Doomerism has serious downsides, a recent study found, it doesn’t change beliefs or support for policies, is demoralizing, and fails to motivate action. Communication experts have long known that an “all is lost” presentation about any topic is ineffective—messaging is only really effective when it “increases a sense of efficacy and focuses on one-time behaviors.” One expert, asked for his thoughts on how to talk about climate change effectively, suggested an approach that provides 1) clarity of action and 2) appeals to morality and ethics. (Check out the full article at the link below to learn more about how morality is uniting and activating.)
Other stories tonight include
- RIP Primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal
- Where the wild things went during the pandemic is not what we imagined.
- 17 astounding scientific mysteries that researchers can’t solve (yet).
- The hidden value of herbariums
- Oral bacterium migrates to gut, helps colorectal tumors grow
- Playing thriving reef sounds on underwater speakers ‘could save damaged corals’
- Sweat protein may be defender against Lyme disease
- Old-Growth forests know how to protect themselves from fire
- Utility-caused wildfires are becoming a national problem
- Eco-friendly bio breaks—NASA has a new idea about how to shit in the woods
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The hidden secrets of a simple birdsong, explained
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BirdCast can tell you how many birds flew over your home each night.
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Video of California Condor Redwood Queen in her nest tree with her new mate and newly laid egg.
We compared this doom and gloom message to the other climate change messages on a highly diverse sample of over 59,440 participants. Since climate change is a truly global issue, we translated and tested these messages in 63 different countries...to see which messages worked best...within specific countries and cultures.
Our findings revealed that doom and gloom messaging was highly effective for stimulating...posting on the internet or social media, where negativity reigns … doomerism (ie negative emotions) was the single most effective strategy for increasing social media sharing.
However, doom and gloom messaging was the absolute worst for motivating action and among the worst for changing climate change beliefs or support for climate change policies. In fact, negative emotions backfired on effortful behavior—making people significantly less likely to take action for the environment compared to a neutral control condition.
Also consider these findings:
- “...doom and gloom can demoralize the public into inaction. We found that this strategy had no effect on policy support or climate beliefs. For these outcomes, writing a letter to future generations explaining one’s climate actions today or thinking about the consequences of climate change in one’s region were the most effective interventions.”
- “When faced with the enormous stakes of the climate crisis, personal actions—and perhaps even policy change—can seem futile. People withdraw or disengage.”
- ”...far more research is needed on the topic and why we all need to embrace greater intellectual humility around this issue.”
- What goes viral online doesn’t necessarily translate to the real world: “norms and incentive structures of social media are very different...messages that work online may be completely counterproductive offline.
- ”...different people responded differently to the various climate messages and that this varies across countries. To design the most effective messages, scientists and policy makers will need to tailor them to the right audience.”
CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF
To see the effects of our interventions along dimensions such as country of residence, income level, age, ideological leaning, socioeconomic status, gender and also type of climate action targeted, visit our open-access user-friendly web app. Feel free to play around and find out what worked best (or worst) in your home country.
Frans de Waal RIP
De Waal was the most famous Dutch primatologist for decades. With his calm speech, great knowledge and undeniable love for our fellow animals, he was also a well-known figure outside of science. Often shown on television, often quoted in debates.
De Waal rose to fame in the 1980s with his book Chimpanzee Politics (1982). This book was based on his observations of the power struggle in the chimpanzee colony of Burgers Zoo in Arnhem. The book offers a radical new view of ape leadership: it is not brute force and the direct application of power, but rather the mediation of conflicts and careful management of alliances that characterize the life of an ape leader. The monkey world suddenly became very human. So humane that conservative Republican Senator Newt Gingrich recommended the book in the 1990s as educational reading for young members of Congress.
This is a common thread in De Waal’s work: apes are much more like humans, and humans are much more like apes, than we think. As he said in a speech about his work in 2014: “I have moved the monkeys up a little and the people down a little.”
In the early months of the Covid pandemic, when every bit of news seemed bleak, there was one heartwarming narrative that took hold: With humans stuck in their homes, the world was safe again for wild animals, which could now wander freely through cities, parking lots or fields that once might have been crowded with people.
But a new global study, which used wildlife cameras to track human and animal activity during the Covid lockdowns, suggests that the story was not that simple.
Really, science is about a big question: How do we know when we’ve completely learned something? … We’re drawn to questions because they are optimistic. They invite us to dream of a better world in which they are answered, where the gaps between questions and our capabilities to answer them are smaller. Scientific knowledge is a gift we can give the future. It’s worth getting right. [...]
1) What is the universe made out of?
2) How did life start on Earth?
3) How did dogs evolve from wolves?
4) Can animals feel grief?
8) How does sound become hearing?
12) What is the definition of “life”?
14) What did dinosaurs sound like?
17) How will everything end?
The Duke herbarium is perhaps the 6th largest university herbarium in the United States. And it is tied with Cornell. So it's very well known in the area of biodiversity research and climate change research, but it's stunning that now, it's being told it needs to find a better home...every herbarium is unique. It's a collection of dried plant materials that have been collected over time from various professors, students, researchers that have gone on explorations, and brought these treasures home. So no herbarium replicates what another herbarium has. It's unique to the history of Duke and the people who worked at the Duke herbarium.
And so our collection of 825,000 specimens is special only to, it's special to Duke. It's not replicated anywhere else.
Underwater speakers that broadcast the hustle and bustle of thriving coral could bring life back to more damaged and degraded reefs that are in danger of becoming ocean graveyards, researchers say.
Scientists working off the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean found that coral larvae were up to seven times more likely to settle at a struggling reef where they played recordings of the snaps, groans, grunts and scratches that form the symphony of a healthy ecosystem.
“We’re hoping this may be something we can combine with other efforts to put the good stuff back on the reef,” said Nadège Aoki at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “You could leave a speaker out for a certain amount of time and it could be attracting not just coral larvae but fish back to the reef.”
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Helsinki have discovered that a protein in human sweat may protect against Lyme disease. The findings could help patients whose symptoms linger months or years.
Their research was published in Nature Communications in an article titled, “SCGB1D2 inhibits growth of Borrelia burgdorferi and affects susceptibility to Lyme disease.”
“They say they’ll log this old-growth forest—this wet, green rainforest—to create fire resilience,” [Author/activist Rick Bass] says, “but these trees are already fire-resilient. This larch, for example, is not only meant to survive fire; it’s meant to prosper from it. These attributes, the species diversity here, the structural diversity of the forest—they need to be studied, not clear-cut. But the Forest Service says that by clear-cutting a, what, nearly 1,000-year-old forest, they’ll teach it to be resilient?”
Large wildfires started by power lines and other utility equipment were, not that long ago, considered something that happened mostly in California. But these disasters are increasingly happening in many more places as forces that are turbocharged by climate change such as extreme heat and drought wreak havoc on electric grids that were not built or upgraded to withstand them.
It’s been pop culture knowledge for decades that astronauts wear “diapers” on spacewalks, but the Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG) used by astronauts is more than just a diaper, and now a polymer key to the underwear’s function is helping to keep campgrounds and parks clean. [...]
Patented in the early 1980s, the MAG uses a highly absorbent polymer compound sandwiched between layers of specialized materials designed to remove moisture and keep the astronauts dry while outside their spacecraft. The sodium polyacrylate polymer absorbs the urine, transforming the liquid into a solidified gel. The waste can then be disposed of much more simply than the complicated collection system of the Apollo days. [...]
Headquartered in Oceanside, California, Cleanwaste uses the same polymer utilized in the MAG to give people a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of waste. When it was founded in 1999, the company started by pitching its products to the military but later found a new market in people who like outdoor adventuring, such as kayakers, campers, and hikers – particularly in national parks.
Scientists believe that most male songbirds evolved to sing a variety of songs to demonstrate their fitness. Under that theory, the fittest songbirds will have more time and energy to work on their vocal stylings — and attract females with their varied vocal repertoire.
New research using machine learning shows finches may be sticking to one tune, but how they sing it makes a big difference. Published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the study reveals the complexity of a single zebra finch song — and what female songbirds might be hearing in their prospective mates’ seemingly “simple” songs.
Bird cast — check it out to learn how many birds were overhead last night where you live
A few days ago, Bird Cast reported nearly 400,000 birds flew over my area in one night, probably from the seasonal wetlands that host migratory waterfowl each winter.
BirdCast applies weather surveillance radar to gather information on the numbers, flight directions, speeds and altitudes of birds aloft in order to expand the understanding of migratory bird movement.