December, 2021

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Perspective: More Attention Needed on Freshwater Biodiversity

Circle of Blue

Freshwater species are dying off and decreasing in abundance. Yet conservation funding centers on lands and oceans. Boats ply the waters of the Mekong River Delta, near Can Tho, Vietnam. Home to about 65 million people across four countries, the lower Mekong is also prized for its diversity of aquatic species. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue. By Stefan Lovgren – December 16, 2021.

Ocean 363
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Climate Clues from the Past Prompt a New Look at History

Yale E360

As scientists rapidly improve their ability to decipher past climate upheaval through ice cores and other "proxies,” historians are re-examining previous political and social turmoil and linking it to volcanic eruptions, prolonged droughts, and other disturbances in the natural world. Read more on E360 ?.

Politics 363
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2021 Year in Review: Five Stories of Clean Energy Progress

Union of Concerned Scientists

The end of the year can be a fine time for taking stock, and that’s true in the energy space just as in our personal lives. Lots of stories of clean energy progress caught my eye for 2021. Here are five of them–about renewable energy technologies and markets that seem particularly worthy of note and […].

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It’s Time to Repeal the Clean Power Plan

Legal Planet

The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was the Obama Administration’s signature climate effort. This 2015 regulation aimed to move state power grids away from coal and toward renewable energy. It immediately became ensnared in litigation and never went into effect. It’s now considered irrelevant for all practical purposes. Yet the Supreme Court is now set to address numerous challenges to this zombie regulation.

2015 257
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Manufacturing Sustainability Surge: Your Guide to Data-Driven Energy Optimization & Decarbonization

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.

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Human brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong faster than an AI

New Scientist

Hundreds of thousands of brain cells in a dish are being taught to play Pong by responding to pulses of electricity – and can improve their performance more quickly than an AI can

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Entangling a live tardigrade, radiation warning on anti-5G accessories

Physics World

Tardigrades are tiny organisms that can survive extreme environments including being chilled to near absolute zero. At these temperatures quantum effects such as entanglement become dominant, so perhaps it is not surprising that a team of physicists has used a chilled tardigrade to create an entangled qubit. According to a preprint on the arXiv server, the team cooled a tardigrade to below 10 mK and then used it as the dielectric in a capacitor that itself was part of a superconducting transmon

Radiation 145

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Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked

Yale E360

Renewable energy skeptics argue that because of their variability, wind and solar cannot be the foundation of a dependable electricity grid. But the expansion of renewables and new methods of energy management and storage can lead to a grid that is reliable and clean. Read more on E360 ?.

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Illinois Can Still Say “Knope” to Pawnee Gas Plant

Union of Concerned Scientists

The proposed methane gas plant makes it clear our fight against fossil fuel interests is not over.

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The Benefits of Vaccinating Kids against COVID Far Outweigh the Risks of Myocarditis

Scientific American

Vaccination is likely to prevent many more COVID cases than it is to cause a rare and nonfatal heart side effect in 5–11-year-olds. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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Hundreds of Salvadorans claim money is vanishing from bitcoin accounts

New Scientist

El Salvador's attempt to become the world's first state to adopt bitcoin as legal tender hits another stumbling block as hundreds of citizens claim that funds are disappearing from their accounts

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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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Sensing gravity, the quantum way

Physics World

Much of quantum technology is linked to computing. It is easy to imagine how a better, more powerful computer, capable of solving complex problems, could be useful. But what is a computer, after all, if not a data-processing machine. Computers, quantum or otherwise, transform data into information, which is then used to steer scientific, medical, industrial processes.

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HotSpots H2O: Report Spotlights Funding Gap in Canada’s First Nations Water Crisis

Circle of Blue

Nearly half of water systems in the country’s Indigenous communities are considered to have substantial deficiencies. A boil water advisory sign issued by the Tl’azl’en Nation in British Colombia.© Macdonald-Laurier Institute. A new report found that more spending is needed to address the ongoing water crisis in Canada’s Indigenous First Nations.

2014 279
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Protecting Earth: If ‘Nature Needs Half,’ What Do People Need?

Yale E360

The campaign to preserve half the Earth’s surface is being criticized for failing to take account of global inequality and human needs. But such protection is essential not just for nature, but also for creating a world that can improve the lives of the poor and disadvantaged. Read more on E360 ?.

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DC’s Shifting Indoor Mask Mandate: Follow the Science, Mayor Bowser

Union of Concerned Scientists

The mayor’s decision to lift DC's indoor mask mandate is not based on the best available science and evidence.

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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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2021 – Open Science Is Saving Lives

Frontiers

Kamila Markram, CEO and Co-founder. A year ago, I wrote about the strength of the human spirit that saw all of us come together as we rose before the challenge in front of us. Twelve months on, while COVID-19 remains a significant challenge to us all, more than eight billion vaccine doses have been administered to people around the world. 55% of the world’s total population have now received at least one dose of a vaccine.

2021 142
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The Amazon is turning into savannah – we have 5 years to save it

New Scientist

We have been hearing warnings about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest for decades, but experts say a catastrophic tipping point is now just over the horizon. Are they right? And if so, what can we do to pull things back?

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‘Cosmological coupling’ is making black holes bigger, study suggests

Physics World

The observation of black holes with unexpectedly high masses could be partly explained by an effect related to the expansion of the universe, astronomers in the US have proposed. The team, led by Kevin Croker at the University of Hawai’i at M?noa, used comparisons between simulated black hole mergers, and gravitational waves detected by the LIGO–Virgo collaboration, to show how ignoring the expansion of the universe may be limiting our understanding of black-hole physics.

2015 145
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HotSpots H2O: Ongoing Madagascar Famine Is Driven By Poverty, Not Climate Change

Circle of Blue

A new study shows the vulnerability of the world’s poorest nations even without climate breakdown, its authors say. Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world, chronically battles food insecurity. Image © Heinonlein / Wikimedia Commons. Madagascar is in the grip of a deadly famine. For months, international’s organizations have blamed the calamity on climate change.

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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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Embracing a Wetter Future, the Dutch Turn to Floating Homes

Yale E360

Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in flood-prone nations as far-flung as French Polynesia and the Maldives. Read more on E360 ?.

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Oil Execs Spout Disinformation at House Climate Disinformation Hearing

Union of Concerned Scientists

The fact that they were testifying under oath didn't seem to matter.

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What Is a Lagrange Point?

Scientific American

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will travel to a special spot where the gravity from Earth and the sun is balanced. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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We’ve seen our galaxy’s huge black hole more clearly than ever before

New Scientist

Astronomers have observed Sagittarius A* – the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy – closer than ever before, and Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity still holds up

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Physics books that captured the imagination in 2021

Physics World

In keeping with our festive tradition, the December episode of Physics World Stories is all about physics books. Host Andrew Glester is joined by Physics World ’s reviews and careers editor Laura Hiscott and the magazine’s editor-in-chief Matin Durrani to discuss a handpicked selection of popular-science books reviewed in 2021. One of the year’s most memorable titles is Hawking Hawking: the Selling of a Scientific Celebrity by Charles Seife.

2021 145
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HotSpots H2O: 100,000 Displaced as Water Scarcity Ignites Ethnic Clashes in Cameroon

Circle of Blue

Climate change has made rainfall in the Sahel more variable, straining Cameroon’s agriculture industry and sparking ethnic tensions. Boats on the shore of Lake Chad in 2014. Photo © EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid / Flickr Creative Commons. One hundred thousand people are displaced after ethnic clashes broke out in northern Cameroon earlier this month.

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Why the Luster on Once-Vaunted 'Smart Cities' Is Fading

Yale E360

“Smart cities” built from scratch have so far failed to live up to their much-hyped promise. Some critics argue that rather than grafting a new city onto the landscape, it is better to integrate high-tech for clean, efficient energy and transportation into existing cities. Read more on E360 ?.

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Climate Change Impacts on California Central Valley: The Warning Shot the US Is Ignoring

Union of Concerned Scientists

It's not a "them" problem.

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An Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculation Machine Reveals New Secrets

Scientific American

Scientists have a new understanding of the mysterious Antikythera mechanism that challenges assumptions about ancient technology. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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Cuba’s home-grown vaccines have massively cut covid-19 cases

New Scientist

Four months after hospitals collapsed in Cuba due to skyrocketing covid-19 case numbers, the country has rolled out its own vaccines and cases are down to 5 for every 100,000 people

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The ten-billion-dollar gamble: The JWST’s magnificent mirrors

Physics World

Building a mirror the size of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) 6.5-metre primary isn’t a problem per se. Building a 6.5-metre mirror that can fit inside an Ariane 5 rocket fairing just 4.57 metres wide, without being too heavy to launch into space – well, that is a problem, and the task of solving it fell to NASA’s Lee Feinberg , who leads the telescope’s optical team.

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This Central Valley Town Has a Carcinogen in its Water. Why Are Solutions So Slow?

Circle of Blue

This article was produced by SJV Water, the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ). This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), California Health Report, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, Circle of Blue, Colorado Public Radio, Columbia Insight, The Counter, High Country News, New Mexico In Depth and SJV Water.

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U.S. Is World’s Top Generator of Plastic Waste

Yale E360

The U.S. generates more plastic waste than any other country, producing roughly 287 pounds of plastic per person per year, according to a new congressional report. Read more on E360 ?.

Waste 280
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Twenty years of tallgrass prairie restoration in northern Illinois, USA

The Applied Ecologist

Elizabeth Bach and Bill Kleiman share their latest findings from monitoring long-term ecosystem restoration on The Nature Conservancy’s Nachusa Grassland preserve. The challenges facing our planet can feel overwhelming and paralyzing. Climate is changing, biodiversity is declining, people are struggling to be in community with one another. However, there are signs of hope.

2030 137
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A COVID Vaccine for All

Scientific American

With proved technology and no-frills tech transfer, CORBEVAX is poised to reach hundreds of millions in the coming weeks. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.