A submersible carrying five people on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic has been missing since Sunday. The submersible, named Titan, was operated by OceanGate Expeditions and was carrying a pilot, a renowned British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family, and a Titanic expert.
The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea, so time is running out for the crew. Rescuers are working to find the submersible, but the search is challenging due to the remote location of the Titanic wreck site.
The submersible is capable of diving 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) and has an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive. However, there is always the risk of a malfunction or accident.
Experts say that rescuers face steep challenges in finding and recovering the submersible. If the submersible has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited. While the submersible might still be intact, it is very deep and there are few vessels that can reach that depth.
The search for the submersible is ongoing, and authorities are hopeful that the crew will be found safe. (Associated Press)
The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, has called for more debt relief for poor countries hit by climate disasters. She said that finance for poor countries to cope with the climate crisis is severely lacking, and that the IMF is aiming for a 50% increase in its core climate finance next year. She also favors quicker wins that are less complex and politically fraught, such as providing more finance to poor countries in local currencies and issuing bonds that can be provided in case of high risk climate-related events.
Georgieva called on all development banks and other institutions, public and private, to step up their engagement on climate finance, which has become a big stumbling block to putting the world on track to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement. (The Guardian)
The use of hallucinogenic drugs other than LSD has nearly doubled in three years among young adults (aged 19 to 30). In 2021, 6.6% of young adults used these drugs, up from 3.4% in 2018. Psilocybin, a.k.a. “magic” mushrooms, was the most commonly used hallucinogenic drug other than LSD. Overall, 8% of young adults used some kind of hallucinogenic drug in 2021. Men are more likely than women to experiment with these drugs.
The increase in hallucinogenic drug use is a cause for concern among public health officials. These drugs can have serious side effects, including “bad trips” that can lead to suicide. The reasons for the increase in use are not fully understood, but it may be due to increased availability and social acceptance of these drugs.
In addition to the increase in hallucinogenic drug use, there has also been a rise in cannabis addiction. A study found that roughly three in ten people in the United States have been diagnosed with cannabis addiction. This is likely due to the increasing potency of cannabis products.
Overall, these findings suggest that there is a growing public health problem related to the use of hallucinogenic drugs and cannabis. More research is needed to understand the causes of this problem and to develop effective interventions. (Breitbart)
The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the global energy crisis, leading to increased investment in fossil fuels. However, this is not sustainable in the long term, as it will contribute to climate change.
Renewable energy is a more affordable and resilient solution, and policies to boost its adoption are gathering momentum. However, more needs to be done to phase out fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy infrastructure.
Hydrogen has been proposed as a potential solution for hard-to-abate sectors, but it is not clear that it is the most efficient option.
In conclusion, policies to boost renewable energy need to be coupled with investments to phase out fossil fuels. This is the only way to ensure a sustainable future. (The National)
The James Webb Space Telescope has looked for and failed to find a thick atmosphere on two exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. The planets, TRAPPIST-1 b and TRAPPIST-1 c, are both rocky and roughly the size of Earth. The lack of an atmosphere on these planets suggests that they are not habitable.
However, there is still a chance that the other five planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system have thick atmospheres. These planets orbit farther from the star, which means that they would be less likely to have their atmospheres blasted away by ultraviolet radiation.
The results of the JWST observations are a setback for the search for habitable exoplanets, but they do not rule out the possibility that other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system could be habitable. (Nature)
Thanks for reading. Let’s be careful out there.
WORDS: The Biology Guy. (@thebiologyguy)
IMAGE CREDIT: NASA.