Air pollution levels in Lahore rise 40 times above WHO limit

Air pollution levels in Pakistan's second biggest city Lahore reached an unprecedented high on Saturday, soaring more than 40 times above the WHO’s acceptable limit for pollutants. Authorities have imposed strict new restrictions, including partial work-from-home mandates and curfews.


Issued on: 02/11/2024 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

Commuters make their way amid smog in Lahore on November 2, 2024. 

© Arif Ali, AFP


Air pollution in Pakistan's second biggest city Lahore soared on Saturday more than 40 times over the level deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO), with an official calling it record high.

The level of deadly PM2.5 pollutants -- fine particulate matter in the air that causes the most damage to health -- peaked at 610, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO.

The air quality index, which measures a range of pollutants, also spiked at 1,067.

"We have never reached a level of 1,000," Jahangir Anwar, a senior environmental protection official in Lahore told AFP.

For days, Lahore has been enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.

"The air quality index will remain high for the next three to four days," Anwar said.

On Wednesday, the provincial environmental protection agency announced new restrictions in four "hot spots" in the city.

Tuk-tuks equipped with polluting two-stroke engines are banned, as are restaurants that barbecue without filters.

Government offices and private companies will have half their staff work from home from Monday.

Construction work has been halted and street and food vendors, who often cook over open fires, must close at 8 pm.

Smog is particularly pronounced in winter, when cold, denser air traps emissions from poor-quality fuels used to power the city's vehicles and factories at ground level.

(AFP)

Smog-beset Pakistan megacity curbs rickshaws, restaurants

New Delhi chokes in smog after firework ban flouted

Why Spain's floods are its deadliest in a generation

Spain is reeling from its worst flooding in decades after a year’s worth of rain fell in a matter of hours this week in the country’s southern and eastern regions. The storm began on Tuesday and has so far killed at least 158, prompting experts to weigh in on the factors contributing to the devastation.


Issued on: 31/10/2024
By: NEWS WIRES

A picture taken on October 31, 2024 shows piled-up cars following deadly floods in Sedavi, south of Valencia, eastern Spain. 

© Manaure Quintero, AFP

Powerful storms turbo-charged by a warming planet, poor urban planning and carelessness combined with catastrophic consequences in Spain’s deadliest floods in a generation, experts told AFP.

Authorities in the European country have announced a provisional toll of 158 dead and the figure is feared to rise as rescuers search for bodies under the rubble and mud.
Exceptionally violent weather

Torrential rains drenched areas of the eastern Valencia region with a year’s worth of precipitation in a matter of hours, according to national weather service AEMET.

In Chiva, west of the coastal city of Valencia, it recorded 491 litres of rain per square metre (49.1 centimetres).

The deluge was linked to a storm phenomenon common for the season where cold air travels over the Mediterranean Sea’s warm waters and forms intense rain clouds.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the temperatures of the world’s waters and increasing the ferocity of storms.

The warmer Mediterranean and time of year acted as fuel for the torrential rains in a “dramatic” cocktail attributable to climate change, said Jorge Olcina, a climate expert at Alicante University.

When storms reach such levels, they can have an effect similar to “hurricanes” or “tropical cyclones”, he added in an audio message to AFP.

Dry and artificial soils

The parched soil in the hardest-hit areas compounded the problem after Spain endured two consecutive years of intense droughts.

The ground could not absorb such a quantity of water, giving rise to flash flooding that raged through settlements.

The Valencia region is also covered with many areas where natural spaces have made way for impermeable concrete.

This urban development is “uncontrolled and ill-adapted to the natural characteristics of the territory”, amplifying the danger of powerful storms, said Pablo Aznar of the Socioeconomic Observatory of Floods and Droughts.

The population density of the Valencia region, which hosts Spain’s third-largest city of the same name with a population of almost 1.9 million inhabitants, also contributed.

Population density “was a very important factor” and posed a “challenge” to the authorities, said Aznar.

Read more  More than 150 dead in Spain’s devastating flash floods

Rush hour on the roads

The timing of the storm could not have been worse as it picked up late on Tuesday when motorists were hitting the roads during the evening rush hour.

Many victims were caught by surprise in their vehicles as they returned home or on the street, with the raging waters plucking some clinging to lampposts or trees.

Such scenes could have been avoided had citizens been warned on time to allow them to shelter at home, according to Hannah Cloke, a hydrology professor at Britain’s University of Reading.

Lack of care

AEMET had issued a red warning for the Valencia region on Tuesday morning, but the civil protection service only sent its telephone alerts advising people not to leave home after 8:00 pm.

But some people admitted they left home even after receiving the alert, suggesting a poor comprehension of the emergency.

Although there were “communication failures”, the responsibility is shared because Spain lacks a “culture of risk”, Aznar told AFP.

“Our collective mentality is still not sufficiently adapted to new extreme weather phenomena.”

Olcina agreed. “We have to vastly improve risk education in schools, but also in the whole population, so they know how to act in the event of an immediate risk.”

(AFP)

Spain flood death toll hits 205, rescuers yet to reach some parts of Valencia

People missing as flash floods sweep across Spain sending cars floating down street amid 'historic' weather event

In Shanghai, Halloween sent shivers down China's spine

Analysis

Chinese authorities are seeking to limit Halloween celebrations in Shanghai, fearing that the festivities could serve as a platform for political dissent. For the regime, the October 31 holiday, imported from the United States, could become a means of criticising those in power through the choice of costumes with a political connotation.


Issued on: 31/10/2024 
By: Sébastian SEIBT

Halloween costumes worn in Shanghai in 2023, including protective suits like those worn by officials during the country's Covid-19 lockdown, were deemed politically subversive. CFOTO/Sipa USA via Reuters Conne - Costfoto

The Chinese government seems to be spooked by Halloween in Shanghai. A group of people dressed up for a pre-Halloween party in the city were detained by police, Reuters reported on October 25. Then, over the weekend, the police were deployed in one of Shanghai's downtown districts to curb the festivities of other fans of Halloween.

One 22-year-old student who was detained by the police told the Financial Times: “We had hats and cat ears, and they’re like ‘you can’t do that this year, unless you’re going to Disneyland’ or something.”

The student, who did not give his name, said the police took him to an administrative building where he joined a long queue of others wearing costumes.

'Subversive costumes'

Those rounded up were required to give police their names, ID numbers and phone numbers before being released according to the South China Morning Post. Videos showing handcuffed people entering a public building accompanied by police officers have been circulating on Chinese social networks since the weekend.

“These arrests took place mainly in Shanghai's cosmopolitan former French Concession district, where last year's Halloween festivities were held,” says Carlotta Rinaudo, China specialist for the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona.

If the authorities are nervous as October 31 approaches, it's precisely because they don't want a repeat of last year’s Halloween, during which “some of the participants chose costumes that could be described as politically subversive", says Marc Lanteigne, a sinologist at The Arctic University of Norway.

At the time, the authorities were taken aback by this new political turn of Halloween, which traditionally has more to do with children going door-to-door trick-or-treating than with political grievances.

Beijing has shown little tolerance for expressions of popular discontent in Shanghai. China’s most international city, “considered the most open to the world, serves as a showcase for the country”, says Lanteigne.
Fear of a snowball effect

The regime is doing its utmost to present Shanghai in the most welcoming light to the outside world, while ensuring that not the the slightest challenge to the ruling party emerges.

Are a few cheeky costumes enough to shake the authority of the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party?

“On the face of it, it was more a question of Shanghai's population relaxing a little, rather than challenging the powers that be,” says Lanteigne. “Let's not forget that the local population has been hard hit by both the draconian health measures implemented during the Covid-19 crisis and the Chinese economic slowdown,” he says.

But the authorities saw the festivities as a phenomenon that could have a snowball effect, experts say. In fact, “the line between festive celebrations and protest” has always been quite blurred in China, says Rinaudo, and for several years now, Halloween gatherings have been a way to express criticism of the authorities.

In 2019, Hong Kong police fired tear gas at protesters who challenged a government ban on demonstrators wearing politically provocative face masks.

In 2022, protests in Shanghai against restrictions linked to Covid-19 began on November 2, just after Halloween.

The costumes seen in Shanghai in 2023 finally convinced the authorities that it was better to offer "tricks” rather than "treats" for Halloween, prompting them to clamp down on the festivities.

What China’s leaders absolutely don't want to see is the establishment of a tradition of dissent around Halloween, “because the political implications could become more and more complicated to control", says Rinaudo. The authorities don't want to go so far as to ban Halloween completely, she says, but “are keen to control the way the occasion is celebrated”.

Chinese nationalism vs. Western influence

Nevertheless, mobilising law enforcement nearly a week before Halloween and firmly urging anyone wearing a costume to revert to a more usual dress code is not a sign that the government is sure of itself, notes Lanteigne. "It doesn't show a regime very confident about the social mood and the risk of social unrest,” he says.

For Lanteigne, their response is an indication that with the economic slowdown, the authorities are on the lookout for the slightest sign that a social crisis could be brewing.

Halloween also provides an opportunity “to attack another symbol of Western culture in China”, says Lanteigne. For some years now, Chinese authorities have been urging people not to celebrate Christmas.

"Putting some restrictions on Western festivities like Christmas is part of a nationalistic push for more traditional values" to counteract the influence of the West, says Rinaudo.

Halloween is the perfect target for the ire of the Chinese authorities. On the one hand, Beijing hopes to pre-empt any potential public dissent, and on the other, it seeks to control the narrative surrounding Western cultural influences.

From the government’s viewpoint, they are “bolstering national pride with a crackdown against Western and outside influences”, says Lanteigne.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Two Andy Warhol artworks stolen in Netherlands gallery heist

Two out of four artworks from US pop art pioneer Andy Warhol's "Reigning Queens" series were stolen during the night of Thursday to Friday from a Dutch gallery. The thieves used explosives to break into the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk in North Brabant province and abandoned two other Warhol screenprints that apparently didn't fit in the getaway car.


Issued on: 01/11/2024 -

By: NEWS WIRES
A man takes a photo of a screenprint depicting Queen Elizabeth II, one in a series of sixteen prints of four queens titled "Reigning Queens, 1985" by Andy Warhol at Museum Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, October 9, 2024. © Peter Dejong, AP


Two works by artist Andy Warhol were stolen during the night of Thursday to Friday from a gallery in the south of the Netherlands, while two other screenprints were abandoned nearby.

The thieves used heavy explosives to break into the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk in North Brabant province and took off with two screenprints showing former queens Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Margrethe II of Denmark, Dutch media NOS reported.

"The entrance of the gallery was blown out and there was glass all around the building," NOS said.

Not much is known yet about the theft "but it is strange that explosives were used," well-known Dutch art detective Arthur Brand said.

"That's not common for art thefts," said Brand, who has made headlines for recovering artworks, including a missing Picasso and a stolen Van Gogh.

The "Reigning Queens" series by Pop Art pioneer Andy Warhol were on display in the gallery before going on sale at the PAN Amsterdam art fair that runs from November 24 to December 1.

Two other works from the same series, showing former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, were abandoned on the street because the full haul did not fit in the getaway car, NOS said.

"The works are worth a considerable sum," the owner of the gallery Mark Peet Visser told local media Omroep Brabant.

Brand, however, told AFP the stolen artworks were "not unique and most likely tens of them were made."

"This makes it easier to sell than unique works, but not that much easier," he said.

La MPV Gallery did not instantly respond to a request for comment by AFP.

The "Reigning Queens" series was created in 1985, two years before the American artist's death, when all four queens were in power.

(AFP)

REVANCHIST TRUMP

US Republican Liz Cheney slams 'tyrant' Trump after he suggests she face firing squad


Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney called former US president Donald Trump a "vindictive, cruel" dictator on Friday after he said she was a "war hawk" and suggested she face a firing squad. Trump made the remarks as he criticised Cheney's father for endorsing his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, during an interview with Fox News.


Issued on: 01/11/2024 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

This combination of file pictures created on November 1, 2024 shows former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Cumming, Georgia on October 15, 2024 and forrmer Republican representative Liz Cheney in Malvern, Pennsylvania on October 21, 2024. © Elijah Nouvelage, Brendan Smialowski, AFP


Prominent Republican and vocal Donald Trump critic Liz Cheney called the former president a "vindictive, cruel" dictator on Friday after he suggested she would be less of a "war hawk" with guns trained on her face.

"This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death," the former US congresswoman and daughter of ex-vice president Dick Cheney said Friday in a post on social platform X.


"We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."

Trump -- who is running for reelection -- made the remarks as he criticized Cheney's father for endorsing Democratic White House candidate Kamala Harris, speaking during a fireside chat with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona.

"And I don't blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb," Trump said Thursday.

"She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face."

The backlash was swift, with Harris campaign advisor Ian Sams contrasting Trump "talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad" with Harris "talking about sending one to her cabinet."

Harris herself also lambasted Trump, saying the “verbal rhetoric” directed against Liz Cheney should disqualify him from becoming president again.

Trump has "suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney," Harris told reporters. "This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a top aide in Trump's White House, called his comments "unconscionable."

"I don't know how Republican leaders -- many of whom served with Liz Cheney and at one point considered her a colleague and friend -- cannot denounce this. It's dangerous. It's escalatory," she told CNN.

A Trump campaign spokeswoman called Cheney a "warmonger" in a statement to AFP, adding that the Republican meant that she is "very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves."

Cheney was once seen as rising star among the Republicans in the House of Representatives but was booted from a leadership position and then lost her Wyoming seat over her strong criticism of Trump's refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 election.

Watch more'Far from over': Cheney sacrifices career to lead anti-Trump Republicans

The ex-president endorsed her opponent in the 2022 House primary, Harriet Hageman.

Cheney -- who led the successful effort to have Trump impeached for a second time -- announced last month that she would be voting for Harris and has appeared with the vice president multiple times to woo soft conservatives.

Trump has a long history of attacking Cheney and as recently as last week called her a "Muslim-hating warmonger... who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Macron recognises Algerian national hero Larbi Ben M'hidi 'killed by French soldiers' in 1957

French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement on Friday, the 70th anniversary of the November 1, 1954 uprising that led to the Algerian War, acknowledging that prominent Algerian revolutionary leader Larbi Ben M'hidi was killed by French soldiers after his arrest in 1957.


Issued on: 01/11/2024 -
By: NEWS WIRES

Larbi Ben M'Hidi, Algerian leader of the FLN, tortured to death in 1957. © AFP Archives


President Emmanuel Macron on Friday acknowledged that Larbi Ben M'hidi, a key figure in Algeria's War of Independence against France, had been killed by French soldiers after his arrest in 1957, the French presidency said.

"He recognised today that Larbi Ben M'hidi, a national hero for Algeria... was killed by French soldiers," the presidency said on the 70th anniversary of the revolt that sparked the war, in a new gesture of reconciliation by Macron towards the former colony.

France's more than a century-long colonisation of Algeria and the viciously fought 1954-62 war of independence have left deep scars on both sides.

In recent years, Macron has made several gestures towards reconciliation while stopping short of issuing any apology for French imperialism.
Watch more

Red All Saints' Day: Remembering the start of the Algerian War, 70 years ago

Since coming to power in 2017, Macron has sought "to look at the history of colonisation and the Algerian War in the face, with the aim of creating a peaceful and shared memory", the presidency said.

Ben M'hidi was one of six founding members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) that launched the armed revolt against French rule that led to the war.

The presidency said that according to the official version, Ben M'hidi after his arrest in February 1957 attempted to commit suicide and died during his transfer to the hospital.

But it said he had in fact been killed by soldiers under the command of General Paul Aussaresses, who admitted to this at the beginning of the 2000s.

Read more 

Sixty years on, Algerian and French nationals share stories of the Algerian War

In 2017, then-presidential candidate Macron dubbed the French occupation a "crime against humanity".

A report he commissioned from historian Benjamin Stora recommended in 2020 further moves to reconcile the two countries, while ruling out "repentance" and "apologies".

But Macron, who has sought to build a strong relationship with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in 2022 questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before being colonised by France, drawing an angry response from Algiers.

(AFP)

  JUST ANOTHER REACTIONARY

UK Conservative Party elects 'anti-woke' Kemi Badenoch as new leader

IF YOU AIN'T WOKE YOU AIN'T ALIVE

The UK's Conservatives on Saturday elected Kemi Badenoch as their new leader, replacing Rishi Sunak after the party's poor performance in July's general election. Badenoch, a staunch "anti-woke" advocate, faces the challenge of uniting a divided party while redefining its future.

Issued on: 02/11/2024
By: NEWS WIRES

03:47

Kemi Badenoch speaks after being announced as the new leader of the UK's Conservative Party. 

© Benjamin Cremel, AFP

The UK's battle-scarred Conservatives on Saturday elected "anti-woke" candidate Kemi Badenoch as its new head, making her the first black leader of a major UK party.
[13:29] DAOU Marc
x.com

The combative former equalities minister replaces Rishi Sunak and now faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened party emphatically ousted from power in July after 14 years in charge.

Badenoch, 44, came out on top in the two-horse race with former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, winning 57 percent of the votes of party members.

She said it was an "enormous honour" to assume the role, but that "the task that stands before us is tough."


"We have to be honest about the fact we made mistakes" and "let standards slip," she said.

"It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew," she added.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated Badenoch, writing on X that "the first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country."

Sunak said that Badenoch would be a "superb leader", while fellow former prime minister Boris Johnson wrote that "she brings a much needed zing and zap to the Conservative Party".

Badenoch will become the official leader of the opposition and face off against Labour's Keir Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday for the traditional Prime Minister's Questions.

However, she will be leading a much-reduced cohort of Tory MPs in the chamber following the party's dismal election showing.

She must plot a strategy to regain public trust while stemming the flow of support to the right-wing Reform UK party, led by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.

Having campaigned on a right-wing platform, she also faces the prospect of future difficulties within the ranks of Tory lawmakers, which includes many centrists.
'No wallflower'

Badenoch, born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, has called for a return to conservative values, accusing her party of having become increasingly liberal on societal issues such as gender identity.

She describes herself as a straight-talker, a trait that has caused controversy on the campaign trail.

Kemi Badenoch (R) is congratulated by beaten candidate Robert Jenrick (L) after being announced as the new leader of the UK's Conservative Party. © Benjamin Cremel, AFP

Badenoch was widely criticised after suggesting that statutory maternity pay on small businesses was "excessive" and sparked further furore when she joked that up to 10 percent of Britain's half a million civil servants were so bad that they "should be in prison".

On immigration, she said that "not all cultures are equally valid" when deciding who should be allowed to live in the UK.

Jenrick, 42, had also staked out a tough position on the issue, and resigned as immigration minister in Sunak's government after saying that his controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda did not go far enough.

Read moreUK resolves Rwanda asylum seeker cases after Labour govt scraps deportation policy

The pair faced off after Tory MPs whittled down the original six candidates during a series of votes.

Former foreign minister James Cleverly, from the party's more centrist faction, had looked certain to make the last two, but was surprisingly eliminated in the final vote by lawmakers last month.

Badenoch, an MP since 2017, has risen from relative obscurity just a few years ago to now lead the country's second-biggest party.

The Brexit supporter has made a name for herself as a trenchant critic of "identity politics".

According to Blue Ambition, a biography written by Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft, Badenoch became "radicalised" into right-wing politics while at university in the UK.

He described her view of student activists there as the "spoiled, entitled, privileged metropolitan elite-in-training".

She has insisted criticism of her abrasive style is misplaced.

"I'm not a wallflower. And people will often take your strengths and present them as weaknesses," she told Sky News.

She worked in IT and banking before entering politics around a decade ago, eventually winning a seat in the London Assembly in 2015.

Elected to parliament two years later, she was supported as she rose through the Tory ranks by one-time party heavyweight Michael Gove.

Badenoch held various ministerial roles during the tail end of the Conservatives' 14-year tenure in power.

(AFP)

Simple science summaries written by AI help people understand research, trust scientists

The Conversation
October 31, 2024 

AI Artificial Intelligence SkillUp / Shutterstock

Artificial intelligence-generated summaries of scientific papers make complex information more understandable for the public compared with human-written summaries, according to my recent paper published in PNAS Nexus. AI-generated summaries not only improved public comprehension of science but also enhanced how people perceived scientists.

I used a popular large language model, GPT-4 by OpenAI, to create simple summaries of scientific papers; this kind of text is often called a significance statement. The AI-generated summaries used simpler language – they were easier to read according to a readability index and used more common words, like “job” instead of “occupation” – than summaries written by the researchers who had done the work.

In one experiment, I found that readers of the AI-generated statements had a better understanding of the science, and they provided more detailed, accurate summaries of the content than readers of the human-written statements.

I also investigated what effects the simpler summaries might have on people’s perceptions of the scientists who performed the research. In this experiment, participants rated the scientists whose work was described in the simpler texts as more credible and trustworthy than the scientists whose work was described in the more complex texts.

In both experiments, participants did not know who wrote each summary. The simpler texts were always AI-generated, and the complex texts were always human-generated. When I asked participants who they believed wrote each summary, they ironically thought the more complex ones were written by AI and simpler ones were written by humans.




It can feel like you need a Ph.D. to understand science research published in a journal. R.Tsubin/Moment via Getty Images

Why it matters

Have you ever read about a scientific discovery and felt like it was written in a foreign language? If you’re like most Americans, new scientific information is probably hard to understand – especially if you try to tackle a science article in a research journal.

In an era where scientific literacy is crucial for informed decision-making, the abilities to communicate and grasp complex ideas are more important than ever. Trust in science has been declining for years, and one contributing factor may be the challenge of understanding scientific jargon.

This research points to a potential solution: using AI to simplify science communication. By making scientific content more approachable, this work demonstrates that AI-generated summaries may help to restore trust in scientists and, in turn, encourage greater public engagement with scientific issues. The question of trust is particularly important, as people often rely on science in their daily lives, from eating habits to medical choices.

What still isn’t known

As AI continues to evolve, its role in science communication may expand, especially if using generative AI becomes more commonplace or sanctioned by journals. Indeed, the academic publishing field is still establishing norms regarding the use of AI. By simplifying scientific writing, AI could contribute to more engagement with complex issues.

While the benefits of AI-generated science communication are perhaps clear, ethical considerations must also be considered. There is some risk that relying on AI to simplify scientific content may remove nuance, potentially leading to misunderstandings or oversimplifications. There’s always the chance of errors, too, if no one pays close attention.

Additionally, transparency is critical. Readers should be informed when AI is used to generate summaries to avoid potential biases.


Simple science descriptions are preferable to and more beneficial than complex ones, and AI tools can help. But scientists could also achieve the same goals by working harder to minimize jargon and communicate clearly – no AI necessary.

David Markowitz, Associate Professor of Communication, Michigan State University

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

Deep sea rocks suggest oxygen can be made without photosynthesis

The Conversation
November 1, 2024 

chaylek/Shutterstock

Oxygen, the molecule that supports intelligent life as we know it, is largely made by plants. Whether underwater or on land, they do this by photosynthesising carbon dioxide. However, a recent study demonstrates that oxygen may be produced without the need for life at depths where light cannot reach.

The authors of a recent publication in Nature Geoscience were collecting samples from deep ocean sediments to determine the rate of oxygen consumption at the seafloor through things like organisms or sediments that can react with oxygen. But in several of their experiments, they actually found oxygen was increasing as opposed to decreasing as they would have expected. This left them questioning how this oxygen was being produced.

They found that this “dark” oxygen production at the seafloor seems to only happen in the presence of mineral concentrates called polymetallic nodules and deposits of metals called metalliferous sediments. The authors think the nodules have the right mixture of metals and are densely packed enough for an electrical current to pass through for electrolysis, creating enough energy to separate the hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) from water (H₂O).

The authors also suggested that the amount of oxygen created may fluctuate depending on the number and mixture of nodules on the ocean floor.

This research team was trying to understand the implications of mining metals from the deep-sea floor such as lithium, cobalt or copper, funded by an extractions company in an effort to ensure deep sea mining leads to a net benefit to humanity and the Earth system. Lithium and cobalt are used, for example, to make rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles. Copper is vital for electrical wiring in devices like TVs and radios and for roofing and plumbing.

The investigation was focused on the Clarion-Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean, a vast plain between Hawaii and Mexico where millions of tons of these metals have been found. However, scientists believe mining on this scale is potentially unpredictable and can destroy habitats vital to ocean ecosystems. Deep-sea mining can also introduce harmful sediment plumes to fragile ecosystems leading to a growing number of countries calling for a moratorium.

Dark oxygen for life

The implications for this finding may also play a role in life elsewhere.

Oxygen is essential to complex life as we know it. Complex life has evolved and expanded alongside photosynthesisers, which actually produce oxygen as a waste product. Yet this oxygen allows organisms’ metabolisms to be much more efficient than without it.

Without photosynthetic bacteria, the reliance that Earth’s life has on oxygen may well have never happened, in addition to the evolutionary pathway to biodiversity as we know it. But this study shows that rich-nodules on the seafloor may have provided an additional source of oxygen to the biosphere - the zone of life on Earth encompassing all living organisms.

We can’t understand how these nodules may have affected evolution until we understand more about how they formed deeper in time. At the moment, all we really know it that we these nodules would have needed oxygen themselves to form.

Studies like this show how much the origin of life on Earth is still a mystery.

Lewis Alcott, Lecturer in Geochemistry, University of Bristol

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

WHITE Americans own guns to protect themselves from PERCIEVED psychological as well as physical threats

The Conversation
October 31, 2024


Man holds gun in front of US flag (Shutterstock.com)

Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Tim Walz and JD Vance all have something in common. All four of them, along with an estimated 42% of American adults, have lived in a home with at least one gun.

Gun ownership in the United States is widespread and cuts across all sorts of cultural divides – including race, class and political ideology. Like all mass experiences in American life, owning a gun can mean very different things to different people.

One thing that American gun owners tend to agree on, no matter their differences, is that guns are for personal protection. In a 2023 Pew survey, 72% of gun owners reported that they owned a firearm at least in part for protection, and 81% of gun owners reported that owning a gun helped them to feel safer. This perspective contrasts to that of gun owners in other developed economies, who generally report that guns are more dangerous than safe and that they own a gun for some other reason.

I’m a psychologist who studies contemporary society. In the lab, my colleagues and I have been investigating this feeling of safety that American gun owners report. We’re trying to get a more complete sense of just what people are using their firearms to protect against. Our research suggests it goes much deeper than physical threats.


Social scientists are exploring the motivations and effects of owning a gun. Cécile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

Protection goes beyond the physical

By combining social-scientific research on firearms ownership with a raft of interviews we’ve conducted, we’ve developed a theory that gun owners aren’t just protecting against the specific threat of physical violence. Owners are also using a gun to protect their psychological selves. Owning a gun helps them feel more in control of the world around them and more able to live meaningful, purposeful lives that connect to the people and communities they care for.

This sort of protection may be especially appealing to those who think that the normal institutions of society – such as the police or the government – are either unable or unwilling to keep them safe. They feel they need to take protection into their own hands.

This use of a deadly weapon to provide comfort and solace may come at a cost, however, as firearms often bring a heightened sense of vigilance with them. Firearm instructors frequently teach owners to be especially aware of their environment and all the potential dangers and threats within. When gun owners look for danger, they often are more likely to find it.

Gun owners may end up perceiving the world as a more dangerous place, institutions as more uncaring or incompetent, and their own private actions as all the more important for securing their lives and their livelihoods.

How gun owners feel during daily life

What does this cycle of protection and threat look like in everyday life? My colleagues and I recently ran a study to investigate. We’re still undergoing peer review, so our work is not final yet.

We recruited a group of over 150 firearms owners who told us that they regularly carry their guns, along with over 100 demographically matched Americans who have never owned a gun. Over two weeks, our research team texted the participants at two random times each day, asking them to fill out a survey telling us what they were doing and how they were feeling.

To get a sense of how guns change the psychological landscape of their owners, we divided our gun-carrying group into two. When we texted one half of the group, before we asked any other questions, we simply asked whether they had their gun accessible and why they’d made that decision. For the other half of our gun-owning participants, and for our non-gun-owning control group, firearms and firearm carrying never came up.



When subtly reminded of guns in general – regardless of whether their gun was accessible – our participants reported feeling more safe and in control and that their lives were more meaningful. Thanks to our random-assignment procedure, we can be pretty confident that it was thinking about guns, as opposed to any differences in the underlying groups themselves, that caused this particular increase in psychological well-being.

About half of the times that we texted, the gun owners told us that they had a gun accessible at that moment. When a gun was handy, our participants told us that they were feeling more vigilant and anxious, and that their immediate situation was more chaotic. This result didn’t seem to be driven by owners choosing to have guns available when they were putting themselves into objectively more dangerous situations: We found the same pattern when we looked just at moments when our participants were sitting at home, watching television.

Raising fear and promising rescue

Contemporary American gun ownership may have conflicting messages embedded within it. First, a gun is a thing you can use to bolster your fundamental psychological needs to feel safe, to feel in control and to feel like you matter and belong. Second, having a gun focuses your attention on the dangers of the world.

By both fueling a sense of danger and holding out the promise of rescuing you from the fear, messaging around guns may end up locking some owners into a sort of doom loop.



A sense of responsibility goes along with gun ownership for the vast majority of Americans who own a firearm. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

My collaborators and I are currently exploring whether stressing other parts of gun ownership may help owners to move beyond this negative spiral. For instance, while owners often talk about “danger,” they also talk frequently about “responsibility.”

Being a responsible gun owner is central to many owners’ identities. In one study, 97% of owners reported that they were “more responsible than the average gun owner,” and 23% rated themselves as being in the top 1% of responsibility overall. This, of course, is statistically impossible.

To more fully understand the many ways responsible firearm ownership can look, we are in the process of interviewing gun owners from all around the state of Wisconsin, a notably diverse state when it comes to gun ownership. We’re tapping into as many of the ways of owning a gun as we can, talking with protective owners, hunters, sport shooters, collectors, folks in urban areas, folks in rural areas, men, women, young people, old people, liberals, conservatives, and, of course, trying to capture the complex ways that race shapes ownership.

Who do gun owners feel they are responsible for? What kinds of actions do they think responsible owners take?

We hope to learn more about the many different ways that people conceptualize what a gun can do for them. American gun cultures are complex and distinct things. By exploring the worldviews that support firearm ownership, we can better understand what it means to live in the U.S. today.

Nick Buttrick, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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