Bitcoin is a form of digital currency. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros. They are produced by people and businesses using computer software to perform the necessary complex calculations. A bitcoin is essentially a line of computer code that’s signed digitally when it goes from one owner to another. Bitcoin is the most prominent example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency.
There is much to be said in favor of organic food. The organic produce industry took in $65 billion in 2016 and that farming method is clearly increasingly popular and is here to stay. Nevertheless, there are various misconceptions and inaccuracies related to organic food.
It isn’t something we think about very often, but dust is a connector of ecosystems around the world. Dust carries various minerals and nutrients to places where such things are in very scarce supply. This includes the oceans of the world as well as many forests and other ecosystems. For example, phosphorus-bearing dust carried from the Gobi Desert is essential to the growth of giant redwoods in California’s Sierra Mountains.
The Beaufort Gyre is a massive wind-driven current in the Arctic Ocean. Located north of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory, it is like a giant spinning top that corrals vast amounts of sea ice in the far north.
Power plants have been the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States for more than 40 years. But the ever-changing picture of electricity production has changed that situation. According to new data from the government’s Energy Information Administration, transportation has now taken over the top spot.
According to researchers with the National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative, cheetahs are much closer to extinction than previously thought. The research team has released a study, which was recently published in the journal PeerJ, that updates the cheetah population numbers in southern Africa, the largest of its remaining habitat.
Toyota is one of several automakers that are promoting hydrogen fuel cell cars – electric cars that get their energy from fuel cells rather than batteries. Fueling one of these cars is much like filling up the tank of a gasoline-powered car, except that the fuel in question is hydrogen.
North Atlantic right whales are one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are only about 450 of the whales left. Measuring approximately 50 feet long and weighing close to 100,000 pounds, North Atlantic right whales are now more critically endangered than mountain gorillas, black rhinos, and giant pandas.
The Australian state of South Australia suffered crippling electricity outages in September 2016, which coincided with gale-force winds and flooding rains. The outages were triggered by storm damage to major transmission lines followed by wind farms disconnecting from the power grid.
The impacts of increased carbon dioxide and the changing climate are often complicated and, it turns out, not always negative. In some areas of the world, people can actually benefit from increased CO2 and climate change. Barley, the most important feed crop for beef production in Alberta, Canada, as well as the province’s beef industry itself actually stand to gain from the changes that are most assuredly not a good thing for much of the world.
In recent decades, ocean temperatures in many places have warmed by nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit. An effect of this warmer water is the decimation of what were once luxuriant giant kelp forests in eastern Australia and Tasmania. There used to be thick canopies covering much of the region’s coastal sea surface, but they have wilted in the intolerably warm and nutrient-poor water.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an essential element in mitigating climate change. The best approach is to not produce the stuff in the first place and the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels is trying to do just that. But realistically, fossil fuels will be with us for a long time to come. Given that, additional approaches are necessary.
It is well-known that the cost of both solar and wind energy has been dropping dramatically in recent years. That trend is largely responsible for the rapid growth of both power sources. A recent study has revealed just how remarkable the economic progress has been.
Sunlight entering the water can travel as much as 3,000 feet into the ocean depths under the right conditions, but ordinarily there is no significant light that penetrates beyond about 650 feet down. That upper 650 feet is called the euphotic or “sunlight” zone and is home to most familiar marine life. The “dark ocean”, everything below that depth, makes up 90% of the ocean and remarkably little is known about it.
The residents of London are known for tea drinking, but in fact each of them consumes an average of 2.3 cups of coffee a day as well. But now, it won’t just be commuters that are running on coffee in the morning. London buses will in part run on oil produced from coffee grounds.
One of the greatest coral reef ecosystems in the world, the Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines, continues to prosper. Undersea coral walls that plunge more than 300 feet deep are home to some 600 species of fish and 360 kinds of coral, about half of all known species. According to experts, the ocean wilderness of Tubbataha Reef is about the closest thing to a true natural state for any reef in the world.
A familiar theme in science fiction is the idea of floating cities – independent, self-sustaining nation-states at sea where start-up societies work to redesign society and government and don’t have to fight over who owns the land. The concept even has a name: seasteading.
2018 is just around the corner. Popular resolutions for the New Year always seem to include things like improving health, traveling more, spending less money, and so on. But one resolution that isn’t as popular but could collectively have a major impact is committing to living a cleaner and greener life.
The Tubbs Fire was the huge wildfire that burned parts of Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties in Northern California in October. Between that fire and several smaller ones going on at the same time, at least 43 people died and over 8,400 homes and buildings were destroyed. The Tubbs Fire alone burned over 36,000 acres. The even larger December wildfires in Southern California scorched hundreds of thousands of acres in multiple counties.
In November, Syria joined the Paris Climate Accord. As a result, the United States is now the only country in the world that has rejected the global pact. Despite this embarrassing news, there is reason for optimism in the effort to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. In particular, 7 major trends provide hope that things could move in the right direction.