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Bees and urban wildflowers

May 23, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Post-industrial cities often have large numbers of vacant lots, left behind as people have moved out of the area. Local residents are often tempted to plant wildflowers to make these deserted spaces more attractive.

Wildflowers are an important food source for bees. Pollinators like bees play a vital role in food production and attracting them with food sources is a good idea. However, a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK found that there are dangers associated with planting wildflowers in some urban settings.

Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic, and other metal contaminants from the soil. These metals have previously been shown to damage the health of pollinators that ingest the metals in the nectar as they feed.

The Cambridge study was carried out in Cleveland, Ohio, which has nearly 34,000 vacant lots. Cleveland was previously the site of iron and steel production, oil refining, and car manufacturing. The researchers tested the nectar from flowering plants growing on disused land throughout the city. Lead was the contaminant found in the highest concentrations. They also found that different species of plants accumulate different amounts and different types of metals.

The goal of the study was not to discourage the planting of wildflowers in towns and cities. It is to highlight the importance of growing the right species of wildflowers as well as to encourage testing soils for metals before planting wildflowers and to clean up pollution. Wildflowers are important for pollinators, but it is also important that they don’t contribute to the decline of pollinator populations that has already been happening for a number of reasons.

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Growing wildflowers on disused urban land can damage bee health

Photo, posted August 26, 2012, courtesy of RJP via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric Vehicle Tax Credits | Earth Wise

February 17, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As of January 1, many Americans can qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle. The credit is one of the changes enacted under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The purpose is to encourage EV sales and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

There has been a tax credit for EVs for more than a decade, but its provisions made cars from any manufacturer ineligible as soon as that manufacturer had sold more than 200,000 cars. Notably, this eliminated the credit for purchasing cars from Tesla and General Motors. Given that electric cars are now selling in the millions, the 200,000-unit cap on the tax credit essentially made it useless as a real force to grow the industry.

The new tax credit has a somewhat complex set of requirements for determining the applicability and amount of the credit. There are price limits on eligible vehicles depending on vehicle type and there are requirements on where vehicles are manufactured, where batteries are manufactured, and where other components are made. The intent is to encourage American manufacturing of the cars and trucks to the greatest extent. There are also income limitations on buyers who want to take advantage of the credit, but those are quite large. The Department of the Treasury has online detailed information about the requirements for the credit and, of course, EV manufacturers can provide the specifics for their own vehicles.

For their part, automakers are adjusting prices, building domestic manufacturing plants and battery factories, and otherwise trying to position themselves for their customers to take advantage of the credit.

The new law also provides a smaller tax credit for the purchase of used electric vehicles.

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Electric vehicle tax credits explained: What’s new in 2023?

Treasury Releases Additional Information on Clean Vehicle Provisions of Inflation Reduction Act

Photo, posted December 9, 2022, courtesy of Choo Yut Shing via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Rooftop Solar Taking Off In China | Earth Wise

August 11, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The total amount of solar power generating capacity in the world has been growing rapidly. In 2008, there was a total of only 15 gigawatts installed world-wide. By 2012, the total was 100 gigawatts. As of this spring, there is now 1 terawatt – that’s 1,000 gigawatts – of solar power installed in the world. About a third of that total is in China, and solar power is really booming there.

Estimates are that China will install 108 gigawatts of solar capacity this year, which is about double the amount installed in 2021. Much of the growth in solar in China is in the form of rooftop solar, as opposed to utility-scale solar farms.

China is aiming to have 50% of new factory rooftops carry solar installations by 2025. By the end of next year, China’s National Energy Bureau is aiming for solar panels to cover 50% of rooftops on party and government buildings, 40% of schools, hospitals, and other public buildings, 30% of industrial and commercial buildings, and 20% of rural homes. This new initiative will drive China’s installed solar capacity to impressive levels in the coming years.

After China, the leading installers of solar energy capacity are the European Union, the United States, and Japan.

These figures are for generating capacity. What ultimately matters is solar’s share of total electricity consumption. In China and the EU, solar provides over 6% of the electricity used. In the US, that figure is about 3.5%. In Germany and Australia, solar power provides 10% of electricity needs. All these numbers will continue to go up rapidly as solar installations grow.

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China Sees Rooftop Solar Take Off as New Policies Bolster Growth

Photo, posted June 17, 2022, courtesy of Nguyễn Mỹ Hoa via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Better Way To Recycle Plastic | Earth Wise

July 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The current state of plastic recycling is not very effective. Plastic recycling is only able to replace 15-20% of the fossil-fuel-derived raw material needed to produce society’s demand for plastic.

Researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden have now demonstrated how the carbon content in mixed waste could be used to replace all of the fossil raw materials in the production of new plastic. In principle, their technology could completely eliminate the climate impact of plastic materials.

According to the researchers, there are enough carbon atoms in waste to meet the needs of all global plastic production.

The Chalmers process is based on thermochemical technology and involves heating waste to 1100-1500 degrees Fahrenheit. The waste is thereby vaporized and when hydrogen is added, becomes a carbon-based substance that can replace the fossil-fuel building blocks of plastic. The method does not require sorting the waste materials. Different types of waste, such as old plastic products and even paper cups, with or without food residues, can be fed into the recycling reactors. The researchers are now developing the techniques required to utilize their recycling technology in the same factories in which plastic products are currently being made from fossil oil or gas.

The principle of the process is inspired by the natural carbon cycle in which plants break down into carbon dioxide when they wither and die, and then photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and solar energy to grow new plants.

Producing new plastics would no longer require petroleum or other fossil fuels as raw materials. If the energy needed to drive the recycling reactors is taken from renewable sources, plastics could become the basis of a sustainable and circular economy.

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Pioneering recycling turns mixed waste into premium plastics with no climate impact

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Air Pollution: The Greatest Danger | Earth Wise

June 27, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of fossil fuels has largely been driven by the potentially catastrophic consequences of global climate change. The need to stop dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has become increasingly urgent. But there is an equally compelling reason to stop burning fossil fuels. According to a study published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, outdoor air pollution is “the largest existential threat to human and planetary health.”

Pollution of various types was responsible for an estimated 9 million deaths around the world in 2019. Half of those fatalities – 4.5 million deaths – were the result of outdoor air pollution coming from vehicles and industrial sources like power plants and factories.

The number of deaths attributed to air pollution has increased by 55% just since the year 2000.

The growth in air pollution deaths has offset a decline in deaths from other pollution sources that especially affect people living in extreme poverty, such as indoor air pollution and water pollution. Overall, countries with lower collective incomes tend to bear a disproportionate share of pollution deaths. Roughly 16% of deaths around the world are attributable to pollution, also resulting in more than $4 trillion in economic losses.

The peer-reviewed study was produced by the 2017 Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. The study notes that despite the enormous health, social, and economic impacts of pollution, preventing it is largely overlooked in the international development agenda. The study calls upon governments, businesses, and other entities to abandon fossil fuels and adopt clean energy sources.

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Study Identifies Outdoor Air Pollution as the ‘Largest Existential Threat to Human and Planetary Health’

Photo, posted November 4, 2019, courtesy of Ninara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Artificial Light And Nature | Earth Wise

December 4, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Most of us are familiar with air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and noise pollution. But it turns out that light can also be a pollutant as well.

Light pollution is a consequence of industrial civilization. Sources of light pollution include building interior and exterior lighting, advertising billboards, factories, commercial properties, streetlights, and sporting venues.

According to findings in a new report from the University of Exeter, artificial nighttime lighting has a wide range of effects across the natural world and should be limited wherever possible. The research team analyzed more than 100 studies and found that artificial lighting has widespread impacts on both animals and plants.

In the study, which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council in the U.K., researchers consistently found changes to animals’ bodies and behavior as a result of artificial lighting. In particular, levels of the sleep cycle-regulating hormone melatonin were reduced by exposure to artificial lighting at night in all animal species studied.

Exposure to artificial nighttime lighting also affected the timing of animals’ activities. For rodents, which are largely nocturnal, the duration of activity was often reduced by exposure to nighttime lighting. On the other hand, for diurnal birds, exposure to nighttime lighting led to an extension of the duration of their activities.

Previous studies have found other wide-ranging impacts of nighttime lighting, from reducing pollination by insects to trees budding earlier in spring.

Artificial nighttime lighting is human driven and very disruptive to the natural world. While there’s no off switch for the planet, we could reduce the amount of light pollution drastically with no impact on our lives.

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Artificial night lighting has widespread impacts on nature

Photo, posted July 29, 2017, courtesy of spacedust2019 via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Renewable Energy And The Post-COVID World | Earth Wise

June 2, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As is the case for virtually all sectors of the global economy, the short-term prospects for wind and solar power look pretty grim. Lockdowns, social distancing requirements, and financial upheavals have put many new projects on ice and have halted production at factories making solar panels and wind turbines. Sales of home solar have struggled as people have put off spending during the economic slowdown.

Ironically, the shutdowns aimed at reducing the spread of the Coronavirus have led to renewable sources accounting for an increased share of power generation. Global energy demand has plummeted and, because of the low cost of solar and wind power, sources like coal and nuclear power have been curtailed in favor of the renewables. The dramatically reduced demand has pushed oil and gas prices to historic lows and has left fossil fuel companies struggling to find storage space for the glut of product.

When the world emerges from the pandemic, the question is whether renewable energy will end up on a faster track than before or will end up in a long-term slowdown. The answer will depend to large extent on the choices political leaders make.

Leaders will unquestionably be designing economic recovery packages. Such packages could accelerate the shift towards wind and solar power, or they could prop up the fossil fuel economy. Unfortunately, leaders are prone to be motivated by lobbyists more than by the greater needs of society. The global economic upheaval represents a real opportunity to change the pace of efforts to address climate change. Whether that change is a positive one or a negative one is just another looming question facing society when we emerge from the pandemic.

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How Renewable Energy Could Emerge on Top After the Pandemic

Photo, posted April 12, 2020, courtesy of Jeremy Segrott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Environmental Injustice And the Coronavirus | Earth Wise

May 29, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Cities and towns across the United States continue to wrestle with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and none have been hit harder than low-income and minority communities. Places like Detroit, Chicago, and St. James Parish in Louisiana have suffered from decades of economic inequality and pollution in their poorest neighborhoods and many of these same places have experienced some of the highest mortality rates from the virus.

Recent studies have shown a link between high levels of pollution and the risk of death from COVID-19. Pollution of various kinds are higher in low-income communities and communities of color. Such communities don’t have a strong political voice so that laws and environmental regulations are not enforced like there are in white, higher-income communities. Thus, these communities have highways, landfills, factories, chemical facilities, paper mills, and other pollution sources that communities with economic power – and therefore political power – manage to avoid.

People living in low-income communities and communities of color tend to have higher rates of underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. They have less healthy diets – more fast food and fewer grocery stores. Part of the reason these communities have a higher risk of mortality from COVID-19 infection is that many people have reduced lung capacity as a result of exposure to pollutants.

The Trump administration has been suspending enforcement of environmental regulations during the pandemic. Communities already affected by environmental injustice will bear the brunt of this decision. Groups like nursing home populations, meat packers, prisoners and the poor are suddenly highly visible. COVID-19 is exposing the real differences between the Haves and the Have-Nots in this country.

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Connecting the Dots Between Environmental Injustice and the Coronavirus

Photo, posted May 2, 2006, courtesy of Sean Benham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Earth Itself Is Quieter | Earth Wise

May 15, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Our stories often discuss how human activities change the natural environment. With most of us confined to our homes, the lack of human activities is having profound effects on the environment. We are talking about some of these this week.

With about a third of the world’s population sheltering in place, our planet is much quieter these days. It isn’t just our machines, vehicles, and factories that are making less noise. The earth itself is quieter. There has been a reduction in the earth’s seismic vibrations.

According to the journal Nature, various human-powered movements contribute to the persistent vibration of the earth’s crust. Things like engines firing up in factories, trains pulling into stations, and trucks barreling down highways all make contributions to seismic activity. Taken individually, such things are insignificant, but taken together, they produce a background of seismic noise that makes it difficult for seismologists to detect natural signals such as volcanic activity and earthquake aftershocks.

With much human activity on pause during the coronavirus outbreak, seismologists across the globe are seeing significant reductions in background seismic noise levels.

This respite in seismic noise, for as long as it lasts, represents an opportunity for scientists to better study the natural activity in the earth’s crust. Researchers studying the impact of ocean waves to predict volcanic activity and those who triangulate the location of earthquake epicenters may be able to make more sensitive measurements than under normal conditions.

There are very few positive things one can say about the coronavirus crisis, but it is providing opportunities to study and observe aspects of the natural world that are ordinarily drowned out by the bustle of humanity.

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Coronavirus lockdowns across the globe are actually causing the Earth to move less

Photo, posted March 9, 2020, courtesy of Jeremy Segrottvia Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Air Quality In The U.S.

November 13, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Globally, poor air is a serious problem. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated 7 million people every year. In fact, 91% of the people on the planet live in places where air pollution exceeds WHO guideline limits.

In the United States, air pollution has dramatically improved over the last four decades due in large part to federal regulations put in place under the Clean Air Act of 1970. Fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) and other pollution, including ozone, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide, have all decreased during this time span.

But according to recent research, this trend has unfortunately done an about-face. New data reveals that air pollution has increased nationally since 2016. An analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that, on average, fine particulate pollution increased 5.5% across the country between 2016 and 2018.

This increase in fine particulate pollution was associated with nearly 10,000 additional premature deaths in the United States during that time period.

According to researchers, there are several factors likely causing this uptick in unhealthy air, including increases in both driving and the burning of natural gas. Wildfires out west are also thought to be a major contributor.

The researchers also suggest that a decrease in enforcement of the Clean Air Act may also be playing a role. The law put in place strict air pollution standards for vehicles, factories, power plants, and other sources, and is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

It’s time for clean air to be recognized as a basic human right.

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America’s Air Quality Worsens, Ending Years of Gains, Study Says

Photo, posted April 6, 2007, courtesy of Brett Weinstein via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New Membranes For Carbon Capture

October 2, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Drastically reducing the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere is an essential goal in the effort to mitigate the effects of climate change. While the ultimate solution is to avoid combustion of fossil fuels by the use of clean alternative energy sources, that transition will take time – possibly more time than we have. As a result, there is a great deal of effort underway to develop techniques for capturing the carbon emitted by fossil fuel combustion and either recycling it or storing it.

There are multiple ways to capture carbon emissions, but the ultimate goal is to find a technique that is both inexpensive and scalable. One promising technique involves the use of high-performance membranes, which are filters that can specifically pick out CO2 from a mix of gases, such as those coming out of a factory smokestack.

Scientists at a Swiss laboratory have now developed a new class of high-performance membranes that exceeds the targeted performance for carbon capture by a significant margin. The membranes are based on single-layer graphene with a selective layer thinner than 20 nanometers – only about 40 atoms thick. The membranes are highly tunable in terms of chemistry, meaning that they can be designed to capture specific molecules.

The membranes are highly permeable – meaning that they don’t impede gas flow too much – but highly selective. The CO2/N2 separation factor is 22.5, which means that 22.5 times more nitrogen can get through the membrane than carbon dioxide.

The work is just at the laboratory stage at this point, but it is a very promising step towards developing a practical scheme for keeping carbon dioxide from escaping from power-plant and factory smokestacks.

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Next-gen membranes for carbon capture

Photo, posted December 28, 2010, courtesy of Emilian Robert Vicol via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Return Of An Old Threat

July 3, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The 1987 signing of the Montreal Protocol was one of the biggest victories for global environmental stewardship. The 197 signatory nations banded together to address a planetary emergency: the depletion of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere resulting from the use of chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs.

Over the years, there were celebratory headlines like “The Earth’s Ozone Hole is Shrinking” and “Without the Ozone Treaty, You’d Get Sunburned in 5 Minutes”. And indeed, the hole in the ozone layer has shrunk over time.

However, the presence of CFCs in the atmosphere is continually monitored and studies in recent years reported new emissions of about 13,000 tons of CFC-11 a year from somewhere in eastern Asia starting in 2012. That was two years after the 2010 date for ending all CFC production under the terms of the Montreal Protocol.

A new study published in Nature has pinned down the source of more than half of the new CFC emissions to the provinces of Shandong and Hebei on the northeastern coast of China. The bulk of these emissions are believed to come from small factories using the chemical to manufacture foam insulation used in refrigerators and buildings.

The Chinese government has already shut down two manufacturing locations, but undercover agents have found that 18 out of 21 manufacturers in the region are using the banned substance. They appear to be quite adept at circumventing enforcement.

The new emissions aren’t large enough so far to be catastrophic, but the Chinese government needs to crack down on this illegal activity. It is difficult to stop because these are small companies operating in meth lab-like facilities. Saving the earth’s atmosphere from ourselves is a tricky business.

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