Earth Wise

The world’s smallest porpoise – the vaquita – is in real trouble.  According to a recent report by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (or CIRVA), the vaquita population has plummeted to just 30 individuals –a 90% plunge since 2011 – despite international conservation efforts.  The vaquita, which is found only in […]

Car tires are generally considered environmentally unfriendly because they are predominantly made from fossil fuels.  Natural rubber is generally not used anymore; most tires are made from isoprene, which is chemically very like rubber but is produced by thermally breaking apart molecules in petroleum in a process called cracking.  The isoprene is separated out and […]

Batteries have never been more important.  Not only do we all depend on cell phones, tablets and laptop computers that run on batteries, but two enormous industries are in major transitions that rely upon battery technology: personal transportation and the utility industry.   The electricity grid is increasingly turning to solar and wind power for generation […]

Amphibians are one of the most threatened groups of animals on the planet.  Since the late 1980s, scientists have measured dramatic population declines from locations all over the world.  The plummeting amphibian populations are perceived to be one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity.  According to the IUCN, about 1 of every 3 […]

China has worked to reduce its coal consumption in recent years but the air quality in cities like Beijing is still notoriously poor and a major health hazard. Recent studies have indicated that air quality is negatively affecting the country’s economy.   One study last year by the RAND Corporation suggests that smog and other forms […]

At the end of last year, Southern California Edison turned on the largest lithium-ion battery storage facility in the world in Ontario, California.   It is a substation with 80 megawatt-hours of capacity, enough energy to power 2,500 households or charge 1,000 Tesla cars a day. The station is made up of commercial-grade Tesla Powerpack 2 […]

Back in 2011, utility-scale solar power cost a little over $4 per watt on average.  In February of that year, former Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the SunShot initiative, which had the goal of reducing the total cost of photovoltaic systems by 75% to the target value of $1 a watt by the year 2020. […]

Microalgae biofuels may provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels.  Algae efficiently use CO2 and can produce biomass very quickly.  Some species can double their mass in as little as 6 hours.   Such single-celled organisms are amenable to high-throughput techniques to evolve new strains, unlike terrestrial biomass sources like corn which can take years to […]

Regardless of the new administration’s position on climate change, America’s corporations have assumed a leadership role in the country’s ability to meet and beat previous domestic climate pledges. In fact, major U.S. companies have been supporting climate action and investing in renewable energy for decades.   IBM set a greenhouse gas reduction goal in 1998 and […]

The Netherlands – the country long associated with picturesque windmills – is now operating 100% of its electric trains with wind energy. As of January 1, 600,000 daily train passengers are now traveling totally carbon-neutral.  Dutch electric trains are running on 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy provided by the clean energy company Eneco.  There […]