Earth Wise

Climate change has been shrinking Arctic sea ice and this is causing changes in the behavior of polar bears.   The Southern Beaufort Sea, located where the northern edges of Alaska and Canada meet, is home to one of the 19 population groups of polar bears.  Historically, the polar bears in this region remained on sea ice year-round.  But in recent decades, about a quarter of them have chosen to come on land instead of staying on the shrinking summer ice platform.

A recent study by San Diego Zoo Global, the U.S. Geological Survey,

and Polar Bears International looked at the energetic consequences of the

bears’ behavior.  The decision of each individual

bear to stay on the ice or move to land appears to be linked to the energetic

cost or benefit of the choice.

Bears who moved to land expended more energy during the summer than

bears that remained on the sea ice.  In

late summer, as the ice became even more restricted, a greater amount of energy

was expended by bears swimming to land. 

So, the immediate energy cost of moving to land is much greater than

remaining on the receding pack ice.

On the other hand, bears on land in this region have access to whale

carcasses in the summer while bears on the sea ice appear to be fasting.  As a result, it may be the case that the

declining population of bears in this region is in part caused by the

ecological trap of bears staying on the ice to avoid expending all the energy

needed to move to land.  The shrinking

polar ice is a real problem for polar bears.

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Energetics Study Indicates that Shrinking Sea Ice Is Creating an Ecological Trap for Polar Bears

Photo, posted October 30, 2011, courtesy of Martin Lopatka via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plants have been harnessing the sun’s energy for hundreds of millions of years. Algae and photosynthetic bacteria have been doing the same for even longer, all with remarkable efficiency and resiliency. 

People have used the energy of the sun in one way or another for

millennia, but only recently have we gotten sophisticated about it by using

devices like solar panels and sensors. 

And we still have a long way to go to get anywhere close to the

efficiency of plants. It’s no

wonder, then, that scientists have long sought to understand exactly how photosynthesis

works.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, and collaborators at Washington University in St. Louis, recently solved a critical part of the age-old mystery of photosynthesis, studying the initial, ultra-fast events through which photosynthetic proteins capture light and use it to initiate a series of electron transfer reactions.  Electrons in plants have two possible pathways to travel but only use one.   

But as a result of their efforts, the scientists are now closer than

ever to being able to design electron transfer systems in which they can send

an electron down a pathway of their choosing. 

By gaining the ability to harness the flow of energy, it may be possible to incorporate new design principles in non-biological energy systems. This could allow us to greatly improve the efficiency of many solar-powered devices, potentially making them far smaller. Understanding the intricacies of photosynthesis creates a tremendous opportunity to open up completely new disciplines of light-driven biochemical reactions, perhaps even ones that haven’t been envisioned by nature.

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Scientists unravel mystery of photosynthesis

Photo, posted June 14, 2017, courtesy of Alex Holyoake via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

During this year’s Super Bowl, at least three car companies – GM, Porsche, and Audi – ran commercials for plug-in cars.  This is a sign that automakers are ramping up their efforts to persuade the public that electric cars really are the future.

The auto industry is investing billions of dollars to develop electric

vehicles, spurred by stricter emissions rules in places like California and

concerns about climate change.  In fact,

more than 100 new plug-in models are expected to become available in the United

States over the next five years.

In Europe, electric cars are increasingly popular.  Norwegians, for example, buy more electric

cars than gas cars.  And several European

countries have banned the sale of gas cars starting in 2025.

But in the US, enthusiasm for electric cars has been slow to build.  Automakers sold fewer than 330,00 electric vehicles in the US in 2019 and more than half of those were from Tesla, which actually does not even advertise its vehicles.

The auto industry spent nearly $9 billion in national and local

advertising in the US last year, but less than half a percent of that went

toward promoting electric vehicles.

A big part of the problem is that car dealers are not very

enthusiastic about selling electric cars, which require far less maintenance

than conventional cars and have far fewer costly replacement parts to

sell.   As a result, the industry’s

efforts to speed the transition to electric cars has been ambivalent at best.

World-wide, Tesla has sold about a million cars, mostly in the past 4 years, so there is clearly a growing demand for electric vehicles.  It is up to the rest of the industry to create demand for the new cars they have committed to produce.

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Super Bowl Ads Hyped Electric Cars. But Will Anyone Buy Them?

Photo, posted October 6, 2018, courtesy of Mike Fonseca via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels are a dominant topic.  The increasing changes in the climate have far-reaching effects across the globe and are a growing geopolitical crisis.  But the climate effects of fossil fuel emissions are by no means the only problem they cause.  

A new report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clear Air has,

for the first time, attempted to quantify the global economic

and health impacts of fossil fuel-caused air pollution.  In total, the

estimate is that the economic and health costs of air pollution from burning fossil fuels

totaled $2.9 trillion in 2018, calculated in the form of work absences, years

of life lost, and premature deaths. The cost

represents 3.3 percent of global GDP, or about $8 billion per day. 

The study focused on the health impacts of three specific types of pollutants:  nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and fine particulate matter, which has the greater impact.  Collectively, these pollutants cause about 1.8 billion days of missed work due to disease and $2.2 trillion in air pollution costs every year. Together, air pollution from these three pollutants is responsible for 4.5 million premature deaths around the world each year.

According to the report, the most premature deaths from fossil fuel-related air pollution in 2018 were in mainland China (1.8 million), India (1 million), and the United States (230,000). As a result, those three countries also faced the highest annual costs: $900 billion in China, $600 billion in the U.S., and $150 billion in India. 

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Toxic Air: The Price of Fossil Fuels (Full Report)

Photo, posted November 17, 2019, courtesy of Kristoffer Trolle via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fireflies or lightning bugs are soft-bellied beetles known widely for their use of bioluminescence – the biochemical emission of light – to communicate and to attract mates.  There are more than 2,000 species of these beetles globally.  They can be found in temperate and tropical climates, like marshes or wet, wooded areas, all throughout the world.   

But if you are seeing fewer fireflies each summer, you’re not

alone.  Like many insects, firefly

populations are under duress from threats like pesticides, pollution, and

habitat loss.  But fireflies are also

facing another threat unique to luminous bugs: light pollution.  Light pollution is making it harder for

fireflies to reproduce because the artificial light is outshining their mating

signals. 

Male fireflies light up to signal availability and female fireflies

respond with patterned flashes to indicate they’re interested.  But artificial bright light from things like

billboards, streetlights, buildings, and homes, is interfering with the

fireflies reproduction communications. 

The study, by researchers at Tufts University and the IUCN, warned that these threats facing fireflies could lead them globally to extinction. 

The researchers also point to habitat loss as another major threat to

fireflies.  Firefly populations are

especially vulnerable because they need special conditions to complete their

life cycle.  Mangrove forests and marshes

around the world are being removed in favor of cash crops like palm oil.   

Insects like fireflies are crucial components of many ecosystems where

they perform important functions, like aerating soil, pollinating plants, and

controlling pests.  Firefly larvae feed

on snails, slugs and mites, and many fireflies are effective pollinators. 

We can’t afford for fireflies to go dark. 

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A Global Perspective on Firefly Extinction Threats

Fireflies Have a Mating Problem: The Lights Are Always On

Photo, posted June 5, 2010, courtesy of Matt MacGillivray via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and growing problem for public health.  Over time, more and more types of bacteria have become resistant to known antibiotics making it very difficult to treat various kinds of infections. 

A new group of antibiotics with a unique approach to attacking bacteria has been discovered at McMaster University in Canada, representing a promising new clinical approach in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. 

The newly found corbomycin and the lesser-known complestatin have a never-before-seen way to kill bacteria, namely, breaking

the function of the bacterial cell wall. Bacteria

have a wall around the outside of their cells that gives them shape and is a

source of strength.  Antibiotics like penicillin kill bacteria by preventing building of

the wall, but the new antibiotics work by doing the opposite – they prevent the wall from

being broken down. Breaking down the cell wall is

critical for cells to divide. In order for bacteria to grow and spread, they need to expand and divide. By completely blocking the breakdown of the wall, it is as if the bacterium is trapped in a prison and can’t expand or grow. 

The researchers demonstrated in mice that these new antibiotics can

block infections caused by the drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is a

group of bacteria that can cause many serious infections. 

The researchers believe this new approach

can be applied to other antibiotics and lead to

the discovery of new ones with different mechanisms of action. This

study found one completely new antibiotic, but since then, they have found a

few others in the same family that have this same new mechanism. 

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Antibiotics discovered that kill bacteria in a new way

Photo, posted March 15, 2012, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Recent climate models from multiple organizations project that the amount of warming that doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide would cause would be much more than previously estimated.  And one of the significant changes to the models relates to the role of clouds.

Clouds have long been a major uncertainty in climate

calculations.  Clouds can shade the earth

and thereby provide cooling.  But clouds

can also trap heat.  Which effect

dominates depends on how reflective the clouds are, how high up they are, and

whether it is day or night.  The dynamics

of clouds are complicated.

If you fly across the ocean, you will see blankets of low clouds

extending for hundreds of miles.  These

marine stratus and stratocumulus clouds predominantly cool the Earth.  In fact, they shade roughly a fifth of the

oceans and reflect 30-60% of the solar radiation that hits them back into

space.

Recent studies indicate that as global temperatures rise, these clouds

are likely to become thinner or burn off entirely, leaving more clear skies

through which the sun may add another degree Celsius or more to global warming.

The concerns about clouds are part of the larger issue about feedbacks

in warming the world.  It has long been

clear that the greenhouse effect of doubling CO2 levels in the atmosphere would

raise global temperature.  But there are

amplifying feedback effects.  Melting

large areas of snow and ice reduces reflectivity and allows the land and oceans

to absorb more heat.  More water vapor

entering the atmosphere traps more heat. 

And now clouds are another concern.

Overall, these effects are leading to climate models predicting much

larger global temperature increases, which is a scary prospect for the world.

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Why Clouds Are the Key to New Troubling Projections on Warming

Photo, posted September 10, 2006, courtesy of Nicholas A. Tonelli via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Under a new initiative, builders in New Jersey will have to take climate change into account in order to win government approval for projects.  New Jersey is the first state in the United States to enact such a requirement, which will leverage land-use rules to control what and where developers can build, and limit the volume of pollution. 

Through executive order, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will require

the state Department of Environmental Protection to draft new building

regulations.  The changes, to be adopted

by January 2022, do not require legislative approval, but could face political

and legal challenges. 

Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on New Jersey and its 130 miles of coastline.  According to a recent study from Rutgers University, the sea level along the New Jersey coast rose 1.5 feet since 1911, which was more than twice as much as the global average. The sea level is expected to rise by as much as another foot by 2030.  At the same time, some coastal areas of New Jersey are gradually sinking.

The initiative by New Jersey comes on the heels of a Trump

administration proposal which would allow federal agencies to not

take climate change into account when evaluating infrastructure projects. The

federal changes are geared towards speeding up approvals for highway

construction, pipelines, oil and gas leases, and other major infrastructure

projects.   

In the absence of anything resembling leadership on climate change from the federal government, it remains for states like New Jersey to continue to press ahead.  In addition to the new building initiative, New Jersey also plans to produce 100% clean energy by 2050. 

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Excluding Climate Change From Infrastructure Planning | Earth Wise

With 130-Mile Coast, New Jersey Marks a First in Climate Change Fight

Photo, posted August 27, 2016, courtesy of Rashaad Jorden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

It is still early in the year, but extreme weather events are already piling up.  January was the warmest month on record globally and there have been many records shattered in Europe and Asia.  A number of places in Eastern Europe, including parts of Russia, have seen temperatures 12 to 13 degrees above average.

While the warming of the Arctic has been in the news with increasing

frequency, the Antarctic is also seeing rising temperatures and is one of the

fastest-warming regions in the world. 

On February 6th, Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula measured a temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the highest temperature ever recorded on that continent.   This rather balmy temperature narrowly beat out the previous record of 63.5 degrees, which occurred in March of 2015.

This one-time reading is certainly anomalous, and scientists say it is associated with a ridge of high pressure that was lingering over the region for several days.  Local wind conditions led to additional warming.

However, the conditions leading to record-breaking high temperatures

are not one-time anomalous events. Over the past 50 years, temperatures in the

Antarctic have surged by an extraordinary 5 degrees in response to the Earth’s

rapidly warming climate.  A rise of five

degrees in day-to-day weather is no big deal. A five-degree rise in a region’s

average temperature is enormous.

About 87% of the glaciers along the west coast of Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula have retreated over that 50-year period, most of which doing so during just the past 12 years.

Some researchers claim that the new temperature record is an extreme

event that doesn’t tell us anything about the changing climate.  Many others are convinced that there will be

many more high temperature records to follow.

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Antarctica just hit 65 degrees, its warmest temperature ever recorded

Photo, posted February 24, 2019, courtesy of Mike via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Printed circuit boards are key elements of modern electronic devices that support and connect all of their electronic components.  On average, they are composed of 30% metallic and 70% nonmetallic substances.

Once the circuit boards have served their purpose, they are often

burned or buried in landfills, and can pollute the air, soil, and water.  The biggest problem is that they have

brominated flame retardants added to them in order to keep them from catching

fire.  Compounds in brominated flame

retardants have been linked to endocrine disorders and fetal tissue damage.

Many circuit boards are recycled to recover valuable materials –

generally the metals they contain.  But

recycling has its own problems.  Metallic

components can be recovered from crushed circuit boards by magnetic and

high-voltage electrostatic separations. 

When the metals are removed, what remains are resins, reinforcing

materials, brominated flame retardants, and other additives, which are of

little value and present various dangers.

Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in China have developed a ball-milling

method to break down these potentially harmful compounds, enabling safe

disposal.  A ball mill is a rotating

machine that uses small agate balls to grind up materials. The researchers also

added iron powder, which helps remove bromine from organic compounds by

breaking the carbon-bromine bonds in the flame retardants.  The result was particles with half of their

bromine content removed as well as decomposition of phenolic resin compounds.

The ever-increasing proliferation of device technology had led to a

new set of pollution and waste challenges facing society.  Research on ways to reduce the impact of

high-tech garbage is an important need for society.

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Toward safer disposal of printed circuit boards

Photo, posted February 18, 2018, courtesy of Diego Torres Silvestre via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.