The Antarctic Peninsula, like other polar regions, is warming faster than the rest of the world. Ocean heatwaves and ice loss are becoming more common and more severe. New research by the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire in the UK along with the British Antarctic Survey used satellite data to assess how much the Antarctic […]
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Earth Wise offers a look at our changing environment. Eco-friendly business practices, the latest environmental news, and how nature impacts our environment in ways never before considered.
Latest Articles
Renewables progress
According to a new report by the International Energy Agency, the world is on track to produce nearly half of the electricity it uses from renewable sources by the end of this decade. The report also finds that in nearly every country, large wind and solar plants are the cheapest forms of new power. Between […]
Rivers are drying up
According to a new U.N. report, the world’s rivers had their driest year in at least three decades. Record heat and droughts in many places contributed to low levels of water in many of the world’s rivers. The world faces problems of either too much or too little water. The warming climate has fueled both […]
Megafires and orchard health
The frequent and massive megafires in places like Canada and the American west have led to a lot of research on the impact of smoke on humans but there has been less study of the effects of smoke on plant health. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have found that trees are just as […]
The last coal plant in Britain
The Industrial Revolution, which basically got underway in the mid-19th century, was largely enabled by coal, which fueled iron manufacturing, railroads, steam engines, and more. Most of these things got their start in Britain, which inspired the rest of the world to follow suit. The world’s first coal-burning power plant began producing electricity at the […]
Renegade geoengineering
As the dangers of climate change continue to grow, so has interest in geoengineering – deliberate tinkering with the earth’s climate system. In particular, stratospheric solar geoengineering – releasing aerosols into the stratosphere to reduce the amount of heat from the sun reaching the Earth – is attracting increasing interest. Scientists at Harvard, Cornell, Colorado […]
Big Food and greenhouse gas emissions
The global food system is responsible for as much as 40% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. The investor advocacy group Ceres has tracked whether the 50 largest North American food and agriculture companies have set targets to lower their emissions and whether doing so has actually resulted in lower emissions. The emissions from food and […]
Halloween pumpkins
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 […]
A structural battery
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 […]
Ocean geoengineering
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 […]
Wildlife crossings
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 […]
Rising methane emissions
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 […]
Electric cars and power outages
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, […]
The impact of climate change on agriculture
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 […]
Slow-moving landslides
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 […]
And the heat goes on
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 […]
Solar energy on federal land
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, […]
Canadian wildfires and global emissions
The wildfires that burned vast amounts of Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced enormous amounts of smoke that found its way into American cities, working its way down the eastern seaboard and even producing unsafe air in Florida. Researchers at Cal Tech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed the carbon emissions associated with these fires […]
Tourism and climate action
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the foremost natural wonders of the world and is a major tourist attraction. It is well-known that the changing climate is threatening the survival of the Great Barrier Reef as well as other coral reefs around the world. A recent study by researchers at the University of Queensland […]
Predicting major earthquakes
Natural disasters continue to be major threats for people, just as they always have been. But modern technology has greatly improved our ability to prepare for and, in many cases, escape from the worst effects of these events. A good example is hurricane forecasting. Nowadays, there is plenty of warning when a major hurricane is […]