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Harmful algal blooms and climate change

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An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the density of algae in an aquatic system.  Harmful algal blooms occur when bodies of water get overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from agriculture and other human activities. These excess nutrients can facilitate the out-of-control growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. 

Some species of blue-green algae produce a toxin called microcystin.  These toxins pose a serious health hazard to people, animals, and the environment.  Microcystin affects liver function and can cause death in animals, as well as humans in rare instances.  A notable incident occurred in the summer of 2014, when cyanobacteria contamination in Lake Erie left 500,000 residents in Ohio and Michigan without water for 72 hours and sickened more than 100 people. 

According to a study led by researchers from Carnegie Science, as climate change warms the earth, higher-latitude regions will be at a greater risk for microcystin produced by algal blooms.  The study found water temperatures of 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit as being at the greatest risk for developing dangerous levels of microcystin. 

In the study, which was published in the journal Nature Water, the research team also demonstrated that the areas most susceptible to high toxin concentrations will continue to move northward. And in some areas, researchers say the relative risk of exceeding water quality guidelines will increase by up to 50% in the coming decades.

The research team hopes its findings raise more awareness about water sustainability, and the need to focus on the quality of the water as much as the quantity of water. 

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Geographic redistribution of microcystin hotspots in response to climate warming

Photo, posted October 27, 2010, courtesy of Nara Souza / Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Abandoned farmland and the environment

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Abandoned farmland has been increasing dramatically in recent decades.  Estimates are that a billion acres – an area half the size of Australia – have been relinquished from cultivation globally.  While more and more of the tropics have been cultivated in recent times, the global amount of land used for agriculture has been in decline since 2001.  In the past 30 years, arable land in the United States has declined by almost a sixth.  The situation in Europe is similar.  Huge amounts of the former Soviet Union now lie abandoned. 

Farmland is abandoned for various reasons.  It may suffer from damaged soil so that crop yields are too low to be worth the effort.  Farm owners may become too old or be physically unable to continue farming.  Many younger people head for jobs in the cities and more attractive opportunities.  Wars, natural and man-made disasters, and political turmoil have all contributed.

Another form of largely ignored lands are so-called degraded forests.  These are forests that were logged in the past but are no longer productive and aren’t protected either.  These places also represent unused land with great potential value.

Ecologists point to the potential of these lands as neglected resources for rewilding efforts, improving biodiversity, and for increasing natural ways to capture carbon.  Left to its own devices, nature will usually reclaim abandoned places.  This generally provides benefits for biodiversity and climate.  But mapping, studying, managing, and protecting the increasingly vast tracts of abandoned land could increase their potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and the restoration of species and their habitats.

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Abandoned Lands: A Hidden Resource for Restoring Biodiversity

Photo, posted January 26, 2023, courtesy of Larry Syverson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Trends in rooftop solar

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Rooftop solar power in the United States has increased by a factor of ten over the past decade and the majority of that growth has been in the past six or seven years.  At this point, about 7% of American homes have solar panels on their roofs – about 5 million in total. 

Rooftop solar really began experiencing widespread use about 20 years ago.  Over that time period, the amount of electricity that panels are able to produce has grown substantially and the cost of solar power systems has dropped dramatically.

Twenty years ago, the median sized residential solar system generated 2.4 kilowatts of power.  In 2023, the median size was 7.4 kilowatts.  Roofs haven’t gotten bigger; solar panels have gotten better.

More importantly, 20 years ago, the average cost of installing solar power was $12 a watt. In 2023, the cost was $4.20 a watt.

Americans in fact pay considerably more for solar power than citizens in many other countries.  The reason is not the price of the equipment; it is so-called soft costs.  These include labor, financing, and permitting. Driving down soft costs is complicated and difficult. For one thing, it is important for solar industry jobs to have high pay and good benefits.

The cost of solar also varies significantly by state.  California is the leading state for solar power and its median solar cost is the $4.20 a watt, the same as the national average.  Nevada has the lowest cost at $3.40 a watt and Utah has the highest at $5.20 a watt.

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Bigger and Less Expensive: A Snapshot of U.S. Rooftop Solar Power and How It’s Changed

Photo, posted September 18, 2011, courtesy of Team Massachusetts 4D Home via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Last chance tourism

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Glaciers around the world are shrinking or disappearing.  Melting glaciers and ice sheets are the biggest contributors to global sea level rise and ice loss rates are continuing to increase.  Even if the world somehow manages to meet the climate goal of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world will still lose a quarter of its glacial mass by the year 2100.  At higher levels of warming, most of the world’s glaciers could be gone.

One result of this situation is that people are rushing to see glaciers before they melt.  Places like Iceland are experiencing a booming tourism economy.  Half a million people now visit Iceland for glacier tours every year.  The shrinking and disappearance of glaciers has popularized a new kind of adventure travel called ‘last chance tourism.’

Like other types of adventure travel, glacier tours are not without dangers.  An American tourist visiting a glacial ice cave in an Icelandic national park in August was killed when a frozen arch collapsed.  Ice caves, formed by glacial meltwater, are known for their brilliant blue walls.  Increasing meltwater can make these formations more prone to collapse. 

Glacial tours in Canada’s Jasper National Park are quite popular.  Tour operators have had to reroute trails to the foot of the Athabasca Glacier several times every season because of glacial melt. 

Glacier tourism is a goldmine for the tourist industry but conducting and managing it is increasingly challenging.  Meanwhile, people feel like it’s important to bring their kids to see glaciers because they may be the last generation that can go stand on a glacier.

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Climate Change Is Making ‘Last Chance Tourism’ More Popular, and Riskier

Photo, posted January 25, 2020, courtesy of Ron Cogswell via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Deadly Heatwaves On The Rise | Earth Wise

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The European heatwave in the summer of 2003 resulted in at least 30,000 deaths with more than 14,000 in France alone. At the time, such a heatwave was considered to be a once-in-a-hundred-year event. But the warming climate is dramatically changing the odds for deadly heatwaves.

A new study by the ETH Institute in Zurich has found that the risk of fatal heatwaves has risen sharply over the past 20 years, and in the future, such extreme weather will become more frequent and heat-related excess mortality will increase, particularly in Europe.  According to a paper published in Nature Medicine, more than 61,000 deaths in Europe could be blamed on the heat during the summer of 2022, which was the hottest summer on record for the continent.  When the readings from this summer are analyzed, that record is likely to be surpassed.

Heatwaves lead to excess deaths due to dehydration, heat stroke, and cardiovascular collapse.  They are particularly deadly for the elderly, the sick, and the poor.  The ETH researchers analyzed comprehensive data from 748 cities and communities in 47 countries.   They determined the relationship between increased temperature and excess mortality.  Their models look at how excess mortality would develop with an average global temperature increase of 0.7 degrees Celsius (the value in 2000), 1.2 degrees (the value in 2020), and both 1.5 degrees (the limit sought by the Paris Agreement) and 2 degrees.

Even with the current global temperature, heatwaves that were a once-in-a-century event are now expected to occur every 10 years.  With 2 degrees of warming, such heatwaves could happen every 2 to 5 years.

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Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more deadly

Photo, posted July 22, 2009, courtesy of Matt McGee via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Still Increasing | Earth Wise

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Recent research has found that the level of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity has reached an all-time high level of nearly 60 billion tons a year.  Despite increasing public attention, policy measures, and adoption of green technologies, the pace at which these changes have been taking place has simply not kept up with the ongoing burning of fossil fuels by increasingly industrialized societies.  The rate at which greenhouse gas emissions has increased over time has indeed slowed, but emissions need to start decreasing and as soon and as much as possible.

Human-induced warming has reached a ten-year average from 2013-2022 of 1.14 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, up from a 1.07 degrees average between 2010-2019. 

Scientists have calculated a carbon budget that describes how much more carbon dioxide can be emitted before global warming exceeds the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius that is widely predicted to lead to potentially catastrophic changes to the climate.  In 2020, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calculated that the remaining carbon budget was about 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide.  Over the past three years, nearly half of that carbon budget has already been exhausted by the continuing onslaught of carbon emissions.

Researchers describe their study as a timely wake-up call that the pace and scale of climate action to date has been insufficient and that we need to change policy and approaches in light of the latest evidence about the state of the climate system.  Time is no longer on our side in trying to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

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Greenhouse gas emissions at ‘an all-time high’, warn scientists

Photo, posted September 18, 2015, courtesy of In Hiatus via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Deadly Urban Heat On The Rise | Earth Wise

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According to a new study by the Columbia Climate School, exposure to deadly urban heat has tripled since the 1980s.  The increase is the combined result of both rising global temperatures and booming urban population growth.

The study looked at more than 13,000 cities worldwide and found that incidents of extreme heat and humidity have increased dramatically.   It defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Celsius on the wet-bulb temperature scale that takes into account the effect of high humidity.  In 1983, there were 40 billion person-days under such conditions.  By 2016, the number was 119 billion.  More specifically, in 2016 1.7 billion people were subjected to such conditions on multiple days.

Sheer urban population growth accounted for two-thirds of the increase, while actual warming contributed a third.  Over recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities, which now hold more than half the world’s population.  And because of the urban heat island effect, temperatures in cities are generally higher than in the countryside.

In the United States, about 40 sizable cities have seen rapidly growing exposure to extreme heat, mainly clustered in Texas and the Gulf Coast.  Globally, nearly a quarter of the world’s population is affected by the increased incidence of extreme temperatures.

A study last year showed that combinations of heat and humidity literally beyond the limits of outdoor human survival have been popping up around the world.  A wet-bulb temperature reading of 30 – equivalent to 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the “real feel” heat index – is the point at which even most healthy people find it hard to function outside for long, and the unhealthy might become very ill or even die.

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Exposure to Deadly Urban Heat Worldwide Has Tripled in Recent Decades, Says Study

Photo, posted March 5, 2007, courtesy of Michael Phillips via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Weather Disasters On The Rise | Earth Wise

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It seems like the news is always filled with stories about storms, heatwaves, drought, and forest fires.  This is because these things are happening with unprecedented frequency.

According to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization, weather disasters have become five times more common since 1970, in large part a result of climate change.  Extreme weather, climate, and water events are increasing and are becoming more frequent and severe in many parts of the world.

Between 1970 and 2019, there were more than 11,000 reported disasters attributed to weather, resulting in over 2 million deaths and $3.64 trillion dollars in economic losses.

Storms and floods were the most prevalent disasters.  The five costliest disasters ever are all hurricanes that have struck the United States over the past 20 years.

Droughts accounted for the greatest number of human losses, with severe droughts in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Sudan responsible for 650,000 deaths.

About the only positive news in the report was that even as disasters have grown more prevalent, deaths have declined, dropping from about 50,000 a year in the 1970s to fewer than 20,000 in the 2010s.  This is a result of better early warning systems.  We have gotten better at saving lives.  But early warning systems are woefully insufficient in much of the developing world, where more than 90% of disaster-related deaths occur.

Of the 77 weather-related disasters that struck between 2015 and 2017, 62 show the influence of human-caused climate change.  With the pace of climate change now accelerating, there are likely to be more frequent catastrophic disasters in the years to come.

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As the Planet Has Warmed, Weather Disasters Have Grown Fivefold, Analysis Shows

Photo, posted September 16, 2021, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Post-COVID Emissions Rebound | Earth Wise

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The extensive shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reduced activity across many sectors of the global economy.  As a result, global pollution and greenhouse gas emissions also saw lower levels.  As the COVID crisis lessens, an economic recovery is growing and as that occurs, emissions are on the rise.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase by 1.5 billion tons this year, the second-largest increase in history.

The emissions increase in 2021 is expected to be nearly 5%, reversing most of last year’s emissions decline caused by the pandemic. This would be the largest annual rise since the 2010 recovery from the global financial crisis.  In many places across the globe, people are making up for lost time and doing more of all the things that cause carbon emissions.

A key driver of the emissions increase is a rise in coal use.  The forecast is that coal-burning in 2021 would come close to the all-time peak of 2014.  Both natural gas and oil use are also expected to increase this year.  These increases are in spite of a predicted 17% increase in electricity generation from wind power and an 18% increase in solar-power generation. 

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are now at 417 parts per million and have increased by 3 PPM in the past year.  If human CO2 emissions are not reined in, atmospheric concentrations of planet-warming greenhouse gases could double those of pre-Industrial levels by mid-century, which would have disastrous impacts on the climate.

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Global CO2 Emissions Set to Surge in 2021 in Post-Covid Economic Rebound

Photo, posted October 22, 2020, courtesy of Hospital Clínic Barcelona via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Finding Methane Leaks from Space | Earth Wise

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There is growing concern about the climate effects of methane leaking from oil and gas wells.  The 20-year global warming potential of methane is 84, meaning that over a 20-year period, it traps 84 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide.  Global methane concentrations have increased by nearly a factor of 3 since the industrial revolution.

More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind millions of abandoned wells, many of which are leaching pollutants into the air and water.   In the U.S. alone, more than 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells emitted 280,000 tons of methane just in 2018.  And the data is incomplete.

Part of the problem is finding out which wells are leaking.  Ground-based sensors or airplanes and drones are effective ways to find leaks but considering how many wells there are to check, the costs are considerable, and the process is time consuming and complicated. 

New technology is coming along that uses satellites to detect methane leaks.  A Canadian company called GHGSat recently used satellites to detect what it has called the smallest methane leak ever seen from space and has begun selling data to emitters interested in pinpointing leaks.

Another company, New York-based Bluefield Technologies, plans a group of satellites for launch in 2023 that promises even finer resolution.  The Environmental Defense Fund, with support from Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund, plans to launch MethaneSAT in the next couple of years, which is designed to find small sources of methane.

Research at Stanford University determined that just 5% of methane leaks produce around half the total leakage. 

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New Technology Claims to Pinpoint Even Small Methane Leaks From Space

Photo, posted June 8, 2011, courtesy of Jeremy Buckingham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Helping Out Corals With Cool Water | Earth Wise

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Coral bleaching is happening five times more frequently than it did forty years ago.  Its increasing occurrence is a result of global warming which leads to marine heat waves – periods of higher ocean water temperatures.  Heat stress on living coral animals causes them to expel the algae that live symbiotically within the coral structure.  As the algae is expelled, the coral fades in color looking like it is bleached.  Without its algae partner, the coral eventually dies.

Given the increasing occurrence of marine heat waves, scientists are seeking novel ways to decrease heat stress in corals.  A new study by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science is investigating the use of artificial upwelling – the application of cooler, deep water – as a way to mitigate thermal stress on corals.

Upwelling is a natural process in the ocean in which winds push surface water away from a region – for example, a coastline – which then allows the uplift of deeper, colder waters to the surface.  Because such deeper waters are typically rich in nutrients, upwelling is important for supporting many of the world’s important commercial fisheries.  For this reason, artificial upwelling has sometimes been used to increase fish stocks in certain locations.

The new work placed coral colonies in aquaria in Bermuda and tested the effects of varying amounts and temperatures of deep cold-water pulses upon corals subjected to thermal stress.  The results showed that even short intrusions of cooler deep water (less than two hours per day) can mitigate thermal stress in corals.  The next steps are to find suitable parameters for artificial upwelling that maximize the benefits while minimizing potential harmful side effects on the corals and the ecosystems they support.

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Can pumping up cold water from deep within the ocean halt coral bleaching?

Photo, posted February 24, 2008, courtesy of Roderick Eime via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Europe Is Warming Faster Than Predicted

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A new study has found that Europe is warming faster than even climate models projected.  The number of summer days with extreme heat in Europe has tripled since the 1950s, while the number of days with extreme cold has decreased by factors of two or three depending on the region.

According to climate scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the climate trends are much larger than what would come from natural variability and are a clear signal of climate change.  Extremely hot days in Europe have become hotter by an average of more than 4 degrees Fahrenheit while extremely cold days have warmed by more than 5 degrees.  The research examined data from weather stations across Europe from 1950 to 2018.  Over 90% of the stations recorded increasing temperatures over time, a percentage much too high to be purely from natural climate variability.  The results also showed that the region was warming even faster than climate models projected.

The research results come after an extremely hot summer in Europe.  Southern France hit 114.8 degrees, a new record, in June.  Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium all recorded all-time national temperature highs.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that July was the hottest month ever recorded.

European summers and winters will only grow hotter in the coming years as climate change accelerates.  The rapidly increasing temperatures will impact cities and people that are unprepared for them and pose real risks for residents in the coming decades.  Extreme heat is dangerous because it stresses the human body, potentially leading to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

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Europe warming faster than expected due to climate change

Photo, posted July 30, 2011, courtesy of Marcel de Jong via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Increasing Antarctic Ice Loss

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Antarctica’s ice sheets contain enough frozen water to raise sea levels globally about 190 feet.  Ice in the Antarctic is melting at a record-breaking rate and subsequent sea rises could have catastrophic consequences around the world.  So, it is no surprise that scientists have been closely tracking ice loss in recent decades to understand both the current and future impacts of climate change.

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Extreme Weather Increasing

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It sure seems like extreme weather is increasingly common:  floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, powerful snowstorms, hurricanes and so on.  But we tend to focus on recent events and often give them undue emphasis.  So, it is reasonable to ask whether extreme weather really is more common these days.

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Carbon Dioxide Continues To Rise

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Back in December of 2013, a little less than three years ago, Earth Wise reported that the observatory on Mauna Loa in Hawaii had briefly measured carbon dioxide levels greater than 400 parts per million for the first time ever.  During the following year, readings above the 400 level started to pop up occasionally elsewhere as well.

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Preventing Toxic Algal Blooms

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We have talked about the growing problem of toxic algal blooms on a number of occasions.  The increasing occurrence of these blooms has been associated with rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels as well as the presence of wastewater nutrients and agricultural fertilizers in rivers, lakes and reservoirs.  The most notable incident occurred in the summer of 2014, when algae contamination in Lake Erie left 400,000 residents in Ohio and Michigan without water for 72 hours.

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