Earth Wise

By Randy SimonScience Education Self-Improvement Natural Sciences Nature

Earth Wise episodes

May 04, 2018 Microplastics In Soil
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EW-05-04-18-Microplastics-in-Soil.mp3
Many of us are well aware of the environmental challenge faced because of the proliferation of plastics. Since plastic does not decompose naturally, most of it remains in our environment. Only 12% has been incinerated and only 9% has been recycled. A great deal of plastic ends up in the ocean and other bodies of water. Much of it breaks down into small particles – microplastics – which are now ubiquitous in the oceans. There are also microplastics that started out that way in the form of little beads used in the cosmetics industry. Studies have found microplastics in the bodies of 73% of fish from the North Atlantic.
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2 min
May 03, 2018 Indonesian Deforestation Continues
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EW-05-03-18-Indonesian-Deforestation-Continues.mp3
Worldwide, deforestation and land disturbance are responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. The largest contributor to this problem is Indonesia and getting control of its emissions is a crucial part of meeting global carbon reduction targets.
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2 min
May 02, 2018 The High Cost Of The Cloud
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EW-05-02-18-The-High-Cost-of-the-Cloud.mp3
More and more often we make use of “the cloud” – that mysterious place where we store, move, process and analyze data. We keep our photos there. We stream music and videos from there. We do our work there. Perhaps we have a mental image of all of this digital information floating above our heads in some ethereal way: like in a cloud.
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2 min
May 01, 2018 Finding Methane Leaks With Lasers
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EW-05-01-18-Finding-Methane-Leaks.mp3
Burning natural gas instead of coal is considered to be an important way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In principle, it is. Gas combustion produces much less carbon dioxide than coal combustion.
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2 min
April 30, 2018 A Robot Fish
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-30-18-A-Robot-Fish.mp3
Scientists studying marine life have to figure out ways to get cameras into areas that are too dense or dangerous for people to enter. This often means sending delicate equipment into places where collisions are both likely and damaging and that equipment is generally tethered to ships or other objects. To really see what is going on in the underwater world, a better approach is needed.
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2 min
April 27, 2018 Whom Should We Save?
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-27-18-Whom-Should-We-Save.mp3
The list of endangered species continues to get longer around the world and society is increasingly faced with the nearly impossible decision of which ones to take off life support.
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2 min
April 26, 2018 Are We Drinking Plastic?
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-26-18-Are-We-Drinking-Plastic.mp3
Almost everyone everywhere comes into contact with plastic everyday. Its use has increased 20-fold in the past half-century, and production is expected to double again in the next 20 years. But is plastic so ubiquitous that we are unwittingly drinking the stuff?
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2 min
April 25, 2018 A Weird Answer To A Serious Problem
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-25-18-A-Weird-Answer.mp3
Resistance to antibiotics is a rising problem that costs an estimated 700,000 lives each year. Some experts predict that if the problem can’t be solved, that number could grow to 10 million deaths annually by 2050. As a result, researchers around the world are investigating multiple ways to help fight antibiotic resistance.
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2 min
April 24, 2018 A Milestone For Energy Storage
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-04-24-18-A-Milestone-for-Energy-Storage.mp3
The United States has now added the capacity to store a billion watts of power for one hour and it may double that total by the end of this year. According to the firm GTM Research, the energy storage industry – previously nearly invisible – is undergoing rapid growth. Much of the growth has been in homes with products like the Tesla Powerwall but has also been on the scale of the electric grid, where power companies can use storage to control when to deploy excess electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar power.
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2 min
April 23, 2018 Fewer Snowbird Sharks
https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/EW-04-23-18-Fewer-Snowbird-Sharks.mp3
Blacktip sharks are snowbirds, to use a cross-species metaphor. At least, they usually are. The males of the species swim south to southern Florida during the coldest months of the year and head back north to North Carolina in the spring to mate with females.
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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.