Earth Wise

It’s no secret that pollinators around the world are under threat.  According to a U.N. sponsored report released earlier this year, 40% of invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction.  And since approximately 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination, the decline of these pollinators poses a major threat […]

Trees are the number one way in which carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation over the long term.  A single tree can absorb CO2 at a rate of 48 pounds per year.  Because of this, the carbon footprints of 18 average Americans can be neutralized by one acre of hardwood trees.  […]

The top of the world is turning from white to blue in the summer.  The ice that has long covered the north polar seas is melting away. This past summer, the amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean was tied for the second-lowest in recorded history.  The total volume of Arctic sea ice in the […]

Back in June, we talked about The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation founded in 2013 by an 18-year-old named Boyan Slat, which is developing technologies to rid the oceans of the vast collections of plastic that have been accumulating over the past 50 years. The first step in the foundation’s effort has been to try […]

Pretty much every discussion of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and ordinary hybrids starts and ends up with the question of whether they are worth the money.  If the reason for buying such a vehicle is strictly economic, then this is the right question to ask.  But the naysayers who say such a purchase is foolish […]

Scientists estimate that there is more than 165 million tons of plastic swirling about in our oceans today.  And another 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in oceans every year.  According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, there could be more plastic by weight than fish […]

In late September, the world’s largest solar power plant went online in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.   It is a 648 MW array of solar panels that is spread across 2,500 acres in the town of Kamuthi and will supply enough energy to power 300,000 homes. The numbers for this solar park are staggering:  […]

The Cuomo Administration recently released the New York State Offshore Wind Blueprint, a plan to advance the development of offshore wind along New York’s coastline. The blueprint defines an Offshore Study area of the ocean covering over 16,000 square miles, from the south shore of Long Island and New York City out to the continental […]

Very few people are against the use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power in principle.  It is hard to argue against generating power from resources that are free and plentiful.  The main knock against renewable power sources has been that they cost too much compared with conventional, fossil-fuel technologies. Many people still want […]

Forests are a vital part of biodiversity and are one of the planet’s most important natural repositories for carbon dioxide.   They are also continually under attack by multiple forces:  more mouths to feed, more wood needed to burn and build with, more paper to manufacture, and more land needed to graze cattle. The global pace […]