Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is widely used as an insulator in high-voltage electrical equipment for electricity production and transmission. SF6 is also the most potent greenhouse gas, and its emission is burgeoning.
Category: Environment
2 types of advanced-technology refuse are especially noxious to the environment: plastic and electronic waste. Both are unsustainably burgeoning.
Since its widespread commercialization in the early 1950s, plastic has become ubiquitous: first in products and their packaging, and now everywhere on Earth.
Cyclones are accelerating global warming.
Plastic debris concentrates on the surface of the ocean via the currents of ocean gyres, with agglomerations shockingly visible from space. Plastic pollution further flows into the deep sea, following the same currents that historically have provided nutrients.
Coral reefs worldwide have been stressed by pollution, warmer seas, and outright destruction by men. Cyclones add another hazard.
The Devonian period closed with multiple mass extinction events. The 2 most severe were the Kellwasser Event 372 million years ago (MYA) and the Hangeberg Event, which ended the Devonian 359 MYA.
Global warming is making cyclones more frequent and intense.
China had ranked 3rd in turtle species diversity. Now its wild turtles face extinction.
The world hotting up has made wildfires more frequent and intense. Siberia, which has the world’s most extensive forest, is again ablaze
The rate of environmental destruction portends the pace of humanity’s demise. A recent satellite survey discovered global urban expansion in recent decades grew 4 times greater than previously estimated.
Whereas rising CO2 levels headline climate change news, water vapor is the predominant atmospheric warming agent. Changes in the water cycle portend accelerating global warming.
The Great Lakes of North America is the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, holding 20% of the world’s surface freshwater. Careless pollution has made it a hazardous source of drinking water.
By far the most varied and abundant of animals, insects are vital to the biological integrity of macroscopic life on Earth: serving as pollinators of plants (and their corpses fertilizer), food for many animals (notably birds), and ecosystem cleaners.
Consuming animal meat is the primary source of infectious disease, as covid-19 morosely illustrated. As forests continue to be lost to human devastation, the unleashing of new diseases is expectable.
Plastic is a petrochemical fabrication promoted by oil companies. To take the perceptual edge off the mountains of forever garbage that plastic becomes, the oil industry promoted the idea of recycling plastic. That was a scam and plastic producers knew it.
Clean water is the elixir of life – as essential for keeping clean as for drinking. Its shortage during the covid-19 pandemic is putting more than half of the global population at risk.
A warming world spells more frequent and more intense wildfires. Animals play a part in engendering the spread of a blaze or tamping it down.
Though it’s not healthy food, Americans love steaks and burgers and consume lots of dairy. Their taste for beef and milk is draining the water supply.
Driven by the wind, the gyres of ocean circulation play a vital role in the marine biosphere and regulating weather & climate. Global warming is changing the way ocean gyres work.
As winter wanes and spring ushers warmth, trees get busy: putting leaves on branches and drawing more water from the soil. With global warming, spring is arriving earlier. This is likely to spell drier soils in summer.
Immigrant earthworms in the boreal forests of North America are causing trouble.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. As it ages, methane oxidizes and loses much of its hotness.
Though they don’t cost as much as other seafood, shrimp are an environmentally expensive catch.
For decades, corporations have been promoting foods from genetically modified organisms (GMO) as a way to enhance their profits and garner monopoly power. GMO proponents claim that genetic modifications promise food abundance safely. History has already shown otherwise.