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OUT OF THIS WORLD | What's New in Climate Change – a look at the most important news about our warming world
Isabella O Malley
Climate Change Reporter
Wednesday, July 4 2018, 2:41 PM – Air pollution and diabetes, GMO labels reducing the opposition of consumers, robots and agriculture, and the lemurs of Madagascar. What is climate change?
Diabetes and air pollution
Diabetes affects more and more millions of people around the world and scientists are trying to understand the many risk factors for this disease. A new study adds another risk to this growing list.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The study shows that even "safe" levels of outdoor air pollution increase the risk of diabetes and suggests that the risk of diabetes in countries where pollution atmospheric pollution is high, reducing emissions of air pollutants.
Diabetes can be caused by the inhalation of nanoparticles of polluted air that enter the bloodstream and move to organs such as the liver, where they accumulate and contribute to the Vascular inflammation. These nanoparticles also cause other disturbances in the body, such as metabolic changes in glucose and insulin homeostasis, and can lead to glucose intolerance, decreased sensitivity to Insulin and impaired secretion
. diabetes over a period of 8.5 years. To isolate the relationship between air pollution and diabetes, the air quality data from EPA and NASA were compared to controls with no correlation to diabetes, like sodium concentrations in the air and fractures of the lower limbs. The only statistically significant relationship was between air pollution and diabetes and air pollution contributed to about 3.2 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths due to exposure.
Air pollution is a major public health problem. care is estimated at a staggering $ 700 billion. Reducing air pollution could result in substantial health benefits and billions of dollars saved in global health systems.
GMO Labels Reduce Consumers Opposition
Food brands are concerned that mandatory labeling of GMO ingredients consumers in the current debate about their impacts on safety and security. ;environment. In a new study from the University of Vermont, researchers have shown that opposition to genetically modified food has fallen after mandatory state-labeling requirements have been implemented .
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
In 2016, 70 bills in the United States regulated genetically modified foods in 25 states, but Vermont was the only state to adopt and implement a project. of law simple disclosures for the use of genetically modified technologies. The bill came into force on July 1 but was only valid for three weeks before the promulgation of a law on July 27.
The new labels were still on the packages for months and the researchers used consumer data. opinion before and after mandatory labeling for Vermont and the rest of the United States, and found that mandatory labeling resulted in a 19 percent decrease in the opposition to technologies genetically modified foods used in food production
. Providing transparent labels on GMOs gives consumers a greater sense of control, which can reduce the perception of the risk that GMOs are dangerous or harmful.
Madagascar's tropical forests could decline if lemur populations decrease
India is home to a variety of fascinating species that live along sandy beaches, rich meadows and lush tropical forests composed of thousands of different plans and species. The wide-eyed lemur is an emblematic species native to Madagascar and experiencing a devastating population decline due to habitat loss, over-hunting and illegal trade in pets – the lemur population ( Lemur catta ) has decreased by more than 95% since 2000.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Lemurian House is also experiencing a dramatic decline – nearly half of Madagascar's tropical forests have been cut since the 1950s to make way for farmland, such as fields. of coffee, and caused the destruction of more than 80% of the lemur's original habitat. Madagascar is home to some of the most unique and remarkable tropical forests in the world, with significant biodiversity and species that only exist on the island, but that could change with deforestation and climate change.
A new study by Rice University investigated how lemur species affect the island's tropical forests and found that lemurs are excellent at dispersing tree seeds around the island. , and the conservation of their population and habitat could favor the growth of tropical forests.
including lemurs, bats and birds and found that 87 percent of the trees in tropical forests have traits that are suitable for seed dispersal by frugivores (fruit eaters), and 66 to One hundred of the island's frugivores are lemurs. Lemur populations continue to decline as tropical forests in Madagascar will not be able to repel as quickly or continue to capture large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Researchers recommend that lemurs be included in rainforest conservation efforts because trees and lemurs need one another to stabilize their populations. As weather gets harder and cropland changes as temperatures rise, farmers turn to advanced technologies and innovative solutions to maintain crop yields and meet growing demands for bioenergy.
Corn is a common source of biofuel. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The TerraSentia robot, developed by the University of Illinois, could be the next worker in the fields to choose crops with the most desirable characteristics. Robots are already being used by some farmers to monitor, weed and spray crops, and as the bioenergy industry grows, robots could meet the growing demand for high yielding plants that will be turned into biofuels .
Researchers developed the TerraSentia robot to accurately screen crops to identify features that contribute to high yields so that farmers can optimize biofuel production. The robot was developed with high precision control to avoid disturbing other crops and navigate muddy and uneven agricultural fields.
Features of this robot include identification of soil characteristics in fields, tracking accuracy and transmission over the Internet. The researchers say that the high accuracy of the robot can meet the growing need for fast, mobile technologies needed to identify the desired traits in plants, especially at a time when the demand for crops and biofuels is growing rapidly.
Sources: Lancet Planet Health | Scientific advances | International Journal of Primatology | Urbana
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