A new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Colorado State University, and the National Park Service indicates previously unknown high altitude contests between two of America’s most sensational mammals – mountain goats and bighorn sheep – over access to minerals previously unavailable due to the past presence of glaciers which, now, are vanishing due...
World
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Global Hunger, Carbon Emissions Could Both Spike If War Limits Grain Exports
If Russia’s invasion and the ensuing war significantly reduce Ukrainian grain exports, surging prices could increase food insecurity and carbon dioxide emissions, as marginal land is pushed into crop production. That’s the chain reaction predicted by modeling from a research team that includes Amani Elobeid, a teaching professor of economics at Iowa State University. An...
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What Is Cultural Appropriation and Why Is It So Harmful?
Die Antwoord is a South African band that uses hip-hop music to create a style it calls “zef”. Since it first appeared in 2009, Die Antwoord has been criticised for cultural appropriation (using cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative way). It’s accused of copying the lyrics and styles of Cape Town artists...
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Europe Has Never Had a Global Voice – but That May Be Changing with Rise of Digital Media
An oft-quoted question attributed (probably wrongly) to the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”, still resonates as an indication of Europe’s lack of unity and leadership. It also signals a disconnect in transatlantic communications that is due, in part, to the lack of...
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Hijab Rules Have Nothing to Do with Islamic Tenets and Everything to Do with Repressing Women
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was held by Iran’s morality police for not complying with the country’s hijab rules has drawn global attention to the repression of women in Iran. Neighboring Saudi Arabia, a Sunni country, theologically and politically opposed to Shiite Iran, has similar restrictive rules when it comes to women....
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Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Human Rights Activists
On the 70th birthday of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Nobel prize committee has recognised the work of three winners who are all battling against Putin or pro-Putin regimes. The peace prize has gone to imprisoned Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. These winners...
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Making the Invisible Water Crisis Visible
While achieving the United Nations (UN) ambitious Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for wastewater treatment would cause substantial improvements in global water quality, severe water quality issues would contain to persist in some world regions. So conclude researchers at Utrecht University. They developed a new water quality model to further elucidate the current and future pollution...
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Online Fandom Communities Can Facilitate State Censorship, According to New Concordia Research
Authoritarian regimes worldwide have embraced the digital age. And they have been generally effective at limiting the online presence of perceived adversaries within their borders — from intellectual dissidents to transnational activists. However, as a new study published in the journal New Media & Society shows, censorship is not strictly a state-run affair. By studying social media...
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Researchers Identify How Science Can Help Cities and Companies to Operate Within Earth System Limits
What businesses and cities must do to stay within ‘safe and just’ environmental limits for carbon, water, nutrients, land and other natural resources is the subject of a new set of recommendations from Earth Commission experts. The authors, from academic institutions including the University of Exeter Business School, have published key knowledge gaps for researchers...
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Gorbachev, Who Redirected Course of 20th Century, Dies at 91
Before Mikhail Gorbachev came along, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States. With a breathtaking series of reforms, Gorbachev changed all that — and redirected the course of the 20th century. Alongside Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Gorbachev was a key protagonist in a global drama that many...
