What is energy-efficient construction, exactly? The term refers to designing and building structures that minimize energy consumption by incorporating features such as high-quality insulation, efficient windows, optimized building orientation, advanced heating and cooling systems, and renewable energy sources. Incorporating these features allows for a comfortable living space, while also reducing environmental impact and lowering utility bills. 

Yes, of course, the knee-jerk response to any mention of nuclear power is to scream with the fury of seven tornadoes during an early Sunday-morning earthquake. Everyone has a position, certainly, but how about we set politics to the side and start with a clean slate here, shall we? Assuming we are now settled enough to, without provoking a barroom brawl, look into whether nuclear power deserves a seat at the table when it comes to providing electrical energy to our homes and businesses, let’s take a swing at it.

Plastic is everywhere, and it’s here to stay – literally – because it can take from five (cigarette butts) to 20 (grocery bags) to 450 (water bottles) to 500 (disposable diapers) years to degrade. And plastic never totally disappears, it breaks down into microplastics, often smaller than 5 millimeters long, that end up in water, on farmlands and inside our bodies. Microplastics have been found on top of the Pyrenees Mountains and in the bottom of the Mariana Trench. 

Imagine yourself standing among the most perfect 100-acre field of soybeans, planted autonomously by a GPS tractor, with rows like the lines on a notebook. Then, all of a sudden, you hear a faint hum coming closer and closer. It’s a drone, flying completely autonomously over the field, targeting unwanted vegetation by spot-spraying herbicides.

Pollination is vital to our ecosystem. Bees and other pollinators work hard, ensuring food security and nutrition and maintaining biodiversity for plants, humans, and the pollinators themselves. 

“My mother told me I was always pointing at the sun and trees. I always found great joy being in nature. When I was 12, that joy grew so large that I created my first environmental magazine with my best friend,” environmental economist, eco-consultant, and sustainability strategist Pamela Peeters remembers.

But if farming is becoming a less common profession, why does it seem like farms are cropping up (no pun intended) with more regularity in our region? Why, if farming is becoming arguably harder to do, are people more drawn to the land in recent years? What are some of the qualities of the modern farmer? These are some of the big-picture questions I sought answers by speaking with a handful of farmers in our region. 

The Firefly Environmental Arts Project, developed by Carl Raab and Deb Schlee, is a collaborative arts and sustainability initiative engaging students and professionals within the CT/NY/MA tri-state corner to build community through shared experiences in nature and the arts. 

Winter nights at this latitude lend themselves to cosmic, existential meditations about our place in the universe, and constellations are companions to those musings. Historically used as navigational reference points, the stars continue to orient us in the age of GPS to the third rock from the sun and to the very ground from which we view the cosmos.

Scenic Hudson’s transformation of the 58 Parker Avenue property in Poughkeepsie, NY—“one of the most significant and transformational projects in its 60-year history”—aims to reimagine the former Standard Gage Factory site.

Blackcurrants might not be on the list of fruits you consume regularly, but did you know that they’re the most nutritious berry? Did you also know that blackcurrants were outlawed in the United States until 2003? They were deemed to be a potential threat to white pine, and as such, any kind of production with blackcurrants halted immediately.

Townscape, a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that focuses on community beautification and revitalization in Millerton, NY, is celebrating its 25th year!