A look at our changing environment.
In recent years, there have been efforts to change the nature of wood to give it new properties. People have demonstrated so-called augmented wood with integrated electronics, energy storage capabilities, and other properties. Several different groups of researchers have developed wood that is actually transparent. In 2016, researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in […]
The International Energy Agency, founded in 1974, keeps track of the world’s energy systems and anticipates how they are likely to change over time. Policymakers around the world look to the agency’s annual World Energy Outlook publication for guidance. In 2000, the agency made the prediction that by the year 2020, there would be a […]
Glaciers represent the snows of centuries compressed over time to form flowing rivers of ice. Glaciers always change, accumulating snow in the winter and losing ice to melting in the summer. But in recent times, the melting has been outpacing the accumulation. Glaciers are a sensitive indicator of climate change. They have been melting at […]
The western United States is entering the fire season under much worse drought conditions than last year. Last year, 15,800 square miles burned in the U.S., mostly in the West. The western U.S. is in the midst of a 20-year mega-drought. Rainfall in the Rocky Mountains and farther west was the second lowest on record […]
We have previously talked about installing solar arrays on the surface of bodies of water. The idea is especially attractive in places like Japan where land resources are scarce. There are several floating solar installations in the UK and the idea is starting to catch on elsewhere as well. It is quite possible that the […]
Trawling is a method of commercial fishing that involves pulling or dragging a fishing net – called a trawl – through the water or across the seabed in hopes of catching fish. Commercial fishing companies favor towing trawl nets because large quantities of fish can be caught in one go. However, the trouble with trawling […]
Carbon credits have been around since the late 1990s. The idea is to offset carbon emissions from some carbon emitting activity – anything from a wedding in California to a factory operating in Minnesota – by buying carbon credits earned from a carbon-absorbing activity, such as planting trees in the Amazon. Blue carbon credits are […]
Climate change has driven countries, states, utilities, and corporations to set goals to eliminate power-sector carbon emissions. So far, 17 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have adopted laws or executive orders to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity over the next couple of decades. Forty-six U.S. utilities have pledged to go carbon-free no later […]
There is a great deal of interest in protecting nature and, in many cases, restoring aspects of nature that have been lost. But what do these things really mean? What is most important? Protecting iconic species? Strengthening nature’s resilience? Several recent scientific papers address these questions and come up with rather different answers. It isn’t […]
Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia have been able to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells using material made from human hair. Perovskite solar cells are an up-and-coming technology that offers the possibility of making solar cells less expensive, more efficient, and flexible so that there could be solar-powered clothing, backpacks, […]
Texas has been a leader in wind energy for a number of years. In 2020, wind made up 23% of the state’s generating capacity and provided 20% of in-state generation. But although wind capacity in Texas has grown rapidly in recent years, solar power is expected to make up the largest share of the state’s […]
The extensive shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reduced activity across many sectors of the global economy. As a result, global pollution and greenhouse gas emissions also saw lower levels. As the COVID crisis lessens, an economic recovery is growing and as that occurs, emissions are on the rise. The International Energy Agency […]
The Biden administration has given final approval to a project it hopes will usher in a new era of wind energy in the United States. The greenlight was announced by the Department of the Interior on May 11. The Vineyard Wind project intends to install up to 84 huge wind turbines about 12 nautical miles […]
Scientists have concluded that the changing climate is primarily the result of increased human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the effects of global climate change include melting glaciers, warming oceans, intensifying storms, and rising seas. Another consequence of global climate change is natural disasters like floods and wildfires. Climate change is increasing the frequency and […]
The glut of plastics is one of the world’s most challenging environmental problems. The average American generates over 200 pounds of plastic waste each year and most of that ends up in landfills. Researchers around the globe continue to work on potential solutions to the plastic waste problem. Two years ago, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley […]
The Republic of Maldives is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka and India and about 400 miles from the Asian mainland. It is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed sovereign states, the smallest Asian country by land area, and, with a little over 500,000 inhabitants, the second least populous country […]
Water security is a serious global problem. Nearly 1.5 billion people – including almost half a billion children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability. Less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh and demand for it is rising with increasing population growth, urbanization, and growing water needs from a […]
Almost everything we do ultimately results in greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and therefore has an impact on the climate. But some activities have much more impact than others. The aviation industry is responsible for about 5% of global warming. This doesn’t seem like that large a contribution, but only a very small percentage of […]
Water is a fundamental need for every human being on the planet. Each person requires more than five gallons of clean and safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and keeping clean. Groundwater wells remain one of the primary sources of drinking water. In fact, more than half of the world’s population gets its drinking […]
The dangers of overexposure to UV solar radiation have led to the extensive production and use of sunscreen products. It is generally understood that many of the chemical compounds used in sunscreen products have toxic effects on marine organisms, but research in this area is relatively limited. There are estimates that as many as 82,000 […]