Earth Wise
Plastic Shopping Bags: A Modern Blight
Single use plastic shopping bags are the norm at grocery stores, pharmacies, and big box retailers. They are also a familiar sight tumbling down roads, waving from trees, clogging storm drains, and polluting lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans.
Outsourcing Our Emissions
The average American is responsible for one of the largest carbon footprints in the world. Some 37% of our carbon emissions is associated with electricity generation; 33% stems from transportation – largely personal automobiles. The remaining 30% is attributed to industry, residential use, and agriculture.
Counting Trees
A new satellite study led by Yale University and published in the journal Nature calculates that there are more than three trillion trees on Earth. This is seven and a half times more than previous estimates, which had calculated just over 400 billion trees worldwide.
Artificial Leaf Progress
The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis was established at Caltech and its partner institutions in 2010 with one main goal: to find a cost-effective way to produce fuels using only sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. The natural process of photosynthesis in plants accomplishes exactly the same thing. As a result, such a solar fuel generation system is generally described as an artificial leaf.
Less Beef
In the Northeast, grilling season is almost over. While many will miss backyard barbecues, it’s high time that we rethink the American summer ideal of a thick, juicy steak.
Solar Power And The Landscape
The use of solar power is growing rapidly but with all the growth, solar power only provides 1% of the country’s electricity. On the other hand, in 2014, solar power accounted for almost a third of all the new US electric generating capacity. According to the International Energy Agency, solar power could be the world’s leading source of electricity by the year 2050.
Global Extinction Rates And Biodiversity
Many ecologists believe that the sixth mass extinction is underway. Whereas previous mass extinctions have been associated with cataclysmic events like asteroid strikes, this one is said to be associated with the impact of humanity on nature.
Getting The Lead Out
Lead. Romans made pipes out of it. Armies use it for bullets, artists and builders for paint. And, automotive engineers once added lead to gasoline to make engines run better. The problem: lead is toxic to humans.
K-Cups And The Environment
The biggest news in the past decade in the coffee business is not the arrival of yet another new Starbucks two blocks from the old one. It is the explosive growth of pod-based coffee machines. These gadgets used to just be in offices and businesses, but almost one in three American homes now has one.
Turning Divesting Into Investing
Colleges and universities are bustling with activity. Among the conversations on campus: the call from students to sell endowment investments in the fossil fuel industry. Stanford has eliminated its coal investments, and a small number of other universities have divested to varying degrees.
The Expanding Threat Of Algal Blooms
It may seem like we are constantly talking about toxic algal blooms – in the ocean, in lakes, and in rivers. That’s because they are occurring with greater frequency and are posing a greater threat than they have in the past.
The Wind Boom Continues
Wind power continues to increase its contribution to the US power grid. The second quarter of this year saw almost 1.7 GW of new turbines come on line and there are almost 14 GW under construction.
Wikipedia: Especially Unreliable for Politically Controversial Science Topics
Wikipedia is world’s most popular online encyclopedia, the sixth most visited website in America, and a source most students rely on. But, according to a recent study, Wikipedia entries on politically controversial science topics can be especially unreliable.
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Female Thermal Demand
If you work in an office, you know the following scenes are not unusual: a coworker wearing a woolly sweater at her desk on a 90-degree day; a woman vigorously rubbing her hands together for warmth in the conference room; or two colleagues engaged in a passive aggressive battle over the thermostat.
Mosquito Migration
Globally, there are more than 3,000 mosquito species, with around 150 native to the U.S. To many listeners – a mosquito is a mosquito. But depending on the species that bites you, mosquitoes can be a nuisance or a public health threat.
Earth Overshoot Day
Earth Overshoot Day is the day when, according to estimates, the total combined resource consumption of all human activity on the planet reaches the total amount that the Earth can generate for the year. It is the natural resource equivalent of the date by which you have spent your entire salary for the year.
Los Angeles’ Shade Balls
The worst drought in California history is leading to some creative ideas for saving water. The city of Los Angeles turned its primary reservoir into a giant ball pit.
The Environmental Movement Works
When each day seems to bring more bad news about the health of our planet, it can be easy to wonder if the environmental movement is working. But a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that, at the state level, environmentalism is linked with lower carbon emissions.
A New Labeling Initiative
