Earth Wise

By Randy SimonScience Education Self-Improvement Natural Sciences Nature

Earth Wise episodes

April 12, 2019 Climate Change And Global Fisheries
A Rutgers University-led study published in the journal Science has shown that climate change has taken a toll on many of the world’s fisheries and that over fishing has magnified the problem.
Seafood has become an increasingly important source of nourishment as
the global population grows, especially in coastal, developing countries where
it provides as much as half of the animal protein eaten. More than 50 million people worldwide work in
the fisheries industry or subsist on fisheries.
Scientists at Rutgers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration studied the impact of ocean warming on 235 populations of 124
species in 38 ecological regions around the world. Species included fish, crustaceans such as
shrimp, and mollusks such as scallops.
They combined data on fisheries with ocean temperature maps to estimate
temperature-driven changes in the sustainable catch over 8 decades. The data covered about one-third of the
global catch.
According to the study, ocean warming has led to an estimated 4.1%
drop in sustainable catches, on average around the world, for many species of
fish and shellfish from 1930 to 2010. In
five regions that include the East China Sea and the North Sea, the estimated
decline was 15 to 35%.
The researchers recommend that fisheries managers eliminate over fishing, rebuild fisheries, and account for climate change in fisheries management decisions. Over fishing provides a one-two punch to fisheries facing warming waters. It not only makes fisheries more vulnerable to ocean warming but continued warming will also hinder efforts to rebuild over fished populations.
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Climate Change Shrinks Many Fisheries Globally, Rutgers-Led Study Finds
Photo, posted April 23, 2011, courtesy of Derek Keats via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 11, 2019 California Fires And Precipitation
Two things we have heard a lot about in recent years have been the persistent drought in California and the terrible wildfires the state has experienced. Along the way, the state has had some pretty wet and snowy winters. This past winter, the California snow pack has seen incredible levels building up, which is great news for the state’s farmers. But does that also mean that the next year should see some relief from severe wildfires?
The answer appears to be no. A new study from an international team that includes the University of Arizona has comprehensively looked at the amount of winter precipitation in California and the severity of the subsequent wildfire season.
The position of the North Pacific jetstream over California is
strongly linked to the amount of winter precipitation. This has been true for hundreds of years and
continues to be the case.
From 1600 to 1903, the linkage between winter precipitation and
wildfire severity was also very strong.
But after 1904, that connection weakened. As a result, fire suppression policies were
instituted. When fires arose, they were
put out as quickly as possible. The
result over time is fuel buildup, making larger fires far more likely.
According to the new study, after 1977, the connection between winter
precipitation and wildfire severity disappeared entirely. There no longer appears to be any relationship
between jet stream dynamics and fire.
The warming climate and the results of fire suppression dominate the
potential for wildfire. California’s wet
winter of 2016-2017 provides a good example.
That winter was followed by many large fires in 2017.
So, this very wet winter in California does not imply that this should
be a year without severe wildfires.
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Web Links
Wildfire Risk in California No Longer Coupled to Winter Precipitation
Photo, posted July 26, 2018, courtesy of Bureau of Land Management California via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 10, 2019 Whopping Change
Burger King, the global hamburger fast food giant, recently made a huge announcement: Customers will soon have the option to select either a beef patty or a plant-based patty when ordering the iconic Whopper sandwich.
Burger King’s plant-based patty will be made by Impossible Foods, a California startup founded in 2011 with the explicit goal of decreasing the world’s reliance on animal agriculture. Impossible Foods signature product, the Impossible burger, has already debuted as a slider in White Castle’s 380 or so stores. It’s also being added to the menu at all 570 Red Robin locations. Other plant-based innovators, such as Beyond Meat, have also found some mainstream success. But the Impossible Whopper and the planned national roll-out at Burger King’s 7,200 locations is the biggest deal to date.
Impossible Foods’ major innovation comes from its use of heme, which is an iron-rich protein that in essence is what makes meat taste like meat. Impossible Foods cultivates heme directly from plants – soybean plant roots to be exact – and then mass produces it using yeast. This is then mixed with other plant-based ingredients to achieve the nutty texture of ground beef.
Meat production is one of the biggest single contributors to climate
change. The Impossible burger represents
a better choice for the environment. It
requires 87% less water, 96% less land, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas
emissions when compared with beef burgers.
At Burger King, the Impossible Whopper will have the same amount of
protein as the regular Whopper, but 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol.
Meatless continues to push into the mainstream.
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Behold the Beefless ‘Impossible Whopper’
Photo, posted November 27, 2018, courtesy of Sarah Stierch via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 09, 2019 Humans And Vertebrate Mortality
According to a new study, more than one-quarter of the planet’s land vertebrates die because of humans. This is a “disproportionately huge effect” on the other land vertebrates that share planet’s surface with us.
Researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and
Forestry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed 1,114 published
studies in which nearly 43,000 animals had perished. Their study, which was recently published in
the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, found that 28% of the animals’
deaths were directly attributable to humans.
The other 72% died from natural sources.
Mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians that died between 1970 and 2018 in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania were the foundation of the study. All of these vertebrates had been either collared or tagged as part of other research projects.
The researchers point out that humans are only one among more than
35,000 species of terrestrial vertebrates globally. The fact that humans are responsible for more
than one-quarter of their deaths illustrates the profound magnitude of the
problem. And that statistic is just the
direct causes. According to the
researchers, when urban growth and other land use changes that erode habitat
are considered, the human impact is likely even greater.
The study found that the impact of humans across all the different
species was not equal. In fact, larger animals were more likely to be killed by
humans than smaller animals. Adult animals were more likely to be killed by
humans than juveniles.
The researchers conclude that humans are such a major contributor to
terrestrial vertebrate mortality that they could potentially impact both
evolutionary processes and ecosystem functioning.
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On the land, one-quarter of vertebrates die because of humans
Photo, posted March 6, 2019, courtesy of USFWS Midwest Region via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 08, 2019 Reducing Polar Bear Attacks
The increasing reduction of sea ice in the Arctic is changing the behavior of polar bears. Because they are spending more time on land, they are interacting with people much more frequently, occasionally with deadly results.
A study, published in 2017, looked at 144 years’ worth of polar bear
attacks on humans in the Arctic. Between
1960 and 2009, there were a reported 47 attacks by polar bears on people –
between 7 and 12 per decade. Between
2010 and 2014, as sea ice reached record lows, there were 15 attacks, a record
for a four-year period. Since 2000, 88%
of attacks have occurred between July and December, when sea ice is at its
lowest level of the year.
Last July, a young male polar bear attacked and killed a man who was
berry picking with his children. A month
later, a mother polar bear attacked and killed an Inuit hunter and injured two
others. This was the first known fatal
attack by a mother polar bear.
As a result, Inuit communities in the Nunavut region are asking for
higher legal polar bear harvest quotas, arguing that bear populations have
increased to a dangerous level.
These recent human fatalities have also provided an impetus for
developing new non-lethal conflict-resolution tools than can be used in
northern communities before more people as well as bears are killed.
There are now polar bear patrol teams tasked with driving bears away
from settlements. There is a bear hotline
and electric fencing around sled dog compounds.
The changing face of the Arctic is creating growing stress on the
polar bear population and on the people who make their home in that region.
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Web Links
As Polar Bear Attacks Increase in Warming Arctic, a Search for Solutions
Photo, posted September 28, 2015, courtesy of Anita Ritenour via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 05, 2019 Another Problem For Coral Reefs
Coral reefs around the world have been suffering in recent years from warming ocean temperatures as well as from increasing ocean acidification. Corals are very sensitive organisms that can only tolerate relatively slight changes in their environment. Thus, the majority of reef-building corals are found in tropical and subtropical waters with favorable conditions.
New research has confirmed that drastic changes in ocean salinity from, for example, severe freshwater flooding, provoke similar stress responses in corals as the heating that has resulted in freshwater bleaching and, eventually, coral death.
The coast of northeast Queensland in Australia has experienced
abnormal monsoon-related freshwater flooding that caused extreme and sudden
changes in the ocean salt concentration.
In places, nearshore reefs were exposed to water with only half the
normal ocean salinity. The result has
been a shock response in corals that prevents normal cell function. Unlike their response to heat stress, corals
exposed to reduced salinity experience a complete collapse of their internal
cellular protein balance.
The central Great Barrier Reef has actually been relatively free from
mass thermal bleaching events this Australian summer, but many coastal reefs
instead have been battling dramatic changes in water conditions as a result of
massive plumes of floodwater.
The wild weather in Australia is undoubtedly associated with the
changing climate and this new research shows that it is leading to yet another
threat to the world’s coral reefs. With
the frequency and severity of heavy rainfall and runoff events predicted to
continue to increase over the next few decades, proactive measures to increase
the resiliency of coral reefs are needed more than ever.
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Reduced salinity of seawater wreaks havoc on coral chemistry
Photo, posted December 12, 2010, courtesy of Gareth Williams via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 04, 2019 Trouble On The Colorado
The 1450-mile-long Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountains and wends its way to the Gulf of California, creating the Grand Canyon along the way, and providing water to some 40 million people. The amount of Colorado River water promised to users is far more than actually flows between its banks, and that amount is dropping.
An unrelenting drought since 2000 has resulted in the water levels of the two largest reservoirs of Colorado River water – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – being at all-time lows.
Lake Mead, just outside of Las Vegas, is the reservoir of Hoover Dam,
which provides power for millions of people in Southern California, Nevada, and
Arizona. The last time Lake Mead was
full was in 1983. It has slowly declined
and now is 40% full.
If the lake level drops another 7 feet to 1075 feet above sea level,
it will trigger a Tier 1 declaration, mandating cuts to water allocations to
Arizona and other states. If the level
drops to 1050 feet, it would reach Tier 2 at which point Hoover Dam would have
to stop generating electricity because water levels would be too low to flow
through it. If the lake level drops all
the way to 895 feet, it would be below the level at which water can be piped
out of it. This is known as the “dead
pool”.
These scenarios are no longer doomsday fantasies. Water managers in the Southwest see the
writing on the wall and are busy making contingency plans and developing ways
to use less water from the Colorado River.
The booming city of Phoenix in particular is hard at work finding
alternative ways to provide water for its millions of citizens. On the Colorado, drought in the new normal.
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On the Water-Starved Colorado River, Drought Is the New Normal
Photo, posted October 24, 2016, courtesy of Sharon Mollerus via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 03, 2019 The Rosewood Trade
Illegal trafficking in endangered flora and fauna is a topic of great interest and concern. We hear a lot about elephant ivory, rhino horn, and even pangolin scales. It turns out that the most trafficked form of flora or fauna in the world is actually rosewood. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, rosewood is traded more than ivory, rhino horn, and pangolin scales put together as measured either by volume or economic value. According to Earthsight, a London-based nonprofit that investigates environmental crime, rosewood might account for 40% of overall illegal species trade.
Almost all rosewood is headed to China, where the beautiful wood is
used in traditional hongmu furniture. A single bed made from particularly
desirable Madagascar rosewood can cost a million dollars.
The illegal rosewood trade has decimated many species of the trees
around the world. A tiny village in Madagascar
has seen its population grow by 5,000 in recent years because of migrants
coming to work as rosewood loggers. The
rosewood trade has been banned in Madagascar for decades, but a
well-established system of bribes has effectively eliminated that problem. Corruption at all levels allows Madagascar
rosewood to find its way onto ships and off to China.
In 2017, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora listed all of the world’s rosewood species under its
Appendix II, prohibiting all trade except in the rare cases where a local CITES
authority issues sustainability permits.
As is the case for other trafficked endangered species, until the
demand for the products disappears, people will find a way to make them available. And meanwhile, these beautiful trees are
rapidly disappearing.
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Web Links
The Rosewood Trade: An Illicit Trail from Forest to Furniture
Photo, posted November 17, 2007, courtesy of Larry Jacobsen via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 02, 2019 Sand Mining And The Environment
In discussions of the environment, we don’t hear much about sand mining. But sand mining is the world’s largest mining endeavor, responsible for 85% of all mineral extraction. Sand and gravel are mined on a huge scale around the world. The UN estimates that the total exceeds 40 billion tons a year. Most of this activity is unregulated and unmeasured, and much of it is corrupt and environmentally destructive.
Concrete is the predominant use for sand. Every ton of cement requires six to seven
tons of sand and gravel in order to make concrete. But sand also makes up 90% of asphalt on roads
and it is used for land reclamation in places like Singapore. Sand is also widely used in industries such
as glass manufacturing and fracking.
There are different sorts of sand.
Desert sand is mostly useless for making concrete because its grains are
too rounded by erosion and don’t bind well in the concrete. Marine sand is not great for concrete either
because it has to be washed clean of corrosive salts.
As a result, salt miners mostly get sand from pits on land and dredged up from lakes and riverbeds. Dredging massive quantities of sand from rivers and lakes drastically alters river flow, erodes riverbanks, dries up tributaries, lowers water tables, and trashes wetlands and fisheries. In many countries, this even goes on in national parks where officials turn a blind eye to the activity. India is the world’s second-largest sand mining country (after China) and widespread illegal extraction occurs throughout the country run by highly organized and even violent “sand mafias.”
Sand mining is a huge problem and, to date, is one that is pretty much
off of most people’s radar.
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The Hidden Environmental Toll of Mining the World’s Sand
Photo, posted June 3, 2017, courtesy of Andrey Talalov via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
2 min
April 01, 2019 Natural Climate Solutions Are Not Enough
A new policy perspective published in Science by researchers at seven prestigious institutions looked at the role of natural science solutions in stabilizing the Earth’s climate for people and ecosystems. While they asserted that it is imperative to ramp up natural climate solutions, they also concluded that natural solutions alone will not be sufficient.
Natural science solutions include such things as enhancing carbon
sinks from forests, agriculture and other lands. Doing these things are very beneficial in
their own right as they lead to improved forests, croplands, grazing lands, and
wetlands.
However, these things will not be enough to meet the goals of the
Paris Climate Agreement and must be combined with rapid efforts to decrease
emissions from the energy and industrial sectors. Among their various findings, the researchers
warn that a ten-year delay in emissions reductions from these sectors could
completely negate any potential benefits of natural climate solutions.
As has become increasingly clear, there is not an either-or situation
with regard to the actions that need to be taken with respect to climate
change.
Maximizing natural climate solutions and reducing emissions from the
energy and industrial sectors will provide broad benefits beyond climate change
mitigation. Doing these things will
improve forests and habitats, reduce the risk of wildfires, and decrease air and
water pollution thereby improving human health and well-being.
Of course, to reduce cumulative emissions and put a cap on the warming of the planet, there will need to be policy mechanisms and incentives in place that support both natural climate solutions and increasing mitigation efforts across the energy and industrial sectors.
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Web Links
Natural Climate Solutions Are Not Enough
Photo, posted February 11, 2012, courtesy of Joao Andre O. Dias 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.