Earth Wise
931 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 20 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsA look at our changing environment.
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Self-heating concrete
April 24, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBStates in the colder parts of the country spend an estimated $2.3 billion a year on snow and ice removal as well as untold millions on repairing roadways damaged by winter weather. Researchers at Drexel University have been researching a way to extend the service life of concrete surfaces like roadways and to help them […]
Forever chemicals in water
April 23, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBSo-called forever chemicals are pervasive in a wide range of products. These are man-made substances called per- and polyfluoroalkyls or PFAS. They get their unfortunate nickname because the chemical bonds in them are so strong that the compounds don’t break down for hundreds or even thousands of years. PFAS compounds are used in makeup, dental […]
Rising fossil fuel emissions
April 22, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBAlmost every nation in the world has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. There is expanding use of renewable energy sources and growing numbers of electric cars. But despite all this, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels. The world’s population continues to grow and nations with large, rapidly […]
The world’s largest energy plant
April 19, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThe largest energy plant in the world is being built in India. In an area of barren desert in western India near the Pakistani border, Adani Green Energy Limited (or AGEL) is building a sprawling solar and wind power plant that will cover more than 200 square miles. It will be five times the size […]
Storing carbon underground and abandoned wells
April 18, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBUsing government support in the form of subsidies and tax credits, energy companies and others are planning to capture millions of tons of industrial carbon dioxide emissions and pipe the greenhouse gas into underground storage. It is a strategy enthusiastically supported by the fossil fuel industry because it allows them to keep burning the stuff. […]
Wireless car charging
April 17, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIt’s increasingly common to see cars hooked up to charging cables in shopping centers, rest stops, and dedicated charging stations. Charging electric cars is easy to do, just like charging phones and laptop computers. These days, it is pretty common to charge phones without using any charging cable at all because of the availability of […]
Sequoias in Britain
April 16, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGiant sequoias are the most massive trees on earth. They can grow as tall as nearly 300 feet and have trunk diameters from 20 to 26 feet. They are also among the oldest living organisms on Earth; some of them are well over 3,000 years old. The trees are native to the western slopes of […]
The health impacts of gas venting and flaring
April 15, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBOil and gas producers around the world use venting and flaring to remove excess natural gas in crude oil production. Flaring is the process of burning excess natural gas at the production well using a flare to ignite the methane and other components in the gas, while venting is the direct release of natural gas […]
Skiing and climate change
April 12, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBAccording to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, anthropogenic climate change resulting in higher average temperatures has caused a global decline in snowfall. Less snow threatens to reinforce global warming, and to disrupt food, water, and livelihoods for billions of people. According to a new study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, annual snow […]
Lithium in Arkansas
April 11, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThere are more and more electric cars on the road and utilities are installing record amounts of battery storage to back up solar and wind power generation. Both of these things currently use lithium-ion batteries so the need for them keeps growing. There is actually plenty of lithium in the world. Sources of more than […]
Biodegradable microplastics
April 10, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBOrdinary plastics are not biodegradable, but they are also not indestructible. Plastics in the environment can break down into tiny fragments – microplastics – and those, unfortunately, are nearly indestructible. Microplastics have been documented in the oceans and in soil virtually everywhere on Earth including remote frozen wastelands and on top of high mountains. More […]
An ice-free Arctic
April 09, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBAccording to a new study by Colorado University, Boulder, the Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as soon as sometime in the next few years. Earlier predictions for when the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur were sometime well into the 2030s. By mid-century, the Arctic is likely to […]
Canadian zombie fires
April 08, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBCanada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded. Over 6,000 fires burned nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces. The burned areas are roughly the size of the entire country of Finland and represent almost triple the amount burned in the previous year, which itself was […]
Energy efficient cows
April 05, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBLivestock production – primarily cows – produce nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of methane emitted by burping caused by the way they process food. A single cow produces roughly 200 pounds of methane gas per year and there are 1.5 billion heads of cattle in the world. Researchers at […]
A common plant could be a valuable food source
April 04, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBA new study by researchers at Penn State University has found that a common water plant in the eastern U.S. could be a valuable green fertilizer, a feed for poultry and livestock, and even a life-saving food for people in the event of a catastrophe or disaster. The plant is the Carolina azolla. It is […]
Who’s driving electric?
April 03, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBElectric cars are growing in popularity around the world and are expected to represent 20% of new car sales this year. In some places, they have a much bigger share: 38% in China and a whopping 82% in Norway. Here in the U.S., things are more complicated. Last year, EVs represented 8.5% of U.S. new […]
Cyber protection for apple orchards
April 02, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBSpring frosts represent a real danger for apple orchards. The changing climate has brought about periods of unusually warm weather at times early in the year that have caused trees and other flowering plants to bloom early. For apple growers, this has made their orchards more susceptible to the damaging effects of extreme cold events. […]
Progress on offshore wind in New York
April 01, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBNew York has now conditionally awarded two offshore wind projects that will move towards operation in 2026. The projects, totaling more than 1,700 megawatts of power, will be the largest power generation projects in New York state in more than 35 years. It is an important milestone toward achieving the state’s goal of developing 9,000 […]
Small changes can yield big results
March 29, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGlobal food production is one of the largest contributors to climate change. In fact, one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions result from food production and agriculture. Be that as it may, we still have to eat. But what we choose to eat has a major impact on the environment. According to a new study […]
A surprising drop in renewable power
March 28, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBRenewable power – which includes wind farms, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams – constitutes over 21% of the country’s utility-scale electricity generation, behind only natural gas power plants at 43%. Nuclear power provides nearly 19% of our electricity and coal, which is gradually diminishing, is at 16%. Both solar and wind power capacity have been […]
Shrinking African glaciers
March 27, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBWe don’t usually associate Africa with glaciers, but the continent has had glaciers on its highest peaks for the past 10,000 to 15,000 years. Africa’s glaciers are found in three regions: the Rwenzori Mountains along the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Kenya. At the turn of […]
How to make cities cooler
March 26, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIn cities, the air, surface, and soil temperatures are almost always warmer than in rural areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. Urban heat islands occur when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat. Urban planners around the world have […]
Mercury in tuna
March 25, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBMercury is found throughout the ocean, and there is at least some of it in any fish one might eat. It is an element found naturally in the environment, but it is also a byproduct of manmade pollution. Generally speaking, bigger fish tend to have higher mercury levels than smaller ones, because they are higher […]
The carbon footprint of urban agriculture
March 22, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBUrban agriculture – essentially farming within a city – has become increasingly popular worldwide. It is intended to make cities and urban food systems more sustainable. There are social and nutritional benefits to urban agriculture, but its carbon footprint has not been widely studied. There are high-tech, energy-intensive forms of urban agriculture, such as vertical […]
Greenland is greening
March 21, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBDespite their names, Iceland is very green, and Greenland is very icy. But in Greenland, that is changing. Temperatures in the world’s largest island are rising twice as fast as they are in the rest of the world and, as a result, the icy rocky landscape is turning increasingly green. Satellite records reveal that over […]
Sponging up a river
March 20, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBDuring the first week of February, an atmospheric river dumped enormous amounts of rain on Southern California. Over the course of four days, Los Angeles received 9 inches of rain. The average annual rainfall in the city is only 14 inches. But Los Angeles was not the site of a flooding disaster because the city […]
Hybrid beef rice
March 19, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThere is growing interest in innovative and more environmentally friendly ways to provide protein in our diets. We’ve heard a great deal about lab-grown or cultured meats and about protein derived from insects. Whether either of these things achieves mainstream acceptance remains to be seen. Scientists at Yonsei University in South Korea have developed a […]
Golf courses gone wild
March 18, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGolf courses are a significant burden on the environment. The US has 16,000 golf courses which use 1.5 billion gallons of water a day and are treated with 100,000 tons of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium each year. In recent years, the golf industry has taken steps to lighten its environmental toll by using less water, […]
Iceland power
March 15, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIceland burns very little fossil fuel to power its economy and heat its homes. About 85% of its energy comes from geothermal power and hydropower. Its unique geology provides it with the highest percentage of renewable energy in the world. The fossil fuel that Iceland does burn is primarily used to power cars and trucks […]
A lake in Death Valley
March 14, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBDeath Valley in California is the driest place in North America, averaging only 2 inches of rain each year. Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America with a depth of 282 feet below sea level. Currently, Badwater Basin is the site of an ephemeral lake called Lake Manley. The lake […]
AI’s Environmental Footprint
March 13, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBArtificial intelligence is everywhere these days. Some say it is the biggest development since the discovery of fire. There is a lot of hype regarding AI, and it will be a while before the hype is sorted out from the reality. But one thing that is certain is that AI is resource-intensive and has a […]
Is the Amazon rainforest nearing a tipping point?
March 12, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThe Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering more than 2.5 million square miles. More than three million species live in the rainforest, which constitutes approximately 10% of the world’s known biodiversity. The Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity is so rich that scientists are still discovering new species all the time. The Amazon rainforest […]
The East Coast is sinking
March 11, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBMost of the world’s largest cities are located in coastal regions and coastal regions are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Human populations continue to migrate towards low-elevation coastal areas at the same time that sea level rise is accelerating. Coastal communities worldwide are increasingly vulnerable to the dangers of flooding and erosion. […]
Little ice on the Great Lakes
March 08, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIn an average year, the Great Lakes end up about 40% covered in ice. But this is not an average year. 2023 was the warmest year on record and, in fact, the global temperature was more than 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial average for the full year. That hasn’t happened before. As a result of […]
Polar bears and the changing climate
March 07, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThe changing climate poses a major threat to polar bear survival. Polar bears, whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, depend on sea ice for nearly all of their lifecycle functions. Rising global temperatures are causing this sea ice to disappear. With less sea ice, polar bears are forced to stay longer on […]
A wet January
March 06, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBFor the first time in a while, the monthly report on the US climate did not feature record-setting heat. The average January temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 1.6 degrees above the average, but that only ranked it in the middle third of the climate record. The diminishing El Niño probably helped. On the other […]
Record energy transition investments
March 05, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGlobal investment in the energy transition – that is, the transition away from fossil fuels – increased by 17% in 2023, reaching a new high of $1.8 trillion dollars. That number includes spending on electric vehicles and their associated infrastructure, electrification of the power grid, and various other changes to the energy system. Electrified transport […]
Global groundwater depletion
March 04, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGroundwater is found underground in aquifers and it bubbles up naturally into springs, streams, and rivers. It’s also often pumped out for use by people. Researchers from UC Santa Barbara have conducted the largest assessment of groundwater levels across the globe, spanning 170,000 wells and nearly 1,700 aquifers across more than 40 countries. The team […]
Record renewable energy in Scotland
March 01, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThe Scottish government recently announced that in 2022, renewable technologies in that country produced the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s electricity consumption. Fossil fuels still supplied electricity in Scotland, helping to fill in gaps in renewable power, but the government figures showed that the growing amount of Scottish renewable generation can easily generate more power […]
Fusion energy
February 29, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBNuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. Two atoms of hydrogen unite to form one helium atom and release energy in the process. Hydrogen bombs work in this way and since their development in the 1950s, scientists have sought a way to use fusion to generate electricity. Many scientists believe that the key […]
Hope for white rhinos
February 28, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThere are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, and both of them are female. The last male died in 2018. Northern white rhinos live to about 40 and one of the two remaining is 35 and the other 24. The clock is ticking for the species. Recently, scientists with the BioRescue consortium […]
Protecting wine grapes from wildfire smoke
February 27, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIn recent years, wildfires have become a major threat to the wine industry because of the effects of smoke on wine grapes. Smoke taint from the California fires of September 2020 significantly impacted the quality of wine grapes. In total, smoke taint cost the wine industry in Western states more than $3 billion in losses […]
Natural hydrogen
February 26, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBHydrogen is considered to be a potential substitute for conventional fossil fuels in applications where electricity cannot easily be used such as in blast furnaces, cement works, industrial heating, long-distance aviation, and shipping. But most hydrogen is manufactured by separating it from methane, which is energy-intensive and produces carbon dioxide. So-called green hydrogen is made […]
Otters to the rescue
February 23, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBCalifornia sea otters were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century. Only a small number survived along California’s central coast. But over time, the otters recovered and increasingly recolonized their former habitats. Sea otters are playing an important role in safeguarding California’s kelp forests and marshlands against the harmful effects of climate change. Over […]
Groundwater and climate change
February 22, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGroundwater is the vast reserve of water beneath Earth’s surface. It’s an essential resource for humans, plants, animals, and other living organisms. According to the United States Geological Survey, about 30% of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. In areas lacking sufficient surface water supply from rivers and reservoirs, groundwater is critical […]
Red mud and steel
February 21, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBMost of us have never heard of red mud. Otherwise known as bauxite residue, it is an industrial waste product generated by the most common process by which aluminum is made and the world produces 200 million tons of red mud each year. The stuff is a significant environmental hazard being extremely alkaline and corrosive. […]
Satellites discovering penguins
February 20, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBThe loss of sea ice in Antarctica has forced emperor penguins to seek out new breeding grounds. Some colonies have traveled more than 20 miles in search of stable ice. Emperor females lay a single egg on a stretch of sea ice at the start of winter and males keep the eggs warm while the […]
Air pollution in India
February 19, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBIndia is one of the world’s most polluted countries. In fact, of the 30 cities with the worst air pollution around the globe, 21 of them can be found in India. India’s capital city, New Delhi, is the most polluted city in the world. Concentrations of fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) in Delhi, which […]
Pollinator-friendly solar power
February 16, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBGlobal insect biodiversity has been in decline as a result of habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. Restoring insect habitat is a way to reverse that trend. Expanded use of solar energy is a critical part of mitigating climate change. In order to meet the grid decarbonization goals the U.S. has set, approximately 10 […]
Adirondack lakes becoming inhospitable for trout
February 15, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.77 MBA combination of the warming climate and the phenomenon of lake browning are making the bottom of most lakes in New York’s Adirondack Mountains unlivable for cold water fish – such as trout, salmon, and whitefish – in the summer. Lake browning occurs when dissolved organic matter from forests turns the water tea-brown. Browning is […]