Earth Wise

Most recent news about coral reefs around the world has been bad news.  There has been unprecedented coral bleaching in places like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.   The effects of climate change – including warming temperatures and rising seas – as well as the recent El Niño event have led to damaged reefs across the globe. […]

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to ban expanded polystyrene, the foam plastic used in food packaging, packing peanuts, coffee cups, and more.  It is one of the most extensive bans of this type in the U.S. These foam products are often referred to as Styrofoam, but that is actually a trademarked material […]

Ocean energy is about to take an important step towards making a real impact in Scotland.  The MeyGen Tidal Array Project is reaching the final construction of its demonstration phase, which will be the first test of multiple underwater turbines sited together in a full-scale array. Marine energy – generating electricity from waves and tides […]

At night our planet is now bathed in artificial light, ranging from streetlights and floodlights to burning gas flares in oil fields. There are few places that are truly dark at night.  One look at a satellite picture of the Korean peninsula will show that night lights follow economic development.  South Korea is one of […]

There has been lots of discussion about the decline in bee populations and its dire consequences for agriculture.  We have also talked about the efforts to save the monarch butterfly, whose numbers have been dropping dramatically over the years.  But the rest of the insect world does not get much attention.  For the most part, […]

New York City, the financial and cultural center as well as the largest city in the country, is known for a lot of things:  skyscrapers, shopping, and pizza immediately come to mind.  But we should add another thing to that list.  Trash. New York City produces 33 million tons of trash every year, which is […]

Los Angeles has decided to replace a major gas-burning power plant with an energy storage device which, if not exceeded by another before it is completed, will be the world’s largest storage battery. Hot summer afternoons place a great deal of strain on the electricity grid.  As air conditioners max out and people come home […]

Researchers in Antarctica have been keeping watch on the infamous ozone hole over that continent for several decades.  The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was a multinational agreement signed in 1987 designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances that enter the atmosphere.  It has been amended in […]

Orangutans – one of the planet’s most intelligent animals – can only be found in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the island of Borneo, which is a land mass shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.  And for years conservationists have been warning that measures put in place to protect orangutans have […]

The average global temperature is one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.   There has long been a goal to limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees above those levels.  But the Paris climate conference has set a more ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.   What difference would that half a degree […]