global

19Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIETY

Small Towns And The Global Pandemic How They Are Responding

Before the global pandemic hit, small towns across America were dealing with struggling economies, aging roads and bridges, and declining populations. The coronavirus added new challenges, like additional demand for limited hospital beds for an aging population, many of whom have chronic health conditions. Fortunately, as I’ve seen in my work at the Small Town Center at Mississippi State University, small towns have the advantage of being more nimble and responsive to crisis than cities, largely because they have fewer regulations and more opportunities to be creative about problem-solving. The pandemic has increased local leaders’ attention to their residents’ health – not just in terms of doctors and hospitals but also identifying new ways to help people get fitter, spend more time ou...

A Top Driver Of Global Deforestation Along With Beef, Soy, Palm Oil And Wood Products – Organized Crime

15Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

A Top Driver Of Global Deforestation Along With Beef, Soy, Palm Oil And Wood Products – Organized Crime

Jennifer Devine, Texas State University Every year the world loses an estimated 25 million acres (10 million hectares) of forest, an area larger than the state of Indiana. Nearly all of it is in the tropics. Fires burn off forest cover and natural grasses to create cattle pasture in the Maya forest in Guatemala. Jennifer Devine, CC BY-ND Tropical forests store enormous quantities of carbon and are home to at least two-thirds of the world’s living species, so deforestation has disastrous consequences for climate change and conservation. Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, slowing its buildup in the atmosphere – but when they are burned or logged, they release their stored carbon, fueling further warming. Tropical forest loss generates nearly 50% more greenhouse gases than does the gl...

As The Ever Given Fiasco Illustrates, Today’s Global Economy Runs On Standardized Shipping Containers

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

As The Ever Given Fiasco Illustrates, Today’s Global Economy Runs On Standardized Shipping Containers

Take a look around you. Perhaps you’re snacking on a banana, sipping some coffee or sitting in front of your computer and taking a break from work to read this article. Most likely, those goods – as well as your smartphone, refrigerator and virtually every other object in your home – were once loaded onto a large container in another country and traveled thousands of miles via ships crossing the ocean before ultimately arriving at your doorstep. Today, an estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea, with 60% of that – including virtually all your imported fruits, gadgets and appliances – packed in large steel containers. The rest is mainly commodities like oil or grains that are poured directly into the hull. In total, about US$14 trillion of the world’s goods spend some ti...

A Small And Shrinking Number Of The World’s Computer Chips Are Made In The US – A Global Semiconductor Shortage Highlights A Troubling Trend

10Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

A Small And Shrinking Number Of The World’s Computer Chips Are Made In The US – A Global Semiconductor Shortage Highlights A Troubling Trend

President Joe Biden’s executive order calling for a review of supply chains for critical products put a spotlight on the decades-long decline in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Semiconductors are the logic and memory chips used in computers, phones, vehicles and appliances. The U.S. share of global semiconductor fabrication is only 12%, down from 37% in 1990, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. CC BY-ND It might not seem important that 88% of the semiconductor chips used by U.S. industries, including the automotive and defense industries, are fabricated outside the U.S. However, three issues make where they are made critical to the U.S. as the global leader in electronics: lower capability, high global demand and limited investment. Lower capability The ...

Inequalities In The Global Financial System Exposed By COVID-19

16Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS, COVID-19

Inequalities In The Global Financial System Exposed By COVID-19

To stem the economic fallout from COVID-19, developed countries have injected an unprecedented US$9 trillion into their economies. The International Monetary Fund has recommended sustained fiscal support, emphasizing greater spending on health care and environmental protection projects. Meanwhile, countries in the “global south” – broadly, low- and middle-income countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa – face more dire circumstances. They don’t have the ability to inject that level of cash into their economies. And it’s not only because their economies are poorer. As an economics professor, I focus on the systemic inequalities in the global financial system that block such access in developing economies. With a greater public awareness of soaring inequality within countries, it is ...

The Fall Of The Arecibo Telescope Is Indicative Of Global Divide Around Funding Science Infrastructure

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

The Fall Of The Arecibo Telescope Is Indicative Of Global Divide Around Funding Science Infrastructure

A mere two weeks after the National Science Foundation declared it would close the Arecibo single-dish radio telescope – once the largest in the world – the observatory took a dramatic dying breath and collapsed on Dec. 1, 2020. The Arecibo Observatory Collapse in Puerto Rico. While drone footage captured the moment in excruciating detail, in truth, the disintegration of the telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico began far before this cinematic end. It is tempting to blame the demise of Arecibo on the physical damage it sustained earlier in 2020, when an auxiliary metal cable snapped – perhaps a delayed consequence of Tropical Storm Isaias or the earthquakes that shook Puerto Rico. But Arecibo’s downfall was, in reality, caused by years of financial struggles. As someone who studies technolog...

A Global Game Changer, The Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

A Global Game Changer, The Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine

In the long dark tunnel that has been 2020, November stands out as the month that light appeared. Some might see it as a bright light, others as a faint light – but it is unmistakably a light. On November 9, Pfizer announced the interim results of its candidate vaccine, showing it to be “more than 90% effective” in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in late-stage human trials. The news was greeted with joy. A couple of days later, the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the candidate vaccine they are funding – dubbed Sputnik V – showed 92% efficacy in late-stage trials. Not to be outdone, Moderna then announced that its candidate vaccine showed 94.5% efficacy. The latest COVID-19 vaccine announcement comes from Oxford University. And, as with all of the above announcements, it ca...

American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation

The United States is having a long-overdue national reckoning with racism. From criminal justice to pro sports to pop culture, Americans increasingly are recognizing how racist ideas have influenced virtually every sphere of life in this country. John James Audubon relied on African Americans and Native Americans to collect some specimens for his ‘Birds of America’ prints (shown: Florida cormorant), but never credited them. National Audubon Society, CC BY This includes the environmental movement. Recently the Sierra Club – one of the oldest and largest U.S. conservation organizations – acknowledged racist views held by its founder, author and conservationist John Muir. In some of his writing, Muir described Native Americans and Black people as dirty, lazy and uncivilized. In an essay coll...

Ending the pandemic will take global access to COVID-19 treatment and vaccines – which means putting ethics before profits

17Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Ending the pandemic will take global access to COVID-19 treatment and vaccines – which means putting ethics before profits

As COVID-19 surges in the United States and worldwide, even the richest and best insured Americans understand, possibly for the first time, what it’s like not to have the medicines they need to survive if they get sick. There is no coronavirus vaccine, and the best known treatment, remdesivir, only reduces hospital recovery time by 30% and only for patients with certain forms of the disease. Poorer people have always had trouble accessing essential medicines, however – even when good drugs exist to prevent and treat their conditions. In the U.S., where there is no legal right to health, insurance is usually necessary for medical treatment. Remedesivir costs about US$3,200 for a typical treatment course of six vials, though critics argue its manufacturer, Gilead, could make a profit off m...

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...