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Hidden hydrogen

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The idea of using hydrogen as a fuel or an energy source has been around for a long time.  Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but most of it is locked up in various chemical compounds, such as water.  Hydrogen is a clean fuel; burning it or using it to generate electricity in a fuel cell produces no greenhouse gas emissions.  But more than 99% of the hydrogen that people current produce is obtained by methods that result in greenhouse gas emissions.

A new study by scientists at the University of Oxford, the University of Durham in the UK, and the University of Toronto looks at geological environments in which naturally occurring hydrogen could be hiding.  According to the study, over the last billion years, the Earth’s continental crust is likely to have produced enough hydrogen to satisfy the energy needs of modern society for 170,000 years.

Much of that hydrogen is likely to have been lost or is inaccessible; most of it is not economically feasible to extract.  But even the relatively small amount of hydrogen left could provide thousands of years of energy for us.  We just have to be able to find it.

The researchers have developed what they call an “exploration recipe” which identifies where natural hydrogen might be located as well as where it could be commercially feasible to extract.  These places with hydrogen have so-called reservoir rocks and geologic formations that prevent the gas from leaking into the atmosphere.

A few such places have already been identified such as one in Albania.  There are various candidates to explore, even including an area in Kansas.  The study’s authors have founded a company whose mission is to find these natural sources of hydrogen.

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Scientists Say Hidden Hydrogen Could Power the World for 170,000 Years

Photo, posted October 4, 2019, courtesy of Tony Sprezzatura via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A new way to recycle plastic

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Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a new method for recycling plastic that is safer, cleaner, cheaper, and more sustainable than those currently in use.  The U.S. is the world’s largest plastic polluter per capita, and we only recycle 5% of our plastics.  There is a pressing need for better technologies for processing different types of plastic waste.

The Northwestern method is designed to break down polyethylene terephthalate or PET, which is the most common type of polyester plastic.  PET plastic is used in food packaging and beverage bottles and represents 12% of total plastics used globally.  It does not break down easily and is therefore a major contributor to plastic pollution.  It mostly either ends up in landfills or, over time, degrades into tiny microplastics or nanoplastics that end up almost everywhere. 

The non-toxic, environmentally friendly, solvent-free Northwestern process first uses an inexpensive molybdenum catalyst to break apart the bonds in PET.  Then the broken plastic is exposed to ambient air.  Just from the trace amounts of moisture in air, the broken-down PET is converted into monomers, which are the building blocks of plastic.  The monomers could then be recycled back into PET products or used to make other valuable materials.

The process is fast and effective and takes just a few hours.  The catalyst is durable and recyclable, meaning it can be used over and over again.  It only works on polyesters, which means it can be used for recycling mixed plastics without sorting them since it will select only the PET from its inputs.

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Plastic recycling gets a breath of fresh air

Photo, posted August 10, 2013, courtesy of Lisa Risager via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Megadroughts

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A new study by Swiss and Austrian scientists has found that persistent multi-year droughts have become increasingly common since 1980 and will continue to proliferate as the climate warms.

There are multiple examples in recent years in places ranging from California to Mongolia to Australia.  Fifteen years of persistent megadrought in Chile have nearly dried out the country’s water reserves and even affected Chile’s vital mining output.  These multi-year droughts have triggered acute water crises in vulnerable regions around the world.

Droughts tend to only be noticed when they damage agriculture or visibly affect forests.  An issue explored by the new study is whether megadroughts can be consistently identified and their impact on ecosystems understood.

The researchers analyzed global meteorological data and modeled droughts over a forty-year period beginning in 1980.  They found that multi-year droughts have become longer, more frequent, and more extreme, covering more land.  Every year since 1980, drought-stricken areas have spread by an additional fifty thousand square kilometers on average, an area the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. 

The trend of intensifying megadroughts is clearly leading to drier and browner ecosystems.  Tropical forests can offset the effects of drought as long as they have enough water reserves.  However, the long-term effects on the planet and its ecosystems remain largely unknown.  Ultimately, long-term extreme water shortages will result in trees in tropical and boreal regions dying, causing long-term and possibly irreversible damage to these ecosystems.

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The Megadroughts Are upon Us

Photo, posted January 7, 2018, courtesy of Kathleen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The warmest year on record

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It came as no surprise that 2024 ended up as the warmest year on records. It was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880.  The global average temperature was 1.28 degrees Celsius (or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century baseline period of 1951-1980.  It was actually 1.47 degrees above the 1850-1900 average.

The Paris Climate Agreement has a goal to keep the global average temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius over the long term.  Long term is specified because for more than half of 2024, average temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees above the baseline.

The temperature of an individual year can be influenced by various natural climate fluctuations, such as the presence of an El Niño or a La Niña condition in the Pacific, or volcanic eruptions.  A strong El Niño began in 2023 and continued throughout much of 2024.  That El Niño has abated, so it is no longer a factor in the global climate condition.

The global temperature is determined using surface air temperature data collected from thousands of meteorological stations as well as sea surface temperature data collected by ships and buoy-based instruments. 

When the climate changes, it is observed first in the global mean temperature.  Then there are changes seen on a continental scale and then at the regional scale.  Finally, changes are observable at the local level.  These changes are becoming more and more common as people’s everyday weather experiences become different from any they had encountered before.

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2024 Was the Warmest Year on Record

Photo, posted August 26, 2015, courtesy of Saskia Madlener / NASA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Mining extinct volcanoes

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Rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements that are used to improve the performance, efficiency, and durability of a wide range of products.  More than 200 products across a diverse set of applications make use of rare earth elements.  Although the amount of rare earth used in a particular product may not be very much of its weight, volume, or monetary value, it may often be necessary for the device even to function.  Rare earth elements react with other elements to form compounds that are essential because of their specific chemical behaviors. 

Rare earth elements are not actually rare; in fact, they are fairly common.  But they are mostly not found in their pure form and are generally difficult to refine.  China accounts for more than 90% of global production of rare earth elements and this represents a strategic problem for the rest of the world.

New research by scientists from the Australian National University has found that some extinct volcanoes, which have not erupted for thousands or even millions of years, may be rich sources of rare earth elements.  Furthermore, those elements may be easier to extract than the ones from other sources because the iron-rich magma that formed the volcanoes could be up to 100 times more efficient at concentrating rare-earths than magma found in active volcanoes today.

The clean tech industry uses rare earths for wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars.  The demand for rare earths may grow fivefold by the end of this decade.  Relying on just one country for the world’s supply is a major concern.  There are ancient volcanoes all over the planet and they may represent a solution to a global problem.

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Extinct Volcanoes Could Be Source of Key Metals Needed for Clean Tech

Photo, posted June 6, 2020, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Canadian wildfires and global emissions

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The wildfires that burned vast amounts of Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced enormous amounts of smoke that found its way into American cities, working its way down the eastern seaboard and even producing unsafe air in Florida.

Researchers at Cal Tech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed the carbon emissions associated with these fires last year and found that they were greater than those of all but three countries:  China, the US, and India.

Boreal forests have historically been a natural defense against climate change by storing carbon in trees rather than adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.  The fires in Canada, fueled by hot and dry weather, were extraordinary when compared with historical records.  But such fires are likely to be increasingly common as the climate continues to warm.

However, the hot and dry weather that fueled the 2023 fires was exceptional in many ways, involving early snow melt and so-called flash droughts.  This year’s fires in Canada are still bigger than average, but so far have not been as destructive as last year’s. 

Canada has been warming at about twice the global rate.  The extreme temperatures last summer were a major factor in the fueling of the fires, which burned an area almost the size of Florida.

Forests absorb about a quarter of global carbon emissions, but the increasing frequency and intensity of fires are calling into question their ability to continue to do so.  Parts of the Canadian forests are not regrowing after fires as they have in the past, partly because blazes burn trees so frequently and intensely.

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Canada’s Wildfires Were a Top Global Emitter Last Year, Study Says

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Paper Cups Are Not So Great | Earth Wise

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The environmental cost of plastic waste is a highly visible global issue.  The response has been a growing effort to replace plastic items with alternative materials.  One very visible change of this sort has been the replacement of plastic cups with paper cups at coffee shops.  But a new study at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has found that this solution has problems of its own.

Researchers studied the effects of disposable cups in the environment on the larvae of the butterfly mosquito.  They placed disposable cups made from different materials in wet sediment and water for a few days and observed how the chemicals leached from the cups affected the growth of the larvae.  It turned out that all of the different kinds of cups had negative effects.  The concern is not specifically about mosquito larvae; it is the fact that more environmentally friendly drinking cups are still potentially harmful to living things.

Paper is neither fat nor water resistant, so paper cups need to be treated with a surface coating.  The most common coating is polylactide, which is a type of bioplastic.  It is generally considered to be biodegradable, but the study shows that it can still be toxic.  Bioplastics still contain many different chemicals and the potential toxicity of each of them is not well known.

The UN is trying to develop a binding agreement by the world’s countries to end the spread of plastics in society and nature.  For such an agreement to be effective, the plastics industry will need to clearly report what chemicals all products contain, including such mostly invisible products as the coating on paper drinking cups.

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Paper cups are just as toxic as plastic cups

Photo, posted October 23, 2016, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Rare Earths And The Energy Transition | Earth Wise

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Limiting the rise in global temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius requires decarbonization.  This means slashing fossil fuel use, switching to renewable energy sources, and electrifying as many sectors of the economy as possible.  Doing these things requires huge numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and storage batteries.   All of them use rare earth elements and other critical metals.

The 17 rare earth elements are actually common, but they are called rare because they are seldom found in sufficient quantities to be extracted easily or economically. 

China once supplied 97% of the world’s rare earth elements as a result of government support, cheap labor, lax environmental regulations, and low prices.  Once the world started to realize the dangers of being so dependent on China, many countries began developing their own rare earth element production. (However, today China still produces 60-70% of the world’s rare earth elements).

It is difficult to mine rare earth elements without causing environmental damage.  The prevalent extraction techniques involve toxic chemicals that can leach into the environment and, because rare earths are often found near radioactive elements, mining often brings dangerous radioactive waste into the environment.

Researchers are working on ways to make rare earth mining more sustainable.  Some of these include biomining – which uses microbes to extract rare earths from ores, electrical methods to free rare earths from ores, and so-called agromining, which is growing plants that hyperaccumulate rare earths from the soil into their tissues.

Making rare earth mining more sustainable and less harmful to the environment is an essential part of the world’s future.

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The Energy Transition Will Need More Rare Earth Elements. Can We Secure Them Sustainably?

Photo, posted November 18, 2008, courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Hydrogen And The Methane Problem | Earth Wise

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Theoretically, hydrogen could be the fuel of the future.  It is the most common element in the universe and its combustion produces no harmful emissions.  Most industrial hydrogen comes from a process called steam reforming that extracts it from natural gas – basically methane.  Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the process.   But it is also possible to get hydrogen by breaking down water resulting only in oxygen as a byproduct.   There is a great deal of ongoing development of so-called green hydrogen.

New research from Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has uncovered a potential problem associated with the use of hydrogen as a clean fuel. 

There is a molecule in the atmosphere called the hydroxyl radical.  It is known as “the detergent of the troposphere”.  It plays a critical role in eliminating greenhouse gases such as methane and ozone from the atmosphere.  It turns out that the hydroxyl radical also reacts with any hydrogen gas in the atmosphere and there is only so much hydroxyl to go around.  If large amounts of hydrogen were to enter the atmosphere, much of the hydroxyl radical would be used up reacting with it and there would be much less available to break down methane.  As a result, there would end up being more methane in the atmosphere, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas.

The bottom line is that there would need to be proactive efforts to limit the amount of hydrogen getting into the atmosphere whether from producing it, transporting it, or anyplace else in the value chain.  Otherwise, the hydrogen economy would cancel out many of the climate benefits of eliminating fossil fuels.

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Switching to hydrogen fuel could prolong the methane problem

Photo, posted June 12, 2021, courtesy of Clean Air Task Force via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel From Wind And Water | Earth Wise

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Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and it can be used as a fuel to run cars, trains, and even airplanes.  Using it produces no harmful emissions.  However, to date, the way it is economically produced is not clean and green.  It is made from natural gas and leaves behind lots of carbon dioxide.

Around the world there are many projects working on so-called green hydrogen.  Producing hydrogen by splitting water into its component elements is called electrolysis and produces only oxygen as a waste product.  The problem with electrolysis is that it takes prodigious amounts of energy and therefore is very expensive.

A new project taking place in north Texas hopes to create the country’s first large-scale producer of green hydrogen.  The project is building a 900-megawatt wind farm along with a 500-megawatt solar farm.  The 1.4 gigawatts of total production capacity is more energy than the city of Austin consumes.  That energy will be used to produce 200,000 kilograms of hydrogen a day.

This project is among the largest proposed green hydrogen projects in the U.S.   There are green hydrogen proposals in Europe, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East that range from 10 GW to 67 GW. 

The Texas project, being developed in partnership by Air Products and AES, has been enabled by government support from the Inflation Reduction Act.    

There are a few thousand hydrogen-powered cars, boats, and trains but without substantial, cost-effective hydrogen infrastructure, the market is very limited.   Subsidizing the development of the necessary infrastructure is essential if there is any real chance to create the long-imagined hydrogen economy.

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Texas Project Will Use Wind to Make Fuel Out of Water

Photo, posted June 5, 2005, courtesy of City Transport Info via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Coping With Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Extreme weather events including prolonged drought and heavy rainfall are becoming more common and more severe as global temperatures rise.  As the climate continues to change in the coming decades, how will animals respond? 

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have examined how different mammals react to climate change. They analyzed data on population fluctuations from 157 mammal species around the world.  They compared these fluctuations with weather and climate data from the same time period.  The research team had 10 or more years of data for each species studied. 

The researchers found that mammals that live for a long time and/or produce less offspring –  like llamas, elephants, bears, and bison – are more climate resilient than small mammals with short lives — like mice, possums, lemmings, and rare marsupials. 

For example, large, long-lived mammals can invest their energy into one offspring, or simply wait for better times if conditions become challenging.  On the other hand, small, short-lived mammals like rodents have more extreme population changes in the short term. In the event of a prolonged drought, large portions of their food base may rapidly disappear, and they are left to starve because they have limited fat reserves.

However, the research team notes that the ability of a species to withstand climate change must not be the only factor when assessing a species’ vulnerability.  In fact, in many cases, habitat destruction, poaching, pollution, and invasive species pose a larger threat to animal species than climate change. 

While the study only examined 157 species, the findings enable researchers to also predict how animals they know less about will react to climate change.

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Which animals can best withstand climate change?

Photo, posted July 8, 2018, courtesy of Ray via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Prospects For Floating Solar | Earth Wise

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Countries are trying to figure out how to get enough energy from solar and wind generation to completely decarbonize their economies.  According to some estimates, nations might have to devote between half a percent and five percent of their land area to solar panels to get the job done.  Half a percent is about the amount of the U.S. that is covered by paved roads.  While there is lots of open land in many parts of the country, covering it with solar panels might not be acceptable to farmers, conservationists, or other interested parties.

One way to deploy more solar panels without using up land is the use of floating solar panels.  Floating photovoltaic systems – also known as floatovoltaics – are becoming increasingly common, especially in Asia.  This year, China installed one of the largest floatovoltaic systems in the world on a reservoir near the city of Dezhou.

Floating solar panels stay cooler and run more efficiently than those on land.  The panels also help prevent evaporation from their watery homes and the shading they provide also help to minimize algal blooms.  Solar installations on reservoirs generally puts them near cities, making it easier to feed power into urban grids.

On the other hand, floating solar systems need to be able to withstand water and waves and are generally more expensive to build than land-based systems.

At present, the installed global capacity of floating solar is only about 3 gigawatts, compared with more than 700 gigawatts of land-based systems. However, reservoirs around the world collectively cover an area about the size of France.  Covering just 10 percent of them with floating solar could produce as much power as all the fossil-fuel plants in operation worldwide.

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Solar Takes a Swim

Photo, posted March 7, 2019, courtesy of Hedgerow INC via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Miracle Tree | Earth Wise

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The world needs to be fed without destroying the environment.   We need to grow more trees to store more carbon on earth and reduce the amount in the atmosphere.  But meanwhile, we decimate rainforests to produce palm oil and grow soybeans.

A startup company in California called Terviva thinks they have a solution.  It’s called pongamia, which is an ordinary looking tropical tree.  It produces beans packed with protein and oil, much like soybeans.  However, it has the potential to produce much more nutrition per acre than soybeans and it is hardy enough to grow on pretty much any kind of land without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, or irrigation.  In short, it is a miracle crop for a hot and hungry planet that is running out of fertile farmland and fresh water.

Pongamia is not a new or rare tree.  It is common in India but grows all over the world.  It is often planted as an ornamental here in the U.S.

The initial idea for making use of the hardy tree was to use its oil as a biofuel.  The seeds of pongamia are known to have a bitter taste and disagreeable odor, which is why the seeds or oil were never used for human or animal feed.  However, Terviva has developed a way to de-bitter pongamia oil.  Once this is done, it becomes a golden-colored substitute for olive oil. It also has enormous potential as a protein for plant-based milks and meats, since it contains all nine essential amino acids.

Terviva has raised more than $100 million to further develop pongamia and is now partnering with Danone, a $25 billion multinational food company, to develop pongamia as a climate-friendly, climate-resilient, non-GMO alternative to soy and palm oil.

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This super-tree could help feed the world and fight climate change

Photo, posted December 15, 2015, courtesy of Lauren Gutierrez via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Sea Urchins And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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There is a thriving population of black sea urchins in bubbling volcanic vents off the coast of Ishia, a small island in the Gulf of Naples.  The oceanic environment there is very acidic, high in carbon dioxide, and very warm.   The environment represents a proxy for what is gradually happening to oceans around the world.

Researchers from the University of Sydney have determined that the ability of sea urchins to prosper in such an environment means that these animals, which are already abundant in the Mediterranean Sea are likely to spread further afield as oceans continue to warm and become more acidic.  The Mediterranean Sea is warming 20% faster than the global average.

Sea urchins are already an environmental problem in many places around the world.  When their numbers increase disproportionately, they decimate kelp forests and algae, leading to the demise of other species that depend on these things for food or shelter.  The result is something called an urchin barren, which is a rocky, sandy, urchin-filled seafloor devoid of other life.

Urchin barrens are increasingly common in many places, including the east coast of Australia and the coastline in the Americas stretching from Nova Scotia to Chile.

In Australia, for example, sea urchin populations have multiplied, and their range has expanded considerably, overgrazing kelp and damaging abalone and lobster farms.

Tests run by the Sydney researchers found that it is difficult to stress sea urchins.  They appear to tolerate conditions that other creatures simply cannot.   The only real positive is that understanding the urchins’ remarkable survival abilities might offer insights into adaptations that other animals might need in order to survive as the oceans become warmer and more acidic.

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Colonising sea urchins can withstand hot, acidic seas

Photo, posted January 31, 2010, courtesy of Anna Barnett via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Weaning Off Fossil Fuels | Earth Wise            

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We recently talked about California producing 97% of its electricity from renewables on one sunny afternoon in April.  On May 8th, the state produced enough renewable electricity to meet 103% of consumer demand.  These sorts of records are likely to be increasingly commonplace in the spring when the weather is still fairly mild.

But even while renewables were producing more electricity than California needed, natural gas power plants in the state were still running.

Turning off the gas power plants is not possible.  The reason is that as the sun sets and solar farms stop producing power, California has to quickly replace the power with electricity from other sources.  Natural gas plants are massive industrial facilities that cannot be turned on and off rapidly.  Some take as many as 4 to 8 hours to switch on.  Operators back them down as far as they can go, but even when there is plenty of solar power during the day, natural gas plants are still running.

The state is rapidly building huge battery storage projects as an alternative to gas plants, but so far, they are still only a small fraction of what is needed.   Wind power is another part of the solution along with hydropower.  California imports some power from other states as well and, in fact, also exports power when there is excess.  But keeping the energy system balanced and stable is an ongoing challenge.

California is building huge amounts of solar, huge amounts of wind, and huge amounts of energy storage, which should get the state to at least 90% of the way to a clean grid.  It’s the last 5-10% that is much harder to accomplish before natural gas is no longer part of the energy system.

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California just ran on 100% renewable energy, but fossil fuels aren’t fading away yet

Photo, posted January 10, 2014, courtesy of F.G. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker | Earth Wise

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The ivory-billed woodpecker was the largest woodpecker in the US.  They were once relatively common, stretching from the Carolinas through the southeast and across to Texas.  Their numbers started to drop sharply in the 19th century because of habitat loss and overhunting.  Many were taken as valuable specimens; some were even eaten by poverty-stricken people.

The last widely accepted sighting was way back in 1944.  For years, the birds were listed as critically endangered with only infrequent and entirely anecdotal reports of sightings.  Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally declared the species extinct.

A multiyear field study by avian researchers from multiple institutions has recently reported that the ivory-billed woodpecker may in fact still exist in a remote swampy region of Louisiana. 

The three-year effort to find the woodpecker involved scientists trudging through the remote site to observe birds and take audio recordings.  Unmanned trail cameras taking time-lapse photos and a drone were used to capture images.  Several members of the team report that they observed the birds.  Some photographic images and videos appear to show ivory bills.  Based on characteristic markings visible in some of the photos, the birds do appear to be the ivory bill and not, for example, the fairly common but similar looking pileated woodpecker.

The birds are scarce, live in a tough, swampy habitat, and actively avoid getting near people.  They live high in trees and are very difficult to spot, much less get clear photographs of.  From all indications, however, reports of the demise of the ivory-billed woodpecker may have been premature.

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Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say

Photo, posted May 3, 2008, courtesy of Michael McCarthy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fires Are Larger And More Frequent | Earth Wise

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According to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder, wildfires have gotten much larger and much more frequent across the United States since the year 2000.  The rise in wildfires in recent years has been attributed to the changing climate and the new research shows that large fires have become more common and have been spreading into new areas that previously did not burn.

The researchers analyzed data from over 28,000 fires that occurred between 1984 and 2018 using satellite imagery along with detailed state and federal fire history records.

The results are that there were more fires across all regions of the contiguous U.S. from 2005 to 2018 compared to the previous 20 years.  In the West and East, fire frequency doubled, and in the Great Plains, fire frequency quadrupled.  The amount of land burned each year at least tripled in those regions.

The team discovered that the size of fire-prone areas increased in all regions of the contiguous U.S. in the 2000s, meaning that the distance between individual fires has been getting smaller than it was in previous decades and the fires have been spreading into areas that did not burn in the past.

This comprehensive study confirms what has been assumed by the media, public, and firefighting officials.  The results also align with increasing risk trends such as the growing development of natural hazard zones. Projected changes in climate, fuel, and ignitions suggest that there will be more and larger fires in the future.  More large fires plus intensifying development mean that the worst fire disasters are still to come.

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U.S. Fires Four Times Larger, Three Times More Frequent Since 2000

Photo, posted May 3, 2013, courtesy of Daria Devyatkina via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Overwintering Fires | Earth Wise

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Fires that go on for long periods of time, surviving the snow and rain of winter to reemerge in the spring, are becoming more common in high northern latitudes as the climate warms.  Such fires are called holdover fires, hibernating fires, overwintering fires, or even zombie fires.  Whatever people choose to call them, this type of wildfire is occurring more often.

These smoldering fires start out as flaming fires but then enter an energy-saver mode.  They start above ground but then smolder in the soil or under tree roots through the winter.  They barely survive based on the oxygen and fuel resources that they have but can transition back into flaming fires once conditions are more favorable.

Dutch researchers used ground-based data with fire detection data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites to study fires in the boreal forests of Alaska and Canada’s Northwest Territories.  They found a way to identify overwintering fires based on their unique characteristics.  

Their data indicates that overwintering fires tend to be linked to high summer temperatures and large fire seasons.  Between 2002 and 2018, overwintering fires generally accounted for a small amount of the total burned area in the region but in individual years with hot and severe fire seasons, the number can escalate.  In 2008 in Alaska, for example, overwintering fires accounted for nearly 40% of the burned area.

Early detection of these overwintering fires could help with fire management and reduce the amount of carbon – which is stored in large amounts in the region’s organic soils – that gets released to the atmosphere during fires.

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Overwintering Fires on the Rise

Photo, posted September 14, 2017, courtesy of Andrew R. Mitchell/USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Strategies To Cool Off Cities | Earth Wise

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Heatwaves in cities are becoming increasingly common and increasingly intense.  The warming climate is a big factor, but it is the nature of our cities that really drives up temperatures.  Solar radiation stored throughout the day on asphalt and buildings is released slowly during the night, which generates significant heat stress.

A study carried out by a major Barcelona university and published in the journal Urban Climate looked at the effectiveness of various ways to mitigate the heating effects in cities.  In particular, the study examined the effects of the use of white roofs on buildings and the expansion of urban green areas with daily irrigation in the Barcelona metropolitan area.  It simulated various scenarios incorporating combinations of these two mitigation strategies.

The strategy with the greatest impact was a combination of the use of both white roofs and the addition of six urban parks, which is a target set by the Barcelona Urban Master Plan.  This scenario resulted in an average temperature reduction of 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit.  The maximum reduction occurs during the mid-afternoon with a reduction of 7 degrees and the combination still provides more than 3 degrees of reduction at 9 pm.  Reducing temperatures this way also results in a reduction in energy consumption, with 26% less spending on air conditioning.

The 2-pronged strategy combines the benefits of reducing the temperature at night due to more urban green areas with the reduction of daytime heat due to both the increased reflectivity of white roofs as well as the irrigation of the green areas.

The study demonstrates how modeling efforts can help urban planners to counteract the impacts of heatwaves, which are likely to increase with climate change and intensification of urbanization.

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White roofs and more green areas would mitigate the effects of heat waves in cities

Photo, posted January 16, 2011, courtesy of Sean MacEntee via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Costs Of Mislabeled Seafood | Earth Wise

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Seafood is the world’s most highly traded food commodity and reports of seafood mislabeling have become increasingly common over time.  A new study by Arizona State University looked at the environmental effects of mislabeled seafood.

What is mislabeled seafood?  Sometimes the snapper you were served was really Pacific Ocean Perch.  Maybe grouper was really whitefin weakfish.  Many times white leg shrimp are actually giant tiger prawns.

Approximately 190,000 to 250,000 tons of mislabeled seafood are sold in the U.S. each year, or 3.4 to 4.3% of consumed seafood.  Previous studies focused on the economic aspects of getting cheaper fish when paying for more expensive fish.  The new research looks at the environmental costs associated with mislabeled seafood.

Substituted seafood is 28% more likely to be imported from other countries, which may have weaker environmental laws than the U.S.  In the United States, fishery management is pretty good.  There is strong monitoring and enforcement to support limits on fishing.  Metrics like fish abundance, fishing mortality, bycatch, and discards are all monitored.  In many other places, this is not the case.

To really evaluate the overall effects of seafood mislabeling, one has to take into account both the rates of substitution and the levels of consumption. 

Consuming fish from a well-managed fishery should not have a negative impact in terms of the population now or in the future.  But even inadvertently consuming fish from poorly managed fisheries in not sustainable.  It is good to get your seafood from a trusted source.

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ASU Study Looks At The Environmental Effects Of Purchasing, Consuming Mislabeled Fish

Photo, posted August 1, 2014, courtesy of Ralph Daily via Flickr.

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