Category: Conservation and Climate
A significant majority of voters in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic want their states to take decisive action to combat pollution and expand clean transportation options through a regional collaborative, the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), according to new polling from ClimateNexus Polling. Between November 9 and 15, 2020, ClimateNexus polled 3,818 registered voters in the […]
Maine releases comprehensive, detailed four-year Climate Action Plan Climate change is already threatening our health and safety, our quality of life, and our economy. All of Maine experienced drought this summer. Our beloved Allagash River had extremely low water levels, and the Maine Forest Service put out a record 910 forest fires. Shorter, warmer winters […]
The Great American Outdoors Act fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually in perpetuity and provides funding to address a $20 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects at national parks, forests, and other public lands. After decades of advocacy, members of Congress and supporters should be cheering this victory, but […]
November 12, 2020 (Augusta, ME) — Three conservation groups have asked a federal judge to halt Central Maine Power’s (CMP) premature plans to begin construction on its controversial transmission line. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), and Sierra Club Maine filed a motion for preliminary injunction to prevent work beginning […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PLEASE CONTACT: Colin Durrant (NRCM), [email protected], (207) 200-4412; Susan Arnold (AMC), [email protected], (603) 664-2050; Becky Bartovics (Sierra Club), [email protected], (207) 390-0393 Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), and Sierra Club Maine are challenging the Army Corps for failure to rigorously assess impacts of the controversial transmission corridor on […]
Maine organizations receive $1 million federal grant to protect over 13,000 acres of wildlife habitat 3 federally Endangered, 3 federally Threatened, 6 state Endangered, 4 state Threatened species to benefit. Portland, ME September 18, 2020—Four Maine conservation organizations will share a $1 million grant from the federal North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) to conserve […]
A photo posted on the Mount Washington Observatory’s Facebook page this month shows a particularly hazy sunrise resulting from smoke that drifted east from West Coast wildfires. In 2018, California’s wildfire season brought higher death counts, greater financial destruction, and longer burning seasons—a record that has now been surpassed by this year’s devastating West Coast […]
Released from factories, powerplants, and vehicles, toxic particles and chemicals can have detrimental effects on both human health and the environment—yet it wasn’t until 1970 that the United States started regulating how much of these pollutants can be emitted into the atmosphere. Today, scientists are still learning about the long-term effects of air pollution, […]
Fifty years ago, Congress passed arguably the most important environmental and public health legislation to date: the Clean Air Act (CAA). By setting emissions standards for vehicles and industrial factories, the act has removed harmful, airborne pollutants in and around cities, as well as improved the air high above sea level. Georgia Murray, AMC’s […]
The greenhouse effect has caused the Earth’s average temperature to rise 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since such records were first kept in the late 19th century. This may not seem like a significant increase, but even incremental climate fluctuations can and do affect many facets of life on Earth, from where we live to where we […]
Most birds start singing just before sunrise, and in June, that means 4 a.m. Dave Cowan had already cleaned up his campsite and was close to the summit of Maine’s Baker Mountain when he heard a flute-like “shreee.” “It was a Bicknell’s thrush,” Cowan, a longtime volunteer for the Vermont Center for Ecostudies Mountain Birdwatch […]
Each winter, when snow blankets a normally mild region of the country or a polar vortex sinks large swaths of America into a deep freeze, the questions begin. They mostly boil down to a central idea: If the climate is warming, then why is it so cold outside? These questions, even when asked in […]
Nearly all scientists agree: the global climate is getting warmer. According to NASA records, Earth’s average surface temperature has risen 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century. All but one of the 16 hottest years in NASA’s 134-year record have occurred since 2000. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more […]
Measuring a person’s carbon footprint includes a number of factors. Choices we make, from the food we eat, to the products we use and industries we support, to the distances we travel, play into the amount of greenhouse gases we add into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, […]
Every day, the average American family uses 300 gallons of drinking water, for consumption, bathing, cooking, laundry, and other household chores, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Where that water originates and how it is cleaned are questions we rarely consider, though, and we forget that much of the process starts at the […]
Whether it’s a bag stuck in a tree or a bottle floating in a pond or stream, litter of single-use plastics is not only an eyesore; it is damaging to the natural environment, endangering our trails and waterways. Each year, the nonprofit Break Free from Plastic—a “global movement working to stop plastic pollution for good”—sets […]
AMC purchased its first parcel of land in Maine’s 100-mile Wilderness in 2003. Today, AMC owns nearly 75,000 acres of land in the Maine Woods, achieving landscape-scale conservation goals, creating a new outdoor recreation destination, partnering with local communities on economic development and environmental education, and inventing a new model for land ownership that is […]
The 1960s were a time of reckoning for humans’ relationship with the planet. The world population ballooned, straining resources. Three centuries of unregulated industrialization and urbanization had poisoned Earth’s air, waters, plants, and wildlife. Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book, Silent Spring, awakened the nation and its leaders to the ecological hazards of agricultural pesticides. […]
The arrival of spring has brought many new changes to our environments: flowers are in bloom, trees are growing leaves, and animals are arriving in our backyards. Here are a few of the common plants and animals you’ll see in the Northeast this spring and some fun facts about them. Honeybee Honeybees communicate with their […]
AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative now encompasses nearly 75,000 acres of forest land in the 100-Mile Wilderness region. While timber harvesting on a portion of these lands provides the major source of revenue to defray the costs of land ownership, AMC has also invested in an additional source of income to support land conservation—forest carbon offset […]