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Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

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Sea turtles and climate change

Earth Wise ·

2025/03/24

Life is a struggle for survival from the moment a sea turtle hatches. In fact, only one sea turtle out of every 1,000 typically reaches adulthood as a result of natural predators and other challenges. Those fortunate enough to make it to adulthood face serious threats from humans. For example, sea turtles are hunted for […]

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The warmest year on record

Earth Wise ·

2025/02/14

It came as no surprise that 2024 ended up as the warmest year on records. It was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880. The global average temperature was 1.28 degrees Celsius (or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century baseline period of 1951-1980. It was actually 1.47 degrees above the 1850-1900 average. The […]

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Hydroclimate whiplash

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/30

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 […]

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Energy storage with iron-air batteries

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/24

The Cambridge Energy Storage Project in Cambridge, Minnesota will be the first commercial deployment of iron-air battery technology. Developed by startup company Form Energy, the battery system will provide 1.5 MW and 150 MWh of multi-day energy storage. Iron-air batteries are based on the principle of reversible rusting. When discharging, the battery releases energy by […]

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Engineering plants to consume more carbon dioxide

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/23

The most abundant protein on the planet is an enzyme called ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, better known as RuBisCO. Its critical role in photosynthesis makes life as we know it on earth possible. What it does is convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the organic matter contained in plants. Getting plants to take up more carbon […]

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Investing in carbon capture

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/22

The interests of billionaires seldom seem to coincide with our own. In fact, they often seem to be quite the opposite. But there are a number of billionaires who are trying to help the world combat climate change. Yes, they want to make money doing it, but doing it is nevertheless in everyone’s interest. A […]

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Approaching critical global temperature thresholds

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/21

The Paris Climate Agreement is a global treaty adopted in 2015 to combat climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while striving to keep it below 1.5°C. But according to recent research, the planet is quickly approaching these critical thresholds. An international research team led by scientists from Colorado […]

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Wrong trees in the wrong places

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/20

Temperatures in cities are rising around the world and urban heat stress is already a major problem. Extensive surfaces of man-made materials absorb the sun’s energy, and lead to temperatures well above those in the surrounding countryside. This is known as the urban heat island effect, and it can lead to greater energy use, higher […]

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Growing safer potatoes

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/15

We are often advised to avoid eating green areas on potatoes. The green comes from chlorophyll that occurs naturally when potatoes are exposed to light. It is harmless but when it is there, it can be accompanied by a natural toxin – a substance called solanine, which is a steroidal glycoalkaloid or SGA. Sunlight can […]

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Restoring English hedgerows

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/14

Hedgerows are lines of different types of bushes and small trees growing very close together typically placed between fields or along the sides of roads in the countryside. The network of hedges throughout rural England dates back to the Bronze Age, or even possibly Neolithic times. As the first farmers began clearing areas of land […]

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The UN Carbon Market

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/13

The UN climate conference in November approved an official market for large-scale trading of carbon credits. This will allow industrial countries to help meet their emission reduction targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement by paying other nations to protect and restore forests and carbon-rich peatlands. The first major participant in this multi-billion-dollar enterprise is […]

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Climate change and the global food supply

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/08

One of the most troubling aspects of global climate change is its potential to severely disrupt the production, distribution, and quality of food. While food security is already challenged by many factors, including population growth, poverty, and changing eating habits, climate change intensifies these issues by altering weather patterns, causing more frequent droughts, floods, and […]

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Planting trees in Europe

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/07

Planting lots of trees is one of many strategies being pursued to combat climate change. Trees are storehouses of carbon from the atmosphere and planting more of them helps remove carbon dioxide. But trees do more than that. Trees are natural air conditioners in cities. Trees significantly cool urban environments by providing shade and via […]

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Dangers of distant fires

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/06

Smoke from wildfires is well known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma. People living in the vicinity of where fires occur face these dangers. But a new study at the University of Maryland has found that there are health impacts from wildfires occurring thousands of miles away. During the summer […]

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Thermal batteries for heavy industry

Earth Wise ·

2025/01/03

Heavy industries like cement, steel, chemicals, and paper require large amounts of heat and, for the most part, that heat comes from burning fossil fuels. Other sectors of the economy have been making progress in reducing carbon emissions, but heavy industry has not found easy answers for supplying the heat it needs for manufacturing. Researchers […]

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Politics and plastic

Earth Wise ·

2024/12/19

The world currently produces nearly half a billion tons of plastic each year. This is more than twice the amount it produced 20 years ago. Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the past 20 years. Plastic waste is everywhere. About eight million tons of plastic waste escapes into the ocean each […]

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National drought

Earth Wise ·

2024/12/05

Climate change brings with it many kinds of extreme weather. It isn’t just higher temperatures. It is changing patterns of weather and weather events that are rare or even unprecedented. Late October saw drought conditions throughout almost the entire United States. Only Alaska and Kentucky did not have at least moderate drought conditions. The previous […]

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Limiting global warming

Earth Wise ·

2024/12/04

A pressing question from the recently concluded 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan is how to transition away from fossil fuels and speed up climate mitigation in line with the 1.5 °C global warming target. Keeping global average temperatures below 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels is crucial to avoid the most severe […]

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October was another hot month

Earth Wise ·

2024/12/03

In a year filled with unusually warm months, October 2024 ranked as the second-warmest October in the 175 years of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s records. It was just 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the previous global record set just last year. In our part of the world, North America had its warmest October […]

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Mining extinct volcanoes

Earth Wise ·

2024/12/02

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements that are used to improve the performance, efficiency, and durability of a wide range of products. More than 200 products across a diverse set of applications make use of rare earth elements. Although the amount of rare earth used in a particular product may not be […]

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Earth Wise

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