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The Earth formed much faster than previously thought + France’s deadly seaweed

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The Earth formed much faster than previously thought
https://healthsciences.ku.dk/newsfaculty...y-thought/

INTRO: The precursor of our planet, the proto-Earth, formed within a time span of approximately five million years, shows a new study from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation (StarPlan) at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. On an astronomical scale, this is extremely fast, the researchers explain.

If you compare the solar system's estimated 4.6 billion years of existence with a 24-hour period, the new results indicate that the proto-Earth formed in what corresponds to about a minute and a half. Thus, the results from StarPlan break with the traditional theory that the proto-Earth formed by random collisions between larger and larger planetary bodies throughout several tens of millions of years - equivalent to about 5-15 minutes out of the above-mentioned fictional 24 hours of formation.

Instead, the new results support a more recent, alternative theory about the formation of planets through the accretion of cosmic dust. The study's lead author, Associate Professor Martin Schiller, explains it as follows: 'The other idea is that we start from dust, essentially. Millimetre-sized objects, all coming together, raining down on the growing body and making the planet in one go,' he says, adding: 'Not only is this implication of the rapid formation of the Earth interesting for our solar system. It is also interesting to assess how likely it is for planets to form somewhere else in the galaxy.' (MORE)



France’s deadly seaweed
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/f...y-seaweed/

EXCERPT: André Ollivro has spent years stomping around the beaches of Brittany, France, putting on a show for the cameras. Sometimes he wears a gas mask and carries a hydrogen sulfide monitor. [...] “The beaches are becoming landfills,” Ollivro says. “Landfills of rotting green algae that kill the living.” Included among those he says have succumbed to the green tide: dozens of wild hogs, several domestic dogs, a horse, and as many as six people, including three in the summer of 2019, although the precise cause of the human deaths has not been conclusively confirmed. (A blood test that can detect hydrogen sulfide intoxication was not carried out in the autopsies.)

The presumed killer is commonly called sea lettuce, an apt name for algae that resemble emerald-green plastic wrap. [...] in the 1970s things started to change. Since then, each spring and summer, unusually large masses of the seaweeds have festooned swaths of the shoreline. The carpet sometimes thickens to a meter ... Once the Ulva starts decaying, it stinks of rotten eggs and emits hydrogen sulfide, which is thought to be responsible for the mammalian deaths. When people or animals walk on the seaweed sludge, perhaps assuming it’s safe because of the dried brown crust, they break through to the decaying organic matter below and release the noxious gas.

Ollivro blames one industry for the algal menace: intensive agriculture. Nitrogen from fertilizer and animal waste runs into the region’s rivers and out to sea, creating an all-you-can-eat buffet for the algae, which grow in profusion with the extra nutrients. [...] The green tides are a bane to the local tourism economy, a hazard to the environment, and now a public health problem. ... After decades of apathy, the increasing pressure to do something about the issue is nearing a breaking point.

The connection between agriculture and green tides is what drew investigative journalist Inès Léraud to Brittany in 2015. [...] The suggestion that nitrogen might be a leading factor in the green tide phenomenon was vehemently countered by the agriculture industry ... led by a scientist whose work cast doubt on the role of nitrogen and intensive agriculture ... to sway public opinion. The group is funded by numerous food corporations. ... Léraud says it raised enough doubt that politicians dragged their feet in implementing new regulations of the agricultural industry.

As Léraud dug deeper into the connections between the food industry and political lobbies—“assembling a 100,000-piece puzzle,” as she describes it—her work began drawing ire. [...] And then, at a journalism festival, Léraud met a former French spy who shared some of his intelligence know-how. From him, Léraud learned that one of the huge food conglomerates had tapped her phone and computer. “It definitely makes you a little paranoid,” Léraud says. “But it can be stimulating because we know that we’re upsetting people in the right places.”

Léraud felt safe as a journalist. She could use her platform to publicize any threats and felt her public profile would work as a shield to ensure her safety. It wasn’t the same case for Ollivro. Two incidents in 2009—the death of Morfoisse and the death of a horse and the sickness of its rider—spurred Ollivro’s efforts to enact change. Clearly the situation was more dangerous than anyone had believed. [...] But worse than the confrontation with the antagonistic committee was receiving written death threats, finding a pile of manure outside his driveway, and then discovering a dead fox with its head burned off by acid near his garden wall.

Ollivro’s work and that of other activists undoubtedly pushed the issue, but government action still fell short of resolving the problem. [...] Even in the unlikely case that the government began enforcing farm practices to limit nitrate runoff, it’s hard to say if a decrease in nitrogen would even work. ... there are other factors at play besides excess nutrients flowing into the water. ... nitrogen may have accumulated in surface waters and take years to go away. With climate change, there’s ... risk of flooding (which will send more nitrogen into the water) and higher temperatures (which allow the algae to thrive). “There are a lot of studies...” says Magalie Bourblanc ...“There are a lot of interactions in the system that we don’t understand. Can it be solved? Nobody knows yet.”

Bourblanc, herself a Breton, returned to the region last summer to do further research [...] When speaking with elected officials about the 2017 plan, she encountered a lot of frustration, especially with what’s viewed as the media sensationalizing the story and attacking farmers. The officials also felt that a definitive way forward was uncertain and more complicated than the narrative presented by journalists.

[...] at long last, it finally seems as if some politicians are listening. [...] Yannick Jadot, a member of the European Parliament, and Delphine Batho, a deputy in the French National Assembly, visited the beaches of Brittany to learn about the green tides. “We have a catastrophically explosive cocktail between a certain model of agriculture and the fact that the climate is changing,” Batho said to the assembled crowd, including Ollivro. “I’m stunned that no one from the world of politics has come here, even after the beach closures and weeks of talking about it at the national level.” (MORE - details)
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