2015

Shrinking coal and the gas trap

August 8, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

An important part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement is reducing the use of coal to produce electricity. Coal is the dirtiest fuel in common use and not burning it is a way to greatly reduce emissions. Ten years later, coal consumption around the world has decreased dramatically.

The most convenient alternative to coal is natural gas, which is still a fossil fuel, but one that releases less carbon than coal. As a result, around the world many countries have increasingly switched from coal to natural gas.

While the switch is a step in the right direction, it is also one that comes with an unintended consequence. Economists at Stanford University have found that natural gas exports by countries have the effect of discouraging investments in renewable energy. Over the long term, the result is increases in carbon emissions. The Stanford researchers refer to this situation as ‘the gas trap’.

As a result of the gas trap, even countries that are very concerned about climate change and want to take action by abandoning the use of coal may end up reducing their investments in renewables and, ultimately, producing more emissions.

This problem comes about because replacing fossil fuels with renewables requires large investments and can take years before the renewables can fully compete with coal. Natural gas, as a “transition fuel” gives countries time to develop renewable solutions. But natural gas producers keep providing large amounts of their product at attractive prices so that customers buy more and more of it rather than investing in renewables. The gas trap isn’t permanent or inevitable, but it is currently a problem.

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How the rush to quit coal is fueling a new ‘gas trap’

Photo, posted February 7, 2017, courtesy of Christian Collins via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Record Antarctic Temperature | Earth Wise

March 5, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It is still early in the year, but extreme weather events are already piling up. January was the warmest month on record globally and there have been many records shattered in Europe and Asia. A number of places in Eastern Europe, including parts of Russia, have seen temperatures 12 to 13 degrees above average.

While the warming of the Arctic has been in the news with increasing frequency, the Antarctic is also seeing rising temperatures and is one of the fastest-warming regions in the world.

On February 6th, Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula measured a temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the highest temperature ever recorded on that continent. This rather balmy temperature narrowly beat out the previous record of 63.5 degrees, which occurred in March of 2015.

This one-time reading is certainly anomalous, and scientists say it is associated with a ridge of high pressure that was lingering over the region for several days. Local wind conditions led to additional warming.

However, the conditions leading to record-breaking high temperatures are not one-time anomalous events. Over the past 50 years, temperatures in the Antarctic have surged by an extraordinary 5 degrees in response to the Earth’s rapidly warming climate. A rise of five degrees in day-to-day weather is no big deal. A five-degree rise in a region’s average temperature is enormous.

About 87% of the glaciers along the west coast of Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula have retreated over that 50-year period, most of which doing so during just the past 12 years.

Some researchers claim that the new temperature record is an extreme event that doesn’t tell us anything about the changing climate. Many others are convinced that there will be many more high temperature records to follow.

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Antarctica just hit 65 degrees, its warmest temperature ever recorded

Photo, posted February 24, 2019, courtesy of Mike via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

How Safe Is Drinking Water?

March 26, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Water is life. It’s a fundamental need for every human being on the planet. Each person requires more than five gallons of clean and safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and keeping clean. Dirty water, on the other hand, can be deadly. An estimated 1.8 million people die every year as a result of diarrheal diseases like cholera. And tens of millions of people are seriously sickened by water-related maladies.

2017 Was Hot

March 1, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There’s no argument to be made about whether 2017 was hot or not. The only uncertainty is whether it was the second or third warmest year ever recorded.

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The Terminology Of Extreme Weather

September 19, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We often hear the terms “100-year” and “500-year” used to describe instances of extreme flooding. But as the climate changes, these extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent. So what’s with the terminology then anyways?

China And India Climate Progress

June 30, 2017 By EarthWise

China and India have 36% of the world’s population and produce about 35% of global CO2 emissions, ranking first and third respectively in that category. The United States, with a little over 4% of the world’s population, produces about 16% of global CO2 emissions, good for second place.

The Hottest Month (Again)

September 15, 2016 By WAMC WEB

NASA data show that the Earth’s temperature in July was the highest recorded since record-keeping began 136 years ago. It was also the 10th straight month of record-breaking temperatures and was .18 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the previous hottest July in 2011.

The Hottest Year

February 19, 2016 By WAMC WEB

2015 was the hottest year in the historical record, easily breaking the mark set only one year earlier. The unusually large El Niño weather pattern is releasing enormous amounts of heat from the Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere, but climate scientists say that the bulk of the record-setting heat is due to the long-term warming effects of greenhouse gas emissions. The global land surface temperature was 1.6°F above the 20th century historical average. That’s a huge jump from 2014, which was 1.3° above average. That may sound like very little, but for the planet as a whole, it is extremely large.

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The Second Hottest Year On Record

January 29, 2016 By WAMC WEB

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – or NOAA – 2015 was the second hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States.

Climate Change And The Global Food System

December 24, 2015 By WAMC WEB

One of the most troubling aspects of global climate change is its potential impact on the production, distribution and quality of food. A report issued at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference focused on identifying climate change impacts on global food security. Food security is the ability of people to obtain and use sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food. Even without the impact of climate change, food security is a challenge because of increasing population, poverty, and changing eating habits.