Wildfires spread across Hollywood, but the pictures you see may be generated by AI | Environmental Trumpet

Hello everyone, this is the 25th issue of the Environmental Trumpet column. In this issue, we have collected the following environmental research and news worth reading:

1) Wildfires spread across Hollywood

2) Just spray it and the dead grass will turn green?

3) New "magnet" that attracts plastics

4) Lead pollution once lowered the IQ of ancient Romans

5) Is the outbreak of “blue tears” a sign of environmental deterioration?

Wildfires spread across Hollywood

On January 7, wildfires broke out in the United States. Driven by the strong Santa Ana winds, the wildfires spread rapidly and were completely out of control by January 10.

As of January 13, the fire had killed 24 people , swept 40,000 acres (about 161 square kilometers) of land in the Los Angeles area, and destroyed more than 12,300 buildings.

According to the BBC, there were five fire points in the fire, and only one has been effectively controlled. In addition to natural causes such as winter drought and strong winds, the fire is also related to human factors. After investigation, the police believed that given the recent series of arson incidents in California, the spread of the fire may also be related to arson , and the local fire rescue was not timely and the lack of water in the fire hydrants exacerbated the danger of the fire.

As of January 9, a total of 5 fire points were found | BBC

One of the reasons why this wildfire has attracted so much attention is that it has reached Hollywood . One of the fire sites, the town of Palisades, is home to many Hollywood celebrities, and the fire here is also the largest of the five fires. The homes of many stars, such as Paris Hilton and Milo Ventimiglia, also evaporated in an instant. Miraculously, the houses of Oscar winner Tom Hanks and famous director Steven Spielberg survived, while their neighbors' houses were already in ruins.

Palisades: Once a paradise, now a purgatory | Ethan Swope/The Associated Press

As the awards season approaches, many award ceremonies have also been postponed due to the fire. The Academy Awards, originally scheduled for January 17, was postponed to January 19, while the American Critics' Choice Awards were scheduled to be postponed for two weeks until January 26.

It is worth mentioning that there are many videos and pictures of the giant Hollywood sign on fire on the Internet, which are actually generated by AI . As of January 10, AFP reporters in Los Angeles confirmed that the Hollywood sign is still intact.

The images of the Hollywood sign engulfed in flames from all angles that have been circulating on social media platforms are actually generated by AI.

Just spray it and the dead grass will turn green?

Spring hasn't come yet, but the lawn has already turned green.

Recently, in a park in Guangzhou, people noticed that workers were spraying the lawn. Surprisingly, after the spraying, the originally yellow lawn turned green in a short time.

Turn green with just one spray? ｜news.china.com

What makes the lawn turn from dry to green is " fertilizer greening agent ". Greening agent is mainly a mixture of colorant and fertilizer. The colorant can make the dry and yellow lawn turn green again, while the fertilizer can promote the growth of the lawn.

Contrary to many people's first impression, fertilizer greening agents usually do not pollute the environment. The coloring ingredients used in greening agents are basically low-toxic or non-toxic to humans and the environment (such as plant extracts, mineral powders, etc.), and they generally only adhere to the surface of plants for about 60 to 120 days.

As early as the 1950s, people began to use greening agents to transform landscapes. In the United States, people often use greening agents to modify movie shooting scenes. With the development of technology, greening agents are gradually being used in golf courses, football fields, leisure lawns and other places to improve the appearance of the landscape and reduce maintenance costs.

New "magnet" specifically for attracting plastics

You must have seen a magnet being used to attract iron filings, but have you ever seen a "magnet" that can attract plastic?

This is the new material invented by Chinese scientists - Ct-Cel fiber sponge . As the name suggests, chitin and cellulose are the main raw materials of this adsorbent. These two materials are very abundant in nature, the former can be obtained from squid bones, and the latter can be obtained from cotton, so the production cost of this fiber sponge is very low .

This research result was published in Science Advances | Wu et al., Science Advances, 2024

Although the material is cheap, it has shown excellent results. Researchers have found that Ct-Cel can easily absorb many microplastics in the water , including common polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP). Even if there are other pollutants in the water, Ct-Cel can still effectively absorb microplastics.

Currently, there are more than 4 billion tons of plastic waste in the world, and most plastics are difficult to decompose in the environment. This new material can effectively separate microplastics in water , making it easier for people to deal with them later.

Lead pollution once reduced the IQ of ancient Romans

Although the Roman Empire collapsed more than a thousand years ago, researchers can still use ice cores to explore that era. Recently, an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggested that lead pollution during the Roman Empire may have caused the average IQ of the population to drop by 2.5 to 3 points .

Ice cores hold many materials that can help us understand the past | Jessi LeMay

By analyzing three ice cores taken from the Arctic, the researchers first obtained the lead pollution level in the Arctic region between 500 BC and 600 AD, and then used model simulation to estimate the concentration of lead in the atmosphere of various parts of Europe at that time. The results showed that during the Roman Empire, the lead content in the blood of local people was as high as 3.4 µg/dl , which is about three times the average level of American children today.

Lead pollution in the ancient Roman Empire is closely related to the mining of silver-lead ore | Yahoo

Lead has a wide range of effects on human health. Excessive lead levels in the body can easily lead to anemia, memory loss, cardiovascular disease, etc. When the blood lead level reaches 3.5 µg/dl, you need to go to the hospital.

However, the average blood lead level of the ancient Romans at that time was close to 3.5 µg/dl, which suggests that most people were poisoned by lead. In addition, archaeologists have also found that many Roman children had high levels of lead in their teeth, which further proves the prevalence of lead pollution during the Roman Empire.

Using data from studies on the health effects of lead pollution, researchers calculated that the IQ of the Roman population dropped by about 2.5 to 3 points during the Roman Empire. A researcher at the Desert Research Institute commented: "A drop of 2 to 3 points in IQ doesn't sound like much, but if you apply it to the entire European population, it's a bit of a problem."

"Blue Tears" broke out.

Is it a sign of environmental deterioration?

Have you ever seen a sea like this? At night, the sea surface glows blue, as if broken diamonds are sprinkled into the sea, or stars are falling into the sea. Pingtan Island in Fujian Province attracts a large number of tourists to watch such a sea surface from April to June every year. People also call it " blue tears ".

Such beautiful scenery often appears in spring and summer | The Mercury

As the southern hemisphere enters summer, Australia also welcomes its own "blue tears". On the coast of Tasmania, people saw the largest "blue tears" in recent years. During the day, a large area of ​​the sea surface turned pink, and at night, they began to emit a faint blue light.

Blue tears appear in southeast Tasmania in December | Toby Schrapel

Dr. Jen Matthews, a marine biologist at the University of Technology Sydney, believes that the outbreak of "blue tears" is not necessarily a good thing for the environment. The large-scale reproduction of Noctiluca indicates that the nutrient level in the local sea area may be too high. The gathering of Noctiluca will also absorb a large number of bacteria and viruses to this sea area, and even attract a large number of jellyfish, disrupting the local ecological balance. In addition, Noctiluca may also attach to the gills of fish, causing difficulty for fish to breathe, causing adverse effects on local fisheries.

References

[1]https://www.npr.org/2025/01/11/nx-s1-5254243/los-angeles-fires-hollywood-productions-oscars-delays

[2]https://news.china.com/socialgd/10000169/20241229/47804400.html

[3]https://www.sciencealert.com/filter-made-from-squid-bone-could-be-the-solution-to-microplastics

[4]https://www.sciencealert.com/roman-empires-air-pollution-may-have-lowered-the-iq-of-europe

[5]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/01/bioluminescence-bloom-tasmania-australia-algae-blue-lights

Author: Xiao Xiaoze

Edited by: Yellowtail Pollock