Study: Accounting for value of nature reinforces Paris climate targets
A new study in Nature Sustainability incorporates the damages that climate change does to healthy ecosystems into standard climate-economics models. The key finding in the study by Bernardo Bastien-Olvera and Frances Moore from the University of California at Davis: The models have been underestimating the cost of climate damages to society by a factor of more than five.
Their study concludes that the most cost-effective emissions pathway results in just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) additional global warming by 2100, consistent with the “aspirational” objective of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Models that combine climate science and economics, called “integrated assessment models” (IAMs), are critical tools in developing and implementing climate policies and regulations. In 2010, an Obama administration governmental interagency working group used IAMs to establish the social cost o
Hunterdon wine can take the edge off winter days
Updated Jan 25, 2021;
Posted Jan 25, 2021
Lisa van den Woldenburg of the Grape Finale in Flemington has set aside several days in February and March to show people how wine is made.Grape Finale
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Wine is more than that bottle on the shelf. Wine is warmth. Wine is the thing that you welcome inside. Wine is the finishing touch. It is the friend you thought you had lost. Wine helps you settle down after a week of obfuscation and deception. Wine can take the edge off winter.
Several first class wineries call this area home. Vineyards in Hunterdon include Unionville Vineyards, Old York Cellars, Beneduce Vineyards, Mout Salem Vineyards, and Federal Twist Vineyards. Grape Finale is a winery in every sense except it has no vineyard.
WHAT DONALD IS NOW UP AGAINST . . . by Selvam Canagaratna “Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.” – Jean Anouilh, Antigone, 1942. “At some point in the next few weeks, Donald Trump will face his second Senate trial following an impeachment by the House […]
Monarch Population in California Spirals to Another Record Low By Emma Pelton on 30 November 2020
Emma Pelton
[Editor s note: This blog was revised on Friday, 12/11/20, to update the population estimates with new count data.]
Early count numbers from Xerces’ Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count suggest that the western migratory population is headed for an all-time low. With approximately 95% of the data in, only 1,800 monarchs have been reported. We anticipate a final total of less than 2,000 monarchs overwintering in California this year. This is a significant decline from the low numbers of the last two years where the total hovered just under 30,000 monarchs. These numbers are a tiny fraction of the millions of monarchs that likely visited overwintering sites in the 1980s and the hundreds of thousands of monarchs that graced California’s coast as recently as the mid-2010s. In fact, this represents an overall decline of more than
The anti-aphrodisiac the male Heliconius melponene sprays the female butterfly with after mating smells like flowers.
The Heliconius cydno butterfly (left) and the Heliconius melpomene (right) are photographed mating in captivity. (Credit: Luca Livraghi)
(CN) The evolution of certain traits and behaviors throughout wildlife typically stems from the natural interplay between plants and animals. Butterflies, however, evolved a pheromone entirely independent of its presence in the plants the insects feed on, according to a study released Tuesday.
In the animal kingdom, insects and plants use self-produced chemicals often built from the same compounds to communicate and compel certain behaviors.
Orchids, for example, produce a scent mimicking the aura of female insects in order to attract male pollinators. The scent which aids in attracting pollinators, (E)-beta-ocimene a 10-carbon chemical compound, or terpene is produced by many plants.