Earth Wise

Earth Wise

By Randy SimonScience Education Self-Improvement Natural Sciences Nature

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Earth Wise episodes

December 20, 2019 Scandinavian Wine
The warming climate is creating some unexpected entrepreneurial opportunities. Many places that have traditionally dominated the wine industry are starting to be worried that the local climates that made them ideal for vineyards are changing and becoming much less ideal. On the other hand, places where wine-making was regarded as a losing proposition are becoming much more hospitable. A prime example is Scandinavia.
Nordic vintners are increasingly convinced that they can develop thriving commercial operations in what used to be places that are too cold for successful wine-making.
Denmark now has 90 commercial vineyards, up from just two 15 years
ago. Forty vineyards have sprung up in
Sweden. About a dozen vineyards are now
operating as far north as Norway.
Many of these Nordic vineyards are in the startup stage and are tiny
compared with the established wineries of Europe. Europe has 10 million acres of vineyards,
which is enough to cover almost the entire country of Denmark. At the moment, there are only about 1,000
acres of vineyards in Denmark and Sweden.
But, looking forward, Scandinavia’s climate is forecast to be more
like northern France, as regional temperatures climb as much as 10 degrees
Fahrenheit. Over the past decade,
warming has produced milder winters, a longer growing season, and even a small
but rising number of award-winning Scandinavian wines.
Meanwhile, traditional wine-growing regions are also dealing with climate change. Winemakers in France, for example, are experimenting with grapes from warmer countries like Tunisia to see if they can retain the tastes and yields that are the basis of a multibillion-dollar wine industry. Spanish and Italian winemakers are planting grapes higher up on mountainsides or on shaded north-facing slopes to preserve the quality of their wine.
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Web Links
Scandinavian Wine? A Warming Climate Tempts Entrepreneurs
Photo, posted August 24, 2019, courtesy of Ron Reiring via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 19, 2019 Growing Amazon Deforestation
The Amazon rainforest, covering much of northwestern Brazil and extending into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiversity. Prior to the early 1960s, access to the forest’s interior was highly restricted, and the forest remained essentially intact. Since then, human settlement and agricultural development of the land has destroyed about 17% of the Amazon rainforest.
According to Brazil’s National institute for Space Research, the INPE, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has reached its highest level in 11 years. About 3.769 square miles of rainforest – an area 1 ½ times the size of the state of Delaware – were lost just between August 2018 and July 2019, the result of agricultural land clearing, wildfires, mining and logging. This is a 30% increase over the previous 12-month period. (Put in other terms, Brazil is losing about 2 football fields of forest per minute).
Brazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office last January, is a staunch supporter
of agribusiness, mining, and timber development in the Amazon. Government enforcement activities against
companies operating in the Amazon have dropped by 20% under his administration. He fired the head of the INPE in August for
expressing concern about the rise in deforestation.
The Amazon is
one of the largest natural sinks for carbon on the planet, and over the past 20
years, its capacity for taking carbon out of the atmosphere has been steadily
dropping. Brazil had promised under the
Paris Agreement to limit annual deforestation to 1,500 square miles by
2020. It does not appear that it will
meet that goal.
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Deforestation in the Amazon Has Hit Its Highest Level in More Than a Decade
Photo, posted May 8, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 18, 2019 Rising Seas Will Erase Cities
According to new research, climate-driven sea level rise could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought. This sobering assessment means some of the world’s great coastal cities, including Bangkok, Shanghai, Mumbai, Basra, Alexandria, and Ho Chi Minh City, could be in big trouble.
Scientists have always relied on land elevation data to determine the
effects of sea level rise over large areas.
But standard elevation measurements using satellites struggle to
differentiate the true ground level from the tops of trees or buildings. The authors of the paper developed a more
accurate way to calculate land elevation by using artificial intelligence to
determine the error rate and to correct for it.
The new findings revealed that 150 million people – three times more
than previously thought – are now living on land that is projected to be below
the high-tide line by the middle of this century.
Eight Asian nations – China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan – account for about 70% of the people living on at-risk land.
More than 20 million people in Vietnam, including much of Ho Chi Minh City, live on land that will be inundated by 2050. In Thailand, more than 10% of its citizens, including much of Bangkok, currently live on land imperiled by projected sea level rise.
This new research was produced by Climate Central, a New Jersey-based
science organization, and was recently published in the journal Nature
Communications.
Sea level rise is clearly not just an environmental problem. It’s a humanitarian crisis.
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Web Links
New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding
Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows
Photo, posted December 18, 2009, courtesy of Misko via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 17, 2019 SUVs And Carbon Emissions
Global carbon dioxide emissions increased between 2010 and 2018. The largest contributor to this increase was the power sector as electricity demand around the world continued to grow. The second largest contributor to increased emission turns out to be SUVs, even while emissions for other cars actually decreased.
During that time period, SUVs more than doubled their global market
share from 17% to 39% and their annual emissions rose to more than 700 million
tons of CO2, which is more than the yearly total emission of the UK
and the Netherlands combined.
This dramatic shift toward bigger, heavier SUVs has offset both
efficiency improvements in small cars and savings from electric vehicles. If SUV drivers were a nation, they would rank
7th in the world for carbon emissions.
SUVs are bigger, they are heavier, and their aerodynamics are
poor. As a result, it takes more gas to
drive them. They started to become
popular in the 1980s – mostly in American suburbia – but now they have become
globally popular.
The demand for SUVs is thought to be driven by perceptions of
heightened safety or increased social status.
There is also the marketing and business strategy of manufacturers who obtain
larger profit margins in the SUV segment.
Of course, for at least some consumers, the utility aspects of sport
utility vehicles are actually important and not just the status.
For whatever reasons, SUVs are likely to be extremely popular for the
foreseeable future as demand for sedans continues to decline. Fortunately, electric SUVs are beginning to
enter the market – including next year’s mass-market priced Tesla Model Y. Such cars are the best solution to emissions
from SUVs.
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Demand for SUVs a Major Contributor to the Increase in Global CO2 Emissions
Photo, posted May 9, 2017, courtesy of Yonkers Honda via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 16, 2019 The Arctic As A Carbon Source
According to a new NASA-funded study, the Arctic may now be a source for carbon in the atmosphere rather than being the sink for it that is has been for tens of thousands of years.
The study, published in Nature Climate Change, warns that carbon dioxide loss from the world’s permafrost regions could increase by more than 40% over the next century if human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace. Worse yet, carbon emitted from thawing permafrost has not even been included in most climate models.
Permafrost is the carbon-rich frozen soil and organic matter that
covers nearly a quarter of Northern Hemisphere land area, mostly in Alaska,
Canada, Siberia, and Greenland.
Permafrost holds more carbon than has ever been released by humans from
fossil fuel burning, but it has been safely locked away by ice for tens of
thousands of years.
As global temperatures rise, the permafrost is starting to thaw and
release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The recent findings indicate that the loss of carbon dioxide during
the winter in the Arctic may already be offsetting carbon uptake during the
growing season. The researchers compiled
on-the-ground observations of carbon dioxide emissions across many sites and
combined these with remote sensing data and modeling. They estimate that the permafrost region is
now losing 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon during the winter season but
taking up only 1 billion during the growing season.
The major concern is that as the Arctic continues to warm, more carbon
will be released into the atmosphere from the permafrost region, which will
further the warming. Climate modeling
teams across the globe are trying to incorporate these findings into their projections.
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Arctic Shifts to a Carbon Source due to Winter Soil Emissions
Photo, posted July 27, 2015, courtesy of Gary Bembridge via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 13, 2019 A New Way To Remove CO2 From The Air
Researchers at MIT have developed a new way of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of air that could be a powerful tool in the battle against climate change. The new system can pull carbon dioxide out of almost any concentration level of the gas, even including the roughly 400 parts per million level currently found in the atmosphere.
The technique is described in a new paper in the journal Energy and
Environmental Science and is based on passing air through a stack of
electrochemical plates. The device is essentially a large battery that absorbs
carbon dioxide from the air passing over its electrodes as it is being charged
up, and then releases the gas as it is being discharged.
To use it, the device would simply alternate between charging and
discharging. Fresh air or some other
feed gas would be blown through the system during the charging cycle and then
pure, concentrated carbon dioxide would be blown out during discharging.
The specialized battery uses electrodes coated with a compound called
polyanthraquinone, which is composited with carbon nanotubes. These unique electrodes have a binary
affinity to carbon dioxide, which means that they either strongly want to
capture carbon dioxide or not at all, depending upon whether the device is
charging or discharging.
Carbon dioxide is important in many industries such as soft drinks and greenhouse agriculture. With this device, the stuff could literally be pulled out of the air. And, of course, in power plants where exhaust gas is dumped into the air, these novel electrochemical cells could be used to prevent the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. At the right price, this could be a game changer.
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Web Links
MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air
Photo, posted August 9, 2007, courtesy of William Clifford via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 12, 2019 Turning Trash Into Treasure
Every year, 380 million tons of plastic are created worldwide, and that number continues to grow. Furthermore, more than 75% of these materials are discarded after one use. Much of it ends up in oceans and waterways, harming wildlife and spreading toxins.
Recycling most plastics is difficult because while they can be melted
and reprocessed, the resultant material is not as structurally strong as the
original material. Thus, plastics are
often down-cycled such as turning plastic bottles into molded park benches.
Researchers at Northwestern University, Argonne National Laboratory,
and Ames Laboratory have developed a new method for upcycling abundant,
seemingly low-value plastics into high-quality liquid products, such as motor
oils, lubricants, detergents, and even cosmetics. The catalytic method could remove plastic pollution from the
environment and contribute to a circular economy.
Plastics don’t degrade when disposed of because they have very strong
carbon-carbon bonds. Instead they just
break into smaller bits, known as microplastics. The researchers viewed these strong bonds as
an opportunity rather than a problem.
The new technique actually recoups the high energy that holds these bonds together by catalytically converting polyethylene molecules into value-added commercial products. The catalyst consists of platinum nanoparticles deposited onto perovskite nanocubes. Under moderate pressure and temperature, the catalyst cleaves the carbon-carbon bonds in plastic to produce high-quality liquid hydrocarbons.
The researchers believe these findings could lead to a future in which
we can continue to benefit from plastic materials but do so in a way that is
sustainable and less harmful to the environment.
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Web Links
Turning plastic trash into treasure
Photo, posted August 15, 2012, courtesy of Emilian Robert Vicol via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 11, 2019 Using Animals To Monitor Climate Change
Globally, thousands of marine animals are tagged for a variety of research and conservation purposes. But the data collected from tagging is not widely used to monitor the oceans or track the effects of climate change. Instead, for that purpose, scientists deploy research vessels, underwater drones, and thousands of floating sensors. As a result, large areas of the ocean remain under-sampled.
According to a study led by researchers at the University of Exeter,
marine animals with tags could fill in these knowledge gaps through their
natural behaviors, like moving against currents, swimming in shallow waters,
and diving under ice.
For example, tagged seals near the north and south poles have already
complemented ocean observation systems by providing data from deep sea dives
under ice that’s inaccessible to other instruments. The research team suggests data collected
from sharks or turtles could also enhance ocean monitoring in other remote and
critical areas, such as tropical regions.
Tropical regions of the ocean have a large influence on global climate
variability and weather.
The researchers note that animal welfare is paramount. They are not
advocating for animals to be tracked solely for oceanography. They simply want those animals already being
tracked for ecological research to be recruited as oceanographers as well.
Researchers from the University of St Andrews, the Mediterranean
Institute of Advanced Studies, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, and the
Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System also contributed to
the study.
The research team hopes their work illustrates the need for further collaboration
between ecologists and oceanographers.
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Web Links
Animals could help humans monitor oceans
Photo, posted August 1, 2012, courtesy of Kitty Terwolbeck via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 10, 2019 The Potential For Offshore Wind
According to a new report from the International Energy Agency, offshore wind technology has vast potential for meeting our energy needs. In total, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420,000 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, which is more than 18 times the global electricity demand that exists today.
Based on current policy targets and plummeting technology costs, offshore
wind could increase 15-fold by 2040, becoming a $1 trillion industry and
eliminating 5 to 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Offshore wind today generates just 0.3% of the world’s electricity,
but its’ use is growing rapidly. The industry
has grown nearly 30% a year since 2010, and 150 new offshore projects are
currently in development around the world.
The leading countries are in Europe – especially in the UK, Germany, and
Denmark – but China is greatly expanding its offshore capacity and the US,
India, Korea, Japan, and Canada are also expected to make large investments in
offshore wind going forward.
Offshore wind is in a category of its own because it is considered a
variable baseload power generation technology.
This is because the hourly variability of offshore wind is much lower
than solar power or onshore wind.
Offshore wind typically fluctuates far less from hour-to-hour than the
other variable energy sources.
Technology improvements and industry growth are driving steep cost reductions for offshore wind. The cost of offshore wind is expected to be cut in half in the next five years, dropping to $60 per megawatt-hour, which is on par with solar and onshore wind and cheaper than new natural gas-fired capacity in Europe.
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Offshore Wind Has the Potential to Fulfill Global Electricity Demand 18 Times Over
Photo, posted August 9, 2016, courtesy of Lars Plougmann via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
December 09, 2019 Why Save Endangered Species?
One often hears the argument that humans need to save the world’s endangered species in order to save ourselves. Carl Safina, a marine ecologist and award-winning environmental writer, has written a thought-provoking essay that offers the viewpoint that we don’t actually need the wild species of the world but that they need us.
The truth is that human beings have thrived by destroying nature. We have exploited other species when they were useful to us and simply pushed them aside when they weren’t. We drove America’s most abundant bird – the passenger pigeon – to extinction. The most abundant large mammal – the bison – was driven to functional extinction.
In today’s world, people live at high densities in places devoid of
wild species and natural beauty. And
while we express concern for elephants, gorillas, sperm whales, tigers, and
various other species, how would the lives of most of us be affected at all
should they vanish entirely? The
unfortunate truth is that it would make little difference to our lives.
The only species that are really essential to modern living are
actually microbes of decay, a few insect pollinators, and the ocean’s
photosynthesizing plankton. Life would
go on little changed without most other co-inhabitants of our planet.
Safina argues that our obligation to protect endangered species does
not come from our dependence upon them but rather on a moral obligation. Humans consider ourselves to be the most
moral species and, as such, we have moral obligations. In this case, it is to protect the beauty and
wonder of our world, which is not trivial but in fact is the most profound
thing on earth.
Safina has much more to say about this and I strongly recommend reading his essay. You can find the link here.
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Web Links
The Real Case for Saving Species: We Don’t Need Them, But They Need Us
Photo, posted December 9, 2014, courtesy of Gerry Zambonini via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min

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From green business and new environmental legislation to how nature impacts our environment in ways never before considered, Earth Wise offers a look at our changing environment.