Sunday, May 19

Tag: change

Can Biden’s Climate Change Plans Quickly Raise The Bar, And Be Transformative?
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ENVIRONMENT, POLITICS, SCIENCE

Can Biden’s Climate Change Plans Quickly Raise The Bar, And Be Transformative?

The day Joe Biden becomes president, he can start taking actions that can help slow climate change. The question is whether he can match the magnitude of the challenge. If his administration focuses only on what is politically possible and fails to build a coordinated response that also addresses the social and economic ramifications of both climate change and the U.S. policy response, it is unlikely to succeed. I have spent much of my career working on responses to climate change internationally and in Washington. I have seen the quiet efforts across political parties, even when the rhetoric was heated. There is room for effective climate actions, particularly as heat waves, wildfires and extreme weather make the risks of global warming tangible and the costs of renewable energy fall. A...
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Many colleges have gone test-optional – here’s how that could change the way students are admitted
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EDUCATION

Many colleges have gone test-optional – here’s how that could change the way students are admitted

More than two-thirds of U.S. four-year colleges and universities have decided to make the SAT or ACT optional for admission in the fall of 2021, some on a temporary basis, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, two scholars – Angela Farmer, assistant clinical professor of honors education at Mississippi State University, and Jonathan Wai, assistant professor of education policy and psychology at the University of Arkansas – shine some light what this means for students’ chances of getting into the college of their choice. How have required college entrance exams helped or hurt in the past? Angela Farmer. www.honors.msstate.edu Angela Farmer: When I served as a high school administrator in a small, rural community in southern Illinois, I saw many talented students get rejected by selective uni...
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Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it
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VIDEO REELS

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it

Humans are dismantling and disrupting natural ecosystems around the globe and changing Earth’s climate. Over the past 50 years, actions like farming, logging, hunting, development and global commerce have caused record losses of species on land and at sea. Animals, birds and reptiles are disappearing tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural rate of extinction over the past 10 million years. Now the world is also contending with a global pandemic. In geographically remote regions such as the Brazilian Amazon, COVID-19 is devastating Indigenous populations, with tragic consequences for both Indigenous peoples and the lands they steward. My research focuses on ecosystems and climate change from regional to global scales. In 2019, I worked with conservation biologist and strategist ...
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A little-known technology change will make video streaming cheaper and pave the way for higher quality
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TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

A little-known technology change will make video streaming cheaper and pave the way for higher quality

A new format for compressing video, called Versatile Video Coding (H.266/VVC), at first glance might not seem to be the most exciting or profound change to influence humanity. But in a world where 4.57 billion people identify as active internet users, 3.5 billion regularly use a smartphone, 80% of global internet traffic is compressed video data and 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, data is more than binary numbers. Data – and video specifically – is now part of humanity’s collective nervous system.   A short summary of how the H.266 standards can improve the video streaming experience. COVID-19 has greatly increased internet usage around the world. It now has the dual purpose of keeping parents and kids connected for both work and school through video conferenc...
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Diversity pledges alone won’t change corporate workplaces – here’s what will
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BUSINESS

Diversity pledges alone won’t change corporate workplaces – here’s what will

Dozen of companies, from Apple to Zappos, have reacted to George Floyd’s killing and the protests that followed by pledging to make their workforces more diverse. While commendable, to me it feels a bit like deja vu. Back in 2014, a host of tech companies made similar commitments to diversify their ranks. Their latest reports – which they release annually – show they’ve made little progress. Why have their efforts largely failed? Were they just empty promises? As a gender diversity scholar, I explored these questions in my recent paper published in the Stanford Technology Law Review. The problem is not a lack of commitment but what social scientists call “unconscious bias.” Big tech, little progress Today’s efforts to promote diversity are certainly more specific than the tech industry’...
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An effective climate change solution may lie in rocks beneath our feet
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ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

An effective climate change solution may lie in rocks beneath our feet

Why has Earth’s climate remained so stable over geological time? The answer just might rock you. Rocks, particularly the types created by volcanic activity, play a critical role in keeping Earth’s long-term climate stable and cycling carbon dioxide between land, oceans and the atmosphere. Weathering of rocks like these basalt formations in Idaho triggers chemical processes that remove carbon dioxide from the air. Matthew Dillon/Flickr, CC BY Scientists have known for decades that rock weathering – the chemical breakdown of minerals in mountains and soils – removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transforms it into stable minerals on the planet’s surface and in ocean sediments. But because this process operates over millions of years, it is too weak to offset modern global warming f...
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‘Renewable’ natural gas may sound green, but it’s not an antidote for climate change
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IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

‘Renewable’ natural gas may sound green, but it’s not an antidote for climate change

Natural gas is a versatile fossil fuel that accounts for about a third of U.S. energy use. Although it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants than coal or oil, natural gas is a major contributor to climate change, an urgent global problem. Reducing emissions from the natural gas system is especially challenging because natural gas is used roughly equally for electricity, heating, and industrial applications. There’s an emerging argument that maybe there could be a direct substitute for fossil natural gas in the form of renewable natural gas (RNG) – a renewable fuel designed to be nearly indistinguishable from fossil natural gas. RNG could be made from biomass or from captured carbon dioxide and electricity. Based on what’s known about these systems, however, I belie...
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During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules

Here at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, four living units—each housing roughly 200 prisoners—share one recreation yard. And around this time of year, I could watch as teams gathered almost daily to compete on the soccer field or practice around the baseball diamond, as countless residents strolled the quarter-mile track, which surrounds both. Outside the track, some played horseshoes, bocce, handball, basketball, and used the array of pullup and dip bars, while others sat at cement tables slapping cards and banging dominoes. Needless to say, our yard isn’t small. All this changed in early April, after news that the first cases of COVID-19 inside a state prison had been confirmed at Monroe Correctional Complex, where the reformatory is. Courageous fellow residents, refusing to...
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5 ways that the coronavirus will change college admissions this fall
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COVID-19, EDUCATION

5 ways that the coronavirus will change college admissions this fall

The new coronavirus is spreading across the United States just as many high school seniors were applying to colleges or awaiting acceptance letters. Here, Robert Massa, who teaches about higher education at the University of Southern California and is a former admissions dean from Johns Hopkins University and Dickinson College, offers insights into five ways the COVID-19 pandemic could affect a student’s quest to attend the school of their choice. 1. More time Due to the uncertainties surrounding the health and financial implications of the pandemic, many colleges will not have filled their classes by the traditional May 1 deadline. Colleges that are concerned about not meeting their numerical enrollment goals will likely be flexible in allowing students to apply, even at this late date. ...
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Poets Of Color Carry Pushing For Social Change In Their Communities.
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Poets Of Color Carry Pushing For Social Change In Their Communities.

Most often in the United States, when poetry is discussed, what comes to mind for many is the works of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, even Emily Dickinson. These are referred to as the “classics.” While their works have influenced much of American culture, the works of poets of color have championed revolutionary change, many through social justice movements. Poets such as Joy Harjo, Khalil Gibran, Gloria Anzaldua, Suji Kwock Kim, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou. Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry, and was born into slavery, yet many do not know her name. Even when we look globally, many poets were key revolutionaries in the Sandinista National Liberation Front against the Somoza regime and United States oc...
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