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Earth Wise

By Randy SimonScience Education Self-Improvement Natural Sciences Nature

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Earth Wise episodes

September 13, 2019 Mexico’s Wonder Plant
In 1979, an American naturalist named Thomas Hallberg visiting a small town in Oaxaca, Mexico was amazed to find a type of local maize – or corn – that grew nearly 20 feet high in poor-quality soil even though the local farmers did not use any fertilizer.
The unique corn plant had aerial roots that grew a mucous-like gel
just before harvest season. It seemed
totally implausible, but the plant seemed to be fixing its own nitrogen: extracting it from the air and somehow making
it useful to the plant.
In 1992, Hallberg returned with a group of Mexican scientists and
collected samples to study in his lab.
His research showed that the maize indeed received nitrogen from the air
through its aerial roots. It took over
20 years to figure out what was going on in the plants. It turns out that bacteria that thrive in the
low-oxygen environment of the maize’s mucus pulls nitrogen from the air and
feeds it to the plant.
Scientists will probably spend years figuring out if a commercial
application of this indigenous maize is viable.
It isn’t guaranteed that the self-fertilizing trait of the plant can be
bred into a commercial crop. But if it
can, the payoff would be huge. Farmers
spend more than $3 billion a year on corn fertilizer in the US alone.
A vexing problem is who should reap the financial benefits of the
maize. The isolated village where the
plant is grown has already signed an agreement to share in any such
benefits. But there are other Oaxacan
villages that also grow the plant.
Mexico’s wonder plant is likely to be caught up in the growing issue of biopiracy, which is the exploitation of indigenous knowledge and biological resources without permission.
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Web Links
Indigenous Maize: Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s ‘Wonder’ Plant?
Photo credit: ALLEN VAN DEYNZE/UC DAVIS
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 12, 2019 Booming Electric Car Sales
Electric cars are becoming more and more commonplace over time. There is no place in the world where this is
more evident than in Norway. This year,
about half the new cars sold in Norway have been electric. This compares to only 25% just last
year. In March alone, nearly 60% of
vehicle purchases in Norway were plug-in cars, outselling gas and diesel cars
for the first time ever.
Norway has encouraged the switch to electric transportation by making
battery-powered cars tax exempt as well as offering various other
incentives. This is all part of the
country’s plan to end the sale of fossil fuel cars entirely by 2025.
Although Norway leads the world in electric car sales on a per capita
basis, there are many other places seeing rapid growth. In Maryland, for example, so many electric
cars were sold in the past year that the state’s tax credit program, which has
a $3 million annual budget, ran out of money seven months before the end of the
fiscal year. Between 2017 and 2018, the
number of EVs registered in Maryland doubled to over 18,000.
New York has also seen robust growth in electric vehicles. There are now more than 40,000 plug-in cars
registered in New York State. About a
third of those are Tesla models, with the increasingly popular Tesla Model 3
rapidly becoming the dominant plug-in car in the state. In fact, this year the Tesla Model 3 has
accounted for about 60% of all plug-in car sales in the United States.
Not only are electric car sales going up, so are the options for car
buyers. Within the next year or two,
there will be numerous new electric car choices available from multiple
manufacturers appealing to the tastes of a growing range of car buyers.
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Web Links
EVs Make Up Half of New Car Sales in Norway So Far This Year
Photo, posted May 16, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 11, 2019 Plastic-Eating Mushrooms
Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental issues
in the world. Whether it is about
drinking straws, grocery bags, or six-pack rings, getting rid of plastic items
in the waste stream is a major focus of attention for more and more people.
A really promising way to deal with all the plastic ending up in
landfills has grown out of research that was being conducted in the Amazon rain
forest in 2012. Back then, a group of
students from Yale University discovered a fungus that eats only
polyurethane. It is a mushroom known as
Pestalotiopsis microspore and it not only can survive exclusively on the
plastic, but it can do it in anaerobic (that is, oxygen-free)
environments. Thus, these plastic-eating
mushrooms could potentially thrive at the bottom of landfills.
More recently, other studies have identified additional mushroom
species that can eat plastic. Some of
them are common, such as the oyster mushroom, which itself is edible. In 2018, the first ever State of the World’s
Fungi symposium took place in London.
The event focused on multiple applications for mushrooms, including
their use as building materials, their ability to remove pollutants from soil,
and their capacity to enable the conversion of waste into biofuels.
Under controlled conditions, it takes just a few weeks for plastic-eating
mushrooms to start breaking down plastics.
After a few months, all that is left are puffy white mushrooms which,
even if they are not used for anything themselves, can be composted and turned
into soil.
So far, there has been relatively little exploitation of mushrooms for
improving the environment, but they may well be a big help in dealing with the
growing problem of plastic waste.
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Web Links
Scientists discovered a mushroom that eats plastic, and believe it could clean our landfills
Photo, posted August 12, 2014, courtesy of Tim Sheerman-Chase via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 10, 2019 The Importance Of The Amazon Rainforest Fires
The Amazon rainforest covers extensive parts of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and small parts of six other countries. It is the largest rainforest in the world and is instrumental in driving the weather and climate in South America.
The raging wildfires in the Amazon rainforest are a source of great
concern. The Amazon is always prone to
wildfires during the dry season in South America, but the extent and number of
fires this year cannot be attributed simply to drought. The surge in fires has come from illegal
deforestation by loggers and farmers, who are using the cleared-out land for
cattle ranching.
Rainforests produce consistently high amounts of rainfall throughout
the year by pulling water from the soil and then releasing it into the
atmosphere. The Amazon rainforest
essentially makes it rain in South America.
Over time, the forest plays a crucial role in cycling carbon out of the
atmosphere by turning it into biomass.
The Amazon jungle sucks up as much as a quarter of the planet’s
atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Pristine rainforest burns less frequently and less intensely than
cleared and recovering forest. As more
and more of the Amazon rainforest is deforested, it becomes more likely to burn
each year.
The major disruption of the water dynamics in South America has the
potential to not only drive the weather in South American countries but even
potentially influence natural resources like snow packs in the Northern
Hemisphere.
The skies of Sāo Paulo, Brazil’s financial hub have been dark at
midday because of the Amazon fires. This
is like having a fire in California and seeing the smoke in Boston. The Amazon rainforest fires are a big problem
for the whole world.
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Web Links
The Amazon Rainforest has been burning for weeks. Here’s why that matters.
Photo, posted August 21, 2019, courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 09, 2019 Falling Bee Populations
For many years, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global
struggle of pollinators. A reported 40%
of invertebrate pollinator species, including bees and butterflies, are facing
extinction. And since as much as three-quarters of the world’s food crops
depend on pollination, the decline of these pollinators poses a major threat to
global food security.
Pollinators aid in the production of all sorts of crops, including
coffee, cacao, cotton, apples, and almonds – to name a few. The global value of crops requiring
pollination ranges from $235-$577 billion annually.
Honey bees are among the struggling pollinators. Over the past 15 years, bee colonies have
been disappearing at an alarming rate in what is known as the “colony collapse
disorder.” Some regions have seen losses
of up to 90%.
In the United States, managed honey bee populations declined by nearly
40% over this past winter, the largest such winter decline since surveying
began in 2006.
In recent months, mass honey bee declines have also been reported in Russia, according to the BBC. Russia, which produces a whopping 110,000 tons of honey annually, expects that figure to drop by as much as 20%. The widespread bee decline is likely to not only push up honey prices, but the prices of other popular foods as well. Many staple food crops in Russia, including sunflowers, buckwheat, and fruit trees, rely on bees for pollination.
Experts have blamed the bee decline crisis on a combination of
factors, including pesticides (most notably neonicotinoids), varroa mites, and
climate change.
Bees play a vital role in food production, and their continued decline
will have devastating consequences.
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Web Links
Russia alarmed by large fall in bee populations
Photo, posted July 28, 2019, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 06, 2019 Contrails And Climate Change
The white wispy trails of condensation produced by the exhaust from
aircraft engines have been the subject of a popular conspiracy theory for quite
a while. The story goes that the
long-lasting condensation trails are actually “chemtrails” composed of chemical
or biological agents left in the sky by aircraft and are intentionally sprayed
for a variety of nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public. This story, of course, is nonsense.
But while contrails are not deliberate efforts to modify weather,
control population, manipulate psychology, or any of the other bizarre things
attributed to them, it turns out that they are having unfortunate effects on
the climate.
It turns out that contrails are creating an often-invisible thermal blanket of cloud across the planet that has a significant effect on atmospheric temperatures. Contrails are essentially human-made clouds that form above 25,000 feet where the air is moist and colder than -40 degrees Celsius. At times, contrails stick around in the sky, either as tight, white lines like chalk marks, or by spreading to create thin layers of ice clouds. At any one time, contrail-created clouds cover more than half a percent of global skies.
Research has shown that when contrails are around, nighttime
temperatures can go up appreciably.
After 9/11, when all U.S. flights were grounded for three days, the
difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures actually increased by
about 3 degrees Fahrenheit because nights were cooler.
The effects of aviation on climate, both from the CO2 emissions from aircraft engines and from these contrail effects are becoming an increasingly important issue. To complicate matters further, as aircraft engines become more efficient, they will create more, whiter, and longer-lasting contrails.
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Web Links
How Airplane Contrails Are Helping Make the Planet Warmer
Photo, posted May 15, 2012, courtesy of Mike Lewinski via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 05, 2019 Scottish Wind Power
Scotland is a windy country.
Most wind turbines in the European Union produce electricity at an
average of 25% of their maximum rated power as a result of the variability of
wind resources. The west and northern
coasts of Scotland have an average capacity of 31% or more. Some wind farms in Scotland have achieved
more than 50% capacity over the course of a year.
As of the end of last year, Scotland had more than 8 GW of installed
wind power capacity. This included 7.8
GW of onshore wind and 623 MW of offshore wind generators. Estimates are that more than 11 GW of onshore
wind could be installed in Scotland. The
total offshore potential is far greater than that but would be much more
expensive. There are multiple
large-scale wind farms proposed or under construction in Scotland.
All of this growth in wind power has led to some remarkable
results. During the first half of 2019,
wind turbines in Scotland produced enough electricity to power every home in
the country twice over. Scottish wind
farms generated nearly 10 million megawatt-hours between January and June,
which is equal to the consumption of 4.5 million homes during that period. That is enough to take care of all of
Scotland’s homes plus a large portion of northern England’s.
Scotland has set a target of generating half of its electricity from
renewable sources by 2030 and decarbonizing its energy system almost entirely
by 2050. The recent performance of its
wind power installations shows that the country might be able to reach its goal
much sooner than anticipated.
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Web Links
Scotland’s Wind Farms Generate Enough Electricity to Power Nearly 4.5 Million Homes
Photo, posted March 27, 2017, courtesy of Ian Dick via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 04, 2019 China And Rare Earth Mining
Rare earth elements are a crucial part of much of modern
technology. Everything from computers to
X-ray machines and aircraft engines needs one or more rare earth elements for
magnets, lenses, and other functions.
The world’s tech giants such as Apple, Huawei, and Tesla depend on
suppliers of rare earths.
Rare earth elements are not actually rare, but they are very expensive
to extract in ways that are not extremely harmful to the environment. China has been a major source of these
elements since its rare earth mining industry took off in the 1990s. The removal of rare earths from the earth’s
crust, using a mix of water and chemicals, has caused extensive water and soil
pollution.
Today, concrete leaching ponds and plastic-lined wastewater pools dot
the hills of Southeast China. Large
wastewater ponds sit uncovered and open to the elements in many places. Landslides or barrier failures can spill
contaminated contents into waterways or groundwater.
Local and federal officials in China have started to shut down illegal
and small-scale rare earth mining operations and have embarked on a cleanup of
polluted sites. The rare earth mining
cleanup operation is part of wider efforts across China to address severe
problems of water, air and soil pollution.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimated that
the cleanup bill for southern Jiangxi Province could amount to more than $5 billion. Many environmental experts and local
officials say that the cost of the cleanup should not be shouldered by the
Chinese government alone, but also by the rare earth industry and the global
companies and consumers that benefit from rare earth technology. As rare earth mining efforts start up
elsewhere around the world, it is important not to repeat the mistakes made in
China.
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Web Links
China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining
Photo, posted April 21, 2019, courtesy of John Beans via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 03, 2019 Reducing Methane From Animals
Methane emissions from ruminant livestock are currently estimated to be more than 100 million tons each year and, after rice agriculture, represent the biggest human-initiated methane source. Given that fact, there is widespread encouragement for people to reduce their consumption of meat in order to reduce the amount of the potent greenhouse gas going into the atmosphere.
But an additional strategy to
lower global methane emissions is to actually reduce the amount of methane
produced by each animal. To that end,
researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have now identified new
processes that control methane production in the stomachs of sheep and similar
animals like cattle and deer.
They determined the specific
microbes and enzymes that control the supply of hydrogen, which is the main
energy source for methane producing microbes, known as methanogens. Their work is focused on the development of
small molecule inhibitors and vaccines to specifically target the production of
methane by methanogens. By reducing the
supply of hydrogen to methanogens, it is possible to reduce animal methane
emissions.
The research involved studying two
types of sheep – those producing large amounts of methane and those producing
less. They found that the most active
hydrogen-consuming microbes differed between the sheep. Specifically, in the low methane emitting
sheep, hydrogen consuming bacteria dominated over methanogens.
Ultimately, a strategy might emerge to introduce feed supplements that encourage non-methane producers to out-compete methanogens. Controlling the supply of hydrogen to the methanogens will lead to reduced methane emissions.
Having low-emission cattle would
definitely help reduce the impact of agriculture on the climate.
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Web Links
Scientists discover processes to lower methane emissions from animals
Photo, posted April 7, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
September 02, 2019 Meeting Climate Goals With Current Energy Infrastructure
The Paris Climate Agreement set forth a goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius as well as a more optimistic (and preferable) goal of keeping the temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees. Reaching either of these goals requires getting to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.
A new paper, published in Nature, looks at the issue
of whether existing power plants and other fossil-fuel-burning equipment
(including vehicles) can continue to operate until they age out of
functionality, or whether they need to be retired early.
The results of the study are that future
emissions from existing facilities would take up the entire carbon budget
needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and almost 2/3 of the budget
needed to keep warming below 2 degrees over the next 30 years.
So, the good news is that we can still
avoid a 2-degree rise without having to shut down all the existing power plants
early. But we would definitely have to
stop building new things with smokestacks and tailpipes that dump CO2
into the atmosphere.
That good news is tempered by the fact that
the number of fossil fuel-burning power plants and vehicles in the world has
increased dramatically over the past decade, spurred by rapid economic and
industrial development in China and India.
In fact, China is predicted to produce more than 40% of all the carbon
emissions over the next 30 years.
The 2-degree climate goal is not at all the
most desirable result. The 1.5-degree
target would be far better for the climate.
But if the world is to achieve it, there will be dramatic changes needed
in the existing infrastructure – either shutting it down or retrofitting it to
drastically reduce emissions.
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Web Links
Two-Degree Climate Goal Attainable Without Early Infrastructure Retirement
Photo, posted March 5, 2010, courtesy of Tennessee Valley Authority via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min

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