BIOMES: Environmental Insights from YSE Post-Docs Garam Byun, Samuel Shaheen and Elisa Tedaldi

Garam Byun will present "Environmental Risks to Dementia: Climate Change Meets Aging"
Climate change is reshaping our environment, bringing challenges such as extreme temperatures and worsening air pollution. Simultaneously, rapid population aging is increasing the number of individuals with dementia. These intersecting trends create a pressing public health concern: understanding how environmental factors impact dementia. This presentation will explore recent studies from South Korea and the United States on the effects of temperature and air pollution on dementia risk. Additionally, we will discuss why individuals with dementia may be particularly vulnerable to these environmental exposures, highlighting the need for targeted public health strategies.

Samuel Shaheen will present "What can watersheds teach us about carbon capture?"
The chemical reaction of silicate minerals with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water removes CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to stabilize Earth’s climate on long timescales. A proposed strategy for negative carbon emissions involves spreading crushed silicate-rich rock on areas like croplands to accelerate CO2 drawdown. However, determining the effectiveness of this process requires precise measurements that account for complex natural processes. In this talk, I will discuss efforts to use stream chemistry to understand the relevant chemical reactions occurring in the watersheds they flow through, including the application of emerging models coupling hydrology and chemistry at the watershed-scale.

Elisa Tedaldi will present "Climate change communication: a matter of what you say or how you say it?"
Emotional messages can motivate environmental action, but does their efficacy depend on the content or delivery? In our experiment 3,463 participants were randomly assigned to listen to an audio message: a control or one of six messages on climate change’s impact on extreme weather, varying in emotional content and delivery. Compared to the control, all messages equally increased belief in climate change’s impact, support for government action, and worry about extreme weather and climate change. Participants were more willing to share the ‘neutral content emotionally-delivered’ message than the’neutrally-delivered’ one. These findings offer key insights into emotions' role in climate communication.

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