Local wildlife affected by heavy rains, flooding

When heavy rains inundated parts of the state on July 10 and 11, much of the damage done to homes, businesses and public infrastructure was clear to see. 

Most everyone by this time has heard about cattle emitting methane from their digestion of grass. Very few have heard mention of the same from deer, goats, sheep, woodchucks, chickens and rabbits, among others. Strictly grass-fed cattle are said to emit a … (read more)

The Legislature last week achieved several milestones on the way to reducing climate pollution — even in the face of Gov. Phil Scott’s best efforts to keep Vermont stuck in the age of fossil fuels.

At the end of last year I finally took the plunge and purchased an electric car. I have felt conflicted about the purchase ever since.

For more than 20 years, Elderly Services has been offering an array of community programs featuring local experts, various Middlebury College professors, authors and others through our Lifelong Learning program, ESI College.

In the past week, three of the legislative session’s biggest climate bills passed out of their second chamber, and are likely to head to the governor’s desk soon. 

Asa Caleb Crane was born a few weeks ago. He came into the world with a full head of hair, and on first impression an undeniable charisma, a full array of important moral virtues, and a calm but determined approach to the new world in which he found himse … (read more)

While conservation and efficiency are important components of an overall strategy to get to our GHG reduction goal, we can’t get to an 80% reduction by conservation and efficiency alone.

It is widely understood that cutting mature forests is bad for the climate. Last year the public responded with over 1,300 comments against logging and less than 100 in favor. This was a record.

The Vermont Council on Rural Development is seeking applicants for its fifth Climate Catalysts Leadership Program.

The unusually balmy winter has affected some local businesses whose offerings rely on cold weather and reflects a larger trend of warming winters driven by human-caused climate change. 

Anyone paying attention to the relentless stream of “natural” disasters around the world knows that we need to make big changes to how we make and use energy, and we need them yesterday.

The past year has brought its fair share of weather-related challenges for Vermont farmers. Following summer floods and a damaging spring frost, growers around the state saw their crops devastated, feed stores depleted, and faced a variety of other obstac … (read more)

Herpetologist Jim Andrews has received some particularly noteworthy news — accounts of reptiles and amphibians active in late December, a time of year when those creatures have typically gone dormant for the winter.

We don’t want to say it’s part of the new normal, whatever that might mean, but it’s no coincidence that these freakish storms are related to higher-than-normal global temperatures with a climate changing faster than anticipated.