Earth Wise

Pollinators, such as bees and bats, are vital for global food production.  They provide an ecological service that’s necessary for the reproduction of nearly 75% of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of global food crops. Bumblebees are among the most important plant pollinators.  They pollinate many food crops, including apples, tomatoes, blueberries […]

The current state of plastic recycling is not very effective.  Plastic recycling is only able to replace 15-20% of the fossil-fuel-derived raw material needed to produce society’s demand for plastic. Researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden have now demonstrated how the carbon content in mixed waste could be used to replace all of the fossil […]

The 2022 federal appropriations act, signed into law in March, directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a cross-agency group to coordinate research on climate interventions, in partnership with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy. The group is tasked with creating a research framework to “provide […]

The plight of the world’s coral reefs has been a growing environmental crisis for many years.  Coral reefs provide sustenance and income to half a billion people, are major tourist attractions, protect coastlines, and are important centers of biodiversity.   And because of the warming climate as well as other effects of human activity, more than […]

Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are the base of the marine food web and also play a key role in removing carbon dioxide from the air.  They are eaten by primary consumers like zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans.  Phytoplankton, like land plants, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use photosynthesis to grow.  Then they […]

The growing use of electric vehicles as well as energy storage systems has created a major focus on the batteries for these applications.  Lithium-ion batteries dominate these applications and the demand for the materials needed to manufacture them continues to grow. The raw materials for these batteries include not only lithium, but also can include […]

The earth’s atmosphere is a little over 0.04% carbon dioxide, currently about 420 parts per million.  That’s more than it’s been in millions of years and is changing our climate.  But these levels of CO2 are not enough to directly affect people. However, people are sensitive to the amount of carbon dioxide they are breathing.  […]

When cows digest their food, they burp, and when they burp, they release methane.  This is called enteric methane and it’s a real problem.  A single cow belches out 220 pounds of methane each year, which is the greenhouse gas equivalent of burning over 900 gallons of gasoline.  That’s more than the average car uses […]

Lead and other heavy metals in water are a serious global problem that is worsening because of electronic waste and discharges from mining operations.  In the U.S., over 12,000 miles of waterways are impacted by mine-drainage water that is rich in heavy metals. Lead in particular is highly toxic, especially to children.  The European Union […]

The idea of capturing the CO2 emissions from industry and locking them up is nothing new.  It’s been going on for decades in some places.  Norway’s state-owned oil company Equinor has been holing away a million tons of CO2 a year for a long time.  But overall, CCS – carbon capture and storage – has […]