Male fiddler crabs are small, with one oversized claw. Photo by David Samuel Johnson.
Nine years ago, I stood on the muddy banks of the Great Marsh, a salt marsh an hour north of Boston, and pulled a thumb-sized crab with an absurdly large claw out of a burrow. I was looking at a fiddler crab – a species that wasn't supposed to be north of Cape Cod, let alone north of Boston.
As it turned out, the marsh I was standing in would never be the same. I was witnessing climate change in action. Read more.
NPR reports on the increasing growth of the blister-causing vine right here in Massachusetts - turns out it loves hotter temps and air with more carbon dioxide.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum canceled its evening hours yesterday "due to a planned protest by climate activists that would put our community and collections at risk," the museum's director said in e-mail to museum supporters. Read more.
CommonWealth whets our interest in "managed retreat" - the idea that as sea levels continue to rise, the long-term answer might be to move homes and other buildings away from the water, rather than trying to build seawalls or other measures, for example, for Hampton Circle, an area in Hull with water on two sides.
Mayor Wu signed an executive order that will ban the use of natural gas and heating oil for any new city buildings or existing facilities that undergo extensive repairs. Read more.
Glub: A man who never moved from the Custom House would need air tanks in a storm by 2070, report says.
Tyre Extinguishers, a British group whose preferred method of fighting climate change is to deflate the tires of large vehicles, says it let the air out of the tires of 43 vehicles on Beacon Hill last night. Read more.
Possibility for a Fort Point Channel barrier. See it larger.
A consultant hired by the Boston Water and Sewer Commission is recommending a new barrier system where Boston Harbor meets Fort Point Channel, to keep rising sea levels and more intense storms from letting the ocean reclaim what was once South Bay - a large swath of Dorchester, South Boston and Roxbury. Read more.
King tides always a good time to kayak on Long Wharf. Photo by Adam Castiglioni.
The BPDA board last week agreed to spend $880,000 for a consultant to study ways to make Long Wharf, which now floods during particularly high tides, more resilient in higher tides - from water slopping over the end of the wharf and belching up through a storm drain further down, near the Chart House. Read more.
Eric Bender reports on a City Council hearing last week about what happens as seas continue to rise and storms grow more intense.
They probably won't be visiting the Tea Party Museum or the Samuel Whittemore memorial, though. But like one of their grandparents, they will be greeted at Boston City Hall before riding off to Somerville (in a limo, no doubt, rather than the Green Line Extension) to visit the home of dozens of climate tech startups.
Two of the seized barrels.
State Police report arresting five Extinction Rebellion climate-change protesters they say were getting ready to use several pink 55-gallon drums outfitted so they could lock arms through them to make traffic even worse than usual this morning on the Leverett Circle Connector and on the ramps that connect to it. Read more.
Mayor Wu said today she wants Boston to join a state pilot that would let the city ban the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating and cooking in new construction or major renovation projects. Read more.
What part of the Emerald Tutu could look like. Source.
Researchers at Northeastern University are testing a way to protect Boston from storm surges caused by climate change by deploying thousands of biodegradable mats that would grow marsh grasses on top and seaweed below to absorb some of the energy from the surges before they could slam into Boston's low-lying areas. Read more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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