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Winegrowing regions and climate change

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Grapes grown to make wine are sensitive to climate conditions including temperatures and amount of rainfall.  The warming climate is already having visible effects on yields, grape composition, and the quality of wine.  This has significant consequences on the geography of wine production and is of major concern for the $350 billion global industry.

Winegrowing regions are mostly at the mid-latitudes where temperatures are warm enough to allow grapes to ripen but not excessively hot.  The climates are relatively dry so that fungal diseases are not rampant.

Because of the warming climate, harvesting in most vineyards now begins two or three weeks earlier than it did 40 years ago and this affects the grapes and the resultant wines.  Temperature changes affect acidity, wine alcohol, and aromatic signatures.

If global temperature rise crosses the 2-degree level, 90% of all traditional winegrowing areas throughout Spain, Italy, Greece, and southern California may become unable to produce high-quality wines.  Conversely, areas of northern France, the states of Washington and Oregon, British Columbia, and Tasmania will see improved conditions for producing quality wines. 

As the climate warms, winegrowers face new challenges such as the emergence of new diseases and pests as well as an increasing number of extreme weather events.  Wine producers are using more drought-resistant grape varieties and are adopting management methods that better preserve soil water.

The changing climate poses many threats to the quality of wines produced in traditional vineyards.  In the future, the wine industry may look very different in terms of where and how the best wines are produced. 

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A global map of how climate change is changing winegrowing regions

Photo, posted November 14, 2008, courtesy of Curtis Foreman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Canadian zombie fires

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Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded.  Over 6,000 fires burned nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces.  The burned areas are roughly the size of the entire country of Finland and represent almost triple the amount burned in the previous year, which itself was a lot. Smoke from Canadian fires, particularly those in Quebec, blanketed many cities in the United States and made its way as far south as Florida.

An alarming aspect of the Canadian fire season is that it didn’t ever really end.  Late in the winter, 149 active wildfires are still burning across Canada.  92 are in British Columbia, 56 in Alberta, and one in New Brunswick.  In these places, the wildfire season is yearlong.

These overwintering fires have come to be known as zombie fires.  They burn slowly below the surface during the winter.  Many areas in the north contain porous peat and moss ground cover and these act as underground fuel for smoldering fires.

Wildfires have become more prevalent in Canada because the changing climate has brought about increases in the hot, dry, and gusty conditions that lead to drought.

Many of the zombie fires don’t pose an increased threat of triggering wildfires in the spring because they are in places that are already so charred that there is nothing left to burn.  But others are in drought areas that are basically tinder boxes ready to burst into flame once spring arrives.

Overall, Canadian government officials are warning that this year’s wildfire season is likely to be even worse than last year’s, particularly in the Western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

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As ‘Zombie Fires’ Smolder, Canada Braces for Another Season of Flames

Photo, posted June 30, 2023, courtesy of P. McCabe / EU via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A surprising drop in renewable power

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Renewable power – which includes wind farms, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams – constitutes over 21% of the country’s utility-scale electricity generation, behind only natural gas power plants at 43%.  Nuclear power provides nearly 19% of our electricity and coal, which is gradually diminishing, is at 16%.

Both solar and wind power capacity have been growing rapidly in recent years and will be providing an increasing percentage of our electricity.  That being said, it turns out that utility-scale renewable electricity generation actually decreased slightly in 2023 as a result of weather-related issues.

Utility-scale renewables generated about 894,000 gigawatt hours of energy last year, which was 0.8% less than the record amount generated in 2022.

The reasons?  The biggest factor was slower wind speeds in the Midwest during the warmer weather months.  In 2023, there were fewer warm fronts and cold fronts passing through the region.  The passage of fronts is often associated with wind and precipitation. 

The other factor affecting renewable generation was a 5.9% drop in hydropower in 2023.  The main reason for the decrease was a drop in water levels at many hydroelectric dams in areas experiencing drought.

Experts explain that there is no reason to overreact to a one-year blip in renewables generation.  All three major sources of power – sun, wind, and hydroelectric – are tied to natural forces and all of them fluctuate over time.  Putting aside minor variations year-over-year, renewable electricity is on pace to more than double by the end of this decade.

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Federal Data Reveals a Surprising Drop in Renewable Power in 2023, as Slow Winds and Drought Took a Toll

Photo, posted July 5, 2014, courtesy of Patrick Finnegan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Sponging up a river

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During the first week of February, an atmospheric river dumped enormous amounts of rain on Southern California.  Over the course of four days, Los Angeles received 9 inches of rain.  The average annual rainfall in the city is only 14 inches.

But Los Angeles was not the site of a flooding disaster because the city has spent years preparing for this type of deluge by becoming a “sponge city.”   By installing lots of green spaces and shallow basins with porous soil, Los Angeles was able to soak up 8.6 billion gallons of water during the storm, enough to meet the water needs of 100,000 people for a year.

Cities covered with impermeable concrete sidewalks and paved areas make storm-related flooding worse because they are unable to absorb water.  Instead, the water flows into drains and overwhelms infrastructure.

Natural materials like dirt and plants take in water from storms and can filter it into underground aquifer that cities can then tap into, especially during droughts.  Adding green spaces to cities has many other benefits beyond the ability to absorb large amounts of rainwater.

The so-called sponge-city movement is catching on in many other places.  Philadelphia is revamping its water systems in a 25-year project that includes green spaces to absorb stormwater runoff.  In China, the government has spent more than a decade adding spongy elements to dozens of cities around the country.

Sponge cities are part of a broader effort to combine modern engineering techniques with natural systems.  This is known as green-gray infrastructure.  Nature knows what it is doing when it comes to flood control as well as to pollution control.

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‘Spongy’ LA Soaked Up Tons of Water From Atmospheric River

Photo, posted December 28, 2011, courtesy of Ron Reiring via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A wet January

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For the first time in a while, the monthly report on the US climate did not feature record-setting heat.  The average January temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 1.6 degrees above the average, but that only ranked it in the middle third of the climate record.  The diminishing El Niño probably helped.  On the other hand, the global average temperature in January was again the warmest on record – the 8th consecutive record-setting month.

But January still managed to be atypical weatherwise in the U.S. in that the nation’s average precipitation across the country was 3.18 inches – nearly an inch above average – which made it the 10th wettest January in NOAA’s 130-year climate record.  Thirteen states experienced top-ten rainfall amounts.  In late January, record rainfall and flooding hit the southern plains, especially in parts of Texas and Louisiana.  Meanwhile, early February brought historic rainfall and mountain snow to California with a second round later in the month.

All of the rainfall in January has made some difference to drought conditions across the country.  On January 30th, about 23.5% of the contiguous U.S. was In drought, which was 9.5% lower than the beginning of the month.  However, drought conditions expanded or intensified across northern parts of the Rockies and Plains among a few other places.

Outside of the lower-48, Alaska continued to experience historic snowfall conditions.  Between October and the end of January, Anchorage had over 100 inches of snow.

We are living in an era of weather extremes.

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The nation just saw its 10th-wettest January on record

Photo, posted February 8, 2017, courtesy of Paxson Woelber via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The slow decline of coal

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Despite the fact that coal is the dirtiest and most climate-harmful energy source we have, the global demand for it hit a record high in 2023. The demand for coal grew by 1.4% worldwide, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency.

Coal use grew by 5% in China and 8% in India.  The two countries are the world’s largest producers and consumers of coal.  Meanwhile, coal use in the U.S. and the European Union fell by 20%.

Despite this discouraging news, the IEA forecasts that coal use will decline over the next two years.  There have been declines in coal demand a few times before, but they were driven by unusual events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Covid-19 crisis.  But the IEA says that the forthcoming decline is different.  It will be driven by the formidable and sustained expansion of clean energy technologies.

According to the IEA, global coal demand will fall by 2.3% by 2026 even in the absence of new policies to curb coal use.  Forces at play will be increased hydropower in China as it recovers from drought and puts new wind and solar projects online.  China is responsible for more than half of global coal demand, but it is also responsible for more than half of the planned renewable power projects coming online over the next three years.  Experts believe that with these forthcoming projects, Chinese emissions may have peaked in 2023.

The projected drop in coal demand is still far short of what is required for the world to avoid catastrophic warming.  Much greater efforts are needed to meet international climate targets.

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After a Record 2023, Coal Headed for Decline, Analysts Say

Photo, posted August 25, 2015, courtesy of Jeremy Buckingham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Billion-dollar weather disasters

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All sorts of weather records were set in 2023 and pretty much none of them were good news.  Among the most painful was that the U.S. suffered a record 25 weather- and climate-related disasters that caused more than a billion dollars in damage.

The increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased the frequency, intensity, and danger of extreme weather events of all types including hurricanes, severe storms, heavy rainfall, flooding, wildfire, extreme heat, and drought.

Between 1980 and 2022, the U.S. averaged eight billion-dollar weather disasters each year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Between 2018 and 2022, the average was 18 such disasters each year.  Last year, it was a record 25, three more than the previous record set in 2020.

The onslaught of weather disasters has put considerable pressure on disaster relief and emergency services of all kinds.  It seems like there are catastrophic events happening all the time; and in fact, there are.  The average time between billion-dollar disasters has dramatically shrunk.  In the 1980s, there was an average of 82 days between them.  Between 2018 and 2022, the lull between billion-dollar disasters dropped to an average of just 18 days.  For the first eleven months of 2023, the average time between billion-dollar weather disasters was just 10 days.

The global average temperature in 2023 was 1.4 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average and the effects have been increasingly dramatic.  We can expect that the impacts will worsen with every bit of additional warming.  There is no time to waste in taking climate action.

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A Record Number of Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters Hit the U.S. in 2023

Photo, posted September 29, 2022, courtesy of State Farm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Detecting dangerous chemicals with plants

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Researchers at University of California Riverside have been studying how to enable plants to sense and react to a chemical in the environment without damaging their ability to function in all other respects.  Why do this?  The idea is to be able to use plants as environmental sensors that can detect the presence of harmful substances.

The impetus for the work is presence of a protein in plants that senses a plant hormone called abscisic acid (or ABA) that helps plants acclimate to environmental changes.  During drought, plants produce ABA causing the plant to produce ABA receptor proteins that close pores in its leaves and stems, keeping in moisture.

The UCR researchers demonstrated that these ABA receptor proteins can be trained to bind to chemicals other than ABA.  This ability enabled them to create sensors for many chemicals, including banned pesticides.

In their recent publication, they demonstrated a green plant that turns bright red in the presence of azinphos-ethyl, a banned pesticide.  The goal is to easily detect chemicals in the environment from a distance.  A field of these plants would provide an obvious visual indicator of the use of a banned pesticide.  The researchers also demonstrated the ability to turn a variety of yeast into a sensor that could respond to two different chemicals at the same time.

Ultimately, it would be extremely valuable to design plants that sense dozens of chemicals to they could be used as living sensors that persist for years and provide environmental information.  The sensor plants are not being grown commercially at this time.  That will require regulatory approvals that are likely to take years.  But the discovery opens up real possibilities.

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Plants transformed into detectors of dangerous chemicals

Photo, posted August 29, 2013, courtesy of the United Soybean Board via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Groundwater Crisis | Earth Wise

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The majority of U.S. drinking water systems rely on groundwater, as do America’s farms.  Even though groundwater is a crucial resource for the country, there is no central oversight or even monitoring of its status across the country.  The health of the country’s aquifers is difficult to gauge.

The New York Times spent months amassing data from 80,000 wells across the country by reaching out to federal, state, and local agencies nationwide.

The survey found that 45% of the wells examined showed a statistically significant decline in water levels since 1980.  Forty percent of the sites reached record-low water levels over the past 10 years, with last year the worst yet.

Over pumping is the biggest problem.  State regulations tend to be weak and there is no federal oversight.  The warming climate reduces snowpack, which means less water in rivers, increasing the need to tap into groundwater.  Warmer weather means thirstier plants, increasing the demand for water.

It is a nationwide problem, not just one in the drought-ridden West.  Arkansas, which produces half of the country’s rice, is pumping groundwater twice as fast as nature can replace it.  Three-quarters of Maryland’s wells have seen substantial drops in water levels.

As groundwater is pumped out, the empty space can collapse under the weight of the rock and soil above it, permanently diminishing the capacity for future groundwater storage.

There are likely to be parts of the U.S. that run out of drinking water and groundwater depletion threatens America’s status as an agricultural superpower. Objectively, the status of American groundwater is a crisis that threatens the long-term survival of communities and industries that depend on it. 

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Five Takeaways From Our Investigation Into America’s Groundwater Crisis

Photo, posted July 25, 2009, courtesy of Chris Happel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

How To Support Pollinators | Earth Wise

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Pollinators of all sorts have been in decline for a while.  This is especially true of bees, bats, and monarch butterflies.  Without pollinators, fruits, vegetables, and other plants cannot provide their contributions to our food supply.  According to experts, about 30% of the food that ends up on our tables gets there because of pollinators.

Bees are the most efficient pollinators, but plenty of other insects do their share as well.  Butterflies and months, flies, beetles, and wasps all are good pollinators.  In addition to insects, birds and bats can also be pollinators. 

Entomologists at Texas A&M University have offered some science-based advice for homeowners who want to keep pollinators around and thriving during the summer months.

Pollinators need flowers that bloom at different times of the year.  So, home gardens should overlap blooms.  Native and drought-tolerant species are good additions to a garden or landscape.

Colorful gardens attract more pollinators because different pollinators are attracted to different colors.  Bumblebees like blues and purples; other bees are attracted to yellows and whites.  Butterflies like bright colors like oranges and pinks.

Plant flowers with different shapes and sizes because pollinators flower preferences come in all shapes and sizes.

Provide shelter for pollinators.  Houses for bees and other pollinators are available for purchase. Or people can make their own using plastic tubes.

And probably most importantly, go easy on pesticides.  If it is really necessary to apply pesticides, do it in the evening when most pollinators have called it a day.

Having a colorful garden with lots of variety is a fine addition to one’s home.  Beyond that, it is a valuable contribution to helping preserve essential pollinators.

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Top Five Tips For Supporting Pollinators This Summer

Photo, posted August 14, 2017, courtesy of USFWS Midwest Region via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Water For Arizona | Earth Wise

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The Phoenix area is the fastest growing region in the country.  Arizona’s two major sources of water – groundwater and the Colorado River – are dwindling from drought, climate change, and overuse.  Officials in the state are considering a radical plan to construct a desalination plant off the Mexican coast that will take the salt out of seawater, and then pipe that water hundreds of miles, much of it uphill, to Phoenix.

The project is the brainchild of the Israeli company, IDE, which is one of the world’s largest desalination companies.  IDE has asked Arizona to sign a 100-year contract to buy water from the project. 

There are multiple complications surrounding the plan.  Desalination plants are common in California, Texas, and Florida, and in more than 100 other countries.  But the Arizona project is unusual because of the distance involved and because the state is landlocked.  The water would have to travel 200 miles and climb 2,000 feet along the way.

There is also the issue of waste brine, which is a major output of desalination plants.  In this case, the brine would flood the northern Gulf of California, potentially threatening a productive fishery.  In addition, the pipeline, as well as electrical transmission lines, would have to go through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The plant would be located in Puerto Peñasco, a struggling town with its own water problems.

With booming home construction going on in the Phoenix area, the need for more water continues to grow.  Whether this plan will be approved by Arizona and by Mexico remains to be seen.

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Arizona, Low on Water, Weighs Taking It From the Sea. In Mexico.

Photo, posted September 26, 2008, courtesy of Dan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Keeping The Colorado River Flowing | Earth Wise

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The Colorado River supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans in seven states as well as to many Mexicans and provides irrigation to 5.5 million acres of farmland.  Electricity generated by dams on the Colorado powers millions of homes and businesses in the West.

A combination of drought, population growth, and climate change has reduced the river’s flows by a third in recent years compared with historical averages.  Further reductions could trigger a water and power catastrophe across the Western states.

California, Arizona, and Nevada all get water from Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by the Colorado at Hoover Dam.  The Interior Department determines how much water each of these three states receives.  The other states that use Colorado River water get it directly from the river and its tributaries.  Last summer, water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell fell enough that officials feared that the hydroelectric turbines at the Colorado’s dams would soon cease functioning.

The three states have recently struck an agreement with the federal government to take less water from the Colorado.  The reductions amount to about 13% of the total water use in the lower Colorado.  The government will pay about $1.2 billion to irrigation districts, cities, and Native American tribes for temporarily using less water.  The states have also agreed to make additional cuts to generate the total reductions needed to prevent the collapse of the river.

The agreement runs only through the end of 2026.  At that point, all seven states that rely on the river – which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – may well be facing a deeper reckoning.  The forces driving the decline of the Colorado are not going away.

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A Breakthrough Deal to Keep the Colorado River From Going Dry, for Now

Photo, posted June 16, 2017, courtesy Karen and Brad Emerson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

An Unwanted Temperature Threshold Is Approaching | Earth Wise

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According to the World Meteorological Organization, there is a 66% chance over the next five years that the Earth’s global temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.

A combination of the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere along with a looming El Niño condition will contribute to surging temperatures.  The WMO also reports that there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record and that the five-year period as a whole will be the warmest on record.

Reaching or surpassing the 1.5-degree threshold may only be temporary but would be the strongest indication yet of how quickly climate change is accelerating.   The 1.5-degree point is considered by many scientists to be a key tipping point, beyond which the chances of extreme flooding, drought, wildfires, heatwaves, and food shortages could increase dramatically.

The world has already seen about 1.2 degrees of warming as we continue to burn fossil fuels and produce enormous quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.  As recently as 2015, the WMO put the chance of breaching the 1.5-degree threshold as close to zero.

It is important to understand that the 1.5-degree temperature increase is an average for the entire planet.  Many individual locations around the world have been experiencing tremendously greater amounts of warming with record-breaking temperatures.

The 1.5-degree threshold is important, but it is not itself a tipping point.  There is still time to reduce global warming by moving away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy.  But the clock is ticking and so far, the world is not showing any urgency.

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‘Sounding the alarm’: World on track to breach a critical warming threshold in the next five years

Photo, posted May 20, 2015, courtesy of Kevin Gill via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wildfire Smoke And Global Weather | Earth Wise

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In 2019 and 2020, wildfires burned 72,000 square miles in Australia, roughly the same area as the entire country of Syria. During the nine months when the fires raged, persistent and widespread plumes of smoke filled the atmosphere.

These aerosols brightened a vast area of clouds above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.  Beneath these clouds, the surface of the ocean and the atmosphere cooled.  The effect of this was an unexpected and long-lasting cool phase of the Pacific’s La Niña-El Niño cycle.

A new modeling study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado quantified the extent to which aerosols from the Australian wildfires made clouds over the tropical Pacific reflect more sunlight back towards space.  The resultant cooling shifted the cloud and rain belt known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone northward.  These effects may have helped trigger the unusual three-year-long La Niña, which lasted from late 2019 through 2022.

The impacts of that La Niña included intensifying drought and famine in Eastern Africa and priming the Atlantic Ocean for hurricanes.  2020 was the most active tropical storm season on record, with 31 storm systems, including 11 that made landfall in the U.S.

The study highlights widespread multi-year climate impacts caused by an unprecedented wildfire season.  The wildfires set off a chain of events that influenced weather far from where the fires occurred.  In the future, climate experts will need to include the potential effects of wildfires in their forecasts.

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How Wildfire Smoke from Australia Affected Climate Events Around the World

Photo, posted December 19, 2019, courtesy of Simon Rumi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Two Lost Lakes Return To California | Earth Wise

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The recent siege of powerful storms in California driven by a series of atmospheric rivers has had a significant effect on the severe drought that has plagued most of the state for many years.  Many of the state’s reservoirs are at the highest level they have been for decades.   The snowpack in the Sierras is well over 200% of its historical average.  Many parts of the state are no longer considered to be in drought conditions, and, in fact, flooding has been a serious problem in some areas.  This flooding has had some surprising results.

Two California lakes that drained a century ago have reappeared as a result of floodwaters from the recent storms.

Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley used to be fed by rain and snowmelt from the Sierras.  A system of dams and canals constructed in the early 20th century to support regional agriculture diverted water away from the lake.  It used to be the largest freshwater lake in the West but farmers ultimate planted crops in the dried lakebed.

The atmospheric river events in March inundated that farmland and once again there is water in Tulare Lake.

Owens Lake, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, was long fed by mountain streams.  The 1913 construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct redirected water to that city and desiccated the lake.   Floodwaters in March caused a partial collapse of the aqueduct and when the spill gates on the aqueduct were opened to drain the damaged areas, floodwaters poured in and partially refilled the lake.

California has suffered from drought for many years.  With its massive snowpack, as the weather warms, the state may face even more flooding.

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Two Long-Drained California Lakes Refilled by Floodwaters, Satellite Images Show

Photo, posted November 10, 2014, courtesy of CN via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California: Drought Or No Drought? | Earth Wise

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Just a few months ago, millions of people in California were living under challenging water conservation rules.  The past three years were the driest on record and reservoirs were depleted, landscapes dried up, and the snowpack in the Sierras at very low levels.

But in recent months, a dozen atmospheric river storms have brought huge amounts of rain and snow to the state.  Twelve out of 17 major reservoirs in the state have been replenished, the snowpack is over 240% of normal, and brown hills are blooming once again.

So, is the California drought over?  According to the experts, the answer is:  sort of.

The record snowpack and heavy rains have erased the most severe aspects of the drought in many parts of the state.  Only 9% of the state is now experiencing “severe” or “exceptional” drought, down from 55% last fall.

But the changes are basically all at the surface.  Groundwater in the state is still extremely low and the state’s cities and farms are still using more of it than is appropriate.  The state has been unwisely overusing its groundwater aquifers because of the drought and this one year of heavy rains cannot replenish levels that have been dropping for years.

California has been rolling back many of the most severe drought restrictions that had been imposed but has not entirely lifted the drought emergency status.  Meanwhile, the massive snowpack in the mountains will begin to melt as the weather warms and, in many areas, Californians will face flooding.  Water is a complicated business in California.

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Drought or no drought? California left pondering after record winter deluge

Photo, posted August 28, 2019, courtesy of Joyce Cory via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Protecting Wetlands | Earth Wise

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Wetlands are distinct ecosystems that are flooded or saturated by water, either permanently or seasonally.  They include mangroves, marshes, swamps, forested wetlands, bogs, wet prairies, and vernal pools.   The feature that most wetlands share is soil or substrate that is at least periodically saturated with or covered by water.

Wetlands are some of the most threatened ecosystems in the world.  While wetlands can be affected by a variety of natural stressors, including erosion, droughts, and storms, human activities have been the major driver of wetland decline. 

But according to a new study by researchers from McGill University in Canada, the global loss of wetland areas since 1700 has likely been overestimated.  The research team calculated that the area of wetland ecosystems around the world has declined 21-35% since 1700 as a result of human activities – far less than the 50-87% decline estimated in other studies.  The study’s focus beyond regions with historically high wetland losses and its avoidance of possibly misleading extrapolations likely resulted in the lower estimate.      

According to the study, which was published in the journal Nature, more than 2.1 million square miles of wetlands have been lost during the past 300 years – an area roughly the size of India.  The five countries with the highest wetland losses are the United States, China, India, Russia and Indonesia. 

But discovering that fewer wetlands have been historically lost than previously thought gives researchers a second chance to protect wetlands.  The findings of the study will help researchers prioritize global conservation and restoration actions.

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A second chance to protect wetlands

Photo, posted February 2, 2005, courtesy of Jan Tik via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California Storms And The Megadrought | Earth Wise

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California experienced its wettest 10-day period in 25 years as a result of a series of storms driven by atmospheric rivers in January.  The Rocky Mountains got buried in snow from the same weather pattern.   For the drought-stricken West, the storms were good news.  But they are not the cure for what’s been ailing the region.

In California, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains has been greatly enhanced, containing twice as much snow as is considered average for this time of year.  Without a doubt, it will reduce the impact of the drought that has plagued the state for 23 years.  But one big storm or even a series of them is not enough to undo years of minimal precipitation and rising temperatures.  Many of the states’ largest reservoirs remain well below historical averages despite the record-breaking rain.  It would take several wet years to really allow the state to recover from the drought.

The snowfall in the Rockies is crucial because it is the source of more than two-thirds of the water in the Colorado River.  The Colorado River is the water lifeline for 40 million people from Wyoming to Mexico.

The ongoing shrinking of the Colorado River is a crisis that has created massive problems for the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry and for many large cities, including Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.  Two of the nation’s largest reservoirs – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – are filled by the Colorado River.  The historic low levels of these reservoirs have threatened the functioning of hydropower facilities that provide electricity to millions of people.

The January storms were good news for the West, but its problems are not over.

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This Winter’s Rain and Snow Won’t be Enough to Pull the West Out of Drought

Photo, posted September 18, 2022, courtesy of Sarah Stierch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Complicated Year For Energy | Earth Wise

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2022 was a complicated year for global energy.  Following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia curtailed natural gas exports to Europe.  This led to large increases in coal burning in many countries, but at the same time led to major new investments in renewable energy.  Projections are that the world will add as much renewable power in the next five years as it did over the previous 20.

In China, severe drought reduced the amount of available hydropower, which drove increased demand for coal in that country.  Between the war in Ukraine and the Chinese drought, coal burning reached an all-time high in 2022, albeit only a 1% uptick for the year.  This increased coal consumption is expected to be only temporary as the accelerating deployment of renewables, energy efficiency, and the use of heat pumps will inexorably reduce coal use.

Globally, governments have earmarked an additional $500 billion for clean energy just since March, bringing the total since the onset of the COVID pandemic to more than $1.2 trillion.  Nearly half of this total investment comes from the U.S. under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

In light of these energy policies around the world, the International Energy Agency has revised its projections for renewable energy to substantially larger numbers.   Renewables are expected to surpass coal as the world’s largest source of electricity by early 2025. The global energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine has kicked off an extraordinary new phase of rapid renewables growth as countries around the world are seeking to obtain energy security as well as the other benefits of clean energy.

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In 2022, Energy Shocks Spurred Both Unprecedented Coal Burning and Massive Renewable Investments

Photo, posted April 5, 2015, courtesy of Jan Remund via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Harvesting Fresh Water From Ocean Air | Earth Wise

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Roughly three-quarters of the world population has access to a safely managed water source.  That means that one-in-four people do not have access to safe drinking water.  Even in the wealthy United States, persistent drought in the west is creating problems in places like Phoenix, Arizona.

Water is plentiful on Earth but more than 99% of it is unusable by humans and many other living things because it is saline, frozen, or inaccessible.  Only about 0.3% of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps.

There is an almost limitless supply of fresh water in the form of water vapor above the oceans, but this source is untapped.  Researchers at the University of Illinois have been evaluating the feasibility of a hypothetical structure capable of capturing water vapor from above the ocean and condensing it into fresh water.

Existing ways to obtain fresh water like wastewater recycling, cloud seeding, and desalination have met only limited success and present various problems with regard to cost, environmental impact, and scalability.

The researchers have proposed hypothetical large offshore structures measuring 700 feet by 300 feet to capture water vapor that is continually evaporating from the ocean in subtropical regions.   Their modeling concluded that such structures could provide fresh water for large population centers in the subtropics.  Furthermore, climate projections show that the amount of water vapor over the oceans will only increase over time, providing even more fresh water supply.

This is only a theoretical study at this point, but the researchers believe it opens the door for novel infrastructure investments that could address global water scarcity.

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Researchers propose new structures to harvest untapped source of fresh water

Photo, posted June 28, 2009, courtesy of Nicolas Raymond via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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