Earth Wise

The proliferation of plastics remains one of the world’s most challenging environmental problems.  Plastic pollution can be found in some of the most remote regions of the planet, including atop the world’s tallest mountains and in the deepest depths of the ocean.  Even the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, are no […]

As the pace of climate change continues to quicken, many species seem to be unable to keep up and could face extinction as a result.   There is a potential strategy for people to help species reach places with more suitable physical and biological conditions.  People could carry endangered animals to habitats cut off by mountains, […]

Marine debris is a troubling issue around the world.  For most people, it is unsightly and perhaps inconvenient, but for many it is a critical problem that has serious impacts on many aspects of life.  This is especially the case for indigenous communities for whom the natural environment around the ocean is central to subsistence, […]

Plants have the ability to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporate it into leaves, fruits, wood, and other plant materials.  This beneficial process is mostly temporary, as much of this carbon dioxide from plant matter ends up back in the atmosphere through decomposition, or even burning. Researchers at the Salk Institute have proposed […]

Fires that go on for long periods of time, surviving the snow and rain of winter to reemerge in the spring, are becoming more common in high northern latitudes as the climate warms.  Such fires are called holdover fires, hibernating fires, overwintering fires, or even zombie fires.  Whatever people choose to call them, this type […]

According to research published by Dartmouth University, a weather pattern that pushes snowfall away from parts of Greenland’s ice sheet is causing the continent to become darker and warmer. Reducing the amount of fresh, lighter-colored snow exposes older, darker snow on the surface of Greenland’s ice sheets.  Fresh snow is the brightest and whitest. The […]

Heatwaves in cities are becoming increasingly common and increasingly intense.  The warming climate is a big factor, but it is the nature of our cities that really drives up temperatures.  Solar radiation stored throughout the day on asphalt and buildings is released slowly during the night, which generates significant heat stress. A study carried out […]

Brown sargassum seaweed floats in surface water in a bloom that stretches all the way from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico.  Sargassum provides habitat for turtles, crabs, fish, and birds. The stuff carpets beaches along the tropical Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the east coast of Florida disrupting tourism.  […]

The sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is happening now.  According to an analysis published last year in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within the next 20 years. Without the impact […]

The coronavirus pandemic caused a temporary dip in the burning of fossil fuels around the world as many human activities were diminished or curtailed entirely.  Despite this, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere set a record in May, reaching the highest levels in human history. Scientific instruments atop the Mauna Loa volcano in […]