CATA is testing an electric bus this week. And here is the scoop!

What do YOU think about electric buses for Cape Ann? Contact Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) and give them your feedback. Phone: (978) 283-1886Email: WebbF@canntran.com

Did you know that transportation accounts for 29% of greenhouse gas* emissions in Massachusetts? Transitioning to electric vehicles, and powering them with renewable energy, is an excellent way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

*Greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are causing climate change, the gases trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet.

Eric Hutchins checks in with good news about the American eel count at Millbrook Meadow! To volunteer contact Eric at: eric.hutchins@noaa.gov

The Cape Ann Climate Coalition met with our local astrophysicist, Dr. Bill Waller of Rockport, to ask him a few questions. Is there a Planet B? And what do we need to do to save this big rocky ball of planet (Earth) that we call home?

Cape Ann just became more climate resistant (and beautiful!) thanks to our local climate hero Nathan Ives. On Friday April 9, 2021, Nathan Ives and his Project Elm team received and began planting 100 disease-resistant elm trees in Rockport and Gloucester.

It is a grassroots community project intending to help restore elm trees to their once prominent place on Gloucester and Rockport streetscapes while taking a proactive step to help reverse global climate change (trees capture carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, out of the air and store the carbon in their trunk. CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving climate change.) The project is inspired by the World Economic Forum’s 1-trillion tree initiative.

Project Elm is a grassroots community project intending to help restore elm trees to their once prominent place on Gloucester (and Rockport) streetscapes while taking a proactive step to help reverse global climate change. Scientists tell us that one of the best ways to fight climate change is to plant more trees–1 trillion trees, in fact. Sadly, the onset of Dutch Elm Disease in the 1950s brought an abrupt end to elms in the United States until only recently. Scientists have now developed disease resistant cultivars of the elm tree that are thriving in the US and, in particular, in New England.

In total, $5600 was raised to support Project Elm’s vision and mission! In addition to Awesome Rockport, the following groups and people contributed money to help make this happen:• Awesome Gloucester • Allison Mueller• Sal Zerilli• Rick Doucette• Neptune’s Harvest• We’re All in This Together

What is the role of the artist when when faced with the climate crisis? This webinar produced by the Cape Ann Coalition’s Climate Arts Group explores the artist’s role. It begins with a video of Rockport artist and environmental activist Elaine MacGray Starrett “Without Just Grounds”. Following the screening, Starrett’s daughter, Dr. Amy Bower, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is joined in a conversation about art, science and climate change, with Cape Ann environmental 3-D artist Sinikka Nogelo and the nationally-known public artist Mags Harries.

If you would like to volunteer or learn more about the Cape Ann Climate Coalition, please visit www.capeannclimatecoalition.org.