The world's hypoxic zones—swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms—are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise, a new study suggests.
Note: Click here to read this article in National Geographic

Saving energy on State agenda - Patrick, at MIT, talks renewables

...Mr. Patrick said the controversial Cape Wind turbine farm planned for Nantucket Sound would be “a powerful symbol of our clean energy future that could be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., right off our coast in Massachusetts.”

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Click here to read this article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

More than 40,000 individuals and organizations have submitted comments on an environmental review of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, according to federal officials.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the lead federal agency to review Cape Wind Associates' plan to build 130 wind turbines in the sound.
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Click here to read this article in the Cape Cod Times

Bird Island, a 3-acre teardrop of sand and rock at the mouth of Sippican Harbor, is shrinking with every storm that rakes the coastline. Disappearing with the tiny island is precious nesting area for endangered roseate terns.

But a cooperative effort of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, state environmental officials and Cape Wind developers aims to shore up the island's breakwater and restore critical nesting area for the endangered birds. The cost: Nearly $4 million.
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Click here to read this article in the New Bedford Standard Times

Short-term exposure to smog, or ozone, is clearly linked to premature deaths that should be taken into account when measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution, a National Academy of Sciences report concluded yesterday.
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Click here to read this AP article in the Boston Globe

...Clean-energy firms in Massachusetts, for example, currently account for more than 14,500 jobs. That makes clean tech the 10th largest sector in the state, and it's growing at a rate of 20 percent a year.  Aside from Governor Patrick's support of ecofirms, Massachusetts' House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi last month proposed allocating $50 million in taxpayer dollars to stimulate the creation of green jobs in the state.

"[Green industry] is a major part of the state economy, and it's likely only to grow," says Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs.  In addition to government support, a strong university system and local natural resources are keys to determining which states will prevail as green-industry hubs.
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Click here to read this article in the Christian Science Monitor

Harvard Business School's First Look, that summarizes new working papers, case studies, and publications produced by Harvard Business School faculty, has this entry about a new case study on Cape Wind:

Cape Wind: Offshore Wind Energy in the USA  (Harvard Business School Case 708-022)

Cape Wind is an extreme example of NIMBY—not in my backyard syndrome. This is the first offshore wind project planned for the United States, in Nantucket Sound, just south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Initially proposed six years ago, in 2001, the wind farm would be visible from Hyannis Port and Osterville, two affluent communities. The coastal residents of those towns have led a campaign in Massachusetts and in Congress to thwart the efforts of Cape Wind. This case introduces the global wind industry, the rationale for wind, and then carefully reviews the various issues associated with the project.

Click here to purchase this case from Harvard Business School 

Click here to read an Op Ed from Chuck Kleekamp and Chris Stimpson of Clean Power Now that appears on Cape Cod Today comparing the new Blue H deepwater offshore wind power proposal with Cape Wind.

A chunk of Antarctic ice seven times the size of Manhattan Island has suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, according to scientists.  Satellite images starting Feb. 28 show the runaway disintegration of a chunk covering 414 square kilometers, or 160 square miles. The ice was on the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and had been there for possibly 1,500 years.

This is the result of global warming, David Vaughan, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, said Tuesday.
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Click here to read this International Herald Tribune article

"DEVASTATED" -- Erosion on Smith's Point is accelerating and land is washing away faster than homeowners can move their houses

Of the 57 houses and cottages on Smith's Point, the ocean has unmercifully harassed 15 of them over the last five years.  Smith's Point Association President Tom Erichsen estimates that the beaches from the west end of Millie's Bridge to the south end of Massachusetts Avenue have lost around 50 feet a year in that time.

The sea's inland advance has forced one house to be relocated, with five other property owners filing for permits to do the same; has prompted the demolition of two more houses; put five more in imminent danger of encroaching storm waves and exposed half of another house's foundation. These houses - including Erichsen's own home at 34 Rhode Island Ave. - sit anywhere from zero feet to 250 feet from the beach.  "We've spent 23 years on Smith's Point, and I'm familiar with the neighborhood and with knowing people and the kids growing up there; it's devastating," said Erichsen. "This is something you don't prepare for, this is something you have to deal with. I can't speak for the other neighbors, but again they feel basically the same way. We were all aware that the south shore did erode, but the rate of erosion in the last five years has been more than we could ever imagine."
Note: Click here to read this article in the Nantucket Independent