Earth Wise

Our stories often discuss how human activities change the natural environment.  With most of us confined to our homes, the lack of human activities is having profound effects on the environment.  We are talking about some of these this week. Yosemite National park is normally awash in humanity – there were over 300,000 visitors in […]

Our stories often discuss how human activities change the natural environment.  With most of us confined to our homes, the lack of human activities is having profound effects on the environment.  We are talking about some of these this week. The COVID-19 pandemic is a global catastrophe, but it has ironically been a boon for […]

The population of large herbivores in Yellowstone National Park has undergone many dramatic changes over the course of time.  The numbers of both the iconic Rocky Mountain elk and bison have gone up and down as a result of human interactions. Bison, of course, once were a dominant species from east of the Appalachians to […]

Biofuels are an important element in broader strategies to replace petroleum in transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.  The idea is that biofuels recycle carbon by getting it from growing plants rather than from fossil sources.  The biggest problem with biofuels is that they cost more than conventional petroleum fuels, so there is […]

In recent times, Vermont and neighboring states have been losing forest land to development at a rate of almost 1,500 acres per year.  With forest fragmentation gaining ground across New England, conserving land for future generations of people, wildlife, and plants has become both increasingly important and increasingly difficult. According to a new study published […]

Creating blue fabric has always been desirable for people.  It has never been easy, but the original way to do it – by using indigo from plants – has been around for 6,000 years.  Natural indigo is a rare commodity, often referred to as blue gold.  In the 19th century, synthetic indigo was developed and […]

The Seychelles islands are located east of Kenya, near the equator.  Its beautiful beaches, virgin jungles, thriving coral reefs, and UNESCO-listed nature reserves are among the many attractions of the archipelago’s 115 islands.  The larger inner islands are quite developed for tourists, studded with many luxurious five-star resorts.  The natural wonders of the Seychelles are […]

The Southern Hemisphere’s recent summer brought drought, heatwaves and bush-fires that ravaged Australia.  At the same time, Antarctica experienced a summer of extreme weather. In East Antarctica, the Casey research station in the Australian Antarctic Territory had its first heatwave event, recording extreme maximum and minimum temperatures over three consecutive days in January.  Record high […]

American robins are migratory songbirds that can be found throughout much of North America.  Named after European robins because of their reddish-orange breast, American robins are often found hopping across lawns and nesting on porches.  Their rich caroling is among the first pre-dawn bird songs heard in spring and summer.   While some overwinter in northern […]

According to a new study led by researchers at Stanford University, autumn in California feels more like summer now as a result of climate change, and this hotter and drier weather increases the risk of longer and more dangerous wildfire seasons. The research team, whose work was recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, […]