The Trump administration is formally withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, “the first step in a year-long process to leave the landmark agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases,” reports CNN. President Trump first announced the intent to officially withdraw from the agreement in June 2017. From the report: “Today the United States began the process to withdraw from…
Tag: nations
Is daylight time worth the trouble?
This is the weekend we “fall back” here in the U.S. Are you glad? Sad? Mad? Advocates say daylight time saves energy and wins wars. Studies show injuries and illnesses rise when clocks change. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/is-daylight-saving-time-worth-the-trouble…
Tracking Satellites Through Crowdsourcing
A newly announced project called TruSat uses crowdsourced data to track satellites in an effort to hold companies and nations operating in space accountable. From a report: Space junk is a growing concern for those in the space industry, as companies plan to send thousands of satellites to orbit in the coming years. Having reliable means of tracking those satellites and…
G7 Taskforce Warns Global Crytocurrencies Like Libra Pose Risks, May Not Be Approved
“Stablecoin” cryptocurrencies like Libra pose a risk to the global financial system, warns a new report by the G7 group of nations. An anonymous reader quotes the BBC: The G7 taskforce that produced the report includes senior officials from central banks, the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates rules for the G20 economies. It says backers of…
It’s been 20 years since the Day of 6 Billion
Our global human population was estimated to reach 6 billion on today’s date in 1999. Eleven years later, in 2011, Earth had gained another billion people. Today – October 12, 2019 – it stands at about 7.7 billion, according to United Nations estimates. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/this-date-in-science-6-billion-humans-and-counting…
Rwanda Releases First Smartphone Made Entirely In Africa
Rwanda’s Mara Group just released two smartphones, earning the company the title of the first smartphone manufacturer in Africa. Their grand ambitions are to help turn Rwanda into a regional tech hub. Fast Company reports: Rwanda President Paul Kagame has announced Africa’s “first high tech smartphone factory,” CNN reported. While smartphones are assembled in other African nations (Egypt, Algeria, and South…
What Earth’s changing climate can teach us about altering the surface of Mars
In a rare instance of environmental success, the United Nations has just announced it believes the damage to the Earth’s protective ozone layer will be fully restored by the year 2050. This stands in stark contrast to the increasing alarm over the climate emergency, caused by an increasing greenhouse effect. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-09-earth-climate-surface-mars.html…
Researchers to spend a year trapped in Arctic ice
In October 2019, the research icebreaker Polarstern will drop anchor at an ice floe in the northern Laptev Sea, to spend a year investigating Earth’s Arctic. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/arctic-science-expedition-2019-2020-polarstern…
The World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm is Nearly Complete. It Can Power 1 Million Homes
The world’s largest offshore wind farm is taking shape off the east coast of Britain, a landmark project that demonstrates one way to combat climate change at scale. From a report: Located 120 kilometers (75 miles) off England’s Yorkshire coast, Hornsea One will produce enough energy to supply 1 million UK homes with clean electricity when it is completed in 2020….
Philippines Declares New Polio Outbreak After 19 Years
twocows writes: Philippine health officials declared a polio outbreak in the country on Thursday, nearly two decades after the World Health Organization declared it to be free of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said at a news conference that authorities have confirmed at least one case of polio in a 3-year-old girl in southern…