Report calls for agroecological rethink of Africa’s food amid $61b industrial plan

by Aimee Gabay on 7 March 2024

Mongabay Series: Agroecology

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has released agricultural development plans for 40 countries across the continent that outline pathways to improving food security and productivity.

But a recent report by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) argues that the AfDB initiative, which seeks to industrialize African food systems at a cost of $61 billion, may potentially marginalize small-scale farmers, harm biodiversity, and foster dependency on multination corporations for seeds and agrochemicals.

AFSA suggests focusing instead on agroecology and food sovereignty, emphasizing the importance of sustainable agriculture and the empowerment of small-scale farmers.
High rates of undernourishment across sub-Saharan Africa are largely unchanged since 2005 figures, and a rapidly growing population putting pressure on food resources and production has prompted some policymakers to seek out industrial agriculture projects as a solution.

Civil society groups have criticized a new $61 billion initiative to industrialize African food systems, calling the plan a “significant threat to small-scale farmers.” The groups, under the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), say the initiative by the African Development Bank (AfDB) will marginalize smallholders through its one-size-fits-all approach, increase dependency on multinational corporations for seeds and agrochemicals, and lead to the loss of land and biodiversity.

“The emphasis on principal commodity crops, mechanized farming tools, and standardised land tenure systems condenses the practices into a uniform effort aimed at agro industrialization,” AFSA said in a report.

The “Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience” initiative was born out of a two-day summit held in January 2023 in Dakar, Senegal, where representatives of various African governments, the private sector, multilateral organizations, NGOs and scientists met to discuss pressing food issues on the continent. Rates of undernourishment in sub-Saharan Africa are roughly at the same levels since 2005 figures, jumping after the COVID-19 pandemic, while a rapidly growing population is putting more pressure of food resources and production.

To address these challenges, the AfDB published agricultural development plans for 40 countries, known as country compacts, which are made up of concrete national policies, incentives and regulations to boost investments across the agricultural sector. Most of this financing would come from national governments and private sector partners, including seed companies, food giants such as Nestlé and Kellogg’s, as well as funds from the AfDB itself, amounting to $1.7 billion in 2022. This initiative is the latest itineration of big industrial agriculture solutions in Africa, which have a track record of failing on their own terms.

AFSA analyzed each of the 40 country compacts and summarized the proposed plans in its new report, some of which include the expansion of large-scale monocropping and the establishment of formal certified seed systems. These have elicited strong opposition from farmers’ organizations, which have raised concerns about the potential costs of a transition that emphasizes high-yielding, uniform crop varieties and promotes the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

“This initiative contradicts the needs of farmers, as today, we are actively involved in an agroecological transition,” said Ndiakhate Fall, coordinator of the Senegal National Council for Consultation and Rural Cooperation (CNCR) and a member of La Via Campesina, the global movement of small farmers. “This transition entails both reducing and abandoning the use of chemical inputs, along with implementing strategies for diversifying production.”



The AfDB has called for 25.7 million hectares (63.5 million acres) of land — an area larger than Senegal — to be converted for agricultural production across 23 countries. AFSA says that this land, which the AfDB considers underutilized but useful for maize, rice and soy monocrops, is already being cultivated or used by local farmers, herders or other rural producers, and that the plan threatens to dispossess these smallholders of their land.

“They call it development, but it’s land grabbing,” said Hakim Baliraine, the AFSA chair and head of the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF). “We’re being pushed aside for an agriculture that doesn’t fit us; doesn’t respect the biodiversity we’ve nurtured for so long. It’s not just our farms at risk; it’s our heritage, our culture.”

In the Congo Basin, home to the world’s second-largest expanse of tropical rainforest, more than 5 million hectares (12 million acres) of land is being targeted for agroindustrialization — an area around twice the size of Rwanda — AFSA reports. In addition to threatening millions of land users with displacement, this could also accelerate climate change, said Ange-David Baïmey, head of the Africa program at GRAIN, an international NGO that advocates for sustainable agriculture. These rainforests hold huge amounts of carbon dioxide, and clearing them for farmland would release this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, he told Mongabay.

“While the initiative seeks to transform African agriculture, its current approach risks exacerbating existing challenges faced by small-scale farmers such as access to resources, land rights, market access, cultural and biodiversity loss, increased dependency on external inputs, and environmental sustainability,” Million Belay, general coordinator of AFSA, told Mongabay.

AFSA is instead calling on the African Development Bank to reevaluate its approach to ensure plans are inclusive, sustainable and tailored to the specific needs of diverse African countries and their small-scale farmers. It advocates for a shift toward agroecology to meet the continent’s nutritional needs, emphasizing the importance of sustainable agriculture and the protection of land rights.

The African Development Bank didn’t respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment.

Madagascar takes key step toward improving transparency of its fisheries

by Rivonala Razafison 

Mongabay.

7 March 2024


Madagascar recently released its first fisheries transparency report, part of an effort to open up, democratize, and improve the sustainability of its fisheries sector.

The report is a key step in a process defined by the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), a Seychelles-based nonprofit.

It contains important information on traditional, artisanal and industrial fisheries, a list of the laws and regulations governing the sector, tenure arrangements, and access agreements — including previously undisclosed information.

It also assesses the country’s transparency according to the availability and accessibility of data from six thematic areas as outlined by the FiTI Standard.

ANTANANARIVO — Madagascar recently released its first fisheries transparency report, part of an effort to open up, democratize, and improve the sustainability of its fisheries sector. The report is a key step in a process defined by the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), a Seychelles-based nonprofit.

FiTI announced on Jan. 26 that Madagascar had published the report, covering the 2022 fiscal year and containing previously undisclosed information, in December. Madagascar is one of just a handful of countries to have achieved this step in the FiTI process, Cabo Verde having published its first report around the same time. The same day, the U.S. pledged support to help Madagascar fight illegal fishing.

“The launch of the FiTI report is a first step towards better transparency of the fisheries sector in Madagascar,” Ketakandriana Rafitoson, executive director of Transparency International–Initiative Madagascar (TI-MG) and an author of the report as well as a current FiTI board member, told Mongabay. “However, a lot of efforts still have to be undertaken to fully comply with the FiTI’s 12 transparency requirements.”

The fisheries industry is one of the most vital and lucrative in Madagascar, an island nation with more than 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) of coastline and around 1.2 million square kilometers (463,300 square miles) of economic exclusive zone. The sector has an annual production capacity of $750 million, which is 5-7% of the national GDP, according to the fisheries ministry citing World Bank data. More than 500,000 fishers living along the island’s coastline rely on marine resources for food and incomes while feeding millions of people.

Small-scale fishers set a net close to shore on the island of Nosy Faly in northwestern Madagascar as an industrial trawler fishes further offshore in 2021. Image by Mongabay.

Lack of transparency in Madagascar’s fisheries sector has long raised concerns, with reports of foreign vessels abusively exhausting fish stocks in the country’s waters, and secretive fishing deals with shadowy foreign companies.

The report, drafted by consultant Eric Beantanana for Madagascar’s multistakeholder group (MSG), a committee that oversees the country’s participation in the FiTI process, provides information about traditional, artisanal and industrial fisheries, a list of the laws and regulations governing the sector, tenure arrangements, and access agreements. It also assesses the country’s transparency according to the availability and accessibility of data from six thematic areas as outlined by the FiTI Standard.

Most important, details on large vessels, both foreign and domestic, operating in Madagascar’s waters were made public for the first time: their manner of operation, license delivery process, duration of the agreements under which they operate, quotas, catches, taxes paid, and the fisheries ministry’s use of the money earned from the agreements.

The report also lists recommendations for the Madagascar government to continue improving transparency. For example, to digitize any documents relating to fisheries laws, regulations and policies so they are publicly available, and to progressively eliminate confidentiality clauses in fishing agreements it signs with foreign entities, among other recommendations.

Madagascar embarked on the FiTI process three years ago. Tsimanaoraty Paubert Mahatante, Madagascar’s minister of fisheries and blue economy and a fisheries scientist himself, told Mongabay that as soon as he was appointed minister in August 2021, he wrote to the FiTI board indicating the country’s willingness to join. “They are astonished at the beginning,” he said. “It was the first time to see a minister writing to them and sharing his will to join this organization.”

Madagascar and five other countries — Cabo Verde, Ecuador, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Seychelles — are currently FiTI “candidate countries.” Each has an MSG comprising representatives of government, civil society and the private sector to guide and report annually on its progress toward meeting the 12 transparency requirements of the FiTI Standard. By demonstrating consistent progress toward that standard, they can eventually become “FiTI Compliant” countries, a status that requires regular reporting and validation by FiTI to maintain.

The fishing trawler Cap-Saint Augustin fishing off the shore of Nosy Faly in 2021. 

Image by Mongabay.

Madagascar’s MSG currently includes 12 organizations and institutions. “This is the only way to ensure that the MSG is representative of all types of fisheries,” Naly Rakotoarivony, head of policy and partnership at the NGO Blue Ventures in Antananarivo and an observer during the FiTI process, told Mongabay. “[T]he call for interest was spread and made public at each fisheries regional office,” he said.

He added that small-scale fishers (SSFs) were well represented in drafting the report and on the MSG, both among civil society members — by the MIHARI network of locally managed marine areas — and among private sector members, by the Comité de Gestion de Poulpe, the octopus management committee in southwest Madagascar.

“As this is the country’s first FiTI report, it is very important to involve as many fishers as possible in the next report. The more fishers we have on board, the more impactful the report will be,” Rakotoarivony said.

Rafitoson of TI-MG highlighted several recommendations raised in the report. Key among them is to enhance the fight against corruption and to ensure strict law enforcement to avoid impunity, she said. Another is to better invest in the evaluation of fish stocks and carry out a professional assessment of biomass and fishing effort; such assessments haven’t been done, yet are critical to sustainably managing fish stocks, she said. Improving data collection and ensuring it’s accessible online is another important task.

The report notes that the ministry not having an online information portal contributed to a lack of transparency, but the ministry launched one in July 2023, after the period the report covers. Moreover, even before the portal launched, the ministry shared information on social media platforms, a factor the report did account for, Mahatante said. “As people follow us on them, mainly on Facebook, we publish all information about fisheries, aquaculture, and every activity of the ministry,” he said.

During a visit to Antananarivo in January, Calvin Foster (left), commander of the U.S. naval fleet that covers Africa, discussed with Tsimanaoraty Paubert Mahatante, Madagascar’s minister of fisheries and blue economy and a fisheries scientist, how the two countries could cooperate in reducing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Madagascar’s waters.

 Image courtesy of Ministère de la Pêche et de l’Economie Bleue.

Yet Mahatante acknowledged that information dissemination remains a challenge, especially to small-scale fishers who need accurate information and technical assistance to improve their livelihoods. Lack of reliable internet access in rural areas, combined with high illiteracy rates nationally, prevent many from accessing these resources. “How can we translate all the good ideas expressed in the report to the SSFs? We have to make the information spread as wide as possible,” he said. One avenue will be through organizations like the MIHARI network that work directly with fishing communities, he said.

To Rakotoarivony, the preparation of the FiTI report and the creation of the ministry’s website are among the most significant governance achievements in the past year. Next steps for Madagascar include finalizing and launching the second FiTI report, covering 2023, and securing financing from FiTI to undertake additional transparency projects.

Additional outside support is also pending from the U.S. During a visit to Antananarivo in January, Calvin Foster, commander of the U.S. naval fleet that covers Africa, discussed with Mahatante how the two countries could cooperate in reducing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Madagascar’s waters. While the details have yet to be worked out, possibilities include the U.S. helping to train fisheries inspectors or patrol Malagasy waters, or providing fuel assistance, Mahatante said.

“They know the will to improve fisheries governance in general is there, and so they’d like to contribute to it to maintain the effort we’ve conducted so far,” Mahatante said, referring to the U.S. Navy.

Banner image: Young fishers set a net close to shore on Nosy Faly as an industrial trawler fishes further offshore in 2021. Image by Mongabay.

SPACE

WEBB TELESCOPE FINDS DWARF GALAXIES LIT UP THE EARLY UNIVERSE

BY: COLIN STUART 

MARCH 7, 2024  

Faint, small galaxies ionized the opaque fog that obscured the early universe.

Behind Pandora's Cluster (Abell 2744), imaged here by the James Webb Space Telescope, are eight background galaxies hailing from the early universe.
NASA / ESA / CSA

An international team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope to make the first spectroscopic observations of the faintest galaxies present during the universe’s first billion years. The results offer vital clues toward solving a mystery in the early years of the universe.

For the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a thick soup of hydrogen fog with no stars to illuminate it. This period is known as the cosmic dark ages. The fog is thought to have eventually cleared when radiation ripped hydrogen atoms apart, a process known as reionization. But debate remained as to whether this reionizing radiation came solely from the first stars that lit up the earliest galaxies or whether material falling onto supermassive black holes also played a significant role.

A team of astronomers led by Hakim Atek (Paris Institute of Astrophysics) used the James Webb Space Telescope to peer at extremely faint dwarf galaxies in the early universe. These distant galaxies wouldn’t normally be visible — even to Webb’s powerful capabilities — but astronomers received a helping hand from the gravity of Pandora’s Cluster, a car crash of galaxies 4 billion light-years away. The cluster’s immense mass magnified the more distant galaxies’ light. The team's findings are published in Nature.

Atek’s team was able to study eight early galaxies in total, taking both images and spectroscopic data with Webb's Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). The stand-out finding is that the galaxies produced four times more ultraviolet radiation than astronomers had derived from previous scenarios.

“Despite their tiny size, these low-mass galaxies are prolific producers of energetic radiation, and their abundance during this period is so substantial that their collective influence can transform the entire state of the Universe,” Atek says.

“They produce ionizing photons that transform neutral hydrogen into ionized plasma during cosmic reionisation,” adds team member Iryna Chemerynska (also at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics).

“It’s fantastic to see the pieces fitting together, and pointing squarely at tiny galaxies as the culprits,” says Sean McGee (University of Birmingham, UK), who was not involved in the research. Astronomers have long suspected that such galaxies helped light up the early universe, but McGee adds that “this was becoming more debatable recently as JWST has been finding more AGN than previously expected.” Now, the new JWST data on these tiny galaxies puts them back in the limelight.

“It had been an assumption that . . . these small galaxies would play an important role, but it’s very satisfying to see it directly,” McGee says. “It wouldn't have been possible without JWST.”

The next step is an upcoming Webb observing program named GLIMPSE. Astronomers will target another massive galaxy cluster — Abell S1063 — in order to see even fainter galaxies behind it in the early universe. This will allow them to verify whether the dwarf galaxies in the current study are typical of the large-scale distribution of galaxies.

McGee also notes the importance of the upcoming Square Kilometer Array (SKA). “We will be able to map out exactly where the universe hasn’t been reionized,” he says. If the findings of Atek's teams are right, we should only find neutral hydrogen — which gives out a distinctive radio signal at 21 centimetres — far from dwarf galaxies. “The lack of a radio signal around the tiny galaxies will be like the dog who didn’t bark in the night.”

Perseverance Sees Phobos, Deimos and Mercury Passing in Front of the Sun

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture the silhouette of Phobos, the larger of Mars' pair of moons, as it passed in front of the Sun on Feb. 8, 2024, the 1,056th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

 Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI

POSTED ON MARCH 7, 2024 BY EVAN GOUGH

NASA’s Perseverance rover is busy exploring the Martian surface and collecting samples for eventual return to Earth. But the rover recently took some time to gaze upward and observe the heavens. Using Mastcam-Z, the rover’s primary science camera, Perseverance captured Phobos, Deimos, and Mercury as they transited in front of the Sun.

Phobos and Deimos are unusual. They’re lumpy and are often referred to as ‘potato-shaped.’ They’re quite close to their planet as moons go, and they’re most likely captured objects, either asteroids or chunks of debris from the Solar System’s early days. They’re also small for primary moons, and both are tidally locked to Mars.

They share the same composition as carbonaceous chondrite asteroids and also have low albedoes. Both those traits bolster the captured asteroid argument. Phobos has the more unstable orbit of the two, and that reflects a more recent capture. Some think that Phobos and Deimos may have been a single object that only broke into two when it was captured.

But, some aspects of Phobos go against the capture theory. It contains some of the same phyllosilicate minerals that Mars does. This points to an alternate formation. A powerful impact could’ve lofted Martian debris into orbit, and the debris could’ve coagulated together to form the small moon. That may have been how Earth’s Moon formed.

On the other hand, both moons have circular orbits near the Martian equator. That hints at a more complex past, including an impact or the involvement of a third body.

The animation below shows Phobos transiting in front of the Sun.

via GIPHY

Phobos, in particular, may be in trouble. It’s already the closest moon to any planet in the Solar System, and its orbit is lowering, slowly bringing it closer to Mars. At some point, around 50 million years from now, it’ll breach the Roche limit. Then it’ll either crash directly into Mars or it’ll break apart and form a dust ring around the planet. Either way, it’s game over.

Deimos’ future is different. While Phobos orbits at an altitude of about 6000 km (3700 miles), Deimos is much further away. It orbits at an altitude of about 23,500 km (14,600 miles). So, while Phobos is drawing closer to Mars and to its own eventual destruction, Deimos is slowly drifting away. In the distant future, Mars will lose Deimos.

The animation below shows Deimos transiting the Sun. This video is sped up because Deimos takes more than two minutes to transit.

via GIPHY

NASA’s Mars rovers have captured many of Phobos and Deimos’ transits over the years. There’s more to the effort than just their novelty. Repeatedly capturing these transits informs scientists about their orbits over time.

Mars and Deimos are odd and mysterious. Monitoring them as they transit could help slowly dispel some of the mystery. What we really need are samples.

Russia sent a sample mission to Phobos with the unfortunate name of Phobos-Grunt. They launched it in 2011, but rocket burns needed to send it to the moon failed, and the craft eventually plunged to its destruction in the Pacific Ocean. (For some reason, Roscosmos tried to blame foreign saboteurs, by which everyone assumed he meant the USA.)

Japan is planning to launch a mission to Mars’ moon in 2026. It’s called the Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, and it’ll obtain a sample of Phobos and return it to Earth in 2031

.

This illustration shows JAXA’s MMX spacecraft with Mars and Phobos. If all goes well, the mission will return samples from Phobos to Earth in 2031. Image Credit: JAXA

Those samples could help us finally determine where the moons came from.

Perseverance also watched as Mercury transited the Sun. The images are here.

Office of Space Commerce considers restoring orbital debris regulations for commercial remote sensing licensees

Jeff Foust

March 7, 2024


WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department office that licenses commercial remote sensing systems is studying whether it should close a potential loophole in how companies comply with orbital debris mitigation rules.

The Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) division of the Office of Space Commerce will formally publish a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register March 8 on the issue of debris mitigation regulations for systems it licenses. The RFI was released for public inspection March 7.

The RFI notes that while CRSRA had for two decades required companies seeking remote sensing licenses to provide a post-mission disposal plan for their satellites, the office dropped the requirement in 2020 as part of a broader revision of commercial remote sensing regulations. The rationale at the time was that nearly all systems seeking remote sensing licenses also had licenses from the Federal Communications Commission, which requires licensees to have orbital debris mitigation plans.

“To avoid duplicative regulation, Commerce opted to defer to FCC license requirements regarding orbital debris and spacecraft disposal, and therefore removed license conditions requiring specific orbital debris or spacecraft disposal practices in final rule,” CRSRA stated in the RFI.

However, the office noted that, since then, it has seen “an increasing number” of multinational systems that seek commercial remote sensing licenses but have communications licenses in other countries, and thus do not have FCC licenses.

“CRSRA is also sensitive to emerging communications methods not currently licensed by FCC, meaning a satellite using such methods would not be subject to FCC disposal and orbital debris mitigation requirement,” the RFI states. That is an apparent reference to optical communications systems that do not use radio-frequency spectrum managed by the FCC.

The office is seeking input from the remote sensing industry on whether it should restore some degrees of orbital debris regulations on all licensees or only those who do not have FCC licenses. It will also consider “narrow guidance not rising to the level of a rulemaking” for how those without FCC licenses can demonstrate “acceptable means of compliance.”

An Office of Space Commerce official previewed the RFI at a Feb. 29 event by the FCC’s Space Bureau marking two decades of FCC orbital debris regulations. “We’re realizing, though, increasingly there are situations where actors don’t get an FCC license,” said Gabriel Swiney, director of the office’s policy, advocacy and international division. “So we have U.S. companies that may only get a remote sensing license in terms of what U.S. government licensing that they get.”

The goal of the effort, he said, is to avoid companies being able to “jurisdiction shop and avoid any sustainability requirements.”

The RFI comes as the White House and Congress consider proposals for authorization and continuing supervision of “novel space activities” that are not currently licensed by any government agencies, from satellite servicing to commercial lunar landers. Those proposals would give the Office of Space Commerce the authority to oversee some or all of those activities.

That would likely include some regulations on orbital debris mitigation and related space sustainability topics. If that happens, “then it’s going to be really important to work in the interagency to implement that,” Swiney said, to ensure that “if there’s multiple regulators, which should be avoided to the extent possible, there’s not duplicative requirements or even overlapping requirements.”

Society’s Wicked Problems Require Collaboration Not Silos

Marshall Shepherd
Senior Contributor

FORBES
Mar 7, 2024

BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 25: Climate activists gather on a "Global Day of Action" 

Recently, I have given an invited lecture around the nation entitled, “Cloudy with a chance of science.” Using the lens of weather and climate, I discuss how public perceptions (and misperceptions) about science evolve. Near the beginning of the lecture, the words “wicked problems” appear. Those words frame many of the challenges that we face today: climate change, pandemics, geopolitical conflict, and so forth. By definition, wicked problems are defined by layers of complexity and unclear pathways to solutions. Herein, I argue that collaboration across many disciplines is required to address society’s wicked problems.



This picture taken on November 17, 2020 shows a syringe and a bottle reading "Vaccine 

First, let’s formally define wicked problems. Stonybrook University’s website states, “In 1973, design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber introduced the term "wicked problem" in order to draw attention to the complexities and challenges of addressing planning and social policy problems.” Ramanan Jagannathan writes, “The problems that scientist and engineers are usually focused on are known as Tame Problems.... For each, the objective is very clear and it is also clear whether the problem is solved or not.” Unlike wicked problems, “tame problems” are characterized by a finite solution space, elements of familiarity with approach, and closure. For example, the construction of a new tunnel through a mountain is a tame problem. The site choice, design, and structure may vary, but at the end, you get a tunnel.


Vintage souvenir linen postcard published circa 1944 in the series, 'The Pennsylvania Turnpike

Wicked problems are more diffuse, and there is less clarity on what “solved” actually means. As an atmospheric scientist, I was trained to understand the physics, thermodynamics, and dynamics of the fluid moving above us. Governing equations and laws of physics are relevant. However, the things that keep me up at night are not tame. They are wicked:

Is climate change in the extreme weather events of the day?

What are the social, economic, and policy implications and levers to reverse or slow climate change?

Why are is there such a difference in who is disproportionately vulnerable to environmental or climate stressors?

How do you plan, implement policy, or respond to compounding or cascading events such as an active hurricane season at the peak of coronavirus cases?


Aerial view of homes submerged under flood waters from the North Fork of the Kentucky 

My degrees in physical meteorology did not equip me to tackle such questions. During the peak of the pandemic, I collaborated with two University of Georgia colleagues, Brian Bledsoe and Don Nelson, on an article urging humility over hubris in addressing climate risks. We need help. Others agree. As an example, the Stonybrook University’s website went on to say, “As scholars who work in the environmental humanities our goal is understanding the problems of climate change while also critiquing the language and methods we use to articulate those problems.”

I spent twelve years at a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) organization. You may have heard of it. As a scientist at NASA, my role was to conduct scientific research and advance new missions to study the third planet from the sun. During my tenure as Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, challenges related to putting two rainfall radars on a satellite could be “engineered.” However, the satellite is now in orbit and revealing patterns and trends with hurricanes or flooding that go beyond STEM solutions.

 Sam Stone looks at his destroyed car in Fulgham, Kentucky, on December 15, 2021

Social and behavioral scholars are familiar with concepts of poverty, environmental justice, vulnerability, economic disparities, food or water insecurity, culture, and race. Each of these topics is directly relevant to weather and climate challenges today. Research has repeatedly shown that marginalized, disenfranchised, or frontline communities are disproportionately exposed to urban heat, economic or infrastructure losses after an extreme event, negative health outcomes, and slower recovery.

My early research interests examined precipitating cloud systems formed due to interacting sea breeze fronts and thunderstorm outflow boundaries. In that research, the magnitude of convergence was an important and quantifiable entity related to precipitation. Years later, the convergence of weather, culture, economics, policy, communication, and human outcomes is a far more challenging problem. My research collaboration teams are now comprised of planners, engineers, health experts, geographers, and the business community.

MCKITTRICK, CA - APRIL 26: A bee collects pollen from Phacelia flowers in the Temblor Range, 

Sarah Sutton’s new book, The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change, suggests that arts and humanities, for example, can be a powerful tool for engaging broader audiences in conversation, instruction, policy action, archiving, and perception. By the way, did you know Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is a valued resource on climate connections to plants? Artificial intelligence will be at the forefront of climate prediction and solution advances. However, the National Endowment for the Arts website cautions, “Questions about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI are fundamentally rooted in the humanities, which include ethics, law, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies.”

I matriculate within the academic ivory tower, but my experiences are broader. I tried to avoid academic jargon because this was meant for an audience who probably is not cracking open journals or federal reports with morning coffee. I am aware of how the scholarly community differentiates terms like disciplinary (one discipline) multidisciplinary (multiple disciplines, one theme), interdisciplinary (crosses disciplines and integrates), and convergence (crosses in multiple ways, one goal, integrating, new paradigms). The research office website at North Carolina State University has a good discussion of the definitions, but if you need an easy way to think about it consider this:

saxophone (disciplinary)

the woodwind section (multidisciplinary)

the orchestra (interdisciplinary)

the orchestra playing with a new hip hop artist (convergence).

Going forward, I encourage universities, corporations, and other institutions to continue to rethink how to attack the wicked problems of the day. Potential solutions are hiding at the seams, boundaries, and crevices of our comfort zones. In some cases, they are yet to be revealed but are lurking.

A few years ago, I wrote about the women featured in the movie Hidden Figures. Simply because of race and gender, NASA realized that it was leaving critical ideas off the table. By broadening the input or idea pool, they tackled the complexities of getting to space. Today, we need all of the ideas on the table. The challenges that we face will require complex teams constituted at the “headwaters” not downstream. In that raft, we need the paintings, the spoken words, labs, books, theories, ethics, history, songs, museums and critical interpetations.

WIGAN, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 18: People view artist Luke Jerram's new 'Floating Earth' Debuts In Wigan 

 

Marshall Shepherd

Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program. Dr. Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and hosts The Weather Channel’s Weather Geeks Podcast, which can be found at all podcast outlets. In 2021, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior to UGA, Dr. Shepherd spent 12 years as a Research Meteorologist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. In 2004, he was honored at the White House with a prestigious PECASE award. He also has received major honors from the American Meteorological Society, American Association of Geographers, and the Captain Planet Foundation. Shepherd is frequently sought as an expert on weather and climate by major media outlets, the White House, and Congress. He has over 100 peer-reviewed scholarly publications and numerous editorials. Dr. Shepherd received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in physical meteorology from Florida State University. 

Tapping Into A Solution: Scientists Use Sound To Find Lead Water Pipes

March 7, 2024 Drexel University

Researchers from Drexel University and Seaflower Consulting Services have found a way to locate lead water pipes without digging them up. By hitting a pipe and listening to the sound waves that reach the surface, they can tell what the pipe is made of. This could help water companies find and replace lead pipes faster.

Lead pipes have been contaminating water supplies across the country for many years. After the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in 2014, many water companies have been working hard to figure out which pipes are made of lead. The government has also passed laws requiring all lead pipes to be removed by 2033, which means water companies need to work quickly.

“Lead pipes are clearly an urgent public health problem and replacing them is rightly a priority, particularly in urban areas,” said Ivan Bartoli, PhD, one of the leaders of the team and a professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering. “But the challenge in these areas is that many of the lines are so old that records may not exist and utility companies are left to verify whether or not they’re made of lead before they begin the costly and lengthy process of digging them up and replacing them.”

Current methods for testing pipes can be inconvenient, disruptive, and expensive. In Philadelphia, the Water Department thinks that about 20,000 of the 511,000 properties in the city might have lead pipes, but since 2017, they have only been able to replace 2,600 of them.

The Drexel team’s approach is based on a technique called ultrasonic stress wave propagation. They tested lead, copper, steel, and PVC pipes in the lab and found that each type of pipe produces a unique sound wave when hit. They also showed that these waves can be detected at the surface and used to identify the pipe material.

“These results present a promising opportunity for noninvasive identification of service lines,” said Charles Haas, PhD, LD Betz professor of environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and one of the project leaders.

The team is now working on a prototype system that could be used to identify pipes in the field. They are partnering with several water companies to test the prototype and improve their models.

“Utilities need to work quickly to map and verify their service lines, but they also must ensure that there are no misses,” said Kurt Sjoblom, PhD, a former professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, who is the founder of Seaflower Consulting Services and a leader of the project. “If excavating their entire water system just isn’t feasible – a tool like this could help point them in the right direction and cut down on unnecessary excavation.”

Best Practices Suggested for Psychiatric Care of Transgender and Gender Diverse People

The gender minority stress and resilience model can help psychiatrists understand and address the mental health challenges this population experiences

7-Mar-2024 

by Wolters Kluwer Health: Lippincot

Newswise — Waltham — March 7, 2024 — In caring for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, psychiatrists should focus on alleviating the sequelae of gender minority stress, with the goal of promoting resilience, according to a review published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer. 

"We envision a role for psychiatry that goes beyond gatekeeping gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgeries," says Alex Keuroghlian, MD, MPH, Michele and Howard J. Kessler Chair and Director of the Division of Public and Community Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues. "Instead, we should invest in equitable care across the continuum of mental health needs." 

Psychiatric assessment prior to gender-affirming care 

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health 2022 guidelines recommend discontinuing the practice of requiring mental health assessment before gender-affirming medical or surgical care, the authors note. Patient regret and desire to detransition are infrequent consequences, and there is little evidence that psychiatric pre-assessment has any bearing on their likelihood. A better option is for clinicians providing gender-affirming care to document informed consent after discussing the benefits and potential risks of intervention. 

Key areas of proposed clinical improvement 

Dr. Keuroghlian and coauthors offer practical guidance for offering responsive and high-quality psychiatric care to TGD individuals. Some key topics they discuss are: 

Managing psychiatric illness—In general, diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illness among TGD people are not intrinsically different than in cisgender people. However, suicidal ideation, for example, is associated with internalized transphobia, expectations of rejection, and identity concealment. When developing a comprehensive plan for depression in a TGD patient, it is important to account for gender minority stress. 

As another example, many TGD people experience chronic societal rejection that can lead to increased vigilance. This response to gender minority stress needs to be distinguished from the rejection sensitivity that is characteristic of borderline personality disorder. 

Interplay of psychopharmacology and gender-affirming hormone therapy—Psychiatrists should familiarize themselves with the nuances of prescribing psychotropic agents to TGD patients. For example, lamotrigine and estrogen may have bidirectional effects on serum levels, so it’s prudent to check both medication levels when changing doses of either. Risperidone is known to cause hyperprolactinemia, which can result in unwanted gynecomastia and subsequent gender dysphoria among transmasculine people. In these patients, it may be important to monitor prolactin levels closely. Additionally, clinicians should discuss prolonged erections related to trazodone and the reduced erectile function commonly experienced with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. TGD patients may variously perceive these phenomena as advantages or exacerbations of gender dysphoria. 

Acute psychiatric settings—Case studies have noted gender dysphoria in patients experiencing psychosis; gender-affirming care is often withheld in these situations. A comprehensive clinical history, however, may reveal gender diversity that predates the psychosis. Endorsement of gender diversity during a psychotic episode may relate to disinhibition rather than delusional thinking. 

Likewise, fluctuating gender identity in a patient with suspected psychosis should not be considered supportive of that diagnosis. Psychiatrists should nonjudgmentally work with the patient as they come to understand their gender identity (e.g., nonbinary, gender fluid) and help disentangle delusional thinking from simple uncertainty about gender identity. Notably, continuation of gender-affirming hormone therapy is recommended during acute mental health crises. 

TGD people often fear being pathologized and may be uncomfortable with group therapy and psychiatric medication, Dr. Keuroghlian and colleagues note. They are also likely to lack access to gender-affirming mental health care, especially TGD people of color. The authors emphasize "the importance of further educating clinicians and staff at mental health care facilities, and approaching care in an individualized, culturally responsive, and patient-centered manner." 

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers, and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health. 

Read Article [ The Role of Psychiatry for Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults ] 

### 

About Wolters Kluwer 

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software, and services for professionals in health care, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. 

Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of €5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

ARCHAEOLOGY
Demolished 20th-Century Neighborhood Investigated in Finland


Thursday, March 7, 2024

(Seitsonen et al. 2024/© Antiquity Publications Ltd.)

OULU, FINLAND—According to a statement released by Antiquity, an excavation conducted at Vaakunakylä, a neighborhood in west-central Finland established by German troops during World War II, unearthed items left by Finns who moved into the site in the late 1940s. The working-class settlement, which had been labeled as a “bad” neighborhood, was demolished against the wishes of its residents in the late 1980s. Oula Seitsonen of the University of Oulu and his colleagues determined that the original military barracks had been refurbished as family housing. One of the buildings was even repurposed as a sauna, he said. Pieces of several porcelain sets, suggesting that the post-war residents had a higher standard of living than previously thought, were found in rubbish pits. Toys, children’s medication, and pacifiers also point to a good quality of life, Seitsonen explained. Finally, the researchers conducted interviews with former residents of Vaakunakylä, who remembered the community in a generally positive light. “Both the finds and the collected oral histories give a different and more nuanced picture of the Vaakunakylä community than the popular image of the area as a restless and criminal slum-like shantytown,” Seitsonen said. “We hope that this can have a healing aspect when the pent-up feelings are brought to the surface and discussed in public,” he concluded.

 Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. 

To read about plantings in a medieval garden in southwest Finland, go to "The Archaeology of Gardens: Medical Gardens."

Medieval Convent Excavated in France

Thursday, March 7, 2024

(© Emmanuelle Collado, Inrap)

MORLAIX, FRANCE—The Miami Herald reports that an excavation at the site of a 700-year-old Roman Catholic convent in northwestern France, conducted by researchers from France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research, has uncovered remains of the church, more than 200 burials, jewelry, and religious devotional objects. The convent was established by the Dominican Order, known as the Jacobin Order in France, in 1238. The church dates to 1250, and was restored and expanded after a fire in 1344. Most of the burials in the church, which contained the remains of men, women, and children, were in single tombs, but joint tombs in masonry vaults were also found. One of these vaults held the remains of 17 people. Artifacts recovered from the burials include traces of wooden coffins; copper pins that were used to hold shrouds in place; rings; bracelets; rosaries made of wood, bone, stone, and glass; crucifixes made of wood, copper, and terracotta; a silk scapular with a silver wire; and a unique skull-shaped object made of bone. 

To read about excavations at the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France, go to "Renaissance Melody."

Plague Pits Uncovered in Germany


Thursday, March 7, 2024

NUREMBERG, GERMANY—According to a CNN report, eight plague pits estimated to hold the remains of more than 1,500 people were discovered in southern Germany during an investigation conducted ahead of a construction project. Plague outbreaks are known to have occurred in Nuremberg roughly every 10 years, beginning in the fourteenth century. Radiocarbon dating of one of the pits indicates that it was in use between the late fifteenth century and early seventeenth century, while early seventeenth century pottery and coins were also recovered, said Melanie Langbein of Nuremberg’s Department for Heritage Conservation. Meanwhile, historic records show that a plague outbreak killed more than 15,000 people in Nuremberg in 1632 and 1633, resulting in the burial of more than 2,000 people in the area where the excavation is being conducted. Dire conditions brought about by the Thirty Years' War, fought from 1618 to 1648, likely made this particular plague outbreak more deadly, and required the use of plague pits to accommodate the dead, Langbein added. “Those people were not interred in a regular cemetery although we have designated plague cemeteries in Nuremberg,” she explained.

 To read about a mass grave of soldiers who died during the Thirty Years' War Battle of Lützen in 1632, go to "Last Stand of the Blue Brigade."

Ballerinas, Hamlet, and Quantum Physics

Laura Nassar makes us question all we thought we knew about the world around us

"No matter how smart we think we are, there is always a concept out there ready to laugh in the face of our logic."

GERALD PEREIRA/FLICKR HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/2.0/


by Laura Nassar

VARSITY 

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Thursday, March , 7, 2024

No matter how smart we think we are, there is always a concept out there ready to laugh in the face of our logic. We sit back, smug with knowledge, chuckling as Hermione attends two classes at once. Yet the unsettling truth is that the child who believes in these stories is unwittingly closer to the reality of the universe than we are.

Starting with primary school, we are conditioned to order our thoughts in neat progressions. Everything has a cause and effect, time moves linearly, and the world functions according to understandable, predictable rules.

What if I told you this was all nonsense?

Don’t worry, this isn’t some big philosophical revelation, just quantum physics throwing a brick at our entire belief system. Following the laws of the quantum world:
Hamlet can’t ponder whether “to be” or “not to be” because he is simultaneously dead and alive

Physicists refer to this concept as “quantum superposition”. A famous example you may already be aware of is Schrödinger’s cat (but let’s keep the Hamlet analogy because it’s more fun). Let’s put Hamlet in a box. You would think he is either dead or alive in that box. The weird thing is, Hamlet is BOTH dead and alive, up until you open the box, which is when he obtains a definitive state. This is not due to our uncertainty. In other words, we are not assuming that he is both dead and alive simply because we don’t know the answer. In the quantum world there actually is no answer. He is literally dead and alive at the same time until we observe him.

Ballerinas are having a collective meltdown because spinning clockwise in Cambridge means you can only spin counter-clockwise in New York

The ballerinas are victims of “quantum entanglement”. Two quantum ballerinas called Sara and Maya have been best friends for years. They both studied at Cambridge, but now live at opposite ends of the world. The weird thing is, if Sara pirouettes clockwise in Cambridge, Maya instantly whirls counter-clockwise in New York! This is not a telepathic connection, but what physicists call quantum entanglement.

“Einstein referred to this phenomenon as “spooky action at a distance”.”

But here’s an even dizzier thought; Sara and Maya seem to be spinning both ways at once (much like how Hamlet was both dead and alive at once). It is only when an outsider observes Sara dancing, that she “chooses” a specific spin direction. Let’s say Sara chose clockwise. At that exact moment, Maya will find herself spinning counter-clockwise regardless of how far away she is from Sara. This seemingly telepathic connection can occur between entangled quantum particles at apparently infinite distances. Einstein referred to this phenomenon as “spooky action at a distance”.

Catapulted stones from the Trojan War suddenly transform into a tsunami

This refers to arguably the most famous concept in quantum physics known as wave-particle duality. Greek catapults launch stones at Troy’s walls, stones that are about to make Houdini proud. One second they’re determined projectiles but the next they morph into a fluid collective wave; a tsunami crashing over the defences. (Until they are observed, then they suddenly transform back into stones, of course).

But stones lack the panache for such quantum shenanigans. This is reserved for electrons (pfft, show-offs). Quantum particles like electrons have been shown to act as both waves and particles, and this is the property responsible for the remarkable resolution we see in electron microscopes today!

Newton is over at the Physics department, distraught, because his apple has rudely vanished into the floor

The audacity! Poor Isaac, left to grapple with the insolence of a fruit that dared to defy the very law he established. Well, that’s just how it works in the quantum world; barriers are merely suggestions. We commoners would call this teleportation, but physicists know that this is a very real phenomenon called “quantum tunnelling”. It’s a bit like losing your car, and finding it parked on your roof. It doesn’t make sense. Luckily quantum particles couldn’t care less about our logic, they’re just doing their thing.

“It seems the only certainty is the uncertainty of it all.”

The secret is related to their wave-particle duality. Think of how sound can travel through a wall because of its nature as a wave. It’s kind of like that, but not quite. Trust me, delving deeper would only further muddy the waters.

So, in the quantum world, where apples do as they please and particles purposefully confuse us, it seems the only certainty is the uncertainty of it all.
So why does this weird stuff not occur at a macroscopic scale?

Why don’t we see ballerinas spinning clockwise and counter-clockwise simultaneously? How come Hamlet can either be or not be? How come you can’t just teleport to the other side of the door in the middle of an awful date

The answer all lies in observation.

In all previous examples, when a quantum particle was “observed” it was forced to choose one particular state. Clockwise or counter-clockwise, particle or wave… But only when it was being observed.

At a macro scale, everything is being observed all the time!

Beyond Schrödinger’s cat: Quantum effects in biology

Of course, not observation in the literal sense. For example:

A speck of dust hits a wall due to random motion. Although nobody witnessed this collision, the wall’s texture, the initial speed and spin of the speck, and the angle of impact all influence how the collision unfolds. The collision itself is an act of observation! The collision compels the speck and the wall to assume specific states.

Our macroscopic world is teeming with trillions of particles and objects constantly interacting, which means that observation is an ever-present phenomenon. Due to constant observation, there is no chance of any quantum weirdness arising at our scale.

In the quantum world, a particle such as an electron is surrounded by vast nothingness. So much emptiness relatively surrounds the electron, to an extent our brains cannot even comprehend. There is very little chance that it could be accidentally “observed”, which is why quantum weirdness can exist in the world of the tiny.

200-Year-Old Physics Law Might Have Some Major Exceptions

Heat transfer might behave differently in transparent objects.


DR. ALFREDO CARPINETI
Senior Staff Writer & Space Correspondent
Edited by Maddy Chapman



Transparent and translucent materials might transfer heat differently from other solids.


Image Credit: Cg_loser/shutterstock.com

Heat transfer is among the oldest known laws of physics. First formalized by Netwon and then generalized by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, the eponymous Fourier’s Law has been unrivaled for centuries to explain how heat diffuses through a solid object. However, researchers have now discovered that the laws are definitely not complete.

It had been established that at the nanoscale Fourier’s law doesn’t explain all the transfer of heat. But still, the law could be seen as a generalization that works on the macroscale. Yet researchers were curious to see if those exceptions could also happen in something big – and it turns out they do under the right conditions.

“This research began with a simple question,” Steve Granick, Robert K. Barrett Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the paper’s senior author, said in a statement. “What if heat could be transmitted by another pathway, not just the one that people had assumed?”

Their simple idea was that heat can transfer through conduction in a solid but if that solid was transparent it could also transfer by radiation. They tested this in translucent polymers and inorganic glasses.

They placed these materials in a vacuum so air transfer didn’t play a role, and they heated up one side of these materials with a laser and measured with thermal cameras the diffusion of heat. Fourier’s Law alone could not explain what the team was able to observe.

“No one has tried this before,” added lead author Kaikai Zheng also from UMass Amherst. “There’s something unexpected happening within translucent polymers.”

“It’s not that Fourier’s Law is wrong,” Granick was quick to stress, “just that it doesn’t explain everything we see when it comes to heat transmission. Fundamental research like ours gives us an expanded understanding of how heat works, which will offer engineers new strategies for designing heat circuits.”

The team believes that the translucent materials allow for energy to radiate internally. And this radiation heats up imperfections in the material which become secondary heat sources that also radiate through the material. This is why opaque materials do not show such a deviation from Fourier’s law.

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.