Transcript

7.3.25 · Science Show KY

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Radioized Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader's
0:05
Kelly Taylor. I have some articles related to the topics
0:08
of science and nature. But first a reminder that RADIOI
0:12
is a reading service intended for people who are blind
0:16
or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
0:19
printed material. We'll start today on a website called The Conversation,
0:26
and the article is headlined Earth is trapping much more
0:30
heat than climate models forecast, and the rate has doubled
0:35
in twenty years. This is from June twenty sixth. How
0:41
do you measure climate change? One way is by recording
0:45
temperatures in different places over a long period of time.
0:50
While this works well, natural variation can make it harder
0:54
to see long term trends. But another approach can give
0:59
us a very clear sense of what's going on track.
1:02
How much heat enters Earth's atmosphere and how much heat leads.
1:08
This is Earth's energy budget, and it's now well and
1:11
truly out of balance. Our recent research found this imbalance
1:16
has more than doubled over the last twenty years. Other
1:20
researchers have come to the same conclusions. This imbalance is
1:24
now substantially more than climate models have suggested in the
1:29
mid two thousands, the energy imbalance was about zero point
1:32
six watts per square meter on average. In recent years,
1:39
the average was about one point three watts per square meter.
1:43
This means the rate at which energy is accumulating near
1:45
the planet's surface has doubled. These findings suggest climate change
1:51
might well accelerate in the coming years or still this
1:56
worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding unsearched in the
2:00
United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat.
2:07
Earth's energy budget functions a bit like your bank account,
2:12
where money comes in and money goes out. If you
2:15
reduce your spending, you'll build up cash in your account. Hence,
2:20
energy is the currency. Life on Earth depends on a
2:24
balance between heat coming in from the sun and heat leaving.
2:28
This balance is tipping to one side. Solar energy hits
2:34
Earth and warms it. The atmosphere's heat trapping greenhouse gases
2:39
keep some of this energy, but the burning of coal, oil,
2:43
and gas has now added more than two trillion tons
2:48
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
2:53
These trap more and more heat, preventing it from leaving.
2:58
Some of this extra heat is warming the land or
3:00
melting sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. But this is
3:05
a tiny fraction. Fully ninety percent has gone into the
3:09
oceans due to their huge heat capacity. Earth naturally sheds
3:15
heat in several ways. One way is by reflecting in
3:18
coming heat off of clouds, snow, and ice back out
3:23
to space. Infrared radiation is also emitted back to space.
3:29
From the beginning of human civilization, up until just a
3:32
century ago, the average surface temperature was about fourteen degrees celsius.
3:38
The accumulating energy imbalance has now pushed average temperatures one
3:43
point three to one point five degrees higher. Scientists keep
3:48
track of the energy budget in two ways. First, we
3:51
can directly measure the heat coming from the sun and
3:54
going back out to space using the sensitive radiometers on
3:58
monitoring satellites. This data set and its predecessors date back
4:02
to the late nineteen eighties. Second, we can accurately track
4:07
the build up of heat in the oceans and atmosphere
4:10
by taking temperature readings. Thousands of robotic floats have monitored
4:15
temperatures in the world's oceans since the nineteen nineties. Both
4:19
methods show the energy imbalance has grown rapidly. The doubling
4:24
of the energy imbalance has come as a shock because
4:28
the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn't predict such
4:32
a large and rapid change. Typically, the models forecast less
4:37
than half of the change we're seeing in the real world.
4:43
Why has it changed so fast We don't yet have
4:47
a full explanation, but new research suggests that changes in
4:52
clouds is a big factor. Clouds have a cooling effect overall,
4:56
but the area covered by highly reflective white cloudslouds has
5:00
shrunk while the area of jumble, less reflective clouds has grown.
5:06
It isn't clear why the clouds are changing. One possible
5:09
factor could be the consequences of successful efforts to reduce
5:14
sulfur in shipping fuel from twenty twenty, as burning the
5:19
dirtier fuel may have had a brightening effect on clouds. However,
5:24
the accelerating energy budget imbalance began before this change. Natural
5:30
fluctuations in the climate systems, such as the Pacific decatal oscillation,
5:36
might also be playing a role. Finally, and most worryingly,
5:41
the cloud changes might be part of a trend caused
5:45
by global warming itself that is a positive feedback on
5:50
climate change. What does this mean, Well, these findings suggest
5:56
recent extremely hot years are not one offs, but may
5:59
reflect like a strengthening of warming over the coming decade
6:03
or longer. This will mean a higher chance of more
6:07
intense climate impacts from searing heat waves, droughts and extreme
6:12
rains on land, and more intense and long lasting marine
6:16
heat waves. This imbalance may lead to worse longer term consequences.
6:22
New research shows the only climate models coming close to
6:27
simulating real world measurements are those with a higher quote
6:31
climate sensitivity quote. That means these models predict more severe
6:37
warming beyond the next few decades in scenarios where emissions
6:42
are not rapidly reduced. We don't know yet whether other
6:46
factors are at play. However, it's still too early to
6:49
definitively say we are on a high sensitivity trajectory. We've
6:56
known the solution for a long time. Stop the routine
6:59
burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions,
7:04
such as deforestation. Keeping accurate records over long periods of
7:09
time is essential if we are to spot unexpected changes.
7:13
Satellites in particular, are our advance warning system, telling us
7:18
about heat storage changes. Roughly a decade before other methods,
7:23
but funding cuts and drastic priority shifts in the United
7:28
States may threaten essential satellite climate monitoring. All right, now
7:35
we go to Science News Explores and this is an
7:42
article titled Earth, Layer by Layer. This is from November
7:48
eleventh of twenty nineteen, but still relevant. Mountain ranges tower
7:55
to the sky, ocean's plummet to impossible depths. Earth's surface
8:01
is an amazing place to behold, Yet even the deepest
8:04
canyon is but a tiny scratch on the planet. To
8:07
really understand Earth, you need to travel six thousand, four
8:11
hundred kilometers or three nine hundred seventy seven miles beneath
8:16
our feet, starting at the center. Earth is composed of
8:21
four distinct layers. They are from deepest to shallowest, the
8:26
inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust.
8:31
Except for the crust, no one has ever explored these
8:34
layers in person. In fact, the deepest humans have ever
8:37
drilled is just over twelve kilometers or seven point six miles,
8:42
and even that took twenty years. Still, scientists know a
8:48
great deal about Earth's innerstructure. They've explored it by studying
8:53
how earthquake waves travel through the planet. The speed and
8:58
behavior of these waves change as they encounter layers of
9:01
different densities. Scientists, including Isaac Newton three centuries ago, have
9:07
also learned about the core and mantle from calculations of
9:10
Earth's total density, gravitational pull, and magnetic field. Here's a
9:16
primmer on Earth's layers, starting with a journey to the
9:20
center of the planet. The inner core. This solid metal
9:26
ball has a radius of seven hundred and fifty eight miles,
9:30
or about three quarters that of the Moon. It's located
9:35
some five eighty kilometers beneath Earth's surface. Extremely dense, it's
9:42
made mostly of iron and nickel. The inner core spins
9:47
a bit faster than the rest of the planet. It's
9:51
also intensely hot. Temperatures sizzle at nine thousand, eight hundred
9:56
degrees fahrenheit. That's almost as hot as a surface of
10:00
the Sun. Pressures here are immense well over three million
10:05
times greater than on Earth's surface. Some research suggests there
10:11
may also be an inner inner core. It would likely
10:15
consist almost entirely of iron. The outer core. This part
10:21
of the core is also made from iron and nickel,
10:23
just in liquid form. It sits some eighty to two thousand,
10:29
eight hundred eighty kilometers below the surface. Heated largely by
10:34
the radioactive decay of the elements uranium and thorium, This
10:38
liquid churns in huge turbulent currents. That motion generates electrical currents.
10:46
They in turn generate Earth's magnetic field. For reasons somehow
10:51
related to the outer core, Earth's magnetic field reverses about
10:56
every two hundred to three hundred thousand years. Still working
11:00
to understand how that happens. The mantle at close to
11:06
three thousand kilometers thick, this is Earth's thickest layer. It
11:10
starts a mere thirty kilometers beneath the surface, about eighteen
11:14
miles Made mostly of iron, magnesium, and silicon. It is dense, hot,
11:20
and semi solid. Think caramel candy. Like the layer below it,
11:25
this one also circulates, It just does so far more slowly.
11:31
Near its upper edges, Somewhere between one hundred and two
11:34
hundred kilometers or sixty to one hundred and twenty miles underground,
11:39
the mantle's temperature reaches the melting point of rock. Indeed,
11:43
it forms a layer of partially melted rock known as
11:47
the asthenosphere. Geologists believe this weak, hot, slippery part of
11:55
the mantle is what Earth's tectonic plates ride upon and slide.
12:01
Diamonds are tiny pieces of the mantle we can actually touch.
12:06
Most form at depths above one hundred and twenty four miles,
12:11
but rare, super deep diamonds may have formed as far
12:14
down as four hundred and thirty five miles below the surface.
12:18
These crystals are then brought to the surface in volcanic
12:21
rock known as kimber light. The mantle's outermost zone is
12:26
relatively cool and rigid. It behaves more like the crust
12:30
above it. Together, this uppermost part of the mantle layer
12:35
and the crust are known as the lithosphere. The crust.
12:42
Earth's crust is like the shell of hard boiled egg.
12:45
It is extremely thin, cold, and brittle compared to what
12:49
lies below it. The crust is made of relatively light elements,
12:55
especially silica, aluminum, and oxygen. It's also highly variable in
13:00
its thickness. Under the oceans and Hawaiian islands, it may
13:05
be as little as five kilometers or three miles thick.
13:09
Beneath the continents, the crust may be thirty to seventy
13:12
kilometers or eighteen and a half to forty three miles thick.
13:16
Along with the upper zone of the mantle, the crust
13:18
is broken into big pieces, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.
13:24
These are known as tectonic plates. These move slowly, at
13:29
just three to five centimeters or one or two inches
13:33
per year. What drives the motion of tectonic plates is
13:37
still not fully understood. It may be related to heat
13:41
driven convection currents in the mantle below. Some scientists think
13:46
it's caused by the tug from slabs of crust of
13:50
different densities, something called slab pull. In time, these plates
13:55
will converge, pull apart, or slide past each other. Those
13:59
acts cause most earthquakes and volcanoes. It's a slow ride,
14:05
but it makes for exciting times here on Earth's surface.
14:11
Now turning to ABC News for an article that is
14:15
headlined climate and Environment updates climate change making it harder
14:20
for us to sleep. Study says. This is from June thirtieth.
14:25
The climate crisis is not a distant threat. It's happening
14:29
right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes
14:34
intensified by a warming planet and drought fueled wildfires are
14:39
destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes,
14:45
and record breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
14:50
The good news is we now know how to turn
14:54
the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding
14:59
what needs to be done be confusing due to a
15:01
constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions
15:06
that are shaping our future. That's why ABC News Climate
15:12
and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating
15:14
what you need to know to keep the people in
15:17
places you care about safe. Climate change is making it
15:23
harder for us to sleep. Rising temperatures amplified by climate
15:28
change are contributing to an increase in cases of sleep apnea,
15:33
a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep. According
15:37
to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications quote,
15:42
if temperature keeps rising the way they project it to
15:46
the burden im prevalence of sleep apnea may double, increasing
15:49
by twenty to one hundred percent, depending on greenhouse gas
15:53
emission reduction. That's from Bastion Leshat the studies off and
16:00
senior research fellow at Flinders University in Australia. Obstructive sleep
16:06
apnea or OSA affects about a billion people globally, and
16:10
eighty percent of people who have it are unaware and untreated.
16:14
OSA has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, diabetes,
16:20
and depression. People with OSA also have two times greater
16:25
risk of getting in a car accident. The study followed
16:29
over one hundred and fifteen thousand people from numerous countries
16:33
for up to two years, measuring their sleep quality with
16:37
below the mattress sleep monitors, and then cross referencing this
16:41
information with weather data to evaluate the relationship between temperature
16:46
and OSA. When comparing eighty degree fahrenheit days today's in
16:52
the forties, there was a forty to forty five percent
16:56
increase in the frequency of severe or severity of sleep apnea.
17:04
The risk was even higher for males and individuals who
17:08
normally sleep longer or have higher body weight. Extreme heat
17:14
can exacerbate OSA by making it even harder to sleep.
17:19
The study noted higher temperatures can disrupt the body's ability
17:23
to cool down during the night, which in fears with
17:27
the natural sleep cycle. This can lead to more frequent awakenings,
17:32
shallower sleep, and worsened airway instability, resulting in more apnea events.
17:40
Using existing health economic models, the researchers estimated over seven
17:45
hundred eighty eight thousand healthy years of life were lost
17:50
or disabled in twenty twenty three due to temperature related
17:54
increases in OSA, equivalent to a loss of approximately sixty
17:58
eight billion dollars according to the models. Quote. When you
18:03
look at the rate of years of life lost per
18:06
one hundred thousand people, this is similar to a disorder
18:09
like Parkinson's disease or bipolar disorder, or similar to low
18:14
physical activity as a risk factor, So it's a significant burden,
18:18
a shot told ABC News. Lashot said that increased access
18:24
to air conditioning and better diagnosis and treatment of OSA
18:27
could offset some of the increases caused by climate change. However,
18:32
he emphasized that limiting global warming through policy changes is
18:35
the most effective and cost efficient option. Quote. Limiting global
18:40
warming is probably cost effective when you look at the numbers,
18:44
the loss of well being and the economic costs of
18:47
increasing temperature. And then we'll get an article from the
18:54
Associated Press and the headline is these Canadian rocks may
18:59
be the oldest on Earth. Scientists have identified what could
19:05
be the oldest rocks on Earth from a rock formation.
19:08
In Canada, the Greenstone Belt has long been known for
19:12
its ancient rocks plains of streaked gray stone on the
19:17
eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec, but researchers disagree
19:22
on exactly how old they are. Work from two decades
19:25
ago suggested the rocks could be four point three billion
19:28
years old, placing them in the earliest period of Earth's history,
19:33
but other scientists using a different dating method contested the finding,
19:38
arguing that long ago contaminants were skewing the rocks age
19:43
and that they were actually slightly younger at three point
19:46
eight billion years old. In the new study, researchers sampled
19:51
a different section of rock from the belt and estimated
19:54
its age using the previous two dating techniques, measuring how
19:59
one radio diactive element decays into another over time. The
20:03
result the rocks were about four point one six billion
20:08
years old. The different methods gave exactly the same age,
20:14
said study author Jonathan O'Neil with the University of Ottawa.
20:19
The new research was published Thursday in the journal Science.
20:24
Earth formed about four and a half billion years ago
20:27
from a collapsing cloud of dust and gas soon after
20:31
the Solar system existed. Primordial rocks often get melted and
20:36
recycled by Earth's moving tectonic plates, making them extremely rare
20:42
on the surface. Today, scientists have uncovered four billion year
20:46
old rocks from another formation in Canada called the Acosta
20:50
Nice Complex, but these other rocks could be even older.
20:56
Studying rocks from Earth's earliest history could give a glimpse
20:59
into how the planet may have looked, how its roiling
21:02
magma oceans gave way to tectonic plates, and even how
21:07
life got started. To have a sample of what was
21:11
going on on Earth way back then is really valuable,
21:14
said Mark Reagan with the University of Iowa, who studies
21:18
volcanic rocks and lava, was not involved with the new study.
21:23
The rock formation on tribal lands and the local Inuit
21:27
communities temporarily restricted scientists from taking samples from the site
21:32
due to damage from previous visits. After some geologists visited
21:37
the site, large chunks of rock were missing in the
21:40
community noticed pieces for sale online, said Tommy Palliser, who
21:45
manages the land with the Pituvic Landholding Corporation. The Inuit
21:52
community wants to work with scientists to set up a
21:55
provincial park that would protect the land while allowing researchers
21:59
to stay udiy It. There's a lot of interest for
22:02
these rocks, which we understand, said Palliser, a member of
22:05
the community. We just don't want any more damage and
22:12
now to CBS News from Yellowstone to the Garden of Eden.
22:16
Climate change puts majority of the world heritage sites at risk.
22:21
This is day to July first. About three quarters of
22:25
the globe's cultural and natural heritage sites are threatened by
22:30
too little or too much water, the UN's Cultural Agency
22:34
set on Tuesday. As a result of rising temperatures, extreme
22:38
weather events including hurricanes, droughts, floods, and heat waves have
22:43
become more frequent and intense. Seventy three percent of all
22:49
one one seventy two non marine sites on the UNESCO
22:54
Heritage List are exposed to at least one severe water risk,
22:59
including water stress, drought, river flooding, or coastal flooding. Quote.
23:06
Water stress is projected to intensify, most notably in regions
23:11
like the Middle East and North Africa, parts of South
23:15
Asia and Northern China, posing long term risks to ecosystems,
23:21
cultural heritage, and the communities and tourism economies that depend
23:26
on them. Cultural sites were most commonly threatened by water scarcity,
23:34
while more than half of natural sites faced the risk
23:38
of flooding from a nearby river. In India, the taj
23:42
Mahal Monument in Agra, for example, quote faces water scarcity
23:47
that is increasing pollution and depleting groundwater, both of which
23:52
are damaging the mausoleum. In the United States, in twenty
23:58
twenty two, a massive flo blood closed down all of
24:01
Yellowstone National Park and costs over twenty million dollars in
24:05
infrastructure repairs to reopen. The report gave four more examples.
24:11
Iraq's Southern Marshes, the reputed home of the Biblical Garden
24:15
of Eden, quote, face extremely high water stress, where over
24:21
eighty percent of the renewable supply is withdrawn to meet
24:24
human demand, it added, and competition for waters expected to
24:29
increase in the marshes, where migratory birds live and inhabitants
24:33
raise buffalo as the region grows hotter in coming years.
24:38
On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls
24:44
originally called Mossy Oatuna the smoke that thunders before it
24:50
was renamed by Scottish explorer David Livingstone has faced recurring
24:55
drop and is sometimes reduced to a trickle. In Peru,
25:01
the pre Columbian city of chan Chan and its delicate
25:05
one thousand year old adobe walls face an extremely high
25:09
risk of river flooding. In China, rising sea levels, driven
25:14
in large part by climate change are leading to coastal flooding,
25:18
which destroys mudlands where migratory water birds finn food. These
25:25
specific warning over flooding and drought comes about a decade
25:28
after an independent scientific study found that seven hundred and
25:32
twenty UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Statue of Liberty
25:37
and the Tower of London, could be consumed by rising
25:41
seas within two thousand years at the climate continues warming
25:44
at current rates. The study calculated that one hundred thirty
25:48
six sites would be in danger if global average temperatures
25:51
rise to three degrees celsius above pre industrial levels, a
25:56
figure well within the range projected in the latest UN
25:59
report on clot climate change, which projected that without significant
26:03
policy changes, there's a ninety seven percent likelihood of a
26:08
two degree celsius warming and a thirty seven percent chance
26:13
of a three degree celsius average warming. And now an
26:18
article from Science Alert Space cargo of human remains and
26:23
cannabis lost at sea following mission failure July first, we
26:29
sent some pretty interesting payloads to space since the first
26:32
satellite launched on October fourth, nineteen fifty seven, spud Nik one.
26:38
As access to space has increased, thanks largely to commercial
26:41
space industry, so too of the types of payloads we
26:44
are sending. Consider the Nicks Capsule NYX, created by German
26:49
aerospace startup The Exploration Company, which launched on June twenty
26:54
third from Vandenburg Space Force Base, a top to Falcon
26:58
nine roget. The payload of this flight included the ashes
27:02
and DNA of more than one hundred and sixty six
27:05
deceased people provided by Celestis, a Texas based Memorial spaceflight company.
27:12
While the mission achieved orbit and a controlled re entry,
27:15
the capsule's landing parachutes failed to deploy. This caused the
27:20
Knicks Capsule to crash in the Pacific Ocean, causing all
27:23
of its cargo to be lost at sea. This was
27:26
the first time the Exploration Company sent customer payloads to space.
27:32
In a statement posted on LinkedIn, the company described the
27:35
flight as a partial success. Partial failure. This is also
27:41
the second time Celestis has lost a payload, the previous
27:44
having taken place in twenty twenty three when a rocket
27:47
containing cremated remains of the late astronaut Philip K. Chapman
27:52
exploded over New Mexico. Well, that is all for today's
27:59
Diary of science ants in Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor,
28:03
and now stay tuned for the health corner on RADIOI