Category: Science: Under the Lens

By Kayla Rinderknecht, Population Health Service Fellow & Dr. Paul Mathewson, Science Program Director   From the air we breathe to the water we drink, environmental factors directly influence our health. Yet, too often, the connection between a clean environment and public well-being is overlooked.

Long pushed as a cleaner energy source, natural gas is no more natural than coal or oil. Discover why continued reliance on this fossil fuel will mean disaster for our climate and health.

Large scale solar development is rapidly expanding in Wisconsin. Utility-scale solar (USS) farms are large, ground-mounted solar arrays that produce electricity for the grid. In 2020 there was 150 MW of USS capacity in the state, enough to power roughly 22,500 homes.

Earlier this year, Clean Wisconsin’s Science Program Director, Paul Mathewson, went a step further than the average scientist. He dove deep into cross-referencing the carbon calculations reported within the agriculture sector module of the EPA’s State Inventory Tool.

What is the extent of PFAS contamination in Wisconsin's drinking water? This column looks at two sources of information to provide some insight into that question.

Comparing the impact of wind turbines with other contributors to contributors to bird and bat mortality One of the main environmental concerns associated with wind energy is bird and bat collisions with wind turbines.

Over half of people of color in Wisconsin cities live within one mile of a facility that emits Hazardous Air Pollution.  By Paul Mathewson, Science Program Director, and Sausann Al Jawhar, Summer Science Research Intern.

  It’s summer,  and in Wisconsin, that means peak season for dangerous ammonia air pollution. A new analysis of satellite imagery by Clean Wisconsin shows monthly concentrations of ammonia air pollution in our state are worst in May but last all summer long.

  Carbon Capture and Storage, what is it and how does it work?  Many analyses investigating how to reach climate goals include carbon capture and storage (CCS) if we are to reduce emissions quickly enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Which land use produces more energy per acre, corn ethanol or solar? More than a million acres of land in Wisconsin is used to grow corn for ethanol    One of the concerns about utility-scale solar development is the amount of land needed for these large solar facilities, which are commonly placed on agricultural land.