Warming Trends: How Hairdressers Are Mobilizing to Counter Climate Change, Plus Polar Bears in Greenland and the ‘Sounds of the Ocean’

CULTURE

Slicing Hair and Speaking Local weather

When a shopper sits down in Paloma Rose Garcia’s chair for a haircut, one of the crucial standard subjects of dialog is the climate. 

The Sydney, Australia-based hairdresser and proprietor of Paloma Salon mentioned her purchasers typically carry up the new temperatures, the close by floods or the bushfires that burned throughout the nation, clouding the summer season sky for months a couple of years in the past. 

These informal feedback set her as much as share one thing she’s keen about—local weather change. 

A couple of years in the past, she discovered about local weather change and its function in a few of the excessive climate she was seeing in Australia. “As soon as I began understanding it, I simply couldn’t cease,” she mentioned. Now, “I’m at all times desirous to share my information.”

Hairdressers are in a singular place to boost consciousness about local weather change, Garcia mentioned. They see purchasers recurrently, constructing belief over time, and the subject of climate inevitably comes up. The overwhelming majority of purchasers are desirous about studying extra, she mentioned, and need to know what they’ll do to deal with the problem in their very own lives. 

So she created a guidelines that she will ship to purchasers with motion objects like driving an electrical automotive, switching to wash electrical energy suppliers and placing cash in banks that don’t finance fossil fuels. “They felt aid that there was one thing that they may do,” she mentioned. 

Garcia needs to get extra hairdressers speaking to folks about local weather change. Previously few weeks, she’s hosted coaching classes for a whole lot of hairdressers, which have been just lately featured within the Sydney Morning Herald. In the course of the classes, a local weather scientist will educate the hairdressers in regards to the greenhouse impact and what’s taking place to the planet, adopted by a social scientist who will information them on have conversations about local weather change. 

“Hairdressers are unbelievable communicators. We’re relationship builders,” Garcia mentioned. “And we simply maintain this distinctive alternative to have a dialog. Our purchasers are very loyal to us. We all know one another inside out. So it’s straightforward to broach the dialog.”

SCIENCE

In Southeast Greenland, Polar Bears Journey the ‘Glacial Mélange’

A definite inhabitants of polar bears is modeling how the species may survive in a future with out dependable sea ice.

A brand new examine printed within the journal Science from the College of Washington and different establishments revealed that the southeast Greenland polar bear inhabitants hunts from uncommon platforms of ice alongside the coast, generally known as glacial mélange, that are fashioned by glaciers flowing into the ocean. This enables the bears to hunt seals year-round, the examine authors wrote. Most different polar bears that hunt seals within the winter use  the ice because it extends south into waters the place their prey may be discovered, after which quick in the summertime when ice retreats and limits their vary. Local weather change is lowering the variety of days that polar bears have enough sea ice to hunt and is extending the interval of the 12 months that they need to quick. 

The shortage of sea ice ought to make the southeast Greenland habitat unsuitable for polar bear survival, the authors wrote, however the bears have tailored to make use of the glacial mélange as a local weather refuge.

“What we discovered is that this remoted group, remoted from different subpopulations, dwelling on this atmosphere that sort of appears to be like like the long run due to this brief ice season,” mentioned examine co-author Kristin Laidre, a biologist at College of Washington.

Laidre cautioned that these findings don’t imply that polar bears shall be spared because the local weather adjustments. Glacial mélanges are uncommon environments, she mentioned, and might’t be anticipated to maintain the species. Polar bears will possible nonetheless see dramatic declines within the years to return as sea ice is additional diminished by warming temperatures.

“What this examine can present us is, in what we anticipate to be an ice-free Arctic, perhaps how some polar bears will be capable to persist in distinctive habitats like this one in Greenland,” Laidre mentioned. “There’s some polar bears that may be capable to proceed to stay with shorter ice seasons than elsewhere.”

CULTURE

‘A Sonic Scuba Dive’

On a brand new album of light, ambient songs, marine wildlife are the lead singers. 

Composer and producer Joshua Sam Miller fills the house between the sounds of whales, dolphins and different sea critters with clean saxophone notes and tender synths on his new album of eight tracks, “Sounds of the Ocean.”

“This album actually is designed as a sonic scuba dive,” he mentioned, “to sort of take you from the floor of the ocean into the depths, after which again to the floor.”

The sounds from marine life, complemented by Miller’s music, are sourced from the Monterey Bay Aquatic Analysis Institute’s underwater recording units. “From there, I simply began composing music to essentially help what these creatures need to say,” he mentioned. “I actually tried to decide on music and devices and soundscapes that will assist folks preserve their potential to hear deeply.”

Though the album maintains a tender and slow-moving tone supposed to calm down the listener, Miller mentioned some could really feel emotional whereas listening. “Particularly after they hear the sounds of the whales and the dolphins and actually sort of perceive extra of what their experiences are like,” he mentioned. “If that creates emotions of disappointment, of anger over what’s taking place within the sea right now, or feeling unhealthy for these creatures, that’s OK too. And I might say, be with all of it. After which take motion.”

Gross sales of the $22 album will profit the ocean conservation group Oceanic World. 

“Oceans are just like the life pressure of our planet,” Miller mentioned. “I feel ocean well being could be very a lot linked to human well being. And I feel there’s one thing there that wants extra exploration.”

SCIENCE

The Warming Menace to Humpback Whales

If present social and financial traits proceed, 35 % of humpback whales’ breeding grounds may exceed the cetaceans most well-liked temperature vary by the top of the century, a brand new examine discovered. If fast financial progress results in elevated fossil gas improvement, that quantity may attain 67 %.

Researchers from the College of Hawaii and the Pacific Whale Basis say their findings present that, though some quantity of worldwide warming is inevitable at this level, lowering greenhouse fuel emissions will assist decrease the consequences of local weather change for humpback whales.

“With this work, the journey is admittedly simply starting,” mentioned Jens Currie, chief scientist on the Pacific Whale Basis. “We’ve proven that there’s a possibility to vary the depth and severity of local weather change impacts if we’re capable of scale back greenhouse fuel emissions.”

Humpback whales feed in additional temperate ocean waters and migrate into extra tropical waters to mate, give start and rear their younger. The researchers checked out temperature projections at a positive scale beneath two totally different warming situations to seek out out the portion of the breeding grounds that will attain or exceed 28 levels Celsius, the higher temperature the whales can tolerate. 

“What we do right now issues for tomorrow,” Currie mentioned. “Not just for humpback whales, however all ocean ecosystems and the whole lot inside, from the plankton to fish, seals, the dolphins, the whales and onwards.”