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Tigers in India

March 17, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Anthropocene is the term that describes the current era in Earth’s history when human activities are having a significant impact on the planet. It is an epoch filled with species extinction and species attrition in both numbers and range. The population of large carnivores are among the most affected species and recovering these animals that play important roles in ecosystems is a formidable challenge.

Tigers in Asia are a prime example of extirpation – removal of a species from a specific area. They have been eliminated in more than 90% of their historic Asian range over the past century. A new study, published in Science has found that tigers in India are making a comeback.

India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority estimates that between 2010 and 2022, India’s tiger population grew from 1,706 to 3,682. Tigers are thriving not only on protected lands but also near some human communities.

Tigers are gone from poorer areas where poaching was prevalent and from areas affected by the violent conflict associated with India’s Maoist rebellion. On the other hand, the big cats can be found near some prosperous communities where poaching is rare. Farmers keep cattle in enclosures to protect them from tigers.

The success in protecting tigers in India could provide some insights for Europe where wolves are making a comeback, and perhaps even in the American West where the resurgence of wolf populations is triggering a violent backlash.

Large predators can survive in the modern world with creative thinking and willingness to find a balance between protection and coexistence.

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India Doubled its Tiger Population in a Little More Than a Decade

Photo, posted January 8, 2014, courtesy of Roderick Eime via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Dangers of distant fires

January 6, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Smoke from wildfires is well known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma. People living in the vicinity of where fires occur face these dangers. But a new study at the University of Maryland has found that there are health impacts from wildfires occurring thousands of miles away.

During the summer of 2023, massive Canadian wildfires created a vast plume of smoke that drifted more than 2,000 miles across the country resulting in poor air quality across the entire East Coast of the U.S.

Baltimore had very dark skies over a six-day period in June 2023, sending many individuals to doctors’ offices complaining of breathing issues. University of Maryland researchers found that medical visits for heart and lung problems rose by nearly 20% during that period.

Using satellite and EPA data combined with electronic health records, the researchers found increased likelihood of patients going to the doctor for complications related to cardiopulmonary conditions during the days with the most smoke in the air. They found a 55% increase in the risk for an outpatient visit for heart and lung conditions and these additional patients tended to be older, non-smokers, and more socio-economically affluent than the typical patients who see their doctors for such conditions when the air quality is good.

With more climate-related events likely to occur in the future, doctors may require better tools to help disadvantaged patients on so-called hotspot days when conditions are most dangerous. Increasingly common wildfires are a particular danger to people even when those fires are far away from where they live.

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Exposure to Remote Wildfire Smoke Drifting Across the U.S. Linked to Increased Medical Visits for Heart and Lung Problems

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of Marc A. Hermann / MTA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Renewables progress

November 5, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new report by the International Energy Agency, the world is on track to produce nearly half of the electricity it uses from renewable sources by the end of this decade. The report also finds that in nearly every country, large wind and solar plants are the cheapest forms of new power.

Between now and 2030, countries will add more than 5,500 gigawatts of new renewable capacity. That is as much as China, India, the U.S., and the EU combined have at present. Most of the new capacity will come from solar power.

China is aggressively pursuing renewable power installations with massive solar and wind projects. By 2030, China will account for nearly half of the world’s renewable power capacity.

This year’s UN Climate Change Conference, held in the United Arab Emirates, established the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030.

The growth in solar power continues to outperform industry expert projections as manufacturing ramps up. India and the U.S. are both expected to triple their solar manufacturing capacity by the end of this decade. Manufacturing, largely based in China, is already outstripping demand.

By 2030, solar and wind power are expected to account for about 30% of global electricity generation, hydropower about 13%, and other renewables such as geothermal power about 5%.

These estimates are based on existing policies and market conditions. Governments could speed up the shift to clean energy by cutting red tape and by making it cheaper for poorer countries to finance solar and wind projects.

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Renewables 2024

Photo, posted November 23, 2023, courtesy of Rick Obst via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Slow-moving landslides

October 17, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Landslides are mass movements of rock, earth, or debris down a slope. They can be initiated by rainfall, snowmelt, changes in water level, erosion by streams, earthquakes, volcanic activity, or by various human activities. Most landslides we hear about are sudden events that can cause all sorts of calamities. But not all landslides are rapid occurrences. There are also slow-moving landslides.

A new study by the University of Potsdam in Germany has found that as urban centers in mountainous regions grow, more people are building homes on steeper slopes prone to slow-moving landslides. Slow-moving landslides can move as little as one millimeter a year and up to as much as three meters per year. Locations with slow-moving landslides can seem safe to settle on; in some cases, the movement itself can be inconspicuous or even completely undetected.

Slow slides can gradually produce damage in houses and other infrastructure and there can also be sudden acceleration from heavy rain or other influences.

The study compiled a new database of nearly 8,000 slow-moving landslides with areas of at least 25 acres located in regions classified as “mountain risk.” Of the landslides documented, 563 are inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people. The densest settlements on slow-moving landslides are in northwestern South America and southeastern Africa.

In all regions of the study, urban center expansion was associated with an increase in exposure to slow-moving landslides. As cities expand in mountainous areas, people are moving into unsafe areas, but poorer populations may have few other options.

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Slow-moving landslides a growing, but ignored, threat to mountain communities

Photo, posted March 4, 2015, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Ending plastic separation anxiety

December 27, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Petroleum-based plastics are one of the biggest environmental problems we face. They mostly end up in landfills – or worse, in the oceans and elsewhere in the environment – and they basically don’t decompose over time. Bio-based plastics were invented to help solve the plastic waste crisis. These materials do break down in the environment providing a potential solution to the problem. But it turns out that they can actually make plastic waste management even more challenging.

The problem is that bioplastics look and feel so similar to conventional plastics that they get mixed in with the petroleum-based plastics rather than ending up in composters, where they can break down as designed.

Mixtures of conventional and bioplastics end up in recycling streams where they get shredded and melted down, resulting in materials that are of very poor quality for making functional products. The only solution is to try to separate the different plastics at recycling facilities, which is difficult and expensive to do.

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Joint BioEnergy Institute, and the incubator company X have invented a simple “one pot” process to break down mixtures of different types of plastic using naturally derived salt solutions and specialized microbes and then produce a new type of biodegradable polymer that can be made into fresh commodity products.

The team is experimenting with various catalysts to find the optimum way to break down polymers at the lowest cost and are modeling how their processes can work at the large scales of real-world recycling facilities. Chemical recycling of plastics is a hot topic but has been difficult to make happen economically at the commercial scale.

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Putting an End to Plastic Separation Anxiety

Photo, posted November 28, 2016, courtesy of Leonard J Matthews via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Актуальная ссылка на Мега сайт обеспечивает удобный и быстрый доступ к площадке.

Deadly Heatwaves On The Rise | Earth Wise

September 20, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

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

Climate Promises | Earth Wise

November 23, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The United Nations climate change conference that recently took place in Egypt is an annual event. Last year, the conference was in Glasgow, Scotland, and the participants – heads of state and business leaders – produced a long list of promises aimed at fighting global warming. How have the countries and companies making those promises done so far? Unfortunately, not very well.

Participants made pledges for progress in several major areas.

Countries promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster, but only 24 countries out of the 140 participants have actually done so.

Countries agreed to expedite the deployment of clean energy and the phasing out of government subsidies for fossil fuels. There has been considerable progress on green power, but coal use actually reached record highs this year primarily because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which caused natural gas prices to spike.

Countries pledged $100 billion a year to help poorer countries shift to cleaner energy sources. There has been lots of effort in this area, but the target has not been met and it isn’t clear that all the money is going where it is supposed to.

More than 100 countries pledged to slash methane emissions, but most nations are only getting started.

More than 130 countries pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. Deforestation is slowly declining, but not fast enough to meet the goals of the pledge.

An important goal for this year’s climate conference was to try to find a way to not just set admirable and valuable climate goals, but to actually accomplish them. It isn’t easy, but it is essential.

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Countries Made Bold Climate Promises Last Year. How Are They Doing?

Photo, posted July 25, 2009, courtesy of Wagner T. Cassimiro via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Inequality | Earth Wise

November 4, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Everyone contributes to climate change through the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, but individual contributions vary greatly. A study at the Paris School of Economics has determined that just 1 percent of the population is responsible for nearly a quarter of global carbon emissions growth since 1990.

The study estimated emissions from individuals’ consumption and their financial investments, and also from government spending in their country. Individuals are responsible for carbon emissions as a result of their own activities, but they also bear their share of responsibility for the emissions of the firms that they own or invest in.

In 2019, people living in sub-Saharan Africa produced an average of 1.8 tons of CO₂ equivalent per capita. In North America, the average per capita was more than 10 times higher. Meanwhile, the top 10% of North America’s emitters produced more than 75 tons each.

From 1990 to 2019, the bottom 50% of emitters was responsible for just 16% of emissions growth, while the top 1% was responsible for 23%. The top 0.1% saw emissions growth of 80%.

The inequality between rich and poor is driven more by inequality within countries than by inequality between countries. This is particularly true for wealthy countries. For example, over the study period, the top 1% saw their emissions grow by 26% while emissions actually declined 5-15% among low and middle earners even in wealthy nations.

Economic inequality drives a lot of the dynamics taking place within many countries around the world, and this even applies to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019

Photo, posted December 11, 2017, courtesy of Bernal Saborio via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Saving Lives With Air Conditioning | Earth Wise

August 26, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

This summer, extreme heatwaves struck the United States, Europe, and Africa. Thousands of people died as a result. In July, the impact of extreme heat in places ill-prepared for it was evident. In the U.K., where air conditioning is uncommon, public transportation shut down, schools and offices closed, and hospitals cancelled non-emergency procedures.

Air conditioning, which we mostly take for granted in this country, is a life-saving tool during extreme heat waves. However, only about 8% of the 2.8 billion people living in the hottest – and often poorest – parts of the world have AC in their homes.

A new study at Harvard modeled the future demand for air conditioning as the number of days with extreme heat continues to increase across the globe. The researchers identified a massive gap between current AC capacity and what will be needed by 2050 to save lives, particularly in low-income and developing countries.

If the rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues on its present course, the study concluded that that at least 70% of the population in several countries will require air conditioning by 2050. The number will be even higher in equatorial countries like India and Indonesia. At this point, even if the goals of the Paris Climate Accords are met, an average of 40-50% of the population in many of the world’s warmest countries will still require AC.

The research looked at various scenarios. One in which emissions continue to increase leads to widespread need for air conditioning even in temperate countries. In Germany, 92% of the population would need it, and here in the U.S., 96% would need it.

Planning for future power systems must take into account the essential needs of a warming world.

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In a hotter world, air conditioning isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifesaver

Photo, posted July 24, 2021, courtesy of Phyxter Home Services via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Houseplants And Indoor Air Quality | Earth Wise

April 11, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Many of us have houseplants in our homes and offices. The foliage and flowers add beauty and comfort to our indoor spaces. But it turns out that there are health advantages as well.

Many studies have demonstrated that indoor houseplants can help keep you happier and healthier by improving your mood, reducing fatigue, lowering stress and anxiety, and improving focus. Houseplants can also improve indoor air quality.

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Birmingham in the U.K. in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society, ordinary houseplants can potentially make a significant contribution to reducing indoor air pollution.

The researchers tested three types of houseplants commonly found in homes in the U.K: Peace lily, corn plant, and fern arum. These plants are easy to maintain and not overly expensive.

In the study, the research team exposed these houseplants to nitrogen dioxide, which is a common indoor pollutant. The plants were isolated in a test chamber containing levels of nitrogen dioxide comparable to what might be in an office situated next to a busy road. The researchers found that all the plants were able to remove about half of the nitrogen dioxide in the chamber in just one hour.

In a poorly ventilated small office with high levels of air pollution, the researchers calculated that five houseplants would remove up to 20% of the nitrogen dioxide. In a larger space, the effect would be smaller – around 3.5% – although this figure could be increased by adding more plants.

Bringing nature indoors is one way to breathe cleaner air.

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Common houseplants can improve air quality indoors

Reducing air pollution with plants

Photo, posted September 21, 2014, courtesy of Olin Gilbert via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Poverty And Climate Change

March 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the World Health Organization, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 extra deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. But climate change does not affect everyone the same. In fact, the poorest people on the planet, who are often the least to blame for climate change, typically bear the worst of the impact.

Wealthier people and countries have more resources to shield themselves from the impacts of climate change. For example, higher incomes allow people to purchase air conditioning as temperatures rise, food as food prices soar, and homes in safer places. Wealthy nations can also compensate citizens when climate change harms livelihoods.

According to new research, people with lower incomes are exposed to heat waves for longer periods of time compared to those with higher incomes due to a combination of factors including location and access to heat adaptations like air conditioning. This inequality is expected to increase as temperatures rise.

The study, which was published in the AGU journal Earth’s Future, found that lower income populations face a 40% higher exposure to heat waves than people with higher incomes. By the end of the century, the poorest 25% of the global population will be exposed to heat waves at a rate equivalent to the rest of the population combined.

On the other hand, the highest-income quarter of the population will experience comparatively little change in exposure to heat waves as their ability to keep up with climate change is generally greater.

The research team hopes its findings will prompt innovations into affordable cooling solutions for the world’s most vulnerable population.

Climate change and poverty are, and will remain, inextricably linked.

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Poorest people bear growing burden of heat waves as temperatures rise

Photo, posted October 27, 2019, courtesy of Jack via Flickr.

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Deep Learning And Dirty Air | Earth Wise

May 6, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Poor air quality is a major global problem. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated seven million people every year. In fact, 9 out of 10 people breathe air that contains more pollutants than what the WHO considers safe. Air pollution is the fourth largest threat to human health, trailing only high blood pressure, dietary risks, and smoking.

But predicting pollution levels at a given place and time remains challenging. According to a new study recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, scientists are turning to deep learning to improve air quality estimates.

According to researchers, satellite observations and ground observations both measure air pollution, but both have major limitations. For example, satellites may collect data at the same time and at the same location each day, but they miss how emissions may vary throughout the day. Ground-based observations from weather stations do continuously collect data, but they only do so in a limited number of locations.

As a result, scientists have turned to deep learning – a type of machine learning – to analyze the relationship between satellite and ground-based observations of nitrogen dioxide around Los Angeles. Nitrogen dioxide is associated with emissions from traffic and power plants. The researchers were able to rely on the learned relationship to take daily satellite observations and create hourly estimates of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide levels in approximately three mile grids.

According to the research team, this study could be repeated for other greenhouse gases, and applied to different cities and regions – or even whole continents.

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Scientists turn to deep learning to improve air quality forecasts

Air Pollution

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Collapse of Northern California Kelp Forests | Earth Wise

March 30, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

For thousands of years, thick canopies of kelp formed an underwater forest spanning the coast of Northern California. Kelp is the cornerstone of a rich subtidal community, providing food and habitat for all sorts of marine creatures. But in recent years, a shocking transformation has occurred. Satellite imagery reveals that the area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has declined by more than 95%. Only a few small, isolated patches remain.

In a new study, researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz found that the kelp forest decline was an abrupt collapse as opposed to a gradual decline.

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Communications Biology, kelp forests north of San Francisco were resilient to warming events in the past, like El Niños and marine heatwaves. But the decline of a key sea urchin predator – the sunflower sea star – from sea star wasting disease caused the kelp forests’ resiliency to plummet. Sea urchins are voracious consumers of kelp.

But it was a series of events – not just the sea urchins – that combined to decimate the Northern California kelp forest. A marine heatwave that became known as “the blob” developed in 2014 and moved down the West Coast in 2015. Around the same time, a strong El Niño event developed and brought warmer water up the coast from the south. The warming ocean waters combined with the ravenous sea urchin population resulted in the dramatic decline of kelp.

According to researchers, the prospects for a Northern California kelp forest recovery remain poor unless sea urchin predators return to the ecosystem.

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The collapse of Northern California kelp forests will be hard to reverse

Photo, posted August 13, 2019, courtesy of Sara Hamilton of OSU College of Science 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.

Climate Change And Economic Inequality

June 3, 2019 By EarthWise 1 Comment

A new study by Stanford University looked at the effects of climate change on global economic inequality. The study found that the gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is larger today than it would have been without global warming.

The warming climate has enriched cooler countries like Norway and Sweden while dragging down economic growth in warm countries such as India and Nigeria. The results of the study showed that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been in the absence of rising temperatures. At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have otherwise been.

Detailed analysis of 50 years of annual temperature and GDP measurements for 165 countries demonstrated that growth during warmer than average years has accelerated in cool nations and slowed in warm nations. Historical data clearly show that crops are more productive, people are healthier, and they are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold. That means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help but the opposite is true in places that are already hot.

For most counties, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain. Tropical countries in particular tend to have temperatures far outside the ideal for economic growth and they are already among the poorest countries. It is less clear how warming has influenced growth in countries in the middle latitudes, such as here in the United States. Some of the largest economies are near the perfect temperature for economic output but continued warming in the future is likely to push them away from the temperature optimum.

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