DOWN TO EARTH...

Enjoy an eclectic mix of earth-friendly films
By JOHN RICHARDSON
Portland Press Herald

"An Inconvenient Truth" might have raised the bar, winning an Academy Award and all.

But there are a whole lot of environmental movies out there. And next Saturday, eight of the newest ones will be screened in Portland during what's billed as The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

"They make you think. They make you argue," said Mary Cerullo, associate director of the Friends of Casco Bay. There also should be some chuckling, and even cringing, going on.

The movies will be shown one after another between 5 and 9 p.m. in the Abromson Auditorium at the University of Southern Maine. There will be breaks for food and drinks – organic, of course.

Here are a few picks from the playbill:

• "Gimme Green" digs into the American obsession with the perfect lawn.

• "Pollen Nation" travels the country with an immigrant beekeeper and his honeybees-for-hire.

• "Oil & Water Project" is the story of two world-class kayakers in search of big water who drive from Alaska to Argentina, fueled by cooking grease they scrounge along the way.

• "Grand Canyon Adventure" is the feature film of the festival and promises to plunge the audience into the Grand Canyon with intense rafting footage. This one has the most star power, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on screen, Robert Redford narrating and the Dave Matthews Band providing the soundtrack. It'll be introduced by Gloria Reuben, an actress, singer and environmentalist.

The longest film is 45 minutes, and all are intended to be family friendly, as well as earth-friendly.

"I'm promoting it as cheap date night," Cerullo said.

It will at least be the greenest date in town.

Friends of Casco Bay is hosting the film festival as its annual fundraiser. The outdoor retailer Patagonia produces The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in cities around the country, although the local groups select the movies.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=212436&ac=PHnws

Island lobstermen try catching more with less
By JOHN RICHARDSON

Monhegan Island is known for creative inhabitants with famous names such as Hopper, Kent and Wyeth.

These days, the island's lobstermen are attracting attention in their own right for creating what might be a promising future for Maine's premier fishery.

Early Wednesday, 12 islanders – 10 men and 2 women – steamed out of Monhegan's quiet harbor to set their traps and begin a new nine-month fishing season. Trap Day, as it is known, is an honored tradition here and marks a unique relationship between islanders and the ocean that surrounds them.

It is the only place in Maine where lobstering is limited to a specific season rather than being open year-round. And this year, Monhegan's lobstermen are each setting just 300 traps, half of what they used to employ.

Many lobstermen in other parts of the state set 800 traps.

Research around Monhegan suggests that fewer traps will simply result in more lobsters per trap. The lobstermen there believe they can catch enough, and maybe just as many, while dramatically cutting the costs of bait and fuel.

Plenty of mainlanders, from conservationists to fellow fishermen, hope they're right.

"A lot of people are watching," said Mattie Thomson, a 46-year-old islander and lobsterman.

It's a good time in the history of Maine's lobster fishery for some creative thinking. Thomson now pays more for a gallon of fuel – about $4 – than he earns for a pound of lobster – about $3.50.

Also, the price he gets for lobsters is similar to what it was when he started 16 years ago, but the price of bait has increased about 400 percent.

At the same time, it's getting harder to maintain the catch. Maine's overall lobster haul fell 30 percent between 2003 and 2007. And competition among Maine's 7,000 lobstermen is intense.

"The pie is only so big and it's cut up into a lot of pieces, and we have got to catch the lobster as efficiently as we can," he said.

Although a new, more efficient way of fishing could keep more lobster families afloat, conservationists see big environmental benefits, too, especially for the endangered right whale.

Maine's coastal waters fill with about 3.4 million traps each summer, and attached to the traps are thousands of miles of lines connecting them to each other and to floating buoys.

The risk of entangling right whales in those lines is considered a threat to the survival of the species.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=213789&ac=PHnws


Courtesy Ocean Conservancy

Dark skies an asset worth saving
By JOHN RICHARDSON
Portland Press Herald

We Mainers are proud, and protective, of our coastline and forests, our clear waters and crisp air. They're a big part of what separates us from the other guys.

But we don't often think of our night sky that way. And we probably should.

Most Mainers can look up on a clear night and see a dark sky full of stars, including the band of stars and light at the edge of our own galaxy. Most other Americans can't see the Milky Way from where they live. Some can see only a few bright stars.

"It distinguishes us from more polluted areas. Just like cleaner waters, darker skies are an attribute," said Robert Burgess, a bank executive from Brunswick by day and amateur stargazer by night.

Light pollution – artificial light that is reflected or shined upward – creates a glow over cities and washes out the night sky in most of the U.S. and other developed countries. It's drawing increasing attention worldwide as a problem, and not just for astronomers.

The absence of darkness and stars can interfere with the behavior of all kinds of animals, from birds to sea turtles. And recent research has linked nighttime brightness to higher rates of breast cancer in women, suggesting that humans need darkness, too.

Maine is relatively unpolluted, light-wise. In nighttime satellite images, the Down East coast and North Woods stand out as the largest, darkest spots in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

This week, the state unveiled some new technology that could help keep it that way.

Efficiency Maine, a state agency that promotes energy efficiency, provided $41,000 toward the installation of a new generation of LED sidewalk and street lamps for the Pineland business campus in New Gloucester.

The primary goal is to reduce energy use. The lights will burn only about 15 percent of the electricity used by the traditional lamps, according to the state. The change is expected to save Pineland $30,000 a year and keep more than 100 tons of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of emissions from 29 cars – out of the atmosphere each year.

Burgess, who was on hand when Gov. John Baldacci ceremonially flipped the switch to turn on Pineland's new lights, took the opportunity to enlighten the assembled luminaries about the other benefit of light-emitting diodes and other efficient technologies. Saving money, he said, can also save Maine's night sky.

One of the reasons that LEDs are more efficient is that they shine the light where it's needed, instead of where it's not, the way traditional bulbs and lamps do, said Burgess, a director of the Southern Maine Astronomers, a local club.

"That is the beauty of addressing this problem," Burgess said. "It has an immediate payback."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=217841&ac=PHnws

Winds of change could reach Maine's islands first
By JOHN RICHARDSON
Portland Press Herald

Maine's island communities face some big challenges these days.

And one of the biggest is the cost of energy, which can be two to five times higher on some islands than on the mainland.

But islanders are resourceful if nothing else, and they're sensing a huge opportunity in the breeze that sweeps over them virtually every day.

"Islands are small pieces of land surrounded by lots of water, and they're also small pieces of land surrounded by lots of wind," said Philip Conkling, president of the Island Institute in Rockland.

Maine's 15 islands with year-round residents are, in many ways, the most likely places to lead the transition away from dirty, expensive fossil fuels. Vinalhaven and North Haven are well on their way, with plans to convert to wind energy starting next summer. Others plan to follow.

In one sense, islanders now hope to sustain their communities using the same winds that fueled their settlement in the age of sail.

"It's taking really a historically valuable resource that hasn't been used for roughly 100 years and putting it back to work," Conkling said.

Next week, an islander who lives off the coast of Denmark will be in Portland and other coastal communities to provide an extra measure of inspiration.

Soren Hermansen lives on Samso Island, which became a global laboratory for renewable energy 10 years ago. Then, like Maine's island communities, it was threatened by the high costs of energy and goods and a struggling economy.

Today, the island of 4,300 residents generates more wind power than it uses and is considered a carbon-neutral community, which means it keeps as much carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as it puts in. And, led by Hermansen, it has ensured that a way of life will not be swallowed by a global energy or economic crisis.

"His little island has become kind of a worldwide symbol," said Conkling, who arranged for Hermansen to bring his story to islanders here.

Maine's island communities can use a little pep talk.

Already facing higher costs for energy, food and transportation, islands have been hit especially hard by the global economic meltdown. Their financial lifeblood, the lobster industry, tanked in the past month along with the global banking system and demand for lobster dinners. Lobstering families all along the coast, and entire offshore communities, are heading into a harsh winter.

The pressures are sure to add support, and urgency, to the quest for wind power. Islanders are protective of their landscapes and scenic value, but that doesn't appear to be standing in the way of huge turbines, or energy independence.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=219339&ac=PHnws