Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: climatology

🌍 New research suggests more than half of global cropland areas could lose suitable crops under a warming scenario of 2C.

📚 The study mapped how climate change could reshape areas suited for 30 major crops across four warming scenarios — from 1.5C to 4C.

🔎 Even at 1.5C, over half of the crops studied could see a decline in suitable cropland, with tropical regions hit hardest. In contrast, areas far from the equator could gain crop diversity — opening doors for climate adaptation.

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More than half of global cropland areas could see a decline in the number of suitable crops under a warming scenario of 2C, new research finds.

The study, published in Nature Food, projects how climate change will modify the areas suited for growing 30 major crops under four scenarios, ranging from 1.5 to 4C of global warming.

Continue reading “Half of global croplands could see a drop in suitable crops at 2C of warming” | >

In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted we were approaching the end of history. He meant that similar liberal democratic values were taking hold in societies around the world. How wrong could he have been? Democracy today is clearly on the decline. Despots and autocrats are on the rise.

You might, however, be thinking Fukuyama was right all along. But in a different way. Perhaps we really are approaching the end of history. As in, game over humanity.

Now there are many ways it could all end. A global pandemic. A giant meteor (something perhaps the dinosaurs would appreciate). Climate catastrophe. But one end that is increasingly talked about is (AI). This is one of those potential disasters that, like climate change, appears to have slowly crept up on us but, many people now fear, might soon take us down.

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Scientists have recorded the first-ever brain scan of a dying human.

A man suddenly died during a routine brain scan, revealing intriguing insights into what happens in our final moments.

An 87-year-old man undergoing a routine EEG for epilepsy suffered a fatal heart attack. Researchers found that in the 30 seconds before and after his heart stopped, his brain waves resembled those seen during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation.

This suggests that the commonly reported phenomenon of “life flashing before your eyes” may have a neurological basis. However, since this is a single case study, more research is needed to confirm how common this experience may be.

The findings, published by Dr. Ajmal Zemmar and his team, showed a surge in gamma waves — high-frequency neural oscillations linked to memory and consciousness — just before and after death.

These waves are typically observed when people recall memories, adding weight to the idea that the brain may replay key life events in its final moments. While this discovery cannot fully explain the mysteries of death, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the brain’s last activity and opens the door for further research on human consciousness at the end of life.

Continue reading “A replay of life: What happens in our brain when we die?” | >

Spotting flaws is sometimes the first ripple in making waves of innovation.

Comparing directly observed with the latest advanced simulations, researchers from the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS) and their colleagues have revealed significant limitations in current atmospheric modeling. Their findings emphasize the complexities of these atmospheric waves and their impacts on weather and climate systems.

The study was published in the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan on Sept. 2.

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In the San Diego suburb of Carlsbad, a new plant to desalinate seawater is almost ready. For about a billion dollars, it will produce 7 percent of the area’s drinking water, courtesy of the Pacific Ocean. But in these times of record drought, two Texas entrepreneurs are advocating another solution: Instead of pulling fresh water out of the sea, they want to pull it out of the air. The machine they’re developing at Trinity University in San Antonio, called an atmospheric water generator, is still in its pilot phrase. But to hear Moses West tell it, if the climate conditions are right, the AWG has the potential to end drought.

West, who’s testing the machine along with business partner John Vollmer, calls himself “a water farmer.” He explains that there are three potential sources of human drinking water: groundwater, rivers and gas. Thanks to NASA’s GRACE satellite system, which measures the abundance and quality of aquifers, we know that the Earth’s groundwater supply is dwindling — and increasingly contaminated by pesticides and runoff. Rivers, at least near any major metropolitan area, are out of the question as sources for drinking water. That leaves water vapor, which West calls “the purest, cleanest, most abundant, recyclable source of water that exists on the face of the earth.”

The atmospheric water generator was first developed in Spain, another country with perpetual drought problems, but according to West, it performs best in high-heat, high-humidity areas. It can reliably produce between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons of water per day, and with the proper institutional support, West says, “I know how to scale this up to produce a million gallons a day, 30 million gallons a month.”

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Green hydrogen, produced through renewable energy sources, is considered a crucial element in the transition towards a cleaner energy future. However, current production methods are costly and energy-intensive, limiting their widespread adoption.

This new reactor uses photocatalytic sheets to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using a process powered entirely by sunlight. This innovative process has the potential to drastically reduce production costs and make green hydrogen a more economically viable fuel source.

While the technology is still in its early stages, the researchers have successfully operated the prototype reactor for three years under natural sunlight, demonstrating its potential for real-world applications. Despite the promising results, the researchers acknowledge that further improvements are needed. Enhancing the efficiency of the photocatalytic process and ensuring the safe handling of potentially explosive byproducts are crucial steps towards commercialization.

The team remains optimistic that with continued research and development, this technology can revolutionize green hydrogen production and pave the way for a cleaner, more sustainable energy future. This breakthrough is particularly important for Japan, a country actively pursuing a “hydrogen society” and leading the way in hydrogen fuel technology. It could also accelerate the transition towards a hydrogen-based economy and contribute to global efforts in combating climate change.

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A new analysis reveals complex linkages among the United Nations’ (UN’s) 17 Sustainable Development Goals—which include such objectives as gender equality and quality education—and finds that no country is on track to meet all 17 goals by the target year of 2030.

Alberto GarcĂ­a-RodrĂ­guez of Universidad Nacional AutĂłnoma de MĂ©xico and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.

In 2015, UN member countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of achieving “peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” However, setbacks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, , and have slowed progress, and more research is needed to clarify the underlying obstacles so they can be effectively addressed.

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Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have developed an innovative solar-powered method to transform sewage sludge—a by-product of wastewater treatment—into green hydrogen for clean energy and single-cell protein for animal feed.

Published in Nature Water, the sludge-to-food-and-fuel method tackles two pressing global challenges: managing waste and generating sustainable resources. This aligns with NTU’s goal of addressing humanity’s greatest challenges, such as climate change and sustainability.

The United Nations estimates that about 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities by 2050. Along with the growth of cities and industries comes an increase in , which is notoriously difficult to process and dispose of due to its complex structure, composition, and contaminants such as and pathogens.

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A team from Princeton University has successfully used artificial intelligence (AI) to solve equations that control the quantum behavior of individual atoms and molecules to replicate the early stages of ice formation. The simulation shows how water molecules transition into solid ice with quantum accuracy.

Roberto Car, Princeton’s Ralph W. *31 Dornte Professor in Chemistry, who co-pioneered the approach of simulating molecular behaviors based on the underlying quantum laws more than 35 years ago, said, “In a sense, this is like a dream come true. Our hope then was that eventually, we would be able to study systems like this one. Still, it was impossible without further conceptual development, and that development came via a completely different field, that of artificial intelligence and data science.”

Modeling the early stages of freezing water, the ice nucleation process could increase the precision of climate and weather modeling and other processes like flash-freezing food. The new approach could help track the activity of hundreds of thousands of atoms over thousands of times longer periods, albeit still just fractions of a second, than in early studies.

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This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG12 Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13 Climate Action.

As the global construction industry strives to reduce its environmental footprint, sustainable processes and materials are becoming increasingly vital. Innovation in cement and concrete technologies plays a key role in minimizing resource consumption, lowering carbon emissions, and enhancing long-term resilience. This collection highlights research that advances both sustainable development and application of cement and concrete for the building sector.

Topics of interest include the development of low-carbon cement alternatives, recycling and reuse of concrete materials, 3D concrete printing, and other energy-efficient construction techniques. We welcome contributions from fundamental material research, to applied solutions and large-scale real-world demonstrations.

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