5+ mon, 2+ week ago (294+ words) Discoveries about evolution have long been intertwined with bird beaks. The huge variety of beak shapes among finches in the Galapagos Islands became emblematic of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The beaks had evolved over time to better suit the food available on particular islands. In the same way, the beak of Anna's hummingbird " Calypte anna " might become a symbol of evolution during the Anthropocene. The bill of this pint-sized bird has changed shape dramatically over the last century and a half as more people hang syrup-filled hummingbird feeders to attract the colorful, acrobatic animals, scientists reported recently in Global Change Biology. The new discovery appears to be a "textbook" example of human-driven changes in an animal's body, Elizabeth Steell, who studies bird evolution at Cambridge University, wrote of the new study, in which she was not involved. To…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (582+ words) Shifting humanity to more plant-based diets would cut global farm labor needs by up to 28%, freeing up almost USD$100 billion each year'but at the cost of over 100 million jobs." These striking figures from a new Lancet Planetary Health study reveal the flipside to the sustainable diet transition: how that process would affect agricultural workers. Undoubtedly, the world needs to move towards a more plant-based diet, says the study, which also explores how we can make that transition fair for the millions of dependent workers. First, the researchers wanted to describe the changing labor landscape. They drew up an inventory of 200 food groups for 179 countries, and estimated the labour requirements for individual foods by 2030, then ran this data through different dietary scenarios, ranging from global flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan diets." This revealed an intriguing picture of opportunities and trade-offs across…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago (597+ words) The world's 250 largest oil and gas companies are responsible for less than 1.5% of renewable energy generation worldwide, according to a new analysis. The findings cast doubt on the fossil fuel industry narrative that it is helping solve the climate crisis by investing in renewable energy development. In recent years, fossil fuel companies have pledged to make drastic cuts in their own emissions and have emphasized their green energy initiatives, as part of a strategy to maintain the social and political acceptance necessary to continue doing business in a world increasingly focused on decarbonization. To reach this conclusion, Llavero-Pasquina and his UAB colleague Antonio Bontempi mined a series of existing corporate structure and energy production databases. They identified the world's 250 largest oil and gas companies responsible for 88% of global production of hydrocarbons, as well as 344 subsidiaries, 193 acquisitions, and 172 sister companies of…...

4+ mon, 2+ week ago (636+ words) Members of the public broadly agree that carbon emissions are too high, and that the wealthy should do more of the heavy lifting to reduce them, according to a new study based on survey data from Germany. But people tend to have a too-rosy view of their own personal carbon footprint'a pattern that is especially pronounced among the wealthy. "Our findings challenge the notion that climate action is deeply divisive or that public opinion is polarized," says study team member Johanna K'chling, a graduate student at the University of Konstanz in Germany. "Instead, they reveal a broad consensus on both the urgency of action and the need to ensure fairness." Globally, the wealthiest 10% of individuals are responsible for nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions, while the poorest 50% are responsible for only about one-tenth. This phenomenon'known as carbon inequality'is becoming…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (545+ words) It is challenging to communicate "neutrally," especially when discussing predictions about future events," says study team member Marie Juanchich, a psychologist at the University of Essex in the UK. Information is inevitably framed either positively (highlighting the possibility of something happening) or negatively (emphasizing the chance that it might not)." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prescribes standardized terms for communicating about the probability of different events. At the low end of the scale, the organization mandates negative terms. For example, something with a less than 33% chance of occurring should be described as unlikely." In the new study, Juanchich and her collaborators conducted eight online experiments involving a total of 4,150 people, asking them to evaluate statements about climate change that used either negative (saying something is unlikely" to occur) or positive (saying that something has a small probability or…...

9+ mon, 5+ day ago (516+ words) Plastic packaging can have substantially smaller environmental impacts'including 70% lower greenhouse gas emissions'compared to other packaging materials, according to a new study. The findings suggest that although there are major concerns about the short use span of single-use plastics and the consequences of improper disposal, in the big picture the strain they cause on the planet may be less than that of reasonable alternatives. In the new study, researchers performed a life cycle analysis to compare the environmental impact of packaging made from polyethylene (PE) plastic to containers made from paper, glass, aluminum, and steel. Using standard life-cycle analysis software, they tracked the impacts from obtaining raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, distribution, and disposal. Past life-cycle analysis studies have mostly focused on greenhouse gas emissions from plastics in general. This is the first to focus specifically on PE, the plastic type…...

6+ mon, 3+ week ago (518+ words) In a creative fusion of science and literature, researchers trace the past range and decline of a rare Chinese porpoise through 700+ poems dating back to 618CE. Scientists use all kinds of clues to piece together where endangered species once dwelled. They trace the origins of museum specimens, scrutinize old maps and scientists" dusty notes, pick through DNA and run computer models. To map the historic home of the Yangtze finless porpoise, a group of researchers in China turned to a different sort of record: More than a thousand years of poetry. The creature"s Instagram-ready cuteness and aquatic acrobatics don"t just appeal to modern nature lovers, it turns out. "Compared to fish, Yangtze finless porpoises are pretty big, and they"re active on the surface of the water, especially before thunderstorms when they"re really chasing after fish and jumping…...

3+ mon, 3+ week ago (698+ words) Maps suggest the ocean has been getting a lot more protection lately. But satellites offer a much less encouraging view. On paper, the size of so-called marine protected areas (MPAs), designed to shield ecosystems from harm by humans, has grown from less than 5 million square kilometers at the start of the century to over 25 million today. That's more than 9% of the world's oceans. However, scientists with access to the unblinking eyes of satellites have found that many of these supposed protected areas are still being targeted by industrial fishing fleets. The new research shows the pitfalls of relying on simply declaring new reserves as a way to meet numerical targets, like the widely-touted goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. But it's not all bad news. There are hints that strict, enforced protections might help ensure these places live up…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago (574+ words) Trash that would otherwise rot in landfills could be converted into 62.5 billion liters of jet fuel per year, with a carbon footprint 80-90% smaller than that of fossil-based aviation fuel, according to a new study (1). Aviation represents 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is extremely hard to decarbonize. One potential solution is sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) made from renewable feedstocks. But some of these feedstocks come with their own problems " biofuel crops can displace natural ecosystems or food crops, for example. That has produced a surge of interest in making fuel from various forms of waste. "There is a wealth of organic waste deserving our attention," says study team member Michael McElroy, professor of environmental studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Using these wastes as feedstocks could reduce the cost of the decarbonization transition for hard-to-abate sectors." Municipal solid waste…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (524+ words) Online climate misinformation often borrows the look and feel of scientific figures and charts to gain legitimacy, according to a new study. The analysis highlights the importance of images and aesthetics in spreading climate misinformation, in contrast to previous studies that have largely focused on its content. "It's no longer just about what is said, but'how'it is shown," says study team member Anton T'rnberg, a sociologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The findings reflect the rise of popular internet platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube that integrate images and text elements so that they amplify and modulate each other's meanings. T'rnberg and Petter T'rnberg, a computational social scientist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, analyzed 17,848 online text-and-image posts published between 2010 and 2023 by eight key players in the climate denial movement in Sweden. In the past it…...