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Daily briefing: The ‘overshoot COP’ kicks off
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Scientists say that record-breaking wildfires this summer — such as this one in southwestern France — could mark a shift in southern Europe’s fire patterns because of hotter, dryer conditions. (Maximilien Lamy/AFP via Getty)
A troubling reality hangs over the United Nations climate conference (COP31) opening in Turkey today: overshoot. For the first time, the annual meeting of the world’s countries to hash out action on climate change must face the fact that it is now inevitable for global temperatures to exceed the 1.5 °C warming limit pledged in the Paris Agreement. Call it ‘the overshoot COP’. “We need to first recognize that global policy has failed. This is a moment of self-critique,” says climate scientist Johan Rockström.
Environmental journalist Fiona Harvey, who has been to almost every UN climate conference for more than 20 years, asks: what’s the point of COP? “The convention that all resolutions must pass by consensus has given bad actors free rein,” she writes. The Paris agreement itself has “reached an impasse”, not least because of the withdrawal of the United States. But China — the world’s biggest carbon emitter — is more engaged in multinational negotiations than ever, partly because of its huge stake in green technologies such as solar panels. And the impact of the UN process is everywhere, from the rise of electric cars to the energy transformation. “Any time you have a consensus decision, it sends a signal,” says Sue Biniaz, a former US climate negotiator. “These days with the geopolitics of the world — if something can be agreed by the whole world, it’s impactful.”
The estimated increase in peak warming this century that will be caused by the United States abandoning its net-zero target under President Donald Trump’s administration, if US policies don’t change. (Nature | 8 min read, from October)
A new artificial-intelligence system enables researchers to enhance the performance of robotic equipment in their labs. In the process, scientists describe their research programme and lab set-up to the AI agents, which generate step-by-step experimental protocols for the lab’s robots. The system can also generate a virtual version of the lab in which to test its suggestions, and even devise a new floor plan that optimizes the placement of lab robots and equipment. The “very cool” concept could drastically reduce the effort required to set up automated labs, says bioengineer Evan Collins.
People seem to find conversations more enjoyable if they contain more pink noise — sound in which there is equal energy per octave of frequency. Researchers analysed 1,000 conversations between strangers and found that participants felt a stronger sense of connection with their partner when their chats had featured more pink noise. The team also found that chats between podcast hosts comprise more pink noise as the series continues, which suggests that making a conversation ‘pinker’ is a skill that can be honed, says psychologist and study co-author Kathryn O’Nell.
A separate research team found that pink noise can also help to kickstart the brain’s ‘wash cycle’ during sleep. They found that timing bursts of pink noise to ‘slow’ brain waves can encourage cerebrospinal fluid to flow through the brain, clearing out any harmful particles that have accumulated during waking hours. The team says that the pink pulses might activate a particular kind of slow wave that silences distractions.
The Guardian | 4 min read & Scientific American | 4 min read