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Telegram & Gazette |
June 17, 2021
In many cases, the growing climate threat to affordable housing units was not accidental. The federal government's redlining practices codified segregation and community inequities, including environmental ones.
"These things happen either by design or neglect," said Assistant Professor of Environment and Public Health Lorena-Estrada Martinez. "It is not by coincidence that these redlined zones are the places where all of these things happen, and where people of color live."
Over the past two decades, the city, state and federal governments have invested billions of dollars developing a new gleaming financial hub above what was once mudflats and salt marshes, without much planning for higher seas coming with climate change. Now, the Seaport is one of the most vulnerable waterfront areas in Boston. Professor of Climate Adaptation and Director of the Stone Living Lab Paul Kirshen said city officials could have done a much better job planning for sea-level rise.
“The Seaport could have been a shining example of how to do it right, but it became a shining example of how to do it wrong,” Kirshen said.
Professor of Climate Adaptation and Director of the Stone Living Lab Paul Kirshen joins the new WBUR Series, "Boston Under Water," exploring the issue of sea-level rise, our vulnerability to it and what's being done to mitigate it.
The Harbor Islands are also layered with artifacts from early American history, like forts from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, as well as remnants of hospitals, factories and prisons. The islands are also ecologically important, as North America’s only cluster of drumlin islands, and a habitat for coastal nesting birds.
"It's a real step forward that the trust has listed the islands as endangered resources," says Professor of Climate Adaptation Paul Kirshen. "It's good to bring attention to this issue."
The Boston Globe |
June 03, 2021
Battered by rising seas and scarred by erosion, the Boston Harbor islands have been named one of the country’s 11 most endangered historic sites by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Boston and partner organizations are engaged in an innovative project, funded by the Stone Foundation, to devise “nature-based solutions” to water-borne damage caused by climate change.
“These are engineered approaches that mimic some aspects of nature in trying to control a threat,” said Professor of Climate Adaptation and Director of the Stone Living Lab Paul Kirshen.
The Boston Globe |
April 20, 2021
Director of Sustainable Solutions Lab Rebecca Herst co-wrote this op-ed about how without a carefully targeted approach, climate and infrastructure investments will almost certainly exacerbate persistent inequities.
“Given the massive scale of investment envisioned by the Biden administration, it is critical that, at all scales of government, we develop plans to ensure climate investments do not exacerbate existing inequities, but build broad social resilience instead,” Herst wrote.
Science Magazine |
April 01, 2021
A new large study charts epic shifts that have occurred in recent decades as U.S. farmers have changed their arsenal of pesticides.
Associate Professor of Molecular Ecotoxicology Helen Poynton told Science Magazine that, “Just the scale of what they did is really, really impressive."
NBC 10 Boston |
January 27, 2021
School for the Environment Professor and Interim Dean Bob Chen highlights the Stone Living Lab, a partnership of the City of Boston, UMass Boston School for the Environment, Boston Harbor Now, the National Parks of Boston and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation that engages scientists and the community in research, education, and the promotion of equity. Director of the Stone Living Lab Paul Kirshen is also featured.
A new study conducted at the New England Aquarium finds that as climate change causes the ocean to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished, and into environments that are already difficult for them to survive in. Lead author Carolyn Wheeler, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Boston, examined the effects of increased temperatures on the growth, development and physiological performance of epaulette sharks -- an egg-laying species found only on the Great Barrier Reef.
Eureka Alert! |
January 12, 2021
A new study conducted at the New England Aquarium finds that as climate change causes the ocean to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished, and into environments that are already difficult for them to survive in. Lead author Carolyn Wheeler, a PhD candidate at UMass Boston, examined the effects of increased temperatures on the growth, development and physiological performance of epaulette sharks--an egg-laying species found only on the Great Barrier Reef.
