Articles
Timber, Coal, Oil and Wind
But a generation of innovation, and road building throughout New England opened up a new energy source for the expanding urban population. Remote hillsides throughout western Massachusetts, southern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were stripped of timber, which was then buried in shallow pits and set afire. The charcoal produced from New England’s woodlands produced
Ice Cutting Weather
Only once in my recollection during these years has the ice party been cancelled due to warm weather-a layer of slush developed between snow cover and surface ice, which made transporting the blocks impossible. Otherwise, we have consistently put up a ton or so of ice into a sawdust-lined icehouse in a barn in Blue
Rigidity is bad for the knees
I don’t know what it is about politics, but it is the single subject area that stirs the most intense passions among us. Although similar in most every other respect–background, education, business orientation, family values (all still married and happy), we are evenly divided politically across the right-left spectrum. Three of us listen to talk
The Green Hardhat
It is undoubtedly more than just a coincidence that within the space of a few short weeks, Forbes magazine ranked Maine 50th among states as the worst business environment in the U.S. and then voters turned out of office many of the state’s political leaders and ushered in a new wave of politicians who have
Open Letter to the Readers of The Working Waterfront
Recently the Island Institute’s role in the Fox Islands Wind project has been questioned by some of the wind farm neighbors and others in various media reports. It might be of interest to readers of The Working Waterfront to understand the role the Island Institute has been asked to fulfill in this project. More than
May E.B. Forgive Us
I knew that the white-footed deer mouse is one of three common small rodents of the Maine islands, along with its close cousins, the meadow vole and the red backed vole, both of which look rather mouse like, but have quite different ecological “niches.” This is a fancy way of saying they divide up resources-
Long View: Veritas, or does anyone remember Joe the Plumber?
The panel consisted of a cosmologist (not to be confused with a cosmetician), a New York City civil libertarian, a Los Angeles filmmaker, and a science writer and community organizer(me). The cosmologist/astronomer’s groundbreaking theories on the expansion of the universe had been verified by the exceptionally stirring images returned by the Hubble space telescope. But
Objects in the Mirror: The Island Wave
Those who travel back and forth from an island to the mainland frequently often find themselves repeatedly experiencing “back-to-the-future” moments when you cannot remember which planet you are on. You might be driving down a country road on the mainland perhaps listening to a radio program or lost in thought about some how to deal
Long View: Ocean wind coming to a coast near you
Coal came to the Maine coast as an industrial fuel beginning in the 1880s, when railroads linked the coalfields of West Virginia and Appalachia with the seaport at Newport News on the Virginia coast. This new source of energy also brought wrenching economic changes. Steamships that burned coal transformed ocean transportation, driving even the fastest
Object in Mirror: What does it take to sustain an island way of life?
This past weekend I was asked to speak at a “Creativity and Innovation Conference,” focused on “How We Started – From Idea to Impact,” organized and hosted by students at Middlebury College. It was a beautiful fall day down in the little valley beneath the Green Mountains that cradles the Vermont town and the college