When I was young, there were lots of ideas about what might have caused the mysterious Tunguska blast in 1908. Evidence on that, and numerous events detected by surveillance satellites watching for nuclear blasts, gradually built up over the years, until the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor instantly wiped away most doubts. These high energy visits from space are not all that rare. Here are some recent links for Sodom: How a Meteor May Have Destroyed Ancient City and Inspired Biblical Tale of Sodom A Massive Meteor May Have Destroyed The Biblical City Of Sodom Nature: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea Older articles: New Science Suggests Biblical City Of Sodom Was Smote By An Exploding Meteor Phys.org: A meteor may have exploded in the air 3,700 years ago, obliterating communities near the Dead Sea
I would only add that ignorance of physics and math contributes to earlier missunderstanding. I have always loved math but humble statistics gave me the rod to separate likely truth from ignorance and propaganda. I appreciate probably but it’s purity assumes a degree of honesty too often lacking in our species. Probably is the foundation that practical statistics teaches us how separate possibly propaganda from what works. Bob Wilson
A visually oriented overview of COP26: https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-021-02815-w/index.html
Whale eating and pooping quantified for one major species: Researchers find whales are more important ec | EurekAlert! Many species of previously hunted whales have not returned to their pre-hunt (eating and pooping) populations and it may be beyond our skills to figure that out. But anyway, oceans are quite different now.
in post #1496 I showed Calif forest fire history for most recent few decades. Suggested the recent increase was at least consistent with climate change. Canada entire and USA entire do not show this pattern; graphs could be posted for them. I revisit the topic to avoid leaving an impression that Calif pattern is followed more generally. I suspect at these larger scales, droughts and very wet times co occur in different places, and burn trends get averaged out over decadal scales. There is certainly enough data on spatial fire patterns over the last 4 decades or so to figure out if areas besides Calif. show similar recent increases. Enough GIS experts to explore it, if they are so inclined.
On to Mars. Human activities there would be simpler with more oxygen supply and with hydrocarbons to power rockets for the backhaul. Bacteria with some genes engineered in from cyanobacteria can make both: https://www.popsci.com/science/microbes-could-fuel-human-mars-missions/ Making it work at scale at that dim and dusty location is work for the future. == I could go on and on about cyanobacteria, but y'know, nobody asked.
On radio telescopes, future planning goes pretty large: https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/performance This would build out from VLA in New Mexico with many smallish fixed-angle dish receivers and cutting-edge data processing. If such a thing cannot detect ET (not its primary purpose), then 'they' are not sending many gigaHertzian watts our way.
If you know, you won't ask. If you ask, you might never know Assuming a source of water, the Mars atmosphere has CO{2} CO{2} + 2H{2} -> CH{4} + O{2}. I suspect one of the earliest payloads will be a methane and oxygen generator. This would provide the fuel and oxygen needed by a SpaceX Starship. Bob Wilson
A lithium battery recycling report: Study: Recycled Lithium Batteries as Good as Newly Mined - IEEE Spectrum Others may have enough grasp on the topic to know if there is any 'there' there. == Paleotemperatures extended: Scientists extend and straighten iconic climate “hockey stick” | Ars Technica the 2 studies linked are viewable: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03984-4.epdf?sharing_token=8uBqYfou1DMhvg82BsgNvNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NEoU8H4wGeQ9C6CA2sLhCNvi-H3jAFohKVoRCZg_67LI12rAHd1qrP1kaUNxrS7prfxGFKt8JNBZhx2dEyPTHtLbYY5BXdYb54WeXBVj_MgxAcJNsjH1cC-Ox9oBLxo214cNKh1J1IOMqTeUvtQpbIxbJWybj4XX4zLvYWea0YOP5MYxX0qOUPEVPkm7HkOiw%3D&tracking_referrer=arstechnica.com https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03155-x.epdf?sharing_token=2wkbcffbLdfBfuU1R9mTONRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NTPebG7AdTT0YROLCc5FbqFdM707AgjtyrfWs-Et-YWPnUZ9X3hk7OWEiKX2QDsuDVCKWu0md9xtOfFdFHZcTcTDEMb9f29vRRRcG3JhBeVg-eT2g5PkyNdRho-0PFaj79U4Thmrt_sD6P7BDDOh--BnJfVWGwhkLxlEx9MgwLEX9DM1U_ec4NdEs9YIxp3bo%3D&tracking_referrer=arstechnica.com and if you clean out that ars stuff, they may be downloadable as well. == A political spin persists on this topic, but I make no comment. In a way it is more interesting that marine paleotemps (>2/3 of earth surface) are known as well as they are, because petroleum exploration paid for almost all the seafloor sediment cores. They are expensive to acquire, and have led to many scientific insights. So, be careful what you wish against. I guess.
This study describes how much large animal marine biomass has been removed by human harvest. It may answer the question about persistent effects of whaling: Humans guilty of breaking an oceanic law of n | EurekAlert! Which has probably been troubling you greatly.
Similar to removing all the ships from the oceans, as discussed back at post #1504: Environmental News | Page 76 | PriusChat The 2 Gt of large fish and marine mammals such as dolphins, would amount to about 4 microns of sea level.
When checking out what the celebs are wearing this month, be sure to remember were the fashion industry dumps their clothing waste. Cause and effect of human stewardship or the lack thereof. Chile's desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers
NASA 'Eyes on the earth' Eyes on the Earth Good for viewing current and recent products. Not nearly all of them, one might add
I am attempting to download The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Which will no doubt include some doom&gloom. Let ya know later.