Environmental News

The bold among us could be hosting a parasite.

What Makes Us Bold - Nautilus

 

In related news, A blob twice the width of the US is heading towards Florida's coast | CNN

 

boomers get back to their 60's roots:

Why seniors are blocking entrances to the four largest U.S. banks

 

The southern black widow is being pushed out by the introduced brown widow.
Black widows are vanishing. Scientists found out why. | Mashable

Not a good thing for the locals, as I understand the brown widow is more dangerous.

 

My first search hit strikes a more reassuring tone:

https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/brown-widow-spider

The bite of a brown widow spider is minor in comparison to that of a black widow. Although one frequently cited study demonstrates that, drop per drop, brown widow spider venom is as toxic .... the weaker effect of brown widow bites on humans is possibly because the brown widow does not have or cannot inject as much venom .... Considering that the brown widow is less dangerous and may be supplanting the native western black widow from habitats, it is conceivable that the risk of serious injury from overall spider bite may decrease ....
​

 

Whoa Hoss! I'm a pink skin widower.

Bob Wilson

 

Trying to figure out if I misremembered or if the source was wrong, found this, "The relative toxicity of the widow spiders may depend on the species of animal. For example, Sampayo (1943) stated that brown widow venom is much less toxic to guinea pigs than is black widow venom. However, McCrone (1964) reported that brown widow venom is more toxic than black widow venom in mice, and Guerrero et al. (2010) stated that based on their studies with mice, brown widow venom appears to be one of the most toxic Latrodectus venoms."
Brown widow spider - Latrodectus geometricus

LD50(lethal dose to kill 50% of a population) studies usually use mice. Just comparing that value of the two would make the brown look more dangerous. Sounds like both would rather run and hide than bite a human, and only adult females are capable of biting through our skin to inject venom. The ability of browns' populations to grow faster could lead to more contact with people.

This article has some numbers from the study I originally posted about. https://www.gearrice.com/update/the-fearsome-black-widow-has-a-new-and-familiar-predator/

 

As far as danger goes - the Australian funnel spider tops the deadly list. And yet it will likely benefit mankind a great deal - offsetting its Guinness record cause of spider bite deaths

Death disruptor: how an Australian funnel-web spider may help human hearts | Heart disease | The Guardian
.

 

New Horizons sling-shot past Jupiter just a mere 13 months after launch.

Rather than making a bigger firestick, they made a smaller lighter probe.

 

good news on climate change!

UN reports 'off the charts' melting of glaciers

 

There were some positive points in there. From the link:

The glaciers disappearing faster and faster is quite concerning though.

 

I kinda wish China would adopt standard, molten salt, thorium fueled, micro reactors. Say a 10-50 megawatt design. The waste heat could be used for industrial or apartment heating and A/C. This would distribute power to minimize transmission lines. My understanding is these fission reactors produce a smaller amount of radioactive waste and are exceptionally safe.

The other option would be solar cells and wind/sea turbines with grid-level battery storage. The advantage being no waste heat to deal with. But waste heat has a value.

Bob Wilson

 

Do you other pointers for those of us lacking access to Apple News?

 

it's AFP news. i wasn't able to locate the article with their search function though.

the gist was that even though climate change has been horrendous, and 'the glacier game' is lost, green energy is becoming more and more affordable and we're developing better mitigation methods, 32 countries have reduced co2 emissions while growing their economies, and the planet is no longer headed for 3-5c degrees warming as predicted in 2014. more likely 2.5-3c, and best case 1.5c