Guest commentary: With more than 620,000 veterans living in North Carolina, many likely exposed to recently banned compounds trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene while working for the military, updating the toxic agents list is essential for equal access to benefits.
Guest Columns
Offshore drilling still has no place on the Atlantic Coast
Guest commentary: The people of North Carolina stood up and stopped offshore drilling once before, and we must do it again, but only a few days remain to submit your comments on the administration’s push to drill.
Tales from the dunes: Butterflies in science, sentiment
NC State and North Carolina Aquarium researchers have traipsed across sand to study the crystal skipper, a butterfly known for its white speckled wings that can only be found in the Bogue Banks area.
Bulkhead alternatives could reimagine a changing coast
Duke University undergraduate Ava Kocher in this guest commentary explores the value of using living shorelines to protect wetlands and property.
Preventing Environmental Hazards Act a commonsense bill
Guest opinion by Congressman Greg Murphy: Allowing National Flood Insurance Program payouts to remove a threatened oceanfront structure before it collapses, rather than wait until it creates an environmental disaster, will add flexibility while mitigating risks.
Doomed to repeat history: What’s in future for NC wetlands?
Guest commentary: Ignoring the past guarantees a grim future for our coastal communities, as the fishermen of Rose Bay warned decades ago. Will we listen now, or once again pay the price for failing to protect our way of life?
Opinion: Don’t sell off our public waters to highest bidder
Guest commentary: Recent actions by the new administration make it clear that they are out of touch with community interests, concerns about climate change and the need to protect our natural resources.
A shared resolution: Embrace nature-based solutions
Guest commentary: As we welcome 2025, let’s make this the year we reimagine our relationship with North Carolina’s coast by leveraging natural processes and resources to enhance biodiversity, protect habitats and promote resilient communities.
Best way to bid farewell 2024? Count birds on Outer Banks
Hardy birders, volunteers, aspiring community scientists, photographers and others will soon have their chance to count birds on Ocracoke and Portsmouth islands to improve understanding of bird life trends that have implications for all.
Opinion: Catch reports will improve fisheries management
Guest commentary: The state needs time to build out its new catch-reporting system, and while it may annoy some, the improved data will mean more fish, longer seasons.
State’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint a necessary new approach
Commentary: Building flood resilience across the state saves $6 for every $1 spent before disaster strikes, and a new tool developed in collaboration with numerous stakeholders can help local leaders determine where to invest.
Where war looks lost, Mother Nature fights climate change
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and other, nearby refuges and state lands especially vulnerable to climate change are getting $27.5 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for nature-based solutions.
Three-hundred-year-old Beaufort faces existential threat
Guest commentary: Duke University senior Holden Buchanan examines Beaufort’s duality as a coastal science hub and example of climate vulnerability.
A special time to remember the 1896 E.S. Newman rescue
The Miami-based Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge is named for the first African American to command a Life Saving Station, one known for the Oct. 11, 1896, rescue of all onboard the shipwrecked schooner.
Five years after Florence: A look back at resilience efforts
Guest commentary: The effects of Hurricane Florence in 2018 linger today, and though progress toward resilience has been made, the recent loss of wetland protections will come to bear after future storms.
Attention NC seafood consumers: Consider the source
Proposed legislation, lawsuits, petitions, and other drastic efforts have been attempted that would deny coastal North Carolinians access to local seafood.
