Informações:
Sinopsis
A look at our changing environment.
Episodios
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Penguin detectives
05/06/2024 Duración: 02minEmperor penguins, the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins, are also the most famous, being the subject of a very popular documentary film. The ongoing loss of sea ice in Antarctica has led to unprecedented breeding failures in emperor penguin colonies. Since 2016, Antarctica has seen the four years with the lowest sea ice […]
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Gravity storage on the grid
04/06/2024 Duración: 02minFor the past several years, the Swiss-based company Energy Vault has been developing an energy storage system based on the principle of using mechanical devices to lift heavy concrete blocks into stacks using power generated by wind turbines or other renewable sources. When energy is needed, the blocks are lowered back to the ground, spinning […]
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Palm oil and water quality
03/06/2024 Duración: 02minPalm oil is the world’s cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil. In fact, more than 86 million tons of palm oil was consumed last year alone. Even though few of us cook with it, palm oil can be found in approximately half of all packaged grocery items – everything from ice creams and pizzas […]
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Giant batteries and the grid
31/05/2024 Duración: 02minAll across the country, electric utility companies are starting to use giant batteries to counteract the biggest weakness of renewable energy; namely, that the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. Solar panels and wind turbines can keep generating energy when people don’t need it and batteries can store up that energy […]
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Natural solutions for coastal defense
30/05/2024 Duración: 02minProtecting coastal cities and towns from the dangers of tsunamis, storm surges, and sea-level rise has become an ever-increasing challenge. There are so-called hard coastal defenses as well as nature-based solutions. A new study by the University of Tokyo has found that combining the two types of defenses may be the most effective way to […]
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Good owls and bad owls
29/05/2024 Duración: 02minIn the forests of the Pacific Northwest, spotted owls have been the subject of environmental concern for more than 30 years. Over the past 20 years, northern spotted owl populations have declined by up to 80% as the birds have faced marginalized territories and increasing numbers of wildfires. Only about 3,000 of them remain on […]
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Offshore wind and the wake effect
28/05/2024 Duración: 02minElectricity demand in the U.S. continues to grow and, in the summer, homes and businesses crank up their air conditioning which drives demand even further. Many East Coast cities are banking on offshore wind projects that are underway in the Atlantic Ocean to help meet that growing demand. The first offshore turbines are now producing […]
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Balloon release laws
27/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe Florida state legislature has recently passed a law that bans the intentional release of helium balloons outdoors. It is a rare example of a bipartisan piece of legislation. Florida is joining six other states that have already enacted balloon restricting laws. Balloons released into the sky don’t just disappear into the ether. They often […]
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A setback for New York offshore wind
24/05/2024 Duración: 02minThree major offshore wind projects in New York have been cancelled because of the unavailability of technology critical to the projects. The projects were part of NYSERDA‘s third offshore wind solicitation and were provisionally awarded last October. The projects, which totaled more than 4 GW of clean energy, were supposed to begin commercial operation in […]
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Marine carbon dioxide removal
23/05/2024 Duración: 02minAbout 30% of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity is absorbed by the oceans. As a result, they are getting warmer and more acidic, and the currents that help shape global weather are shifting. To try to reduce global warming, people want to be able to store even more carbon dioxide in the oceans […]
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Global coral bleaching
22/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe world’s coral reefs are in the midst of a global bleaching event being driven by extraordinarily high ocean temperatures. This is the fourth such global event on record and is predicted to be the largest one ever. Coral bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by heat and eject the symbiotic algae within them that […]
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Oases and desertification
21/05/2024 Duración: 02minOases are important sources of water for people, plants, and animals in the world’s desert areas. In fact, oases sustain 10% of the world’s population despite taking up only about 1.5% of land area. They form when groundwater flows and settles into low-lying areas or when surface meltwater flows down from nearby mountains and pools. […]
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Wind farms and land use
20/05/2024 Duración: 02minWind power has become one of the most affordable ways to generate electricity as well as being renewable and not contributing to global warming. But there has been the perception that wind farms require a lot of land compared with fossil fuel power plants. This issue of land use has made decision-makers reluctant to invest […]
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Climate change and fish migration
17/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe warming climate is changing the distribution of fish species. Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia have observed that tropical fish species are moving into temperate Australian waters. The Eastern Australian Current is strengthening as the climate warms and larvae of tropical fish are getting caught in the current and moving into more […]
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The global chocolate supply is threatened
16/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe world is facing the biggest deficit of cocoa in decades. Most cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where climate change-induced drought has ravaged crops. Harvests are forecasted to fall short for the third consecutive year. The harvest shortfall has triggered a steep rise in cocoa prices. In fact, cocoa prices have more than […]
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The Colorado River crisis
15/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe Colorado River serves nearly 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico. It provides water for 5 million acres of farmland. Increasing demand from growing populations, damming, diversion, and drought have been draining the Colorado at alarming rates. This critical resource supports countless economies, communities, and ecologies stretching from the Rocky Mountains to […]
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Carbon dioxide and wildfires
14/05/2024 Duración: 02minClimate change is a key factor in the increasing risk and extent of wildfires. Wildfires require the alignment of several factors, including humidity, temperature, and the lack of moisture in fuels, such as trees, shrubs, and grasses. All of these factors have strong ties to climate variability and climate change. While the global surge in […]
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An active hurricane season
13/05/2024 Duración: 02minThe Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1st until November 30th. Forecasters at Colorado State University have issued forecasts of Atlantic basin hurricane activity since 1984 based on the pioneering work of Professor William Gray. This year’s forecast, issued in April, predicts a higher-than-average number of Atlantic storms. In fact, it may be one […]
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Where not to plant trees
10/05/2024 Duración: 02minPlanting huge numbers of trees is often proposed as a way to reduce the severity of climate change. Studies have looked at the potential for Earth‘s ecosystems to support large additional areas of forest and have found that it would be possible to have at least 25% more forested area than we do now. This […]
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Plastic food packaging
09/05/2024 Duración: 02minReducing the use of plastic is an important environmental goal. Plastic is made from fossil fuels and plastic pollutes the land and the oceans. It is estimated that 40% of plastic waste comes from packaging. Plastic packaging is extremely common in the supermarket and there is a growing desire to reduce its use. But it […]