PODCAST

Earth Wise

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A look at our changing environment.

education natural sciences

All Episodes

2:00

Repurposing used tires

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/29

Every year, millions of tires from cars and trucks end up in landfills. Just in the U.S., more than 270 million tires were scrapped in 2021 and more than 50 million of them ended up in landfills. Discarded tires take up huge amounts of space but, more importantly, create environmental hazards. They leach chemicals into […]

2:00

The largest iceberg runs aground

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/10

The largest iceberg in the world, which has been slowly drifting for nearly 5 years, has finally come to a halt. The iceberg – called the unexciting name A-23A – came into existence in 1986 when it broke off from another iceberg A-23 that had calved or torn off from Antarctica earlier that year. For […]

2:00

Plastic from food waste

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/09

Plastic waste management is a complicated business. Most methods of recycling or breaking down plastic are costly and harmful to the environment. The most common biodegradable alternatives – like paper straws – are less than ideal replacements. There are many approaches to creating biodegradable plastics using feedstocks like seaweed, sugarcane, and other plant matter. However, […]

2:00

Rising seas are destroying buildings

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/08

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt and is the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Its history goes back over 2,300 years and it was once home to a lighthouse that was among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and a Great Library that was the largest in the ancient world. The […]

2:00

Amphibians and climate change

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/07

Amphibians are a group of vertebrate animals that include frogs, toads, and salamanders. They are unique for their ability to live both in water and on land during different stages of life. Amphibians play a crucial role in ecosystems, often serving as both predators and prey in food webs. Amphibians are the world’s most at-risk […]

2:00

Grid reliability and grid-edge resources

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/02

A new study by MIT researchers looked at the potential for grid-edge resources to enhance the ability of the electric grid to respond to unforeseen power outages. Grid-edge resources are devices found close to consumers rather than located near central power plants, substations, or transmission lines. These include residential solar panels, storage batteries, electric vehicles, […]

2:00

Bad news for birds

Earth Wise ·

2025/04/01

The 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report was released recently. The report is produced by a coalition of leading science and conservation organizations. The bottom line is that there have been continued widespread declines in American bird populations across all mainland and marine habitats. More than one-third of U.S. bird species are of high […]

2:00

Green grout for stabilizing buildings

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/31

We are all familiar with the grout that is used for tiles in our homes. We are less familiar with grout that is used to stabilize the soil beneath buildings. Grouting is a process of ground improvement by injecting materials that can fill voids and cracks, strengthen and increase the bearing capacity of soil, and […]

2:00

Recycling lithium-ion batteries

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/28

Lithium-ion batteries are used to power computers and cellphones and, increasingly, vehicles. The batteries contain lithium as well as various other valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Like other batteries, lithium-ion batteries have a finite lifetime before they can no longer perform their intended function. Recycling lithium-ion batteries to recover their critical […]

2:00

The importance of shallow water

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/26

Vacationers love beaches with shallow water. They are great for families with small kids and for less confident swimmers. Such beaches often attract intense coastal development. However, they are also fragile habitats that are disappearing around the world. A new study led by the University of South Florida highlights the need to protect these marine […]

2:00

Trapping carbon with rocks

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/25

Many experts say that combating global warming will require both drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels and permanently removing billions of tons of CO2 already in the atmosphere. Developing practical, large-scale technologies for carbon removal is a significant challenge. There is a nearly inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing carbon dioxide […]

2:00

Are today’s refrigerants safe?

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/21

Refrigeration is based on heat transfer mediums that absorb heat from the area being cooled and transfer it to the outside environment. The earliest refrigerants were dangerous substances like ammonia. In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) like Freon became the standard refrigerant for use in refrigeration systems and even in aerosol cans. When these substances were […]

2:00

A record year for solar and batteries

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/20

According to a recent forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar panels and batteries will account for more than 80% of new power capacity installed in the U.S. this year. The record growth of these technologies is hastening the decline of coal power in this country. Solar power alone will account for more than […]

2:00

Microplastics and birds

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/19

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles, less than 5 millimeters in size, that come from the breakdown of larger plastics, synthetic fibers, microbeads, and tire wear. Microplastics are found in oceans, rivers, soil, and even the air we breathe. These particles can take hundreds of years to degrade, spreading across ecosystems and accumulating in unexpected places, […]

2:00

Sand mining and the environment

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/18

Sand mining is the world’s largest mining endeavor. It is responsible for 85% of all mineral extraction. It is also the least regulated, possibly the most corrupt, and likely the most environmentally destructive. Sand is the second-most exploited natural resource in the world after water. Its global use has tripled in the past two decades. […]

2:00

Tigers in India

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/17

The Anthropocene is the term that describes the current era in Earth’s history when human activities are having a significant impact on the planet. It is an epoch filled with species extinction and species attrition in both numbers and range. The population of large carnivores are among the most affected species and recovering these animals […]

2:00

Clean energy in New York

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/14

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – NYSERDA – recently issued a report on clean energy progress in the state during 2024. The report highlighted continued and increased growth in heat pumps, electric vehicles, and solar energy. Heat pumps, which provide both heating and cooling, have outsold gas furnaces countrywide for three […]

2:00

Polar bear population decline

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/13

Researchers from the University of Toronto have directly linked the population decline in polar bears living in Canada’s Western Hudson Bay to climate change. Between 1979 and 2021, the polar bear population in this region has declined by nearly 50%. The monitoring data over this period shows that the average size of polar bears has […]

2:00

Fighting fires with man-made wind

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/12

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a new portable tool that may help firefighters battle blazes more efficiently and with less risk. Traditional firefighting methods include chemical foams – which are toxic – and the use of hydrants, which can strain water resources. The recent fires in Southern California demonstrated the need for efficient […]

2:00

Tearing down small dams to restore rivers

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/11

There are more than 31,000 dams in the northeastern United States. More than 4,000 of them are in the Hudson River watershed. Most of these dams are quite small and were built in the 19th century to form ponds and to power grist, textile, paper, saw, and other kinds of mills as the region developed […]

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Earth Wise

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