The biggest event that you probably haven't heard of is underway in Colombia.

So they're really trying to figure out a way to put an end to just this rampant loss that we're seeing in our forests and with wildlife as well.

It's Friday, October 25th, the best day of the week.

Today is Science Friday.

I'm sci-fi producer Kathleen Davis.

For the next week, representatives from almost every country in the world are a meeting in

Kali, Colombia, for COP16, the UN's conference on biodiversity.

They have a big job ahead of them to figure out how to save the planet and halt species

loss around the world. We'll talk about that story in just a bit, but first, here's guest host

Sophie Bushwick with a roundup of the biggest science stories of the week.

You may have encountered a protest that disrupted your day, blocking traffic on your route to work, for instance.

And maybe you grumbled to yourself that this sort of disruptive protest is not winning any hearts and minds.

But new research finds that it could actually have a positive

effect. Here to talk more about that and other stories from the week in science is Jason D.N.,

climate editor at Atmos in Washington, D.C. Welcome back, Jason. Thanks for having me.

Okay, so tell me about this study. Yeah, I think some listeners may find this result to be quite surprising, but in this new study that was published in the journal Nature Sustainability, Social Scientists found that disruptive, high-profile climate protests can actually boost public support for moderate climate groups.

This runs counter to a widespread opposition. We often hear

whenever these more fringe demonstrations happen, right? There's this gut feeling that disrupting

people's lives might hurt support for social movements. But this study showed that that isn't the

case, and in fact, they can actually increase support. This particular

study looked at a case from the UK in 2022, when the group just stopped oil, shut down the

country's busiest motorway, the M25, for four days. They found that within weeks of that

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