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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
The doomsday glacier
The Thwaites Glacier is an enormous Antarctic Glacier. Its area is larger than that of Florida – in fact, larger than 30 other U.S. states – and it is melting. It has been retreating for 80 years but has accelerated its pace in the past 30. Its shedding of ice into the ocean already contributes […]
Trends in rooftop solar
Rooftop solar power in the United States has increased by a factor of ten over the past decade and the majority of that growth has been in the past six or seven years. At this point, about 7% of American homes have solar panels on their roofs – about 5 million in total. Rooftop solar […]
Weather extremes for most people
Scientists from the CICERO Center for International Climate Research in Norway along with researchers at the University of Reading in the UK have analyzed how global warming can combine with normal variations in the weather to produce decades-long periods of very rapid changes involving both extreme temperatures and extreme amounts of rainfall. Many parts of […]
Rainfall and sea turtles
There are seven species of sea turtles that inhabit the world’s oceans. Six of the seven sea turtle species – all of them except the flatback – are present in U.S. waters, and are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Sea turtles, which have been around for more than 100 million […]
Last chance tourism
Glaciers around the world are shrinking or disappearing. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are the biggest contributors to global sea level rise and ice loss rates are continuing to increase. Even if the world somehow manages to meet the climate goal of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world will still […]
Ecofriendly Glass
Glass has been used for thousands of years to make everything from windows to bottles to microscope slides. For all that time, most glass has been in the form of soda lime silicate glass, which is made by melting quartz sand with carbon-based ingredients – soda ash and limestone – at high melting temperatures of […]
Food, timber, and climate change
The sights of coffee plantations in California and vineyards in Britain are becoming more common as the climate changes. But behind what sounds like a success story is a sobering one: climate change is shifting the regions suitable for growing food all around the world. According to a new study by researchers from the University […]
Solar farms and pollinators
Two important environmental challenges are finding some literal common ground: the need to reduce carbon emissions and the fight to stave off global biodiversity collapse. Both issues can be addressed at solar farms. Solar energy is an important weapon in the battle against climate change. But utility-scale solar farms take up large amounts of land. […]
Revolution Wind installs first turbine
Revolution Wind is an offshore wind farm being built by Rhode Island and Connecticut and is the first multi-state offshore wind farm in the United States. Once completed, it will deliver 400 MW of power to Rhode Island and 304 MW of power to Connecticut. Revolution Wind is a 50/50 partnership between Ørsted, the Danish […]
Removing nanoplastics from water
Plastic pollution is a growing problem for people and for the environment in multiple ways. When plastics break down over time, they can form small particles called microplastics – bits smaller than sesame seeds – and these, in turn, can break down into even smaller pieces called nanoplastics. They are too small to be seen […]
Electric cars: Boom or bust?
Media coverage of electric cars in this country is pretty confusing. Are electric cars taking over or has the EV bubble burst? EVs currently represent about 8% of the US new car market. But they continue to face some relatively unique headwinds in this country. A very powerful and influential oil industry makes sure that […]