Memes Saved the Lives of Anti-Vaxxers

Covid-19 Transmission graphic

COVID brought forth more than just a disease of the body, it also raised the profile of anti vaxxers so much so that they shut down Canada’s capital for weeks on end. How can we get this group of people who are opposed to critically thinking to actually, well, think? We can use memes. Memes literally saved lives by convincing anti vaxxers to get the jab; in particular humours memes were the most effective. For the next pandemic maybe we should put more effort into meme production so we can stop the spread before it becomes endemic.

“Little is known about the extent to which memes can shift beliefs or intentions,” Geniole told PsyPost. “Our studies provided some preliminary evidence that memes about vaccination — specifically, memes that were supportive of vaccination or unsupportive of antivaxxers — may increase the viewer’s intentions to be vaccinated. In other words, our studies suggest that exposure to memes, under certain circumstances, may actually shift beliefs or intentions.”

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Rethinking Assets can Alter Our Political Equation of Climate Change


They emphasis the need to address asset revaluation concerns in the context of climate politics and suggests that a focus on domestic politics is crucial. They also discusses the role of obstructionist interest groups (like the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) and their influence on climate policy, pointing out that their opposition is often driven by concerns related to asset revaluation. If we put the concerns of asset holders who are losing their land and investments to climate change we can alter the conversation about what assets deserve our protection and which ones don’t.

Climate change is a clear threat to the LIO in either of two probable scenarios. One possibility is that the members of the LIO will do nothing much to mitigate climate change. That would represent a major substantive failure and a blow to the LIO’s legitimacy.Footnote 69 Alternatively, states might adopt pro-climate policies, but do so unevenly, with some implementing stronger and costlier policies than others. That unevenness would threaten the economic openness of the LIO, as jurisdictions with costlier pro-climate policies face competitive pressures to adopt measures such as border adjustment tariffs. In either scenario, climate politics is important for understanding the LIO’s future. The distributional consequences of climate change and decarbonization—and the obstructionist reactions that they generate—will be central.

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Kenyan Farm Foments Fossil Free Fertilizer


Yes, fertilizers exist that don’t make use of fossil fuels; however, the use of petoreluaem based fertilizers have become a mainstay of modern industrial agriculture. This use of fossil fuels for fertilizer has led to the agriculture sector’s carbon footprint being as large as it is. The transportation of the fuel then as a fertilizer leads to large bills and emissions. Now, a farm in Kenya has started producing fertilizer using solar power. The process uses water to create hydrogen which then gets some nitrogen to form liquid ammonia, a key fertilizer.

Green ammonia, made from water using clean power, promises to curb the climate impact of fertilizer. If produced on site, it could have the added benefit of insulating growers from supply shocks.

“The average bag of fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa travels 10,000 kilometers,” Talus founder Hiro Iwanaga told Bloomberg. With a small green ammonia plant, like the one coming online in Kenya, “you can locally produce a critical raw material, carbon free

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The Fence Tourists Love to See

Down in New Zealand there’s a fence that people go out of their way to see. This fence was the first of its kind and was built to keep invasive predators out while conserving native species. The fence was built a couple decades ago and was specially designed to protect threatened species in New Zealand that were becoming prey to everything from cats to small mammals. Birds are loving it because their nests are protected while they can still fly away and gather food.

The sanctuary has become a significant tourist attraction in Wellington and is responsible for the greatly increased number of sightings of species such as t?? and k?k? in city’s suburbs.

Sometimes described as the world’s first mainland island sanctuary in an urban environment, the sanctuary has inspired many similar projects throughout New Zealand, with predator-proof fences now protecting the biodiversity of many other areas of forest. Examples include the 7.7-hectare (19-acre) lowland podocarp forest remnant of Riccarton bush/Putaringamotu, the 98-hectare (240-acre) Bushy Park, and the 3,500-hectare (8,600-acre) Maungatautari Restoration Project enclosing an entire mountain.

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In Cold Weather, Heat Pumps Outperform Fossil Fuel Furnaces

AI generated image of energy efficient home

If you don’t already have a heat pump then you’re going to want one ASAP. These machines that act as heaters in the winter and air conditioning in the summer are already more efficient than traditional AC units. Now, the current version of heat pumps even outperform fossil fuel furnaces in the cold of winter. At their core heat pumps transfer heat from one space to the next which means they can be anywhere from 200-500% efficient compared to the paltry 98& efficiency of a planet-killing fossil fuel burning fossil. If you own a home then you really should get a heat pump because we need to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Efficiency measurements don’t measure comfort, explained Gibb, but he said there are consumer surveys showing those who use heat pumps fare well in cold temperatures. A 2022 consumer analysis in Europe found 81 per cent of respondents said their comfort improved after installing a heat pump. Another study conducted in New York and Massachusetts, which installed monitoring equipment in heat pump users’ homes, found 32 of the 42 people who participated said they were more comfortable post-heat pump.

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