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Archive for the ‘Climate’ Category

The Bounty of the Ocean

Posted in Climate on 12/16/2020|

(Photo by David Bailey, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Just as there are many human health risks to contend with in the marine environment, the global ocean is a vast and bountiful treasure chest of resources we rely on every day to support our existence. Protein-rich sustenance, medical treatments, and physical and mental well-being are just some of the ocean-related benefits societies have taken advantage of for centuries.

Recognizing the critical importance of the oceans to our own health—and the planet’s—ocean scientists are working to investigate the untapped potential of the sea in order to maximize these benefits, and to help ensure the ocean’s bounty for generations to come.

Read more: https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/the-bounty-of-the-ocean/

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Why Can’t People Agree About Climate Change?

Posted in Climate, Psychology on 04/14/2020|

A new study at Carnegie Mellon University explores why local perceptions often differ on contentious global issues, like climate change.

The internet has brought us closer together, but it has also pushed us farther apart. On issues as far reaching as climate change and vaccinations, disparity is growing between scientific consensus and pockets of local doubt. 

New research at Carnegie Mellon University explores how a local vantage point can muddle how people understand important global issues. Stephen Broomell leverages measurement theory to reveal an incompatibility between local perceptions and actual global events in his study published in the March 25 issue of Cognitive Science. 

“Any large problem that requires consensus can be undermined by random differences between local perspectives,” said Broomell, associate professor in the Department of Social and Decisional Sciences at CMU. “In the presence of random noise, you need global evidence to understand a global issue.” 

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Scientists identify how plants sense temperature

Posted in Blinding People with Science, Climate, Plants, tagged , on 12/04/2018|

transgenic plant of Arabidopsis. Laboratory test for modification

With a temperature sensor in hand, researchers can engineer crops that produce yields in warmer climates.

When it gets hot outside, humans and animals have the luxury of seeking shelter in the shade or cool, air-conditioned buildings. But plants are stuck.

While not immune to changing climate, plants respond to the rising mercury in different ways. Temperature affects the distribution of plants around the planet. It also affects the flowering time, crop yield, and even resistance to disease. 

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War Pandemics and Climate: the 1918 El Niño

Posted in Climate, tagged , , on 06/09/2014|

Screen shot 2014-06-09 at 4.43.29 PMLet me tell you a tale of war, influenza, and strange climate events that are sure to set your hair on end. But this is not a fictional story to scare and entertain; it is a historical reality that, with the work of scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Texas A&M University, and the University of Maryland has been clearly established.

The story begins in late 1917. The Great War was dragging into its fourth year in Europe and Russia. An influenza pandemic began draping a curtain of death across the world. Four countries became embroiled in revolutions, and India experienced the worst drought on record. This last event–and perhaps some of the others–may have been influenced by an inconspicuous warm patch of water in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean, where a strong El Niño began to brew.

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