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Tag: Environmental Health

  • Scientists Found Something Unexpected in Pet Poop—and It’s Not Good

    Fleas and ticks can be a nightmare for any pet owner to manage. But a convenient treatment for these external parasites could come with more risks for the environment than we knew, scientists have just found.

    Researchers in France studied the feces of cats and dogs administered certain antiparasitic medications known as isoxazolines. They continued to find some of the drugs in the pets’ poop even after their treatment had ended. They also concluded that essential, poop-loving bugs in the wild are likely being exposed to dangerous levels of these compounds via pest-treated pets.

    “These findings emphasize the need for further research on environmental contamination and impact of veterinary parasiticides on nontarget species,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published Wednesday in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

    A convenient but possibly risky option

    Isoxazolines are a relatively new type of antiparasitic medication, with the first drug of its kind approved in 2013.

    These drugs quickly became a popular option among veterinarians and pet owners for several reasons. They can treat both ticks and fleas, are usually available as an easy-to-take pill, and provide a long-lasting effect (at least a month) that can prevent further infestations. One of the newest approved drugs on the market, Bravecto Quantum, can even work for up to a year, though it does have to be taken as an injection.

    Impressive as isoxazolines are, some experts and health agencies have worried about the effect they could be having on unintended insects and other arthropods, since these drugs can seep into the environment through a pet’s feces, urine, and even hair. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recently called for a reevaluation of the environmental impact that flea and tick medications might have, for instance. They note that growing pet populations and increased use of these drugs could be raising environmental risks.

    The researchers recruited 20 dogs and cats owned by veterinary students for their study. The pets were given one of four commonly used isoxazoline drugs as recommended for three months (fluralaner, (es)afoxolaner, lotilaner, and sarolaner), and the researchers periodically tested their poop for traces of each.

    All the drugs had median half-lives ranging from 15 to 25 days, they found, though it differed depending on the species and specific drug. And two of the drugs (fluralaner and lotilaner) could still be detected in pets’ poop after the recommended treatment period was over.

    The researchers also ran simulations on the potential risk posed by these drugs left behind in pet poop to dung-feeding insects in the wild, based on their results. They determined that in most scenarios, there was likely a real risk of high exposure to these drugs, particularly fluralaner and lotilaner.

    A need for more study

    These findings don’t yet confirm that isoxazolines are wreaking havoc on insects in the wild everywhere. But they do highlight the urgent need for more research to figure out just how dangerous they could be to innocent bugs in parks and other places where our pets regularly do their business.

    “Our preliminary assessment suggests that pet ectoparasiticides may be detrimental to the environment and supports the conclusions from the EMA scientific opinion,” the researchers wrote.

    Understanding these risks better might also help us mitigate them. In countries and regions where garbage is routinely incinerated, for instance, it might be beneficial to recommend that pet owners always throw out their pet’s poop in the trash during their flea and tick treatment, the researchers suggested as a potential idea.

    Ed Cara

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  • Experts capture rare images of unique amphibian lurking in US stream: ‘Canary in a coal mine’

    According to KFOR, biologists in Kentucky found a giant salamander, the eastern hellbender, living in a stream in the state.

    Given its name, this might not sound like good news. However, the eastern hellbender is very rare, and its presence means that the stream it’s in is healthy. When environmental problems appear, this animal doesn’t survive. This makes it something of a “canary in a coal mine,” according to officials with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. If it disappears, it can be an early sign that something about the stream’s environment is off.

    According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the health of rivers and streams is key to the health of all of us. However, they’ve been increasingly polluted by both urban and farming areas. This has led to lower water quality not only in the streams, but also for the people and animals that depend on those streams.

    The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center explained that healthy streams are good for all sorts of things, including promoting biodiversity. More aquatic animals, like the eastern hellbender, mean a better life for all of us, since all life is interconnected. It can even mean more food available for everyone on the planet, further down the food chain.

    Monitoring biodiversity is important when it comes to understanding not only how many and what kinds of animals are around, but also the health of the environment they live in. Tools such as trail cameras and projects like the one that found this salamander are key to cluing us all in about the health of an area.

    If you want to help promote biodiversity and the environmental health that it usually signifies, vote for candidates who will pass laws working toward those goals. Learning more and understanding how we are all connected can help you foster biodiversity pockets near you. If we all do this, we will create a world that is safer and healthier for all of us.

    Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

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  • US judge slams chemical company for dumping dangerous substances into drinking water source for millions of Americans: ‘This case is simple’

    In a huge win for public health and the environment, a U.S. District Judge has ordered Chemours Chemical Company to immediately suspend the discharge of dangerous “forever chemicals” into the Ohio River from its facility near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

    The Ohio River supplies drinking water to approximately five million Americans, making this ruling a critical protection for communities. Judge Joseph R. Goodwin issued the order and the opinion, ruling that the discharge was far exceeding legal limits.

    “This case is simple and all too familiar,” Judge Goodwin said in his opinion. “Those pollutants endanger the environment, aquatic life and human health. Today, that unlawful, unpermitted discharge stops.”

    According to West Virginia Watch, Chemours “strongly disagree[d]” with the ruling and plans to appeal, citing how long it would take for the company to become compliant.

    “[Chemours’] permit is not a suggestion…its permit protects public health and environmental life while balancing the needs of manufacturing,” Judge Goodwin continued. “I cannot weigh the scales of that balance to inflict further harm on the communities that rely on clean water for life and livelihood.

    These “forever chemicals,” otherwise known as PFAS, pose serious threats to human health and ecosystems. They are extremely persistent and resist breaking down, accumulating in the environment, wildlife, and human bodies. Health risks associated with PFAS exposure are well documented: they include various cancers, immune system suppression, liver and kidney damage, reproductive issues, developmental delays in children, and more.

    “This is a victory for public health and the Ohio River,” said Autumn Crowe, deputy director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “The court recognized what communities have known for years: Chemours has been polluting our water and ignoring its legal obligations.”

    This court ruling brings a much-needed sense of relief amid an often overwhelming run of pessimistic headlines about climate and environmental health. It demonstrates that legal environmental protections work, especially when people band together to hold polluters accountable and defend our drinking water and ecosystems.

    This decision sets an encouraging precedent for stricter enforcement of our environmental protections. “The Clean Water Act protects the public, and I will enforce it,” Judge Goodwin wrote.

    Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

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  • Urgent Message from WCS as the Avian Influenza Virus Threatens Wildlife Across the Globe

    Urgent Message from WCS as the Avian Influenza Virus Threatens Wildlife Across the Globe

    New York, January 15, 2024 – The Wildlife Conservation Society is issuing the following statement about H5N1 Avian Influenza due to ongoing wildlife die-offs across the world:

    Said Dr. Chris Walzer, WCS Executive Director of Health: 

    “With the frightening die-off of animals across the globe due to avian influenza, WCS is calling for governments internationally to treat this growing crisis with the urgency it demands. As we continue to monitor the death of innumerable species and track the movement of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) into mammal populations, we must strengthen the focus on integrating the surveillance of emerging influenza clades in wild birds and mammals to support critical vaccine libraries.

    “H5N1 now presents an existential threat to the world’s biodiversity. It has infected over 150 wild and domestic avian species around the globe as well as a dozens of mammalian species. The bird flu outbreak is the worst globally and also in U.S. history, with hundreds-of-million birds dead since it first turned up in domestic waterfowl in China in 1996. Bird flu is highly transmissible, spread through droplet and feces-borne infections, and exacerbated by climate-change-altering migration schedules for birds and its repeated re-circulation in domestic poultry. 

    “Globally, HPAI H5N1 has now infected many mammals—including foxes, pumas, skunks, and both black and brown bears in North America. Some 700 endangered Caspian seals died from HPAI near Dagestan in 2023. Additionally, outbreaks in mink farms in Spain and Finland that serve as potential mixing vessels for reassortment have also been documented. HPAI H5N1 has arrived in Latin America with devastating consequences, afflicting multiple countries that include WCS land- and seascapes in Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, and Argentina. 

    “More than 95 percent of the Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) pups born along 300 km of the Patagonia coastline died at the end of 2023. It’s the first report of massive elephant seal mortality in the area from any cause in the last half century. The sight of elephant seals found dead or dying along the breeding beaches can only be described as apocalyptic. This 2023 die-off contrasts starkly with the 18,000 pups born and successfully weaned in 2022.  

    “As the virus continues to spread through mammal populations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on public health officials to prepare for a potential spillover of H5N1 to people. The “R naught” value—or the number of people infected by a single infected person—for COVID initially ranged from 1.5 to 7. For H5N1 among birds, it is around 100. It is imperative that we take a collaborative One Health approach to identifying emerging strains of bird flu across the globe to support the development of specific and universal vaccines that can quickly treat infection in people to prevent another pandemic.

    “The cost of inaction is already causing major devastation to wildlife. As we work to help affected populations recover, we must remain vigilant against the spread of this deadly pathogen to people before it’s too late. 

     

    Background

    Wildlife Conservation Society Health Program

    In the last few decades, it has become increasingly evident that conservation, our own health, and the health of wild and domestic animals are all inextricably linked. A single pathogen can wipe out the last populations of an endangered species and, in turn, threaten the stability of local human populations. Thus there is an urgent need to simultaneously address the health of people, animals and the environment recognizing that disease poses challenges to both conservation of the planet’s biodiversity and efforts to improve the quality of human life.

    Additional Background: Global leaders in wildlife and human health issued 10 principles – The Berlin Principles – with an urgent call to governments, academia, and civil society that all sectors need to break down barriers to ensure a united effort to prevent the emergence or resurgence of diseases that threaten humans, wildlife, and livestock.

     

    Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

    WCS combines the power of its zoos and an aquarium in New York City and a Global Conservation Program in more than 50 countries to achieve its mission to save wildlife and wild places. WCS runs the world’s largest conservation field program, protecting more than 50 percent of Earth’s known biodiversity; in partnership with governments, Indigenous People, Local Communities, and the private sector. It’s four zoos and aquarium (the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium ) welcomes more than 3.5 million visitors each year, inspiring generations to care for nature. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, the organization is led (as of June 1, 2023) by President and CEO Monica P. Medina. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org. Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: +1 (347) 840-1242. Listen to the WCS Wild Audio podcast HERE.

     

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    Wildlife Conservation Society

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  • Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Newswise — Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

    This is bad news in a world where vector-borne diseases are an increasingly global health concern. Most models that scientists use to estimate vector-borne disease risk currently assume that mosquito heat tolerances do not vary. As a result, these models may underestimate mosquitoes’ ability to spread diseases in a warming world.

    Researchers led by Katie M. Westby, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center, Washington University’s environmental field station, conducted a new study that measured the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), an organism’s upper thermal tolerance limit, of eight populations of the globally invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The tiger mosquito is a known vector for many viruses including West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.

    “We found significant differences across populations for both adults and larvae, and these differences were more pronounced for adults,” Westby said. The new study is published Jan. 8 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

    Westby’s team sampled mosquitoes from eight different populations spanning four climate zones across the eastern United States, including mosquitoes from locations in New Orleans; St. Augustine, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Stillwater, Okla.; St. Louis; Urbana, Ill.; College Park, Md.; and Allegheny County, Pa.

    The scientists collected eggs in the wild and raised larvae from the different geographic locations to adult stages in the lab, tending the mosquito populations separately as they continued to breed and grow. The scientists then used adults and larvae from subsequent generations of these captive-raised mosquitoes in trials to determine CTmax values, ramping up air and water temperatures at a rate of 1 degree Celsius per minute using established research protocols.

    The team then tested the relationship between climatic variables measured near each population source and the CTmax of adults and larvae. The scientists found significant differences among the mosquito populations.

    The differences did not appear to follow a simple latitudinal or temperature-dependent pattern, but there were some important trends. Mosquito populations from locations with higher precipitation had higher CTmax values. Overall, the results reveal that mean and maximum seasonal temperatures, relative humidity and annual precipitation may all be important climatic factors in determining CTmax.

    “Larvae had significantly higher thermal limits than adults, and this likely results from different selection pressures for terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae,” said Benjamin Orlinick, first author of the paper and a former undergraduate research fellow at Tyson Research Center. “It appears that adult Ae. albopictus are experiencing temperatures closer to their CTmax than larvae, possibly explaining why there are more differences among adult populations.”

    “The overall trend is for increased heat tolerance with increasing precipitation,” Westby said. “It could be that wetter climates allow mosquitoes to endure hotter temperatures due to decreases in desiccation, as humidity and temperature are known to interact and influence mosquito survival.”

    Little is known about how different vector populations, like those of this kind of mosquito, are adapted to their local climate, nor the potential for vectors to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. This study is one of the few to consider the upper limits of survivability in high temperatures — akin to heat waves — as opposed to the limits imposed by cold winters.

    “Standing genetic variation in heat tolerance is necessary for organisms to adapt to higher temperatures,” Westby said. “That’s why it was important for us to experimentally determine if this mosquito exhibits variation before we can begin to test how, or if, it will adapt to a warmer world.”

    Future research in the lab aims to determine the upper limits that mosquitoes will seek out hosts for blood meals in the field, where they spend the hottest parts of the day when temperatures get above those thresholds, and if they are already adapting to higher temperatures. “Determining this is key to understanding how climate change will impact disease transmission in the real world,” Westby said. “Mosquitoes in the wild experience fluctuating daily temperatures and humidity that we cannot fully replicate in the lab.”

    Washington University in St. Louis

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  • Chemical exposure in households may decrease pregnancy likelihood, study finds.

    Chemical exposure in households may decrease pregnancy likelihood, study finds.

    Newswise — Exposure to phthalates, a group of plasticizing and solvent chemicals found in many household products, was linked to a lower probability of getting pregnant, but not to pregnancy loss, according to research by a University of Massachusetts Amherst environmental and reproductive epidemiologist.

    The study, published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, also noted an association between preconception exposure to phthalates and changes in women’s reproductive hormones, as well as increased inflammation and oxidative stress.  

    “Phthalates are ubiquitous endocrine disruptors and we’re exposed to them every day,” says lead author Carrie Nobles, assistant professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

    Phthalates are found in such common products as shampoo, makeup, vinyl flooring, toys and medical devices. People are exposed primarily by ingesting food and liquid that has come in contact with products containing the chemicals, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet. 

    Nobles and team analyzed data from a “unique cohort” of women in the preconception time-to-pregnancy study known as EAGeR (Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction), which evaluated the effect of low-dose aspirin on live-birth rates. The study includes detailed information on 1,228 participants during six menstrual cycles when they are attempting to get pregnant. The women who became pregnant were followed through pregnancy.

    “We were able to look at some environmental exposures like phthalates and how that relates to how long it takes to get pregnant. There was detailed data for each menstrual cycle, so we had a good handle on the date of ovulation and the timing of pregnancy when that happened,” Nobles says. 

    The body breaks down phthalates into metabolites that are excreted in urine and can be analyzed. The researchers measured 20 phthalate metabolites in urine samples taken when the participants enrolled in the study.

    “We found there were three parent compounds that seem to be most strongly associated with taking longer to get pregnant, although we saw a general trend toward it taking longer to get pregnant across the phthalates we looked at,” Nobles says. “As exposure got higher, we saw more and more of an effect.”

    The researchers also looked at a global marker of inflammation, C-reactive protein, and found the women who had higher levels of phthalates exposure also had higher levels of inflammation and oxidative stress, which can lead to organ and tissue damage and ultimately to disease. 

    In addition, women who showed higher levels of phthalates had lower estradiol and higher follicle-stimulating hormone across the menstrual cycle, which play an important role in ovulation and the early establishment of pregnancy. 

    “This profile – estradiol staying low and follicle-stimulating hormone staying high – is actually something that we see in women who have ovarian insufficiency, which can happen with age as well as due to some other factors,” Nobles says. “Ovulation just isn’t happening as well as it used to.”

    While women can check consumer product labels and look for phthalate-free options, the ubiquitous nature of the chemicals makes it difficult for an individual to control their exposure.

    In Europe, certain phthalates are banned or severely restricted in their use, but the U.S. has no formal prohibitions. Nobles says the research findings add to the evidence that phthalates exposures have a negative impact on women’s reproductive health and can be used to help inform policy making.

    “Maybe we want to think differently about our regulatory system and how we identify important exposures that are having adverse effects on whether people can get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy,” Nobles says.  

     

    University of Massachusetts Amherst

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  • First Study of its Kind Reveals Impact of River Sediment on US Coastline

    First Study of its Kind Reveals Impact of River Sediment on US Coastline

    Newswise — As sea level continues to rise, threatening ecosystems, communities and infrastructure, experts are searching for ways to better understand how coastal environments may change in the future. A new research breakthrough published in Science reveals a novel way to study these changes by measuring how much sediment from the nation’s rivers makes it to the coastline. 

     

    Measuring, Mapping and Modeling 

    After testing many approaches in many different watersheds, UNCW Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences Professor Joanne Halls and co-authors Scott Ensign (Stroud Water Research Center) and Erin Peck (Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center and USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center) developed a solution to measure the rate of river sediment accumulation across all watersheds of the contiguous United States.

    Using her expertise in Geographic Information Science (GIS), Halls developed a new web application called Sediment Pancakes. The app uses publicly available geospatial data to create digital models and interactive maps of the entire continental U.S. coast, including 4,972 rivers and streams. This is the first continent-wide examination of its kind. 

    “We tend to know much more about our large rivers and very little about the amount of river sediment in the smaller creeks and tributaries, even though these smaller systems are the majority of the landscape,” Halls said. “To our knowledge, this new web application is the only tool that provides local estimates of riverine sediment for all rivers of the contiguous U.S.”  

    The published paper, “Watershed Sediment Cannot Offset Sea Level Rise in Most US Tidal Wetlands,” concluded that 72% of all rivers do not provide adequate sediment, on an annual basis, to keep up with current estimates of sea level rise. In other words, river-borne sediment alone is insufficient to provide the elevation gain needed to offset increasing sea levels found in tidal wetlands like marshes, swamps and bogs. 

     

    Planning for the Future 

    As many local government agencies are building coastal resilience plans, and researchers nationwide are designing monitoring strategies to study and protect the coastal environments, the Sediment Pancakes app is a tool they can use to inform their planning.  

    “The more we leverage the enormous amount of map data toward principles of ‘smart growth,’ the better we can make our local communities,” Halls said. “My goal is to deliver map tools that assist local residents and planners so that we empower people to be engaged, exchange ideas in a meaningful and equitable way, and inspire students to be creative problem-solvers.” 

    University of North Carolina Wilmington

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  • Climate Change Summit: American University Experts Available for Comment

    Climate Change Summit: American University Experts Available for Comment

    What:

    As climate experts and diplomats gather in Dubai for COP28, American University experts are available for commentary and analysis of what to expect from this important international forum and related issues.  

    When:

    November 28, 2023 – ongoing

    Where:

    In-person, virtual, in-studio   

    Background:

    American University experts who are available for comments include:

    Julie Anderson is a professorial lecturer at the Kogod School of Business. She joined Kogod from BlackRock, where she served as a director and head of iShares US Sustainable exchange-traded funds (ETFs.) At BlackRock, Anderson managed the company’s $55B suite of sustainable ETFs across product development, marketing, thought leadership, and distribution strategy for asset owners and managers. Anderson is an expert in ETFs and sustainable investing.  

    Paul Bledsoe is an adjunct professorial lecturer at the Center for Environmental Policy in AU’s School of Public Affairs. He was director of communications of the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton from 1998-2001, communications director of the Senate Finance Committee under Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and special assistant to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. He can discuss issues related to climate change and climate risks. Prof. Bledsoe will be attending the summit from Dec 4- Dec 13 and he will be available for interviews in Dubai.

    Rosalind Donald is an assistant professor in the School of Communication. Her research focuses on the importance of connecting climate change to day-to-day life and the use of stock photos in depicting climate change. Donald is an expert in climate change communication and how environmental injustices shape today’s climate debate. 

    Todd Eisenstadt, professor and Research Director at the Center for Environmental Policy at American University’s School of Public Affairs, is an expert on climate change policy. He co-authored Climate Change, Science, and the Politics of Shared Sacrifice and has written extensively on climate finance and adaptation in the developing world as a principal investigator of World Bank and the National Science Foundation grants. Prof. Eisenstadt is available to comment on the “ambition gap,” the UN aspirations for reducing emissions versus reality, the efforts to incorporate “loss and damage” as part of the UN process, and an assessment of what negotiators hope to achieve at this Conference of the Parties. 

    Larry Engel is an associate professor and associate director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking in the School of Communication. With more than 40 years of experience in teaching and filmmaking and a passion for environmental and conservation issues, Engel uses his film background to create award-winning films and innovative media that raise awareness and represent diverse voices regarding climate change. Engle is an expert in environmentalism in media. 

    Dana R. Fisher, director of AU’s Center for Environment, Community, & Equity, focuses on environmental stewardship and climate politics, democracy, civic engagement, and activism — most recently studying political elites’ responses to climate change, and how federal service corps programs are working to integrate climate into their efforts. She is the author of a forthcoming book, Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action, and she recently co-authored an article published in Nature magazine – the article discusses the effectiveness of climate protests on policy and what tactics works best in reaching public and policy makers. Prof. Fisher can discuss social responses to climate shocks, climate politics in the US, the international climate regime, and climate activism and protest.

    Simon Nicholson, associate professor of International Relations and interim Associate Dean for Research, is co-founder of the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment and the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University’s School of International Service. He is a member of the global environmental politics faculty. His work focuses on global food politics and the politics of emerging technologies, including climate engineering (or “geoengineering”) technologies. Prof. Nicholson can comment on net zero target setting, loss and damage provisions, and carbon removal and solar geoengineering in the climate negotiations.

    Jennifer Oetzel is a professor at the Kogod School of Business. Her research and teaching focuses on social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Specifically, she looks at how companies can reduce business risk by promoting economic, social and environmental development as well as peace building in countries where they operate. Oetzel can comment on how businesses can adapt to climate change.  

     

    American University

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  • Benefits of running in the cold outweigh warm weather running

    Benefits of running in the cold outweigh warm weather running

    Newswise — Chicago, IL, November 27, 2023 – Some year-round runners dread plunging temperatures, but according to recent research, the benefits of running in the cold weather outweigh warm weather running — and could help you burn bad fat, lose more weight, and make you feel better overall.

    “Cold weather doesn’t have to force runners indoors and I encourage my patients to continue safely running outdoors,” explains Dr. Joshua Blomgren, Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH, and Aid Station Medical Captain for the Chicago Marathon. “Exercise is medicine, even in the winter.”

    Benefits of chilly weather running 

    • Produces less heat stress. Recent research explains why running in the heat is more difficult. Higher body temps are associated with increased exertion, cardiovascular, and metabolic strain.
    • Boosts metabolism. Our bodies are programmed to preserve fat, slowing down our metabolisms in response to decreased exercise. Running in the cold ‘tricks’ the body, altering metabolism slowdown, and helping to maintain a healthy weight.
    • Elevates your mood. Seasonal Affective Disorder occurs when days are shorter and there’s less sunlight. It’s estimated that 6% of Americans are affected by SAD, and 14% may suffer from a milder form of winter blues. Exercise releases feel-good chemicals like serotonin and endorphins. 
    • Helps burn more calories. Running burns significant calories and helps us maintain and lose weight in winter. It can help us live longer too. Runners have a 25 – 40% reduced risk of premature mortality and live an estimated three years longer than non-runners, according to Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases.
    • Can turn bad fat into good fat. There are different types of body fat: white, brown, and shades in between. White fat is “unwanted” body fat. Brown fat is metabolic tissue that burns calories. Scientific literature suggests that exercising and exposing your body in cold temps can convert white fat to brown fat.

    Run safely

    Dr. Blomgren cautions winter runners to take certain safety measures to fully enjoy winter running. He recommends they dress in appropriate layers and wear wicking fabrics instead of cotton or wool, wear a head covering, drink plenty of water before and after a run, and watch paths for hidden ice. A nose and mouth covering can warm the cool, crisp air making it less harsh to breathe. A good rule of thumb is to avoid running in sub-zero temperatures and be alert to any signs of frostbite. 

    About Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH 

    MOR is an international leader in musculoskeletal health consistently ranked among the top ten in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. It is comprised of renowned orthopedic and spine surgeons pioneering the latest advances in surgical and non-surgical care.  Visit www.rushortho.com. 

    Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH

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  • Research looks to transform manure into protein

    Research looks to transform manure into protein

    Newswise — Can you turn manure into a cow, chicken or fish? Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are looking to do just that, in a roundabout, circular economy, kind of way.

    A three-year, $618,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute for Food and Agriculture is funding a study by scientists in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Science Department of Entomology and Mississippi State University to explore dairy manure clean-up via black soldier flies. The team would then examine the flies’ value as a potential ingredient in livestock, poultry and aquaculture feed.

    The project will concentrate on both environmental health and economic benefits of converting dairy waste into protein that could be used for feed. Early data indicate probiotics could be used to accelerate the digestive process in fed animals, increase conversion of waste to insect biomass, decrease greenhouse gases and noxious odors, and reduce concerns about pathogens that might be present in the manure.

    The study will be led by Jeff Tomberlin, Ph.D., professor, AgriLife Research Fellow, Presidential Impact Fellow and Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming director, and Anjel Helms, Ph.D., an assistant professor and chemical ecologist, both in the Department of Entomology.

    Heather Jordan, Ph.D., associate professor and microbiologist at Mississippi State University, will examine the resulting larvae and frass, which is the material remaining after larvae digest manure, for microbial diversity and feed safety. Helms’ postdoctoral research associate Amber MacInnis, Ph.D., will lead the day-to-day data collection with the help of students.

    “We’re testing the limits of black soldier fly production in conjunction with probiotics to see how efficient they could be for large animal production facilities, in this case dairies,” Helms said. “Manure management is an expense to these producers, and we are testing to see if this is a way to manage that waste and turn it into a productive feed source.”

    Turning an expense into a resource

    Black soldier fly larvae consume their weight in organic waste daily for a two-week period – around 1 gram or the weight of a single raisin per larva. That may sound insignificant, but those amounts add up when multiplied by millions of black soldier fly larvae.

    For example, existing facilities in Europe, Asia and North America can digest 100 tons of waste daily using black soldier fly larvae.

    MacInnis’ experiments are done in plastic containers filled with around 18 pounds of manure where 10,000 black soldier fly eggs are placed. The larvae hatch, consume the dairy manure for two weeks and then are harvested, and then the process is repeated.

    An important part of the project is to determine how safe harvested larvae are when converted into ingredients for feed. Little is known about pathogen diversity in larvae that consume manure that in turn could impact feed safety. Helms suspects larvae consuming manure are safe for livestock consumption, but the end-product must be certified. 

    “This is an exciting study to be a part of because it is problem-solving at its core,” MacInnis said. “These dairies produce an enormous amount of waste. If black soldier flies can be an efficient part of their management process and provide other benefits, that could be a big breakthrough across the industry.”

    Layers of potential benefits from waste conversion

    Black soldier flies consume organic waste, including manure, but the process of waste conversion leaves room for efficiency improvements.

    The study will utilize probiotics to enhance black soldier fly waste conversion of dairy manure and remove more than 50% of nitrogen and potassium from the waste. Helms said the team is working with Jordan to study the probiotic impacts.

    Manure conversion by black soldier flies is also expected to provide an environmental benefit beyond reducing reliance on traditional manure management methods like waste storage lagoons.

    “There is potential for layers of economic and environmental benefits to incorporating black soldier flies in manure management,” Helms said. “Turning waste into a resource sounds too good to be true, but we are understanding more and more about the ways black soldier flies can solve a lot of problems.”

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    Texas A&M AgriLife

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  • Scientists warn of conflicts ahead of UN talks on plastic and chemicals

    Scientists warn of conflicts ahead of UN talks on plastic and chemicals

    Newswise — An international group of 35 scientists is calling out conflicts of interest plaguing global plastic treaty negotiations and that have interfered with timely action on other health and environmental issues. They urge the implementation of strict guidelines to prevent the same problems from affecting the UN’s upcoming Science Policy Panel on chemicals. Their concerns and recommendations are outlined in a featured paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

    “From Big Tobacco to Big Oil, powerful industries use the same playbook to manufacture doubt and sow misinformation,” said co-author Bethanie Carney Almroth, a Professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg. “The plastic and chemical industries already have a long history of deploying these tactics to hamper regulatory efforts. Our health and that of the planet upon which we rely, can’t afford any further subversion of efforts to reduce the widespread contamination of our air and water.”

    The group’s warning comes as countries prepare to meet next week for the third UN plastic treaty negotiation session in Nairobi. Though scientists had advised against it, the plastic and petrochemical industries were actively involved in the first round of negotiations in 2022. The paper notes that industry representatives pushed misleading statements, including the debunked claim that plastic production will help fight climate change. To date, no action has been taken to curb these conflicts of interest.  

    The scientists express concern that similar issues could arise in the development of the UN Science Policy Panel on chemicals, waste, and pollution. The UN Environment Assembly decided in 2022 to establish this Panel to support countries in their efforts to protect human and ecosystem health through scientific assessments. As the working group to create the Panel will meet Dec. 11-15, today’s paper is a call to protect its work from undue influence by companies with a vested interest in revenue-generating chemicals.    

    “Letting polluters have a say in pollution protections is the epitome of the fox guarding the henhouse,” said lead author Andreas Schäffer, a Professor at the Institute for Environmental Research, RWTH Aachen University. “Just like the tobacco industry was restricted from WHO’s work on smoking, the UN shouldn’t let the chemical industry’s hired guns dilute global guidelines for chemical and waste management.”

    The participation of industry in a UN intergovernmental science-policy body would not be unprecedented. For example, fossil fuel representatives co-authored major reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Science Policy’s Panel analogue for climate. 

    To ensure the effectiveness of the Science Policy Panel, the scientists who co-authored the paper issue the following key recommendations that should be incorporated into the process:

    • Define clear and strict conflict of interest provisions.
    • Do not confuse the undesirable conflicts of financial or political competing interests with legitimate interests or biases.
    • Install regular audits of the Panel’s work to check for conflict of interest.
    • Secure as many elements of transparency as possible.

    Green Science Policy Institute

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  • Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides detected in New York state beeswax

    Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides detected in New York state beeswax

    Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – An analysis of beeswax in managed honeybee hives in New York found a wide variety of pesticide, herbicide and fungicide residues – exposing current and future generations of bees to long-term toxicity. 

    The study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, notes that people may be similarly exposed through contaminated honey, pollen and wax in cosmetics. Though the chemicals found in wax are not beneficial to humans, the small amounts in these products are unlikely to pose a major risk to human health, as compared to their impact on bees.

    Bees reuse wax over years, causing chemicals to accumulate, including those that are no longer in use in New York but remain in beeswax.

    “Because pesticides can accumulate in wax, it’s important for beekeepers to keep removing old wax every few years and having the bees replace it to make sure the colonies and the bee products remain healthy,” said Karyn Bischoff, associate professor of practice at Cornell University and the study’s lead author.

    Toxic residues get into beeswax from nectar and pollen of plants that have been sprayed with pesticides, and from drugs and pesticides that beekeepers apply to hives to improve bee health. Healthy bees are vital to New York’s economy and agriculture: the state’s beekeeping industry generated close to $11 million worth of honey in 2020 and annually generates $300 million in pollination services to agriculture.

    Pesticides were found in all 72 managed honeybee colony samples analyzed and researchers tallied up to 34 fungicides, 33 insecticides and 22 herbicides, with each wax sample averaging about 18 residues. Wax sent by commercial beekeepers contained the most residues.

    “Commercial beekeepers had the most pesticides, which makes sense because those bees are exposed to a lot of different crops, and farmers may use different pesticides for each,” Bischoff said.

    The most common chemicals, found in 86% of samples, were acaricides – a class of insecticides that beekeepers use to protect honeybees from varroa mites. These mites are associated with very high bee losses over winter.

    Almost every sample (98.6%) contained piperonyl butoxide, a compound that makes animals, insects and fungi more sensitive to insecticides and fungicides, making them more effective. Systemic insecticides (placed on seeds before planting and spreading to all parts of a plant as it grows), called neonics, were also common in samples.

    Understanding which contaminants are impacting domestic honeybees may help researchers better protect other pollinators, including wild bees and other insects, as well as birds and bats, Bischoff said. 

    The New York State Environmental Protection Fund and the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the research.  

     

    For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

    Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.

    – 30 –

    Cornell University

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  • Research highlights Africa’s hazardous air pollution as a global concern.

    Research highlights Africa’s hazardous air pollution as a global concern.

    Newswise — A new report in Nature Geoscience has brought to light the challenge of air pollution levels in Africa and why international action is needed to combat it. 

    Over the last 50 years African nations have suffered from rapidly deteriorating air quality, making their cities some of the most polluted in the world. Particulate matter concentration levels are now five to ten levels greater than that recommended by the World Health Organisation, with the situation predicted to worsen as populations grow and industrialization accelerates.

    However, far too little has been done to try and combat the dangerous air quality with just 0.01% of global air pollution funding currently spent in Africa.

    The new perspective piece from the University of Birmingham, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, South Eastern Kenya University and the African Centre for Clean Air, published today (7 Nov) in Nature Geoscience, argues that tackling this issue requires collective efforts from African countries, regionally tailored solutions, and global collaboration.  

    Francis Pope, Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Birmingham and one of the co-authors, said: “The burning of biomass fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting, the crude oil exploitation and coal mining industries, and old vehicles being shipped in from Europe are all causes for the poor air quality in African nations. This dangerous air can cause complex and sometimes deadly health issues for those breathing it in. If this wasn’t enough of a reason to tackle this issue, air pollution in Africa is not just a problem for people living on the continent, but for the wider world, limiting the ability to meet global climate targets and combat the climate emergency.”

    Multiple efforts have been made over the years to tackle air pollution, such as the signing of C40 Clean Air Declaration by ten major African cities. Initiatives to monitor air-pollution levels and collect much needed data have also begun to gather momentum.

    But there is still much to be done. The researchers argue that regional and international efforts must be coordinated to achieve real change and leverage existing knowledge on controlling and cutting air pollution.

    They call for urgent collaboration on:

    • Continuous air monitoring via a network of sensors in order to build a detailed picture of air pollution variations and track progress.
    • Investment in clean energy such as solar, hydropower and wind to meet Africa’s energy demand which is expected to double by 2040.
    • Improved solid waste management to prevent dumping and burning of waste and improve reuse, recycling, and recovery rates.
    • Investment in environmentally friendly technology to ensure African countries can grow economically whilst avoiding dirty and obsolete technology from the Global North.
    • Infrastructure improvements to curb emissions from the transport sector, improving public transport provision and adopting higher emission standards for fuel and imported vehicles.

    Co-author of the article, Dr Gabriel Okello, from the Institute for Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge and the African Centre for Clean Air, said: “Air pollution is complex and multifaceted with different sources and patterns within society. Addressing it requires more ambitious, collaborative, and participatory approaches centred on involvement of stakeholders in policy, academia, business, communities to co-design and co-produce context-specific interventions. This should be catalysed by increased investment in interventions that are addressing air pollution. Africa has the opportunity to leverage the growing political will and tap into the young population to accelerate action towards the five broad suggestions in our paper.”

    Dr Andriannah Mbandi, from South Eastern Kenya University and co-author of the article, said: “The burden of air pollution unjustly rests on poorer populations, and women and children, as they most likely face higher exposure to pollutants and most probably experience more impacts. Thus, clean air actions will go some ways in redressing some of these inequalities in Africa, in addition to the benefits to health and the environment.”

    Professor Pope concludes: “There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to Africa’s air quality problems, and each region and population will have their own specific challenges to overcome. But by being proactive and doing these five actions there will be a reduction in air pollution levels, meaning healthier people and a healthier planet.”

    University of Birmingham

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  • Optimize office environments for work efficiency and worker health

    Optimize office environments for work efficiency and worker health

    Newswise — The quality of the office environment significantly affects work efficiency and worker health. Therefore, creating and maintaining an optimal built environment in the office can be a key step in maximizing a company’s economic growth. Previous research has examined how indoor environmental quality (IEQ), including elements like temperature, air quality, lighting, and noise, impacts work efficiency and worker health. However, these studies do not tend to focus simultaneously on work efficiency and worker health, nor do they quantify the economic benefits of optimizing office environments.

    In a new study published on 1 September 2023, in Volume 243 of the journal Building and Environment, researchers from Japan investigated how office environmental elements impact work efficiency and worker health, while also analyzing the economic benefits of optimizing these elements. They surveyed 1644 workers in 29 office buildings in Tokyo, collecting data on the built environment through worker questionnaires and physical IEQ measurements. They then compared the perceived work efficiency (reported by workers) in offices to that in an ‘ideal’ office with maximum work efficiency to estimate the economic value provided by the built environment. Similarly, they looked at the extent of presenteeism (working while sick) and compared it to a scenario where workers faced no health-related barriers to work. The study, led by Professor Shun Kawakubo from the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Hosei University, Japan, included colleagues Shiro Arata and Masaki Sugiuchi from Hosei University, and others. 

    The study found that participants perceived their work efficiency to be at an average of approximately 77%. Presenteeism varied, with some participants reporting no symptoms in the last 30 days, while others experiencing symptoms every day. The average decrease in performance due to presenteeism was approximately 34%. 

    The effects of overall office environment elements on perceived work efficiency and presenteeism were examined in the study. A better overall office environment was associated with higher perceived work efficiency among workers. “Workers in offices with lower environmental performance had  low work efficiency, while those in higher-performing offices had high work efficiency. The 16.8-point difference in work efficiency between workers in offices with relatively good and poor environments equates to an annual economic benefit of about 1,039,000 JPY, highlighting the financial advantages of a good work environment,” explains Prof. Kawakubo. Similarly, a better overall office environment was linked to lower performance loss due to presenteeism. Prof. Kawakubo notes, “The better the office environment, the lower the amount of loss due to presenteeism. The difference in annual economic loss due to presenteeism between workers in offices with relatively low environmental performance and workers in offices with relatively high environmental performance was 423,000 JPY.”

    The study also revealed that higher quality elements such as “interior and furnishings,” “overall building sanitation,” “airflow from HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning),” and “meeting space” were associated with higher perceived work efficiency. Elements like “disaster and emergency,” “thermal environment,” “lightning environment,” and “telecommunication networks” were associated with lower economic losses due to presenteeism. The estimated economic benefits related to perceived work efficiency were greater than those associated with presenteeism.

    The study concludes that offices can boost economic benefits, and underscores the global need for enhancing worker efficiency as well as employee health by developing good quality offices. “Today, companies around the world are reaffirming the importance of human capital. We believe that widespread recognition of the fact that investment in the creation of a good office environment is directly linked to maintaining and improving the health of office workers and increasing the productivity of the company as a whole, will contribute to the building of a healthier society,” concludes Prof. Kawakubo.

    Hosei University

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  • Specific gut bacteria increase risk of severe malaria

    Specific gut bacteria increase risk of severe malaria

    BYLINE: Jackie Maupin

    Newswise — INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have identified multiple species of bacteria that, when present in the gut, are linked to an increased risk of developing severe malaria in humans and mice. Their findings, recently published in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of new approaches targeting gut bacteria to prevent severe malaria and associated deaths.

    Malaria is a life-threatening infectious disease caused by parasites transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report, an estimated 619,000 people died from malaria globally in 2021, with 76% of those deaths occurring in children age 5 or younger. 

    IU School of Medicine’s Nathan Schmidt, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics with the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease and Global Health and the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, said previous efforts to combat the disease have led to several advancements in malaria treatment and prevention, including new vaccines and antimalarial drugs, insecticides to manage mosquito populations and improved health care processes. However, he said new developments are desperately needed because the gains made in decreasing malaria-related deaths between the early 2000s and late 2010s have plateaued over the last five years.

    “This plateau highlights the need for novel approaches to prevent malaria-related fatalities,” said Schmidt, whose research lab is focused on investigating this global health crisis and its critical impact on children. “Presently, there are no approaches that target gut microbiota. Therefore, we believe that our approach represents an exciting opportunity.”

    In a pivotal 2016 article published in PNAS, Schmidt and his colleagues made a groundbreaking discovery in their experimental models: the gut microbiota has the capability to influence the severity of malaria. This revelation ignited their determination to pinpoint the precise microorganisms, called “Bacteroides,” within the intestinal tract that orchestrate this effect. 

    In their latest study, the researchers found mice harboring particular species of Bacteroides were notably associated with an elevated risk of severe malaria. A similar correlation was also observed in the intestinal tracts of children afflicted with severe malaria.

    Most of the Schmidt lab’s research has been conducted using mouse models of malaria. Thanks to collaboration with several colleagues in the field, the research team was able to extend its observations by studying approximately 50 children with malaria in Uganda. They plan to continue their clinical observations by working with a cohort of over 500 children with malaria. 

    This collaboration was made possible by the joint efforts of Chandy John, MD, MS, of IU School of Medicine; Ruth Namazzi, MB ChB, MMEd, of Makerere University; and Robert Opoka, MD, MPH,  of Global Health Uganda. Together, they are evaluating how severe malaria may affect child neurodevelopment by studying children from households with a history of severe malaria. While these children may not display any symptoms of illness, some carry the malaria parasite in their blood, allowing researchers to explore risk factors associated with the development of severe malaria, including variations observed in the microbiome.

    “Dr. Namazzi, Dr. Opoka and I aren’t experts in the microbiome, so we collaborated with Nathan [Schmidt] on this part of the study since he is an expert,” said John, who is the Ryan White Professor of Pediatrics at IU School of Medicine. “I believe Nathan’s findings are important because they point to the possibility that certain bacteria or combinations of bacteria in the gut may predispose a child to severe malaria. This opens the way to thinking about how we might alter those combinations in the gut to try to protect children from severe malaria.”

    In addition to studying the expanded cohort in Uganda, Schmidt and his team will also collaborate with researchers in Malawi and Mali to get a broader sense of trends present between gut microbiota and malaria across Africa. 

    “Beyond our efforts to assess the contribution of gut bacteria towards severe malaria in diverse African populations, we have initiated pre-clinical efforts to target gut bacteria that cause susceptibility to severe malaria,” Schmidt said. “Our long-term aspiration is to move a treatment into the clinic.”

    About Indiana University School of Medicine

    IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability.

    Indiana University

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  • UN-led study finds Bitcoin mining has “concerning” effects on land, water, and carbon.

    UN-led study finds Bitcoin mining has “concerning” effects on land, water, and carbon.

    By the numbers, global bitcoin mining in 2020-2021:

    • Used 173 terawatt hours of electricity (more than most nations)
    • Emitted 86 megatons of carbon (like burning 8.5 billion pounds of coal)
    • Required 1.65 cubic kilometers of water (more than the domestic use of 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa)
    • Affected 1,870 square kilometers of land (1.4 times the size of Los Angeles)
    • Got 67% of its energy from fossil fuels, with coal contributing 45%

    Newswise — WASHINGTON — As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grown in market share, they’ve been criticized for their heavy carbon footprint: Cryptocurrency mining is an energy-intensive endeavor. Mining has massive water and land footprints as well, according to a new study that is the first to detail country-by-country environmental impacts of bitcoin mining. It serves as the foundation for a new United Nations (UN) report on bitcoin mining, also published today.

    The study reveals how each country’s mix of energy sources defines the environmental footprint of its bitcoin mining and highlights the top 10 countries for energy, carbon, water and land use. The work was published in Earth’s Future, which publishes interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants.

    “A lot of our exciting new technologies have hidden costs we don’t realize at the onset,” said Kaveh Madani, a Director at United Nations University who led the new study. “We introduce something, it gets adopted, and only then do we realize that there are consequences.”

    Madani and his co-authors used energy, carbon, water and land use data from 2020 to 2021 to calculate country-specific environmental impacts for 76 countries known to mine bitcoin. They focused on bitcoin because it’s older, popular and more well-established/widely used than other cryptocurrencies.

    Madani said the results were “very interesting and very concerning,” in part because demand is rising so quickly. But even with more energy-efficient mining approaches, if demand continues to grow, so too will mining’s environmental footprints, he said.

    Electricity and carbon

    If bitcoin mining were a country, it would be ranked 27th in energy use globally. Overall, bitcoin mining consumed about 173 terawatt hours of electricity in the two years from January 2020 to December 2021, about 60% more than the energy used for bitcoin mining in 2018-2019, the study found. Bitcoin mining emitted about 86 megatons of carbon, largely because of the dominance of fossil fuel-based energy in bitcoin-mining countries.

    The environmental impact of bitcoin mining fluctuates along with energy supply and demand in a country. When energy is inexpensive, the profitability of mining bitcoin goes up. But when energy is expensive, the value of bitcoin must be high enough to make the cost of mining worth it to the miner, whether it’s an individual, a company or a government.

    China, the U.S. and Kazakhstan had the largest energy and carbon footprints in 2020-2021.

    Water

    Globally, bitcoin mining used 1.65 million liters (about 426,000 gallons) of water in 2020-2021, enough to fill more than 660,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. China, the U.S. and Canada had the largest water footprints. Kazakhstan and Iran, which along with the U.S. and China have suffered from water shortages, were also in the top-10 list for water footprint.

    “These are very, very worrying numbers,” Madani said. “Even hydropower, which some countries consider a clean source of renewable energy, has a huge footprint.”

    Land use

    The study analyzed land use by considering the area of land affected to produce energy for mining. The land footprint of server farms is negligible, Kaveh said. The global land use footprint of bitcoin mining is 1,870 square kilometers (722 square miles), with China’s footprint alone taking up 913 square kilometers (353 square miles). The U.S.’ land footprint is 303 square kilometers (117 square miles), and likely growing while China’s is shrinking.

    Most impacted countries

    China and the United States, which have two of the largest economies and populations in the world, take the top two spots across all environmental factors. A mix of other countries make up the other 8 spots in the top 10. Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Iran and Thailand — countries to which servers are outsourced and, in some cases, where cryptocurrency mining is subsidized by the government — appear as well. Canada, Germany and Russia have some of the largest footprints across all categories. Each country engaged in large-scale bitcoin mining affects countries around the world by their carbon emissions, Kaveh noted.

    But the benefits of bitcoin mining may not accrue to the country, or the individuals, doing the work. Cryptocurrency mining is an extractive and, by design, difficult to trace process, so geographic distribution of environmental impacts cannot be assumed to be a map of the biggest digital asset owners.

    “It’s hard to know exactly who is benefiting from this,” Madani said. “The issue now is who is suffering from this.”

    Already, some countries have potentially seen their resources impacted by cryptocurrency mining. In 2021, Iran faced blackouts. The government blamed bitcoin mining for excessively draining hydropower during a drought and periodically banned the practice.

    China in June 2021 banned bitcoin mining and transactions in the country; other countries, such as the U.S. and Kazakhstan, have taken up the slack and had their shares in bitcoin increase by 34% and 10%, respectively.

    Madani said the study is not meant to indict bitcoin or other cryptocurrency mining. “We’re getting used to these technologies, and they have hidden costs we don’t realize,” he said. “We want to inform people and industries about what these costs might be before it’s too late.”

    Notes for journalists:

    This study is published in Earth’s Future, an open-access journal. View and download a pdf of the study here. The authors’ policy-related comments do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Geophysical Union.

    This study provides the peer-reviewed data serving as a foundation for the U.N. report, “The Hidden Environmental Cost of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin Mining Impacts Climate, Water and Land,” published on the same day as this study. The report includes additional data that have not been peer-reviewed by Earth’s Future. View the U.N. press release here.

    Paper title:

    “The environmental footprint of bitcoin mining across the globe: Call for urgent action”

    Authors:

    • Sanaz Chamanara, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
    • S. Arman Ghaffarizadeh, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
    • Kaveh Madani (corresponding author), Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    #

    AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

    American Geophysical Union (AGU)

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  • Unavoidable rise in West Antarctic Ice Sheet melting.

    Unavoidable rise in West Antarctic Ice Sheet melting.

    Newswise — Scientists ran simulations on the UK’s national supercomputer to investigate ocean-driven melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet: how much is unavoidable and must be adapted to, and how much melting the international community still has control over through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

    Taking into account climate variability like El Niño, they found no significant difference between mid-range emissions scenarios and the most ambitious targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Even under a best-case scenario of 1.5°C global temperature rise, melting will increase three times faster than during the 20th century.

    The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is losing ice and is Antarctica’s largest contributor to sea-level rise. Previous modelling finds this loss could be driven by warming of the Southern Ocean, particularly the Amundsen Sea region. Collectively the West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains enough ice to raise global mean sea-level by up to five metres.

    Around the world millions of people live near the coast and these communities will be greatly impacted by sea level rise. A better understanding of the future changes will allow policymakers to plan ahead and adapt more readily.

    Lead author Dr Kaitlin Naughten, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey says:

    “It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If we wanted to preserve it in its historical state, we would have needed action on climate change decades ago. The bright side is that by recognising this situation in advance, the world will have more time to adapt to the sea level rise that’s coming. If you need to abandon or substantially re-engineer a coastal region, having 50 years lead time is going to make all the difference.”

    The team simulated four future scenarios of the 21st century, plus one historical scenario of the 20th century. The future scenarios either stabilised global temperature rise at the targets set out by the Paris Agreement, 1.5°C and 2°C, or followed standard scenarios for medium and high carbon emissions.

    All scenarios resulted in significant and widespread future warming of the Amundsen Sea and increased melting of its ice-shelves. The three lower-range scenarios followed nearly identical pathways over the 21st century. Even under the best-case scenario, warming of the Amundsen Sea sped up by about a factor of three, and melting of the floating ice shelves which stabilise the inland glaciers followed, though it did begin to flatten by the end of the century.

    The worst-case scenario had more ice shelf melting than the others, but only after 2045. The authors heed that this high fossil fuel scenario, where emissions increase rapidly, is considered unlikely to occur.

    This study presents sobering future projections of Amundsen Sea ice-shelf melting but does not undermine the importance of mitigation in limiting the impacts of climate change.

    Naughten cautions: “We must not stop working to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. What we do now will help to slow the rate of sea level rise in the long term. The slower the sea level changes, the easier it will be for governments and society to adapt to, even if it can’t be stopped.”

    Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the 21st century by Kaitlin Naughten (BAS), Paul Holland (BAS), Jan De Rydt (Northumbria) is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

    British Antarctic Survey

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  • Climate elevates toxin risk in Northern US lakes.

    Climate elevates toxin risk in Northern US lakes.

    Newswise — Washington, DC— As climate change warms the Earth, higher-latitude regions will be at greater risk for toxins produced by algal blooms, according to new research led by Carnegie’s Anna Michalak, Julian Merder, and Gang Zhao. Their findings, published in Nature Water, identify water temperatures of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit) as being at the greatest risk for developing dangerous levels of a common algae-produced toxin called microcystin.  

    Harmful algal blooms result when bodies of water get overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from agriculture and other human activities. These excess nutrients can allow blue-green algae populations to grow at an out-of-control rate.

    Some blue-green algal species produce a toxin called microcystin, which can pose a serious health hazard to people and the environment, as well as pose economic risks for fishing and tourism. Microcystin affects liver function and can cause death in wild and domestic animals, including humans in rare instances. It is also classified as a potential carcinogen in cases of chronic exposure.

    “In 2014 an algal bloom in Lake Erie led to high levels of microcystin in water intakes, and residents in Ohio and Ontario were instructed not to drink tap water due to risk of exposure,” Merder cautioned.

    Merder, Michalak, and their colleagues—Carnegie’s Gang Zhao, University of Kansas’s Ted Harris, and Dimitrios Stasinopoulos and Robert Rigby of the University of Greenwich—analyzed samples taken from 2,804 U.S. lakes between 2007 and 2017. They assessed how water temperature affects the occurrence and concentration of microcystin as part of an effort to better understand the risks to water quality posed by climate change.

    Michalak’s lab has taken a leading role in understanding the intersection of climate change and water quality impairments for more than a decade. Previous work has shown that lakes worldwide are already experiencing more severe algal blooms and that nutrient pollution is being exacerbated by changes in rainfall patterns.

    “Lakes are sentinels of climate change,” Michalak said. “They hold the vast majority, 87 percent, of the liquid freshwater on the Earth’s surface, and the warming and precipitation shifts associated with climate change pose some of the greatest threats to water quality around the world and to the health of aquatic ecosystems.”

    The surface temperatures of lakes have already been warming at 0.34 degrees Celsius (0.61 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade and Merder and Michalak set out to determine what this, as well as future warming, would mean in terms of risk for elevated toxin concentrations.

    “The abundance of blue-green algae is predicted to increase due to climate change as they outcompete other species,” Merder explained. “But previous field studies came to various conclusions about what this means for microcystin concentrations.”

    To inform land and water management strategies, it was important to quantitatively tie toxin levels to water temperature, which Merder and Michalak were able to accomplish through their extensive analysis of lake water samples, revealing that water temperatures in the 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit) range were most dangerous in terms of elevated microcystin concentrations. They also found that the impact of temperature is amplified when nutrient concentrations are high.

    By incorporating information from climate models, they were able to demonstrate that areas most susceptible to high toxin concentrations will continue to move northward. In some areas, the relative risk of exceeding water quality guidelines will increase by up to 50 percent in the coming decades. Additionally, they showed that toxin hazards will decrease in a small number of regions further south, as water temperatures begin to exceed those associated with the highest risk.

    “These findings should help demonstrate the serious risk to safe water for drinking, fishing, recreation, and other societal needs in many parts of the United States and the urgency for developing management strategies to prepare,” Michalak concluded. “When we think about water sustainability in the context of global change, we need to focus on the quality of the water as much as we focus on the amount of water.”

    Carnegie Institution for Science

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  • Gut bacteria compound improves circadian rhythm and IBD

    Gut bacteria compound improves circadian rhythm and IBD

    Evaluation of developmental toxicity in early chicken embryos exposed to tris(2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate

    Ehime University

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  • Ushering in the era of light-powered ‘multi-level memories’

    Ushering in the era of light-powered ‘multi-level memories’

    The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that has developed a new zero-dimensional and two-dimensional (2D-0D) semiconductor artificial junction material and observed the effect of a next-generation memory powered by light.

    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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