From green business and new environmental legislation to how nature impacts our environment in ways never before considered, Earth Wise offers a look at our changing environment.
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Chris Yunker/FlickrThe Trump administration decided this year to stop updating a federal database that tracked the cost of extreme weather, compiling an annual list of hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage. The government had maintained that database since the 1990s, with data going back to 1980. Evidently, this information was deemed to be unimportant, or at least inconvenient. -
Roman Ranniew/FlickrCoal has historically been the largest source of global electricity generation. For the first half of the 20th century, more than half of the world’s electricity came from coal power plants. Until the 1950s, most of the rest came from hydroelectric plants. Nuclear power grew rapidly from the 1950s up until a decline that began at the turn of the new century. Natural gas assumed a growing role that has continued to increase since then. Only in the past two decades have renewables like solar and wind power become significant contributors.
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At the end of September, the $7,500 federal tax credit for purchases of new electric cars and the $3,000 credit for used electric cars were discontinued, as a result of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that has undone multiple clean energy policies. Because of this, forecasts for EV sales over the next several years have been cut in half compared to what they were a year ago. -
Deep-sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed in the deep ocean. Most of the interest is in what are known as polymetallic nodules, which are potato-sized mineral deposits that have built up in layers over thousands of years. Found miles below the ocean’s surface, these nodules contain valuable metals used in batteries and electronics, but mining them could harm fragile and largely unexplored deep-sea ecosystems.
