Environment and Outdoors

From Portland to Norway and Bar Harbor, thousands of teens across Maine left their schools Friday to demand action on climate change.

The Conservation Law Foundation says Maine Gov. Janet Mills "walks the walk" when it comes to climate change. Recently she slammed the Trump administration's move to restrict states' ability to regulate their own air quality.  Maine Public's Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz spoke with Mills about what steps she's taken - beyond creating a climate council - to deal with climate change in Maine.

More and more schools in Maine are adding solar power to their renewable energy mix. The solar panel array that's just been installed on the roof of Mount Desert Island High School is the largest so far on a public high school in Maine, and will provide more than enough power to meet its demands. Student supporters of the project are hoping that others will be encouraged by its example.

It's often reported that the Gulf of Maine's waters are warming faster than 99 percent of the largest saltwater bodies on the planet. But scientists will tell you the trend can be volatile. This year, for instance, surface water temperatures in the Gulf have been their coolest since 2008. That may be providing some relief for some of the Gulf's historic species, but ongoing climate change means that long-term prospects are still uncertain.

A new report in the journal Science indicates that the number of birds in North America has declined by several billion in the past 40 years. The findings, released Thursday, suggest that bird numbers are declining more rapidly than previously thought. And researchers are pointing a finger at habitat loss and climate change.

This week we’ve been reporting on climate change and its effects on Maine, but there are those who dispute that climate change is real or that it is caused by human activity. To help depolarize the debate, The Nature Conservancy has created a how-to guide for talking with family, friends or colleagues who doubt the reality of climate change.

State Director Kate Dempsey spoke with Maine Public’s Ed Morin for Here and Now:

In case you haven't noticed, heavy downpours are increasing in the northeast. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, they've increased by 70 percent since 1958. A heavy downpour is defined as a storm that produces two or more inches of water in 24 hours. And as temperatures warm, scientists are predicting that they'll become more frequent and intense.

In northern Maine, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs has for decades been trying to protect important tribal cultural resources, including traditional foods, from pollution. And warming temperatures are expected to further that threat. But the Micmacs and other Maine tribes are taking steps to adapt.

This summer’s media coverage of several dogs that died shortly after swimming in water tainted by toxic algae has brought public attention to the phenomenon of algal blooms. Federal agencies consider them an emerging public health issue and a major environmental problem across the U.S.

In August, the Pew Research Center released a poll showing a sharp increase in the number of Americans who view climate change as a major threat to the well-being of the country ⁠— from 40 percent in 2013 to 57 percent now. And it is of particular concern to Democratic voters, as reflected by the emergence of climate change as a leading issue in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Humans have been tilling the soil for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, we've mostly been focused on what we take out of it - bushels of wheat, barrels of apples and so on. But as researchers learn more about how soil and its organic components actually work, it's become clear that farming has a role to play in climate change.