What I’m Thinking

Local elections are a good opportunity to assess what is important to the 10-12 percent of people who show up to vote in most local elections. The majority of registered voters defer decision making to the voting few. For better or worse, the voting minority speaks...

Spring 2026 town meetings have demonstrated the validity of the premise behind APCC’s The Cape We Shape campaign: When given the chance to act, voters will support the preservation of critical natural resources. Thanks to work in the trenches by local activists and...

Democracy is neither self-actuating nor is it self-sustaining. Governance requires ongoing interest, awareness of the issues of the day, and a willingness to make the effort to show up and participate. While events at the national level can often seem beyond the reach...

Falmouth Town Meeting approved two transfers of town-owned land in the watershed of its drinking water reservoir to the care and custody of conservation commission. The two articles were the first supported by APCC under The Cape We Shape campaign and serve as an...

This was written on a flight to see friends, family, and a concert (frequent readers can probably guess the show). High above the ground I find myself grateful for all the people who made systems, ones I don’t think about much and probably wouldn’t understand if I...

Ninety percent of the Cape’s estuaries exhibit poor water quality resulting directly from excess nitrogen, mostly from septic wastewater disposal. Towns across the Cape are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on wastewater infrastructure with the goal of reducing...

What you do, or don’t do, has political ramifications. The odds are that if you are reading this column you are invested in the quality of our environment and support good environmental practices. Now as much as ever, actions speak louder than words. Feeling strongly...

The Blizzard of 2026, with all the disruption and personal pain it imposed, was a stress test of the Cape’s infrastructure and overall readiness for a major storm response. Despite tireless work by plow drivers, line crews, volunteers and first responders, the Cape’s...

The only way to solve a problem is to admit you have one. Admit it or not—America, we have a problem. I am referring to last week's repeal by EPA of the Endangerment Finding that removed the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases. More than not—admitting that we...

I had a dream recently that reflects my view of the choice Cape Cod has before it. In my dream I was driving a car that was headed toward a bend in the road. My passenger reached over and held my arms to prevent me from changing direction. We missed the turn and went...