Wind turbines can kill birds, but not as many as fossil fuels and other anthropogenic impacts
“It is true that renewable energy developments like solar and wind farms (along with the power lines to connect them to the grid) can impact negatively on birds and other wildlife, but compared to other human driven causes of bird mortality the impact remains small,” noted Aldina Franco, an avian ecologist at the University of East Anglia.
Authorization of bivalent COVID-19 boosters is based on scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness
image credit The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Publich Health SUMMARY In August 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccine formulations as single booster doses. These bivalent formulations contain messenger RNA (mRNA) from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and mRNA present in the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant. … Continued
Google’s demonetization of misinformation: one year on
ProPublica finds that Google still monetizes many websites and articles that promote harmful misinformation, much of which is in direct breach of its stated demonetization policy. Enforcement of its own rules on languages other than English is particularly lacking.
Here’s what we know about how climate change impacts hurricanes – and what we don’t
The uncertainty surrounding how hurricane frequency could change as the climate warms has been brought up in claims seeking to undermine climate change’s impact on hurricanes. These claims are examples of straw man arguments: noting that climate change may not lead to a higher number of hurricanes in the future does not mean that climate change has had – or will have – no impact on hurricanes at all.
Different parts of the planet warm more quickly than others. That doesn’t mean climate change isn’t happening.
If you’re even a casual consumer of climate news, you probably know that some parts of the globe are warming more rapidly than others. Scientists have known for years, for instance, that the Arctic is heating up at a faster clip than the global average, and recently, the region made headlines after a study showed that the northernmost reaches of our planet are warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth.
Introducing the Climate Science Desk, Science Feedback’s new portal to help journalists verify climate claims
Supported by the Climate Misinformation Grant Program from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, Science Feedback is launching the Climate Science Desk, an initiative aimed at helping fact-checkers and journalists connect with scientists to review the veracity of climate change-related claims. The Climate Science Desk features a portal where fact-checkers can submit … Continued
Germany-based network of websites and Facebook accounts amplify clickbait content to monetize web traffic via Google AdSense and e-commerce
SUMMARY This investigation, which took place between May and August 2022, shows that a network of German- and English-language Facebook pages are using the platform to build an online following of millions which can be financially exploited. We identified this network by analyzing various open-source information, such as Google Analytics and AdSense codes, web infrastructure, … Continued
What you need to know about the current monkeypox outbreak: transmission, symptoms, treatments, etc.
Photo by CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith at Public Health Image Library (PHIL) The ongoing monkeypox virus outbreak began in May 2022, when the U.K. notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a handful of confirmed cases of monkeypox. Soon, cases appeared in many other countries, and as of 9 August 2022, there have been over 40,000 confirmed … Continued
What do we know about the safety of titanium dioxide in menstrual hygiene products?
Photo by Josefin on Unsplash Introduction Social media posts claiming that titanium dioxide in tampons are responsible for reproductive cancers began circulating in early August 2022. One notable example is this TikTok video by user Rachel Morgan, whose video received more than 1.5 million views and attracted more than 30,000 comments. In this article, we … Continued
What do we know about the possible link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism?
Photo by Freepik Each week, approximately 23% of the adult U.S. population use a fever reducer and painkiller, such as Tylenol, which is the brand name for the drug acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol. This medication is also widely used during pregnancy, with an estimated 59% to 65% of pregnant women using acetaminophen-containing drugs at … Continued