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Climate Change And Temperature Variations

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It’s no surprise that not everyone on the planet is equally responsible for the effects of climate change.  For instance, the Northern Hemisphere, which is home to 13 of the 15 largest countries by GDP, emits far more greenhouse gases than the Southern Hemisphere does.  But the whole planet heats up as a result. 

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Infinitely Recyclable Plastic

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Less than 10% of discarded plastic is recycled.  This is one of the major reasons that plastic waste is such a threat to the environment.  There are many challenges to recycling plastics.  For one thing, there are many different types of plastic and if they are melted together, they tend to phase-separate like oil and water and the resultant substance is structurally weak.  Sorting plastics by type is not a simple task.   More generally, it is very difficult to produce plastic with its original properties from recycled feedstock.  So recycled plastics generally end up being useful in only more limited applications.

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Protecting Reefs Of Hope

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One of the most harmful effects of the changing climate is what is happening to coral reefs.  Warmer ocean temperatures and acidification are causing widespread bleaching of coral.  Stressed corals expel the algae living in their tissue, turning the corals white and robbing them of nutrients.  When bleaching events persist, the corals starve and die.   Reefs everywhere have been experiencing mass bleaching events in recent years with over 70% of the coral reefs around the world being damaged.

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An Accidental Plastic Eater

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A couple of years ago, scientists in Japan discovered bacteria at a recycling plant that were breaking down a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET.  With the world facing a growing plastic pollution problem, British and American researchers began to study the enzyme that the bacteria were using to try to understand how it works.

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Endangered Orangutans

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Orangutans are some of the planet’s most intelligent animals.  In fact, orangutans and human beings share 97% of their DNA sequence.  Orangutans can only be found in the wild in Southeast Asia on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the island of Borneo, which is a landmass shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.  And while all orangutans are endangered, the critically-endangered Bornean orangutans are under exceptional duress. 

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Tree-Planting Drones

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One of the major causes of the increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is deforestation.   We chop down about 15 billion trees each year.  Over time, our activities have reduced the number of trees on earth by about 50%.  We do plant trees – these days, about 9 billion a year.  It is a substantial number, but still leaves a net loss of 6 billion trees annually.

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Polar Bears Are Struggling To Find Food

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Climate change continues to pose a major threat to polar bear survival.  Polar bears, whose native range largely lies within the Arctic Circle, depend on sea ice for nearly all of their life cycle functions.  And rising global temperatures are causing that sea ice to disappear. 

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Climate Change Threatens the U.S. Military

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According to a new study from the Pentagon, nearly half of United States military sites are threatened by wild weather linked to climate change.  The U.S. Department of Defense states that drought, wind, and flooding that occur due to reasons other than storms topped the list of natural disasters that endanger 1,700 military sites around the world – everything from outposts to large bases.

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GM And Fuel Cells

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There has been a spate of announcements from major car manufacturers in recent times detailing their plans to electrify their future vehicles.  General Motors recently announced its “path to zero emissions” plan which includes the introduction of at least 20 electric vehicles by 2023.  They are joining Volvo, Volkswagen, Toyota and others in making such an announcement.

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Fuel From Greenhouse Gases

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Carbon dioxide and methane are the two greenhouse gases that are having the greatest impact on the global climate.  There are basically three ways to prevent them from getting into the atmosphere:  don’t emit them, trap them and store them away, or turn them into something useful.

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Saving African Cattle With Perfume

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Tsetse flies are widespread in Africa. They feed on blood and are the source of the dreaded sleeping sickness, an infection that can be lethal, damages the nervous system and, in its final stage, causes a dozy state, which gave the disease its name. Sleeping sickness is a real danger for people in tropical Africa, but tsetse flies can also transfer the disease to cattle.  This leads to huge losses in milk, meat and manpower.  The damage caused by the flies in Africa is estimated to be nearly $5 billion a year.

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A Decline In Flying Insects

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When was the last time you used a squeegee to remove squashed insects from your windshield?  It’s been a while, right?  It’s not just you.  This is known as the windscreen phenomenon.  Scientists and some motorists have long suspected that flying insects are in dramatic decline.  New research has confirmed these suspicions.

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Carbon And Heating Soil

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Plants are a critical part of the Earth’s carbon cycle.   They take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.   Eventually, dead leaves, branches and other materials fall to the ground where bacteria and fungi decompose the materials and release the CO2 back into the atmosphere.  This carbon-soil feedback loop is a complicated one that is critical to the overall carbon balance because soils actually contain two to three times more carbon than the atmosphere.

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