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In California, communities of color tend to see higher levels of pollution than white communities, but it can be hard to discern the sources of that pollution. The state’s Covid-19 stay-at-home orders offered some insight. According to a new study, the near-halt in traffic resulting from the orders revealed the outsized role that cars and trucks have in polluting Hispanic and Asian communities....Comparing levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide before and after the shutdown in early 2020, researchers found that pollution fell in Asian and Hispanic communities more than it did in white communities. The results suggest that traffic is to blame for poorer air quality in Asian and Hispanic neighborhoods. Income only explained 15 percent of the disparity....“One would think that in a state with strong environmental policies, where we track what is being emitted where, that our regulatory system might do a good job of protecting everyone equally,” said Jennifer Burney, an environmental scientist at the University of California, San Diego and co-author of the study. “But this is really strong evidence of systemic bias. Pollution sources from everything that was shut down, transportation, businesses, restaurants, etc. all add up during business-as-usual conditions. Thus, the total system is tipped, exposing racial and ethnic minorities to more pollution.”
More patients are requiring liver transplants late in life, and scientists have identified exposure to industrial chemical compounds as a contributing factor to increased rates of liver disease.In the next decade, scientists expect to see non-alcoholic fatty liver disease become the leading reason for liver transplants. The disease, which is estimated to affect 25% of the world's population, has already caused millions of elderly Americans to require new livers....PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are notoriously difficult to get rid of once they've been manufactured. They're known for their waterproof, stain-resistant, and grease-resistant properties, making PFAS popular additives in everything from rain gear to take-out containers.Scientists have found that virtually all Americans are exposed to some PFAS in the air or contaminated drinking water, and the chemicals remain in the bloodstream for a lifetime. High levels of exposure to PFAS have been linked to health risks related to some cancers, weakened immune function, and developmental delays in children.Scientists who study environmental health have suspected a connection between PFAS and liver damage for years now, but the field needed a large-scale review to prove a link, lead author Elizabeth Costello said in a news release.
Studies in rodents exposed to PFAS revealed that the chemicals bind to receptors for fatty acids, causing abnormal fat buildup in the liver. This effect was linked to several indicators of fatty liver disease, including increased cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid.
‘Forever chemicals’ found in nearly 60% of children’s ‘waterproof’ or ‘stain-resistant’ textilesNearly 60% of children’s textiles labeled “waterproof”, “stain-resistant”, or “environmentally friendly” that were tested as part of a new study contained toxic PFAS substances known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment.Among products checked were clothing, pillow protectors, bedding and furniture.“It’s definitely a concern because these toxic chemicals can make their way into children’s bodies,” said Laurel Schaider, one of the study’s authors.PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of more than 9,000 compounds typically used across dozens of industries to make products water-, stain- or heat-resistant. They’re in thousands of everyday consumer products such as stain guards, cookware, food packaging and waterproof clothing.The chemicals are linked to cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, decreased immunity, hormone disruption and a range of other serious health problems. They’re dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and they accumulate in humans....PFAS in clothing can get in the body via several routes. The chemicals are volatile, meaning they can break off from the products to which they’re applied, then move through the air and be breathed in. They can also attach to dust that’s breathed in or ingested, or they can be absorbed through the skin.
The cause of the next pandemic is probably already hereA bird flu is spreading again. Several cases of very contagious avian influenza have been identified in the states of Washington, Oregon, Maryland, and Delaware, where over 3 million cases in chickens have been identified since February. Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported a case of human avian influenza A(H5) in Colorado, the second associated with the current outbreak of avian flu among birds, which started in 2021.
The most widely quoted date for the beginning of recorded history of avian influenza (initially known as fowl plague) was in 1878 when it was differentiated from other diseases that caused high mortality rates in birds.[12]...Outbreaks have become more common due to the high density and frequent movement of flocks from intensive poultry production.[citation needed]
This Underground Tomb in Finland Will Store Nuclear Waste for 100,000 YearsOnkalo, meaning “deep pit,” is slated to open in 2024.The repository is located in this watertight rock, and it’s intentionally seated in the center, as far away as possible from two nearby earthquake faults. (This is one reason why the nuclear plants are already located in Olkiluoto.) The process for actually storing waste will involve drilling into the underground rock and then observing if there are any, even tiny, cracks in the dense bedrock. If there are, those specific locations won’t be used.When waste arrives on site, it will first be packaged in a cast-iron vessel. Following that, a layer of inert argon gas is introduced, then it’s all closed inside a copper vessel that is welded shut. The real worry is corrosion, which is caused by oxygen—in this case, dissolved in the water itself, hypothetically. The experts at Posiva say by the time any water manages to make it into the sealed copper casks of nuclear waste, the dissolved oxygen will already be consumed by bacteria and other agents acting on the water.“In Finland, there is a very high level of trust in science and in the authorities. If the national authority says the repository is safe, they don’t need to worry about it,” political science researcher Matti Kojo tells Science. “If you tried to implement the same thing in a country with much lower levels of trust, it would probably fail.”
Climate change makes record-breaking heatwaves in northwest India and Pakistan 100 times more likely, a Met Office study finds....The region should now expect a heatwave that exceeds the record temperatures seen in 2010 once every three years.Without climate change, such extreme temperatures would occur only once every 312 years, the Met Office says.
Climate change will harm sleep: Study...By the end of this century, warmer temperatures will cost humans an average of 50 to 58 hours of sleep per person per year, according to a new study in the journal One Earth. ...The effect of lost sleep isn’t just a matter of comfort. Lack of sleep has a host of potential health implications, including heart disease and mental health problems....sleeping bodies shed heat into their surrounding environment. That becomes harder as temperatures rise.And temperatures are rising due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. The global average temperature is 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution. If warming continues, sleep will suffer.
The diminished rest will not be evenly distributed. It will fall much harder on developing countries with warmer climates, such as India, where air conditioning and reliable electricity are scarce....The fact that sleep loss was three times as great in poorer countries in regions such as South Asia implies that people do not get used to falling asleep at warmer temperatures, although the study did not adjust for the main likely reason: more prevalent air conditioning in northern countries, such as those in Europe and North America, which tend to be richer. On the other hand, countries in Africa were underrepresented in the study, meaning that extreme heat could have even stronger effects on sleep than the study showed, researchers said.
This year's World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos was a more anxious affair than usual. The received wisdom that international trade creates a more peaceful world is being challenged. Now people talk of 'the end of globalization' and a new order to world trade. In this DW Business Special, we discuss whether globalization is a thing of the past or whether it's simply morphing into something else.#WEF #Davos #Globalization
A man died in a burning Tesla because its futuristic doors wouldn’t open, lawsuit alleges[...]After the crash, and after firefighters extinguished the blaze, Awan’s Tesla was transported to a tow yard. Once there, it reignited and burned again.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial times – and is at levels not seen since millions of years ago when Earth was a hothouse ocean-inundated planet, federal government scientists announced Friday.“Carbon dioxide is at levels our species has never experienced before,” said Pieter Tans, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Global Monitoring Laboratory....Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were consistently around 280 ppm for almost 6,000 years of human civilization, NOAA said. Since then, humans have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide pollution, much of which will continue to warm the atmosphere for thousands of years.
The slowdown from the pandemic did cut global carbon emissions a bit in 2020, but they rebounded last year."It's depressing that we've lacked the collective willpower to slow the relentless rise in CO2,” said geochemist Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
we should celebrate the contributions and situations that have been created primarily by white people.
Scientists have for the first time found microplastics — tiny particles that can be ingested — in freshly fallen Antarctic snow.The discovery, from researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, joins a small collection of recent research on this type of plastic, which can be so small it’s invisible to the naked eye and is derived both from the breakdown of larger plastic pieces or is produced this small intentionally, to create grit in toothpaste and sunscreens, for instance.The implications of the discovery span health issues to additional climate change stress already felt in the poles....“It’s incredibly sad but finding microplastics in fresh Antarctic snow highlights the extent of plastic pollution into even the most remote regions of the world,” she said.“Looking back now, I’m not at all surprised,” team member and associate professor Laura Revell said of their initial belief that the pole was too remote to contain plastic. “From the studies published in the last few years we’ve learned that everywhere we look for airborne microplastics, we find them.”...Humans eat or breathe in about 2,000 tiny plastic particles each week, the World Wildlife Federation found in a 2019 study. Many are ingested from bottled and tap water.Microplastics may also be increasing the impact of global warming, studies show.Snowfields, ice caps and glaciers around the world are already melting fast, and scientists say dark-colored microplastics deposited here can make things worse by absorbing sunlight and enhancing local heating.Clean snowpacks, icefields and glaciers can reflect much of the sunlight, but other polluting particles such as black carbon have also been found on icefields and glaciers of the Himalayas — and scientists say they accelerate the melting there.