Burger King, the second-largest fast-food chain in America, announced yesterday it will go cage-free by 2017. It seems they will not be the only company making ethical choices for animals. A report this week from the Humane Society of the United States titled, “Crammed Into Cages” notes several chains will be making the cage-free switch.
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Sen. Andrew Maynard, proponent of a bill to put tolls on Route 11, said he felt like he was trapped on the bus from the movie “Speed” after discussion of his bill was hijacked by a debate on the New Britain-to-Hartford busway project.

Continued expansion of industrial-scale oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo will become a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 unless strong forest and peatland protections are enacted and enforced, according to a National Academy of Sciences study. The study, conducted by Yale and Stanford researchers, found that about two-thirds of lands
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World population needs to be stabilised quickly and high consumption in rich countries rapidly reduced to avoid “a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills”, warns a major report from the Royal Society. Contraception must be offered to all women who want it and consumption cut to reduce inequality, says the study published on Thursday,
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Once you know who Chris Randall is, it seems as if he’s everywhere. And everywhere he is, so is the New Haven Land Trust. Randall is a photographer, gardener, community organizer, nature enthusiast and cheerleader for the city he calls home. But he’s also Executive Director of the NHLT, a position he approaches with an
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Today Curt Johnson, program director for Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound, received the 2012 Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Office. Curt was selected the award for his work as Co-Chair of the Long Island Sound Study’s Citizens Advisory Committee. The CAC is a volunteer organization
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In 2011, the DEEP received nearly 3,000 bear sighting reports from 122 of Connecticut’s 169 towns. This spring, the department has already received several reports of bears traveling through populated areas and coming into contact with humans and domestic animals. When bears emerge from their winter dens, natural foods are scarce and, as a result, bears are often attracted to human-provided foods found near homes.

The spring horseshoe crab mating migration will be occurring soon, and staff from The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk need your help in documenting it. The Aquarium is seeking volunteers to help attach census tags to the horseshoe crabs as they – the crabs – come up out of the water to spawn at Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach.

We can overcome the problems of delivering collective action on climate change by treating mining, deforestation, ocean degradation and more as violations of human rights Global climate-change talks often resemble the scene of a traffic accident. Multiple voices shout each other down in a bid to tell their own version of events. What is the
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In two months’ time, world leaders meet again – this time with Nick Clegg rather than John Major – in Rio to discuss what a sustainable future looks like. The search is on for 2012′s Severn, with the A Date With History competition, in which young people create videos telling the world what future they
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Project green energy: The Woodstock Green Energy Commission, along with the town and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, will celebrate the installation of the town’s newest solar panel system on Friday. The 24-panel, 4-kilowatt installation is at Woodstock Middle School. For more on this story, visit: Woodstock plans to cheer installation of solar panels –
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Since February, staff members at the Quinebaug Valley Trout Hatchery have been loading trucks full of brown, rainbow and brook trout for release into Connecticut waters. For more on this story, visit: Local hatchery helps stock Connecticut’s rivers | ReminderNews.

Melissa Schlag, the former executive director of Citizens for Protection of Public Lands (CPPL) in Connecticut, is challenging Democrat Eileen Daily for Connecticut State Senate District 33, along the Connecticut River. Schlag was active in leading the opposition to the Haddam Land Swap, a scheme to trade public conservation land to developers in exchange for
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According to the EPA, indoor air quality (IAQ) directly impacts student academic performance and health. Better IAQ increases productivity and improves the performance of mental tasks such as concentration and recall in both adults and children. Poor IAQ can trigger health issues, such as asthma.

Jewish Local Greens is a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). Members pay up front for a season’s worth of produce, grown at our partner farm (Adamah, in Falls Village CT, a certified organic, Jewish educational farm). The CSA system shortens the distance from farm to table, benefiting the health of our bodies, our wallets and the earth.
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Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, is being recognized for his exceptional work and commitment to the environment in 2011. The annual award recognizes outstanding environmental advocates who have made significant contributions toward preserving and protecting the nation’s natural resources.

American Electric Power (AEP) will be much in the news this week, with an annual shareholder meeting in Tulsa Oklahoma on Tuesday and a speech by AEP’s CEO and President Nick Akins to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. You can count on AEP spending a lot of time during these events talking about
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Numerous sewage treatment plants throughout New England are at maximum capacity and overflow during periods of heavy rain, sending untreated sewage into Long Island Sound. Millions of people live in New England and Long Island. Heavy rain storms such as Irene have caused scores of sewage treatment plants to overflow, sending untreated waste down to
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The Wood-Pawcatuck Protection Act seeks to provide funding for protection of the Pawcatuck River and other streams in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the Associated Press reports, and an official with the Watershed Association spoke in support of the legislation on Tuesday, April 17.

Robert Burns, an organic farmer in eastern Connecticut, is candid in describing his business interest in state legislation requiring that genetically modified food be labeled. “If you’re an organic producer now, you should get ready for an increase in sales,” said the grower of lettuce, mung beans, red winter wheat berries and other vegetables. Click on this environmental headline for more on this story from Stephen Singer of The Associated Press in Hartford, Conn.