Kayla Padegimas
Hi everyone! Kayla here with my latest news digest:
The Massachusetts State Senate recently passed a big climate change bill, which would kickstart lowering emissions to reach the 2050 net-zero emissions promised in a previous bill. The legislation promises to create a $100 million Clean Energy Investment Fund and allot $100 million to incentivise electric vehicle purchases and $50 million to build up electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The bill still has a ways to go, needing to pass the house, still with many skeptics and the desire for many amendments to it, but the state is taking notable strides to reach their 2050 goals.
Since the dawn of space exploration, satellites and other artificial matter have been introduced into orbit, now totaling more than eight thousand metric tons. There was little worry in the early years, citing space as a large area, but in more recent missions the junk has become increasingly worrisome. In recent years, new guidelines have been set for how to behave in space, including setting timelines for removing satellites, as well as suggesting how they should be removed. It remains to be seen how ethical these practices are, though, as many just involve either pushing the trash further out, or sending it crashing back to earth…
As biodiversity loss comes to the forefront of climate related conversations, research has examined microbiomes and how climate change is affecting them. Microbiomes are unique ecosystems of fungi, bacteria, viruses and archaea, which live in or on other organisms, providing them with important benefits. Loss of biodiversity related to climate change however, has led to shrinking microbiomes. Human microbiomes have suffered as they are exposed to less natural environments, as well as those in other organisms like polar bears and coral, as their ecosystems change and negatively affect them. Recent studies have been looking at how to revitalize microbiomes, however.
A recent IPBES release warns that extinction rates are increasing at an alarming rate, caused by changes in land and sea use, exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and invasive species. This article, from Ecology for the Masses, suggests that we are facing a mass extinction level event, and essential species and ecosystems are starting to collapse. It boils down to the increased levels of extinction in the last century, which are about twice the estimated normal rate. Because biodiversity and ecosystems play such a vital role in mitigating climate change effects, increased extinction levels deteriorate these ecosystems and block their ability to abate the consequences of climate change.
A recent study performed by biologists and mechanical engineers looked into the ways in which spiders are able to sense vibrations of prey and how they may react. By studying orb-weaving spiders, they were able to figure that spiders used their webs, often 10,000 times larger than the spider itself with a plethora of different tensions, as an extended auditory network to capture sounds from large distances. This allows the spiders to hear a variety of sounds as low as 68 decibels, possibly giving warning of approaching predators.
A new study looked into what drives people to an area, in terms of ecotourism. They discovered that a lush, biodiverse environment, like Costa Rica, draws everyone from casual viewers to avid birders. They found that tourism was most present in areas with wide swaths of biodiversity and infrastructure in place, which in Costa Rica consists of minimally developed small and medium sized local business, rather than large resorts. This has proven that a place like Costa Rica, that takes preserving their natural landscape seriously, can still thrive in tourism, which makes up almost 10% of its gross domestic product.
That’s all for this month everyone, I hope you’ve enjoyed my news digests these last few months! Look out next month for the June news digest, sent out by Mike!
– Kayla