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Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

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Rainforests and thunderstorms

Earth Wise ·

2025/08/06

Tropical forests are dying at an alarming rate, and not just from deforestation. Even intact forests are losing trees, threatening biodiversity, carbon storage, and the global climate. While drought and rising temperatures are often blamed, new research points to a surprising culprit: thunderstorms. These intense, short-lived convective storms, common in the tropics, are increasing due […]

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2:00

The UK is heating up

Earth Wise ·

2025/08/05

June and July have both seen multiple days with temperatures in the 90s in London, England. This is almost unheard of, but according to British scientists, record-breaking extreme weather has become the new norm in the UK. Weather records show that the UK’s climate is different now compared with just a few decades ago. The […]

en-US

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Geothermal energy may be safe

Earth Wise ·

2025/08/04

The Trump Administration is outwardly hostile to renewable energy, especially solar and wind power. Federal support for these energy sources that are by far the most rapidly growing energy sources across the globe is being gutted while fossil fuels are being propped up. There is also renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power and, somewhat surprisingly, geothermal […]

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How much nanoplastic is in the oceans?

Earth Wise ·

2025/08/01

It is unfortunately well-known that microplastics are pretty much everywhere on Earth. They are also increasingly found in living things like birds and dolphins as well as in human brains and placentas. The oceans are polluted with plastic, and for the first time, there is now an estimate for the volume of nanoplastics – which […]

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Solar power in Europe

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/31

In June, solar power was the largest source of electricity in the European Union for the first time. Solar supplied a record 22% of the power for the 27-country bloc. At least 13 of the countries produced new monthly highs for solar power in June. The Netherlands got more than 40% of its electricity from […]

en-US

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Biochar and poultry farm pollution

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/23

Poultry farms are a significant source of air and water pollution. In the US, they are the largest source of ammonia emissions, followed by dairy and non-dairy cattle farms. Poultry farms emit over two million tons of ammonia per year. Ammonia is not directly produced or excreted by the birds but is a common by-product […]

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More efficient cooling for data centers

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/22

Increasing reliance on digital technologies in general and artificial intelligence in particular are dramatically increasing the energy consumption of data centers. Data centers consume far more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings. By the year 2030, data center energy consumption in the US is projected to reach 9% of the country’s electricity generation. […]

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A recycling lottery

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/18

Getting people to recycle isn’t always easy. The bottled beverages we buy at the supermarket often require a small deposit that we can get back by recycling the bottle, but often, we just don’t. Researchers from the University of British Columbia tested the idea of giving people returning bottles a small chance of winning a […]

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Wasting less wastewater

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/17

Ultra-pure water is essential for multiple industries, for example semiconductors, batteries, and pharmaceuticals, as well as food and beverage companies. Such water is produced by various processes including desalination plants that use reverse osmosis. The byproduct of the processing is industrial brine: salty wastewater. The brine produced by desalination is generally dumped into the ocean […]

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Extending the shelf life of produce

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/10

More than 30% of the world’s food is lost after it has been harvested. That’s enough to feed more than a billion people. Much of that loss is fruits and vegetables that go bad before they can be eaten. Refrigeration is the most common way to preserve foods, but the energy and infrastructure required is […]

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Solutions for cleaner air

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/04

Air pollution is a problem for most of the world’s cities. Many cities in India and China continue to face major public health crises due to their polluted air. American cities also don’t escape from polluted air. Californian cities still struggle with smog despite decades of effort to reduce it. But one major city that […]

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Record forest loss

Earth Wise ·

2025/07/03

The world lost a record amount of forests last year. The biggest factor for the unprecedented losses were wildfires that raged around the world. According to the annual update by the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute, pristine rainforests alone lost 17 million acres, which was nearly twice as much as in the […]

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Coexisting birds and solar energy

Earth Wise ·

2025/06/23

Floating photovoltaic systems – known as floatovoltaics – are becoming increasingly popular. These are arrays of solar panels installed over artificial water bodies such as irrigation ponds, wastewater treatment plants, and reservoirs. These projects maximize the space for producing clean energy while not taking up natural lands. Wherever there are bodies of water, there are […]

en-US

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Airplanes and climate change

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/26

The aviation industry is a powerful force in the global economy. In fact, according to some estimates, the industry transports the equivalent of nearly half the world’s population every year. But the world’s airports were largely designed for an older era – a cooler one. As air warms, it becomes less dense, which makes it […]

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A giant plane for giant wind turbines

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/22

Wind turbines have been getting bigger all the time. Larger turbines have real advantages. They can operate at lower speeds so they can be deployed in more places. They capture more wind, so they make more power. Large wind turbines can have blades more than 200 feet long and even larger ones are on the […]

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Finding peatlands

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/15

Peatlands are a special kind of wetland that have enormous potential for helping to mitigate climate change. They are great at capturing carbon because their constantly soggy soils deprive decomposer organisms of the oxygen they need to break down dead plants. Living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporate the carbon into their […]

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More eco-friendly desalination

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/14

There are about 16,000 operational desalination plants, located across 177 countries, which generate an estimated 25 billion gallons of fresh water daily. For every gallon of drinking water produced at a typical desalination plant, one and a half gallons of brine are produced. Much of it is stored in ponds until the water evaporates, leaving behind […]

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2:00

Tracking atmospheric mercury

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/13

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 […]

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2:00

Fighting honey fraud

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/12

Honey fraud is a significant issue for the food industry. What is honey fraud? Typically, it involves mislabeling where honey was produced or what types of flowers the bees collected nectar from. Honey made from a single type of flower is often more expensive because of the unique flavor it provides or from potential health […]

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Relocating native plants

Earth Wise ·

2025/05/02

Climate change is endangering many native plant species. As the climate warms, many species will need to establish themselves in new places that are more hospitable than their historic ranges. But many native plants in the U.S. cannot move themselves by natural forces quickly enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. For such plants to survive […]

en-US

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