Connecticut Green Living

The National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center, or "NETEC", has compiled clinical guidance, preparedness resources, and educational materials related to hantavirus to support healthcare decisions, as reflected on their website. Access the resource library here . As of this post, Saturday, May 15, 2026, the World Health Organization -- of which the U.S. is no longer a part -- states in relation to the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius outbreak: "According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 hantavirus cases (eight confirmed and two probable) — including three deaths — have been reported among passengers aboard the cruise ship. WHO currently assesses the global public health risk as low. However, more cases could be reported as ship passengers return home, due to the long quarantine of this disease, notes the WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus. (WHO Media Briefing , 5/15/26). It has been widely reported that while the risk is co...

If you just moved here from California (as I did in 2001) you are in for a doozy: Winter Storm Benjamin promises to bring a foot or more of snow to the region, below-zero temps and days of sold-out-supplies at your local Big Y. About 205 million people are under some kind of winter weather watch, a watch that promises not only snow and extreme cold, but ice. Unlike the usual Northeast storm, this one also will impact, even paralyze, some parts of the Midwest as well as Southern states, including Mississippi, Texas , and the Carolinas and the Mid Atlantic and parts of the Plains. A growing list of states have declared a state of emergency, including Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as D.C., late this morning. Ice impacts will possibly impact the District Sunday night, following the impact to more Southern regions. Here in Connecticut we will feel the effects of this second-named storm of the season, Benjamin, by Sunday morning. However, the temperatures will quickl...

You may have first seen the red and black-winged creature fluttering about your lawn, or outside the store or on a walk with your family. You didn't think too much about it, but one day you mused, 'I don't remember seeing this insect in Connecticut before.' Then it gets worse: you are outside Market 360 or Elm City Market in New Haven and you see a horde of them, most still alive, some smashed dead on the sidewalk. (I have wondered if these critters are coming in on the packages to these markets, but more on that in the future.) I wanted to investigate, first speaking to people off the cuff — from a young woman at the train station to my dentist — and they too have seen them .Turns out these seemingly innocuous creatures are a serious threat to our environment , even while benign to humans. They harm crops including grapes and other fruity plants, and spread a type of sticky substance that produces mold on outdoor equipment, vehicles, clothing, pets and even your hai...

When I stayed with my late mother in South Texas in 2016, there was a Zika Virus * scare, and so even sweeping the back porch was a fraught exercise in mosquito dodgeball. I remember scurrying about so fast that I likely made more of a mess than I helped. Spending summers in South Texas at my grandmother's, I was always mosquito-bite ridden. It was annoying, I itched, but I was young. Remember youth? We were never going to get really sick, much less die. But these days I take, and you should take, the threats posed by mosquitoes and ticks very seriously. ............................ SciLine, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently hosted a panel of scientists to discuss said threats ("Ticks, Mosquitoes and Rising Disease Risk"). Some of the takeaways were that climate change can, but does not necessarily portend, the deletirious effects of mosquito and tick season on a population. Interestingly, changes in land use also play huge facto...

As I write, I'm in a cool room in Windsor Locks, Connecticut , enjoying the way my skin feels after walking to the hotel from the restaurant next door. Just a few minutes in this weather made me dizzy, and tomorrow and Wednesday will be worse. For those of us who take public transportation, extreme heat and humidity is dangerous. I spoke to Dr. Kenneth Gillingham , Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Yale School of the Environment, about why this "heat spell" is threatening. We also spoke last April about our state's "green" rating (#9). "My primary concern about the heat is for low-income people who don't have access to adequate cooling. This will be exacerbated in the upcoming years," he wrote in an e-mail. I had asked him if our current presidential administration is having an adverse bearing on climate change. He said, "A presidential administration can affect your carbon footprint by influencing the carbon intensity of ele...

For years, I was a fan of Elm City Market, conveniently located for the train commuter (i.e. me) on State and Elm in New Haven across from the Metro station. When I found out it was closing but moving after Christmas (January originally, but now finally set on the day after tomorrow) I was thrilled but worried. For when one has their favorite places, they include not only products but sense memories - the first coffee on a cold morning, the taste tests before holidays, learning to pronounce 'quinoa' correctly (this really happened, but I cannot remember whether I taught myself or just heard a fellow shopper pronounce it.) Elm City Market reopens 7-11 at 275 S. Orange in New Haven, with a PR blitz - giveaways, 'meet the vendors', New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and might I add air conditioning. I spoke to the CEO, Kurt Luttecke yesterday about the new digs. "So it's been really hot, I'm not embarrassed to say I'll be coming for the AC." (chuckles) ...