One of the most significant ways in which the disparate regions of the

Living organisms are often transported through ballast water, which is taken up to stabilize cargo vessels.  Other species are transported by biofouling, whereby they attach to the hulls of ships.  Taken together, these two pathways account for anywhere between 60 and 90% of marine bioinvasions.   (Terrestrial invaders are generally moved as a byproduct of shipping, for example by infesting wood packaging material).

The McGill study looked at trends in global shipping and how socioeconomic factors are driving change.  For example, China’s share of global container throughput has gone from 1.4% in 1990 to 20.1% in 2013.  So, the distribution and patterns of shipping have been changing dramatically and with it the spread of non-indigenous species.

Awareness of this issue is increasing. 

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Global forecasts of shipping traffic and biological invasions to 2050

Photo, posted December 3, 2009, courtesy of Roger W via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

In a number of places, there are now markets that are

Markets are not only changing their packaging, they are using

On average, Americans throw away over 300 plastic bags a year, but an

An interesting statistic shows that the age group of Americans that is leading the adoption of reusable grocery bags is not millennials but in fact is people over 50.  With multiple generations now indicating that they want shopping to be more sustainable, it is likely that supermarkets will strive to help make that happen.

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Why More Supermarkets Are Committing to Zero-Waste

Photo, posted March 4, 2013, courtesy of Dean Hochman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The 17 rare earth elements have become important parts of much of

Rare earths play important roles in high-performance magnets, electric

Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory and Rutgers University have

It turns out that large amounts of rare earths exist in phosphogypsum, a waste product from producing phosphoric acid from phosphate rock.  The U.S. alone mined 28 million tons of phosphate rock in 2017.  (Phosphoric acid is used in the production of fertilizers and other products).

The researchers estimate that more than a billion tons of

The researchers studied methods for extracting the elements from the

There are concerns about residual radioactivity and other environmental issues in dealing with the waste material, but the world’s supply of rare earth elements might become much greater based on this research.

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Critical Materials: Researchers Eye Huge Supply of Rare-Earth Elements from Mining Waste

Photo, posted June 19, 2015, courtesy of David Stanley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Oceans takes up CO2 in two steps: first the CO2 dissolves in the surface water.  Then, the ocean’s overturning circulation distributes it.  Currents and mixing processes transport the dissolved CO2 from the surface deep into the ocean’s interior, where it accumulates over time.

A long-standing priority for climate researchers is to determine how much of the CO2 we produce is being absorbed by the oceans and, ultimately, how much can they hold?

An international team of scientists has recently provided some answers.  As reported in Science, the researchers have determined that the oceans have taken up from the atmosphere as much as 37 billion tons of human-made carbon between 1994 and 2007.  This figure corresponds to nearly a third of all the anthropogenic CO2 emitted during that time.

Furthermore, they found that the percentage of CO2 taken up by the oceans has remained relatively stable compared to the preceding 200 years even as the absolute quantity has increased.  So, evidently, the oceans’ capacity for carbon dioxide has not yet been saturated.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that putting all that CO2 into the oceans has a steep price:  the dissolved CO2 acidifies the water.  The consequences for a wide range of marine life including coral reefs are serious and getting worse.  We need to drastically reduce carbon emissions.

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Ocean sink for human-made carbon dioxide measured

Photo, posted November 5, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

In recent years, the problem with driving range has steadily been

As for cost, a new report by transportation analysts at Bloomberg New

The main reason is that the cost of EV batteries has been

The cost of electric vehicles has been dropping faster than

Given that electric cars are much cheaper to drive than gasoline cars,

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Electric Cars Could Be As Affordable as Conventional Vehicles In Just Three Years

Photo, posted November 17, 2018, courtesy of Jakob Harter via Flickr.

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Norfolk Virginia experienced fewer than 2 days of high-tide flooding a year in the 1960s; it had 14 in 2017.  Up and down the East Coast, flood days have increased by factors of 5 and more.

This has led to a form of pollution that hasn’t gathered much

In the aftermath of high-tide flooding in Norfolk, Chesapeake Bay was

Analysis of tidal flooding along the Lafayette River in Norfolk

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, high-tide flooding frequency along the southeastern coast of the U.S. rose 160% since 2000.  With the expected continuing rises in sea level, NOAA projects that as many as 85 days of high-tide flooding will occur along the coast by the year 2050.  It’s a big problem.

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As High-Tide Flooding Worsens, More Pollution Is Washing to the Sea

Photo, posted September 20, 2018, courtesy of SC National Guard via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

One place where there is now real-world data on a large scale is

A demonstration of the feasibility of such a goal occurred in the

Germany has a very large domestic coal industry and indeed lignite

While the week with 65% renewable set a record, the ongoing trend is

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Renewables Generated a Record 65 Percent of Germany’s Electricity Last Week

Photo, posted April 28, 2012, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Prior to China’s ban, 95% of the plastics collected for recycling in

Before China’s ban, only 9% of globally discarded plastics were being

Some experts are hopeful that China’s ban might actually have an

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Piling Up: How China’s Ban on Importing Waste Has Stalled Global Recycling

Photo, posted August 8, 2017, courtesy of Sino-German Urbanisation Partnership via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

According to a paper recently published in the journal Science

The researchers’ work builds on a 2018 study in which four years of satellite vessel movement data was used to develop a machine learning algorithm that mapped the footprint of 70,000 different fishing vessels around the world.  In their paper, the researchers zeroed in on the activities of 900 vessels from 12 countries in the northeast Pacific Ocean to figure out to what degree fishing fleets, sharks, and tunas overlapped. 

The researchers combined the vessel data with the ocean habitat

By synthesizing this data, researchers were able to map where sharks and tunas would have the highest overlap with commercial fishing vessels.  Increasing the transparency of where fish meets fleets will allow ocean managers to determine where international protections may be needed. 

The United Nations is currently developing the world’s first legally

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Tunas, sharks and ships at sea

Photo, posted June 20, 2011, courtesy of Mike Baird via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The idea is to use carbon mineralization as a way to permanently store carbon dioxide that has been captured from power plant emissions, other industrial activities, or even directly from the atmosphere.

Two basic approaches are injecting the CO2 deep underground or exposing it to crushed rocks at the surface.  The two types of rock best suited for mineralization through injection are basalt and various ultramafic rocks.  Pilot studies have shown that injection into basalt can lead to mineralization in under two years.

Exposing carbon dioxide to crushed rock at the surface generally makes use of crushed mining waste.  Mineralization can be much faster in this case because there is more surface area on the crushed rock where mineralization occurs.  (However, the quantities of rock available at the surface are much less than what exists deep underground).

Like all carbon capture and storage approaches, the key consideration is cost.  The USGS study estimates that underground injection would cost around $30 per metric ton of CO2.  The crushed rock approach might only cost $8 per metric ton, but that assumes the crushed rock is already available.  If it must be newly mined, the costs would obviously go up significantly.  To put this into perspective, a typical car produces around 4 metric tons of CO22 per year.  So, it would cost somewhere between $30 and $120 a year to eliminate the emissions from one car.  Perhaps that is a price we need to pay until we ditch gasoline cars.

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How Growing Rocks Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions

Photo, posted October 17, 2011, courtesy of Glen Bledsoe via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.