Link: https://klimanachrichten.de/2023/08/20/besser-nicht-geboren-zu-werden/
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Better not to be born?
August 20, 2023 by Climate News editor
The movement of antinatalists, i.e. those opposed to birth, is on the rise – for ecological reasons: More and more people believe that it is not worth being born because climate change is so terrible and additional births would only pollute the environment. Alex Reichmuth addressed the topic in Nebelspalter .
Better not to be born
She will sue her parents for giving birth to her "without her permission". This was explained by the American video blogger Kass Theaz on the Tiktok platform last June (see here ). Specifically, her parents did not try to “contact me before I was born to find out if I really wanted to be here”.
Theaz recommended that all pregnant women go to a medium and ask their unborn child if it would like to be born. "But remember that if this is not the case, you must terminate the pregnancy."
The excitement about the video was great. But it was a joke. "I thought it was obvious I was joking," Kass Theaz later told the New York Post (see here ).
The whole story in the Nebelspalter . +++
Martin Schlumpf reported on August 14, 2023 in Nebelspalter:
More resources despite population growth: The Simon-Ehrlich betSchlumpf's chart 77
Isn't that title wrong? Isn't it the case that an ever-increasing population must lead to a shortage of resources? As is postulated with the "Earth Overshoot Day" (see here), which fell globally on August 3rd this year. This day is intended as a reminder that all resources that are consumed from this point in time until the end of the year can allegedly no longer "grow naturally" on our finite planet: According to this, the whole world needs the resources of 1.7 earths in one year.
Even if such an image may correspond to the gut feeling for many, it is wrong. The corresponding proof is convincing and comprehensive in the just published book
"Superabundance" by Gale Pooley and Marian L. Tupy from the Cato Institute in Washington DC (see here). In this and the next contribution I summarize the most important points of this work.
What is important:
– In 1980, the economist Julian Simon and the biologist Paul Ehrlich made a bet on the availability of resources.
– Ehrlich bets on the rising prices of the chosen resources because he is convinced that they are becoming increasingly scarce. Simon, on the other hand, is banking on falling prices.
– After the agreed period of ten years, Ehrlich loses the bet because the prices have fallen sharply when adjusted for inflation.
Read more in Nebelspalter . Also available on schlumpf-argumente.ch .
Marsz et al. 2021 see a greater contribution of natural climate factors to warming in Poland:
Role of Internal Variability of Climate System in Increase of Air Temperature in Wrocław (Poland) in the Years 1951–2018
In the course of analyzing the annual air temperature in Wrocław (TWr), a rapid change of the thermal regime was found between 1987 and 1989. TWr increased by >1°C, a strong, statistically significant positive trend emerged. The analysis of processes showed that strong warming in the cold season of the year (December–March) occurred as a result of an increase in the NAO intensity and warming in the warm season because of increased sunshine duration in Wrocław (ShWr). Multiple regression analysis has shown that the winter NAO Hurrell's index explains 15% of TWr variance, and the ShWr of the long-day (April–August) period 49%, whereas radiative forcing 5.9%. This indicates that the factors incidental to the internal variability of the climate system explain 64% of the TWr variability and the effect of increased CO2 concentration only ~6%. The reason for this rapid change of the thermal regime was a radical change in macro-circulation conditions in the Atlantic-European circular sector, which took place between 1988 and 1989. The heat, which is the cause of warming in Wrocław, comes from an increase in solar energy inflow (April–August) and also is transported to Europe from the North Atlantic surface by atmospheric circulation (NAO). These results indicate that the role of CO2 in shaping thecontemporary temperature increase is overestimated, whereas the internal variability of the climate system is underestimated.
University of Konstanz:
New insights into the environmental adaptation of plants
In the Physiology and Biochemistry of Plants group at the University of Konstanz, previously unknown molecular mechanisms were discovered that allow plants to adapt to their environment - important basic knowledge in times of climate change.
Plants are constantly exposed to environmental changes, their survival depends on perceiving and adapting to environmental stimuli. Protein molecules in the cell membrane play a crucial role in coordinating extracellular signals and intracellular reactions. The Physiology and Biochemistry of Plants group at the University of Konstanz has succeeded in identifying two so-called deubiquitinating enzymes that are involved in the molecular mechanism of this adaptation process. The study is currently published in Nature Communications.
Amount of protein molecules is crucial
During its adaptation process, the cell must always know, for example, what the situation is with the nutrients or pathogens in its environment. For this purpose, there are special protein molecules on the cell membrane, which separate the cell interior from the outside world, the so-called transporters and receptors, which are produced in the cell on the one hand and broken down again on the other. Their quantity is decisive for the signal perception of the plant.
The small signaling protein ubiquitin, which attaches itself to other proteins and thus ensures that they are broken down, is responsible for the breakdown. At the same time, there are deubiquitinating enzymes that can reverse this effect by removing ubiquitins.
The team led by biology professor Erika Isono analyzed 18 of these deubiquitinating enzymes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana . In cooperation with Karin Hauser, Michael Kovermann and Christine Peter from the chemistry department, the team found two of these enzymes, which, referred to as OTU11 and OTU12, occur on the cell membrane and are actually involved in regulating the amount of cell membrane proteins. “OTU11 and OTU12 can shorten certain ubiquitin chains. This influences the breakdown of the modified proteins," says first author Karin Vogel, explaining the biochemical mechanism. The biologist has also discovered how the enzymes are activated: by binding to negatively charged lipids on the cell membrane.
Previously unknown form of activity adaptation
This means that the activity of these enzymes is under strict control. Several activation mechanisms for deubiquitinating enzymes are already known. The mechanism
reported here is a previously unknown form of activity adaptation. This regulation is all the more necessary as the action of deubiquitinating enzymes can have major consequences for the function of the cell. “The discovery means that the deubiquitinating enzymes only become active once they have arrived at the membrane where the lipids are located. This fits perfectly with the intracellular localization and the function of the two enzymes," says Erika Isono.
Model plants are used in basic biological research to investigate fundamental biochemical and molecular-biological mechanisms. The long-term goal is to optimize agricultural yields, which is of particular importance in times of climate change, since the growth conditions for plants can change. Erika Isono: “It is important that we understand at the molecular level how plants react to the environment. The ubiquitin-dependent signaling pathway could play an important role in this."
Facts overview:
● Original publication: Karin Vogel, Tobias Bläske, Marie-Kristin Nagel, Christoph Globisch, Shane Maguire, Lorenz Mattes, Christian Gude, Michael Kovermann, Karin Hauser, Christine Peter & Erika Isono: Lipid-mediated activation of plasma membrane-localized deubiquitylating enzymes modulate endosomal trafficking. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34637-3
● Study on basic molecular mechanisms with which plants adapt to their environment, by the Plant Physiology and Biochemistry group at the University of Konstanz.
● Deubiquitinating enzymes OTU11 and OTU12 and their activation mechanism discovered for the first time in the plasma membrane of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.