Earth Wise

According to the National Retail Federation, spending on Halloween festivities this year by the 72% of Americans who plan to celebrate is expected to total $11.6 billion – or about $104 per person.  The annual consumer survey also found that 67% of Americans plan to pass out candy this year, and nearly 50% of Americans […]

The size and especially the weight of batteries is a critical factor for most things that use them.  Battery weight is a key limitation for computers and cell phones. It is even more of a limitation for electric cars, ships, or planes. If the battery of a device or vehicle can also function as a […]

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to be dangerously large and the perils of climate change are increasingly apparent, the world is increasingly exploring ways to deliberately intervene in climate systems.  A number of these ideas involve introducing substances into the atmosphere, but there are also ways to tinker with the oceans. The oceans naturally absorb […]

Every year, there are one to two million collisions between motor vehicles and large animals in the U.S.  About 200 people are killed annually.  Counting smaller vertebrates, around a million animals are killed by vehicles each day.  Research has shown that global warming is triggering widespread species redistribution.  As a result, more and more animals […]

Methane is a colorless and odorless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and is also a product of certain human activities.  It’s a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas and, as a result, is a major driver of climate change.  In fact, methane heats the atmosphere nearly 90 times faster than carbon dioxide over a […]

As more and more cars are powered by electricity instead of gasoline, people are beginning to worry about what happens during power outages caused by storms and other disruptive events.  It is easy to jump to the conclusion that this is a brand-new problem for drivers.  However, when electricity goes out over a sizeable area, […]

Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize.  Agriculture is responsible for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. On farms around the world, excess fertilizer gets broken down by microbes in the soil, releasing nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.  Nitrous oxide is a […]

Landslides are mass movements of rock, earth, or debris down a slope.  They can be initiated by rainfall, snowmelt, changes in water level, erosion by streams, earthquakes, volcanic activity, or by various human activities.  Most landslides we hear about are sudden events that can cause all sorts of calamities.  But not all landslides are rapid […]

August 2024 was the hottest August in the 175-years for which there are global records.  The last full month of summer also wrapped up the Northern Hemisphere‘s warmest summer on record. The average global surface temperature in August was 62.39 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 2.29 degrees above the 20th century August average.  Furthermore, August was […]

Officials at the federal Bureau of Land Management announced late in August that they had finalized a plan to add Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming to the Western Solar Plan, which started during the Obama era.   The plan, created in 2012, provides permitting for solar projects on federal land.  The original plan included Arizona, […]