Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Veronika Meduna

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 11h

A reminder.

Humanity has never removed an atmospheric pollutant at a global, continental or, even, regional scale — we have only ever shut down the source and let nature do the clearing up. This is the case for chlorofluorocarbons and stratospheric ozone destruction, for sulfur dioxide and acid rain, and for sulfur and nitrogen oxides and photochemical smog. We must be prepared for CDR to be a failure, leaving us to rely on the environment to stabilize atmospheric CO₂ over thousands of years. This is another argument for rapid decarbonization.

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 3d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 1d

On the eve of a major international meeting on climate adaptation, NZ's government announces it is weakening its 2050 target to cut methane emissions - now only 14-24% (from 24-47%). As @christinahood.bsky.social says, NZ is now backtracking www.linkedin.com/posts/christ...

New Zealand's recent Paris Agreement target update was shockingly unambitious, but today's decision to weaken our domestic 2050 target goes even further: we are now backtracking. I am not awar...

New Zealand's recent Paris Agreement target update was shockingly unambitious, but today's decision to weaken our domestic 2050 target goes even further: we are now backtracking. I am not aware of any...

www.linkedin.com

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 2d

Among many others at the CDC, the Trump regime laid off the staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic.”

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 2d

Peace Nobel Prize goes to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her "tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela" and "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy" share.google/slEstTt7TFhN...

Nobel Peace Prize 2025: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins

Nominations closed in January but US President Donald Trump had led a public campaign to win the award.

share.google

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 4d

Germany's justice ministry held firm and killed EU chat control (for now):

"Chat control without cause must be taboo in a state governed by the rule of law. Private communication must never be under general suspicion."

Admirably concise and direct. German in the best possible way.

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 5d

This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 5d

This likely resonates with many of you, myself included.
'The hormonal upheaval of menopause doesn’t occur in isolation. In midlife, women often juggle caring responsibilities, career pressures and domestic demands ... layered on to biological changes.' theconversation.com/the-mental-t...

The mental toll of menopause – what women really feel

How medical ignorance of menopause is putting women’s lives at risk.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 5d

I've been looking for more reporting on this. NVIDIA has an increasing number of deals where it is paying companies to buy its chips. sounds very bubbly.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

Keith Alexander @keithalexander.bsky.social · 6d

“We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale. […] We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 6d

“People over Papers, a crowdsourcing project that maps sightings of US immigration agents, was taken offline yesterday by Padlet, the collaborative bulletin board platform on which it was built. It’s just the latest ICE-tracking initiative to be pulled by tech platforms in the past few days.”

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline

People over Papers was removed by Padlet, the platform it was built on, yesterday.

www.technologyreview.com

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Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 12d

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

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Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 10d

The Trump administration finally release a summary linking to their alleged evidence that tylenol use in pregnancy is linked to autism and again as is currently happening ACIP data is misquoted, omitted and misused to support a conclusion #HealthPolicy 🧪🧵

How the White House spun ‘weak’ and ‘inconclusive’ studies to tie Tylenol to autism

Experts say White House presented ‘association as causation’ and based conclusions on ‘poor quality studies’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Veronika Meduna

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 11d

Six more houses in the Outer Banks have collapsed as Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda rumbled in the Atlantic.

All were unoccupied. https://wapo.st/42iGmFE

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 11d

My story in this week's Listener tracks impacts of the Trump administration's cuts on research in Aotearoa, from vaccine studies to climate change. More great stuff in the magazine, also online (albeit paywalled). Free to read on Libby if you have a library card!
www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener...

Slash & burn: How Trump’s health and science cuts are hitting home in NZ

US govt research cuts cast a global shadow, threatening serious consequences for us all.

www.nzherald.co.nz

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 11d

Offshore wind farms kill whales? (They don’t.)
Electric vehicles catch fire more often than petrol cars? (It’s the opposite.)
@christiandownie.bsky.social charts how PR firms disregard the public to spread misinformation on behalf of fossil fuel companies theconversation.com/pr-firms-are...

PR firms are spreading climate misinformation on behalf of fossil fuel companies. Could Australia stop them?

This week, Australian policymakers heard about the real and growing problem of climate misinformation. Stopping it would mean regulating the PR industry.

theconversation.com

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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 11d

Unchecked airborne infections cost billions in lost health and productivity each year – likely more than the cost of better ventilation to clean up indoor air.

Why investment in clean indoor air is vital preparation for the pandemics and climate emergencies to come

theconversation.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 11d

"Anyone proposing a master class on changing the world for the better without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall." by Mireya Mayor
theconversation.com/jane-goodall...

Jane Goodall, the gentle disrupter whose research on chimpanzees redefined what it meant to be human

Without formal scientific training, Goodall upended the study of animal behavior. She also inspired countless people to protect nature.

theconversation.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 11d

"We're forgetting that we are part of the natural world." Jane Goodall

www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

Wildlife advocate, primate expert Jane Goodall dies at 91

The scientist turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 14d

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to the Libyan funding of his 2007 presidential campaign - and sentenced to five years in prison.

theconversation.com/former-frenc...

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years in prison: Republic’s judiciary frees itself

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be imprisoned. This decision illustrates the growing independence of the judiciary and the application of the principle of equality before the law.

theconversation.com

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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 14d

"By not joining [countries that recognise Palestine], there is a real risk New Zealand will be seen as aligning with states – Israel and the US – that bear significant responsibility for prolonging the catastrophic conflict in Gaza." by @robertgpatman.bsky.social
theconversation.com/by-not-recog...

By not recognising a Palestinian state, NZ puts its own hard-won reputation on the line

By not joining its close allies over the question of Palestinian statehood, NZ risks being ‘on the wrong side of history’.

theconversation.com

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Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 14d

my takeaway from climate week nyc is that "climate storytelling" is a little too much "we must reimagine our deepest souls in relationship to mother nature and the moral abyss of the polycrisis into which we must now stare" and not enough "ok but get a heat pump"