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Category: climatology – Page 73

Native Americans Are Not Who We Thought They Were, Study Suggest

A widely believed theory about the origins of Native Americans has been dealt a huge blow by a new genetic analysis of ancient teeth, implying the ancient inhabitants of what is now America were not who we thought they were.

The theory, largely based on archaeological evidence found at Native American sites, claims that the First Peoples came to the continent from Japan around 15,000 years ago. Stone tools and other stone artifacts used by Native Americans show similarities to those of the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer people who lived in ancient Japan from around 14,000–300 BCE.

Based on this and analysis of their migration across the continent, it’s been suggested that Native Americans made their way across the northern rim of the Pacific Ocean, across the Bering Land Bridge – dry land that connected Siberia and Alaska during the last ice age – until they reached the northwest coast of North America.

MIT’s zero-electricity cooling system could tackle the hottest regions of the world

Claiming 3rd place, we look at how a zero-electricity cooling system could meet the world’s growing AC needs.

The fact that as the Earth warms, the technology needed by humans to stay cool will only make the environment hotter is one of the great ironies of climate change.

Here’s where a novel device unveiled by MIT researchers in October comes in.

Ibrahim Can/Interesting Engineering.

The number of energy-intensive air conditioning systems is projected to quadruple to 14 billion by 2050, putting a strain on existing power grids. Better yet, the increase in cooling alone will account for a 0.5-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures, according to the World Economic Forum.

US startup wants to inject sulfur into the atmosphere to cool down the Earth

In theory, it could mitigate the effects of global warming; but experts are wary.

Make Sunsets, a California-based startup, released weather balloons that carried sulfur particles into the stratosphere which possibly burst there, releasing the chemical, MIT Technology Review.

Da-kuk/iStock.

Founded by Luke Iseman, previous director of hardware at Y Combinator, the attempts by the startup fall into the controversial area of solar geoengineering where particles are released into the atmosphere with an aim to reflect sunlight back into space to ease global warming. The field has largely been a thought experiment with no real consensus if the technology can help us fight climate change.

A Startup Has Begun Releasing Chemicals Into the Stratosphere

Recently, a start-up company called Make Sunsets has begun releasing chemicals into the stratosphere as a form of geoengineering that is intended to help climate change. However, many are very hesitant about the startup and the result of what they are doing.

For perspective, geoengineering is when chemical particles are released into the stratosphere to manipulate the weather or climate. The theory is that when sulfur is released into the atmosphere that it mimics a natural process that occurs after volcanoes and that by doing this intentionally, we could ease global warming.

While it isn’t difficult to do this, it is very controversial. The reason for this is that it could potentially have dangerous side effects. Additionally, because some regions could endure worse side effects, it could cause issues across international lines.

Can AI Win a Photography Competition? Take the Turing Test

The Royal Meteorological Society, which runs the Weather Photographer of the Year competition, has posed an intriguing question: Can artificial intelligence (AI) win a photography competition?

To answer this, the Society drew up a Turing test in which the viewer is invited to guess which is an AI image and which is an actual award-winning photo.

The Turing test, created by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from a human.

Newly proposed method harvests untapped sources of fresh water

While significant parts of the globe are already facing significant freshwater scarcity, the need for more freshwater is projected to increase in order to sustain the increasing global population and economic growth and adapt to climate change.

An almost limitless supply of fresh water exists in the form of water vapor above Earth’s oceans, yet remains untapped. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have proposed a new infrastructure capable of harvesting oceanic water vapor as a solution to limited supplies of fresh water in various locations around the world.

The study evaluated 14 water-stressed locations across the globe for the feasibility of a hypothetical structure capable of capturing water vapor from above the ocean and condensing it into fresh water – and doing so in a manner that will remain feasible in the face of continued climate change.

Polar bear population dwindling at alarming rate in Canada: Report

A new survey conducted by the Canadian government has found that polar bears in the country’s Western Hudson Bay, are dying at alarming rates. The researchers aerially surveyed the Bay and its nearby town of Churchill also referred to as the ‘Bear capital of the World’ in 2021 and found there were 618 bears only, compared to 842, five years ago when last counted.

The survey added that a significant decline has been noted in the population of adult female bears and cubs between 2011 and 2021.

“The observed declines are consistent with long-standing predictions regarding the demographic effects of climate change on polar bears,” said the researchers.

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