Australian councils told to cut emissions rather than spend millions on overseas carbon offsets


Joe Hinchliffe
Mon, 23 January 2023

Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP

Renewed questions are being asked about Australian councils’ use of international projects to offset local carbon emissions, off the back of a Guardian investigation that found 90% of rainforest credits issued by one leading company were likely worthless.

The research into Verra, a world leader in the rapidly growing voluntary offsets market, found that the majority of rainforest offset credits were likely “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions.

The company strongly disputes the studies’ conclusions, has strenuously defended its projects and challenged the methods used to undermine their credibility, saying they cannot capture the true impact of projects on the ground. They say this explains the difference between the credits it approves and the emission reductions estimated by scientists.


But the revelations have energised critics of public entities for using offsets rather than concentrating on reducing their own emissions.

Fifteen local governments in Australia, including those in central Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, trade offsets through Verra’s registry platform, spending millions of dollars to claim carbon-neutral status.

While the vast majority are not the rainforest credits that were the subject of the Guardian investigation, and its findings are not applicable to them, they are mainly for overseas-based projects, prompting questions about why local governments aren’t spending that money trying to reduce their own emissions.

Brisbane city council, Australia’s largest local government, spent $6 million last year offsetting its emissions, including banking 130,000 tonnes of carbon emissions on a landfill gas recovery and power generation project in China.

University of Melbourne climate futures senior research fellow Lily O’Neill described it as “a joke” that an organisation whose core function is to dispose of waste would spend money reducing emissions on that same activity offshore.

O’Neill said that offsetting was only valid as a last resort for emissions that could not be avoided.

“Does anybody [at council] go out and check that these carbon credits are being generated in the way that they say they will be?” she said.

Brisbane city council did not respond to Guardian Australia questions about what due diligence it does on overseas offsets projects.

The Labor opposition in Brisbane, led by Jared Cassidy, has long been critical of council’s offset spending and described the Guardian investigation as a “wake-up call”.

Related:Qantas, Origin and other Australian companies urged to check effectiveness of overseas rainforest carbon credits

“The only large-scale action a council can take to reduce emissions on a citywide scale is remove organic material from landfill,” he said. “You can’t simply buy your way out of it.

“If you want to make real change you start in your own back yard.”

O’Neill said there were high-value offset projects that were working, including First Nations-led emissions reductions projects.

Brisbane was among the councils that did fund some Australian-based initiatives, including Indigenous-led savannah fire management in Arnhem Land. But more than 90% of Brisbane city council’s offset funding was spent on projects abroad.

Many other councils – including Woollahra in Sydney, Subiaco in Perth and Moreland, Moonee Valley, Maroondah and Yarra in Melbourne – obtained 100% of their credits from overseas-based renewable energy projects.

Queensland University of Technology’s pro vice-chancellor of sustainability and research integrity, Kerrie Wilson, also advised that local governments should be “looking at things in their own back yard” as they strive to achieve carbon neutrality.

“That’s challenging, because it requires a focus on our internal policies and our own practices and our own behaviours rather than relying on offsetting,” she said.

Wilson said QUT had invested in a solar farm in western Queensland in an effort to achieve carbon neutrality.

“You have more oversight, transparency and assurance around the integrity if they are projects that you can touch and feel and identify,” she said.

Brisbane city council did not respond to questions about whether it was reviewing its offset program but did say it was currently undertaking “a major food waste recycling pilot involving 6,000 households across 30 suburbs”.

A City of Sydney spokesperson said that over the past few years it had been “buying an increasing share of high-quality local carbon offsets” and aimed to have 100% high-quality Australian regenerative offsets by 2025.

The City of Melbourne is understood to be reviewing its past and future offsets following the Chubb review, which this month recommended a new integrity body be set up for Australia’s carbon credits scheme.

AUSTRALIA
Federal government to intervene in transport union’s high court fight against Qantas


Paul Karp
Tue, 24 January 2023

Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

The federal government will join the Transport Workers’ Union’s (TWU) high court fight with Qantas as the airline bids to overturn a ruling that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handlers’ jobs.

The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, filed a notice of appearance on 16 January to intervene in the case, in which Qantas hopes to overturn a full federal court decision exposing it to a mammoth compensation bill for laying off staff at 10 airports in November 2020.

In July 2021 the federal court ruled Qantas’s outsourcing of the workers was in part driven by a desire to avoid industrial action, which is a breach of the Fair Work Act.

Qantas had claimed the outsourcing was a necessary financial measure that could save it $100m annually and reduce future spending on ground handling equipment such as tugs and baggage loaders.

Related: Fixation on Qantas won’t end, even if string of incidents were unconnected

The high court granted Qantas leave to appeal in December, on the grounds that at the time the jobs were outsourced, the workers had no right to take industrial action.

The national secretary of the TWU, Michael Kaine, said the case had wide ramifications.

“Of course this is now all in the hands of the high court to determine, but we are hopeful the [government’s] intervention is to highlight that the Qantas position, if upheld, would seriously undermine the protective intention of the laws.”

The chair of the Senate’s employment legislation committee and a former TWU national secretary, Labor senator Tony Sheldon, said the government had an obligation to stand by its interpretation of the act.

“This is a matter that will affect many Australians into the future,” he said.

“The act has, in my view, the intent that workers’ interests will be protected, and that in circumstances such as this, after two court findings in their favour, they can get their jobs back … that there is a remedy.”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Sheldon blamed the previous Coalition government for providing $2bn of subsidies to Qantas during the pandemic “without any obligations” on the airline, allowing it to outsource jobs.

“We’ve seen the consequences for Qantas’s performance,” he said.

In its submissions filed on Friday, Qantas argued that its ground staff were prohibited from taking protected industrial action until their existing pay deal expired on 31 December 2020, a month after the decision to outsource their jobs.

Related: Qantas flight from Sydney to Fiji forced to turn back after ‘potential mechanical issue’

Qantas said it should not be penalised “for taking adverse action to prevent an employee acquiring future rights, the exercise of which at the time of the adverse action would have been unlawful”.

The law “simply does not extend so far as to protect a person from adverse action in respect of rights that they do not presently have”, it said.

Qantas said it had done no more than exercise an employer’s right to “bring the employment relationship to an end” rather than allow it to continue until the law “might confer on the employee greater rights”.

In December, Kaine accused Qantas of “dragging out a costly legal battle rather than reinstate or compensate the experienced workers”.

“Illegally sacking 1,700 workers in one fell swoop to avoid enterprise bargaining rights is unprecedented in Australia,” he said.

Kaine said that “standards in aviation will continue to fall off a cliff if we allow excessive bonuses to be tied to the degradation of secure jobs and decent wages and conditions.”

In a statement in December, Qantas said it had always maintained “the decision to outsource our ground handling function was based on lawful commercial reasons in response to the unprecedented impact of the Covid crisis”.

Since the easing of Covid travel restrictions, airlines have struggled with high demand for flights, and workforce shortages.

Related: Size does matter when it comes to successfully complaining about airlines on social media

Qantas has been hit by consumer complaints about cancelled flights and delays of up to three months returning lost luggage.

Unions have stepped up their rhetoric against the airline after a string of incidents including an emergency landing in Azerbaijan in December and a mayday call from an Auckland to Sydney flight in January.

In December, the government passed its first major industrial relations bill, despite warnings from Qantas that multi-employer bargaining and other changes could force it to cut marginal routes.

In November, Burke told the National Press Club that Labor had engaged in “direct negotiation” with Qantas over the bill.

“I have to say the Qantas position was don’t change a single law, and that was never an option for the government,” he said.

“I don’t accept the argument that if you do anything to get wages moving for a company like Qantas, that somehow everything is in jeopardy.

“If you look at the current laws, it’s hard to find many companies that have had more different ways of working around the current laws than Qantas has.”

GLOBALIZATION
The Mumbai atelier that's the secret workshop of top French fashion

Glenda KWEK with Olga NEDBAEVA in Paris
Mon, 23 January 2023 


Sitting in a lotus position, four men weave glittering beads through gold thread on an organza sheet, carefully constructing a wedding dress that will soon wow crowds at Paris Fashion Week.

For once, the French couturier behind the design, Julien Fournie, is determined to put these craftsmen in the spotlight: his new collection, showing in Paris on Tuesday, is entirely made with fabrics from Mumbai.

He says a sort of "design imperialism" means that French fashion houses often play down the fact that their fabrics are made outside France.

"The houses which don't admit it are perhaps afraid of losing their clientele," Fournie told AFP.

But that is absurd, he continued.

"India is number one in the world in embroidery. It's ancestral. They've been dressing maharajas in gold-embroidered outfits since the 16th century."

Fournie works with a company called Creations By Shanagar (meaning "to adorn" in Sanskrit), housed in a non-descript beige building near Mumbai's international airport.

Dozens of men in grey polo shirts sit cross-legged on cushions, heads bent over large sheaths of fabric. There is silence but for the clicking of needles and beads, the whirl of ceiling fans, and the occasional plane overhead.

- 'A lot of fantasy' -

For decades, they have played an essential but unsung role in the fashion industries of Europe, Japan and the United States.

"I like working with Julien because he is another master craftsperson who knows his subject very well," said director Chetan Desai, 55.

"He has a lot of fantasy. He comes up with his own concepts and I have to translate those ideas into embroidery.

"It has been a very challenging experience and at the same time, it has been very fruitful," he added.

Back in France, Fournie sends the compliments back.

"What they know how to do better than anyone is to embroider with degraded gold thread, passing it through transparent beads to create colour gradients. It's unprecedented," he said.

It gives silk an aged, elegant look for wedding dresses that "shine, but not too much".

"Haute couture customers don't want to look like a Christmas tree," he added.

"I've worked with great French embroiderers and each time it's complicated. Everyone wants to put in their own ideas and you never get exactly what you want."

- Star clients -

Desai's father set up Creations By Shanagar in the 1960s as a workshop for handloomed and embroidered saris.

In the 1990s, Desai looked further afield to France, partnering with Franco-Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaia on dresses that ultimately graced the likes of Naomi Campbell.

He does not divulge the current clients on his books but his past roster gives a sense of the high demand. They include Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto and Donna Karan.

Even Hollywood came knocking, with Shanagar helping design Nicole Kidman's costumes for the 2001 hit "Moulin Rouge!".

The atelier attracts workers from across India, such as Biswajit Patra, 31, who has been working here since he was 16.

"I learned the trade in my village near Kolkata because my father was doing the same job and my brother and sister are also doing this job," he said.

Among their unique ideas is a way of rolling up pieces of tulle to make embroidered flowers.

"They have a range of techniques that we don't have here," said Jean-Paul Cauvin, director of Fournie's house in France.

One of the most delicate jobs is preparing the fabric once it arrives from India and heads for the workshop where it will be assembled into the dresses.

It is Fournie himself who irons out the fabric.

"Sixty percent of haute couture is ironing," he said with a smile.

grk-neo/er/gil/dhc

UK

Hunting with dogs bill 'does not go far enough' and will 'open new loopholes'

Steph Brawn
Mon, 23 January 2023 

The bill will set a two-dog limit for all use of dogs in hunting (Image: PA)

A "WATERTIGHT" ban must be brought in on hunting with dogs as the Scottish Government’s bill “does not go far enough”, the Scottish Greens have said.

A final debate on the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill will take place on Tuesday before MSPs vote on whether to pass the legislation.

The legislation introduces restrictions that are intended to minimise the risk of wild animals being caught by dogs.

It will set a two-dog limit for all use of dogs in hunting, ban trail hunting and introduce a licensing scheme to allow the use of more than two dogs in limited circumstances.

Trail hunting was invented in 2004 in the wake of the fox hunting ban in England and Wales.

It simulates a traditional fox hunt with hounds “hunting” a scent laid ahead of time, usually made up of fox urine. Critics say it is a “smokescreen” and often results in the chasing and killing of foxes.

The Greens have said the bill - which will replace the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 - is a “step in the right direction” but they are planning to table a series of amendments.

The National: Burgess said the current bill would not constitute a ban on fox hunting

Burgess said the current bill would not constitute a ban on fox hunting (Image: Ramblers Scotland)

These will aim to:

Strengthen the proposed licensing system to limit the number of dogs that can be used for hunting and ensure that licence holders adhere to best practices in ethical wildlife management.

Ensure that enforcement officers do not have to obtain additional permissions to enter Crown land compared to their powers of entry on other land.

Remove the loopholes that allow the use of dogs for sport and for terrier work. This is the cruel practice of sending dogs underground to flush out foxes and can lead to orphan cubs being killed by dogs underground.

Ariane Burgess, the party’s rural affairs spokesperson, said she is concerned the bill will open up new loopholes despite its good intentions.

She said: “Hunting with dogs is a cruel, outdated and totally unnecessary practice. It belongs in the past and should have ended years ago. There can be no justification for setting out with a pack of dogs to kill a defenceless animal.

“The bill is a big step in the right direction and has a lot to commend. But it does not go far enough. I am concerned that it will close some loopholes while opening new ones that will be exploited.

“I am particularly concerned about the proposed licensing system, which runs the risk of allowing the licensing and legitimisation of cruelty. That is why I will be moving amendments that would ensure a watertight ban."

Burgess said that while the 2022 Act was "important", it allow fox hunting to continue.

"We can’t have another missed opportunity," she added.

"We don’t want to be in the same position in another 20 years. It’s time to close the loopholes and end the cruelty for good."

The measures laid out by the Scottish Government are intended to provide further safeguards for wild mammals while allowing land managers access to legitimate and humane animal control measures.

Labour - who are also set to bring forward amendments - said the Scottish Government had failed to go far enough with the legislation, saying it “won’t deliver a real ban on fox hunting”.

Rohingya and Myanmar coup survivors launch legal complaint in Germany against junta

Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent
Mon, 23 January 2023 

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A criminal complaint against individuals linked to Myanmar’s military has been filed in Germany by survivors from ethnic groups across Myanmar, in what activists say is a show of unity that once seemed unthinkable.

Sixteen survivors and witnesses of military abuses joined NGO Fortify Rights to file a criminal complaint with the federal public prosecutor general of Germany under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows the prosecution of mass atrocities in one country, even if they happened elsewhere.

“We deserve to have access to justice. We all know the impunity the military has been enjoying for so many years. This is the time to [end] the impunity,” said Nickey Diamond, a complainant in the case and a member of the board of directors at Fortify Rights.

Related: More than 100 Rohingya refugees jailed for trying to flee Myanmar camps

The document is not publicly accessible, however senior Myanmar military figures are accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, according to Fortify Rights. The complaint also requests that the German authorities open a “structural investigation” into the situation in Myanmar, which could lead to the documentation of further allegations not covered by the complaint.

There are various legal cases against Myanmar’s military including one in the international court of justice case genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, an investigation by the international criminal court, and separate universal jurisdiction cases filed in Argentina and Turkey.

Activists say the complaint filed in Germany is unique because of the diverse range of ethnicities represented, and because it seeks accountability both for the military’s brutal crackdown against Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017, and for alleged crimes perpetrated by the military in other regions across the country after it ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

“This will be the first universal jurisdiction complaint which will talk about crimes against many ethnic groups and that is what makes this a really unique effort towards justice and accountability,” said Pavani Nagaraja Bhat, a human rights associate with Fortify Rights.

“The Myanmar military has been violating rights across the country and the evidence that we have been able to collect shows that there is a pattern of abuse and violations that have been perpetrated by the junta systematically against civilians on a very large scale,” she said of allegations in the complaint.

The complaint also reflects shifted attitudes among different ethnic groups, said Diamond. In the past there was little sympathy towards the Rohingya people among the Bamar majority, with many believing the military’s claim that it was fighting terrorism, but now there is far greater unity against the junta. “The people have truly seen [the military’s] true colour and true face,” he said.

Over the past two years the military has unleashed a campaign of terror in an attempt to crush widespread opposition to the coup, launching airstrikes, torching villages and arresting more than 17,000 people.

The complainants, who filed their case on 20 January, want the German prosecutor to open an investigation, collect and preserve evidence, and issue arrest warrants.

The complainants range from students and scholars, to farmers, human rights defenders, business peoples, former village heads and homemakers. They represent several ethnicities including Arakanese (Rakhine), Bamar, Chin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Rohingya, according to Fortify Rights. “This type of ethnic unity would have been totally unthinkable before the coup,” said the group’s director, John Quinley III.

According to the group, the complaint alleges that some members of the Myanmar military systematically killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, persecuted, and committed other acts that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It includes “substantial evidence” indicating that some military figures knew about their subordinates’ actions but did not attempt to stop them, or to punish perpetrators of such crimes.

The federal prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to proceed with the complaint, did not respond to a request for comment by Associated Press. Any resulting court case could be a lengthy process.

ADHD more strongly linked to anxiety and depression compared to autism – new research


Punit Shah, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Bath, 

Lucy Anne Livingston, Lecturer in Psychology, King's College London, 

Luca Hargitai, PhD Candidate, Psychology, University of Bath

THE CONVERSATION
Mon, 23 January 2023 

People with neurodevelopmental conditions are more likely to suffer from mental health problems. Black Salmon/ Shutterstock

Autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience anxiety and depression. When these conditions occur together, though – as they often do – it can be hard to unpick which one is contributing the most to poor mental health. Our latest study aimed to find out.

We discovered that people with more ADHD personality traits were more likely to experience common mental health problems like depression and anxiety than people with more autistic traits. This is the first study, as far as we are aware, which shows that people with ADHD are more likely to have poor mental health than autistic people.

To conduct our study, we asked over 500 adults in the UK to complete questionnaires measuring autistic and ADHD traits. We also asked them to complete standard questionnaires for depression and anxiety.

This is known as a “trait approach” to autism and ADHD. It involves looking at people’s individual characteristics rather than their diagnoses. This allows us to indirectly understand how much different conditions overlap.

We then used statistical tests to measure the strength of the relationship between autistic traits and mental health problems and compared this to the link between ADHD traits and poor mental health.

Our results showed both ADHD and autistic personality traits could predict the severity of a person’s anxiety and symptoms of depression. But what was new was that people were more likely to experience these symptoms if they had many ADHD traits compared with those who had a lot of autistic traits. We found that the link between ADHD and poor mental health was around three times stronger than the link between poor mental health and autism.

We believe this is the first study to show ADHD is more predictive of poor mental health. 

Ground Picture/ Shutterstock

These results were replicated in computerised simulations with a 100% “reproducibility rate”. In other words, ADHD traits are almost certainly more linked to poor mental health than autistic traits in the UK population.

Next steps

Our study highlights a clear link between ADHD and common mental health problems in adults. The next step is to examine the factors that might be driving this relationship. Scientists know that the genes linked to ADHD are also linked with certain mental health conditions, such as depression. People with ADHD are also more likely to experience stressful life events, which can lead to mental health difficulties.

It will now be important to look at how environmental and social cognitive factors (such as how well people understand others) may influence mental health in this group. This research is crucial for identifying people who are most at risk of poor mental health. Knowing what signs to look out for could let doctors intervene early, before people become severely anxious or depressed.

But to better understand the links between ADHD and mental health, and which support approaches may be most effective for this group, more funding needs to be invested in research. Funding for ADHD research is lacking in comparison to other conditions, such as autism. Yet, considering that almost 30% of autistic people also have ADHD, it’s clear that greater funding into this research area could have far-reaching benefits for many people.

If you are autistic or have ADHD and are struggling with your mental health, there are many charities and non-profit organisations that may be able to help you.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Luca Hargitai receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

Lucy Anne Livingston has received funding from the UKRI Medical Research Council and The Waterloo Foundation.

Punit Shah receives or has received funding from the UKRI Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

Women’s healthcare in Britain ‘worse than in China and Saudi Arabia’

Laura Donnelly
Mon, 23 January 2023

Women’s healthcare UK

Women’s healthcare in the UK is worse than that of China and Saudi Arabia, according to a global tracker.

Poor efforts at prevention, diagnosis and treatment of health problems left the UK ranked lower than several countries with a troubling record on women’s rights.

The research, which compared a wealth of data, found Britain fared worse than most comparable Western countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany.

The UK was placed 30th out of 122 countries, in the 2021 Hologic Global Women’s Health Index published on Tuesday.

The score – three points lower than when a similar exercise was carried out last year – places it on a par with Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Kosovo and Poland for women’s healthcare provision.

Overall, the place of 30th was far worse than the position of 12 reached the previous year.

While direct comparisons are not possible because several of the countries examined this year were not included last year, the findings show a deterioration in the position of Britain, which was previously rated better than countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, the US, France and New Zealand.

‘Government consistently deprioritising women’s health’

The index by Hologic, a global medical technology company specialising in women’s health, is based on a survey of more than 127,000 people worldwide by Gallup, the analytics firm.

Analysts said that poor access to screening, long waits for diagnosis and a lack of support for mental health were among the factors explaining Britain’s poor ranking.

The UK Government has been accused of “consistently deprioritising” women’s health after it was reported last month that gynaecology waiting times in England had trebled in a decade.

On average, women now wait nearly four months for a first hospital appointment with a gynaecology specialist. However, nearly 38,000 women in England have been on the waiting list for more than a year.

The index highlighted issues with mental health support provision in the UK, with the country’s score for women’s emotional health falling eight points in a year to 68 out of 100.

On preventive care, such as cancer and diabetes screening, the UK scored just 23 out of 100. A separate Hologic survey of 10,000 people in the UK found those from ethnic minorities were particularly at risk of missing out.

Women in pain taking the strain

In the UK, women in pain also often have problems accessing a diagnosis.

One in five British women experienced pain daily. However, more than a quarter had not been able to get a diagnosis at all and 15 per cent got one only after eight or more visits to healthcare professionals, the UK-only poll found.

Women in the UK who suffered with pain needed to see a doctor 4.3 times on average before the cause was diagnosed.

Dr Nighat Arif, a GP specialising in women’s health, said she hoped that the Government’s Women’s Health Strategy, which was launched last year, would help improve education and awareness around women’s health.

She said: “I see barriers every day in my GP practice that women face in accessing routine care and even life-saving preventative health measures, such as cervical and breast cancer screenings, that can cause unnecessary delays to diagnosis and treatment for women.

“Sadly, often [women’s pain is] seen as something to put up with, rather than something you can get support for. The reasons for pain in women are complex. For GPs, who have a limited time for consultation, it can be difficult to pinpoint a diagnosis in one appointment.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We have put women’s health at the top of the agenda by publishing the Women’s Health Strategy for England, appointing the first-ever Women’s Health Ambassador, and taking action to increase supply and reduce the cost of hormone replacement therapy.

“The strategy sets out our 10-year ambitions for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system listens to all women.”

Adverse reactions to medication

Elsewhere, a separate study found that women are at least 80 per cent more likely than men to suffer adverse drug reactions to pills doled out by their GPs.

Researchers found that one in four people suffered at least one such reaction over a six-year period, with women and those on at least five pills at least 80 per cent more likely to suffer such harms.

The study, published in the British Journal Of General Practice, monitored 592 patients aged 70 and older from 15 general practices in the Republic of Ireland over a six-year period.

Prof Emma Wallace, the study’s author from University College Cork, said women could respond differently to men to the same medications and might be put on different types of drugs, some of which might be more likely to cause stronger reactions.

Solving period poverty is about more than just making products free

Sophie King-Hill, 

Senior Fellow at the Health Services Management Centre,

 University of Birmingham
Tue, 24 January 2023 

STEKLO

Upwards of 2.8 billion people do not have access to safe sanitation. A third of the world’s population doesn’t have a toilet.

This broad, international issue links to poverty, destitution and environmental risk. It also provides the backdrop to the struggles women and girls the world over face in dealing with their period. At least 500 million women and girls lack access to adequate facilities to manage menstruation.

“Period poverty” describes these barriers, from the cost of sanitary products and access to toilets to being excluded from activities ranging from the classroom to sport. But the challenges don’t stop there.


Research shows that in communities shaped by repressive patriarchal systems, menstruating is still seen as a taboo subject. And with that comes shame and embarrassment. Further, when you’re young and just getting used to having a period in the first place, commercial advertising that, as Australian communication design expert Jane Connory has shown, sexualises or suggests needing to keep your period a secret, is damaging.

Free period products are a big step forward. New Africa

Why free products are only part of the solution

In Britain, it is estimated that up to 49% of girls have missed school due to their period. This appears to be primarily linked to the cost of period products. The simple solution, here, is to make these accessible and free.

Of the four UK nations, Scotland in particular is taking steps towards this. Following a successful pilot scheme in Aberdeenshire, in 2018 the Scottish administration made period products free for people from low-income households across the nation.

Research shows, however, that money is only part of the problem. Many women and girls are socially disadvantaged, with information and education about periods seriously lacking.

When shame is felt in relation to an issue, it results in people being reluctant to search out the information they need, to their own detriment. Embarrassment is compounded by a lack of adequate sex education, the latter often taught to girls only.

Research shows that up to half of girls in the UK are embarrassed by their period and that support in school is lacking. According to the Sex Education Forum, a charity focused on relationships and sex education, one in four young women did not learn about periods before they got theirs, a number which appears to be rising. This may have been further affected by the pandemic lockdowns and resulting school closures.

Girls and women may be forced to lie about periods so as not to take part in certain activities, such as physical education, due to the taboo and ingrained stigma around periods that endure in wider society. This appears to stem from periods, historically, being framed as a medical issue rather than a positive indication of the natural workings of the reproductive system and body.

Opening up the dialogue across genders within relationships and improving sex education within schools is crucial. But business has a lot to answer for, too.
How companies can make things worse

Misguided advertising campaigns that seemingly aim to break down stigma often inadvertently feed into it instead. This compounds the feelings of shame that surround periods.

In November 2022, Tampax US deleted a tweet from its official account, apologising for “messing up” and not being respectful while pledging to “do better”. The tweet, which read: “You’re in their DMs. We’re in them. We are not the same”, drew particular ire for appearing to sexualise the use of a tampon, referencing the social media trope of “sliding” into someone’s DMs – direct messaging them as a flirting strategy.

This messaging harked back to the 1970s adverts for Dr White’s which showed women in bikinis and underwear to advertise sanitary products. In the 1980s, Tampax used scantily clad prepubescent girls to advertise its products. Decades on, in 2015, advertisers for Thinx period pants opted for pictures of halved grapefruit and runny eggs, imagery suggestive of female anatomy.

Advertising that attempts to make sanitary products fun and edgy often links periods to sex. That’s because periods are profitable for those companies that make disposable products such as tampons and sanitary towels, and sex sells.

However, some girls start their periods as early as age nine, which makes such sexualisation of period products even more damaging. Research has shown that the common age for periods to start is indeed early, anywhere from ten years old.

What’s more, this type of advertising co-opts the language of empowerment for women and girls, thereby driving home the point about periods being something to be ashamed of. It can also be a subtle steer away from low-cost products such as menstrual cups, washable pads and period pants.

It is a common misconception that period poverty is only an issue for those who are menstruating. Many men and those who do not have periods also suffer as a result, either due to the financial impact of buying disposable products on a family’s budget, or the indirect impact that missed school and work days have on the wider class or workforce.

For many women and girls, menstruation can cause isolation and negatively affect their self-esteem and sense of dignity. Free period products and being able to deal with your period without shame or restrictions should be a basic human right.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Sophie King-Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Why US libraries are on the frontlines of the homelessness crisis

MacKenzie Ryan
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Photograph: Dan Pelle/AP

Libraries across the US are increasingly on the frontlines of America’s homelessness crisis, especially during a winter marked by cold snaps and in the wake of the tailing off of the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen many public institutions reopen.

This month two Denver-area libraries closed due to methamphetamine contamination, with library officials from Englewood, Colorado, reporting increased drug use this winter and citing an uptick in homeless people using the library since its pandemic reopening.

Related: The frontline scouts fighting to end homelessness in New York’s subways

Homelessness advocates say there is a nationwide trend of homeless people relying on public libraries as a safe haven where they can stay warm, use public restrooms, and avoid harassment from law enforcement. As a result, libraries and library staff are often trapped between a rock and a hard place, said Ryan Dowd, of Homeless Training, a conflict resolution program for frontline workers.

While library staff must be committed to serving patrons regardless of socioeconomic status, many of them don’t have training on how to deal with an unsheltered person suffering from untreated mental illness, drug addiction, or other problems.

Compared to homeless shelters, which are often loud, crowded and struggle to stay clean, “libraries are everything homelessness is not”, Dowd explained. “It’s a public space, for communal use. If the option is that or be outside all day in 15-degree weather, I know what I’d do.

“Homelessness is also incredibly boring,” he said.

Ty Bellamey, of Black Lives of Humanity Movement, said Volunteers of America help unsheltered people, who often don’t have permanent addresses, get a library card. Many of the homeless people she works with are avoiding the police, or other unsheltered people who might steal their stuff, she said. They go to bed, wake up, walk to the library when they’re cold, tired and hungry, and then do it again, even if they are handicapped or just got out of jail, she explained.

People who have access to shelter beds still will leave to read books and use library computers, Dowd said.

In recent years, libraries have also become the frontline for connecting unsheltered people with basic needs.

The Las Vegas-Clark county library district provides hygiene kits; almost 30 of the greater Las Vegas area’s libraries are designated Safe Place sites for homeless youth. Outreach staff in downtown Chicago host meetings to connect case managers and unsheltered people, helping the latter to get public benefits and fill out housing applications. A Salt Lake City library offers free clothing and for homeless people, many of whom reside in encampments along a nearby river.

“Many libraries have added social workers to their staff,” said Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, the American Library Association president, citing a trend that started in the past decade.

Public libraries are “the first point of contact in helping people with serious needs”, she said, which includes referring homeless patrons to other community agencies. Pelayo-Lozada said library services and facilities are for everyone, the housed and unhoused, and staff addresses all patrons needs “without judgment to the best of their ability”.

Despite the inclusivity of a public library’s mission, conflicts between library staff, homeless people and communities have bubbled up this year. Last spring, in Anaheim, California, a homeless man punched a library employee and knocked them unconscious. He was later arrested.

In areas with higher socioeconomic status, the backlash towards the homeless is particularly vocal. This summer, some residents of San Francisco’s Castro district asked for the public library’s wireless internet to be shut off at night, citing the overwhelming number of homeless who camped outside the library.

In November, residents of Downers Grove, a Chicago suburb, raised safety concerns about indecent exposure, drunk and disorderly conduct, and physical assault stemming from the homeless population near the village’s library.

When Dowd trains library staff on de-escalation tactics, he hears a lot of comments like, “They didn’t teach me this stuff in library school,” he said. He says he teaches library staff to focus on the behavior they’re seeing. If someone is unhoused and caused a problem, then they have to deal with it. If a multimillionaire is in the library causing a problem, they also have to deal with it.

Bellamey said she hadn’t heard of any homeless people getting kicked out of the library. The people she works with tell her: “We’re just not allowed to fall asleep. And we’re not allowed to eat food at the tables,” she said.

Dowd stresses the importance of the pre-conflict in working with homeless people, many of whom may be suffering from mental illness or addiction. When a library employee greets and offers help, it generates what he calls sentiment override. People evaluate your actions based on how you acted in the past, he explained, and then when you ask them to do something, they give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re just doing your job.

However, “many people are just so terrified of talking to someone who is homeless so the first time they are talking to someone is when they have a problem,” he said.

THIRD WORLD UK 

New Thames Water map reveals where raw sewage is being discharged

Andy Gregory
Tue, 24 January 2023

A new map showing where raw sewage is being discharged via storm overflows has highlighted various locations where effluent has been pumped into English waterways for hundreds of hours without pause.

Thames Water launched its digital map earlier this month, providing real-time data on its discharges across the South East, amid growing public anger about the state of the country’s rivers.

There has been a 29-fold increase in untreated sewage discharges into rivers and seas over a period of five years, Environment Agency figures obtained via freedom of information requests revealed last August.

A sewage overflow outlet discharges into the River Thames in November (Getty Images)

Further analysis of the agency’s data – which showed raw sewage had been pumped into British waterways for a total of 9,427,355 hours since 2016 – showed that nearly one in four discharges went unmonitored the previous year.

Following sustained pressure from campaigners and growing public anger, the government and regulator Ofwat have sought to crack down on water companies’ ability to pollute rivers and seas.

Under the government’s Environment Act, water companies have been told to make near real-time data about the frequency and duration of all storm overflow discharges available to the public no later than 2025 – and ministers have said that all overflows will have monitors fitted by the year’s end.

Thames Water, England’s largest private water firm, became the first company to launch an interactive map providing real-time information on raw sewage discharges into inland waterways.

The map shows continuous flows of effluent lasting for hundreds of hours in some locations.

As of Monday at 9pm, sewage had been flowing for 554 hours at Clanfield and 564 hours at Standlake, both in Oxfordshire, for 839 hours in Burghfield and 841 in Stratfield Mortimer, both in West Berkshire, and for 758 hours in Fairford, Gloucestershire, among other locations.

Public consciousness about the scale of Thames Water’s raw sewage discharges via storm overflows has risen sharply since the company this month launched its digital map identifying discharges as they take place.

Ash Smith, a retired police detective and water activist from the Oxfordshire group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said that although the interest generated by the new map has been “remarkable”, ultimately “nothing has changed”.

Thames Water’s map: Locations in red represent ongoing sewage flows, while those in orange have stopped within the last 48 hours (Thames Water)

“It has created a lot of interest in what is happening, it’s been remarkable,” Mr Smith told The Guardian. It should put pressure on the more opaque water companies to do the same. But nothing has changed, the rivers are still being used as a toilet.”

Thames Water told the paper: “Our current investment programme, which is fully funded, will deliver major increases in treatment capacity at many of our sites.”

It added: “We are absolutely committed to protecting and enhancing our rivers and the communities who love them, and we want to make these discharges of diluted sewage unnecessary as quickly as possible.

“We are the first company to provide these alerts for inland waters … We want to lead the way with this transparent approach to data, and the alerts will be available through an open data platform for third parties, such as swimming and environmental groups, to use.”

The chart below sets out the ownership of Thames Water 

Our external shareholders

Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System 31.777% One of Canada’s largest pension plans, with C$105 billion of net assets and global experience managing essential infrastructure 2017-2018

Universities Superannuation Scheme 19.711% A UK pension scheme for the academic staff of UK universities 2017, 2021

Infinity Investments SA 9.900% A subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds 2011

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation 8.706% An investment management services provider for British Columbia’s public sector 2006

Hermes GPE 8.699% One of Europe’s leading independent specialists in global private markets and manager of the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS), one of the largest UK pension schemes for the private sector 2012

China Investment Corporation 8.688% One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds 2012

Queensland Investment Corporation 5.352% A global diversified alternative investment firm and one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia 2006

Aquila GP Inc. 4.995% A leading infrastructure management firm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiera Infrastructure Inc., a leading investor across all subsectors of the infrastructure asset class 2013

Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn 2.172% A pension fund service provider managing several different pension funds as well as affiliated employers and their employees 2006