Earth Wise

The moringa tree is a short-lived, fast-growing, drought-resistant tree native to northern India. Its seeds and fruit are valued for their flavor and nutritional value and the tree is known as “the miracle tree” for its use in traditional medicine.

Mesothermic animals occupy a middle ground between cold-blooded and warm-blooded species. Mesotherms are able to generate and retain some body heat while still relying partly on their environment. This rare adaptation, found in less than 0.1% of all fish, is seen in species such as basking sharks, great white sharks, and bluefin tuna.

Battery storage is reshaping the U.S. electricity grid. There are more than 900 utility-scale battery storage projects across the country that enhance grid reliability, manage peak electricity demand, and store renewable energy from solar and wind farms. Most of these facilities are located far from urban areas but the Cormorant Energy Storage Project currently being built is located in Daly City, California, a city of 100,000 people located just 8 miles south of San Francisco.

Data centers use vast amounts of water primarily for evaporative cooling, spraying it into the air or over coils to cool hot air generated by servers in order to keep the equipment from failing. The largest data centers can consume between 1 and 5 million gallons of water daily, with consumption rising during the summer.

President Trump has complained extensively about environmental harms to whales posed by offshore windfarms, saying wind turbines are “driving them crazy” and leading to whale deaths up and down the Atlantic coast. However, both federal agencies and independent scientists have found no causal link between offshore wind development and whale deaths.

Renewable energy in the US is facing serious headwinds under the current administration but one area that is absolutely booming is the manufacturing of battery storage technology for the grid. The legislation in 2025 that put the brakes on multiple aspects of green energy maintained the Biden-era incentives for domestic energy manufacturing and grid battery projects.

The western American snowpack is nature’s reservoir, providing 60-70% of the region’s water supply. Winter precipitation is stored there and is released slowly during the spring and summer. The snowpack feeds the region’s rivers, fills reservoirs, supports irrigation for agriculture, enables hydropower, and sustains ecosystems. After the warmest winter on record for many states and a major heat wave in March that left almost no snow in many places, there is real trouble ahead.

China is the biggest installer of renewable energy in the world as well as the largest global manufacturer of renewable energy technology. However, it is also the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and, most unfortunately, the biggest user of coal.

Permafrost is frozen ground - a mixture of soil, rock, sand, and ice - that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years. Permafrost covers about a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere, the majority of which can be found in northern Russia, Canada, Alaska, Iceland, and Scandinavia. As long as it stays frozen, it’s no threat to the climate.

IQAir, a Swiss air monitoring company that posts real-time air quality data aggregated from sensors around the world, has issued its annual report for 2025. The report shows that most of the world’s cities suffered from unhealthy levels of air pollution. Climate-driven wildfires and dust storms as well as the continuing burning of fossil fuels are driving toxic air across borders and worsening the problem.