Robots monitor the environmental impact of the gas leak

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

 

IMAGE: THE UNDERWATER ROBOTS, CALLED GLIDERS, REGISTER DATA FROM THE SEA BOTTOM TO THE SURFACE NON STOP. view more 

CREDIT: VOTO/ALEKSANDRA MAZUR

The University of Gothenburg has deployed three underwater robots in the Baltic waters around the leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. This is done to be able to follow how chemistry and life in the sea changes over time due to the large release of methane gas. In addition, research vessel Skagerak is set to deploy on a new expedition to the Baltic Sea to test run the large, unmanned vessel Ran.

The expedition with R/V Skagerak was not the only measure the university's researchers took when the Nord Stream pipelines began to leak methane gas. With the help of the Voice of the Ocean foundation, VOTO, three remote-controlled underwater robots were placed in the area. They will move around the sea and record water data continuously for the next 15 weeks.
“They are called gliders and are provided by VOTO, who also manages their operation. The robots can give us measurements over a series of time about how the chemistry and quality of the water is affected by the natural gas leak”, says oceanographer Bastien Queste at the University of Gothenburg.

Plenty of data from the area

Since March 2021, VOTO has had two gliders in the area which functions as one of the foundation's ocean observatories and where the water quality is measured non-stop. The robots go down to the bottom and then turn up to the surface, something that is repeated over a preset distance. Every time the glider is at the surface, the latest measurement data is sent to the researchers via satellite. Thus, plenty of data from this area already exists from before. One of the three additional robots that was dropped into the sea last week has been equipped by the manufacturer Alseamar with a special sensor to be able to measure the change in the methane content over the next 15 weeks.

 “Last week's expedition provided valuable data and a snapshot of the state of the ocean immediately after the leakage occurred. With the new robots in place, we receive continuous reports on the state of the water near the Nord stream pipeline leaks. They are deployed solely for this purpose”, says Bastien Queste.

“The point is that we get measurements from the water over a long period of time and over a larger area. We can see how long it takes for the methane to disappear and how the aquatic environment reacts over time. The response in the sea is often delayed. It may take days or weeks before we see a change”, says Bastien Queste.

Even the underwater robots that are usually deployed there, can contribute important data as they measure salinity, temperature, oxygen content and the amount of chlorophyll. This completes the picture of how the water in the Baltic Sea is doing after the gas leak.

Solid scientific documentation

 “Together with the new robots and the expedition's measurements, we researchers will have solid scientific documentation of the impact of the Nord Stream leak. When we add it all up, we have a good picture of both the immediate and the delayed effects. With gliders that continuously measure, we will be able to better understand the processes that were observed then”, says Bastien Queste.

The expedition has barely had time to disembark before preparations for the next trip to the Baltic Sea with Skagerak have started. Polar researcher Anna Wåhlin had, for a long time, planned a trip with the ship precisely to the area east of Bornholm.

“I will test how the large underwater robot Ran behaves in seas with large layers of density and how well it can measure over sediment-rich bottoms. This place is perfect for that. Ran will also be able to contribute to research into gas emissions because it measures the carbon dioxide and nitrate levels in the water”, says Anna Wåhlin.
This is also the first time that Ran departs from Skagerak, which will be an important test of the ship's flexibility.

CAPTION

The underwater robot will work in the area for 15 weeks.

CREDIT

Anna Wåhlin

Ancient invasion can inform modern strategies for wildlife conservation

Animals 446 million years ago also had to contend with invasive species

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI GEOLOGY STUDENT IAN FORSYTHE STUDIED THE FOSSIL RECORD IN THE LATE ORDOVICIAN PERIOD TO LEARN MORE ABOUT A PHENOMENON CALLED THE RICHMONDIAN INVASION. view more 

CREDIT: IAN FORSYTHE

We might be inclined to think of invasive species as a modern problem of our own creation or carelessness.

But a University of Cincinnati graduate student says ecosystems around the world have had to contend with new invaders for hundreds of millions of years.

Ian Forsythe studies geology in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences. In his latest work in UC’s Department of Geosciences, he examined the fossil record to examine how one well-known invasion of animals that impacted surrounding animals in the vast shallow seas that covered the Midwestern United States during the Late Ordovician Period.

“We are a catalyst for these things today. But these biotic invasions happened in the past, too,” Forsythe said.

Forsythe presented his findings in October to the annual conference of the Geological Society of America.

Just how he can study changes in species over time is a testament to the amazing fossil record left behind from the Ordovician. Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky were covered in a salty sea filled with starfish, crinoids, brachiopods and other mollusks.

Today, it’s hard to find a rock in any southwestern Ohio creek that doesn’t bear evidence of these ancient marine fossils. Paleontologists from around the world come to Cincinnati to study its fossils.

“We have really incredible fossil deposits here. They’re globally exceptional,” Forsythe said. “The quantity of fossils gives us an awesome window to the past. It’s an amazing natural laboratory.”

Forsythe said one well-known phenomenon called the Richmondian Invasion about 446 million years ago brought a myriad of new species into contact with each other in these shallow seas.

But unlike some invaders like brown tree snakes that have wiped out entire populations of birds in places like Guam, the ocean invaders did not cause widespread extinctions, Forsythe said.

Instead, the native species were generalists that didn’t need specialized habitats or food requirements and were able to adapt and make room for the newcomers, he said.

“Generalists are more successful during invasions because they can contract their niche to accommodate novel competitors,” he said.

Since the invaders were low on the food chain, they didn’t cause a widespread disruption, he said.

Forsythe began the project at Ohio University in the lab of Alycia Stigall, now a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“The Richmondian invasion is one of the most intensively studied fossil invasion events in terms of ecosystem and species impacts,” Stigall told the Geological Society of America. “But Ian’s work is truly groundbreaking; he was able to examine changes at the community level at a very fine temporal level of a few thousand years and relate this directly to changes in sea level and the timing of the invaders’ arrival.”

Still, there is a lot we can learn about the resilience of today’s ecosystems by studying these changes millions of years ago, Forsythe said.

“That’s what drew me to invasion science. It’s a big issue today with so many outstanding questions,” he said. “We can’t answer how these things play out in longer timescales without a long data set.”

Forsythe said invaders higher on the food chain present a greater existential threat to native species, particularly those with specialized dietary or habitat needs.

“It’s a guiding principle for what imperiled species might require attention first,” Forsythe said.

Marine fossils from the Ordovician Period are on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

CREDIT

Jay Yocis/UC

Marine fossils from the Ordovician Period are on display in the Geosciences Department of the University of Cincinnati.

CREDIT

Joseph Fuqua II/UC

CAPTION

A trilobite the size of a dinner platter is on display in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Cincinnati.

CREDIT

Jay Yocis/UC

New walking robot design could revolutionize how we build things in space

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Researchers have designed a state-of-the-art walking robot that could revolutionize large construction projects in space. They tested the feasibility of the robot for the in-space assembly of a 25m Large Aperture Space Telescope. They present their findings in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. A scaled-down prototype of the robot also showed promise for large construction applications on Earth.

Maintenance and servicing of large constructions are nowhere more needed than in space, where the conditions are extreme and human technology has a short lifespan. Extravehicular activities (activities done by an astronaut outside a spacecraft), robotics, and autonomous systems solutions have been useful for servicing and maintenance missions and have helped the space community conduct ground-breaking research on various space missions. Advancements in robotics and autonomous systems facilitate a multitude of in-space services. This includes, but is not limited to, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, astronomy, earth observation, and debris removal.

With the countless risks involved, only relying on human builders is not enough, and current technologies are becoming outdated. 

“We need to introduce sustainable, futuristic technology to support the current and growing orbital ecosystem,” explained corresponding author Manu Nair, PhD candidate at the University of Lincoln.

“As the scale of space missions grows, there is a need for more extensive infrastructures in orbit. Assembly missions in space would hold one of the key responsibilities in meeting the increasing demand.” 

In their paper, Nair and his colleagues introduced an innovative, dexterous walking robotic system that can be used for in orbit assembly missions. As a use case, the researchers tested the robot for the assembly of a 25m Large Aperture Space Telescope (LAST).

Assembling telescopes in orbit

Ever since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, the space community has been continuously moving towards deploying newer and larger telescopes with larger apertures (the diameter of the light collecting region).

Assembling such telescopes, such as a 25m LAST, on Earth is not possible with our current launch vehicles due to their limited size. That is why larger telescopes ideally need to be assembled in space (or in orbit).

“The prospect of in-orbit commissioning of a LAST has fueled scientific and commercial interests in deep-space astronomy and Earth observation,” said Nair.

To assemble a telescope of that magnitude in space, we need the right tools: “Although conventional space walking robotic candidates are dexterous, they are constrained in maneuverability. Therefore, it is significant for future in-orbit walking robot designs to incorporate mobility features to offer access to a much larger workspace without compromising the dexterity.”

E-Walker robot

The researchers proposed a seven degrees-of-freedom fully dexterous end-over-end walking robot (a limbed robotic system that can move along a surface to different locations to perform tasks with seven degrees of motion capabilities), or, in short, an E-Walker.

They conducted an in-depth design engineering exercise to test the robot for its capabilities to efficiently assemble a 25m LAST in orbit. The robot was compared to the existing Canadarm2 and the European Robotic Arm on the International Space Station. Additionally, a scaled down prototype for Earth-analog testing was developed and another design engineering exercise performed. 

“Our analysis shows that the proposed innovative E-Walker design proves to be versatile and an ideal candidate for future in-orbit missions. The E-Walker would be able to extend the life cycle of a mission by carrying out routine maintenance and servicing missions post assembly, in space” explained Nair.

“The analysis of the scaled-down prototype identifies it to also be an ideal candidate for servicing, maintenance, and assembly operations on Earth, such as carrying out regular maintenance checks on wind turbines.”

Yet a lot remains to be explored. The research was limited to the design engineering analysis of a full-scale and prototype model of the E-Walker. Nair explained: “The E-Walker prototyping work is now in progress at the University of Lincoln; therefore, the experimental verification and validation will be published separately.”

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

DOI

10.3389/frobt.2022.995813 

Kirk Douglas Fights Evil Robot - Saturn 3 (1980)

 

How scientist summarized the development of space robotic technologies for on-orbit assembly?

How to find the future research direction of space machine on-orbit assembly?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BEIJING INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PRESS CO., LTD

 

IMAGE: HETEROGENEOUS SPACE ROBOTS ASSEMBLE LARGE SPACE STRUCTURES ON ORBIT. view more 

CREDIT: SPACE: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The construction of large structures is one of the main development trends of the space exploration in the future, such as large space stations, large space solar power stations, and large space telescopes. However, due to their large size, such structures cannot be carried directly into space by rockets or spacecraft. Therefore, these large structures need to be broken down into multiple modular units, which are brought into space by a launch vehicle and then assembled. This is an important task of on-orbit servicing (OOS): on-orbit assembly. It is one of important development tendency, which aims to make full use of space robots to assemble space structures autonomously in the aerospace industry. In a review paper recently published in Space: Science & Technology, Qirong Tang from Tongji University and Delun Li and other experts and engineers from China Academy of Space Technology summarized the development status of space robot technology and the relevant space robot on-orbit assembly technology in recent decades.

First of all, the author introduced the research status of on-orbit assembly of space robots. The aerospace industry had been researching and practicing on-orbit service technology for decades. It was known that the space on-orbit assembly task could be completed by space robots and astronauts in collaboration. Although manual assembly by astronauts had proven to be an effective method for constructing space structures, this method had many limitations. Therefore, it was very necessary to use space robots to autonomously complete on-orbit assembly tasks. In general, space on-orbit assembly technology has gradually developed from manual operation to autonomous work. The way of working has shifted from simple assisted astronaut operations to autonomous assembly and maintenance. Mission scenes have also changed from a single small object to a large spatial structure. However, in terms of the development of space-in-orbit assembly technology, it has not yet matured and applied. However, as far as the development of space on-orbit assembly technology was concerned, it had not yet been matured and applied. Moreover, as the size of the object becomes larger, the flexible vibration becomes stronger, and the assembly accuracy becomes higher during the assembly process, the research on multi robot cooperation to complete high-precision operation needs to be in-depth.

Afterwards, the author discusses the key technologies of space-on-orbit assembly, including assembly sequence planning, space robot motion planning, on-orbit assembly, and vibration suppression and compliance control methods. Firstly, based on the space robot motion planning and assembly sequence planning, the development of space robot planning algorithms was introduced. The planning of assembly sequences described the details of assembly operations in how different parts should be placed in a product. The traditional assembly planning method was greatly affected by human factors. At the same time, the increasing complexity of assembly structure and the diversification of assembly evaluation criteria also brought difficulties to assembly sequence planning. Computer intelligent assembly methods, such as virtual reality technology, could make up for this deficiency and improve the efficiency and reliability of assembly sequence planning. As for the motion planning, it was of great significance to the on-orbit operation of space robots. When a space robot performs on-orbit assembly in space, a basic task was to move the spacecraft from one point to another in the state space. For the spacecraft itself, its state space was the displacement and rotation of the spacecraft in the Cartesian coordinate system. Therefore, the traditional Dijkstra, A∗, and other algorithms can be used as path planning methods. Besides, commonly used intelligent bionic algorithms, including genetic algorithm, ant colony algorithm, and particle swarm algorithm were also applied. Secondly, the space robot assembly method was summarized. The artificial potential field method, machine vision method, neural network learning method and so on were developed and applied in important scenarios, i.e. assembling the large space truss and performing space multirobot multitask. At last, from the control point of view, how to solve the vibration suppression and compliant assembly of on-orbit assembly is reviewed. Due to the microgravity conditions in space, it was easy to cause vibration of large structures. Analysis of single and multiple robot assembly strategies, as well as the hybrid method of branch and bound and improved ant colony algorithm, could suppress the vibration disturbance. In the assembly contact process, there was direct contact between the targets, and a certain amount of force (moment) would be generated, so compliance control was also very necessary. The current compliance control methods are mainly divided into two categories: active compliance and passive compliance. Passive compliance was completely dependent on the properties of the material, cannot be controlled, and had high uncertainty. And active compliance referred to obtaining contact force information through sensors, using the information as a feedback input to the controller, and performing feedback control of the robotic arm to reduce the contact force and achieve the purpose of compliance control. Active force position control generally adopted traditional “force-position” hybrid control, impedance control, and other methods.

Then, in order to simulate the space assembly scene on the ground, the author introduced the development of ground verification experiments and provided ideas for the effective verification of space on-orbit assembly technology. Due to the high cost of space on-orbit construction, the space manipulator and its related control system and other environments must be verified on the ground to ensure that all equipment can operate normally before the space on-orbit assembly. The biggest difference between the ground and space was whether there was gravity, so how to simulate zero-microgravity conditions was the key and focus of ground test verification. At present, there were five commonly used ground verification methods, namely, air flotation method, water flotation method, force compensation method, parabola method, and free fall method. The space administrations or space institutes of various countries had established corresponding laboratories, especially the air flotation experimental platform and the gravity compensation experimental platform with the purpose of completing the “space-ground consistency” experiment on the ground and ensuring the accuracy and feasibility of the experiment.

Finally, the author summarized opportunities and challenges of on-orbit assembly in the future.

On-orbit assembly relies on space multirobot coordination and a super presence and the support intelligent interaction capabilities such as brain control, voice control, and eye control are worthy being developed.

More intelligent on-orbit assembly technology is boosting, including the autonomous decision-making functions, fault diagnosis and self-repair functions, autonomous mission planning, autonomous work, and learning capabilities.

Diversified capabilities of space robots are potential. The robots not only need to have long-distance transfer and movement functions, but also need to have the ability to complete high-precision operations and flexible operations including clamping, rotating, pulling, cutting, connector operation, and even own functions of robot group reconstruction, robot task reconstruction, and configuration reconstruction.

JOURNAL

Space Science & Technology

DOI

10.34133/2022/9849170 

ARTICLE TITLE

A Survey of Space Robotic Technologies for On-Orbit Assembly

How fluctuating oxygen levels may have accelerated animal evolution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

 

IMAGE: FOSSIL RECORDS OF EARLY ANIMALS FROM MISTAKEN POINT ECOLOGICAL RESERVE IN CANADA. view more 

CREDIT: DR EMILY. G. MITCHELL – UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

How fluctuating oxygen levels may have accelerated animal evolution

Oxygen levels in the Earth’s atmosphere are likely to have “fluctuated wildly” one billion years ago, creating conditions that could have accelerated the development of early animal life, according to new research.  

 
Scientists believe atmospheric oxygen developed in three stages, starting with what is known as the Great Oxidation Event around two billion years ago, when oxygen first appeared in the atmosphere. The third stage, around 400 million years ago, saw atmospheric oxygen rise to levels that exist today.  

 
What is uncertain is what happened during the second stage, in a time known as the Neoproterozoic Era, which started about one billion years ago and lasted for around 500 million years, during which time early forms of animal life emerged.   

 
The question scientists have tried to answer is - was there anything extraordinary about the changes to oxygen levels in the Neoproterozoic Era that may have played a pivotal role in the early evolution of animals – did oxygen levels suddenly rise or was there a gradual increase?  

 
Fossilised traces of early animals - known as Ediacaran biota, multi-celled organisms that required oxygen - have been found in sedimentary rocks that are 541 to 635 million years old.  

  

To try and answer the question, a research team at the University of Leeds supported by the Universities of Lyon, Exeter and UCL, used measurements of the different forms of carbon, or carbon isotopes, found in limestone rocks taken from shallow seas. Based on the isotope ratios of the different types of carbon found, the researchers were able to calculate photosynthesis levels that existed millions of years ago and infer atmospheric oxygen levels.  

 
As a result of the calculations, they have been able to produce a record of oxygen levels in the atmosphere over the last 1.5 billion years, which tells us how much oxygen would have been diffusing into the ocean to support early marine life. 

 

Fossil records of early animals from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve in Canada

CREDIT

Dr Emily. G. Mitchell – University of Cambridge

Dr Alex Krause, a biogeochemical modeller who completed his PhD in the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds and was the lead scientist on the project, said the findings give a new perspective on the way oxygen levels were changing on Earth.  

 
He added: “The early Earth, for the first two billion years of its existence, was anoxic, devoid of atmospheric oxygen. Then oxygen levels started to rise, which is known as the Great Oxidation Event.   

 
“Up until now, scientists had thought that after the Great Oxidation Event, oxygen levels were either low and then shot up just before we see the first animals evolve, or that oxygen levels were high for many millions of years before the animals came along. 

 
“But our study shows oxygen levels were far more dynamic. There was an oscillation between high and low levels of oxygen for a long time before early forms of animal life emerged. We are seeing periods where the ocean environment, where early animals lived, would have had abundant oxygen - and then periods where it does not.  

 

Dr Benjamin Mills, who leads the Earth Evolution Modelling Group at Leeds and supervised the project, said: “This periodic change in environmental conditions would have produced evolutionary pressures where some life forms may have become extinct and new ones could emerge.”  

 
Dr Mills said the oxygenated periods expanded what are known as “habitable spaces” – parts of the ocean where oxygen levels would have been high enough to support early animal life forms.  

 
He said: “It has been proposed in ecological theory that when you have a habitable space that is expanding and contracting, this can support rapid changes to the diversity of biological life.  

 
“When oxygen levels decline, there is severe environmental pressure on some organisms which could drive extinctions. And when the oxygen-rich waters expand, the new space allows the survivors to rise to ecological dominance.  

 

“These expanded habitable spaces would have lasted for millions of years, giving plenty of time for ecosystems to develop.”

END

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Extreme variability in atmospheric oxygen levels in the late Precambrian

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Oct-2022

Discovery of family of hormones may be key to increased crop yields

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PSY RECEPTOR MUTANT (RIGHT) AND WILD TYPE (LEFT). PSY RECEPTOR MUTANT IS LESS STRESS TOLERANT, BUT ITS GROWTH IS FACILITATED. view more 

CREDIT: DR. YOSHIKATSU MATSUBAYASHI

Crops often face harsh growing environments. Instead of using energy for growth, factors such as disease, extreme temperatures, and salty soils force plants to use it to respond to the resulting stress. This is known as the “growth-stress response trade-off". Now, a group of researchers from Nagoya University has discovered a previously unknown pathway that regulates whether a plant uses its resources for growth or stress tolerance. This discovery could enable the stress response to be controlled under agricultural conditions, increasing crop yields. They published the findings in the journal Science. 

A research group, led by Professor Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi and Assistant Professor Mari Ohnishi of the Graduate School of Science at Nagoya University in Japan, investigated the role of hormones and their receptors in the plant stress response. They focused on three receptors for which the corresponding hormone had not yet been identified. Using thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a small flowering plant, they discovered the PSY family, which functions as a hormone, binding to these receptors and mediating the switch between the stress response and growth.  

When the researchers investigated the pathway involved, they made an unexpected discovery. Usually, receptors and hormones function like locks and keys, with the hormone (in this case, a peptide PSY hormone) acting as a key that is necessary to start a biological process. However, in this study, plant cells that did not produce PSY nonetheless had an active stress response. Therefore, this suggests that instead of activating the stress response, the presence of the PSY ‘key’ in the receptor ‘lock’ keeps it switched off. 

To test the nature of stress responses, the researchers grew plants under extremely stressful conditions using heat, salt, and also infected them with bacteria. Plants that were either deficient in PSY receptors or were continuously fed the hormone PSY failed to respond adequately to stress, resulting in reduced survival. The scientists concluded that stressed plants stop releasing PSY, the absence of which induces stress response genes. 

To explain this phenomenon, the researchers proposed a mechanism in which damaged cells reduce the concentration of PSY hormones in the cell layers next to the damaged sites. This lack of PSY triggers the stress response. Importantly, this may explain why even damaged plants can send messages. Rather than using their limited resources to create a new signal, an impaired plant cell may instead stop the release of the PSY hormone, activating the stress response. Such a mechanism would balance stress tolerance with associated energy costs. As a result, even under the most stressful environmental conditions, plants can still grow by managing their limited resources. 

“Most of the mechanisms found in Arabidopsis are found in other plants. Therefore, our results apply to all crops,” explained Matsubayashi. “This mechanism makes it possible to artificially control the balance between stress tolerance and yield, which is a trade-off relationship. In recent years, an increasing number of crop plants have been grown in plant factories. When crops are grown indoors, it is a low-stress environment and the stress response system that is needed to withstand the fluctuating natural outdoor environment is not always necessary. Generating cultivars with reduced PSY receptor activity in plant factories may lead to higher yields in these controlled environments.”  

//Funding// 
This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (project number 18H05274), which started in FY2008, and by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Transformation (A) (project number 20H05907), which started in FY 2020.  

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq5735 

ARTICLE TITLE

Peptide ligand-mediated trade-off between plant growth and stress response

Can shifting social norms help mitigate climate change?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Climate change is the result of many human activities, from carbon emissions to deforestation, and it will take multiple and varied interventions to mitigate it, including legislation, regulation, and market-based solutions implemented at local, national, and global levels. Demand-side factors, such as changes in social norms, can also help by creating political pressure for increased climate action. In addition, they can strengthen the efficacy of other interventions, for example by increasing the acceptance and adoption of new technologies or adherence to laws and regulations.

In the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, an interdisciplinary team of researchers reports on how social norms—“patterns of behaviors or values that depend on expectations about what others do and/or think should be done”—can be harnessed to bring about collective climate action and policy change. They emphasize that although social norm interventions can be powerful drivers of social change, they can also reinforce unsustainable behaviors and attitudes and require deep contextual knowledge to be used effectively.

“Demand-side changes can be integral components of broader climate policy by creating public acceptance for new measures and accelerating or strengthening their impacts,” said Sara M. Constantino, an assistant professor at Northeastern University and lead author on the paper. “However, the efficacy and ethics of interventions aimed at shifting social norms depend critically on the details of the behaviors or attitudes in question, a host of structural and cultural factors, psychological processes, and myriad design and implementation decisions.”

In this paper, Constantino and her colleagues review the literature on how social-norm change occurs, how the tendency to conform or coordinate with others can drive rapid social change, and the circumstances under which this is likely to happen. They base their conclusions on the review and synthesis of a large body of literature on social-norm influence, measurement, and change from the perspectives of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and economics, published between 1951 and 2021.

Harnessing the power of social norms for climate action can take two interrelated forms, the authors explain. Social-norm interventions attempt to increase the adoption of sustainable social norms within social networks by providing information about what people in a group do or believe should be done. They can reshape individuals’ and communities’ behaviors by correcting social misperceptions (e.g., people believe there is limited support for climate action when in fact there is large support) and/or by rendering visible the prevalence of certain private behaviors (e.g., water and energy conservation, recycling, voting).

However, many prevailing behaviors are unsustainable. In such cases, social-tipping interventions aim to create change that disrupts these unsustainable norms. Interventions (e.g., subsidies) can be used to incentivize change in a subset of a population. Once enough individuals adopt sustainable nonnormative behaviors and beliefs, this can lead to broader social change, “tipping” societies toward a new social norm even in the absence of sustained interventions.

Structural, social, and other factors will shape the success of social-norm interventions, and Constantino and colleagues suggest taking a number of steps before designing and implementing them. These include identifying key properties of the target behavior and population, measuring existing social norms and expectations, and considering an intervention’s potential adverse consequences, such as perceived threats to people’s sense of agency and autonomy or a phenomenon known as “moral licensing,” where taking action on an issue can lead people to feel they have done enough, crowding out other actions.

Finally, the authors highlight the importance of piloting any intervention with local stakeholders—that is, conducting small trials, evaluating the results, and then conducting more trials—before adopting it. "An intervention should be scaled up only after it has been piloted in the context of interest and deemed successful,” they write. 

“Social-norm and social-tipping interventions can drive rapid social change under certain conditions,” said Constantino. “However, they are not a replacement for other forms of climate action, and designing an effective and responsible intervention will depend on many factors.”

In an accompanying commentary, Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Bristol; University of Western Australia) and Sander van der Linden (University of Cambridge) propose that the challenge of turning scientific consensus on climate action into social consensus is more likely to be overcome if practitioners consider “the adversarial, misinformation-rich environments in which normative information is communicated, the role of pervasive misperceptions about norms and the behavior of other people, the possibility that community norms can unravel quickly following key political events, and the fact that there are important differences in how susceptible people are to social influence.”

Reference

Constantino, S. M., Sparkman, G., Kraft-Todd, G., Bicchieri, C., Centola, D., Shell-Duncan, B., Vogt, S., & Weber, E. U. (2022). Scaling up change: A critical review and practical guide to harnessing social norms for climate action. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/15291006221105279

About the Authors: https://doi/full/10.1177/15291006221121610

Commentary: https://doi/full/10.1177/15291006221114132

Reporters: Reach out to lead author Sara Constantino (s.constantino@northeastern.edu) or coauthor Elke Weber (eweber@princeton.edu).

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JOURNAL

Psychological Science in the Public Interest

DOI

10.1177/15291006221105279 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Scaling Up Change: A Critical Review and Practical Guide to Harnessing Social Norms for Climate Action

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Oct-2022

US Quietly Keeping Close Eye on Africa's Growth

Newsmax | Charles Kim | Saturday, 15 October 2022 

While not predominantly mentioned in the 2022 National Security Strategy report released Wednesday, U.S. officials said they are keeping a close watch on the African continent's growth and relations with nations like China and Russia as an important part of maintain national security.

"In Africa, the dynamism and demographic growth of the region make it central to solving every single significant global challenge we face," National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a speech at Georgetown University following the release of Wednesday's report. "And we will continue to revive and deepen our partnerships in the region that most directly impacts the United States more than any other: our own region, the Western Hemisphere."

The report itself spends most of its time evaluating other regions and nations, including Chinese expansion and Russia's war in Ukraine, but also highlights the importance of the African continent in future geopolitical relations.

"Africa's governments, institutions and people are a major geopolitical force, one that will play a crucial role in solving global challenges in the coming decade," the report said. "Africa is more youthful, mobile, educated and connected than ever before. African countries comprise one of the largest regional voting groups at the UN and their citizens lead major international institutions."

Gen. Stephen Townsend, outgoing commander of the United States Africa Command, told Congress in March that his command, with 10,000 troops on the continent, worked to implement the prior National Security Strategy there to bolster the U.S. "deterrence to better safeguard vital U.S. interests."

"I am certain of two things," Townsend said during his testimony, "First, access to a stable and prosperous African continent will be increasingly important to the United States, politically, economically and militarily, and will become more so in the future.”

Key concerns include the increasing expansion of Chinese military bases on the continent and arms coming in through Russia.

Russian President Valdimir Putin's war against Ukraine and his losses on the battlefield, however, have dwindled the number of arms it can now sell to Africa, Foreign Policy reported in July, before Russia sustained major military setbacks into the fall.

"We anticipate that they're going to have a real problem delivering equipment at the rate they're losing equipment in Ukraine," a senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity based on ground rules set by the Pentagon, told the publication at the time.

As Russia's influence decreases, China is flexing its muscles on the continent by wanting to build additional military bases there, National Defense reported in July.

Townsend told the news outlet that China has a "desire to establish more military bases on the continent."

"Why they need that capability there, I don't know," he said in the report. "I suspect they're thinking very deeply about the future and their future role in that region."

China has one base in the east African country of Djibouti, and is actively seeking to establish another along the Atlantic coast, which Townsend said could cause security problems for the U.S.

"They seem to have a little bit of traction in Equatorial Guinea," he said in the report. "We haven't asked Equatorial Guinea to choose between us or China. What we're doing is we're trying to convince them that it's in their interest to stay partnered with all of us, and not choose one over the other."