By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

You think your mother had it rough?

One North Atlantic Right Whale traveled 1,000 miles to give birth, fasting almost the whole way. The delivery -- of a 12-foot long, 2,000 pound baby -- involved much thrashing 17 miles off the coast of Florida, and then mom had to produce enough milk to allow the calf to gain hundreds of pounds each week.

By pure luck, New England Aquarium scientists were able to photograph this tumultuous and hopeful moment for a species so threatened by extinction that every birth counts. It's the first time anyone is known to have captured images of a right whale giving birth. (To see exclusive photos of the birth, click here.)

“It was amazing to see. … I was speechless," said Aquarium researcher Monica Zani, who spotted the whale from a plane in 2005. She and other researchers waited to release the photos to the public until they could first be published in the scientific journal Aquatic Mammals, which came out this week.

“It was whoa and holy cow ... as I realized how really big this event was I witnessed,” Zani said.

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This afternoon, environmentalist and ecology writer Bill McKibben took your questions on green issues. Read the transcript here.

Bill McKibben is a writer and environmentalist whose books include "The End of Nature.'' A Lexington native, McKibben edited the just-published "American Earth'' (Library of America) an anthology of enduring ecological writing, and has launched 350.org, an effort to focus world attention on reducing the rising amount of carbon in our atmosphere.

By Amy Farnsworth, Globe correspondent

In Somerville's Davis Square, restaurants have started discarding waste in compost and recycling bins and screwing in compact fluorescent light bulbs. They tidy up with green cleaning products and recycle cooking grease. Customers at two cafes sip beverages from biodegradable cups, and one restaurant encourages customers to ride their bicycles to dinner by providing a bike valet service.

It’s all part of a growing grass-roots movement called GoGreen Davis Square, an initiative for an environmentally sustainable square, and one this community hopes will jump-start the greening of other neighborhoods in the city.

The citizens and businesses of Somerville’s Davis Square neighborhood are adopting a low-carbon ‘‘diet’’ to reduce their carbon footprint, the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere that contribute to global warming, by conserving energy and reducing waste in their homes and workplaces.

It started in 2007, when members of independent businesses and three nonprofit groups — Groundwork Somerville, Somerville Climate Action, and DARBI — began discussing ways to lessen Somerville’s carbon impact.

‘‘The idea was to make Davis Square carbon-neutral and do it as a business district,’’ said Vanessa Rule, cofounder of GoGreen Davis and chairwoman of the nonprofit organization Somerville Climate Action.

(Catch the rest of this story Sunday in the Boston Globe's City Weekly section or at boston.com/cityweekly.)

By Carolyn Y. Johnson. Globe Staff

Canadian energy company Brookfield Renewable Power said today it will open a new US headquarters in Marlborough, creating 100 jobs and adding to the growing clean energy sector in the Bay State.

The Brookfield announcement is the latest win for Massachusetts, which also will be home to an Evergreen Solar manufacturing facility on the site of the former Fort Devens Army base, a Department of Energy wind turbine blade testing facility in Charlestown, and a GreatPoint Energy pilot plant facility developing technology to convert coal to natural gas in Somerset.

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Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben will be dropping by for an online Q&A with readers at noon today.

To ask a question ahead of time for his consideration, click here.

McKibben, an area native, recently edited "American Earth,'' a collection of American environmental writing, and has written books such "The End of Nature'' and "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.''

He is among the organizers of a website called 350.org, which is dedicated to reducing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. Here's more about it.

By Renée Loth

Many of us remember the ubiquitous highway safety campaign of the 1970s: ''Stay Alive - Drive 55.'' Today, driving the speed limit is crucial to another kind of survival: the planet's.

The US Department of Energy estimates that driving at 55 miles per hour instead of 75 would reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent. Since passenger vehicles and commercial trucks account for roughly half of the 20 million barrels of oil America consumes each day, saving 25 percent would amount to 1 billion barrels a year - more than we currently import from the Persian Gulf. And it would save the average driver about 80 cents a gallon, a lot more than John McCain's summer gas tax moratorium (the same one Hillary Clinton hitched a ride on last week).

Conserving fuel by driving 55 miles per hour is not a new idea. In 1974, in response to the Arab oil embargo, Congress passed the National Maximum Speed Law, which president Nixon signed. The 55-mile-per-hour speed limit was unpopular, especially in rural states, but Washington backed up its moral suasion by docking states' federal highway funds if they didn't comply, and for a while people eased up on the throttle.

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On Tuesday, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, located 25 miles off Boston, released its draft management plan for the most heavily used of the nation's sanctuaries.

The report noted that the 842-square mile preserve is severely degraded from a host of human caused problems, from too-fast whale watching boats to fisherman taking too many big, mature fish. Yet the document avoids pushing for controversial restrictions on the bank, such as no-fishing zones. the fate of Stellwagen may rest on the public's desire for the bank. A public comment period will run until August 4, 2008.

To access the plan go to http://stellwagen.noaa.gov where you will find a link to a
special edition of the Banknotes newsletter, which serves as a 32-page
summary of the Draft Management Plan.

Here is the link to the story in the Globe: http://boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/05/05/stellwagen_report_grim/

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Stuck in traffic? Make sure the foot is on the brake and look up: A turkey vulture may be in view.

If you are really lucky, maybe you’ll see it gorge itself on a dead animal, as I did a few weeks back near the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton.

Gross? Maybe. Fascinating? Definitely.

The misunderstood vulture

Let's face it, these birds are never going to win a beauty contest. Their blood-engorged, bald heads are perfectly designed to poke into carcasses. They defecate all over their legs. They regurgitate dead animals and sling them at intruders.

But it’s a good time to spot the intriguing creatures: Migrants are passing through on their way north and roosting with the region's resident population. Hundreds of the birds, with their six-foot wingspan, are searching for dead animals in forests and along roads across Massachusetts.

But why the black birds are in New England at all is a mystery. Even though Buzzards Bay was supposedly named for vultures, there were none here at the time of European settlers. Scientists figure early settlers mistook ospreys or red-tail hawks for buzzards. The birds really began showing up in the 1950s in Massachusetts, but seem to have really exploded in the last twenty years or so, says Norm Smith, sanctuary director of the Blue Hills Trailside Museum.

Smith says Blue Hills had a resident pair by 1987 and as many as four nesting pairs have been spotted in the reservation at one time.

Before you give a “eww”, consider:

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Could it be a planter?

A backyard pool?

With oil pushing past the $120-a-barrel mark and a new Massachusetts gas pump record set yesterday, more and more folks are looking to ditch their SUVs, even if they have to let them gather rust or sell them at a big loss.

From today's Globe story, this from Car King Herb Chambers: "Having SUVs as an everyday commuter car is largely going away."

On a day when the MBTA said T ridership was soaring, soon-to-be former Acura MDX owner Joe McHugh told the Globe's Jenn Abelson: "I don't need this much space. It just seems ridiculous."

A passing phase? Or an opportunity for conservation -- and creativity? Which leads me to this reader challenge: What would YOU do with an old SUV?

Imagine if the city of Boston were able to emit no carbon and no waste.

Today, MIT officials are meeting with planners of a city in the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi that will do exactly that.

It's part of a daring plan by the emirate -- the world's third biggest oil exporter, with 10 percent of the world's known reserves -- to transition to leadership of the world's expertise and funding in alternative fuels as well.

For the past 2 1/2 years, MIT has been working with Abu Dhabi on its Masdar initiative -- an institute for science and technology that will rise in this zero-carbon city. The first 14 professors for the new institute, nearly half of whom are MIT doctorates, have been on the Kendall Square campus preparing for the soft launch of the new institute in August and a first formal class in August 2009.

"There are very few relationships that offer this level of seriousness, and this level of potential,'' MIT President Susan Hockfield said this morning in introducting the daylong conference. Hockfield said the goals of the initiative mirrored that of MIT -- clean energy and sustainable cities, with the commitment and the confidence to make a difference.

The bold Abu Dhabi effort comes at a time when Washington hasn't decided whether to extend its own tentative support for alternative fuels -- a mix of tax credits and subsidies -- beyond the calendar year.

To Masdar's CEO, the lanky Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, a commitment of $22 billion to build the city and billions more in funding solar worldwide is part of his West Virginia-sized emirate's mandate. In the 1960s, Abu Dhabi didn't even have paved roads, he said this morning, but it had a vision that extended beyond its geological forture.

And vision without action, he said, is absolutely meaningless. "We are applying skill and technology to drive down the price of alternative energy,'' Al Jaber said.

Blocks away from a Frank Gehry creation, Al Jaber invoked the architect's name in recalling what he said when asked to build a new Guggenheim Museum in the emirate. "In Abu Dhabi,'' Al Jaber quoted Gehry as saying, ''you can do things that would be considered unthinkable anywhere else.''

There is an excellent NPR report this morning on the initiative here. And here's the official website.

Kopin Corp.said it has been awarded a $600,000 contract from NASA to participate in a solar-cell development program for future space exploration missions.

The Taunton company produces ultra-small liquid crystal displays that are used in everything from digital cameras to thermal weapon sights and night vision systems.

As part of a team, Kopin will work on a NASA program that seeks to develop a type of high-efficiency solar cells that are resistant to extreme conditions.

According to Kopin, the technology that the program looks to develop "will enable photovoltaic power systems of future NASA space exploration missions to operate in extreme environments with high temperatures and radiation exposure."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

It seems incongruous with the enormous effort spent cleaning up Massachusetts' coastal waterways: Hundreds of boats flushing raw or poorly treated human waste into fragile bays and inlets.

But it happens every summer day off the Bay State's busy coast, and environmental officials suspect it may be at the root of why some beaches still have high bacteria counts and "No Swimming" signs.

But the Patrick Administration is intent on discontinuing the practice. Under a proposal to the US Environmental Protection Agency, boats would be prohibited from discharging all sewage - including treated waste - off the coast of the Upper South Shore in Scituate, Marshfield and Cohasset and in the North and South Rivers. Related efforts to authorize NDAs are currently under way for Salem Sound, Cape Cod Bay, and Boston Harbor.

"Governor Patrick’s goal is ultimately to make all of the Commonwealth’s coastal waters No Discharge Areas, and this is a big step toward that goal,” said Ian Bowles, Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and the Environment.

Most boaters want to do the right thing and abide by established federal law that prohibits the dumping of untreated waste within three miles of shore. But it is legal to release the waste after it has been treated, and environmentalists say it's become apparent the onboard cleaning systems do not do an adequate job and are a far cry from the scrubbing that waste gets in a sewage treatment plant. They also add that there are also boaters too lazy or ignorant of the law who dump untreated waste.

Bacteria in water can lead to contaminated shellfish beds, unsafe swimming and can contribute to harmful algal blooms.

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NStar customers willing to pay a premium will soon be able to power their homes with environmentally friendly wind power.

The state Department of Public Utilities last night approved a program, that allows customers to buy half or all of their electricity from wind farms in Maine and upstate New York. Customers who opt for the green power will pay more, $4.25 a month who buy half their electricity from wind farms, $7.25 who want buy it all from these green sources, according to NStar. The program, called NStar Green, is the first of its kind for a Massachusetts utility,

NStar will begin enrolling customers in NStar Green immediately, with service to begin in July, said spokeswoman Caroline Allen. More information is available on NStar's website, www.nstar.com, or by calling 1-800-592-2000.

NStar, with 1.1 million electric customers in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, proposed the program last summer. The Boston utility signed 10-year contracts with two wind farms to buy a total of 60 megawatts, enough to power about 60,000 homes.

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By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

So you've replaced all the lamps in your house with compact fluorescent bulbs. Those wet clothes are hung on the clotheslines. Maybe you've even gone on a car diet.

Feeling pretty green? Think again.

An energy intensive home (Suzanne Krieter/Globe Staff)

Anyone who lives in the U.S. - even a Buddhist monk who lives in the forest half the year - emits more than twice as much greenhouse gas than those living in the rest of the world, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology class has discovered.

The class, taught by mechanical engineering professor Timothy Gutowski calculated carbon emissions from 18 lifestyles including a monk, vegetarian college student and Bill Gates. While emissions dramatically rise with income, even a homeless person still emits 8.5 tons of carbon dioxide, the key heat-trapping gas, a year. The world average is four tons.

"Regardless of income, there is a certain floor below which the individual carbon footprint of a person in the U.S. will not drop,'' says Gutowski.

But why?

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An effort to ban the use of plastic bags at the local Stop & Shop, Shaw's Supermarket and Wal-Mart has been rejected by the town of Sturbridge.

Had it succeeded at last night's town meeting, Sturbridge would have become the first town in the state to do so, a state environmental official told the Telegram & Gazette. Edmund J. Coletta said Boston and Somerville have discussed such an initiative.

On April 22 -- Earth Day -- Whole Foods Markets banned plastic bags from their stores, and they offer customers who bring reusable bags a 5-cent discount.

The proponents of the Sturbridge initiative were two high school students. One of them, Conor Neal, told the Telegram & Gazette: "In the last week or so we learned about the power of democracy and the power of big corporations trying to influence the vote on this article.”

The measure would have fined the stores up to $300 if they used plastic bags.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

After weeks of growing health concerns over a common chemical found in baby bottles, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and five other U.S. senators filed legislation today to ban the compound from all children’s products.

The chemical, bisphenol A, is used to make transparent plastics used in shatter-proof sipping cups, baby bottles and a host of other consumer products from hiking water bottles to sunglasses. The legislation also requires that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct a comprehensive study of the health effects of bisphenol A in children and adults.

(FDA)

Two weeks ago, the US National Toxicological Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, released a draft report on the chemical saying there were some concern for health problems in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures. Canada then announced it was planning on banning baby bottles made with the synthetic compound. Stores from Wal-Mart to CVS pledged to pull baby bottles made with the chemical from shelves. Nalgene, the maker of the durable and ubiquitous hiking bottle whose parent company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., is based in Waltham, also said it would replace its bisphenol A bottles in stores.

“As the evidence mounts about BPA’s health risks, the first thing we should do is take this chemical out of children’s products,’’ said Kerry. “Parents should be able to give their kids a drink without wondering whether the baby bottle or sippee cup will make their child sick.”

Animal studies have linked exposure to small amounts of the odorless, tasteless chemical to reproductive problems and possible cancers later in life, though the true level of risk is unknown. A small body of research suggests that exposure to the chemical in the uterus could contribute to later obesity.

Bisphenol A is one of the most commonly used synthetic compounds. It is used to line most canned goods, from soups to soft drinks, to prevent corrosion. It helps make sunglasses and compact discs durable. And, of course, it is used in baby bottles.

A recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 93 percent of the US population had bisphenol A in their body. Infants and young children had higher levels than adults. Scientists are most concerned about early development because it is a critical time in determining long-term health. Both the US Toxicology Program and Canadian reviews said there appeared to be a negligible effect from bisphenol A on adults.

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), along with Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) are part of the proposed ban.

(The following opinon piece appeared in Tuesday's Boston Globe)

By Graham Allison and Robbie Diamond

Gas prices are skyrocketing; the average price of a gallon of regular soared past $3.50 last week. Venezuela has threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States. The dollar has fallen by 30 percent against the euro over the past two years. Could things possibly get worse?

Yes. Real-world events underscore the nation's acute energy security vulnerabilities. Over the last year oil prices have surged in a short period of time without any single precipitating event. The effects are stark. Every $10 increase in the annual price of a barrel of oil costs the economy $75 billion.

The average American household spends $5,750 a year on energy, up more than $2,000 from just four years ago. The increase in the cost of gasoline alone amounts to a more than $1,500 tax on the typical American family. Over much of the past decade, Americans have been able to compensate for rising energy costs by drawing on the also-rising equity of their homes. But that did not solve the problem; it camouflaged it. And now that the mortgage crisis and the resulting collapse in property values have taken that crutch away, Americans are more conscious of the impact of the rising cost of oil on their livelihoods.

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By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

New England's seabed has all the ingredients for a severe red tide outbreak this year – but how much it impacts the seafood industry literally depends on which way the wind blows.

Abundant seed beds of the toxic algae and heavy winter precipitation have set the stage for a bloom of the ilk that caused shellfish beds to close from the Bay of Fundy to Martha’s Vineyard in 2005. Toxins in the algae can accumulate in clams, mussels and other shellfish and cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans who eat them.

Cysts of the organism that cause red tide stand out in yellow and bright green from organic matter and sediments collected from the Gulf of Maine. (Photo by Kerry Norton, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists who are trying to develop a red tide prediction system for the seafood industry said strong spring northeast winds could drive the algae toward Southern New England and the region’s rich shellfish beds. But if southwesterly winds dominate, the algae would likely stay offshore and not impact many shellfish beds.

“Will the conditions this spring lead to an extensive bloom along the New England coast? The wind patterns of the next few weeks will determine that,’’ said Dennis McGillicuddy, a biological oceanographer with Woods Hole.

While his team is hesitant to make any official forecast until the model is more fully tested, they did find that algae seeds – or cysts – off mid-coast Maine were 30 percent higher than what was seen in the sediments just before the devastating 2005 bloom.

Their work also shows that the region’s above-average winter rain and snowfall poured fresh water and nutrients into coastal waters – perfect conditions for the dense mats of the reddish-tinged algae to flourish.

McGillicuddy and more than dozen students, technicians and biologists are leaving today for the first of four expeditions to examine this year’s bloom and study the cause of several blooms in the rich fishing grounds of Georges Bank.

Take a look.

Greater Boston is among the reddest parts of the United States in this map, which measures carbon usage nationwide. The map measuring atmospheric pollution levels, from Purdue University's Vulcan Project and featured in the Globe's Sunday Ideas section, shows how vehicle traffic along interstates makes even sparsely populated areas carbon heavy.

Read on from Globe contributor Matthew Battles for the sometimes surprising data about where -- and how -- America pumps out its CO2:

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What are the heaviest items in our diets in terms of carbon dioxide, which is cited by scientists as the main contributor to climate change?.

One candidate, The New York Times notes today (in an article headlined "Some carbon with your kiwi?''), might be the cod caught in Norway, shipped to China to be cut into filets, shipped back to Norway, only to be shipped again -- and sold to us. One reason, besides labor, that these globe-crossing, energy-wasting efforts are happening more often: they've been propped up by tax breaks. Fuel for international freight often is not taxed under trade agreements, a scenario that many economists, politicians and environmental activists say deserves reconsideration.

"We're shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre,'' the Times quoted Oxford economist Paul Watkiss as saying.

What do you think? Let us know.

By the way, here's a helpful introduction to a low-carbon diet, and a look at how, starting last Tuesday, the food-service supplier to MIT, Emmanuel College, Lesley and Cisco Systems in Boxborough has committed to cutting 25 percent of its carbon load. (A three-word hint: Ciao San Pellegrino.)