A look at our changing environment.
For several years, a few airlines, notably United here in the US, have been experimenting with the use of sustainable jet fuel. Sustainable aviation fuel is made from such things as used cooking oil and agricultural waste. It produces up to 80% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel. To date, when used it […]
Wetlands are distinct ecosystems that are flooded or saturated by water, either permanently or seasonally. They include mangroves, marshes, swamps, forested wetlands, bogs, wet prairies, and vernal pools. The feature that most wetlands share is soil or substrate that is at least periodically saturated with or covered by water. Wetlands are some of the most […]
Last July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the release of the state’s third competitive offshore wind solicitation, seeking to add generating capacity to power at least 1.5 million homes. In response to the solicitation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – NYSERDA -received more than 100 proposals for 8 new projects […]
Insects can be found in every environment on Earth and play crucial roles in the planet’s ecosystems. In fact, Biologist E. O. Wilson once said that “if all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the […]
Driving on snowy or icy roads can be pretty dangerous. That is why roads are salted or coated with sand to provide traction in icy weather. But excessive use of these substances is bad for the environment and sometimes a storm will blow in before the roads can be coated. In a paper published in […]
Recently, United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres addressed the U.N. Security Council on the issue of the security threats created by rising sea levels. In the past, some members of the Security Council – notably Brazil, China, Russia, and at times, India – have argued that the U.N.’s climate program should address such issues and […]
The world’s longest-running record of direct readings of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is the Keeling Curve, measurements taken at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The readings have been going on with almost no interruption since Charles Keeling began taking them in the 1950s. But the eruption of Mauna Loa last November […]
Utah’s Great Salt Lake has been plagued by excessive water use and extensive drought conditions. As of January, the lake dropped to record-low water levels, losing 73% of its water and exposing 60% of its lakebed. According to scientists, the lake could disappear entirely within five years. Great Salt Lake is what is known as […]
When we think about wind power, we are usually talking about increasingly giant windfarms – either on land or offshore – that produce power on a utility scale. But there is also distributed wind energy, which refers to wind technologies in locations that directly support individuals, communities, and businesses. Distributed wind can be so-called behind-the-meter […]
The use of solar power has grown tremendously in recent years as it has declined in price and become far more competitive with other forms of electricity generation. Its fundamental drawback, of course, is that it only works when the sun is shining. Solar panels don’t produce any power at night. That is, until now, […]
Not long ago, many states across the country were setting goals to obtain 20% of their electricity from renewable sources. For a few states, like New York and Washington, ample amounts of hydropower made 20% an easy target. But for many others, 20% seemed like a very ambitious objective. Things have certainly changed. According to […]
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington are working with industry to develop a method of extracting valuable materials from various sources of water. The technique is the 21st-century equivalent of panning for gold in rivers and streams. The patent-pending technology makes use of magnetic nanoparticles that are surrounded […]
Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to turn water, carbon dioxide, and energy from sunlight into plant biomass. It provides humans and much of animal life with food. Photosynthesis is also nature’s way of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The CO2 is not directly stored in plants but rather is […]
Investors have poured billions of dollars into efforts to replace animal proteins with plant-based substitutes or even laboratory-grown animal cells. Replacing meats with these products is certainly a favorable development for the climate, but it is not likely to offset livestock agriculture’s climate and land use impacts anytime soon. According to research at Stanford University, […]
A study by researchers at Saint Louis University has found that elephants play a key role in creating forests that store large amounts of atmospheric carbon and in maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa. Since elephants are endangered, their status represents a significant threat to an ecosystem that is very important to the Earth’s […]
Climate change is shrinking the Arctic ice cover, which is making it easier for ships to travel along the northern coast of Russia, known as the Northern Sea Route or the Northeast Passage. There is also the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. More than […]
As the years roll by without sufficient progress in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the need for technologies that can capture CO2 from its sources or remove it from the air becomes stronger and stronger. People have developed various ways to capture carbon dioxide, but to date, they generally suffer from some combination of being too […]
According to the World Food Programme, a record 349 million people across 79 countries are facing acute food insecurity. This constitutes a staggering rise of 200 million people compared to pre-pandemic levels. Nearly one million people globally are fighting to survive in famine-like conditions, which is ten times more people than just five years ago. […]
According to a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit that studies the energy transition, we have reached a pivot point in which fossil fuels have peaked in their use for producing electricity and are about to enter a period of decline. The report makes the case that wind and solar power are […]
Recent satellite observations of the sea ice in the Antarctic found the lowest level of ice cover ever seen in the forty years that these observations have been made. As of February 8th, there were only 849,000 square miles of the Southern Ocean covered with ice. The previous record low was measured last February 24th […]