Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

  • 2 minutes
    An uninsurable future
    The U.S. home insurance industry is in turmoil.  For years it has underestimated the risks posed by climate change intensified storms, wildfires, and other natural disasters.  The increased costs associated with rising sea levels, powerful hurricanes, drenching rainstorms, massive wildfires, and more have pushed insurers to the limit. According to the director of the Climate […]
    31 October 2025, 5:00 pm
  • 2 minutes
    Clean energy and jobs
    America’s clean energy industry is unquestionably under attack by the Trump administration.  The administration is blocking renewable energy projects on federal lands, slashing clean tech tax credits, and putting in place new regulatory hurdles for solar and wind power and electric vehicles.  During the first half of the year, businesses cancelled $22 billion worth of […]
    30 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • Insect declines in remote regions
    Insects play a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth.  They pollinate plants, recycle nutrients, and form the foundation of food webs in both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Without insects, the rich biodiversity that supports our planet would not exist. However, global studies show a widespread decline in both insect abundance and diversity. According to […]
    29 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    Fossil fuel producing nations ignoring climate goals
    The Paris Climate Agreement has the primary goal of limiting global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and preferably 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.  Meeting this goal involves reaching global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of the century.  Doing so requires the substantial adoption of renewable energy sources to […]
    28 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    Trouble for clownfishes
    Clownfishes or anemonefishes are colorful saltwater fishes that mainly inhabit coral reefs in the warm and tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific.  Clownfishes have a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship with sea anemones, which they rely on for shelter and protection from predators. In turn, clownfishes will protect the anemone from anemone-eating fish, as well as clean and fan them.  The popular film Finding Nemo is about a […]
    27 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    Heatwaves and major carbon emitters
    A new study by ETH Zurich, one of the world’s leading universities in science and engineering, demonstrates that human-induced climate change greatly increased the likelihood and intensity of over 200 global heatwaves between 2000 and 2023.  Emissions associated with each of the 180 largest producers of fossil fuels and cement contributed substantially to these events.  […]
    24 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    The last days of a giant iceberg
    A colossal iceberg known as A-23A broke off from the Filchner Iceshelf in Antarctica in 1986.  At that time, it was 1,418 square miles in area, slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island, or roughly twice the size of greater London.  It weighed about a trillion tons.  It was the largest iceberg ever observed. […]
    23 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    Celebrity chefs and forever chemicals
    Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances – better known as PFAS – are a type of human-made chemicals that are found in a wide range of consumer and industrial products.  They don’t break down in the environment or in the human body, so they are often called forever chemicals.  They can contaminate drinking water sources and can […]
    22 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    The human impact on oceans
    Vast and powerful, the oceans have sustained human life around the world for millennia. They provide food, natural resources, and livelihoods, supporting countless communities and economies. But despite their size and resilience, the oceans are under increasing pressure from climate change and human activity, pushing them toward a dangerous threshold. According to a new study […]
    21 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    AI and the appetite for natural gas
    A recent survey of the plans of U.S. electricity utilities for meeting projected future demand indicates that they are looking to build twice as much natural gas capacity as they had anticipated just 18 months earlier.  The reason?  Data centers.  These warehouses full of computers that form the backbone of the internet are multiplying rapidly […]
    20 October 2025, 5:00 am
  • 2 minutes
    The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt
    Sargassum is a free-floating brown seaweed that can drift together in vast mats, sometimes stretching for miles across the ocean’s surface. For centuries, these blooms have been a natural part of the Atlantic, creating food and shelter for many marine creatures.  Sargassum was once thought to be confined mainly to the Sargasso Sea in the […]
    17 October 2025, 5:00 am
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