Global Geneva: NuseReal

CERN publishes its environment report for 2021–2022: CERN is well on track to meet the reduction objectives set for the end of Run 3 at the end of 2025" — CERN — 23 December 2023 (LINK)

— The Laboratory is committed to limiting the rise in electricity consumption to 5%, corresponding to a target of 1314 GWh, while significantly improving the performance of its facilities. A total of 1215 GWh was consumed in 2022 and the accelerator complex is now more efficient.

CERN is committed to keeping the increase in its water consumption below 5% despite a growing demand for water cooling at its facilities. Since 2000, CERN has radically decreased its water consumption by about 80%.

With respect to direct greenhouse gas emissions, CERN’s objective is to achieve a 28% reduction by the end of Run 3, which corresponds to a target of 138 300 tCO2e. In 2022, direct emissions of 184 300 tCO2e were generated. A comprehensive programme to ensure progress towards the objective is in place, which includes increased efforts by the experiments to limit gas consumption and work towards replacing current gases with more environmentally friendly ones.

Study: field pansies are starting to self-pollinate due to fewer insects: "Population genetics analysis reveals a 27 percent increase in realized selfing rates" — ground.news: 12 media reports — 20 December 2023 (LINK)

Why people still fall for fake news about climate change — grist.org — 18 December 2023 (LINK)

— A recent study in Nature Human Behavior found that climate change disinformation was more persuasive than scientific facts. Researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland had originally intended to see if they could help people fend off disinformation, testing different strategies on nearly 7,000 people from 12 countries, including the United States, India, and Nigeria. Participants read a paragraph intended to strengthen their mental defenses — reminders of the scientific consensus around climate change, the trustworthiness of scientists, or the moral responsibility to act, for example. Then they were subjected to a barrage of 20 real tweets that blamed warming on the sun and the “wavy” jet stream, spouted conspiracies about “the climate hoax devised by the U.N.,” and warned that the elites “want us to eat bugs.”

The interventions didn’t work as hoped, said Tobia Spampatti, an author of the study and a neuroscience researcher at the University of Geneva. The flood of fake news — meant to simulate what people encounter in social media echo chambers — had a big effect.

Why people still fall for fake news about climate change — grist.org — 18 December 2023 (LINK)

— A recent study in Nature Human Behavior found that climate change disinformation was more persuasive than scientific facts. Researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland had originally intended to see if they could help people fend off disinformation, testing different strategies on nearly 7,000 people from 12 countries, including the United States, India, and Nigeria. Participants read a paragraph intended to strengthen their mental defenses — reminders of the scientific consensus around climate change, the trustworthiness of scientists, or the moral responsibility to act, for example. Then they were subjected to a barrage of 20 real tweets that blamed warming on the sun and the "wavy" jet stream, spouted conspiracies about "the climate hoax devised by the U.N.," and warned that the elites "want us to eat bugs."

The interventions didn't work as hoped, said Tobia Spampatti, an author of the study and a neuroscience researcher at the University of Geneva. The flood of fake news — meant to simulate what people encounter in social media echo chambers — had a big effect. Reading the tweets about bogus conspiracies lowered people's belief that climate change was happening, their support for action to reduce emissions, and their willingness to do something about it personally. The disinformation was simply more compelling than scientific facts, partly because it plays with people's emotions, Spampatti said (eliciting anger toward elites who want you to eat bugs, for example). The only paragraph that helped people recognize falsehoods was one that prompted them to evaluate the accuracy of the information they were seeing, a nudge that brought some people back to reality.

Norman says it's crucial that any intervention to stop the spread of disinformation comes with a "weakened dose" of it, like a vaccine, to help people understand why someone might benefit from lying. For example, when the Biden administration learned of Russia's President Vladimir Putin's plans to invade Ukraine in late 2021, the White House began warning the world that Russia would push a false narrative to justify the invasion, including staging a fake, graphic video of a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory. When the video came out, it was quickly dismissed as fake news. "It was a wildly successful attempt to inoculate much of the world against Putin's preferred narrative about Ukraine," Norman said.

For climate change, that approach might not succeed — decades of oil-funded disinformation campaigns have already infected the public. "It's really hard to think about someone who hasn't been exposed to climate skepticism or disinformation from fossil fuel industries," said Emma Frances Bloomfield, a communication professor at the University of Nevada, Los Vegas. "It's just so pervasive. They have talking heads who go on news programs, they flood media publications and the internet, they pay lobbyists."

Reading the tweets about bogus conspiracies lowered people’s belief that climate change was happening, their support for action to reduce emissions, and their willingness to do something about it personally. The disinformation was simply more compelling than scientific facts, partly because it plays with people’s emotions, Spampatti said (eliciting anger toward elites who want you to eat bugs, for example). The only paragraph that helped people recognize falsehoods was one that prompted them to evaluate the accuracy of the information they were seeing, a nudge that brought some people back to reality.

Nine breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2023 you may have missed — BBC — 14 December 2023 (LINK)

— Record-setting spending on clean energy in the US. A clean energy milestone in the world's power sector. A surge in lawsuits against polluters. Plastics manufacturers sued for pollution. A treaty for the oceans 40 years in the making. America's biggest dam removal. The EU promises to become forest-friendly. Deforestation of the Amazon slows. Upholding indigenous rights in Brazil. Climate cash for vulnerable countries.

COP28 nations adopt first-ever climate deal to 'transition away' from fossil fuels — ground.news: 3 media reports — 13 December 2023 (LINK)

— The global deal, approved without comments, calls for transitioning away from fossil fuels but falls short of seeking a phase-out. Critics argue that the deal contains loopholes allowing for the continued expansion of fossil fuels, including natural gas.

COP28 — (LINK)

Climate change, human activity add nearly 2,000 species to threatened list — IUCN — ground.news: 34 media reports — 11 December 2023 (LINK)

Humanity is on the verge of 5 climate 'tipping points,' report warns — ground.news: 45 media reports — 6 December 2023 (LINK)

Scientists' discovery deep underground could have massive applications: 'climate holy grail': white hydrogen, also known as natural hydrogen or gold hydrogen, has been found deep below the Earth’s surface — thecooldown — 2 December 2023 (LINK)

— Research from the Energy Institute found that 82% of the world’s energy consumption came from dirty energy sources in 2022, leading to a 0.8% rise in planet-warming gases expelled into the atmosphere.

COP28: 7 policies could help save a billion lives by 2100 — theconversation — 29 November 2023 (LINK)

— "A 2 C temperature rise equates to a billion prematurely dead people over the next century. Direct mortal effects of climate change include heat waves, which have already caused thousands of human deaths by a combination of heat and humidity and even threaten babies. Intermediate causes of death involve crop failures, droughts, flooding, extreme weather, wildfires and rising seas. Crop failures, in particular, can make global hunger and starvation worse. More frequent and severe droughts can lead to more wildfires that also cause human deaths, as we saw in Hawaii. Droughts can also lead to contaminated water, more frequent disease and deaths from dehydration."

On the other hand, climate change can also cause flooding (and crop failures from too much water), which also drives hunger and disease. Climate change drives sea level rise and the resultant submersion of low-lying coastal areas and storm surges exacerbate flood risks, which are life-threatening for billions of people in coastal cities who face the prospect of forced migration.

Climate change also increases extreme weather events, which kill and cause considerable damage to essential services such as the electric grid and medical facilities. Salt water intrusion also threatens coastal agriculture, further reducing food supplies.

Finally, climate change also indirectly increases the probability of conflict and war. Although the academic consensus on climate-change-induced war is far from settled, there is little doubt climate change amplifies stress and can cause more localized conflict.

We must mandate all new construction be net-zero buildings or positive energy buildings.
Mandate mass purchases of energy conservation or renewable energy technologies and make them freely available to everyone with zero-interest loans that are easily paid back with energy savings.
Immediately end the sale of fossil fuel vehicles which will save considerable carbon and money as electric vehicles already have a lower lifetime cost than gas vehicles).
Revoke the charters of fossil fuel companies and disperse their assets if a company or industry is responsible for killing more people from emissions than they employ. The United States coal industry already kills more people from air pollution per year than it employs, and that does not include climate change-related deaths.
Immediately stop investing in more fossil fuels and heavily tax all fossil fuel-related investments, and/or hold climate emitters as well as investors economically liable for harm caused by carbon emissions in the future.
Retrain fossil fuel workers en masse for renewable energy jobs which would help both society and workers who could expect an on average seven per cent pay rise moving to the solar industry.
Immediately ban the extraction of fossil fuels with enforced moratoriums.

UNFCCC partners with Microsoft to use AI and advanced data technology to track global carbon emissions and assess progress under the Paris Agreement — microsoft — 29 November 2023 (LINK)

US, Britain, other countries ink agreement to make AI 'secure by design' — ground.news: 31 media reports — 27 November 2023 (LINK)

New Zealand scraps world-first smoking 'generation ban' to fund tax cuts — ground.news: 91 media reports — 27 November 2023 (LINK)

Scientists find lidocaine anaesthetic kills cancer cells, particularly in mouth and throat, via unique mechanisms — newsweek — 23 November 2023 (LINK)

Study finds growing evidence of link between ultraprocessed food and cancer — ground.news: 8 media reports — 22 November 2023 (LINK)

Fund to compensate developing nations for climate change is unfinished business at COP28 — ground.news main source: AP, 20 media reports — 21 November 2023 (LINK)

World's richest 1% emit as much carbon as bottom two-thirds: Oxfam: The figures are particularly stark in France, where the richest 1% emit as much carbon in one year as the poorest 50% in 10 years — ground.news: 26 media reports — 19 November 2023 (LINK)

Our food and agriculture is responsible for trillions of dollars of hidden costs, says FAO. Here's why — and what can be done — weforum — 17 November 2023 (LINK)

— More than half relates to nitrogen emissions — from fertilizer and manure used on land entering surface water and the air. Greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the climate crisis account for another 30% of hidden environmental costs from food and agriculture. Land use change — clearing a forest to create farming land, for example — and water use account for another 14% and 4% of hidden environmental costs respectively.

World's first CRISPR therapy approved in UK to treat two debilitating blood disorders — freethink — 17 November 2023 (LINK)

CO2 removal (CDR) vs emission reductions and the legal limits: the world's wealthiest nations anticipate CDR of 18% of their present emissions per year to reach net-zero — www.science.org — 16 November 2023 (LINK)

InfluenceMap: 58% of world's richest companies quietly lobby against climate policies — ground.news: 12 media reports — 16 November 2023 (LINK)

Scientists reveal the cause of Alzheimer's disease: swelling caused by a byproduct of amyloid plaques may be the true cause: gene therapy to remove PLD3 from neurons in mice with a condition resembling Alzheimer's disease led to a dramatic reduction of axonal swelling — thebrighterside.news — 16 November 2023 (LINK)

Harvard scientists claim to have developed a "Fountain of Youth" pill but announcement challenged by others — thebrighterside.news — 15 November 2023 (LINK)

Revolution Plastics: West Africa's plastic waste could be fueling the economy instead of polluting the ocean: through our inDIGO-EU and Microseap projects we reduced plastic waste by promoting recycling and reuse — /phys.org — 15 November 2023 (LINK)

— Most of the 17 west African countries have a problem managing plastic waste. Eight of them are among the top 20 with the least effective plastic waste management practices—up from five in 2015. Coastal provinces account for about 56% of west Africa's GDP and one-third of the population lives there.

AI editor unlocks microbial potential for renewable chemicals and fuels — www.cryptopolitan.com — 15 November 2023 (LINK)

— The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) team utilized CRISPR Cas9, a powerful bioengineering tool, and combined it with an innovative AI editor to genetically alter microbes, paving the way for renewable chemicals and fuels. The AI editor decodes molecular mechanisms underlying guide RNA efficiency. Unlike other AI editors, this program boasts an explainable design, mitigating the notorious black box problem associated with complex AI systems.

The Lancet Countdown: Heat-related deaths could more than quadruple by mid-century —port — ground.news main source AFP: 23 media reports — 14 November 2023 (LINK)

— The number of people over 65 who died from heat rose by 85% from 1991-2000 to 2013-2022. Around 520 million more people will experience moderate or severe food insecurity by mid-century, according to the projections.

Fifth US National Climate Assessment: 5 facts everyone should care about from the new report — mashable — 14 November 2023 (LINK)

— It includes expert thoughts on racial and environmental justice, Indigenous climate solutions, and climate change's mental health effects.

Dominica creates world's first marine protected area for sperm whales: Nearly 800km2 of water on west of Caribbean island to be designated as a reserve for endangered animals — The Guardian UK ● — 13 November 2023 (LINK)

— Fewer than 500 sperm whales are estimated to live in the waters surrounding Dominica, part of a population that moves along the Lesser Antilles chain, swimming as far south as St Vincent and north into Guadeloupe

New plastic innovation self-heals and feeds marine life — .onegreenplanet.org — 12 November 2023 (LINK)

— A team at the University of Tokyo has crafted a breakthrough with a plastic called VPR. It's an advanced type of epoxy resin vitrimer that's sturdy at room temperature but transforms under heat. What's more, it's been engineered to be less brittle and more dynamic, thanks to a molecule named polyrotaxane.

VPR can be chemically recycled with ease. Heat and a particular solvent disintegrate it down to its base components, ready for reuse. And if it ends up in the ocean, it's less of a villain than traditional plastics. After a month in seawater, VPR biodegraded by 25% and became a snack for sea creatures.

Preserving Paradise: Fundecor's alliance with Blockchain Jungle saves 62,500m2 of biodiversity in Costa Rica — cryptodaily.co.uk — 9 November 2023 (LINK)

— Utilizing a system of biodiversity credits, akin to carbon credits, businesses and individuals can invest directly in the protection of vital habitats. Each credit represents a quantifiable piece of conserved land, with the assurance that no deforestation or harmful development will take place there. This mechanism translates economic activity into a force for conservation, offering a transparent and direct pathway for investors to contribute to the safeguarding of Costa Rica's biodiversity.

The technology underpinning this initiative is as revolutionary as the concept itself. Blockchain, a digital ledger known for its security and transparency, serves as the backbone for tracking and validating the sale and impact of biodiversity credits. This ensures that every transaction is recorded immutably, providing a clear trail from investment to conservation outcome. By applying smart contracts, the system automatically enforces the terms of conservation agreements, guaranteeing that funds are used as intended and that the protected land remains inviolate.

Consensus definition of sustainable chemistry at last: sets a clear direction for science, governments and investors — chemistryworld — 8 November 2023 (LINK)

WMO alert — El Niño to last until April 2024 — cosmosmagazine — 8 November 2023 (LINK)

UK forests face catastrophic ecosystem collapse within 50 years, study says — Forestry — 8 November 2023 (LINK)

Do green labels mean anything? — cosmosmagazine — 8 November 2023 (LINK)

Bill Gates backs novel device promising wind energy at 1/3 the cost — newatlas.com — 7 November 2023 (LINK)

— Wyoming's Airloom Energy has come out of stealth mode with a new CEO fresh out of Google, US$4 million in seed funding, led by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, and a radically different technical approach that it says fundamentally upends the financial equation for wind farms.

Governments should stop converting land use, says UNCCD scientist — phys.org — 7 November 2023 (LINK)

— Globally, up to 40% of land is now degraded. "The clothes we are wearing today are probably contributing to land degradation somewhere else." The data release comes ahead of a meeting of world leaders and experts in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 13 November to review global progress towards land degradation neutrality.

Data show Greenland's ice shelves have lost more than a third of their volume since 1978 — ground.news main source: Nature Communications, 16 media reports — 7 November 2023 (LINK)

What is COP28 and why does it matter? — euronews — 7 November 2023 (LINK)

Just 4% of top companies meet UN climate target guidelines — Reuters ● — 6 November 2023 (LINK)

How AI can tackle 5 global challenges: AI is not a panacea. But it offers amazing power to supercharge human creativity and productivity in solving the world's biggest problems — see_link — 30 October 2023 (LINK)

Climate: Green Reengineering

— We are teaching artificial intelligence to do in minutes what would take years for teams of engineers or even traditional computing to do — imagine, design, and test breakthrough green materials: batteries, airplanes, even concrete. "If we were to design these things using traditional methods, we would need an absurd amount of experiments."

Natural Disasters: Proactive Response

— Satellite imagery is of such high resolution now that it can show where trees are likely to brush against power lines and spark a wildfire. That's too much imagery for humans to pore over, but not for computer-vision AI technologies.

Food Security: Optimized Harvests

— A web-based AI app that anyone with a smartphone and internet access can use evaluates images of blueberries to determine if they are bruised internally, which isn't easy for people to see (and it could be applied to other fruits).

Public Health: Augmented Practitioners

— "Intelligent people disagree about whether fully-autonomous generative AI applications should ever be used in mental health care, primarily because of concerns about AI safety"

Education: Virtual Teachers and Tutors

— In evaluating student work, algorithms had the accuracy at the level of a human, meaning they were just as accurate in identifying different components of an argument in an essay as an expert, human rater.

UNU: Earth on brink of tipping points that could 'destroy very systems our life depends on' — commondreams/span> — 26 October 2023 (LINK)

Stevia: what we know about its effects: the sweetner is considered safe to use in recommended doses, but it may still have some negative side effects — usatoday — 23 October 2023 (LINK)

40% of Antarctica's ice shelves are shrinking, worrying scientists — ground.news main source: European Space Agency, 33 media reports — 12 October 2023 (LINK)

Climate-driven extreme heat may make parts of Earth too hot for humans — phys.org — 9 October 2023 (LINK)

— Results of the study indicate that if global temperatures increase by 2C above pre-industrial levels, the 2.2 billion residents of Pakistan and India's Indus River Valley, the one billion people living in eastern China and the 800 million residents of sub-Saharan Africa will annually experience many hours of heat that surpass human tolerance.

Study shows invertebrate decline reduces natural pest control and decomposition of organic matter — phys.org — 26 September 2023 (LINK)

The most intense heat wave ever recorded on Earth happened in Antarctica on 18 March last year, scientists say: soared to 39C above normal, reaching -10C — ground.news: media reports — 25 September 2023 (LINK)

— Some researchers at the Dome C site stripped down to shorts, while others removed their shirts to loll in the warmth. Generally, the temperatures in March on the east coast of Antarctica are around -54 degreesC, marking a transition into autumn on the continent.

Earth 'well outside safe operating space for humanity', scientists find in the first complete 'scientific health check': most global systems beyond stable range in which modern civilisation emerged — www.theguardian.com ● — 13 September 2023 (LINK)

— The assessment, which was published in the journal Science Advances and was based on 2,000 studies, assessment found that six out of nine "planetary boundaries" had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world.

Two are judged to be close to being broken: air pollution and ocean acidification. The one boundary that is not threatened is atmospheric ozone, after action to phase out destructive chemicals in recent decades led to the ozone hole shrinking.

Several planetary boundaries were passed long ago. The boundary for biosphere integrity, which includes the healthy functioning of ecosystems, was broken in the late 19th century, the researchers said, as destruction of the natural world decimated wildlife. The same destruction, particularly the razing of forests, means the boundary for land use was broken last century.

Climate models have suggested the safe boundary for climate change was surpassed in the late 1980s. For freshwater, a new metric involving both water in lakes and rivers and in soil, showed this boundary was crossed in the early 20th century.

Another boundary is the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus in the environment. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization data, three times the safe level of nitrogen is added to fields every year.

The boundary for synthetic pollution, such as pesticides, plastics and nuclear waste, was shown to have been passed by a 2022 study.

Analysis: Chasm between climate action and scientific reality laid bare in UN stocktake — www.theguardian.com ● — 8 September 2023 (LINK)

African Climate Summit adopts 'Nairobi declaration' calling for global tax on fossil fuels — ground.news: 38 media reports — 6 September 2023 (LINK)

Half of Earth's glaciers could vanish and sea levels rise 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) with 1.5 degrees of warming, study warns — phys.org/news — 6 September 2023 (LINK)

— If the world reaches 2.7 degrees of warming — the estimated temperature increase based on climate pledges made at the Conference of Parties (COP26) of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change — nearly all glaciers in Central Europe, western Canada, and the U.S. (including Alaska) will have melted. If warming reaches 4 degrees Celsius, 80% of the world's glaciers will disappear and contribute 15 centimeters (6 inches) of sea level rise.

Better recommendations for how biodiversity may be leveraged to promote delivery of ecosystem services — University of Chicago/phys.org — 6 September 2023 (LINK)

— Plant diversity consistently attracts more abundant and diverse communities of predators. Herbivore diversity tends to increase in response to plant diversity treatments, while herbivore abundance and plant damage generally decrease. But specialist herbivores often respond negatively to plant diversity, while generalists more often mount positive or neutral responses.

New US research highlights opportunities to protect carbon and communities from forest fires — USDA/phys.org — 6 September 2023 (LINK)

— New research published in the journal Environmental Research Letters highlights widespread "opportunity hot spots" in the western United States for using proactive forest management, such as forest thinning, prescribed fire, and cultural burning, to reduce the risk of losing carbon to future wildfires.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 66% in August, lowest for month since 2018 — ground.news:26 media reports — 5 September 2023 (LINK)

Invasive species costs global economy $423 billion per year — UN Report — Reuters / www.usnews.com — 4 September 2023 (LINK)

This AI model can help prevent up to 76% of wildfires — www.weforum.org — 4 September 2023 (LINK)

New global sustainability reporting requirements are out. Here's what companies need to know — www.weforum.org — 29 August 2023 (LINK)

— Backed by the G20, a set of standards released by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will set worldwide sustainability reporting requirements for decades to come. The new requirements pave the way for companies across jurisdictions to disclose uniform climate and sustainability information.

It aligns with financial accounting practices in more than 140 countries and will help investors understand the sustainability-related risks and opportunities facing businesses. Singapore, Canada and the UK have already signalled that they are looking at routes to integrate the new standards.

'Not just money and math': Young people are willing to sacrifice returns for ESG — www.cnbc.com — 27 August 2023 (LINK)

Scientists release the first complete sequence of a human Y chromosome, completing mapping of human genome sequence — ground.news: 41 media reports — 23 August 2023 (LINK)

— The Y chromosome, alongside the X chromosome, plays a complex role in sexual development and contributes to other aspects of human biology, such as cancer risk and severity.

The first human genome sequence was mapped in 2001. In 2022, an international group of scientists called the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium announced that they were able to finally fill in the gaps of the human genome. Now they have published a paper of their findings. It is the last human chromosome to be fully sequenced.

Unlike most other chromosomes, the Y is made up of palindromes, or sequences that are the same forward and backward. These palindromes are long too — "roughly more than a million base pairs.

In a separate but related paper also published in Nature, researchers were able to sequence the Y chromosome from 43 different males across 21 world populations. This gives great insight into human genetic evolution —along with even more information to help with medical treatments and diagnostics.

Vegan diet has just 30% of the environmental impact of a high-meat diet, major study finds — theconversation.com — 21 July 2023 (LINK)

All the positive environmental stories from 2023 so far — www.euronews.com — 17 July 2023 (LINK)

Stem cell therapies: they're expensive, unproven and often dangerous — theconversation.com — 14 July 2023 (LINK)

— In the EU and the UK, unethical stem cell clinics are taking advantage of a regulatory loophole. If stem cells aren't modified in any way after they're extracted and then re-inserted into a person, these procedures fall outside the regulations for so-called advanced therapy medicinal products (medicines based on genes, tissues or cells). As a result of this lack of regulation, there is no standard quality control — if there is any quality control at all. Consequently, the effectiveness and safety of stem cell therapies cannot be guaranteed.

In the US, several patients lost their sight after receiving stem-cell treatment for degenerative eye conditions. The patients, who were treated at an unregulated stem-cell therapy clinic in Florida, paid up to US$20,000 (£15,600) to take part in the "clinical trial". Other reports have highlighted severe harms associated with unregulated stem cell treatments, including fever, infections, tumours, brain inflammation, life-threatening blood clots, disability and even death.

Adopt green hydrogen strategy now, Swiss cantons tell Bern — swissinfo.ch — 9 July 2023 (LINK)

— If Switzerland is to meet its net-zero carbon emissions targets, it must sort out how to obtain sufficient green hydrogen, a gas that can be produced from renewable energies, the NZZ am Sonntag reports. Hydrogen is expected to replace the use of fossil fuels by industry and for the supply of electricity. They suggest in a letter, seen by news agency Keystone-SDA, that the country convert its existing transit pipeline to accommodate hydrogen.

Scientists are sounding the alarm that ife-threatening hot climates will affect 2 billion people by end of century — news.yahoo.com — 8 July 2023 (LINK)

AI revolutionizes brain tumor management with advanced diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis — /www.cryptopolitan.com — 8 July 2023 (LINK)

Nigeria left out as 12 African countries get first-ever malaria vaccine: 18mn in total — guardian.ng — 6 July 2023 (LINK)

— Four African countries accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths worldwide: Nigeria (31.3 per cent), Democratic Republic of Congo (12.6 per cent), Tanzania (4.1 per cent) and Niger (3.9 per cent).Instead, the beneficiaries are Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP) countries: Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, who will receive doses to continue vaccinations in pilot areas.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a statement, said the distributions were determined through application of principles outlined in the framework for allocation of limited malaria vaccine supply, which prioritizes areas of highest need, where the risk of illness and death among children are highest.

Researchers: we've underestimated the risk of simultaneous crop failures worldwide — www.sciencealert.com — 5 July 2023 (LINK)

— By "increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases, we are entering uncharted water where we are struggling to really have an accurate idea of what type of extremes we're going to face."

CITES strengthening cooperation for sustainable and legal trade in fish and fish products — cites.org — 5 July 2023 (LINK)

US climate data pinpoints 3 June as hottest recorded day on Earth: 17.01° Celsius(62.62F), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) — ground.news: 49 media reports — 4 July 2023 (LINK)

Climate change spells 'terrifying' future future of hunger and suffering: UN rights chief — afp / www.france24.com — 3 July 2023 (LINK)

— UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told a UN Human Rights Council debate on the right to food that extreme weather events were wiping out crops, herds and ecosystems, making it impossible for communities to rebuild and support themselves. "More than 828 million people faced hunger in 2021. And climate change is projected to place up to 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century," said Türk. "Our environment is burning. It's melting. It's flooding. It's depleting. It's drying. It's dying."

'Mr. Bean' actor sparks controversy with confounding newspaper column: dupes the readers of The Guardian about electric vehicles and environment — www.thecooldown.com — 4 July 2023 (LINK)

— The argument is often the same — the production of electric vehicles produced almost 70% more pollution than the production of traditional vehicles (that's a fact from Volvo, by the way). It's not incorrect, but it is heavily biased. A 2020 study by Transport and Environment found that the life cycle pollution output — or the overall pollution produced by an EV across its entire lifespan — is, on average, almost three times less than that of a vehicle that runs on gasoline. Aside from that, there is a lot of progress being made to mitigate the production pollution.

Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records: the target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach — reuters/www.usnews.com — 30 June 2023 (LINK)

Scientists finally discover the cause of lupus — — 30 June 2023 (LINK)

— A recent study published in Nature has identified DNA mutations in a gene that senses viral RNA as a cause of lupus, paving the way for the development of new treatments. This is the first time a TLR7 mutation has been shown to cause lupus, providing clear evidence of one way this disease can arise.

79% of plants remaining on earth must be saved to meet UN climate goals, study says — www.ecowatch.com — 26 June 2023 (LINK)

3M coughs up $10.3b to settle "forever chemicals" lawsuits — boingboing.net — 23 June 2023 (LINK)

— The settlement is the largest related to water safety in U.S. history. The company said the settlement would provide the funds over a 13-year period to cities, towns and other public water systems to test for and treat contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Environment groups condemn Norway's move to open its waters to deep sea mining — www.euronews.com — 21 June 2023 (LINK)

Media coverage of climate change research does not inspire action, say UNIL scientists — phys.org — 20 June 2023 (LINK)

— If the goal of mediating research is to have a societal impact, then it seems that we are pushing all the buttons that don't work. An analysis of the collection of about 50,000 scientific publications on climate change for the year 2020 showed that that most of the research selected by the media overly focused on large-scale climate projections that will occur in the future, and a narrow range of threats such as polar bears, drought and melting glaciers.

Scientists have discovered an alarming new side effect of air pollution: fly-mating behaviour: 'We had not thought about this before' — news.yahoo.com — 20 June 2023 (LINK)

Spike in ocean heat stuns: Have we breached a climate tipping point? Scientists think not — www.newsnationnow.com — 18 June 2023 (LINK)

Scientists issue increasingly dire warnings as ocean surface temperatures spike — pbs.org — 15 June 2023 (LINK)

World Bank confirms reallocating fossil fuel, factory farm subsidies key to solving climate crisis — www.commondreams.org — 15 June 2023 (LINK)

New hyper-efficient solar panels are 1000 times more powerful — www.thebrighterside.news — 15 June 2023 (LINK)

Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance — ground.news: 12 media reports — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

Saturn's Moon Enceladus is habitable, confirms breakthrough study — ground.news: 19 media reports — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— Phosphorus in the form of phosphates is vital for all life on Earth. It is essential for the creation of DNA and RNA, energy-carrying molecules, cell membranes, bones and teeth in people and animals, and even the sea's microbiome of plankton. Life as we know it is simply not possible without phosphates.

"We found phosphate concentrations at least 100 times higher in the moon's plume-forming ocean waters than in Earth's oceans," Dr. Christopher Glein said. "Using a model to predict the presence of phosphate is one thing, but actually finding the evidence for phosphate is incredibly exciting. This is a stunning result for astrobiology and a major step forward in the search for life beyond Earth."

Limiting global warming to 2° is not enough — the world must keep temperature rise below 1° — theconversation.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— Our newly published research suggests warming of more than 1° risks sea level rise of multiple metres, more intense hurricanes and more frequent weather extremes.

Global oil demand to peak before the end of the decade as energy transition gathers pace, IEA says — www.cnbc.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

New discovery reveals the oldest-known ancestor of complex life — www.inverse.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— The molecular remains of a microbe called protosterol biota appeared within the Barney Creek Formation in Australia's Northern Territory.

Scientists think they've FINALLY cracked what came first — the chicken or the egg: it's both — www.mirror.co.uk — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

The secret of Stradivarius violin's special and unique sound discovered: several chemicals used have been identified for the first time — www.thebrighterside.news — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

The oldest song in the world — by Ancient Greek artist Seikilos — greekreporter.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— The oldest song to have survived in its entirety is a first-century A.D. Greek tune known as the "Seikilos Epitaph." The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found in 1883 engraved on a pillar (a stele) from the Hellenistic town of Tralles near present-day Aydin, Turkey, not far from Ephesus.

Fastest star in the galaxy clocked at 2285 km per second — www.newscientist.com ● — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— Astronomers have spotted white dwarfs moving faster than any free-moving star seen before — so fast they must have been launched by supernovae

World's oldest known human footprint identified in South Africa: dates back 153,000 years — www.sciencealert.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

A geologist found the oldest water on earth in Canada, and then she tasted it: Much to her delight, the water was "very salty and bitter" and "much saltier than seawater." This isn't altogether surprising, given that it had been aged for over 2 billion years — www.iflscience.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

Has the Mona Lisa's great mystery been solved after 500 years? The location is not where most people had assumed: the Romito Etruscan-Roman bridge over the Arno, also known as Ponte di Valle, pictured in the painting is located in the municipality of Laterina in the province of Arezzo — www.jpost.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

Paris says "non" to buildings of more than 12 storeys — or some 37 metres — but what's behind the ban? — www.euronews.com — 14 June 2023 (LINK)

— Certain parts of the city imposed a height limit for new buildings of 37 metres in 1977 after the construction of the controversial 209m-tall Montparnasse Tower, which was completed in 1973. That monolithic building has long been criticised by some Parisians for looking out of place — a blot on the iconic landscape.

Paris has now effectively, returned to 1977 — the ban reintroduced as part of mayor Anne Hidalgo's aim to reduce Paris' carbon emissions, otherwise known as the Local Bioclimatic Urban Plan. Another reason behind the decision lies in the controversial construction of the Tour Triangle tower designed by Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron. Starting building works in 2021, the pyramid-shaped tower is scheduled for completion in 2026 but has been dogged by backlash and delayed by a staggering 12 years due to various legal and planning battles. At its completion, the Tour Triangle will be the city's third tallest building, playing host to a hotel and office as well as shops and restaurants. The building is in a trapezoidal form, meaning it will resemble a thin tower from central Paris, but from the east and west of the city, its full width will be visible.

The world's biggest companies have made almost no progress on limiting global warming since 2018 — edition.cnn.com — 8 June 2023 (LINK)

— Large companies are either more likely to contribute to extreme levels of warming or are not disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions at all, according to a new report from ESG Book, seen by CNN. The efforts of just 22% of the world's 500 biggest public companies by market value are aligned with the Paris Agreement. Almost half, or 45%, of companies are aligned with warming of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius — a disastrous level of warming. That's down from 61% in 2018.

How El Nino could impact the world's weather in 2023-24 — source — 8 June 2023 (LINK)

— The last time a strong El Nino was in full swing, in 2016, the world saw its hottest year on record. Meteorologists expect that this El Nino, coupled with excess warming from climate change, will see the world grapple with record-high temperatures. Experts are also concerned about what is going on in the ocean. An El Nino means that waters in the Eastern Pacific are warmer than usual. But even before this El Nino began, in May, the average global sea surface temperature was about 0.1C (0.2F) higher than any other on record. That could supercharge extreme weather.

Brazil's Lula unveils plan to stop deforestation in Amazon by 2030, in line with right-wing predecessor — ground.news: 28 media reports — 5 June 2023 (LINK)

Solar panels — an eco-disaster waiting to happen when they turn to waste? — source — 3 June 2023 (LINK)

Climate change is already making parts of US uninsurable: California, Florida, Louisiana — www.vox.com — 2 June 2023 (LINK)

Recycled plastic can be more toxic and is no fix for pollution, Greenpeace warns — tthe guardian.com — 24 May 2023 (LINK)

Breakthrough study challenges beliefs on how much water humans need: the average daily water intake of a man in his twenties should be 1.5 to 1.8 liters, while it should be 1.3 to 1.4 liters for a female in the same age group, not 3.7 liters (or 125 ounces) of water per day for adult men and approximately 2.7 liters (or 91 ounces) of water per day for adult women — thebrighterside.news — 23 May 2023 (LINK)

What mosquitoes are most attracted to in human body odor is revealed: the cheesy smell — CNN — 19 May 2023 (LINK)

Man identified with rare mutation that protects from Alzheimer's disease — sciencealert — 16 May 2023 (LINK)

Suck it, Death Cap: scientists find potential antidote to world's deadliest mushroom — gizmodo.com — 16 May 2023 (LINK)

Forgotten antibiotic from the 1940s could save the world from drug-resistant superbugs — studyfinds.org — 16 May 2023 (LINK)

The world can cut plastic pollution by 80% by 2040, UNEP says — ground.news: 40 reports — 15 May 2023 (LINK)

How corporations use greenwashing to convince you they are battling climate change — theconversation.com — 15 May 2023 (LINK)

Climate finance: What are debt-for-nature swaps and how can they help countries? — weforum.org — 12 May 2023 (LINK)

25 skills Millennials learned in the 90s that are utterly useless today — wealthofgeeks — 12 May 2023 (LINK)

Australia told to shoot kangaroos before they starve — afp / phys.org — 10 May 2023 (LINK)

Finally, a vaccine for one of the deadliest forms of cancer: 50% of pancreatic cancer patients free after 18 months — insider.com — 10 May 2023 (LINK)

Swiss discover microbes that can digest plastics at low temperatures — ground.news: 12 media reports — 10 May 2023 (LINK)

New AI can predict pancreatic cancer 3 years early: study — nypost — 9 May 2023 (LINK)

Global push to tackle maternal and newborn deaths has stalled, WHO report finds — ground.news: 9 media reports — 9 May 2023 (LINK)

Mind-boggling' methane emissions from Turkmenistan's two main fossil fuel fields revealed: caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK — The Guardian — 9 May 2023 (LINK)

Shrinking bodies, growing wings: Climate change having odd effect on birds, study finds — usa today — 8 May 2023 (LINK)

Everyone was wrong about reverse osmosis — until now — wired.com — 8 May 2023 (LINK)

Debunking the Dunning-Kruger effect — the least skilled people know how much they don't know, but everyone thinks they are better than average — theconversation — 8 May 2023 (LINK)

Florida tosses short-term climate lifeline (for 20 years) to swamped 'Keybillies' but longer future open — eenews.net — 8 May 2023 (LINK)

The national debt under every US President in the last 100 years — 247wallst.com — 6 May 2023 (LINK)

— The last time the federal government had a balanced budget — when revenue exceeded spending — was in 2000, under the Clinton Administration. The first U.S. president to increase the national debt by over a trillion dollars during his time in office was Ronald Reagan. In dollar terms, the national debt increased the most under President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump, who oversaw increases of $8.3 trillion and $8.2 trillion, respectively, during their time in office.

New artificial intelligence tool can accurately identify cancer — Guardian — 30 April 2023 (LINK)

— Algorithm performs more efficiently and effectively than current methods, according to a study

Researchers discover what triggered Earth's last ice age — thebrighterside — 30 April 2023 (LINK)

— The ocean gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago served as a vital linchpin, determining whether ice sheets could form or not. The simulations indicated that as long as the ocean gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago were open, the Northern Hemisphere's cooling due to Earth's orbital configuration allowed ice sheets to develop in Northern Canada and Siberia, but not in Scandinavia. The scientists conducted a second study where they created a simulation to investigate the impact of marine ice sheets blocking the waterways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The diversion caused the North Atlantic deep circulation to weaken and freshen, leading to the expansion of sea ice and cooler conditions in Scandinavia. The simulation results indicated that this scenario was adequate to initiate the growth of ice in Scandinavia. Sediment records also demonstrated strong indications of a weakened deep ocean circulation before the formation of glaciers in Scandinavia, which closely mirrored the results obtained from the simulation.

The study proposes that even minor disturbances in the Earth's climate system could result in substantial and abrupt changes in ice sheet size and distribution, with far-reaching effects on sea level increase, ocean currents, and global climate patterns.

Github: EcoHabit is a web app project that aims to create awareness of the environment and help people build environmental friendly habits. It will visualize users' habits by tracking their activities (recycling, commuting, eating, etc.) and encourage them to improve their habits with better alternative options. It also targets to be users' go–to place to find the closest recycling locations and give them clear instructions about how to divide and recycle each material. — github.com — 19 April 2023 (LINK)

Researchers said they have discovered that parts of the brain region called the motor cortex that govern body movement are connected with a network involved in thinking, planning, mental arousal, pain, and control of internal organs, as well as functions such as blood pressure and heart rate — ground.news: 16 sources — 19 April 2023 (LINK)

— They identified a previously unknown system within the motor cortex manifested in multiple nodes that are located in between areas of the brain already known to be responsible for movement of specific body parts — hands, feet and face — and are engaged when many different body movements are performed together.

The researchers called this system the somato-cognitive action network, or SCAN, and documented its connections to brain regions known to help set goals and plan actions.

This network also was found to correspond with brain regions that, as shown in studies involving monkeys, are connected to internal organs including the stomach and adrenal glands, allowing these organs to change activity levels in anticipation of performing a certain action. That may explain physical responses like sweating or increased heart rate caused by merely pondering a difficult future task, they said.

"Basically, we now have shown that the human motor system is not unitary. Instead, we believe there are two separate systems that control movement," said radiology professor Evan Gordon of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

"One is for isolated movement of your hands, feet and face. This system is important, for example, for writing or speaking — movements that need to involve only the one body part. A second system, the SCAN, is more important for integrated, whole body movements, and is more connected to high–level planning regions of your brain," Gordon said.

El Niño is coming, and ocean temps are already at record highs that can spell disaster for fish and corals — theconversation — 18 April 2023 (LINK)

Biodiversity targets may be slipping out of reach — study — BBC — 18 April 2023 (LINK)

Antarctica's sea ice reaches its lowest level since records began, for the 2nd year in a row — www.space.com — 4 April 2023 (LINK)

UN votes to ask world court to rule on national climate obligations — ground.news: 54 sources — 29 March 2023 (LINK)

Antarctic ocean currents headed for collapse, say scientists — dw — 30 March 2023 (LINK)

Investments in renewable energies must quadruple annually to meet climate target — IRENA — ground.news: 30 sources — 28 March 2023 (LINK)

WHO announces 8 more cases of highly fatal Marburg virus disease — iflscience.com — 28 March 2023 (LINK)

The small Pacific island country of Vanuatu is poised to gain UN approval to seek an unprecedented legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on what obligation countries have to combat climate change — axios — 24 March 2023 (LINK)

— The push started in a law school classroom in Fiji four years ago, according to Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. She and her international environmental law classmates brainstormed ways to seek action through various legal mechanisms, Houniuhi told reporters on a press call on 23 March. Propelled by youth activism, the effort to gain adoption by the UN General Assembly has been led by the Vanuatu government since 2021. The resolution, with a vote expected on March 29, has over 100 co-sponsors.

Seven unexpected ways that climate change is affecting the planet: Birds with longer beaks, rising infertility, and more lightning are a few unforeseen consequences — salon — 24 March 2023 (LINK)

Which countries pollute the most ocean plastic waste? Philippines top — visualcapitalist — 17 February 2023 (LINK)

Greenland ice sheet at its warmest level in past 1,000 years — ground.news: 22 sources — 18 January 2023 (LINK)

Supercomputer says 27% of life on Earth will be dead by the end of this century — popularmechanics — 18 January 2023 (LINK)

More than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows — Guardian — 18 January 2023 (LINK)

U.S. slaughterhouse gas chambers are not humane, say activists who installed spy cameras for first time — wired ● — 18 January 2023 (LINK)

Scientists have tried to reverse ageing for decades. Have they finally cracked it? — smh.com.au — 17 January 2023 (LINK)

Physicists say this is the best place to hide indoors from a nuclear shockwave — gizmodo — 17 January 2023 (LINK)

— "Even in the front room facing the explosion, one can be safe from the high airspeeds if positioned at the corners of the wall facing the blast. The team did not look at what would happen if you tried to survive a nuclear blast by hiding inside a fridge, a la Indiana Jones, though other scientists have cast doubt on that particular piece of movie logic."

Why was Roman concrete so durable? Scientists finally have an answer after 2,000 years! — studyfinds — 6 January 2023 (LINK)

— The key to the ancient concrete's durability was one ingredient: pozzolanic material, such as volcanic ash from the area of Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples. Ancient samples contain small, distinctive, millimeter-scale bright white mineral features. They were common component of Roman concretes. The white chunks — often called "lime clasts" — come from lime, another key ingredient in ancient concrete mix. Although previous studies have disregarded these features as a sign of sloppy mixing practices, or poor-quality raw materials, the new study theorizes that the tiny lime clasts gave the concrete its self-healing capability. Studying samples of the ancient concrete, MIT researchers determined that the white substances were made out of various forms of calcium carbonate. Further analysis provided clues that they had been formed by extreme temperatures. This would be the expected result of an exothermic reaction produced by using quicklime instead of the slaked lime in the concrete mixture. The research team now believes that "hot mixing" was the real key to the concrete's super-durable nature.

Scientists develop a vaccine that destroys AND prevents untreatable brain cancer which killed Beau Biden and John McCain: so far tested only on mice — dailymail.co.uk * — 6 January 2023 (LINK)

True Movie Stories that Lied To You, including about Edgar Allan Poe in Pale Blue Eye — looper — 6 January 2023 (LINK)

Human gene linked to bigger brains was born from seemingly useless DNA: Researchers discover how DNA sequences must mutate to free their RNA to make proteins — science.org — 5 January 2023 (LINK)

— a study identifies mutations that transform seemingly useless DNA sequences into potential genes by endowing their encoded RNA with the skill to escape the cell nucleus — a critical step toward becoming translated into a protein. The study's authors highlight 74 human protein genes that appear to have arisen in this de novo way — more than half of which emerged after the human lineage branched off from chimpanzees. Some of these newcomer genes may have played a role in the evolution of our relatively large and complex brains. When added to mice, one made the rodent brains grow bigger and more humanlike, the authors report this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution.