Tag: Consequences

science

Sea Angels and Sea Butterflies Reveal Climate Change Consequences

[email protected]_84

These winged water-dwellers are sea angels, floating marine slugs that may be the “canary in the coal mine” for severe ocean acidification caused by modern global warming.

Sea angels and their fluttering counterparts, sea butterflies, are pteropods. Pteropods first evolved in the early Cretaceous period, sharing the planet with dinosaurs and ammonites. The marine slugs are ancient and remarkably resilient; they have survived periods of major global extinctions and environmental changes, according to a study published in October 2020 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, they are the only living creature of their kind with a solid fossil record, so they are uniquely situated to help researchers determine the effects of global change on the marine environment.

Modern global warming is rapidly accelerating and creating new challenges for these creatures. As higher concentrations of carbon dioxide build up in the ocean and the

… Read More
science daily

Consequences of decades of global nutrition transition — ScienceDaily

[email protected]_84

Just a handful of rice and beans — a part of our world is starved. Hawaiian Pizza and ice-cream — another part of our world is stuffed, throwing away food every day. This gap is likely to worsen, while food waste will increase and pressure on the environment will go up, a new study shows. Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) assessed the consequences if the current nutrition transition, from scarce starch-based diets towards processed foods and animal products, continues — the calculations combine, for the first time, estimates for under- and overweight, food composition and waste. Their findings provide a startling look ahead: By 2050, more than 4 billion people could be overweight, 1.5 billion of them obese, while 500 million people continue to be underweight.

“If the observed nutrition transition continues, we will not achieve the United Nations goal of eradicating hunger worldwide,” explains

… Read More
science daily

Sea-level rise will have complex consequences — ScienceDaily

[email protected]_84

Rising sea levels will affect coasts and human societies in complex and unpredictable ways, according to a new study that examined 12,000 years in which a large island became a cluster of smaller ones.

Researchers reconstructed sea-level rise to produce maps of coastal changes at thousand-year intervals and found that today’s Isles of Scilly, off the UK’s south-west coast, emerged from a single island that only became the current configuration of more than 140 islands less than 1,000 years ago.

The study, led by the University of Exeter in partnership with Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cardiff University and 14 other institutes, found that changes in both land area and human cultures happened at variable rates, and often out of step with the prevailing rate of sea-level rise.

With climate change now driving rapid sea-level rise, the team says the effects will not always be as simple as a forced human retreat

… Read More
science in the news

The Consequences Of Dehumanizing Language In Politics : NPR

[email protected]_84

Republican National Convention protesters and counterprotesters clash at the Resist RNC 2020 protest rally at Marshall Park on Aug. 24 in Charlotte, N.C.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Republican National Convention protesters and counterprotesters clash at the Resist RNC 2020 protest rally at Marshall Park on Aug. 24 in Charlotte, N.C.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images

United States politicians are no strangers to using unkind language against their opponents. It’s a trend that dates back to at least 1800 when, during the presidential campaign, Thomas Jefferson hired James Callender to slime John Adams. But Alexander Theodoridis, who teaches political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says that today’s partisanship can lend itself to particularly dehumanizing language not only between political opponents, but also between regular Americans who belong to opposite political parties.

Theodoridis told NPR’s Weekend Edition that “dehumanizing language,” which includes people referring to others

… Read More