April, 2024

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Do Insects Have an Inner Life? Animal Consciousness Needs a Rethink

Scientific American

A declaration signed by dozens of scientists says there is ‘a realistic possibility’ for elements of consciousness in reptiles, insects and molluscs

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Five Things the “Nuclear Bros” Don’t Want You to Know About Small Modular Reactors

Union of Concerned Scientists

Even casual followers of energy and climate issues have probably heard about the alleged wonders of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). This is due in no small part to the “ nuclear bros ”: an active and seemingly tireless group of nuclear power advocates who dominate social media discussions on energy by promoting SMRs and other “advanced” nuclear technologies as the only real solution for the climate crisis.

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Climate Policy and the Audacity of Hope

Legal Planet

The bad news is that we’re not yet on track to avoid dangerous climate change. But there’s also good news: We’ve taken important steps that will ease further progress. We should resist the allure of easy optimism, given the scale of the challenges. Neither should we wallow in despair. There’s a good basis for hope. To begin with, there’s been major progress in U.S. climate policy.

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Much ado about acceleration

Real Climate

There has been a lot of commentary about perceived disagreements among climate scientists about whether climate change is, or will soon, accelerate. As with most punditry, there is less here than it might seem. Last year, Jim Hansen and colleagues published a long paper that included a figure suggesting that they expected that global temperature trends from 2011 to increase above the recent linear trends.

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How to Drive Cost Savings, Efficiency Gains, and Sustainability Wins with MES

Speaker: Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions

Is your manufacturing operation reaching its efficiency potential? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) could be the game-changer, helping you reduce waste, cut costs, and lower your carbon footprint. Join Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions, in this value-packed webinar as he breaks down how MES can drive operational excellence and sustainability.

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Carbon-negative cement can be made with a mineral that helps catch CO2

New Scientist

A process to dissolve the mineral olivine in acid could provide a plentiful, energy-efficient material for carbon-negative cement

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Don’t Dump in Dresden

Enviromental Defense

York1 Environmental Solutions is proposing a dump site that could result in up to 700 dump trucks, filled with construction and demolition waste, rolling through the small town of Dresden, Ontario every single day. This proposed landfill continues a trend of making rural Ontario a convenient dumping ground for urban communities. The riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex already has two major landfills, Ridge Landfill and Watford and Twin Creek Landfill, that take over 3 million tonnes of garbage from

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Four Reasons You Should Care about California Snow

Union of Concerned Scientists

Last week, I visited Yosemite National Park and walked along a gorgeous trail surrounded by snow-blanketed sequoia trees. Beyond the horizon of pine trees to the south lies the Sierra National Forest, and beyond the rocky horizon to the north lies the Stanislaus National Forest. Further beyond these national forests lies the rest of the expansive Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, spanning 400 miles.

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Climate Change and Nigeria

Legal Planet

By the time my youngest granddaughter is thirty, Nigeria will be the world’s third-largest country. It’s also one of the countries that’s least prepared to adapt to climate change, which will be much worse by then. Nigeria’s population is expected to roughly double by 2050, to around 400 million. The population was previously expected to double again by 2100, but the current estimate is that it will reach “only” about 550 million.

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Unforced variations: Apr 2024

Real Climate

This month’s open thread on climate topics. Lots more discussion about 2023 , aerosols, heat content and imbalances to come I expect… Note, comments should be substantive even if you are arguing with who you perceive to be the worst person in the world. Comments that are mainly personal attacks will just get deleted. The post Unforced variations: Apr 2024 first appeared on RealClimate.

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A new kind of experiment at the LHC could unravel quantum reality

New Scientist

The Large Hadron Collider is testing entanglement in a whole new energy range, probing the meaning of quantum theory – and the possibility that an even stranger reality lies beneath

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The Key to Sustainable Energy Optimization: A Data-Driven Approach for Manufacturing

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. ♻️ Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets. 📊 Join us for a practical webinar hosted by Kevin Kai Wong of Emergent Ene

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Southeast at a Crossroads: Bad Gas Bet or Clean Energy Boon?

NRDC

The Southeast is facing a spike in electric load growth projections. Utilities are proposing a massive gas buildout to meet it—we can do better.

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After Months of Gibberish, Voyager 1 Is Communicating Well Again

Scientific American

NASA scientists spent months coaxing the 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft back into healthy communication

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Greenwashing in Graphs: an ExxonMobil Story

Union of Concerned Scientists

Earlier this year, ExxonMobil released its annual Advancing Climate Solutions report detailing the company’s current and planned contributions to a net-zero future. Put another way—earlier this year, ExxonMobil released its annual greenwashing report, outlining its purported progress towards addressing climate change, a problem the company helped to create.

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A Total Eclipse of the Heat

Legal Planet

Millions of Americans traveled this week to the path of totality to hunker down with loved ones and total strangers to gaze upwards at one of the most amazing astronomical events of our lives and share something like a transcendent, spiritual experience. I hope we can collectively reckon with another terrifyingly awesome atmospheric event: the hottest year.

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Implementing D.E.J.I. Strategies in Energy, Environment, and Transportation

Speaker: Antoine M. Thompson, Executive Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition

Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (DEJI) policies, programs, and initiatives are critically important as we move forward with public and private sector climate and sustainability goals and plans. Underserved and socially, economically, and racially disadvantaged communities bear the burden of pollution, higher energy costs, limited resources, and limited investments in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

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Earth Day Book Review 2024

Cool Green Science

Our selections this year show how the nature writing genre continues to evolve and surprise. The post Earth Day Book Review 2024 appeared first on Cool Green Science.

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Single atoms captured morphing into quantum waves in startling image

New Scientist

In the 1920s, Erwin Schrödinger wrote an equation that predicts how particles-turned-waves should behave.

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The Transformation of European Climate Change Litigation: Introduction to the Blog Symposium

Law Columbia

In a transformative moment for European and global climate litigation, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled today that the state has a positive duty to adopt, and effectively implement in practice, regulations and measures capable of mitigating the existing and potentially irreversible future effects of climate change. In Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v.

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An Epitaph for Daniel Dennett, Philosopher of Consciousness

Scientific American

Is consciousness nothing more than an illusion?

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Shaping a Resilient Future: Climate Impact on Vulnerable Populations

Speaker: Laurie Schoeman Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital

As households and communities across the nation face challenges such as hurricanes, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, and thawing permafrost and flooding, we are increasingly searching for ways to mitigate and prevent climate impacts. During this event, national climate and housing expert Laurie Schoeman will discuss topics including: The two paths for climate action: decarbonization and adaptation.

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Fossil Fuel Companies Make Billions in Profit as We Suffer Billions in Losses: 2024 Edition

Union of Concerned Scientists

Above: Lahaina, Hawai’i after the devastating August 2023 wildfire that killed more than 100 people and destroyed 2,700 homes. Last year, I wrote that fossil fuel companies made billions of dollars in profit during 2022 as people around the world suffered billions of dollars in damage from climate and weather related disasters. The climate impacts people around the world experience are connected to the fossil fuel industry’s record-breaking profits: “The profits made by the oil and gas maj

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Hidden Fossil Fuels: Plastic Production Drives Climate Change

NRDC

Study shows that plastic production could be nearly one third of the global carbon budget and emits four times more greenhouse gases than the airline industry.

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Highway 413 is Still Going Nowhere

Enviromental Defense

You’ve probably seen Highway 413 in the news quite a bit lately. Last month, instead of standing up for Ontario’s environment, the federal government made a deal with Premier Ford. Together, they filed documents to cancel the federal government’s current environmental assessment. So, what does this mean? Is Ontario getting ready to bulldoze their way through farmland, wetlands and the Greenbelt?

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Early humans spread as far north as Siberia 400,000 years ago

New Scientist

A site in Siberia has evidence of human presence 417,000 years ago, raising the possibility that hominins could have reached North America much earlier than we thought

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Sustainability at Retail

Sustainability impacts every nation, company, and person around the world. So much so that, in 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued a call for action by all countries to work toward sustainable development. In response to this and as part of a global Sustainability at Retail initiative, Shop! worked collaboratively with its global affiliates to address these critical issues in this white paper.

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Reports by Brazil's Federal Police Alleging Social Media Conspiracy

Environmental Progress

Relatorio PF 19/4/2024 Content Link Block Select a page and create a visual link to it.

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Sorry, Little Green Men: Alien Life Might Actually Be Purple

Scientific American

Purple may be a likely color for extraterrestrial organisms, research suggests

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How Tobacco Companies Created the Disinformation Playbook

Union of Concerned Scientists

This article was originally published by the Substack newsletter SciLight on April 4, 2024. In this current age, a meme on Facebook, a video on TikTok, or a comment thread on Reddit can have substantial influence over people’s views and perspectives. For instance, half of adults in the United States obtain their news at least sometimes from social media.

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Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know

NRDC

After officials repeatedly dismissed claims that Flint’s water was making people sick, residents took action. Here’s how the lead contamination crisis unfolded—and what we can learn from it.

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Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles

Law Columbia

Achieving the United States’ ambitious emissions reduction goals depends in large part on the rapid adoption of wind and solar energy and the electrification of consumer vehicles. However, misinformation and coordinated disinformation about renewable energy is widespread and threatens to undermine public support for the transition. In a new report , the Sabin Center identifies and examines 33 of the most pervasive false claims about solar energy, wind energy, and electric vehicles, with the aim

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A new understanding of tinnitus and deafness could help reverse both

New Scientist

Investigations of the paradoxical link between tinnitus and hearing loss have revealed a hidden form of deafness, paving the way to possible new treatments

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Watch Out for Nettles

Ocean Conservancy

Sometimes when you live in a big city like Baltimore, you forget that you are still living in a vibrant ecosystem. One of my favorite things to do with friends is to spot some of the incredible sea creatures that live in our harbor. One of my favorite animal neighbors is the Atlantic bay nettles, which were recently discovered to be a different species of sea nettle that lives in the Chesapeake Bay.

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What Philosopher Ibn Sina Can Teach Us about AI

Scientific American

A philosopher who lived centuries before artificial intelligence might be able to help us understand the field's personhood questions

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As its Lone Climate Scientist Board Member Departs, ExxonMobil Still Heads in the Wrong Direction

Union of Concerned Scientists

As ExxonMobil prepares for its annual general meeting (AGM) this spring, the corporation is facing calls to drop an unprecedented lawsuit against shareholders who are asking for deeper global warming emissions reductions. There has been comparatively less attention to the decision by climate scientist Dr. Susan Avery not to seek re-election to the ExxonMobil board of directors.

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Protecting Biodiversity Means Saving the Bogs (and Peatlands, Swamps, Marshes, Fens…)

NRDC

Wetlands cover just 6 percent of the planet’s land area but provide habitat for 40 percent of wildlife.

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