Earth Wise

By Randy Simon

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.... more

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How many episodes does Earth Wise have?

The podcast currently has 2,518 episodes available.

Earth Wise episodes:

March 13, 2019 The New Normal Weather
We often hear about how the weather is getting stranger all the time, but do most of us really think so? What kinds of weather do we really find remarkable and has that been changing?
A study led by the University of California, Davis used some very
modern tools to examine the question of what people might consider to be
“normal” weather. To reach their
conclusions, they quantified the timeless pastime of talking about the weather
by analyzing Twitter posts. They sampled
over 2 billion geolocated tweets to determine what kind of events generated the
most posts about the weather.
Unsurprisingly, they found that people most often tweet when temperatures
are unusual for a particular place and time of year. However, if the same weather persisted year
after year, it generated less comment on Twitter, indicating that people began
to view it as normal in a relatively short amount of time.
The study indicates that people have short memories when it comes to
what they consider normal weather. On
average, most people base their idea of normal weather on what has happened in
just the past two up to maybe eight years.
This disconnect with the historical climate record may obscure the
public’s perception of climate change.
After repeat exposures to historically-extreme temperatures, people
talk less about the weather, even though particularly hot or cold weather
conditions make them unhappy and grumpy.
Even though we are experiencing conditions that are historically
extreme, we might not consider them to be particularly unusual if we tend to
forget what happened more than a few years ago.
Things may be getting worse, but they apparently are just the new normal.
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Web Links
Tweets tell scientists how quickly we normalize unusual weather
Photo, posted March 11, 2013, courtesy of Adedotun Ajibade via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 12, 2019 Ice Melt In Greenland
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences warns that Greenland’s ice Is melting much faster than previously thought. The ice loss rapidly accelerated around 2002-2003 and by 2012 the annual loss was nearly four times the rate in 2003.
Most of the new ice melt is in southwest Greenland, a part of the
island that wasn’t known to be losing ice that rapidly and is not where most of
the large glaciers are in Greenland. The
loss is coming from the land-fast ice sheet itself.
Data from NASA satellites and GPS stations scattered around
Greenland’s coast shows that between 2002 and 2016, Greenland lost
approximately 280 billion tons of ice per year.
That is enough melt to cover the entire states of Florida and New York
hip deep in meltwater, as well as drowning Washington, D.C. and one or two
other small states.
Global warming of just 1 degree Celsius is the main driver behind this
massive meltdown of ice. The temperature
rise coupled with a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation causes
rapid surface melt of the ice sheet during summers. The Oscillation is a natural, irregular
change in atmospheric pressure that brings warm, sunny weather to the western
side of Greenland during its negative phase.
The Greenland ice sheet is 2 miles thick in some places and contains
enough ice to raise sea levels 23 feet if it all melted. The melting Greenland ice is already slowing
the Gulf Stream, which is wreaking havoc with European weather. If we don’t get a handle on global
temperature rise, things are only going to get worse.
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Greenland’s ice is melting four times faster than thought—what it means
Photo, posted April 21, 2017, courtesy of Markus Trienke via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 11, 2019 Forecasting A Bad Year For Carbon
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years, and they continue to grow. The United Kingdom’s national meteorological service – known as the Met Office – issues annual predictions of global CO2 levels based in part on readings taken at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii. Their forecast for this year is that there will be one of the largest rises in atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration in the 62 years of measurements at Mauna Loa.
Since 1958, there has been a 30% increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This has been caused by emissions from fossil fuels, deforestation and cement production. The increase would actually have been even larger if it were not for natural carbon sinks in the form of various ecosystems that soak up some of the excess CO2.
Weather patterns linked to year-by-year swings in Pacific Ocean temperatures are known to affect the uptake of carbon dioxide by land ecosystems. In years with a warmer tropical Pacific – such as El Niño years – many regions become warmer and drier, which limits the ability of plants to grow and to absorb CO2 . The opposite happens when the Pacific is cool, as was the case last year.
The Met Office predicts that the contribution of natural carbon sinks
will be relatively weak, so the impact of human-caused emissions will be larger
than last year. The predicted rise in
atmospheric CO2 is 2.75 parts-per-million, which is among the highest rises on
record. The forecast for the average
carbon dioxide concentration is 411 ppm, with peak monthly averages reaching
almost 415 ppm. With global emissions
not really declining, the numbers just get higher and higher.
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Web Links
Faster CO₂ rise expected in 2019
Photo, posted March 18, 2006, courtesy of Darin Marshall via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 08, 2019 Climate Change And Infertility
Many of us are all too familiar with the effects of climate change. Our changing climate, as a result of our actions, is leading to rising global temperatures, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, wildfires, more weather extremes like floods and droughts. But a lesser known effect of climate change could lead to frightening consequences: infertility.
According to researchers at the University of Liverpool, rising
temperatures could make some species sterile and lead them to succumb to the
effects of climate change far earlier than currently thought. Their work was
recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and it was
produced in collaboration with scientists from the University of Leeds,
University of Melbourne, and Stockholm University.
Biologists and conservationists are trying to predict where species
will be lost due to climate change so that suitable reserves can be established
in other locations. But the problem is
that most data on when temperature will make an area unlivable for a species is
based on its ‘critical thermal limit’ or CTL.
This is the temperature at which a species would collapse, stop moving,
or die.
The authors of the article fear that the impact of climate change on
species survival is being underestimated.
Because rather than zeroing in on lethal temperatures, the scientists
argue the focus should be on the temperatures at which organisms can no longer
breed. Extensive plant and animal data
suggest organisms lose fertility at a lower temperature than their CTL.
The scientists have proposed a new fertility-based metric to gauge how
organisms function as temperatures climb: Thermal Fertility Limit or TFL. Understanding when a species will cease to
reproduce will certainly help conservation measures.
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Web Links
Climate change and infertility — a ticking time bomb?
Photo, posted August 11, 2013, courtesy of Mike Lewinski via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 07, 2019 Hydrogen From Water And Sun
There are research efforts around the world seeking ways to produce hydrogen starting from water and using clean energy. Finding an economical and scalable way to do this is a key to the so-called hydrogen economy.
A recent study at Argonne National Laboratory makes use of a chemical
reaction pathway central to plant biology to create a process that converts
water into hydrogen using energy from the sun.
The process combines two membrane-bound protein complexes to perform
the conversion of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
The first protein complex, which the researchers call Photosystem I,
is a membrane protein that uses energy from light to feed electrons to an
inorganic catalyst that makes hydrogen.
But this represents only half of the overall process.
A second protein complex that they call Photosystem II uses energy
from light to split water and take electrons from it. The electrons are then fed to Photosystem I.
The two protein complexes are embedded in thylakoid membranes, which
are like those found inside the oxygen-creating chloroplasts in plants. This membrane is an essential part of pairing
the two photosystems. It supports both
of the photosystems and provides a pathway for transferring electrons between
the proteins.
The researchers also make use of a synthetic catalyst made from nickel
or cobalt that replaces expensive platinum catalysts used in conventional
water-splitting schemes. Combining the
light-triggered transport of electrons with the synthetic catalyst results in
what the researchers call the “Z-scheme”, an adaptation of photosynthesis to
produce hydrogen.
The next step is to incorporate the scheme into a living system which the researchers hope will lead to a practical system for hydrogen production.
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Web Links
Discovery adapts natural membrane to make hydrogen fuel from water
Photo, posted December 25, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 06, 2019 Fire-Driven Thunderstorms
In 2016 and 2017, wildfires in western Canada spawned thunderstorms
that ignited additional fires, in some cases tens of miles away from the
original fire. These fire-triggered
thunderstorms are technically known as pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or “pyroCb’s”.
The physics of pyroCb’s is complex.
When super-heated updrafts from an intense fire suck smoke, ash, burning
materials, and water vapor high into the air, these elements cool and form
so-called fire clouds that look and act like the cumulonimbus clouds associated
with classic thunderstorms. What is
different is that the heat and particulates in the smoke almost always arrest
the ability of the cloud to produce rain.
Instead, what remains is a lightning storm that moves across the
landscape, triggering more fires.
These PyroCb events appear to be happening far more often, producing
more energy, and erupting in places where they have never been seen
before. As the world warms, wildfires themselves
are becoming larger and hotter. In the
past decade, wildfires have been burning more than twice as many acres as they
did before the turn of the 21st century. Along with the growth in wildfire activity,
there has been an increase in PyroCb events, and there are now an average of 25
per year in western North America.
Apart from starting new fires, pyroCb’s also have similar effects as
moderate-sized volcanic eruptions. Smoke
and aerosols from wildfires can rise high into the stratosphere, where they can
linger for months. Eventually, the
particles carried aloft in the atmosphere do come down, dumping dangerous
chemicals on far flung regions of the earth.
But unlike volcanic eruptions, which are relatively rare events, pyroCb’s
are happening more and more each year.
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Web Links
Fire-Induced Storms: A New Danger from the Rise in Wildfires
Photo, posted July 31, 2013, courtesy of Loren Kerns via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 05, 2019 A Quiet Clean Energy Revolution
While the Trump administration seeks to prop up and promote use of fossil fuels, the country continues to move in the opposite direction. Last year was actually a pretty positive year for clean energy in the U.S.
In terms of public opinion, 70% of Americans surveyed believe the
country should produce 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources
and more than half of survey respondents think renewables are a good idea even
if they raise energy bills.
Companies in the U.S. purchased a record 6.43 gigawatts of renewable
power, enough to power 1.5 million homes.
The number of corporations entering into renewable energy deals doubled
last year.
More than 300 U.S. cities, towns or counties have made commitments to
climate action and, as of November, 99 cities have committed to 100% renewable
energy, doubling the total from a year ago.
A number of gubernatorial candidates running on ambitious renewable energy platforms were elected in November including those in Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine and Nevada.
Utilities are responding to the growing demand for clean energy. Consumers Energy in Michigan plans to cut
carbon emissions by 80% and stop using coal.
Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy will become the first U.S. utility to
source 100% of its electricity from renewable sources next year. Xcel Energy, one of the biggest utilities in
the country, has committed to be 80% carbon-free by 2030 and go completely
carbon-free by 2050.
The fossil fuel industry with its supporters in high places is still
kicking and screaming, but there is no doubt that the U.S. energy system is changing,
and the quiet clean energy revolution will only pick up more steam in 2019.
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Web Links
The US Underwent a Quiet Clean Energy Revolution Last Year
Photo, posted August 15, 2009, courtesy of Ken via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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March 04, 2019 The Threat From Nurdles
Just when we thought we knew all about the environmental threats caused by plastics, environmentalists have identified yet another problem. It is called a nurdle.
Nurdles are tiny pellets of plastic resin no bigger than a pencil
eraser that manufacturers transform into packaging, plastic straws, water
bottles and all the other things that are wreaking havoc on the environment.
It turns out that nurdles themselves are a problem because billions of them are lost from production and supply chains during handling, shipping and production every year, spilling or washing into waterways. There is limited information on the extent of this kind of plastic pollution and global researchers are still struggling to make an accurate assessment. A study last year estimated that 3 million to 36 million pellets escape every year from just one small industrial area in Sweden.
Eunomia, a British environmental consultancy, contends that nurdles
are the second-largest source of microplastic pollution and estimated that the U.K.
could be unwittingly losing billions of pellets into the environment every
year.
New research is revealing the ubiquity of plastic pellets, from the
bellies of fish caught in the South Pacific, to the digestive tracks of
short-tailed albatross in the north and on the beaches of the Mediterranean.
A shareholder advocacy group called As You Sow has filed resolutions
with Chevron, DowDupont, Exxon Mobil, and Phillips 66 asking them to disclose
how many nurdles escape their production process each year and how they plan to
address the issue. Several of the
companies have responded with statements saying they are working to develop
solutions that keep plastic out of our environment.
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Web Links
There’s a Tiny Plastic Enemy Threatening the Planet’s Oceans
Photo, posted January 15, 2014, courtesy of Hillary Daniels via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min
March 01, 2019 Fast Food And Climate Change
A coalition of global investors is urging some of the largest fast food companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The group, which has approximately $6.5 trillion under management, wants the fast food chains to reduce the carbon footprint of their meat and dairy supply chains.
The global fast food sector is reportedly worth a whopping $570
billion annually. The coalition has
targeted some of the most notable contributors to that figure, including
McDonald’s, KFC, Domino’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle.
According to the investors, animal agriculture is one of the world’s
highest-emitting sectors without a low-carbon plan. If left unchecked, emissions from animal
agriculture alone would contribute 70% of the total worldwide target for
emissions in 2050 that would keep the global rise in temperature below 2C. Animal agriculture also uses an estimated 10%
of annual global water flows.
In their letter to the fast food giants, the investors are calling on the companies to implement clear requirements for suppliers of animal proteins to report and reduce their greenhouse gas and freshwater impacts. They want fast food companies to publish quantitative, time bound targets for reductions, and commit to publicly disclose the progress on these targets.
Climate change is increasingly a factor for investors when evaluating
market risk. This investor letter comes
just weeks after the EAT-Lancet commission report was published, in which their
experts suggest that a sustainable diet for the planet by 2050 will require a
90% reduction in red meat and milk consumption.
Fast food may need to slow down.
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Web Links
Fast food giants under fire on climate and water usage
The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health
Photo, posted May 19, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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February 28, 2019 Indonesian Deforestation
Deforestation is defined as the intentional destruction of trees and other vegetation without reforesting or allowing the forest to regenerate itself.
In Indonesia, industrial agriculture, primarily for the production of
palm oil, is a major driver of deforestation.
But, according to researchers at Duke University, its impact has
diminished proportionately in recent
years as other natural and human causes have emerged. Their peer-reviewed
findings were recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
According to the study’s lead author, large-scale plantations were responsible for more than half of Indonesia’s deforestation in the late 2000s, peaking between 2008-2010 when an average of 1.5 million acres of forest was lost annually. The expansion of the massive plantations was responsible for 57% of the forest loss. Between 2014-2016, an average of more than 2 million acres of forest was lost annually, but plantation expansion only accounted for 25% of this figure. While the overall rate of deforestation continued to grow, other factors were responsible for most of it.
Conversions of forests to grasslands rose sharply in 2015 and 2016 when El Nino caused severe droughts and forest fires. Small-scale farming, often overshadowed by industrial agriculture, was also found to play a bigger role, accounting for 25% of all forest loss.
Indonesia has experienced some of the highest rates of
deforestation. Its forests absorb and
store vast amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide, help prevent erosion and
flooding, and provide habitat to thousands of species. Understanding the varied causes of Indonesian
deforestation should help conservationists and policymakers better address the
problem.
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Web Links
Palm oil not the only driver of forest loss in Indonesia
Photo, posted March 26, 2018, courtesy of Achmad Rabin Taim via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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2min

FAQs about Earth Wise:

How many episodes does Earth Wise have?

The podcast currently has 2,518 episodes available.