Star visibility eroding rapidly as night sky gets brighter: study

Issued on: 19/01/2023 - 

Rapidly growing light pollution -- skyglow -- is making it harder to see stars in the night sky with the naked eye © Mariana SUAREZ / AFP

Washington (AFP) – Light pollution is growing rapidly and in some places the number of stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky is being reduced by more than half in less than 20 years, according to a study released Thursday.

The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Science, said the increase in light pollution -- skyglow -- that they found was much larger than that measured by satellite observations of Earth at night.

For the study of the change in global sky brightness from artificial light, the researchers used stellar observations from 2011 to 2022 submitted by more than 51,000 "citizen scientists" around the world.

Participants in the "Globe at Night" project run by the US National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory were given star maps and asked to compare them to the night sky at their location.

The change in the number of visible stars reported was equivalent to a 9.6 percent per year annual increase in sky brightness, averaged over the locations of the participants, the researchers said.

Over an 18-year period, given such star brightness change, a location with 250 visible stars would see that number reduced to 100.

Most of the naked-eye star observations came from Europe and the United States said Christopher Kyba, one of the authors of the study, but there was also good participation in Uruguay, South Africa and Japan.

"The global trend in skyglow that we measure likely underestimates the trend in countries with the most rapid increases in economic development, because the rate of change in light emission is highest there," the researchers said.

The study coincided with the replacement of many outdoor lights with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), but the researchers said the impact on skyglow from the transition to LEDs is unclear.

"Some researchers have predicted that it will be beneficial; others, that it could be harmful because of spectral changes or a rebound effect, in which the high luminous efficacy of LEDs leads to more or brighter lights being installed or longer hours of operation," they said.

According to the study, the global LED market share for new general lighting grew from under one percent in 2011 to 47 percent in 2019.

"The visibility of stars is deteriorating rapidly, despite (or perhaps because of) the introduction of LEDs in outdoor lighting applications," the researchers said.

"Existing lighting policies are not preventing increases in skyglow, at least on continental and global scales."
'Confronted with the cosmos'

Kyba, a physicist at the German Research Center for Geoscience, told AFP that while the team was able to evaluate erosion of star visibility due to skyglow, not a lot of research has been done on its ecological impact.

"There's tons of research on light shining directly on animals and plants," he said. "But it's really hard to do experiments on the impact of skyglow.

"You're not going to do something like just turn off New York City and see what happens in the East River."

Science aside, light pollution has changed the character of the night sky.

"For all of human history, when people went outside at nighttime, they were sort of confronted with the cosmos, at least on clear nights with no moon," Kyba said.

"You'd walk outside and there's the stars, there's the Milky Way. It's there and it's shining down on you," he said.

"And now that's like a really unusual experience," he said. "It surely makes a difference to us as people that we don't have this experience that used to be a very universal experience."

The Globe at Night campaign hosts an interactive data map at globeatnight.org and is seeking volunteers to collect more observations in 2023.

© 2023 AFP

Stars disappear before our eyes, citizen scientists report

NOIRLab’s Globe at Night educational program reveals how increasing light pollution is robbing us of the night sky

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITIES FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY (AURA)

 

IMAGE: A STARTLING ANALYSIS FROM GLOBE AT NIGHT — A CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAM RUN BY NSF’S NOIRLAB — CONCLUDES THAT STARS ARE DISAPPEARING FROM HUMAN SIGHT AT AN ASTONISHING RATE. THE STUDY FINDS THAT, TO HUMAN EYES, ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING HAS DULLED THE NIGHT SKY MORE RAPIDLY THAN INDICATED BY SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS. THE STUDY SHOWCASES THE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTIONS THAT CITIZEN SCIENTISTS CAN MAKE IN ESSENTIAL FIELDS OF RESEARCH. THIS GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATES HOW THE GREATER THE AMOUNT OF LIGHT POLLUTION, AND THEREFORE SKYGLOW, THE FEWER THE STARS THAT ARE VISIBLE. view more 

CREDIT: NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA, P. MARENFELD

A startling analysis from Globe at Night — a citizen science program run by NSF’s NOIRLab — concludes that stars are disappearing from human sight at an astonishing rate. The study finds that, to human eyes, artificial lighting has dulled the night sky more rapidly than indicated by satellite measurements. The study published in the journal Science showcases the unique contributions that citizen scientists can make in essential fields of research.

From the glowing arc of the Milky Way to dozens of intricate constellations, the unaided human eye should be able to perceive several thousand stars on a clear, dark night. Unfortunately, growing light pollution has robbed about 30% of people around the globe and approximately 80% of people in the United States of the nightly view of their home galaxy. A new paper published in the journal Science concludes that the problem is getting rapidly worse.

New citizen-science-based research sheds alarming light on the problem of ‘skyglow’ — the diffuse illumination of the night sky that is a form of light pollution. The data for this study came from crowd-sourced observations collected from around the world as part of Globe at Night, a program run by NSF’s NOIRLab and developed by NRAO astronomer Connie Walker. The research reveals that skyglow is increasing more rapidly than shown in satellite measurements of Earth's surface brightness at night. 

“At this rate of change, a child born in a location where 250 stars were visible would be able to see only abound100 by the time they turned 18,” said Christopher Kyba, a researcher at the German Research Centre for Geosciences and lead author of the paper detailing these results.

Light pollution is a familiar problem that has many detrimental effects, not only on the practice of astronomy. It also has an impact on human health and wildlife, since it disrupts the cyclical transition from sunlight to starlight that biological systems have evolved alongside. Furthermore, the loss of visible stars is a poignant loss of human cultural heritage. Until relatively recently, humans throughout history had an impressive view of the starry night sky, and the effect of this nightly spectacle is evident in ancient cultures, from the myths it inspired to the structures that were built in alignment with celestial bodies.

Despite being a well-recognized issue, however, the changes in sky brightness over time are not well documented, particularly on a global scale.

Globe at Night has been gathering data on stellar visibility every year since 2006 [1]. Anyone can submit observations through the Globe at Night web application on a desktop or smartphone. After entering the relevant date, time and location, participants are shown a number of star maps. They then record which one best matches what they can see in the sky without any telescopes or other instruments.

This gives an estimate of what is called the naked eye limiting magnitude, which is a measure of how bright an object must be in order to be seen. This can be used to estimate the brightness of skyglow, because as the sky brightens, the fainter objects disappear from sight.

The authors of the paper analyzed more than 50,000 observations submitted to Globe at Night between 2011 and 2022, ensuring consistency by omitting entries that were affected by factors including cloud cover and moonlight. They focused on data from Europe and North America, since these regions had a sufficient distribution of observations across the land area as well as throughout the decade studied. The paper notes that the sky is likely brightening more quickly in developing countries, where satellite observations indicate the prevalence of artificial lighting is growing at a higher rate.

After devising a new method to convert these observations into estimates of the change in skyglow, the authors found that the loss of visible stars reported by Globe at Night indicates an increase in sky brightness of 9.6% per year over the past decade. This is much greater than the roughly 2% per year global increase in surface brightness measured by satellites.

“This shows that existing satellites aren't sufficient to study how Earth's night is changing,” said Kyba. “We've developed a way to ‘translate’ Globe at Night observations of star visibility made at different locations from year to year into continent-wide trends of sky brightness change. That shows that Globe at Night isn't just an interesting outreach activity, it's an essential measurement of one of Earth's environmental variables.”

Existing satellites are not well suited to measuring skyglow as it appears to humans, because there are no current instruments monitoring the whole Earth that can detect wavelengths shorter than 500 nanometers, which corresponds to the color cyan, or greenish blue. Shorter wavelengths, however, contribute disproportionately to skyglow, because they scatter more effectively in the atmosphere. White LEDs, now increasingly commonly used in high-efficiency outdoor lighting, have a peak in emission between 400 and 500 nanometers. 

“Since human eyes are more sensitive to these shorter wavelengths at nighttime, LED lights have a strong effect on our perception of sky brightness,” said Kyba. “This could be one of the reasons behind the discrepancy between satellite measurements and the sky conditions reported by Globe at Night participants.”

Beyond wavelength differences, space-based instruments do not measure light emitted horizontally very well, such as from illuminated signs or windows, but these sources are significant contributors to skyglow as seen from the ground. Crowd-sourced observations will therefore always be invaluable for investigating the direct human effects of sky brightness.

“The increase in skyglow over the past decade underscores the importance of redoubling our efforts and developing new strategies to protect dark skies,” said Walker. “The Globe at Night dataset is indispensable in our ongoing evaluation of changes in skyglow, and we encourage everyone who can to get involved to help protect the starry night sky.”

More information

[1] From 2006 to 2010, Globe at Night data were collected based on a paper rather than an online form, so they were incompatible and were not included in this analysis.

This research was presented in a paper accepted for the journal Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7781).

NSF’s NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (operated in cooperation with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

CosmoView Episodio 59: Stars D [VIDEO] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq778 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

Visibility of stars in the night sky declines faster than previously thought

This is shown by a study in Science based on a worldwide Citizen Science project on light pollution that has collected data over the last eleven years.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GFZ GEOFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM POTSDAM, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE

 

IMAGE: LIGHT POLLUTION IMPACT 1 – FROM EXCELLENT DARK SKY (LEFT) TO INNER CITY SKY (RIGHT) view more 

CREDIT: NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA, P. MARENFELD

People around the world are seeing fewer and fewer stars in the night sky. The change in star visibility can be explained by an increase in the sky brightness of 7-10 percent per year. The rate of change is faster than satellite measurements of artificial light emissions on Earth would at first suggest. This is the finding of a study published in the journal Science, conducted by a research group led by Christopher Kyba of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum with colleagues from the GFZ and the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. They analysed more than 50,000 naked-eye observations by citizen scientists around the world from 2011 to 2022 as part of the “Globe at Night” Citizen Science Project. The results show that citizen science data are an important supplement to previous measurement methods.

Light pollution background

Over a large part of the Earth's land surface, the sky continues to glow with an artificial twilight long after sunset. This “skyglow” is a form of light pollution that has serious effects on the environment and should therefore be the focus of research, as Constance Walker, co-author of the study and head of the Globe at Night project of NSF's NOIRLab since its inception, emphasizes. After all, many behaviours and physiological processes of living creatures are determined by daily and seasonal cycles – and thus influenced by light. “Skyglow affects both diurnal and nocturnal animals and also destroys an important part of our cultural heritage,” says Walker. The appearance of the night sky is changing, with negative effects on stargazing and astronomy.

Need for suitable measurement methods

The change in skyglow over time has not previously been measured globally. While it could in principle be measured by satellites, the only current sensors that monitor the entire Earth do not have sufficient accuracy or sensitivity.

A promising approach is therefore to use the observational power of people using the human eye as a sensor, and in doing so – within the framework of Citizen Science experiments – to rely on the power of the crowd. The “Globe at Night" project, initiated by the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, has been running since 2006. People all over the world can participate in this project.

With Citizen Science...

Participants look at their night sky, and then report which of a set of eight star charts best matches what they see using an online form. Each chart shows the sky under different levels of light pollution.

“The contributions of individual people work together as if they were a global sensor network, making new science possible,” says Christopher Kyba from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and the Ruhr University Bochum. Together with his GFZ colleague Yigit Öner Altıntas and Constance E. Walker and Mark Newhouse from NOIRLab, he has analyzed data from 51,351 participants around the world taken on cloud- and moon-free nights between 2011 and 2022. They were obtained from 19,262 locations worldwide, including 3,699 locations in Europe and 9,488 locations in North America.

In order to calculate a rate of change in sky brightness from this data and to take into account that the observers were also at different locations over the years, they made use of a global model for sky brightness based on satellite data from 2014.

...to surprising findings

“The rate at which stars are becoming invisible to people in urban environments is dramatic,” sums up Christopher Kyba, lead author of the study. The researchers found that the change in the number of visible stars can be explained by increases in night sky brightness. In Europe, they found a 6.5 per cent increase in brightness per year matched the data; in North America, it's 10.4 per cent.

To put these numbers into a more understandable context, Kyba explains the consequences for seeing stars in a place with a 9.6 per cent per year increase, which was the average over all locations worldwide. “If the development were to continue at that rate, a child born in a place where 250 stars are visible will only be able to see 100 stars there on his 18th birthday.”

Based on the slower growth in upward emissions seen in satellite data, the researchers were surprised by the speed of this development in skyglow. In fact, for the locations of the observers, the artificial brightness measured by satellite had slightly decreased (by 0.3 percent per year in Europe, by 0.8 percent in North America).

Causes for the difference between measurements from Earth and from space

Christopher Kyba believes that the difference between human observation and satellite measurements is probably due to changes in lighting practices: "Satellites are most sensitive to light that is directed upwards towards the sky. But it is horizontally emitted light that accounts for most of the skyglow," Kyba explains. “So, if advertisements and facade lighting become more frequent, bigger or brighter, they could have a big impact on skyglow without making much of a difference on satellite imagery.”

Another factor the authors cite is the widespread switch from orange sodium vapor lamps to white LEDs, which emit much more blue light. “Our eyes are more sensitive to blue light at night, and blue light is more likely to be scattered in the atmosphere, so contributes more to skyglow,” Kyba says. “But the only satellites that can image the whole Earth at night are not sensitive in the wavelength range of blue light.”

Limits of the study and further potential

However, the Citizen Science approach also has its limitations. For example, the number of participants from different regions of the world determines the significance of spatial and temporal trends. So far people from North America and Europe have had the largest participation in the experiment, and half of the Asian contributions come from a single country: Japan. “The most data comes from the regions of Earth where skyglow is currently most prevalent. That’s useful, but it means that we can’t say much about skyglow change in regions with few observations,” Kyba emphasizes. Especially in developing countries, rapid changes in artificial skyglow are suspected, but there have been few observations so far.

Two conclusions: Lighting policy and Citizen Science

The researchers draw two main conclusions from their findings: On the one hand, they show that current lighting policies, such as the use of LEDs, have not yet brought about any improvement, at least on a continental level, despite growing awareness of light pollution.

“And on the other hand, we were able to demonstrate that the Citizen Science data represent an important supplement to the previous measurement methods,” Kyba emphasizes.

Constance Walker adds, “If we had broader participation, we could identify trends for other continents, and possibly even for individual states and cities. The project is ongoing, so feel free to take a look tonight and let us know what you see!”

 

Further information on “Globe at Night” can be found here.

Light Pollution Impact 2 – From excellent dark sky (left) to inner city sky (right)

CREDIT

NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, P. Marenfeld

Astronaut photographs of parts of Calgary (Canada) show examples of how lighting changed from 2010-2021: New lighting has been installed and many streetlights have been converted from orange high pressure sodium to white LED. (Note: The photos are not taken with the same settings, and have different spatial resolution. Thus, the 2010 photo appears somewhat brighter.

CREDIT

Images courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center, georeferencing by GFZ Potsdam

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq7781 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Citizen scientists report global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars from 2011 to 2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jan-2023

The night sky is rapidly getting brighter, eroding star visibility worldwide

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Observations from citizen scientists worldwide over the past 12 years reveal a worrisome trend – stars in the night sky are becoming more difficult to see due to rapidly growing light pollution. The change in their visibility as reported by citizen scientists is equivalent to a 9.6% per year annual increase in sky brightness, an increase faster than satellites have indicated, and which occurred despite policies to prevent increases in light pollution. To put this in perspective, the authors note that under such sky brightness change, a child born in an area where 250 stars were visible would likely see fewer than 100 stars in the same location 18 years later.

In many inhabited places on Earth, the night sky never fully grows dark. It instead glows with an artificial twilight caused by the scatter of anthropogenic light in the atmosphere. This type of light pollution, called skyglow, is responsible for the visible brightening of the night sky and the erosion of our ability to see stars. Although the ubiquity and luminance of skyglow have increased exponentially over much of the last century, its global change over time is not well understood. Satellites that can measure global skyglow are limited in resolution and sensitivity and are often blind to the wavelengths of light produced by modern LED lights that have come to dominate lighting over the past decade. To better understand how growing light pollution is affecting our view of the stars, Christopher Kyba and colleagues evaluated 51,351 citizen scientist observations of naked-eye stellar visibility from 2011-2022. To determine the background brightness of the night sky, Kyba et al. asked participants worldwide to compare star maps of the night sky at different levels of light pollution to what they could see with their own eyes through the online “Globe at Night” platform. According to the findings, the night sky has increased in brightness from artificial light by roughly 7 to 10% per year, which is equivalent to a doubling of the night sky’s brightness in less than eight years. This increase is much higher than estimates of the evolution of artificial light emissions (~2% yearly) based on radiance measurements taken by satellites.  “Perhaps the most important message that the scientific community should glean from the Kyba et al. study is that light pollution is increasing, notwithstanding the countermeasures purportedly put into operation to limit it,” write Fabio Falchi and Salvador Bará in a related Perspective. “Awareness must greatly increase for artificial light at night to be perceived not as an always-positive thing, but as the pollutant it really is.”

For reporters interested in trends, several studies published in Science and Science Advances have reported the rapidly growing issue of light pollution and its environmental impact, including a Science study from March 1973 that discussed increases in outdoor illumination and the resultant impact on astronomy. A June 2016 Science Advances study by Fabio Falchi et al. presented a world atlas of artificial sky luminance that quantified the magnitude of artificial skyglow globally. In a November 2017 study also published in Science Advances, Kyba et al. used satellite data to show the expansion of Earth’s artificially lit outdoor surface area. Other recent studies have demonstrated the environmental risks associated with artificial lighting, including an August 2021 Science Advances study that demonstrated the detrimental impacts of street lighting on local insect populations and a September 2022 Science Advances study that highlighted the harmful effects of nighttime lighting to ecosystems across Europe.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq7781 

ARTICLE TITLE

Citizen scientists report global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars from 2011 to 2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jan-2023

22 YEARS LATE
NASA, Boeing team up to develop lower-emissions aircraft

Thu, January 19, 2023 


The US space agency NASA is teaming up with aviation giant Boeing to develop a next-generation commercial aircraft that emits less carbon.

NASA, whose purview also includes aeronautical research, will invest $425 million over seven years in the "Sustainable Flight Demonstrator" (SFD) project while Boeing and its partners will spend an estimated $725 million.

The goal is to produce future commercial airliners that are "more fuel efficient, with benefits to the environment, the commercial aviation industry, and to passengers worldwide," NASA chief Bill Nelson said.

"If we are successful, we may see these technologies in planes that the public takes to the skies in the 2030s," Nelson said in a statement on Wednesday.


The agreement calls for NASA and Boeing to build, test, and fly a full-scale single-aisle demonstrator aircraft.

"The technologies demonstrated and tested as part of the SFD program will inform future designs and could lead to breakthrough aerodynamics and fuel efficiency gains," Boeing said.

Boeing chief engineer Greg Hyslop said it "has the potential to make a major contribution toward a sustainable future."

Engineers will be seeking to design an aircraft with fuel consumption and emissions reductions of up to 30 percent relative to today's most efficient single-aisle aircraft, NASA said.

The agency plans to complete SFD testing by the late 2020s so the technologies and design can be applied to the next generation of single-aisle aircraft.

Single-aisle aircraft are the most common in airline fleets and account for nearly half of worldwide aviation emissions, NASA said.

Boeing and NASA plan to flight-test an innovative wing known as the transonic truss-braced wing that creates less drag and results in the burning of less fuel.

The extra-long, thin wings are mounted on top of the fuselage and stabilized by diagonal struts.

NASA and Boeing said development of the next-generation plane could help meet the White House and industry's objective of net-zero carbon emissions from aviation by 2050.

cl/des

Brazil's Lula vows to defeat 'fanatical far right', calls it 'new monster'

President Lula da Silva says he has never before seen his country "gripped by so much hate", blaming ex-leader Bolsonaro for chaos and hate politics.

"Although we have defeated Bolsonaro, we must still defeat hate, lies, disinformation, fanatics, because this society needs to return to being civilised," says Lula. ( Reuters )

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has spoken of his desire to defeat the "new monster" that is the "fanatical far-right," not just in his country but throughout the whole world.

"We have to challenge and defeat the new monster that is the emergence of a fanatical, rabid far-right that hates all of those that don't share their thoughts," Lula told university rectors at the presidential palace in Brasilia on Thursday.

Lula said this was "not only a Brazilian problem" but said he had never before seen the country "gripped by so much hate."

Leftist former trade unionist Lula took over at the beginning of this month from far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro after defeating his bitter rival in last October's election.

At 77, Lula is now serving his third term as president, having previously led Latin America's largest economy from 2003-10.

He compared populist ex-leader Bolsonaro's impact on the country to that of former US president Donald Trump — Bolsonaro was often branded the 'Tropical Trump' — or the right-wing leadership in Hungary and Italy.

"Although we have defeated Bolsonaro, we must still defeat hate, lies, disinformation, fanatics, because this society needs to return to being civilised."

On January 8, a week after Lula's return to office, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the seats of power in Brasilia, occupying the presidential palace, Congress and the supreme court, vandalising facades and smashing up offices.

Since then, around 2,000 people have been arrested, while almost 1,400 remain detained.

After the rampage, Lula dismissed over 50 of his security officers, expressing distrust in the military on dealing with the riots.

Lula blames Bolsonaro

In an interview with Globo News television channel, Lula pointed the finger at Bolsonaro over the chaos.

He said Bolsonaro's initial silence on the matter and his decision to fly to Miami just before it happened suggested that "he knew what would happen, and he had a lot to do with that."

"Maybe Bolsonaro hoped to return to Brazil amidst the glory of a coup d'etat."

Bolsonaro is being investigated on suspicion of instigating the uprising.

Anderson Torres, a former Bolsonaro justice minister who was in charge of Brasilia security but abroad when the riots happened, has been arrested on suspicion of collusion.

Like his former boss, Torres has denied any link to the riots.

On Wednesday night, Lula said he would welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 30 and would meet with US President Joe Biden in February to discuss a common approach to the far-right.

Brazil's Lula vows to defeat 'fanatical far 

right'

Issued on: 19/01/2023 - 

Brasília (AFP) – Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke on Thursday of his desire to defeat the "new monster" that is the "fanatical far right," not just in his country but throughout the whole world.

Leftist former trade unionist Lula took over at the beginning of this month from far right former president Jair Bolsonaro after defeating his bitter rival in last October's election.

At 77, Lula is now serving his third term as president having previously led Latin America's largest economy from 2003-10.

"We have to challenge and defeat the new monster that is the emergence of a fanatical, rabid far right that hates all of those that don't share their thoughts," Lula told university rectors at the presidential palace in Brasilia.

Lula said this was "not only a Brazilian problem" but said he had never before seen the country "gripped by so much hate."

He compared populist ex-leader Bolsonaro's impact on the country to that of former US president Donald Trump -- Bolsonaro was often branded the 'Tropical Trump' -- or the right wing leadership in Hungary and Italy.

"Although we have defeated Bolsonaro, we must still defeat hate, lies, disinformation, fanatics, because this society needs to return to being civilized."

On January 8, a week after Lula's return to office, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the seats of power in Brasilia, occupying the presidential palace, Congress and the supreme court, vandalizing facades and smashing up offices.

Since then around 2,000 people have been arrested, while almost 1,400 remain detained.

In an interview with Globo News television channel, Lula pointed the finger at Bolsonaro over the chaos.

He said Bolsonaro's initial silence on the matter and his decision to fly to Miami just before it happened suggested that "he knew what would happen, and he had a lot to do with that."

"Maybe Bolsonaro hoped to return to Brazil amidst the glory of a coup d'etat."

On Wednesday night, Lula said he would welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 30 and would meet with US President Joe Biden in February to discuss a common approach to the far right.

© 2023 AFP

Astronomers Detect Signal From Extraordinarily Distant Galaxy

Story by Monisha Ravisetti • CNET

Scientists have managed to do something we'd previously thought impossible -- capturing a special kind of radio signal from a galaxy that floats nearly 9 billion light-years away from Earth, they announced Monday in a journal known as the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.


One of the dishes of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune in Maharashtra, India. National Centre for Radio Astrophysics© Provided by CNET

I'm talking about a realm with stars, maybe planets, probably black holes -- the whole nine yards of cosmic goodies -- that existed when the universe was only about 5 billion years old. That's tremendously young; an era long before our solar system materialized and life as we know it came to be.

This marks the first time anyone has caught this type of radio signal -- associated with a wavelength known as the 21-centimeter line -- from such an utterly massive distance.

"It's the equivalent to a look-back in time of 8.8 billion years," Arnab Chakraborty, a cosmologist at McGill University's Department of Physics and co-author of a study on the detection, said in a statement.

Why we love the 21-cm line

No matter where you find yourself in the universe, you'll probably end up around some sort of hydrogen.

No. 1 in the periodic table and No. 1 in our hearts (literally, because our bloodstream carries the stuff) hydrogen is considered the most abundant element in our cosmic expanse. You'll find it in water; in your body; in the air; in the sun. Hydrogen is everywhere. All types of it. And it makes sense why.

Different elements are pretty much different combos of protons and electrons -- and hydrogen has exactly one of each. It's simple. Clean. The perfect element.

OK, I'll stop ranting about hydrogen now. The point here is, because hydrogen permeates our universe, it's a terrific way to map-out where everything is and understand how the cosmos is evolving. You just have to follow the hydrogen -- neutral hydrogen gas, to be exact.

"The reservoir of cold atomic neutral hydrogen gas provides the basic fuel for star formation in a galaxy," the study authors wrote. "Understanding the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time requires knowledge of the cosmic evolution of this neutral gas."

And the 21-cm line is a radio wavelength emitted by a process carried out by none other than… hydrogen. In fact, when it was first officially coined in 1951, it was literally called the hydrogen line.

So with this in mind, astronomers basically point their radio telescopes at the sky, pick up a bunch of 21-cm line wavelength signals and try to figure out where they're coming from.

Because of the 21-cm line, for instance, we've been able to gawk at the Milky Way's stunning spiral structure, observe the ins and outs of our galactic neighbor, Andromeda, and survey the sparkly hazes of the Magellanic Cloud duo. But what these three realms have in common is that they're right next door. We live in one, and the other two are quite nearby as well -- Andromeda is only about 2.5 million light-years away.

"A galaxy emits different kinds of radio signals. Until now, it's only been possible to capture this particular signal from a galaxy nearby, limiting our knowledge to those galaxies closer to Earth," Chakraborty said.

However, the 21-cm line has sometimes offered a peek into faraway corners of the universe -- previous record-holders for this very special signal include radio waves originating some 5 billion years away. But nothing really compares to the team's latest detection that almost doubles such a distance.

Tapping into the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, Chakraborty and fellow researchers caught a 21-cm line radio signal from a galaxy nearly 9 billion light-years away with a clunky little robot name -- SDSSJ0826+5630 -- that allowed them to observe things like gas composition in the extraordinarily distant menagerie of stars.



This is an image of the radio signal from the distant galaxy. Don't think too hard about it. Just realize that this pic depicts something billions of light-years away from where you're sitting. Chakraborty & Roy/NCRA-TIFR/GMRT© Provided by CNET

Most notably, they saw that the atomic mass of this particular galaxy's gas content equals almost twice the mass of stars visible to us, meaning it's a lot sparklier than once thought.

General relativity strikes again

"Thanks to the help of a naturally occurring phenomenon called gravitational lensing, we can capture a faint signal from a record-breaking distance," Chakraborty said.

Gravitational lensing, in a nutshell, refers to how light (visible or not) emanating from stars or other spacey objects gets warped and distorted while passing by a highly gravitationally dense object. It's a consequence of Einstein's mind-bending theory of general relativity -- which you can read about in much more detail here.

In this case, the gravitationally lensed "light" is the 21-cm line signal, and the hyperdense object is an entire galaxy that sits between the signal's source and the observing team's telescope. "This effectively results in the magnification of the signal by a factor of 30, allowing the telescope to pick it up," Nirupam Roy, an associate professor in the department of physics at the Indian Institute of Science and co-author of the study, said in a statement.



An Illustration showing detection of the signal from a distant galaxy, gravitationally lensed. Redshift refers to how far away something is from Earth's vantage point. Higher redshift values means something is farther away. This signal falls around redshift z ~1.3. Swadha Pardesi© Provided by CNET

That's huge because signals like this one generally start to fade as they travel through the void of space, making it rather hard for scientists to catch them before they vanish."This will help us understand the composition of galaxies at much greater distances from Earth," Chakraborty said.

And going forward, according to the research team, these results demonstrate that combining gravitational lensing with radio astronomy could, one day, unveil a flurry of secrets about the early universe. Perhaps it'll reveal a tangle of cosmic trails we never knew to follow.

TOXIC MASCULINITY STARTS YOUNG
Anger grows in Virginia city where first-grader shot teacher

By BEN FINLEY and DENISE LAVOIE

Community members from around Newport News pack into the Newport News Public Schools Administration building on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, in Newport News, Va., during a public comment period. Community members spoke about issues and solutions to violence in schools following the shooting at Richneck Elementary by a six-year-old that left a teacher in critical condition. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — When a 6-year-old shot and wounded his first-grade teacher in this shipbuilding city near Virginia’s coast, the community reacted with collective shock.

But the sentiment has percolated into rage from parents and particularly from teachers, with many lambasting school administrators Tuesday night for what they called a misguided emphasis on attendance and other education statistics over the safety of children and staff.

The anger in Newport News is bubbling up during a decadeslong pendulum swing that’s been moving American schools away from suspensions and expulsions, experts say. But some school systems are still seeking a “happy medium” between strict discipline and a gentler approach.

During a three-hour school board meeting dedicated solely to public comment, Newport News teachers and parents said students who assaulted classmates and staff were routinely allowed to stay in the classroom with few consequences. They said the shooting of Abigail Zwerner could have been prevented if not for a toxic environment in which teachers’ concerns are systemically ignored.
MORE COVERAGE:– Shooting by 6-year-old raises complex cultural questions

“Every day in every one of our schools, teachers, students and other staff members are being hurt,” high school librarian Nicole Cooke told the board. “Every day, they’re hit. They’re bitten. They’re beaten. And they’re allowed to stay so that our numbers look good.”

Addressing superintendent George Parker, Cooke said: “If Abigail had been respected, she wouldn’t be in the hospital right now.”

Zwerner was shot Jan. 6 as she taught her first-grade class at Richneck Elementary. There was no warning and no struggle before the 6-year-old pointed the gun at his teacher and fired one round, police said.

The bullet pierced Zwerner’s hand and struck her chest. The 25-year-old hustled her students out of the classroom before being rushed to the hospital.

Newport News police said the 6-year-old’s mother legally purchased the gun but that it was unclear how her son gained access to it. A Virginia law prohibits leaving a loaded gun where it is accessible to a child under 14, a misdemeanor crime punishable with a maximum one-year prison sentence and $2,500 fine. No charges have been brought against the mother so far.

Community reaction shifted into anger late last week after the superintendent revealed that Richneck administrators had learned the child may have had a weapon before the shooting. But a search did not find the 9mm handgun despite staff looking through his bag.

Zwerner’s shooting was “completely preventable — if the red flags had been taken seriously and proper procedures clearly communicated and followed,” Amber Thomas, a former school psychologist in Newport News, told the board.

Thomas left the school system last year after working there for a decade. In an interview with The Associated Press, she recalled a time when a “teacher was assaulted by a student — and that student faced no disciplinary action at all.”

“A school counselor and I were often called to intervene with explosive behaviors,” said Thomas, who served three elementary schools at a time, although not Richneck. “And the administrator would see what was going on and turn around and walk the other way.”

Cindy Connell, a middle school teacher who also addressed the board, told the AP that school system leaders fear angering parents and are too focused on limiting discipline such as suspensions.

They’re afraid, she said, that pulling kids out of the classroom will imperil a school’s accreditation.

“Our administrators are under an intense pressure to make everything appear better than it is in reality,” Connell said.

Zwerner’s shooting did not shock Connell.

“I have teacher friends who have been hit by kindergarteners, kicked by kindergarteners, punched by kindergarteners, stabbed with pencils by kindergarteners,” she said. “So the only difference is that this child had access to a weapon at home. So, if you put those two things together, I’m not surprised.”

In a statement released late Wednesday, the Newport News School Board thanked the teachers, parents, students and others who shared their concerns “with candor” at the board’s meeting on Tuesday.

“We listened intently and we are reflecting on each speaker’s comments. We know our community wants action and we are determined to follow up on the recommendations and concerns we heard,” the board said in its statement. “In the coming days, weeks and months, the School Board will take the necessary steps to restore public confidence in Newport News Public Schools.”

William Koski, a Stanford law professor and director of the school’s Youth and Education Law Project, said many schools in the U.S. had strict zero-tolerance discipline policies in the 1990s, but began to depart from that approach about a decade later, as concerns grew that suspensions and expulsions were failing to help students, while feeding the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionately affecting Black children.

“If you get expelled a lot, you are just more likely to head down that path, to not graduate, to end up not being a very productive person,” Koski said.

Educators have shifted to a gentler approach that focuses on creating a safe and positive school climate, while zeroing in on the root causes of behavioral problems.

Koski said he understands the frustrations of teachers in Newport News and elsewhere. He said that some school systems may still be in search of a “happy medium” between the two approaches.

But Republicans in Virginia’s House of Delegates appear to want to push the pendulum back. A bill filed last month would require the state Department of Education to establish a uniform discipline system for students. It would include criteria for teachers to remove disruptive students from class, while making removal mandatory if the behavior is violent.

Newport News is a racially diverse city of about 185,000 people — about 45% white and 41% Black — that sits along the James River near the Chesapeake Bay. It’s probably best known for its sprawling shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other U.S. Navy vessels.

About 15% of the population lives in poverty, according to U.S. Census data. More than 400 of the nearly 1,000 incidents of violent crime in the city in 2021 involved a handgun or firearm, according to FBI statistics.

“Gun violence has become a constant for our students,” William Fenker, an eighth-grade science teacher, told the board. “It has been a salient issue in our community for some time now ... (and) has even made its way into our schools.”

Newport News schools have endured two other shootings in a little over a year.

In September 2021, two 17-year-old students were wounded when a 15-year-old boy fired shots in a crowded high school hallway after he had a fight with one of the students.

Two months after that shooting, an 18-year-old student fatally shot a 17-year-old in the parking lot of a different high school after a football game. Police said the teens exchanged “gestures” in the gym before an altercation broke out.

“Our students do not wonder if there will be another school shooting,” Fenker told the board. “They wonder when and where the next shooting will be.”

Last week, the school board announced that 90 walk-through metal detectors would be placed in schools across Newport News, starting with the one where Zwerner was shot.

But that failed to satisfy many parents at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

Doug Marmon, who has two children in school, called for the removal of the school system’s executive leadership and for many more security measures. He also wants the system to change how it addresses bad behavior.

“Students need to be held accountable for their actions, regardless of age or circumstances — not transferred to another school or placed in a different classroom,” he said.

Another parent, David Wilson, said the problem starts at home. But he also questioned the impact of removing children from the classroom.

“We can do what everybody wants to do — we can start suspending more kids, sending them home,” Wilson said.

“So you just prevented a school shooting but you just caused a 7-Eleven shooting,” he said. “You didn’t solve the issue. You shifted the issue from one thing to another.”

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Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia.

In Pakistan, trans men search for inclusion, visibility

By RIAZAT BUTT

Pakistani trans man Aman, who asked not be identifiable in the photo, looks out at his home after an interview with The Associated Press, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. Trans people are considered outcasts by many in Pakistan, despite some progress with a law protecting their rights and court rulings that allow them to choose a gender that is neither male nor female. But the struggle for acceptance and inclusion is harder for Pakistan's trans men, who say they lack the same level of support and visibility as trans women, who are in public office, in films, and on TV. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Aman, a 22-year-old transgender man from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, says he was always close to his father. When he was little and it was cold out, his father held his hands to warm them. When he was at university, his father would wait until he got home to eat dinner together, regardless of how late it was.

Now they are cut off. Aman’s decision to live as a man has cost him everything. His parents and five siblings no longer speak to him. He dropped out of university and had to leave home. He has attempted suicide three times.

Trans men face deep isolation in Pakistan. The country, with a conservative Muslim majority, has entrenched beliefs on gender and sexuality, so trans people are often considered outcasts. But trans women have a degree of toleration because of cultural traditions. Trans women in public office, on news programs, in TV shows and films, even on the catwalk, have raised awareness about a marginalized and misunderstood community.

The Pakistani movie and Oscar contender “Joyland” caused an uproar last year for its depiction of a relationship between a married man and a trans woman, but it also shone a spotlight on the country’s transgender community.

Trans men, however, remain largely invisible, with little mobilization, support or resources. Trans women have growing activist networks — but, according to Aman and others, they rarely incorporate or deal with trans men and their difficulties.

“It’s the worst,” said Aman. “We are already disowned by our families and blood relatives, then the people we think are our people also exclude us.”

Trans women have been able to carve out their space in the culture because of the historic tradition of “khawaja sira,” originally a term for male eunuchs working in South Asia’s Mughal empire hundreds of years ago. Today, the term is generally associated with people who were born male and identify as female. Khawaja sira culture also has a traditional support system of “gurus,” prominent figures who lead others.

But there is no space within the term or the culture surrounding it for people who were born female and identify as male.

“Every khawaja sira is transgender, but not all transgenders are khawaja sira,” said Mani, a representative for the trans male community in Pakistan. “People have been aware of the khawaja sira community for a long time, but not of trans men.”

He set up a nonprofit group in 2018 because he saw nothing being done for trans men, their well-being or mental health.

Trans people have seen some progress in protecting their rights. Supreme Court rulings allow them to self-identify as a third gender, neither male nor female, and have underscored they have the same rights as all Pakistani citizens.

Although Mani was involved in the trans rights bill, most lobbying and advocacy work has been from transgender women since it became law.

“Nobody talks about trans men or how they are impacted by the act,” said Mani. “But this is not the right time to talk about this because of the campaign by religious extremists (to veto changes to the act). I don’t want to cause any harm to the community.”

Another reason for trans men’s low visibility is that females lead a more restricted life than males in Pakistan, with limits on what they can do, where they can go and how they can live. Family honor is tied to the behavior of women and girls, so they have less room to behave outside society’s norms. On a practical level, even if a girl wanted to meet trans people and get involved in the community, she wouldn’t be able to because she wouldn’t be allowed out, said Aman.

Coming from a privileged and educated family, Aman said his parents indulged him as a child, letting him behave in ways seen as male and dress in a boyish way. He wore a boy’s uniform to school.

But there came a time when he was expected to live and look like a girl. That meant fewer freedoms and the prospect of marriage. He didn’t want that life and knew there were operations to change his gender. But his father told him he was too young and would have to wait until he was 18, apparently hoping he would grow out of it.

Aman had nobody to speak to about his gender identity struggles. He used social media and search engines, making contact with a trans man in India who connected him with a WhatsApp group of trans men in Pakistan.

Aman grew his hair long and dressed like a girl “just to survive” while still at home, he said. He also felt he shouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the family’s honor.

“These restrictions created a war in my mind,” he said. “You have to socialize, and it was difficult for me because I had to socialize as a girl.”

He wasn’t allowed male friends because of the taboos around mixing with the opposite sex, nor was he allowed female friends because his parents feared it would lead to a lesbian relationship.

Still, Aman set goals to get educated, earn money and be independent, planning eventually to live as a man. By 2021, he was on hormone therapy and his voice was changing.

But it all changed when a family member asked outright if Aman was changing his gender. The question inflamed all the doubts and worries his parents already had about his steps to transition. They disowned him, saying he could no longer live under their roof if he wanted to live as a man.

“They said everything can be tolerated but we can’t tolerate this,” Aman said. His mother said it would hurt his siblings and their marital prospects. His sisters locked him in a bathroom once. Only his older brother supported him.

Aman moved out and began living alone – and fully as a man.

Mani has helped, giving him an office job at the non-governmental organization. Still, Aman barely gets by and faces constant problems. One is that he hasn’t changed his gender to male officially on his ID card, which he needs to vote, open a bank account, apply for jobs and access government benefits including health care.

He went once to NADRA, the government agency responsible for ID cards, but there the officials harassed him. They inspected him, talked derisively about him, and demanded a bribe. One official felt his chest.

He feels isolated.

“I’m satisfied with my gender, but I’m not happy to live anymore,” he said. “I love my family. I need my father, I need my brother.”

Art professor sues after firing over Prophet Muhammad images

By MARGARET STAFFORD

Aram Wedatalla, a Hamline University senior and the president of Muslim Student Association (MSA), cries during a news conference at CAIR-MN office, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Minneapolis. A Hamline University lecturer showed a painting of the Prophet Muhammad and Wedatalla was one of the students in the class when the image was displayed. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Attorneys for an adjunct art professor said Tuesday she is suing the Minnesota university that dismissed her after a Muslim student objected to depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a global art course, while the university admitted to a “misstep” and plans to hold public conversations about academic freedom.

In her lawsuit, Erika López Prater alleges that Hamline University — a small, private school in St. Paul — subjected her to religious discrimination and defamation, and damaged her professional and personal reputation.

“Among other things, Hamline, through its administration, has referred to Dr. López Prater’s actions as ‘undeniably Islamophobic,’″ her attorneys said in a statement. “Comments like these, which have now been published in news stories around the globe, will follow Dr. López Prater throughout her career, potentially resulting in her inability to obtain a tenure track position at any institution of higher education.”

In Minnesota, a lawsuit can be started by serving a summons and a complaint to the party being sued. Attorneys for López Prater said the lawsuit was served to Hamline University on Tuesday and will soon be filed in court.

Hamline University President Fayneese Miller and Ellen Watters, the Board of Trustees chair, released a joint statement Tuesday saying recent “communications, articles and opinion pieces” have led the school to “review and re-examine our actions.”

“Like all organizations, sometimes we misstep,” the statement said. “In the interest of hearing from and supporting our Muslim students, language was used that does not reflect our sentiments on academic freedom. Based on all that we have learned, we have determined that our usage of the term ‘Islamophobic’ was therefore flawed.”

The statement did not address the lawsuit, but said the university strongly supports academic freedom, which should co-exist with support for students. The university plans to hold two public conversations in coming months, one on academic freedom and student care and another on academic freedom and religion.

Last October López Prater showed the 14th-century painting depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on Islamic art. For many Muslims, visual depictions of the Prophet Muhammad violate their faith, which López Prater knew.

According to the lawsuit, López Prater’s course syllabus included a note that students would view images of religious figures, including the Prophet Muhammad. The syllabus also included an offer to work with students uncomfortable with viewing those images.

She also warned the class immediately before showing the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. She said in media interviews last week that her goal was to teach students about the “rich diversity” of attitudes toward such imagery.

López Prater has said she and the department chair were discussing her teaching a new course, but after the student’s complaint she was told “her services were no longer needed.”

Hamline’s president previously said the professor’s contract was not renewed following the fall semester.

The lawsuit alleges that instead of Hamline recognizing López Prater showed the images with a proper academic purpose, the university chose to impose the student’s religious view that no one should ever view images of the prophet on all other students and employees.

On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights organization for Muslims, disputed the belief that López Prater’s behavior was Islamophobic. The group said professors who analyze images of the Prophet Muhammad for academic purposes are not the same as “Islamophobes who show such images to cause offense.”

At a news conference last week organized by supporters of López Prater’s firing, the student who filed the complaint said she had never seen a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad until the October class

“It just breaks my heart that I have to stand here to tell people that something is Islamophobic and something actually hurts all of us, not only me,” said Aram Wedatalla, president of Hamline’s Muslim Student Association.

The university said on Tuesday it has learned much about the complexity of displaying images of the Prophet Muhammad and understands differing opinions on the issue exist within the Muslim community.

“Higher education is about learning and growing. We have certainly learned and continue to grow as we generate new knowledge to share with all of our Hamline community,” the statement said.

Climate misinformation ‘rocket boosters’ on Musk’s Twitter

 New research shows climate misinformation has been flourishing on Twitter since Elon Musk purchased the platform in 2022. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Search for the word “climate” on Twitter and the first automatic recommendation isn’t “climate crisis” or “climate jobs” or even “climate change” but instead “climate scam.”

Clicking on the recommendation yields dozens of posts denying the reality of climate change and making misleading claims about efforts to mitigate it.

Such misinformation has flourished on Twitter since it was bought by Elon Musk last year, but the site isn’t the only one promoting content that scientists and environmental advocates say undercuts public support for policies intended to respond to a changing climate.

“What’s happening in the information ecosystem poses a direct threat to action,” said Jennie King, head of climate research and response at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit. “It plants those seeds of doubt and makes people think maybe there isn’t scientific consensus.”

The institute is part of a coalition of environmental advocacy groups that on Thursday released a report tracking climate change disinformation in the months before, during and after the U.N. climate summit in November.

The report faulted social media platforms for, among other things, failing to enforce their own policies prohibiting climate change misinformation. It is only the latest to highlight the growing problem of climate misinformation on Twitter.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, allowed nearly 4,000 advertisements on its site — most bought by fossil fuel companies — that dismissed the scientific consensus behind climate change and criticized efforts to respond to it, the researchers found.

In some cases, the ads and the posts cited inflation and economic fears as reasons to oppose climate policies, while ignoring the costs of inaction. Researchers also found that a significant number of the accounts posting false claims about climate change also spread misinformation about U.S. elections, COVID-19 and vaccines.

Twitter did not respond to questions from The Associated Press. A spokesperson for Meta cited the company’s policy prohibiting ads that have been proven false by its fact-checking partners, a group that includes the AP. The ads identified in the report had not been fact-checked.

Under Musk, Twitter laid off thousands of employees and made changes to its content moderation that its critics said undercut the effort. In November, the company announced it would no longer enforce its policy against COVID-19 misinformation. Musk also reinstated many formerly banned users, including several who had spread misleading claims about climate change. Instances of hate speech and attacks on LGBTQ people soared.

Tweets containing “climate scam” or other terms linked to climate change denial rose 300% in 2022, according to a report released last week by the nonprofit Advance Democracy. While Twitter had labeled some of the content as misinformation, many of the popular posts were not labeled.

Bruce McDougal watches embers fly over his property as the Bond Fire burns through the Silverado community in Orange County, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2020.

Musk’s new verification system could be part of the problem, according to a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, another organization that tracks online misinformation. Previously, the blue checkmarks were held by people in the public eye such as journalists, government officials or celebrities.

Now, anyone willing to pay $8 a month can seek a checkmark. Posts and replies from verified accounts are given an automatic boost on the platform, making them more visible than content from users who don’t pay.

When researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate analyzed accounts verified after Musk took over, they found they spread four times the amount of climate change misinformation compared with users verified before Musk’s purchase.

Verification systems are typically created to assure users that the accounts they follow are legitimate. Twitter’s new system, however, makes no distinction between authoritative sources on climate change and anyone with $8 and an opinion, according to Imran Ahmed, the center’s chief executive.

“We found,” Ahmed said, “it has in fact put rocket boosters on the spread of lies and disinformation.”

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This story has been updated to correct the last name of Imran Ahmed.