Economy and Policy

Goats As Allies In Removing Problem Plants

February 13, 2015 By EarthWise

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s last census, there are more than 2.5 million goats living in America. The majority are reared for their milk, meat, and mohair wool. But a small but growing number have been recruited for a new task: combating nuisance and invasive plants.

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Hope For Sea Turtles

February 12, 2015 By EarthWise

If you are fortunate enough to have encountered sea turtles while swimming, snorkeling or diving in the sea, then you know how remarkable these creatures are. The seven species of these large reptiles are real throwbacks to the age of dinosaurs.

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Chocolate That Is Less Bittersweet

February 11, 2015 By EarthWise

February is a boon for the chocolate industry, with heart-shaped confections found everywhere from drugstores to gas stations. Of course, the same could be said of almost any holiday, as chocolate has become a quintessential part of Easter, Mother’s Day and more.

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Sustainable Flowers

February 10, 2015 By EarthWise

It’s that time of year when many of us will buy flowers for those we love. After all, what’s more quintessentially romantic than a bouquet of red roses? But what it takes for those roses to get to the refrigerated case of your local florist is decidedly less romantic.

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Restoring Rainforests

February 9, 2015 By EarthWise

Forests play a major role in the Earth’s carbon cycle. Trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air and lock the carbon away in their wood and in the soil beneath them. Over time, we have cut down or damaged at least three-quarters of the world’s forests and that destruction has been an important contributor to climate change.

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Algal Biofuel

February 6, 2015 By EarthWise

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and at dozens of other labs nationwide, scientists are trying to develop biofuels made from algae. Right now, a gallon of fuel made from algae costs four times as much as a gallon of conventional diesel, but researchers believe that the costs will come down dramatically over time.

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Global Warming And Wine

February 5, 2015 By EarthWise

It has often been argued that global climate change is affecting the less fortunate more than the wealthy. Having money can insulate people from such problems as rising food prices and flooding in coastal areas. Apart from that, much wealth is generated by industries that contribute to global warming as opposed to combating it.

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Cleaning Up Carbon Pollution And Improving Air Quality

February 4, 2015 By EarthWise

States have a chance to safeguard more than the climate when they adopt the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan. That’s because many of the strategies used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have the added benefit of improving air quality.

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Hidden Water Usage

February 3, 2015 By EarthWise

Water is essential for life and we use lots of it. What few of us think about is how much of our water use is hidden. This is the water used to produce the food we eat and the things we use in our daily lives. When this is added in, each person consumes between 500 and 1,300 gallons per day, or as much as 480,000 gallons a year, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

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Ensuring The World’s Parks Protect Biodiversity

February 2, 2015 By EarthWise

Every ten years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature hosts the World Parks Congress. In November, more than 6,000 people from 170 countries descended on Sydney, Australia to assess the state of the world’s protected areas at the sixth Congress.

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The European Union Can Ban GMO Crops

January 30, 2015 By EarthWise

The widespread use of genetically modified organisms or GMOs in crops is an increasingly controversial practice. Here in the US, there are battles over labeling laws and disclosures about which foods contain GMOs and which ones don’t.

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Keeping The Air Clean While Getting Warm

January 29, 2015 By EarthWise

Fireplaces and stoves are coveted features in many homes, providing warmth and ambiance. But managed improperly, these heat sources can be inefficient and unhealthy.

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Massachusetts and Solar Power

January 28, 2015 By EarthWise

Massachusetts is not known for its sunny climate and can’t compete with California where huge solar-power farms in the desert can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity. Nevertheless, the state is enthusiastically embracing solar energy wherever it can.

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Recycling Christmas Trees

January 27, 2015 By EarthWise

Were you among the 20 million Americans that put up a real Christmas tree? Most of the Fraser firs and blue spruces so lovingly decorated last Christmas ended up in the same place: the curb.

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Flying On Green Energy

January 26, 2015 By EarthWise

If you’ve ever used an online carbon footprint calculator, you may have been surprised by how much of your energy usage comes from air travel. A few flights a year and you’ve produced as much carbon as you have from driving your car all year.

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Reducing Phosphorus Pollution In Lake Erie

January 23, 2015 By EarthWise

Toxic algal blooms have been spreading throughout Lake Erie. In August, contamination left 400,000 residents in Ohio and Michigan without water for 72 hours. Now, legislators are taking steps to prevent future catastrophes by regulating farming practices.

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Enhanced Geothermal Systems

January 22, 2015 By EarthWise

Geothermal electricity is a clean, around-the-clock source of power, but has been limited to those few sites where the earth’s heat has created sources of hot water under the ground. Enhanced Geothermal Systems or EGS generate geothermal electricity without the need for natural hot springs or similar hydrothermal resources.

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Curbing Curbside E-Waste

January 21, 2015 By EarthWise

These days, technology seems to grow old overnight. In the rush to get the latest gadget, computers, cell phones, and TVs are routinely cast aside. But as of January 1, residents of New York State can no longer put their discarded technology out for curbside pickup. This includes printers, DVD players, video game consoles, electronic keyboards, and older tube TVs.

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The Hunters Are Now The Hunted

January 20, 2015 By EarthWise

The world has lost more than half of its wildlife over the past 40 years. And a very visible part of that loss is a result of poaching. As we’ve previously reported, poachers killed 23,000 African elephants in 2013 for their ivory. In that same year, poachers slaughtered more than 1,000 rhinos in South Africa alone, including more than 600 in the famous Kruger National Park. It should not be surprising that three of INTERPOL’s nine most wanted environmental crime fugitives are accused of ivory-related crimes.

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Microgrids And Energy Resilience

January 19, 2015 By EarthWise

Power outages as a result of extreme weather, excess demand and accidents of various types are on the rise. For many customers, losing electricity is simply not an option. Hospitals, biotechnology research centers that have to maintain cold samples, fire and emergency service centers, and military bases are all examples of facilities that need uninterrupted power. But the conventional power grid simply cannot deliver always-on power.

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