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Offshore Wind For New York | Earth Wise

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In mid-January, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced that it had finalized contracts with BP and Equinor for the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind offshore wind farms.

The agreements brought to fruition contracts that were awarded in January of 2021 and represent one of the largest clean energy procurements ever in the United States.

Under the finalized contracts, Equinor and BP will provide 1,260 megawatts of offshore wind power from Empire Wind 2 and another 1,230 megawatts from Beacon Wind 1.  Once completed, Empire Wind 1, Empire Wind 2, and Beacon Wind 1 will produce enough electricity to power about 2 million New York homes.

As part of the project, there will be substantial investments in New York infrastructure.  The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will be transformed into a major staging and assembly facility for the offshore wind industry and will be an operations and maintenance base for the project.   (The project will also invest in the Port of Albany, making it America’s first offshore wind tower and transition piece manufacturing facility).

Empire Wind is located 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island and spans an area of 80,000 acres.  Its two phases will eventually have an installed capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.

Beacon Wind is located more than 60 miles east of Montauk Point and 20 miles south of Nantucket.  It covers an area of 128,000 acres.  Its two phases will ultimately also have a total capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.

The wind farms will help generate more than a billion dollars in economic output to New York State.  Empire Wind 1 is expected to begin commercial operation in 2026 and the other wind farms over the following couple of years.

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New York State just sealed a deal for 2.5 GW of offshore wind

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of Andy Dingley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate-Related Disasters | Earth Wise

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In early December, a series of tornadoes struck multiple states, killing nearly 100 people and producing widespread damage in whole communities.  These storms were at least the 19th weather or climate disaster that caused more than $1 billion in damage during 2021.  The year suffered from droughts, wildfires, severe cold snaps, hurricanes, and other severe weather incidents.

The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania has been studying how communities can prepare for and bounce back from such disasters.

A key issue is that the location and timing of disasters continues to shift.  Homeowners along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts know that they need to prepare for and deal with hurricanes.  People who live in places like Oklahoma and Kansas are aware that tornadoes are a frequent threat.  But in recent years, strong storms are happening in areas where historically they haven’t.

Places need to start implementing changes to their infrastructure now in order to have an impact on risk reduction.

Presidential disaster declarations are just one part of recovery from disasters.  Other issues to grapple with are the role of government support and how it isn’t just the financial costs of disaster recovery but all the impact on human and other resources that are often not covered by governmental funds.  There is also the issue that low- and moderate-income households are disproportionately harmed and locked out of financial resources for recovery.

The Wharton study points out that innovative approaches will be needed to effectively prepare communities and individuals for disasters to come. 

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Preparing, and paying for, climate change-induced disasters

Photo, posted December 12, 2021, courtesy of State Farm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Biodiversity And Trawling Bans | Earth Wise

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Trawling is a method of commercial fishing that involves pulling or dragging a fishing net – called a trawl – through the water or across the seabed in hopes of catching fish.  Commercial fishing companies favor towing trawl nets because large quantities of fish can be caught in one go.  

However, the trouble with trawling is that it’s destructive to the seafloor and indiscriminate in what it catches.  When towing these large trawl nets, the largest of which is reportedly big enough to catch thirteen 747 jets, everything that happens to be in the way gets caught.  As a result, trawling results in lots of bycatch, a fishing industry term used to describe the deaths of non target species during the process. 

In 2012, the Hong Kong government implemented a territory-wide trawling ban in its waters in hopes of rehabilitating the marine benthic habitat.  The benthic zone refers to the ecological region at the bottom of the ocean. 

Researchers from City University of Hong Kong collected sediment samples from 28 locations six months before the trawl ban and two and a half years after the trawl ban to see whether such interventions can facilitate ecosystem recovery. 

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Communications Biology, the ban on trawling significantly improved marine biodiversity.  The researchers observed substantial increases in the richness of species and the abundance of benthic marine organisms following the trawling ban.  And since small benthic organisms are the main source of food for large species like fish and crabs, the trawling ban actually helps support fisheries.

More governments should consider a trawl ban to promote sustainable fisheries and marine biodiversity conservation.

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Research confirms trawl ban substantially increases the abundance of marine organisms

Photo, posted December 4, 2018, courtesy of John via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Progress Towards Carbon-Free Power | Earth Wise

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Climate change has driven countries, states, utilities, and corporations to set goals to eliminate power-sector carbon emissions.  So far, 17 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have adopted laws or executive orders to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity over the next couple of decades.  Forty-six U.S. utilities have pledged to go carbon-free no later than 2050.   Adding these together, these government and industry goals cover about half of the U.S. population and economy.

New research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has analyzed historical trends to determine how much progress the power sector has already made in reducing emissions.  The study focused on the 2005 Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration.

If the previous growth in emissions had continued from 2005 to 2020, annual CO2 emissions would have risen from 2,400 to 3,000 million metric tons.  But actual 2020 emissions fell to only 1,450 metric tons.  So, by this metric, the U.S. power sector cut emission by 52% below projected levels.

According to the study, total consumer electricity costs were 18% lower than projected values, but meanwhile, the number of jobs in electricity generation was 29% higher. 

Among the driving forces for these trends were wind and solar power dramatically outperforming earlier expectations, delivering 13 times more generation in 2020 than projected. 

The study shows that dramatic changes in emissions are possible over a 15-year span, but much has to happen over the next 15 years to ensure the progress required to meet the ambitious goals set for emissions reductions.

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U.S. Power Sector is Halfway to Zero Carbon Emissions

Photo, posted April 18, 2020, courtesy of Roman Ranniew via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Rising Seas In The Maldives | Earth Wise

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The Republic of Maldives is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka and India and about 400 miles from the Asian mainland.  It is one of the world’s most geographically dispersed sovereign states, the smallest Asian country by land area, and, with a little over 500,000 inhabitants, the second least populous country in Asia.  With its spectacular scenic beauty, it is also a premier tourist attraction.

With more than 80% of its 1,190 coral islands standing less than 1 meter above sea level, the Maldives has the lowest terrain of any country in the world.  As a result, the Maldives is particularly vulnerable to the sea level rise associated with climate change.

Some studies predict a grim future for the Maldives as well as other low-lying islands.  One study concluded that the islands could become uninhabitable by 2050 as wave-driven flooding becomes more common and freshwater becomes limited.

The Maldives government has explored plans to purchase land on higher ground in other countries.  Planners are also working to enhance the resilience of the country’s current islands.   An example is Hulhumalé, a newly constructed artificial island northeast of the country’s capital, Malé.

Construction of Hulhumalé began in 1997 and it now covers 1.5 square miles, making it the fourth largest island in the Maldives.  Its population is now more than 50,000, with more than 200,000 expected to eventually move there.  The new island, built by pumping sand from the seafloor onto a coral platform, rises about 2 meters above sea level.  The extra height could make the new island a refuge for Maldivians driven off lower-lying islands by the rising seas.

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Preparing for Rising Seas in the Maldives

Photo, posted June 15, 2009, courtesy of Elena N via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Banning Short Plane Flights | Earth Wise

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Almost everything we do ultimately results in greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and therefore has an impact on the climate.  But some activities have much more impact than others.  The aviation industry is responsible for about 5% of global warming.

This doesn’t seem like that large a contribution, but only a very small percentage of the world’s population flies frequently and even in richer countries, only around half the population flew in any given year (at least before the pandemic.)

Flying is generally the only practical option for most long-haul trips and unless people give up on seeing the world or conducting global business in person, they are not going to give up taking air trips.

But shorter flights are a different story.  If you are planning to take a reasonably short trip in France, a plane will soon no longer be an option.  The French government says that flights will be banned on any route where the trip could be made on a train in 2.5 hours or less.  The driving force is the reduction of CO2 emissions.  A plane trip emits an average of 77 times more CO2 per passenger than taking a train on the same route.

The Netherlands and Belgium are also considering bans on short-haul flights and Austrian Airlines recently replaced its Vienna-to-Salzburg flights with train service.

Advocates of the flight bans say that not only does taking the train significantly reduce a traveler’s carbon footprint, but it can be cheaper and actually faster than a plane when factoring in the time spent getting to airports, standing in security lines, getting on and off planes, and so on.  Europe’s extensive train system makes this approach broadly practical. Unfortunately, here in the U.S., it is not quite that easy.

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France Will Ban Short Flights That Could Be Replaced By a Train Trip

Photo, posted December 17, 2016, courtesy of Dylan Agbagni via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Not Such Climate Champions | Earth Wise

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The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and if possible to stay as close as close to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.  Nations around the world have made commitments to drastically reduce their carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels that are in large part responsible for the rising temperatures.

There are a number of countries that proudly claim to be leading the world in the fight against climate change but who are actually still a major part of the problem.  Among these are Norway, the UK, and Canada.

Norway powers its streetlamps with renewables, runs its public transportation system entirely by renewable energy, and leads the world in the adoption of electric cars.  Both the UK and Canada have set ambitious targets for emissions reductions leading to zero net emissions by 2050. 

The problem is that under the Paris Agreement, each country is only responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions produced within its territory.  That means that the UK, Canada, and Norway (like many other countries) don’t need to worry about the emissions caused by the burning of their oil, gas, and coal in other places around the world.

Norway’s annual domestic emissions reached about 53 million tons in 2017 according to its government.  The emissions from the oil and gas Norway sold abroad reached roughly 470 million tons in 2017.  Canada has huge proven oil reserves it is exploiting.

Canada, Norway, and the UK all plan to keep producing fossil fuels, investing in new fossil fuel projects, and explorations.  As long as this continues, these countries are not really climate champions; they are climate hypocrites.

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Norway, the UK and Canada are not climate champions. They are climate hypocrites

Photo, posted September 4, 2008, courtesy of Statkraft via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wildfires And Superfund Sites | Earth Wise

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Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites.  A Congressional act in 1980 established authority by the EPA to ultimately clean up these “Superfund” sites.

According to a government survey last year, 945 Superfund sites are vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation, or wildfires, all of which are intensifying as the climate warms.   In particular, there are 245 sites vulnerable to wildfires and 68 of them have recently seen wildfires approach.

A comprehensive investigation by Inside Climate News, NBC News, and the Texas Observer has found that the threat presented by wildfires is exceeding authorities’ ability to adequately prepare and respond.  Fires at Superfund sites could release toxins ranging from acid mine drainage to radioactive smoke.

There have already been a number of close calls.  The 2013 Patch Springs Fire near Salt Lake City came within 10 miles of the Tooele Army Depot, a Superfund site with 902 ammunition bunkers along with soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

The 2018 Carr Fire in Northern California over swept the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund site and threatened to release corrosive chemicals into the watershed.

For sites where no polluter can be made to pay and the EPA lacks cleanup funds, the agency will need to design protections that shield the sites from wildfires as long as the contamination remains. 

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Fueled by Climate Change, Wildfires Threaten Toxic Superfund Sites

Photo, posted July 26, 2018, courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management California via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hydrogen-Powered Transport In Britain | Earth Wise

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The first hydrogen-powered train in the UK had its first mainline runs at the end of September.  The train, known as HydroFLEX, was developed under a project headed by the University of Birmingham under the UK government’s Department for Transport. 

Hydrogen-powered trains do not emit harmful gases but rather use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, water, and heat.  The technology in the HydroFLEX train will be available by 2023 to retrofit existing diesel-powered trains and thereby de-carbonize the rail network and make train travel greener and more efficient.

The UK has ambitious plans for the use of hydrogen technology.  The Department of Transport plans to publish a master plan in January that will outline how green hydrogen could power buses, trucks, rail, maritime, and aviation transport across the UK.

The HydroFLEX trial is taking place in Tees Valley in northeastern England and the plan is for that area to become a Hydrogen Transport Hub that will include the world’s largest versatile hydrogen refueling facility.   The plans for Tees Valley involve academia, industry, and government participants.  The next stages of the HydroFLEX project are well underway with the University of Birmingham developing a hydrogen and battery-powered module that can be fitted underneath a train to allow for more space for passengers in train cars.

The UK government’s Hydrogen for Transport Program is also funding a green hydrogen refueling station and 19 hydrogen-powered garbage trucks in Glasgow, Scotland.

The UK plans to switch to a net zero economy and their current program increasingly embraces hydrogen technology to provide more sustainable, greener forms of transportation.

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UK embraces hydrogen-fueled future as transport hub and train announced

Photo, posted May 15, 2019, courtesy of Jeremy Segrott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

An Environmental Victory In Cameroon | Earth Wise

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The Ebo Forest in Cameroon is one of the last intact forests in central Africa and is a biodiversity hotspot, home to hundreds of rare plants and animal species, including tool-using Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, western gorillas, forest elephants, red colobus monkeys, and giant goliath frogs.  The 600 square miles of mountain slopes and river valleys are covered by thick tree canopies that shelter a fascinating array of species.

This past July, Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute signed a decree that turned half of the Ebo Forest into a so-called forest management unit, meaning that the government could begin to sell logging concessions.

However, on August 11, Ngute, at the direction of President Paul Biya, withdrew the decree, suspending any logging plans.  President Biya also ordered a delay to reclassify an additional 160,000 acres of the Ebo, which might have opened up even more forest for logging.

Apart from its rich biodiversity, the Ebo Forest is culturally and societally important for the Banen Indigenous people, who consider it to be their sacred ancestral home.  The Banen were ousted from the forest in the 1960s but took up settlements just a few miles from its borders.  They still rely on the forest for food and medicines.  Meanwhile, the proximity of the forest to big cities makes it an easy target for bushmeat poachers.

Both conservation groups and indigenous leaders welcomed the withdrawal of the decree but remain concerned about the future of the Ebo Forest.  Conservation groups hope that the international community will seize the opportunity to work with the government of Cameroon to make the Ebo Forest a permanent showcase for long-term conservation in harmony with very challenged communities.

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Cameroon Cancels Plan to Log Half of the Ebo Forest, a Key Biodiversity Hotspot in Central Africa

Photo, posted September 17, 2005, courtesy of Salva le Foreste via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New Carbon Capture Technique | Earth Wise

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Carbon dioxide emissions by electricity generating plants, fossil-fuel burning vehicles, and industry produce about 2/3 of the greenhouse gases driving climate change.  Without decreasing these emissions, the earth will continue to get warmer, sea levels will continue to rise, and the world will face more droughts, floods, wildfires, famine and conflict.

Electrification of vehicles and reliance upon renewable energy sources will ultimately drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and the resultant emissions, but that transition may take too long to reverse the direction of climate change.  In the meantime, there is a great need to find effective and efficient ways to capture emissions from fossil fuel plants. 

Recent research at the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and ExxonMobil has developed a new technique for carbon capture.  The technique makes use of metal-organic framework (or MOF) technology.  An MOF, modified with nitrogen-containing amine molecules, captures CO2 and then low-temperature steam is used to flush out the CO2 either to be used or sequestered underground.

Experiments demonstrated the technique to have a six-times greater capacity for removing CO2 from the flue gas of a refinery than current amine-based technology.  It selectively removed 90% of the emitted CO2. 

There is a relatively limited market for captured CO2, so power plants using the capture technology would likely pump the CO2 into the ground, or otherwise sequester it.  The cost of doing this sort of emission scrubbing would have to be facilitated by government policies, such as carbon trading or a carbon tax, which would provide the necessary economic incentive for doing carbon capture and sequestration.

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New technique to capture CO2 could reduce power plant greenhouse gases

Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Massachusetts And Energy Policy | Earth Wise

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The transition to a renewables-based energy future continues to accelerate, but there are still many forces that can slow it down.  Government policy has a major role to play.  At the moment, the federal government is trying to prop up the fossil fuel industry with financial incentives and rampant deregulation.  So more than ever, innovative policies at the state level are essential drivers for revolutionizing the energy system.

One state where policy is trying to make a big difference is Massachusetts, which has created the Clean Peak Energy Standard or CPS, finalized and approved in late March and now taking effect.   A clean peak standard is a regulatory tool to reduce the costs and environmental impact of periods when electricity demand is highest, and generation tends to be the most polluting.  The CPS requires electric retailers to procure a minimum percentage of their annual electricity sales from renewable generation or energy storage.  That minimum amount will increase each year.

The CPS is formulated to incentivize better utilization of clean energy technologies to supply power when energy demand is high.  The problem is that there are times when the sun is not shining and the wind isn’t blowing, but energy demand is at its highest.  The solution is to use energy storage technologies that can supply power when it is needed.  Furthermore, storage can be relied upon during times of extreme weather that cause power outages.

Massachusetts has already started using energy storage in its grid.  The small town of Sterling installed an energy storage system in 2016 that provides crucial backup power to the police station and emergency dispatch center, thereby keeping first responder operations running even during extended power outages.

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Massachusetts is setting the benchmark for nationwide clean energy transformation

Photo, posted March 30, 2012, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Last New York Coal Plant Closing | Earth Wise

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The last coal-fired power plant in New York State is closing.  The plant, located in Barker, about an hour’s drive from Buffalo, employs 44 people.  The plant’s closure is an early test of New York’s new climate law, which is one of the most ambitious in the country.  The law is supposed to transform the state’s energy grid to carbon-free by 2040. 

Coal plants across the country are going offline, priced out by natural gas and targeted by regulations and incentives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Coal plant closures bring common challenges:  lost tax revenues and jobs as well as efforts to retrain workers and clean up sites.  Every plant has a specific place in a community, and each community has its own story.

The new climate law is supposed to create thousands of new jobs, including high-paying union jobs like the ones the employees in Barker are losing.  But jobs are scarce in the northwest corner of the state where Barker is located.

The state government has recently issued rules that would make it easier to get permission to build renewable energy sites, including wind turbines and solar farms, allowing applicants to bypass zoning rules and other local regulations.  But residents of rural towns have environmental and aesthetic concerns about these potential new energy plants.

In 2010, the United States had 580 coal-fired power plants providing 45% of the country’s electricity. By March 2018, there were fewer than 350 plants and coal’s market share had dropped to 30%.  At this point, there are about 224 plants producing 18% of the country’s power.  The writing is on the wall for coal power.

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New York’s Last Coal-Fired Power Plant Is Closing

Photo, posted March 13, 2018, courtesy of Joed Viera via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Value Of Abandoned Agricultural Lands | Earth Wise

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It is perhaps surprising to learn that more land is now being abandoned by farming than converted to it. In fact, abandonment of rural lands has become one of the most dramatic planet-wide changes of the modern era, affecting millions of square miles of land.

In part, it is due to rural flight driven by the economic, social, and educational appeal of cities.  It is also a result of climate change and the globalization of the food supply chain.  The global footprint of agriculture has been decreasing over the past twenty years but the global food supply isn’t shrinking.  The lost land has generally been marginal and farming elsewhere has become more productive.

Many researchers see abandoned agricultural lands as a huge opportunity for ecological restoration and strengthening of biodiversity.   Others see these lands as an opportunity for a massive program to plant trees to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  A recent study published in Science estimated that planting trees on abandoned agricultural lands could remove 25% of the carbon dioxide humans have added to the atmosphere.

There are strong criticisms to all of these ideas.  In most cases, the studies don’t incorporate the social context of why these lands are in transition, the potential effects on local populations, whether the lands are publicly or privately owned, and whether lands now suitable for regeneration will remain so as climate change advances.

Current government initiatives on degraded lands typically lack even rudimentary planning.  There are real opportunities presented by the vast amounts of abandoned agricultural lands, but there are many caveats and many issues to confront.  As a society, we have barely begun to even think about what to do.

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Could Abandoned Agricultural Lands Help Save the Planet?

Photo, posted May 9, 2010. courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Out-Migration And Reforestation

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A challenging global trend is that of deforestation in developing countries.  But there are places where the opposite trend is happening.  Nepal is one such place.

According to satellite imaging, in 1992 forest covered 26% of Nepal.  As of 2016, that number was 45%. 

To some extent, the forest regrowth was a result of policy changes from about three decades ago, when the government began removing management authority from bureaucrats and shifting it to local communities across the country.  This local management helped to reduce illegal logging and many local villages undertook tree-planting campaigns.

But perhaps a bigger factor at play is human migration.  In recent decades, millions of Nepalis have left the country to work in the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere.  The out-migrants wire money home and meanwhile, families left behind rely less on forest products or abandon farmland, aiding reforestation.  A 2018 study showed that the areas with the highest out-migration experience, on average, had the most forest recovery.

Globally, migration has important impacts on forests, but not always positive ones.  In many countries, forests seem to recover as people leave rural areas to work elsewhere.  El Salvador, for example, has seen a rebound of its forests as many of its rural residents move to cities or even to the United States. But in Guatemala and Nicaragua, the return of migrants bringing money they have earned overseas has led to an expansion of cattle ranching that has harmed forests.

The global relationship between migration and forests is a complicated one that depends on whether the migration is one-way or “circular” (meaning that the migrants eventually return) and how returning migrants make use of their earnings from abroad.

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In Nepal, Out-Migration Is Helping Fuel a Forest Resurgence

Photo, posted September 30, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Powering Cars With Cactus Juice

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Back in 2016, a company called Nopalimex, located in Micoacan, central Mexico, built the world’s first cactus-powered energy plant.  The facility utilizes a biodigester to make biogas from nopal, also known as prickly pear cactus.  The nopal plant has been called the ‘Green Gold of Mexico’ and is a staple in Mexican diets, medicine and cosmetics.

Nopalimex is now using the cactus to make biofuel for vehicles.

The fruit of the cactus is pureed, mixed with manure, and then left to decompose, producing methane.  The methane produced – about eight tons a day – fuels the biodigester which powers the company’s corn chip and cactus chip production and is being tested in a fleet of government vehicles.

The biogas will cost just 65 cents per liter, which is about a third cheaper than the cost of regular gasoline.  Using prickly pear as a feedstock for biofuel is attractive because it can be grown in places where traditional energy crops cannot.  One can imagine vast fields of cacti in remote, arid areas of the country where normal crops cannot grow.  It would not suck up the resources or space needed to feed people, which is an ongoing criticism of current bioenergy crops.

As long as the nopals are regularly replanted, the process is almost entirely sustainable, producing only water and nopal waste, which can be used to fertilize other crops.

Finding sustainable ways to produce fuel while doing minimal damage to the environment is an important challenge for countries around the world.  In Mexico, harnessing the power of the prickly pear cactus is a unique and clever solution.

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Mexico’s ‘green gold’: The company powering cars with cactus juice

Photo, posted July 8, 2006, courtesy of Christian Frausto Bernal via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cleaning Up Mount Everest

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Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level with an elevation over 29,000 feet.  As such, it is a prime attraction for mountain climbers seeking that ultimate achievement.  The summit was first reached in 1953 and for a long time, only major expeditions by the best mountaineers sought to repeat the feat.

In recent years, climbing Everest has become much more common.  In fact, since 1953, more than 4,000 people have reached the summit of the world’s highest mountain.  A record 807 accomplished the feat last year alone.  Thousands more visit lower elevations.

But climbing Everest is neither safe nor easy.  Ice and snow, powerful winds, and generally harsh conditions make Everest a treacherous place.  Over the decades, hundreds of climbers have died on its slopes and many of their bodies are still up there.  Apart from human remains, there are decades worth of garbage left behind by hikers and tourists.

The government of Nepal has mounted an ambitious project to clean up the refuse on Mount Everest.  In just the first two weeks, volunteers removed more than three tons of trash from the mountain. Among the rubbish removed from Everest are tents, climbing equipment, bottles, cans, empty oxygen containers, and human waste.  They also discovered the bodies of four climbers that had emerged from melting snow and ice.

Helicopters carried a third of the garbage to Kathmandu for recycling.  The rest was taken to a local district for disposal in landfills.  The initial work started at Everest’s base camp.  They are next moving to sites higher on the mountain.  They hope to remove at least 10 tons of trash this year.

Nepal would like to make the world’s tallest mountain clean.

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Volunteers Remove 3 Tons of Trash From Mount Everest in Two Weeks

Photo, posted May 23, 2012, courtesy of Gunther Hagleitner via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Utility-Scale Solar On The Rise

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According to research from Goldman Sachs, utility-scale solar power capacity is expected to grow by double digits globally over the next two years.  The growth will be driven by expanding use of the technology in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and China.

Solar power is the world’s fastest growing source of electricity generation and is slowly taking market share from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.  The transition is being driven by a combination of continuously lower prices for solar power and the impact of policies aimed at reducing emissions.

Utility-scale solar is defined as installations designed solely to feed electricity into the grid, in contrast to smaller-scale residential or commercial building units.  There are now solar farms larger than half a gigawatt in generating capacity.  According to the Goldman report, global utility-scale solar installations will reach 108 gigawatts in 2019, up 12% over the previous year, and will then grow another 10% to 119 gigawatts in 2020.

When residential and other smaller installations are included, most analysts expect global solar power capacity to soon hit 600 gigawatts.  To put this in perspective, the global capacity only reached 100 gigawatts in 2012 and was actually less than 10 gigawatts in 2007.

Even more dramatic than the growth of solar installations is the reduction in solar cost, and the two are obviously closely related.  Solar panel costs have dropped from around $70 per watt of electricity generated in 1980 to 36 cents per watt currently in the United States.  When favorable policies both from governments and related to corporate sustainability targets are added to the mix, the booming growth in solar power is easy to understand.

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Large-scale solar power set for double-digit growth: Goldman Sachs

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Price of Chocolate

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The Ivory Coast has lost more than 80% of its forests in the last 50 years, mainly as a result of cocoa production.

The Ivory Coast is a West African country the size of New Mexico and it produces more than a third of the world’s cocoa.  But around 40% of the country’s cocoa crop – supplying more than a tenth of the world’s chocolate bars – is grown illegally in the country’s national parks and 230 supposedly protected government-owned forests. 

Over the decades, as many as one million landless people from drought-stricken places like Mali and Burkina Faso moved into national parks and protected forests and started farming cocoa.  The Marahoue National Park alone has 30,000 illegal inhabitants.

Most cocoa is grown in monocultures of what is known as the full-sun system, which requires the removal of all surrounding trees.  As a result, many allegedly protected areas have been completely converted into farms.  Most of the cocoa in the Ivory Coast is grown on small farms, typically plots of 7 to 10 acres.  The farmers are caught in an exploitative and corrupt system of cocoa trading and land appropriation, and most earn less than a dollar a day.  Meanwhile, government agencies charged with protecting the forests are more interested in collecting bribes than safeguarding woodlands.

The Ivory Coast government is unveiling a plan to actually remove protection from most of its remaining forests and hand them over to the world’s chocolate traders.    The claim is that this will protect other forests by improving cocoa productivity in already deforested areas.  Needless to say, conservation groups are dubious that the new plan will positively impact an already terrible situation.

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The Real Price of a Chocolate Bar: West Africa’s Rainforests

Photo, posted April 17, 2015, courtesy of Tom Coady via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bee Friendly Amsterdam

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Scientists around the world have been sounding the alarm for years about the decline of bees and other pollinators that are crucial to the growth of crops.   One place where this trend has been bucked is in Amsterdam.  The diversity of wild bee and honeybee species in the Dutch capital has actually increased by 45% since 2000.

The city attributes this success to creating bee-friendly environments including the installation of so-called insect hotels.  There has also been a ban on the use of chemical pesticides on public land.

Four years ago, Amsterdam set a goal to convert half of all public green spaces to native plants including species that produce flowers and fruits that provide nourishment for bees.  Developers in Amsterdam are encouraged to install green roofs on new buildings which reduce reliance on heating and cooling systems and also create habitat for wildlife.

Residents can request to have a 16-inch strip of pavement adjacent to their homes removed in order to plant shrubs, flowers or climbing vines.  When a new highway was built in the area in 2015, local activists planted wildflowers along the sides of the road that otherwise would have been left with only gravel or grass.  This practice has spread to other major routes and along dikes and railways and is referred to as the Honey Highway.

All of these efforts seem to be having a positive effect.  An initial survey was conducted in 2000 to establish a baseline.  A 2015 survey of pollinators found 21 bee species not previously documented in the city.  The rest of the Netherlands has not done as well, and the Dutch government has recently introduced a pollinator strategy to revive bees, butterflies and other insects crucial to the country’s food crop.

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Web Links

Bees are dying at an alarming rate. Amsterdam may have the answer.

Photo, posted December 28, 2006, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)