Earth Wise

A new study by the University of Vermont in collaboration with researchers from three Latin American countries looked at the effects of birds and bees on coffee crops.  They found that coffee beans are bigger and more plentiful when birds and bees team up to protect and pollinate coffee plants. The real-world study manipulated coffee […]

Late in February, the U.S. completed the most successful offshore wind lease auction in history.  The auction for rights to develop offshore wind in the New York Bight brought in a record $4.37 billion from the companies bidding for them. The New York Bight is an area of ocean off the coasts of New York […]

The goal of carbon capture and storage technology is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and safely store it for the indefinite future.  There are existing industrial facilities that capture carbon dioxide from concentrated sources – like the emissions from power plants.  The technology currently captures and stores only about a tenth of a […]

Researchers are always working to develop faster and more powerful computers.  Some of them believe that the future of computing lies with neuromorphic computers, which are systems designed to mimic the neurons and synapses found in the human brain. The human brain has more than 100 billion neurons with more than 1 quadrillion synapses or […]

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is an ecosystem that can be seen from space.  It has now suffered its 6th mass coral bleaching event since 1998.  Previous events happened in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2016, and 2017.  This latest bleaching has occurred even though this is a La Niña year, when more rain and cooler temperatures are […]

Many companies have made sustainability commitments of various types. Environmental organizations have urged big-box and grocery stores to install solar panels on their rooftops and parking lots thereby reducing their energy usage and expanding the country’s supply of renewable energy.  These places occupy large areas and therefore are capable of supporting large solar arrays. According […]

Every year, more than 100 million tons of dust blow out of North Africa.  Strong seasonal winds lift the dust from the Sahara Desert northward.  A few times a year, the winds from the south are strong and persistent enough to drive the dust all the way to Europe. On March 15, a large plume […]

Power plants and other industrial facilities are a major source of carbon emissions.  There are a variety of techniques under development to prevent those emissions by capturing them rather than releasing them into the atmosphere.  All of them add costs to the functioning of the facility.  A good way to offset those costs is to […]

According to a new report by the Global Wind Energy Council, floating offshore wind technology is on track to grow from a miniscule market to a substantial contribution to the world’s energy supply over the next decade.  Furthermore, the United States represents one of the countries with the greatest potential. Wind power is stronger and […]

The monarch butterfly is one of the world’s best-known butterflies and has become the symbol for a whole class of imperiled pollinators.  Populations of the iconic orange-and-black insects have declined dramatically in recent decades.  According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the eastern monarch population has dropped 88% between 1996 and 2020.  Habitat loss, […]