Hacker News with Generative AI: Environment

Lifestyle and environmental factors affect health and ageing more than our genes (ox.ac.uk)
A new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health has shown that a range of environmental factors, including lifestyle (smoking and physical activity) and living conditions, have a greater impact on health and premature death than our genes.
Health, Genetics, Lifestyle, Environment, Aging
55 points by gnabgib 1 day ago | 25 comments
War Has Become a Force of Planetary Destruction (nytimes.com)
The unrelenting Russian war has poisoned the soil, air and waters of Ukraine. Leaking ruins of chemical factories and exploded debris litter the landscape. Fires have burned across thousands of square miles, visible from space.
War, Environment, Ukraine, Russia
5 points by mmooss 3 days ago | 1 comments
Antarctic Sea Ice Levels Five Standard Deviations Below the Mean (2023) (abc.net.au)
This winter has confirmed what scientists had feared — the sea ice around Antarctica is in sharp decline, with experts now concerned it may not recover.
Climate Change, Antarctica, Science, Environment
22 points by BLKNSLVR 4 days ago | 4 comments
NOAA: File is deleted by executive order [pdf] (noaa.gov)
NOAA, Government, Law, Environment
59 points by paulgb 5 days ago | 19 comments
US Forest Service and National Park Service to fire thousands of workers (theguardian.com)
The US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump’s push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.
Government, US, Employment, Environment, Budget Cuts
123 points by rntn 6 days ago | 76 comments
World's Sea-ice falls to record low (bbc.com)
The world's frozen oceans, which help to keep the planet cool, currently have less ice than ever previously recorded, satellite data shows.
Climate Change, Environment, Science, Arctic, Global Warming
7 points by adrian_mrd 6 days ago | 0 comments
Why aren't we losing our minds over the plastic in our brains? (scientificamerican.com)
Our brains are full of plastic.
Neuroscience, Health, Environment, Plastic
94 points by mikhael 6 days ago | 175 comments
Twelve months at 1.5 °C signals earlier than expected breach of Paris Agreement (nature.com)
June 2024 was the twelfth month in a row with global mean surface temperatures at least 1.5 °C above pre-industrial conditions, but it is not clear if this implies a failure to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting long-term warming below this threshold.
Climate Change, Global Warming, Paris Agreement, Science, Environment
116 points by rntn 6 days ago | 128 comments
High fertiliser use halves numbers of pollinators, longest study finds (theguardian.com)
Using high levels of common fertilisers on grassland halves pollinator numbers and drastically reduces the number of flowers, research from the world’s longest-running ecological experiment has found.
Environment, Science, Agriculture, Pollinators, Ecology
9 points by PaulHoule 7 days ago | 1 comments
Eating from plastic takeout containers can increase heart failure risk (theguardian.com)
Eating from plastic takeout containers may significantly increase the chance of congestive heart failure, a new study finds, and researchers suspect they have identified why: changes to gut biome cause inflammation that damages the circulatory system.
Health, Food Safety, Science, Environment
7 points by mindracer 9 days ago | 2 comments
Brain is full of microplastics: are they harming you? (nature.com)
Plastics have infiltrated every recess of the planet, including your lungs, kidneys and other sensitive organs. Scientists are scrambling to understand their effects on health.
Microplastics, Health, Environment, Science
13 points by sohkamyung 9 days ago | 0 comments
The return of the buffalo is reviving portions of the ecosystem (nativesunnews.today)
“Bringing buffalo back to their ancestral homelands is essential to restoring the ecosystem.”~ Executive Director for Tanka Fund Dawn Sherman
Environment, Wildlife, Conservation
66 points by geox 11 days ago | 35 comments
Beavers finish seven-year dam project in two days saving – $1M (nationalgeographic.com)
After plans stalled for a new dam in the Czech Republic, eight beavers saved the day seemingly overnight. “At this point, nothing that beavers do surprises me.”
Animals, Engineering, Environment
61 points by vixen99 11 days ago | 45 comments
An Arctic 'beyond recognition' by 2100 (colorado.edu)
In 2024, annual average global air temperatures surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, triggering extreme weather events like record-breaking rainfall and flooding events in the Sahara Desert and extreme summer heat waves across the planet. However, global warming will not stop at this level.
Climate Change, Arctic, Environment, Global Warming
6 points by geox 14 days ago | 0 comments
How does life happen when there's barely any light? (quantamagazine.org)
Under the sea ice during the Arctic’s pitch-black polar night, cells power photosynthesis on the lowest light levels ever observed in nature.
Science, Biology, Arctic, Photosynthesis, Environment
56 points by abe94 14 days ago | 41 comments
The world has probably passed "peak air pollution" (ourworldindata.org)
Global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak.
Air Pollution, Climate Change, Environment, Data Visualization
40 points by andsoitis 15 days ago | 15 comments
Sand trafficking in Latin America (insightcrime.org)
Just 50 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous beaches, one of the city’s most powerful gangsters found a fortune to be made in sand.
Crime, Latin America, Brazil, Environment
108 points by josh-sematic 16 days ago | 56 comments
Microplastics in the human brain (smithsonianmag.com)
The human brain may contain up to a spoon’s worth of tiny plastic shards—not a spoonful, but the same weight (about seven grams) as a plastic spoon, according to new findings published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.
Science, Health, Environment, Pollution
245 points by headclone 16 days ago | 206 comments
Human brain samples contain an entire spoon's worth of nanoplastics, study says (cnn.com)
Nanoplastics, Science, Health, Environment, Human Health
24 points by lucaslazarus 17 days ago | 14 comments
Climate change target of 2C is 'dead', says renowned climate scientist (theguardian.com)
The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead”.
Climate Change, Science, Global Warming, Environment
14 points by rntn 17 days ago | 3 comments
Temperatures at North Pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point (theguardian.com)
Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt.
Climate Change, Arctic, Weather, Environment, Science
22 points by howard941 17 days ago | 4 comments
You Can't Recycle Bowling Balls – But People Keep Trying (2021) (curbed.com)
Every day, collection trucks from Brooklyn and barges from Queens and the Bronx arrive at Sims Municipal Recycling in Sunset Park, loaded up with old phone books and plastic sporks, metal faucets and glass bottles.
Recycling, Environment
8 points by nafnlj 18 days ago | 8 comments
How huge parts of the US could become uninhabitable within decades (independent.co.uk)
The United States is no stranger to extreme weather, but the accelerating effects of climate change are pushing some regions closer to the brink of uninhabitability. From oppressive heat in the Southwest to rising sea levels and storm surges along the coasts, the challenges are diverse, daunting, and interconnected.
Climate Change, Environment, United States, Extreme Weather, Sustainability
9 points by this_weekend 18 days ago | 2 comments
Scotland's first 'enclosed' salmon farm to open on Loch Long (bbc.com)
An innovation in salmon farming - to tackle pollution and the spread of parasitic lice - will mark a first for Scotland at a new fish farm in Argyll.
Scotland, Aquaculture, Fish Farming, Environment, Innovation
9 points by colinprince 19 days ago | 13 comments
Beyond the numbers: PM2.5 is not PM2.5 (airgradient.com)
This article is part of a series, where we explore the hidden complexities of PM2.5 — tiny airborne particles that impact air quality and health. We will uncover the ambiguities behind its measurement, the challenges in assessing health risks, and the surprising insights that emerge. Each article will tackle a different aspect of PM2.5, shedding light on its hidden dilemmas and unanswered questions. Today’s article discusses the variety of different airborne particles.
Air Quality, Health, Science, Environment
5 points by quercusa 19 days ago | 0 comments
Wolves and America's urban-rural divide (thehustle.co)
Colorado reintroduced wolves to stimulate the environment. They’ve also disrupted a traditional industry and way of life.
Wolves, Environment, Rural Communities, Urban-Rural Divide, Colorado
32 points by kansaswriter 19 days ago | 65 comments
Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis (theguardian.com)
On Thursday, the Trump administration ordered the US agriculture department to to take down its websites documenting or referencing the climate crisis.
Politics, Climate Change, Environment, Government, United States
20 points by throwaway519 20 days ago | 1 comments
Trump's orders, officals released water from two California dams (latimes.com)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abruptly increased the amount of water flowing from two California dams.
Politics, Environment, California, Dams, Water Management
35 points by DocFeind 20 days ago | 18 comments
Island residents are still dealing with the fallout of exploded Starship (cnn.com)
SpaceX, Accidents, Texas, Environment, Local News
76 points by janpot 20 days ago | 46 comments
Decision to dump water from Tulare County lakes altered after confusing locals (sjvwater.org)
Water managers were relieved Thursday evening after the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to back off of a sudden decision earlier in the day to dump massive amounts of water from Kaweah and Success lakes.
Water Management, California, Environment, Local Government
166 points by awnird 21 days ago | 77 comments