Maine just took a big step forward on climate. Last week, Governor Janet Mills announced a bill that could make significant progress toward addressing our climate crisis by drastically reducing climate-damaging emissions while growing our state’s economy.
As I prepare to launch CLF’s Waterkeeper boat this season, I’m reminded that the Great Bay–Piscataqua Estuary is at the heart of what makes the Seacoast region so special. But our estuary is at a tipping point, with too much nitrogen polluting the water. Learn how you can just us to fight for clean waterways on the Seacoast this summer.
“The devastating impacts of climate change are at our doorstep,” said Greg Cunningham, Vice President and Director of CLF’s Clean Energy and Climate Change program. “Drastically reducing our climate-damaging emissions is the only way to avert these looming economic, social and environmental disasters. This bill will push Maine to do just that. After eight years with a climate denier in the governor’s office, we have real climate leadership from Governor Mills.”
“We need to get lines out of the water if we are going to protect the North Atlantic right whale,” says Emily Green, a lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), one of several groups suing the federal government for better protections of the whales, protections that they say are mandated by the Endangered Species Act.
Plastics are everywhere, and they aren’t all recyclable. Until there’s a new system that creates a structure for using less plastic from the beginning, here’s a handy guide to what can and can’t go in the bin.
Check out the winning artwork from CLF and Bow Seat’s Healthy Whale, Healthy Ocean Challenge. This art contest invited K-12 students from the New England and Gulf of Maine regions in the U.S. and Canada to use their creative voices to highlight the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and the need for conservation of marine ecosystems and resources.
“Based on the experience in other locations in Maine where dams have been removed, the increase in these fish populations will bring eagles, osprey and heron back to the Presumpscot as well as other wildlife,” the statement says. “Opportunities for sport fishing, as well as recreational canoeing, kayaking and boarding will open up as well.”
American recycling is in a crisis. But this crisis is a chance to create a better system for tomorrow. Today’s products and their packaging are often made from plastic and designed for disposal. By holding the producers of those products accountable for their polluting products, we can create a system that’s better for our communities and better for our planet.
“It is imperative that we act now to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have any hope of avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change,” said Sean Mahoney, Executive Vice President and Director of CLF Maine. “Replacing energy from polluting fracked gas plants with hydropower will reduce emissions at the scale necessary to make a difference in New England.”
Seven new North Atlantic right whale calves are migrating with their mothers and other whales back up the east cost into New England and Canadian waters. But this journey is full of threats: ship strikes, noise pollution, and entanglement in fishing gear all threaten their survival. We must work to make our oceans a safe and welcoming place for right whales.
