Latest news with #UniversityofCaliforniaSanDiego
NBC News
4 minutes ago
- Science
- NBC News
Earth's atmosphere hasn't had this much CO2 in millions of years
Earth's atmosphere now has more carbon dioxide in it than it has in millions — and possibly tens of millions — of years, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists at the University of California San Diego. For the first time, global average concentrations of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted as a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, exceeded 430 parts per million (ppm) in May. The new readings were a record high and represented an increase of more than 3 ppm over last year. The measurements indicate that countries are not doing enough to limit greenhouse gas emissions and reverse the steady buildup of C02, which climate scientists point to as the main culprit for global warming. 'Another year, another record,' Ralph Keeling, a professor of climate sciences, marine chemistry and geochemistry at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement. 'It's sad.' Carbon dioxide, like other greenhouse gases, traps heat from the sun and can remain in the atmosphere for centuries. As such, high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere contribute to higher global temperatures and other negative consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels, melting polar ice, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen sharply since preindustrial times, owing mostly to human activities that pump greenhouse gases into the air. Decades ago, crossing the 400 ppm threshold was unthinkable. That meant that for every 1 million molecules of gas in the atmosphere, more than 400 were carbon dioxide. The planet hit that grim milestone in 2013. And now, scientists have warned that levels of CO2 could reach 500 ppm within 30 years. But human society is already in uncharted territory. The last time the planet had such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was likely more than 30 million years ago, Keeling said, long before humans roamed Earth and during a time when the climate was vastly different. He said it's alarming not only how high CO2 levels have climbed, but also how quickly. 'It's changing so fast,' he told NBC News. 'If humans had evolved in such a high-CO2 world, there would probably be places where we wouldn't be living now. We probably could have adapted to such a world, but we built our society and a civilization around yesterday's climate.' Carbon dioxide levels are typically represented on a graph known as the Keeling Curve, named for Keeling's father, Charles David Keeling, who began taking daily measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 1958 with instruments atop the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The Keeling Curve famously shows a steep climb since the Industrial Revolution, owing to human-caused climate change. Ralph Keeling and his colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that average concentrations of atmospheric CO2 in May were 430.2 ppm. NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, which has conducted separate daily readings since 1974, reported an average of 430.5 ppm in May. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are closely monitored to gauge how much humans are influencing Earth's climate. The readings are also an indicator of the planet's overall health. 'They're telling you about your whole system health with a single-point measurement,' Keeling said. 'We're getting a holistic measurement of the atmosphere from really a kind of simple set of measurements.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
California freshwater fish carrying invasive parasitic worms: Study
More than 90 percent of popular Southern California freshwater game fish sampled in a new study contained invasive worms capable of infecting humans, scientists warn. The parasites — two species of flatworms called trematodes — may pose a previously unrecognized public health risk in the United States, according to the study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. In Southern California, these trematodes are 'introduced parasites,' or parasites transported to a new place by an alien host. They often cause gastrointestinal problems, weight loss and lethargy in people — and in more severe cases, strokes or heart attacks, the authors noted. 'Americans don't usually think about parasites when they eat freshwater fish because it hasn't historically been an issue here,' said senior author Ryan Hechinger, an ecologist and parasitologist at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in a statement. 'But these trematodes have now been widely introduced in the U.S. and that means that doctors and the public should be aware,' Hechinger added. The two trematodes of focus in this study, Haplorchis pumilio and Centrocestus formosanus, likely arrived in the U.S. from Southeast Asia more than a decade ago, according to the study. They presumably did so via the bodies of one of their hosts: an invasive aquatic snail, the red-rimmed melania, which has now spread to 17 states and Puerto Rico. The parasites first move into the snails, which are then consumed by fish — leading them finally to the dinner plate of a warm-blood vertebrate, such as a human or a bird, the authors explained. While previously work led by Hechinger demonstrated the prevalence of red-rimmed melania and the trematode parasites across California, this research aimed to show whether fish that Americans enjoy consuming contains the parasites. To answer this question, Hechinger and his colleagues examined 84 fish across seven species, including largemouth bass and bluegill, from five fishing spots in San Diego County. Ultimately, they discovered that 93 percent of all fish included in the study were infected with the first trematode, Haplorchis pumilio. The second parasite, Centrocestus formosanus, was present at two of the five locations, occurring in 91 percent of those fish, per the study. 'These parasites are here in the U.S., and they're infecting fish that people are eating,' Hechinger said. 'We hope this study can help make public health officials, doctors and the public more aware.' At the same time, Hechinger emphasized that there is 'no need to panic,' as the dangers posed by the parasites can be prevented by fully cooking fish or freezing any fish intended to be consumed raw for at least a week. However, the scientists noted that a social media survey they included in the study showed that Americans may be eating freshwater fish without taking such precautions. Doing so, they warned, can raise the odds of infection considerably. In their survey, which included 125 YouTube videos with a total of nearly 5 million views, the scientists noted that 65 percent made no mention of proper cooking procedures. Going forward, the study authors said they intend to share their results with local public health officials to raise awareness. They expressed hope that their findings would reach medical practitioners, who might not immediately think of trematodes as a possible cause of gastrointestinal infections and other illnesses. The researchers also recommended that fish-borne trematode infection be included on the list of diseases doctors are required to report to public health agencies. 'There haven't been any reported cases of these parasites infecting Americans,' Hechinger said. 'But nobody is looking for cases and doctors aren't required to report them,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
2 days ago
- General
- The Hill
California freshwater fish carrying invasive parasitic worms: Study
More than 90 percent of popular Southern California freshwater game fish sampled in a new study contained invasive worms capable of infecting humans, scientists are warning. The parasites — two species of flatworms called trematodes — may pose a previously unrecognized public health risk in the United States, according to the study, published on Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. In Southern California, these trematodes are 'introduced parasites,' or parasites transported to a new place by an alien host. They often cause gastrointestinal problems, weight loss and lethargy in people — and in more severe cases, strokes or heart attacks, the authors noted. 'Americans don't usually think about parasites when they eat freshwater fish because it hasn't historically been an issue here,' senior author Ryan Hechinger, an ecologist and parasitologist at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement. 'But these trematodes have now been widely introduced in the U.S. and that means that doctors and the public should be aware,' Hechinger added. The two trematodes of focus in this study, Haplorchis pumilio and Centrocestus formosanus, likely arrived in the U.S. from Southeast Asia more than a decade ago, according to the study. They presumably did so via the bodies of one of their hosts: an invasive aquatic snail, the red-rimmed melania, which has now spread to 17 states and Puerto Rico. The parasites first move into the snails, which are then consumed by fish — leading them finally to the dinner plate of a warm-blood vertebrate, such as a human or a bird, the authors explained. While previously work led by Hechinger demonstrated the prevalence of red-rimmed melania and the trematode parasites across California, this research aimed to show whether fish that Americans enjoy consuming contains the parasites. To answer this question, Hechinger and his colleagues examined 84 fish across seven species, including largemouth bass and bluegill, from five fishing spots in San Diego County. Ultimately, they discovered that 93 percent of all fish included in the study were infected with the first trematode, Haplorchis pumilio. The second parasite, Centrocestus formosanus, was present at two of the five locations, occurring in 91 percent of those fish, per the study. 'These parasites are here in the U.S., and they're infecting fish that people are eating,' Hechinger said. 'We hope this study can help make public health officials, doctors and the public more aware.' At the same time, Hechinger emphasized that there is 'no need to panic,' as the dangers posed by the parasites can be prevented by fully cooking fish or freezing any fish intended to be consumed raw for at least a week. However, the scientists noted that a social media survey they included in the study showed that Americans may be eating freshwater fish without taking such precautions. Doing so, they warned, can raise the odds of infection considerably. In their survey, which included 125 YouTube videos with a total of nearly 5 million views, the scientists noted that 65 percent made no mention of proper cooking procedures. Going forward, the study authors said they intend to share their results with local public health officials to raise awareness. They expressed hope that their findings would reach medical practitioners, who might not immediately think of trematodes as a possible cause of gastrointestinal infections and other illnesses. The researchers also recommended that fish-borne trematode infection be included on the list of diseases doctors are required to report to public health agencies. 'There haven't been any reported cases of these parasites infecting Americans,' Hechinger said. 'But nobody is looking for cases and doctors aren't required to report them,' he added.
Axios
2 days ago
- General
- Axios
Seniors' marijuana use reaches new high
Older Americans are increasing their use of marijuana to a point where some geriatricians are warning about weed's attendant health risks. The big picture: U.S. marijuana use among those 65 and older surged nearly 46% from 2021 to 2023, according to new research in JAMA Internal Medicine. The rapid adoption of state marijuana laws and commercialization of cannabis helped drive much of the increase. But there also are changing social dynamics that make marijuana more acceptable for dealing with chronic pain, stress and other conditions. What they found: 7% of adults 65 and older said they'd used cannabis in the past month in 2023, per data from the federally administered National Survey on Drug Use and Health analyzed by researchers at University of California San Diego and NYU. That's an increase from 4.8% in 2021, and 5.2% in 2022. The increase was more pronounced among women, though the percentage of senior men using the substance was still higher than women in 2023. The most pronounced increase was among older adults with annual incomes over $75,000, who went from having the lowest use among income categories in 2021 (4.2%) to the highest in 2023 (9.1%). The fine print: The data doesn't distinguish between recreational and medical cannabis use, though increased prevalence was associated with several health conditions including hypertension, diabetes and COPD. Changes to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2020 prevent direct year-to-year comparisons of the analysis published Monday to earlier periods, the study's authors wrote. Zoom out: Geriatricians say more research and better patient and clinician education on marijuana use is needed to identify risks, like the way it can interfere with other drugs. It can also impair the senses and cause accidents, an especially important consideration since U.S. cannabis has much more THC than it did decades ago. The findings show that better evidence is needed on the risks and benefits of marijuana use in older adults, three geriatricians wrote in an editor's note published in JAMA alongside the study.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Please shut up — if you're trying to make money in the stock market
Can you all just shut up? That's not just a matter of preference — it turns out, the more people are chattering on social media, the worse future stock-market returns will be. 'The situation is extreme': I'm 65 and leaving my estate to only one grandchild. Can the others contest my will? 'You never know what might happen': How do I make sure my son-in-law doesn't get his hands on my daughter's inheritance? Trade court strikes down Trump tariffs: What it means for markets — and what's next My father-in-law has dementia and is moving in with us. Can we invoice him for a caregiver? My ex-wife said she should have been compensated for working part time during our marriage. Do I owe her? A new research paper titled 'Market Signals from Social Media' studied millions of posts on StockTwits, Seeking Alpha and the social-media platform that used to be called Twitter and is now called X. The researchers examined the sentiment of those posts as well as their frequency. It found stock-market returns rise prior to high-sentiment days, followed by a reversal over the next 20 days, but returns decline prior to high-frequency days, followed by a continuation of negative returns. This is true so much so that a trading strategy built around the findings would've produced excess returns averaging 4.6% with a Sharpe ratio — a measure of risk-adjusted returns — of 1.2, which would be a solid performance by Wall Street standards. The research paper points out sentiment is driven by lagged returns, while attention, or frequency of posts, is predicted by lagged trading. Put a different way, sentiment is driven by past performance, while attention is driven by past volume. And it's especially bad news rather than good that hits sentiment and increases attention. That meshes with theories of loss aversion. The researchers — J. Anthony Cookson from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Runjing Lu from the University of Toronto, William Mullins from the University of California San Diego and Marina Niessner from Indiana University — looked at posts between 2013 and 2021. That's a period that covered the 2013 to 2015 stock-market bull run, the 2018–19 trade war with China, and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intriguingly, they also compared their results to looking at Google and Bloomberg searches for tickers, as well as daily news stories from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and found the social-media data was more predictive. Read on: My husband and I earn $115K and owe $220K on our home. We're inheriting $300K. Should we invest in real estate or stock? Nvidia results are proof the tech sector is worth investor loyalty, says strategist who recommended buying at April lows My friend is getting divorced. Her husband kindly said, 'Take the house.' Is there a catch? It's my dream to travel to Africa. My husband says it's not on his bucket list. Do I pay for him or go alone? The best scenario for 2025 is stocks go nowhere, says this strategist. Here's where he says to camp out instead.
