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The State Of The Climate

September 19, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The federal government has issued the annual State of the Climate report and it is a sobering one. The report states that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to levels the world has not seen in at least 800,000 years. Global carbon dioxide concentrations reached a record 407.4 parts per million during 2018. That is 2.4 ppm more than 2017.

Other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide also continued their rapid increase. Taken together, the global warming power of greenhouse gases was 43% stronger than it was in 1990.

Along with greenhouse gases, global sea levels also reached their highest levels on record for the seventh consecutive year. Ocean levels are rising about an inch per decade, but that number may rise if ice melt at the poles continues to accelerate.

Global temperatures had their fourth highest level on record in 2018, slightly lagging 2016, 2015, and 2017 for the highest ever. A La Niña over the Pacific cooled ocean waters for part of 2018, keeping temperatures a bit lower. So far, 2019 is on track to be the warmest year in recorded history.

Global sea temperatures also set a record level in 2018. And glaciers continued to melt at an alarming rate for the 30th consecutive year.

The State of the Climate report is yet another in a series of expert, science-based reports that continue to sound the alarm about the climate crisis. Climate change is affecting our weather, agricultural productivity, water supply, public health and national security. Unfortunately, the facts continue to be drowned out for many people by blogs, pundits, and posts on social media.

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Greenhouse Gases Reach Unprecedented Level

Photo, posted January 13, 2014, courtesy of Ronnie Robertson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Packing With Banana Leaves

July 25, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

More and more places are instituting bans on single-use plastic bags. Places like California and Hawaii already have bans in place and New Jersey is considering such a ban. New York’s law will go into effect next March. Supermarkets will no longer provide plastic bags at the checkout line. But the laws have some exceptions, including the plastic bags used to hold produce and to pack up meats.

Banning or reducing single-use plastic bags is a growing trend in Asia as well including places like South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.

One supermarket in Thailand came up with a novel approach to eco-friendly packaging: wrapping produce in banana leaves. The idea quickly became a viral hit on social media and drew the attention of supermarkets in Vietnam. Several big supermarket chains in that country also began experimenting with banana leaves as a packaging alternative.

Representatives of Vietnam’s Lotte Mart chain said that the banana leaf packaging was still in the testing phase, but they plan to replace plastic with leaves nationwide very soon. Aside from wrapping vegetables and fruits, the grocery chain intends to also use the leaves for fresh meat products.

Customers seem to be quite positive about the new packaging noting that it is actually quite attractive visually. The banana leaf packaging also makes people more aware of the need for protecting the environment.

While Vietnam is a relatively small country, it turns out that it ranks number four in the world for the largest amount of plastic waste dumped into the ocean. The country disposes of about 2,500 tons of plastic waste per day. So, efforts like the banana leaf packaging are not just symbolically important, they are genuinely a major environmental imperative.

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Supermarkets in Asia are Now Using Banana Leaves Instead of Plastic Packaging

Photo courtesy of Perfect Homes Chiangmai via Facebook.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Science And False Beliefs

January 21, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There are sizeable numbers of people who hold to beliefs that run counter to overwhelming contrary evidence. Flat Earthers and Holocaust deniers are well-known examples and, more recently, people – some of them in high places – who reject the evidence for climate change.

New research published in the journal Open Mind by developmental psychologists at UC Berkeley suggest that feedback, rather than hard evidence, boosts people’s sense of certainty when learning new things or trying to tell right from wrong. People’s beliefs are more likely to be reinforced by the positive or negative reactions they are exposed to than by logic, reasoning, and scientific data.

People’s learning habits can limit one’s intellectual horizons. According to the study, if you think you know a lot about something, even though you don’t, you’re less likely to be curious enough to explore the topic further and will fail to learn how little you know.

This phenomenon plays out in social media and cable-news echo chambers and explains how some people are easily duped by charlatans. Receiving positive feedback for what they are saying can make people believe they know more than they actually do. This confidence makes them less likely to seek out and learn more information about the subject, as well as take into account contradicting opinions or facts.

Another factor is that what influences people’s certainty is that their confidence tends to depend on what they heard most recently rather than on long-term cumulative data. A few pieces of recent information tend to get much more attention than an extensive body of data. If a crazy theory is able to make a correct prediction a few times, people tend to get fixed in their belief in that theory and be less open to other information.

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Here’s Why People Advocate False Beliefs, Conspiracy Theories Despite Evidence

Photo, posted February 2, 2007, courtesy of Tim J. Keegan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.