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Summary
I read 'Zombie' Viruses, Up to 50,000 Years Old, Are Awakening, published in Discover Magazine last year December 22nd. The author, by citing the original article from BioRxiv magazine, informs the reader about a recent discovery in Siberia.

As a result of increasing Arctic temperatures, permafrost thawing is causing the release of ancient pathogens. Lately, scientists collected samples in soils and from wolves and mammoths recently found in Siberia and registered 13 new 'zombie' viruses 30,000 - 50,000 years old. By now, viruses only attacked amoebas, but those now trapped may be released in the next years, and other beings apart from single-cell organisms could be affected. However, there're divided opinions on if those could pass over to people, as some may not survive the cold temperatures or it's unknown how infectious they're after exposure. Also, if necessary, it's being considered using amoebas to protect people against new pathogens.

Reflection
The possibility that these zombie viruses could infect people is a new and still-evolving subject. I think that as the rate of ice melting keeps rising this could be an important threat for humans in the future. It could lead to very challenging problems if new diseases related to climate change begin to suddenly flourish.

Vocabulary
idle (lazy, inactive)
thaw (defrost)
scrutinized (analyze)
spillover (overabundance)

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Thirteen viruses from tens of thousands of years ago have been recovered and reactivated, according to a preprint paper published in BioRxiv . These threats had been idling in the Siberian tundra for approximately 30,000 to 50,000 years before being brought back.

And, as it turns out, they may not be alone. That's because the thawing of the frozen terrain, thanks to climate change, could revive an assortment of additional "zombie" viruses in the years to come.

"Zombie" Viruses

Permafrost - the frigid terrain that stays frozen throughout the year - comprises over of our planet's surface and substantial swaths of the Arctic, a circumpolar area containing Alaska, Scandinavia and Siberia. But the Arctic's temperatures are warming almost four times faster than the average around the world, and the permafrost there is fading fast, freeing all sorts of frozen organisms, including microbes and viruses from thousands of years ago.

An abundance of has delved into the diversity of that have been freed by the thawing of the permafrost, but far fewer researchers have described the viruses. In fact, though these threats can sometimes resume their activity following their thaw, scientists have studied this process of viral recovery and reactivation only two other times, in and in .

More on Viruses:

While viruses can certainly circulate at any time of the year, an assortment of respiratory infections - including influenzas, coronaviruses and common colds - are always more active in the wintertime .

Identification of a previously unknown virus among single-celled organisms could cast light on the origins of complex life and illuminate the potential involvement of viruses in their formation.

The arms race between an evolving virus and the evolving immune system is a game, with implications for COVID-19 defense and beyond.

To address this gap in research, a team recently collected and scrutinized a series of samples from the Siberian tundra. While some of the samples were sourced from the thawing soil itself, others were taken from the remains of wolves and woolly mammoths, recently revealed from the permafrost.

Ultimately, the team identified 13 viruses in their samples. The oldest was well over 48,000 years old, and all were able infect their favorite victim - a type of single-celled organism called an amoeba - following their isolation from the terrain.

Though these 13 viruses afflict amoebas, the researchers say that their abundance in the samples suggest that these sorts of threats are pervasive in Siberia. Plus, it's possible, the team adds, that the other viruses trapped in the terrain could cause trouble for many more species outside of single-celled organisms.

Viruses that Can Withstand the Cold

Many of the most infectious viruses for people, such as coronaviruses, are too flimsy to survive the frigid tundra temperatures for thousands of years. But others, such as smallpox, can withstand the cold. Therefore, if people come into contact with a patch of thawing permafrost infused with one of these tougher threats, there's a chance that they could be catch a virus from ages ago.

"How long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to outdoor conditions, and how likely they will be to encounter and infect a suitable host in the interval, is yet impossible to estimate. But the risk is bound to increase in the context of global warming when permafrost thawing will keep accelerating," the authors assert in their paper.

The researchers maintain that there's a real risk that these viruses could pass over to people, though some specialists , including Anthony Fauci in 2015, stress that the risk remains small.

Not only would the thawed viruses need to survive their thaw; they would also need to target people and, consequently, come into contact with that target. As a result, they reckon that the trapped viruses are not any more concerning than the many pathogens that are already circulating through the population.

Bringing Back Ancient Viruses

Though the recovery and reactivation of ancient viruses capable of infecting people could cause problems, the team took several precautions to prevent that sort of spillover.

For instance, after taking their samples, the researchers sought out viruses - including pithoviruses, pandoraviruses, pacmanviruses and megaviruses - which were only capable of afflicting amoebas and carefully presented them to that target, awakening 13 separate viruses from 7 separate samples.

According to the paper, dangling ameobas as "bait" provided "the best possible protection" against activating a pathogen that could pass to people. However, that's becoming a bigger possibility in Siberia and the rest of the Arctic as temperatures continue to rise.

In fact, the traces of viruses capable of infecting an assortment of animals have been detected in a several recent studies, including an from this fall. It found that the thawing of ice from thousands of years ago is increasing the Arctic's risk of viral spillover.

"It is therefore legitimate," the authors conclude in their paper, "to ponder the risk of ancient viral particles remaining infectious and getting back into circulation."

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'Zombie' Viruses, Up to 50,000 Years Old, Are Awakening

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Thirteen viruses from tens of thousands of years ago have been recovered and reactivated, according to a preprint paper published in BioRxiv . These threats had been idling in the Siberian tundra for approximately 30,000 to 50,000 years before being brought back. And, as it turns out, they may not be alone.

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Summary
I selected an article published in Atlas Obscura in January 2022 titled “How Volcanologists Tracked a Violent, Months-Long Eruption”.

It's about the important volcanic eruption that took place in La Palma, one of the Canary Islands in Spain. It occurred in 2021 and lasted three months, from September to the end of December. The author informs the main causes and consequences of the event, giving a great summary after volcanism on the island ceased.

The island was originated by a mantle plume, and the main volcano Cumbre Vieja had been inactive for the last 50 years. However, volcanologists began to worry when some symptoms appeared, such as frequent shallow earthquakes and surface inflation. To detect movement and surface changes, they employed seismometers and GPS stations. Also, it was important the study of the eruptive history of the volcano to predict its eruptive style and duration.

During the eruption, lava flow covered large areas and destroyed many houses and farmland. Other significant effects included ash, lava bomb explosions, release of dangerous gases into the atmosphere and acid rain; but thanks to volcano monitoring and early evacuation no one passed away.

Reflection
What is remarkable for me is the multidisciplinary effort of scientists this event brought to track the volcano's activity in order to protect people and save lives. We often think that scientists aren't involved in social issues at all, but here it's an example of how significant is to have experts in this field.

Vocabulary
nascent field
mantle plume
quiescent (inactive)
slumber (sleep)
amid (in the middle)

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For those who celebrate it, Christmas once again carried an air of uncertainty in 2021 due to the pandemic. But the residents of the Spanish island of La Palma had a notably different experience: release, relief, closure. "What I want to say today can be said with just four words," said Julio Perez, the Canary Islands regional security chief on Christmas Day. "The eruption is over."

After three months of being besieged by an intense volcanic eruption, the best gift was a welcome dose of apparent certainty.

A collective sigh followed. The eruption, which began on September 19, was a masterclass in infernal devastation. Streams of molten rock, sizzling at almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, scorched a path from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge west toward the sea, hissing when it encountered water and generating billowing plumes of acid, steam, and volcanic glass. Lava fountains easily eclipsed the height of the world's tallest skyscrapers, raining dense, hot spatter across the island. Occasional explosions, which seemed to almost fracture the air itself, blasted lava bombs into the sky. Corrosive rain showers fell.

Today, all that remains is a veil of ash, draped across multiple rivers of now-frozen onyx lava. Seen from space, these immobile streams look like a lithified hydra, and under that monster's corpse are some 3,000 properties and huge swaths of farmland.

"This is maybe the most destructive volcanic eruption in the last 80 years in Europe," says Pedro Hernández, a volcanologist at the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands. He says that the Cumbre Vieja paroxysm is comparable to the one from Italy's Vesuvius in 1944, which damaged multiple towns and destroyed dozens of Allied military aircraft parked nearby.

For almost everyone who has been involved with the crisis, "It's been really, really hard," says Hernández. Merely monitoring such a violent eruption is exhausting, but in this instance, many people were in harm's way as well. But the worst outcomes were avoided.

"Nobody died," says Hernández. Not a soul. This was thanks to a huge collaborative effort between the region's geoscientists, those farther afield, social scientists, crisis managers, local press, and emergency services, but none of it would have been possible if the volcano itself had not been decoded. In that way, the lack of fatalities is a testament to how far the still-nascent field of volcanology has come.

La Palma, sitting to the west of Morocco in the azure Atlantic Ocean, in the Canary Islands archipelago, has long been known to be volcanic. Like the rest of its family, this island was formed by a mantle plume, a superheated fountain of molten rock emerging from the edges of Earth's core. The plume rises to the underbelly of the planet's rigid rocky surface, where it causes a lot of melting, which makes magma, which has a tendency to seek a way out.

Cumbre Vieja, the volcanic centerpiece of La Palma, is not your typical volcano. Instead of having a central crater where all the action happens, this elongate mountain's north-south ridge is pockmarked with myriad craters, cones, vents, and fissures-remnants of plentiful older eruptions. Eruptions can take place pretty much anywhere on the ridge, giving it a decidedly unpredictable edge.

By 2021, 50 years had passed since its last eruption, but the volcano had hardly been quiet in recent years. Since 2017, it had been grumbling: Plenty of closely spaced and timed quakes had been emanating from within, suggesting something disquieting was happening far below the surface. That volcanic indigestion reached a crescendo in early September, when tens of thousands of quakes were observed at increasingly shallow depths. The ground also began to inflate by several inches.

Both signals together could only mean one thing: rising magma. An eruption wasn't guaranteed-magma can cool and get stuck below ground before it can find an escape-but scientists, understandably concerned, doubled down their efforts to study the volcano. Monitoring efforts began in 2001 and were boosted in 2017, but this latest development saw the deployment of a fresh array of sensors across the ridge, from seismometers to GPS stations used to track the ground's changing shape. All eyes were on Cumbre Vieja.

On the afternoon of September 19, as Spanish troops began to evacuate some people thought to be in danger, the volcano made its move. An explosion on the ridge. Thousands more were evacuated from nearby villages and towns as red-hot rivers poured down, smashing through buildings like a bulldozer through papier-mâché.

Viewed dispassionately through the lens of social media, the pyrotechnics of the eruption were spectacular. Even volcanologists on site found it difficult to not be awed-humbled, even. For many young scientists it was an incomparably visceral, even thrilling, experience at first, but those feelings of wonder were temporary. They watched as home after home was destroyed.

"I had enough scientific excitement from the first week, and then I was just waiting for the end," says Pablo J. González, a physical volcanologist at the Spanish National Research Council on Tenerife.

The swift, early evacuation had no doubt saved many lives, but plenty of risk remained. The lava provided the primary hazard, but the plumes of acidic lava haze billowing from the coast could prove deadly to anyone wandering too close. Not willing to risk a single life, the authorities, in lockstep with the scientists, maintained a wide exclusion zone around the lava-spewing vents and the afflicted coastline.

Days turned to weeks, weeks to a month, and the eruption showed no signs of slowing. Impatience set in. "Isn't there a plane that flies and can drop ... today the technology is very reliable ... and boom! And send the lava in a different direction?" said Casimiro Curbelo, the president of the La Gomera Municipal Council, at the end of October. "Maybe it's madness, but I get the impression from a technological point of view that it should be attempted."

There is a surprisingly storied history of using bombs to attempt to divert lava flows, from Italy's Etna to Hawaiʻi's Mauna Loa. And it's fair to say that by November, this part of La Palma looked like a war zone. But diverting lava with bombs has only succeeded once, and given that you can only redirect lava if you are absolutely certain it won't find another dangerous path, scientists are largely wary of this sort of "trolley problem" scheme. In this case, they agreed with one part of Curbelo's statement: It would have been madness.

Everyone, however, shared Curbelo's wish to see the eruption come to a swift end. And although volcanologists are now pretty good at identifying the precursors to possible eruptions, knowing when one will end is a far trickier matter. There are many reasons for this, but a major one is that we simply can't tell how much magma is being supplied to the volcano from below. The changing shape of the volcano can show whether magma is entering or draining from its shallow plumbing system, as the ground inflates and deflates, but it doesn't reveal how much molten fuel is farther down, where it could either stay put or ascend and erupt.

As a result, volcanologists were hesitant to offer any concrete predictions about when the fireworks would end. The volcano's history provided a clue: Documented eruptions on La Palma have lasted from a few weeks to several months-but not, so far, years. And although tracking the volcano's deformation was full of uncertainties, the volcano had been more-or-less consistently deflating over time. By mid-November or so that deflation was slowing-a sign, perhaps, that magma had bled out onto the surface without being replaced from below.

"We made the assumption that zero deformation equals the end of the eruption," says González. And that would be sometime in mid-December, they estimated.

But every now and then a profusion of lava continued to gush from the volcano, and violent, gas-driven booms kept shaking the ridge. "That was something that puzzled us," says González of Cumbre Vieja's continued excitability, even as its magma ran low.

But the predictions turned out to be accurate. On December 13, after a series of significant explosions, no new lava could be seen oozing from the active vent. Seismic activity dropped off a cliff. The deflation had ceased. Eighty-five days and eight hours after it began, the eruption had finally gone out, it seems, with a bang.

Although it's a bit arbitrary, scientists normally wait three months after fresh lava was last seen to declare an eruption over; volcanoes are known to simply pause before a new eruptive episode, days or weeks later. In this case, the authorities waited just 10 days until they made the call. That's fair, says González: The volcano isn't doing anything to suggest more magma is on its way, and the 7,000 evacuees just want to get back home-if, of course, their homes are still standing.

"But that doesn't mean the war has finished," says Hernández. The difficult, costly, lengthy process of rebuilding has just begun. Frozen rivers of lava are being dug up, dislodged, and pushed aside. Major roads are being restored. The Spanish government has promised $255 million in aid.

Cumbre Vieja, for its part, is not done causing problems. Dangerous gases, including sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, are still seeping out of the ground in some areas, delaying safe return. And the low-key unrest that began in 2017 continues, suggesting that the volcano is not exactly quiescent.

"The emergency is still ongoing," says González. Even if the volcano falls into another deep slumber, the trauma of this eruption will linger for decades.

But amid the destruction, a note of solace. This eruption was the first on-land eruption in the Canary Islands to be comprehensively monitored by a cutting-edge array of equipment and, literally, thousands of scientists. Many of Cumbre Vieja's tell-tale seismic cacophonies, physical metamorphoses, and eruptive symphonies have been documented in remarkable detail.

"The main target of volcano monitoring is to protect the people," says Hernández. Thanks to all that accumulated data, volcanologists are now better prepared than ever to do just that. Sparing lives during this eruption was just the first step.

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How Volcanologists Tracked a Violent, Months-Long Eruption

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For those who celebrate it, Christmas once again carried an air of uncertainty in 2021 due to the pandemic. But the residents of the Spanish island of La Palma had a notably different experience: release, relief, closure. "What I want to say today can be said with just four words," said Julio Perez, the Canary Islands regional security chief on Christmas Day.

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Summary
I read the article "Dead Penguins Keep Washing Up on New
Zealand’s Beaches. Here’s Why" by Gavin Butler. Source: Vice World News.

Last year hundreds of Kororā penguins, chicks and adults, were found dead in the shores of New Zealand. The penguins were in extreme underweight, without any fat or muscles, which indicates that they died due to starvation.
2021 was reported the warmest year on record with surrounding oceans 3°C warmer. Scientist believe that fish, as a result of warmer waters, had to migrate to deeper colder waters and as a consequence the penguins couldn't reach the food. Moreover, they may be dying of hypothermia as they loose the fat layer (blubber) needed to keep themselves warm. As more adults die to replace the population entire colonies are disappearing.

Reflection
The increase of ocean temperatures is causing lots of problems to marine organisms, this is just one example in New Zealand. In general, when it comes to climate change people are unaware of the worldwide effects of warmer oceans, beyond ice pole melting and rising sea levels. I believe that it's a very important topic as the effects are currently taking place and it's a situation so difficult to reverse.

Vocabulary
flock
to waddle up
rot (decay)
blubber
wager

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Dead Penguins Keep Washing Up on New Zealand's Beaches. Here's Why.

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Locals keep finding whole flocks of the little blue penguins rotting on the shore, and they're not being killed by the usual suspects.

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Summary

I read “The ozone layer is on track to recover in the coming decades, the United Nations says” by Jaclyn Diaz, in the NPR (National Public Radio) magazine.

The main purpose of the author is to inform the ongoing recovery of the Earth’s ozone layer, according to a new report provided by scientists working on the Montreal Protocol.
The ozone layer has been damaged throughout the years due to the release of industrial chemicals in to the atmosphere. Since the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer in 1985 the Montreal Protocol prohibits the use of ozone-damaging chemicals. This global agreement prevents the emission of some important greenhouse gases, that’s why it also contributes reducing global warming and climate change. Due to the Montreal Protocol scientists estimate that the ozone layer will be fully recovered by 2066 in Antarctica and 2044 in the Artic.

Reflection

After I read the article I said to myself, wow, this is great news for the planet. However, it’s important to highlight what the author said: “the depletion of the ozone layer is not a major cause of climate change”, it means that the rate of greenhouse gas emissions is still rising. Thanks to that agreement we got rid of many chemicals, but it’s not over, scientists are very worried that the earth situation is going to be critical soon, before the estimated recovery of the ozone layer. So, I think that the author lacked emphasis in that, readers must know that are lots of things and actions left to do.

Vocabulary

phaseout
banned
overstressed
assessment
undertake
amendment

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The Earth's ozone layer is on its way to recovering, thanks to decades of work to get rid of ozone-damaging chemicals, a panel of international experts backed by the United Nations has found.

The ozone layer serves an important function for living things on Earth. This shield in the stratosphere protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of the sun's ultraviolet radiation.

The international community was alarmed after experts discovered a hole in the ozone layer in May 1985. Scientists had previously discovered that chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons, used in manufacturing aerosol sprays and used as solvents and refrigerants, could destroy ozone.

Two years after the discovery of the dire state of the ozone layer, international bodies adopted a global agreement called the Montreal Protocol. This established the phaseout of almost 100 synthetic chemicals that were tied to the destruction of the all-important ozone.

In the latest report on the progress of the Montreal Protocol, the U.N.-backed panel confirmed that nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances have been phased out.

If current policies stay in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values by 2040, the U.N. announced.

In some places, it may take longer. Experts said that 1980-level recovery over Antarctica is expected by around 2066 and by 2045 over the Arctic.

"The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed," said Meg Seki, executive secretary of the U.N. Environment Programme's Ozone Secretariat, in a statement. "Over the last 35 years, the Protocol has become a true champion for the environment. The assessments and reviews undertaken by the Scientific Assessment Panel remain a vital component of the work of the Protocol that helps inform policy and decision-makers."

The depletion of the ozone layer is not a major cause of climate change. But research is showing that these efforts to save the ozone layer are proving beneficial in the fight against climate change.

In 2016, an amendment to the Montreal Protocol required the phaseout of the production and consumption of some hydrofluorocarbons. These HFCs don't directly deplete the ozone layer, but they are powerful greenhouse gases - which contribute to accelerated climate change and global warming, the U.N. says.

The Kigali Amendment will "avoid 0.3-0.5 °C of warming by 2100," the report estimates.

"Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action," said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. "Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done - as a matter of urgency - to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase."

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The ozone layer is on track to recover in the coming decades, the United Nations says

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The ozone layer is a thin shield in the stratosphere that protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of the sun's ultraviolet radiation.