Welcome to Overnight News Digest- Saturday Science. Since 2007 the OND has been a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of science stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Topics in today’s digest include:
- Yakama nation nixes Federal agency’s offer
- Education campaign helps protect sea turtles
- All life on Earth can be traced back to a single organism
- Scientists at UC, Davis study fish ear bones to assess dam removal effects
- U of Miami scientists hope to save Florida coral with coral from Honduras
- Trees keep Denver neighborhoods 9 degrees cooler
- Money-saving alternative to plastic loofahs
- First Tulsa Race Massacre victim id’d as WWI veteran
- Australia sends clean energy to Singapore with 4,300 kilometer undersea cable.
- The people feeding America are going hungry.
- New Zooniverse project
ProPublica
by B. “Toastie” Oaster
In a Push for Green Energy, One Federal Agency Made Tribes an Offer They Had to Refuse
When Yakama Nation leaders learned in 2017 of a plan to tunnel through some of their ancestral land for a green energy development, they were caught off guard.
While the tribal nation had come out in favor of climate-friendly projects, this one appeared poised to damage Pushpum, a privately owned ridgeline overlooking the Columbia River in Washington. The nation holds treaty rights to gather traditional foods there, and tribal officials knew they had to stop the project.
Problems arose when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency in charge of permitting hydro energy projects, offered the Yakama Nation what tribal leaders considered an impossible choice: disclose confidential ceremonial, archaeological and cultural knowledge, or waive the right to consult on whether and how the site is developed.
Mongabay
by Jeremy Hance
To end turtle hunting, an African island state embraced the hunters
- The island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is home to unique species and rich marine ecosystems, including threatened sea turtles.
- In 2014, the country enacted a law banning the trade and possession of sea turtles, which, paired with local conservation programs, has significantly reduced turtle hunting and trade in the country.
- Local communities have become key players in sea turtle conservation, but while many former turtle traders have adapted to new livelihoods, some, particularly women, struggle due to lack of skills, resources and financial capital, highlighting the need for ongoing support and tailored solutions.
- Education and marketing campaigns and trust building with local leaders have helped change public attitudes toward sea turtle conservation, demonstrating that involving and understanding local communities is often crucial for long-term conservation efforts.
Popular Mechanics
by Darren Orf
All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.
- All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA.
- A new study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation.
- Further analysis also shows that this life form likely sported an early immune system, which means it was probably fighting off viruses.
PHYS.org
by Kat Kerlin
The salmon diaries: Life before and after Klamath Dam removal
From the river to the lab, looking at the very ear bones of fish, scientists with the University of California, Davis, are playing a key role helping to answer a big dam question: Will it work? Will a diverse population of salmon thrive again once the dams are removed and the Klamath River restored?
The answers are important not only for the Klamath but also for dams across the world that have outlived their usefulness. Less than 100 miles south of Klamath, for instance, is the Eel River, where a dam is slated to be removed in 2028. In 2023 alone, 80 dams were demolished across the U.S.
"It will work," said Robert Lusardi, a freshwater ecologist and assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. "There's nothing better we could do for fish and for people in Northern California and throughout the world than to remove these dams. But if we don't track and try to better understand how things are changing, we're not going to understand their importance for future efforts."
Axios
by Sommor Brugal, Katheryn Varn
Miami scientists aim to save Florida's coral reefs with corals from Honduras
Led by Andrew Baker, director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, a team collected the elkhorn fragments from a reef in Tela Bay off the northern coast of Honduras, where the corals have somehow thrived in the same extreme heat affecting Florida's population.
- Scientists will study them to understand why the corals are so resilient.
- They hope to breed them with Florida's surviving corals — a technique called "genetic rescue" — to produce offspring able to survive warmer temperatures, Baker said in a news release.
Colorado Sun
by Michael Booth
Denver neighborhoods without trees can get 9 degrees hotter than the rest of the city
If the city of Denver is planting extra trees in your neighborhood, you might live in the worst of the metro area’s sun-blasted heat islands.
A new map from the meteorology data-crunchers at Climate Central shows some of Denver’s most paved-over neighborhoods suffering recent (and looming) heat waves at rates 9 degrees hotter than shaded blocks just a couple of miles away.
The door-to-door pavement and concrete-covered canyons downtown, on South Santa Fe and west of the Mousetrap absorb Denver’s 100-degree sunshine all day and can’t let go of the heat before the next high noon, said adaptation manager Lis Cohen in the city’s office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency.
The Cool Down
by Michael Collis
Man shares simple, money-saving alternative to plastic loofahs: 'They can last for years'
There's little that compares to the feeling of using a loofah to scrub yourself clean in the shower, but disposing of those little puffs of plastic can add up to unnecessary environmental damage.
One TikToker, though, has detailed an alternative product that is much kinder to the planet.
[…]
Instead, a sea wool sponge is a more planet-friendly alternative.
The Grio
A World War I veteran is first Tulsa Race Massacre victim identified from mass graves
A World War I veteran is the first person identified from graves filled with more than a hundred victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that devastated the city’s Black community, the mayor said Friday.
Using DNA from descendants of his brothers, the remains of C.L. Daniel from Georgia were identified by Intermountain Forensics, said Mayor G.T. Bynum and officials from the lab. He was in his 20s when he was killed.
“This is one family who gets to give a member of their family that they lost a proper burial, after not knowing where they were for over a century,” Bynum said.
New Atlas
by Paul Ridden
Massive Australia-to-Singapore clean energy cable gets green light
The world's largest renewable energy and transmission project has received key approval from government officials. The Australia-Asia Power Link project will send Australian solar power to Singapore via 4,300 kilometer-long undersea cables.
The
AAPowerLink project is being led by SunCable, and will start by constructing a mammoth solar farm in Australia's Northern Territory to transmit around-the-clock clean power to Darwin, and also export "reliable, cost-competitive renewable energy" to Singapore.
The principal environmental approval recently obtained from the Northern Territory Government rubber stamps the building of a solar farm at Powell Creek with a clean energy generation capacity of up to 10 gigawatts, plus utility scale onsite storage. It also green lights an 800-km (~500-mile) overhead transmission line between the solar precinct and Murrumujuk near Darwin.
Grist
by Ayurella Horn-Muller
The people who feed America are going hungry
Standing knee-deep in an emerald expanse, a row of trees offering respite from the sweltering heat, Rosa Morales diligently relocates chipilín, a Central American legume, from one bed of soil to another. The 34-year-old has been coming to the Campesinos’ Garden run by the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka for the last six months, taking home a bit of produce each time she visits. The small plot that hugs a soccer field and community center is an increasingly vital source of food to feed her family.
It also makes her think of Guatemala, where she grew up surrounded by plants. “It reminds me of working the earth there,” Morales said in Spanish.
Tending to the peaceful community garden is a far cry from the harvesting Morales does for her livelihood. Ever since moving to the United States 16 years ago, Morales has been a farmworker at local nurseries and farms. She takes seasonal jobs that allow her the flexibility and income to care for her five children, who range from 18 months to 15 years old.
Zooniverse
Filling Fisheries Data Gaps with Historical Dock Photos
The FISHstory team has been busy over the last year gathering new historic fishing photos. Our photo archive now has photos from the Outer Banks of North Carolina down to the Florida Keys. We need your help unlocking the data in these photos! Join the FISHstory team and help classify photos. Not a fish ID expert? No worries - we have tips and tricks in our tutorials and field guide and you can always reach out to the research team through our Talk Boards.
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