Earth Wise

Earth Wise

By Randy SimonScience Education Self-Improvement Natural Sciences Nature

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Earth Wise episodes

November 22, 2019 The Largest Community Solar Program
Community solar projects allow customers to benefit from the economic and environmental attributes of solar energy when they don’t have the ability to invest in their own system for any number of reasons.
Florida Power & Light company is proposing to build the largest
community solar program in the United States, pending regulatory review. The planned installation of 1,490 MW of new
solar capacity at 20 new power plants distributed across FPL’s service
territory is expected to generate an estimated $249 million in net savings for
all FPL customers over the long term.
In addition to becoming the largest community solar program in the country, the new program would also be the largest voluntary low-income solar offering in the country. Low-income households are typically unable to benefit from solar energy because of not having the means to invest in the technology. The new SolarTogether program will have more than 35 megawatts of capacity dedicated to low-income Florida families. Solar energy is a critical tool for enabling low-income families to tap into energy savings.
The SolarTogether program would provide direct savings in the form of
bill credits, making solar an affordable option for any customer. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and
Vote Solar joined with FPL to help design the program to include a low-income
component and request Florida Public Service Commission approval. There is
broad support for the program from universities, county and city governments,
and private companies. In addition, more
than 90,000 residential and small business customers have already signed up to
receive more information. The utility
hopes to receive regulatory approval in time to launch during the first quarter
of 2020.
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Web Links
FPL plans nation’s largest community solar program; includes low-income focus
Photo, posted March 8, 2018, courtesy of Babcock Ranch via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 21, 2019 Roofs Going Green
Green roofs are roofs on buildings that are partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, generally planted over a waterproofing membrane. The modern version of these roofs began in Germany in the 1960s and spread to many other European countries over time. With concerns about climate change and shrinking natural resources rising, green roofs are becoming increasingly popular across North America. The Toronto-based organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities estimates that the number in North America has increased by about 15% since 2013.
Replacing black asphalt and shingles with plants can lower the
surrounding air temperature, filter dirty storm water, and reduce building
energy use. The National Research
Council of Canada estimates that a green roof can reduce air conditioning use
in a building by as much as 75%. The
roofs also help to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions according
to the EPA.
As the benefits of green roofs become more widely known, cities around
the world are passing green roof legislation.
Copenhagen passed a law in 2010 requiring all new commercial buildings
to have green roofs if their roofs are not sloped too much. Toronto was the first city in North America
to pass a green roof law in 2009. Over 640
green roofs covering more than five million square feet have since been
constructed in Toronto.
Apart from the environmental benefits, green roofs are providing
pleasant spaces in the urban environment that may include flower beds, trees,
herb gardens, gazebos and picnic tables. As for the economics, studies show that over
the course of a roof’s lifetime, green roofs are actually considerably cheaper
than conventional roofs taking into account energy savings.
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Web Links
The Green Revolution Spreading Across Our Rooftops
Photo, posted July 15, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 20, 2019 Protecting Canola Crops From Frost
Canola is one of Canada’s most valuable crops. In fact, Canada is the world’s largest exporter of canola oil. The international market for canola oil is $27 billion a year. The oil is very popular because it has a relatively low amount of saturated fat, a substantial amount of monosaturated fat, and is very neutral tasting.
Canadian canola farmers worry a great deal about late season,
non-lethal frosts because the frosts prevent chlorophyll – a photosynthetic
pigment in the seeds – from breaking down, a process they call
“degreening”. The farmers seek to have
high-quality yellow embryos at seed maturity.
When the harvest contains more than 2% of green seeds, it can no longer produce
Grade No. 1 quality oil. When green
seeds are processed to extract canola oil, the chlorophyll in the seeds reduces
the oil’s storability and quality. As a
result, farmers receive a lower price for frost-damaged green seed canola. This costs Canadian farmers and estimated
$150 million annually.
Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed gene-based technology to produce canola plants that can withstand late-season frost and still produce high-quality seed. They identified a specific protein that controls chlorophyll breakdown and seed maturity. Genetic manipulation is able to enhance the seed degreening system. They were able to reduce the amount of chlorophyll in the genetically modified canola lines by 60% after the plants were exposed to non-lethal frost.
Ultimately, the researchers plan to develop a method to incorporate
the modification into canola hybrid lines in such a way that it will be readily
accepted by consumers concerned about genetically modified organisms.
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Web Links
New technology helps protect valuable canola crops from frost
Photo, posted August 29, 2018, courtesy of Tinker and Rove via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 19, 2019 Predicting Lightning Strikes
Lightning is one of the most unpredictable phenomena in nature. Approximately 100 lightning bolts strike earth’s surface every second, and each lightning bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. Lightning regularly kills both people and animals and sets homes and forests on fire. It’s also been known to ground airplanes.
Researchers at EPFL – a research institute and university in
Switzerland – have developed a novel way to predict where and when lightning
will strike. The system relies on a
combination of standard data from weather stations and artificial intelligence
to predict lightning strikes to the nearest 10 to 30 minutes and within a
radius of less than 20 miles. The simple
and inexpensive system was outlined in a research paper recently published in
Climate and Atmospheric Science, a Nature partner journal.
According to researchers, the current systems for predicting lightning
strikes are slow, expensive, and complex, relying on external data acquired by
satellite and radar. The new inexpensive
system from EPFL uses real time data that can be obtained from any weather
station, meaning it can cover remote regions that are out of radar and
satellite range and where communication networks are lacking. The quick predictions from the system allow
alerts to be issued before a storm has even formed.
The system uses a machine-learning algorithm that’s been trained to recognize
conditions that lead to lightning. The
researchers took into account atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative
humidity, and wind speed, among other things.
After training the algorithm, the system was able to predict lightning
strikes accurately nearly 80% of the time.
This system is a simple way to predict a complex phenomenon.
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Web Links
Using AI to predict where and when lightning will strike
Photo, posted December 14, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 18, 2019 Smarter Prospecting
The global demand for copper and gold continues to grow. Copper is widely used in building materials, plumbing, and electronics. Gold is still highly valued for jewelry and coinage, but nearly a third of the world’s gold is now used in electronics.
Both of these metals are getting increasingly difficult to find as many of the known sources have been exhausted. Companies spend millions of dollars drilling deeper and deeper in search of new deposits.
It costs about $400 to drill one meter into rock and it is not
uncommon to drill to depths of one to two kilometers. So, it can cost nearly a million dollars to
drill a hole that has no guarantee of success.
Given that ore deposits are tiny compared with the totality of the
search space, prospecting for these metals is very much like looking for a
needle in a haystack.
A researcher at the University of South Australia has developed a
suite of geochemical tools to more accurately target valuable mineral deposits
and thereby save drilling companies millions of dollars. The goal is to have drilling for valuable
minerals be faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
By mapping out where key chemical elements are found in greater concentrations, the new suite of tools greatly increases the chances of finding an ore deposit at a target site and thereby greatly improve the return on investment for exploration companies. The tools have been successfully tested at an iron oxide-copper-gold deposit in the north of South Australia, leading to a four-fold increase in the known footprint of their ore body. Finding economically viable enriched ore sites can generate both revenues and jobs.
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Web Links
Prospecting for gold just got a lot easier (and cheaper)
Photo, posted April 21, 2005, courtesy of Adam via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 15, 2019 Hydrogen From The Ocean
Hydrogen is frequently touted as an excellent source of clean energy that could be used as a fuel in vehicles, or as a storage medium for energy generated by wind and solar power. The challenge is that hydrogen is rather difficult and expensive to attain, and the most economical methods are not clean and green.
Most industrial hydrogen is produced by reforming natural gas, which
has the drawback that carbon dioxide is generated in the process. The environmentally friendly way to produce
hydrogen is via electrolysis, in which a chemical reaction is triggered by a
catalyst enabling electricity to split water into its constituent elements of
oxygen and hydrogen.
The best performing catalyst for electrolysis is platinum, but its
high price is a big drawback for the economics of making hydrogen. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory have found a pairing of minerals that may solve the problem. Testing a molybdenum-phosphide catalyst with
wastewater in a small reactor called a microbial electrolysis cell revealed
that the new catalyst actually worked better than platinum.
Even better, the molybdenum-phosphide catalyst worked well with
seawater. If hydrogen can be produced
using seawater, there would be a pretty much unlimited resource for making
it. By eliminating the use of platinum
catalysts, it may be possible to reduce the cost of hydrogen made by
electrolysis to a competitive level.
Hydrogen as a vehicle fuel currently costs about twice as much as
gasoline on an energy-equivalent basis.
Given that running cars from batteries is considerably cheaper than
using gas, the cost of hydrogen needs to come down considerably for it to be a
viable vehicle fuel.
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Web Links
Ditching Platinum for the Ocean Could Make Hydrogen Cheap
Photo, posted July 19, 2011, courtesy of Heather Paul via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 14, 2019 Geoengineering And Volcanoes
Solar geoengineering is a theoretical strategy for curbing the effects of climate change by introducing aerosol particles in the upper atmosphere to reflect some of the Sun’s radiation back into space and thereby cool the planet. It would basically be intentionally tinkering with the climate system on a global scale.
The concept is fraught with the danger of unintended consequences and
most experts consider the idea almost unthinkable. But there are those who see it as a last
resort if all our other efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change are
unsuccessful.
Proponents of the idea like to describe the technique as being like a
human-made volcano. Major volcanic
eruptions spew ash particles into the atmosphere which can linger for as long
as a few years. The result is cooler
temperatures, sometimes across much of the globe. The Krakatoa eruption of 1883 lowered average
Northern Hemisphere temperatures by more than 2 degrees and created chaotic
weather patterns until about 1888.
Researchers at the Carnegie Institution and two Chinese research
institutions used sophisticated modeling techniques to compare the effects on
the climate of a volcanic eruption with long-term geoengineering deployment.
They found that the volcanic eruption created a greater temperature
difference between the land and sea than the geoengineering and resulted in
very different precipitation scenarios.
In both cases, there would be less available water for people on land.
Overall, the study demonstrated that volcanic eruptions are imperfect
analogs for geoengineering and that scientists should be very cautious about
extrapolating too much from them. It is
important to evaluate geoengineering from an informed position, but the truth
is that it represents a great and perilous unknown.
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Web Links
Geoengineering Versus A Volcano
Photo, posted November 1, 2002, courtesy of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 13, 2019 Air Quality In The U.S.
Globally, poor air is a serious problem. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated 7 million people every year. In fact, 91% of the people on the planet live in places where air pollution exceeds WHO guideline limits.
In the United States, air pollution has dramatically improved over the
last four decades due in large part to federal regulations put in place under
the Clean Air Act of 1970. Fine
particulate matter (known as PM2.5) and other pollution, including ozone,
sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide, have all decreased during this time
span.
But according to recent research, this trend has unfortunately done an
about-face. New data reveals that air
pollution has increased nationally since 2016.
An analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data by researchers at
Carnegie Mellon University found that, on average, fine particulate pollution
increased 5.5% across the country between 2016 and 2018.
This increase in fine particulate pollution was associated with nearly
10,000 additional premature deaths in the United States during that time
period.
According to researchers, there are several factors likely causing
this uptick in unhealthy air, including increases in both driving and the
burning of natural gas. Wildfires out
west are also thought to be a major contributor.
The researchers also suggest that a decrease in enforcement of the
Clean Air Act may also be playing a role.
The law put in place strict air pollution standards for vehicles,
factories, power plants, and other sources, and is credited with saving hundreds
of thousands of lives.
It’s time for clean air to be recognized as a basic human right.
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Web Links
America’s Air Quality Worsens, Ending Years of Gains, Study Says
Photo, posted April 6, 2007, courtesy of Brett Weinstein via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 12, 2019 Urban Agriculture And Sustainability Goals
In 2016, the City Council of Phoenix, Arizona adopted eight Environmental Sustainability goals for 2050 that lay out the desired long term requirements in order to become a Sustainable Desert City. Recently, a group of researchers from Arizona State University assessed how urban agriculture can help Phoenix, a desert city of 1.6 million people, meet those sustainability goals.
Using public records and high-resolution satellite imagery,
researchers analyzed the potential benefits of growing crops in three types of
urban areas in Phoenix: vacant lots, rooftops, and building facades. The study, which was supported by the
National Science Foundation and the USDA, estimated that there are 28 square
miles (or 5.4% of city space) available for urban agriculture. The data-driven analysis found that 71% of
the available areas for urban agriculture would come from existing buildings as
opposed to vacant lots.
All this available space for urban agriculture in Phoenix could supply
the city with nearly 183,000 tons of fresh produce annually, which would allow
for the delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables to all of the city’s existing
food deserts. In fact, the city’s own urban-agriculture output could meet 90%
of the fresh produce demand that currently exists in Phoenix.
In addition to producing food, rooftop agriculture could also reduce
the energy use in buildings by 3% per building per year, and displace more than
55,000 tons of CO2 annually. The use of
vacant lots could increase the total Phoenix green space by 17%, and reduce the
number of areas lacking green space by 60%.
This study demonstrates the many different ways that urban agriculture
can benefit a city.
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Web Links
Urban agriculture can push the sustainability
Photo, posted May 10, 2011, courtesy of Stephen Zank via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
November 11, 2019 Displaced By Extreme Weather
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre is the world’s authoritative source of data and analysis on internal displacement. Internal displacement refers to people being forced to flee their homes or places of habitual residence but who remain within their country’s borders. Such displacements can be the result of conflict, violence, development projects, natural disasters, or climate change. As of the end of 2018, over 41 million people were living in internal displacement because of conflict and violence alone.
This year, natural disasters are causing a record number of internal
displacements. In the first half of the
year, 7 million people were displaced by disasters, accounting for nearly
two-thirds of all the internal displacements worldwide. The IDMC estimates that this number could hit
22 million by the end of the year.
The vast majority of displacement has been associated with storms and floods. Cyclone Fani alone in May displaced more than 3.4 million people in India and Bangladesh. In March, Cyclone Idai displaced 617,000 people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. In total, 950 extreme weather events in 102 countries and territories displaced 7 million people from January to June.
Technically speaking, internally displaced people are not considered to be refugees because they remain in their home countries. But the growing millions of people represent a global crisis that continues to worsen with the changing climate. The international community cannot ignore the plight of these people. Governments around the world have to redouble their efforts to protect and assist their displaced citizens as well as to invest in sustainable development and climate change adaptation.
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Web Links
Extreme Weather Displaced 7 Million People in First Half of 2019
Photo, posted August 5, 2012, courtesy of the U.S. Embassy, Jakarta 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.