warming climate

The Cost Of Invasive Species | Earth Wise

September 27, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the United Nations, invasive species introduced to new ecosystems around the world are causing more than $423 billion in estimated losses to the global economy every year. These economic costs are incurred by harming nature, damaging food systems, and threatening human health.

According to the report, these costs have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970 and the estimates are actually conservative because it’s difficult to account for all of the effects of invasive species.

The report estimates that humans have intentionally or unintentionally introduced more than 37,000 species to places outside their natural ranges. More than 3,500 of them are considered invasive because they are harmful to their new ecosystems. Invasive nonnative species were a major factor in 60% of known extinctions of plants and animals.

Some species are relocated deliberately by the wildlife trade and international shipping. Other plants and animals end up hitching a ride with ordinary travelers as they move about by car, boat, plane, or train.

Invasions can damage human health. Mosquitos that transmit diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and the Zika virus have become invasive around the world. The wildfires in Hawaii this summer were fueled by invasive nonnative grasses in a warming climate.

Nearly every country in the world has agreed to participate in a sweeping agreement to preserve biodiversity and reduce invasive species. It is an essential global goal.

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Invasive Species Are Costing the Global Economy Billions, Study Finds

Photo, posted June 2, 2022, courtesy of Sam Stukel (USFWS) via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Groundwater Crisis | Earth Wise

September 22, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The majority of U.S. drinking water systems rely on groundwater, as do America’s farms. Even though groundwater is a crucial resource for the country, there is no central oversight or even monitoring of its status across the country. The health of the country’s aquifers is difficult to gauge.

The New York Times spent months amassing data from 80,000 wells across the country by reaching out to federal, state, and local agencies nationwide.

The survey found that 45% of the wells examined showed a statistically significant decline in water levels since 1980. Forty percent of the sites reached record-low water levels over the past 10 years, with last year the worst yet.

Over pumping is the biggest problem. State regulations tend to be weak and there is no federal oversight. The warming climate reduces snowpack, which means less water in rivers, increasing the need to tap into groundwater. Warmer weather means thirstier plants, increasing the demand for water.

It is a nationwide problem, not just one in the drought-ridden West. Arkansas, which produces half of the country’s rice, is pumping groundwater twice as fast as nature can replace it. Three-quarters of Maryland’s wells have seen substantial drops in water levels.

As groundwater is pumped out, the empty space can collapse under the weight of the rock and soil above it, permanently diminishing the capacity for future groundwater storage.

There are likely to be parts of the U.S. that run out of drinking water and groundwater depletion threatens America’s status as an agricultural superpower. Objectively, the status of American groundwater is a crisis that threatens the long-term survival of communities and industries that depend on it.

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Five Takeaways From Our Investigation Into America’s Groundwater Crisis

Photo, posted July 25, 2009, courtesy of Chris Happel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Europe Is Warming Very Quickly | Earth Wise

July 13, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization, Europe is warming faster than any other inhabited continent. The result of the rising temperatures has been increasingly severe heat waves, flood, and wildfires.

The Paris Climate Agreement has set a goal of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and, if at all possible, to no more than 1.5 degrees. To date, the planet has warmed by 1.2 degrees and, with greenhouse gas emissions continuing at record levels, the temperature keeps going up.

These numbers refer to the global average. Some places have warmed more and others less. The Arctic has been warming four times quicker than the rest of the world. In terms of direct impact on large populations, Europe has already surpassed the 2-degree mark, having reached 2.3 degrees last year. In 2022, many countries in western and southwestern Europe had their warmest year on record. Weather-related economic damages totaled $2 billion, mostly as a result of storms and floods.

Europe is trying to do its part in mitigating climate change by making major gains on clean energy. Wind and solar generated 22% of Europe’s power in 2022, which is more than either natural gas or coal produced. Europe is trying to do its share, but the warming climate is a global phenomenon and will require a global effort to mitigate its effects.

The record-breaking heat stress experienced by Europeans last year cannot be considered a one-off occurrence. It is part of a pattern that will make weather extremes more frequent and more intense over time.

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The Fastest-Warming Continent, Europe Has Already Heated by More Than 2 Degrees C

Photo, posted September 26, 2011, courtesy of Ben Ramirez via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Shrinking Birds | Earth Wise

June 5, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new study by researchers at Yale University looks at the way bird morphology is changing in response to the warming climate. As temperatures rise, birds’ bodies are growing smaller, but their wings are growing longer.

In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists analyzed two independently collected datasets containing 40 years of morphology changes in 129 bird species comprising 52 migratory species in North America and 77 South American species.

In both datasets, similar changes were observed over the 40-year period. The overall trend makes sense given that being smaller and having longer wings both would help birds to stay cool in warmer weather. What was less obvious was that the changes to the birds were much greater among the smallest bird species.

One possible explanation is that smaller species tend to reproduce on a shorter time scale and therefore evolve more quickly. However, the study found no link between generation length and the changes in body size.

Another possible explanation is that smaller species tend to have larger populations, which means there is a greater chance of having individuals with desirable new traits that can get passed on. But the scientists found no link between population size and shifts in body size either.

At this point, it is unclear why smaller birds are shrinking more. More research is needed to figure out why larger birds are slower to adapt to climate change. In general, larger species of animals have an increased risk of extinction. This new research suggests that larger body size exacerbates extinction risk by limiting the ability for birds to adapt to the changes we are making to the climate.

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Birds Are Shrinking as the Climate Warms — and Small Birds Are Shrinking Faster

Photo, posted October 30, 2018, courtesy of N. Lewis / National Park Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Decarbonizing Could Save Trillions | Earth Wise

October 18, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Scientists have long been calling for a transition to clean energy to prevent catastrophic impacts of climate change. For much of that time, many people and, specifically, many of those in power, were skeptical of the need to do something about the warming climate. But even as the facts about the changing climate became increasingly undeniable, there continued to be fears that the transition to clean energy sources would be unacceptably expensive and harmful to the economy.

A recent study published by Oxford University shows that the opposite is true: a concerted effort to convert to green energy technologies such as solar, wind, and batteries, will save the world enormous amounts of money.

The Oxford study shows that a transition to nearly 100% clean energy by 2050 results in a lower-cost energy system that provides energy access to more people around the world. The energy transition is expected to save the world at least $12 trillion compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use.

The cost of renewable energy sources has been going down for decades and they are already cheaper than fossil fuels in many situations. It is expected that they will become cheaper than fossil fuels across almost all applications over time. Accelerating the transition will allow renewables to become cheaper faster.

The study made use of probabilistic models to estimate the costs of various possible future energy systems based on past data. Even the most pessimistic models showed that scaling up green technologies is likely to drive their costs down so far that they will generate net cost savings and that the faster the transition goes, the more will be saved. The result will be a cleaner, cheaper, more energy secure future.

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Decarbonising the energy system by 2050 could save trillions

Photo, posted July 12, 2010, courtesy of Tom Shockey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Strategies To Cool Off Cities | Earth Wise

July 2, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Heatwaves in cities are becoming increasingly common and increasingly intense. The warming climate is a big factor, but it is the nature of our cities that really drives up temperatures. Solar radiation stored throughout the day on asphalt and buildings is released slowly during the night, which generates significant heat stress.

A study carried out by a major Barcelona university and published in the journal Urban Climate looked at the effectiveness of various ways to mitigate the heating effects in cities. In particular, the study examined the effects of the use of white roofs on buildings and the expansion of urban green areas with daily irrigation in the Barcelona metropolitan area. It simulated various scenarios incorporating combinations of these two mitigation strategies.

The strategy with the greatest impact was a combination of the use of both white roofs and the addition of six urban parks, which is a target set by the Barcelona Urban Master Plan. This scenario resulted in an average temperature reduction of 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit. The maximum reduction occurs during the mid-afternoon with a reduction of 7 degrees and the combination still provides more than 3 degrees of reduction at 9 pm. Reducing temperatures this way also results in a reduction in energy consumption, with 26% less spending on air conditioning.

The 2-pronged strategy combines the benefits of reducing the temperature at night due to more urban green areas with the reduction of daytime heat due to both the increased reflectivity of white roofs as well as the irrigation of the green areas.

The study demonstrates how modeling efforts can help urban planners to counteract the impacts of heatwaves, which are likely to increase with climate change and intensification of urbanization.

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White roofs and more green areas would mitigate the effects of heat waves in cities

Photo, posted January 16, 2011, courtesy of Sean MacEntee via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saving Coffee From Global Warming | Earth Wise

June 16, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The global coffee market is valued at over $450 billion a year and supports the economies of several tropical countries. About 100 million farmers depend upon coffee for their livelihoods.

Coffee bushes grow best in a narrow range of temperatures. The existing coffee market is dominated by two species Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, the latter commonly called robusta. Arabica, the most preferred coffee, thrives in average temperatures between 64 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Robusta does not flourish above 75 degrees. Therefore, the warming climate is making growing coffee increasingly difficult.

There are actually well over 100 species of coffee. Many of them grow in warmer places than those preferred by robusta and arabica, but are considered to have poorer flavors, smaller beans, and lower yields.

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Britain came across a paper written in 1834 about a species of coffee from the lowland hills of Sierra Leone called Coffea stenophylla. According to the paper, stenophylla supposedly has a flavor superior to arabica’s.

It turns out that stenophylla still grows in parts of Africa with temperature ranges between 75 and 80 degrees. It was actually farmed until the 1920s but was abandoned because robusta was found to have higher yields.

Extensive taste testing verified the positive attributes of stenophylla. Whether it should be cultivated directly tolerating potential yield issues or crossbred with existing commercial coffees remains to be determined. But the prospects for finding more heat tolerant coffees should be encouraging news for coffee addicts.

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How to save coffee from global warming

Photo, posted October 30, 2012, courtesy of Coffee Management Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And The South Pole | Earth Wise

August 10, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a study led by researchers at Ohio University, the South Pole has warmed more than three times the global average over the past 30 years. While the warming was driven by natural tropic climate variability, the researchers argue that rising greenhouse gas emissions likely intensified the warming.

The climate in the antarctic has some of the largest ranges in temperature during the year. Some regions, like most of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, experienced warming during the late 20th century. But the South Pole, which is located in the remote and high-altitude interior of the continent, actually cooled until the 1980s. The South Pole, as the study highlights, has warmed substantially ever since.

For the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers analyzed climate models and weather station data at the South Pole. They found that, between 1989 and 2018, the South Pole had warmed by 1.8 degrees Celsius. This warming trend of 0.6 degrees Celsius per decade is three times the global average.

According to the study, the robust warming of the Antarctic interior has been mainly driven by the tropics. Warm ocean temperatures in the western tropical Pacific Ocean have altered the winds in the South Atlantic, increasing the delivery of warm air to the South Pole. These atmospheric changes are an important part of what’s driving the climate anomalies in the region.

But the researchers argue that the warming trends are unlikely a result of natural climate change alone. The effects of anthropogenic – or human-caused – climate change in addition to the natural changes have combined to make this one of the strongest warming trends globally.

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Extreme warming of the South Pole

Photo, posted February 7, 2011, courtesy of Eli Duke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Turning Dead Trees Into Biomass Energy | Earth Wise

July 1, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

California has suffered from numerous large wildfires in recent years. The two largest in the past century took place in 2017 and 2018, and just these two alone burned nearly 750,000 acres, destroyed over 1,200 structures, and killed 24 people.

Apart from the fires, drought, the warming climate, and bark-beetle infestations have killed 147 million California trees since 2013, most of them along the spine of the Sierra mountains. These dead trees represent a significant danger in forthcoming fire seasons as they threaten to burn with enormous intensity.

There are now biomass projects in California that thin trees in overcrowded forests and remove dead and diseased trees and turn them into wood chips to supply community biomass facilities that burn them to produce heat and electricity.

Proponents say these projects help rebuild rural communities by creating jobs, while at the same time reducing fire risk.

There are critics of these programs who claim that they are damaging and destroying ecosystems. They also point out that burning forest fuels emits 50% more carbon than burning coal and three times as much as burning natural gas. This is true of biomass in general but is mitigated by the fact that it in principle the carbon can be recaptured by new forest growth.

However, the dominant argument about emissions is that wildfires emit far more carbon dioxide than biomass plants, or much of anything else, for that matter. In 2018 alone, California wildfires released 50% more carbon dioxide than California’s entire industrial sector. So, reducing the extent of wildfires is a big deal for many reasons.

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In California, A Push Grows to Turn Dead Trees into Biomass Energy

Photo, posted August 24, 2016, courtesy of the USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Low Ice In The Bering Sea | Earth Wise

January 30, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Bering Sea is the area of the far northern Pacific Ocean that separates Alaska from Russia. Sea ice in the Bering Sea shrank to its lowest levels in recorded history in 2018, an event with profound effects on northwest Alaska residents who depend on marine resources for food, cash, and culture.

The loss of ice is indicative of very rapid change in the entire northern Bering Sea ecosystem with ramifications for everyone in the region. A new peer-reviewed study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society examined the details and consequences of the drastic changes in the Bering Sea.

The study found that the maximum daily Bering Sea ice was the lowest on record, and the widespread impacts of that fact include unprecedented weather effects, marine wildlife die-offs, and sightings of animals outside of their normal range. Ecological changes included the first documented mass strandings of ice-associated seals, a redistribution of thermally sensitive fish, and a multispecies die-off of seabirds due to starvation.

Persistent and anomalous warm winter weather contributed to poor ice conditions that resulted in a fatal accident on an ice road and retreating and fractured sea ice led to ice-laden flooding that caused power outages and infrastructure damage. In addition, there have been more than 50 reports of unusual events related to weather and marine wildlife.

The record-low sea ice is a consequence of the warming climate resulting in a warmer ocean, later arrival of sea ice, and more frequent storms than in the pre-industrial era. These conditions are continuing to increase in occurrence.

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Record low level of Bering Sea ice causes profound, widespread impacts

Photo, posted April 7, 2014, courtesy of Allen Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wildfire Pollution

January 24, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

California’s record-breaking wildfires this past season have been an unmitigated disaster with respect to loss of life, property, impact on human health, and in multiple other ways. And as if all of that was not bad enough, the impact on carbon emissions into the atmosphere was equally catastrophic. The wildfires were deadly and cost billions of dollars but were also terrible for the environment and for the public’s health.

According to estimates from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the California wildfires released emissions equivalent to about 68 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is equal to the emissions from generating one year’s worth of electricity in the state, or about 15% of the total annual emissions in the state of California.

It is a vicious circle in which the changes to the climate that have lengthened the fire season and shortened the precipitation season are creating additional contributions to the warming of the climate.

Over the past century, California has warmed by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit. That extra-warmed air sucks water out of plants and soils, resulting in trees, shrubs, and rolling grasslands that are dry and primed to burn. That vegetation-drying effect compounds with every additional degree of warming. Plants lose their water more efficiently as temperatures get higher.

The result is that wildfires are increasing in size both in California and across the western United States. Fire experts at Columbia University estimate that since the 1980s, the warming climate has contributed to an extra 10 million acres of burning in western forests – an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.

It’s a bad situation that is getting worse.

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