Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Ecology

On the climate crisis, housing and more, politicians avoid clarity because it demands action | Greg Jericho

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 22:50:19 -0400

Our leaders may prefer complexity because it means they can defer taking action – but doing something about emissions reduction or slow wage growth is actually not that complex

After spending any time analysing policy you quickly realise that politicians expend a supreme level of effort to avoid doing the obvious, and instead they do complex things that neither solve a problem nor appease their opponents.

For politicians, the problem with clarity is that it demands action. Complexity provides safety because action can more easily be avoided. And so the obvious and clear are painted as “extreme”, while the complex is regarded as “mature”.

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida – video

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 22:05:08 -0400

Milton, which fluctuated in intensity as it approached Florida, was a category 3 hurricane as it made landfall.

'It will continue to move across central Florida throughout the night and into the early morning hours,' said Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Hurricane Milton

Nature in 'free fall' because of humans, conservationists have warned

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 19:01:00 -0400

Global populations of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles have seen an average decline of 73% in 50 years, research reveals.

How hurricanes like Milton spawn tornadoes

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:30:23 -0400

Hurricanes often produce tornadoes that add to the destructive power of the storm – and climate change may make such tornadoes more common

Some Floridians choose to stay despite warnings of life risk: ‘We have faith in the Lord’

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:22:12 -0400

As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place

Hurricane Milton – live updates

Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.

Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.

Weight-loss drugs lower impulse to eat – and perhaps to exercise too

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:00:02 -0400

Popular weight-loss medications including Ozempic and Wegovy contain a drug that seems to decrease cravings for food and drugs – and now there’s evidence that it might make exercise less rewarding, too

The relentless push for productivity misconstrues how our brains work

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:00:00 -0400

The latest neuroscience shows that, contrary to a lot of productivity advice, the drive to make the most of every waking moment will diminish your capacity for creative thinking

Nobel prizes are still failing to celebrate the diversity of science

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:29:58 -0400

The Nobel committees seem to have an unfortunate habit of overlooking women and Black people when it comes to science – this must change, says Alexandra Thompson

Your brain has individual neurons that respond to the smell of bananas

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:00:19 -0400

The discovery that certain smells can be linked to specific neurons is helping us understand how the brain encodes concepts

Once we pass 1.5°C of global warming, there is no going back

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:00:13 -0400

We might not be able to cool the world down again after overshooting the 1.5°C warming limit – and even if we can, a lot of irreversible damage will have been done

Take control of your brain's master switch to optimise how you think

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400

The discovery that a small blue blob of neurons, the locus coeruleus, controls your mode of thinking suggests ways to increase learning, creativity, focus and alertness

This test could reveal whether gravity is subject to quantum weirdness

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:00:55 -0400

If gravity is a truly quantum entity, something as simple as measuring the strength of an object’s gravitational field should change its quantum state

Our dystopian climate isn’t just about fires and floods. It’s about society fracturing | Bill McKibben

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:51:10 -0400

Climate disasters risk pulling society apart, getting us to a place where people can’t work together because they’ve been so divided by disinformation and hate

Even as the good people of Florida’s west coast pulled the soggy mattresses from Helene out to the curb, Milton appeared on the horizon this week – a double blast of destruction from the Gulf of Mexico that’s a reminder that physics takes no time off, not even in the weeks before a crucial election. My sense is that those storms will help turn the voting on 5 November into a climate election of sorts, even if – as is likely – neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump spend much time in the next 25 days talking about CO2 or solar power.

That’s because these storms show not only the power of global heating (Helene’s record rains, and Milton’s almost unprecedented intensification, were reminders of what it means to have extremely hot ocean temperatures). More, they show what we’re going to need to survive the now inevitable train of such disasters. Which is solidarity. Which is something only one ticket offers.

English water system singled out for criticism by UN special rapporteur

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:23:13 -0400

Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo says regulator Ofwat ‘complacent’ about water firms putting their shareholders before public

The privatised English water system has been singled out for criticism by the UN special rapporteur on the human right to clean water.

Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said water systems should be managed as a publicly owned service, rather than run by private companies set up to benefit shareholders.

The hidden underside of an iceberg: Laurent Ballesta’s best photograph

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:06:48 -0400

‘This iceberg in Antarctica was so vast, I had to dive down and take 147 photos in sub-zero water, then get a computer to join them up. Ten years on, my toes are still damaged’

As a kid, I was fascinated by the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau. There was nothing else quite like them – they were a weekly TV appointment. My family lived not too far from the sea and, although that coast wasn’t great for diving, my brother and I used to pretend we were exploring beneath the waves, like Cousteau. My parents would tell us not to go in the water straight after lunch, and warn us to stay away from crabs and jellyfish. When I got into my teens, I used to complain that they were only interested in going to the beach to take in the sun. I thought if my dad was a diver, or if we’d grown up in somewhere like French Polynesia, I could have learned so much more.

But now I realise that would probably have killed the sense of adventure that still drives me to this day. In my photography, I try to focus on the mysterious – creatures we know little or nothing about. The oceans are full of animals and places that have never been photographed, but reaching them often poses a challenge, sometimes a dangerous one. I think mysterious things inspire more respect than those that are merely beautiful, though. The urge to be in front of something bigger than me, something weird, strange or scary, something I don’t understand, is what pushes me to explore.

About

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0400

San Diego isn’t just America’s Finest City; it’s America’s Wildest City. Despite its 3.3 million human residents and an utterly transformed landscape, San Diego County is the most biologically diverse county in America. Witness its hidden wonders in San Diego: America’s Wildest City, premiering Wednesday, November 6, 2024.

San Diego is an oasis at the intersection of hostile worlds: the dividing line between the Mojave Desert to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West; the Sierra Mountains to the North and Mexican border to the South. Meet the diverse array of wildlife thriving incongruously in a transformed landscape of manmade wilderness. From the dramatic rituals of grebes and the playful antics of ground squirrels to the thrilling hunts of orcas and the moonlit spawning of grunion, witness nature’s resilience and beauty amidst the urban sprawl.

“The first day I arrived in San Diego and walked to the beach at sunset, I looked out at the ocean and listened to the sound of surf, seagulls, and seals and knew this wonderful place would become my home,” said writer and director Nate Dappen. “What I didn’t realize on that day was just how rich this landscape was. I began to explore and was stunned by the diversity of ecosystems here – deserts, mountains, chaparral, and the great Pacific Ocean all within an hour drive. I knew I wanted to create a film that celebrates a different, spectacular side of America’s most biodiverse county.”

The post About appeared first on Nature.

Andrew Forrest says net zero is ‘fantasy’ so his goal is ‘real zero’. What does he mean – and can he achieve it? | Temperature Check

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 09:48:35 -0400

The mining tycoon says his iron ore business will stop using fossil fuels by the end of the decade without carbon offsets or carbon capture and storage

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About $45 trillion of global business revenue is covered by corporate “net zero emissions” pledges but iron ore billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest thinks the whole net zero thing is “fantasy”.

“Now is the time to walk away from net zero 2050, that hasn’t been anything really but a con to maintain fossil fuels,” Forrest said last week.

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‘It’s path-breaking’: British Columbia’s blueprint for decolonisation

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 09:00:14 -0400

First Nations are negotiating with government on sharing crucial decisions over forestry, mining and construction

A wild experiment is under way in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province: the government is rewriting its laws to share power with Indigenous nations over a land base bigger than France and Germany combined.

Decades in the making, this transition entered history in 2019, when BC became the first jurisdiction on Earth to sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into law. This means the regional government would share decision-making power over land management matters with First Nations, potentially affecting leasing and licences for forestry, mining and construction.

Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for mastering structures of proteins

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:58:41 -0400

David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper have been awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry for research on predicting protein structures and designing new proteins

Extreme hurricane season is here and it is fuelled by climate change

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:30:21 -0400

Hurricanes have kept forecasters guessing this year, but with the arrival of intense storms like Helene and Milton it is clear that warming ocean waters are having an effect on the weather

Europe was a leader on saving nature. Now, its backsliding could threaten global progress

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:00:11 -0400

Once a champion of initiatives to protect nature, the EU is now giving in to pressure from farmers and the far right

When diplomats struck a deal to save nature in 2022, pledging to halt biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, Europe was seen as a credible leader in fraught negotiations. The EU cajoled others into stepping up their game as it championed a target to protect 30% of the land and sea by 2030.

But two years later, as delegates meet in wildlife-rich Colombia for Cop16 – the international summit to save nature – Europe’s own enthusiasm for saving species appears to be endangered.

Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 05:37:47 -0400

Government criticised over list of potential countries for sourcing biomass, which also includes Afghanistan

A plan by the British government to burn biomass imported from countries including North Korea and Afghanistan has been described as “bonkers”, with critics saying it undermines the credibility of the UK’s climate strategy.

A bioenergy resource model, published in late summer, calculates that only a big expansion in the import of energy crops and wood from a surprising list of nations would satisfy the UK’s plan to meet net zero.

Your toothbrush is teeming with hundreds of types of viruses

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 04:00:55 -0400

More than 600 types of viruses that infect bacteria have been found living on toothbrushes and showerheads – and many of them have never been seen before

Global heating makes hurricanes like Helene twice as likely, data shows

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 02:00:08 -0400

Analysis shows Gulf’s heat that worsened Helene 200-500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating

As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, fueled by a record-hot Gulf of Mexico, a new analysis has shown how the Gulf’s heat that worsened last month’s Hurricane Helene was 200 to 500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating.

Helene, one of the deadliest storms in US history, gathered pace over the Gulf before crashing ashore with 140mph (225km/h) winds.

A delegation of Maugean skates are listening to the keynote speaker at the global nature-positive summit | First Dog on the Moon

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 01:53:01 -0400

Ahahahah oh this is gold

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China to head green energy boom with 60% of new projects in next six years

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 01:00:06 -0400

IEA says faster clean energy rollout being led by solar power in China with country set to boast half of world’s renewables by 2030

China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

The IEA’s highly influential renewable energy report found that over the next six years renewable energy projects will roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years, led by the clean energy programmes of China and India.

‘A huge loss’: is it the end for the ship that helped us understand life on Earth?

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 01:00:05 -0400

The Joides Resolution has contributed to our understanding of climate crisis, the origin of life, earthquakes and eruptions. But funding cuts mean it may have sailed its last expedition

In the early summer of this year, a ship set sail around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. But this wasn’t any ordinary ship. For almost 40 years the Joides Resolution drilled into the ocean floor to collect samples and data that helped scientists to study Earth’s history and structure. Expeditions on the vessel have made a vital contribution to our understanding of the climate crisis, the tectonic plates theory, the origin of life on Earth and natural hazards such as earthquakes and eruptions. Yet the two-month voyage around Svalbard was to be its last.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the US agency that provided scientists at Texas A&M University with funds for the ship, announced last year it would not give money for the drilling vessel past September 2024. It was a declaration that shocked the global scientific community and meant that Svalbard would be the ship’s final outing.

The vibration isolated television is attached to the drillpipe and is used to image the seafloor before drilling begins. Photograph: Lisa Crowder/IODP JRSO

See the stunning winners from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:31:59 -0400

An army of tadpoles and a stretching lynx are just some of the incredible photos winning accolades at the annual competition

Energy industry trade body chief to head UK’s climate watchdog

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:01:04 -0400

Emma Pinchbeck will take over as chief executive of Climate Change Committee next month

The government’s official climate watchdog has appointed the head of the energy industry’s trade association to lead its work helping to drive the UK’s emissions to net zero by 2050.

Emma Pinchbeck, the head of Energy UK, will take up the role of chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) from early next month after four years at the helm of the trade association.

Klamath River dam removal: before and after images show dramatic change

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 18:45:53 -0400

Dam removal concluded a decades long fight on 2 October, which also saw Chinook salmon return to the waters

With California’s Klamath Dam removal project finally completed, new before and after photos show the dramatic differences along the river with and without the dams. The photos were taken by Swiftwater Films, a documentary company chronicling the dam removal project – a two decade long fight that concluded 2 October.

“The tribally led effort to dismantle the dams is an expression of our sacred duty to maintain balance in the world,” Yurok tribal chairman Joseph L James said in a statement. “That is why we fought so hard for so long to tear down the dams and bring the salmon home.”

Transition to a circular bioeconomy requires getting prices right

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 16:39:31 -0400

A circular bioeconomy that reduces and recycles waste, transitions away from fossil fuels to renewable bio-based alternatives, and regenerates natural systems is critical for feeding and fueling the world's growing population in environmentally sustainable ways. But it's a complicated concept, and significant questions remain about how it should be implemented and how to get buy-in from farmers, industry, and consumers in a market economy. A new paper by noted agricultural economists and scientists argues that the concept of a circular bioeconomy needs to expand beyond its technical focus on reducing waste and incorporate a values-based economic lens. The authors emphasize the need for the right policies, incentives, and market signals to persuade consumers and producers to make environmentally sound decisions -- and to help ensure that the system is equitable.

Hot sauce taste test reveals how expectations shape pleasure and pain

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:00:09 -0400

Brain scans of people tasting squirts of hot sauce have revealed how positive and negative expectations can influence brain activity patterns for pleasure and pain

AIs can work together in much larger groups than humans ever could

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:00:13 -0400

It is thought that humans can only maintain relationships with around 150 people, a figure known as Dunbar's number, but it seems that AI models can outstrip this and reach consensus in far bigger groups

Transition to low-carbon futures: New research uncovers rise in legal challenges to climate action

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:25:50 -0400

As the global push towards low-carbon societies accelerates, a new study reveals that justice concerns are increasingly surfacing in legal disputes over climate policies and projects. This phenomenon, described as 'just transition litigation', emphasizes the need to balance climate action with social justice considerations, ensuring that vulnerable communities are not disproportionately impacted.

A cave in France is revealing how the Neanderthals died out

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Discoveries from the genomes of the last Neanderthals are rewriting the story of how our own species came to replace them

Growing number of Earth's ‘vital signs’ endangered by climate change

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 11:00:27 -0400

Key climate indicators from greenhouse gas levels to ice loss have reached record levels this year in what researchers call a “critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”

Climate report warns of escalating crisis, urges immediate action as UN summit nears

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:37:57 -0400

An international coalition of scientists concludes that the Earth's worsening vital signs indicate a 'critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis' and that 'decisive action is needed, and fast.'

Meet a scientist protecting 'overlooked' ecosystems

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:02:13 -0400

‘It’s easy to take water for granted’: How one self-professed pessimist keeps fighting for the future of freshwater ecosystems.

Surviving the summer on Queensland’s remote cattle properties: ‘We never give up on fires’

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:00:09 -0400

Queensland is facing an increased risk of fire this summer but in regional areas firefighting is a job for volunteers

In the southern states, the bushfire advice on days of extreme or catastrophic fire danger is to evacuate early or have a plan to fall back to a community place of safety. But in the Arcadia Valley, 650km north-west of Brisbane in remote central Queensland, the response of locals is still to stay and fight.

“We have tremendous fires here and sometimes you will leave home [to fight a fire] with your swag and you don’t come back for a couple of weeks,” Owen Price says. “We might lose a fire, or fall back to plan B and C, but we’ll contain it somewhere and we’ll stick with it until we get it out. We never give up on fires. We can’t afford to because at the end of the day we are protecting our livelihoods and no one else will do that.”

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Microscopic gears powered by light could be used to make tiny machines

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:00:47 -0400

Gears just a few micrometres wide can be carved from silicon using a beam of electrons, enabling tiny robots or machines that could interact with human cells

Nobel prize for physics goes to pair who invented key AI techniques

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 06:53:18 -0400

The 2024 Nobel prize in physics has gone to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for discoveries that enabled machine learning and are key to the development of artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT

Certain quantum systems may be able to defy entropy's effects forever

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 18:00:26 -0400

A mathematical proof shows that some quantum states can resist nature’s tendency to disorder – but only under very specific conditions

The US is ramping up bird flu surveillance – but will it be enough?

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:52:10 -0400

Two more people in the US have tested positive for a bird flu virus called H5N1, highlighting the need for expanded influenza surveillance to prevent a potential pandemic

Slowing growth in life expectancy means few people will live to 100

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:00:57 -0400

While the 20th century saw rapid rises in average life expectancy at birth, more recent years have seen a slowdown, suggesting we may be reaching the limit of human lifespan

Two injured comb jellies can merge to form one individual

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:00:39 -0400

A pair of ctenophores, or comb jellies, can fuse their bodies together, merging their digestive and nervous systems, without any issues with immune rejection

The physicist who argues that there are no objective laws of physics

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Daniele Oriti’s pursuit of a theory of quantum gravity has led him to the startling conclusion that the laws of nature don’t exist independently of us – a perspective shift that could yield fresh breakthroughs

Researchers confront new US and global challenges in vaccinations of adults

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 11:51:02 -0400

Over the past decade, decreasing vaccination rates now threaten the huge beneficial impacts of vaccinations in the U.S. and globally. Researchers discuss the multifactorial barriers including increasing vaccine hesitancy and new clinical and public health challenges in vaccinations of U.S. adults.

Hackers can turn your smartphone into an eavesdropping device

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:00:31 -0400

Motion sensors in smartphones can be turned into makeshift microphones to eavesdrop on conversations, outsmarting security features designed to stop such attacks

Nobel prize for medicine goes to the pair who discovered microRNA

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 06:43:01 -0400

The 2024 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on discovering microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation

MDMA was hyped as a promising treatment for PTSD – what went wrong?

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 16:32:51 -0400

For years, it seemed MDMA-assisted therapy would revolutionise PTSD treatment. But poor trial design and alleged misconduct ultimately stopped the treatment from receiving government approval