The size and especially the weight of batteries is a critical factor for most things that use them.  Battery weight is a key limitation for computers and cell phones. It is even more of a limitation for electric cars, ships, or planes. If the battery of a device or vehicle can also function as a […]
10/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Ocean geoengineering
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to be dangerously large and the perils of climate change are increasingly apparent, the world is increasingly exploring ways to deliberately intervene in climate systems.  A number of these ideas involve introducing substances into the atmosphere, but there are also ways to tinker with the oceans. The oceans naturally absorb […]
10/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Wildlife crossings
Every year, there are one to two million collisions between motor vehicles and large animals in the U.S.  About 200 people are killed annually.  Counting smaller vertebrates, around a million animals are killed by vehicles each day.  Research has shown that global warming is triggering widespread species redistribution.  As a result, more and more animals […]
10/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Rising methane emissions
Methane is a colorless and odorless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and is also a product of certain human activities.  It’s a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas and, as a result, is a major driver of climate change.  In fact, methane heats the atmosphere nearly 90 times faster than carbon dioxide over a […]
10/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Electric cars and power outages
As more and more cars are powered by electricity instead of gasoline, people are beginning to worry about what happens during power outages caused by storms and other disruptive events.  It is easy to jump to the conclusion that this is a brand-new problem for drivers.  However, when electricity goes out over a sizeable area, […]
10/21/2024 • 2 minutes
The impact of climate change on agriculture
Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize.  Agriculture is responsible for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. On farms around the world, excess fertilizer gets broken down by microbes in the soil, releasing nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.  Nitrous oxide is a […]
10/18/2024 • 2 minutes
Slow-moving landslides
Landslides are mass movements of rock, earth, or debris down a slope.  They can be initiated by rainfall, snowmelt, changes in water level, erosion by streams, earthquakes, volcanic activity, or by various human activities.  Most landslides we hear about are sudden events that can cause all sorts of calamities.  But not all landslides are rapid […]
10/17/2024 • 2 minutes
And the heat goes on
August 2024 was the hottest August in the 175-years for which there are global records.  The last full month of summer also wrapped up the Northern Hemisphere‘s warmest summer on record. The average global surface temperature in August was 62.39 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 2.29 degrees above the 20th century August average.  Furthermore, August was […]
10/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Solar energy on federal land
Officials at the federal Bureau of Land Management announced late in August that they had finalized a plan to add Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming to the Western Solar Plan, which started during the Obama era.   The plan, created in 2012, provides permitting for solar projects on federal land.  The original plan included Arizona, […]
10/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Canadian wildfires and global emissions
The wildfires that burned vast amounts of Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced enormous amounts of smoke that found its way into American cities, working its way down the eastern seaboard and even producing unsafe air in Florida. Researchers at Cal Tech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed the carbon emissions associated with these fires […]
10/14/2024 • 2 minutes
Tourism and climate action
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the foremost natural wonders of the world and is a major tourist attraction.  It is well-known that the changing climate is threatening the survival of the Great Barrier Reef as well as other coral reefs around the world.  A recent study by researchers at the University of Queensland […]
10/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Predicting major earthquakes
Natural disasters continue to be major threats for people, just as they always have been.  But modern technology has greatly improved our ability to prepare for and, in many cases, escape from the worst effects of these events.  A good example is hurricane forecasting.  Nowadays, there is plenty of warning when a major hurricane is […]
10/10/2024 • 2 minutes
The doomsday glacier
The Thwaites Glacier is an enormous Antarctic Glacier.  Its area is larger than that of Florida – in fact, larger than 30 other U.S. states – and it is melting.  It has been retreating for 80 years but has accelerated its pace in the past 30.  Its shedding of ice into the ocean already contributes […]
10/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Trends in rooftop solar
Rooftop solar power in the United States has increased by a factor of ten over the past decade and the majority of that growth has been in the past six or seven years.  At this point, about 7% of American homes have solar panels on their roofs – about 5 million in total.  Rooftop solar […]
10/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Weather extremes for most people
Scientists from the CICERO Center for International Climate Research in Norway along with researchers at the University of Reading in the UK have analyzed how global warming can combine with normal variations in the weather to produce decades-long periods of very rapid changes involving both extreme temperatures and extreme amounts of rainfall. Many parts of […]
10/7/2024 • 2 minutes
Rainfall and sea turtles
There are seven species of sea turtles that inhabit the world’s oceans. Six of the seven sea turtle species – all of them except the flatback – are present in U.S. waters, and are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  Sea turtles, which have been around for more than 100 million […]
10/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Last chance tourism
Glaciers around the world are shrinking or disappearing.  Melting glaciers and ice sheets are the biggest contributors to global sea level rise and ice loss rates are continuing to increase.  Even if the world somehow manages to meet the climate goal of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world will still […]
10/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Ecofriendly Glass
Glass has been used for thousands of years to make everything from windows to bottles to microscope slides.  For all that time, most glass has been in the form of soda lime silicate glass, which is made by melting quartz sand with carbon-based ingredients – soda ash and limestone – at high melting temperatures of […]
10/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Food, timber, and climate change
The sights of coffee plantations in California and vineyards in Britain are becoming more common as the climate changes. But behind what sounds like a success story is a sobering one: climate change is shifting the regions suitable for growing food all around the world.  According to a new study by researchers from the University […]
10/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Solar farms and pollinators
Two important environmental challenges are finding some literal common ground:  the need to reduce carbon emissions and the fight to stave off global biodiversity collapse.  Both issues can be addressed at solar farms. Solar energy is an important weapon in the battle against climate change.  But utility-scale solar farms take up large amounts of land.  […]
9/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Revolution Wind installs first turbine
Revolution Wind is an offshore wind farm being built by Rhode Island and Connecticut and is the first multi-state offshore wind farm in the United States.  Once completed, it will deliver 400 MW of power to Rhode Island and 304 MW of power to Connecticut. Revolution Wind is a 50/50 partnership between Ørsted, the Danish […]
9/27/2024 • 2 minutes
Removing nanoplastics from water
Plastic pollution is a growing problem for people and for the environment in multiple ways.  When plastics break down over time, they can form small particles called microplastics – bits smaller than sesame seeds – and these, in turn, can break down into even smaller pieces called nanoplastics.  They are too small to be seen […]
9/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Electric cars: Boom or bust?
Media coverage of electric cars in this country is pretty confusing.  Are electric cars taking over or has the EV bubble burst? EVs currently represent about 8% of the US new car market.  But they continue to face some relatively unique headwinds in this country.  A very powerful and influential oil industry makes sure that […]
9/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Cities and rainwater
Cities across the country are grappling with the problem that bigger, more frequent rainstorms occurring as a result of climate change are overtaxing the systems put in place to handle stormwater.  Cities use a combination of so-called green infrastructure – such as rain gardens and porous pavements – and traditional gray infrastructure, such as pipes, […]
9/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Big Tech and emissions
Most of the well-known largest technology companies have established ambitious clean energy goals.  They are on record for achieving net-zero emissions for all their operations and supply chains in many cases by 2030.  As a result, they have been investing heavily in renewable energy in various ways.  Despite these lofty goals and sincere efforts, many […]
9/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Just say ‘climate change’
In recent years, climate advocates have pushed for the use of more dramatic language to describe ‘climate change.’  The notion was that phrases like ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’ better convey the urgency of the planet’s plight, while terms like ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ are too gentle and vague.  However, it turns out that […]
9/20/2024 • 2 minutes
Solid-state batteries for cars
Battery-powered electric vehicles have historically faced the challenges of limited driving range and long charging time.  In recent years, both of these limitations have been largely overcome for many if not most drivers.  Popular EVs on the market can go 300 miles and more on a charge and today’s fastest charging networks can add 200 […]
9/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Making wind turbines safer for birds
There are people who oppose the installation of wind turbines for a variety of reasons. It is true that wind turbines can be dangerous to birds.  Estimates are that about 250,000 birds are killed flying into wind turbines each year in the U.S.   However, this data needs to be looked at in comparison to bird […]
9/18/2024 • 2 minutes
An electric reactor for industry
The industrial sector accounts for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, which is more than the annual emissions from cars, trucks, and airplanes combined.  These emissions primarily come from burning fossil fuels to produce goods from raw materials as well as from the chemical reactions associated with production.  Many industrial processes […]
9/17/2024 • 2 minutes
Solar grazing
Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar power generation with agriculture.  Generally, this has involved growing crops under and around solar panels harvesting both food and electricity.  More recently, there has been increasing interest in grazing animals to manage lands used for solar power. Enel North America, a large operator of solar farms and utility-scale battery […]
9/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Warming estuaries
Estuaries and their surrounding wetlands are bodies of water where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean to create brackish water.  These brackish ecosystems support many unique plant and animal communities around the world.  But ocean water temperature around the world continues to warm.  In fact, from 1901 to 2023, […]
9/13/2024 • 2 minutes
More wind power than coal power
The U.S. used to get more of its electricity from burning coal than by any other means.  It wasn’t all that long ago; coal produced 51% of our electricity in 2001. But as of 2022, it was less than 20%. In March and April, the U.S. generated more electricity from wind power than from coal.  […]
9/12/2024 • 2 minutes
2023: A year of extreme climate
There have already been all sorts of extreme weather this year in many parts of the world and undoubtedly there will be more to talk about in the coming months.  But the American Meteorological Society has recently published its State of the Climate report for 2023 and it was a year for the record books. […]
9/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Svalbard is melting
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It is one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas and is a popular attraction for tourists.  Svalbard is famous for rugged, remote terrain of glaciers and frozen tundra sheltering polar bears, Svalbard reindeer, and Arctic foxes. The Northern Lights are visible during winter, […]
9/10/2024 • 2 minutes
A better way to produce green hydrogen
Hydrogen has great potential as a fuel and an energy carrier for many applications.  Burning it or consuming it in fuel cells does not produce carbon emissions.  As a result, there has long been the vision for a future hydrogen economy.  Whether the hydrogen economy would ever come about given how various other technologies have […]
9/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Water from thin air
The Earth’s atmosphere contains enormous amounts of water.  Being able to efficiently and economically extract some of it to provide drinking water would be extremely beneficial to the billions of people across the globe who face chronic water shortages. There are existing technologies for atmospheric water harvesting – or AWH.  But there are downsides associated […]
9/6/2024 • 2 minutes
Less coal for making steel
Steel is primarily produced using one of two methods:  blast furnaces or electric arc furnaces.  The first blast furnaces were built in the 14th century.  Making steel in a blast furnace starts by melting the raw materials of iron ore, limestone, and coal at very high temperatures.  The resultant reactions ultimately lead to two products:  […]
9/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Emissions and the Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake in Utah has been described as a puddle of its former self.  The lake’s size fluctuates naturally with seasonal and long-term weather patterns, but the lake has been experiencing decline for decades as Utahans take water out of the rivers and streams that once fed the lake.  Over recent decades, the […]
9/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Where do states get their electricity?
How the United States produces its electricity has changed dramatically over the past few decades.  Coal used to be the dominant source of power in this country, but natural gas surpassed it in 2016, and coal’s share has been shrinking ever since.  Fossil fuel still generates the majority of America’s electricity, but renewable power is […]
9/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Cooling cities
As the climate warms, city dwellers tend to suffer from extreme heat more than people in rural areas because of the urban heat island effect. Extensive surfaces of man-made materials like concrete, asphalt, and brick absorb the sun’s energy and lead to temperatures well above those in the surrounding countryside. Cities can take countermeasures that […]
9/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Climate-smart coffee
Do you crave that morning cup of coffee?  You’re not alone, and not by a long shot.  In fact, more than 2.2 billion cups of coffee are consumed globally every day.  The existing coffee market is dominated by two species: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (the latter commonly called robusta).  Historically, coffee drinkers have preferred […]
8/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Better wood for storing carbon
Scientists have discovered a new type of wood that is highly efficient at storing carbon.  A comprehensive survey of the microscopic structure of the wood from many species of trees revealed that there is a type of wood that is neither softwood, such as pine and conifers, or hardwood, such as oak, ash, and birch. […]
8/29/2024 • 2 minutes
A dangerous invasive species
Weeds are the bane of every gardener’s existence.  They pop up, uncontrolled and unwelcome, and must be tediously managed time and time again.  But in some cases, weeds are more than just a nuisance.  Some are a public health hazard.  Meet giant hogweed.  Native to Europe’s Caucasus Mountains, giant hogweed belongs to the carrot family. […]
8/28/2024 • 2 minutes
Mixed news for the Great Barrier Reef
A prolonged and widespread coral bleaching event in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has taken place this year.  It is the fifth such event over the past eight years and appears to be one of the worst ever.  According to preliminary analysis, 97% of corals in some areas of the northern part of the reef died […]
8/27/2024 • 2 minutes
Pollution in downwind states
Air pollution is a serious health threat.  It is associated with asthma and can lead to chronic disease, cancer, and premature death.  Globally, air pollution kills 7 to 9 million people, and 200,000 Americans die from it each year. There are multiple sources of air pollution including automobiles, power plants, and other industrial activities.  Exposure […]
8/26/2024 • 2 minutes
A giant solar plus storage facility
One of the country’s largest co-located solar and battery energy storage projects is now fully operational. The Gemini Solar+Storage project is located in Clark County, Nevada, about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. The project’s 1.8 million solar panels can generate up to 690 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to supply about 10% of […]
8/23/2024 • 2 minutes
China and carbon emissions
China has been the biggest source of greenhouse emissions for nearly 20 years.  Its emissions surpassed those of the United States in 2006 and its fraction of the world’s emissions is now nearly a third.  Therefore, unless China’s emissions stop growing, the world’s emissions won’t either. Recent data from China’s government and by energy analysts […]
8/22/2024 • 2 minutes
The hottest day on record
There have been numerous temperature records set in recent years.  Apart from record high temperatures for many places around the world, there were 13 consecutive monthly temperature records set for the planet since the previous summer. According to NASA data, July 22, 2024, was the hottest day on record.  July 21st and 23rd also exceeded […]
8/21/2024 • 2 minutes
Expanding solar and wind in the U.S.
According to new data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, solar and wind now make up more than 20% of the total US electrical generating capacity.  Adding up all renewable energy sources – which also include biomass, geothermal, and hydropower – renewable energy is now nearly 30% of the total electrical generating capacity in this […]
8/20/2024 • 2 minutes
Deep sea mining
Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor at depths greater than 660 feet and as much as 21,000 feet below the surface.  Active or extinct hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor create sulfide deposits which collect metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc.  This forms polymetallic nodules […]
8/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Industrial agriculture and the risk of pandemics
The domestication of pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals as livestock for their meat, milk, and eggs was historically revolutionary.  It boosted food security by giving people a readily-available means of feeding themselves as opposed to more traditional methods such as hunting and fishing. But the industrialization of agriculture has led to horrendous conditions for […]
8/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Increasing plastic recycling
Recycling plastic is a complicated matter.  There are many different types of plastic and knowing which things are made of which type isn’t easy.  There are increasingly widespread recycling systems across the U.S., but the actual rates of recycling have been described as “abysmal”. The plastic commonly used in beverage bottles is polyethylene terephthalate, or […]
8/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Wildfires and carbon storage
Forests are known to be a key natural solution to the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  For this reason, there are widespread efforts to plant more trees around the world and to prevent increasing deforestation for development and agriculture.  But a new study has highlighted the fact that wildfires in the western […]
8/14/2024 • 2 minutes
Enforcing the Green Amendment
 In November 2021, 70% of New Yorkers voted to include environmental rights in the Bill of Rights of the New York State Constitution.  The amendment recognizes and protects the rights of all New Yorkers to clean water and air and a healthful environment.  It places these rights on the same constitutional level as other enshrined […]
8/13/2024 • 2 minutes
Strawberries and climate change
The demand for strawberries continues to climb around the world.  According to data from World Population Review, China remains the global leader in strawberry production, a spot it’s held since 1994.  Last year, China produced 3.3 million tons of strawberries, followed by the United States at 1.05 million tons, Egypt at 597,000 tons, and Mexico […]
8/12/2024 • 2 minutes
Sunrise Wind construction begins
 In mid-July, construction started on New York’s largest offshore wind project.  Sunrise Wind is a 924-megawatt offshore wind farm located about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk Point on Long Island.  Sunrise Wind is expected to be operating in 2026 and will provide enough clean energy to power nearly 600,000 homes, making it the […]
8/9/2024 • 2 minutes
How warm is It?
As of June, the world had seen 13 consecutive months of record-breaking heat.  The average global temperature over the last 12 of those months measured 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the preindustrial era. This means that the world has at least temporarily exceeded the temperature target set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement. Does this […]
8/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Geological thermal energy storage
The electricity grid is increasingly using solar and wind power.  Depending on those two sources requires the ability to store energy to have on hand when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.   Energy needs to be stored away to be used hours, days, or even weeks after it is produced. Energy storage […]
8/7/2024 • 2 minutes
The end of the Chevron deference
 At the end of June, the US Supreme Court upended 40 years of legal precedent in a ruling that sharply limited the regulatory authority of federal agencies.  The so-called Chevron Deference doctrine stated that when a legislative delegation to an administrative agency on a particular issue or question was not explicit but rather implicit, a […]
8/6/2024 • 2 minutes
Wind farms and sea farms
There has been increasing use of agriculture coexisting with solar farms.  This dual use of land is a win-win situation.  Recently, Danish researchers have been investigating the potential for farming marine products at offshore wind farms. Scandinavia’s largest wind farm, Kriegers Flak, is the site of a four-year-old project in which long lines are stretched […]
8/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Much more energy storage for New York
As solar and wind power play an ever-growing role in the electricity grid, the need for energy storage also grows.  Even if sun and wind can provide more energy than is needed at a particular time, they can’t provide it at all times.  The ability to store excess energy waiting in reserve for when the […]
8/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Threats to the Amazon Rainforest
Brazil has made great progress in reducing deforestation in its Amazon Rainforest.  In 2023, the rate of deforestation in Brazil dropped by 50% over the previous year. This was the result of the efforts by conservation-minded President Luiz da Silva, who replaced Jair Bolsonaro, a big proponent of deforestation.  Da Silva’s government has cracked down […]
8/1/2024 • 2 minutes
The carbon cost of wind farms
Opponents of electric vehicles and renewable energy often try to make arguments to the effect that the carbon footprint associated with producing electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines negates their advantages over legacy technologies that involve burning fossil fuels.  These arguments have been soundly refuted for the case of electric vehicles but there have […]
7/31/2024 • 2 minutes
Fertilizers from wastewater sludge
Sewage sludge is the mud-like residue that is produced as a byproduct during wastewater treatment.  In the U.S., sewage sludge is referred to as biosolids after it’s been treated.  The term is meant to distinguish the higher quality, treated sludge from raw sludge and from sludge that contains large quantities of environmental pollutants.  However, according […]
7/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Nearly everyone wants climate action
A global survey of 75,000 people revealed that 80% of participants want their governments’ climate action commitments to be stronger.  The poll, conducted by the United Nations Development Program, GeoPoll, and Oxford University, asked 15 questions in telephone calls to residents of 77 countries representing 87% of the global population. According to the survey, 89% […]
7/29/2024 • 2 minutes
Clean energy investment at record levels
According to a new study by the International Energy Agency, global clean energy investment will be nearly twice that of fossil fuels this year.  The surging funding for clean energy is being driven by a combination of lower costs for renewable energy and by improving supply chains. In 2024, the world’s investments in energy are […]
7/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Greenhouses and the environment
The use of greenhouses around the world has been growing dramatically.  A new satellite mapping exercise estimated the total land area covered with permanent greenhouses at 3.2 million acres, which is an area the size of Connecticut.  More than half of this is in China, where the growth of greenhouses has been driven by the […]
7/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Barley plastic
The durability, malleability, and low cost of plastics have made them ubiquitous.  Plastics are everywhere:  in packaging, clothing, and an endless variety of products.  As a result, they are everywhere in the environment and they tend to stay there, contaminating land and sea.  They are tough to recycle, and their production emits more carbon dioxide […]
7/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Species range and climate change
The geographic range of a particular plant or animal species is the area in which it can be found during its lifetime.  The range of most species is limited by climatic factors, including temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, humidity, and wind.  Any changes in the magnitude or variability of these factors will impact the species living […]
7/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Another ban on neonics
There have been ominous declines in many insect populations.  Chief among them have been declines in pollinators, which have severe consequences for our food supply.  There are multiple possible causes of these declines and undoubtedly several have been involved simultaneously. A new study on butterfly populations in the Midwest indicates that agricultural insecticides exerted the […]
7/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Averting a mass extinction
There has been widespread concern that biodiversity is under siege and that we are in the beginnings of a sixth mass extinction in the long history of the Earth, this time caused by the actions of humanity.  There has been considerable debate about what can be done about it and solutions generally involve protecting large […]
7/19/2024 • 2 minutes
The slippery slopes of the ski industry
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change.  Less snow threatens to reinforce global warming, and to disrupt food, water, and livelihoods for billions of people.    According to new modeling by researchers from Protect Our Winters Australia and The Australian National University, the […]
7/18/2024 • 2 minutes
Eliminating plastic shipping pillows
Anyone who gets packages from Amazon is familiar with the plastic air pillows used to keep products safe in transit.  Amazon uses almost 15 billion of them a year in North America. Environmentalists have been urging Amazon and other vendors to cut down on the use of plastic packaging. The air-filled plastic pillows are made […]
7/17/2024 • 2 minutes
Potential for floating solar
As installations of utility-scale solar power continue to expand around the world, there is the issue of where to put them.  They do take up considerable amounts of space and, in many places, available land is at a premium. An alternative to taking up available land with solar panels is to deploy them on the […]
7/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Dark chocolate is not so dangerous
Last year, Consumer Reports published a story stating that a third of chocolate products contain potentially dangerous amounts of heavy metals, in particular lead and cadmium. Since it contains much more cacao, dark chocolate was singled out as the most worrisome product.  Needless to say, chocolate lovers found this report quite alarming. A new study […]
7/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Research on solar geoengineering
Ideas for potential technologies that could artificially cool the planet as a countermeasure against global warming have been considered radical and dangerous for a long time.  But as climate change continues to become increasingly apparent, ideas like solar geoengineering are gaining increasing attention. Most environmental organizations are at best skeptical about such ideas and oppose […]
7/12/2024 • 2 minutes
Elephants have names
Elephants are considered to be very smart creatures.  They have the largest brain of any land animal and have three times as many neurons as humans.  Of course, a lot of that brain hardware is needed to control those big elephant bodies, but elephants have also demonstrated impressive mental capabilities on many occasions. A new […]
7/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Seashells inspire better concrete
Mother of pearl – also known as nacre – is a natural material found in certain seashells such as those of oysters and abalone. On the microscopic level, it consists of hexagonal tablets of the hard mineral aragonite glued together by a soft biopolymer. The aragonite gives nacre its strength, and the biopolymer adds flexibility […]
7/10/2024 • 2 minutes
The most endangered marine mammal
For the better part of a decade, conservationists have been trying to eliminate the use of gill nets by fishermen in the Gulf of California.  Species such as the corvina fish have been decimated by the use of this fishing gear.  The nets also trap other marine creatures, include the rare and elusive vaquita porpoise. […]
7/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Thawing permafrost: Is it a ticking timebomb?
Permafrost covers about a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere.  It stores vast quantities of organic carbon in the form of dead plant matter.  As long as it stays frozen, it is no threat to the climate.  But as it thaws, microorganisms start breaking down that plant matter and large amounts of carbon […]
7/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Biofuel refineries and toxic pollution
There have been decades of government support for renewable, crop-based fuels – primarily corn ethanol.  In fact, it is a required component of gasoline sold in this country.  The biofuels industry has long claimed ethanol to be a clean, greener alternative to petroleum.  There have been arguments all along that the environmental benefits of corn […]
7/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Species and climate change
Temperature extremes on Earth currently range from a low of -129°F to a high of 134°F.  But these climatic limits have changed throughout history.  In fact, during the last interglacial period 130,000 years ago, temperatures were warmer, resembling what we are projected to experience at the end of this century. Species that evolved during such […]
7/4/2024 • 2 minutes
A brief bout of bad air in Scotland
Scotland, and the UK in general, used to suffer from sulfur dioxide pollution.  Industrial and domestic emissions, especially from burning coal, contributed heavily to urban air leading to the London smog of the 1950s and the acid rain of the 1980s.  But national air pollution agreements and various international measures have been highly successful in […]
7/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Industrial heat and solar power
Many industrial processes require extremely high temperatures, typically more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.  This heat is generally produced by burning fossil fuels – either coal or natural gas – which emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. This level of heat cannot be economically produced using renewable electricity.  As a consequence, decarbonizing these industrial processes is […]
7/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Benefits of electric school buses
There are about half a million school buses in use in the U.S.  A large number of them are older, highly polluting diesel buses.  There are well-established health and climate benefits of switching from diesel vehicles to electric vehicles but making the switch is expensive.  Diesel buses generally cost between $65,000 to $120,000, depending on […]
7/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Declining pollinator populations
Scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators for decades.  Many recent studies have highlighted alarming declines in pollinator populations, sparking concern about the potential negative impacts on ecosystems and agriculture.  Habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change are some of the factors linked to the population declines. But most pollinator […]
6/28/2024 • 2 minutes
Minerals from seawater
There are about 18,000 desalination plants around the world that take in 23 trillion gallons of water each year.  The plants produce more than 37 billion gallons of brine – enough to fill 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools – every day.  Disposing of this brine is an ongoing challenge.  Dumping it into the ocean can damage […]
6/27/2024 • 2 minutes
Car tires in your salad
There seems to be no end to the types of pollution we have introduced into the environment.  One that has only recently started to gain attention is pollution caused by vehicle tires.  Through normal wear and tear, as vehicles drive along roadways, their tires cast off countless bits of rubber.  These particles can linger in […]
6/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Record carbon dioxide levels
Despite the increasing concern about the warming climate, the period between March of last year and March of this year has set a new record for the largest 12-month gain in atmospheric CO2 concentration ever observed.  The new level, measured at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory was nearly 5 parts per million higher than last year’s […]
6/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Glaciers in Venezuela
There are nearly 200,000 glaciers in the world.  About 91% of them are in Antarctica and 8% in Greenland.  The rest are scattered across nearly 50 countries.  The non-polar country with the most glaciers is actually Pakistan, which has over 7,200 of them.  But as the world continues to warm, glaciers are shrinking back, and […]
6/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Recycling cement
Concrete is the second-most-used material on the planet.  Only water is used more.  Producing concrete is responsible for 7.5% of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions.  So, finding a cost-effective way to reduce these emissions is a major challenge in the face of ever-growing global demand for concrete. Researchers at Cambridge University have found that used cement […]
6/21/2024 • 2 minutes
Beware of the blob
For the past 10 years, there have been several occurrences of a vast expanse of ocean stretching from Alaska to California in which water temperatures are as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal.  Known jocularly as “the Blob,” the phenomenon can last for several years and decimates fish stocks, starves seabirds, creates blooms […]
6/20/2024 • 2 minutes
A month of extra-hot days
The past 12 months have been the hottest ever measured across the globe.  This may not be everyone’s experience in every location, but the average person on Earth experienced 26 more days of abnormally high temperatures than they would have in the absence of climate change. Researchers considered a given day’s temperature to be abnormally […]
6/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Olive oil and climate change
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained by mashing whole olives and extracting the oil.  A superfood staple of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil is used in kitchens around the world for frying, sauteing, baking, and as a condiment.  It can also be widely found in cosmetics, soaps, and pharmaceutical products.  Globally, 2.6 million tons […]
6/18/2024 • 2 minutes
Cloud brightening
Solar geoengineering is a type of climate intervention:  deliberate actions designed to affect the climate.  There are several ways to try to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth and all of them are controversial.  Perhaps the least controversial approach is cloud brightening. The idea is based on something called the […]
6/17/2024 • 2 minutes
Around-the-clock clean energy
Using solar and wind power can go a long way toward replacing fossil fuel-generated electricity, particularly with the addition of battery energy storage.  But because of the intermittent nature of both sun and wind, other sources are still needed.  There is also the need for ways to produce high temperature for industrial processes.  Complete decarbonization […]
6/14/2024 • 2 minutes
Deer vs. caribou
The combination of a warming climate and human disruption of traditional habitats has been causing changes in the ranges of many animal species.  Over the past century, white-tailed deer have greatly expanded their range in North America.  Researchers from a group of Canadian institutions have been investigating the expansion of the deer in the boreal […]
6/13/2024 • 2 minutes
California renewable energy
California has aggressively pursued the use of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power.  Last year, renewables supplied 54% of the state’s electricity needs.  This year, California has been achieving some remarkable milestones with its renewable energy. As of May 26th, California had produced more than 100% of its electricity demand with wind, solar, and […]
6/12/2024 • 2 minutes
The largest carbon removal plant
Direct air capture (DAC) is process that removes carbon dioxide out of the air and stores it away where it can no longer trap heat in the atmosphere.  It is intended to be a way of getting rid of the greenhouse gases that have built up in the atmosphere.  In principle, it’s a great idea.  […]
6/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Fireflies are in decline
If you are seeing fewer fireflies each year, you’re not alone.  Like many insects, firefly populations are in decline.  A new study by researchers from the University of Kentucky, Bucknell University, Penn State University, and the USDA has shed some light on the precarious situation facing firefly populations across North America.  The research team used […]
6/10/2024 • 2 minutes
EV growth and oil demand
There has been lots of talk recently about the transition to electric vehicles sputtering out.  Several automakers have delayed their EV programs citing reduced demand for the vehicles and lack of profitability.  In the bigger picture, the auto industry as a whole is in a rough patch as rising interest rates and other factors have […]
6/7/2024 • 2 minutes
Floating cities
About 40% of the world‘s population lives in coastal regions.  People really like ocean-front property.  But worldwide, rising sea levels mean that more and more people want to live on land that may someday be swallowed up by the sea. One possible solution to the problem is to build cities on top of the water.  […]
6/6/2024 • 2 minutes
Penguin detectives
Emperor penguins, the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins, are also the most famous, being the subject of a very popular documentary film.  The ongoing loss of sea ice in Antarctica has led to unprecedented breeding failures in emperor penguin colonies.  Since 2016, Antarctica has seen the four years with the lowest sea ice […]
6/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Gravity storage on the grid
For the past several years, the Swiss-based company Energy Vault has been developing an energy storage system based on the principle of using mechanical devices to lift heavy concrete blocks into stacks using power generated by wind turbines or other renewable sources.  When energy is needed, the blocks are lowered back to the ground, spinning […]
6/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Palm oil and water quality
Palm oil is the world’s cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil.  In fact, more than 86 million tons of palm oil was consumed last year alone.  Even though few of us cook with it, palm oil can be found in approximately half of all packaged grocery items – everything from ice creams and pizzas […]
6/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Giant batteries and the grid
All across the country, electric utility companies are starting to use giant batteries to counteract the biggest weakness of renewable energy; namely, that the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow.  Solar panels and wind turbines can keep generating energy when people don’t need it and batteries can store up that energy […]
5/31/2024 • 2 minutes
Natural solutions for coastal defense
Protecting coastal cities and towns from the dangers of tsunamis, storm surges, and sea-level rise has become an ever-increasing challenge.  There are so-called hard coastal defenses as well as nature-based solutions.  A new study by the University of Tokyo has found that combining the two types of defenses may be the most effective way to […]
5/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Good owls and bad owls
In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, spotted owls have been the subject of environmental concern for more than 30 years.  Over the past 20 years, northern spotted owl populations have declined by up to 80% as the birds have faced marginalized territories and increasing numbers of wildfires.  Only about 3,000 of them remain on […]
5/29/2024 • 2 minutes
Offshore wind and the wake effect
Electricity demand in the U.S. continues to grow and, in the summer, homes and businesses crank up their air conditioning which drives demand even further.  Many East Coast cities are banking on offshore wind projects that are underway in the Atlantic Ocean to help meet that growing demand.  The first offshore turbines are now producing […]
5/28/2024 • 2 minutes
Balloon release laws
The Florida state legislature has recently passed a law that bans the intentional release of helium balloons outdoors.  It is a rare example of a bipartisan piece of legislation.  Florida is joining six other states that have already enacted balloon restricting laws. Balloons released into the sky don’t just disappear into the ether.  They often […]
5/27/2024 • 2 minutes
A setback for New York offshore wind
Three major offshore wind projects in New York have been cancelled because of the unavailability of technology critical to the projects.  The projects were part of NYSERDA‘s third offshore wind solicitation and were provisionally awarded last October.  The projects, which totaled more than 4 GW of clean energy, were supposed to begin commercial operation in […]
5/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Marine carbon dioxide removal
About 30% of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity is absorbed by the oceans.  As a result, they are getting warmer and more acidic, and the currents that help shape global weather are shifting.  To try to reduce global warming, people want to be able to store even more carbon dioxide in the oceans […]
5/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Global coral bleaching
The world’s coral reefs are in the midst of a global bleaching event being driven by extraordinarily high ocean temperatures.  This is the fourth such global event on record and is predicted to be the largest one ever.  Coral bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by heat and eject the symbiotic algae within them that […]
5/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Oases and desertification
Oases are important sources of water for people, plants, and animals in the world’s desert areas.  In fact, oases sustain 10% of the world’s population despite taking up only about 1.5% of land area.  They form when groundwater flows and settles into low-lying areas or when surface meltwater flows down from nearby mountains and pools. […]
5/21/2024 • 2 minutes
Wind farms and land use
Wind power has become one of the most affordable ways to generate electricity as well as being renewable and not contributing to global warming.  But there has been the perception that wind farms require a lot of land compared with fossil fuel power plants. This issue of land use has made decision-makers reluctant to invest […]
5/20/2024 • 2 minutes
Climate change and fish migration
The warming climate is changing the distribution of fish species.  Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia have observed that tropical fish species are moving into temperate Australian waters. The Eastern Australian Current is strengthening as the climate warms and larvae of tropical fish are getting caught in the current and moving into more […]
5/17/2024 • 2 minutes
The global chocolate supply is threatened
The world is facing the biggest deficit of cocoa in decades. Most cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where climate change-induced drought has ravaged crops.  Harvests are forecasted to fall short for the third consecutive year.  The harvest shortfall has triggered a steep rise in cocoa prices.  In fact, cocoa prices have more than […]
5/16/2024 • 2 minutes
The Colorado River crisis
The Colorado River serves nearly 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico.  It provides water for 5 million acres of farmland.  Increasing demand from growing populations, damming, diversion, and drought have been draining the Colorado at alarming rates.  This critical resource supports countless economies, communities, and ecologies stretching from the Rocky Mountains to […]
5/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Carbon dioxide and wildfires
Climate change is a key factor in the increasing risk and extent of wildfires.  Wildfires require the alignment of several factors, including humidity, temperature, and the lack of moisture in fuels, such as trees, shrubs, and grasses.  All of these factors have strong ties to climate variability and climate change. While the global surge in […]
5/14/2024 • 2 minutes
An active hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1st until November 30th.  Forecasters at Colorado State University have issued forecasts of Atlantic basin hurricane activity since 1984 based on the pioneering work of Professor William Gray.  This year’s forecast, issued in April, predicts a higher-than-average number of Atlantic storms.  In fact, it may be one […]
5/13/2024 • 2 minutes
Where not to plant trees
Planting huge numbers of trees is often proposed as a way to reduce the severity of climate change.  Studies have looked at the potential for Earth‘s ecosystems to support large additional areas of forest and have found that it would be possible to have at least 25% more forested area than we do now.  This […]
5/10/2024 • 2 minutes
Plastic food packaging
Reducing the use of plastic is an important environmental goal.  Plastic is made from fossil fuels and plastic pollutes the land and the oceans.  It is estimated that 40% of plastic waste comes from packaging.  Plastic packaging is extremely common in the supermarket and there is a growing desire to reduce its use.  But it […]
5/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Artificial reefs
The coral reefs that surround tropical islands are a refuge for a wide variety of marine life and also form a natural buffer against stormy seas.  The changing climate is bleaching coral reefs and breaking them down.  Extreme weather events are becoming more common and are threatening coastal communities with flooding and erosion. Researchers at […]
5/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Climate change lawsuits
For the better part of a decade, there have been lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for their actions related to climate change.  The Center for Climate Integrity, a nonprofit that provides legal support to communities suing oil companies, has tracked 32 cases filed by state attorneys general, cities, counties, and tribal nations against companies including […]
5/7/2024 • 2 minutes, 17 seconds
Hope for amphibians
There are more than 7,000 known species of amphibians, the group of animals that includes frogs, toads, and salamanders.  Over the past 25 years, more than 90 species are believed to have gone extinct and at least 500 more have declining populations. There are many factors contributing to the decline of amphibian populations but the […]
5/6/2024 • 2 minutes
The end of coal in New England
The last two coal-fired power plants in New England are scheduled to close by 2025 and 2028.  The New Hampshire-based plants are operated by Granite Shore Power.  The Schiller Station plant began operations in 1949 and the Merrimack Station was built in the 1960s. Granite Shore Power has come to an agreement with the Environmental […]
5/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Major species turnover forecasted for North American cities
Climate change affects animal species in many ways.  It induces habitat loss, disrupts migration and breeding patterns, threatens marine life, and facilitates an increased spread of disease.  It may also affect where animals can be found in the future.  According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga and Apex […]
5/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Climate change and Antarctic meteorites
Researchers from Switzerland and Belgium have investigated the effects of the warming climate on access to meteorites in Antarctica.  Meteorites are of great scientific interest because they provide unique information about the makeup of our solar system.  Of all the meteorites that people have found, 62.6% of them were found in Antarctica. Why is this?  […]
5/1/2024 • 2 minutes
California is the largest emitter of a little-known greenhouse gas
California is a state known for its aggressive climate policies.  However, and rather ironically, California is also the nation’s greatest emitter of one little-known greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride.  Sulfuryl fluoride is one of the few treatments to rid buildings of drywood termites, a common regional pest that can be found in wooden structures.  Sulfuryl fluoride […]
4/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Winegrowing regions and climate change
Grapes grown to make wine are sensitive to climate conditions including temperatures and amount of rainfall.  The warming climate is already having visible effects on yields, grape composition, and the quality of wine.  This has significant consequences on the geography of wine production and is of major concern for the $350 billion global industry. Winegrowing […]
4/29/2024 • 2 minutes
The cost of methane emissions
Stanford University-led research has determined that American oil and gas operations are emitting more than 6 million tons of methane each year.  The emissions come from both intentional vents and unintentional leaks.  Methane is the main component of natural gas and losing that much of it through leakage is costing the industry a billion dollars […]
4/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Biochar and carbon
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that is made by burning organic materials like crop and forestry wastes in a controlled process called pyrolysis, which is burning in an oxygen-deprived environment.  Pyrolysis produces little or no contaminating fumes and results in a stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere.  Biochar is a […]
4/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Self-heating concrete
States in the colder parts of the country spend an estimated $2.3 billion a year on snow and ice removal as well as untold millions on repairing roadways damaged by winter weather.  Researchers at Drexel University have been researching a way to extend the service life of concrete surfaces like roadways and to help them […]
4/24/2024 • 2 minutes
Forever chemicals in water
So-called forever chemicals are pervasive in a wide range of products.  These are man-made substances called per- and polyfluoroalkyls or PFAS.  They get their unfortunate nickname because the chemical bonds in them are so strong that the compounds don’t break down for hundreds or even thousands of years. PFAS compounds are used in makeup, dental […]
4/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Rising fossil fuel emissions
Almost every nation in the world has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  There is expanding use of renewable energy sources and growing numbers of electric cars.  But despite all this, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels. The world’s population continues to grow and nations with large, rapidly […]
4/22/2024 • 2 minutes
The world’s largest energy plant
The largest energy plant in the world is being built in India.  In an area of barren desert in western India near the Pakistani border, Adani Green Energy Limited (or AGEL) is building a sprawling solar and wind power plant that will cover more than 200 square miles.  It will be five times the size […]
4/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Storing carbon underground and abandoned wells
Using government support in the form of subsidies and tax credits, energy companies and others are planning to capture millions of tons of industrial carbon dioxide emissions and pipe the greenhouse gas into underground storage.  It is a strategy enthusiastically supported by the fossil fuel industry because it allows them to keep burning the stuff. […]
4/18/2024 • 2 minutes
Wireless car charging
It’s increasingly common to see cars hooked up to charging cables in shopping centers, rest stops, and dedicated charging stations.  Charging electric cars is easy to do, just like charging phones and laptop computers.  These days, it is pretty common to charge phones without using any charging cable at all because of the availability of […]
4/17/2024 • 2 minutes
Sequoias in Britain
Giant sequoias are the most massive trees on earth.  They can grow as tall as nearly 300 feet and have trunk diameters from 20 to 26 feet.  They are also among the oldest living organisms on Earth; some of them are well over 3,000 years old.  The trees are native to the western slopes of […]
4/16/2024 • 2 minutes
The health impacts of gas venting and flaring
Oil and gas producers around the world use venting and flaring to remove excess natural gas in crude oil production.  Flaring is the process of burning excess natural gas at the production well using a flare to ignite the methane and other components in the gas, while venting is the direct release of natural gas […]
4/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Skiing and climate change
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, anthropogenic climate change resulting in higher average temperatures has caused a global decline in snowfall.  Less snow threatens to reinforce global warming, and to disrupt food, water, and livelihoods for billions of people.   According to a new study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, annual snow […]
4/12/2024 • 2 minutes
Lithium in Arkansas
There are more and more electric cars on the road and utilities are installing record amounts of battery storage to back up solar and wind power generation.  Both of these things currently use lithium-ion batteries so the need for them keeps growing. There is actually plenty of lithium in the world.  Sources of more than […]
4/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Biodegradable microplastics
Ordinary plastics are not biodegradable, but they are also not indestructible.  Plastics in the environment can break down into tiny fragments – microplastics – and those, unfortunately, are nearly indestructible.  Microplastics have been documented in the oceans and in soil virtually everywhere on Earth including remote frozen wastelands and on top of high mountains.  More […]
4/10/2024 • 2 minutes
An ice-free Arctic
According to a new study by Colorado University, Boulder, the Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as soon as sometime in the next few years.  Earlier predictions for when the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur were sometime well into the 2030s. By mid-century, the Arctic is likely to […]
4/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Canadian zombie fires
Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded.  Over 6,000 fires burned nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces.  The burned areas are roughly the size of the entire country of Finland and represent almost triple the amount burned in the previous year, which itself was […]
4/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Energy efficient cows
Livestock production – primarily cows – produce nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of methane emitted by burping caused by the way they process food.  A single cow produces roughly 200 pounds of methane gas per year and there are 1.5 billion heads of cattle in the world. Researchers at […]
4/5/2024 • 2 minutes
A common plant could be a valuable food source
A new study by researchers at Penn State University has found that a common water plant in the eastern U.S. could be a valuable green fertilizer, a feed for poultry and livestock, and even a life-saving food for people in the event of a catastrophe or disaster. The plant is the Carolina azolla.  It is […]
4/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Who’s driving electric?
Electric cars are growing in popularity around the world and are expected to represent 20% of new car sales this year.  In some places, they have a much bigger share:  38% in China and a whopping 82% in Norway.  Here in the U.S., things are more complicated. Last year, EVs represented 8.5% of U.S. new […]
4/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Cyber protection for apple orchards
Spring frosts represent a real danger for apple orchards.  The changing climate has brought about periods of unusually warm weather at times early in the year that have caused trees and other flowering plants to bloom early.  For apple growers, this has made their orchards more susceptible to the damaging effects of extreme cold events. […]
4/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Progress on offshore wind in New York
New York has now conditionally awarded two offshore wind projects that will move towards operation in 2026.  The projects, totaling more than 1,700 megawatts of power, will be the largest power generation projects in New York state in more than 35 years.  It is an important milestone toward achieving the state’s goal of developing 9,000 […]
4/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Small changes can yield big results
Global food production is one of the largest contributors to climate change.  In fact, one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions result from food production and agriculture.  Be that as it may, we still have to eat.  But what we choose to eat has a major impact on the environment. According to a new study […]
3/29/2024 • 2 minutes
A surprising drop in renewable power
Renewable power – which includes wind farms, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams – constitutes over 21% of the country’s utility-scale electricity generation, behind only natural gas power plants at 43%.  Nuclear power provides nearly 19% of our electricity and coal, which is gradually diminishing, is at 16%. Both solar and wind power capacity have been […]
3/28/2024 • 2 minutes
Shrinking African glaciers
We don’t usually associate Africa with glaciers, but the continent has had glaciers on its highest peaks for the past 10,000 to 15,000 years.  Africa’s glaciers are found in three regions:  the Rwenzori Mountains along the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Kenya.  At the turn of […]
3/27/2024 • 2 minutes
How to make cities cooler
In cities, the air, surface, and soil temperatures are almost always warmer than in rural areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect.  Urban heat islands occur when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat. Urban planners around the world have […]
3/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Mercury in tuna
Mercury is found throughout the ocean, and there is at least some of it in any fish one might eat. It is an element found naturally in the environment, but it is also a byproduct of manmade pollution. Generally speaking, bigger fish tend to have higher mercury levels than smaller ones, because they are higher […]
3/25/2024 • 2 minutes
The carbon footprint of urban agriculture
Urban agriculture – essentially farming within a city – has become increasingly popular worldwide.  It is intended to make cities and urban food systems more sustainable.  There are social and nutritional benefits to urban agriculture, but its carbon footprint has not been widely studied. There are high-tech, energy-intensive forms of urban agriculture, such as vertical […]
3/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Greenland is greening
Despite their names, Iceland is very green, and Greenland is very icy.  But in Greenland, that is changing.  Temperatures in the world’s largest island are rising twice as fast as they are in the rest of the world and, as a result, the icy rocky landscape is turning increasingly green. Satellite records reveal that over […]
3/21/2024 • 2 minutes
Sponging up a river
During the first week of February, an atmospheric river dumped enormous amounts of rain on Southern California.  Over the course of four days, Los Angeles received 9 inches of rain.  The average annual rainfall in the city is only 14 inches. But Los Angeles was not the site of a flooding disaster because the city […]
3/20/2024 • 2 minutes
Hybrid beef rice
There is growing interest in innovative and more environmentally friendly ways to provide protein in our diets.  We’ve heard a great deal about lab-grown or cultured meats and about protein derived from insects. Whether either of these things achieves mainstream acceptance remains to be seen. Scientists at Yonsei University in South Korea have developed a […]
3/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Golf courses gone wild
Golf courses are a significant burden on the environment.  The US has 16,000 golf courses which use 1.5 billion gallons of water a day and are treated with 100,000 tons of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium each year.  In recent years, the golf industry has taken steps to lighten its environmental toll by using less water, […]
3/18/2024 • 2 minutes
Iceland power
Iceland burns very little fossil fuel to power its economy and heat its homes.  About 85% of its energy comes from geothermal power and hydropower.  Its unique geology provides it with the highest percentage of renewable energy in the world.  The fossil fuel that Iceland does burn is primarily used to power cars and trucks […]
3/15/2024 • 2 minutes
A lake in Death Valley
Death Valley in California is the driest place in North America, averaging only 2 inches of rain each year.  Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America with a depth of 282 feet below sea level.  Currently, Badwater Basin is the site of an ephemeral lake called Lake Manley. The lake […]
3/14/2024 • 2 minutes
AI’s Environmental Footprint
Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days.  Some say it is the biggest development since the discovery of fire.  There is a lot of hype regarding AI, and it will be a while before the hype is sorted out from the reality.  But one thing that is certain is that AI is resource-intensive and has a […]
3/13/2024 • 2 minutes
Is the Amazon rainforest nearing a tipping point?
The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering more than 2.5 million square miles.  More than three million species live in the rainforest, which constitutes approximately 10% of the world’s known biodiversity.  The Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity is so rich that scientists are still discovering new species all the time.  The Amazon rainforest […]
3/12/2024 • 2 minutes
The East Coast is sinking
Most of the world’s largest cities are located in coastal regions and coastal regions are on the front lines of the climate crisis.  Human populations continue to migrate towards low-elevation coastal areas at the same time that sea level rise is accelerating.  Coastal communities worldwide are increasingly vulnerable to the dangers of flooding and erosion.  […]
3/11/2024 • 2 minutes
Little ice on the Great Lakes
In an average year, the Great Lakes end up about 40% covered in ice.  But this is not an average year.  2023 was the warmest year on record and, in fact, the global temperature was more than 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial average for the full year.  That hasn’t happened before.  As a result of […]
3/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Polar bears and the changing climate
The changing climate poses a major threat to polar bear survival.  Polar bears, whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, depend on sea ice for nearly all of their lifecycle functions.  Rising global temperatures are causing this sea ice to disappear. With less sea ice, polar bears are forced to stay longer on […]
3/7/2024 • 2 minutes
A wet January
For the first time in a while, the monthly report on the US climate did not feature record-setting heat.  The average January temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 1.6 degrees above the average, but that only ranked it in the middle third of the climate record.  The diminishing El Niño probably helped.  On the other […]
3/6/2024 • 2 minutes
Record energy transition investments
Global investment in the energy transition – that is, the transition away from fossil fuels – increased by 17% in 2023, reaching a new high of $1.8 trillion dollars.  That number includes spending on electric vehicles and their associated infrastructure, electrification of the power grid, and various other changes to the energy system. Electrified transport […]
3/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Global groundwater depletion
Groundwater is found underground in aquifers and it bubbles up naturally into springs, streams, and rivers.  It’s also often pumped out for use by people.  Researchers from UC Santa Barbara have conducted the largest assessment of groundwater levels across the globe, spanning 170,000 wells and nearly 1,700 aquifers across more than 40 countries. The team […]
3/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Record renewable energy in Scotland
The Scottish government recently announced that in 2022, renewable technologies in that country produced the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s electricity consumption. Fossil fuels still supplied electricity in Scotland, helping to fill in gaps in renewable power, but the government figures showed that the growing amount of Scottish renewable generation can easily generate more power […]
3/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Fusion energy
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun.  Two atoms of hydrogen unite to form one helium atom and release energy in the process.  Hydrogen bombs work in this way and since their development in the 1950s, scientists have sought a way to use fusion to generate electricity.  Many scientists believe that the key […]
2/29/2024 • 2 minutes
Hope for white rhinos
There are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, and both of them are female.  The last male died in 2018. Northern white rhinos live to about 40 and one of the two remaining is 35 and the other 24.  The clock is ticking for the species. Recently, scientists with the BioRescue consortium […]
2/28/2024 • 2 minutes
Protecting wine grapes from wildfire smoke
In recent years, wildfires have become a major threat to the wine industry because of the effects of smoke on wine grapes.  Smoke taint from the California fires of September 2020 significantly impacted the quality of wine grapes.  In total, smoke taint cost the wine industry in Western states more than $3 billion in losses […]
2/27/2024 • 2 minutes
Natural hydrogen
Hydrogen is considered to be a potential substitute for conventional fossil fuels in applications where electricity cannot easily be used such as in blast furnaces, cement works, industrial heating, long-distance aviation, and shipping.  But most hydrogen is manufactured by separating it from methane, which is energy-intensive and produces carbon dioxide.  So-called green hydrogen is made […]
2/26/2024 • 2 minutes
Otters to the rescue
California sea otters were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century.  Only a small number survived along California’s central coast.  But over time, the otters recovered and increasingly recolonized their former habitats. Sea otters are playing an important role in safeguarding California’s kelp forests and marshlands against the harmful effects of climate change. Over […]
2/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Groundwater and climate change
Groundwater is the vast reserve of water beneath Earth’s surface.  It’s an essential resource for humans, plants, animals, and other living organisms.  According to the United States Geological Survey, about 30% of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater.  In areas lacking sufficient surface water supply from rivers and reservoirs,  groundwater is critical […]
2/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Red mud and steel
Most of us have never heard of red mud.  Otherwise known as bauxite residue, it is an industrial waste product generated by the most common process by which aluminum is made and the world produces 200 million tons of red mud each year.  The stuff is a significant environmental hazard being extremely alkaline and corrosive. […]
2/21/2024 • 2 minutes
Satellites discovering penguins
The loss of sea ice in Antarctica has forced emperor penguins to seek out new breeding grounds.  Some colonies have traveled more than 20 miles in search of stable ice.  Emperor females lay a single egg on a stretch of sea ice at the start of winter and males keep the eggs warm while the […]
2/20/2024 • 2 minutes
Air pollution in India
India is one of the world’s most polluted countries.  In fact, of the 30 cities with the worst air pollution around the globe, 21 of them can be found in India.  India’s capital city, New Delhi, is the most polluted city in the world.  Concentrations of fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) in Delhi, which […]
2/19/2024 • 2 minutes
Pollinator-friendly solar power
Global insect biodiversity has been in decline as a result of habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change.  Restoring insect habitat is a way to reverse that trend.  Expanded use of solar energy is a critical part of mitigating climate change.  In order to meet the grid decarbonization goals the U.S. has set, approximately 10 […]
2/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Adirondack lakes becoming inhospitable for trout
A combination of the warming climate and the phenomenon of lake browning are making the bottom of most lakes in New York’s Adirondack Mountains unlivable for cold water fish – such as trout, salmon, and whitefish – in the summer. Lake browning occurs when dissolved organic matter from forests turns the water tea-brown.  Browning is […]
2/15/2024 • 2 minutes
Sustainable hydrogen from methane
Hydrogen could serve as a viable alternative to fossil fuels that can be used directly as a fuel or can be used to generate electricity to power cars and other devices. However, large-scale production of hydrogen currently relies on fossil fuels and creates carbon emissions in the process. So-called green hydrogen involves using electricity to split […]
2/14/2024 • 2 minutes
Protecting coastal areas with tidal range electricity generation
Tidal range electricity generation uses the water level difference between high and low tides to operate generator turbines.  The method requires the construction of barrages and sluices to capture water during high tides and then release it during generation at low tide.  Tidal range generation is predictable renewable energy driven by the gravitational pull of […]
2/13/2024 • 2 minutes
One in five cars will be electric this year
There has been lots of turbulence in the electric car industry of late.  Part of it is aggressive publicity campaigns spreading misinformation and part of it is the natural fits and starts associated with major change.  But apart from the ups and downs of individual companies and countries, analysts are projecting another record year for […]
2/12/2024 • 2 minutes
Confusion about monarch butterflies
For years, we have heard that the iconic monarch butterfly is in great peril.  Monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains undertake a 4-generation, 3,000-mile migration in late summer to their winter home in central Mexico.  Since the 1990s, the overwintering monarch colonies began a steep decline causing scientists to fear for the sustainability of the […]
2/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Why are bees making less honey?
Scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators for a long time.  According to the United Nations, nearly 35% of the invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction. And since 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination to some extent, the decline of pollinators poses […]
2/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Lower carbon emissions in the U.S.
American greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 fell by 1.9%.  In total, U.S. emissions have now fallen by over 17% since 2005.  The largest factor in the decline has been the reduction in the burning of coal to produce electricity.  Coal-fired generation has fallen to its lowest level in half a century. There was a huge […]
2/7/2024 • 2 minutes
Elephants and protected areas
Standing up to 13 feet tall and weighing up to 7 tons, African savanna elephants are the largest species of elephant and the biggest terrestrial animal on Earth.  According to the World Wildlife Fund, African savanna elephants can be found in 23 countries and live in a variety of habitats, including savannas, forests, and deserts.  […]
2/6/2024 • 2 minutes
A giant underground battery
Two up-and-coming energy technologies are coming together near a tiny town in central Utah.  Outside of the town of Delta, population 3,600, two caverns, each as deep as the Empire State Building, are being created from an underground salt formation to be used to store hydrogen gas.  The gas will be used as a fuel […]
2/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Why was 2023 so hot?
Five separate weather-tracking organizations have proclaimed 2023 as the hottest year on record. They all agreed that 2023 beat the previous record-holder – 2016 – by a wide margin.  Organizations that use a pre-industrial baseline of 1850-1900 found that 2023 was 1.45 to 1.48 degrees Celsius above the baseline.  But what caused 2023 – especially […]
2/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Offshore wind in Massachusetts
On January 2nd, the first large offshore wind farm in New England started producing electricity when its first turbine came online.  The Vineyard Wind project, located off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, will by the end of the year have a total of 62 turbines with a capacity of 800 megawatts, enough electricity to power […]
2/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Sodium-ion batteries
The transition away from fossil fuels is driving a rapidly increasing need for batteries.  Both electric vehicles and energy storage for the electric grid are enormous consumers of batteries.  At present, lithium-ion batteries are almost universally used for these purposes.  They have been getting better all the time and cheaper all the time and are […]
1/31/2024 • 2 minutes
Bio-based products on the rise
There is a growing global movement working towards replacing conventional synthetic products – ones that are toxic to make or use, difficult to recycle, and have large carbon footprints – with products made from plants, trees, or fungi that can be safely returned to the earth at the end of their useful life.  This so-called […]
1/30/2024 • 2 minutes
Positive tipping points and climate
We often hear about tipping points and climate change.  Tipping points are critical thresholds that, when crossed, lead to large, accelerating, and often irreversible changes.  Some of the ones of concern with the climate are thawing permafrost, melting glaciers and ice sheets, and global temperatures reaching certain levels.  These are all tipping points that are […]
1/29/2024 • 2 minutes
More mosquitoes in a warming climate
Over millions of years, Earth’s climate has warmed up and cooled down many times. However, today the planet is warming much faster than it ever has over human history.  According to scientists, the warming is primarily the result of increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.  In fact, human activities are responsible for nearly all of the […]
1/26/2024 • 2 minutes
The slow decline of coal
Despite the fact that coal is the dirtiest and most climate-harmful energy source we have, the global demand for it hit a record high in 2023. The demand for coal grew by 1.4% worldwide, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency. Coal use grew by 5% in China and 8% in India.  The […]
1/25/2024 • 2 minutes
Thousands of species threatened
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature is an organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.  The IUCN has been around for nearly 75 years and is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. In its latest […]
1/24/2024 • 2 minutes
A plug for all cars
Different brands of electric cars have required different charging connections. There has been no standard connector for charging.  But now, as the transition to electric vehicles is accelerating, there is the North American Charging Standard, which within in the next couple of years, will be common to pretty much any new electric vehicle on the […]
1/23/2024 • 2 minutes
Solar forests
Forests are one of the most iconic symbols of the power and diversity of nature but beyond that, their thick vegetation is crucial to the stability and balance of the Earth’s climate.  This is because the photosynthesis that powers the growth of plants removes carbon dioxide from the air.  Cutting down forests – especially the […]
1/22/2024 • 2 minutes
Billion-dollar weather disasters
All sorts of weather records were set in 2023 and pretty much none of them were good news.  Among the most painful was that the U.S. suffered a record 25 weather- and climate-related disasters that caused more than a billion dollars in damage. The increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased the […]
1/19/2024 • 2 minutes
New York is raising its shoreline
Superstorm Sandy in 2012 flooded 17% of New York City and caused $19 billion in damage.  In its aftermath, plans emerged to create floodwalls, raised elevations, high-capacity drainage, and other infrastructure to protect the city from future Sandy-like events. Like all large infrastructure projects in densely populated places, the remaking of New York’s shoreline has […]
1/18/2024 • 2 minutes
How to reduce pollution from food production
Present in animal manure and synthetic fertilizers, nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth and is a critical input to enhance agricultural productivity on farms around the world.  But excessive and inefficient use of this nutrient is widespread.  In fact, up to 80% of it leaks into the environment, mostly in various polluting forms […]
1/17/2024 • 2 minutes
What did the record warmth of 2023 mean?
2023 was the warmest year in the 174 years of global temperature record-keeping.  According to some analyses, it may have been the warmest year in the past 125,000 years. There were incredible heatwaves in Arizona and Argentina.  There were relentless wildfires across Canada.  The wintertime ice coverage in the seas surrounding Antarctica was at unprecedented […]
1/16/2024 • 2 minutes
Attack of the giant goldfish
Goldfish are just about the easiest pets to keep.  A species of carp native to East Asia, they have been bred to look pretty and are generally little more than home décor.  We keep them in little glass bowls and feed them mysterious flakes out of a container.  With these confined quarters and meager meals, […]
1/15/2024 • 2 minutes
How will we know if the world is 1.5 degrees warmer?
The Paris Climate Agreement has a goal of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  How do we know if we are succeeding and, more importantly, how would we know if we have failed? This may seem like something fairly obvious, but it isn’t.  Global temperatures are definitely creeping upward.  […]
1/12/2024 • 2 minutes
Airplanes, corn, and groundwater
The aviation industry wants to slash its greenhouse gas emissions.  One proposed strategy is to replace ordinary jet fuel with ethanol.  Ethanol in this country mostly comes from corn.  The airlines are enthusiastic about the idea; corn farmers are enthusiastic about the idea.  Ethanol suppliers are obviously enthusiastic about it.  But is it a good […]
1/11/2024 • 2 minutes
EV battery costs continue to drop
Electric vehicles have historically been more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts primarily because of the cost of the batteries that power them.  Today’s EV battery packs range in size from about 40 kWh to as much as 200 kWh, where kWh measure the amount of energy stored in pack. The batteries in EVs are lithium-ion […]
1/10/2024 • 2 minutes
Cleaning the grid can create messes
The electric grid is increasingly embracing renewable energy sources like solar and wind power as well as the energy storage systems that support them.  These generation sources differ from traditional sources in that they produce direct current electricity rather than alternating current electricity.  Our power grid runs on alternating current.  Traditional generators produce alternating current […]
1/9/2024 • 2 minutes
Seabirds rescuing coral reefs
A new study by researchers at Lancaster University in the UK has found that the presence of seabirds on islands adjacent to tropical coral reefs can more than double the coral growth rates on those reefs. The study found that when coral reefs grow faster, they can bounce back more quickly from bleaching events that […]
1/8/2024 • 2 minutes
Flower power in agriculture
Agriculture is the world’s largest industry.  When managed sustainably, agricultural operations can provide many environmental benefits, such as protecting watersheds and habitats, and improving soil health and water quality.  Sustainable agriculture also embraces biodiversity by minimizing its impact on wild ecosystems and incorporating numerous plant and animal varieties into farm ecosystems. A new study of […]
1/5/2024 • 2 minutes
Offshore wind in the U.S. at last
There have been large offshore wind farms in Europe for over 30 years.  Five Asian countries have had offshore wind installations for 7 years, with China now leading the world in total installed capacity.   The United States has been talking about offshore wind power for a long time and has been moving toward actually installing […]
1/4/2024 • 2 minutes
Record high emissions
The world is adding solar and wind power to the grid.   We are driving more and more electric cars.  Countries are pledging to cut back fossil fuel use.  There are highly visible international conferences on the climate crisis.   But despite all of these things, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have risen once again in […]
1/3/2024 • 2 minutes
Does vertically-grown food taste different?
Vertical farming is a method of producing crops in vertically stacked layers or surfaces typically in a skyscraper, used warehouse, or shipping container.  Modern vertical farming uses indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture technology.  Vertical farming has the potential to be one of the solutions to food insecurity in parts of the world where crop […]
1/2/2024 • 2 minutes
Wildfires and air quality
The wildfires last summer in parts of the U.S. and Canada fouled the air over much of the country.  Air quality in many places was dangerous for human health.  And such fires are becoming more numerous and more intense. A new study by the University of Iowa has assessed the effects of two decades of […]
1/1/2024 • 2 minutes
Sustainable New Year’s resolutions
Every year, millions of people around the world make resolutions to spark positive change in the new year.  Popular resolutions include improving health and fitness, traveling more, spending less, and so on. With 2024 just around the corner, here are six resolution ideas to reduce our climate impact:  Shop More Sustainably.  Choose eco-friendly brands and […]
12/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Global climate progress is too slow
According to a new report by the World Resources Institute, the world is making progress on climate, but the progress is not fast enough.  The report looked at 37 indicators of climate progress towards the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement.  In some areas, the progress has been substantial, but in six areas, the […]
12/28/2023 • 2 minutes
Ending plastic separation anxiety
Petroleum-based plastics are one of the biggest environmental problems we face.  They mostly end up in landfills – or worse, in the oceans and elsewhere in the environment – and they basically don’t decompose over time.  Bio-based plastics were invented to help solve the plastic waste crisis.  These materials do break down in the environment […]
12/27/2023 • 2 minutes
The hottest year on record
Barring some sort of massive global deep freeze late in the year, it was increasingly obvious by November that 2023 was going to be the hottest year ever recorded.  After analyzing data that showed the world saw its warmest ever November, experts around the world made the call early in December. According to the European […]
12/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Pesticides and beeswax
Honey bee colonies in the United States have experienced annual population declines since 2006.  Commercial beekeepers have reported honey bee colony loss rates averaging 30% each winter, which is startling when compared to historical loss rates of just 10-15%.  According to the USDA, there are many factors contributing to this decline, including parasites, pests, diseases, […]
12/25/2023 • 2 minutes
The importance of Alaska’s National Forests
The world’s forests play a crucial role in taking carbon out of the atmosphere and mitigating the effects of climate change.  An analysis of U.S. national forests shows that two southern Alaskan forests are key to meeting climate and biodiversity goals. The Tongass Forest in Alaska is America’s largest national forest, encompassing 16.7 million acres.  […]
12/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Groundwater loss
Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and rock.  It is held in aquifers and bubbles up naturally into springs, streams, and rivers, but also is pumped out for use by people.  Groundwater provides almost half the drinking water in the U.S. and is a main source of […]
12/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Uncounted emissions
Most countries around the world have pledged to cut their carbon emissions to try to reduce the effects of climate change.  The extent to which countries are meeting their emission reduction goals has been the primary way of keeping score on their efforts.  But there is a major problem with this scorekeeping system: exporting fossil […]
12/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Brownfields and solar power
Brownfields are blighted lands that have suffered environmental contamination, making it very difficult to redevelop them or make good use of them.  Generally, they are previously used lands that have the presence or at least the potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or other contaminants at levels exceeding health-based or environmental standards.  There are nearly […]
12/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Food and the climate crisis
Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize.  It’s responsible for approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.  Many experts contend that alternative food sources – like insect farming and seaweed aquaculture – are part of the solution.  Additionally, expanding production of climate resilient […]
12/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Are we really serious about eliminating fossil fuels?
Almost all the countries around the world have pledged to take action to reduce planet-warming emissions by expanding the use of renewable energy sources and phasing out fossil fuels.  But very few countries seem to be taking the fossil fuel phase-out seriously. Almost all the top 20 fossil-fuel producing countries plan to produce more oil, […]
12/15/2023 • 2 minutes
New York’s first offshore wind farm
New York has set a target of installing 9 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035.  The first offshore wind farm in the state – South Fork Wind – was approved by the Long Island Power Authority in 2017.  Construction began in 2022. South Fork Wind Farm is a 132 MW project sited 35 miles […]
12/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Action on the toxic chemical from tires
Since the 1990s, populations of coho salmon in streams and urban creeks up and down the West Coast have been dying in large numbers.  Scientists at the University of Washington began studying the mysterious deaths and it took years to figure out what was going on.  They analyzed water samples from urban creeks and found […]
12/13/2023 • 2 minutes
The warmest fall
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has global climate records dating back 174 years.  As the planet continues to heat up, both September and October set new records as the warmest of those months in history. September was the fourth month in a row of record-warm global temperatures.  Not only was it the warmest September […]
12/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Detecting dangerous chemicals with plants
Researchers at University of California Riverside have been studying how to enable plants to sense and react to a chemical in the environment without damaging their ability to function in all other respects.  Why do this?  The idea is to be able to use plants as environmental sensors that can detect the presence of harmful […]
12/11/2023 • 2 minutes
A fern-based insecticide
A spore-producing bacterium is the source of various crystal toxins (known as Cry proteins) that are widely used in modern agriculture to combat insect pests – generally caterpillars and other larvae – that attack important crops.  Pest control in corn, soybean, and cotton use these insecticidal proteins for protection against major insect pests.  The pesticides […]
12/8/2023 • 2 minutes
Deeper corals bleaching
When ocean waters get too warm, corals – which are actually tiny animals – eject the colorful algae that inhabit their tissues.  The symbiotic relationship between coral polyps and algae is essential to coral survival   When the algae is ejected, previously colorful coral turns white, and the coral can ultimately die.  If waters cool off, […]
12/7/2023 • 2 minutes
Wildlife rebounding in Uganda
The numbers of elephants, rhinos, and other animals in Uganda’s nature preserves is steadily improving, reversing the trend of steady declines previously caused by poachers, wildlife traffickers, and conflict. Between the 1960s and 1980s, political conflict and lawlessness in Uganda led to massive declines in some species as poaching, trafficking, and encroachment ran rampant. Uganda’s […]
12/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Tracking down PFAS toxins
PFAS – per- and polyfluoralkyl substances – are a group of organic compounds that have been extensively used to provide water-, oil-, and dirt-resistance to a wide range of products ranging from non-stick pans, clothing, and packaging to paint, car polish, and fire-suppressant foam.  Exposure to specific PFAS compounds is associated with multiple adverse health […]
12/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Electricity from chicken feathers
The food industry generates enormous amounts of waste and by-products.  Each year, 40 million tons of chicken feathers are incinerated, causing adverse environmental effects.  Not only does it release large amounts of carbon dioxide but also produces toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide. Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore […]
12/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric planes: Fantasy or reality?
Airplanes have been around for over a century, but the idea of powering them with electricity rather than with liquid fuels has been little more than a fantasy.  Over the years, billions of dollars have been invested trying to make electric planes practical.  In recent times, progress on battery technology has provided a much-needed boost […]
12/1/2023 • 2 minutes
Protecting berries with sunflower extract
Many of us buy blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and more in those little clear plastic clamshell boxes.  We try to check them out at the store to make sure they are ok and even if are, many soon end up coated with gray mold and other fungi.  It is a problem that is both disappointing and […]
11/30/2023 • 2 minutes
Buildings and birds
Birds face a wide range of dangers.  Billions of them each year face violent deaths.  Concerned individuals point at such things as wind turbines, which in fact do kill hundreds of thousands of birds.  But the great majority of bird deaths are caused by cats.  And that’s a danger that isn’t going to go away. […]
11/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Farming the frozen north
Agriculture is the primary cause of land-based biodiversity loss.  As the global population grows, agricultural production needs to keep pace.  Estimates are that production needs to double by 2050.  How this can be accomplished without doing further harm to the environment and biodiversity is extremely challenging. Climate change adds further complications to the challenge.  As […]
11/28/2023 • 2 minutes
Who wins: Wind or solar?
A new study by the University of Exeter in the UK suggests that the world may have crossed a tipping point that will inevitably make solar power our main source of energy.  This data-driven model of technology seems to fly in the face of the current situation in which wind power contributes considerably more generation […]
11/27/2023 • 2 minutes
More renewable energy for New York
In late October, New York announced its largest state investment in renewable energy to date that includes three offshore wind projects, and 22 land-based clean energy projects totaling more than 6 GW of power generation. The portfolio of projects is expected to create approximately 8,300 jobs and spur $20 billion in economic investments statewide. The […]
11/24/2023 • 2 minutes
Solar thermochemical hydrogen
For decades, there has been talk of the hydrogen economy in which hydrogen would take the place of fossil fuels in a wide range of domestic and industrial applications.  Over time, hydrogen’s potential advantages in some applications have diminished but it is still seen as perhaps the most promising way to decarbonize long-distance truck, ship, […]
11/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Too hot for people
The effort to mitigate the effects of climate change has a goal of keeping the global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.  To date, the average global temperature has increased by more than 1 degree.  We hear about rising sea levels, powerful storms, and various other alterations in climate and weather patterns.  […]
11/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Disappearing snow crabs
Alaska snow crabs are a cold-water species found off the coast of Alaska in the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. They are one of ten commercially-fished species in Alaskan waters. The perils of crab fishing in this region have been well documented for many years in the reality TV series Deadliest Catch. Last year, officials […]
11/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Coffee, cocoa, and pollinators
Multiple forces have been at play that have been detrimental to pollinators including climate change, land use change, pesticide use, and more.  There have been substantial declines in both the abundance and diversity of insect pollinators.  There is increasing public awareness of this issue, but it hasn’t really risen all that high among many people’s […]
11/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Wild pigs in the U.S.
In the U.S., there are as many as nine million feral swine living in 38 states.  A conservative estimate indicates that they cause about $1.5 billion in property and agricultural damage each year in this country.  Pigs were introduced to the United States centuries ago as a food source, but they quickly established wild populations. […]
11/17/2023 • 2 minutes
The end of a supergiant iceberg
In 2017, a supergiant iceberg known as A-68 calved from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. In 2020, it drifted close to South Georgia, a British island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and then began to break up.  This iceberg was enormous – nearly the size of Delaware.  When it started to break up, […]
11/16/2023 • 2 minutes
Megafires and ecosystems
Wildfires are a natural phenomenon.  They have occurred long before there were people around.  Ecosystems adapt to fires and some species can benefit from them or even depend upon them.  But in recent times, fires have been intensifying and increasing in frequency and they are beginning to outstrip nature’s ability to bounce back from them. […]
11/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Plastics and agriculture
Once celebrated as a symbol of modern innovation, plastic is now both a blessing and a curse of our time.  Since the 1950s, more than nine billion tons of plastic have been produced, and 50% of that has been during the past 15 years.  Plastic is ubiquitous in every sector, and agriculture is no different. […]
11/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Geoengineering could create winners and losers
Geoengineering – deliberate interventions to alter the climate and curb climate change – is a controversial topic, to say the least.  Once practically considered taboo even to discuss, there in increasing interest in at least exploring various ideas about how to halt or reverse climate change through direct actions that impact global temperatures. Putting aside […]
11/13/2023 • 2 minutes
Moisture swing carbon capture
As the world grapples with limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there is a growing need to capture the carbon dioxide that is emitted as well as preventing it from being emitted in the first place.  Carbon capture can be accomplished at the source of emissions (such as power plants) or it can […]
11/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Fossil-free fertilizer
Ammonia is a major industrial commodity.  About 70% of it is used to make fertilizer, with the rest for a wide range of industrial applications.  Ammonia is the starting point for all mineral nitrogen fertilizers.  Typically, ammonia is a byproduct of isolating hydrogen from natural gas, which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide.  On a […]
11/9/2023 • 2 minutes
Powering Britain with sun and wind
The United Kingdom is quite small in size compared with the US, but its population of 67 million makes it a fairly large country with substantial energy needs.  A recent study by Oxford University looked at the ability of wind and solar power to provide for those energy needs over the course of time. According […]
11/8/2023 • 2 minutes
Summers are getting hotter
Climate scientists have warned for decades that a seemingly small change in the global average temperature can lead to large changes in extreme heat.  So far, the world has warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius (or 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) and that has been enough to cause big changes in summer heat. This past summer was the […]
11/7/2023 • 2 minutes
The right to not buy fossil fuels
Minnesota has been one of the most aggressive states in setting and realizing clean energy goals.  As of this year, Minnesota gets 55% of its energy from net zero carbon emission sources.  The state has goals of reaching 80% green energy by 2030, 90% by 2035, and 100% by 2040.  Recent legislation in Minnesota aims […]
11/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Lots of female turtles
Green sea turtles were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1978.  Since that time, there have been conservation measures put in place in many locations.  One such place is Florida, where restrictions on beachfront development and careful monitoring of turtle nests has helped to get hatchlings safely into the water.  A gill net ban […]
11/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Hydrogen hubs
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 earmarked $7 billion in federal funding aimed at accelerating the commercial-scale deployment of hydrogen as well as driving down its cost.  Clean hydrogen is considered to be a key technology for cleaning up hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors like refining, chemicals, and heavy-duty transport.  On October 13th, the Department […]
11/2/2023 • 2 minutes
A billion pound problem
Nearly two billion pounds of pumpkins are grown each year in the U.S.  But we actually don’t eat the vast majority of them.  Instead, most pumpkins are carved or otherwise decorated, and placed on porches across the country during Halloween.  But now that the holiday has come and gone, what happens to all those sagging […]
11/1/2023 • 2 minutes
Wind turbines and bats
Collisions with wind turbines are one of the leading causes of bat mortality in North America and Europe.  Most bat fatalities are caused by bats colliding with the rotating blades of wind turbines.  Fatalities are highest during autumn migration and on nights with low wind speeds. According to a recent study, land-based wind turbines kill […]
10/31/2023 • 2 minutes
Record low Antarctic sea ice
Antarctica’s winter came to a close in September and during that month, the continent reaches its maximum amount of sea ice that grows during the darkest and coldest months.  This year, that maximum occurred on September 10th and turned out to be the lowest on record. The sea ice around Antarctica reached a maximum extent […]
10/30/2023 • 2 minutes
Mississippi River Running Dry | Earth Wise
Water levels in the lower Mississippi River are running very low.  During September, the readings in Memphis, Tennessee were within inches of the all-time low.  The situation is causing real problems for the grain export industry. The water levels of the lower Mississippi are determined by the amount of rainfall in the upper Midwest.  At […]
10/27/2023 • 2 minutes
Wildfires And Air Quality | Earth Wise
People in the Northeast have been dealing with unhealthy air quality in recent times because of smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada.  Canada has experienced a much higher than average incidence of blazes this year with nearly 500 fires burning uncontrolled at times. It turns out that states far away from Canada aren’t necessarily […]
10/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Plastics In The Air | Earth Wise
Plastic pollution is a big deal.  There are plastics clogging up landfills and waterways and accumulating in the oceans, choking turtles and seabirds.  Annual production of plastics has grown from 2 million tons a year in 1950 to more than 450 million tons today. As if plastic problems weren’t already big enough, it is becoming […]
10/25/2023 • 2 minutes
Controlled Environment Agriculture | Earth Wise
The term “controlled environment agriculture” (or CEA) refers to any number of systems embodying a technology-based approach to farming.  CEA can range from simple shade structures to greenhouses to full indoor or vertical farms.  At the most advanced level, CEA systems are fully automated, closed loop systems with controlled lighting, water, and ventilation.   Many systems […]
10/24/2023 • 2 minutes
The Spooky Reality | Earth Wise
According to the National Retail Federation, American consumers will spend a whopping $12.2 billion on Halloween this year, exceeding last year’s record of $10.6 billion.  A record number of people – 73% of Americans – will also participate in Halloween-related activities this year, up from 69% in 2022.  But it’s not just our wallets that […]
10/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Geologic Hydrogen | Earth Wise
There is great interest in the potential use of hydrogen as a fuel or an energy storage medium.  Unlike hydrocarbon-based fuels, pure hydrogen combustion produces nothing but water as an emission.  But most hydrogen used at present is made by reforming natural gas, which is a process that results in carbon dioxide emissions.  Thus, the […]
10/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Banning Neonicotinoid Pesticides | Earth Wise
New York’s Birds and Bees Protection Act contains a targeted restriction on neonicotinoid pesticides. These widely-used insecticides are absorbed by plants and can be present in pollen and nectar, making them toxic to bees and other pollinators. Among the largest applications of neonics (as they are called) has been in the form of coatings on […]
10/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Floating Sea Farms | Earth Wise
Researchers at the University of South Australia have designed a self-sustaining solar-driven system that turns seawater into fresh water and grows crops without any involvement.  In theory, such a system could help address the growing problems of freshwater shortages and inadequate food supplies as the world’s population continues to increase. The system can be described […]
10/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Enhanced Geothermal Energy | Earth Wise
Steam produced by underground heat is an excellent source of clean energy.  In a few fortunate places around the world – notably Iceland and New Zealand – people have been using this source of power for more than a century.   In the U.S., a few places in the West have access to geothermal energy, and […]
10/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Pollution From Tires | Earth Wise
A few years ago, researchers investigating massive deaths of coho salmon in West Coast streams discovered that the water contained particles from vehicle tires.  The cause of the fish mortality turned out to be a chemical called 6PPD that is added to tires to prevent cracking and degradation.  The mystery was solved, but so far, […]
10/16/2023 • 2 minutes
The Hottest Summer | Earth Wise
It was a very rainy and relatively cool summer in much of New England as well as in New York’s Capital Region, where Earth Wise originates.  Despite that fact, according to NASA scientists, the summer of 2023 was the Earth’s hottest since global record keeping began in 1880. The months of June, July, and August […]
10/13/2023 • 2 minutes
A Huge American Lithium Discovery | Earth Wise
Human history has often been described in terms of a succession of metal ages:  the copper age, the bronze age, and the iron age.  In many ways, we have now entered the lithium age.  The light metal goes into the batteries that power smartphones, electric vehicles, and massive storage banks for the power grid.  Lithium […]
10/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Rivers And Climate Change | Earth Wise
Our planet is heating up.  Scientists have concluded that the changing climate is primarily the result of increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.  Some of the effects of global climate change include thawing permafrost, rising seas, intensifying storms and wildfires, and warming oceans.    According to a new study led by researchers from Penn State […]
10/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Storing Energy In Abandoned Mines | Earth Wise
An international study led by researchers from Austria has developed a novel way to store energy by transporting sand into abandoned underground mines.  The technique is called Underground Gravity Energy Storage or UGES. As the world deploys growing amounts of wind and solar energy, it is increasingly important to find ways to accessibly and efficiently […]
10/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Glacier Loss Day | Earth Wise
Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change that respond to changes in both temperature and precipitation.  But they are not only affected by climate change, they also affect climate change.  As glaciers melt, they contribute to sea level rise, alter regional hydrology, and influence the global energy balance. A group of glacier experts from the […]
10/9/2023 • 2 minutes
Finding Homes For Rhinos | Earth Wise
Northern White Rhinos are virtually extinct; only two female individuals survive in Kenya.  Southern White Rhinos also nearly vanished early in the 20th century, mostly because of excessive hunting.   A surviving group of fewer than 100 animals was identified in South Africa, and ongoing conservation efforts led to the existing population of southern white rhinos, […]
10/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Billion-Dollar Disasters | Earth Wise
By the end of August, the United States had already broken the one-year record for the number of weather and climate disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, through August there had already been 23 billion-dollar disasters.  The previous record of 22 had been set […]
10/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Paper Cups Are Not So Great | Earth Wise
The environmental cost of plastic waste is a highly visible global issue.  The response has been a growing effort to replace plastic items with alternative materials.  One very visible change of this sort has been the replacement of plastic cups with paper cups at coffee shops.  But a new study at the University of Gothenburg […]
10/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Cryopreserving Corals | Earth Wise
Recent climate models estimate that if the effects of climate change are not mitigated soon enough, 95% of the world’s corals could die by the mid 2030s.  Given the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, this is an increasingly likely outcome.  Coral reefs are estimated to have a $10 trillion economic value apart from their […]
10/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Lithium In The Salton Sea | Earth Wise
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, extremely salty body of water in the southern end of California.  It was formed from an inflow of water from the Colorado River in 1905 in the aftermath of a collapse of a canal during spring floods.  At one time, it was a thriving tourist destination and site […]
10/2/2023 • 2 minutes
Recycling Solar Panels | Earth Wise
Solar panels generally have a useful life of around 20 to 25 years.  The great majority of deployed panels have been installed fairly recently, so they have a long way to go.  But the growth in solar technology dates back to the 1990s, so there are growing number of panels that have already or are […]
9/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Wealth And Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Earth Wise
A new study led by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that the wealthiest 10% of Americans are responsible for a staggering 40% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The study, which was recently published in the journal PLOS Climate, is the first to link income, especially income derived from financial investments, […]
9/28/2023 • 2 minutes
The Cost Of Invasive Species | Earth Wise
According to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the United Nations, invasive species introduced to new ecosystems around the world are causing more than $423 billion in estimated losses to the global economy every year.  These economic costs are incurred by harming nature, damaging food systems, […]
9/27/2023 • 2 minutes
Lampshades And Indoor Air Pollution | Earth Wise
We mostly think of air pollution as an outdoor problem.  Common sources of air pollution include emissions from vehicles, byproducts of manufacturing and power generation, and smoke from wildfires.  What we don’t often spend a lot of time thinking about is indoor air quality.  Indoor air pollution refers to harmful pollutants within buildings and structures, […]
9/26/2023 • 2 minutes
The Captive Lion Problem | Earth Wise
In the 1990s, there was rapid growth in South Africa of the private wildlife industry.  Large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goat ranchers replaced their domestic livestock with wild animals that wealthy hunters would pay lots of money to shoot.  Lions were among the most prized targets for these people.  Over time, hundreds of ranchers […]
9/25/2023 • 2 minutes
A Groundwater Crisis | Earth Wise
The majority of U.S. drinking water systems rely on groundwater, as do America’s farms.  Even though groundwater is a crucial resource for the country, there is no central oversight or even monitoring of its status across the country.  The health of the country’s aquifers is difficult to gauge. The New York Times spent months amassing […]
9/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Too Many Bison | Earth Wise
In the northern part of Yellowstone National Park, an historically large bison herd is hampering the comeback of quaking aspen trees, whose numbers were greatly diminished by decades of over-browsing by elk.  Restoring the balance of ecosystems at Yellowstone is proving to be a complicated matter. Long ago, the bison population in the Great Plains […]
9/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Deadly Heatwaves On The Rise | Earth Wise
The European heatwave in the summer of 2003 resulted in at least 30,000 deaths with more than 14,000 in France alone. At the time, such a heatwave was considered to be a once-in-a-hundred-year event. But the warming climate is dramatically changing the odds for deadly heatwaves. A new study by the ETH Institute in Zurich has […]
9/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Grid-Scale Gravity Energy Storage | Earth Wise
As wind and solar energy play a growing part in our energy system, the need for grid-scale energy storage is growing as well.  An historic form of energy storage and still the largest in installed capacity is pumped hydro storage, which makes use of the potential energy contained in having water sitting at a higher […]
9/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Trouble For Emperor Penguins | Earth Wise
Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species.  The loss of sea ice in Antarctica last year has led to unprecedented breeding failure in some emperor penguin colonies. In a study published by the British Antarctic Survey, researchers found that no chicks survived from four of the five known emperor penguin […]
9/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Aphids And Monarchs | Earth Wise
Last year, the monarch butterfly was officially designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  Estimates are that the overall population of the species has dropped between 20% and 90% over the past several decades.  The migratory western population of monarchs is at the greatest risk of extinction, having declined by as […]
9/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Better Plastic Recycling | Earth Wise
Many of us are careful to put our plastic trash into the appropriate recycling bins hoping that we are helping to stem the global tide of plastic waste.  But many plastics are not recyclable at all and recycling those that are is not even always a good thing.  Breaking down plastics can generate polluting microplastics […]
9/14/2023 • 2 minutes
More Offshore Wind Proposed For New Jersey | Earth Wise
There have been three offshore wind projects previously approved by utility regulators in New Jersey.  New Jersey is vying to become an East Coast leader in the fast-growing offshore wind industry and now developers have proposed four new projects off the New Jersey Shore. Two of the projects would be located far out to sea […]
9/13/2023 • 2 minutes
Top Fish Predators And Climate Change | Earth Wise
Climate change is taking its toll on forests, farms, freshwater sources, and the economy, but ocean ecosystems remain the epicenter of global warming.  In fact, oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions since the 1970s. As a result, many marine fish species are responding to ocean warming by […]
9/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Lakes Are Shrinking | Earth Wise
A study by the University of Colorado Boulder has found that more than half of the world’s largest lakes have shrunk over the last three decades.  This is a very big problem because about one-quarter of the Earth’s population lives in the basin of a drying lake.  People depend on lakes for drinking water and […]
9/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Planting Rocks To Capture Carbon | Earth Wise
Getting humanity to stop dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere continues to be very challenging regardless of how increasingly apparent the need to do so becomes.  For this reason, climate change mitigation strategies increasingly include interventions in the form of removing carbon dioxide that is already there.  There are a variety of ways to draw […]
9/8/2023 • 2 minutes
Air Pollution And Insects | Earth Wise
Insects can be found in every environment on Earth and play critical roles in the planet’s ecosystems.  Insects pollinate more than 80% of plants, including those that we eat and those that provide food and habitat for other species.  Without insects, we wouldn’t have the rich biodiversity that supports life on earth today. But the […]
9/7/2023 • 2 minutes
Saving Florida’s Corals | Earth Wise
When corals are exposed to extended periods of excess heat, they are subject to bleaching, which occurs when they expel the algae that live within their structure.  Bleaching can lead to coral death. This summer, temperatures in the Florida Keys crossed the bleaching threshold in mid-June and remained above it for extended periods of time.  […]
9/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Protecting The Amazon Rainforest | Earth Wise
The Amazon rainforest absorbs one-fourth of all the carbon dioxide absorbed by the land of the Earth.  It is by far the world’s largest rainforest, bigger than the next two largest – in the Congo Basin and Indonesia – combined.  Nearly two-thirds of it is found in Brazil but the more than 2 million square […]
9/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Why Was the Summer So Hot? | Earth Wise
Many places around the world have experienced extraordinary heat waves this summer.  The 31 days of high temperatures 110 degrees or more in Phoenix is a prime example but many other places suffered from extreme and relentless heat.  Why did this happen? The overarching reason is climate change, which has warmed the Earth by 2.2 […]
9/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Aluminum In Batteries | Earth Wise
Batteries are playing a bigger and bigger role in our lives.  Apart from their use in ubiquitous smartphones, laptops, and other devices, millions of electric vehicles are hitting the roads, and utilities are installing giant banks of batteries to store energy generated by wind and solar farms. The necessary characteristics of batteries are high energy […]
9/1/2023 • 2 minutes
Endangered Plants And The Changing Climate | Earth Wise
Plants are a critical resource because of the countless ways they support life on Earth. Plants release oxygen into the atmosphere, absorb carbon dioxide, and provide food and habitat for humans and wildlife.  Plants are also used to produce fibers, building materials, and medicines.  Plants form the backbone of natural ecosystems, and absorb about 30% […]
8/31/2023 • 2 minutes
Missing Antarctic Sea Ice | Earth Wise
It is summer here in the United States, but it is winter in Antarctica.  Antarctic sea ice is water that forms and melts entirely in the ocean and it has a pattern of growth and reduction that has been monitored by satellites for the past 44 years.  The area of sea ice that surrounds the […]
8/30/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric Steel Furnaces | Earth Wise
Steel was first made thousands of years ago.  The discovery that heating up iron ore in a hot enough charcoal fire could purify the iron into a strong and valuable material was the start of the Iron Age.  In many ways, things have changed very little since then. Global iron and steel production accounts for […]
8/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Plastic In Lakes | Earth Wise
We are always talking about the millions of tons of waste plastic that finds its way into the oceans and about the challenges of trying to remove it.  A new multinational study has found that the concentration of plastics and microplastics in some lakes is even worse than in the so-called garbage patches in the […]
8/28/2023 • 2 minutes
Solar Panels On Canals | Earth Wise
There has been growing interest in installing solar panels on top of reservoirs to make use of the available space to make electricity and reduce evaporation.  There has been far less interest in installing solar on canals and aqueducts.  But that is changing and a new project in California is part of that change. A […]
8/25/2023 • 2 minutes
The Climate Impact Of Diets | Earth Wise
The food system is responsible for 70% of the world’s freshwater use and almost 80% of freshwater pollution.  About three-quarters of the ice-free land area of the planet has been affected by human use, primarily for agriculture.  Land-use change such as deforestation is a major source of biodiversity loss.  What we choose to eat has […]
8/24/2023 • 2 minutes
Upcycling Plastic Waste | Earth Wise
People have generated 8 billion tons of plastic waste over time and less than 10% of it has been recycled.  Millions of tons of it escapes into the oceans.  Plastic piles up virtually everywhere on earth. There are many approaches to dealing with the plastic waste problem and no one of them is a magic […]
8/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Biosurfactants And Oil Spills | Earth Wise
About 400 million gallons of oil leaks into the ocean every year.  This is a major source of environmental pollution.  Oil contains many hazardous compounds that are toxic or mutagenic for marine organisms.  When oil spill incidents occur, large quantities of chemical dispersants, sometimes as much as millions of gallons, are applied to dissolve oil […]
8/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Methane Emissions And The Paris Agreement | Earth Wise
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015.  Its goal is to strengthen the global response to climate change by committing to limit the rise in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit that […]
8/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Beaver Believers | Earth Wise
Beavers are ecosystem engineers based on their ability to construct dams and create ponds.  By doing so, they create wetland habitat for other species.  They create biodiversity by allowing plant species to emerge in new places as they clear out existing trees and other plants.  Beavers improve water quality and their dams store water during […]
8/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Marine Heat Waves | Earth Wise
In late July, the ocean temperature measured in Florida Bay, between the southern end of the Florida mainland and the Florida Keys, was 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit, a possible world record for sea surface temperature.  There is no official record keeping for ocean temperatures, but the highest previous reading ever reported was 99.7 degrees in the […]
8/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Floating Solar And Hydropower | Earth Wise
Installing solar panels on the surface of reservoirs is an up-and-coming trend.  The arrays of solar panels produce renewable energy while at the same time shielding significant expanses of water from the sun’s heat, thereby reducing evaporation.  The panels also help to inhibit the growth of algae. Two recent floating solar installations are demonstrating the […]
8/16/2023 • 2 minutes
Phoenix Is Frying | Earth Wise
The mythical Phoenix is a bird that repeatedly dies in a fire of its own making.  During July, the five million inhabitants of greater Phoenix Arizona may have felt like they were reliving that myth as multiple temperature records were shattered in a massive heatwave. On June 30, the high temperature in Phoenix was 110 […]
8/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Cleaner And Greener Steel | Earth Wise
Producing construction materials like concrete and steel is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.  Between 7 and 8% of emissions are due to steelmaking alone, which has been done pretty much the same way for more than a century. Iron ore is smelted with high-carbon fuel and is turned into so-called pig iron in […]
8/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Harvesting Water From The Air | Earth Wise
Engineers at MIT have created a superabsorbent material that can soak up significant amounts of moisture from the air, even in desert-like conditions. The material is a transparent, rubbery substance made from hydrogel, which is a naturally absorbent material that is already widely used in disposable diapers.  The MIT researchers enhanced the absorbency of hydrogel […]
8/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Cutting Deforestation | Earth Wise
Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change because the destruction of tropical rainforests worldwide eliminates a crucial natural sink for carbon.  Between 2015 and 2020, roughly 39,000 square miles of forest were cut down, an area about 70% the size of the entire state of New York.  In many places, such as the Amazon […]
8/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Global Aquaculture And Environmental Change | Earth Wise
Blue foods are fish, invertebrates, algae, and aquatic plants that are captured or cultured in freshwater and marine ecosystems.  They include approximately 2,200 species of fish, shellfish, plants and algae as well as more than 500 species farmed in freshwater.  Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people, […]
8/9/2023 • 2 minutes
Solar Power And Water | Earth Wise
Solar power is a prime example of clean energy, but it does not come without complications and potential problems.  One problem that has arisen in the Californian desert is the effect on scarce water supplies.  Solar farms don’t use up water when they are operating but they consume it when they are being built. One […]
8/8/2023 • 2 minutes
The Value Of Seagrass | Earth Wise
Seagrasses are found in shallow salty and brackish waters in many places around the world, from the tropics to the Arctic Circle.  They get their name from their long green, grass-like leaves.  They are not seaweeds at all but are more closely related to flowering plants on land.  We hear a lot about threatened ocean […]
8/7/2023 • 2 minutes
How To Support Pollinators | Earth Wise
Pollinators of all sorts have been in decline for a while.  This is especially true of bees, bats, and monarch butterflies.  Without pollinators, fruits, vegetables, and other plants cannot provide their contributions to our food supply.  According to experts, about 30% of the food that ends up on our tables gets there because of pollinators. […]
8/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Wind And Solar Pass Coal | Earth Wise
For the first five months of this year, wind and solar generated more electricity than coal in the United States.  This is a first.  Total renewable energy generation exceeded coal-fired power in both 2020 and 2022, but that counted hydroelectric power as one of the renewable sources. This year, wind and solar alone generated a […]
8/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Cryo Conservation | Earth Wise
Recent studies have shown that there has been a 69% decline in global animal populations since 1970.  There is a biodiversity crisis in the world.  In the face of this situation, there is a growing interest in using cold storage to preserve genetic samples taken from animals threatened with extinction. Just as egg-freezing is used […]
8/2/2023 • 2 minutes
Shrinking Glaciers And Methane | Earth Wise
The Arctic region is warming much faster than the rest of the planet.  In fact, according to a study published last year in the journal Nature, the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe during the last 43 years.  This rapid warming is leading to substantial reductions in […]
8/1/2023 • 2 minutes
An Electric Cruise Ship | Earth Wise
The shipping industry accounts for about 3% of global manmade greenhouse gas emissions.  In 2018, the International Maritime Organization, the UN body that regulates global shipping, set a target to cut the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050. This goal has led to a variety of designs for eco-friendly ships, including […]
7/31/2023 • 2 minutes
Renewables In China | Earth Wise
A couple of years ago, China set an ambitious goal for renewable energy capacity – which includes wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear power – for it to exceed fossil fuel capacity by 2025.  According to a recent report by Reuters, China has hit this goal two years ahead of schedule.  Renewables now make up 50.9% […]
7/28/2023 • 2 minutes
The World’s Hottest Day | Earth Wise
Early in July – for four days in a row – the average global temperature was the highest ever recorded.  As many places around the world endured dangerous heatwaves, the average global temperature on the fourth of July reached 62.92 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest ever recorded by human-made instruments.  On July 6th, the global temperature […]
7/27/2023 • 2 minutes
Fungus And Carbon Storage | Earth Wise
It is well-known that plants and trees store enormous amounts of carbon.  What has not been common knowledge is that the vast underground network of fungi across the world’s lands stores billions of tons carbon, roughly equivalent to 36% of yearly global fossil fuel emissions. These mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with almost all land […]
7/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric Motors For Aviation | Earth Wise
Aviation contributes about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.  Its carbon footprint is one of the more difficult ones to reduce.  Electrifying planes would shrink that footprint considerably, but it represents a significant technical challenge.  To date, only small all-electric planes have gotten off the ground.  The electric motors in those planes generate hundreds of […]
7/25/2023 • 2 minutes
Decontaminating Drinking Water | Earth Wise
At least two billion people around the world often drink water that is contaminated with disease-causing microbes.  Waterborne diseases are responsible for two million deaths each year, mostly among children under the age of five. There are various ways to decontaminate water, including chemicals that can themselves produce toxic byproducts as well as using ultraviolet […]
7/24/2023 • 2 minutes
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Still Increasing | Earth Wise
Recent research has found that the level of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity has reached an all-time high level of nearly 60 billion tons a year.  Despite increasing public attention, policy measures, and adoption of green technologies, the pace at which these changes have been taking place has simply not kept up with the […]
7/21/2023 • 2 minutes
A Below-Average Dead Zone In The Gulf of Mexico | Earth Wise
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone, or hypoxic area, is an area of low oxygen content that can kill fish and other marine life.  It occurs every summer and is mostly a result of excess nutrient pollution from human activities in cities and farms throughout the Mississippi River watershed.  The nutrients carried by the river […]
7/20/2023 • 2 minutes
A Big Year For Rooftop Solar | Earth Wise
The global capacity of rooftop solar power grew by 49% in 2022.  Overall, the installed amount of rooftop solar grew from 79 gigawatts to 118 gigawatts last year and it is projected to reach 159 gigawatts by the end of this year.  By comparison, a typical nuclear power plant can produce 1 gigawatt; a gas-powered […]
7/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Moss And Carbon Storage | Earth Wise
All plants, including algae and cyanobacteria, carry out photosynthesis. During the process of photosynthesis, plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen to the air.  As a result, plants play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.  According to a new study recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience, mosses – […]
7/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Water For Arizona | Earth Wise
The Phoenix area is the fastest growing region in the country.  Arizona’s two major sources of water – groundwater and the Colorado River – are dwindling from drought, climate change, and overuse.  Officials in the state are considering a radical plan to construct a desalination plant off the Mexican coast that will take the salt […]
7/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Saving Our Soil | Earth Wise
The majority of food we eat is grown in topsoil, that carbon-rich, black soil that nurtures everything from carrots to watermelons.  The fertility of this soil has developed over eons.     But over the past 160 years, the Midwestern United States has lost 63.4 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices.  In fact, Midwestern topsoil […]
7/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Europe Is Warming Very Quickly | Earth Wise
According to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization, Europe is warming faster than any other inhabited continent.  The result of the rising temperatures has been increasingly severe heat waves, flood, and wildfires. The Paris Climate Agreement has set a goal of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels […]
7/13/2023 • 2 minutes
Rain Gardens And Residential Pollution | Earth Wise
Stormwater runoff has become the largest source of residential pollution for waterways.  As rainwater runs down roofs, over driveways and patios, and off other hard surfaces, it can pick up pollutants as it flows directly into streams, wetlands, lakes, and groundwater aquifers.  That water is typically routed directly through stormwater pipes and ditches with little […]
7/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Orcas Versus Boats | Earth Wise
Over the past three years, orcas (also known as killer whales) have been attacking boats off the coasts of Portugal and Spain.  The subpopulation of orcas in this region has been harassing boats, most often by biting at their rudders. There have been over 500 reported instances of orcas reacting to boats.  Sometimes they simply […]
7/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric Cars And Apartments | Earth Wise
The transition to electric cars is underway.  People are increasingly buying them, carmakers are switching over to making them, and governments are providing incentives as well as legislating the changeover.  More and more consumers want to lower their carbon footprints and stop burning fossil fuels.  But one very large group of consumers faces an uphill […]
7/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Big Oil And Big Lithium | Earth Wise
The world’s big oil companies have worked pretty hard to prolong society’s dependence on petroleum.  When there are trillions of dollars at stake, there is plenty of motivation.  But those companies do see the writing on the wall. An Exxon Mobil-funded study last year estimated that light-duty vehicle demand for combustion engine fuels could peak […]
7/7/2023 • 2 minutes
Liquid Fuel From Sunshine | Earth Wise
A key goal of artificial photosynthesis research is to be able to produce a useful liquid fuel using only carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight in a single step.  Such a so-called solar fuel would produce net zero carbon emissions and would be completely renewable. Bioethanol has long been touted as a green alternative to fossil […]
7/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Keeping The Colorado River Flowing | Earth Wise
The Colorado River supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans in seven states as well as to many Mexicans and provides irrigation to 5.5 million acres of farmland.  Electricity generated by dams on the Colorado powers millions of homes and businesses in the West. A combination of drought, population growth, and climate change has reduced […]
7/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Airplane Turbulence And Climate Change | Earth Wise
If you’ve ever been on an airplane, chances are pretty good that you’ve experienced turbulence.  As the busy summer travel season kicks off, travelers are being encouraged to brace themselves for a bumpier-than-usual ride.  There has been a major increase in the number of severe turbulence cases on both domestic and international flights.  According to […]
7/4/2023 • 2 minutes
An Unwanted Temperature Threshold Is Approaching | Earth Wise
According to the World Meteorological Organization, there is a 66% chance over the next five years that the Earth’s global temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. A combination of the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere along with a looming El Niño condition will contribute […]
7/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Fewer Farms In The World | Earth Wise
A new study by the University of Colorado Boulder looked at the trends in the number and size of farms around the world starting from the 1960s and projecting through the end of the 21st century. The analysis shows that the number of farms globally will shrink in half while the size of the average […]
6/30/2023 • 2 minutes
New York Is Sinking | Earth Wise
The rising seas represent a threat to coastal cities across the globe.  Increasing that threat is the fact that most global cities are slowly sinking as the earth beneath them settles and groundwater is removed.   Another factor that has seldom been considered is that in major metropolises, the weight of large, concrete-and-steel skyscrapers may be […]
6/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Nantucket Residents Still Fighting Offshore Wind | Earth Wise
Offshore wind in the US has had to fight to exist for a long time.  The Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod was envisioned over 20 years ago as a 1.5-gigawatt wind farm.  Years of legal battles and other controversies saw the project start and stop multiple times with […]
6/28/2023 • 2 minutes
Large Lakes In Decline | Earth Wise
Globally, freshwater lakes and reservoirs hold 87% of the planet’s liquid freshwater, making them a valuable resource for both people and wildlife.  Despite their value, the long-term trends and changes to water levels of lakes have been largely unknown – until now. According to a new assessment recently published in the journal Science, more than […]
6/27/2023 • 2 minutes
The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling | Earth Wise
The part of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface has been warming since the Industrial Revolution.  This warming is associated with increasing amounts of carbon dioxide as well as other human-made chemicals that have been changing the makeup of the atmosphere. Climate change is generally thought about in terms of the lowest regions of […]
6/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Ocean Oxygen Levels And The Future Of Fish | Earth Wise
Climate change is creating a cascade of effects in the world’s oceans.  Not only are ocean temperatures on the rise, but oceans are becoming more acidic, and oxygen deprived.  The warming temperatures and acidification have grabbed headlines and prompted academic research. Declining oxygen levels have not garnered as much attention.  But they spell bad news […]
6/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Climate Change And Species Tipping Points | Earth Wise
In climate science, tipping points are critical thresholds that, once crossed, lead to large and often irreversible changes in the climate system. For example, surpassing a 1.5 degree C rise in global warming has long been considered a tipping point for the planet.  According to a new study led by researchers from University College London, […]
6/22/2023 • 2 minutes
El Niño Will Likely Return | Earth Wise
El Niño, a weather phenomenon triggered by warm waters in the eastern Pacific, is likely to return this year, according to the World Meteorological Organization.  The Pacific has been in the cooler La Niña phase for the past 3 years, which is unusual, but that appears to be coming to a close.  According to the […]
6/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Energy From Fruit Waste | Earth Wise
In the Back to the Future films, Doc Brown ran his DeLorean time machine on food scraps.  It was a fun bit of science fiction.  But researchers at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Canada are investigating the potential for using food waste to generate power. Food waste is not a candidate to replace […]
6/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Chatbots Are Thirsty | Earth Wise
We hear a lot about artificial intelligence these days.  ChatGPT has found its way into education, technology, and many other aspects of life.  It and its brethren are a source of fascination, enthusiasm, and even fear.  Many of us have given queries to the bot to see what kind of results we can obtain.  But […]
6/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Why Are Insect Populations Declining? | Earth Wise
The world is experiencing a decline in overall insect populations as well as a collapse in insect diversity.  A recent special issue of the journal Biology Letters discusses the major causes of this alarming trend. According to the study, the primary causes of the worldwide decline in insect biomass are land-use intensification in the form […]
6/16/2023 • 2 minutes
Offshore Wind In Maine | Earth Wise
There are currently only two small offshore wind farms operating in the United States, but there are now several more under construction or in the permitting process.  Substantial wind farms are expected to come online over the next five years off the coasts of Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts. North Carolina, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New […]
6/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Reducing Cattle-Driven Deforestation | Earth Wise
The Amazon rainforest is the biggest rainforest in the world, larger than the next two biggest combined.  It covers more than three million square miles, roughly the size of the lower 48 states.  The Amazon functions as a critical sink for carbon in the atmosphere. However, human activity has removed more than 10% of the […]
6/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Chasing The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker | Earth Wise
The ivory-billed woodpecker is or was the largest woodpecker in the United States. The last unassailable sighting of the bird was in 1944.  Since then, there have various reports of glimpses of the bird or of hearing its distinctive sounds.  But there has not been anything resembling proof that the bird still exists. Despite this, […]
6/13/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric Cars In Norway | Earth Wise
We are at a relatively early stage of the electric car revolution.  EV sales are increasing rapidly, but they still comprise only a small fraction of the cars on American roads.  So, there is still lots of speculation and argument about how things will actually work when a large fraction of cars are electric.  But […]
6/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Can All Plant Species Survive? | Earth Wise
Many animal populations around the world are struggling and people are mostly to blame.  Species are declining because of all sorts of things including changes in land and sea use, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. Like many animal species, plants are also struggling to adapt to a human-dominated world.  Plants provide the planet with […]
6/9/2023 • 2 minutes
Restoring Biocrusts | Earth Wise
Biocrusts are complex ecosystems that form a thin layer on the surface of soils in arid and semiarid environments.  They are composed of variety of microbes including cyanobacteria, green algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses.  Biocrusts play a crucial role in maintaining soil health and ecosystem sustainability. Biocrusts are under assault from human activities including agriculture, […]
6/8/2023 • 2 minutes
Abandoned Oil Wells In The Gulf Of Mexico | Earth Wise
There have been offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico for 85 years.  After all those decades of drilling, there are now more than 14,000 old, unplugged wells out in the water, and they are at risk of springing dangerous leaks and spills.  There are now more unplugged, non-producing wells than active wells in […]
6/7/2023 • 2 minutes
Carbon-Negative Concrete | Earth Wise
Concrete is a mainstay of modern civilization.  The world produces more than 4 billion tons of it each year and the process requires high temperatures, mostly obtained by burning fossil fuels.  The chemical reactions that produce concrete also produce large amounts of carbon dioxide.  In all, cement production is responsible for about 8% of total […]
6/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Shrinking Birds | Earth Wise
A new study by researchers at Yale University looks at the way bird morphology is changing in response to the warming climate.  As temperatures rise, birds’ bodies are growing smaller, but their wings are growing longer. In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists analyzed two independently collected […]
6/5/2023 • 2 minutes
A New Deep-Sea Reef In The Galapagos | Earth Wise
Like in many other places around the world, ocean warming has mostly destroyed the shallow-water reefs in the Galapagos Islands.  The islands are some of the most carefully protected places in the world, but they can’t escape the effects of a warming planet. Recently, however, scientists have discovered a healthy, sprawling coral reef hidden deep […]
6/2/2023 • 2 minutes
Wildfire Smoke And Global Weather | Earth Wise
In 2019 and 2020, wildfires burned 72,000 square miles in Australia, roughly the same area as the entire country of Syria. During the nine months when the fires raged, persistent and widespread plumes of smoke filled the atmosphere. These aerosols brightened a vast area of clouds above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.  Beneath these clouds, the […]
6/1/2023 • 2 minutes
Removing Carbon Dioxide Won’t Get the Job Done | Earth Wise
Limiting global warming to no more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is a crucial goal for humankind.  Countries, companies, and other organizations around the world have committed to achieving ‘net zero’ emissions.  This is distinct from zero emissions in that it includes removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offset the amounts we […]
5/31/2023 • 2 minutes
Record Polar Ice Melting | Earth Wise
Sea levels are rising and ocean warming is responsible for the bulk of that rise.  As water heats up, it expands, which drives up sea levels.  But on top of that, global warming is melting the polar ice sheets, and that is leading to about a quarter of the world’s sea level rise. So far, […]
5/30/2023 • 2 minutes
Methane And Wildfires | Earth Wise
Methane is a colorless and odorless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and is also a product of certain human activities.  It’s also a potent greenhouse gas, meaning it affects climate change by contributing to increased warming.  In fact, methane gas is known to warm the planet 86 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over […]
5/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Plastic Eating Fungus | Earth Wise
More than five billion tons of plastic have accumulated on land and sea including the most remote regions of the planet as well as in the bodies of animals and humans.  There is a compelling need to recycle as much plastic as possible but doing so is a major challenge. Plastic comes in many varieties […]
5/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Explosive Growth Of Electric Vehicles | Earth Wise
Not long ago, electric cars were a rarity.  Ten years ago, annual global sales of EVs were only a few hundred thousand.  As of today, globally, still less than one percent of all the cars on the road are electric.  But that is changing rapidly. In fact, electric vehicles are expected to capture nearly 20% […]
5/25/2023 • 2 minutes
Life In The Garbage Patch | Earth Wise
A team of scientists has found thriving communities of coastal creatures living thousands of miles from their original homes and now ensconced on plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  A new study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution reports that dozens of species of coastal invertebrate organisms – including tiny crabs […]
5/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Geothermal Energy Storage | Earth Wise
About 12% of the energy consumed by humanity is used to heat and cool homes and businesses.  A study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Princeton University looked at a novel approach to making use of underground water to maintain comfortable temperatures and reduce consumption of natural gas and electricity. The idea is […]
5/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Rare Earths And The Energy Transition | Earth Wise
Limiting the rise in global temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius requires decarbonization.  This means slashing fossil fuel use, switching to renewable energy sources, and electrifying as many sectors of the economy as possible.  Doing these things requires huge numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and storage batteries.   All of them […]
5/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Arctic Warming And Weather At Mid-Latitudes | Earth Wise
Some of the most striking images of climate change are those of melting glaciers in the Arctic and polar bears stranded on shrinking sea ice. The Arctic has been warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average.  In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the Arctic’s role in driving extreme […]
5/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Better Zinc Batteries | Earth Wise
The rapid growth of wind and solar power continues to drive a global quest for new battery technologies that can be used to store the energy generated by these sources when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing. For the most part, current battery energy storage systems use lithium-ion batteries – the same […]
5/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Major League Baseball And Climate Change | Earth Wise
Major League Baseball is one of the most historic professional sports leagues in the United States and represents the highest level of professional baseball.  Throughout its history, MLB has endured many changes to rules, equipment, and strategy.  As a result of these changes, the league has been segmented into several distinct eras, including the dead […]
5/16/2023 • 2 minutes
Here Come The Lanternflies | Earth Wise
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive pest from Asia that primarily feeds on tree of heaven, which is itself an invasive species that has become widespread.  The real problem is that the lanternfly can also feed on some 70 other plants such as grapevines, maples, fruit trees, and more. The lanternfly was first discovered in […]
5/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Banning Gas-Powered Cars | Earth Wise
The European Union has banned the sale of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035.  The vote came after weeks of negotiations related to possible exemptions to the rule. Germany lobbied for an exemption to be made for cars powered by e-fuels.  These are made by combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide that has been removed from […]
5/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Storing Carbon Dioxide In The Ocean | Earth Wise
Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere means either shutting down emission sources (primarily curbing the use of fossil fuels) or capturing the CO2 as it is emitted.  Capturing carbon dioxide from smokestacks and other point sources with high concentrations is relatively efficient and can make economic sense.  Removing it from the air, […]
5/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Two Lost Lakes Return To California | Earth Wise
The recent siege of powerful storms in California driven by a series of atmospheric rivers has had a significant effect on the severe drought that has plagued most of the state for many years.  Many of the state’s reservoirs are at the highest level they have been for decades.   The snowpack in the Sierras is […]
5/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Plants Make Sounds | Earth Wise
Some people talk to their plants.  It is highly unlikely that the plants are listening, but recent research has found that plants are doing quite a bit of talking of their own. It turns out that plant emit a variety of click-like sounds, especially when they are stressed in some way, such as being dehydrated […]
5/9/2023 • 2 minutes
Concrete And Carbon | Earth Wise
After water, concrete is the world’s second most consumed material.  It is the cornerstone of modern infrastructure.  Its production accounts for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.  The carbon dioxide is a result of chemical reactions in its manufacture and from the energy required to fuel the reactions. About half of the emissions associated with […]
5/8/2023 • 2 minutes
Salt Marshes And Climate Change | Earth Wise
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in and out by the tides. These low-lying wetlands are also sometimes called tidal marshes because they occur in the zone between low and high tides. These wetlands are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. Cape Cod’s beautiful […]
5/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Minimizing The Impact Of EVs On The Grid | Earth Wise
Two current trends are the increasing reliance on renewable sources in the electric grid and the increasing use of electric vehicles.  According to some projections, these trends could lead to the need for costly new power plants to meet peak loads in the evening when cars are plugged in to charge.  Overproduction of power from […]
5/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Caterpillars And Light Pollution | Earth Wise
Most of us are familiar with air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and even noise pollution.  But it turns out that light can be a pollutant as well, and it’s a consequence of industrial civilization.  In fact, nighttime light pollution now covers approximately 23% of the globe and over 80% of inhabited regions.  Light pollution […]
5/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Ocean-based Climate Intervention And Deep-sea Ecosystems | Earth Wise
Deep-sea ecosystems cover more than 40% of the Earth.  These regions are some of the least well-known and understood areas of our planet but are home to numerous ecosystems.  The deep seas are already directly exposed to the effects of human-induced climate change but could potentially be greatly threatened by efforts to artificially counteract climate […]
5/2/2023 • 2 minutes
Falling Lithium Prices | Earth Wise
Lithium, the key element in the batteries that power electric cars, as well as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers, is sometimes called white gold.  Over time, the price of the metal has gone up and up.  But recently, and surprisingly, the price of lithium has actually gone down, helping to make electric vehicles more affordable. […]
5/1/2023 • 2 minutes
Seaweed On The Way | Earth Wise
A type of seaweed called sargassum has long formed large blooms in the Atlantic Ocean.  It gets its name from the Sargasso Sea in the western Atlantic.  Since 2011, scientists have been tracking massive accumulations of the stuff each year that starts out off the coast of Africa and works its way across the Atlantic […]
4/28/2023 • 2 minutes
An Accelerating Rate Of Mountain Forest Loss | Earth Wise
Mountains contribute disproportionately to the Earth’s diversity of life.  While mountains account for about 25% of the land area on Earth, they are home to more than 85% of the mammal, bird, and amphibian species.  But alarmingly, forested mountain habitats in which these species live are disappearing, and they appear to be disappearing at an […]
4/27/2023 • 2 minutes
California: Drought Or No Drought? | Earth Wise
Just a few months ago, millions of people in California were living under challenging water conservation rules.  The past three years were the driest on record and reservoirs were depleted, landscapes dried up, and the snowpack in the Sierras at very low levels. But in recent months, a dozen atmospheric river storms have brought huge […]
4/26/2023 • 2 minutes
Powering Future Ships By Wind | Earth Wise
An innovative project out of the UK seeks to reduce carbon emissions at sea by retrofitting large ocean vessels with ultramodern wing-sails to reduce the amount of fuel required to travel the oceans. Powering ships by wind is certainly nothing new.  However, almost every large ship today is powered entirely by fossil fuels.  A company […]
4/25/2023 • 2 minutes
Hydrogen And The Methane Problem | Earth Wise
Theoretically, hydrogen could be the fuel of the future.  It is the most common element in the universe and its combustion produces no harmful emissions.  Most industrial hydrogen comes from a process called steam reforming that extracts it from natural gas – basically methane.  Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the process.   But it is […]
4/24/2023 • 2 minutes
Protecting New York City From Flooding | Earth Wise
Hurricane Sandy flooded Lower Manhattan in October 2012, closing Wall Street, blacking out power for 250,000 people, and killing 44 New Yorkers.  Within a year, plans were in motion to build berms, floodwalls, and water gates along the city’s Lower East Side in a $770 million first phase of an overall plan to defend New […]
4/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Giant Farming Robots | Earth Wise
Farmers are perpetually engaged in a battle against weeds, which can strangle crops and destroy their yields.  There are basically two ways to fight weeds:  spraying herbicides that are bad for the environment and human health or using human labor to pull the weeds by hand.  Both choices are increasingly undesirable.  Herbicide resistance is a […]
4/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Canada Lynx And Climate Change | Earth Wise
Canada lynx are medium-sized North American big cats known for their long, black ear tufts, and their ability to hunt across the surface of deep snow.  Historically, the predator’s habitat ranged across Alaska, Canada, and much of the Northern United States.  But in the contiguous U.S. today, the Canada lynx exists only in several disjunct […]
4/19/2023 • 2 minutes
Scientists Call For Geoengineering Research | Earth Wise
A group of more than 60 climate researchers has published an open letter calling for accelerated research into what is called solar radiation management.  This means changing the amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the earth by adding various substances into the stratosphere or into the clouds in order to help cool down […]
4/18/2023 • 2 minutes
Pulling Carbon Dioxide Out Of Seawater | Earth Wise
The world’s largest sink for carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the ocean.  The world’s oceans soak up 30-40% of all the gas produced by human activities.  Dissolving carbon dioxide in water produces carbonic acid.   This is the reason that oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, which is causing serious damage to ocean ecosystems. There are […]
4/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Community Solar On The Rise | Earth Wise
Community solar is a way for people who can’t put solar on their own roofs to still take advantage of its benefits.  Whether they can’t afford to install their own panels, have too much shade on their roof, or don’t even own a home, community solar is another way to participate in green energy. Community […]
4/14/2023 • 2 minutes
Antibiotics In Animal Agriculture | Earth Wise
In animal agriculture, farmers use antibiotics to treat, prevent, and control animal diseases, and to increase the productivity of their operations.  According to the FDA, approximately 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are purchased for use in food-producing animals.  The routine administration of antibiotics to farm animals for non-therapeutic purposes promotes the development […]
4/13/2023 • 2 minutes
Electric Cars Getting Cheaper | Earth Wise
A sticking point for buying electric cars has always been that they are typically more expensive than equivalent gasoline-powered cars.  But increasing competition, government incentives, and falling prices for lithium and other battery materials is changing the equation.  In fact, the tipping point when electric cars are as cheap or even cheaper than internal combustion […]
4/12/2023 • 2 minutes
Counting Trees | Earth Wise
Scientists estimate that there are about 3 trillion trees on the earth.  A huge number but probably half as many as there were before people entered the picture.  And we’re losing about 10 billion trees a year to toilet paper, timber, farmland expansion, and other human activity.  Trees play a crucial role in taking carbon […]
4/11/2023 • 2 minutes
Help For Kelp | Earth Wise
The warming of the oceans has been causing the decimation of kelp forests.  The thick canopies covering coastal ocean regions have been wilting in warmer and nutrient-poor water.  Making matters much worse has been the explosion in population of sea urchins that thrive in warmer water.  The urchins gobble up the kelp, often resulting in […]
4/10/2023 • 2 minutes
Clean Energy From North Africa | Earth Wise
Europe is hungry for clean energy.  The war in Ukraine has amplified Europe’s desire to end its reliance on Russian natural gas.  Increasingly, Europe is pushing to install giant solar energy farms in sunny North Africa and transport the energy through underwater cables. Solar panels in sunny North Africa generate up to three times more […]
4/7/2023 • 2 minutes
Humanity Weighs On The World | Earth Wise
There are countless ways in which humankind has had disproportionate effects on our planet and most of those effects have been negative.  A recent study led by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel looked at the total combined weight of various groups of mammals on Earth.  The results are that human beings and our […]
4/6/2023 • 2 minutes
Spiders And Pest Control | Earth Wise
Climate change facilitates the spread of invasive pest species by expanding their habitable environment ranges.  In conventional agriculture, farmers depend on chemical pesticides to control agricultural pests.  But 99% of all synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, are made from fossil fuels, and turning petrochemicals into pesticides requires massive amounts of energy.  These chemical pesticides also pollute […]
4/5/2023 • 2 minutes
Offshore Wind In The Gulf Of Mexico | Earth Wise
The US has a goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.  This is an ambitious goal given that the current installed offshore wind capacity in the US is a total of seven turbines capable of generating just 42 megawatts of power.  So, there is a long way to go in […]
4/4/2023 • 2 minutes
Coastal Land Reclamation | Earth Wise
People are artificially expanding the coastlines of cities by extending industrial ports and creating luxury residential waterfronts.  Major cities have added 900 square miles to their coastlines just since 2000.  A recent study published in the journal Earth’s Future made use of satellite imagery to analyze land changes in 135 cities with populations of at […]
4/3/2023 • 2 minutes
Dangers Of Melting Glaciers | Earth Wise
Some of most dramatic evidence that the Earth’s climate is warming is the retreat and even disappearance of mountain glaciers around the world.  2022 was the 35th year in a row that glaciers tracked by the World Glacier Monitoring Service lost rather than gained ice.  Glaciers gain mass through snowfall and lose mass through melting […]
3/31/2023 • 2 minutes
How To Meet Protected Land Targets | Earth Wise
More than half of the world’s countries have set a target of setting aside 30% of land and sea areas across the globe for conservation by 2030, in order to preserve and protect nature and essential services to people.  This pledge creates some difficult questions to answer. What sorts of land should be protected and […]
3/30/2023 • 2 minutes
Sustainable Jet Fuel | Earth Wise
For several years, a few airlines, notably United here in the US, have been experimenting with the use of sustainable jet fuel.  Sustainable aviation fuel is made from such things as used cooking oil and agricultural waste.  It produces up to 80% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel.  To date, when used it […]
3/29/2023 • 2 minutes
Protecting Wetlands | Earth Wise
Wetlands are distinct ecosystems that are flooded or saturated by water, either permanently or seasonally.  They include mangroves, marshes, swamps, forested wetlands, bogs, wet prairies, and vernal pools.   The feature that most wetlands share is soil or substrate that is at least periodically saturated with or covered by water. Wetlands are some of the most […]
3/28/2023 • 2 minutes
Offshore Wind Industry In New York | Earth Wise
Last July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the release of the state’s third competitive offshore wind solicitation, seeking to add generating capacity to power at least 1.5 million homes.  In response to the solicitation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – NYSERDA -received more than 100 proposals for 8 new projects […]
3/27/2023 • 2 minutes
Protected Areas Are Not Protecting Insects | Earth Wise
Insects can be found in every environment on Earth and play crucial roles in the planet’s ecosystems.  In fact, Biologist E. O. Wilson once said that “if all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago.  If insects were to vanish, the […]
3/24/2023 • 2 minutes
Self-Deicing Roads | Earth Wise
Driving on snowy or icy roads can be pretty dangerous.  That is why roads are salted or coated with sand to provide traction in icy weather.  But excessive use of these substances is bad for the environment and sometimes a storm will blow in before the roads can be coated. In a paper published in […]
3/23/2023 • 2 minutes
Sea Level Rise And Global Security | Earth Wise
Recently, United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres addressed the U.N. Security Council on the issue of the security threats created by rising sea levels. In the past, some members of the Security Council – notably Brazil, China, Russia, and at times, India – have argued that the U.N.’s climate program should address such issues and […]
3/22/2023 • 2 minutes
Keeping The Keeling Curve Going | Earth Wise
The world’s longest-running record of direct readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is the Keeling Curve, measurements taken at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii.  The readings have been going on with almost no interruption since Charles Keeling began taking them in the 1950s.  But the eruption of Mauna Loa last November […]
3/21/2023 • 2 minutes
Great Salt Lake In Danger | Earth Wise
Utah’s Great Salt Lake has been plagued by excessive water use and extensive drought conditions.  As of January, the lake dropped to record-low water levels, losing 73% of its water and exposing 60% of its lakebed. According to scientists, the lake could disappear entirely within five years. Great Salt Lake is what is known as […]
3/20/2023 • 2 minutes
Distributed Wind Energy | Earth Wise
When we think about wind power, we are usually talking about increasingly giant windfarms – either on land or offshore – that produce power on a utility scale.  But there is also distributed wind energy, which refers to wind technologies in locations that directly support individuals, communities, and businesses.   Distributed wind can be so-called behind-the-meter […]
3/17/2023 • 2 minutes
Solar Power At Night | Earth Wise
The use of solar power has grown tremendously in recent years as it has declined in price and become far more competitive with other forms of electricity generation.  Its fundamental drawback, of course, is that it only works when the sun is shining.  Solar panels don’t produce any power at night.  That is, until now, […]
3/16/2023 • 2 minutes
Renewables’ Growing Share | Earth Wise
Not long ago, many states across the country were setting goals to obtain 20% of their electricity from renewable sources. For a few states, like New York and Washington, ample amounts of hydropower made 20% an easy target.  But for many others, 20% seemed like a very ambitious objective. Things have certainly changed.  According to […]
3/15/2023 • 2 minutes
Mining Metals From Water | Earth Wise
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington are working with industry to develop a method of extracting valuable materials from various sources of water.  The technique is the 21st-century equivalent of panning for gold in rivers and streams. The patent-pending technology makes use of magnetic nanoparticles that are surrounded […]