Earth Wise

We have heard about laboratory meat for a number of years, generally in terms of something that may happen at some point in the indeterminate future. But at least for a couple of California companies, that future is now. These high-tech companies are producing products – real meat and seafood – that are originally cultured […]

Freshwater fish populations have declined by more than 80% over the past forty years across the globe.  This is in part due to hundreds of thousands of dams, weirs, and barriers stopping their movements.  These river barriers have disrupted fish reproduction cycles the world over by preventing river fish from migrating to spawn. Fishways or […]

Driven by steeply falling prices and improving technology, grid-scale battery storage systems are seeing record growth in the U.S. and around the world. Battery storage is a way to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to renewable energy:  the cycling between oversupply when the sun shines or the wind blows, and shortage when the sun […]

Queen conchs are large sea snails belonging to the same taxonomic group as clams, oysters, and squid.  They live on coral reefs or seagrass meadows in warm, shallow waters.  Queen conchs are found throughout the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, ranging as far north as Bermuda and as far south as Brazil. Reaching up […]

The battle to prevent oil and gas drilling rights from being sold in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has been going on for 40 years.  The Trump administration spent nearly four years pushing to auction off those drilling rights and finally accomplished it in early January. The ANWR was created in 1960 and […]

Research published by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, examined the positive effects of restoration efforts for coastal ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, local economies, and human wellbeing. Coastal ecosystems include saltmarshes, mangroves, seagrasses, oyster reefs, kelp beds, and coral reefs.  All of these have suffered declines of up to 85% over recent decades.  The research […]

A new study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst looked at the resilience of Hudson River Estuary marshes to rising sea levels.  They observed that these marshes are growing upward at a rate two or three times faster than sea level rise, suggesting that they should be resilient to accelerated sea level rise in the […]

India has broken ground on what is planned to be the largest renewable energy project in the world:  a 30-gigawatt wind and solar power project in the state of Gujarat. The renewable energy park will have two zones:  a 122,000-acre hybrid park zone that will accommodate 25 gigawatts of wind and solar power plants and […]

Seafood is the world’s most highly traded food commodity and reports of seafood mislabeling have become increasingly common over time.  A new study by Arizona State University looked at the environmental effects of mislabeled seafood. What is mislabeled seafood?  Sometimes the snapper you were served was really Pacific Ocean Perch.  Maybe grouper was really whitefin […]

Plastic debris comes in all different shapes and sizes, but pieces that are less than five millimeters in length are called microplastics.  Microplastics are everywhere, including in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Much of the oceanic microplastic pollution comes from the breakdown of plastic litter.  Another source […]