Climate change “super” solutions, like increasing solar and wind power, are well underway in New England. But in a region where residents see the effects of climate change year round, everyday solutions are also essential: like how we bury our dead or get the kids to school.
For Earth Day 2023, journalists from the New England News Collaborative worked together to tell stories of people in New England who are finding unexpected and creative ways to act on climate change.
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Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News CollaborativeSalt marshes play an outsized role in fighting climate change — and they’re an important part of New England’s ecosystem. To survive, they’ll have to adapt to warmer temperatures and higher sea levels. -
Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News CollaborativeOne of agriculture’s top climate change solutions is not a new idea, but it’s starting to gain momentum in New England, a region that in recent years dealt with extreme rainfall and periods of extended drought.
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Dozens of cemeteries across New England have started offering green burials. That’s where bodies can decompose underground, without the use of embalming fluids or concrete vaults. -
Fourteen communities in New Hampshire are launching programs this spring that aim to bring cheaper, greener power to residents. -
A project in Beverly, Massachusetts offers an alternative on-demand power source in the summer: the school district uses their electric school buses’ giant batteries as mini power plants to send energy back to the grid. -
Climate change is presenting so many challenges in our regions, but residents around New England are rising to the occasion. This hour, we hear from reporters from the New England News Collaborative on new solutions to mitigating climate change. -
Construction waste clogs landfills, worsens climate change. Two women's solution: salvage it insteadIn 2017, Ann Jarosiewicz and Liz Prete left their jobs as developers and started WasteNot, a building materials recycling company on Cape Cod. Since then, they’ve diverted over an acre of hardwood flooring, roughly 570 kitchen cabinets, and 500 windows from landfills. -
Cow herd in New England is part of a study looking into different types of seaweeds' ability to reduce methane — a powerful greenhouse gas that cows release in a steady stream of burps. -
When you see a can of beer do you think of agriculture? Well, grain -- an essential ingredient in beer -- grows on farms that are usually far away from the Northeast. Now an alliance is working to build a regional grain supply chain here that supports local farmland. -
Food waste creates costly greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling it can help. -
As capacity shortages in slaughterhouses complicate business for livestock farmers, two specialty sausage makers are starting their own animal processing facility. -
The northernmost reaches of Somerset County in Maine could become one of the last strongholds of syrup production in New England.
