Did you know that land and ocean ecosystems absorb about half of the carbon dioxide we emit each year? But what if the earth had the capacity to absorb even more? With the help of some furry, scaly, and leathery critters, maybe it can.
A recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change claims that by restoring the populations of just a handful of animals—like gray wolves, bison, and sea otters for example—the Earth could capture around 6.41 more gigatons of CO2 each year. This idea of restoring wildlife is called rewilding.
Ira talks with the co-author of this study, Dr. Trisha Atwood, an associate professor at Utah State University, based in Logan, UT. They chat about what critters make the rewilding list, and how they fit into the carbon cycle.
Allergy Season Is Blooming With Climate Change
Spring is in the air, and for many people that means allergy season is rearing its ugly head. If it feels like your allergies have recently gotten worse, there’s now data to back that up.
New research shows that since 1990, pollen season in North America has grown by 20 days and gotten 20% more intense, with the greatest increases in Texas and the Midwest. This is because climate change is triggering plants’ internal timing to produce pollen earlier and earlier. It’s a problem that’s expected to get worse.
SciFri producer Kathleen Davis speaks with William Anderegg, assistant professor at the University of Utah’s School of Biological Sciences about pollen counts, and pollen as a respiratory irritant.
Why This Scientist Shares Vulnerable Career Moments
Dr. Rachel Lupien, a paleoclimatologist at Aarhus University, makes it a point to be honest about the challenges she runs into at work. She hopes that other scientists can learn from them. So last year, when a paper she wrote was rejected from journals five times, she tweeted about the experience.
While the responses ranged from supportive replies to harsh emails, Rachel says that it feels good to talk about professional headaches with peers who understand. Digital producer Emma Gometz interviews Rachel about why it’s important to be honest about setbacks as a scientist, and how transparency helps all professional scientists do better work.
Read more personal stories from scientists, including Rachel’s experience working as a paleoclimatologist across the world, and building mentorship networks of her own, on SciFri’s six-week automated email newsletter, “Sincerely, Science.”
To learn more about Sincerely Science and read Rachel's paper, visit sciencefriday.com.
To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
745: Eating More Oysters Helps Us—And The Chesapeake Bay
747: How Trees Keep D.C. And Baltimore Cool
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743: Our Inevitable Cosmic Apocalypse
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740: ‘3 Body Problem’ And The Laws Of Physics | In Defense Of ‘Out Of Place’ Plants
739: Baltimore Bridge Collapse | Mapping How Viruses Jump Between Species
738: The Legacy Of Primatologist Frans de Waal
737: The ‘Asteroid Hunter’ Leading The OSIRIS-REx Mission
736: Swimming Sea Lions Teach Engineers About Fluid Dynamics
735: Botanical Rescue Centers Take In Illegally Trafficked Plants
734: 2023 Was Hottest Year On Record | The NASA Satellite Studying Plankton
731: A Strange-Looking Fish, Frozen In Time
732: What We Know After 4 Years Of COVID-19
733: Science Unlocks The Power Of Flavor In ‘Flavorama’
729: Abortion-Restrictive States Leave Ob-Gyns With Tough Choices
730: Nasal Rising Safely | How Your Brain Constructs Your Mental Health
726: A New Book Puts ‘Math in Drag’
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