A message about climate change and renewable energy is at the heart of a new comedy that hits theaters next month.
Directed by Cort Crandall (“Old School”) and starring Josh Brenner (“Silicon Valley”) and Lil Ril Howry (“Get Out”), the Bromettes star in two lifetimes: Sid, an avid solar panel salesman, and Jonesy Shea, a strange and foolish woman, moves in with her intern friends on the same day and decides to live together. Through his adventures, which eventually lead to a strange encounter with rapper Snoop Dogg (played by himself), Sid enthusiastically tells everyone he meets, even the women he tries to flirt with, about solar power and the environmental benefits of energy. . savings
Watch the first film of this exclusive clip.
The inclusion of the solar factoid was very intentional. The film is directed by Palmetto Solar CEO Chris Kemper, who wrote the screenplay with Crandall. Kemper compared "Bromettes" to "Don't Look Up," a fun, funny film with an underlying environmental message.
"You can take these stories and make them mainstream, even if they're subtle, it doesn't have to be in your face," Kemper said. “So it's more of a dialogue. You talk about it with your friends after the movie, stuff like that."
The film opens in US theaters on October 7.
The solution is to reduce Ethereum's carbon footprint by 99.992%This week, the Ethereum blockchain underwent a major software update that experts compared to turning a gas-powered car into an electric car while the car is running. A report by the Crypto Carbon Assessment Institute found that the upgrade reduced the energy consumption of the blockchain, which powers the second largest cryptocurrency, Ether, by 99.988% and the carbon footprint by 99.992%.
Ethereum's long-awaited "consolidation," as it's being called, changed the foundation of the blockchain on Thursday without disrupting investment nearly two years after its inception. Consolidation has changed the way transactions are validated in this cryptocurrency model, which, unlike traditional financial systems, is not backed by a centralized institution.
The basics of the merger are complicated, but here's the gist of what happened. The Ethereum blockchain was previously based on a "proof-of-work" security system, where data-intensive cryptocurrency mining computers solved complex equations to confirm the security of transactions. exchange For many other cryptocurrencies. With a Proof-of-Stake system where the core investors verify the transaction, they hold a portion of their investment as collateral to keep their valuation honest.
The shift to proof of display has long been recognized as a primary way to reduce the carbon footprint of the cryptocurrency industry. A White House report this month noted that crypto activity in the US emits 25-50 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the emissions of diesel fuel used on the nation's railroads.
"Proof of work is inherently useless," said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group. "And the integration shows that it's possible to move code from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake."
As Ethereum makes this change, Bitcoin is under pressure to follow suit. According to a White House report, Bitcoin accounts for nearly two-thirds of the global crypto industry's electricity consumption. The Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace and other organizations have launched a campaign to get leading technology and finance experts who are heavily invested in Bitcoin and appear to have influence in the Bitcoin community to test the blockchain.
But if Bitcoin doesn't make a difference, governments should step in and create energy efficiency standards for the crypto industry, according to Faber. The Biden administration appears poised to do just that, based on their recommendations in this month's report.
"This is a significant moment for the Bitcoin community to recognize that the financial future of this asset depends on this code change," Faber said. "Smart people won't invest in financial security that creates more pollution."
Listening to young people about the cultural climateAs the population that will feel the worst effects of climate change in 2050 and beyond, young people have been front and center of climate advocacy in recent years if drastic action is not taken. Inspired by young activists, a public radio climate podcast is turning its microphones over to local eighth graders.
Two reporters from Higher Ground, WSHU's podcast, spent the spring in Bridgeport, Connecticut on an out-of-school science education program. Many of these students learned about climate change in school and understand what is happening to the planet in general, said WSHU reporter J.D. Allen. While students were familiar with Greta Thunberg and other activists who blamed politicians and corporations for their inaction, many did not know how climate change was manifesting itself in their own backyards, Allen said.
Allen and his co-host Sabrina Garrone taught the children how to use recording equipment and encouraged them to find the effects of climate change in their own neighborhoods. Funded by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop, the five-episode podcast looks into the minds of teenagers as they explore these influences and why they occur. The students not only found problems, Allen said, but also started thinking about solutions.
"They pulled me out of the water. They really did it," he said. He recalls a young student who wondered at the beginning of the unit why a shade tree in his yard had been cut down, and just a few weeks later the student had an idea for how to plant trees to increase shade in Bridgeport. Reduce exposure to extreme heat.
“As we listen to young people and present their ideas to legislators,” Allen said, “I hope that podcast listeners can ask themselves: "Well, what ideas can come from the youth in my community?"
Science supports climate change and the 'false social reality'.While nearly two-thirds of Americans support climate policy, a majority of people in the country believe that the percentage who are climate conscious is just over one-third of the population.
The researchers drew these conclusions from a survey of more than 6,000 Americans and published their findings last month in the journal Nature Communications. Americans of all ages, education levels, and political groups grossly underestimated the public's concerns about climate change and support for climate policy, in what the researchers called a "false social reality" common sense.
"Even though supporters outnumber opponents two to one, people think it's the other way around," said Greg Sparkman, an assistant professor at Boston College. "And many Americans feel alone in their concerns about climate change, or maybe they feel alone in thinking they want to do something about it and others don't."
Sparkman said he was surprised by how big the gap was. "People weren't just a little disappointed, they were so disappointed that it was shocking for us to change the perception of the vast majority of Americans to just a minority."
More research is needed to find out why Americans are so ambivalent about their support for climate policy, Sparkman said, but this inconsistency could lead people to abandon or moderate their views on climate policy if they think others don't care. : . About climate change. "If I'm worried about climate change, I don't think other people are, if I have that mindset, I probably think I'm overreacting, maybe it's not that important," Sparkman said.
He hopes that the climate policy of the Inflation Reduction Act, along with ongoing surveys of Americans' views on climate change, will help expose this false social reality.
"Hopefully, these signals will come together and help dispel the myth that Americans are not concerned about climate change," Sparkman said. "I hope it can create a better kind of story that explains that America is a nation that likes ambitious climate policy."
Caitlin Weisbrod is a web columnist and producer for St. PaulCaitlin Weisbrod is a Minnesota-based reporter and web producer for Inside Climate News. He writes ICN's weekly Warming Trends column, which highlights climate-related research, innovations, books, cultural events and other developments on the brink of global warming. He joined the team in January 2020 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and environmental studies from the University of Iowa. Caitlin previously reported from Kerala, India as an intern at the Pulitzer Center and worked for the University of Iowa's student newspaper, the Daily Iowan, for more than four years.