1. Preparing For The Holiday Eating Season. It seems to be that during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season there is a lot of snacking, eating and just pigging out. Keeping snacking under control is many people’s goals. Here’s an example of 100 calorie snacks according to the November “Nutrition Action Healthletter”:
Almonds (14 nuts)
Triscuits (5 crackers)
Dark Chocolate (1 ½ squares)
Cucumber (6 cups)
Strawberries (15 large)
Blueberries (1 ¼ cups)
KIND Bar (1/2 bar)
Trail Mix (2 Tablespoons)
Cheddar Cheese (3 cracker-size cuts)
Grape Tomatoes (4 cups)
Apple (1 medium)
Baby Carrots (2 cups)
2. Scientists Theorize New Origin Story For Earth’s Water. arth’s water may have originated from both asteroidal material and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, according to new research. The new finding could give scientists important insights about the development of other planets and their potential to support life.
In a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, researchers propose a new theory to address the long-standing mystery of where Earth’s water came from and how it got here.
The new study challenges widely-accepted ideas about hydrogen in Earth’s water by suggesting the element partially came from clouds of dust and gas remaining after the Sun’s formation, called the solar nebula.
To identify sources of water on Earth, scientists have searched for sources of hydrogen rather than oxygen, because the latter component of water is much more abundant in the solar system.
Many scientists have historically supported a theory that all of Earth’s water came from asteroids because of similarities between ocean water and water found on asteroids. The ratio of deuterium, a heavier hydrogen isotope, to normal hydrogen serves as a unique chemical signature of water sources. In the case of Earth’s oceans, the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio is close to what is found in asteroids.
But the ocean may not be telling the entire story of Earth’s hydrogen, according to the study’s authors.
“It’s a bit of a blind spot in the community,” said Steven Desch, a professor of astrophysics in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona and co-author of the new study, led by Peter Buseck, Regents’ Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University.
“When people measure the [deuterium-to-hydrogen] ratio in ocean water and they see that it is pretty close to what we see in asteroids, it was always easy to believe it all came from asteroids.”
More recent research suggests hydrogen in Earth’s oceans does not represent hydrogen throughout the entire planet, the study’s authors said. Samples of hydrogen from deep inside the Earth, close to the boundary between the core and mantle, have notably less deuterium, indicating this hydrogen may not have come from asteroids. Noble gases helium and neon, with isotopic signatures inherited from the solar nebula, have also been found in the Earth’s mantle.
In the new study, researchers developed a new theoretical model of Earth’s formation to explain these differences between hydrogen in Earth’s oceans and at the core-mantle boundary as well as the presence of noble gases deep inside the planet.
Modeling Earth’s beginning
According to their new model, several billion years ago, large waterlogged asteroids began developing into planets while the solar nebula still swirled around the Sun. These asteroids, known as planetary embryos, collided and grew rapidly. Eventually, a collision introduced enough energy to melt the surface of the largest embryo into an ocean of magma. This largest embryo would eventually become Earth.
Gases from the solar nebula, including hydrogen and noble gases, were drawn in by the large, magma-covered embryo to form an early atmosphere. Nebular hydrogen, which contains less deuterium and is lighter than asteroidal hydrogen, dissolved into the molten iron of the
magma ocean.
Through a process called isotopic fractionation, hydrogen was pulled towards the young
Earth’s center. Hydrogen, which is attracted to iron, was delivered to the core by the metal, while much of the heavier isotope, deuterium, remained in the magma which eventually cooled and became the mantle, according to the study’s authors. Impacts from smaller embryos and other objects then continued to add water and overall mass until Earth reached its final size.
This new model would leave Earth with noble gases deep inside its mantle and a lower deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in its core than in its mantle and oceans.
The authors used the model to estimate how much hydrogen came from each source. They concluded most was asteroidal in origin, but some of Earth’s water did come from the solar nebula.
“For every 100 molecules of Earth’s water, there are one or two coming from solar nebula,” said Jun Wu, assistant research professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and lead author of the study.
An insightful model
The study also offers scientists new perspectives about the development of other planets and their potential to support life, the authors said. Earth-like planets in other solar systems may not all have access to asteroids loaded with water. The new study suggests these exoplanets could have obtained water through their system’s own solar nebula.
“This model suggests that the inevitable formation of water would likely occur on any sufficiently large rocky exoplanets in extrasolar systems,” Wu said. “I think this is very exciting.”
Anat Shahar, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, who was not involved with the study, noted the hydrogen fractionation factor, which describes how the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio changes when the element dissolves in iron, is currently unknown and difficult to measure. For the new study, this property of hydrogen had to be estimated. Source: American Geophysical Union
3. Use Environmentally Friendly Products To Clean Your Home. The EWG* suggests using the following top three products in these different categories:
Top Laundry Products
Greenshield Organic Green Shield 4X
Martha Stewart Clean Laundry Detergent
365 Everyday Value Laundry Detergent Pods
Bi-O-Kleen Laundry Liquid Citrus Essence
Dropps 3-in-1 Laundry Detergent Packs
Top Bathroom Cleaners
Biokleen Bac-Out Bathroom Cleaner
LYSOL Professional Disinfectant Basin Tub & Tile
Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Lemon Verbena Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Toilet Boilet Bowl Cleaner
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Geranium Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Top Dishwashing Soaps and Detergents
Mrs. Weyers Clean Day Lemon Verbena Automatic Dishwashing Soap
Attitude Little ones Baby Bottle & Dishwashing Liquid
GrabGreen Dish Soap Thyme with Fig Leaf
Trader Joe’s Next to Godliness Automatic Dishwashing Liquid
Mrs’ Meyer’s Clean Day Geranium Automatic Dish
Washing Liquid
*EWG: Environmental Working Group
4. WRRC Annual Conference – Friday, Feb. 1, 2019 – 7:30 am – 2:00 pm Black Canyon Conference Center – 9440 N 25th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85021
Registration for the 2019 WRRC Conference, Arizona Runs on Water: Scarcity, Challenges, and Community-based Solutions, is open. The conference will focus on how Arizona communities are addressing their water challenges through collaboration, conservation, market-based methods, long-term planning, and more. Because one size does not fit all, we are bringing together speakers from across the state to look at a variety of place-based approaches to securing sufficient water to meet current and future needs. Please join us!
See our roster of knowledgeable speakers
Framework Presentations set the stage and Community Panels offer the insights of presentersfrom Cochise, Graham, Yuma, Mohave, and Yavapai counties, as well as the Gila River Indian Community, the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Town of Payson, and the City of Flagstaff. The conference concludes with an Arizona Legislators Panel, moderated by WRRC Director Sharon Megdal, and including Senators Gail Griffin and Lisa Otondo, and Representatives Russell (Rusty) Bowers and Rosanna Gabaldón. Join us for informative presentations, lively conversations, and networking. Register now to receive the Early Bird registration rate!
To register, go to https://wrrc.arizona.edu/sites/wrrc.arizona.edu/files/pdfs/conf-2019-agenda.pdf
5. State To Stock Prized Fishery Near Page With Rainbow Trout
PAGE, Ariz. (AP) — A prized fishery below Glen Canyon Dam is getting more rainbow trout.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department says it will stock trout this week below the Lees Ferry boat ramp where anglers can walk in to the Colorado River. That hasn’t been done since 1998.
The walk-in section is about three miles long.
Surveys had been showing a decrease in angler catch rates. The Game and Fish Department says the rates rebounded somewhat in the upper portions of the river where anglers go out with guides or on their own boats but not as quickly in the walk-in area.
The department says it will stock trout again in April if needed.
Officials say the fishing should be good because of a recent artificial flood that boosted fish food.
6. Around Thanksgiving, A Beverage, Known As Kvass, Is Made From This Cereal. A Favorite In Poland And Russia. What Is The Cereal? See below for the answer.
7. What’s The Difference? Waste Tires Vs. Used Tires. A waste tire is defined in the Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) 44-1301(4) as a motor vehicle tire that is no longer suitable for its original intended purpose because of wear, damage or defect.
A used tire is defined in the Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.) R18-13-1212 (C)(4) as a tire that has been used for more than one day on a motor vehicle.
A.R.S. 44-1302 (I) allows each resident of the county, who is not a seller of motor vehicle tires, to dispose of up to five tires per year at no cost to the resident. Tires should not be buried or landfilled, rather taken to a waste tire collection site or to a landfill that accepts waste tires (in a 40 yard roll-off dumpster.
8. Climate Change: Even Worse Than We Thought. Things to get very gnarly by 2040, IPCC writes.
Humans can still prevent the worst effects of climate change, says the newest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But we have less time than anyone hoped to undertake a dramatic and speedy transformation of the global economy that, the IPCC scientists concede, has “no documented historic precedent.” While the countries that signed on to the Paris Agreement promised to work together to prevent atmospheric warming of more than 3.6°F (2°C), the IPCC report released Sunday concludes that the dire effects predicted to happen at 3.6°F are likely to occur much sooner, at 2.7°F (1.5°C).
That means those dire effects are not far away. The atmosphere has, on average, warmed 1.8°F since the Industrial Revolution (with the majority of that caused by an exponential growth in the use of oil, gas, and coal after the 1950s). If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, atmospheric warming will reach 2.7°F around 2040—a little over 20 years from now.
In this scenario, 2040 will not be a great time to live. The world’s coral reefs will have declined by 70 to 90 percent from their current levels. Many marine and coastal ecosystems will have crashed beyond the point of recovery. The famines, floods, heat waves, polar vortexes, wildfires, hurricanes, and tropical cyclones that have dominated the news recently will increase in number and ferocity.
All of the report’s warnings are couched in very careful, scientific language, because the IPCC is a very cautious, scientific group. It was created by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to serve as a trusted source of information about climate change.
The group’s reports are written by volunteer scientists from around the world who synthesize their conclusions from thousands of peer-reviewed studies. The synthesis is slow, thorough, and involves a lot of consensus-based decision making (consensus doesn’t absolutely have to be reached on every statement in the report, but the scientists involved do have to agree the science behind each statement is accurate).
This gives the IPCC an unusual reputation. Some climate researchers have often accused the IPCC of actually being too mild in its assessment of the danger we’re all in, but that hasn’t stopped the Koch brothers from spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on a team of workers whose express job was to discredit the IPCC and its work.
Meanwhile ExxonMobil brags on its own website that “Experts from our organization have participated in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its inception. Most recently, our scientists contributed to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report in lead author, review editor, and reviewer roles.” During a climate change lawsuit courtoom hearing earlier this year, both sides used an earlier IPCC report to justify their case.
In order to keep temperatures worldwide from rising any higher, writes the IPCC, emissions need to decline rapidly across all of society’s main sectors, including buildings, industry, transport, energy, and agriculture, forestry, and other land use. Coal needs to go. Transportation needs to be electrified. Buildings need to become more energy efficient. Carbon taxes need to start at $135 per ton at the low end (currently, it’s $7).
Carbon capture and storage using technology is worth further research but doesn’t yet work at the kind of scale that would make a difference (for one thing, it uses energy and needs to be connected to a concentrated source of pollution in order to make that energy use worthwhile). On the other hand, the IPCC notes that protecting and restoring natural systems such as forests to capture and store carbon can play an immediate key role in slowing catastrophic global warming past 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Action or inaction—both will land us in an unprecedented future.
Answer: Rye
