fatalities

Vegetation and climate change

May 20, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Temperatures have been steadily rising around the world as a result of the increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. This warming trend has led to more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and other extreme weather events. Rising temperatures are also impacting human health, leading to increased risks of heat-related illnesses and a higher number of fatalities during extreme heat events.

One simple but effective way to reduce the health risks from extreme heat is to increase urban vegetation. According to new research led by scientists from Monash University in Australia, increasing urban vegetation by 30% could save more than one-third of all heat-related deaths. The study, which was recently published in The Lancet Planetary Health, examined more than 11,000 urban areas and found that increasing greenery could have saved up to 1.16 million lives worldwide between 2000 and 2019.

The impact of increasing urban vegetation on heat-related deaths varies by climate, greenness, socioeconomic, and demographic factors, with the greatest benefits seen in Southern Asia, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Asia.

Vegetation has a cooling effect on temperature. Vegetation helps regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Vegetation also cools the environment through shading, moisture release, and evapotranspiration, which reduces temperatures and mitigates heat-related health risks.

Incorporating more vegetation into urban areas is a powerful solution to mitigate the impacts of climate change and protect human health.

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Increasing urban vegetation could have saved over 1.1m lives in two decades

Photo, posted July 1, 2023, courtesy of Lauri via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wind turbines and bats

October 31, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Collisions with wind turbines are one of the leading causes of bat mortality in North America and Europe. Most bat fatalities are caused by bats colliding with the rotating blades of wind turbines. Fatalities are highest during autumn migration and on nights with low wind speeds.

According to a recent study, land-based wind turbines kill as many as 880,000 bats a year and are wiping out so many threatened bats that some species may become endangered unless preventative action is taken.

The big challenge is that bat conservation experts and scientists don’t know how to stop or reduce turbine collisions. They don’t really know why bats are interacting with turbines to the extent that they are. Do turbines attract bats? Do turbines’ bright lights or just their silhouettes stimulate an attraction response?

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $8 million to five research centers to develop strategies for deterring bats from wind turbines.

One of these is Bat Conservation International, which is an organization whose mission is to accelerate research to address knowledge gaps in bat ecology and behavior and develop technologies and industry methods to reduce fatality of bats at wind farms. Among the approaches to be tested is limiting the use of nighttime lighting on wind farms to make migrating bats less likely to fly through blades.

Another team at Boise State University is designing ultrasonic noisemakers to scare off bats.

In announcing the new program, the Department of Energy states that wind energy must be appropriately and responsibly sited, which includes the protection of wildlife and their habitats.

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Experts Seek to Spare Bats From Wind Turbine Collisions

Photo, posted January 10, 2013, courtesy of Tom Shockey 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.

Permanent Time Observation | Earth Wise

September 25, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Americans have debated the value of daylight savings time going all the way back to Benjamin Franklin. As a country, we adopted the practice of changing our clocks twice a year in 1918.

Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, there have been a number of initiatives aimed at making daylight savings time permanent. However, there is also a growing movement to eliminate the practice entirely.

In August, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a position statement calling for the abolishing of daylight savings time in favor of fixed, national, year-round standard time.

The statement describes the adverse effects of the annual abrupt switch to daylight savings time, which range from increased risk of stroke and hospital admissions to sleep loss and increased production of inflammatory markers, which are one of the body’s responses to stress. It also cites studies that show that traffic fatalities increase by as much as six percent in the first few days following the change to daylight savings time. Other research shows that there is an 18% increase in adverse medical events related to human error in the week after switching to daylight savings time.

In July, a survey by the academy of more than 2,000 U.S. adults found that 63% support the elimination of seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed year-round time, and only 11% oppose the idea, but many of those in favor of the idea actually want permanent daylight savings time.

The sleep academy contends that permanent standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle while daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.

Residents of Arizona and Hawaii get to sit out this debate since they don’t change their clocks.

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