Readers Respond to the June 2021 Issue scientificamerican.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scientificamerican.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
#BOLO: Rail Trail project in limbo after Thursday’s RTC meeting
The defunct Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line runs alongside a recently completed section of the trail portion of the Rail Trail corridor through Santa Cruz. Whether commuter trains will ever run next to the trail remains an open question.
(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)
In Lookout’s preview of yesterday’s Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Committee meeting, we signaled there could either be fireworks or crickets regarding the controversial Rail Trail proposal to build a commuter rail line next to a recreation path between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. In the end, no formal vote occurred, and there were still facts to be sorted through late Thursday. So
Noise Pollution Harms the Heart, Too
New research shows that excessive noise levels have significant negative impacts on heart health. February 28, 2021, 5am PST | Diana Ionescu |
Many urban dwellers know the familiar fatigue caused by persistent traffic and aircraft noise, but it s not just hearing and mental health that suffer. New research shows that sound can have deleterious effects on heart health, report Cypress Hansen and Knowable Magazine in The Atlantic.
A German cardiologist living near the Frankfurt Airport started studying the issue after the airport installed a new runway, adding to the daily air traffic and noise experienced by its neighbors. In the last decade, a growing body of research more directly links air and road-traffic noise to heightened risks for a number of cardiovascular ailments and scientists are starting to pinpoint the mechanisms at play. In the case of the Frankfurt airport, people living nearby have a 7% higher risk of stroke.
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Libby Solomon is a writer and editor for GGWash. She was previously a reporter for the Baltimore Sun covering the Baltimore suburbs and a writer for Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Civic Impact. A Baltimore resident, Libby enjoys running and painting in her spare time. Share
Newsletter 2021-01-21
The Gecko Project and Mongabay [01/21/2021]
– Members of the Auyu tribe of Papua, Indonesia, are demanding a halt to the operations of palm oil company PT Indo Asiana Lestari (IAL), which appears to be gearing up to clear their ancestral forests.
– They say that the company failed to obtain the community’s consent for the project, and that it’s not clear whether it even has the requisite permits to begin operations.
– IAL’s concession is part of the Tanah Merah megaproject that is already dogged by allegations that key operating permits have been falsified.
– The Papua region is home to the world’s third-largest contiguous swath of tropical rainforest, after the Amazon and the Congo Basin, but large areas may be cleared for plantations.