POSTMODEN ALCHEMY

Metallurgists at Saarland University aim to decarbonize aluminium production

Business Announcement

SAARLAND UNIVERSITY

Some things take time; some a lot more than others. In Isabella Gallino's case, the time between completing her doctorate and the practical application of her research has taken more than a few years. But it may all have been worth the wait, because Gallino's PhD thesis could potentially pave the way for a paradigm shift within the energy-intensive and environmentally challenging aluminium industry. The ultimate objective is nothing less than the carbon-neutral production of aluminium.

The conventional method of producing aluminium from its oxide alumina releases enormous amounts of the environmentally damaging greenhouse gas CO2. 'Smelting one tonne of alumina results in the emission of eight tonnes of CO2 if electricity from coal-fired power stations is used,' explained Ralf Busch, Professor of Metallic Materials at Saarland University. 'And,' added metallurgist Isabella Gallino, 'even if we were to use green electricity, smelting one tonne of alumina would still emit 1.5 tonnes of CO2.' The reason for this lies with how aluminium is produced industrially. The alumina (Al2O3) is electrolysed in the smelting furnace, where it is decomposed into its negatively and positively charged components, which are separated from one another by the anode and cathode of the electrolytic cell. Up until now, the oxygen from the alumina is separated from the aluminium metal by means of a graphite anode. The carbon of the anode combines with the oxygen from the alumina to produce CO2, with 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere for every tonne of alumina processed. What's left is mostly pure aluminium, a highly valuable raw material that finds use in many industrial sectors, ranging from automotive manufacturing to the beverages industry. Germany's largest aluminium producer is the company Trimet, which now has access to the scientific expertise of Isabella Gallino and Ralf Busch as part of a major research project. To get some idea of the dimensions involved, just one of Trimet's plants contains 300 smelting cells (or 'pots’ as they are often known), each of which houses table-sized graphite anodes that need to be replaced on a monthly basis. According to the industry body that represents the aluminium sector, around 63 million tonnes of primary aluminium are produced annually[1] – a fact that clearly underscores the need to introduce more climate-friendly means of producing aluminium.

This is where Isabella Gallino's PhD thesis comes into play. She was awarded her doctorate some 20 years ago at Oregon State University in the USA. In it she demonstrated that so-called inert anodes do in fact work in practice. Put simply, she replaced the conventional graphite anode by one made from an alloy of iron, copper and nickel. When this anode is used, the gas produced at its surface is not CO2 but oxygen (O2) and, unlike the graphite anode, the metallic anode does not get consumed as electrolysis progresses. 'Unfortunately, from an environmental policy position, the situation in the USA in the early 2000s was not good,' said Isabella Gallino. The US government under Republican President George W. Bush had already rolled back support for environmentally friendly industrial reforms. However, with the introduction of the European Green Deal, a set of carbon-reduction policy goals adopted by the European Commission in 2019, conditions in Europe are now excellent for implementing this type of climate-positive change. Remodelling a heavy industry like the aluminium production sector does not come cheap. 'But if our goal really is to achieve carbon neutrality, then this is the only way forward,' said Isabella Gallino.

Gallino is part of a consortium for the CO2-free production of aluminium whose lead partner is Trimet. Her goal over the next three years will be to develop inert metallic anodes that are capable of delivering an efficient and carbon-neutral production process. Once suitable anodes are available, the other industrial partners will develop a prototype electrolysis system and test the new carbon-neutral production process. If all goes well, a small industrial smelting facility would then be built to produce smaller quantities of CO2-neutral aluminium.

Metallurgist Isabella Gallino is also looking at another option that could be exploited in future should the production of carbon-neutral aluminium become reality. 'Aluminium is an excellent material for storing energy if it's produced using green electricity. Aluminium is a chemical element that is able to donate three (valence) electrons at once, so its energy density is higher than that of other elements. And there is a method of generating electricity and hydrogen gas by which elementary aluminium is oxidized back to Al2O3 by letting molten aluminium react with water in a controlled manner.'

Electric power from aluminium rather than from burning coal? It's an idea that could indeed become reality if we are able to produce aluminium in a carbon-neutral, climate-compatible way.

The project has received funds from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

[1] http://www.aluinfo.de/production-worldwide.html

Wildfire-smoke observations fill gap in estimating soot’s role in climate change

Measurements of variations in light absorption by coated soot particles lead to a reliable way to predict their global warming effect

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: BLACK CARBON, OR SOOT, FROM WILDFIRES, TRANSPORTATION AND OTHER SOURCES HAS A BIG IMPACT ON GLOBAL WARMING, BUT A DATA GAP HAS PREVENTED CLIMATE-CHANGE MODELS FROM ACCURATELY REPRESENTING THAT INFLUENCE. NEW WORK BY LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY CLOSES THE GAP WITH A SIMPLE PARAMETER FOR CLIMATE MODELS. view more 

CREDIT: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 20, 2022—New research refining the amount of sunlight absorbed by black carbon in smoke from wildfires will help clear up a long-time weak spot in earth system models, enabling more accurate forecasting of global climate change.

“Black carbon or soot is the next most potent climate-warming agent after CO2 and methane, despite a short lifetime of weeks, but its impact in climate models is still highly uncertain,” said James Lee, a climate researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and corresponding author of the new study in Geophysical Research Letters on light absorption by wildfire smoke. “Our research will clear up that uncertainty.”

The Los Alamos research resolves a long-time disconnect between the observations of the amount of light absorbed by black carbon in smoke and the amount predicted by models, given how black carbon is mixed with other material such as condensed organic aerosols that are present in plumes.

The team used the multi-instrument laboratory Center for Aerosol-gas Forensic Experiments (CAFÉ) at Los Alamos to sample smoke from several wildfires over two summers in the Western United States, including the nearby Medio Fire in New Mexico in 2020 and aged plumes from California and Arizona.

The CAFÉ team is now collaborating with colleagues at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to incorporate their validated parameterizations into the Department of Energy’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM. This will better evaluate wildfire climate forcing and feedbacks.

Black carbon emitted by vehicles, power plants, residential heating and wildfires is a potent absorber of solar radiation, converting incoming light to atmospheric heating.

“Wildfires emit soot and organic particles that respectively absorb and scatter the sunlight to warm or cool the atmosphere to a varying net effect, depending on the composition of the smoke mixture,” said Manvendra Dubey, CAFÉ director and project principal investigator at Los Alamos. “This mixing evolves over time as smoke from large megafires disperses globally. We discovered a systematic relationship between the increase in light absorption efficiency of soot with age due to the growth in organic coatings.”

The discovery accurately captures the complex sizes and structure of soot that are currently approximated in models, Dubey said.

“We are pushing to incorporate it in climate models to provide robust estimates of warming by wildfire soot, particularly in the Arctic, which that is warming four times faster than the globe,” Dubey said.

“While black carbon is generally thought to cause warming,” Lee said, “its climate impact is not well known because of how it co-exists with other types of particles in the atmosphere.”

That uncertainty derives partly from a lack of understanding of how black carbon  light-reflecting and -absorbing properties evolve as it ages and undergoes complicated chemistry in the rapidly changing atmospheric conditions as wildfire smoke disperses. The plume can linger for months in the upper atmosphere.

During that evolution, organic aerosols form and condense around black carbon particles. Some of these aerosols focus light on the black carbon, increasing its absorption—but just how much light is absorbed depends on the size of the aerosols and how they coat the soot.

Climate models currently idealize this mixing state of smoke, Dubey said. Because the models don’t account for the variation in organic coatings based on the size of each particle, the models overestimate how much radiation is absorbed by black carbon. That leads to large uncertainties and biases in wildfire climate effects.

Single-particle modeling produces better results but is too computationally expensive to embed in earth-system models such as E3SM. That’s why the Los Alamos researchers sought to create parameters for black carbon that could be incorporated into earth-system models without incurring the prohibitively large computational cost of modeling vast numbers of particles.

The Los Alamos team analyzed 60 million smoke particles gathered from CAFÉ’s 10-meter tall sampling tower. This observational method allowed them to account for variations in the amount of organic coating on each particle—the missing piece of earlier models. With the empirical data gathered by CAFÉ, the team used existing absorption models to determine how much light energy each particle absorbed and then infer the total black carbon absorption of the plumes. Their results matched independent measurements of smoke properties made in parallel, while modeling based on the idealized black carbon particles has failed to match observations. The Los Alamos results can be scaled up to represent atmospheric plumes in global climate models

The team found they could predict black carbon absorption amplification from the ratio of the coating material to the volume of black carbon in the plume. That simple ratio can be incorporated into complex earth systems models for determining the climate impact of black carbon.

The Funding: Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Program and LANL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

-30-

 LA-UR-22-27129

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JOURNAL

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2022GL099334 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Wildfire smoke demonstrates significant and predictable black carbon light absorption enhancements

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jul-2022

U$A

nTIDE June 2022 COVID Update: Increases in unemployment reflect more people looking for work

National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) – issued semi-monthly by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire

Reports and Proceedings

KESSLER FOUNDATION

 

IMAGE: THESE GRAPHICS COMPARE THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PEOPLE WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES, CAPTURING PRE-PANDEMIC AND CURRENT UNEMPLOYMENT DATA FROM JANUARY 2020 TO JUNE 2022. JUNE NUMBERS SHOWED A SLIGHT INCREASE IN UNEMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND PEOPLE WITHOUT DISABILITIES. view more 

CREDIT: KESSLER FOUNDATION

East Hanover, NJ. July 22, 2022. Unemployment increased slightly in June for people with and without disabilities, according to Friday’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) COVID Update. The June data are consistent with the gains in labor force participation rates detailed  in this month’s prior nTIDE report, noted nTIDE expert John O’Neill, PhD, director of the Center for Employment and Disability Employment Research at Kessler Foundation.

“We need to remember that unemployment data includes people looking for work, so this month’s unemployment picture appears to reflect people entering the labor market to increase family income in response to the rapidly rising cost of living,” said Andrew Houtenville, PhD, professor of economics at the University of Hampshire (UNH) and research director of the UNH Institute on Disability.

While efforts to stem inflation will begin to slow economic growth, there will be a lag in the effects on employment. “We would not be seeing the impact of counter-inflationary measures on the labor market so soon,” Dr. Houtenville explained. “It takes a while for a downshift in economic growth to lead to job losses. If the inflation trend continues, however, the Fed may take more actions that would raise the risk of a more drastic downshift.”

Monitoring the National Trends in Disability Employment will help us track the impact of these economic shifts on people with disabilities. Register now for upcoming nTIDE webinars scheduled for August 5 and August 19: nTIDE Lunch & Learn Webinar Series | Center for Research on Disability.

Field Notes

As the economy recovers from pandemic-related restrictions, widespread staffing shortages are hindering business in many sectors, including disability employment services. Many service providers are reporting inadequate staffing as people in the field pursue new opportunities, according to Elaine E. Katz, MS, CCC-SLP, senior vice president of Grants and Communications at Kessler Foundation.

“Resignations and job swapping are straining the system, diverting resources to hiring initiatives and job training at a time when jobseekers with disabilities need to compete for available openings,” she reported. “Because continuity of services is especially important for people with disabilities, we need to see greater stability in staffing of vocational service providers.”   

For in-depth analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment trends, see our recent nTIDE Special Edition: Workers with disabilities overcome pandemic setbacks, outpacing people without disabilities to set new records for employment.

Each nTIDE release is followed by a Lunch & Learn webinar at 12:00 pm ET, featuring nTIDE experts Andrew Houtenville, PhD, and John O’Neill, PhD. You may register for upcoming webinars, and view the nTIDE archives here: nTIDE Lunch & Learn Webinar Series | Center for Research on Disability.

About nTIDE Updates

National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE), is a joint project of Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Institute on Disability, co-authored by Andrew Houtenville, PhD, from the UNH Institute on Disability and John O'Neill, PhD, of Kessler Foundation. The nTIDE team closely monitors the job numbers, issuing semi-monthly nTIDE reports, as the labor market continues to reflect the many challenges of the pandemic. Since 2013, a monthly nTIDE has been issued in conjunction with the first Friday Jobs Report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In April 2020, restrictions on economic activity in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated an unprecedented rise in furloughs and people looking for work, prompting the addition of this mid-month nTIDE COVID Update. The mid-month nTIDE follows two key unemployment indicators – furloughs, or temporary layoffs, and the number of people looking for work, comparing trends for people with and without disabilities.

Funding: Kessler Foundation and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) (90RT5037)

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility, and long-term outcomes – including employment – for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.

About the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire

The Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) was established in 1987 to provide a coherent university-based focus for the improvement of knowledge, policies, and practices related to the lives of persons with disabilities and their families. For information on the NIDILRR-funded Employment Policy and Measurement Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, visit ResearchonDisability.org.

Interested in trends on disability employment? Contact Carolann Murphy to arrange an interview with our experts: cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org.

Stay Connected with Kessler Foundation

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The bigger the temperature change, the larger the extinction event, reveals researcher

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENUS AND SPECIES EXTINCTION PERCENTAGE AND SURFACE TEMPERATURE ANOMALY IN MAJOR MASS EXTINCTIONS FROM THE END-GUADALUPIAN CRISIS, AND THE CURRENT CRISIS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE. view more 

CREDIT: KUNIO KAIHO ET AL.

A professor emeritus at Tohoku University has unearthed evidence pointing to a strong relationship between the magnitude of mass extinctions and global temperature changes in geologic times.

The research was published in the journal Biogeosciences on July, 22, 2022.

Abrupt climate change, accompanied by environmental destruction from large volcanic eruptions and meteorites, has caused major mass extinctions throughout the Phanerozoic Eon - covering 539 million years to the present.

To date, there have been few quantitative evaluations of the relationship between land temperature anomalies and terrestrial animal extinctions. Moreover, marine animals and terrestrial animals have experienced divergent extinction rates, and this phenomenon remains under-explored.

Professor Emeritus Kunio Kaiho demonstrated that marine invertebrates and terrestrial tetrapods' extinction rates corresponded to deviations in global and habitat surface temperatures, regardless of whether it was cooling or warming. Loss of species during the 'big five' major extinctions correlated with a > 7°C global cooling and a > 7-9°C global warming for marine animals, and a > 7°C global cooling and a > ~7°C global warming for terrestrial tetrapods.

"These findings indicate that the bigger the shifts in climate, the larger the mass extinction," Kaiho said. "They also tell us that any prospective extinction related to human activity will not be of the same proportions when the extinction magnitude changes in conjunction with global surface temperature anomaly."

Kaiho cites an earlier study, which claimed a 5.2°C temperature increase in average global temperature would result in a mass extinction event comparable to previous ones. Yet, based on this study's analysis, the temperature will need to change by 9°C, and this will not appear until 2500 in a worst-case scenario.

"Although predicting the extent of future extinctions is difficult because causes will differ from preceding ones, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that any forthcoming extinction will not reach past magnitudes if global surface temperature anomalies and other environmental anomalies correspondingly change," Kaiho said.

Kaiho also found a lower tolerance for terrestrial tetrapods than marine animals for global warming events. However, marine animals had a smaller tolerance to the same habitat temperature changes than terrestrial animals. This is because the temperature anomaly on land is 2.2 times higher than sea surface temperature. These phenomena fit ongoing extinction patterns.

Looking ahead, Kaiho seeks to predict future animal extinction magnitudes occurring between 2000-2500.

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JOURNAL

Biogeosciences

DOI

10.5194/bg-19-3369-2022 

ARTICLE TITLE

Relationship between extinction magnitude and climate change during major marine and terrestrial animal crises

Human activities increase likelihood of more extreme heatwaves, researchers find

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: SHADING REPRESENTS SURFACE AIR TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES, AND THE GREEN VECTOR DENOTES JETSTREAM (A NARROW BAND OF VERY STRONG WESTERLY AIR CURRENTS NEAR THE ALTITUDE OF THE TROPOPAUSE). TWO BLUE VECTORS INDICATE THAT THE HEATWAVE IS RELATED TO ANOMALOUS CIRCULATIONS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC AND THE ARCTIC. view more 

CREDIT: JIAYU ZHENG

July 19 was the hottest day ever recorded in the United Kingdom, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 degrees Fahrenheit). The heatwave serves as an early preview of what climate forecasters theorized will be typical summer weather in the U.K. in 2050. The heat continues across Europe today, as well as in the United States, where more than a third of the country is under heat warnings.

The temperatures harken back to just over a year ago when nearly 1,500 people died during a late June heatwave that more than doubled average temperatures in the United States and Canada.

Will temperatures continue to rise, leading to more frequent extreme heat events?

Yes, according to the latest analysis of the atmospheric circulation patterns and human-caused emissions that led to the 2021 heatwave in North America. The findings, published on July 22 in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, may also explain the U.K.'s current heatwave.

The research team found that greenhouse gases are the primary reason for increased temperatures in the past and will likely continue to be the main contributing factor, with simulations showing that extreme heatwave events will increase by more than 30 percentage points in the coming years. Most of that increased probability is the result of greenhouse gases, according to their results.

“An extraordinary and unprecedented heatwave swept western North America in late June of 2021, resulting in hundreds of deaths and a massive die-off of sea creatures off the coast as well as horrific wildfires,” said lead author Chunzai Wang, a researcher in the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory and head of the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

“In this paper, we studied the physical processes of internal variability, such as atmospheric circulation patterns, and external forcing, such as anthropogenic greenhouse gases.”

Atmospheric circulation patterns describe how air flows and influences surface air temperatures around the planet, both of which can change based on natural warming from the Sun and atmospheric internal variability, as well as Earth’s rotation. These configurations are responsible for daily weather, as well as the long-term patterns comprising climate. . Using observational data, the researchers identified that three atmospheric circulation patterns co-occurred during the 2021 heatwave: the North Pacific pattern, the Arctic-Pacific Canada pattern and the North America pattern.

“The North Pacific pattern and the Arctic-Pacific Canada pattern co-occurred with the development and mature phases of the heatwave, whereas the North America pattern coincided with the decaying and eastward movements of the heatwave,” Wang said. “This suggests the heatwave originated from the North Pacific and the Arctic, while the North America pattern ushered the heatwave out.”

But atmospheric circulation patterns can co-occur — and have before — without triggering an extreme heatwave, so how much was the 2021 event influenced by human activities? Wang and the team used the internationally curated, tested and assessed models from the World Climate Research Programme, specifically the Detection Attribution Model Comparison models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6).

“From the CMIP6 models, we found that it is likely that global warming associated with greenhouse gases influences these three atmospheric circulation pattern variabilities, which, in turn, led to a more extreme heatwave event,” Wang said. “If appropriate measures are not taken, the occurrence probability of extreme heatwaves will increase and further impact the ecological balance, as well as sustainable social and economic development.”

Other contributors include co-corresponding author Jiayu Zheng and two students from the University of CAS: Wei Lin and Yuqing Wang.

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JOURNAL

Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s00376-022-2078-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Unprecedented Heatwave in Western North America during Late June of 2021: Roles of Atmospheric Circulation and Global Warming

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Jul-2022

THE LANCET: 160 million women worldwide have unmet contraception needs; new study reveals large differences in types of contraceptives used across regions and age groups

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE LANCET

Peer-reviewed/ Modelling / People

• Estimates suggest that more than 160 million women and adolescents who wanted to avoid pregnancy were not using contraceptives in 2019, despite significant progress in the use of modern contraceptives globally over the previous 50 years.
• Major disparities in contraceptive use still exist between regions – with more than half the women with unmet need for contraception living in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
• Younger women had the highest levels of unmet need, despite being the group for whom the economic, and social benefits of contraceptive access are likely to be most substantial.
• The authors found large differences between regions in the types of contraceptives used, with women in some regions relying substantially on permanent contraceptive methods.
• The authors suggest that considering the contraceptive preferences of different groups and diversifying options to suit the needs of groups with unmet need is a key part of unlocking the social and economic benefits of contraception.

Published today in The Lancet journal by the Global Burden of Disease study, the most comprehensive assessment of worldwide contraceptive need and use estimated that over 160 million women and adolescents with need to prevent childbearing remained without contraception in 2019 – despite major increases in use at a global level since 1970. This study provides estimates of worldwide contraceptive use, need and type continuously from 1970 to 2019 by country, age group, and marital status.

Expanding access to contraception is linked to women’s social and economic empowerment and better health outcomes and is a key goal of international initiatives and is a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator. Contraception use is also associated with reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality by preventing unintended pregnancies. By allowing women to plan childbearing, contraception enables adolescents and women to remain in school pursue further education and work that lead to social and economic empowerment later in life.

Understanding which age groups have the most unmet need is vital for policymakers to tailor and make accessible types of contraception to the population in need. Accommodating the preferences of women of different ages and marital statuses is also important for reducing unmet need. For example, the study showed that permanent methods, such as female sterilisation, are more likely to be used by older women, while younger women and adolescents tend to use short-acting methods, like oral contraceptive pills or condoms.

Based on data from 1,162 self-reported representative surveys on women’s contraceptive use, the authors used modelling to produce national estimates of various family planning indicators, including the proportion of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) using any contraceptive method, the proportion of women of reproductive age using modern methods, the types of contraceptives in use, demand satisfied with modern methods, and unmet need for any contraceptive method. [1] Women were defined as needing contraception when they were married or if unmarried, sexually active, able to get pregnant and not wanting a child within two years, or if they were pregnant or had just given birth but would have preferred to delay or prevent their pregnancy.

Gaps in contraceptive use remain after major global progress

Since 1970, the world has seen major increases in contraception use, driven by a significant shift from using less effective, traditional methods to using more effective, modern contraceptives, including oral contraceptive pills, IUDs, and male and female sterilisation contraceptive methods. However, there remains key gaps in use.

Worldwide, the share of women of reproductive age using modern contraception increased from 28% in 1970 to 48% in 2019. Demand satisfied rose from 55% in 1970 to 79% in 2019. Despite the major increases, 163 million women who were not currently using contraception were considered to have need in 2019 (out of 1.2 billion women who needed contraception in total).

Dr Annie Haakenstad, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, USA, says “Although we’ve observed excellent strides in contraceptive availability since the 1970s at a global level, there’s still a long way to go to ensure that every woman and adolescent girl can benefit from the economic and social empowerment contraceptives can offer. Our results indicate that where a woman lives in the world and their age still significantly impacts their use of contraception.” [2]

Wide disparities mean failure to reach goal in priority countries

In 2019, the availability of contraceptives still differed significantly between regions and across different countries.

Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania had the highest use of modern contraceptives (65%) and demand satisfied (90%); whereas sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest use of modern contraceptives (24%) and demand satisfied (52%). Between countries, levels of modern contraceptive use ranged from 2% in South Sudan to 88% in Norway (See table 1 for further country-level estimates). Unmet need was highest in South Sudan (35%), Central African Republic (29%) and Vanuatu (28%) in 2019.

The Family Planning 2020 Initiative (FP2020) set a goal of increasing the number of women using modern contraception by 120 million between 2012 and 2020 in 69 priority countries. The study estimated that the number of women using contraception increased by 69 million between 2012 and 2019 in these countries (excluding Western Sahara), leaving the initiative 51 million short of reaching its goal if these levels remained unchanged in 2020.

Young women face highest levels of unmet need

The study finds that, compared to other groups, women and adolescents in the 15-19 and 20-24 age groups have the lowest rates of demand satisfied globally – estimated at 65% and 72%, respectively. Those aged 15-24 comprise 16% of total need but 27% of unmet need – amounting to 43 million young women and adolescents worldwide not having access to contraceptives they need in 2019.

The largest gaps globally were among young, married women.

Dr Haakenstad continues, “Importantly, our study calls attention to young women being overrepresented among those who cannot access contraception when they need it. These are the women who stand most to gain from contraceptive use, as delaying having children can help women stay in school or get other training opportunities and to enter and maintain paid employment. This can lead to social and economic benefits that last throughout a woman’s lifetime and is an essential driver towards greater gender equity.” [2]

Lack of contraceptive variety may mean no suitable options for certain groups

The types of contraceptive methods in use vary significantly by location. The authors suggest that the dominance of single methods could indicate a lack of suitable choices for women and adolescent girls.

In 2019, female sterilisation and oral contraceptives were dominant in Latin America and the Caribbean; the oral conceptive pill and condoms in high-income countries [3]; IUDs and condoms in central Europe, eastern Europe and central Asia. Female sterilisation comprised more than half of all contraceptive use in south Asia. In addition, in 28 countries, more than half of women were using the same method, indicating that there may be a limited availability of options in these areas.

Professor Rafael Lozano, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, USA, says, “Our study highlights that not only should contraception be available to all women, but also suitable choices of contraceptives. Diversifying options in areas that may be over-reliant on one method could help increase contraceptive use, particularly when the most used method is permanent. To widen access, we urge policymakers to use these estimates to look at how contraceptive choice interacts with age and marital status in their countries.” [2]

Finally, the authors note some limitations of their study. The criteria used to identify women in need of contraception may not capture certain women in need, including women who underreport sexual activity due to social stigma (for example among unpartnered women or adolescents), women who are not sexually active precisely because they lack contraception, or women who are dissatisfied with their current method of contraception. In addition, the estimates are based on more available data from partnered than unpartnered women.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Manas Ranjan Pradhan, International Institute for Population Sciences, who was not involved in the study, says, “The study estimates 1.176 billion women had need for contraception, of whom 162.9 million had unmet need; of those with an unmet need, 56.5% resided in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia and 26.5% were aged 15–24 years in 2019. The higher unmet need among partnered adolescent women represents a risk for unintended pregnancies, affecting the subsequent socioeconomic empowerment of these groups. The sociodemographic index influences the mCPR [modern contraceptive prevalence rate] and demand satisfaction among adolescents, probably due to vast inequalities on the basis of socioeconomic status and access to health-care services. Lower mCPR and higher unmet need might delay the realisation of the contraception-induced socioeconomic benefits of education and work. The study reinforces calls for implementation of strategies and programmes tailored to adolescents in countries with high unmet need among younger women."

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was conducted by researchers from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, United States.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com  

[1] Modern contraceptive methods included as voluntary male or female sterilisation, oral contraceptive pills, male or female condoms, diaphragms, spermicides and sponges, hormonal or non-hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, injections, contraceptive patches and rings, as well as emergency contraceptives

[2] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.

[3] GBD Super-region ‘High-income countries’ includes Western Europe, Southern Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, Australasia

IF YOU WISH TO PROVIDE A LINK FOR YOUR READERS, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING, WHICH WILL GO LIVE AT THE TIME THE EMBARGO LIFTS: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00936-9/fulltext

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JOURNAL

The Lancet

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00936-9/fulltext 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Measuring contraceptive method mix, prevalence, and demand satisfied by age and marital status in 204 countries and territories, 1970–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Jul-2022

COI STATEMENT

NF reports other funding support from WHO as a consultant from June to September 2019 and Gates Ventures since 2020, all outside the submitted work. NJH reports grants or contracts from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Citizen scientists are demographically homogenous: The need for a volunteer-centric approach

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Over the last century, the contributions of citizen scientists have proven a vital source of scientific data, with projects such as the Christmas Bird Count fueling high-impact research programs. However, less data has been accrued about those who actually participate in these important programs. Writing in BioScience, Bradley Allf (North Carolina State University) and colleagues turn the lens of inquiry to citizen science itself, examining the demographics and participation patterns of the volunteers.

Drawing on data from surveys of volunteers and from a citizen science platform, the authors found that 77% of the studied volunteers participated in multiple projects. This finding is of particular importance, say the authors, because it points to the possibility that a relatively small cohort of volunteers constitutes a large portion of the citizen science workforce. Past research focused on single projects would have missed such a phenomenon.

The authors also found that these most engaged citizen scientists were overwhelmingly White, with high degrees of educational attainment. "The multi-project participants were eight times more likely to be White and five times more likely to hold advanced degrees than the general population," say Allf and colleagues.

Such findings highlight a possible shortcoming of extant citizen science programs, which often count public engagement with science—especially among scientifically underserved groups—as a key goal. "In short," report Allf and colleagues, "citizen science participants are nearly exclusively individuals who, relatively speaking, already have access to science." Because of this, they say, "citizen science may not be effectively broadening public participation in science."

To address this issue, Allf and colleagues suggest further research that focuses on volunteers rather than on individual projects. Through such a volunteer-centric approach, they argue, "researchers can consider more holistically the systemic issues in citizen science design that exclude marginalized groups, perhaps leading to new solutions." Furthermore, they say, such research may highlight the ways in which those managing citizen science programs can leverage volunteers' multi-project participation to create novel learning pathways.

The article can be downloaded at https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/biosci/biac035.

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BioScience, published monthly by Oxford Journals, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). BioScience is a forum for integrating the life sciences that publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles. The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is an organization for professional scientific societies and organizations, and individuals, involved with biology. AIBS provides decision-makers with high-quality, vetted information for the advancement of biology and society. Follow BioScience on Twitter @AIBSbiology.

Oxford Journals is a division of Oxford University Press. Oxford Journals publishes well over 300 academic and research journals covering a broad range of subject areas, two-thirds of which are published in collaboration with learned societies and other international organizations. The division has been publishing journals for more than a century, and as part of the world’s oldest and largest university press, has more than 500 years of publishing expertise behind it. Follow Oxford Journals on Twitter @OxfordJourna

 

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JOURNAL

BioScience

DOI

10.1093/biosci/biac035 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Citizen Science as an Ecosystem of Engagement: Implications for Learning and Broadening Participation

University of Huddersfield to lead €1.5million global research project on the value of public service broadcasting

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

 

IMAGE: THE PROJECT HAS BEEN AWARDED €1.5MILLION BY THE COLLABORATION OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN EUROPE (CHANSE) TO ENABLE RESEARCHERS TO ENGAGE WITH PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTERS AROUND THE WORLD TO DISCOVER WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPENING TO THE INDUSTRY GLOBALLY. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY MARAH BASHIR ON UNSPLASH

IN the UK alone, the last decade has witnessed a huge change in the way people watch television.  Public service media organisations, such as the BBC, ITV, and so on, now must compete with global streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, etc… for audiences, revenue as well as talent. 

Now, a major international project entitled ‘Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms’ (PSM-AP) is to be led by the University of Huddersfield and will be the first of its kind on this scale.  The project has been awarded €1.5million by the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE) to enable researchers to engage with public service broadcasters around the world to discover what exactly is happening to the industry globally.  

Leading the research is the University’s Professor Catherine Johnson who has a long track record of working closely with digital media industry partners.  Widely regarded as one of the industry’s leading media and communications experts, Professor Johnson will oversee and work with project partners based in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, and the UK in order to carry out the necessary research.

The international project entitled ‘Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms’ (PSM-AP) will be led by the University of Huddersfield and is the first of its kind on this scale. (Image by Micolas J Leclercq on Unsplash)

Professor Johnson was recently appointed as one of the advisors to the Government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s College of Experts and explained that public service broadcasters are still very much watched across many countries that have public service broadcasting, however, there has been a shift towards on-demand viewing and watching on YouTube, Tik Tok, etc…. 

“Public Service Media organisations have responded to this,” she said, “by developing new production, delivery and aesthetic practices that could alter, undermine, or enhance the value that they provide to society and culture. 

“To understand how and why the rise of global platforms and streaming is transforming public service media, this project will utilise a comparative framework that builds on the six public service values of universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability and innovation as outlined by the European Broadcasting Union,” she added. 

The framework will be used to analyse 130 in-depth interviews with commissioning, channel/service, curation and audience research teams, the programmes and catalogues of public service media organisations, and trade, regulatory and policy documents in six countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Poland and the UK. 

“Our analysis will deliver a clearer understanding not only of how the age of platforms is transforming public service media across Europe but also the national, international, and transnational factors that are propelling or inhibiting change,” said Professor Johnson. 

The findings from this three-year research project will be disseminated and used to deliver recommendations to policymakers as well as industry leaders with advice on how to secure the ongoing public value of public service broadcasting through industry workshops, reports, policy briefs, blogs and press articles.