The recent coronavirus outbreak (i.e., nCovID-19; Fig. 1) has caused global panic, along with widespread travel bans, home quarantines and country-wide lockdowns. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared nCoVID-19 as a pandemic as of March 11th, 2020 (WHO, 2020). To tackle this global health crisis, scientists are attempting to synthesize a vaccine, while countries are trying to mitigate the n ...[Read More]
Dead Sea – lively stories of the past
The Dead Sea is dead. Nothing can live there except for specialized microbes. The water with a salinity multiple times higher than seawater prevents a colonization by higher life forms. However, it does not prevent the input of organic material that can tell us stories about the past. A unique sediment record The Dead Sea, located at the lowest elevation on Earth – currently about 430 m below sea ...[Read More]
Seasonal Greetings
The anticipation is rising, the offices smell of gingerbread and cookies, papers get written to be done just in time for Santa and his elves. Everyone is happily stressed these days working on the perfect Christmas presents, but then… aah, what to present at next year’s EGU? Which session to attend? This is a friendly reminder of the abstract submission deadline at 15th January. Read up on how to ...[Read More]
Dear “climate sceptic”, do you have a fire insurance? – Climate policy under uncertainty
One often hears that ambitious climate policy might be premature while climate change is still “uncertain”. This sounds like a fair argument: The amount of global warming per doubling CO2 is not well constrained, and the amount of economic damage per degree of warming even less. But is this uncertainty a sound excuse to wait and see? Uncertainty, risk aversion, and insurance If you knew the ...[Read More]