Peace & Justice History 8/9

The subject of South African pass laws makes me think of the GOP’s Agenda 47, and Project 2025…

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august91943

Sea lion camera crews map the ocean floor

August 7, 2024 Ariel Marcy

Australian researchers have equipped sea lions with underwater cameras to map previously unexplored areas of the ocean floor.

In Australia – and the world – ocean seabeds and the surrounding benthic habitats remain shrouded in mystery. Remotely operated robots can gather ocean floor data, but they are expensive, require certain weather conditions and are difficult to operate in remote, offshore areas.

To overcome these challenges, the research team glued GPS units and lightweight cameras on Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea). These fast-swimming predators forage in several different benthic habitats, allowing the researchers to model over 5,000 square kilometres of ocean floor.

The results are published in Frontiers of Marine Science.

The eight enlisted sea lions came from the Olive Island and Seal Bay colonies on the coast of South Australia.

“We deployed the instruments on adult females so we could recover the equipment a few days later when they returned to land to nurse their pups,” explains first author Nathan Angelakis, a PhD student with The University of Adelaide and the South Australian Research and Development Institute.

The sea lions collected 89 hours of recordings in total, from which the researchers identified six distinct benthic habitats: macroalgae reef, macroalgae meadow, bare sand, sponge/sand, invertebrate reefs and invertebrate boulder.

The researchers then used machine learning models to predict the habitat type in nearby areas of continental shelf.

“The sea lions from both locations covered quite broad areas around the colonies. In our calculations, we kept the area in which we predicted habitats small to maximize the precision of our predictions,” said Angelakis. “This allowed us to model benthic habitats across more than 5,000 square km of the continental shelf.”

The findings have conservation implications for the endangered sea lion and for other benthic species that rely on these habitats.

“These data are useful both for mapping critical habitats for an endangered species such as the Australian sea lion, and more broadly, for mapping unexplored areas of the seabed,” said Angelakis.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/oceans/australian-sea-lions-camera-crew-map-ocean-floor/

This is so good-

That Was Fast

Thanks to Zorba

I love Jim Hightower!

Jim Hightower: The Real Purpose of Project 2025

A couple of bits from Cosmos

for science!

Lithium-ion batteries made from wastewater phosphorus

Good news for some sustainability. Here’s a snippet:

“Engineers have found a way to turn phosphorus from city wastewater into parts for lithium-ion batteries.

“The Chinese researchers say that their method could be used to supply 35% of the phosphorus demand for their national lithium-ion battery industry.

“They’ve published their findings in Engineering.

“Phosphorus is a common component in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries – specifically, lithium iron phosphate batteries, which represent about 60% of the lithium-ion market according to the researchers.

“As an important ingredient in fertilisers and industrial chemicals, mineral phosphorus is in high demand. Mining stocks of phosphorus are expected to be depleted in the next 50-100 years.

“But, point out the researchers, more than 250,000 tonnes of phosphorus pollutes Chinese wastewater every year, coming from food consumption and chemical waste. This is more phosphorus than the amount consumed each year to make batteries.” (snip)

“The researchers used their wastewater-derived mixture to build small lithium-ion batteries in the lab. These batteries could charge and discharge at the rates needed for electric vehicles and large-scale storage systems, and they kept 99.2% of their capacity after being charged and discharged 100 times.

“Batteries made with higher doses of the wastewater material performed better than batteries made with lower doses. The researchers believe that impurities from the sludge helped to stabilise the batteries, allowing them to perform better.

“’The amount of phosphorus recovered from municipal wastewater is projected to be sufficient to meet up to 35% of the phosphorus demand by the lithium-ion battery industry in China, enhancing the cost-effectiveness of phosphorus recovery and alleviating the global shortage of phosphorus resources to achieve both clean energy and sustainable development,’ conclude the researchers in their paper.”

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When it rains, it pours! This old idea looks set to be Australia’s future

“In the last few years, Australia has faced both flooding rains and some of the lowest rainfall on record. Now, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have the data that explains why rain in Australia has seemed so unpredictable.

“The researchers have shown that human-induced climate warming is driving increases in rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land, and they say the effects are especially prominent in Australia.

“The study looked at increases in rainfall variability, which can mean wetter wet periods and drier dry periods. They found that daily variability has increased by 1.2% per decade globally, and that humans are largely to blame.

“’The increase in rainfall variability is mainly due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which have led to a warmer and more humid atmosphere,’ said Dr Zhang Wenxia, lead author of the study.

“’This means that even if the atmospheric circulation remains the same, the additional moisture in the air leads to more intense rain events and more drastic fluctuations between them.’

“Professor Steven Sherwood at the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, who was not involved in the study, told the AusSMC that this means rainier rainy periods and drier dry periods.

“’This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods.’

“The paper identified Australia as being a particular hotspot for rainfall variability. Dr Milton Speer from the University of Technology Sydney said the paper’s findings are significant, and that other recent studies have had similar conclusions.” (snip-More)

It was the new moon at 6:13AM CDT today, 5:13 Eastern

Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 04, 2024

https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2024/08/04

Staying Cool: Helpful Hints From History

Take a look back at how others have survived—and thought about—the high heat of summer.

By: Matthew Wills July 28, 2024

Staying Cool: Helpful Hints From History

In an episode of The Twilight Zone called “The Midnight Sun,” first broadcast in November 1961, the apocalyptic temperature of an Earth getting ever closer to the Sun is represented by a thermometer bursting at…130°F. On July 5, 2024, Palm Springs, California, reached 124°F, while the next day, Death Valley hit 128°F, amidst a shattering of triple-digit temperature records across the American West.

Benchmarks have shifted. In 1961, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere was 318 parts per million by volume (ppmv). CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, acting as atmospheric insulation, preventing heat radiation from dissipating into space. Last year, 2023, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere was 421 ppmv. It continues to increase, not least as we battle the resulting heat by burning fossil fuels to stay cool. We’re in a global greenhouse, and the doors seem to be locked as we paradoxically produce more CO₂ to stay cool in the face of heating caused by the production of more CO₂.

Humans have long worked to beat the heat, especially in the tropics and in deserts. Their perfectly rational strategies—stay out of the midday sun, live underground, cover up completely—may once have been criticized by those from temperate zones, sometimes in racist terms, but more and more parts of the world are having to learn the lesson of those strategies.

A sign outside an air conditioned American restaurant points to the 'White Rest Rooms', in a clear indication of racial segregation, circa 1960. — A sign outside an air-conditioned American restaurant points to the “White Rest Rooms,” in a clear indication of racial segregation, circa 1960. Getty

What, after all, would it be like without air conditioning? Take a look at this Before Air-Conditioning piece in Scientific American’s “Hints for Keeping Cool.” Published in July 1858, the piece begins with a dietary suggestion: eat “fruits, vegetables, and farinaceous food, and the lighter kinds of meat.” In 1858, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere was 286 ppmv. Seven years earlier, Dr. John Gorrie, striving to cool down his malaria and yellow fever patients in Florida, patented the first ice-making machine (1851, 285 ppmv).

The first modern, electrical air condition system dates to 1902 (297 ppmv), when inventor Willis Carrier cooled and dehumidified the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic & Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York. The publishing company was most concerned about humidity warping their paper supplies. Carrier is still a going concern.

A little over a century after Scientific American’s helpful hints, The Science News-Letter’s “Keeping Cool in Summer Heat” (1961: 318 ppmv) wasn’t so very different.

“If you suffer from heat frustration when the mercury hits the 90’s, a little scientific knowledge of summer heat can help your body temperature and state of mind remain well within the comfort zone,” the editors claim.

These hints were essential for those without air conditioning, that wonder of the twentieth century. Try to imagine cars, theaters, restaurants, the suburbs, office towers, apartment blocks, malls, et cetera, without A/C. The post-World War II population growth across the Sun Belt, stretching from Southern California to North Carolina, would most likely not have been possible without it.

In his exploration of how A/C transformed the South, Raymond Arsenault quotes a Floridian circa 1982 (341 ppmv).

“I hate air conditioning,” the woman confirmed. “It’s a damnfool invention of the Yankees. If they don’t like it hot, they can move back up North where they belong.”

But most people—in the South and elsewhere—welcomed A/C with a passion. Arsenault notes that historians tended to shy away from writing about the transformative power of air-conditioning on the South because they were leery of falling into an old climate-is-destiny paradigm. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the South’s climate was held responsible for everything from the Southern drawl to plantation slavery. Climate determinism faded by mid-century (1950: 311 ppmv), as the “long hot summers” of the Civil Rights years transitioned into the “New South,” supposedly post-racial but definitely all indoor-cooled.

A Prayer for Resistance. Please join, if you will.

This Is a Prayer for Lughnasadh. This Is a Prayer for Resistance.

Lost continent crucial in evolution of penguin wings

August 1, 2024 Evrim Yazgin

I love penguins!

New analysis of New Zealand fossils first uncovered in 1987 shows how penguin wings evolved.

The wing fragments were found near the town of Duntroon on New Zealand’s South Island, nearly 1,000km southwest of the Auckland.

The fossils come from a species called Pakudyptes hakataramea. It lived during the late Oligocene (34–23 million years ago). P. hakataramea is described for the first time in a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand today.

Worldwide, the latter part of the Oligocene was characterised by a drying of the climate. Forests which dominated the continents, including Australia, were beginning to recede. Grasslands and prairies expanded, seeing the evolution of grazing animals.

New Zealand today is believed to be the lost, ancient continent of Zealandia breaking through to the surface. Tens of millions of years ago, Zealandia’s rocky shores and surrounding waters were a hotbed of evolutionary development.

Among the ancient marine and coastal life found in New Zealand are dolphins, seals, crabs and ancestors of tropicbirds.

New Zealand has also thrown up ancient penguin fossils. This includes the largest ever penguin which lived 55 million years ago, stood as tall as a person and weighed a whopping 150kg.

In fact, New Zealand seems to have been teeming with giant penguins. (snip-More)

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/penguin-wing-fossils-zealandia/

Extreme heat is making schools hotter — and learning harder

Rising temperatures mean dehydrated, exhausted kids, and teachers who have to focus on heat safety instead of instruction.

Originally published by The 19th (Republished with their republish link)

Angela Girol has been teaching fourth grade in Pittsburgh for over two decades. Over the years she’s noticed a change at her school: It’s getting hotter.

Some days temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit in her classroom which, like many on the East Coast, isn’t air-conditioned. When it’s hot, she said, kids don’t eat, or drink enough water. “They end up in the nurse’s office because they’re dizzy, they have a headache, their stomach hurts — all because of heat and dehydration,” she said.

To cope with the heat, her students are now allowed to keep water on their desks, but that presents its own challenges. “They’re constantly filling up water bottles, so I have to give them breaks during the day for that. And then everyone has to go to the bathroom all the time,” she said. “I’m losing instruction time.”

The effect extreme heat is having on schools and child care is starting to get the attention of policymakers and researchers. Last week, the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, published a report on the issue. In April, so did the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit policy organization.

“The average school building in the U.S. was built nearly 50 years ago,” said policy analyst Allie Schneider, co-author of the Center for American Progress report. “Schools and child care centers were built in areas that maybe 30 or 15 years ago didn’t require access to air-conditioning, or at least for a good portion of the year. Now we’re seeing that becoming a more pressing concern.” Students are also on campus during the hottest parts of the day. “It’s something that is really important not just to their physical health, but their learning outcomes,” she said.

Last April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its own report detailing some of the effects heat has on kids. It notes that children have a harder time thermo-regulating and take longer to produce sweat, making them more vulnerable than adults to heat exhaustion and heat illness.

Kids don’t necessarily listen to their body’s cues about heat, and might need an adult to remind them to drink water or not play outside. Kevin Toolan, a sixth-grade teacher in Long Island, New York, said having to constantly monitor heat safety distracts him from being able to teach. “The mindset is shifting to safety rather than instruction,” he said. “Those children don’t know how to handle it.”

To keep the classroom cool, he’ll turn the lights off, but kids fall asleep. “They are lethargic,” he said.

To protect kids, schools have canceled classes because temperatures have gotten too high. Warmer temperatures also lead to more kids being absent from school, especially low-income students. And heat makes it harder to learn. One study from 2020 tracked the scores of students from schools without air-conditioning who took the PSAT exam at least twice. It found that increases in the average outdoor temperature corresponded with students making smaller gains on their retakes.

Both Toolan and Girol said that cooling options like keeping doors and windows open to promote cross ventilation are gone, thanks to the clampdowns in school security after 9/11 — and worsened by the threat of school shootings. Students and teachers are trapped in their overheating classrooms. “Teachers report leaving with migraines or signs of heat exhaustion,” said Toolan. “At 100 degrees, it is very uncomfortable. Your clothes are stuck to you.”

The Center for American Progress report joins a call by other advocacy groups to create federal guidance that schools and child care centers could adopt “to ensure that children are not forced to learn, play and exercise in dangerously hot conditions,” Schneider said. Some states already have standards in place, but they vary. In California, child care facilities are required to keep temperatures between 68 and 85 degrees. In Maryland, the recommendation is between 74 and 82 degrees. A few states, like Florida, require schools to reduce outdoor activity on high-heat days. Schneider says federal guidance would help all school districts use the latest scientific evidence to set protective standards.

In June, 23 health and education advocacy organizations signed a letter making a similar request of the Department of Education, asking for better guidance and coordination to protect kids. Some of their recommendations included publishing a plan that schools could adopt for dealing with high temperatures; encouraging states to direct more resources to providing air-conditioning in schools; and providing school districts with information on heat hazards.

“We know that school infrastructure is being overwhelmed by extreme heat, and that without a better system to advise schools on the types of practices they should be implementing, it’s going to be a little bit of the Wild West of actions being taken,” said Grace Wickerson, health equity policy manager at the Federation of American Scientists.

A longer term solution is upgrading school infrastructure but the need for air conditioning is overwhelming. According to the Center for American Progress report, 36,000 schools nationwide don’t have adequate HVAC systems. By 2025, it estimates that installing or upgrading HVAC or other cooling systems will cost around $4.4 billion.

Some state or local governments are trying to address the heat issue. In June, the New York State Legislature passed a bill now awaiting the governor’s signature that would require school staff to take measures like closing blinds or turning off lights when temperatures reach 82 degrees inside a classroom. At 88 degrees, classes would be canceled. A bill introduced last year and currently before California’s state assembly would require schools to create extreme heat action plans that could include mandating hydration and rest breaks or moving recess to cooler parts of the day.

Some teachers have been galvanized to take action, too. As president of the Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers, Toolan was part of an effort to secure $80 million for infrastructure upgrades through a bond vote. Over half will go to HVAC systems for some 500 schools in his district.

And Girol is running for a state representative seat in Pennsylvania, where a main plank in her platform is to fully fund public schools in order to pay for things like air-conditioning. She was recently endorsed by the Climate Cabinet, a federal political action committee. “Part of the reason climate is so important to me is because of this issue,” she said. “I see how it’s negatively affecting my students.”