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Standard time zone boundaries are invisible in the landscape, yet they abruptly delineate a temporal difference of one hour between two large areas located relative to one another on Earth. In most cases, standard time zone boundaries follow political ones and define areas within which daylight saving time (DST)--the seasonal advancement of standard time by one hour--is observed. Moving time zone boundaries and the decision to observe daylight saving time occurs throughout the world for various reasons that result in the synchronization of socioeconomic and political activities within and between communities and the simultaneous separation from others.

We investigated whether the vegetative state depicted in stimuli and the date of evaluation were related to restorative potential (RP) and preference ratings. Stimuli depicted flowering, foliated, or autumn-colored plants in scattershot, clustered, or formal arrangements that represented complexity values equal to zero, 2, or 4 bits of Shannon's information entropy. Analyses included 77 and 105 respondents' RP and preference ratings from September and January, respectively, along with 106 respondents' fascination and complexity estimations from September. Evaluation dates did not relate to respondents' RP and preference ratings. Respondents rated flowering and autumn-colored views significantly higher in RP and preference than foliated, 4-bit views higher than 2-bit, and 2-bit views higher than zero-bit. Flowering and autumn-colored foliage, view area, and plant region quantities indirectly affected RP ratings through preference. Important landscape design and practice implications follow: Flowering plants and red or yellow autumn-colored foliage may increase users' preference and RP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The logo of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) proclaims it to be "Green Since 1899." Annual meetings convened by the ASLA necessitate that many attendees travel by air. Carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft operations accounted for 2-3 percent of annual global emissions in 2010. Emissions are rising, despite the need to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide and reduce global emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and 100 percent before 2050, relative to 2010 levels, to limit global warming to 1.5°C. No public estimations of travel-related carbon emissions associated with ASLA annual meetings are available. Using two web-based carbon calculators, meeting programs, websites, handouts, and ASLA meeting attendance numbers, I performed two travel-related carbon emission estimations: for 2,821 education session featured speakers who presented at annual ASLA meetings in 2011 and between 2013 and 2019; and for annual ASLA meeting attendees between 1960 and 2019. By applying findings from scientific literature to these emission estimates, I also calculated the area of September Arctic sea ice loss that may be attributed to ASLA annual meetings; the labor productivity losses in purchasing power parity that may be associated with ASLA meeting emissions; and the quantity of trees that would be needed to negate the meeting-related quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide. I conclude by suggesting alterations to the format of annual ASLA conferences that would eliminate travel-related emissions in the future and narrow the gap between the ASLA's actions and proclaimed values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting yields significant, measurable impacts that conflict with the environmental commitment of the Society and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations to address the climate emergency (IPCC, 2018). We used 12,761 presenters' origins, two online carbon calculators, and benchmark values to estimate 2018 meeting-related travel, event venue operations, and hotel accommodation emissions. Presenters' conference travel resulted in between 17,298 and 8690 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (t CO 2 ), with or without radiative forcing index factors. Over 92% of authors traveled by air and were responsible for >99% of total travel-related emissions. Extrapolations based on 28,691 registrants yielded between 69,592.60 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (t CO 2 e) and 38,010.85 t CO 2 from travel. Comparatively, authors' and registrants' hotel accommodation emissions equaled 429 and 965 t CO 2 e, whereas operation of the San Diego Convention Center equaled ∼107 t CO 2 e. We relate SfN meeting-related emissions to potential September Arctic Sea ice loss, labor productivity loss in lower-income equatorial countries, and future temperature-related deaths. We estimate emissions reductions of between 23% and 78% by incentivizing between 10% and 50% of the most distant registrants to attend virtually or connecting between two and seven in-person hubs virtually. Completely virtual meetings may yield a reduction of >99% relative to centralized in-person meetings and increase participation of women, queer and transgender scientists, and scientists from low- and middle-income countries. We strongly recommend adopting alternative meeting modes such as four or more in-person global hubs connected virtually by 2030 and fully virtual by 2050., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2023 Kay et al.)