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 […]

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 […]

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?  […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

States in the colder parts of the country spend an estimated $2.3 billion a year on snow and ice removal as well as untold millions on repairing roadways damaged by winter weather.  Researchers at Drexel University have been researching a way to extend the service life of concrete surfaces like roadways and to help them […]

So-called forever chemicals are pervasive in a wide range of products.  These are man-made substances called per- and polyfluoroalkyls or PFAS.  They get their unfortunate nickname because the chemical bonds in them are so strong that the compounds don’t break down for hundreds or even thousands of years. PFAS compounds are used in makeup, dental […]

Almost every nation in the world has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  There is expanding use of renewable energy sources and growing numbers of electric cars.  But despite all this, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels. The world’s population continues to grow and nations with large, rapidly […]

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 […]

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. […]

It’s increasingly common to see cars hooked up to charging cables in shopping centers, rest stops, and dedicated charging stations.  Charging electric cars is easy to do, just like charging phones and laptop computers.  These days, it is pretty common to charge phones without using any charging cable at all because of the availability of […]

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 […]

Oil and gas producers around the world use venting and flaring to remove excess natural gas in crude oil production.  Flaring is the process of burning excess natural gas at the production well using a flare to ignite the methane and other components in the gas, while venting is the direct release of natural gas […]

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, anthropogenic climate change resulting in higher average temperatures has caused a global decline in snowfall.  Less snow threatens to reinforce global warming, and to disrupt food, water, and livelihoods for billions of people.   According to a new study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, annual snow […]

There are more and more electric cars on the road and utilities are installing record amounts of battery storage to back up solar and wind power generation.  Both of these things currently use lithium-ion batteries so the need for them keeps growing. There is actually plenty of lithium in the world.  Sources of more than […]

Ordinary plastics are not biodegradable, but they are also not indestructible.  Plastics in the environment can break down into tiny fragments – microplastics – and those, unfortunately, are nearly indestructible.  Microplastics have been documented in the oceans and in soil virtually everywhere on Earth including remote frozen wastelands and on top of high mountains.  More […]

According to a new study by Colorado University, Boulder, the Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as soon as sometime in the next few years.  Earlier predictions for when the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur were sometime well into the 2030s. By mid-century, the Arctic is likely to […]

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 […]

Livestock production – primarily cows – produce nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of methane emitted by burping caused by the way they process food.  A single cow produces roughly 200 pounds of methane gas per year and there are 1.5 billion heads of cattle in the world. Researchers at […]

A new study by researchers at Penn State University has found that a common water plant in the eastern U.S. could be a valuable green fertilizer, a feed for poultry and livestock, and even a life-saving food for people in the event of a catastrophe or disaster. The plant is the Carolina azolla.  It is […]

Electric cars are growing in popularity around the world and are expected to represent 20% of new car sales this year.  In some places, they have a much bigger share:  38% in China and a whopping 82% in Norway.  Here in the U.S., things are more complicated. Last year, EVs represented 8.5% of U.S. new […]

Spring frosts represent a real danger for apple orchards.  The changing climate has brought about periods of unusually warm weather at times early in the year that have caused trees and other flowering plants to bloom early.  For apple growers, this has made their orchards more susceptible to the damaging effects of extreme cold events. […]