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Tracking atmospheric mercury

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Atmospheric mercury is a toxic pollutant released into the air from natural sources—such as volcanoes and wildfires—and from human activities like coal burning and gold mining.  Once in the atmosphere, mercury can travel long distances before settling onto land or into water, transforming into toxic forms that threaten ecosystems and human health.

But tracking atmospheric mercury is a costly and challenging endeavor, requiring specialized equipment and trained personnel. Active monitors, which pump air to collect mercury, are expensive and need electricity, while passive samplers, using activated charcoal for remote areas, cost up to $100 each.

Researchers from Cornell University have found a cheap method for tracking toxic atmospheric mercury near gold mining sites throughout the Global South: wild fig trees.  In the study, which was conducted in the Peruvian Amazon and recently published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, the research team found that the rings in wild fig trees can serve as natural archives of atmospheric mercury, capturing and preserving historical pollution levels over time.

The technique itself is not actually new.  Previous studies have used tree rings to track mercury pollution from coal combustion, particularly in Canada. But the research team wanted to test this method in regions of the Global South, where mercury emissions from gold mining are widespread.

According to the research team, wild fig trees might soon serve as an important biomonitoring tool, helping scientists better understand how mercury disperses across landscapes and through time.

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Tree rings track atmospheric mercury cheaply

Photo, posted November 13, 2012, courtesy of Steve Kessler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The human footprint on Earth

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The Earth is a pretty big place, and it is easy to think that humans and their activities occupy very little of it.  But the impact of human activities on our planet continues to grow.  Recent satellite images from NASA’s Earth Observatory show the staggering extent of the human footprint on Earth.

Agriculture is a major part of it.  Farms and pastures take up almost half of the world’s habitable land – land not covered by ice or desert.  Greenhouses have recently proliferated tremendously and now cover 3.2 million acres, an area the size of Connecticut, and they even have effects on local climates.

More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, which are expanding rapidly.  Enormous cities in Asia are changing the landscape in places like Thailand and Indonesia.  Apart from taking up lots of land, many of the world’s cities are immersed in clouds of air pollution that they generate.

Greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, and temperatures continue to rise.  The effects of this on the planet are increasingly evident.  Seas are rising, ice is melting, glaciers shrink away, and wildfires continue to burn.  The massive wildfires in and around Los Angeles have made major changes in the local landscape.  Rising seas have flooded coastal wetlands and elsewhere, rivers and lakes have shrunk.

There are also human impacts visible from space that represent positive signs.  Large solar arrays supply the cheapest form of energy in most parts of the world and the number and size of solar installations are at a record high.   These solar installations provide some hope that global warming can be slowed.

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The Growing Human Footprint on Earth, as Seen from Space

Photo, posted July 28, 2012, courtesy of Beth Scupham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Hydroclimate whiplash

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Hydroclimate whiplash is a term that describes rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather.  Global weather records show that the occurrence of hydroclimate whiplash has increased by 31% or as much as 66% since the mid-20th century. 

California’s experience is a prime example of this phenomenon.  After years of severe drought, dozens of atmospheric rivers subjected the state to record-breaking amounts of precipitation in the winter of 2022-23.  A second extremely wet winter in the southern parts of the state the following year resulted in the growth of abundant amounts of grass and brush. 2024 saw a record-hot summer which was then followed by a record-dry start to the 2025 rainy season.  The result was the catastrophic wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January.

Research by UCLA climate scientists explains that the primary driver for the increasing occurrence of hydroclimate whiplash is the expansion of the atmospheric sponge – that is, the growing ability of the atmosphere to evaporate, absorb and release water.  Every degree Celsius that the planet warms increases this ability by 7%. 

The global consequences of hydroclimate whiplash include not only floods and droughts but also the increased danger of whipsawing between the two, leading to the bloom and burn cycle that California recently faced. The risk of wildfire is twofold:  first by increasing the growth of flammable grass and brush in the months before the fire season, and then by drying it out to dangerous levels with extremely warm and dry weather.

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Floods, droughts, then fires: Hydroclimate whiplash is speeding up globally

Photo, posted January 13, 2025, courtesy of Victor Guillen / USDA Forest Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Unexplained heat wave hotspots

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2023 and 2024 have been the hottest years since records have been kept.  But above and beyond the upward march of average temperatures around the globe, there has been the phenomenon of distinct regions across the globe experiencing repeated heatwaves that are so extreme that they cannot be accounted for in any models of global warming.

A new study by Columbia University’s Climate School has provided the first worldwide map of such regions, which have emerged on every continent except Antarctica.  Heatwaves in these regions have killed thousands of people, withered crops and forests, and triggered devastating wildfires.

These recent regional-scale record-breaking temperature extremes have raised questions about whether current climate models can provide adequate estimates of the relationship between global mean temperature changes and regional climate risks.

Some of these regional events in recent years include a nine-day heatwave in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada in June 2021 that broke daily records in some places by 54 degrees Fahrenheit.  Across Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, and other countries, the hottest days of the year are warming twice as fast as the summer mean temperatures. 

There is yet little understanding of the phenomenon.  Some theories related to destabilization of the jet stream don’t really explain all the temperature extremes observed.  But regardless of the underlying causes, the health impacts of these heat waves are severe, as are the effects on agriculture, vegetation, and infrastructure.  Society is not built to quickly adapt to them.

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Unexplained Heat Wave ‘Hotspots’ Are Popping Up Across the Globe

Photo, posted August 16, 2022, courtesy of Alisdare Hickson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

South American drought

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Vast areas of South America have been gripped in drought conditions for months.  Rivers in the Amazon basin fell to record-low levels in October.  The drought has amplified wildfires, parched crops, disrupted transportation networks, and interrupted hydroelectric power generation in parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

The drought is related to the impact of the El Niño that was present for the latter part of 2023 and the first half of this year.  El Niño typically shifts rainfall patterns in such a way that there is reduced rainfall in the Amazon.  This is especially true during the dry season months of July, August, and September.

Forecasts earlier in the year warned that there would be extreme fire conditions during the dry season.  Indeed, the Pantanal region that spans parts of southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia has experienced one of its worst fire seasons in decades.  The lack of rainfall, low soil moisture, and drawdowns of groundwater helped to amplify fires and caused them to spread faster and farther.

The drought has strained power supplies in Brazil and Ecuador because hydroelectric power stations are producing less electricity.   Snarled transportation networks with impassible rivers have left some communities struggling to get supplies. 

Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters has called the current drought the most intense and widespread Brazil has ever experienced.  Late October saw 293 Brazilian municipalities facing extreme drought.

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Intense, Widespread Drought Grips South America

Photo, posted August 13, 2010, courtesy of Colm Britton via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Canadian wildfires and global emissions

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The wildfires that burned vast amounts of Canada’s boreal forests in 2023 produced enormous amounts of smoke that found its way into American cities, working its way down the eastern seaboard and even producing unsafe air in Florida.

Researchers at Cal Tech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed the carbon emissions associated with these fires last year and found that they were greater than those of all but three countries:  China, the US, and India.

Boreal forests have historically been a natural defense against climate change by storing carbon in trees rather than adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.  The fires in Canada, fueled by hot and dry weather, were extraordinary when compared with historical records.  But such fires are likely to be increasingly common as the climate continues to warm.

However, the hot and dry weather that fueled the 2023 fires was exceptional in many ways, involving early snow melt and so-called flash droughts.  This year’s fires in Canada are still bigger than average, but so far have not been as destructive as last year’s. 

Canada has been warming at about twice the global rate.  The extreme temperatures last summer were a major factor in the fueling of the fires, which burned an area almost the size of Florida.

Forests absorb about a quarter of global carbon emissions, but the increasing frequency and intensity of fires are calling into question their ability to continue to do so.  Parts of the Canadian forests are not regrowing after fires as they have in the past, partly because blazes burn trees so frequently and intensely.

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Canada’s Wildfires Were a Top Global Emitter Last Year, Study Says

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Food, timber, and climate change

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The sights of coffee plantations in California and vineyards in Britain are becoming more common as the climate changes. But behind what sounds like a success story is a sobering one: climate change is shifting the regions suitable for growing food all around the world. 

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge, as crop growing shifts northwards, a squeeze will be put on the land needed to produce timber.  The timber these trees produce is used to make everything from paper and cardboard to furniture and buildings.

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, more than 25% of existing forestry land – an area equivalent in size to India – will become more suitable for agriculture by the end of the century if climate change continues unabated.  Approximately 90% of this current forestry land is located in Canada, China, Russia, and the United States.    

Global timber production is worth more than $1.5 trillion every year.  Recent heat waves and wildfires have caused huge losses of timber forests around the world. 

According to the World Bank, the value of the global food system is estimated to be roughly $8 trillion annually.  Scientists expect climate change to cause some areas to become too hot for growing food, particularly in the tropics and southern Europe. 

With the global demand for food and the global demand for wood both projected to double by 2050, the increasing climate change-driven competition between the two is set to be an emerging issue in the coming decades. 

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Global timber supply threatened as climate change pushes cropland northwards

Do the costs of the global food system outweigh its monetary value?

Photo, posted October 24, 2018, courtesy of Bill Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wildfires and carbon storage

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Forests are known to be a key natural solution to the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  For this reason, there are widespread efforts to plant more trees around the world and to prevent increasing deforestation for development and agriculture.  But a new study has highlighted the fact that wildfires in the western US are degrading the potential for forests to help curb climate change.

The study has established a baseline for how much carbon is currently stored in Western forests, how that amount is changing, and how fires and droughts are affecting the ability of the forests to mitigate climate change.

The study made use of survey data collected by the US Forest Service to estimate how much carbon is stored in 19 ecoregions across the West.  These ecoregions range from hot and dry areas in the Southwest to the wet and cool regions of the Pacific Northwest.

The study reveals that the carbon stored in living trees declined across much of the Western US between 2005 and 2019.  Carbon stored in dead trees and woody debris increased.  These things do not provide long-term carbon storage.  Instead, they release it back into the atmosphere through decomposition or combustion in forest fires.

The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires, especially since 2020, indicate that the decline in live carbon stored in the forests will become increasingly pronounced.  The result, according to the study’s authors, is that we cannot rely on increasing carbon storage in Western US forests.  It may be possible to increase the stability of carbon storage in the forests with mechanical thinning and prescribed burning, but the carbon carrying capacity of those forests is not likely to be what is needed.

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Forest carbon storage has declined across much of the Western US, likely due to drought and fire

Photo, posted July 25, 2021, courtesy of Felton Davis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Threats to the Amazon Rainforest

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Brazil has made great progress in reducing deforestation in its Amazon Rainforest.  In 2023, the rate of deforestation in Brazil dropped by 50% over the previous year. This was the result of the efforts by conservation-minded President Luiz da Silva, who replaced Jair Bolsonaro, a big proponent of deforestation.  Da Silva’s government has cracked down on land clearing by farmers and ranchers.

In the first quarter of this year, deforestation decreased by 40% over the previous year’s quarter.   Deforestation levels are the lowest they’ve been in six years, although the amount of forest cleared in the period was still nearly 200 square miles.

Unfortunately, the Amazon Rainforest is facing another growing threat:  climate change.  Because of pervasive drought and increasing temperatures, the number of wildfires in the region have hit a 20-year high.

According to satellite data from the national space agency, from January through June, Brazil recorded 13,489 wildfires in the Amazon.  That is 61% more fires than during the same period last year.  And the wildfire season has yet to reach its peak, which usually is in August or September.

Many of these fires begin in pastures or recently cleared rainforest, but then spread into the surrounding rainforest areas.  Many are huge fires.  Hundreds of square miles of rainforest have been consumed by fire, comparable in size to the areas deforested by farmers and ranchers.

Going forward, worsening wildfires could reverse the gains being made by the government’s deforestation policies.  This could not only threaten forest protection, but also weaken public support for the government’s commitment to protecting the region.

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Brazil Is Seeing a Record Number of Wildfires This Year

Photo, posted January 26, 2018, courtesy of Chris Parker via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Beware of the blob

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For the past 10 years, there have been several occurrences of a vast expanse of ocean stretching from Alaska to California in which water temperatures are as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal.  Known jocularly as “the Blob,” the phenomenon can last for several years and decimates fish stocks, starves seabirds, creates blooms of toxic algae, prevents salmon from returning to rivers, and displaces sea lions and whales.

Until recently, there was no accepted explanation for this abrupt ocean heating.  Climate change, even combined with natural cycles like El Niños, is not enough to account for it.

In depth analysis by an international team of researchers has found that the extraordinary heating is the result of a dramatic cleanup of Chinese air pollution.  The decline of smog particles, which to some extent shield the planet from the sun’s rays, has accelerated warming and set off a chain of atmospheric events across the Pacific, essentially cooking the ocean.

This is an example of what can be called the pollution paradox in which global warming is actually increased when air pollution is reduced.  Reduced air pollution on the US West Coast has even been identified as a factor contributing to increased wildfires.  However, air pollution causes more than 4 million premature deaths from cancers and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases each year. 

Nobody thinks that we should stop cleaning up the air to slow down global warming.  The only viable solution is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible.

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Pollution Paradox: How Cleaning Up Smog Drives Ocean Warming

Photo, posted December 18, 2017, courtesy of SGUP via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Olive oil and climate change

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Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained by mashing whole olives and extracting the oil.  A superfood staple of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil is used in kitchens around the world for frying, sauteing, baking, and as a condiment.  It can also be widely found in cosmetics, soaps, and pharmaceutical products. 

Globally, 2.6 million tons of olive oil were consumed last year.  Spain is currently the world’s largest producer of this “liquid gold,” accounting for 44% of global production.  The second largest producer of olive oil is Italy, followed by Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, and Morocco.   

But recently, the price of olive oil has been rocketing up.  Droughts, wildfires, floods, and heat waves, combined with pests, have punished olive-producing regions around the world.  The climate-fueled extreme weather has significantly impacted olive oil production in southern Europe.  Olive trees are exceedingly vulnerable to climate change. 

Spain, for example, typically produces somewhere between 1.3 to 1.5 million metric tons of olive oil each harvest.  However, officials expect a production range of only 830,000 to 850,000 metric tons this season. 

This shortage has sent prices soaring.  According to the International Monetary Fund, the average price of olive oil has doubled over the past two years.  In fact, the price is currently hovering at or around $10,000 per metric ton.  And there doesn’t seem to be much relief in sight.  

The record-breaking price has also unsurprisingly fueled a surge in crime, with criminals targeting supermarkets, oil mills, and olive groves. 

The changing climate continues to threaten food security around the world. 

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‘Liquid gold’: An olive oil shortage is fueling record prices and food insecurity fears

Extra virgin olive oil prices tipped to top £16 a litre next month

Photo, posted October 29, 2015, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Good owls and bad owls

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In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, spotted owls have been the subject of environmental concern for more than 30 years.  Over the past 20 years, northern spotted owl populations have declined by up to 80% as the birds have faced marginalized territories and increasing numbers of wildfires.  Only about 3,000 of them remain on federal lands.  Spotted owls are picky eaters and are not very adaptable.

The barred owl, a larger and more ornery species, has been moving in on spotted owl turf for 50 years, competing for food and space, and out-reproducing them and chasing them out of their nesting spots.

A last-ditch effort to rescue the northern spotted owl from possible extinction has been proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The plan would be to eradicate up to half a million barred owls over the next 30 years in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.  The owls would be dispatched using cheap and efficient methods, such as shotguns.

The concept of killing off vast numbers of barred owls is awful, and nobody likes the idea.  However, other strategies have failed, and time is running out.  The only way to preserve the northern spotted owl is to protect and increase its habitat and have fewer barred owls.

To say that the proposed plan is controversial is a massive understatement.  A coalition of 75 wildlife and animal welfare organizations described it as a “colossally reckless action.”

A central issue in the debate is whether humans are responsible for this situation and should try to rectify it or, despite our desire to protect the spotted owl, we should just let nature take its course.

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They Shoot Owls in California, Don’t They?

Photo, posted April 4, 2022, courtesy of Kyle Sullivan / BLM via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon dioxide and wildfires

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Climate change is a key factor in the increasing risk and extent of wildfires.  Wildfires require the alignment of several factors, including humidity, temperature, and the lack of moisture in fuels, such as trees, shrubs, and grasses.  All of these factors have strong ties to climate variability and climate change.

While the global surge in wildfires is often attributed to hotter and drier conditions, a new study by researchers from the University of California – Riverside has found that increasing levels of a greenhouse gas may be an even bigger factor. 

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires by fueling the growth of plants that become kindling.

Centuries of burning fossil fuels to produce heat, electricity and to power engines has added alarming amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.  In fact, atmospheric CO2 levels are measuring more than 420 parts per million, which is a level not seen on earth for 14-16 million years. 

Plants require carbon dioxide, along with sunlight and water, for photosynthesis.  But rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are driving an increase in plant photosynthesis – an effect known as the carbon fertilization effect.  This effect can make plants grow bigger and faster. 

Warming and drying are important fire factors.  These are the conditions that make the extra plant mass more flammable.  But the study found that the increase in fires during hotter seasons is driven by the CO2-fueled growth of plants.   

The researchers hope their findings will urge policymakers to focus on reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

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CO2 worsens wildfires by helping plants grow

Current carbon dioxide levels last seen 14 million years ago

Photo, posted January 17, 2024, courtesy of Jennifer Myslivy, BLM Fire/NIFC via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Biochar and carbon

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Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that is made by burning organic materials like crop and forestry wastes in a controlled process called pyrolysis, which is burning in an oxygen-deprived environment.  Pyrolysis produces little or no contaminating fumes and results in a stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere.  Biochar is a very efficient way to convert carbon into a stable form.

Adding charred biomass to improve soil quality has been done for thousands of years.  Indigenous people in the Amazon added charcoal, food residue, and other waste to their soil.  When mixed with soil, biochar creates favorable conditions for root growth and microbial activities, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. 

Last year, 125,000 tons of carbon dioxide were removed worldwide in the durable carbon market, which is a carbon credit marketplace for carbon removal.  About 93% of that was in the form of biochar. 

Biochar represents a value-added way to deal with agricultural waste and also to make use of dead trees in forests that should be removed to lower the risk of wildfires caused by the presence of all that dry tinder material. 

A bill to fund biochar research is pending before the Senate Agricultural Committee.  It is a rare example of bipartisan legislation.

Biochar is currently expensive to make in the US because large amounts of biomass must be shipped to one of the fewer than 50 small-scale production facilities in the country.   But with appropriate infrastructure, biochar could play an important role in efforts to sequester carbon and combat climate change.

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Biochar Is ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ for Sequestering Carbon and Combating Climate Change

Photo, posted September 3, 2019, courtesy of Tracy Robillard / NRCS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Sequoias in Britain

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Giant sequoias are the most massive trees on earth.  They can grow as tall as nearly 300 feet and have trunk diameters from 20 to 26 feet.  They are also among the oldest living organisms on Earth; some of them are well over 3,000 years old.  The trees are native to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.

Lengthy droughts and wildfires have been pushing giant sequoias in California into decline.  Up to 20% of all large giant sequoias in California died in wildfires in 2020 and 2021.  There are estimated to be only about 80,000 remaining in the native groves in the Sierra Nevada.  These old-growth forests are very much in jeopardy and represent rare ecosystems of considerable ecological and historical value.

Giant sequoias have been planted in many places around the world.  They were introduced to country estates in Britain during the 19th century.  They were seen as symbols of wealth and power.  Over time, they have been widely planted in parks and woodlands.   As a result, there are now half a million giant sequoias growing in Britain and they are thriving there.

The British sequoias are rather young by sequoia standards, so they are relatively squat in stature.  The tallest of them measures about 180 feet.  But recent research, published in the journal Royal Society Science, found that in Britain’s cool and mild climate, the trees are growing nearly as fast as they do in California. 

The British sequoias are probably more important for their aesthetic and historical interest than their impact on the environment, but it is good to know they are there.

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Under Threat in Their Native California, Giant Sequoias Are Thriving in Britain

Photo, posted November 4, 2010, courtesy of John Buie via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Canadian zombie fires

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Canada’s 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded.  Over 6,000 fires burned nearly 71,000 square miles of land from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces.  The burned areas are roughly the size of the entire country of Finland and represent almost triple the amount burned in the previous year, which itself was a lot. Smoke from Canadian fires, particularly those in Quebec, blanketed many cities in the United States and made its way as far south as Florida.

An alarming aspect of the Canadian fire season is that it didn’t ever really end.  Late in the winter, 149 active wildfires are still burning across Canada.  92 are in British Columbia, 56 in Alberta, and one in New Brunswick.  In these places, the wildfire season is yearlong.

These overwintering fires have come to be known as zombie fires.  They burn slowly below the surface during the winter.  Many areas in the north contain porous peat and moss ground cover and these act as underground fuel for smoldering fires.

Wildfires have become more prevalent in Canada because the changing climate has brought about increases in the hot, dry, and gusty conditions that lead to drought.

Many of the zombie fires don’t pose an increased threat of triggering wildfires in the spring because they are in places that are already so charred that there is nothing left to burn.  But others are in drought areas that are basically tinder boxes ready to burst into flame once spring arrives.

Overall, Canadian government officials are warning that this year’s wildfire season is likely to be even worse than last year’s, particularly in the Western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

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As ‘Zombie Fires’ Smolder, Canada Braces for Another Season of Flames

Photo, posted June 30, 2023, courtesy of P. McCabe / EU via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Protecting wine grapes from wildfire smoke

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In recent years, wildfires have become a major threat to the wine industry because of the effects of smoke on wine grapes.  Smoke taint from the California fires of September 2020 significantly impacted the quality of wine grapes.  In total, smoke taint cost the wine industry in Western states more than $3 billion in losses from the hundreds of thousands of tons of wine grapes that could not be harvested because of the off flavors imparted by the smoke.  The California wine industry alone is a $43 billion a year business and the state’s frequent wildfires are a major threat to it.

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed techniques for eliminating the effects of three volatile chemical compounds that contribute to smoke taint in grapes.  The compounds are guaicol, syringol, and meta-cresol.

The researchers developed cellulose nanofiber-based coatings that can be applied to grapes in the vineyard.  The coatings can block guaicol and syringol and capture meta-cresol.

Blocking is ideal because the coating doesn’t absorb the wildfire smoke compounds.  Therefore, it doesn’t have to be washed off.  Capturing means the coating absorbs the compounds and would need to be washed off.  Ideally, a coating that doesn’t need to be washed off would save time, money, and water.

Two years of studies at Oregon State found that the coatings do not impact the growth and quality of wine grapes.  In an era when wildfires are increasingly common and extensive, growers need something they can spray on their vines to protect their grapes.  If the Oregon State technology can be commercialized, it would be a game-changer for the Western U.S. wine industry.

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Spray coating for grapes shows promise in battle between wildfire smoke and wine

Photo, posted October 3, 2006, courtesy of Naotake Murayama via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

What did the record warmth of 2023 mean?

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2023 was the warmest year in the 174 years of global temperature record-keeping.  According to some analyses, it may have been the warmest year in the past 125,000 years.

There were incredible heatwaves in Arizona and Argentina.  There were relentless wildfires across Canada.  The wintertime ice coverage in the seas surrounding Antarctica was at unprecedented lows

The global temperatures in 2023 did not just beat prior records; they smashed them.  Every month from June through November set all-time monthly temperature records. The US Northeast saw springlike temperatures at the end of the year.  The high temperature in Buffalo, New York on Christmas Day was 58 degrees.

Climate scientists have been predicting the warming trend that has been ongoing over the past several decades.  Indeed, computational models for 2023 called for a warm year.  Various models had a variety of projected temperatures and 2023’s heat was still broadly within the range of what was projected, although certainly at the high end.

The question is whether last year was an indicator that the planet’s warming is accelerating faster than we expect or that it just was a particularly warm year because of cyclical factors such as the El Niño that appeared last spring.

One theory that is being explored is that various types of industrial pollution have previously actually served to cool the atmosphere over time and as those sources are reduced for public health reasons, the warming effects of greenhouse gases have accelerated.

Currently, there is no consensus about why it seems to be getting warmer even faster than many climate models predict.  What there is no doubt about is that it is not a good thing.

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Earth Was Due for Another Year of Record Warmth. But This Warm?

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Record high emissions

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The world is adding solar and wind power to the grid.   We are driving more and more electric cars.  Countries are pledging to cut back fossil fuel use.  There are highly visible international conferences on the climate crisis.   But despite all of these things, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have risen once again in 2023, reaching all-time record high levels of more than 40 billion tons, about 1.1% more than the previous year.

In some places, including Europe and the U.S., fossil fuel CO2 emissions are falling, but globally, they are still rising.  Emissions continued to increase in India and China.  Global action to cut fossil fuel use is not happening fast enough to prevent the increasingly dangerous effects of climate change.

Global CO2 emissions include both the contributions of fossil fuel use and the effects of land use change.  Adding the two together, in 2023 the total was about 45 billion tons, basically unchanged from last year. 

Adding insult to injury are the emissions from fires.  The extreme wildfire seasons in Canada, Australia, and other places have contributed CO2 emissions much larger than historical averages.

About half of all the carbon dioxide emitted on Earth is absorbed by carbon sinks on land and the oceans.  The other half remains in the atmosphere, where levels are now averaging 419 parts per million, 51% above pre-industrial levels.

Current efforts are simply not profound enough or widespread enough to put global emissions on a downward trajectory.  Some climate policies in some places are proving effective, but much more needs to be done.

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Fossil CO2 emissions at record high in 2023

Photo, posted December 18, 2013, courtesy of Steve Nelson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wildfires and air quality

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The wildfires last summer in parts of the U.S. and Canada fouled the air over much of the country.  Air quality in many places was dangerous for human health.  And such fires are becoming more numerous and more intense.

A new study by the University of Iowa has assessed the effects of two decades of wildfires on air quality and human health in the continental U.S.

From 2000 to 2020, air quality in the western U.S. has gotten worse as a result of the numerous fires in that region.  More generally, all those fires have undermined the success of federal efforts to improve air quality, primarily through the reductions in automobile emissions.

American air had been getting cleaner and clearer as a result of EPA regulations on vehicle emissions, but the surge in wildfires has limited and, in some cases, erased these air quality gains.  Twenty years of efforts by the EPA to make our air cleaner have been lost in fire-prone areas and in many downwind areas.

The Iowa study looked at the concentration of black carbon, a fine-particle air pollutant from fires linked to respiratory and heart disease.  In the western U.S., black carbon concentrations have risen 86% on an annual basis.

Fires have also affected the air in the Midwest, although not to the same degree as in the west.  The eastern U.S. had no major declines in air quality during the 2000-2020 time period.  Given the episodes of smoke from Canadian wildfires experienced by the east coast this past summer – as far south as Florida – even the air in that part of the country is suffering from the spread of wildfires.

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Wildfires have erased two decades’ worth of air quality gains in western US

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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