Michał Słupski

There is not enough data about PM2.5 -- pollution associated with $3 trillion in health costs in 2015.
It can’t be collected because there’s not enough equipment monitoring the air quality -- for example, India has only 1 monitor per 6.8 million people.
Study authors indicate that, because of this, any rankings of most polluted cities are simply not based on enough data to be true.
For accurate measurements, it would take 1 monitor per 1 million people around the world joined in an integrated monitoring framework.
Achieving this goal would enable more precise atmospheric modeling and air quality forecasting.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 18, 2019

There might have been no extraordinary asteroid bombardment -- new theory questions the nature of the event and proposes new date.
Implications are big, as this would push back the age of hospitable Earth.
First hints of life appeared up to 3.9 billion years ago, so it’s unlikely that the storm happened then.
Also, it may have been no extraordinary storm, but just the aftermath of the chaos that occured in the young solar system.
Ultimately, the new theory states that Earth couldn’t suffer ocean-boiling, surface-liquifying asteroid strikes since 4.48 billion years ago.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 18, 2019

Study of northern USA shows that the health co-benefits of increasing renewable energy are bigger than the cost of implementing climate policies.
One of such policies is RPS - Renewable Portfolio Standards, requiring electricity suppliers to use a percentage of renewable power.
MIT research team developed a new framework, combining economic and air-pollution models to study the effect of policies on air quality, health and economy.
These results confirm other studies that found health co-benefits of policies to be bigger than the cost of implementing them.
The benefits come from reducing healthcare costs of treating people who have been exposed to too much PM2.5, the main pollutant from burning fossils.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 16, 2019

nature.com

E-scooters can benefit your local environment only if you use them instead of your car.
Mining materials for them, and manufacturing these vehicles generates pollution.
So does collecting them and transporting them to charging stations, which is usually done by employees in private cars.
If you don’t use e-scooters to replace your vehicle, then it’s less carbon intensive to just walk or bike.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 16, 2019

pnas.org

New clues to the origin of cells on Earth found by adding amino acids to protocells that self-assembled from fatty acids.
Fatty-acid protocell membranes are stabilized after adding amino acids, and become fertile ground for basic life.
As the substances bond, they create molecular building blocks which eventually may have aided the formation of proteins.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 16, 2019

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