April 19, 2012
10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day
A study indicates that global yields of crops such as wheat and corn may already be affected by climate change.
Sunday is the 42nd celebration of Earth Day, which was started in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson to help educate people about environmental issues and demonstrate public support for a conservationist agenda. With that in mind, we decided it was the right time to recap the most surprising, awe-inspiring and alarming things that we have learned about the Earth and the environment since last year’s holiday:
1. Undiscovered species are still out there: Countless discoveries over the past year reminded us that, despite centuries of research, the planet still has plenty of surprise species in store. Among the many finds include seven new forest mice species in the Philippines, a “psychedelic” gecko in Vietnam and a new type of dolphin in Australia. A new analysis released last August, billed as the most accurate ever, estimated that a total of 8.7 million different species of life exist on earth.
2. Global warming is already driving up food prices: While many fear that climate change will someday reduce crop yields and cause food prices to rise, a study published last May in Science indicates that this troubling trend has already gotten started. The models used suggest that reduced global yields of wheat and corn are related to global warming. Although the effects are relatively small so far, they may cause severe problems in the future, as climate patterns continue to change and food demand increases.
3. Natural gas is not so great: Although advocates of natural gas argue that it contributes less to climate change than other fossil fuels such as coal, a study published last spring revealed that leakage of methane from newer types of shale gas wells and associated pipelines may be a bigger problem than first assumed. As much as 7.9 percent of the methane mined from these increasingly common wells may be escaping into the atmosphere through loose pipeline fittings and during hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a “fracking”). In the short term, the greenhouse effect of methane is 25 times that of carbon dioxide.
Research suggests offshore wind farms may actually increase oceanic biodiversity. Photo by Ad Meskens.
4. Offshore wind farms are good for biodiversity: Last August, wind advocates welcomed the news that offshore turbines apparently have no negative effect on aquatic ecosystems, and might actually provide new habitats for creatures that live in shallow water. Although a few bird species might avoid the wind farms because of the risks of spinning turbines, the net effect of the large scale-wind farm studied by the team of Dutch scientists was positive.
5. A fungus causes white-nose syndrome in bats: First discovered in a New York State cave in 2006, the disease has quickly spread to more than 115 bat colonies across North America and has caused mortality rates as high as 90 percent in affected populations. Finally, last October, researchers pinpointed the cause: the fungus Geomyces destructans. The disease forces bats to awaken too frequently from hibernation, leading to starvation, and has already caused several bat species to become endagered. Scientists are tracking movement of the disease and working on developing a cure.
6. The oceans are in bigger trouble than we thought: The annual State of the Ocean report, published in July by an international team of experts, concluded that things are far worse in ocean ecosystems than previously feared. A range of stresses—including rising sea temperatures, overfishing, acidification and pollution—have combined to threaten extinction for many aquatic species, including those that create coral reefs. “We have underestimated the overall risks,” the report noted. “The whole of marine degradation is greater than the sum of its parts.”
7. Large wildlife are surviving the conflict in Afghanistan: Research published in June by the World Conservation Society revealed a tidbit of positive news about the conflict in Afghanistan. A range of large mammals (including black bears, gray wolves, wild goats and rare snow leopards) have been able to survive decades of violence in Afghanistan, despite the attendant deforestation, habitat degradation and the absence of rule of law. The researchers reaffirmed the need for conservation programs that also provide livelihoods for local people to ensure this trend continues.
8.Pesticides play a role in bee colony collapses: A study published last spring in Science proved what many have feared—low levels of a common pesticide may confuse honeybees, making it much more difficult for them to find their way home after trips away from the hive. The authors of the study say the results raise questions about the use of the chemical, neonicotinoid, while others note the possible role of other factors, such as increased susceptibility to disease and a reduction in wildflowers because of land development.
9. Eating meat warms the planet: A guide released last July by the Environmental Working Group put firm numbers on what many have argued for some time—namely, that eating meat can contribute as much to climate change as driving a car. According to the report, which took into account every step needed to produce meat (including the pesticides, fertilizers and water used to grow feed, the emissions resulting from processing the meat, the transportation and cooking of it and other factors), if every U.S. citizen gave up meat and cheese one day per week, the effect on greenhouse gas emissions would equal taking about 7.6 million cars off the road.
10. Millions likely to be trapped by climate change: A report by the British government, released last October, warned that millions of people around the world will likely end up trapped in places vulnerable to the effects of environmental change over the next century. Although previous studies simply estimated which areas might be flooded by rising sea levels and assumed that all residents would move, the report drew upon more than 70 research papers and recognized that in many cases (such as New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina), the most disadvantaged groups are unable to leave. Experts advocate increased planning to financially support migration, both within and between countries.
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
79 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
This is in response to Max – If you are going to persuasively assert that an article is biased you need to assert relevent facts that respond to the points made in the article. An unsupported rant and a closer calling the article BS is a waste of everyone’s time.
As a young boy in 1948 through 1962 I walked the docks around New York City with a Grand Uncle and often asked what was contained on those many barges passing down the Hudson, going to Sea? His response was “Garbage”. This led to many other questions, what kind of garbage, how much garbage, does this happen everyday? For years we have been dumping debris in the Ocean and so have many other countries. To this day millions and millions of metric tons are dumped each day, into the waters of the World, raising the level of the waterways. At what point does this cause coastal flooding ? At what point do we wake up and realize what we are doing to our environment. Water the essential element to “LIFE”, and we have destroyed this Planet. I do not think we can recover!
The only two comments here are by children who don’t believe in Global Warming. I wonder if the polluters hire them to find articles that are favorable to GW and post a mocking denigrating comment. Otherwise why would they read these articles?
I guess it was longer than a year ago that the spawns of jelly fish and expanding populations of tree-killing insects due to GW were published. So many instances have been written that I find it difficult to keep up. Thanks for a great article.
Al
What’s that story about shooting the messenger bringing bad news? You can choose to stay informed and use your best judgment or simply bury your head in the sand.
Tx for publishing this. Excellent points. I am ashamed to live in a province of Canada where the leader of the new Wildrose party believes, like some of your commentators, that climate change is a myth!!.I fear for my kids
Never let science get in the way of our lack of objective thinking or inability to make rational decisions about our future when our present biases and interests must be served.
Given the attitudes behind comments 1 and 2, there’s not much hope for Mother Earth.
Your global warming reasons are crap. The sun is not a controled heater. “Experts”, like you people, were predicting a new “ice age” in the 50s and 60s – and you know it. Global warming is just a political weapon, used by the control freak left socialists to change America. Why this academic faith in Socialism, when we have such a world over history of its absolute failure, an idiot should see its distructiveness?
Wow, it’s amazing how ignorant some people who post responses are! Before you decide to just flippantly be a judgmental, cynical jerk… try being unbiased and do some honest research. Being concerned about the environment does not make you a lackey to the EPA, just a concerned global citizen!
Yes, global warming has been a natural part of the earth’s geological cycle; however since the industrial revolution the warming process has sped up at an alarming rate. This rapid warming caused by multiple human sources is resulting in species’ extinctions, unbalanced ecosystems, and effecting global food sources.
Please people, open your minds and be part of the solution, not the problem. Take a moment to consider the millions of humans on this planet; who are not as fortunate as you, who live in regions whose food source has been horribly affected by climate change!
The worlds coast lines are in threat the earth has to support 7 billion people.
It is troubling to think what future we are leaving behind for the new generation.we all are going to struggle to live.water will be the most scarce.
Max has right – highly biased BS.
Typical comments above from the kind of people who are too selfish to care about changing any of their habits for the greater good… just dismiss it as BS hey!
Proud to be a hippie tree-hugging vegetarian or whatever else you want to call me.
These points are very biased and are based primarily on the idea that global warming is man-caused. What I like most about these points is Point #2, which relies on yet another “model” to prove that global warming is going to cause food shortages. That is very strange since plants need CO2 to live and grow. There are myriad studies showing that plants thrive in higher CO2 concentrations. Perhaps we need more, not less, CO2.
Well Max, I see #1, 4 & 7 as being good. Perhaps you need to re-read the article. And, with respect to #5, I’m glad scientists are seeking a cure for the bat fungus because I miss having bats around to eat the mosquitoes. And foregoing eating meat and cheese one day a week is not all that big a sacrifice!
I’ll give you “awe-inspiring”, but the only surprising news is the good news regarding the animals surviving Afganistan in spite of us. According to the trends made obvious by peer-reviewed science, all else we should have seen coming by the end of the last century. Will we appear just as dumbfounded this time next year??
Folks — Why is it impossible for you all to accept the notion that the Earth is a finite resource? If your account is overdrawn, do you continue writing checks? We need stop acting like selfish children and start behaving like responsible adults on a budget. This means living like other people and Mother Nature are just as important as your right to drive your giant SUV to the mall.
Oh, and another thing! I would argue that there is some great news on that list of 10. Number 1: Yeah! The Earth is still an interesting place to be! Number 4: There are ways to get the energy we need to run the country that helps the planet, instead of hurting it, for a change. Number 5: We’re making progress on helping our bat friends, i.e. the critters that help keep the skeeter population down in my yard. Number 7: Our war-mongering hasn’t killed off the Snow Leopards in Afghanistan. Number 8: We are making progress in understanding how to save our bee friends. Need I remind you of the importance of bees to our food supply? So, that adds up to 5 out of 10 items of good news.
Yes global warming is a serious concern and the 10 things listed are interesting but some are contradictory and, frankly, disingenuous. I concentrate on “eating meat warms planet”. meat takes grain and water and fertilizer and::::: but another one of the 10 items states that reduced global yields of wheat and corn have shown a positive effect; so what do we eat; how does it get to the consumer and so forth? Oh yes there has been an increase in large wildlife in Afghanistan which is a good thing; really, well I suppose they do not require shipment of their food and a lot of other things. The obvious conclusion which you and the study group are too chicken to state is to eliminate or dramatically reduce “all” life on the planet including birds, aquatic, human, wild animal; and of course all grasses and grains and such. Well they use water and produce waste don’t they?
I thought that science looked at both sides of a theory, like before a the industrialized world there were a lot more vegatation which should = more Co2. And why did we let the EPA call carbo dioxide pollution? Don’t the scientists realize CO2 is only a trace gas @ a concentration of only 0.039% by volume. Per this logic we need to cut down all the trees and kill all the grass & plants, stop all mammals from passing gas, don’t use electricity, ride in any kind of vehicle, stop breathing just to name a few. Now really folks, there has been warming & cooling cycles throughout the years.. A large part due to the activity of the sun and the upper jet stream. Now as to wheather man has any part in this warming or cooling of earth is only theory. Let’s keep our minds open to all data.
In regards to pollution man has done a very poor job in keeping our enviroment clean. And there are a lot of dangerous chemicals dumped in the air and sea. But let’s not lump carbon dioxide in so fast. So in closing…Save a the grass pass more gass..
at richaham, it is important to consume free-range meat from a small-scale, local source. the main problem with meat is the massive quanities of water needed to raise the livestock and their feed crops, not the fertilizers, etc. we’re talking about hydrating 600# animals, and the crops necessary to feed them. that sheer volume of water takes an enormous amount of electricity and fossil fuels to process and refine.
at RB, i believe many people fought in WW2 to protect the liberties of their children. your grandchildren will not have any liberties if you continue to buy produce at the grocery store which has been shipped across the country, rather than traversing the crowds of “hippies” and “enviro-freaks” at your local farmers market to purchase produce grown a few miles from your house. They will simply be too busy fighting off other looters at grocery stores when the food shortage takes hold and we all descend into a state of anarchy.
at j f albus, the produce RB chooses to have shipped across the country has a carbon foot print tens of thousands of times greater than the mere liter or two of pure carbon dioxide you exhale in an hour. but i suppose you would already know that if you knew what a mole was. pull your head out of your butt and respect the work of thousands of brilliant doctors and scientists.
at thurston, plants consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. read a book some time.
T-man, where is your degree in biochemistry from? its not that simple, maaaaannn.
I was handed a draft of Limits to Growth in 1969. The model made sense to me then. Ever since the data measured has corresponded to that predicted in the model as studies have become more and more sophisticated. All I can say to deniers is “None so blind as will not see.”
Sorry Jmiller. I thought the sources of the meat and food problems were the huge metro areas; maybe half a million plus?? So where are the farmer markets and range fed cattle within a few miles of these peoples homes? Really, are there small truck gardens within a few miles of these huge population areas to make a difference globally?
I don’t know if the person who wrote this article realizes he has a responsibility to the broad spectrum of readers and how his words will be affecting people. I agree we all need to be good stewards of the earth. That is the responsible thing to do. Running wild with emotions puts people in panic and argumentative situations that separates people from reaching a chance to work collectively for the good of all.
I have read all the comments this far and comment #8 classifies it’s self as a “Republican nitwit” and with a masked name of “Binky Tights” comes across to me as an evil coward.
There is no hope that the United States will contribute in any measure to an alleviation of the effects of anthropogenic climate change. None. Zero. If humanity takes steps to addresss the problem in any substantive way, it will be (at best) without help from the U.S. and (at worst) at the risk of earning a weak nation’s having been forced to endure sanctions and embargoes imposed upon it by the U.S. Some of the comments (and the large number of such comments) in this section illustrate the degree of angry and wrongheaded denial matched by no other society on Earth. I only wish there was a way the world could save itself and not have its life-lengthening benefits extended to a nation hell bent on standing athwart such an effort.
I live in Baltimore. I am aware of 4 within 100 miles of the greater Baltimore area. There are an absurd number of farms producing beef, cheese, etc which raise live stock for consumption in upstate new york. they’re not widely publicized, but they are there. they just take some sniffing out, :)
That comment above scared me: What if white Christmases do become just a fairy tale? How sad.
I have never known about the new dolphin, and I have always thought that natural gas was useful now I dispise it.