Mayor Wu announced a pilot this fall in which 20 buses that now run on diesel fuel will be replaced by buses that run on rechargeable batteries. Read more.
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Climate change
By adamg - 11/22/21 - 1:44 pm
Mayor Wu today signed an ordinance - which she helped draft as a city councilor - to have the city sell off any securities it holds in companies that make at least 15% of their revenue from fossil fuels, tobacco or private prisons. Read more.
By adamg - 11/10/21 - 12:03 pm
New development doubling as a flooding barrier.
The Flatley Co. has filed broad plans for a proposed 25-acre development between Medford Street and the Mystic River that will feature buildings as tall as 22 stories - on a site raised 22 feet above water so it can double as a barrier to protect hundreds of acres well inland of its own holdings from the sort of flooding researchers now predict for 2070 as sea levels continue to rise. Read more.
By adamg - 10/26/21 - 10:23 am
WBUR provides an overview of a report that found emissions of potent greenhouse gas methane are six times higher than state figures suggest in the Boston area - and that things haven't gotten any better in recent years.
By adamg - 9/23/21 - 12:00 pm
The BU board of trustees voted yesterday to begin selling off the university's holdings in fossil-fuel companies, school President Robert Brown announced today. Read more.
By adamg - 8/26/21 - 10:07 am
CommonWealth reports on the lawsuit against what would be the nation's first large offshore turbine farm by some Nantucket residents - with financial backing from an out-of-state group that claims its main goal is "protecting individual liberty."
By perruptor - 7/14/21 - 1:10 pm
Boston is ranked 6th in the country for worst heat islands. Read more.
By adamg - 7/1/21 - 8:57 pm
A federal appeals court today gave the Conservation Law Foundation permission to proceed with its suit against ExxonMobil over alleged violations of the Clean Water Act at a petroleum facility in Everett off a small tributary of the Mystic River - including an alleged failure to study the potential impact of increased flooding caused by climate change on the riverside plant. Read more.
By adamg - 6/15/21 - 9:19 am
MBTA officials used to worry about Green Line flooding from the tiny Muddy River, but they might have bigger things to worry about, like the Atlantic Island flooding the Blue Line via Belle Isle Marsh, WBUR reports.
Say, isn't that right near the planned Suffolk Downs mega-development? Why yes, yes it is, but they've got a plan for that.
By perruptor - 4/14/21 - 8:33 am
The National Weather Service has abandoned the weather station at Chatham, and will demolish it. Accelerated erosion due to climate change threatens to dump the station into the ocean.
By adamg - 11/16/20 - 3:13 pm
Adam Castiglioni took a walk down to Long Wharf today - just not all the way to the end, since it was covered by water in a king tide.
Meanwhile, down in Dorchester, Morrissey Boulevard was completely flooded: Read more.
By adamg - 11/9/20 - 9:16 pm
The Fort Pointer captured artist Zy Baer at work on what will soon be Fort Point Channel's latest art installation, Polarity, which will show a future in which the channel floods and rises until only the upper floor and copper cornice of a building remains above water. Read more.
By adamg - 9/19/20 - 4:34 pm
Shortly after high tide, around 1:15 this afternoon, Jonathan Berk photographed seawater "coming up through the storm drain on a perfectly sunny day" way back on Long Wharf, by the Chart House.
By adamg - 5/11/20 - 1:05 pm
Boston areas that could see sea water in the streets in coming decades.
City officials are looking at a possible zoning overlay that would require homeowners looking at extensive renovations consider how to deal with seawater flooding that will come as sea levels continue to rise and storms intensify, and they've developed some possible guidelines for retrofitting those most Boston of dwelling units: Triple deckers. Read more.
By adamg - 2/19/20 - 3:13 pm
The Washington Post, which has lots of ex-Bostonian staffers these days, takes a long look at what Boston's trying to do to stave off rising sea levels now that we've apparently rejected plans to build a giant dam around the harbor. Naturally, while Seaport buildings lay in "aqua fences" to keep themselves dry, "there are no sea walls where most of Boston’s poorest residents live," although it does note the city's planning for a new seawall along Day Boulevard and a re-do of Moakley Park to turn it into a giant sponge during really high tides.
By adamg - 12/6/19 - 10:51 pm
MassLive.com reports the protesters wouldn't move from Gov. Baker's office and were arrested on trespassing charges.
State Rep. Nika Elugardo (D-Jamaica Plain), reports people can send donations to help with bail, transportation and food costs on Venmo at @SunriseBosJailSupport
By adamg - 9/27/19 - 10:48 pm
Extinction Rebellion shut the Congress Street Bridge at rush hour this afternoon in a protest over climate change. Among the protesters: Women dressed as lobsters (photo by Chris Walton). Read more.
By adamg - 9/20/19 - 2:17 pm
Thousands of high-school students and more than a few adults from across the Boston area jammed City Hall Plaza today as part of global climate-strike protests. Read more.
By adamg - 6/18/19 - 10:03 am
Bloomberg BusinessWeek takes a look at the booming Seaport at sea level at a time when sea levels are rising and reports that the newly opened Martin's Park, in addition to serving as a memorial playground for Martin Richard, is also the first in what could be a series of raised surfaces aimed at protecting the area from climate-change-induced flooding.
City officials have proposed spending up to $1 billion on a series of berms, seawalls, raised surfaces and dunes to protect the Seaport and other vulnerable parts of South Boston.
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