she says, her counterculture philosophy re-emerging. "It's very democratic: A Mexican immigrant or a millionaire, for 10 bucks, they both get the same experience.""

In the process Quimby has stepped into the contentious feuding over whether the future of Maine is the declining forest industry or a growing tourist economy which depends on outsiders.

"By the summer of 2007, Roxanne Quimby had spent $39 million to purchase 80,000 acres of wilderness. Nearly 65,000 acres of it lies between Baxter State Park and the East Branch of the Penobscot River. To her mind, a park is the only reasonable destiny for this land: "If we leave this to chance, we will not have the opportunity to make decisions about what happens next."

In the process of making these purchases, Roxanne gobbled up hunting grounds, snowmobile trails, and some beloved primitive camps that families and hunters had passed down through generations. "I own it now," she proclaimed. "Buying the land also means I am buying the right to call the shots."

Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs on Emissions Auction

Ian Bowles, the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and greenhouse gas emissions auctions.

"Later this year, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states will hold the nation's first auction of greenhouse gas emissions permits. Congress should take note: this market-based, technology-neutral auction is a model for how to encourage power generators to limit their emissions. And it could provide the foundation for a federal-state partnership to revolutionize energy use.

Auctions make sense. When Europe first tried regulating greenhouse gases under a cap-and-trade program, in 2005, it gave away, or "grandfathered," emissions permits to its power generators, which made modest changes in their operations and then sold the permits to others at a premium. The result: windfall profits for the power companies. Europe is now switching to emissions auctions and plans to finance programs promoting climate protection, economic growth and energy security with the proceeds.

These Northeastern states, members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, stand to raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually that can be used to help residential and business customers make the equipment upgrades that will allow them to live and work with less electricity. This will be a welcome investment. But imagine how much more money such auctions could raise if they were conducted by the federal government, and how much we would help the environment if a big chunk of the proceeds were devoted to reducing energy use and curbing emissions in all 50 states."

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"Here in Massachusetts, we have cut the annual growth in electricity demand by nearly one-third. Through rebates, incentives and low-interest loans, we've helped business and residential customers reduce their energy consumption and save money at the same time. As a result, Massachusetts has one of the highest gross state products per unit of energy used in the country.

Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders here are also trying to create a new electricity marketplace where energy efficiency competes directly with power generation to meet growing demand at the lowest cost. That's why Massachusetts is upending a century-old rate structure that rewards utilities for selling as much electricity as possible - an incentive profoundly at odds with curbing greenhouse gas emissions."

Phone Book Spam

Why do we get piles of phone books dumped at addresses around the city when there is increasing concern about generating waste and carbon footprints? 

Because they contain ads that the phone book companies have sold.  The mass delivery of phone books then is basically junk mail or very heavy spam.

"For those who don't want it, there is little recourse. Unlike services that let consumers sign up for no-call lists to stop cold-calling advertisers, it's not so easy to avoid getting the phone book. Some directory companies have phone numbers that residents can call to stop phone book deliveries to their homes, but the numbers can be hard to locate. And governments say they are constrained in imposing blanket restrictions.

"It's a First Amendment issue," said Sharon Gillett, commissioner of the state Department of Telecommunications and Cable. "How are they different from free newspapers or political fliers?"

They could enforce a requirement that directory companies need to pick up any unused copies after a reasonable period and of course there is a difference between commercial and political speech.

Crowd Farm is a project to harvest the energy of people tromping around designed by two MIT architecture students.

Crowd Farm is a project to harvest the energy of people tromping around designed by two MIT architecture students.  "It's a responsive sub-flooring system of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps, [one of the students James] Graham says. If such a system were installed beneath a train station's lobby, for instance, the slippage of blocks against one another as crowds of people walked would generate electricity-producing power."  Will it benefit from increased obesity?

Vermont Leads the Nation: In Nuclear Waste per Resident

Vermont's small population and the presence of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant means that it has achieved an unwelcome statistical distinction.  Although the total nuclear waste in Vermont is projected to be 1.3 million pounds that adds up to 2.15 pounds per person, enough to lead the country.   (Heavily populated Massachusetts has 0.23 pounds per person.)

Cape Wind Book Skeptical of Project Opponents

Mashpee resident Wendy Williams's new book (with Robert Whitcomb) takes a look at what lies behind the controversy over the Cape Wind project to build a wind farm  in Nantucket Sound off the Cape.  She claims that a prime reason for  the project's uncertain status despite the increasing need for clean energy is the adamant opposition of rich summer residents like Ted Kennedy, Bunny Mellon, Bill Koch, Walter Cronkite and David McCullough to the disruption of their views.  An interesting article about what looks to be a fascinating book.  In some ways not surprising as NIMBY is often a key motivation in opposition to all kinds of necessary projects and contemporary windmills have a bit of a cold science-fiction appearance that contrasts sharply with the old-fashioned Cape and Islands aesthetic.