PODCAST

Earth Wise

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A look at our changing environment.

education natural sciences

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2:00

Floating cities

Earth Wise ·

2024/06/06

About 40% of the world's population lives in coastal regions. People really like ocean-front property. But worldwide, rising sea levels mean that more and more people want to live on land that may someday be swallowed up by the sea.One possible solution to the problem is to build cities on top of the water. It sounds pretty futuristic and impractical, but it is starting to happen. There have long been floating communities in places like the Netherlands, but these are for the most part clusters

2:00

Penguin detectives

Earth Wise ·

2024/06/05

Emperor penguins, the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins, are also the most famous, being the subject of a very popular documentary film. The ongoing loss of sea ice in Antarctica has led to unprecedented breeding failures in emperor penguin colonies. Since 2016, Antarctica has seen the four years with the lowest sea ice extent on record. Between 2018 and 2022, 30% of the 62 known emperor penguin colonies were affected by partial or total sea ice loss. Current predictions suggest that

2:00

Gravity storage on the grid

Earth Wise ·

2024/06/04

For the past several years, the Swiss-based company Energy Vault has been developing an energy storage system based on the principle of using mechanical devices to lift heavy concrete blocks into stacks using power generated by wind turbines or other renewable sources. When energy is needed, the blocks are lowered back to the ground, spinning generators in the process. The principle of storing energy in the form of gravitational potential energy is the most widely used form of energy storage in

2:00

Palm oil and water quality

Earth Wise ·

2024/06/03

Palm oil is the world's cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil. In fact, more than 86 million tons of palm oil was consumed last year alone. Even though few of us cook with it, palm oil can be found in approximately half of all packaged grocery items - everything from ice creams and pizzas to detergents and cosmetics. This massive global demand for palm oil is driving tropical deforestation around the world. While many studies have shown how converting rainforests to oil palm plantations

2:00

Giant batteries and the grid

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/31

All across the country, electric utility companies are starting to use giant batteries to counteract the biggest weakness of renewable energy; namely, that the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. Solar panels and wind turbines can keep generating energy when people don’t need it and batteries can store up that energy for when they do.Over the past three years, battery storage capacity on US grids has grown by a factor of ten adding up to 16 gigawatts. This year, it is

2:00

Natural solutions for coastal defense

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/30

Protecting coastal cities and towns from the dangers of tsunamis, storm surges, and sea-level rise has become an ever-increasing challenge. There are so-called hard coastal defenses as well as nature-based solutions. A new study by the University of Tokyo has found that combining the two types of defenses may be the most effective way to protect, support, and enrich coastal communities.Sea walls, dikes, dams, and breakwaters are the traditional hard measures. They are popular and have proven

2:00

Good owls and bad owls

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/29

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

2:00

Offshore wind and the wake effect

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/28

Electricity demand in the U.S. continues to grow and, in the summer, homes and businesses crank up their air conditioning which drives demand even further. Many East Coast cities are banking on offshore wind projects that are underway in the Atlantic Ocean to help meet that growing demand. The first offshore turbines are now producing power off the coasts of Massachusetts and New York. Electric power utilities need to know how much power they can get from offshore wind farms, and this is not that

2:00

Balloon release laws

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/27

The Florida state legislature has recently passed a law that bans the intentional release of helium balloons outdoors. It is a rare example of a bipartisan piece of legislation. Florida is joining six other states that have already enacted balloon restricting laws. Balloons released into the sky don’t just disappear into the ether. They often end up in oceans and waterways and the thin material that remains is 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than other types of plastic debris. Aquatic

2:00

The end of coal in New England

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/03

The last two coal-fired power plants in New England are scheduled to close by 2025 and 2028. The New Hampshire-based plants are operated by Granite Shore Power. The Schiller Station plant began operations in 1949 and the Merrimack Station was built in the 1960s.Granite Shore Power has come to an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a settlement of lawsuits by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club. The two power plants were the subject of a five-year legal

2:00

Major species turnover forecasted for North American...

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/02

Climate change affects animal species in many ways. It induces habitat loss, disrupts migration and breeding patterns, threatens marine life, and facilitates an increased spread of disease. It may also affect where animals can be found in the future. According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga and Apex Resource Management Solutions in Canada, climate change may dramatically affect the animal species observed in North American cities by the end of the

2:00

Climate change and Antarctic meteorites

Earth Wise ·

2024/05/01

Researchers from Switzerland and Belgium have investigated the effects of the warming climate on access to meteorites in Antarctica. Meteorites are of great scientific interest because they provide unique information about the makeup of our solar system. Of all the meteorites that people have found, 62.6% of them were found in Antarctica. Why is this? It is not because more meteorites land in Antarctica. Statistically, they can land anywhere on earth. Most end up in the ocean since the world’s

2:00

California is the largest emitter of a little-known...

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/30

California is a state known for its aggressive climate policies. However, and rather ironically, California is also the nation's greatest emitter of one little-known greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride. Sulfuryl fluoride is one of the few treatments to rid buildings of drywood termites, a common regional pest that can be found in wooden structures. Sulfuryl fluoride is also used at shipping ports to destroy pests before they can hitch a ride to another part of the world. But sulfuryl fluoride is

2:00

Winegrowing regions and climate change

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/29

Grapes grown to make wine are sensitive to climate conditions including temperatures and amount of rainfall. The warming climate is already having visible effects on yields, grape composition, and the quality of wine. This has significant consequences on the geography of wine production and is of major concern for the $350 billion global industry. Winegrowing regions are mostly at the mid-latitudes where temperatures are warm enough to allow grapes to ripen but not excessively hot. The climates

2:00

The cost of methane emissions

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/26

Stanford University-led research has determined that American oil and gas operations are emitting more than 6 million tons of methane each year. The emissions come from both intentional vents and unintentional leaks. Methane is the main component of natural gas and losing that much of it through leakage is costing the industry a billion dollars a year just in lost revenue. Adding in the harm to the economy and human well-being caused by adding this much potent greenhouse gas to the atmosphere is

2:00

The world’s largest energy plant

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/19

The largest energy plant in the world is being built in India. In an area of barren desert in western India near the Pakistani border, Adani Green Energy Limited (or AGEL) is building a sprawling solar and wind power plant that will cover more than 200 square miles. It will be five times the size of Paris and will produce enough electricity to power 16 million homes.The Khavda Renewable Energy Park will cost about $20 billion to build and will take about five years to complete. The success of

2:00

Storing carbon underground and abandoned wells

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/18

Using government support in the form of subsidies and tax credits, energy companies and others are planning to capture millions of tons of industrial carbon dioxide emissions and pipe the greenhouse gas into underground storage. It is a strategy enthusiastically supported by the fossil fuel industry because it allows them to keep burning the stuff.There are currently 69 projects being reviewed by federal and state regulators seeking to store CO2 underground. The sorts of places where carbon

2:00

Sequoias in Britain

Earth Wise ·

2024/04/16

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

2:00

Small changes can yield big results

Earth Wise ·

2024/03/29

Global food production is one of the largest contributors to climate change. In fact, one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions result from food production and agriculture. Be that as it may, we still have to eat. But what we choose to eat has a major impact on the environment.According to a new study by researchers at McGill University in Canada and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the U.K., partially replacing red and processed meat with plant-based proteins

2:00

A surprising drop in renewable power

Earth Wise ·

2024/03/28

Renewable power – which includes wind farms, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams – constitutes over 21% of the country’s utility-scale electricity generation, behind only natural gas power plants at 43%. Nuclear power provides nearly 19% of our electricity and coal, which is gradually diminishing, is at 16%. Both solar and wind power capacity have been growing rapidly in recent years and will be providing an increasing percentage of our electricity. That being said, it turns out that

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