Sat.Aug 19, 2023 - Fri.Aug 25, 2023

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Good News! Policymakers ARE Embracing E-Bikes

Legal Planet

After reading the recent (and very dumb) New York Times expose by Matt Richtel on e-bikes , you’d be forgiven for mistaking electric-assist bicycles for the next big threat to human health. But 3 other news stories about the benefits, and growing pains, of e-bikes show there’s real interest in them as a climate solution. Rather than just critique the NYT’s editorial choices , I want to highlight some of what we’re learning from more thoughtful reporting on e-bikes.

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The AMOC: tipping this century, or not?

Real Climate

A few weeks ago, a study by Copenhagen University researchers Peter and Susanne Ditlevsen concluded that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is likely to pass a tipping point already this century, most probably around mid-century. Given the catastrophic consequences of an AMOC breakdown, the study made quite a few headlines but also met some skepticism.

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If South Africa Ends Lion Breeding, What to Do with Captive Cats?

Yale E360

In 2021, the South African government committed to shutting down the country’s captive-lion breeding industry, which provided animals for canned hunts. Among the sticking points slowing progress is what should happen to the thousands of lions that remain on private ranches.

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Extreme Heat Makes Electricity More Expensive, More Polluting, and Less Reliable

Union of Concerned Scientists

Extreme heat has hit hard lately from coast to coast and beyond, and it’s a major way Danger Season has shown up this year. Even as I write this, communities from the Northwest to the Southwest to the Southeast and Puerto Rico are under heat alerts. The direct health impact of heat stress is bad enough, and dangerous. But extreme heat also hits our electricity system in ways that make it more expensive, more polluting, and less reliable.

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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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What is an 'AI prompt engineer' and does every company need one?

New Scientist

Some companies are hiring specialists to help them get the best out of generative AI – but if the tech gets better at understanding what users want, such skills may not be needed

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At Long Last, the Vision of the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Is Realized

NRDC

The designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is not only extremely popular but its protections are long overdue.

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We Reviewed More Than 150 Paper on Water Management. Here’s What We Learned.

Union of Concerned Scientists

In my previous life as a graduate student, I worked with hydroeconomic modeling. I recently had the opportunity to jump back into that type of research with colleagues from the University of California Davis and Merced. If hydroeconomic modeling sounds like jargon, that’s because it is. In a nutshell, hydroeconomic modeling is a tool for water management.

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The best science fiction movies about dinosaurs, by a palaeontologist

New Scientist

From Walking with Dinosaurs to King Kong, palaeontologist David Hone chooses his favourite science fiction films about dinosaurs – and reveals which Jurassic Park made the cut

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The Colors of Stars, Explained

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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The Great Salt Lake and Its Web of Life Face an Uncertain Future

Yale E360

"Vanishing Oasis" — First-Place Winner of the Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — documents how massive withdrawals from rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake are threatening the survival of millions of migratory birds and creating bare lake beds that generate plumes of toxic dust.

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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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The Food and Farm Bill Can Do a Lot for Workers  

Union of Concerned Scientists

This “ Danger Season ” (the months of May through October, when the risk posed by extreme weather is highest) has been characterized by record-breaking stretches of extreme heat overlapping with torrential rain and floods. Laboring outdoors on the front lines of the climate crisis, farmworkers face disproportionate impacts from extreme weather: recent research from the National Institutes of Health found agricultural workers are 35 times more likely to die from heat than other worker

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India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission starts exploring the moon’s south pole

New Scientist

After the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s historic landing on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s rover has begun researching the composition of the surface and investigating water ice near the lunar south pole

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Reefs made from culled trees can help kickstart sea life in threatened waters

Frontiers

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer One of the ‘tree-reefs’ being examined after five months in the Wadden Sea. Image credit: Jon Dickson Researchers have shown that structures made from culled pear trees sunk into soft-bottomed seas like the Dutch Wadden Sea provide excellent replacements for naturally occurring hard substrates, of which many have been lost due to human activities.

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At Long Last, the Vison of the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Is Realized

NRDC

The designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is not only extremely popular but its protections are long overdue.

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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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How Reliable Are Gas Power Plants? What ICAP, UCAP, and ELCC Tell Us.

Union of Concerned Scientists

One of the biggest challenges with the transition to clean electricity is figuring out how to keep the grid reliable. Extreme heat , winter storms , and flooding regularly remind us that the grid is struggling to keep up in the face of more climate change-fueled extreme weather. Now, if you thought I was going to say that clean energy technologies aren’t capable of providing a reliable electricity supply, you’re way off track.

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Evidence Undermines 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Claims

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Lockdowns and face masks really did help to control covid-19

New Scientist

Non-vaccine measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks have been "unequivocally effective" at preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, according to a major report by the UK's Royal Society

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New pocket-sized device for clinicians could spot infected wounds faster

Frontiers

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists have developed a device that works with a smartphone or tablet to capture medical images which can identify infected wounds. By capturing the heat produced by a wound and the fluorescence of bacteria, it helps clinicians tell the difference between inflammation and a potentially dangerous infection.

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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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What’s another $4 billion amongst friends?

Enviromental Defense

Are you outraged about Premier Ford’s $8 billion Greenbelt giveaway? I am too. How would you feel if I told you that the Ontario government is going to blow another $4 billion on another environmentally destructive and indefensible act? A scandal in the making Actually, how do you feel is a better question – because I’m not speaking hypothetically.

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Scientists Tried to Re-create an Entire Human Brain in a Computer. What Happened?

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Analogue chips can slash the energy used to run AI models

New Scientist

AI research uses vast amounts of energy, but new research shows that analogue devices can run models far more efficiently due to their unusual ability to carry out data storage and processing in the same place

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People taking adult education classes run lower risk of dementia

Frontiers

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Researchers analyzed health information on middle-aged and senior participants in the UK Biobank. They showed that those who took part in adult education classes had a 19% lower risk of developing dementia within five years of follow-up. Adult education also appeared to help preserve nonverbal reasoning performance and fluid intelligence.

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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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The Seedlot Selection Tool (SST)

Environmental News Bits

The Seedlot Selection Tool (SST) is a web-based mapping application designed to help natural resource managers match seedlots with planting sites based on climatic information. Because of natural selection to different climatic conditions at a location, plant populations are genetically differentiated from one another and are generally locally adapted.

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What's the World's Oldest Language?

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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The human Y chromosome has been fully sequenced for the first time

New Scientist

The Y chromosome, which normally confers male characteristics, features large amounts of repetitive DNA, which meant it was difficult to compile a complete sequence until now

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The Feed: Volume 1, Issue 16

National Law Center

The Feed newsletter highlights recent legal developments affecting agriculture, with issues released twice a month. Click below to sign up for. The post The Feed: Volume 1, Issue 16 appeared first on National Agricultural Law Center.

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City-living may make male song sparrows more doting ‘super’ fathers

Frontiers

By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Rob Lachlan New behavioral traits are often the first response of animals to changing environmental conditions. As cities increasingly become habitats of wildlife, researchers have studied behavioral changes in birds and examined how urbanization impacts parental care behavior of male song sparrows.

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Penguin Chicks Are Dying Off as Antarctic Sea Ice Disappears

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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AI can spot early signs of a tsunami from atmospheric shock waves

New Scientist

Tsunamis trigger atmospheric disturbances that are picked up by GPS satellites – and an AI-powered monitoring system that detects the signals could alert us before the tsunami reaches coastal areas

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Organizational sustainability schemes align with weak sustainability

Environmental News Bits

Demastus, J., & Landrum, N. E. (2023). “Organizational sustainability schemes align with weak sustainability.” Business Strategy and the Environment, 1–19. [link] [open access] Abstract: While sustainability research is expansive, studies of business-internal practices and resulting sustainability outcomes are largely unexplored.

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Trapping Tiny Pocket Mice in the Nebraska Prairie

Cool Green Science

A long-running study at Platte River Prairies preserve looks at the relationships between small mammals and grassland management. The post Trapping Tiny Pocket Mice in the Nebraska Prairie appeared first on Cool Green Science.

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Chandrayaan-3 Makes Historic Touchdown on the Moon

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.