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Solar Power At Night | Earth Wise

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The use of solar power has grown tremendously in recent years as it has declined in price and become far more competitive with other forms of electricity generation.  Its fundamental drawback, of course, is that it only works when the sun is shining.  Solar panels don’t produce any power at night.  That is, until now, apparently.

A team of engineers at Stanford University have developed a new kind of solar cell that is capable of generating at least some electricity at night.  Published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, the research describes a device that can be a continuous renewable power source for both day and nighttime.

The device incorporates a thermoelectric generator that produces electricity from the small difference in temperature between the ambient air and the solar cell itself.  The amount of power produced is far less than the solar cell generates from sunlight, but the device can provide nighttime standby lighting and power in off-grid and mini-grid applications.

Mini-grid applications are independent electricity networks that are used for small populations that may be too isolated to be connected to the main power grid.  Nearly 600 million people in Africa currently live without access to electricity, primarily in rural areas.  A standalone solar system operating independently of any power grid can meet many electricity needs such as phone charging and lighting, but such systems may not be able to handle large electrical need such as powering machinery and agricultural equipment.  Mini-grids are larger installations that can provide power to a small rural community.

With innovations like the new Stanford device, a solar mini-grid may be able to keep running at some level even at night.

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Solar panels that can generate electricity at night have been developed at Stanford

Photo, posted December 15, 2021, courtesy of Pete via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Renewables’ Growing Share | Earth Wise

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Not long ago, many states across the country were setting goals to obtain 20% of their electricity from renewable sources. For a few states, like New York and Washington, ample amounts of hydropower made 20% an easy target.  But for many others, 20% seemed like a very ambitious objective.

Things have certainly changed.  According to the latest monthly Short Term Energy Outlook, a report from the federal government, the combination of wind, solar, and other renewable sources will exceed one-quarter of the country’s generation by 2024.

Renewables are already at 24% of U.S. electricity generation and are expected to rise to 26% by next year.  Coal, which used to be the largest source of electricity, will continue to drop from its current 18% to 17% by next year.  Overall, renewables passed coal for the first full year in 2020.  Coal staged a bit of a comeback in 2021, but has once again resumed its decline.  Many coal-fired power plants continue to close, and there are not new ones being built because of diminishing economic benefits as well as concerns about emissions.

The largest source of electricity generation continues to be natural gas at 38%, but that number is also expected to slowly decrease over time. The growth in renewable energy is coming from wind and solar power.  Two-thirds of that growth is from solar and one-third is from wind. 

Together, wind and solar power will add up to 18% of the country’s electricity supply.  The government still tracks them lumped together as renewables, but both are so large and growing so quickly that the Energy Information Agency is likely to soon start tracking them as separate categories.

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Renewables Projected to Soon Be One-Fourth of US Electricity Generation. Really Soon

Photo, posted April 18, 2011, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Vaccine For Bees | Earth Wise

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The US has seen annual reductions in honey bee colonies since 2006.  According to the USDA, there are many factors that have contributed to the decline.  These include parasites, pests, insecticides, disease, and a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder in which worker bees abandon a hive and leave behind the queen.

One of major threats to bee colonies is American foulbrood disease, which is a bacterial condition that attacks bee larvae.  It is highly contagious and has no cure.  Until now, the only treatment method required burning the colony of infected bees along with the hives and equipment and treating nearby bee colonies with antibiotics.

Recently, the USDA has approved a conditional license for the world’s first vaccine for honey bees.  The vaccine contains inactive bacteria of the type that causes American foulbrood disease.

The vaccine is incorporated into the royal jelly fed by worker bees to the queen bee.  The queen ingests the feed and keeps some of vaccine in her ovaries.  This gives bee larvae immunity to the disease as they hatch and thereby reduces death from the illness.

According to the California State Beekeepers Association, the new vaccine could be a major breakthrough for protecting bees.  Preventing the infection in hives could avoid costly, destructive measures and allow the beekeepers to focus on other important elements of keeping bees healthy.

Bees as pollinators play a critical role in many ecosystems.  For humankind, pollinators such as bees, birds, and bats are responsible for about a third of the world’s crop production.

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US approves world’s first vaccine for declining honey bees

Photo, posted June 6, 2022, courtesy of Bernd Thaller via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Disappearing Glaciers | Earth Wise

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Glaciers are massive bodies of slowly moving ice.  Glaciers form on land, and represent the snows of centuries compressed over time.  They move slowly downward under the influence of their own weight and gravity. 

Most of the glaciers on the planet are found in the polar regions, including Antarctica, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland.  Glaciers can also be found closer to the equator in mountain ranges, such as the Andes Mountain range in South America.  Glaciers are always changing, accumulating snow in the winter and losing ice to melting in the summer.  But in recent times, the melting has been outpacing the accumulation.

A new international study led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering has produced new projections of glacier loss through the century under different emissions scenarios.  According to the projections, the world could lose as much as 41% of its total glacier mass this century – or as little as 26% – depending on climate change mitigation efforts. 

In a future with continued investments in fossil fuels (sometimes referred to as the “business as usual” scenario), more than 40% of the glacial mass will be gone by 2100, and more than 80% of glaciers by number could disappear.  Even in a best case scenario where the increase in global mean temperature is limited to 1.5° degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels, more than 25% of glacial mass will be gone, and nearly 50% of glaciers by number will disappear.

Glaciers take a long time to respond to changes in climate.  A complete halt to emissions today would take anywhere from 30 to 100 years to be reflected in glacier mass loss rates.

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Team projects two out of three glaciers could be lost by 2100

Ice, Snow, and Glaciers and the Water Cycle

Photo, posted August 13, 2010, courtesy of Kimberly Vardeman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking Global Forest Changes | Earth Wise

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India is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.  An estimated 47,000 plant species and 89,000 animal species can be found in India, with more than 10% of each thought to be on the list of threatened species.

India is also one of the 10 most forest-rich countries in the world.  Trees cover approximately 25% of the nation.  But this is still a significant decline from years past.  In fact, between the 1890s and 1990s, a combination of rapid development and resource overexploitation caused India to lose nearly 80% of its native forest area.  Today, as India’s forests continue to disappear, researchers are trying to help preserve what forest remains. 

Using satellite-monitoring data, researchers from The Ohio State University have developed a deep learning algorithm that could provide real-time land use and land cover maps for parts of India. 

The land use monitoring system was trained using satellite data from Norway’s International Climate and Forests Initiative.  By combining this data with a global land cover map produced by Tsinghua University in China, the researcher team’s deep learning model was able to acquire a more detailed type of base map of the area.  Using their model, the researchers were able to process 10 monthly maps.  Their research was recently  presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.   

Using these maps, the researchers were able to detect seasonal shifts across india.  These include changes to barren land, how crop land was affected by monsoons, and the distribution of forests in mountainous regions. 

Understanding the impact of these seasonal changes will help scientists better predict the effects of climate change on forests.

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Using deep learning to monitor India’s disappearing forest cover

Photo, posted January 20, 2013, courtesy of Frontier Official via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Examining The Decline Of Honey Bees | Earth Wise

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For many years, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators.  Many of the invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction. And since 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination to some extent, the decline of pollinators poses a major threat to global food security.

Honey bees are among the struggling pollinators.  Over the past 14 years, bee colonies have been disappearing at an alarming rate in what is known as the “colony collapse disorder.” 

In an effort to understand why, scientists have often focused their research on environmental stressors, such as parasites, pesticides, and disease.  But according to new research by entomologists from the University of Maryland, honey bee life spans are simply 50% shorter today than they were 50 years ago.  In the study, which was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers found that honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment lived half as long as honey bees did in the 1970s.  This is the first study to show that genetics – as opposed to environmental stressors – may be influencing the broader trends seen in the beekeeping industry.

When the researchers modeled the effect of their findings on a beekeeping operation, they found that the resulting loss rates were about 33%.  This is similar to the average overwinter and annual loss rates reported by beekeepers during the past 14 years.

The next step is for researchers to compare trends in honey bee life spans across the U.S. and in other countries to see if there are differences in bee longevity. 

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Honey Bee Lifespans are 50% Shorter Today Than They Were 50 Years Ago

Helping Agriculture’s Helpful Honey Bees

Photo, posted June 23, 2007, courtesy of Susan E. Ellis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Moving Endangered Species | Earth Wise

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People have intentionally or accidentally introduced numerous invasive species to habitats around the world.  At the same time, the planet’s wildlife is in a steep decline.  A recent study estimated that the populations of over 5,000 vertebrate species have declined by an average of nearly 70% since 1970.  A United Nations report warns that human activity has threatened as many as a million species with extinction.

With all of this as a background, there is climate change that is altering the habitats of the world’s species – warming lakes and oceans, turning forests into grasslands, tundra into woodland, and melting glaciers.  In response to these changes, living things are rearranging themselves, migrating to more hospitable locations.  But many species are just not capable of finding more suitable habitats on their own.

Conservationists are now increasingly considering the use of assisted migration. In some cases, when a species’ critical habitat has been irreversibly altered or destroyed, agencies are establishing experimental populations outside of the species’ historical range.  Such actions are often deemed extreme but may be increasingly necessary.

However, clear-cut cases are relatively rare.  More likely, it is a more difficult judgement call as to whether assisted migration is a good idea or is possibly a threat to the ecosystem of the species’ new location.  The relative dearth of assisted migration experiments is less likely a result of legal barriers than it is a lack of scientific and societal consensus on the practice. Scientists are now trying to develop risk-analysis frameworks that various agencies can use in considering potential assisted migration experiments. 

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Last Resort: Moving Endangered Species in Order to Save Them

Photo, posted March 18, 2010, courtesy of Jean via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The State Of The Birds | Earth Wise

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The U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative has published the State of the Birds 2022, an assessment of bird populations in North America. The news is not good.  The report identifies 70 Tipping Point species, which are those that have lost half or more of their breeding population since 1970 and are on track to lose another half or more in the next 50 years. According to research published in Science in 2019, the United States and Canada have lost 3 billion breeding birds since 1970, which is about a quarter of the total population.

More than half of the bird species in the United States are in decline. According to the Conservation Initiative, the tipping point species in particular require proactive conservation protections to avoid becoming endangered.  Species that inhabit grasslands are declining more rapidly, while waterfowl like ducks and geese are actually increasing.  That increase is most likely a result of the investments in conservation funded by the hunting industry.

Those waterfowl gains demonstrate that when there are concerted efforts to protect and promote bird populations, positve changes can happen.  Some say that protecting birds is not a high priority given all the other crises in the world, but what is good for birds is also good for people.  For example, planting trees and other vegetation to enhance bird habitat also helps to sequester carbon, protect coastlines from storm surges, increase groundwater recharge, and reduce urban heating effects.

The loss of 3 billion birds is a major biodiversity crisis and requires action.  Bird conservation benefits wildlife, people, entire ecosystems, and our planet.

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What’s Good for Birds Is Good for People and the Planet. But More Than Half of Bird Species in the U.S. Are in Decline

Photo, posted November 4, 2020, courtesy of Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Living Planet Index | Earth Wise

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The World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London recently published the latest Living Planet Index, which is designed to measure how animal populations are changing through time.  The purpose is to provide an assessment of the health of ecosystems and the state of biodiversity.

The LPI only looks at the population of vertebrates:  birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.  The latest survey looked at how populations have changed between 1970 and 2018.  The results are that populations of these animal groups have declined by an average of 69% over that 48-year period.

This result highlights a very real and very severe crisis of biodiversity loss.  However, it does not mean that there are 2/3 fewer animals today than 48 years ago.  The way the index is calculated is to look at the changes in individual populations of over 5,000 different species.  Then these individual relative declines are averaged to get the result.  

There are shortcomings in the LPI.  For example, individual species that have seen massive population declines will bring the average down.  But even removing the outliers both of a negative and a positive impact does not dramatically change the result.

There is no perfect indicator for biodiversity and ecosystem health.  The Living Planet Index is nonetheless a useful metric and indicates that many species around the world are in decline.  Policymakers and environmental advocates need to make decisions about conservation and protection measures and this index is one tool they can use.

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There’s a frightening new report about wildlife declines. But many are getting the story wrong.

Photo, posted October 12, 2019, courtesy of Visit Rwanda via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Climate Change And Crabs | Earth Wise

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Globally, there are more than 6,000 species of crabs.  In Alaska’s waters alone, there are 18 species, including 10 that are commercially fished.  The perils of crab fishing in this region, including freezing temperatures, turbulent seas, and raising full pots that can weigh well over a ton, have been highlighted for many years in the reality TV series Deadliest Catch.        

One of those commercially-fished species is the Alaska snow crab.  Alaska snow crabs are a cold-water species found off the coast of Alaska in the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. 

In October, officials in Alaska announced that the upcoming winter snow crab season would be canceled for the first time ever due to a sharp population decline. While the number of juvenile snow crabs was at record highs just a few years ago, approximately 90% of snow crabs mysteriously disappeared ahead of last season.  Officials also canceled the Bristol Bay red king crab harvest for similar reasons for the second year in a row.

The closures dealt a severe blow to crab fishers in the region.  According to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Alaska’s crab fishing industry is worth more than $200 million. 

The canceled seasons also raise questions about the role of climate change in the snow crab population crash. While the causes of the decline are still being researched, scientists suspect that warmer temperatures are responsible.  Temperatures in the Arctic region have warmed four times faster than the rest of the planet. 

As the climate continues to change, the warming waters around Alaska may become increasingly inhospitable to snow crabs and other species.   

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Alaska’s Bering snow crab, king crab seasons canceled

Alaska cancels snow crab season for first time after population collapses

Photo, posted November 16, 2010, courtesy of David Csepp / NOAA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Inequality | Earth Wise

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Everyone contributes to climate change through the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, but individual contributions vary greatly.   A study at the Paris School of Economics has determined that just 1 percent of the population is responsible for nearly a quarter of global carbon emissions growth since 1990.

The study estimated emissions from individuals’ consumption and their financial investments, and also from government spending in their country.  Individuals are responsible for carbon emissions as a result of their own activities, but they also bear their share of responsibility for the emissions of the firms that they own or invest in. 

In 2019, people living in sub-Saharan Africa produced an average of 1.8 tons of CO2 equivalent per capita.  In North America, the average per capita was more than 10 times higher.  Meanwhile, the top 10% of North America’s emitters produced more than 75 tons each.

From 1990 to 2019, the bottom 50% of emitters was responsible for just 16% of emissions growth, while the top 1% was responsible for 23%.  The top 0.1% saw emissions growth of 80%.

The inequality between rich and poor is driven more by inequality within countries than by inequality between countries.  This is particularly true for wealthy countries.  For example, over the study period, the top 1% saw their emissions grow by 26% while emissions actually declined 5-15% among low and middle earners even in wealthy nations.

Economic inequality drives a lot of the dynamics taking place within many countries around the world, and this even applies to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019

Photo, posted December 11, 2017, courtesy of Bernal Saborio via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Vanishing Arctic Lakes | Earth Wise

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In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world.  The phenomenon is known as Arctic amplification.  A study by the Finnish Meteorological Institute published in August in Communications Earth & Environment determined that during the past 43 years, the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe.  The result of this amplified warming has been that glaciers are collapsing, wildlife is struggling, and habitats continue to disappear at a record pace.

Research published by the University of Florida has identified a new threat associated with Arctic amplification: lakes in the Arctic are drying up.

Over the past 20 years, many Arctic lakes have shrunk or dried up completely across the entire pan-Arctic region, which spans the northern parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Alaska.

Arctic lakes are essential elements of the Arctic ecosystem and for the indigenous communities that live in the region.  They provide a critical source of fresh water for those communities and local industries. 

The rapid decline of Arctic lakes is unexpected.  Earlier predictions were that climate change would first actually expand lakes in the region as ground ice melted.  Lakes drying out was not expected until much later in this century or even in the 22nd century.  Instead, it appears that thawing permafrost may drain lakes and overwhelm the expansion effect caused by melting ice.  The theory is that thawing permafrost decreases lake area by creating drainage channels and increasing soil erosion.

The finding suggest that permafrost thawing is occurring faster than anticipated, which presents many additional problems.

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As the climate crisis intensifies, lakes across the Arctic are vanishing

Photo, posted June 20, 2014, courtesy of Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Pacific Bluefin Tuna On The Rebound | Earth Wise

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The Pacific Bluefin Tuna is a commercially valuable species that is especially prized in Japan.  The fish is particularly valued for sashimi and sushi and large specimens have been known to fetch enormous prices at seafood auctions.

Aggressive fishing reduced the bluefin biomass through the late 1990s and 2000s to only a few percent of its potential unfished levels.  Beginning in 2011, The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission began management measures that reduced the catch of smaller bluefin as well as limited the catch of larger bluefin.  The goal was to allow more fish to grow to maturity.  The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission adopted similar resolutions a year later.  Despite these efforts, increasing concern about declining bluefin levels led to a petition to list the species as endangered.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries organization determined that while the population was near historical lows, the remaining 1.6 million fish was a sufficient number to avoid the risk of extinction and that the measures in place were sufficient.

A new assessment of the bluefin population has shown that the species is now increasing and includes many younger fish that will help accelerate its rebound.  The assessment by NOAA showed that the bluefin stock was greater than the first rebuilding target set for 2019. 

According to the NOAA Fisheries biologists that performed the assessment, the species has responded exactly as predicted given the actions that were taken.  The bluefin tuna is an amazingly resilient fish and it is continuing to demonstrate that fact.

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International Actions Pay Off For Pacific Bluefin Tuna as Species Rebounds at Accelerating Rate

Photo, posted June 1, 2022, courtesy of Philippe Yuan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Great Salt Lake Is Disappearing | Earth Wise

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Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the western hemisphere.  According to data from the US Geological Survey, the surface water elevation of the Great Salt Lake has fallen to the lowest level since records began in the mid-1800s.  The average elevation is now 4,190 feet above sea level.   With this drop in water level, the surface area of the lake is little more than half of its historical size.  The lower water level has exposed about 700 square miles of previously submerged lakebed.

The lake now contains about a quarter of the volume of water that it did at its high point in 1987.  The precipitous drop in water is a result of water usage from the lake coupled with climate change-fueled drought.   Increased water demand is due to the rapidly growing population of metropolitan Salt Lake City.  Utah’s population is projected to increase by almost 50% by 2060.

The Great Salt Lake goes though seasonal cycles of water loss and replenishment.  Rain and snow generally refill its level.  However, because of the ongoing megadrought in the West, water evaporation and depletion continue to exceed the amount of water entering the lake.  The water levels are expected to further decrease until fall or early winter, when incoming water is expected to equal or exceed evaporation.

The decline of the Great Salt Lake is a serious threat to the economy, ecology, and people of northern Utah.  The lake generates snowpack, is a refuge for hundreds of migratory birds and other wildlife and generates millions of dollars in the economy through mineral extraction and tourism.

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Utah’s Great Salt Lake is disappearing

Photo, posted October 6, 2020, courtesy of Julie Girard via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Declining Flying Insects | Earth Wise

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In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the global decline in insect abundance.  A recently published survey of the abundance of flying insects in the UK has revealed very troubling results.

The Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife – two UK-based conservation groups – compared the number of dead insects on vehicles in 2004 and 2021.  In this Bugs Matter Citizen Science Survey, the data was collected by roughly 20,000 ordinary citizens using a smartphone app.

The results were that the number of flying insects in Britain dropped nearly 60% over that time period.  The insects declined most in England and Wales, with drops of 65% and 55%, respectively. 

It is possible that 2004 was a particularly good year for British insects and 2021 an especially bad one, but the findings of this study are consistent with other research around the world showing an alarming decline in insects.  A series of studies in 2019 found that the global mass of insects is shrinking by 2.5% a year and that insects are going extinct eight times faster than reptiles, birds, or mammals.

Insects face multiple overlapping threats including the destruction of wild habitats for farming, urbanization, pesticides, and light pollution.  On top of these things is climate change which is disrupting ecosystems in multiple ways.

Insects play a vital role in pollinating crops, consuming organic waste, killing pests, and as essential parts of multiple ecosystems.  Severe insect declines can potentially have dire global ecological and economic consequences.

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Flying Insects Have Declined by 60 Percent in the U.K., Survey Finds

Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts

Photo, posted May 6, 2007, courtesy of Richard Giddins via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic Recycling Isn’t Working | Earth Wise

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A recent report from several environmental organizations shows that plastic recycling rates in the U.S. have actually declined in the last several years from about 8.7% of discarded plastic to less than 6%.   Meanwhile, since 1980, per capita plastic waste generation has increased 263%, totaling 218 pounds of plastic waste per person as of 2018.

Diminishing recycling rates don’t necessarily indicate a lack of interest by the public.  Plastic recycling is a complicated process.  There are multiple types of plastic that can’t be intermingled and there are no simple and sustainable ways to recycle many forms of plastic.   On top of that, the declining recycling rate also reflects the fact that we no longer can export our plastic waste to countries like China and Turkey, which have banned U.S. waste imports.

Recycling in general is a successful practice.  Paper recycling rates are around 66% as of 2020.  Cardboard recycling was at 88.8% in 2020, and metal recycling rates range from 27% to 76%, depending on the type of metal.  Glass recycling rates are a little over 30%.  Only plastic recycling has never reached 10%, even before shipping our waste overseas and declaring it to be recycled was going on.

According to environmental organizations focused on the global plastic problem, there is no circular economy of plastics.  Perhaps if truly biodegradable plastics became practical, economical, and widely utilized, the situation would be different.  As things stand, the only solution is to reduce the production, use, and disposal of plastics.

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Plastics Recycling ‘Does Not Work,’ Environmentalists Stress as U.S. Recycling Rates Drop to 5%

Photo, posted May 13, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Shipping And The Endangered Whale Shark | Earth Wise

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Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world.  While they measure up to 60 feet long and weigh up to 15 tons – larger and heavier than a school bus – whale sharks are actually harmless.  They are a graceful, slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark.  They are found in marine environments around the world and play an important role in the marine food web and healthy ocean ecosystems.

Whale sharks are an endangered species.  According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, growing human pressures are putting whale sharks at an increased risk of extinction.  The numbers of these gentle giants have declined by more than 50% over the last 75 years despite many international protections.  Fishing bycatch, poaching, and collisions with ships are the main drivers of the population decline. 

According to new research from marine biologists from the Marine Biological Association and the University of Southampton in the U.K., lethal collisions between whale sharks and large ships are vastly underestimated, and could be the reason why populations are continuing to fall.  Whale sharks spend a large amount of time in surface waters in coastal regions, and the research team theorized that collisions with ships could be causing significant whale shark deaths. 

In the study, researchers tracked the global movements of both ships and whale sharks, and then mapped so-called hotspots where their movements overlapped.  The research team found that more than 90% of whale shark movements fell under the footprint of shipping activity.

While many conservation measures have been taken to protect whale sharks, no international regulations currently exist to protect them from ship collisions.  The researchers say it’s time for that to change. 

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Shipping poses significant threat to the endangered whale shark

Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus)

Global collision-risk hotspots of marine traffic and the world’s largest fish

Photo, posted July 8, 2010, courtesy of Marcel Ekker via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Peak Natural Gas Generation | Earth Wise

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According to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Finance (the IEEFA), the U.S. most likely hit its peak usage of natural gas to generate electricity in 2020.  Growth in wind and solar power are beginning to erode the use of natural gas.

At the moment, natural gas prices are unusually high as a result of supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.  The U.S. is shipping record amounts of gas to Europe in order to help allies to wean off of Russian gas imports.  As a result, U.S. natural gas prices are at their highest level in more than 13 years.  Heating bills in the Northeast have been exceptionally high this past winter.

These high gas prices have also thrown a temporary lifeline to coal, which has seen a recent surge.  Despite this, coal in the U.S. is continuing its long-term decline.  Several of the largest power companies – including the Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Energy, and Georgia Power – are planning to phase out coal entirely by 2035 and shift to renewable power.

The surging prices in fossil fuels – at the gas pump and in the home – along with multiple disruptions in energy security, are supercharging the already rapid pace of growth in solar, wind, and battery energy storage projects.

Wind, solar, and hydropower currently account for about 20% of U.S. power generation.  According to the IEEFA, these renewable sources could provide more than a third of our power by 2027.  Including both renewables and nuclear power plants, the U.S. could generate more than half of its electricity from carbon-free sources by that year, which represents a massive transition from just five years ago.

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U.S. May Have Hit Peak Natural Gas Power Generation, Report Says

Photo, posted July 11, 2017, courtesy of John Ciccarelli / BLM via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Cars On The Rise | Earth Wise           

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The first quarter of the year was a tough one for the U.S. auto industry.  Overall sales of cars and trucks were down 15.7% compared with last year.   Automakers have been dealing with shortages of computer chips and other supplies, resulting in slowdowns in production.

The one major exception to the trend has been sales of electric cars.  In the first quarter, U.S. electric vehicle sales were up 76% compared with last year.  This was enough to double EV’s market share to 5.2%, up from 2.5% last year.

Reaching a five percent market share is a significant indicator that electric vehicles are becoming mainstream.  According to many industry analysts, this is just the beginning of a major ramp-up in EV sales.

The strong results in the first quarter were largely driven by one company – namely, Tesla.  Tesla has been expanding rapidly and has been proactive and creative in avoiding delays due to parts shortages.  Tesla’s best-selling car is now the Model Y, which is an SUV implementation of its Model 3 design.  Overall, the company is now producing cars at a rate of more than 1 million per year and has recently opened new manufacturing plants in Texas and in Germany.

But Tesla is not the only story in the world of electric vehicles.  Mass production is beginning for Ford’s F-150 Lightning truck. 

Nissan, Hyundai and Kia have electric cars on the market and shortly near-twin electric models jointly developed by Subaru and Toyota will be available as well.

The electrification of vehicles is an essential step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  With gasoline at painfully high prices, electric cars are more attractive than ever.

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Inside Clean Energy: US Electric Vehicle Sales Soared in First Quarter, while Overall Auto Sales Slid

Photo, posted October 13, 2017, courtesy of Rob Bertholf via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Plight Of Monarch Butterflies | Earth Wise

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The monarch butterfly is one of the world’s best-known butterflies and has become the symbol for a whole class of imperiled pollinators.  Populations of the iconic orange-and-black insects have declined dramatically in recent decades. 

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the eastern monarch population has dropped 88% between 1996 and 2020.  Habitat loss, pesticide use, and global climate change are some of the factors driving monarch butterfly population declines. 

According to a new study led by scientists at Emory University, monarch butterflies are also increasingly plagued by a debilitating parasite.  The study, which was recently published in The Journal of Animal Ecology, reviewed 50 years of data on the infection rate of wild monarch butterflies by the protozoan Ophryocystis elektrosirrha (or O.E.).  The research team found that the O.E. infection rate had increased from less than 1% of the eastern monarch population in 1968 to as much as 10% today.

The O.E. parasite invades the gut of monarch caterpillars.  If the adult butterfly leaves the pupal stage with a severe parasitic infection, it begins oozing fluids from its body and dies. If the infection is lighter and the butterfly survives, it will not fly as well or live as long as uninfected butterflies.  

The study found that one of the contributors to the rise in parasitism is the increased density of monarchs in places where they lay their eggs.  The increased density may be due to several factors, including the loss of habitat, the widespread planting of non-native milkweed, and by people raising large numbers of monarchs in confined spaces. 

If the infection rate continues to increase, monarch butterfly populations will likely continue to plummet. 

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Web Links

Monarch butterflies increasingly plagued by parasites

Plight of the Monarch

Saving The Monarch Butterfly

Photo, posted September 18, 2008, courtesy of Roy Niswanger via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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