Top Five Research of the Week

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Research in Details

Research #1

ENVIRONMENT - Many risky feedback loops amplify the need for climate action.

Author: William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Timothy M. Lenton, Jillian W. Gregg, Susan M. Natali, Philip B. Duffy, Johan Rockström, & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

Date of publication: February, 2023

Summary

Researchers have identified 26 global warming accelerators known as amplifying feedback loops that the researchers say aren't being properly included in climate models. They note that the findings add urgency to the need to respond to the climate crisis and provide a roadmap for policymakers aiming to avert the most severe consequences of a warming planet. In addition to the 27 amplifying climate feedbacks the scientists studied were seven that are characterized as dampening -- they act to stabilize the climate system. An example is carbon dioxide fertilization, where rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 lead to increasing carbon uptake by vegetation. The effects of the remaining seven feedbacks, including increased atmospheric dust and reduced ocean stability, are not yet known.


Research #2

ENERGY - Switching to hydrogen fuel could prolong the methane problem

Author(s): Matteo B. Bertagni, Stephen W. Pacala, Fabien Paulot & Amilcare Porporato 

Date of publication: November 2022

SUMMARY

Hydrogen is often heralded as the clean fuel of the future, but new research suggests that leaky hydrogen infrastructure could end up increasing atmospheric methane levels, which would cause decades-long climate consequences. This is because hydrogen gas easily reacts in the atmosphere with the same molecule primarily responsible for breaking down methane, a potent greenhouse gas. If hydrogen emissions exceed a certain threshold, that shared reaction will likely lead to methane accumulating in the atmosphere.


Research #3

EDUCATION - Active learning methods are best for addressing sustainability issues.

Author: Vilma Sukackė, Aida Olivia Pereira de Carvalho Guerra, Dorothea Ellinger, Vânia Carlos, Saulė Petronienė, Lina Gaižiūnienė, Silvia Blanch, Anna Marbà-Tallada, & Andrea Brose

Date of publication: October, 2022

SUMMARY

According to an international team of educators, active learning methods, such as problem-based learning, project-based learning, and challenge-based learning are necessary to provide engineering students with the skills to tackle global issues. Of the above-mentioned, challenge-based learning is the most suitable for sustainability education. Such a learning / teaching approach is very fitting to sustainability education, which, according to various scholars, calls for a contextual, problem-oriented, reflective, interdisciplinary, collaborative, participatory, ethical, and empowered learning environment. In other words, educators have to shift from more traditional teacher-centred education to becoming instructional designers of student-centred education.


Research #4

ECONOMICS - Economic behavior is not influenced by gender or biological sex.

Author: Helena Fornwagner, Brit Grosskopf, Alexander Lauf, Vanessa Schöller & Silvio Städter 

Date of publication: Decemeber 2022

SUMMARY

Gender and sex assigned at birth are not as decisive in economic decision-making as previously thought. A new study published in Scientific Reports is the first analysis of transgender and cisgender economic behaviour, and the first to consider whether sex assigned at birth plays a significant part in economic decisions. The researchers explored whether being transgender or cisgender impacted factors that could influence whether we compete with others in applying for a new job, investing in a risky asset or donating to charity.


Research #5

EQUITY - Telehealth: Bridging or perpetuating health inequities?

Author(s): Katherine Gergen Barnett, Rebecca Grochow Mishuris, Charles T Williams, Alexa Bragg, Afi M Semenya, Marielle Baldwin, Jessica Howard, Stephen A Wilson, & Jayakanth Srinivasan

Date of publication: January 26, 2023

SUMMARY

Health inequities among Black Indigenous People of Color, immigrant and low-income communities is driven largely by inadequate healthcare access. Telehealth offers an opportunity to increase healthcare access and reduce health inequities. However, according to researchers, telehealth has unwittingly become a 'double-edged sword,' whereby the technology with potential to reduce health inequities also holds the key to exacerbate structural inequities. According to the researchers, a key component of these structural inequities is the digital divide, driven partly by "digital redlining".