The inhospitable planetary environment

AbstractStellar activity has a particularly strong influence on planets at small orbital distances, such as close-in exoplanets. For such planets, we present two extreme cases of stellar variability, namely stellar coronal mass ejections and stellar wind, which both result in the planetary environment being variable on a timescale of billions of years. For both cases, direct interaction of the streaming plasma with the planetary atmosphere would entail servere consequences. In certain cases, however, the planetary atmosphere can be effectively shielded by a strong planetary magnetic field. The efficiency of this shielding is determined by the planetary magnetic dipole moment, which is difficult to constrain by either models or observations. We present different factors which influence the strength of the planetary magnetic dipole moment. Implications are discussed, including nonthermal atmospheric loss, atmospheric biomarkers, and planetary habitability.

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Notes from the Editors, December 2021

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-073-07-2021-11_0 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. c2-63

Author(s):

- Editors

Keyword(s):

Think Tanks ◽

Green Capitalism ◽

Planetary Environment

buy this issue With the rapidly worsening capitalist demolition of the planetary environment and the expansion of ecosocialist movements in response, leading establishment think tanks, like the corporate-supported Breakthrough Institute, dedicated to promoting the ideology of "green capitalism" at any cost, have found themselves in a difficult place.

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Aldehydes and sugars from evolved precometary ice analogs: Importance of ices in astrochemical and prebiotic evolution

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1418602112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (4) ◽

pp. 965-970 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

Pierre de Marcellus ◽

Cornelia Meinert ◽

Iuliia Myrgorodska ◽

Laurent Nahon ◽

Thomas Buhse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gas Phase ◽

Molecular Clouds ◽

Room Temperature ◽

Laboratory Experiments ◽

Organic Residue ◽

Organic Residues ◽

Flight Mass Spectrometry ◽

The Earth ◽

Planetary Environment ◽

Complex Organic

Evolved interstellar ices observed in dense protostellar molecular clouds may arguably be considered as part of precometary materials that will later fall on primitive telluric planets, bringing a wealth of complex organic compounds. In our laboratory, experiments reproducing the photo/thermochemical evolution of these ices are routinely performed. Following previous amino acid identifications in the resulting room temperature organic residues, we have searched for a different family of molecules of potential prebiotic interest. Using multidimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry, we have detected 10 aldehydes, including the sugar-related glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde—two species considered as key prebiotic intermediates in the first steps toward the synthesis of ribonucleotides in a planetary environment. The presence of ammonia in water and methanol ice mixtures appears essential for the recovery of these aldehydes in the refractory organic residue at room temperature, although these products are free of nitrogen. We finally point out the importance of detecting aldehydes and sugars in extraterrestrial environments, in the gas phase of hot molecular clouds, and, more importantly, in comets and in primitive meteorites that have most probably seeded the Earth with organic material as early as 4.2 billion years ago.

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ASPECTOS DA INTERAÇÃO CLIMA-AMBIENTE-SAÚDE HUMANA: DA RELAÇÃO SOCIEDADE-NATUREZA À (IN)SUSTENTABILIDADE AMBIENTAL

Raega - O Espaço Geográfico em Análise ◽

10.5380/raega.v4i0.3341 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Francisco MENDONÇA

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Natural Hazards ◽

Environmental Analysis ◽

Research Field ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Health Conditions ◽

Field Interaction ◽

Natural Catastrophes ◽

The Sixties ◽

Planetary Environment

O clima é um dos importantes elementos formadores do ambiente planetário. Os debates relativos à questão ambiental, notadamente após a década de 1960, têm evidenciado sua importância na análise ambiental, principalmente quando da ocorrência de catástrofes naturais Natural Hazards. Os impactos do clima sobre a sociedade repercutem, dentre outros, na condição de saúde humana. Este campo de pesquisas interação entre o clima e a saúde humana volta a ser objeto de interesse dos geógrafos na atualidade. Aspects of the climate-environment-human health interaction: from nature-society relation to enviromental (un) sustenability Abstract The climate is one of the importants planetary environment elements. The environmental question debates, notably after the sixties, has shown the importance to the environmental analysis, principally when the natural catastrophes Natural Hazards occure. The climate impacts over society has repercussion on the human health conditions, among others. This research field interaction between climate and human health has been rediscussed by the geographers nowadays.

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Simulating a Climate Engineering Crisis

Simulation & Gaming ◽

10.1177/1046878116680513 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 268-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Nils Matzner ◽

Robert Herrenbrück

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Power Struggle ◽

Climate Engineering ◽

Interesting Insight ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Climate Change Risks ◽

Alternative Measures ◽

Global North ◽

Planetary Environment

Background. At the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees, climate activists and researchers began to look for alternative measures. Climate engineering (CE) - the deliberate manipulation of the planetary environment to decelerate climate change - emerges as a possibly effective, albeit risky and conflictual, option. Aim. This article aims both at simulating a plausible international scenario of negotiation over solar climate engineering deployment, and at utilizing the rules of Model United Nations (MUN) for collaborative learning in a university class. Furthermore, the article intends to provide a framework for simulations about CE that could easily be reproduced. Method. MUN is an established and well-tested foundation for a simulation with students, including preparation leading up to the simulation and feedback rounds afterwards. We repeated the simulation three times, recorded the sessions as well as the debriefings, and gathered interesting insight by comparing the results. Result. For our CE simulations, we discovered: 1. Divergent interests (e.g. global north vs global south). 2. Power struggle (e.g. role of the veto powers). 3. Scientific and political ignorance (e.g. decision-making under uncertainty). 4. Risk politics (e.g. trade-offs between climate change risks vs. CE risks). Conclusion. MUN qualifies well for simulating a CE crisis. However, known lacks in MUN settings (like underrepresentation of non-state actors) must be discussed during the debriefing. These simulations illustrate possible future conflicts over CE without being prescriptive in any way.

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Physical properties of snow and ice under cosmic and planetary environment.

Journal of the Japanese Society of Snow and Ice ◽

10.5331/seppyo.61.215 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 215-220

Author(s):

Masahiko Arakawa

Keyword(s):

Physical Properties ◽

Planetary Environment ◽

Snow And Ice

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The Habitable Zone of Inhabited Planets

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-11-8443-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 8443-8483 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

J. I. Zuluaga ◽

J. F. Salazar ◽

P. Cuartas-Restrepo ◽

G. Poveda

Keyword(s):

Numerical Models ◽

Physical Phenomenon ◽

Life Forms ◽

Habitable Zone ◽

Earth System ◽

Abiotic Environment ◽

Physical Conditions ◽

The Earth ◽

Life Itself ◽

Planetary Environment

Abstract. In this paper we discuss and illustrate the hypothesis that life substantially alters the state of a planetary environment and therefore, modifies the limits of the HZ as estimated for an uninhabited planet. This hypothesis lead to the introduction of the Habitable Zone for Inhabited Planets (hereafter InHZ), defined here as the region where the complex interaction between life and its abiotic environment is able to produce plausible equilibrium states with the necessary physical conditions for the existence and persistence of life itself. We support our hypothesis of an InHZ with three theoretical arguments, multiple evidences coming from observations of the Earth system, several conceptual experiments and illustrative numerical simulations. Conceptually the diference between the InHZ and the Abiotic HZ (AHZ) depends on unique and robust properties of life as an emergent physical phenomenon and not necesarily on the particular life forms bearing in the planet. Our aim here is to provide conceptual basis for the development of InHZ models incorporating consistently life-environment interactions. Although previous authors have explored the effects of life on habitability there is a gap in research developing the reasons why life should be systematically included at determining the HZ limits. We do not provide here definitive limits to the InHZ but we show through simple numerical models (as a parable of an inhabited planet) how the limits of the AHZ could be modified by including plausible interactions between biota and its environment. These examples aim also at posing the question that if limits of the HZ could be modified by the presence of life in those simple dynamical systems how will those limits change if life is included in established models of the AHZ.

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COVID-19 Lessons for Climate Change and Sustainable Health

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14185938 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (18) ◽

pp. 5938

Author(s):

Siddharth Srivastava ◽

Fahad Khokhar ◽

Archana Madhav ◽

Billy Pembroke ◽

Vignesh Shetty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Activities ◽

Health Research ◽

Research Agenda ◽

One Health ◽

Historical Context ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Planetary Environment ◽

Sustainable Health

The drivers underpinning the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and climate change attest to the fact that we are now living in the Anthropocene Epoch, with human activities significantly impacting and altering the global ecosystem. Here, we explore the historical context of zoonoses, the effect of anthropogenic climate change and interrelated drivers on the emergence of, and response to emerging infectious diseases. We call attention to an urgent need for inculcating a One Health research agenda that acknowledges the primary interconnection between animals, humans, pathogens, and their collective milieus to foster long term resilience across all systems within our shared planetary environment.

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