Friday, November 1st, 2024

Today’s core story is about: Catastrophic temperature rise.

KNEAD TO KNOW

At least 150 people died in Spain after torrential rainfall triggered the country’s deadliest flooding in decades. A year’s worth of rain fell in just hours over the east-central region near Valencia, causing a surge of floodwaters that appear to have merged some parts of the coast with the sea.

Russia, China, and Cuba spread misinformation about the U.S. government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Officials say content creators linked to the three countries spread lies and fake images to suggest the U.S.’s spending on foreign conflicts had undermined its hurricane relief efforts.

The man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The attacker, David DePape, was found guilty on a number of charges in the June state trial, including aggravated kidnapping and first-degree burglary. DePape received a 30-year prison sentence in his federal case earlier this year.

A Russian court fined Google $20.6 decillion for not restoring YouTube accounts linked to Russian media channels. No, that isn’t a typo; the court fined the company an amount that is almost beyond comprehension. For some perspective, theentire world’s GDP (about $105 trillion) would be much less than one billionth of a percent of the fine.

Current Climate Policies Will Lead to a “Catastrophic” Temperature Rise Up to 3.1°C

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still technically possible, but only with a “massive global mobilization to cut all greenhouse gas emissions, starting today,” according to a new report by the U.N. Environment Programme. 

What to know: 

The annual Emissions Gap report found current climate policies will lead to a “catastrophic” global temperature rise of up to 3.1°C by the end of the century, blowing past the goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreements to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

• To avoid catastrophe and stay within the Paris goal, nations around the world must collectively commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035, according to the report. 

• To stay under 2°C of warming, emissions have to fall by 28% by 2030 and 37% by 2035.

Why it matters: 

While the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C is still technically feasible, the officials involved with the report are no longer mincing their words:

“Today’s Emissions Gap report is clear: we’re playing with fire; but there can be no more playing for time. We’re out of time,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a video message on the report. 

• “We're teetering on a planetary tight rope,” Guterres added during a speech about the report last week. “Either leaders bridge the emissions gap or we plunge headlong into climate disaster.”

“Climate crunch time is here,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. “We need global mobilization on a scale and pace never seen before – starting right now, before the next round of climate pledges – or the 1.5°C goal will soon be dead and well below 2°C will take its place in the intensive care unit.”

• “Even if the world overshoots 1.5°C – and the chances of this happening are increasing every day – we must keep striving for a net-zero, sustainable, and prosperous world,” Andersen added. “Every fraction of a degree avoided counts in terms of lives saved, economies protected, damages avoided, biodiversity conserved, and the ability to rapidly bring down any temperature overshoot.”

QUICK BITES

More Social Species Live Longer

Species that are more social tend to live longer and reproduce more effectively, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

What to know: 

• The study, which the researchers say is the first of its kind, included 152 animal species, finding more social species live longer, postpone maturity, and reproduce more successfully than more solitary species.

• The team found that while social species might be worse at adapting to changing environments, they’re often more resilient as a group, supporting the hypothesis that the benefits of sociality outweigh the costs. 

Scientists Developed a Powder That Pulls CO2 Out of Air “Like Nothing Else Out There”

You’re looking at a vial of COF-999, a new material developed by researchers at UC Berkeley that can pull CO2 directly from open air, representing a groundbreaking step forward in carbon capture technologies that experts say are part of the global fight against climate change.

What to know: 

• Without getting lost in the weeds (and a bunch of science words I can’t pronounce), COF-999 is an absorbing material with a porous structure that gases stick to, working essentially like a filter. The team says a half-pound of the material (200 grams) can take up 44 pounds of CO2 a year, about the same amount as a mature tree.

• “I am excited about it because there’s nothing like it out there in terms of performance,” said lead author Omar Yaghi. “It breaks new ground in our efforts to address the climate problem.”

The High School Duo That Proved the Pythagorean Theorem Strike Again

Last year, Louisiana high schoolers Ne'Kiya Jackson (left in the image above) and Calcea Johnson (right) reached new heights in mathdom when they became the first mathematicians to use trigonometry to prove the 2,000-year-old Pythagorean theorem. 

Making history (again):

• Jackson and Johnson have since gone off to college, but that hasn’t stopped them from making math history again, as the pair recently published a paper outlining 10 ways to solve the theorem using trigonometry, including the proof they discovered in high school.

• The theorem, you’ll forget from geometry class, states the sum of the squares of a right triangle’s two shorter sides are equal to the square of its longest side (whatever that means). The duo’s work breaks ground as mathematicians for two millennia thought it was impossible to prove Pythagoras’s theorem using trigonometry.

PLAIN INTERESTING

Researchers Observed “the Largest Predation Event Ever Recorded”

Billions of capelins (a small fish about the size of an anchovy) migrate to the Norwegian coast each February, and happy predators are there to take advantage of the feast. In a new study, researchers analyzing one migration witnessed the largest single act of predation ever recorded.

Feeding frenzy: 

• Using a sonic-based wide-area imaging technique, researchers watched one million of the capelin’s primary predator, the Atlantic cod, as they swarmed and devoured over 10 million capelin as the fish migrated from the Arctic ice sheet southward to the Norwegian coast to spawn. 

• The researchers say the event, which lasted only a few hours, is the largest predation event ever recorded, both in terms of the number of individual animals involved and the miles-wide area it covered.

Why it matters: 

• This single event is unlikely to weaken the capelin’s population, as the preyed-upon shoal represented 0.1% of the capelin that spawn in the region.

• However, rising ocean temperatures will probably make some of the capelin’s spawning grounds unsuitable, in which case, a single predation event like this could have devastating consequences for the species.

OVEN-FRESH STATS

• $15.9 billion - The amount of money that will be spent across all U.S. federal elections in 2024, according to data from OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign spending. 

• 40x - How much more elections cost per person in the U.S. compared to Germany or the U.K., according to the same data from OpenSecrets. 

• 59% - The percentage of U.S. Black men under 50 who say they’re likely to vote for Kamala Harris in this year’s election, up from 51% in August, according to a new survey from the NAACP. Support for Donald Trump has decreased from 27% to 21% over the same period.

• 6,674 - The number of ancient structures revealed through laser-guided imaging of a massive centuries-old Maya city in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, according to a new study by researchers at Tulane University. The structures include pyramids like the ones at Chichén Itzá and Tikal.

EXTRA SCHMEAR

Long Video. Contrary to popular belief, the Sun is NOT the center of our solar system. (12 min) 

Short Video. Claude’s “computer use AI” might be the AI you actually use. (2 min)

Fun Video. Travel back in time (and reminisce about the simpler days of American politics) to watch former President Barack Obama would pardon school absences. (2 min)

Good Read. Learn how political corruption helped shape an American insult.

Neat List.Fifteen awe-inspiring images of waterfalls because we could all use some “awe.”

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Written by Ryan Wittler