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Nantucket Residents Still Fighting Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

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Offshore wind in the US has had to fight to exist for a long time.  The Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod was envisioned over 20 years ago as a 1.5-gigawatt wind farm.  Years of legal battles and other controversies saw the project start and stop multiple times with only minimal actual construction.  Primary opposition came from residents who considered the turbines far off on the distant horizon to be an eyesore and threat to their property values.  Eventually, the project was terminated in 2017.

Since then, offshore wind has gained substantial support in the US and multiple projects are either ongoing or in the permitting process.  The 800 MW Vineyard Wind project is on track to be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the US, with plans to eventually generate enough electricity to power 400,000 homes.

Once again, Nantucket residents are fighting against an offshore wind farm.  Once again, they are making arguments that are not really what concerns them, in this case, saying that the wind turbines are a threat to the survival of endangered North Atlantic right whales.

A federal judge has recently rejected a lawsuit brought by the group Nantucket Residents Against Turbines that sought to stop the project.  The judge found that the group failed to show that either the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management or the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act in its 2021 rulings on the impact of the proposed wind farm on the whales.

Undoubtedly there will be additional challenges from the group, possibly based on entirely different complaints.  It’s tough to build offshore wind in Massachusetts.

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Judge rejects lawsuit by Nantucket residents to block offshore wind farm

Photo, posted November 21, 2016, courtesy of Adrian Scottow via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Protecting New York City From Flooding | Earth Wise

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Hurricane Sandy flooded Lower Manhattan in October 2012, closing Wall Street, blacking out power for 250,000 people, and killing 44 New Yorkers.  Within a year, plans were in motion to build berms, floodwalls, and water gates along the city’s Lower East Side in a $770 million first phase of an overall plan to defend New York City from future floodwaters.

Plans got more and more complicated, and the price tag reached $1.45 billion before the existing plan was scrapped by former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration in 2018 without involving the community groups that were instrumental in creating the original plan.  After years of lawsuits and court actions, the revised East Side Coastal Resiliency Project is finally proceeding, now at a price tag approaching $3 billion. The project will include 18 moveable floodgates and will protect 110,000 New Yorkers, including 28,000 low-income public-housing residents and is expected to be completed in 2026.

The original larger overall plan was halted in 2020 after former President Trump mocked it and claimed that it would cost $200 billion.  The current plan, created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and known as the 3B alternative, calls for a combination of deployable flood barriers, floodwalls, seawalls, and elevated promenades wrapping around the lower part of Manhattan.  The cost of the project is estimated to be $61 billion. 

In the meantime, over 10 years after Sandy, a similar storm would have almost the same effect today as Sandy had back then.

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New York City Begins Its Climate Change Reckoning on the Lower East Side, the Hard Way

Photo, posted January 19, 2013 courtesy of Andres Alvarado via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel From Wind And Water | Earth Wise

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Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and it can be used as a fuel to run cars, trains, and even airplanes.  Using it produces no harmful emissions.  However, to date, the way it is economically produced is not clean and green.  It is made from natural gas and leaves behind lots of carbon dioxide.

Around the world there are many projects working on so-called green hydrogen.  Producing hydrogen by splitting water into its component elements is called electrolysis and produces only oxygen as a waste product.  The problem with electrolysis is that it takes prodigious amounts of energy and therefore is very expensive.

A new project taking place in north Texas hopes to create the country’s first large-scale producer of green hydrogen.  The project is building a 900-megawatt wind farm along with a 500-megawatt solar farm.  The 1.4 gigawatts of total production capacity is more energy than the city of Austin consumes.  That energy will be used to produce 200,000 kilograms of hydrogen a day.

This project is among the largest proposed green hydrogen projects in the U.S.   There are green hydrogen proposals in Europe, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East that range from 10 GW to 67 GW. 

The Texas project, being developed in partnership by Air Products and AES, has been enabled by government support from the Inflation Reduction Act.    

There are a few thousand hydrogen-powered cars, boats, and trains but without substantial, cost-effective hydrogen infrastructure, the market is very limited.   Subsidizing the development of the necessary infrastructure is essential if there is any real chance to create the long-imagined hydrogen economy.

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Texas Project Will Use Wind to Make Fuel Out of Water

Photo, posted June 5, 2005, courtesy of City Transport Info via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Energy From Rice Straw | Earth Wise

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Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of rice production.  Globally, as much as a billion tons of rice straw is produced each year, three-quarters of it in Asia.  Straw incorporation in soil for fertilization is not practical in most places because with multiple crops per year, there is not enough time for the material to decompose and become good fertilizer.  As a result, open-field straw burning is increasingly the standard practice.

Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham in the UK are embarking on a project to convert rice straw in Indonesia into low-cost energy on a commercial scale.

Indonesia produces 100 million tons of rice waste each year, of which 60% is burned in open fields, causing air pollution. 

The Aston researchers are developing a biomass conversion process based on pyrolysis.  This involves heating the rice straw to high temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit to break it down, producing vapor and solid products.  Both of these things can be used to generate electricity.

A new combustion engine designed by a company called Carnot Limited is capable of converting 70% of the thermal energy extracted from the rice straw into electricity.

Energy extracted in this way could help low and middle-income countries to create their own locally generated energy, thereby reducing emissions, creating jobs, and improving human health.   The biomass electricity is predicted to be cheaper than solar, geothermal, wind, coal, or even subsidized gas-generated power.

The Aston University project will help develop a business model that could support companies and communities to produce local, cheap energy in Indonesia and other countries with biomass capacity. 

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Aston University to help power Indonesia with affordable energy made from rice straw

Photo, posted September 11, 2006, courtesy of Kristen McQuillin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Mauna Loa Eruption And Climate Tracking | Earth Wise

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Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years in late November.  A 124-foot aluminum tower at the top of the volcano has been the site of carbon dioxide measurements for over 60 years but the eruption cut off power to the site, stopping the monitoring.

Carbon dioxide measurements on Mauna Loa began in 1958.  The project was started by geochemist Charles Keeling and eventually taken over by his son Ralph Keeling upon his father’s death in 2005.  It is the longest continuous record of the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the world.

Mauna Loa is an ideal location for carbon dioxide monitoring because it is a remote location away from both carbon dioxide sources like dense population centers and roads, and carbon sinks like areas of heavy vegetation.

There are hundreds of carbon dioxide monitoring stations around the world, including more than 70 operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, so the interruption will not stop global recordkeeping.  But Mauna Loa holds significant symbolism as the first and most frequently sited source of carbon dioxide data.

There have been other interruptions in the measurements.  Federal budget cuts in 1964 paused them for about 3 months.  A 1984 eruption also cut off power to the facility and shut it down for about a month.

When the facility first started operating, the average carbon dioxide concentration was measured at 313 parts per million.   Most recently, levels have peaked at around 421 parts per million, the greatest concentration in at least 4 million years. 

Power will be restored to the Mauna Loa facility and its measurements will resume.

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Mauna Loa Eruption Threatens a Famous Climate Record

Photo, posted November 29, 2022, courtesy of L. Gallant / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Perennial Rice | Earth Wise

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People have been cultivating rice for more than 9,000 years.  Cultivated rice is an annual crop which is often extended to two crops a year by a process called ratooning, which is cutting back annual rice to obtain a second, weaker harvest.

An extensive project involving multiple institutions in China, the U.S., and Australia has been developing perennial rice.  The researchers developed it through hybridization, crossing a type of Asian domesticated annual rice with a wild perennial rice from Africa.  Using modern genetic tools to identify candidate plants, the team identified a promising hybrid in 2007, planted large-scale field experiments in 2016, and released the first commercial perennial rice variety, called PR23, in 2018.

The researchers spent five years studying the performance of the perennial rice alongside annual rice on farms in China’s Yunnan Province.  For the most part, the yield of the perennial rice was equivalent to that of annual rice over a period of four years. 

Because farmers don’t have to plant rice each season, growing perennial rice requires almost 60% less labor and saves nearly half the costs of seed, fertilizer, and other inputs.

Perennial rice is already changing the lives of more than 55,000 smallholder farmers in southern China and Uganda.  The economic benefits vary by location, but overall profit increases ranged from 17% to 161% over annual rice.

There are already three perennial rice varieties available to farmers, but researchers aren’t done refining the crop.  They plan to use their methodology to enhance traits such as aroma, disease resistance, and drought tolerance to newer versions.

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Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice

Photo, posted February 25, 2002, courtesy of Matthieu Lelievre via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Hybrid Renewable Energy Plants | Earth Wise

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Hybrid renewable energy systems combine multiple renewable energy and/or energy storage technologies into a single plant.  The goal is to reduce costs and increase energy output relative to separate systems taking advantage of common infrastructure and the ability of one renewable energy source having appreciable output while a second one might not at a particular time.

Recently, the largest hybrid renewable power plant in the United States was completed in rural Oregon.  The Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility combines a wind farm, a solar array, and battery storage.

Plants that include just solar power and energy storage are also called hybrid plants, but the Wheatridge Facility is special because it includes wind power.  The facility comprises a 200-megawatt wind farm, a 50-megawatt solar array, and a 30-megawatt battery system capable of providing power for four hours.  The combined system can provide for the electricity needs of about 100,000 homes.

There are about 140 projects in the United States that combine solar and storage.  There are 14 that combine solar and wind.  There are only four plants – with the completion of Wheatridge – that have wind, solar, and storage.  

Wind and solar energy are generally complementary technologies.  Wind is usually strongest at night while solar, of course, is a daytime source of energy.  Solar and wind plants don’t need to be close together to take advantage of this, but hybrid projects benefit from needing only one grid connection and one lease for land.

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A Clean Energy Trifecta: Wind, Solar and Storage in the Same Project

Photo, posted December 27, 2015, courtesy of Gerry Machen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agrivoltaics | Earth Wise

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According to a study last year at Oregon State University, co-developing land for both solar photovoltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget.  Widespread installation of agrivoltaic systems could reduce carbon emissions by 330,000 tons annually and create more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities.

Agrivoltaics could provide the synergistic combination of more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and improved local prosperity.  The problem with agrivoltaics to date is that the existing implementations have used solar arrays designed strictly for electricity generation rather than to be used in combination with agriculture.  They are not that well suited to co-exist with growing crops or grazing animals.

A new project is underway at Oregon State that will help researchers to optimize agrivoltaic systems.  The five-acre Solar Harvest Project is being built at the university’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon in partnership with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative. 

The solar array for the project is designed specifically for agrivoltaics research and uses panels that are more spread out and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to pass through.  The project will allow researchers to study the impact of solar panels on soil health, water use, and plant physiology and yields.

Electricity generated from the 326-kW solar system will be available for purchase by Oregon State and community members. 

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Construction starts on Oregon State agrivoltaics farm that will merge agriculture and solar energy

Photo, posted April 5, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Snail Darter Is Safe | Earth Wise

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The snail darter is a three-inch-long snail-eating fish that was once only found in the Little Tennessee River.  When that river was going to be dammed by the Tellico Dam under construction in the 1970s, the snail darter was listed on the endangered species list and the little fish subsequently became the subject of a legal battle that made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.   With the dam project 95% complete in 1978, the Supreme Court blocked further construction, citing the Endangered Species Act.  A year later, Congress exempted the project from the requirements of the Act, thereby clearing the way for the completion of the dam.

In order to save the snail darter, biologists transplanted the fish into several other nearby rivers and waterways.  In addition, the Tennessee Valley Authority modified the operation of the Tellico Dam to release more oxygen-rich water downstream.  Beyond those measures, the river cleanup under the Clean Water Act further aided the fish’s recovery.

In 1984, the snail darter was removed from the endangered species list and was listed as threatened or vulnerable.  Recently, the U.S. Department of the Interior officially removed the snail darter from the federal list of threatened and endangered wildlife. 

The snail darter is the fifth fish species to be delisted because its population has recovered.  It is the first in the eastern United States.  With better management of water releases at dams, many other imperiled aquatic species could be recovered.

Overall, more than 50 plants and animals have recovered under federal protection, including American alligators, humpback whales, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles.

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Once at Center of Controversial Case, the Snail Darter Fish Is No Longer Threatened

Photo, posted July 22, 2015, courtesy of The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Planting Millions Of Trees Isn’t So Easy | Earth Wise

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There are initiatives around the world to plant millions of trees as a way to fight climate change.  Unfortunately, scientists have observed that many of these projects are ill-conceived and poorly managed.  Some have failed to grow any forests at all.

One such project was an attempt to plant a million mangrove seedlings in coastal mud on the Filipino island of Luzon in 2012.  Ten years later, less than 2% of the trees have survived.  The other 98% have died or have washed away.  The problem was that the site of the project was ecologically unsuited to mangroves because it is too waterlogged and there is no oxygen available except in a few sheltered spots.

In 2019, the Turkish government managed the planting of 11 million trees in 2,000 sites across the country.  A later survey found that 90% had died, although the government denies that assertion.

Many other projects have also had dismal results.  The causes of failure vary but include planting single species of trees that become vulnerable to disease, competing demands for land, changing climate, planting in areas not previously forested, and lack of ongoing care for the saplings including watering them.

Nobody is opposed to mass tree planting.  There is no anti-tree lobby.  But tree planting is sometimes a form of greenwashing.  It is great for public relations but unless it is done properly with appropriate planning, it can be a waste of effort and money.  The result can be a phantom forest that does nothing for the climate.

Forest planting can work if the social and environmental conditions are right, and if planting is followed by long-term monitoring and care of the trees.

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Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing

Photo, posted April 20, 2016, courtesy of the U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John Benson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Resurrecting The Tasmanian Tiger | Earth Wise

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Tasmanian tigers earned their nickname because of the stripes along their back, but they were not felines.  In fact, they were carnivorous marsupials, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch.

Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines, were once native to the Australian mainland, as well as the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea.  Dog-like in appearance, Tasmanian tigers were extensively hunted after European colonization.  The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in 1936.

Nearly 100 years after its extinction, the Tasmanian tiger may live once again.  Scientists in Australia and the United States have launched an ambitious multimillion dollar de-extinction project to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger.

In order to bring back the animal, researchers will have to take stem cells from a living species with similar DNA – like the fat-tailed dunnart – and use gene editing techniques to turn them into “Tasmanian tiger” cells – or the closest approximation possible.  The team will need new assisted reproductive technologies to use the stem cells to make an embryo, which will then have to be transferred into an artificial womb or a dunnart surrogate to gestate.  The research team is optimistic that there could be a hybrid baby Tasmanian tiger in 10 years. 

The ambitious project is a partnership between scientists at the University of Melbourne and the Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences.  This is the second de-extinction undertaking by Colossal Biosciences, which announced last year it planned to use its technology to recreate the woolly mammoth, and return it to the Arctic tundra.

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Scientists want to resurrect the extinct Tasmanian tiger

Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction

Photo credit: E.J. Keller, from the Smithsonian Institution archives, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Offshore Wind Ramping Up In The Northeast | Earth Wise

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There is a growing number of large offshore wind projects in the pipeline in the Northeast.  The large Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts began construction in November.  Contracts for the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects in New York were finalized in January.

The first offshore wind project to begin construction in New York broke ground in February.  South Fork Wind, a 132-megawatt project located about 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, is expected to come online in 2023.

New York’s goal is to develop 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and the state is investing $500 million to set up manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure for offshore wind.  Major facilities will be built in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and in the Port of Albany.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts recently announced that the site of the last coal-fired power plant in that state will become the home of its first offshore wind manufacturing facility.

The Brayton Point power plant in Somerset was shut down in 2017 after more than 50 years of operation.  The site, located on Mount Hope Bay near Providence, Rhode Island, will host a $200 million facility for the manufacturing of undersea transmission lines used to connect the grid to offshore wind turbines.  The first of these will be the Vineyard Wind’s Commonwealth Wind project, which will generate 1.2 gigawatts of electricity.

Both New York and Massachusetts are investing in the opportunities afforded by the soon-to-be booming offshore wind industry.  With numerous windfarms planned up and down the Atlantic coast, manufacturing, maintenance, and support infrastructure will be big business for the two states.

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Work starts on New York’s first offshore wind project

Former Coal Power Site in Massachusetts to Become Offshore Wind Plant

Photo, posted May 13, 2011, courtesy of SSE via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Vineyard Wind Prepares For Construction | Earth Wise

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Vineyard Wind 1 will be the first utility-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States.  It will be located 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and will consist of an array of 62 wind turbines, spaced one nautical mile apart.  It will generate 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power over 400,000 homes.

The project has recently closed on $2.3 billion of senior debt financing, which sets the stage for construction to begin.  The joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure partners is one of the single largest investments in a renewable energy project in the U.S.  The financial close is basically the final milestone for launching the project following years of clearing regulatory and other hurdles.

With the financial closing, Vineyard Wind will be instructing its contractors to begin work.  Onshore work will start this fall and offshore work will begin in 2022.

The project will use Haliade-X wind turbine generators made by GE.  These are some of the largest and most powerful wind turbines currently available, each one capable of generating 13 megawatts of electricity.  The electricity generated by the turbines will be collected by an offshore substation and then transmitted to shore.  Two submarine cables will bring the electricity from the substation to a landing point in Barnstable.  The cables will be buried six feet below the seafloor.  Underground cables will then route the power to an onshore substation in the village of Hyannis where it will be connected to the New England Grid.

Vineyard Wind is the first of many offshore wind farms in the works for the Northeastern United States.

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U.S.’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project prepares for construction

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Giant Wind Turbines | Earth Wise

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Wind turbines keep getting bigger and bigger.  The reason is that the power a wind turbine can theoretically generate is proportional to the disk-shaped area swept out by its blades.  So, the bigger the blades, the more power can be produced by a single turbine.

That being said, real-world turbines don’t achieve their theoretical power output because they have limitations on efficiency.  Things like rotor blade friction and drag, gearbox losses, and generator losses limit the actual power output of a turbine. 

Despite all of these things, the latest and greatest wind turbines are absolutely enormous and produce almost unbelievable amounts of power.  Chinese manufacturer MingYang Smart Energy has recently unveiled an 866-foot tall, 16-megawatt capacity offshore wind turbine.  This narrowly exceeds both the Vestas V236 Turbine announced earlier this year and GE’s Haliade-X Turbine, rated at 15 megawatts and 14 megawatts respectively.

The rotor diameter of the giant Chinese turbine is nearly 800 feet, set by its 387-foot blades that sweep out an area of nearly 50,000 square feet.  A single one of these turbines can generate 80,000 MWh of electricity in a year, enough to power more than 20,000 households.  (It boggles the mind to consider that just one rotation of the blades of such a turbine can power a couple of homes for an entire day).

Offshore wind farms choose the largest wind turbines in part because of the high cost of installing turbines and transporting the electricity.  It is preferable to build fewer turbines because fewer towers, cables, and ground anchoring systems need to be constructed, making the project less complicated.

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This 264-meter tall offshore wind turbine is now the largest of its kind

Photo, posted November 19, 2015, courtesy of Scott Flaherty / USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Solar In New York’s Capital Region | Earth Wise

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We have previously talked about installing solar arrays on the surface of bodies of water.  The idea is especially attractive in places like Japan where land resources are scarce.  There are several floating solar installations in the UK and the idea is starting to catch on elsewhere as well.

It is quite possible that the largest municipally owned floating solar array may get built in the city of Cohoes in New York’s Capital Region if a project under consideration for federal funding moves forward.

The proposal is for an installation of 8,000 solar panels to cover about 2/3 of the 10-acre Cohoes reservoir.  Cohoes has wanted to erect a solar installation to generate power for its buildings but needed to find suitable vacant land.  The 10-acre manmade reservoir could be an excellent location for a floating solar array.

Cohoes would be the first community in the US to build and own a floating array on a manmade reservoir and could serve as a model for municipalities across the nation.  Such a project makes additional use of land that is already municipal property.  According to the city, the 3.2-megawatt array would generate over 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, saving the city $300-350,000 annually.

Cohoes is seeking $4.59 million in federal funding to support the project and has the support of U.S. Representative Paul Tonko for possible inclusion in the 2022 federal budget. 

Apart from generating electricity, putting solar panels on the surface of a reservoir reduces evaporation, lowers algae growth, and actually improves solar panel performance because of the cooling effect of the water.

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Cohoes reservoir could be a floating solar power pioneer

Photo courtesy of Michael Coghlan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Should We Block The Sun? | Earth Wise

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There is growing concern that greenhouse gas emissions are not falling quickly enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming.  As a result, there is the impetus to examine other options.  Among these are geoengineering, which is one of the most contentious issues in climate policy.  Geoengineering embodies many risks that make even seriously considering it seem risky in itself.

Despite this, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a report saying that governments urgently need to know whether solar geoengineering could work and what its side effects might be.

Solar geoengineering is also called solar radiation modification, which entails reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space.  This would likely be accomplished by injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, much like what happens after large volcanic eruptions.

Schemes for solar geoengineering raise numerous issues.  Although solar geoengineering might cool the earth’s surface to a global temperature target, the cooling may not be evenly distributed, affecting many ecosystem functions and biodiversity.   It would likely upset regional weather patterns in potentially devastating ways, for example by changing the behavior of the monsoon in South Asia.  It might dangerously relax public commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions. 

Despite these concerns, or perhaps because of them, the committee that produced the report believes that technology to reflect sunlight deserves substantial funding and should be researched as rapidly and effectively as possible.  Once any geoengineering projects get into the hands of policymakers, they may gather momentum that bypasses the advice of scientists.  So, it important to make progress on the science while geoengineering is still only theoretical.

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Should We Block the Sun? Scientists Say the Time Has Come to Study It.

To intervene or not to intervene? That is the future climate question

Photo, posted August 3, 2018, courtesy of Tomasz Baranowski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Even The Common House Sparrow Is Declining | Earth Wise

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According to the first-ever comprehensive assessment of net bird populations published in 2019, nearly three billion birds have disappeared in the United States and Canada since 1970.  The study, by researchers from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, found that North American bird populations have lost 2.9 billion breeding adults during that timespan.  Forests lost one billion birds, and grassland birds declined 53%. 

According to a newer study from Cornell University, it appears that even the common house sparrow is declining.  In parts of its native range in Europe, house sparrow numbers are down nearly 60%.  Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sought to clarify the status of the species in the U.S. and Canada by using 21 years of citizen science data collected through its Project Feederwatch program. 

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales. For the study, which was recently published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, the research team reviewed recorded observations of house sparrows during their non-breeding season.  These sightings from nearly 12,500 sites were used and cross-referenced with the National Land Cover database to determine whether the U.S. sightings came from rural or urban locations.  

From 1995 to 2016, researchers found that Feederwatch sites reporting house sparrows declined 7.5%, and the mean flock sizes declined 22%.  House sparrow populations declined in urban areas, but actually remained stable in rural areas. 

The researchers say a lack of green space and nesting sites in urban areas are likely factors in the population declines. 

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Study finds even the common house sparrow is declining

Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone

Photo, posted May 14, 2014, courtesy of Jacob Spinks via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest Renewable Energy Project In The World | Earth Wise

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India has broken ground on what is planned to be the largest renewable energy project in the world:  a 30-gigawatt wind and solar power project in the state of Gujarat.

The renewable energy park will have two zones:  a 122,000-acre hybrid park zone that will accommodate 25 gigawatts of wind and solar power plants and a 57,000-acre zone entirely dedicated to wind power.  Multiple developers will be building the power plants in the hybrid zone.  A single company has been allotted the wind power zone.  The selected developers have to develop 50% of the total generation capacity in the next 3 years and finish the project in five years. The project is expected to create jobs for 100,000 people. Total investment in the project will be about $20 billion.

This is not technically a single standalone project but is rather an aggregation of multiple projects in a single general area.  Nonetheless, it represents the largest renewable energy development ever.  By comparison, the entire United States has a total of 50 gigawatts of installed solar power in large plants – which does not include any rooftop solar.  Total wind power capacity in the U.S. is a little over 100 gigawatts.  So, the 30-gigawatt Indian project is huge by any measure.

India already gets over 30% of its electricity from renewable sources, making it one of the largest renewable energy markets in the world.  The country has a goal of 60% renewable energy by 2030, amounting to 450 gigawatts of capacity.  This will require the country to double its already substantial renewable capacity in less than 10 years.  The Gujarat energy park will represent substantial progress towards that goal.

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Largest Renewable Energy Project In World Will Be 30 Gigawatt Solar–Wind Project In India

Photo, posted October 16, 2019, courtesy of Jonathan Cutrer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Restoring Seagrass In Virginia | Earth Wise

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Seagrass is found in shallow waters in many parts of the world.  They are plants with roots, stems, and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds.  They can form dense underwater meadows that constitute some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.  Seagrasses provide shelter and food to a diverse community of animals including tiny invertebrates, fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds.

In the late 1920s, a pathogen began killing seagrasses off the coast of Virginia.  In 1933, a hurricane finished them off completely.  For nearly 70 years thereafter, the bay bottoms of the Virginia coast were muddy and barren, essentially devoid of fish, shellfish, mollusks and other creatures that inhabit seagrass meadows.  The local scallop industry was no more.

The largest seagrass restoration project ever attempted has changed all that.  During the past 21 years, scientists and volunteers have spread more than 70 million eelgrass seeds within four previously barren seaside lagoons.  This has spurred a natural propagation of meadows that have so for grown to almost 9,000 acres, the largest eelgrass habitat between North Carolina and Long Island Sound.

The long-term research conducted by the team from the University of Virginia shows that the success of the seagrass restoration project is improving water quality, substantially increasing the abundance of fish and shellfish in the bays, and capturing carbon from the water and atmosphere and storing it in the extensive root systems of the grasses and in the sediment below. 

The study shows that marine restorations are possible on scales that contribute directly to human well-being.

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Some Good News: Seagrass Restored to Eastern Shore Bays is Flourishing

Photo, posted May 17, 2019, courtesy of Virginia Sea Grant via Flickr. Photo credit: Aileen Devlin | Virginia Sea Grant.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Essential Oils And Organic Crops | Earth Wise

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Essential oils are concentrated liquids extracted from plants.  They are called “essential” in the sense that they contain the essence of the fragrance that is characteristic of the plant.  Essential does not mean indispensable or usable by the human body.  But despite that fact, essential oils have been used in folk medicine throughout history. 

In recent times, essential oils have frequently been used in aromatherapy.  Generally speaking, medicinal uses of essential oils are controversial, and, in some cases, they have even been demonstrated to be dangerous.

Research has shown that essential oils have potential as natural pesticides.  Recently, the USDA has funded research into the use of essential oils to battle pests and diseases of organic crops.

U.S. organic food sales topped $50 billion in 2018 and fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops combined make up more than a third of organic sales.  In order to meet consumer demand, farmers need ways to battle pests and diseases that often accompany organic crop growth.

A four-year project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is entitled “Plant Safety, Horticultural Benefits, and Disease Efficacy of Essential Oils for Use in Organically Grown Fruit Crops:  From the Farm to the Consumer.”   The researchers will work with certified organic producers in Hawaii, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and California to evaluate the effectiveness of plant essential oils on major fruit pathogens such as avocado scab, anthracnose fungal disease, and powdery mildew on targeted tropical and temperate fruit crops such as avocado, mango, blueberry, and peach.

The goal is increase orchard productivity of the expanding organic fruit industry.

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Essential oils could keep pests, disease from organic crops

Photo, posted January 6, 2015, courtesy of Abi Porter via 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...)