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Category: existential risks – Page 76

Monarch butterfly population moves closer to extinction

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday.

An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California’s Marin County to San Diego County in the south in the 1980s.

Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster to keep warm. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread across the country once warmer weather arrives in March.

Pizza, Philosophy and Science: Longtermism

On Januray 25th, we will discuss different aspects of longtermism — a concept of effective altruism. To decide which ist the best action to take we usually consider the effects of our actions on the short-or medium-term future — whether we save someone’s life, or mitigate sexism or racism in the next generation. According to longtermism that is wildly mistaken. The value of our actions is determined almost exclusively by their effects on the future in the very long-run — the next millions and billions of years. Their effects on the next 100 or even 1000 years are just about irrelevant. Our everyday thinking is radically short-sighted, and common evaluations perhaps dramatically wrong. In this online meetup, we will look at a compelling justification for longtermism, at its historical roots, and some of its practical implications — e.g. concerning existential risks, or the idea that our time might be the most important in the history of humanity. Free discord session on 9:30 — 11:30 AM PST 11:30 — 13:30 AM DST.

What is the best action we can take? According to longtermism we should consider the effects on the future in the very long run — the next millions and billions of years — to answer this question.

Study investigates emission from a distant red quasar

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, an international team of astronomers has performed observations of HSC J120505.09−000027.9—the most distant red quasar so far detected and found that it showcases an extended emission of ionized carbon. The finding is reported in a paper published January 4 on arXiv.org.

Quasars, or quasi– (QSOs), are extremely luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) containing supermassive central black holes with accretion disks. Their redshifts are measured from the strong spectral lines that dominate their visible and . Some QSOs are dust-reddened, hence dubbed red quasars. These objects have a non-negligible amount of dust extinction, but are not completely obscured.

Astronomers are especially interested in studying high-redshift quasars (at redshift higher than 5.0) as they are the most luminous and most distant compact objects in the observable universe. Spectra of such QSOs can be used to estimate the mass of supermassive black holes that constrain the evolution and formation models of quasars. Therefore, could serve as a powerful tool to probe the early universe.

David Attenborough’s grim extinction warning

Sir David Attenborough confronts viewers with some of the most shocking images of his 66-year BBC career as he outlines how animals are facing mass extinction because of humans.

Upsetting scenes in his new series A Perfect Planet, on TV in Britain now and airing on Channel 9 later this year, show a parched and psychologically damaged baby elephant – its adult relatives killed by extreme droughts – cry out as rescuers squirt water into its mouth.

A koala, its fur and paws scorched, crawls through burning undergrowth during last year’s Australian bushfires before it, too, is saved and bandaged.

Are We Living in the Dark Forest? | Unveiled

I think the larger the galactic population the more deterrence will be a factor of survival. IMO the key apparatus for survival is not only nanotechnology on a personal level but to become Dysonian so we have the energy for defense.

In this video, Unveiled takes a terrifying journey into the Dark Forest! Why don’t you come along??

We’re guided by one question… Where are all the aliens? Humanity has puzzled over the Fermi Paradox for decades now, but is this finally the answer?? The Dark Forest Theory is an all new way of approaching the question of extraterrestrial life… and it might just be the one that finally opens our eyes!

This is Unveiled, giving you incredible answers to extraordinary questions!

Find more amazing videos for your curiosity here:

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NASA, FEMA, International Partners Plan Asteroid Impact Exercise

Each day this week, we will be providing updates on a fictional impact scenario playing out at the International Planetary Science Conference in College Park, Maryland. This scenario is designed to help key decision makers practice for a real asteroid impact. Currently, there is no known asteroid with a significant probability of impacting Earth in the next century. Day 5: What Was This Exercise All About? This week at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference, conference participants were tasked with responding to a hypothetical asteroid impact scenario in which they have eight years to stop an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Every day, the audience heard updates — at one point, they weren’t sure whether the 140–260-meter-wide (500−850 feet) asteroid was actually going to hit Earth. Once they found out it was on a certain collision, NASA and space agencies around the world decided to send a fleet of kinetic impactors to deflect the asteroid. The kinetic impactors hit the asteroid…but ended up splitting off a chunk, which, on Day 4 (four years from impact), again was headed towards Earth.

While headlines routinely report on “close shaves” and “near-misses” when near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids or comets pass relatively close to Earth, the real work of preparing for the possibility of a NEO impact with Earth goes on mostly out of the public eye.

Scientists: Life on Earth Likely Started in Meteor Craters

A new study is flipping the script on the effects of massive meteor impacts. While an ancient impact is commonly to the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, scientists are now starting to suspect that an earlier impact could have jumpstarted life on Earth in the first place.

Scientists have long suggested that meteorites carried the ingredients necessary for life to Earth, but new research suggests that meteor impacts also created the ideal conditions for life to emerge as well, The Weather Network reports. Because of that, the scientists suggest that space agencies ought to pay special attention to similar craters when hunting for life on the Moon, Mars, or beyond.

Why the Future Will Be Weird with Isaac Arthur

Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur is a YouTube channel which focuses on exploring the depths of concepts in science and futurism. Since its first episode in 2014, SFIA has considered topics ranging from the seemingly mundane, to the extremely exotic, featuring episodes on megastructure engineering, interstellar travel, the future of earth, and the Fermi paradox, among others. Yet regardless of how strange a subject may seem, Isaac always tries to ensure that the discussion is grounded in the known science of today.

Isaac Arthur joins John Michael Godlier on today’s Event Horizon to discuss these subjects, the future past 2020. Thoughts on life extension. Nanotechnology. Artificial intelligence. The Fermi paradox.

What is the most obvious answer to the Fermi paradox?

Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g.

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Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EventHorizonShow.

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Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission

DART is a planetary defense-driven test of technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. DART will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change the motion of an asteroid in space. The DART mission is in Phase C, led by APL and managed under NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program at Marshall Space Flight Center for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the Science Mission Directorate’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

NASA brings you images, videos and features from the unique perspective of America’s space agency. Get updates on missions, watch NASA TV, read blogs, view the latest discoveries, and more.