Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, discusses the organization’s recent report, which showed that many of the Cape’s coastal waterways fail to meet basic water quality standards.
In a major win for endangered North Atlantic right whales, a federal judge ruled that gillnet fishing gear must be removed from 3,000 nautical miles of ocean waters in southern New England. Opening the areas to gillnet fishing without considering harm to right whales violated the Endangered Species Act, and the gear must be removed until the required analysis is complete.
“It’s really unconscionable that the system allows this to continue,” said Caitlin Peale Sloan, also a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “These forever chemicals enter your body, and don’t leave, and they compound. Protecting the public from these chemicals should be an urgent concern.”
Our environment is drowning in a flood of single-use packaging.
“Finally, this is the bold action we’ve been waiting for from the MBTA,” said Staci Rubin, Senior Attorney at CLF. “The region clearly needs people to ditch their cars and get onto trains before our highways turn into parking lots. Electrifying the commuter rail, especially in communities serving environmental justice populations, will go a long way in making that a reality. Fares must also be affordable for all so that riding the rails is a cheaper alternative to getting in the car.”
We’re updating our electric grid for the 21st century.
Offshore wind is a crucial element of New England’s clean energy future, and Massachusetts has been betting big on this new industry. So despite the Trump administration’s delay of a promising project, Massachusetts is still moving forward with this critical source of local clean energy.
This is part three of a three-part series on the current state of Atlantic cod in New England. Part three explores how a warming ocean is making problems caused by poor management worse. Read part one about the challenge of inaccurate data here and part two on decades of bad management here. The climate crisis… Continue reading Give Atlantic Cod a Break: The Role of Climate Change
Over the last few years, the push to get food waste out of landfills and incinerators has become the new kale. Or cupcakes. Or bone broth. You get the picture. And rightfully so! As a nation, we waste a staggering amount of food every year: about 40 percent of what we produce. That’s more than… Continue reading Are You Composting Yet? If Not, Now Is a Good Time to Start!
Officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service declined to comment on the ruling. The lead plaintiff in the case, the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, praised the decision. “Expanded fishing in a right whale hot spot flies in the face of the Endangered Species Act,” said Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at the foundation.
