Environmental News

Elsewhere I suggested that biogeochemistry has not much overlap with military history/education. The above soon popped up to prove me wrong.

 

Yes they seem to have done, but with some differences. A much shorter timeline. They left much less written topical records. Limestone caves in Maya-Land have not been examined for paleoclimate information to nearly the same extent.

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You add an important idea. Deforestation in Dynasty-Land has been pervasive in time and space. Links of that to paleoclimate have not been thoroughly examined.

 

EV batteries are life-cycle tested in ways that underestimate their service lives:

Existing EV batteries may last up to 40% long | EurekAlert!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01675-8

TL;DR Go ahead and mash that pedal.

And yet, other lithium batt applications (solar backup) exert smooth loads, so current* testing may be accurate for those.

*current: another silly pun

 

Poop for agriculture:

Recycling human, animal excreta reduces need | EurekAlert!

This makes sense in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus. However, safety recalls for fruits and vegetables already result from fecal contamination. Study authors may have addressed that in article I've not yet read.

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Some readers are aware of Hyperion waste treatment plant (WTP) in Los Angeles. It differs from many WTP by reclaiming biosolids into agricultural fertilizer, and (bacterial) methane for energy production.

Sewage Treatment in Los Angeles – Where Does the Waste Go? - Curating Los Angeles

 

Interactive siting of solar and wind power generation facilities:

They turned renewable energy's weakness into a superpower

TL;DR Figure out where wind blows at night

 

“This year's Nobel Peace Prize will be presented Tuesday to Japan's atomic bomb survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo.”

https://www.spacewar.com/afp/241210113701.jpbgz0uk.html

Being still alive is among requirements for Nobel Prize, so it was now or soon or never.

 

“US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to speed up environmental approvals for those investing $1 billion or more in the United States.”

https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Trump_vows_fast_environmental_approvals_for_1_bn_investments_in_US_999.html

Description of X-tweet did not specify that only fossil-energy investments of this size would get kind handling, and renewable-energy investments would not. So that remains unknown.

I cannot justify why investments of this size should evade US laws and regulations including environmental ones. While smaller investments would not. I cannot justify why any investments should evade US laws and regulations.

Because life with health would be said by many to be a Great US Thing.

 

I harbor no illusion that:

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/nph.20298

Will get read by many here. But there are things to notice.

Crop yields per area (Fig. 1) disagree with another I recently posted. It would be of great value to sort out this matter. What crops and where have leveled off?

Rubisco is not the only part of photosynthesis, but it is big. An enzyme, therefore a protein, it is the most abundant protein on earth. I mean, who would not want to know that? Cellulose, a polysaccharide, is the most abundant abundant biomolecule on earth. China has only one time zone while France has 13. But I digress.

Authors propose to pump up rubisco in a variety of ways. Transgenic (GMO) has its doubters. Gain-of-function would I suppose be seen as benign here, but very controversial in medical areas.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of top ten places in world very dedicated to figure out agriculture to feed humanity in (say) 2050 AD. These things matter.

US DoE funded this. US EPA, USDA, and US NSF fund similar. It is much to be hoped that such US science funding persists while politics blows one way or another.

 

This elevator only goes down:

Study finds subsidence hotspots impacting buildings in South Florida
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2024EA003852

The article names buildings and includes photos. Not something one sees every day. Must have been a matter of discussion for AGU Legal Dept.

 

Dragonflies:

14 Fun Facts About Dragonflies, From Their Lethal Hunting Prowess to Incredible Migratory Feats | Smithsonian

New to me in this list of fun facts is the multi-generational global migration.

If one is tasked with insect collection for a class, these are surprisingly difficult to 'net'. Just try it sometime.