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The Blue Acceleration | Earth Wise

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The oil and gas sector is the largest ocean industry.  It’s responsible for about one third of the value of the ocean economy.  Sand and gravel, destined for the construction industry, are the most mined minerals in the ocean.  And during the past 50 years, approximately 16,000 desalination plants have popped up around the world to help supply people with an increasingly scarce commodity: freshwater. 

As a result of these and other human pressures, the world’s oceans have suffered a lot over time.  But according to a comprehensive new analysis on the state of the ocean, human pressure on the world’s oceans, driven by a combination of technological progress and declining land-based resources, sharply accelerated at the start of the 21st century.  Scientists have dubbed this dramatic increase, which shows no signs of slowing down, the “Blue Acceleration.”

A  research team from Stockholm University analyzed 50 years of data from aquaculture, bioprospecting, shipping, drilling, deep-sea mining, and more.  Their findings were recently published in the journal One Earth.

While claiming ocean resources and space is not new, lead author Jean-Baptiste Jouffray from the Stockholm Resilience Centre says “the extent, intensity, and diversity of today’s aspirations are unprecedented.”

The researchers also highlight how not all human impacts on the ocean are negative.  For example, offshore wind farm technology has reached commercial viability allowing the world to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

But how can the Blue Acceleration be slowed?  Since only a handful of multinational companies dominate sectors like the seafood industry, oil and gas exploitation, and bioprospecting, one idea is to have banks and other investors adopt more stringent sustainability criteria for making ocean investments. 

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Human pressure on world’s ocean shows no sign of slowing

Photo, posted October 29, 2008, courtesy of Silke Baron via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Engineering Mosquitoes | Earth Wise

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Tropical regions grapple with the spread of diseases – such as dengue, yellow fever, zika, chikungunya, and malaria – by mosquitoes.  A fairly successful strategy has been the Sterile Insect Technique, which is essentially insect birth control. The process involves rearing large quantities of sterilized male mosquitoes in dedicated facilities, and then releasing them to mate with females in the wild. As they do not produce any offspring, the insect population declines over time.

A problem with this approach is that while mosquitoes create health problems for people, they also play important roles in various ecosystems, such as providing food for bats and other animals.  Eliminating mosquito populations on a large scale can trigger major changes in ecosystems.

Recently, an international team of scientists has synthetically engineered mosquitoes that halt the transmission of the dengue virus.  They genetically engineered mosquitoes with an antibody “cargo” that gets expressed in the female mosquitoes that spread the dengue virus.  Once the female mosquito takes in blood, the antibody is activated which hinders the replication of the virus and prevents its dissemination throughout the mosquito, thereby preventing its transmission to humans. Essentially, what the researchers have done is transfer genes from the human immune system to confer immunity to mosquitoes.  The researchers are testing methods to neutralize mosquitoes against other viruses they spread.

This opens up a whole new approach to interrupt mosquito-borne human diseases.  Mosquitoes are among the deadliest killers on the planet because they are the messengers that transmit deadly diseases.  Until now, the only real solution has been to kill the messenger.  The new approach may be a better way to deal with a serious problem.

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Mosquitoes engineered to repel dengue virus

Photo, posted June 20, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Immersion In Nature Is Good for You | Earth Wise

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There is a growing body of research that shows that getting outdoors in nature can be good for people’s health and well-being. There are so many studies supporting this idea that policymakers, employers, and healthcare providers are increasingly considering this need for nature in how they plan and operate.

A new study of 20,000 people by researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK actually looked at how much exposure to nature was enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a sense of well-being.   The answer turned out to be 2 hours a week.  And the correlation was strong.  People who didn’t meet that threshold did not report the benefits.

Studies have shown that time in nature – as long as people feel safe where they are – is an antidote for stress.  It can lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels, reduce nervous system arousal, enhance immune system function, increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and improve mood.  Most of these studies are correlational rather than causal, but the results tend to be robust.

Given all this, cities are adding or enhancing parks, and schools and other institutions are being designed with large windows and access to trees and green space.  The Scandinavian tradition of “forest schools” – where learning takes place in natural settings outdoors -.is finding a home in the US.   Japanese researchers study the effects of “forest bathing”, a poetic term for walking in the woods.

With two-thirds of humanity projected to be living in cities by 2050, we are awakening to the idea that we need to be able to spend time in nature for our own wellbeing, even if it’s just a walk in a park.

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Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health

Photo, posted November 6, 2011, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Storing CO2 Underground | Earth Wise

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Capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants and factories and safely storing it so it can’t enter the atmosphere has long been an attractive and desirable goal.  Even though the use of renewable energy sources has been expanding rapidly, it will still be a long time before fossil fuel plants go away entirely.

The most widely considered method of carbon capture and storage is underground storage.  The idea is to send the carbon dioxide through a pipeline to a place where underground rock formations can store it safely and permanently.  Typically, it would be pumped deep underground – often more than half a mile down – and the site would be monitored to make sure the CO2 doesn’t leak back up to the atmosphere or into the water table.

A new study looked at how much carbon dioxide the suitable geological formations on Earth can store.  The conclusion of the study is that drilling about 12,000 carbon storage wells globally could provide enough capacity to store 6 to 7 billion tons of CO2 a year by 2050.  That is about 13% of global emissions.

Drilling 12,000 wells is equivalent to the amount of oil and gas drilling that has taken place just in the Gulf of Mexico over the last 70 years.  The study identified locations worldwide that could handle the pressures associated with storing injected carbon dioxide.

So far, less than two dozen projects exist that capture and store carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants.  In total, these plants can capture about 36 million tons a year, which is far less than what is needed.  But the new study at least shows that finding places to put captured carbon is not a problem.

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Ample Geological Capacity Exists to Store Large Quantities of Captured CO2

Photo courtesy of Equinor.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Value Of Abandoned Agricultural Lands | Earth Wise

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It is perhaps surprising to learn that more land is now being abandoned by farming than converted to it. In fact, abandonment of rural lands has become one of the most dramatic planet-wide changes of the modern era, affecting millions of square miles of land.

In part, it is due to rural flight driven by the economic, social, and educational appeal of cities.  It is also a result of climate change and the globalization of the food supply chain.  The global footprint of agriculture has been decreasing over the past twenty years but the global food supply isn’t shrinking.  The lost land has generally been marginal and farming elsewhere has become more productive.

Many researchers see abandoned agricultural lands as a huge opportunity for ecological restoration and strengthening of biodiversity.   Others see these lands as an opportunity for a massive program to plant trees to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  A recent study published in Science estimated that planting trees on abandoned agricultural lands could remove 25% of the carbon dioxide humans have added to the atmosphere.

There are strong criticisms to all of these ideas.  In most cases, the studies don’t incorporate the social context of why these lands are in transition, the potential effects on local populations, whether the lands are publicly or privately owned, and whether lands now suitable for regeneration will remain so as climate change advances.

Current government initiatives on degraded lands typically lack even rudimentary planning.  There are real opportunities presented by the vast amounts of abandoned agricultural lands, but there are many caveats and many issues to confront.  As a society, we have barely begun to even think about what to do.

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Could Abandoned Agricultural Lands Help Save the Planet?

Photo, posted May 9, 2010. courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saving Energy At Data Centers | Earth Wise

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A data center is a building, dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and data storage systems.  Data centers are the backbone of internet services and cloud computing, which together are increasingly dominant elements of modern life.

Energy use is a central issue for data centers. Power used by them ranges from a few kilowatts for a rack of servers in a closet at a local business to several tens of megawatts for large facilities. Some data centers have power densities more than 100 times that of a typical office building and use as much electricity as several thousand homes. For such facilities, electricity costs are a dominant operating expense and account for over 10% of the total cost of ownership of a data center.  These centers, with their numerous racks of computer servers, consume 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year in the United States, as much as all of our residences use for lighting. 

A research group at Princeton University is developing a family of devices that can dramatically reduce power consumption at data centers.  The team’s technology focuses on the process by which the AC power from the grid is converted to the low-voltage direct current used by computer equipment.  With existing technology, this power conversion takes place in each individual computer, which ends up wasting about 40% of the original energy.   The new device aggregates power conversion into a single unit, which then distributes the power to the individual computers and storage units.

As data centers get bigger and more numerous, the opportunity to save a lot of energy becomes increasingly important.

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New technology boosts energy efficiency in data centers

Photo, posted June 8, 2007, courtesy of Sean Ellis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Minerals And Metals For A Low-Carbon Future | Earth Wise

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For the past century, economies and geopolitics have largely been driven by our insatiable appetite for oil and fossil fuels in general.  As we gradually make the transition to a low-carbon energy future, the focus on oil will shift to sustainable supplies of essential minerals and elements.

The use of solar panels, batteries, electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, and fuel cells is growing rapidly around the world.  These technologies make use of cobalt, copper, lithium, cadmium, and various rare earth elements.  The need for any one of these things may diminish if alternatives are found, but there will continue to be a growing reliance on multiple substances whose physical and chemical properties are essential to the function of modern devices and technologies.

In some cases, global supplies of particular minerals and elements are dominated by a particular country, are facing social and environmental conflicts, or face other market issues.  Shortages of any of them could create economic problems and derail progress much as the oil-related energy crises of the past have.

The world faces challenges in managing the demand for low-carbon technology minerals as well as limiting the environmental and public health damage that might be associated with their extraction and processing.  Expanded use of recycling and reuse of rare minerals will be essential.

As the relatively easy sources of these materials become exhausted, other resources will become more attractive.  These include various valuable ecosystems, oceanic deposits, and even space-based reserves.

Ushering in the low-carbon future is not a simple matter and will require responsible actions by the world’s governments and industries. In undoing the damage from the oil age, we must avoid new damage from the low-carbon age.

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Sustainable supply of minerals and metals key to a low-carbon energy future

Photo, posted March 13, 2015, courtesy of Joyce Cory via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Volunteer Tourism | Earth Wise

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Spending vacation time in a disaster zone seems like a crazy idea, but so-called volunteer tourism can actually be a big help to communities trying to recover from natural disasters.  It can also be a unique and rewarding experience for the volunteers.

Such volunteer tourism should not be confused with “disaster tourism”, the unfortunate practice of rushing to the scene of a calamity to gawk.  That is certainly no help to anyone.

When disaster strikes a destination usually frequented by tourists, people naturally tend to stay away, leaving communities to deal with the loss of tourism income on top of the costs of repair and recovery.

A study by UTS, a technology university in Sydney, Australia, looked at the effects of volunteer tourism in the wake of the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal.  They found that when it is done in an ethical matter than takes into account local conditions and the affected community, volunteer tourism can aid recovery and resilience.

In the months following the earthquake, most relief organizations asked international volunteers not to come unless they had specific expertise, such as medical skills, building skills, or emergency response experience.  Eventually, Nepal relaxed conditions to include volunteers to help rebuild homes and schools, to intern in hospitals, and to support NGOs and to re-establish sustainable agriculture.

According to the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents, almost one third of the tours booked to Nepal in the two years after the earthquake comprised groups who combined tourism with volunteering or philanthropy.

Volunteer tourism isn’t for everyone and for every situation, but for places that rely on tourism for their economy, building volunteer tourism into the recovery process can be a good strategy.

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Volunteer tourism can aid disaster recovery

Photo, posted July 2, 2015, courtesy of the World Humanitarian Summit via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

American Households and Food Waste | Earth Wise

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Food waste is a big problem.  According to the United Nations, approximately one-third of the food produced globally – more than 1.4 billion tons – goes to waste.  If food waste was a country adding carbon to the atmosphere, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases – behind only the U.S. and China.  All of this food waste takes place in a world where 815 million people – more than 10% of the people on the planet – are chronically undernourished.

A new study recently published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics has analyzed the level of food waste for individual American households. It found that American households waste, on average, nearly one-third of all the food they acquire.  This wasted food has an estimated aggregate value of $240 billion annually.  Divided by the number of U.S. households, this food waste could be costing the average household about $1,866 per year. 

According to researchers, the households with higher household incomes generate more food waste.  Those with healthier diets, which include more perishable fruits and vegetables, also waste more food.  

Meanwhile, households with greater food insecurity, especially those that participate in the federal SNAP food assistance program, as well as those households with a larger number of members, were associated with less food waste.  Households that use shopping lists and those that travel further to reach the grocery store were also associated with lower levels of food waste. 

When food is wasted, the resources used to produce food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well.  We have to do better. 

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SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

US households waste nearly a third of the food they acquire

Photo, posted March 22, 2009, courtesy of Nick Saltmarsh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lots Of Wind Power In Denmark | Earth Wise

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Many states and countries have established goals to generate at least half of their electricity from renewable sources by some future date, typically 2030.  A number of countries have already been able to achieve 50% or greater renewable generation for brief periods measured in days.  Australia did it this past November.  Germany has seen it on occasion as well.

Denmark has managed to complete an entire year with half of its energy coming from renewable generation.  Almost all of it – 47% of the country’s power – came from wind turbines.

Denmark has been generating much of its energy from wind power for quite a while and actually produced about 46% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2017.  Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, is a major manufacturer of wind turbines, and the small country has installed over 6,000 of them.  The gains this past year mostly came from the Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm that went online in the fall.  The 407 MW wind farm has the capacity to cover the annual electricity consumption of about 425,000 households, which is about 20% of the country.

The growth of wind power in Denmark is still ramping up.  A 600 MW wind farm in the Baltic Sea will be connected to the Danish and German electricity grid by 2021, and a wind farm of at least 800 MW capacity in the North Sea is scheduled to come online in 2025.

The Danish Parliament has passed an ambitious climate law with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70% in 2030 compared with 1990.  The country’s overall goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050 does not seem like a pipe dream.

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Denmark Passes Magic 50% In Renewable Electricity Generation Milestone

Photo, posted July 12, 2009, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Livestock And Sustainable Food Systems | Earth Wise

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Animal-based agriculture has endured a great deal of criticism with regard to its contributions to climate change and its other environmental impacts.  But its contributions to a sustainable food system are by no means all bad.  In fact, livestock play important roles in sustainable, regenerative agro-food systems.

Animals’ natural biological processes enable them to consume plant and food residues that are either indigestible by humans, unpalatable to people, or are no longer sellable for various reasons, all referred to as IUUB biomass.  There are many examples.

One dairy farm receives daily deliveries of apple waste from a processing facility that supplies apple slices for school lunches.  Another local dairy gets three truckloads of vegetable and fruit discards, along with expired bread products, each week.  No longer useful for consumers, these foodstuffs become feed for cattle rather than going to a landfill.  Even the booming market for plant-based foods like artificial meat for consumers has generated a surge of processing byproducts that can be consumed by livestock.

On a national scale, livestock are consuming millions of pounds of otherwise unusable IUUB created in the production of products like soybean and canola oils, orange juice, ethanol, and more.

While the livestock industry needs to keep working to minimize its environmental impact and there are many reasons to eat less meat, livestock farming is an integral part of our agro-food systems.  Farmers are embracing techniques to produce meat, milk and eggs as efficiently and sustainably as possible, minimizing agriculture’s climate-contributing footprint in the process.

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Amazing Cows Hold Promise in Pioneering Sustainable Food Systems

Photo, posted May 11, 2019, courtesy of Theo Stikkelman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Harvesting Blue Energy | Earth Wise

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There are various ways to generate renewable energy from the world’s oceans, most obviously from the power of tides and waves.  But there is also an oceanic energy source called osmotic or “blue” energy.  Osmotic energy uses the differences in pressure and salinity between freshwater and saltwater to generate electricity. 

When freshwater and saltwater are mixed together, large amounts of energy are released. If the freshwater and seawater are then separated via a semi-permeable membrane, the freshwater will pass through the membrane and dilute the saltwater due to the chemical potential difference. This process is called osmosis. If the salt ions are captured completely by the membrane, the passing of water through the membrane will create a pressure known as osmotic pressure. This pressure can be used to generate electricity by using it to drive a turbine.  This has been demonstrated to work as far back as the 1970s, but the materials we have to use are not adequate to withstand ocean conditions over the long term and tend to break down quickly in the water.

New research, published in the journal Joule, looked to living organisms for inspiration to develop an improved osmotic energy system.  Scientists from the U.S. and Australia combined multiple materials to mimic the kind of high-performance membranes that are found in living organisms.  They created a hybrid membrane made from aramid microfibers (like those used in Kevlar) and boron nitride.  The new material provides both the flexibility of cartilage and the strength and stability of bone.

The researchers believe that the low cost and high stability of the new hybrid membrane will allow it to succeed in volatile marine environments.  They also expect the technology will be both efficient and scalable. 

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Inspired by the Tissues of Living Organisms, Researchers Take One Step Closer to Harvesting “Blue Energy”

Photo, posted February 14, 2017, courtesy of Marian May via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conspicuous Consumption

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Human civilization consumes vast amounts of material.   The Circle Economy think tank actually puts some numbers on it.  According to their latest report, the amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100 billion tons every year.  So, on average, every person on Earth uses more than 13 tons of materials per year.

That number has quadrupled since 1970, which is far faster than the population, which has only doubled during that time.  In the past two years alone, consumption has jumped by more than 8%.  While this has been going on, the proportion being recycled has been falling.

Of the 100 billion tons of materials, half of the total is sand, clay, gravel, and cement used for building, along with other minerals used for fertilizer.  Coal, oil and gas make up 15% and metal ores 10%. The final quarter are plants and trees used for food and fuel.  About 40% of all materials are turned into housing.  A third of the annual materials consumed remain in use, such as in buildings or vehicles.  But 15% is emitted into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases and a third is treated as waste.

The global emergencies of climate change and disappearing wildlife have been driven by the unsustainable extraction of fossil fuels, metals, building materials, and trees.  The authors of the report warn that if we continue to treat the world’s resources as limitless, we are heading for a global disaster.

The Circle Economy think tank promotes the idea of a circular economy in which renewable energy supports systems where waste and pollution are reduced to zero.  Some nations are taking steps towards circular economies, while others are not.  This is a problem we can’t allow to be unaddressed.

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World Consumes 100 Billion Tons of Materials Every Year, Report Finds

Photo, posted March 13, 2015, courtesy of Joyce Cory via Flickr.

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Air Pollution And Bone Health | Earth Wise

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Many of the negative effects of air pollution are well documented.  Studies have shown that exposure to air pollution is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, stroke, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and so on. 

Now, according to a new study in India led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), exposure to air pollution is also associated with a higher risk of developing osteoporosis.  Osteoporosis, which literally means porous bone, is a disease in which the density and quality of bone is reduced. As bones become more porous and fragile, the risk of fracture is greatly increased. 

The study, which surveyed 3,700 people from 28 villages in southern India, was recently published in the medical journal Jama Network Open.     

The researchers used a model to estimate air pollution by fine particulate matter (commonly referred to as PM2.5) and black carbon at each participant’s residence.  The research team then assessed bone health using a special type of radiography (called dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) that measures bone density.  They measured bone mass of the participants’ left hip and at the lumbar spine.

The results showed that exposure to air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter, was associated with lower levels of bone mass.  Annual average exposure to PM2.5 was 32.8 micrograms per cubic meter, well above the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organization (10 micrograms per cubic meter) and the U.S. EPA (12 micrograms per cubic meter).   

The researchers say their findings add to a growing body of evidence that indicates that particulate air pollution is relevant for bone health. 

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Air pollution can worsen bone health

Photo, posted November 15, 2019, courtesy of Ninara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Narwhal Tusks And Stories Teeth Can Tell | Earth Wise

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Teeth and particularly narwhal tusks are getting some unusual press recently when one of them was the weapon of choice to fend off the London Bridge attacker, which was a good choice according to Harvard dental researcher Dr. Martin Nweeia.  Turns out that narwhal tusks have some pretty amazing physical features.  They exhibit both extreme strength and flexibility at the same time.  The narwhal is known as the unicorn of the sea, a pale-colored, medium-sized whale found in Arctic coastal waters and rivers.  In males, the more prominent tooth grows into a sword like, spiral tusk up to 8.8 feet long.

Changes in the shape of teeth over time can tell us about climate change. Adaptations in horse teeth 55 million years ago from North America were observed and caused by changes in climate, favoring different food sources.  The horses changed their diets from fruit to more favorable grasses and their teeth changed in response. For this same reason, the teeth of elephants adapting in different environments of Asia and Africa have different tooth forms.  Both eat plants but Asian elephants, with more ridges on their teeth, eat larger amounts of grasses while African elephants, with wider spread ridges, eat more leaves. 

Teeth have been used to link land mass theories like the Bering Land Strait Theory, hypothesizing that North America and Asia were once one land mass. The teeth shape and form of people on both sides of the Bering Land Bridge shared a common “mongoloid dentition” with unique features. And so, can the narwhal tusk tell us something about a changing Arctic?  Scientists have discovered that the narwhal tusk is a giant sensory organ that is able to continually monitor its environment and has the ability to detect ice formation, and melt, both capabilities helpful for surviving in a changing Arctic.

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–Earth Wise acknowledges script contribution from Dr. Martin Nweeia of Harvard University.

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Fossil teeth reveal new facts about a mass extinction 260 million years ago

From the Horse’s Mouth: Teeth Reveal Evolution

Photo, posted April 3, 2019, courtesy of James St. John via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Rising Threat Of Rising Seas | Earth Wise

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Global sea level rose by about 6 inches during the 20th century.  It is currently rising more than twice as fast and accelerating.  The rate of rise was 2.5 times faster from 2006 to 2016 than it was for nearly all of the 20th century.

Sea level rise occurs when glaciers and ice sheets lose mass.  Much of that meltwater comes from Greenland and Antarctica.  But levels also rise because, as water warms, it expands.  Added to that are the effects of human activities such as groundwater depletion and a geological phenomenon called isostatic adjustment that is going on in parts of the East Coast where the land is actually sinking.

In Atlantic Canada, sea level rise is outpacing the global average and has already led to boardwalks swamped by swelling tides, drowned forests, submerged wharfs, and threatened historic shoreline buildings.

Recent research suggests that globally, land now occupied by 300 million people could be affected by floods at least once a year by 2050 unless carbon emissions are significantly reduced, and coastal defenses strengthened.  (This new figure is more than three times higher than earlier estimates).

Researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia are studying nature-based strategies for mitigating the effects of the rising seas.  These include conserving or restoring coastal ecosystems like dunes, wetlands, and reefs which could provide protection at a lower cost than building seawalls and other man-made obstacles.  Wetlands, for example, can reduce the force of waves and act as obstacles to storm surges, while also trapping sediment and stemming erosion.  Wetlands also serve as important carbon stores, but it is estimated that roughly half of the world’s coastal wetlands have been lost over the past 100 years to human activity and extreme weather events.

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The Looming Threat of Rising Sea Levels – And What We Can Do About it

Photo, posted February 14, 2015, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Plastic Pollution On The Way | Earth Wise

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Public concern about plastic pollution has been rising.  More and more of us are choosing reusable grocery bags, metal straws, and reusable water bottles.  We shake our heads at images of immense plastic garbage patches in the ocean. We see reports of birds with 15% of their body weight in plastic.

While all of this is going on, companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up production of plastic – which is mostly made from oil, gas, and their byproducts.  They are doing this as a hedge against the growing possibility that the global response to climate change will reduce demand for their fuels.  Plastics are part of the category called petrochemicals, which currently account for 14% of oil use.  Petrochemicals are expected to drive half of oil demand growth over the next 30 years.

The World Economic Forum predicts plastic production will double in the next 20 years.  The fracking boom in the United States has turned this country into a big growth area for plastic production.  Natural gas prices are low which is hurting profits at fracking operations.  But fracking also unearths ethane, which is a feedstock for plastic production.  So plastic is becoming a kind of subsidy for fracking.

The American petroleum industry’s hub has historically been the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana as well as a stretch along the lower Mississippi River.  There is a slew of new projects there.  The industry is also seeking to create a new plastics corridor in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, where fracking wells are rich in ethane.

Society in general may be increasingly concerned about the impact of things like carbon emissions and plastic pollution, but the fossil fuel industry continues to focus entirely on growth and profits.

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The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way

Photo, posted January 10, 2015 , courtesy of Daniel Orth via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Low Ice In The Bering Sea | Earth Wise

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The Bering Sea is the area of the far northern Pacific Ocean that separates Alaska from Russia.  Sea ice in the Bering Sea shrank to its lowest levels in recorded history in 2018, an event with profound effects on northwest Alaska residents who depend on marine resources for food, cash, and culture.

The loss of ice is indicative of very rapid change in the entire northern Bering Sea ecosystem with ramifications for everyone in the region.  A new peer-reviewed study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society examined the details and consequences of the drastic changes in the Bering Sea.

The study found that the maximum daily Bering Sea ice was the lowest on record, and the widespread impacts of that fact include unprecedented weather effects, marine wildlife die-offs, and sightings of animals outside of their normal range.  Ecological changes included the first documented mass strandings of ice-associated seals, a redistribution of thermally sensitive fish, and a multispecies die-off of seabirds due to starvation.

Persistent and anomalous warm winter weather contributed to poor ice conditions that resulted in a fatal accident on an ice road and retreating and fractured sea ice led to ice-laden flooding that caused power outages and infrastructure damage.  In addition, there have been more than 50 reports of unusual events related to weather and marine wildlife.

The record-low sea ice is a consequence of the warming climate resulting in a warmer ocean, later arrival of sea ice, and more frequent storms than in the pre-industrial era.  These conditions are continuing to increase in occurrence.

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Record low level of Bering Sea ice causes profound, widespread impacts

Photo, posted April 7, 2014, courtesy of Allen Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

What’s On Nature’s Calendar? | Earth Wise

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The Inuit Calendar is based on six seasons defined by weather, ice, animal migration, daylight hours and the night sky.  All these variables are in flux according to Harvard Narwhal Biologist Dr. Martin Nweeia.  Last August in the high Canadian Arctic, at 72 degrees north latitude, temperatures were at an astounding 70 degrees during the day. In 2018, the same region at the same time of year, experienced one of the coldest August months in 15 years.  

Disappearing sea ice in Hudson Bay affects migration patterns of ice-dependent species like narwhal and beluga whales and now allows more shipping traffic which produces more marine noise pollution and the risk of an oil spill. As a natural resource, the Arctic has significant deposits of iron ore, gold, diamonds, phosphate, and bauxite, so cargo shipments are increasing yearly.  

The disappearance of caribou herds and altered migrations of other animals have also blurred the seasonal changes. Caribou numbers have decreased by more than half in the last two decades.  Narwhal populations are remaining steady but are experiencing migration shifts resulting in their appearance at new locations and their absence from traditional areas.  Even the timing of the migration has changed, shifting two weeks later from normal late summer – early fall patterns.  

The night sky, which has long had identifiable reference points for Inuit observers, is also changing causing speculation about changes in the magnetic field and a polar shift or flipping of the poles. The earth’s magnetic north has been shifting toward Siberia at an alarming 30 miles each year since 2015.  Every million years, it is estimated that the poles flip three times.  No one knows if or when it will happen again. That’s a calendar with some unexpected dates. 

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–Earth Wise acknowledges script contribution from Dr. Martin Nweeia of Harvard University.

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Migratory Tundra Caribou and Wild Reindeer

Earth’s magnetic field is acting up and geologists don’t know why

Photo, posted June 27, 2014, courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Much More Microplastics In The Ocean | Earth Wise

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We’ve been hearing more and more about plastic contamination (microplastics) in the ocean.  It is pulled from the nostrils of sea turtles, found in Antarctic waters, and tracked in increasing quantities in sedimentary layers dating back to the 1940s.  A new study by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests that there could be a million times more pieces of plastic in the ocean than previously estimated.

Oceanographers found that some of the tiniest countable microplastic particles in seawater occur at much higher concentrations than previously measured.  Apparently, the traditional way of counting marine microplastics most likely misses the smallest particles, and therefore underestimates the number of particles by a factor of anywhere from 10,000 to a million.

The new measurements estimate that the oceans may be contaminated by 8 million pieces of so-called mini-microplastics per cubic meter of water.  Earlier studies that only looked at larger pieces of plastic found only 10 pieces per cubic meter. 

Microplastic studies typically trawl or pull a fine net behind a ship to collect samples.  But the meshes previously used could only capture plastics as small as 333 microns.  The new study found plastic particles as small as 10 microns, which is less than the width of a human hair.

Plastics keep breaking down into smaller and smaller particles, but they are so chemically strong that their chemical bonds don’t break down. They remain bits of plastic.  Scientists are concerned that these particles can get small enough to enter the human bloodstream.  The potential effects on human health are not well known and not extensively studied.

The problem of plastics just keeps getting bigger.

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Microplastics a million times more abundant in the ocean than previously thought

Photo courtesy of UC San Diego.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)