Most recent 40 articles: Science Daily - Earth and Climate
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'Diverse' Agriculture Benefits People and the Environment at the Same Time - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Rotating crops, conserving soil nutrients and deploying other strategies to "diversify" agriculture all at the same time can yield major benefits for the environment and people alike -- including increased crop yields and improved food security for entire communities.
That's the take-home message of a landmark new study, including researchers from more than 15 nations and data from 2,655 farms on five continents. The team published its findings April 4 in the journal Science.
"This is evidence that this can actually work -- we can imagine agricultural systems that are more diverse and serve people and nature at the same time," said Zia Mehrabi, a co-author of the new ... Read more ...
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'Tug of War' Tactic Enhances Chemical Separations for Critical Materials - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Lanthanide elements are important for clean energy and other applications. To use them, industry must separate mixed lanthanide sources into individual elements using costly, time-consuming, and waste-generating procedures. An efficient new method can be tailored to select specific lanthanides. The technique combines two substances that do not mix and that prefer different types of lanthanides. The process would allow for smaller equipment, less use of chemicals, and less waste production.
The metals called lanthanides have valuable properties for clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines and for many other applications. These elements include ... Read more ...
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38 Trillion Dollars in Damages Each Year: World Economy Already Committed to Income Reduction of 19 % Due to Climate Change - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Even if CO2 emissions were to be drastically cut down starting today, the world economy is already committed to an income reduction of 19 % until 2050 due to climate change, a new study published in Nature finds. These damages are six times larger than the mitigation costs needed to limit global warming to two degrees. Based on empirical data from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) assessed future impacts of changing climatic conditions on economic growth and their persistence.
"Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with ... Read more ...
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A Natural Touch for Coastal Defense - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Common "hard" coastal defenses, like concrete sea walls, might struggle to keep up with increasing climate risks. A new study shows that combining them with nature-based solutions could, in some contexts, create defenses which are better able to adapt. Researchers reviewed 304 academic articleson the performance of coastal defenses around the world, including: natural environments; soft measures (which support or enrich nature); hard measures (such as concrete sea walls); and hybrids of the aforementioned. Soft and hybrid measures turned out to be more cost-effective than hard measures, and hybrid measures provided the highest hazard reduction overall in low-risk areas. Although ... Read more ...
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A New Estimate of U.S. Soil Organic Carbon to Improve Earth System Models - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Soil contains about twice as much carbon as the atmosphere and plants combined. It is a major carbon sink, capable of absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases. Management of soil carbon is key in efforts to mitigate climate change, in addition to being vital to soil health and agricultural productivity.
Measuring soil carbon, however, is a painstaking, expensive process. Samples must be dug from the ground and sent to a lab for analysis, making upscaling measurements on a large spatial scale challenging.
Now environmental scientists have combined field-level data with machine-learning techniques to estimate soil organic carbon at the U.S. ... Read more ...
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A Simple Way to Harvest More 'Blue Energy' from Waves - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · As any surfer will tell you, waves pack a powerful punch. Now, we are one step closer to capturing the energy behind the ocean's constant ebb and flow with an improved "blue energy" harvesting device. Researchers report in ACS Energy Letters that simply repositioning the electrode -- from the center of a see-sawing liquid-filled tube to the end where the water crashes with the most force -- dramatically increased the amount of wave energy that could be harvested.
The tube-shaped wave-energy harvesting device improved upon by the researchers is called a liquid-solid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The TENG converts mechanical energy into electricity as water sloshes back ... Read more ...
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A Smarter City Skyline for Flood Safety - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A city's skyline -- the distinctive shapes and arrangements of its buildings -- impacts the safety of its population during floods. When the streets flood, pedestrians can be swept under the current and injured or killed. With climate change and rising urbanization, the likelihood and severity of urban flooding are increasing.
Not all city blocks are created equal. In Physics of Fluids, an AIP Publishing journal, researchers from Beijing Normal University, Beijing Hydrological Center, and the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research investigated how city design contributes to pedestrian safety during flooding.
"Climate change leads to an increasing ... Read more ...
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AI Writing, Illustration Emits Hundreds of Times Less Carbon Than Humans, Study Finds - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · With the evolution of artificial intelligence comes discussion of the technology's environmental impact. A new study has found that for the tasks of writing and illustrating, AI emits hundreds of times less carbon than humans performing the same tasks. That does not mean, however, that AI can or should replace human writers and illustrators, the study's authors argue.
Andrew Torrance, Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, is co-author of a study that compared established systems such as ChatGPT, Bloom AI, DALL-E2 and others completing writing and illustrating to that of humans.
Like cryptocurrency, AI has been subject to debate about the amount of energy ... Read more ...
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Ants in Colorado Are on the Move Due to Climate Change - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Over the past 60 years, climate change has forced certain ant species, unable to tolerate higher temperatures, out of their original habitats in Gregory Canyon near Boulder, Colorado, according to a new research published April 9 in the journal Ecology.
The resulting biodiversity change could potentially alter local ecosystems, according to first author Anna Paraskevopoulos, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Like all insects, ants are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature, metabolism and other bodily functions depend on the environment's temperature. As a result, ants are sensitive to ... Read more ...
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Are Universities Connected to Local Sustainability? A New Study Suggests Yes...and No. - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A new study finds that universities scoring strongly on measures of sustainability are associated with innovation and economic growth in their surrounding communities. However, the study did not find similar connections between university sustainability performance and environmental sustainability in their home communities.
"Society is facing a slew of global challenges, and we wanted to assess the extent to which higher education is contributing to the sort of transformative change needed to address these challenges," says Christopher Galik, co-author of the study and a professor of public administration at North Carolina State University. "For this study, we started at the ... Read more ...
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Atmospheric and Economic Drivers of Global Air Pollution - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Carbon monoxide emissions from industrial production have serious consequences for human health and are a strong indicator of overall air pollution levels. Many countries aim to reduce their emissions, but they cannot control air flows originating in other regions. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at global flows of air pollution and how they relate to economic activity in the global supply chain.
"Our study is unique in combining atmospheric transport of air pollution with supply chain analysis as it tells us where the pollution is coming from and who is ultimately responsible for it," said lead author Sandy Dall'erba, professor in the ... Read more ...
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Australia on Track for Unprecedented, Decades-Long Megadroughts - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Australia could soon see megadroughts that last for more than 20 years, according to new modelling from The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.
According to the scientists, the findings paint a worrying picture of future droughts in Australia that are far worse than anything in recent experience.
Megadroughts are exceptionally severe, long-lasting and widespread. They can last multiple decades or even centuries. An example of this is the megadrought in the United States' southwestern region that started in the year 2000 and has continued for more than two decades.
Co-lead author Dr Georgy Falster, from the ANU ... Read more ...
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Biofilm-Resistant Glass for Marine Environments - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A group of researchers led by University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers have created ultraviolet (UV) rays-emitting glass that can reduce 98% of biofilm from growing on surfaces in underwater environments, as reported in the journal Biofilm.
Biofilm is a slimy layer of various types of microorganisms that grows on wet surfaces. "If you look down your sink and touch the inner side of it -- that slimy substance is biofilm," describes Mariana Lanzarini-Lopes, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst, and a corresponding author on the paper.
Biofilm is a significant issue for underwater applications. The United States Navy estimates ... Read more ...
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Boreal Forest and Tundra Regions Worst Hit Over Next 500 Years of Climate Change, Study Shows - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The boreal forest, covering much of Canada and Alaska, and the treeless shrublands to the north of the forest region, may be among the worst impacted by climate change over the next 500 years, according to a new study.
The study, led by researchers at the White Rose universities of York and Leeds, as well as Oxford and Montreal, and ETH, Switzerland, ran a widely-used climate model with different atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to assess the impact climate change could have on the distribution of ecosystems across the planet up to the year 2500.
Most climate prediction models run to the year 2100, but researchers are keen to explore longer-term projections ... Read more ...
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Building Blocks for Greener Energy: Reconfigurable Elastic Metasurface - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Energy harvesting, an eco-friendly technology, extends beyond solar and wind power in generating electricity from unused or discarded energy in daily life, including vibrations generated by passing car engines or trains. Recent intriguing research has been announced, aiming to enhance the efficiency of energy harvesting using a new type of metasurface that can be reconfigured, resembling the assembly of LEGO bricks.
Professor Junsuk Rho from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering and PhD/MS student Geon Lee from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have joined ... Read more ...
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California Leads U.S. Emissions of Little-Known Greenhouse Gas - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · California, a state known for its aggressive greenhouse gas reduction policies, is ironically the nation's greatest emitter of one: sulfuryl fluoride.
As much as 17% of global emissions of this gas, a common pesticide for treating termites and other wood-infesting insects, stem from the United States. The majority of those emissions trace back to just a few counties in California, finds a new study led by Johns Hopkins University.
"When we finally mapped it out, the results were puzzling because the emissions were all coming from one place," said co-author Scot Miller, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins who studies greenhouse ... Read more ...
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Chemistry Researchers Modify Solar Technology to Produce a Less Harmful Greenhouse Gas - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · In the paper, "Methyl Termination of p-Type Silicon Enables Selective Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction by a Molecular Ruthenium Catalyst," published in ACS Energy Letters, the researchers explain how they use a process called methyl termination that uses a simple organic compound of one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms to modify the surface of silicon, an essential component in solar cells, to improve its performance in converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using sunlight.
"One challenge with solar energy is that it's not always available when we have the highest need for it," said Gabriella Bein, the paper's first author and a Ph.D. student in chemistry. ... Read more ...
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Clearing the Air: Wind Farms More Land Efficient Than Previously Thought - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Wind power is a source of energy that is both affordable and renewable.
However, decision-makers have been reluctant to invest in wind energy due to a perception that wind farms require a lot of land compared to electric power plants driven by fossil fuels. Research led by McGill University and based on the assessment of the land-use of close to 320 wind farms in the U.S. (the largest study of its kind) paints a very different picture.
Misplaced preconceptions about the land use of gas-fuelled electricity
The study, which was published recently in Environmental Science and Technology, shows that, when calculations are made, the entire wind farm area is usually ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Impacts Terrorist Activity - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Changing weather patterns induced by climate change are contributing to shifts in the location of terrorist activity, according to new research.
An exploratory study led by extremism expert Dr Jared Dmello, from the University of Adelaide's School of Social Sciences, found some climatological variables affected terrorist activity in India.
"Suitability analyses indicate that all the climatological variables tested -- temperature, precipitation, and elevation -- relate to shifting patterns of terrorist activity," says Dr Dmello.
"Urban centres have increasingly grown in population density, particularly in spaces with favourable climates, and some of the more remote ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Threatens Antarctic Meteorites - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Using artificial intelligence, satellite observations, and climate model projections, a team of researchers from Switzerland and Belgium calculate that for every tenth of a degree of increase in global air temperature, an average of nearly 9,000 meteorites disappear from the surface of the ice sheet. This loss has major implications, as meteorites are unique samples of extraterrestrial bodies that provide insights into the origin of life on Earth and the formation of the Moon.
Disappearing at an alarming rate
By 2050, about a quarter of the estimated of 300,000 -- 800,000 meteorites in Antarctica will be lost due to glacial melt. By end of the century, researchers ... Read more ...
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Cloud Engineering Could Be More Effective 'Painkiller' for Global Warming Than Previously Thought - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Cloud 'engineering' could be more effective for climate cooling than previously thought, because of the increased cloud cover produced, new research shows.
In a study published in Nature Geoscience, researchers at the University of Birmingham found that marine cloud brightening (MCB), also known as marine cloud engineering, works primarily by increasing the amount of cloud cover, accounting for 60-90% of the cooling effect.
Previous models used to estimate the cooling effects of MCB have focused on the ability of aerosol injection to produce a brightening effect on the cloud, which in turn increases the amount of sunlight reflected back into space.
The practice of ... Read more ...
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CO2 Worsens Wildfires by Helping Plants Grow - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · By fueling the growth of plants that become kindling, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, according to a UC Riverside study.
The worldwide surge in wildfires over the past decade is often attributed to the hotter, drier conditions of climate change. However, the study found that the effect of increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) on plants may be a bigger factor.
"It's not because it's hotter that things are burning, it's because there's more fuel, in the form of plants," said UCR doctoral student in Earth and planetary sciences and study author James Gomez.
This conclusion, and a description of the eight model ... Read more ...
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Cold-Affinity Algae Species Are Gradually Being Replaced by Warm-Affinity Ones Off the Coast of Biscay - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The temperature of our planet is rising rapidly. Ninety per cent of the excess heat generated has been absorbed by the sea and, as a result, the surface temperature of the oceans has risen significantly. In this context, immobile and temperature-sensitive organisms are particularly vulnerable.
In addition, there are places where the warming of the sea is more significant than in others. For example, off the Basque coast there has been a 0.23 °C increase in sea temperature per decade, compared with a global increase of 0.15 °C. Faced with this situation, the UPV/EHU's Marine Benthos Research Group explored how macroalgae communities in a coastal area off Biscay have ... Read more ...
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Companies Ignoring Climate Risks Get Punished by Markets, New Study Reveals - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A pioneering study from the University of Florida has quantified corporations' exposure to climate change risks like hurricanes, wildfires, and climate-related regulations and the extent to which climate risks are priced into their market valuations. The research also exposes a costly divide -- companies that proactively manage climate risks fare much better than those that ignore the threats.
Using textual analysis of earnings call transcripts from almost 5,000 U.S. public companies, researchers developed novel measures of firms' physical climate risk exposure from weather extremes as well as the 'transition risks' that firms face from the global shift to a low-carbon ... Read more ...
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Coral Reef Microbes Point to New Way to Assess Ecosystem Health - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem health.
The study, published today in Microbiome, looked at coral reefs specifically, but the researchers say it could be widely applicable as a method for measuring how ecosystems are responding to human activities.
Understanding how ecosystems are changing in response to human activity allows predictions of their future, and how to conserve them. Although microbes are crucial for ecosystems -- supporting critical functions such as nutrition and immune system modulation -- changes in microbial communities are rarely measured when ... Read more ...
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Deep Parts of Great Barrier Reef 'Insulated' from Global Warming -- For Now - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Some deeper areas of the Great Barrier Reef are insulated from harmful heatwaves -- but that protection will be lost if global warming continues, according to new research.
High surface temperatures have caused mass "bleaching" of the Great Barrier Reef in five of the last eight years, with the latest happening now.
Climate change projections for coral reefs are usually based on sea surface temperatures, but this overlooks the fact that deeper water does not necessarily experience the same warming as that at the surface.
The new study -- led by the universities of Exeter and Queensland -- examined how changing temperatures will affect mesophotic corals (depth 30-50 ... Read more ...
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Deforestation Harms Biodiversity of the Amazon's Perfume-Loving Orchid Bees - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of biodiversity in the neotropics.
The findings, from a researcher at the University of Kansas, are published today in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Conservation.
"This study on orchid bees was an add-on to previous research on stingless bees. Orchid bees are so easy to collect, so we added them to our broader survey of bee biodiversity across this rapidly developing region in the Amazon," said lead author J. Christopher Brown, professor of geography ... Read more ...
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Demand for Critical Minerals Puts African Great Apes at Risk - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A recent study led by researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the non-profit conservation organization Re:wild shows that the threat of mining to the great ape population in Africa has been greatly underestimated. Their results have been published in Science Advances.
The rising demand for critical minerals, such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other rare earth elements required for the large-scale transition to cleaner energy is causing a surge of mining in Africa, where a large share of those mineral resources is still unexploited. This is driving deforestation of ... Read more ...
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Dinosaur Study Challenges Bergmann's Rule - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · When you throw dinosaurs into the mix, sometimes you find that a rule simply isn't.
A new study led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Reading calls into question Bergmann's rule, an 1800s-era scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer climates.
The fossil record shows otherwise.
"Our study shows that the evolution of diverse body sizes in dinosaurs and mammals cannot be reduced to simply being a function of latitude or temperature," said Lauren Wilson, a UAF graduate student and a lead author of a paper published today in the journal ... Read more ...
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Discovery Could End Global Amphibian Pandemic - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A fungus devastating frogs and toads on nearly every continent may have an Achilles heel. Scientists have discovered a virus that infects the fungus, and that could be engineered to save the amphibians.
The fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd, ravages the skin of frogs and toads, and eventually causes heart failure. To date it has contributed to the decline of over 500 amphibian species, and 90 possible extinctions including yellow-legged mountain frogs in the Sierras and the Panamanian golden frog.
A new paper in the journal Current Biology documents the discovery of a virus that infects Bd, and which could be engineered to control the fungal disease.
The ... Read more ...
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East Coast Mussel Shells Are Becoming More Porous in Warming Waters - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · "Mussels are important on so many levels: they provide habitats on reefs, they filter water, they protect coasts during storms, and they are important commercially as well -- I love mussels and I know many other people do, too," said Leanne Melbourne, a Kathryn W. Davis postdoctoral fellow in the Museum's Master of Arts in Teaching program and the lead author on the study. "Human-caused environmental changes are threatening the ability of mussels and other mollusks to form their shells, and we need to better understand what risks will come from this in the future."
Previous studies on the blue, or common, mussel (Mytilus edulis) have used lab experiments to investigate how ... Read more ...
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Economist: Tens of Billions of Dollars in Forest Products Are Being Overlooked - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Are we missing the forest for the trees? More than timber grows in forests -- including products worth many tens of billions of dollars. Because these goods go unrecorded in official trade statistics, their economic value escapes our attention. As a result, clear opportunities to combat poverty are being missed, according to a University of Copenhagen economist.
In the Roman Empire, custom taxes on spices, black pepper in particular, accounted for up to a third of the empire's annual income. And during the late Middle Ages, European efforts to cut out middle men and monopolise the spice trade led to colonization in Asia. Historically, non-timber forest products have frequently ... Read more ...
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eDNA Methods Give a Real-Time Look at Coral Reef Health - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The human gut is full of microbes. Some microbes can make people sick, while others are responsible for balancing gut health. But humans aren't the only species who's health depends on these microorganisms. Coral reef ecosystems rely on microorganisms to recycle organic matter and nutrients. These cells also help feed corals and other life reliant on reefs. Researchers from WHOI studied the microbes in coral reef water by examining eight reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands over a period of seven years, which included periods of hurricane and coral disease disturbance.
"Coral reefs have been declining for decades. Climate change, hurricanes, disease, and other stressors have ... Read more ...
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Elastocaloric Cooling: Refrigerator Cools by Flexing Artificial Muscles - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · There is room for just one small bottle in the world's first refrigerator that is cooled with artificial muscles made of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy. But the mini-prototype that the team led by professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki will be presenting at the Hannover Messe from 22 to 26 April is groundbreaking: it shows that elastocalorics is becoming a viable solution for practical applications. This climate-friendly cooling and heating technology is far more energy-efficient and sustainable than current methods. The research team is developing the new heating and cooling technology in multiple research projects at Saarland University and the Center for Mechatronics and ... Read more ...
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Engineers 'Symphonize' Cleaner Ammonia Production - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Among the many chemicals we use every day, ammonia is one of the worst for the atmosphere. The nitrogen-based chemical used in fertilizer, dyes, explosives and many other products ranks second only to cement in terms of carbon emissions, due to the high temperatures and energy needed to manufacture it.
But by improving on a well-known electrochemical reaction and orchestrating a "symphony" of lithium, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms, University of Illinois Chicago engineers led by Meenesh Singhhave developed a new ammonia production processthat meets several green targets.
The process, called lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis, combines nitrogen gas and a hydrogen-donating ... Read more ...
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Evolution in Action? Nitrogen-Fixing Organelles - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Nitrogen is a nutrient essential for all life on Earth. Although nitrogen gas (N2) is plentiful, it is largely unavailable to most organisms without a process known as nitrogen fixation, which converts dinitrogen to ammonium -- a major inorganic nitrogen source.
While there are bacteria that are able to reduce dinitrogen to ammonium, researchers at the University of Rhode Island, Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, University of California at Santa Cruz and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered nitrogen-fixing symbiotic organisms exhibiting behaviors similar to organelles. In fact, researchers posit these symbiotic organisms -- UCYN-A, a ... Read more ...
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Experiencing Extreme Weather Predicts Support for Policies to Mitigate Effects of Climate Change - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Most Americans report having personally experienced the effects of extreme weather, according to new survey data from the Annenberg Public Policy Center that finds support for pro-environmental government policies meant to lessen the effects of climate change.
More than 6 in 10 people favor increased investment in energy-efficient public transit and an equal number support providing tax credits to families who install rooftop solar or battery storage, according to the nationally representative panel survey, fielded in November 2023 with over 1,500 U.S. adults.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults say that in the past year their typical daily activities were affected either ... Read more ...
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Exposure to Common Environmental Carcinogens Linked to Decreased Lifespan Happiness - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · If improving your outlook on life really was as simple as "don't worry, be happy," then keeping your spirits up would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it's not so simple, as a multitude of factors beyond our control can affect our mood.
In a study published in March in Environmental Research, researchers from Osaka University have revealed that contaminants in the environment can have an effect on our lifespan emotional wellbeing.
A recently developed risk assessment tool defined happy life expectancy as the lifespan during which a person experiences subjective emotional wellbeing, while loss of happy life expectancy (LHpLE) was defined as a decrease in the length of ... Read more ...
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Fans Are Not a Magic Bullet for Beating the Heat! - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A new study by researchers at the University of Ottawa throws cold water on the idea that fans can effectively cool you down during extremely hot weather events.
With severe heat waves becoming more frequent due to climate change, there's a growing need for safe and accessible ways to keep people cool, especially vulnerable populations like older adults. Fans are often recommended as cheap and easy solutions, but this study suggests they might not be as helpful as previously thought.
"Fans do improve sweat evaporation, but this effect is not strong enough to significantly lower your body's internal temperature when it's already really hot (above 33-35°C). In older ... Read more ...
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Fires Pose Growing Worldwide Threat to Wildland-Urban Interface - Science Daily - Earth and Climate (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Fires that blaze through the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are becoming more common around the globe, a trend that is likely to continue for at least the next two decades, new research finds.
The overall number of all fires worldwide has declined, as has the total area burned.
However, the scientists found that the fraction of global fires that occur in WUI areas increased by about 23% from 2005 to 2020. Even more significantly, the global area burned by WUI fires during the same time increased by about 35% as a fraction of all burned areas.
WUI areas are generally defined as the location where urban land use and wildland vegetation come into contact or ... Read more ...
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