Earth Wise

About 10% of the world’s total electricity supply is used for air conditioning.  If current temperature trends continue, the energy demands for space cooling will more than triple by the year 2050.  Air conditioning is a double threat to the environment.  Apart from using lots of energy, ACs also make use of halogenated refrigerants that […]

Researchers predict that climate change will negatively impact most staple food crops, including rice, corn, and soybeans.  Therefore, climate resilient food crops – those that are salt, drought, and heat resilient – will have an important role to play in global food security.  Examples of climate resilient crops include quinoa, kernza, amaranth, millet, and tepary […]

Tasmanian tigers earned their nickname because of the stripes along their back, but they were not felines.  In fact, they were carnivorous marsupials, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch. Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines, were once native to the Australian mainland, as well as the islands of Tasmania […]

Pumped hydro energy storage is still by far the largest form of energy storage in the world, representing more than 90% of storage capacity worldwide.  The theory behind it is simple.  Water is pumped into an upper reservoir (that is, one at a higher elevation), and when electricity is needed, the water is allowed to […]

Oregon State University scientists have proposed a series of management changes for western federal lands aimed at re-establishing ecosystems there.  Their proposal would result in more gray wolves and beavers in nearly 200,000 square miles of federal lands in 11 states. In each of those states, the researchers identified areas containing prime wolf habitat.  Gray […]

Furnace Creek in Death Valley is the driest place in North America.  Its average annual rainfall is under two inches.  On August 5th, a thousand-year rainfall event dropped 1.46 inches of rain – about three-quarters of a year’s precipitation.  The all-time record for a single day is 1.47 inches, set in April 1988.  The storm […]

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act includes significant support for carbon capture technologies. Eliminating fossil fuel burning is essential for halting climate change, but in the interim, methods for capturing emissions of carbon dioxide and either storing it or turning it into usable products are increasingly necessary. There are a variety of techniques being developed […]

We often hear how eating locally-sourced food is a way to minimize the carbon footprint of our diet.  But from a climate impact perspective, this only has a significant impact if transportation is responsible for a large portion of a food’s final carbon footprint.  In many cases, the greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation make […]

The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law in mid-August is the most comprehensive U.S. legislation addressing climate change ever enacted.   It contains $369 billion in funding for clean energy and electric vehicle tax breaks, domestic manufacturing of batteries and solar panels, and pollution reduction. The legislation for the most part makes use of carrots rather […]

Over the past 60 years, global forest area has decreased by 315,000 square miles, an area about twice the size of California. Combined with global population growth over that period, this has resulted in more than a 60% decline in global forest area per capita. The continuous loss as well as degradation of forest affects […]