Earth Wise

Farmers in many places have found additional sources of income by allowing wind turbines to be built on their land.  One example is the Amazon Wind Farm, which is a massive project of over 100 turbines near Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  The 494-foot tall turbine towers scattered over 34 square miles are rising up above […]

Plants and animals have evolved over time to live in specific environmental niches.  As the climate warms, parts of the ranges in which they live may no longer offer the conditions under which they can thrive.  Species can respond to these changes in three ways:   they can adapt to new conditions by undergoing niche shifts; […]

We recently talked about the increasing efforts by colleges and universities to embrace sustainability with the use of renewable energy sources.  Those efforts are increasing in many places. The University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst has recently committed to installing 5.5 megawatts of solar power in 8 different locations on its sprawling 1,450-acre campus.  The […]

This time of the year, sea ice in the Arctic is on the rise as winter sets in.  A combination of unusually high air temperatures and a warmer than normal ocean led to a record low for Arctic sea ice extent in November.  In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic sea ice extent also hit a record […]

America’s National Parks are special places of incomparable beauty and fascination.  When the National Park Service was first created 100 years ago, it was instructed to leave these places “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”   We now live in a time when the changing climate is altering many aspects of the landscape including in […]

With the forthcoming administration change, it appears that the federal government is likely to start backing away from tackling climate change and may even be obstructive towards efforts to mitigate the growing problem of greenhouse gas emissions. Without the active participation of the United States in climate change mitigation efforts, the likelihood of increasingly serious […]

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world’s tallest land mammal may be in trouble.  Giraffe populations have declined dramatically over the past 30 years, falling to approximately 97,000 from 163,000 in the 1980s.  The falling giraffe populations prompted the IUCN in December to add the iconic animal to its Red […]

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere and is the largest body of water in the United States after the five Great Lakes.  When the pioneers first arrived in the area back in the middle of the 19th century, the lake spread across about 1,600 square miles.   Now, the […]

Wind turbines have been getting bigger and bigger over the years.   The reason is that bigger blades produce more power and give much more bang for the buck.  A big part of the plummeting price of wind power is the increasing amount of power produced by each turbine. Most current U.S. wind turbines produce between […]

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process in which water, chemicals and sand are injected at high pressure to split apart rock thousands of feet below Earth’s surface and release oil or natural gas.  And it’s a controversial practice.  Opponents reject the practice of fracking due to a host of environmental concerns, including pollution and […]