Eric Bender

Retired science writer. Follow the climate crisis, museums and research on type 1 diabetes.

Enjoy kayaking on Boston Harbor and blogging about the waterfront at https://ericbender.co/safe-harbor/. Occasionally update a printed color scrapbook about the harbor, https://bookshop.org/p/books/safe-harbor-wandering-the-boston-waterfront-as-the-sea-rises-eric-bender/d956312bf0dd6db1

#NoKings

Last Notes

2026-07-03 20:21:37 UTC

Chelsea Creek Sanctuary
The almost unstoppable Roseann Bongiovanni is winning her almost impossible battle to turn a long-abandoned waterfront industrial campus into a public park with affordable housing and a wildlife sanctuary.
https://ericbender.co/safe-harbor/
#Boston #Chelsea #history #harbor #environment #environmentaljustice #climatechange #climatecrisis #sealevelrise
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/857/892/425/804/902/original/7c1b84de5b4f22b7.jpg

2026-06-30 12:53:47 UTC

Tough times continue for the small publications that deliver crucial climate/environmental/scientific/health news:
Florida’s trusted home for climate coverage
The Invading Sea is working to secure a new home to build on efforts to inform Floridians about climate change
https://www.theinvadingsea.com/2026/06/26/the-invading-sea-climate-change-coverage-global-warming-sea-level-rise-extreme-weather/
#journalism #climatechange #climatecrisis #Florida #sealevelrise
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/839/150/733/500/041/original/b93018e0bcc8ddcf.jpeg

2026-06-11 19:15:34 UTC

This summer the Fame of Salem, a replica of a War of 1812 privateer, will begin sailing from the Seaport's Fan Pier as part of the Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships, https://libertyfleet.com/about-the-boat/
#sailing #Boston #harbor #history
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/733/065/001/173/405/original/c90a8748e8f5d675.jpg

2026-05-21 14:08:05 UTC

Floating wetlands bring back Boston's natural landscape lost to development
https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/05/20/floating-wetland-habitat-fort-point-climate
#Boston #Seaport #harbor #ecosystem
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/612/930/176/421/786/original/dc2c7deae5682e8c.jpg

2025-12-19 13:38:49 UTC

New study finds sea level rise is speeding up, contradicting federal report
"New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds sea level rise is accelerating across the contiguous United States, contradicting a federal report from July that downplayed the risks from climate change."
https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/12/18/sea-level-rise-accelerating-woods-hole-piecuch-doe
#climatecrisis #climatechange #Boston #sealevelrise

2025-10-05 16:47:47 UTC

#SilentSunday #Boston
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2025-10-01 15:08:54 UTC

Mourn, or Else
"The fusion of corporate control and government power that empowered this administration will need to be unmade. Courts will need to be reconfigured. Market power will need to be subsumed to electoral power. ... We will have to become far less complacent and far less scared. We also will have to organize. Because no citizen who simply settles for being a consumer of democracy should expect to have a real democracy ever again."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/charlie-kirk-media-truth-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qE8.I9Y-.aGP28nVihmUr&smid=url-share (shared)
#NoKings

2025-06-15 11:55:21 UTC

The NY Times covered yesterday's No Kings event, one of the largest protest events in U.S. history, as a minor colorful sideshow to the Trump tanks.
Here are the NYT's current home page and its story on page 20 of the print edition.
#NoKings #resist #NYTimes @nprofile…klvg
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2025-06-14 10:45:05 UTC

Today millions of us will peacefully protest this country's slide into fascism at many hundreds of No Kings events.
There's no mention of this gigantic event anywhere on the current NY Times home page, even in stories under the "US Protests" link highlighted here in red.
#resistance #nokings #NYtimes @nprofile…klvg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/681/303/045/652/567/original/0ac511e38dbb751f.jpg

2025-06-12 13:04:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…u28k What a great episode, in text and video! Love the comment on "nautical themed spaceships."
@nprofile…7y6q

2025-06-06 20:13:35 UTC

How Nantucket Is Preparing for Rising Seas
The Massachusetts island anticipates damages of $3.4 billion through 2070 if nothing is done.
"It’s no longer unusual to see a kayaker paddling along downtown Easy Street.... Easy Street was flooded a record 75 days in 2023."
The coastal resilience plan "so far has identified 40 proposed projects over the next 15 years at a cost of $930 million."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06062025/nantucket-sea-level-rise-coastal-resilience/
#climatechange #climatecrisis #sealevelrise

2025-05-28 17:41:46 UTC

#sailing #Bermuda
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/586/667/400/845/430/original/7a18107583eb0cd1.jpg
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2025-05-20 12:13:30 UTC

Sea level rise will cause ‘catastrophic inland migration’, scientists warn
Rising oceans will force millions away from coasts even if global temperature rise remains below 1.5C, analysis finds
"The new analysis found that even if fossil fuel emissions were rapidly slashed... sea levels would be rising by 1cm a year by the end of the century, faster than the speed at which nations could build coastal defences."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/20/sea-level-rise-migration
#climatechange #climatecrisis #sealevelrise
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2025-05-20 11:32:57 UTC

NYC’s $1.7B Investment Aims to Reduce Flood Risk
"The Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Street Coastal Resilience project is a key part of a multibillion-dollar program that includes elevated roadways, shoreline extensions, new green spaces, floodwalls and flood gates—all to prevent sea level rise and heavy rainfall from overwhelming and destroying critical buildings, roads and utilities in the city."
https://www.enr.com/articles/60768-nycs-17b-investment-aims-to-reduce-flood-risk
#newyork #climatecrisis #climatechange #sealevelrise #hurricane
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2025-04-12 12:17:05 UTC

FEMA quietly removes access to New England coastal erosion hazard tool
Planners and resilience experts say long-term erosion maps had been critical
https://commonwealthbeacon.org/environment/fema-quietly-removes-access-to-new-england-coastal-erosion-hazard-tool/
The Coastal Erosion Hazard viewer on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website "predicted erosion risk across the coast for the years 2030, 2050, and 2100, and until recently was publicly accessible."
#climatechange #sealevelrise #coast #hurricane #flood #massachusetts
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2025-04-04 18:34:20 UTC

Just switched Mastodon instances from sciencemastodon.com, since that server is quite understandably being shut down.
The switch went very smoothly, following these directions:
https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/
Thanks all, especially to @nprofile…4ned, who made his instance such a friendly first home on Mastodon!