Facebook reverses on paid influencers after Bloomberg memes

by Barbara Ortutay and Amanda Seitz

Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during a campaign rally at the Buffalo Soldier Museum in Houston, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner stands at right. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Facebook has decided to let political campaigns pay online influencers to spread their messages, a practice that had sidestepped many of the social network's rules governing political ads.

Friday's policy reversal highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid political messages.

The change comes days after Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people.

The Bloomberg posts weren't much more than self-deprecating humor used to sell the candidate's old guy appeal, using a tactic that until now was largely used to sell skin care products or clothing-subscription services. But the lack of oversight and clear rules around influencer marketing, not to mention their effectiveness in reaching younger audiences, makes them ripe for misuse.

Bloomberg's effort skirted many of the rules that tech companies have imposed on political ads to safeguard U.S. elections from malicious foreign and domestic interference and misinformation. Online political ads have been controversial, especially after it was revealed Russia used them in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. In response, Facebook has rolled out a number of rules to prevent a repeat of that, though it has declined to fact-check political ads and refuses to ban even blatently false messages from politicians.

Before the explosion of social media, it was clearer what's an ad and what isn't—and thus what's subject to disclosures and other rules. With social media, a campaign can pay celebrities and other influential users to spread a message on their behalf, without ever buying an ad and be subject to its rules.

"This is a new kind of activity that simply didn't exist when the rules for internet political communications were last updated," said Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub of the Federal Election Commission.

Friday's policy change involves what Facebook calls "branded content"—sponsored items posted by ordinary users who are typically paid by companies or organizations. Advertisers pay the influential users directly to post about their brand.

Facebook doesn't make money directly from such posts and doesn't not consider them advertising. As a result, branded content wasn't governed by Facebook's advertising policies, which require candidates and campaigns to verify their identity with a U.S. ID or mailing address and disclose how much they spent running each ad.

Until Friday, Facebook tried to deter campaigns from using such branded content by barring them from using a tool designed to help advertisers run such posts on Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. The rule change now allows campaigns in the U.S. to use this tool, provided they've been authorized by Facebook to run political ads and disclose who paid for the sponsored posts. Campaigns that avoid using the tool, as Bloomberg had, risk having their accounts suspended.

In this March 29, 2018 file photo shows the logo for Facebook at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York's Times Square. Facebook on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, decided to allow a type of paid political message that sidesteps many of the social network's rules governing political ads. Its policy change comes days after presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run such humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of young voters.(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

"After hearing from multiple campaigns, we agree that there's a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms," Facebook said in an exclusive statement to The Associated Press. "We're allowing U.S.-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content."

Politicians still won't be required to disclose how much they paid the influencers to run the posts. And the posts won't appear in Facebook's ad library, which publicly catalogs political ads and allows other campaigns, journalists and watchdog groups to view the type of messages politicians are pushing in the election.

Facebook's new rules won't apply to someone merely creating or sharing a post about a politician without getting paid.

Facebook said it is asking the influencer accounts that posted the Bloomberg memes to retroactively use the tool meant for such posts. After this happens, the posts will be labeled as a "paid partnership" with Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg campaign had taken the unconventional step of paying social media influencers—individuals with huge followings—to post Bloomberg memes using their Instagram accounts. Different versions of the sponsored posts from the Bloomberg campaign ran on more than a dozen influential Instagram accounts, each of which have millions of followers.

The Bloomberg campaign's memes showed the 78-year-old candidate, in a tongue-in-cheek awkward fashion, chatting with popular social media influencers with names like "Tank Sinatra," asking them to help him raise his profile among younger folk.

"Can you post a meme that lets everyone know I'm the cool candidate?" Bloomberg wrote in one of the exchanges posted by an Instagram account with nearly 15 million followers. The candidate then sent a photo of him wearing baggy chino shorts, an orange polo and a zip-up vest. The reply: "Ooof that will cost like a billion dollars." The billionaire candidate responded by asking where to send the money.

With the sponsored posts, Bloomberg's campaign said it was reaching those who might not be normally interested in the day-to-day of politics.

"You want to engage people at every platform and you want them to feel like they're not just getting a canned generic statement," campaign spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said of the campaign's strategy.

The Bloomberg campaign declined to say how much it paid for the sponsored posts, or if it had more in the works.


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© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Coral reefs: Centuries of human impact

by Arizona State University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Coral reefs account for one-third of all biodiversity in the oceans and are vital to humanity. But long-standing human stressors including agricultural run-off and overfishing and more recent ocean warming from climate change have all contributed to large-scale coral reef die-offs.

"Coral reef ecosystems now appear to be unraveling before our eyes, with intensifying outbreaks of coral disease and bleaching threatening the persistence of reef habitats and the immense biodiversity they support," said Katie Cramer, an assistant research professor at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University and an Ocean Science Fellow at the Center for Oceans at Conservation International.

Cramer's work focuses on reconstructing long-term change in coral reef ecosystems by combining paleoecological, historical, and modern survey data to pinpoint the mechanisms of reef declines and inform conservation efforts.

In her AAAS talk, "Coral Reefs: Centuries of Human Impact," Cramer outlines the evidence of the long-ago human footprints that set the stage for the recent coral reef die-offs we are witnessing today.

"I am interested in going back to the scene of the crime when humans first began to impact coral reefs centuries to millennia ago, to understand when, why, and how much reefs have been altered by humans," said Cramer.

Her studies have examined the origins of Caribbean coral reef declines by tracking changes over the past 3,000 years in the composition of a variety of fossils found in reef sediment cores she collected from Panama, including coral skeletons, fish teeth, urchin spines, mollusk shells, and others.

These studies revealed that long-standing local human impacts such as fishing and agriculture have been profoundly altering reefs at least centuries before the disease and bleaching epidemics that are commonly cited as drivers of coral loss.

In addition, Cramer will also present the first evidence of her study that reconstructed changes in coral communities from reefs across the Caribbean, spanning the pre-human period to the present. This work is revealing that coral communities were being transformed by human activities much earlier than previously thought.

The hope is that by listening to the echoes of past environmental change on coral reefs, Cramer's efforts can better inform conservation efforts in a period of intensifying human-caused threats.

"We need to resolve why and how much coral reefs have changed over human history to inform our responses to the current reef crisis. We need to understand how reefs have responded to past changes to best ensure their persistence into the future," said Cramer.Officials want $100M for reef restoration in Florida Keys

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Provided by Arizona State University 

Statewide prevalence of gun ownership tied to police use of lethal force

by Carnegie Mellon University

Police use of lethal force in the United States has triggered public scrutiny of violent interactions between police and citizens. Past research has focused on whether race and levels of violence contribute to this phenomenon. A new study expands on prior research by examining the impact of the availability of firearms. It finds a pronounced positive relationship between statewide prevalence of gun ownership by citizens and police use of lethal force.

The study, by a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, appears in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

"One consequence of higher rates of firearm prevalence in a state may lead to a greater frequency of police encountering individuals who are armed or suspected to be armed, which in turn results in a greater frequency of police using lethal force," explains Daniel S. Nagin, professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, the author of the study.

Nagin based his work on data collected in a Washington Post inventory of police use of lethal force nationwide from 2015 to 2018. As a first step in his analysis, Nagin confirmed a positive correlation across all 50 states between the prevalence of firearms and percentage of lethal encounters in which the victim possessed a firearm.

Nagin's analysis identified a pronounced, highly significant association between the statewide rate at which police use lethal force and the statewide prevalence of firearms. The association could be interpreted as reflecting a causal effect of the availability of firearms on police use of lethal force, Nagin suggests.

Because the data measured only violent encounters with the police that ended in death, not all violent encounters, taking account of proximity of trauma services is important. The analysis found that access to trauma centers, measured by the percentage of a state's population living within one hour of a Level I trauma center (one that can provide total care for every aspect of injury) or a Level II trauma center (one that has 24-hour immediate coverage by general surgeons and specialists), was associated with lower rates of deaths of individuals who have violent encounters with police; the finding supports the importance of rapid access to emergency medical care.

"One of the policy implications of the study's findings is that we should reduce the availability of firearms to active offenders and individuals at high risk of offending," Nagin suggests. "Among the policies intended to do this are universal background checks and training police to use de-escalation skills."How do encounters with police affect the mental health of black Americans?

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More information: Daniel S. Nagin, Firearm Availability and Fatal Police Shootings, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2020). DOI: 10.1177/0002716219896259

Underestimated chemical diversity

by Ori Schip­per, ETH Zurich

BEYOND WHMIS/GHMIS MY AREA OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The last time a list was compiled of all the chemicals available on the market and in circulation worldwide, it ran to 100,000 entries. Drawn up shortly after the turn of the millennium, the list focused on markets in the US, Canada and western Europe, which made sense because 20 years ago, these countries accounted for more than two thirds of worldwide chemical sales.


Global market

Things have changed dramatically since then. First, turnover has more than doubled, reaching EUR 3.4 billion in 2017; second, the global west now participates in just a third of the worldwide chemical trade, whereas China alone accounts for 37 percent of turnover. "We broadened our scope to take in the global market—and we're now presenting a first comprehensive overview of all chemicals available worldwide," says Zhanyun Wang, Senior Scientist at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich.

Working with a team of international experts, Wang brought together data from 22 registers covering 19 countries and regions (including the EU). The new list contains 350,000 entries. "The chemical diversity we know now is three times greater than 20 years ago," says Wang. This, he says, is primarily because a larger number of registers are now taken into account: "As a result, our new list includes many chemicals that are registered in developing and transition countries, which are often with limited oversight."

Confidential business information

On its own, this comprehensive list cannot provide information about which chemicals are hazardous to health or the environment, for example. "Our inventory is only the first step in the substances' characterisation," says Wang, adding that previous work suggested that some 3 percent of all chemicals may give cause for concern. If you apply this figure to the new multitude of chemicals, 6,000 new potentially problematic substances could be expected, he says.

Far more astonishing for Wang was the fact that a good third of all chemicals have inadequate descriptions in the various registers. About 70,000 entries are for mixtures and polymers (such as petroleum resin), with no details provided about the individual components. Another 50,000 entries relate to chemicals where the identities are considered confidential business information and are therefore not publicly accessible. "Only the manufacturers know what they are and how dangerous or toxic they are," says Wang. "That leaves you with an uneasy feeling—like a meal where you're told that it's well cooked, but not what it contains."

An urgent call for international collaboration

Globalisation and worldwide trade ensure that—unlike national registers—chemicals do not stop at national borders. As Wang and his colleagues note in their article in the journal Environmental Science & Technology the various registers need therefore to be merged if we want to keep track of all the chemicals that are produced and traded anywhere in the world. "Only by joining forces, across different countries and disciplines, will we be able to cope with this ever-expanding chemical diversity," says Wang.


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More information: Zhanyun Wang et al, Toward a Global Understanding of Chemical Pollution: A First Comprehensive Analysis of National and Regional Chemical Inventories, Environmental Science & Technology (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06379
Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology


Provided by ETH Zurich

Deconstructing Schrödinger's cat

by Springer

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The paradox of Schrödinger's cat—the feline that is, famously, both alive and dead until its box is opened—is the most widely known example of a recurrent problem in quantum mechanics: its dynamics seem to predict that macroscopic objects (like cats) can, sometimes, exist simultaneously in more than one completely distinct state. Many physicists have tried to solve this paradox over the years, but no approach has been universally accepted. Now, however, theoretical physicist Franck Laloë from Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (ENS-Université PSL) in Paris has proposed a new interpretation that could explain many features of the paradox. He sets out a model of this possible theory in a new paper in EPJ D.

One approach to solving this problem involves adding a small, random extra term to the Schrödinger equation, which allows the quantum state vector to 'collapse,' ensuring that—as is observed in the macroscopic universe—the outcome of each measurement is unique. Laloë's theory combines this interpretation with another from de Broglie and Bohm and relates the origins of the quantum collapse to the universal gravitational field. This approach can be applied equally to all objects, quantum and macroscopic: that is, to cats as much as to atoms.

The idea of linking quantum collapse to gravity has already been proposed by the great English physicist and philosopher Roger Penrose, but he never developed his ideas into a complete theory. Laloë proposes a model that goes in the same direction, agrees with physical observations and may one day prove testable experimentally. It is relatively simple—'naive," even—and introduces only one additional parameter to the standard equation. Laloë is planning to explore more consequences of his model in different situations. Furthermore, he suggests that a theory that combines quantum mechanics with gravitation may have implications in astrophysics.Physicist disentangles 'Schrodinger's cat' debate

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More information: Franck Laloë, A model of quantum collapse induced by gravity, The European Physical Journal D (2020). DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2019-100434-1

Journal information: European Physical Journal D 

Forest fertilization with paper mill residues

by Karlstad University

Credit: Karlstad University

Research at Karlstad University shows that sludge and ashes as paper mill residues can be used as effective fertilizer. This involves biochar, that is, carbon from organic material returned to the forest and thus closing the cycle.

"Biochar has many beneficial effects on the environment," says Maria Sandberg, senior lecturer in environment and energy systems and research leader for the project. "Our lab experiments show that by enriching biochar we can produce a very effective fertilizer for forest plants. If we bring biochar back to the forest, it will remain stable for a long time. In this way, carbon is bound up and there is less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which counteracts global warming."

Biochar returned to the natural cycle

When trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and nutrients as well as base cations from the soil. When trees are felled for pulp and paper production, nutrients and base cations gather in sludge and ashes. A small segment of carbon accumulates in the waste from the purification plant, which purifies the process waste water. By transforming sludge into biochar and mixing it with ashes, among other things, a new type of soil conditioner improvement is produced which can be used in forest nurseries or directly in the forest. When the biochar is returned to the forest, both acidification and carbon dioxide emission can be reduced.

"We have conducted a pilot project with lab studies in 2018, and last autumn, Vinnova notified us that we were granted around SEK 2,000,000 to the project, which now moves into the next phase," says Maria Sandberg. "The companies involved invest the same amount, bringing the budget up till around SEK 4,000,000. The participation of the Forest Agency also means that we can carry out research in forest soil, which is fairly unique in the world, and in March we will cultivate new plants of fir and pine trees"

Enriched biochar becomes pellets

Forest fertilization of the future can, in other words, be produced from pulp and paper production residues. By mixing sludge and ashes from Stora Enso in Skoghall and enriching it with nitrogen from the purification plants in Karlstad municipality, fertilizers in the form of powder pressed into pellets are produced. It is of course valuable to the forest industry that residue previously classified as waste products can be turned into profit.

The research project started in 2018 and is a partnership between Karlstad University, Stora Enso, Paper Province, Karlstad municipality, Econova, Mellanskog, Forest Agency and Umeå Energy. The project, which will end in 2022, is funded by Vinnova and the participating partners.Biochar: A better start to rain forest restoration

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Provided by Karlstad University

Protecting Indigenous cultures is crucial for saving the world's biodiversity

by Krystyna Swiderska, The Conversation

Indigenous young people take part in the first Hornbill Festival organized by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), 16 September 2018. Credit: Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE

Species are being lost at about a thousand times the natural rate of extinction. This is faster than at any other period in human history. Ecosystems—the vital systems on which all life depends—are being degraded across the globe.

This crisis of biodiversity loss is finally getting some attention. But its connection to another loss—that of Indigenous cultures—is rarely mentioned. From animals to insects and plants, biodiversity loss cannot be effectively addressed without tackling the rapid disappearance of Indigenous cultures. The two are inextricably linked.

Indigenous peoples have conserved biodiversity for millennia. They have created much of the world's agricultural biodiversity, including thousands of crop varieties, livestock breeds and unique landscapes. These practices continue today in many of their territories, creating new varieties of crops and livestock that are often more resilient than modern equivalents.

So it is unsurprising that the rich diversity of nature is declining less rapidly on Indigenous peoples' lands than in other areas. This clearly shows that the world's 370 million to 500 million Indigenous people play a critical role in conserving biodiversity.

This is backed up by extensive research. According to several studies, traditional ecological knowledge is effective in conserving biodiversity and regulating sustainable resource use, including hunting, wild harvesting, fishing, farming and pastoralism, a form of animal husbandry. Living in harmony with nature is a fundamental part of Indigenous peoples' core values and beliefs.

Similar ecological values and worldviews can be seen across Indigenous cultures, from southern China to the Americas. Among Andean peoples, for example, the world is divided into three parts: the human and domesticated; the wild (species, ecosystems, water); and the sacred and ancestral. Rather than focusing on economic development, their goal is holistic wellbeing, which is achieved through balance between these three worlds.

Potato Park, Peru. Credit: Adam Kerby, Author provided

A stronger voice

Yet across the world, Indigenous cultures and practices are being eroded by modernization, commercial development pressures, lack of secure rights to land and resources, migration and lack of cultural education. As a result, many are struggling to save their unique cultures, knowledge systems and identities from extinction. This is despite growing recognition that they hold the key to solving many of today's environmental problems.

Up to 80% of biodiversity is located on Indigenous peoples' lands, while at least a quarter of all land is traditionally owned or managed by Indigenous peoples. Evidently, these cultures need to be protected. This should be part and parcel of broader tactics to conserve biodiversity. New biodiversity targets, for example, must protect Indigenous cultures.

Yet the role of Indigenous peoples is poorly recognized in most biodiversity strategies and targets. Limited progress has been made on the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 18 since it was agreed in 2010, calling for traditional knowledge and customary use to be fully integrated into the convention's implementation. Alarmingly, none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 are likely to be fully met. Only a few will see significant progress, largely due to the continuation of economic policies that drive biodiversity loss.

Biocultural heritage territories

A change in perspective is needed. In 2005, IIED, the sustainable development research institute where I work, and its partners developed a definition of biocultural heritage in order to address this dual extinction crisis. Our research with 11 Indigenous groups in Peru, Panama, Kenya, India and China has revealed multiple interlinkages and interdependence between Indigenous knowledge, biodiversity, landscapes, cultural and spiritual values and customary laws. These form key components of biocultural heritage, along with Indigenous languages.

Naxi woman, Stone Village, Yunnan, China. Credit: Yiching Song, Author provided

Consider the territory of Peru's Potato Park, which is governed collectively by an association of five Quechua communities. The park shows how the biocultural heritage approach can achieve multiple conservation and development goals.

The Potato Park has tripled potato diversity to about 650 native varieties, through the revival of Quechua culture and customary laws and a repatriation agreement with the International Potato Centre to restore native varieties.

It has also led to conservation of Andean wildlife, crop diversity and water across 9,000 hectares. Potato diversification and collaborative research with scientists have enhanced yields despite severe climate change impacts. And landscape-based biocultural products and services, such as eco-tourism, a traditional restaurant, herbal teas, skin creams, potato shampoo and textiles, have doubled incomes.

Key to this success has been the highly participatory, Indigenous-led approach, supported by the NGO Asociaciόn ANDES. This approach has built strong community ownership and self-sustainability.

My Ph.D. explores whether and how the Potato Park model can be applied in different contexts. This research in northeast India, coastal Kenya and southwest China suggests that the model can be adapted to establish similar biocultural heritage territories in different socio-cultural, ecological and political contexts.

In China, the Naxi people in the Stone Village, Yunnan have started to revive their unique crop diversity, culture and ancient terraced farming landscape, with support from the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy and the National Farmer Seed Network in China. The process will require the restoration of traditional beliefs, close collaboration with the local government and creativity to support the emergence of collective management in a centralized political system.

Mijikenda Cultural Village meeting, Rabai, coastal Kenya. Credit: Krystyna Swiderska, Author provided

The way forward

What all this shows is that efforts to save the rich variety of nature cannot be achieved without working to save Indigenous cultures. Governments must legally recognize and protect Indigenous peoples' rights to territories, natural resources, traditional knowledge and self-determination. And Indigenous peoples must be fully and effectively involved at every level in efforts to save biodiversity.

This will be particularly important this year when the new global biodiversity targets are negotiated. Not only is this key to humankind living in harmony with nature. It is also vital for enhancing support for poor and marginalized Indigenous peoples in order to achieve the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Measures to protect both biodiversity and Indigenous cultures must be included across all of the sectors that are driving their loss, including agriculture, mining and forestry, if the diversity of life is to survive.

Indigenous storytelling is a new asset for biocultural conservation

How people in immigration detention try to cope with life in limbo

by Blerina Kellezi, The Conversation

Detainees try to support each other, but it’s not easy. Credit: tuaindeed/Shutterstock

The British Home Office has received heavy criticism in recent weeks after it emerged people held in immigration detention centers were struggling to access mobile phone reception and could not reach lawyers to challenge their imminent deportation.

In the year to June 2019, just over 24,000 people were detained in the UK under immigration law while they awaited the outcome of their appeals. Most of these detainees have experienced forced migration due to war or economic destitution, leaving behind their families. This forced migration is often life threatening, as shown by the tragic deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry in late 2019.

For those who reach their new location and are then detained, immigration detention becomes a significant threat to their social, financial, and psychological well-being. My colleagues and I saw these issues first hand in a series of recent interviews we conducted with 40 people detained in UK immigration removal centers.

Powerlessness

As well as depriving people of their family life, employment and future hopes, detention removes social resources—such as support from close friends and family—that are essential when dealing with stressful situations. This exacerbates feelings of loss and loneliness, making it particularly difficult for detainees to cope with their situation. A man we interviewed, detained for two months, told us: "Twenty-four hours I am upset. When I go sleeping I see bad dreams. I wake up and I check, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock. 24 hours, I feel to kill myself. This country treats animals better. Animals have human rights, but we don't?"

We also saw detainees held in a perpetual state of powerlessness, unable to plan their futures as they waited for faceless officials to decide their fate. Detention becomes an additional layer of frustration and pain on top of feelings of exclusion from British society and the denial of basic human rights.

Detainees tend to perceive their detainment as a clear indication that they are not wanted in the host country, and not trusted to live in the community while awaiting a decision about their case. One interviewee, detained for five months, described how he understood why some people attempt suicide in immigration detention: "Because it is inhuman the way they treat you in here." One freedom of information request showed that there were two suicide attempts recorded every day between April and June 2018 in immigration deportation centers.

Our study explored the ways detainees try to make sense and cope with these challenging and traumatic experiences within detention. The existing social networks of many of the people we interviewed were often painfully distant and unable to provide much-needed support. Families and friends were forced to make long and expensive journeys to remote immigration detention centers to support their loved ones in their darkest moments.

Solidarity among detainees

Many detainees, however, did not have anybody who they felt they could turn to, while others didn't wish to burden family members with their distress. In such cases, they turned to fellow detainees for support. Despite coming from different backgrounds and cultures, the detainees have shared experiences of exclusion and confinement, creating a sense of common fate.

This brought them together despite their differences, allowing them to share an understanding of the suffering and thereby create a source of meaningful and valuable mutual support. As one woman, who had been detained for a month, told us: "People try to help in the best way they can. You are surrounded by a lot of good people because we are here for the same reason at the end of the day. If someone is very emotional like that, they try to be there for that person so you are never alone around here, never alone."

Yet these connections are not always long lasting. There is a high turnover of people coming through each immigration detention center, as release and deportation are both relatively common.

It's also not always easy to provide support to other detainees. When a person is suffering themselves, bearing witness to others' suffering is very hard and occasionally it adds to their own burden. This sometimes led detainees to retreat into their rooms to avoid observing the suffering of others. One detainee told us:

"Cause I don't want to hang around the wing, it's too negative the vibes, very negative. People, they just talking about their problems. I got plenty myself."

For every coping strategy that works within detention, there are many that do not work, and the daily struggle persists, with some detainees turning to self-harm or attempting suicide.

Detention centers provide heartening examples of human resilience, but our research also shows that detention can exacerbate the suffering of already vulnerable people. The serious psychological impact of detention is yet another reason why detention for immigration reasons should stop.Doctors raise serious concern over standard of mental health care at UK immigration centers

Lawmakers open groundwater fight against bottled water companies
by Alex Brown

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Washington state, land of sprawling rainforests and glacier-fed rivers, might soon become the first in the nation to ban water bottling companies from tapping spring-fed sources.

The proposal is one of several efforts at the state and local level to fend off the fast-growing bottled water industry and protect local groundwater. Local activists throughout the country say bottling companies are taking their water virtually for free, depleting springs and aquifers, then packaging it in plastic bottles and shipping it elsewhere for sale.

"I was literally beyond shocked," said Washington state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, who sponsored the bill to ban bottling companies from extracting groundwater. It was advanced by a Senate committee last week.

"I was jolted to the core to realize the depth and breadth and magnitude of how they have lawyered up in these small towns to take advantage of water rights," the Democrat said. "The fact that we have incredibly loose, if virtually nonexistent, policy guidelines around this is shocking and a categorical failure."

Elsewhere, lawmakers in Michigan and Maine also have filed bills to restrict the bottling of groundwater or tax the industry. Local ballot measures have passed in Oregon and Montana to restrict the industry, though in Montana, Flathead County's zoning change remains tied up in court.

"The Washington state bill is groundbreaking," said Mary Grant, a water policy specialist with the environmental group Food and Water Watch. "As water scarcity is becoming a deeper crisis, you want to protect your local water supply so it goes for local purposes. (Bottled water) is not an industry that needs to exist."

Though much of the controversy around the bottled water industry has concerned "bottled at the source" spring water sites, nearly two-thirds of the bottled water sold in the United States comes from municipal tap water, according to Food and Water Watch. The Washington state legislation would not keep companies from buying and reselling tap water.

Americans consumed nearly 14 billion gallons of bottled water in 2018, while sales reached $19 billion—more than doubling the industry's size in 2004. The bottled water industry is expected to grow to more than $24 billion in the next three years, according to Beverage Industry magazine.


Industry leaders have opposed sweeping legislation that would cut off resources, pointing out the potential hit to local employment and the importance of bottled water in disaster relief.

"This legislation would prevent any community from having these jobs or having a project in their area," said Brad Boswell, executive director of the Washington Beverage Association, who testified against the bill. "We think these issues are best dealt with on a project-by-project basis."

The International Bottled Water Association defended the track record of its members in an emailed statement. The bill in Washington and other legislation to limit the industry "are based on the false premise that the bottled water industry is harming the environment," wrote Jill Culora, the group's vice president of communications.

"All IBWA members," she wrote, "are good stewards of the environment. When a bottled water company decides to build a plant, it looks for a long-term, sustainable source of water and the ability to protect the land and environment around the source and bottling facility."

Culora did not address specific examples of community claims that bottling companies have damaged their watersheds and aquifers.

The American Beverage Association, which represents bottled water and soft drink companies, declined to take a stance on Washington's proposed ban, calling it a "local issue" that would be better addressed by in-state bottlers.

When residents in Randle, Wash., learned of a proposed Crystal Geyser operation last year, some worried about a large industrial plant in their quiet, rural valley near Mount Rainier.

Many feared that the company's plan to pump 400 gallons a minute from springs on the site would deplete the local aquifer and dry up their wells.

The worry turned to furor when a leaked email exposed the company's plan to sue the nearby subdivision in response to neighbor opposition, then conduct an underground public relations campaign to gain support for the project.

"Pumping water out of the ground, putting it in plastic bottles and exporting it out of the state of Washington is not in the public interest," said Craig Jasmer, a leader of the Lewis County Water Alliance, the group that sprung up to oppose the Randle plant and has pushed for the statewide ban.

Recent news increased the concerns: Last month, Crystal Geyser pled guilty to storing arsenic-contaminated wastewater at a California facility, and then illegally dumping the water into a sewer after being confronted by authorities. The company did not respond to a Stateline request for comment.

In 2016, Crystal Geyser paid a timber company for access to a spring that had historically provided the water for the city of Weed, Calif., forcing the town to find a new water supply.

Local activists in California, Oregon, Michigan and Florida say they've been targeted by big bottlers that damage the environment and provide scant economic benefit.

Nestle has drawn criticism for its bottling operation in California's San Bernardino National Forest, which federal officials have concluded is "drying up" creeks.

"(The creeks) are visibly different where the water is extracted and where it's not," said Michael O'Heaney, executive director of the Story of Stuff Project, a California-based group that makes films about waste, pollution and environmental issues.

During California's drought, he said, "Nestle wasn't being asked to curtail its water (in)take at the same time as Californians were being asked to significantly reduce the amount of water they were using."

Just across the Columbia River from Washington, the residents of Hood River County, Oregon, passed a ballot measure in 2016 to ban commercial water bottling after Nestle announced plans to build a plant that would extract more than 100 million gallons a year.

Aurora del Val, who helped lead the campaign for the ballot measure, said Nestle first made inroads with local officials, promising jobs for an area that had seen its economy suffer with the decline of the timber industry.

"This seemed like the golden ticket to having a boomtown again," she said. "But the more educated people became, the more opposition there was in the town."

In an emailed statement, Nestle noted its contributions to state economies—one study showed it provided 900 jobs and had an economic impact of $250 million in Florida in 2018. The company also defended its environmental record, without addressing specific claims that its operations are damaging watersheds.

"We have a proven track record of successful long-term management of water resources in states where we operate," wrote Nestle Waters North America spokesman Adam Gaber. "It would make absolutely NO sense for Nestle Waters to invest millions of dollars into local operations just to deplete the natural resources on which our business relies."

One of Nestle's most controversial projects is in Osceola Township, Mich., where local officials are fighting the company's plan to nearly double the groundwater it extracts from the area.

Locals say that nearby trout streams have turned into mud flats since Nestle's arrival, and its promise of jobs did not materialize when it chose to build its bottling plant miles away.

"Streams are flooding all over Michigan, except for Twin and Chippewa creeks, which are not," said Peggy Case, president of the group Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation. "The city aquifer is down 14 feet now, and it's not recharging. There are people with wells in the area that are starting to run dry. They no longer are as happy with Nestle as they used to be."

Even if the company's operations had no environmental effect, Case said her group would still object.

"They are privatizing water," she said, "and we are opposed to that."

In a state where the Flint water crisis is still fresh in people's minds, and residents carry a fierce pride in their Great Lakes heritage, water resources are a charged issue, said state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, a Democrat. Rabhi is part of a group of lawmakers pushing a package of bills that would limit the bottled water industry.

Rabhi has filed a bill that would define water as a public trust, instead of a privately owned commodity. Another measure would prohibit shipping bottled water out of the Great Lakes watershed. A third bill would bolster the regulatory authority of the state Department of Natural Resources.

Rabhi has previously proposed a wholesale excise tax on corporations selling bottled water. He said another group of legislators is working on a similar tax bill this year.

A representative for Absopure, a Michigan-based company that bottles spring water, did not respond to a request for comment. The Michigan Retailers Association said it was not taking a position on the bill, while the Michigan Soft Drink Association and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce did not respond to requests for comment.

In an emailed response, Nestle said the Michigan bills unfairly "single out one industry, one type of water user, for such restrictions." The company noted that water bottling accounts for less than 0.01% of water use in the state and said its Michigan operations employ 280 workers.

Opponents counter that the industry's water use is wholly extractive, while other heavy users, such as agriculture, return much of the water they use to the watershed.

Carlyle's bill in Washington has eight co-sponsors, all Democrats except for state Sen. John Braun, the Republican who represents the Randle community that battled Crystal Geyser. Braun did not offer comment when reached by text message.

The bill moved through the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee. Backers are waiting to see whether it will be added to the Senate voting calendar.

However, some lawmakers have expressed misgivings about taking statewide action against a specific business.

"We're looking at banning a certain industry," Republican state Sen. Judy Warnick said at a committee meeting on the measure, before voting against it. "I understand the need to protect water withdrawals in certain areas, but what we're doing is taking away the right of locals to decide that."

Warnick, as well as the other two GOP senators who voted against the bill in committee, received $2,000 each in campaign contributions from the Washington Beverage Association during the last campaign cycle. Warnick did not respond to a request for comment.


Explore furtherForest Service considers Nestle mountain water withdrawals

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New tools help communities measure and reduce their emissions locally

by Stephen Pollard, The Conversation

Credit: John Englart/Flickr, CC BY-SA

The slogan "What you can measure, you can manage" has become a guiding principle for local climate action. There's an accounting standard made for this purpose: the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories. Free online CO2 emissions snapshots for municipalities in Australia, recently launched by Ironbark Sustainability and Beyond Zero Emissions, make the protocol more accessible than ever for local governments and communities that want to know what their emissions are, and what to do about them.


The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides a way to measure local greenhouse gas emissions and removals. It is designed to record two elements of local emissions:
emissions within a municipal area, such as from cooking with natural gas or driving a car
emissions from activities within that area that produce emissions somewhere else, such as using electricity from a coal-fired power station or sending rubbish to landfill.
The method creates a consistent approach to measure emissions in different localities. It lets local governments and communities aggregate their individual commitments to reduce emissions.

The protocol is aligned with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) standards that guide countries' greenhouse gas inventories. Local accounts can then be nested within national inventories without double counting.

By measuring greenhouse gas emissions at the local scale, the protocol supports local governments and communities as important actors in climate governance. Adding local efforts together gives them a stronger voice in national and international arenas. This political pressure is especially important given the inadequacy of countries' commitments to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

Translating local actions to global impacts

Even though the protocol adds weight to local climate commitments, translating these commitments into action can be challenging. Consistent with IPCC standards, the protocol frames greenhouse gases in two important ways.

First, greenhouse gases are measured according to defined "sectors." These include stationary energy, transportation, waste, industrial processes and product use, and agriculture, forestry and other land uses. These categories are shorthand for the complex and extended systems of infrastructure, resource flows and human activities that produce greenhouse gases.

Municipal boundaries often align poorly with these systems. The data on activity needed to calculate emissions are often patchy or misaligned at the local scale. Local governments and communities rarely have the authority to intervene directly and change these larger systems.


So although the protocol helps to direct attention to local activities and systems that produce emissions, changing those systems and activities is usually more complex.
 

Australian local governments can do many things to help reduce their community emissions. Credit: Australian Local Government Climate Review 2018, CC BY

Second, greenhouse gas emissions are translated, through a set of simple equations established by the IPCC, into a "carbon dioxide equivalent." These equations are the basis for comparing, aggregating and exchanging greenhouse gas emissions and removals of different types, at different times and in different places.

These calculations are entangled with the claim that "a ton of carbon is everywhere the same." It forms the basis for regulated and voluntary markets in carbon trading.

However, there are problems with this assumed interchangeability. As Larry Lohmann argues:

"While carbon trading encourages ingenuity in inventing measurable 'equivalences' between emissions of different types in different places, it does not select for innovations that can initiate or sustain a historical trajectory away from fossil fuels […]"

Local carbon accounts aren't the whole answer

In sum, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol supports the legitimacy and strengthens the voice of local governments and communities in global climate governance.

At the same time, defining emissions by territory and sector does not fully reflect the complexity of the infrastructure systems and human activities that cause emissions. In particular, the protocol can reinforce a framing of carbon as an exchangeable commodity. This poses the risk that choices about whether to reduce or offset emissions could be skewed.

Without suggesting there is no place for territorial carbon accounts, it is important to recognize that how we measure emissions shapes possibilities for how we might manage them.

Alternative approaches such as consumption-based accounts measure greenhouse gas emissions from what is consumed by an individual or within a territory. This draws attention to choices about what we eat and what we buy, and to the social norms and systems of wealth, which are harder to see in territorial accounts.

The key point is that no single measure of greenhouse gases can offer a definitive view. As a complement to the protocol, an additional question for local governments and communities to ask when trying to manage greenhouse gases is: "Where do we have the power to effect change, and why does that change matter to us?"


Explore furtherSeeking better guidelines for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions
Provided by The Conversation

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