Paul Smiths, NY, Mar 01, 2011 — A researcher in the Adirondacks is literally rewriting the history of global climate change.

Curt Stager, a scientist at Paul Smiths College, is publishing an article later this month in the journal Science that describes an ancient drought that transformed Asia and Africa thousands of years ago.

The "H1 mega-drought" may have wiped out whole tribes of humans, as it dried up rivers and lakes across whole continents.

As Brian Mann reports, Stager thinks that devastating event could be a warning for people living in a new period of global warming.  Go to full article

Greensboro, VT, Feb 24, 2011 — Catholic sisters have long been associated with activism - from fighting poverty to promoting education and social justice. Today, sisters across the country are uniting around a new cause: healing the earth. Angela Evancie has the story of two women who have brought a version of "green" Catholicism to Vermont. Angela is contributing environmental reporting this year as part of a Compton Mentor Fellowship.  Go to full article

Tupper Lake, NY, Feb 23, 2011 — A delegation of Adirondack high school students, community leaders and staff from the Wild Center leave for Finland on Thursday. Todd Moe talks with Saranac Lake artist and community organizer Gail Brill about traveling to Finland as part of an exchange that includes conversations about climate change, saving energy and winter recreation.

Organized by the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, Brill says the trip's goal is building international collaborations and communities in the Adirondacks learning from the Finns.  Go to full article

Johnson City, NY, Feb 22, 2011 — Managing the power grid is a balancing act. As we flip on our coffee makers and turn on hairdryers, the grid is reacting, breathing harder, so to speak, to keep up with our demand. A facility in upstate New York is using battery power to make balancing the grid more efficient. Emma Jacobs has more for the Innovation Trail.  Go to full article

Ottawa, ON, Feb 08, 2011 — Winterlude, Ottawa's big winter festival, kicked off last Friday and runs through February 21st.

While the best-know activities center around outdoor fun, there are indoor events too - including a focus on the Arctic and Antarctica.

Margret Brady is the Programs & Communications Manager for The British Council, in Ottawa. Working with a number of co-sponsors, she's helped gather material that explains more about polar regions and why what happens there matters to us all. She spoke by phone with Lucy Martin.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Jan 13, 2011 — Most of the concern about carbon dioxide is focused on the quantity in the atmosphere and its effect on climate. But rising CO2 levels in the oceans can have equally significant effects on the ecosystems of the seas. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss the changing aquasphere.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Dec 28, 2010 — As 2010 draws to a close, we're revisiting important environmental stories of the year. Climate change tops the list, as scientists struggle to understand how global changes will impact local regions.

This morning, Brian Mann talks with Paul Smith's scientist and researcher Curt Stager. His work often takes him far afield, to sample lake bottoms in Africa and Russia for evidence of ecological changes over geological time.
This year he focussed closer to home, on the impact of climate change in the Champlain Valley. Stager co-authored the study with Adirondack-based journalist Mary Thill. The research was funded by the Adirondack Nature Conservancy in an effort to find out how global warming might affect one relatively small region.

The study shows that since the 1970s, temperatures have already risen in the Champlain Valley by roughly two degrees Fahrenheit. Increased precipitation has also raised the lake level by an average of a foot. Warming is expected to continue over the next century.

Stager told Brian Mann that scientists are struggling to understand the local impacts of climate change.  Go to full article

Saranac Lake, NY, Dec 14, 2010 — Last week, New York and nine other Northeastern states auctioned off millions of carbon pollution credits to power companies.

Companies that pollute more, and create more greenhouse gases, have to buy more credits. The program is designed to reward more environmentally-friendly energy producers, while also raising tens of millions of dollars to fund conservation.

But critics say some states have begun using the cap-and-trade system as an invisible tax, spending the revenue on projects that have nothing to do with the environment or climate change. Brian Mann has our story.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Nov 08, 2010 — There was a time not so long ago when nature writers shaped the national debate.

Books and articles by authors like Rachel Carson and Bob Marshall helped build popular support for conservation, environmental laws, and creation of the national parks.

But in the age of oil spills and climate change, some of the country's top nature writers wonder whether their work can still make a difference.

Brian Mann attended a conference of writers earlier this month and has our story.  Go to full article

Rensselaer, NY, Oct 19, 2010 — A recent report from the agency that monitors New York's electric grid says the state can quintuple the amount of wind power pulsing through the system by 2018. But wind developers say the chances of hitting that mark are slim.

Wind farms are having trouble making profits for their owners. As the Innovation Trail's Zack Seward reports, more incentives may be needed if the state wants to meet its renewable energy goals.  Go to full article