Later in the program, Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze learns about a new student movement on the IU campus devoted to freeing animals from cruel and secretive experimentation programs like the one that uses baby birds to train Artificial Intelligence robots.

Carbon offsets are questionable as a tool to reduce fossil fuel consumption. A carbon offset is a credit that you can buy to make up for your emissions. So if you fly from New York to San Francisco, releasing around 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, you can purchase an offset, funding a project that will remove or store that same amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere, often by planting or preserving trees.

At least that’s the idea, according to a recent New York Times story. But many scientists object to the principle, on the grounds that we need to sharply reduce emissions, not just try to cancel them out.
Offsetting is a misnomer, said Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at the University of California, Berkeley. It creates a fiction that you can fly and emit greenhouse gasses and companies are working on ways to improve the credibility of carbon credits. But Dr. Haya has been studying offsets for more than 20 years and so far, she said, the results have been grim. Most credits don’t represent the amount of emissions reductions that they claim, she said. Others have had no measurable climate benefit at all.

That’s because measuring the carbon captured by, say, planting a new tree is hard. Would that tree have been planted anyway? What happens if that tree later burns in a wildfire? John Sterman, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and director of the MIT Climate Pathways Project, compared carbon credits to the magical healing elixirs of the Old West. I could put anything into that bottle. And it isn’t just that it might not work — it could be downright harmful. That’s where we’re at with carbon offsets, he said. They’re fooling people.

Last year, an estimated $1.7 billion of carbon credits were issued worldwide, according to an analysis from the global accounting firm KPMG. The best solution, according to the experts: Fly less.
And when you do fly, choose economy. Since premium seats take up more space, passengers in first or business class account for up to four times the emissions of passengers in the back.

After 30 years of warnings, we’ve made little progress in halting global warming. The carbon dioxide measured at Hawaii is now 428 ppm. Ten years ago it was 402 ppm. The amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere is still accelerating. Countries are not reducing fossil fuel combustion enough to make an impact. From historic conditions, we know that when the CO2 value reaches 650 ppm, there will be no ice on Earth.

Reuters reports that the various species of whales inhabiting Earth’s oceans employ different types of vocalizations to communicate. Sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, communicate using bursts of clicking noises — called codas — sounding a bit like Morse code.

A new analysis of years of vocalizations by sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean has found that their system of communication is more sophisticated than previously known, exhibiting a complex internal structure replete with a “phonetic alphabet.” The researchers identified similarities to aspects of other animal communication systems — and even human language.

Like all marine mammals, sperm whales are very social animals, with their calls an integral part of this. The new study has provided a fuller understanding of how these whales communicate.

“The research shows that the expressivity of sperm whale calls is much larger than previously thought,” said Pratyusha Sharma, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student in robotics and machine learning and lead author of the study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

We do not know yet what they are saying. We are studying the calls in their behavioral contexts next to understand what sperm whales might be communicating about, said Sharma.

Inside Climate Change reports the coastal communities of Guayama and Salinas in southern Puerto Rico feature acres of vibrant green farmland, and a rich, biodiverse estuary, the protected Jobos Bay, which stretches between the neighboring townships. But this would-be tropical paradise is also the home of both a 52-year-old oil-fired power plant and a 22-year-old coal-fired power plant, which local residents say contaminate their drinking water and air, and harm people’s health.

It’s a classic sacrifice zone, said Ruth Santiago, a lawyer and community activist who has fought against environmental injustice in Puerto Rico for more than 20 years. A friend calls this ‘the beautiful place with serious problems. Local residents envision a cleaner future as these fossil fuel plants are scheduled to retire within the next several years. They see rooftop solar as the best alternative as the island transitions to renewable energy.

In November 2023, the federal government allocated $440 million in funding for rooftop solar energy in Puerto Rico, part of a billion dollar energy investment in the island. Officials, in recent years, have acknowledged that the region has suffered as the home of polluting power plants.

Feature Report:

And now, we turn to Zyro Roze and Gorgo Losi of IU Animal Campaigns with a special report about the group’s fight for information from the Luddy School of Informatics about the placement of newborn chicks into virtual reality boxes in research on perceptual development to be applied to the Artificial Intelligence industry.

Learn about Natural Dyes during a program that explores the art of dyeing fabrics with organic materials from nature on Saturday, May 18th, from Noon to 2 pm at Winslow Woods Park. Sign up at bloomington.IN.gov/parks.
Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area is hosting a Reptile and Amphibian Night on Saturday, May 18th, from 6:30 to 8 pm. The state herpetologist will discuss what makes reptiles and amphibians unique, their habitat needs and local Indiana species. Register at GoosePondFWA@dnr.IN.gov.

World Turtle Day will be celebrated at Spring Mill State Park on Thursday, May 23rd, from 10 am to 5 pm. Meet in the Nature Center to watch turtles explore the outside.

A Full Flower Moon Night Hike is scheduled for Thursday, May 23rd, from 9 to 10:30 pm at Leonard Springs Nature Park. Learn about nocturnal animals and the history and folklore of the Full Flower Moon. Sign up at bloomington.IN.gov/parks.

Learn about Twirling Ladybugs at Paynetown State Recreation Area at Monroe Lake on Saturday, May 25th, from 2 to 3:30 pm. Go to the Activity Center to make a twirling ladybug craft while learning how to tell the difference between our native ladybugs and the non-native lady beetle.

Credits:

This week’s headlines were written by Norm Holy.
Today’s news feature was produced and edited by Zyro Roze.
Julianna Dailey assembled the script which was edited by the EcoReport team.
Julianna Dailey compiled our events calendar.
Noelle Herhusky-Schneider and Zyro Roze are our engineers.