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By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — A pair of reports made public this week illustrate the variety of efforts that are underway to position Massachusetts to live up to its legal requirement to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.In addition to a minimum 50%...

By JAIMEE FRANCIS

Heat pumps, which use electricity rather than directly burning fossil fuel, are a key piece of Massachusetts’ goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the state has hit only 1% of its installation target, in large part because...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Massachusetts will fail to hit a major emissions reduction requirement in 2030 unless Beacon Hill passes significant legislation to accelerate progress, leaders of a top advocacy group warned Wednesday.As plans begin to take shape for the...

By JACOB NELSON

“So much was just about to bloom,” says Suna Turgay of Flowerwork Farm in Northampton. “And then the flooding came.”Warmer, wetter, and less predictable weather are all on the rise in New England as our climate changes. The idea of normal is...

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Ice once both founded and hindered research for glacial geologist Julie Brigham-Grette.As a graduate student working off the coast of Alaska four decades ago, loose sea ice would accumulate onto the shores of Brigham-Grette’s campsite and...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — With the recent installation of new heat pumps in their downtown building, the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence has capped off an ambitious 10-year effort to decarbonize the Main Street church.The heat pumps, which began...

By MADDIE FABIAN

For farms across western Massachusetts, the effects of climate change were tangible during the 2023 growing season.At Red Fire Farm in Granby, co-owner Sarah Voiland said that after the May frost event, the farm’s full harvest on multiple acres of...

By MADDIE FABIAN

EASTHAMPTON — Growing up, Luzed Guzman Romano was raised to believe that she could do and become anything she put her mind to.Her mother grew up in a modest home in Puerto Rico, came to New York at around 15 years old, and had Guzman Romano at 19...

By SAM DRYSDALE

On the route to decarbonization, the state is so far on target with its goals, the Healey administration says, but there is more work to be done with the most intense period of rapid decarbonization quickly approaching.Gov. Maura Healey’s...

By JACOB NELSON

In many ways, farming is an act of faith. Faith that nature will provide for a harvest, and a farmer’s faith in themselves to figure out whatever challenges arise. Some years bring bumper crops, others disappointment, but with climate change fueling...

By JACOB NELSON

It’s hard to throw water on a burning house while trying to rebuild it at the same time, but that’s exactly what addressing climate change requires. Rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are already changing the planet. The choice is whether or...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — When Brien Baker was teaching English in Japan during the 1980s, he heard a story about a colleague that witnessed a student buy an 8-ounce can of soda from a vending machine, even though a 12-ounce soda cost the same price. When the...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Massachusetts needs to shift from an era of statewide planning for climate policy to the key details of implementing it, according to a new report from the state’s top climate official, which includes sweeping recommendations to accelerate...

By MADDIE FABIAN

Editor’s note: This is the third of four articles from the Western Massachusetts Solar Forum series taking place in September.AMHERST — At Joe Czajkowski Farm in Hadley, not only does the broccoli field produce fresh vegetables, but rows of solar...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — A UMass Amherst graduate who holds a master’s degree in sustainable development and has served as Greenfield’s energy and sustainability director since 2014 has been chosen to run Northampton’s new Climate Action & Project Administration...

By MARY BYRNE

Valley advocates were among the 21 groups and 258 people to sign a letter sent to the Healey administration last week, encouraging passage of a bill that would provide funding for a Municipal Reforestation Program.The letter asks that the program —...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The city’s new building code can’t come a moment too soon for city councilor Alex Jarrett.“As our daily life goes along, world climate crises happened, local climate crises happened this summer,” said Jarrett at Thursday’s City Council...

By Maddie Fabian

EASTHAMPTON — The city recently launched a 2023 Business Census survey for business owners, innovators and entrepreneurs in the community.The survey — in partnership with the Chamber of Greater Easthampton and Blueprint Easthampton — seeks to...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

AMHERST — A new center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst aims to harness both Indigenous and Western environmental science to tackle issues relating to climate change, food insecurity and archeological preservation. The center, officially...

By DOMENIC POLI

The Flood of 1936 caused widespread devastation in the Northeast and led to the passage of federal legislation aimed at mitigating damage caused by natural disasters. But the lawmakers who greenlighted the work would likely never have predicted that...