Local Medical Center Has Infrastructure For Smoking, But Not Biking

The other day I rode my bike to my local medical facility, Southcoast Health in Fairhaven, to get blood drawn for my annual physical. While it has a massive parking lot for somewhere around 500 vehicles, Southcoast Health in Fairhaven doesn't have even one bicycle rack.

 But it does have a picnic table outside of its back door for smoke breaks.

Rarely-Seen Neighborhood Coyotes Say Hello

Coyotes are common but rarely seen in Massachusetts, preferring to avoid any contact with people. In my neighborhood of Sconticut Neck in Fairhaven, coyotes made news a few years ago when a series of cats went missing, but I'd only spotted one briefly dashing through the snow during a storm.

Then last night just after sunset, some nearby coyotes decided to yip & howl it up:

Recorded this from Olivia's bedroom window - coyotes, says @dmizejewski

A video posted by Miles Grant (@thegreenmilesgrant) on Mar 19, 2015 at 5:30pm PDT

Impossible to say exactly how close they were as howls can be clearly heard over a surprising distance, up to a few miles. As intimidating as coyote sounds can be, their message could've been as simple as, "We're claiming this spot to build our den & have our pups in a few weeks."

How many were there? Adirondack Almanack says it could be fewer than you'd think:

When people hear coyote howls, they often mistakenly assume that they’re hearing a large pack of animals, all raising their voices at once. But this is an auditory illusion called the “beau geste” effect. Because of the variety of sounds produced by each coyote, and the way sound is distorted as it passes through the environment, two of these tricksters can sound like seven or eight animals.

Coyotes thrive in suburban and even urban areas, just as their prey do. Rodents, rabbits, deer, frogs, fish, insects - if it moves, they'll probably eat it. When I worked odd hours in Arlington, VA, I'd very rarely spot one among the high-rise apartment buildings just across the Potomac from DC. You'd never know they were there unless you had your headlights on at the right time in the early morning hours (and cars are coyotes' main enemy). By the time most people start waking up, coyotes are back in their wooded homes.

By far the number one conflict between coyotes and people is over pets. Cats and dogs should never be left outside alone, especially at night. Coyotes almost always steer well clear of humans, but a small dog let out alone before bedtime can be easy pickings for a hungry coyote.

The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife has more tips for living with coyotes.

I Question the Effectiveness of This Crosswalk

My town of Fairhaven, MA makes little effort to clear sidewalks and crosswalks and this winter's historic snowfall has made things even more dangerous than usual.

"Large stretches of sidewalks disappear entirely on Main and Union streets in Fairhaven," reports Auditi Guha of the Standard-Times. “There’s an ordinance in town that’s, quite honestly, not enforced much,” said Vincent Furtado, Board of Public Works superintendent.

What baffles me is how towns are so interested in looking safe for people on foot, while being totally disinterested in the actual safety of pedestrians. Why spend money on crosswalks and signals if you're going to leave them buried under 8 feet of snow? Why have ordinances if you don't want to enforce them?

Osprey Immune to "Wind Turbine Syndrome"

Three osprey were out fishing in the wetlands near the Fairhaven wind turbines the other day. (As is the usual rule of bird watching, I came across them when I only had my camera phone on me.)

Unlike the many other unusual animal behaviors wind opponents have blamed on turbines, the osprey (and the fish they were eating) didn't seem to mind the turbines one bit.

Raptors can have run-ins with wind turbines, but in this case we know the osprey are steering clear because there's a small but extremely dedicated band of wind turbine opponents looking for dead birds who'd go running to the nearest reporter if they found a dead or injured osprey.

And it's not physical encounters that form the basis of "wind turbine syndrome" - it's some unseen transmission of malice, often blamed "infrasound," that can cause just about any ailment.

Osprey have hearing that's 8 to 10 times more acute than humans, but it didn't bother them - and when science looks into it, they find infrasound doesn't actually bother people, either.

ABC Wind "Victims" Rebuked as Wind's Winning Streak Rolls On

Wind's winning streak continues in Massachusetts this week with three big victories - including a particularly embarrassing loss for a self-proclaimed victim of "wind turbine syndrome" whose cause had been promoted by Fox and ABC.

First, a federal judge not only ruled in favor of Cape Wind against Bill Koch's front group, he told it to knock off the frivolous lawsuits:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging what could become the first offshore wind farm in the United States, ruling that the constitution prohibits the opponents from suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The plaintiffs — the Town of Barnstable, three local businesses and an ad-hoc opposition group — sued the state in January, saying it illegally pushed electric utility NStar to buy power from the planned Cape Wind farm, the Boston Globe reported. NStar has agreed to buy 27.5 percent of the project’s power.

Judge Richard Stearns of the District Court for Massachusetts dismissed the case Friday and sharply criticized Cape Wind’s opponents for repeatedly bringing lawsuits against it after they lose in court.

Just down the road in Fairhaven this week, a judge ruled the town's wind turbines are perfectly legal, dealing a blow to the local "WindWise" group that promotes wind turbine hypochondria:

A Bristol County Superior Court judge has found in favor of the town of Fairhaven and Fairhaven Wind in the latest lawsuit brought by wind turbine opponents.

And now the real eye-roller. Last October, an ABC News report gave an extremely long, very credulous account of the story of Sue and Edward Hobart. The Falmouth homeowners claimed a wind turbine more than 5 football fields away caused a wide range of mysterious health problems, even though Sue Hobart later admitted that she had suffered from ringing in her ears for "quite a while," but claimed it had gotten worse "since the turbines." The Hobarts filed a six-figure lawsuit against the turbine manufacturer, claiming the turbine hurt the value of their home.

Fox and other conservative outlets immediately seized on the Hobarts' claims to attack wind energy. It went viral with wind hypochondriacs - the original ABCnews.com article has over 1,000 comments, including tales of wind turbines causing instantaneous fainting.

But this week, Falmouth ruled against the Hobarts' claims and in the process revealed something not mentioned in any previous reporting:

The Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals declined to call a privately owned wind turbine a nuisance Thursday night, saying that claims of detrimental health effects because of its operation were insufficient.

The turbine at 82 Technology Park Drive in East Falmouth is owned by Notus Clean Energy LLC. Ed and Sue Hobart, formerly of 476 Blacksmith Shop Road, complained last year about the turbine's noise and the subsequent effects on their health. Building Commissioner Eladio Gore found the turbine did not constitute a nuisance, and the Hobarts appealed his ruling to the zoning board.

Zoning Administrator Sari Budrow said the four members of the board who participated in the discussion Thursday night, which was the conclusion of a hearing that began in March, unanimously found the health complaints were not persuasive.

The Hobarts have sold their house and argued the loss they took on the sale was a direct result of the turbine; however, other factors, including mold and radon on the property, also were found to be at work, Budrow said the board determined.

Mold and radon are both very real health threats, unlike easily disproven health claims related to wind turbines. Why didn't the original ABC article investigate whether the Hobarts' health claims were caused by mold or radon? The article never even mentioned them - the words "mold" and "radon" never appear.

Did the Hobarts withhold information about the mold and radon on their property? Or did ABC choose to withhold it for some other reason? In either case, ABC didn't tell viewers the whole story.

ABC should consider retracting its original report. At the very least, it should run an update and explain why viewers didn't hear about mold and radon in the first report.

Even in MA, Coastal Towns Completely Unprepared for Sea Level Rise

Here in Massachusetts, climate science denial may be politically toxic, but when it comes to accelerating sea level rise fueled by global warming, some local officials are just as in denial about as their science-denying counterparts in North Carolina.

Climate Central has an interactive sea level rise tool showing how even 5 feet of sea level rise - virtually guaranteed by the carbon pollution we've already put into the atmosphere - will put more than 10,000 homes under water on the Southcoast alone. As Ariel Wittenberg reports in the Standard-Times, many local officials are governing as though the threat doesn't exist:

Asked about the maps, most SouthCoast municipalities say they have dealt with flooding issues as they happen, and have not made plans to combat or adapt to climate change and sea level rise specifically.

In Dartmouth, for example, Town Administrator David Cressman said he and the police chief are "aware of the vulnerabilities" of the police station, which was renovated 10 years ago.

"At times I wondered why they were doing that if it is in a flood zone," he said.

In my town of Fairhaven, where Sconticut Neck is set to become an island, austerity means kicking the can down the beach for future generations to clean up:

[Fairhaven Chairman of the Selectmen Bob Espindola] added it's difficult to think about investing town money in mitigating climate change.

"It's something that is not right on our doorstep and we are thinking about balancing our budget and keeping from making significant cuts," he said.

Screw the grandkids, I want my property taxes cut now!

Recycling Saves Money. Recycling More Saves More Money.

Here in Fairhaven, the town has to pay a company to collect trash and recycling. But while the town then has to pay $50 a ton to get rid of the trash, the company takes care of the recycling for free.

So what's the problem? Only 14% of the town recycles and many households still use those iconic, tiny blue bins. As Ariel Wittenberg reports, now Fairhaven is looking to invest in bigger recycling bins to encourage bigger savings:

Department of Public Works Superintendent Vincent Furtado said that his office recently came to an agreement with ABC Disposal to start using larger trash and recycling carts, much like those now being used in New Bedford.

Residents will be able to throw any recyclables, be they paper, plastic or something else, into the carts, which hold 96 gallons. The recycling carts are a third bigger than the 64-gallon trash carts, something Furtado said is meant to encourage more recycling in town.

"We will only pick up what fits in those containers," Furtado said. "The hope is that will make people think about what they put in each of them." [...]

"What's the difference between throwing a milk carton in one container or the other? Well, in one it costs the town money and in the other it won't," he said. "When the town saves money, the taxpayers save money."

Yes, recycling conserves precious resources like wood, metal, oil (plastic is made from petroleum), energy and water. Yes, recycling conserves space in our increasingly-crowded (and sometimes dangerous) landfills.

But even if you're some selfish jerk who doesn't care about any of that, recycle because it saves you money.

Snowy Owl at West Island in Fairhaven, MA (Video)

On my third try, I finally got to see one of the snowy owls spending the winter in southeastern New England.

Speculation is that more owls than usual are showing up in the U.S. this winter after an Arctic lemming population boom meant more snowy owl juveniles than usual survived and thrived enough to make the migration.

A snowstorm turned me away from Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Westport last weekend, and I went home empty-camera'd after a cold, windy Presidents Day walk on Fairhaven's West Island.

But on Saturday I got to West Island just after sunrise and finally saw this snowy owl. Raptors are great for bird watching because when not nesting they're fairly indifferent to people - I was able to walk right up to the tree where the owl was perched (good luck walking up to a jittery songbird). It did seem mildly annoyed when I made noise, kind of like, "Do you mind? I'm hunting here."



One more photo from when I first arrived at West Island. As I walked up from the beach and looked across the salt marsh, I spotted this coyote in the distance running towards the woods. It must've seen, heard, or smelled me well before I saw it, and by the time I got my camera out he was a quarter of a mile away. But it stopped every 100 yards or so and shot a look back at me like "thanks for ruining my morning, jerk":

Is Childhood Obesity Only a Problem When It's Warm Out?

UPDATE 2/14: Thanks to the New Bedford Standard-Times for reporting on the icy Fairhaven bike path.

In towns like Fairhaven, good intentions on walkability are often buried under the reality of policies that strongly urge everyone to drive everywhere.

Take the Fairhaven bike path. In October, it was an important way to encourage children to get outside and combat obesity:

Ella Tveit, 8, agreed that it would be fun "because we're going to exercise. Usually I just jump rope or hula hoop," she said. "This is way more fun."

Before the event, [Rep. William] Straus told the children that bike paths are "important forms of alternative transportation."

But in the winter, kids spending all day inside and getting fat must miraculously stop being a problem. Bike to school days stop November 15 no matter the weather, and the town lets bike path look like this:

Obviously there aren't many great biking days in Massachusetts in the winter. But even when the temperature does rise, the bike path remains covered in ice. While the town pays to plow every road and cul-de-sac, it doesn't budget money to plow the bike path that's used by hundreds of people on nice winter days. The snow that's allowed to build up gets packed down into ice by ATVs that use the path and neighboring marshes as race tracks.

But even if THAT obstacle was cleared, how would anyone safely get to the bike path? Bike lanes are few & far between, and the Fairhaven town code only requires landowners to remove snow from their sidewalks if they're asked to do so by the police.

On one of Fairhaven's busiest roads, I came across this wheelchair ramp and crosswalk buried under banks of snow plowed off of the adjacent road and alley:

Why is allowing people to walk & roll enough of a priority to install sidewalks, ramps & crosswalks, but not enough of a priority to require they be cleared in the winter?

Massachusetts Voters Keep Rejecting Wind Turbine Restrictions

It's happened again, this time in Plymouth. Once again, an effort to limit wind turbines was put before voters, citing hazy "health" concerns, and once again clean energy has won in a landslide.

The Plymouth Town Meeting on Saturday rejected a de facto ban on new wind turbines:

If approved, this article would have limited the construction of wind turbines to two overlay districts – one at the Camelot Industrial Park, the other along Commerce Way – and would have modified the required setbacks and the total height allowed. Opponents of the article suggested that if it were approved no additional wind turbines could be located in town.

Town Meeting Rep. Simon Thomas, part owner of the Camelot Wind turbine, said that Plymouth was already the toughest place in New England to try and get a permit for a new turbine.

The article would've required a two-thirds supermajority to pass, but didn't even come close to a simple majority, losing 49-68. The clear defeat for turbine opponents comes just weeks after the Plymouth Zoning Board rejected Stop & Shop's request to build a wind turbine, citing the dangers of an I think I might be able to hear it pandemic and don't forget deadly shadows.

The Plymouth vote comes on the heels of similar election results over the last few months in the nearby towns of Fairhaven and Falmouth. Falmouth elected officials put a plan to tear down the town's wind turbines before voters, who rejected it by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. And in Fairhaven, voters chose a pro-reality candidate for Board of Health over an turbine hysteria candidate, also by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

While elected officials keep trying to pander to the vocal handful of wind hypochondriacs who show up to complain at meetings, Massachusetts voters continue to strongly support local wind energy projects. How many times to do they have to send that message at the ballot box before it sinks in?

Wind Turbines Have No Impact on Nearby Home Values, New Study Confirms

Wind turbine opponents do not like looking at wind turbines. But in the face of strong public support for non-polluting, locally-produced clean energy, that's not an effective argument, so they make outrageous claims about health impacts and property values.

Study after study has proven claims about health impacts are false, and now a new study confirms nearby wind turbines have no impact on property values:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine U.S. states, yet was unable to uncover any impacts to nearby home property values.

“This is the second of two major studies we have conducted on this topic and in both studies [using two different datasets] we find no statistical evidence that operating wind turbines have had any measureable impact on home sales prices,” says Ben Hoen, the lead author of the new report. [...]

“Although there have been claims of significant property value impacts near operating wind turbines that regularly surface in the press or in local communities, strong evidence to support those claims has failed to materialize in all of the major U.S. studies conducted thus far”, says Hoen. “Moreover, our findings comport with the large set of studies that have investigated other potentially similar disamenities, such as high voltage transmission lines, land fills, and noisy roads, which suggest that widespread impacts from wind turbines would be either relatively small or non-existent.”

Distant wind turbines are at most a minor inconvenience, something you might not pick as part of your new home in a perfect world, but one that wouldn't deter you from buying a home in the real world.

Look at Falmouth, Fox's favorite example of the WIND MENACE - home prices are up in the last year. And they're flat in other places with wind turbines like Fairhaven, Hull, Kingston and Scituate, a far cry from the outrageous claims of home price decimation made by clean energy opponents.

Yes, Wind Energy is Clean & Affordable, But THE VIEWSHED

I don't understand people who say wind turbines are eyesores that ruin the view. Personally, I like looking at them - simple & elegant. Even on mountains, in fields, or in the ocean, they seem to belong there harnessing nature's abundance.

But even if you don't like looking at them ... well, so what? Since when did we start holding new projects to that standard? Big box stores, highways and power lines aren't exactly works of art, but we put up with them because they perform important services and support jobs. We should be at least that willing to tolerate things that collect clean, affordable, locally-produced energy.

Now go like Friends of Fairhaven Wind.

Will GOP Leadership Let Petty Politics Kill Clean Energy Jobs?

The New Bedford Standard Times today calls on Congress to extend incentives for wind energy:

The tax credit works by giving wind farm owners 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power they produce. It is expected to cost the federal government about $1.3 billion this fiscal year, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a fraction of the credits that will be taken advantage of by the oil industry this year.

President Barack Obama wants the tax credit extended; GOP nominee Mitt Romney wants it to expire. Romney argues the tax credit for wind gives an unfair advantage, and that the industry should have to compete on a "level playing field" with other energy industries. This, of course, is nonsense.

Even the two Bush presidents, with their longstanding support of oil industries, were solidly behind promotion of credits for emerging energy technologies. The playing field has belonged to the industries that trade in carbon-based energy for so long that the impact of infrastructure on production costs and bottom lines is of a vastly different order than that for emerging technologies. Maybe when the lobbyists for the renewable sources have the access to legislators and influence currently enjoyed by the carbon-focused industries it will be an indication that the playing field is starting to level out.

The cost of these incentives is a drop in the bucket compared to the public health benefits, increased energy security, and cuts in carbon pollution. Massachusetts' SouthCoast region gets - in the last three months alone (a slow time for wind energy) Fairhaven banked $45,000 from its two wind turbines and is now moving forward on solar power.

From Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley to Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, many Republican members of Congress representing states with booming clean energy sectors want wind incentives extended. The Senate Finance Committee passed an extension of the credit on a bipartisan vote, but Senate Republican leadership is likely to mount a filibuster and House Republican leadership may not allow a vote at all.

Will bipartisan support for clean energy be able to overcome Congressional Republican leadership's opposition to giving President Obama victories on any of his priorities? Tell your members of Congress that we can't let petty politics kill American clean energy jobs.

When You Have to Deny You'd Decapitate Birds to Make Your Point ...

Opponents of two wind turbines in Fairhaven, MA have long since proven that they're, as the Car Talk guys would say, non impediti ratione cogitationis. But somehow they've managed to step up their game to a new level.

The Standard-Times reports today that members of the group Windwise have spent months scouring the area under the turbines for wildlife impacts. The fruits of their efforts? Two dead bats and one dead bird. Now, those of you who ARE encumbered by the thought process may say, only a few dead critters with no direct evidence of impacts over several months, all while saving thousands of pounds of air pollution? Sign me up!

But that is not deterring Windwise from going all-in:

[Windwise member Louise] Barteau said she called the Massachusetts Department for Environmental Protection on Monday but officials there seemed skeptical of her reports because "they were coming from Windwise."

"He thought we were planting evidence or something," she said. "But we found a decapitated bird the other day; it was the turbine. None of us are out there with cleavers hacking off bird heads to make a point."

Let's set aside the implausibility of a 130-foot-long dull-edged turbine arm somehow managing to perfectly guillotine 3-inch-long bird. When you have to deny that you'd cut off bird heads to further your quixotic cause ... well, maybe it's time to find a healthier hobby.

MA Wind Energy Opponents Pre-Reject Results of Test They Demanded

Just as sound tests prepare to begin on two wind turbines in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, opponents have announced - before the test has even happened - that they won't be appeased no matter what the test results show. If the sound results come back normal, they'll invoke wild conspiracy theories about how the test was rigged:

Ken Pottel, a member of Windwise, said the group fears Shah could tilt the blades to slow the turbines and thus lessen the noise they make during testing. He said the group is particularly concerned about [turbine builder Sumul] Shah's ability to control the turbines remotely from his cellphone and laptop.

"It's obviously in his best interest to make sure these turbines pass the test," he said. "How do we know he isn't controlling the pitch from his phone?"

Shah said he not only "would not do that" but that "it is impossible for me to adjust the speed of the rotor while the turbines are spinning." Shah said he can only change the pitch of the blades when the turbine is turned off. If the turbine is on for testing, he said, its speed cannot be controlled.

"I have no intention of doing that and, not only that, I can't do that; it's technologically impossible," he said.

Before the turbines were built, wind opponents pushed theories with no basis in reality about health impacts. Since the turbines were built, wind opponents have been busily filing noise complaints about the near-silent turbines. Now, we have new conspiracy theories about secretly rigged sound tests.

It's important that these test be completed. If the sound levels are too high, that should be addressed. But no one should be under any illusions that these tests, no matter the results, will do anything to satisfy opponents, who deny any reality that doesn't fit their pre-existing points of view.

And let's be honest, views are what this is all about - "we don't think we should cut the pollution that causes global warming and asthma and puts mercury in our waterways and fish and pregnant women because we think the turbines muck up the view" is a terrible argument that doesn't sway anyone, so wind opponents try to come up with something more reasonable-sounding, hence health impacts and double-secret phone-based turbine-tampering.

What we really need to test is why anyone would think opponents of wind energy can be appeased.