![](/content/2023-11-03/t_VPP_solar.jpg)
Virtual Power Plants
Renewables like wind and solar don’t produce electricity around the clock, so there’s often a mismatch between when the power is being generated and when it’s being used. “Virtual power plants” can tap home and electric vehicle batteries and shift the timing of HVAC and appliance demand to help close this gap.
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![](/content/2023-09-08/t_HYDROGEN_electrolysers.jpg)
Hydrogen Fueled Future
If you combine hydrogen from carbon-free sources and oxygen in a fuel cell, you get water and electricity. This chemical reaction is fueling visions of future, carbon free flights and changing voyages of fantasy into reality.
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![](/content/2023-06-23/t-DUCKS-cover.jpg)
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
The Athabasca oil sands in Alberta Canada ranks as one of the world’s most destructive crude oil operations. People laboring in the Athabasca oil sands often live in austere work camps, with long 12-hour shifts and female workers imperiled by sexual harassment and violence. That painful reality is captured in the 2022 graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands.
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This Weeks Show
August 30, 2024
listen / download
![](/content/2023-11-03/t_VPP_solar.jpg)
Virtual Power Plants
listen / download
Renewables like wind and solar don’t produce electricity around the clock, so there’s often a mismatch between when the power is being generated and when it’s being used. “Virtual power plants” can tap home and electric vehicle batteries and shift the timing of HVAC and appliance demand to help close this gap.
![](/content/2023-09-08/t_HYDROGEN_electrolysers.jpg)
Hydrogen Fueled Future
listen / download
If you combine hydrogen from carbon-free sources and oxygen in a fuel cell, you get water and electricity. This chemical reaction is fueling visions of future, carbon free flights and changing voyages of fantasy into reality.
![](/content/2023-01-06/t_OYSTERS_oysters.jpg)
Baby Oysters Listen for Safety
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Coral reefs play a crucial role in managing tidal surges, creating habitat for other species, and improving water quality. But many oyster species including the Australian flat oyster are under threat. So, some scientists in Australia are looking into how baby oysters find an appropriate place to set up shop, reports Living on Earth’s Sophia Pandelidis.
![](/content/2019-04-12/t-SCINOTE-bee.jpg)
Science Note: Can Plants Hear?
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Though plants may not have our ears, recent research shows that some flowers, like evening primrose, can “hear” the buzzing of bees’ wings. Don Lyman reports on how these plants can quickly respond to nearby pollinators by sweetening their nectar.
![](/content/2023-06-23/t-DUCKS-cover.jpg)
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
listen / download
The Athabasca oil sands in Alberta Canada ranks as one of the world’s most destructive crude oil operations. People laboring in the Athabasca oil sands often live in austere work camps, with long 12-hour shifts and female workers imperiled by sexual harassment and violence. That painful reality is captured in the 2022 graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands.
Special Features
Field Note: "In Defense of Little Foxes"
Living on Earth Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender reflects on how experience and anthropocentrism color our perceptions of other species and how much we care about their well-being.
Blog Series: Mark Seth Lender Field Notes
Field Note: "Oh, Say Can You See?": Kingfisher on Long Island Sound
Living on Earth's Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender provides some context for his essay, "Oh, Say Can You See?" about a kingfisher on Long Island Sound.
Blog Series: Mark Seth Lender Field Notes
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...Ultimately, if we are going prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we are going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them...
-- President Barack Obama, November 6, 2015 on why he declined to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.
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