Saturday, May 16, 2026
New method to raise investment funds for projects that restore coastal wetlands for climate adaptation
Conservation takes cash. Lots of it.
By Mike Peña
Key takeaways.JPG)
Photo by Will Collette
- Researchers
have launched an innovative process for turning natural flood protection
into a certifiable investment. By quantifying the exact dollar value of
storm protection provided by wetlands, this new methodology creates
“Coastal Resilience Assets” that can be sold to private and public
investors.
- This
tool aims to close the global funding gap for coastal protection. In
addition to the new investment framework, the team released a web-based
calculator to help project developers worldwide estimate the financial
value of mangrove conservation in the face of increasing storm risks.
- The
program shifts how climate adaptation is funded, by moving away from
traditional debt. This standardized approach creates a clear pathway for
businesses and governments to proactively invest in nature-based solutions
that protect property and lives.
The Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to develop a
new tool for funding wetland conservation and restoration projects through
verifiable “Coastal Resilience Assets.” The value of these assets are based
on the storm and flood protection benefits that the wetlands provide.
Wetlands play an extremely valuable role in storm
protection. For example, mangroves reduced storm damages from Hurricane Ian
by more
than $4.1 billion; and in San Francisco Bay, the value of some marshes that
serve as flood protection infrastructure exceeds $350,000 per acre.
URI studies drugs in the water
URI Professor Studies Effects of Pharmaceutical Pollution on Wastewater Systems
By Ellie Sennhenn / ecoRI News contributor
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Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a diverse group of chemicals that include all
drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter medications) and non-medicinal
consumer chemicals, such as the fragrances in lotions and soaps and the
ultraviolet filters in sunscreens, according to the Environmental Protection
Agency. These compounds are considered contaminants because they are released
into water systems through sewage or agricultural runoff.
Finding out what happens when these drugs enter the
environment is the premise of Thomas Boving’s recent research into PPCPs. These
pollutants occur at low concentrations in soil and groundwater, according to
Boving, chair of the University of Rhode Island Department of Geosciences.
However, seemingly insignificant measurements can accumulate over time,
creating potential adverse health effects, he said.
“These environments become breeding grounds for these
bacteria, and if they spread, then we have a real problem,” Boving said.
One possible effect is antimicrobial resistance, according
to Boving, which occurs when there is an overuse or misuse of antimicrobial
compounds designed to treat or prevent infections, such as antibiotics,
antivirals and antiparasitics.
NOAA Is Still Standing. For Now.
Impact on fisheries especially harsh
By Meg Wilcox
At a seafood expo in Boston last month, Togue Brawn, the founder of the seafood business Downeast Dayboat, spoke up from the audience to ask a panel of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrators an urgent question about funding.
What, Brawn wanted to know, is the status of the Saltonstall
Kennedy program? The grant program—which helps fishing communities market
their catch, build capacity, and conduct research to advance their
fisheries—had been on hold for a year. “As someone who works with a lot of
small-boat fishermen, we could use all the help we can get,” she told the
panelists.
But Eugenio Pineiro Soler, assistant administrator of NOAA
Fisheries, could not say when the popular program would restart.
Congress fully
funded NOAA in January, ignoring the
president’s plan to gut the agency. But NOAA has yet to restart many
programs that were put on hold by the Trump administration in 2025, and the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is slow-walking the release of
congressionally approved funding.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Why Trump’s $2 billion buyoff to cancel offshore wind farms is a bad deal for American taxpayers and the US energy supply
Who, other than the fossil fuel industry, benefits from Trump's jihad on offshore wind?
Christopher Niezrecki, UMass Lowell; Ben Link, Johns Hopkins University, and Zoe Getman-Pickering, UMass Amherst
The U.S. is in a bizarre situation in 2026: It’s facing a looming energy shortage, yet the Trump administration is making deals to pay offshore wind developers nearly US$2 billion in taxpayer money to walk away from energy projects.
East Coast communities have built up ports to support the industry and launched job-training programs to prepare workers. Construction, maintenance and shipping businesses have sprung up, along with secondary businesses that support the industry.
These politically motivated moves are costing Americans far more than just the buyouts.
Communities have been laying the groundwork for offshore energy projects for years. Offshore wind development brings jobs and economic development that reshape regional economies, with the scale of public and private investment reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars over years.
Losing the projects, and the threat of losing other planned wind farms, will also likely mean higher energy prices. And while some offshore wind farms are moving ahead, developers must account for both lost momentum and increased uncertainty from the Trump administration.
As a result, Americans will bear the economic brunt of these decisions for decades ahead.
5 Simple Ways To Remember More and Forget Less
Good to know
By Elva Arulchelvan, Trinity College Dublin
As a researcher investigating how electric brain stimulation
can improve people’s powers of recollection, I’m often asked how memory
works—and what we can do to use it more effectively. Happily, decades of
research have given us some clear answers to both questions.
Memory essentially operates in three stages, with
different brain
regions contributing to each one.
Sensory
memory, which can last only milliseconds, registers raw information such as
sights, sounds, and smells. These are first processed by the brain’s five primary sensory
cortices (visual cortex for sights, auditory cortex for sounds, and so
on).
Working
(short-term) memory holds and manipulates a small amount of
information over several seconds or more. Think of this as your brain’s mental
workspace: the system that lets you do mental arithmetic, follow instructions,
and comprehend what you’re reading. So it mainly involves the prefrontal
cortex—the front part of your brain that supports attention, decision-making,
and reasoning.
Finally, long-term memory stores
information more permanently, from minutes to a lifetime. This includes both
“explicit” memories (facts and life events) and “implicit” ones (skills,
habits, and emotional associations).
For long-term memories, the hippocampus and temporal lobes—located
deep within the brain, around the sides of your head near your
temples—contribute largely to memories involving facts or life events, while
the amygdala (near
the hippocampus), cerebellum (at
the back of the brain), and basal ganglia (deep
in the brain) process emotional or procedural memories.
Working memory often acts as a conscious gateway to
long-term memory—but it
has its limits. In 1956, the American psychologist George Miller proposed
that we can only hold about seven “chunks” of
information in our working memory at any time.
While the exact number
is debated to this day, the principle holds: working memory is limited. And
that limitation can shape how effectively we learn and remember things.
But you can also get your memory working more effectively.
Here are five easy steps for improving both your working and long-term memory.
Clam cakes, clam chowder, stuffies and more
10th Annual Quahog Week May 17-23
This week-long event “shell-ebrates” the cultural and economic importance of the quahog, Rhode Island’s official state clam. The event promotes local seafood while honoring the dedicated harvesters and the vibrant local food industry that brings fresh quahogs to tables across the state.
During Quahog Week, restaurants and markets statewide will
feature special quahog dishes. In its tenth year, the event is expected to draw
a record number of participants. Visit seafood.ri.gov for a
full list of locations and specials.
The last decade has seen DEM and its partners develop strong regulations, support infrastructure investments, advance monitoring efforts, and implement best practices that protect and improve the Ocean State’s water quality. These ongoing efforts have led to the opening of thousands of acres of new shellfishing waters; sustaining RI’s seafood industry and supporting the hardworking people and communities behind it.
Chart Shows How Trump 2.0 Is ‘Most Brazenly Self-Enriching’ Administration in US History
Buying Trump’s meme coin is like investing in “a pet rock, except you don’t even get a rock”
Brad
Reed for Common Dreams
Appearing on MS NOW, economist Steve Rattner broke down how
Trump’s net worth has exploded from $2.34 billion in 2024 to an estimated $6.5
billion in 2026.
“So where did the money come from? He had $4 billion, he and
his family, of profits,” Rattner said. “$3 billion of it came from crypto, and
I will tell you, there are so many transactions here, so many structures, that
made my head hurt trying to understand it.”
Rattner then explained the finances of the Trump meme coin,
which he described as investing in “a pet rock, except you don’t even get a
rock” out of the deal.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Trump’s Epic Stupidity Could Kill Millions of People
Worldwide economic disruption could lead to famine and pestilence. We're going to need a bigger ballroom
Such is the case with Trump’s claim that he didn’t know Iran might attack its
neighbors and close the Strait of Hormuz in response to his joint attack with
Israel. Trump insisted that none of the experts thought this possible when in
effect just about every expert thought it was both possible and likely.
Given Trump’s ignorance and propensity to lie, it is not
easy to know whether Trump actually went to war totally unaware of the most
likely consequences, or instead went to war anyhow, deciding that he didn’t
care about the damage it would cause. Whatever the real story, the consequences
are enormous and sure to get worse as the Strait remains closed longer.
The most immediate and obvious consequence is the higher
price for oil and
natural gas. People in the United States see
this at the gas station every time they fill their tank. Paying a dollar or so
more for a gallon of gas is an annoyance for everyone. It is very bad news for
low- and moderate-income households, especially those who need a car for work.
But this is just the beginning of the story. Diesel prices are up by close to $2.00 a gallon. Diesel fuel prices have risen by far more than regular gas because there is more limited refining capacity. This means when some refiners lose access to their supply of oil, their production cannot be easily replaced. Also, there is less ability for users to cut back their demand.
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