Why Is Palm Oil So Controversial?
Seeing deforestation, habitat loss, climate change, and land theft, experts are calling for sweeping changes to the palm oil industry.
The Sweaty Penguin
What Are the Pros and Cons of Solar Geoengineering?
Could spraying aerosols or launching space mirrors to block out sunlight be part of a climate solution? Experts couldn't be more divided.
What Are Aerosols and How Do They Impact Our Climate System?
Aerosols are a wide range of particles that affect precipitation and human health. Where do they come from, and what do we do about it?
What Are Smart Grids, And How Can They Reach Their Full Potential?
When people flick a light switch, they expect the light to turn on. And supplying enough electricity to meet that expectation in a climate-friendly, cost-efficient way is a major challenge, which led to the invention of the smart grid—an electrical…
What Are the Environmental and Economic Issues Facing Rubber Production?
Natural rubber is widely considered a more eco-friendly and better product than synthetic rubber, but it still presents some issues. Natural rubber contributes to deforestation, biodiversity loss, pollution, and more. But climate change and disease also threaten natural rubber. And…
Sharks Have Survived Four Mass Extinctions, But Now, They’re Endangered
They’re older than the dinosaurs, they’ve survived four mass extinctions, and yet today, in the wake of climate change, pollution, and commercial fishing, sharks are endangered. As an apex predator, this steep decline in sharks also has massive ramifications for…
Why Is Environmental Policy So Hard to Implement?
Why is it so difficult to achieve effective environmental policy in the United States? Is it just a lack of willpower, or is there a little more to it? On this episode of The Sweaty Penguin, we explore some of…
How Climate Change and Air Pollution Could Worsen the Flu
Flu season is fast approaching, and with it comes a Sweaty Penguin episode revealing that temperature rise, air pollution, and wildfires can actually make the impacts of the flu worse. But how can that be? The flu is at its…
Climate Change Makes It Harder to Grow Coffee Beans, What Does That Mean for Us?
Coffee is a ridiculously sensitive plant, meaning even the tiniest changes in climate can eliminate many of the world’s current coffee growing regions and put farmers who often make as little as $2-3 per day in an even more difficult…
Orangutans: The “Gardeners of the Forest” Are Endangered
Today, orangutans are confined to just two islands in Indonesia and Malaysia, and due to forest loss, poaching, and climate change, they’re endangered. And although there’s tons of conservationists doing interesting work to protect orangutans, finding a long-term solution for…
How Heat and Air Pollution Affect Our Productivity
We may never notice it ourselves, but climate change and air pollution can actually affect our day-to-day performance at our jobs. Studies ranging from agricultural workers to call center workers to chess players and baseball umpires find measurable decreases in…
Could Nuclear Energy Be Part of a Carbon-Free Future?
Is nuclear energy good or is it bad? Is it the answer to our climate woes or is it Chernobyl 2.0? Or, maybe, is it a little bit more nuanced than that? On this episode of The Sweaty Penguin, we…