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Category: Analysis

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aybars Tuncdogan, Reader in Digital Innovation and Information Security, King’s College London

    raymond orton/Shutterstock

    The cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer will lead to an estimated £300 million hit to the company’s profits this year. It now aims to have online shopping at the store back to normal by August, more than three months after IT systems were compromised.

    Fans of M&S clothing and food will be relieved after all of the uncertainty. But that level of uncertainty, as well as the huge cost, is surely a sign that big retailers, which millions of people rely on, need to change how they think about – and invest in – cybersecurity.

    It has to be an absolute priority. After all, few marketing strategies or HR initiatives can save a company £300 million in just six weeks. But perhaps a more sophisticated cybersecurity department could have done just that.

    To be fair, M&S faced a relatively rare, high-impact ordeal. Most cyber-attacks of this nature don’t affect customers so directly, and much of the recovery typically happens behind the scenes.

    But M&S shoppers saw online orders collapse, contactless payments fail and refunds, gift cards and loyalty points not functioning. Disruption in stock-management and warehousing led to empty shelves and food waste.

    On June 27, M&S issued a public apology and a £5 digital gift card to affected customers. But research suggests that the most important element of keeping customers onside is the quality of the recovery process, and whether normal service is eventually resumed.

    To get back to normal service, it is possible that a ransom was paid to the cyber attackers, but M&S has refused to confirm or deny this. (One survey found that many organisations hit by cyber attacks agreed to pay a ransom – and then suffered a subsequent breach, often from the very same culprits.)

    But even when normal service returns, when hackers steal customer data, as they did with M&S, research suggests that this information is often reused by criminals in identity theft and phishing. A study even found that victims of data breaches are more likely to have mortgage applications denied.

    From what we know about the breach at M&S, it seems that the cyber-attackers simply used a phishing technique to get the support desk of a third-party contractor to reset the password of an admin-level account. That said, although in this case the main vulnerability was human, the lesson to be learnt here is that sometimes just one vulnerability can shake the whole system to its core.

    This is why business owners need to think of cybersecurity not just as a tedious and inconvenient IT issue, but as a core function of the business. Otherwise, as the M&S case illustrates, it is simply not possible for the rest of the corporate structure to operate.

    Testing times

    So cybersecurity targets must be incorporated into every department to ensure collective defence. And organisations also need to stress-test the different aspects of their systems.

    That could be checking on human responses, but it should also include technology (like a vulnerability in the web server), physical barriers (a poorly secured server room door) and HR procedures (failure to revoke ex-employee access).

    Lock down your laptop.
    Thapana_Studio/Shutterstock

    These lines of defence have to be stress-tested regularly and from multiple angles, rather than being considered an annual checkbox activity for compliance.

    Scenario-based tests – essentially a cyber fire-drill — such as internal threat simulations and response exercises, can provide useful insights into an organisation’s readiness to detect, respond to and recover from cyber-attacks.

    It’s also important that organisations learn to communicate clearly once a breach occurs. Research into responses to data breaches suggests that any backlash is sharper when the company seems to be trying to hide the breach, which may later be publicised by the criminals instead.

    Consumers should also remember that they are not powerless. We may not be able to prevent a data breach, but all of us can help to stop attackers from infiltrating our online worlds by something as simple as not re-using the same passwords.

    By remaining sceptical, we can prevent attackers from using the information they stole to phish us later. And by thinking carefully about what personal data we share with companies, we can reduce the impact of future breaches.

    Aybars Tuncdogan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers – https://theconversation.com/how-mands-responds-to-its-cyber-attack-could-have-a-serious-impact-on-its-future-and-its-customers-260429

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aybars Tuncdogan, Reader in Digital Innovation and Information Security, King’s College London

    raymond orton/Shutterstock

    The cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer will lead to an estimated £300 million hit to the company’s profits this year. It now aims to have online shopping at the store back to normal by August, more than three months after IT systems were compromised.

    Fans of M&S clothing and food will be relieved after all of the uncertainty. But that level of uncertainty, as well as the huge cost, is surely a sign that big retailers, which millions of people rely on, need to change how they think about – and invest in – cybersecurity.

    It has to be an absolute priority. After all, few marketing strategies or HR initiatives can save a company £300 million in just six weeks. But perhaps a more sophisticated cybersecurity department could have done just that.

    To be fair, M&S faced a relatively rare, high-impact ordeal. Most cyber-attacks of this nature don’t affect customers so directly, and much of the recovery typically happens behind the scenes.

    But M&S shoppers saw online orders collapse, contactless payments fail and refunds, gift cards and loyalty points not functioning. Disruption in stock-management and warehousing led to empty shelves and food waste.

    On June 27, M&S issued a public apology and a £5 digital gift card to affected customers. But research suggests that the most important element of keeping customers onside is the quality of the recovery process, and whether normal service is eventually resumed.

    To get back to normal service, it is possible that a ransom was paid to the cyber attackers, but M&S has refused to confirm or deny this. (One survey found that many organisations hit by cyber attacks agreed to pay a ransom – and then suffered a subsequent breach, often from the very same culprits.)

    But even when normal service returns, when hackers steal customer data, as they did with M&S, research suggests that this information is often reused by criminals in identity theft and phishing. A study even found that victims of data breaches are more likely to have mortgage applications denied.

    From what we know about the breach at M&S, it seems that the cyber-attackers simply used a phishing technique to get the support desk of a third-party contractor to reset the password of an admin-level account. That said, although in this case the main vulnerability was human, the lesson to be learnt here is that sometimes just one vulnerability can shake the whole system to its core.

    This is why business owners need to think of cybersecurity not just as a tedious and inconvenient IT issue, but as a core function of the business. Otherwise, as the M&S case illustrates, it is simply not possible for the rest of the corporate structure to operate.

    Testing times

    So cybersecurity targets must be incorporated into every department to ensure collective defence. And organisations also need to stress-test the different aspects of their systems.

    That could be checking on human responses, but it should also include technology (like a vulnerability in the web server), physical barriers (a poorly secured server room door) and HR procedures (failure to revoke ex-employee access).

    Lock down your laptop.
    Thapana_Studio/Shutterstock

    These lines of defence have to be stress-tested regularly and from multiple angles, rather than being considered an annual checkbox activity for compliance.

    Scenario-based tests – essentially a cyber fire-drill — such as internal threat simulations and response exercises, can provide useful insights into an organisation’s readiness to detect, respond to and recover from cyber-attacks.

    It’s also important that organisations learn to communicate clearly once a breach occurs. Research into responses to data breaches suggests that any backlash is sharper when the company seems to be trying to hide the breach, which may later be publicised by the criminals instead.

    Consumers should also remember that they are not powerless. We may not be able to prevent a data breach, but all of us can help to stop attackers from infiltrating our online worlds by something as simple as not re-using the same passwords.

    By remaining sceptical, we can prevent attackers from using the information they stole to phish us later. And by thinking carefully about what personal data we share with companies, we can reduce the impact of future breaches.

    Aybars Tuncdogan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers – https://theconversation.com/how-mands-responds-to-its-cyber-attack-could-have-a-serious-impact-on-its-future-and-its-customers-260429

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mollie O’Hanlon, PhD Candidate, Exercise Physiology, Nottingham Trent University

    Bronze has said ‘cycle syncing’ has been important for her performance. Jose Breton- Pics Action/ Shutterstock

    England footballer Lucy Bronze recently said in an interview that “cycle syncing” gives her an edge on the pitch. This practice involves aligning your training schedule to the different phases of your menstrual cycle.

    Cycle syncing has become increasingly popular in recent years – especially among athletes who are looking to get an edge over the competition. Even Chelsea women’s football team have put this new approach to use, tailoring training schedules according to each player’s menstrual cycle.

    For the average person, tailoring your workouts to your menstrual cycle is probably not going to have much of an impact. But for a professional athlete such as Bronze, cycle syncing could be a gamechanging strategy in shaping her elite performance.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    The menstrual cycle begins and ends with menstruation (a period). While the length of the menstrual cycle varies for each person, it’s usually around 28 days.

    The menstrual cycle is underpinned by fluctuations in levels of the female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone. This is why the cycle is divided into three key phases: early follicular, late follicular and the luteal phase.

    The early follicular phase usually lasts around seven days and begins with the start of your period. This is when hormone levels are at their lowest.

    The late follicular phase follows on from the first seven days, and is where ovulation happens – usually around day 14 of the cycle, though this will depend on cycle length. Ovulation is when the egg is released and you’re at your most fertile.

    After that comes the luteal phase (lasting around 12-14 days), when progesterone peaks to prepare the body for pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn’t happen, hormones drop and the cycle begins again.

    It’s no secret that mood and energy levels can shift – sometimes significantly – throughout the menstrual cycle. This is why some female athletes have begun using cycle syncing. By tailoring training schedules to match hormonal fluctuations, women are gaining a deeper understanding of their bodies and the symptoms they experience throughout each phase – empowering them to train smarter, not harder.

    Bronze said the strategy has transformed her performance, saying that during certain phases of her cycle she feels “physically capable of more and can train harder”.

    Despite these testimonials, scientists are yet to reach a definitive conclusion on how the menstrual cycle affects athletic performance.

    Bronze is just one of many female athletes putting ‘cycle syncing’ to the test.
    Christian Bertrand/ Shutterstock

    So far, there’s some suggestion that there may be a slight dip in performance (specifically to strength and endurance) during the early follicular phase. However, these effects are minimal – and highly dependent on the person. It’s also not entirely clear what mechanisms underpin these small performance dips that some women experienced.

    Other research suggests that certain aspects of the neuromuscular system (the network of nerves and muscles that make movement possible) – specifically how our muscles generate force – is altered during the luteal phase. Research has also found that certain muscles may fatigue less quickly during this phase as well.

    This implies that during the luteal phase, there may be changes in signals from the brain and spinal cord to the skeletal muscles. However, no changes in the neuromuscular function have been observed.

    Part of the reason it’s so difficult for researchers to gather enough evidence to draw firm conclusions on the menstrual cycle’s potential effects on athletic performance is because of the huge variability in menstrual cycle characteristics, which makes it difficult to study. Phase length, hormone levels and symptoms can differ widely between women – and even from cycle to cycle.

    The small effects seen in these studies will have little effect on how most of us train or exercise. But for an elite athlete, these minuscule differences could have an effect on their training and competition, which may be why so many are willing to give the practice a try.

    So while it isn’t entirely clear how much influence certain menstrual cycle phases have on performance, how you feel during different phases could certainly affect your ability to train at your best.

    Around 77% of female athletes experience negative symptoms in the days leading up to and during menstruation. Fatigue, feeling less motivated and even experiencing digestive issues such as bloating and nausea, could all affect your ability to train at your best.

    Trying cycle syncing

    If you’re still interested in giving cycle syncing a try to see if it has any effect for you, the best place to start is by tracking your menstrual cycle. This will help you understand your body, how you feel in each phase of your cycle and what effect certain symptoms have on your training.

    It’s recommended you track your cycle for at least three months before making any changes to your training to establish a baseline and spot trends over time.

    For example, if you notice you often feel fatigued when training in your luteal phase, it may help to focus on ensuring you fuel well with carbohydrates before and during workouts. Or on days where you feel more energetic and motivated to train, you might be able to push yourself a bit harder in your workouts.

    Whether you’re playing for England in the Euros or simply working towards your own fitness goals, understanding your cycle can help you train smarter, manage your symptoms better and stay consistent with your training.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works – https://theconversation.com/lioness-lucy-bronze-uses-cycle-syncing-to-get-an-edge-on-her-competition-heres-how-the-practise-works-260153

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Harper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of East London

    As the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday with thousands of Tibetan Buddhists, there’s already tension over how the next spiritual leader will be selected. Controversially, the Chinese government has suggested it wants more power over who is chosen.

    Traditionally, Tibetan leaders and aides seek a young boy who is seen as the chosen reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is possible that after they do this, this time Beijing will try to appoint a rival figure.

    However, the current Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, insists that the process of succession will be led by the Swiss-based Gaden Phodrang Trust, which manages his affairs. He said no one else had authority “to interfere in this matter” and that statement is being seen as a strong signal to China.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Throughout the 20th century, Tibetans struggled to create an independent state, as their homeland was fought over by Russia, the UK and China. In 1951, Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with China allowing a Chinese military presence on their land.

    China established the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1965, in name this means that Tibet is an autonomous region within China, but in effect it is tightly controlled. Tibet has a government in exile, based in India, that still wants Tibet to become an independent state.

    This is a continuing source of tension between the two countries. India also claims part of Tibet as its own territory.

    Beijing sees having more power over the selection of the Dalai Lama as an opportunity to stamp more authority on Tibet. Tibet’s strategic position and its resources are extremely valuable to China, and play a part in Beijing’s wider plans for regional dominance, and in its aim of pushing back against India, its powerful rival in south Asia.

    The Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday as many Tibetans living in China fear talking about independence.

    Tibet provides China with a naturally defensive border with the rest of southern Asia, with its mountainous terrain providing a buffer against India. The brief Sino-Indian war of 1962 when the two countries battled for control of the region, still has implications for India and China today, where they continue to dispute border lands.

    As with many powerful nations, China has always been concerned about threats, or rival power bases, within its neighbourhood. This is similar to how the US has used the Monroe Doctrine to ensure its dominance over Latin America, and how Russia seeks to maintain its influence over former Soviet states.

    Beijing views western criticism of its control of Tibet as interference in its sphere of influence.



    Read more:
    India and Pakistan tension escalates with suspension of historic water treaty

    Another source of contention is that Beijing traditionally views boundaries such as the McMahon line defining the China-India border as lacking legitimacy, a border drawn up when China was at its weakest in the 19th century. Known in China as the “century of humiliation”, this was characterised by a series of unequal treaties, which saw the loss of territory to stronger European powers.

    This continues to a source of political tensions in China’s border regions including Tibet. This is a controversial part of China’s historical memory and continues to influence its ongoing relationship with the west.

    Demand for natural resources

    Tibet’s importance to Beijing also comes from its vast water resources. Access to more water is seen as increasingly important for China’s wider push towards self-sufficiency which has become imperative in the face of climate change. This also provides China with a significant geopolitical tool.

    For instance, the Mekong River rises in Tibet and flows through China and along the borders of Myanamar and Laos and onward into Thailand and Cambodia. It is the third longest river in Asia, and is crucial for many of the economies of south-east Asia. It is estimated to sustain 60 million people.

    China’s attempts to control water supplies, particularly through the building of huge dams in Tibet, has added to regional tensions. Around 50% of the flow to the Mekong was cut off for part of 2021, after a Chinese mega dam was built. This caused a lot of resentment from other countries which depended on the water.

    Moves by other nations to control access to regional water supplies in recent years show how water is now becoming a negotiating tool. India attempted to cut off Pakistan’s water supply in 2025 as part of the conflict between the two. Control of Tibet allows China to pursue a similar strategy, which grants Beijing leverage in its dealings with New Delhi, and other governments.


    Shutterstock.

    Another natural resource is also a vital part of China’s planning. Tibet’s significant lithium deposits are crucial for Chinese supply chains, particularly for their use in the electric vehicle industry. Beijing is attempting to reduce its reliance on western firms and supplies, in the face of the present trade tensions between the US and China, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

    Tibet’s value to China is a reflection of wider changes in a world where water is increasingly playing an important role in geopolitics. With its valuable natural resources, China’s desire to control Tibet is not likely to decrease.

    Tom Harper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply – https://theconversation.com/chinas-interest-in-the-next-dalai-lama-is-also-about-control-of-tibets-water-supply-255843

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, Senior Lecturer at York Business School, York St John University

    pikselstock/Shutterstock

    The recent launch of a government review into parental leave and pay in the UK is a hugely welcome development. In order to bring about meaningful change, it must challenge the fundamental issue at the heart of current parental leave laws. They are strongly influenced by, and so perpetuate, gender norms that see women as caregivers and fathers as breadwinners.

    Parents in the UK can take maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave in the first year of their child’s life. While these allowances provide parents with support, the support is disproportionate in how it is split between mothers and fathers. Although gender roles have evolved significantly, UK policies lag behind.

    Mothers and fathers are equal parents and have equal parenting responsibilities. However, mothers are allowed up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, while fathers are only entitled to two weeks of statutory paternity leave.

    The introduction of shared parental leave in 2015 was welcomed as a positive step towards gender equality – but it has failed in this aim.

    There are significant barriers stopping fathers from benefiting fully from the legislation. Parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave between them. But because mothers are entitled to a year of leave, the policy requires mothers to act as gatekeepers. The mother determines if the father can share the leave and how long she is willing to give up for the father.

    Consequently, fathers have no autonomy or independence to take parental leave at a time that is important to them and their babies – and they may be reluctant to deprive the mother of leave she is entitled to.

    What’s more, while maternity and paternity leave is well known and the process relatively straightforward, shared parental leave has been criticised for its complexity. Parents that have explored shared parental leave have found the policy and process incredibly complex because some employers still don’t understand how it works and so are unable to support parents.

    The problems with the policy have affected its uptake. Only 5% of fathers take any shared parental leave.

    Financial implications

    Another problem that affects all three policies is the pay. While the UK has a generous maternity leave allowance of 52 weeks, this is not accompanied by a decent financial allowance.

    Although employers can set more generous terms, the law requires only the first six weeks of maternity leave to be paid at 90% of the mother’s salary. This is followed by 33 weeks at statutory pay of £187.18 and 13 weeks of no pay. The two weeks of paternity leave are paid at the statutory rate of £187.18, or 90% of the father’s average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).

    Taking parental leave can bring financial and career worries.
    christinarosepix/Shutterstock

    And while shared parental leave allows the mother to split 50 weeks of leave with her partner, a significant period of this is unpaid. Out of these 50 weeks, parents can share 37 weeks of pay at statutory rate and the rest of the leave would be unpaid.

    Mothers have returned to work early because financially they cannot afford to stay longer on maternity leave – a problem compounded by the rising cost of living. Fathers sometimes opt to take annual leave rather than paternity leave because of the low pay.

    The same reason applies to shared parental leave because parents cannot afford to both be off at the same time or different times on the statutory rate. While the policies are well intended, there is no financial incentive for parents to take it.

    Finances have a significant impact on parental leave choices. The government review should enhance parental leave pay to encourage and support parents, particularly fathers.

    Impact on careers

    The implications for parents’ careers also need to be considered. While parental leave should not affect the career aspirations or progressions of the parents, my research demonstrates otherwise. Mothers have been bullied, refused opportunities, and have felt forced to leave their jobs.

    Research also shows that fathers have concerns about their careers when considering parental leave. While it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against a parent for taking parental leave, this remains an area of concern.

    My research has demonstrated that some fathers consider shared parental leave as a “luxury” they cannot afford. They feel they need to work hard to demonstrate their commitment to their job. Equal parenting policies would support women’s careers and encourage fathers to take up more family responsibilities without fear of repercussions.

    The last point to consider – and one that often goes overlooked – is that how parents choose to feed their baby may have an effect on their decisions to take parental leave. Babies can be breastfed, formula fed or a mixture of both breast and formula feeding. If the parents make the decision to breastfeed – a choice recommended by the World Health Organisation – this may affect the mother’s decision on how much leave she takes.

    Employers have legal obligations to carry out risk assessments for breastfeeding mothers and make reasonable adjustments on specific health and safety guidelines. However, a general policy that covers the wider needs of breastfeeding mothers and offers them more support at work should be implemented.

    My research shows that mothers may prefer to take more maternity leave to enable them to breastfeed.

    The parental leave review shouldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce breastfeeding policies that ensure mothers are properly supported in the workplace – as well as making sure that both mothers and fathers have the opportunity to prioritise caring and their careers.

    Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change – https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-in-the-uk-isnt-working-heres-what-needs-to-change-209661

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Leah McLaughlin, Research Fellow in Health Services, Bangor University

    What does it mean to save a life – and what does it cost? In The Story of a Heart, Rachel Clarke answers this not with slogans or sentiment, but with quiet, searing honesty. This book, which won this year’s Women’s prize for non-fiction, is about organ donation, yes, but it’s also about family, grief, love, courage, and the astonishing edges of human experience.

    At its centre are two children: Max Johnson, a healthy, active nine-year-old whose heart suddenly begins to fail, and Keira Ball, another nine-year-old – vibrant, horse-loving, full of life who tragically dies in a car accident. In a moment of unimaginable grief, Keira’s parents donate her organs. Her heart goes to Max.

    A child dies. A child lives.

    That is the simple, brutal, beautiful truth this book never looks away from. But Clarke does more than tell the story of heart. She immerses us in it – every breath, every monitor beep, every unbearable choice.

    I read this as a health services researcher who has spent years working in the emotionally complex, ethically charged, and often hidden world of organ donation. My work explores how families navigate these unimaginable scenarios, particularly in the context of recent legislative change. Clarke’s account captures, with rare precision and compassion, the silences, the emotional labour of clinicians, and the profound weight of choice that families like Keira’s carry.

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    As both a doctor and a mother, Clarke brings sensitivity to every page. We feel Max’s steady decline: the exhaustion, the fear, the silence that descends as even the doctors grow unsure. We witness Keira’s final hours, the heroic efforts to save her, and the moments where unbearable grief oscillates between hope and despair, eventually giving way to a different kind of gift.

    There are no easy heroes in this story, only ordinary people facing the unthinkable with extraordinary grace. Clarke brings them to life with aching clarity: the cardiologist who, in the dim light of a hospital room, sketches Max’s failing heart on a napkin so his mother can understand what words can’t explain; the ICU nurse who stays long after her shift ends, gently brushing the hair of a child who will never wake up; the donation nurse who enters a family’s darkest hour not with answers, but with quiet presence and unwavering care; the surgeon who steadies his hands – and his heart – when every second matters.

    And in the chaos of resuscitation, amid alarms and broken bodies, a teddy bear is tucked beneath Keira’s arm: “Someone in the crash team has seen Keira not simply as a body, inert and unresponsive, but as a vulnerable child in need of compassion.”

    The Story of a Heart is also a book about history. It’s not just about one child’s transplant, but about medicine, surgery, and the heart itself. Clarke weaves in the stories of early transplant pioneers, accidental discoveries, and the scientific stumbles and breakthroughs that built modern practice. She brings it all to life with a storyteller’s flair, making science feel intimate, alive, and deeply human.

    What the heart means

    What sets the heart apart, Clarke reminds us, is not just its function, but its symbolism. No other organ holds such emotional weight. “Hearts sing, soar, race, burn, break, bleed, swell, hammer and melt,” she writes. They are not just organs, they are vessels for our hopes, fears and deepest longings.

    Clarke shows how, across history, the heart was seen as the source of emotion, morality – even the soul – and how that deep humanism still pulses through our language and culture today. We have our hearts broken, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and as Clarke puts it: “When trying to express our truest and most sincere selves, we do so by saying we speak from the heart, or about all that our heart desires.”

    But what makes The Story of a Heart so exceptional is its emotional truth. Clarke never shies away from the pain. Max’s parents watch their son fade, terrified to even touch him. Keira’s father buys her a pink princess dress for her funeral. Max, wired to machines, records a goodbye message; we learn later he even tried to take his own life. And yet, there is light.

    Keira’s sisters climb into bed with her, painting her nails and sliding Haribo sweet rings onto her fingers. Then comes a moment so clear, so quietly astonishing, it takes everyone’s breath away. Katelyn, Keira’s older sister, turns to the doctor and asks, with calm, steady eyes: “Can we donate her organs?”

    This isn’t a clinical decision or a well-rehearsed conversation. It is an unprompted act of extraordinary love. These moments – fragile, generous, profoundly human – are the true beating heart of Clarke’s book.

    From there, we are guided into a world so few know and even fewer ever witness: the quiet choreography that carries a gift of life from one person to another. What Katelyn sets in motion with just five words unfolds with such precision, that reading it feels like witnessing a kind of living magic.

    The aftermath is just as moving. Max recovers quickly, walks again, laughs again. The two families meet. There are no big speeches, just quiet awe. And beyond that: a law is passed. Max and Keira’s Law brings in an opt-out system of donation in England. Two children. One legacy. A country changed.

    And still, Clarke doesn’t let us forget the hard truths. Not every child survives. Not every family gets a miracle. Transplants are fragile. But in that fragility, she shows us, is the real miracle. Max goes fishing with his dad, the sky glows orange – Keira’s favourite colour. That is enough.

    At the moment organ donation consent rates for children are declining in the UK, and there are more children on the transplant wait list than ever before. The Story of a Heart asks us to see the children, the families, and the quiet acts of love behind every donation. It’s a powerful reminder that the greatest gifts are often given in the darkest hours.

    This book will break your heart – and fill it up again. It’s not just essential reading for anyone interested in organ donation and transplant. It’s essential reading for anyone who has ever loved.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Leah McLaughlin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another – https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-a-heart-by-rachel-clarke-is-a-powerful-account-of-one-childs-gift-to-another-260611

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin L. Olsson, Medical Director of the Nordic Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Genomics, Region Skåne & Professor of Transfusion Medicine, Head of the Division, Lund University

    Peter Porrini/Shutterstock.com

    In a routine blood test that turned extraordinary, French scientists have identified the world’s newest and rarest blood group. The sole known carrier is a woman from Guadeloupe whose blood is so unique that doctors couldn’t find a single compatible donor.

    The discovery of the 48th recognised blood group, called “Gwada-negative”, began when the woman’s blood plasma reacted against every potential donor sample tested, including those from her own siblings. Consequently, it was impossible to find a suitable blood donor for her.

    Most people know their blood type – A, B, AB or O – along with whether they are Rh-positive or negative. But these familiar categories (those letters plus “positive” or “negative”) represent just two of several dozens of blood group systems that determine compatibility for transfusions. Each system reflects subtle but crucial differences in the proteins and sugars coating our red blood cells.

    To solve the mystery of the Guadeloupian woman’s incompatible blood, scientists turned to cutting-edge genetic analysis. Using whole exome sequencing – a technique that examines all 20,000-plus human genes – they discovered a mutation in a gene called PIGZ.

    This gene produces an enzyme responsible for adding a specific sugar to an important molecule on cell membranes. The missing sugar changes the structure of a molecule on the surface of red blood cells. This change creates a new antigen – a key feature that defines a blood group – resulting in an entirely new classification: Gwada-positive (having the antigen) or -negative (lacking it).

    Using gene editing technology, the team confirmed their discovery by recreating the mutation in a lab. So red blood cells from all blood donors tested are Gwada-positive and the Guadeloupean patient is the only known Gwada-negative person on the planet.

    The implications of the discovery extend beyond blood transfusions. The patient suffers from mild intellectual disability, and tragically, she lost two babies at birth – outcomes that may be connected to her rare genetic mutation.

    The enzyme produced by the PIGZ gene operates at the final stage of building a complex molecule called GPI (glycosylphosphatidylinositol). Previous research has shown that people with defects in other enzymes needed for GPI assembly can experience neurological problems ranging from developmental delays to seizures. Stillbirths are also common among women with these inherited disorders.

    Although the Caribbean patient is the only person in the world so far with this rare blood type, neurological conditions including developmental delay, intellectual disability and seizures have been noted in other people with defects in enzymes needed earlier in the GPI assembly line.

    The Gwada discovery highlights both the marvels and challenges of human genetic diversity. Blood groups evolved partly as protection against infectious diseases (many bacteria, viruses and parasites use blood group molecules as entry points into cells). This means your blood type can influence your susceptibility to certain diseases.

    But extreme rarity creates medical dilemmas. The French researchers acknowledge they cannot predict what would happen if Gwada-incompatible blood were transfused into the Guadeloupian woman. Even if other Gwada-negative people exist, they would be extremely difficult to locate. It is also unclear if they can become blood donors.

    This reality points towards a futuristic solution: lab-grown blood cells. Scientists are already working on growing red blood cells from stem cells that could be genetically modified to match ultra-rare blood types. In the case of Gwada, researchers could artificially create Gwada-negative red blood cells by mutating the PIGZ gene.

    Gwada is a colloquial term for Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island.
    Shutterstock.com

    A growing field

    Gwada joins 47 other blood group systems recognised by the International Society of Blood Transfusion. Like most of these blood-group systems, it was discovered in a hospital lab where technicians were trying to find compatible blood for a patient.

    The name reflects the case’s Caribbean roots: Gwada is slang for someone from Guadeloupe, giving this blood group both scientific relevance and cultural resonance.

    As genetic sequencing becomes more advanced and widely used, researchers expect to uncover more rare blood types. Each discovery expands our understanding of human variation and raises fresh challenges for transfusion and other types of personalised medicine.

    Martin L Olsson is a Wallenberg Clinical Scholar who receives research funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant no. 2020.0234). He holds other major grants from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant no. NNF22OC0077684) and the Swedish government funds to university healthcare for clinical research (ALF grant no. 2022.0287). He is also a member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    Jill Storry receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772). She is affiliated with, and the current senior Vice-President, of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, as well as a member of the society’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    – ref. Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth – https://theconversation.com/gwada-negative-the-rarest-blood-group-on-earth-260155

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • How a lottery-style refund system could boost recycling

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jiaying Zhao, Associate Professor, Psychology, University of British Columbia

    Imagine you’re standing at a bottle depot with an empty pop can. You can get a dime back, or you can take a chance at winning $1,000. Which would you choose?

    Every year, the world produces two trillion beverage containers but only 34 per cent of glass bottles, 40 per cent of plastic bottles and 70 per cent of aluminium cans are recycled.

    To increase recycling rates, many countries have adopted deposit refund systems, where you pay a small deposit, say 10 cents, when you buy an eligible beverage container and get this deposit back when you return it to a local depot.

    Through this system, approximately 80 per cent of containers in British Columbia and almost 85 per cent of containers in Alberta are recovered. Still, that leaves millions of containers as litter, in landfills or incinerated every year, contributing to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

    With Canada’s goal of zero plastic waste by 2030 drawing near, a new approach to recycling beverage containers could make a difference.

    We recently conducted a research experiment to find out if more people would recycle more often if they had a chance to win a prize.

    A lottery-style refund to boost recycling

    Psychology research shows that people tend to prefer a small chance to win a large reward over a guaranteed small reward. For example, people would more often prefer a small chance to win $5,000 over receiving a $5 reward.

    Applying this insight to recycling, we turned the small guaranteed refund of $0.10 in B.C. and Alberta into a 0.01 per cent chance of getting $1,000. We set up recycling tables at food courts in Vancouver and at a RibFest event in Spruce Grove, Alta.

    When people brought their beverage containers to us to recycle, we presented them with five options for a refund. They could get their guaranteed 10 cents, or a chance to win a larger amount of money, the highest option being $1,000.

    We found that people preferred the chance to win $1,000 over the other options, and they felt the happiest after making this choice.

    To see if the lottery option actually increased recycling, we conducted an experiment where we told people ahead of time that they would get their guaranteed 10-cent refund or that they had a chance to win $1,000 for each bottle they brought to our study.

    We found that people brought 47 per cent more beverage containers when we offered them a chance to win $1,000 than when we offered them the guaranteed refund.

    Overall, our findings suggest that offering a chance to win a larger amount of money can meaningfully boost beverage container recycling. The excitement of a potential big win can motivate people who may not be enticed by the typical small, guaranteed refund.

    Choice matters

    A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. People recycle for different reasons. They also have different risk tolerances, and some may rely on the guaranteed refund for additional income. To capture diverse preferences and needs, it’s vital that the lottery-style refund is offered in addition to the guaranteed refund, not instead of it.

    It would also be beneficial to include smaller, more frequent prizes alongside the grand prize, so people win relatively frequently to keep motivations high.

    This is Norway’s approach to their recycling lottery, with 39 per cent of people choosing the lottery option when they recycle. In 2023, Norway’s recycling lottery achieved a 92.3 per cent container return rate.

    Importantly, our research does not capture people who collect large bags of containers to return to the depot. It’s possible that this demographic may have different preferences for the refund, and future research should examine this group in particular.

    Green lottery for good

    The lottery-style refund has the same expected payout as the 10-cent refund per bottle. This means that, on average, people will take home the same amount of money as with the guaranteed option, without incurring additional losses or gains. This benevolent factor distinguishes the lottery-style refund from other types of lotteries or gambling that often profit off the players.

    Since the only way to enter this lottery-style refund is to recycle beverage containers, it’s impossible to directly re-enter any winnings into the lottery. There are also no near-misses, losses disguised as wins, exciting lights and sounds or other sensory stimulation often associated with gambling.

    Some might be apprehensive about potential gambling dangers of creating a lottery system. However, there has not been a single case linking the recycling lottery to gambling addiction. There is also no evidence that purchases of beverage containers would increase as a result of the lottery-style refund.

    Our study’s transparent design, with clear odds, ensures fairness, unlike casino games built to take players’ cash. For this approach to be successful, deposit refund systems must maintain this transparency in lottery-style program operations and payouts.

    If done right, offering a chance to win a higher amount of money for recycling can meaningfully increase recycling rates, contribute to a circular economy and allow people to choose the refund option that works best for them.

    The Conversation

    Jiaying Zhao receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    Jade Radke receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship and the University of British Columbia Indigenous Graduate Fellowship.

    – ref. How a lottery-style refund system could boost recycling – https://theconversation.com/how-a-lottery-style-refund-system-could-boost-recycling-259896

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: How a lottery-style refund system could boost recycling

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jiaying Zhao, Associate Professor, Psychology, University of British Columbia

    Imagine you’re standing at a bottle depot with an empty pop can. You can get a dime back, or you can take a chance at winning $1,000. Which would you choose?

    Every year, the world produces two trillion beverage containers but only 34 per cent of glass bottles, 40 per cent of plastic bottles and 70 per cent of aluminium cans are recycled.

    To increase recycling rates, many countries have adopted deposit refund systems, where you pay a small deposit, say 10 cents, when you buy an eligible beverage container and get this deposit back when you return it to a local depot.

    Through this system, approximately 80 per cent of containers in British Columbia and almost 85 per cent of containers in Alberta are recovered. Still, that leaves millions of containers as litter, in landfills or incinerated every year, contributing to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

    With Canada’s goal of zero plastic waste by 2030 drawing near, a new approach to recycling beverage containers could make a difference.

    We recently conducted a research experiment to find out if more people would recycle more often if they had a chance to win a prize.

    A lottery-style refund to boost recycling

    Psychology research shows that people tend to prefer a small chance to win a large reward over a guaranteed small reward. For example, people would more often prefer a small chance to win $5,000 over receiving a $5 reward.

    Applying this insight to recycling, we turned the small guaranteed refund of $0.10 in B.C. and Alberta into a 0.01 per cent chance of getting $1,000. We set up recycling tables at food courts in Vancouver and at a RibFest event in Spruce Grove, Alta.

    When people brought their beverage containers to us to recycle, we presented them with five options for a refund. They could get their guaranteed 10 cents, or a chance to win a larger amount of money, the highest option being $1,000.

    We found that people preferred the chance to win $1,000 over the other options, and they felt the happiest after making this choice.

    To see if the lottery option actually increased recycling, we conducted an experiment where we told people ahead of time that they would get their guaranteed 10-cent refund or that they had a chance to win $1,000 for each bottle they brought to our study.

    We found that people brought 47 per cent more beverage containers when we offered them a chance to win $1,000 than when we offered them the guaranteed refund.

    Overall, our findings suggest that offering a chance to win a larger amount of money can meaningfully boost beverage container recycling. The excitement of a potential big win can motivate people who may not be enticed by the typical small, guaranteed refund.

    Choice matters

    A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. People recycle for different reasons. They also have different risk tolerances, and some may rely on the guaranteed refund for additional income. To capture diverse preferences and needs, it’s vital that the lottery-style refund is offered in addition to the guaranteed refund, not instead of it.

    It would also be beneficial to include smaller, more frequent prizes alongside the grand prize, so people win relatively frequently to keep motivations high.

    This is Norway’s approach to their recycling lottery, with 39 per cent of people choosing the lottery option when they recycle. In 2023, Norway’s recycling lottery achieved a 92.3 per cent container return rate.

    Importantly, our research does not capture people who collect large bags of containers to return to the depot. It’s possible that this demographic may have different preferences for the refund, and future research should examine this group in particular.

    Green lottery for good

    The lottery-style refund has the same expected payout as the 10-cent refund per bottle. This means that, on average, people will take home the same amount of money as with the guaranteed option, without incurring additional losses or gains. This benevolent factor distinguishes the lottery-style refund from other types of lotteries or gambling that often profit off the players.

    Since the only way to enter this lottery-style refund is to recycle beverage containers, it’s impossible to directly re-enter any winnings into the lottery. There are also no near-misses, losses disguised as wins, exciting lights and sounds or other sensory stimulation often associated with gambling.

    Some might be apprehensive about potential gambling dangers of creating a lottery system. However, there has not been a single case linking the recycling lottery to gambling addiction. There is also no evidence that purchases of beverage containers would increase as a result of the lottery-style refund.

    Our study’s transparent design, with clear odds, ensures fairness, unlike casino games built to take players’ cash. For this approach to be successful, deposit refund systems must maintain this transparency in lottery-style program operations and payouts.

    If done right, offering a chance to win a higher amount of money for recycling can meaningfully increase recycling rates, contribute to a circular economy and allow people to choose the refund option that works best for them.

    Jiaying Zhao receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    Jade Radke receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship and the University of British Columbia Indigenous Graduate Fellowship.

    – ref. How a lottery-style refund system could boost recycling – https://theconversation.com/how-a-lottery-style-refund-system-could-boost-recycling-259896

    MIL OSI –

  • The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – France – By George Kassar, Full-time Faculty, Research Associate, Performance Analyst, Ascencia Business School

    If performance management is not implemented properly, it can demotivate and drive out employees. PeopleImages.comYuri A/Shutterstock

    Who said that an organization’s main resource and true competitive advantage lies in its employees, their talent or their motivation? After all, maybe your real goal is to empty out your offices, permanently discourage your staff and methodically sabotage your human capital.

    If that’s the case, research in performance management offers everything you need.

    Originally rooted in early 20th-century rationalization methods, performance management has become a cornerstone of modern management. It has evolved to adapt to contemporary HR needs, focusing more on employee development, engagement and strategic alignment. In theory, it should help guide team efforts, clarify expectations and support individual development. But if poorly implemented, it can become a powerful tool to demotivate, exhaust and push out your most valuable employees.

    Here’s how to scare off your best talent. Although the following guidelines are meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, they remain active in the daily work of some managers.

    Management by ‘vague’ objectives

    Start by setting vague, unrealistic or contradictory goals. Above all, avoid giving goals meaning, linking them to a clear strategy or backing them with appropriate resources. In short, embrace the “real” SMART goals: stressful, arbitrary, ambiguous, repetitive, and totally disconnected from the field!

    According to research in organizational psychology, this approach guarantees anxiety, confusion and disengagement among your teams, significantly increasing their intention to leave the company.

    Silence Is Golden

    Avoid all forms of dialogue and communication. Never give feedback. And if you absolutely must, do it rarely and irregularly, make sure it’s disconnected from actual work, and preferably in the form of personal criticism. The absence of regular, task-focused and actionable feedback leaves employees in uncertainty, catches them off-guard during evaluations and gradually undermines their engagement.

    How your employees interpret your intentions and feedback matters most. Be careful though: if feedback is perceived as constructive, it may actually boost motivation and learning engagement. But if the same feedback is seen as driven by a manager’s personal agenda (or, ego-based attribution), it backfires, leading to demotivation, withdrawal and exit.


    A weekly e-mail in English featuring expertise from scholars and researchers. It provides an introduction to the diversity of research coming out of the continent and considers some of the key issues facing European countries. Get the newsletter!

    Performance evaluation ‘trials’

    Hold annual performance review meetings in which you focus solely on mistakes and completely ignore successes or invisible efforts. Be rigid, critical and concentrate only on weaknesses. Make sure to take full credit when the team succeeds; after all, without you, nothing would have been possible. On the other hand, when results fall short, don’t hesitate to highlight errors, assign individual blame and remind them that “you did warn them!”

    This kind of performance evaluation, better described as a punitive trial, ensures deep demotivation and accelerates team turnover.

    Internal competition, maxed out

    Promote a culture of rivalry among colleagues: circulate internal rankings regularly, reward only the top performers, systematically eliminate the lowest ranked without even thinking of helping them improve, devalue the importance of cooperation and let internal competition do the rest. After all, these are the core features of the “famous” method popularized by the late Jack Welch at General Electric.

    If you notice a short-term boost of motivation, don’t worry. The long-term effects of Welch’s “vitality curve” will be far more harmful than beneficial. Fierce internal competition is a great tool for destroying trust among teammates and creating a persistently toxic atmosphere, leading to an increase in the number of voluntary departures.

    Ignore wellbeing and do not listen, no matter what

    We’ve already established that feedback and dialogue should be avoided. But if, by misfortune, they do occur, make sure not to listen to complaints or warning signs related to stress or exhaustion. Offer no support or assistance, and of course, completely ignore the right to disconnect.

    By neglecting mental health and refusing to help your employees find meaning in their work – especially when they perform tasks seen as meaningless, repetitive or emotionally draining – you directly increase the risk of burnout and chronic absenteeism.

    In addition, always favour highly variable and poorly designed performance bonuses: this will heighten income instability and kill off whatever engagement remains.



    À lire aussi :
    Meditation and mindfulness at work are welcome, but do they help avoid accountability for toxic culture?

    The subtle art of wearing people down

    Want to take your talent-repelling skills even further? Draw inspiration from what research identifies as practices and experiences belonging to the three major forms of workplace violence. These include micromanagement, constant pressure, lack of recognition, social isolation and others that generate long-term suffering. Though often invisible, their reoccurence gradually wears employees down mentally, then physically, until they finally break.

    Obviously, these tips are meant to be taken ironically.

    Yet, unfortunately, these toxic practices are all too real in the daily routines of certain managers. If the goal is truly to retain talent and ensure lasting business success, it is essential to centre performance management practices around meaning, fairness and the genuine development of human potential.

    The Conversation

    George Kassar ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee – https://theconversation.com/the-toxic-management-handbook-six-guaranteed-ways-to-make-your-best-employees-flee-260733

  • The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chris Houser, Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of Waterloo

    Between 2010 and 2017, there were approximately 50 drowning fatalities each year associated with rough surf and strong currents in the Great Lakes.

    In addition to the personal loss experienced by family and friends, these drownings create an annual economic burden on the regional economy of around US$105 million, and that doesn’t include the direct costs of search and rescue.

    Types of rip currents

    Rip currents — commonly referred to as rips or colloquially as rip tides — are driven by the breaking of waves. These currents extend away from the shoreline and can flow at speeds easily capable of carrying swimmers far from the beach.

    Structural rips are common throughout the Great Lakes (Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, for example) and develop when groynes, jetties and rock structures deflect the alongshore current offshore, beyond the breaking waves. Depending on the waves and the structure, a shadow rip can also develop on the other side of the groyne or jetty.

    Rips can also develop anywhere that variations in the bathymetry (the topography of the sand underwater) — such as nearshore bars — causes wave-breaking to vary along the beach, which makes the water thrown landward by the breaking waves return offshore as a concentrated flow at the water’s surface. These are known as channel or bathymetric rips and are they can form along sand beaches in the Great Lakes.

    While it can be difficult to spot a channel rip, they can be identified by an area of relatively calm water between breaking waves, a patch of darker water or the offshore flow of water, sediment and debris.

    A person caught in a rip is transported away from shore into deeper water, but they are not pulled under the water. If they are a weak swimmer or try to fight the current, they may panic and fail to find a way out of the rip and back to shore before submerging.

    Rip current hazards

    Most rip fatalities occur on unsupervised beaches or on supervised beaches when and where lifeguards are not present. While many popular beaches near large urban centres have lifeguards, many beaches don’t. Along just the east coast of Lake Huron, there are more than 40 public beaches, including Goderich, Bayfield, Southampton and Sauble Beach, but only two have lifeguard programs (Sarnia and Grand Bend).

    Simple warning signs are used on many beaches, but visitors either don’t pay attention or don’t know how to interpret the warning.

    Non-local visitors are a high-risk group for drownings. They are less likely to make safe swimming choices than residents or regular beach-goers, because visitors are generally unfamiliar with the beach and its safety measures, have poor knowledge of beach hazards like rip currents and breaking waves and are overconfident in their swimming ability.

    Recent findings from a popular beach on Lake Huron suggest that those with less experience at the beach tend to make decisions of convenience rather than based on beach safety. Residents with greater knowledge of the local hazards tend to avoid swimming near where the rip can develop.

    But even when people are aware of rip currents and other beach hazards, they may not make the right decisions. Despite the presence of warnings, people’s actions are greatly influenced by the behaviour of others, peer pressure and group-think. The social cost of not entering the water with the group may appear to outweigh the risk posed by entering the water.

    Rip channel and current on Lake Huron. (Chris Houser)

    The behaviour of beach users is affected by confirmation bias, a cognitive shortcut where a person selectively pays attention to evidence confirming their pre-existing beliefs and ignores evidence to the contrary. When someone enters the water and does not encounter strong waves or currents, they’re more likely to engage in risky behaviour on their next visit to that beach or a similar beach.

    Vacationers and day visitors can stay safe only if they are aware that there is the potential for rip currents and rough surf at beaches in the Great Lakes. Just because a beach is accessible and has numerous attractions does not mean it is safe.

    Advocating for beach safety

    In the United States, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration runs programs designed to educate beach users about surf and rip hazards. But Canada hasn’t implemented a national beach safety strategy.

    Education about rips and dangerous surf falls on the shoulders of advocates, many of whom have been impacted by a drowning in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project has been tracking and educating school and community groups about rip currents and rough surf in the Great Lakes since 2010.

    Several new advocacy groups have started in recent years, including Kincardine Beach Safety on Lake Huron and the Rip Current Information Project on Lake Erie. Given that there is limited public interest in surf-related drownings and limited media coverage, these advocacy groups are helping to increase awareness of rip currents and rough surf across the Great Lakes.

    To ensure a safe trip to the beach, beachgoers should seek out more information about rip currents and other surf hazards in the Great Lakes.

    The Conversation

    Chris Houser receives funding from NSERC.

    – ref. The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning – https://theconversation.com/the-great-lakes-are-powerful-learning-about-rip-currents-can-help-prevent-drowning-260060

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee

    Source: The Conversation – France – By George Kassar, Full-time Faculty, Research Associate, Performance Analyst, Ascencia Business School

    If performance management is not implemented properly, it can demotivate and drive out employees. PeopleImages.comYuri A/Shutterstock

    Who said that an organization’s main resource and true competitive advantage lies in its employees, their talent or their motivation? After all, maybe your real goal is to empty out your offices, permanently discourage your staff and methodically sabotage your human capital.

    If that’s the case, research in performance management offers everything you need.

    Originally rooted in early 20th-century rationalization methods, performance management has become a cornerstone of modern management. It has evolved to adapt to contemporary HR needs, focusing more on employee development, engagement and strategic alignment. In theory, it should help guide team efforts, clarify expectations and support individual development. But if poorly implemented, it can become a powerful tool to demotivate, exhaust and push out your most valuable employees.

    Here’s how to scare off your best talent. Although the following guidelines are meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, they remain active in the daily work of some managers.

    Management by ‘vague’ objectives

    Start by setting vague, unrealistic or contradictory goals. Above all, avoid giving goals meaning, linking them to a clear strategy or backing them with appropriate resources. In short, embrace the “real” SMART goals: stressful, arbitrary, ambiguous, repetitive, and totally disconnected from the field!

    According to research in organizational psychology, this approach guarantees anxiety, confusion and disengagement among your teams, significantly increasing their intention to leave the company.

    Silence Is Golden

    Avoid all forms of dialogue and communication. Never give feedback. And if you absolutely must, do it rarely and irregularly, make sure it’s disconnected from actual work, and preferably in the form of personal criticism. The absence of regular, task-focused and actionable feedback leaves employees in uncertainty, catches them off-guard during evaluations and gradually undermines their engagement.

    How your employees interpret your intentions and feedback matters most. Be careful though: if feedback is perceived as constructive, it may actually boost motivation and learning engagement. But if the same feedback is seen as driven by a manager’s personal agenda (or, ego-based attribution), it backfires, leading to demotivation, withdrawal and exit.


    A weekly e-mail in English featuring expertise from scholars and researchers. It provides an introduction to the diversity of research coming out of the continent and considers some of the key issues facing European countries. Get the newsletter!

    Performance evaluation ‘trials’

    Hold annual performance review meetings in which you focus solely on mistakes and completely ignore successes or invisible efforts. Be rigid, critical and concentrate only on weaknesses. Make sure to take full credit when the team succeeds; after all, without you, nothing would have been possible. On the other hand, when results fall short, don’t hesitate to highlight errors, assign individual blame and remind them that “you did warn them!”

    This kind of performance evaluation, better described as a punitive trial, ensures deep demotivation and accelerates team turnover.

    Internal competition, maxed out

    Promote a culture of rivalry among colleagues: circulate internal rankings regularly, reward only the top performers, systematically eliminate the lowest ranked without even thinking of helping them improve, devalue the importance of cooperation and let internal competition do the rest. After all, these are the core features of the “famous” method popularized by the late Jack Welch at General Electric.

    If you notice a short-term boost of motivation, don’t worry. The long-term effects of Welch’s “vitality curve” will be far more harmful than beneficial. Fierce internal competition is a great tool for destroying trust among teammates and creating a persistently toxic atmosphere, leading to an increase in the number of voluntary departures.

    Ignore wellbeing and do not listen, no matter what

    We’ve already established that feedback and dialogue should be avoided. But if, by misfortune, they do occur, make sure not to listen to complaints or warning signs related to stress or exhaustion. Offer no support or assistance, and of course, completely ignore the right to disconnect.

    By neglecting mental health and refusing to help your employees find meaning in their work – especially when they perform tasks seen as meaningless, repetitive or emotionally draining – you directly increase the risk of burnout and chronic absenteeism.

    In addition, always favour highly variable and poorly designed performance bonuses: this will heighten income instability and kill off whatever engagement remains.



    À lire aussi :
    Meditation and mindfulness at work are welcome, but do they help avoid accountability for toxic culture?

    The subtle art of wearing people down

    Want to take your talent-repelling skills even further? Draw inspiration from what research identifies as practices and experiences belonging to the three major forms of workplace violence. These include micromanagement, constant pressure, lack of recognition, social isolation and others that generate long-term suffering. Though often invisible, their reoccurence gradually wears employees down mentally, then physically, until they finally break.

    Obviously, these tips are meant to be taken ironically.

    Yet, unfortunately, these toxic practices are all too real in the daily routines of certain managers. If the goal is truly to retain talent and ensure lasting business success, it is essential to centre performance management practices around meaning, fairness and the genuine development of human potential.

    George Kassar ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee – https://theconversation.com/the-toxic-management-handbook-six-guaranteed-ways-to-make-your-best-employees-flee-260733

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee

    Source: The Conversation – France – By George Kassar, Full-time Faculty, Research Associate, Performance Analyst, Ascencia Business School

    If performance management is not implemented properly, it can demotivate and drive out employees. PeopleImages.comYuri A/Shutterstock

    Who said that an organization’s main resource and true competitive advantage lies in its employees, their talent or their motivation? After all, maybe your real goal is to empty out your offices, permanently discourage your staff and methodically sabotage your human capital.

    If that’s the case, research in performance management offers everything you need.

    Originally rooted in early 20th-century rationalization methods, performance management has become a cornerstone of modern management. It has evolved to adapt to contemporary HR needs, focusing more on employee development, engagement and strategic alignment. In theory, it should help guide team efforts, clarify expectations and support individual development. But if poorly implemented, it can become a powerful tool to demotivate, exhaust and push out your most valuable employees.

    Here’s how to scare off your best talent. Although the following guidelines are meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, they remain active in the daily work of some managers.

    Management by ‘vague’ objectives

    Start by setting vague, unrealistic or contradictory goals. Above all, avoid giving goals meaning, linking them to a clear strategy or backing them with appropriate resources. In short, embrace the “real” SMART goals: stressful, arbitrary, ambiguous, repetitive, and totally disconnected from the field!

    According to research in organizational psychology, this approach guarantees anxiety, confusion and disengagement among your teams, significantly increasing their intention to leave the company.

    Silence Is Golden

    Avoid all forms of dialogue and communication. Never give feedback. And if you absolutely must, do it rarely and irregularly, make sure it’s disconnected from actual work, and preferably in the form of personal criticism. The absence of regular, task-focused and actionable feedback leaves employees in uncertainty, catches them off-guard during evaluations and gradually undermines their engagement.

    How your employees interpret your intentions and feedback matters most. Be careful though: if feedback is perceived as constructive, it may actually boost motivation and learning engagement. But if the same feedback is seen as driven by a manager’s personal agenda (or, ego-based attribution), it backfires, leading to demotivation, withdrawal and exit.


    A weekly e-mail in English featuring expertise from scholars and researchers. It provides an introduction to the diversity of research coming out of the continent and considers some of the key issues facing European countries. Get the newsletter!

    Performance evaluation ‘trials’

    Hold annual performance review meetings in which you focus solely on mistakes and completely ignore successes or invisible efforts. Be rigid, critical and concentrate only on weaknesses. Make sure to take full credit when the team succeeds; after all, without you, nothing would have been possible. On the other hand, when results fall short, don’t hesitate to highlight errors, assign individual blame and remind them that “you did warn them!”

    This kind of performance evaluation, better described as a punitive trial, ensures deep demotivation and accelerates team turnover.

    Internal competition, maxed out

    Promote a culture of rivalry among colleagues: circulate internal rankings regularly, reward only the top performers, systematically eliminate the lowest ranked without even thinking of helping them improve, devalue the importance of cooperation and let internal competition do the rest. After all, these are the core features of the “famous” method popularized by the late Jack Welch at General Electric.

    If you notice a short-term boost of motivation, don’t worry. The long-term effects of Welch’s “vitality curve” will be far more harmful than beneficial. Fierce internal competition is a great tool for destroying trust among teammates and creating a persistently toxic atmosphere, leading to an increase in the number of voluntary departures.

    Ignore wellbeing and do not listen, no matter what

    We’ve already established that feedback and dialogue should be avoided. But if, by misfortune, they do occur, make sure not to listen to complaints or warning signs related to stress or exhaustion. Offer no support or assistance, and of course, completely ignore the right to disconnect.

    By neglecting mental health and refusing to help your employees find meaning in their work – especially when they perform tasks seen as meaningless, repetitive or emotionally draining – you directly increase the risk of burnout and chronic absenteeism.

    In addition, always favour highly variable and poorly designed performance bonuses: this will heighten income instability and kill off whatever engagement remains.



    À lire aussi :
    Meditation and mindfulness at work are welcome, but do they help avoid accountability for toxic culture?

    The subtle art of wearing people down

    Want to take your talent-repelling skills even further? Draw inspiration from what research identifies as practices and experiences belonging to the three major forms of workplace violence. These include micromanagement, constant pressure, lack of recognition, social isolation and others that generate long-term suffering. Though often invisible, their reoccurence gradually wears employees down mentally, then physically, until they finally break.

    Obviously, these tips are meant to be taken ironically.

    Yet, unfortunately, these toxic practices are all too real in the daily routines of certain managers. If the goal is truly to retain talent and ensure lasting business success, it is essential to centre performance management practices around meaning, fairness and the genuine development of human potential.

    George Kassar ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee – https://theconversation.com/the-toxic-management-handbook-six-guaranteed-ways-to-make-your-best-employees-flee-260733

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chris Houser, Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of Waterloo

    Between 2010 and 2017, there were approximately 50 drowning fatalities each year associated with rough surf and strong currents in the Great Lakes.

    In addition to the personal loss experienced by family and friends, these drownings create an annual economic burden on the regional economy of around US$105 million, and that doesn’t include the direct costs of search and rescue.

    Types of rip currents

    Rip currents — commonly referred to as rips or colloquially as rip tides — are driven by the breaking of waves. These currents extend away from the shoreline and can flow at speeds easily capable of carrying swimmers far from the beach.

    Structural rips are common throughout the Great Lakes (Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, for example) and develop when groynes, jetties and rock structures deflect the alongshore current offshore, beyond the breaking waves. Depending on the waves and the structure, a shadow rip can also develop on the other side of the groyne or jetty.

    Rips can also develop anywhere that variations in the bathymetry (the topography of the sand underwater) — such as nearshore bars — causes wave-breaking to vary along the beach, which makes the water thrown landward by the breaking waves return offshore as a concentrated flow at the water’s surface. These are known as channel or bathymetric rips and are they can form along sand beaches in the Great Lakes.

    While it can be difficult to spot a channel rip, they can be identified by an area of relatively calm water between breaking waves, a patch of darker water or the offshore flow of water, sediment and debris.

    A person caught in a rip is transported away from shore into deeper water, but they are not pulled under the water. If they are a weak swimmer or try to fight the current, they may panic and fail to find a way out of the rip and back to shore before submerging.

    Rip current hazards

    Most rip fatalities occur on unsupervised beaches or on supervised beaches when and where lifeguards are not present. While many popular beaches near large urban centres have lifeguards, many beaches don’t. Along just the east coast of Lake Huron, there are more than 40 public beaches, including Goderich, Bayfield, Southampton and Sauble Beach, but only two have lifeguard programs (Sarnia and Grand Bend).

    Simple warning signs are used on many beaches, but visitors either don’t pay attention or don’t know how to interpret the warning.

    Non-local visitors are a high-risk group for drownings. They are less likely to make safe swimming choices than residents or regular beach-goers, because visitors are generally unfamiliar with the beach and its safety measures, have poor knowledge of beach hazards like rip currents and breaking waves and are overconfident in their swimming ability.

    Recent findings from a popular beach on Lake Huron suggest that those with less experience at the beach tend to make decisions of convenience rather than based on beach safety. Residents with greater knowledge of the local hazards tend to avoid swimming near where the rip can develop.

    But even when people are aware of rip currents and other beach hazards, they may not make the right decisions. Despite the presence of warnings, people’s actions are greatly influenced by the behaviour of others, peer pressure and group-think. The social cost of not entering the water with the group may appear to outweigh the risk posed by entering the water.

    Rip channel and current on Lake Huron. (Chris Houser)

    The behaviour of beach users is affected by confirmation bias, a cognitive shortcut where a person selectively pays attention to evidence confirming their pre-existing beliefs and ignores evidence to the contrary. When someone enters the water and does not encounter strong waves or currents, they’re more likely to engage in risky behaviour on their next visit to that beach or a similar beach.

    Vacationers and day visitors can stay safe only if they are aware that there is the potential for rip currents and rough surf at beaches in the Great Lakes. Just because a beach is accessible and has numerous attractions does not mean it is safe.

    Advocating for beach safety

    In the United States, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration runs programs designed to educate beach users about surf and rip hazards. But Canada hasn’t implemented a national beach safety strategy.

    Education about rips and dangerous surf falls on the shoulders of advocates, many of whom have been impacted by a drowning in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project has been tracking and educating school and community groups about rip currents and rough surf in the Great Lakes since 2010.

    Several new advocacy groups have started in recent years, including Kincardine Beach Safety on Lake Huron and the Rip Current Information Project on Lake Erie. Given that there is limited public interest in surf-related drownings and limited media coverage, these advocacy groups are helping to increase awareness of rip currents and rough surf across the Great Lakes.

    To ensure a safe trip to the beach, beachgoers should seek out more information about rip currents and other surf hazards in the Great Lakes.

    Chris Houser receives funding from NSERC.

    – ref. The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning – https://theconversation.com/the-great-lakes-are-powerful-learning-about-rip-currents-can-help-prevent-drowning-260060

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chris Houser, Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of Waterloo

    Between 2010 and 2017, there were approximately 50 drowning fatalities each year associated with rough surf and strong currents in the Great Lakes.

    In addition to the personal loss experienced by family and friends, these drownings create an annual economic burden on the regional economy of around US$105 million, and that doesn’t include the direct costs of search and rescue.

    Types of rip currents

    Rip currents — commonly referred to as rips or colloquially as rip tides — are driven by the breaking of waves. These currents extend away from the shoreline and can flow at speeds easily capable of carrying swimmers far from the beach.

    Structural rips are common throughout the Great Lakes (Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, for example) and develop when groynes, jetties and rock structures deflect the alongshore current offshore, beyond the breaking waves. Depending on the waves and the structure, a shadow rip can also develop on the other side of the groyne or jetty.

    Rips can also develop anywhere that variations in the bathymetry (the topography of the sand underwater) — such as nearshore bars — causes wave-breaking to vary along the beach, which makes the water thrown landward by the breaking waves return offshore as a concentrated flow at the water’s surface. These are known as channel or bathymetric rips and are they can form along sand beaches in the Great Lakes.

    While it can be difficult to spot a channel rip, they can be identified by an area of relatively calm water between breaking waves, a patch of darker water or the offshore flow of water, sediment and debris.

    A person caught in a rip is transported away from shore into deeper water, but they are not pulled under the water. If they are a weak swimmer or try to fight the current, they may panic and fail to find a way out of the rip and back to shore before submerging.

    Rip current hazards

    Most rip fatalities occur on unsupervised beaches or on supervised beaches when and where lifeguards are not present. While many popular beaches near large urban centres have lifeguards, many beaches don’t. Along just the east coast of Lake Huron, there are more than 40 public beaches, including Goderich, Bayfield, Southampton and Sauble Beach, but only two have lifeguard programs (Sarnia and Grand Bend).

    Simple warning signs are used on many beaches, but visitors either don’t pay attention or don’t know how to interpret the warning.

    Non-local visitors are a high-risk group for drownings. They are less likely to make safe swimming choices than residents or regular beach-goers, because visitors are generally unfamiliar with the beach and its safety measures, have poor knowledge of beach hazards like rip currents and breaking waves and are overconfident in their swimming ability.

    Recent findings from a popular beach on Lake Huron suggest that those with less experience at the beach tend to make decisions of convenience rather than based on beach safety. Residents with greater knowledge of the local hazards tend to avoid swimming near where the rip can develop.

    But even when people are aware of rip currents and other beach hazards, they may not make the right decisions. Despite the presence of warnings, people’s actions are greatly influenced by the behaviour of others, peer pressure and group-think. The social cost of not entering the water with the group may appear to outweigh the risk posed by entering the water.

    Rip channel and current on Lake Huron. (Chris Houser)

    The behaviour of beach users is affected by confirmation bias, a cognitive shortcut where a person selectively pays attention to evidence confirming their pre-existing beliefs and ignores evidence to the contrary. When someone enters the water and does not encounter strong waves or currents, they’re more likely to engage in risky behaviour on their next visit to that beach or a similar beach.

    Vacationers and day visitors can stay safe only if they are aware that there is the potential for rip currents and rough surf at beaches in the Great Lakes. Just because a beach is accessible and has numerous attractions does not mean it is safe.

    Advocating for beach safety

    In the United States, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration runs programs designed to educate beach users about surf and rip hazards. But Canada hasn’t implemented a national beach safety strategy.

    Education about rips and dangerous surf falls on the shoulders of advocates, many of whom have been impacted by a drowning in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project has been tracking and educating school and community groups about rip currents and rough surf in the Great Lakes since 2010.

    Several new advocacy groups have started in recent years, including Kincardine Beach Safety on Lake Huron and the Rip Current Information Project on Lake Erie. Given that there is limited public interest in surf-related drownings and limited media coverage, these advocacy groups are helping to increase awareness of rip currents and rough surf across the Great Lakes.

    To ensure a safe trip to the beach, beachgoers should seek out more information about rip currents and other surf hazards in the Great Lakes.

    Chris Houser receives funding from NSERC.

    – ref. The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning – https://theconversation.com/the-great-lakes-are-powerful-learning-about-rip-currents-can-help-prevent-drowning-260060

    MIL OSI –

  • Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Horowitz, Visiting Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry, UCL

    marevgenna/Shutterstock.com

    A new review of antidepressant withdrawal effects – written by academics, many of whom have close ties to drug manufacturers – risks underestimating the potential harms to long-term antidepressant users by focusing on short-term, industry-funded studies.

    There is growing recognition that stopping antidepressants – especially after long-term use – can cause severe and sometimes debilitating withdrawal symptoms, and it is now acknowledged by the UK government as a public health issue.

    One of the main reasons this issue took decades to recognise after the release of modern antidepressants onto the market is because medical guidelines, such as those produced by Nice (England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), had for many years declared withdrawal effects to be “brief and mild”.

    This description was based on studies run by drug companies, where people had only taken the medication for eight to 12 weeks. As a result, when patients later showed up with severe, long-lasting symptoms, many doctors didn’t take them seriously because these experiences contradicted what the guidelines led them to expect.

    Our recent research helps explain this mismatch. We found a clear link between how long someone takes antidepressants and how likely they are to experience withdrawal symptoms – and how severe these symptoms are.

    We surveyed NHS patients and found that people who had used antidepressants for more than two years were ten times more likely to have withdrawal effects, five times more likely for those effects to be severe, and 18 times more likely for them to be long lasting compared with those who had taken the drugs for six months or less.

    For patients who used antidepressants for less than six months, withdrawal symptoms were mostly mild and brief. Three-quarters reported no or mild symptoms, most of which lasted less than four weeks.

    Only one in four of these patients was unable to stop when they wanted to. However, for long-term users (more than two years), two-thirds reported moderate or severe withdrawal effects, with one-quarter reporting severe withdrawal effects. Almost one-third of long-term users reported symptoms that lasted for more than three months. Four-fifths of these patients were unable to stop their antidepressants despite trying.

    About 2 million people on antidepressants in England have been taking them for over five years, according to a BBC investigation. And in the US at least 25 million people have taken antidepressants for more than five years. What happens to people in eight-to-12-week studies is a far cry from what happens to millions of people when they stop.

    Studying what happens to people after just eight to 12 weeks on antidepressants is like testing car safety by crashing a vehicle into a wall at 5km/h – ignoring the fact that real drivers are out on the roads doing 60km/h.

    History repeating itself?

    Against this backdrop, a review has just been published in Jama Psychiatry. Several of the senior authors declare payments from drug companies. In what looks like history repeating itself, the review draws on short-term trials – many funded by the pharmaceutical industry – that were similar to those used to shape early treatment guidelines. The authors conclude that antidepressants do not cause significant withdrawal effects.

    Their main analysis is based on eleven trials that compared withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants with those who had continued them or stopped taking a placebo. Six of these trials had people on antidepressants for eight weeks, four for 12 weeks and just one for 26 weeks.

    They reported a slightly higher number of withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants, which they say does not constitute a “clinically significant” withdrawal syndrome. They also suggest the symptoms could be explained by the “nocebo effect” – where negative expectations cause people to feel worse.

    In our view, the results are likely to greatly underestimate the risk of withdrawal for the millions of people on these drugs for years. The review found no relationship between the duration of use of antidepressants and withdrawal symptoms, but there were too few long-term studies to test this association properly.

    The review probably underestimates, in our view, short-term withdrawal effects too by assuming that the fact that people experience withdrawal-like symptoms when stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant cancels out withdrawal effects from antidepressants. But this is not a valid assumption.

    We know that antidepressant withdrawal effects overlap with side-effects and with everyday symptoms, but this does not mean they are the same thing. People stopping a placebo report symptoms such as dizziness and headache, because these are common occurrences. However, as was shown in another recent review, symptoms following discontinuation of a placebo tend to be milder than those experienced when stopping antidepressants, which can be intense enough to require emergency care.

    So deducting the rate of symptoms after stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant from antidepressant withdrawal symptoms is likely to underestimate the true extent of withdrawal.

    The review also doesn’t include several well-designed drug company studies that found high rates of withdrawal symptoms. For example, an American study found that more than 60% of people who stopped antidepressants (after eleven months) experienced withdrawal symptoms.

    The authors suggest that depression after stopping antidepressants is probably a return of the original condition, not withdrawal symptoms, because similar rates of depression were seen in people who stopped taking a placebo. But this conclusion is based on limited and unreliable data (that is, relying on participants in studies to report such events without prompting, rather than assessing them systematically) from just five studies.

    We hope uncritical reporting of a review based on the sort of short-term studies that led to under-recognition of withdrawal effects in the first place, does not disrupt the growing acceptance of the problem and slow efforts by the health system to help potentially millions of people who may be severely affected.

    The authors and publisher of the new review have been approached for comment.

    The Conversation

    Mark Horowitz is the author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines which outlines how to safely stop antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and z-drugs, for which he receives royalties. He is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. He is co-founder and consultant to Outro Health, a digital clinic which helps people to safely stop no longer needed antidepressants in the US. He is a member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    Joanna Moncrieff was a co-applicant on a study of antidepressant discontinuation funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research. She is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. She receives modest royalties for books about psychiatric drugs. She is co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    – ref. Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use – https://theconversation.com/antidepressant-withdrawal-new-review-downplays-symptoms-but-misses-the-mark-for-long-term-use-260708

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

    Lake Fundudzi By Iris Auda – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY

    Nature isn’t confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2018 on the idea of “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). These are geographically defined areas which can be managed in ways that protect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and “where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.” Geographer Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule has explored the potential for sacred natural sites in South Africa to contribute to nature conservation.

    Why does South Africa need to protect more land?

    In South Africa, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient. A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11,280,684 hectares) of the country’s total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

    My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

    Recognising sacred natural sites as “other effective area-based conservation measures” entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

    There are also other sites with conservation potential. These could be on public, private or community land. This means they are governed by a variety of rights holders. Apart from sacred natural sites, other examples include military land and waters, and locally managed marine areas.

    Whatever their other, primary purpose, they can also deliver conservation of biodiversity.

    Where are South Africa’s sacred natural sites?

    There are areas in South Africa known as sacred sites because of their cultural, spiritual, or historical value, often linked to ancestral beings, religion and traditional beliefs.

    They are often places of reverence, where rituals, ceremonies, burials, or pilgrimage are conducted, and where the custodians of the areas feel a deep connection to something larger than themselves.



    Read more:
    Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

    Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province, in the north of the country:

    In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities.

    In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites:

    How do the sites fit in with protecting diversity?

    The study aimed to assess opinions and perceptions about the opportunities and challenges of sacred natural sites in contributing to global conservation goals.

    I interviewed academics involved in research on Indigenous knowledge, people involved in discussions about conservation, and custodians of sacred natural sites – 39 people in all.

    Study participants identified a number of opportunities. They said:

    • Sacred natural sites frequently harbour high levels of biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, because they have been protected for a long time through cultural practices. Giving them more legal protection and funding, and integrating them into national conservation strategies, would protect hotspots of biological diversity.

    • Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and practices into mainstream conservation efforts would promote more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental management.

    • It would expand the total land area under conservation.

    • It might create conservation corridors that would facilitate movement of animals and ecological processes between isolated habitat patches.

    • Sacred natural sites could serve as carbon sinks or storehouses of carbon emissions. Sacred forests have old, tall trees and well developed canopy – the layer of foliage that forms the crown of a forest.

    • They can serve as tourist destinations where visitors will learn about biodiversity and about religious and cultural practices.



    Read more:
    ‘Sacred forests’ in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy

    The study participants also identified challenges.

    • A big one was access rights and harmonising cultural and formal conservation practices. Access to sacred natural sites and the use of resources by the public is usually not permitted.

    • There was a fear that external intervention by government, nongovernmental organisations and conservationists might sideline local people and lead to the loss of their sacred sites.

    • External interventions might promote scientific knowledge at the expense of the traditional ecological knowledge that has protected sacred natural sites for millennia.

    • Respondents were concerned about elites capturing all the benefits and not sharing them equitably.

    • A methodological challenge might be how to study conservation effectiveness while respecting cultural sensitivities.

    How would a sacred natural site be officially recognised?

    At the moment, sacred natural sites are not designated or recognised as an “other conservation measure”. Currently, there are no standard procedures, criteria, or guidelines available for declaring them as such in South Africa. These would have to be determined by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

    The process should begin with identifying all sacred natural sites to understand where they are and what contribution they could make towards biodiversity conservation. The department should do this in consultation with local communities and traditional leaders who understand the local environment. It should be in line with the international principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This acknowledges the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands.



    Read more:
    South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases

    This will set up sacred natural sites as a conservation model that contributes to both biodiversity protection and cultural heritage preservation. The involvement of communities will ensure that sacred natural sites are a sustainable solution.

    All the respondents in my study said that designating a site as an “other conservation measure” should give control or legal protection, ownership and stewardship roles to local communities who have protected the area for ages.

    Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/sacred-sites-in-south-africa-can-protect-natural-heritage-and-culture-heres-how-260207

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

    Lake Fundudzi By Iris Auda – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY

    Nature isn’t confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2018 on the idea of “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). These are geographically defined areas which can be managed in ways that protect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and “where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.” Geographer Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule has explored the potential for sacred natural sites in South Africa to contribute to nature conservation.

    Why does South Africa need to protect more land?

    In South Africa, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient. A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11,280,684 hectares) of the country’s total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

    My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

    Recognising sacred natural sites as “other effective area-based conservation measures” entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

    There are also other sites with conservation potential. These could be on public, private or community land. This means they are governed by a variety of rights holders. Apart from sacred natural sites, other examples include military land and waters, and locally managed marine areas.

    Whatever their other, primary purpose, they can also deliver conservation of biodiversity.

    Where are South Africa’s sacred natural sites?

    There are areas in South Africa known as sacred sites because of their cultural, spiritual, or historical value, often linked to ancestral beings, religion and traditional beliefs.

    They are often places of reverence, where rituals, ceremonies, burials, or pilgrimage are conducted, and where the custodians of the areas feel a deep connection to something larger than themselves.



    Read more:
    Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

    Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province, in the north of the country:

    In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities.

    In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites:

    How do the sites fit in with protecting diversity?

    The study aimed to assess opinions and perceptions about the opportunities and challenges of sacred natural sites in contributing to global conservation goals.

    I interviewed academics involved in research on Indigenous knowledge, people involved in discussions about conservation, and custodians of sacred natural sites – 39 people in all.

    Study participants identified a number of opportunities. They said:

    • Sacred natural sites frequently harbour high levels of biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, because they have been protected for a long time through cultural practices. Giving them more legal protection and funding, and integrating them into national conservation strategies, would protect hotspots of biological diversity.

    • Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and practices into mainstream conservation efforts would promote more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental management.

    • It would expand the total land area under conservation.

    • It might create conservation corridors that would facilitate movement of animals and ecological processes between isolated habitat patches.

    • Sacred natural sites could serve as carbon sinks or storehouses of carbon emissions. Sacred forests have old, tall trees and well developed canopy – the layer of foliage that forms the crown of a forest.

    • They can serve as tourist destinations where visitors will learn about biodiversity and about religious and cultural practices.



    Read more:
    ‘Sacred forests’ in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy

    The study participants also identified challenges.

    • A big one was access rights and harmonising cultural and formal conservation practices. Access to sacred natural sites and the use of resources by the public is usually not permitted.

    • There was a fear that external intervention by government, nongovernmental organisations and conservationists might sideline local people and lead to the loss of their sacred sites.

    • External interventions might promote scientific knowledge at the expense of the traditional ecological knowledge that has protected sacred natural sites for millennia.

    • Respondents were concerned about elites capturing all the benefits and not sharing them equitably.

    • A methodological challenge might be how to study conservation effectiveness while respecting cultural sensitivities.

    How would a sacred natural site be officially recognised?

    At the moment, sacred natural sites are not designated or recognised as an “other conservation measure”. Currently, there are no standard procedures, criteria, or guidelines available for declaring them as such in South Africa. These would have to be determined by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

    The process should begin with identifying all sacred natural sites to understand where they are and what contribution they could make towards biodiversity conservation. The department should do this in consultation with local communities and traditional leaders who understand the local environment. It should be in line with the international principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This acknowledges the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands.



    Read more:
    South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases

    This will set up sacred natural sites as a conservation model that contributes to both biodiversity protection and cultural heritage preservation. The involvement of communities will ensure that sacred natural sites are a sustainable solution.

    All the respondents in my study said that designating a site as an “other conservation measure” should give control or legal protection, ownership and stewardship roles to local communities who have protected the area for ages.

    Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/sacred-sites-in-south-africa-can-protect-natural-heritage-and-culture-heres-how-260207

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Horowitz, Visiting Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry, UCL

    marevgenna/Shutterstock.com

    A new review of antidepressant withdrawal effects – written by academics, many of whom have close ties to drug manufacturers – risks underestimating the potential harms to long-term antidepressant users by focusing on short-term, industry-funded studies.

    There is growing recognition that stopping antidepressants – especially after long-term use – can cause severe and sometimes debilitating withdrawal symptoms, and it is now acknowledged by the UK government as a public health issue.

    One of the main reasons this issue took decades to recognise after the release of modern antidepressants onto the market is because medical guidelines, such as those produced by Nice (England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), had for many years declared withdrawal effects to be “brief and mild”.

    This description was based on studies run by drug companies, where people had only taken the medication for eight to 12 weeks. As a result, when patients later showed up with severe, long-lasting symptoms, many doctors didn’t take them seriously because these experiences contradicted what the guidelines led them to expect.

    Our recent research helps explain this mismatch. We found a clear link between how long someone takes antidepressants and how likely they are to experience withdrawal symptoms – and how severe these symptoms are.

    We surveyed NHS patients and found that people who had used antidepressants for more than two years were ten times more likely to have withdrawal effects, five times more likely for those effects to be severe, and 18 times more likely for them to be long lasting compared with those who had taken the drugs for six months or less.

    For patients who used antidepressants for less than six months, withdrawal symptoms were mostly mild and brief. Three-quarters reported no or mild symptoms, most of which lasted less than four weeks.

    Only one in four of these patients was unable to stop when they wanted to. However, for long-term users (more than two years), two-thirds reported moderate or severe withdrawal effects, with one-quarter reporting severe withdrawal effects. Almost one-third of long-term users reported symptoms that lasted for more than three months. Four-fifths of these patients were unable to stop their antidepressants despite trying.

    About 2 million people on antidepressants in England have been taking them for over five years, according to a BBC investigation. And in the US at least 25 million people have taken antidepressants for more than five years. What happens to people in eight-to-12-week studies is a far cry from what happens to millions of people when they stop.

    Studying what happens to people after just eight to 12 weeks on antidepressants is like testing car safety by crashing a vehicle into a wall at 5km/h – ignoring the fact that real drivers are out on the roads doing 60km/h.

    History repeating itself?

    Against this backdrop, a review has just been published in Jama Psychiatry. Several of the senior authors declare payments from drug companies. In what looks like history repeating itself, the review draws on short-term trials – many funded by the pharmaceutical industry – that were similar to those used to shape early treatment guidelines. The authors conclude that antidepressants do not cause significant withdrawal effects.

    Their main analysis is based on eleven trials that compared withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants with those who had continued them or stopped taking a placebo. Six of these trials had people on antidepressants for eight weeks, four for 12 weeks and just one for 26 weeks.

    They reported a slightly higher number of withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants, which they say does not constitute a “clinically significant” withdrawal syndrome. They also suggest the symptoms could be explained by the “nocebo effect” – where negative expectations cause people to feel worse.

    In our view, the results are likely to greatly underestimate the risk of withdrawal for the millions of people on these drugs for years. The review found no relationship between the duration of use of antidepressants and withdrawal symptoms, but there were too few long-term studies to test this association properly.

    The review probably underestimates, in our view, short-term withdrawal effects too by assuming that the fact that people experience withdrawal-like symptoms when stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant cancels out withdrawal effects from antidepressants. But this is not a valid assumption.

    We know that antidepressant withdrawal effects overlap with side-effects and with everyday symptoms, but this does not mean they are the same thing. People stopping a placebo report symptoms such as dizziness and headache, because these are common occurrences. However, as was shown in another recent review, symptoms following discontinuation of a placebo tend to be milder than those experienced when stopping antidepressants, which can be intense enough to require emergency care.

    So deducting the rate of symptoms after stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant from antidepressant withdrawal symptoms is likely to underestimate the true extent of withdrawal.

    The review also doesn’t include several well-designed drug company studies that found high rates of withdrawal symptoms. For example, an American study found that more than 60% of people who stopped antidepressants (after eleven months) experienced withdrawal symptoms.

    The authors suggest that depression after stopping antidepressants is probably a return of the original condition, not withdrawal symptoms, because similar rates of depression were seen in people who stopped taking a placebo. But this conclusion is based on limited and unreliable data (that is, relying on participants in studies to report such events without prompting, rather than assessing them systematically) from just five studies.

    We hope uncritical reporting of a review based on the sort of short-term studies that led to under-recognition of withdrawal effects in the first place, does not disrupt the growing acceptance of the problem and slow efforts by the health system to help potentially millions of people who may be severely affected.

    The authors and publisher of the new review have been approached for comment.

    Mark Horowitz is the author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines which outlines how to safely stop antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and z-drugs, for which he receives royalties. He is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. He is co-founder and consultant to Outro Health, a digital clinic which helps people to safely stop no longer needed antidepressants in the US. He is a member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    Joanna Moncrieff was a co-applicant on a study of antidepressant discontinuation funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research. She is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. She receives modest royalties for books about psychiatric drugs. She is co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    – ref. Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use – https://theconversation.com/antidepressant-withdrawal-new-review-downplays-symptoms-but-misses-the-mark-for-long-term-use-260708

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Should the UK name heatwaves like storms? It won’t make people take them more seriously

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrea Taylor, Associate Professor in Risk Communication, University of Leeds

    The UK Met Office has given storms forenames for the past decade as part of an effort to raise public awareness of extreme weather before it strikes. Heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and severe due to greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly from burning fossil fuel, which are raising global temperatures by trapping more heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

    These extreme heat events aren’t named in the UK. Should that change?

    Effective communication strategies are necessary to make people aware of upcoming heatwaves and help them understand how to reduce their risk. Spain started naming them in 2023, with Heatwave Zoe. Italy has a longstanding but unofficial tradition of naming heatwaves according to mythology and classical history.

    The results include Lucifero (Lucifer, another name for the devil) and Cerbero (Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld in Greek myth), popularised by the private weather service il Meteo (ilmeteo.it).

    Severe heatwaves in summer 2023 and 2024 prompted a campaign to name heatwaves after fossil fuel companies, to increase awareness of their role in climate change.

    However, there is limited evidence to indicate whether this would be effective in encouraging people to take proper safety precautions during heatwaves, such as staying in the shade between 11am and 3pm, closing the curtains of sun-facing windows during the day and making sure to have enough water if travelling and looking out for those who may struggle to keep themselves cool and hydrated, such as elderly people living alone.

    To explore how effective naming heatwaves might be, my research team conducted online experiments with 2,152 people in England and 1,981 people in Italy.

    Lucifer is scarier than Arnold

    Participants were asked to imagine that next summer, they were to receive a warning that a heatwave was about to affect their country. Participants were randomly assigned information about an event that was was either unnamed, given a threatening name (Lucifer/Lucifero), or a more neutral name (Arnold).

    Then they were asked how much of a risk they though that the event would pose and the actions they would anticipate taking. English participants were also asked about their thoughts on storm-naming practices in the UK and whether they felt that this should be extended to heatwaves.

    We found that naming a heatwave had no effect on the intention of people to take protective measures against it in either country. In Italy, there was no difference between how people perceived the unnamed heatwave and Lucifero, but Arnold was judged to be slightly less concerning and severe.

    This suggests that, while naming a heatwave does not increase concern, departing from Italy’s established convention of using threatening names does reduce it slightly.

    Isolated older people are typically most at risk during heatwaves.
    Ground Picture/Shutterstock

    Our participants in England rated Lucifer as more severe and concerning than an unnamed heatwave, though not by much. When asked about their thoughts on naming weather events more broadly, English participants tended to agree that naming storms made people more likely to engage with weather warnings, but only a minority were in favour of naming heatwaves. Overall we found that, while some people were generally supportive of naming weather events, others worried it could sensationalise them.

    It probably won’t help much

    We did not find enough evidence to support naming heatwaves in the UK.

    Despite a large sample, we found only a very small effect on perceived risk and did not detect any greater intention to take safety precautions for a named heatwave. We also found that responses differed between England and Italy.

    Heatwaves can cross national borders. The fact that there are national differences in how people respond to naming them could lead to unintended differences in how people interpret the risk in different places.

    And unlike storms, which usually take place over a single day with a clearer start and end, heatwaves can last from days to weeks – it’s not always clear whether a prolonged hot spell is one heatwave or a series of them, which could lead to confusion if named.

    Heatwaves are an opportunity to discuss the risks posed by climate change. But naming heatwaves risks coming across as sensationalist to some members of the public. This might have the opposite effect, and make people less likely to heed safety messaging about severe heat.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Andrea Taylor receives funding from The Lloyds Register Foundation, UKRI and Horizon Europe.

    – ref. Should the UK name heatwaves like storms? It won’t make people take them more seriously – https://theconversation.com/should-the-uk-name-heatwaves-like-storms-it-wont-make-people-take-them-more-seriously-260635

    MIL OSI –

  • Should the UK name heatwaves like storms? It won’t make people take them more seriously

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrea Taylor, Associate Professor in Risk Communication, University of Leeds

    The UK Met Office has given storms forenames for the past decade as part of an effort to raise public awareness of extreme weather before it strikes. Heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and severe due to greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly from burning fossil fuel, which are raising global temperatures by trapping more heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

    These extreme heat events aren’t named in the UK. Should that change?

    Effective communication strategies are necessary to make people aware of upcoming heatwaves and help them understand how to reduce their risk. Spain started naming them in 2023, with Heatwave Zoe. Italy has a longstanding but unofficial tradition of naming heatwaves according to mythology and classical history.

    The results include Lucifero (Lucifer, another name for the devil) and Cerbero (Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld in Greek myth), popularised by the private weather service il Meteo (ilmeteo.it).

    Severe heatwaves in summer 2023 and 2024 prompted a campaign to name heatwaves after fossil fuel companies, to increase awareness of their role in climate change.

    However, there is limited evidence to indicate whether this would be effective in encouraging people to take proper safety precautions during heatwaves, such as staying in the shade between 11am and 3pm, closing the curtains of sun-facing windows during the day and making sure to have enough water if travelling and looking out for those who may struggle to keep themselves cool and hydrated, such as elderly people living alone.

    To explore how effective naming heatwaves might be, my research team conducted online experiments with 2,152 people in England and 1,981 people in Italy.

    Lucifer is scarier than Arnold

    Participants were asked to imagine that next summer, they were to receive a warning that a heatwave was about to affect their country. Participants were randomly assigned information about an event that was was either unnamed, given a threatening name (Lucifer/Lucifero), or a more neutral name (Arnold).

    Then they were asked how much of a risk they though that the event would pose and the actions they would anticipate taking. English participants were also asked about their thoughts on storm-naming practices in the UK and whether they felt that this should be extended to heatwaves.

    We found that naming a heatwave had no effect on the intention of people to take protective measures against it in either country. In Italy, there was no difference between how people perceived the unnamed heatwave and Lucifero, but Arnold was judged to be slightly less concerning and severe.

    This suggests that, while naming a heatwave does not increase concern, departing from Italy’s established convention of using threatening names does reduce it slightly.

    Rear view of a senior man in an armchair.
    Isolated older people are typically most at risk during heatwaves.
    Ground Picture/Shutterstock

    Our participants in England rated Lucifer as more severe and concerning than an unnamed heatwave, though not by much. When asked about their thoughts on naming weather events more broadly, English participants tended to agree that naming storms made people more likely to engage with weather warnings, but only a minority were in favour of naming heatwaves. Overall we found that, while some people were generally supportive of naming weather events, others worried it could sensationalise them.

    It probably won’t help much

    We did not find enough evidence to support naming heatwaves in the UK.

    Despite a large sample, we found only a very small effect on perceived risk and did not detect any greater intention to take safety precautions for a named heatwave. We also found that responses differed between England and Italy.

    Heatwaves can cross national borders. The fact that there are national differences in how people respond to naming them could lead to unintended differences in how people interpret the risk in different places.

    And unlike storms, which usually take place over a single day with a clearer start and end, heatwaves can last from days to weeks – it’s not always clear whether a prolonged hot spell is one heatwave or a series of them, which could lead to confusion if named.

    Heatwaves are an opportunity to discuss the risks posed by climate change. But naming heatwaves risks coming across as sensationalist to some members of the public. This might have the opposite effect, and make people less likely to heed safety messaging about severe heat.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    The Conversation

    Andrea Taylor receives funding from The Lloyds Register Foundation, UKRI and Horizon Europe.

    – ref. Should the UK name heatwaves like storms? It won’t make people take them more seriously – https://theconversation.com/should-the-uk-name-heatwaves-like-storms-it-wont-make-people-take-them-more-seriously-260635

  • Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

    Lake Fundudzi By Iris Auda – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY

    Nature isn’t confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2018 on the idea of “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). These are geographically defined areas which can be managed in ways that protect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and “where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.” Geographer Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule has explored the potential for sacred natural sites in South Africa to contribute to nature conservation.

    Why does South Africa need to protect more land?

    In South Africa, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient. A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11,280,684 hectares) of the country’s total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

    My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

    Recognising sacred natural sites as “other effective area-based conservation measures” entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

    There are also other sites with conservation potential. These could be on public, private or community land. This means they are governed by a variety of rights holders. Apart from sacred natural sites, other examples include military land and waters, and locally managed marine areas.

    Whatever their other, primary purpose, they can also deliver conservation of biodiversity.

    Where are South Africa’s sacred natural sites?

    There are areas in South Africa known as sacred sites because of their cultural, spiritual, or historical value, often linked to ancestral beings, religion and traditional beliefs.

    They are often places of reverence, where rituals, ceremonies, burials, or pilgrimage are conducted, and where the custodians of the areas feel a deep connection to something larger than themselves.



    Read more:
    Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

    Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province, in the north of the country:

    In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities.

    In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites:

    How do the sites fit in with protecting diversity?

    The study aimed to assess opinions and perceptions about the opportunities and challenges of sacred natural sites in contributing to global conservation goals.

    I interviewed academics involved in research on Indigenous knowledge, people involved in discussions about conservation, and custodians of sacred natural sites – 39 people in all.

    Study participants identified a number of opportunities. They said:

    • Sacred natural sites frequently harbour high levels of biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, because they have been protected for a long time through cultural practices. Giving them more legal protection and funding, and integrating them into national conservation strategies, would protect hotspots of biological diversity.

    • Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and practices into mainstream conservation efforts would promote more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental management.

    • It would expand the total land area under conservation.

    • It might create conservation corridors that would facilitate movement of animals and ecological processes between isolated habitat patches.

    • Sacred natural sites could serve as carbon sinks or storehouses of carbon emissions. Sacred forests have old, tall trees and well developed canopy – the layer of foliage that forms the crown of a forest.

    • They can serve as tourist destinations where visitors will learn about biodiversity and about religious and cultural practices.



    Read more:
    ‘Sacred forests’ in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy

    The study participants also identified challenges.

    • A big one was access rights and harmonising cultural and formal conservation practices. Access to sacred natural sites and the use of resources by the public is usually not permitted.

    • There was a fear that external intervention by government, nongovernmental organisations and conservationists might sideline local people and lead to the loss of their sacred sites.

    • External interventions might promote scientific knowledge at the expense of the traditional ecological knowledge that has protected sacred natural sites for millennia.

    • Respondents were concerned about elites capturing all the benefits and not sharing them equitably.

    • A methodological challenge might be how to study conservation effectiveness while respecting cultural sensitivities.

    How would a sacred natural site be officially recognised?

    At the moment, sacred natural sites are not designated or recognised as an “other conservation measure”. Currently, there are no standard procedures, criteria, or guidelines available for declaring them as such in South Africa. These would have to be determined by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

    The process should begin with identifying all sacred natural sites to understand where they are and what contribution they could make towards biodiversity conservation. The department should do this in consultation with local communities and traditional leaders who understand the local environment. It should be in line with the international principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This acknowledges the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands.



    Read more:
    South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases

    This will set up sacred natural sites as a conservation model that contributes to both biodiversity protection and cultural heritage preservation. The involvement of communities will ensure that sacred natural sites are a sustainable solution.

    All the respondents in my study said that designating a site as an “other conservation measure” should give control or legal protection, ownership and stewardship roles to local communities who have protected the area for ages.

    The Conversation

    Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/sacred-sites-in-south-africa-can-protect-natural-heritage-and-culture-heres-how-260207

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: I’m a statistics professor who became embroiled in the world of online chess drama

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Professor of Statistics, University of Toronto

    As a mild-mannered statistics professor, it’s not often that I get
    contacted directly by the CEO of a multi-million-dollar company, much less regarding allegations of cheating and malfeasance among world champions.

    But that’s precisely what happened last summer. Erik Allebest, CEO of the world’s largest online chess site, Chess.com, asked me to investigate former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik’s concerns about the long winning streaks of top player Hikaru Nakamura.

    Kramnik argued that these streaks had very low probability and were therefore very suspicious and “interesting.” He didn’t quite accuse Hikaru of cheating, but the implication was clear. Feelings were running high, with Kramnik’s supporters posting angry comments (often in Russian) about cheating as many Chess.com players and Hikaru partisans dismissed the accusations.

    Who was right? Who was wrong? Who could say?

    Allebest asked me to conduct an independent, unbiased statistical analysis to see just how unlikely those chess winning streaks actually were.

    Now, I am no stranger to public statistical disputes, having published a
    best-selling book about everyday probabilities and conducted the statistical analysis for the high-profile lottery retailer scandal. But could statistical analysis really help to clarify this simmering controversy on the world’s biggest chess stage?

    Statistician Jeffrey Rosenthal responds to questions about statistics for WIRED in a video that has received 2.4 million views since February 2022.

    Calculating probabilities

    To sort this out, I first had to calculate the probability of each player winning or tying each game. Different players can have very different abilities, and more advanced players have a greater chance of defeating less experienced opponents. But just how great?

    Chess.com assigns a chess rating to each player after each game, and these ratings were shared with me. My analysis suggested that a certain logistic — or s-shaped — curve function provided an accurate estimate of each game’s probabilities.

    Furthermore, deviations from this probability in successive game results were approximately independent, so the influence of one game on the next could be safely ignored. This gave me a clear probability of each player winning each game.

    I could then analyze those winning streaks that had provoked so much ire. It turned out that Hikaru, unlike most other top players, had played lots of games against much weaker players. This gave him a very high probability of winning each game. But even so, should he have such long winning streaks, sometimes more than 100 games in a row?

    Testing randomness

    To check this, I conducted some Monte Carlo simulations, which repeat a test with random variations.

    I wrote computer programs to randomly assign wins and losses and draws to each of Hikaru’s games, according to the probabilities from my model. I had the computer measure the most surprising winning streaks each time. This allowed me to measure how Hikaru’s actual streaks stacked up against what we should expect.

    I found that in many of the Monte Carlo simulations, the
    simulated results included streaks just as unlikely as the actual ones.
    This demonstrated that Hikaru’s chess results were just about what might
    be expected. He had such a high probability of winning each game, and had played so many games on Chess.com, that such long winning streaks were likely to emerge according to the rules of probability alone.

    Responses to findings

    I wrote up a brief report of my findings, and sent it to Chess.com.
    It ran a news item on its site, which elicited many comments, mostly supportive.

    Hikaru then posted his own video commentary, also supporting my analysis. But meanwhile, Kramnik posted a 29-minute video criticizing my research.

    Kramnik did include some substantive points, so I wrote an addendum to my report to address his concerns and show that they would not effect the conclusion. I also converted my report into a formal paper, which I submitted to a research journal.

    I then got busy with my teaching duties and put the chess controversies
    out of my mind until I received a response in December. It consisted of three referee reports and editor comments, with detailed comments totalling six single-spaced pages.

    I also then discovered that Kramnik had posted a second 59-minute video critiquing my addendum and raising additional points, too.

    I addressed Kramnik’s and the referees’ additional points while revising my article for publication. My paper was finally published in the Harvard Data Science Review.

    I was glad to have my findings published in a prestigious statistics journal, thus giving them a formal stamp of approval. And perhaps, at long last, to settle this particular champion-level chess controversy.

    Jeffrey S. Rosenthal receives research funding from NSERC of Canada, but received no compensation from Chess.com or anyone else for this work.

    – ref. I’m a statistics professor who became embroiled in the world of online chess drama – https://theconversation.com/im-a-statistics-professor-who-became-embroiled-in-the-world-of-online-chess-drama-256294

    MIL OSI –

  • How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Francis Ryan, Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University

    Trash piled up in Philadelphia during the 8-day strike that ended July 9, 2025. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

    The Philadelphia municipal workers strike ended after eight days in the early hours of July 9, 2025.

    The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 union’s 9,000 blue-collar workers, including sanitation workers, 911 dispatchers, city mechanics and water department staff, were called back to work immediately. The deal involves a three-year contract with 3% annual raises and an additional step in the union pay scale for veteran workers.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Francis Ryan, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and author of “AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in Philadelphia in the Twentieth Century,” about the history of sanitation strikes in Philly and what made this one unique.

    Has anything surprised you about this strike?

    This strike marked the first time in the history of labor relations between the city of Philadelphia and AFSCME District Council 33 union where social media played a significant role in how the struggle unfolded.

    The union got their side of the story out on Instagram and other social media platforms, and citizens took up or expressed sympathy with their cause.

    Piles of garbage on the street beside a green dumpster spray-painted with 'Don't Scab Parker's Mess'
    Some city residents referred to the garbage buildup sites as ‘Parker piles.’
    AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa

    How successful are trash strikes in Philly or other US cities?

    As I describe in my book, Philadelphia has a long history of sanitation strikes that goes back to March 1937. At that time, a brief work stoppage brought about discussions between the city administration and an early version of the current union.

    When over 200 city workers were laid off in September 1938, city workers called a week-long sanitation strike. Street battles raged in West Philadelphia when strikers blocked police-escorted trash wagons that were aiming to collect trash with workers hired to replace the strikers.

    Philadelphia residents, many of whom were union members who worked in textile, steel, food and other industries, rallied behind the strikers. The strikers’ demands were met, and a new union, AFSCME, was formally recognized by the city.

    This strike was a major event because it showed how damaging a garbage strike could be. The fact that strikers were willing to fight in the streets to stop trash services showed that such events had the potential for violence, not to mention the health concerns from having tons of trash on the streets.

    There was another two-week trash strike in Philadelphia in 1944, but there wouldn’t be another for more than 20 years.

    However, a growing number of sanitation strikes popped up around the country in the 1960s, the most famous being the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

    Black-and-white photo of a line of Black men walking past a row of white soldiers in uniform with bayonets fixed
    Black sanitation workers peacefully march wearing placards reading ‘I Am A Man’ during the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis, Tenn.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    In Memphis, Tennessee, a majority African American sanitation workforce demanded higher wages, basic safety procedures and recognition of their union. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rallied to support the Memphis workers and their families as part of his Poor Peoples’ Campaign, which sought to organize working people from across the nation into a new coalition to demand full economic and political rights.

    On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. His death put pressure on Memphis officials to settle the strike, and on April 16 the strikers secured their demands.

    Following the Memphis strike, AFSCME began organizing public workers around the country, and through the coming years into the 1970s, there were sanitation strikes and slowdowns across the nation including in New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington. Often, these workers, who were predominantly African American, gained the support of significant sections of the communities they served and secured modest wage boosts.

    By the 1980s, such labor actions were becoming fewer. In 1986, Philadelphia witnessed a three-week sanitation strike that ended with the union gaining some of its wage demands, but losing on key areas related to health care benefits.

    Black-and-white photo of men standing alongside a huge pile of trash and two trash trucks
    Workers begin removing mounds of trash after returning to work after an 18-day strike in Philadelphia in July 1986.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    How do wages and benefits for DC33 workers compare to other US cities?

    District Council 33 President Greg Boulware has said that the union’s members make an average salary of US$46,000 per year. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, that is $2,000 less than what a single adult with no kids needs to reasonably support themselves living in Philadelphia.

    Prior to this deal, sanitation workers who collect curbside trash earned a salary of $42,500 to $46,200, or $18-$20 an hour. NBC Philadelphia reported that those wages are the lowest of any of the major cities they looked at. Hourly wages in the other cities they looked at ranged from $21 an hour in Dallas to $25-$30 an hour in Chicago.

    Unlike other eras, the fact that social media makes public these personal narratives and perspectives – like from former sanitation worker Terrill Haigler, aka “Ya Fav Trashman” – is shaping the way many citizens respond to these disruptions. I saw a level of support for the strikers that I believe is unprecedented going back as far as 1938.

    What do you think was behind this support?

    The COVID-19 pandemic made people more aware of the role of essential workers in society. If the men and women who do these jobs can’t afford their basic needs, something isn’t right. This may explain why so many people saw things from the perspective of striking workers.

    At the same time, money is being cut from important services at the federal, state and local levels. The proposed gutting of Philadelphia’s mass transit system by state lawmakers is a case in point. Social media allows people to make these broader connections and start conversations.

    This article was originally published on July 8, 2025, and has been updated to include details of the strike’s resolution.

    The Conversation

    Francis Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city – https://theconversation.com/how-philadelphias-sanitation-strike-differed-from-past-labor-disputes-in-the-city-260676

  • I’m a statistics professor who became embroiled in the world of online chess drama

    Source: ForeignAffairs4

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Professor of Statistics, University of Toronto

    As a mild-mannered statistics professor, it’s not often that I get
    contacted directly by the CEO of a multi-million-dollar company, much less regarding allegations of cheating and malfeasance among world champions.

    But that’s precisely what happened last summer. Erik Allebest, CEO of the world’s largest online chess site, Chess.com, asked me to investigate former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik’s concerns about the long winning streaks of top player Hikaru Nakamura.

    Kramnik argued that these streaks had very low probability and were therefore very suspicious and “interesting.” He didn’t quite accuse Hikaru of cheating, but the implication was clear. Feelings were running high, with Kramnik’s supporters posting angry comments (often in Russian) about cheating as many Chess.com players and Hikaru partisans dismissed the accusations.

    Who was right? Who was wrong? Who could say?

    Allebest asked me to conduct an independent, unbiased statistical analysis to see just how unlikely those chess winning streaks actually were.

    Now, I am no stranger to public statistical disputes, having published a
    best-selling book about everyday probabilities and conducted the statistical analysis for the high-profile lottery retailer scandal. But could statistical analysis really help to clarify this simmering controversy on the world’s biggest chess stage?

    Statistician Jeffrey Rosenthal responds to questions about statistics for WIRED in a video that has received 2.4 million views since February 2022.

    Calculating probabilities

    To sort this out, I first had to calculate the probability of each player winning or tying each game. Different players can have very different abilities, and more advanced players have a greater chance of defeating less experienced opponents. But just how great?

    Chess.com assigns a chess rating to each player after each game, and these ratings were shared with me. My analysis suggested that a certain logistic — or s-shaped — curve function provided an accurate estimate of each game’s probabilities.

    Furthermore, deviations from this probability in successive game results were approximately independent, so the influence of one game on the next could be safely ignored. This gave me a clear probability of each player winning each game.

    I could then analyze those winning streaks that had provoked so much ire. It turned out that Hikaru, unlike most other top players, had played lots of games against much weaker players. This gave him a very high probability of winning each game. But even so, should he have such long winning streaks, sometimes more than 100 games in a row?

    Testing randomness

    To check this, I conducted some Monte Carlo simulations, which repeat a test with random variations.

    I wrote computer programs to randomly assign wins and losses and draws to each of Hikaru’s games, according to the probabilities from my model. I had the computer measure the most surprising winning streaks each time. This allowed me to measure how Hikaru’s actual streaks stacked up against what we should expect.

    I found that in many of the Monte Carlo simulations, the
    simulated results included streaks just as unlikely as the actual ones.
    This demonstrated that Hikaru’s chess results were just about what might
    be expected. He had such a high probability of winning each game, and had played so many games on Chess.com, that such long winning streaks were likely to emerge according to the rules of probability alone.

    Responses to findings

    I wrote up a brief report of my findings, and sent it to Chess.com.
    It ran a news item on its site, which elicited many comments, mostly supportive.

    Hikaru then posted his own video commentary, also supporting my analysis. But meanwhile, Kramnik posted a 29-minute video criticizing my research.

    Kramnik did include some substantive points, so I wrote an addendum to my report to address his concerns and show that they would not effect the conclusion. I also converted my report into a formal paper, which I submitted to a research journal.

    I then got busy with my teaching duties and put the chess controversies
    out of my mind until I received a response in December. It consisted of three referee reports and editor comments, with detailed comments totalling six single-spaced pages.

    I also then discovered that Kramnik had posted a second 59-minute video critiquing my addendum and raising additional points, too.

    I addressed Kramnik’s and the referees’ additional points while revising my article for publication. My paper was finally published in the Harvard Data Science Review.

    I was glad to have my findings published in a prestigious statistics journal, thus giving them a formal stamp of approval. And perhaps, at long last, to settle this particular champion-level chess controversy.

    The Conversation

    Jeffrey S. Rosenthal receives research funding from NSERC of Canada, but received no compensation from Chess.com or anyone else for this work.

    – ref. I’m a statistics professor who became embroiled in the world of online chess drama – https://theconversation.com/im-a-statistics-professor-who-became-embroiled-in-the-world-of-online-chess-drama-256294

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Francis Ryan, Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University

    Trash piled up in Philadelphia during the 8-day strike that ended July 9, 2025. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

    The Philadelphia municipal workers strike ended after eight days in the early hours of July 9, 2025.

    The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 union’s 9,000 blue-collar workers, including sanitation workers, 911 dispatchers, city mechanics and water department staff, were called back to work immediately. The deal involves a three-year contract with 3% annual raises and an additional step in the union pay scale for veteran workers.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Francis Ryan, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and author of “AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in Philadelphia in the Twentieth Century,” about the history of sanitation strikes in Philly and what made this one unique.

    Has anything surprised you about this strike?

    This strike marked the first time in the history of labor relations between the city of Philadelphia and AFSCME District Council 33 union where social media played a significant role in how the struggle unfolded.

    The union got their side of the story out on Instagram and other social media platforms, and citizens took up or expressed sympathy with their cause.

    Some city residents referred to the garbage buildup sites as ‘Parker piles.’
    AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa

    How successful are trash strikes in Philly or other US cities?

    As I describe in my book, Philadelphia has a long history of sanitation strikes that goes back to March 1937. At that time, a brief work stoppage brought about discussions between the city administration and an early version of the current union.

    When over 200 city workers were laid off in September 1938, city workers called a week-long sanitation strike. Street battles raged in West Philadelphia when strikers blocked police-escorted trash wagons that were aiming to collect trash with workers hired to replace the strikers.

    Philadelphia residents, many of whom were union members who worked in textile, steel, food and other industries, rallied behind the strikers. The strikers’ demands were met, and a new union, AFSCME, was formally recognized by the city.

    This strike was a major event because it showed how damaging a garbage strike could be. The fact that strikers were willing to fight in the streets to stop trash services showed that such events had the potential for violence, not to mention the health concerns from having tons of trash on the streets.

    There was another two-week trash strike in Philadelphia in 1944, but there wouldn’t be another for more than 20 years.

    However, a growing number of sanitation strikes popped up around the country in the 1960s, the most famous being the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

    Black sanitation workers peacefully march wearing placards reading ‘I Am A Man’ during the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis, Tenn.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    In Memphis, Tennessee, a majority African American sanitation workforce demanded higher wages, basic safety procedures and recognition of their union. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rallied to support the Memphis workers and their families as part of his Poor Peoples’ Campaign, which sought to organize working people from across the nation into a new coalition to demand full economic and political rights.

    On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. His death put pressure on Memphis officials to settle the strike, and on April 16 the strikers secured their demands.

    Following the Memphis strike, AFSCME began organizing public workers around the country, and through the coming years into the 1970s, there were sanitation strikes and slowdowns across the nation including in New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington. Often, these workers, who were predominantly African American, gained the support of significant sections of the communities they served and secured modest wage boosts.

    By the 1980s, such labor actions were becoming fewer. In 1986, Philadelphia witnessed a three-week sanitation strike that ended with the union gaining some of its wage demands, but losing on key areas related to health care benefits.

    Workers begin removing mounds of trash after returning to work after an 18-day strike in Philadelphia in July 1986.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    How do wages and benefits for DC33 workers compare to other US cities?

    District Council 33 President Greg Boulware has said that the union’s members make an average salary of US$46,000 per year. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, that is $2,000 less than what a single adult with no kids needs to reasonably support themselves living in Philadelphia.

    Prior to this deal, sanitation workers who collect curbside trash earned a salary of $42,500 to $46,200, or $18-$20 an hour. NBC Philadelphia reported that those wages are the lowest of any of the major cities they looked at. Hourly wages in the other cities they looked at ranged from $21 an hour in Dallas to $25-$30 an hour in Chicago.

    Unlike other eras, the fact that social media makes public these personal narratives and perspectives – like from former sanitation worker Terrill Haigler, aka “Ya Fav Trashman” – is shaping the way many citizens respond to these disruptions. I saw a level of support for the strikers that I believe is unprecedented going back as far as 1938.

    What do you think was behind this support?

    The COVID-19 pandemic made people more aware of the role of essential workers in society. If the men and women who do these jobs can’t afford their basic needs, something isn’t right. This may explain why so many people saw things from the perspective of striking workers.

    At the same time, money is being cut from important services at the federal, state and local levels. The proposed gutting of Philadelphia’s mass transit system by state lawmakers is a case in point. Social media allows people to make these broader connections and start conversations.

    This article was originally published on July 8, 2025, and has been updated to include details of the strike’s resolution.

    Francis Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city – https://theconversation.com/how-philadelphias-sanitation-strike-differed-from-past-labor-disputes-in-the-city-260676

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The dangers of romanticising Britain’s 1976 heatwave

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Hull

    As I scrolled through social media on a hot afternoon in late June, a meme caught my attention. A black and white photo. A smiling young woman with water up to her knees. She appeared to be in a fountain, with many others dipping their legs in the water.

    The caption read “On this day in 1976, the British heatwave started. It would last until the 27th August, during which time Britain would experience extreme temperatures and widespread droughts. And we all had a wonderful summer and survived.”

    This immediately struck me: it was a boiling hot day. As I sat at my office desk keeping hydrated with a fan pointed directly at my face, I felt the rage burning inside me. How could people be so irresponsible? Heat can be dangerous. But the implication of the meme was clear: if people managed back then, surely today’s warnings about heatwaves, climate change, and public health are exaggerated. These rose-tinted memories obscure a darker truth.

    I am a historical criminologist. This meme had the rare effect of deeply troubling both of my areas of expertise.

    As a historian, this meme concerns me because it perpetuates the myth of the “good old days”. A selective, nostalgic vision of the past that smooths over complexity and hardship in favour of a comforting, idealised narrative. Flattening history into feelgood folklore, erasing the social inequalities and governmental failures.

    It echoes a broader cultural tendency: from “Make America great again” to the “Blitz spirit”, representing Britain’s nostalgia for wartime resilience, a romanticised past is often used by politicians to legitimise political ideas in the present. But history is not a comfort blanket. It is a critical tool.

    My work explores how institutions respond to crisis and how narratives of success or failure are constructed. In 1976, advice for dealing with the water shortage was to share a bath with the wife and drive a dirty car. Areas without domestic tap water had to use communal street pipes.

    The government did not appoint a minister for drought until the end of August, despite mounting evidence from meteorologists and public health officials. Emergency measures were piecemeal and unevenly applied.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    The suggestion that “we all had a wonderful summer and survived” is misleading. It was reported that “200 people a day were apparently dying who would not have died if the weather had been normal”. During the peak of the heatwave, deaths increased by 28% in the southeast England and 33% in Greater London.

    As a criminologist, I know that it is not only natural deaths that can increase during a hot weather. The number of violent deaths also increased in 1976 as well as in other heatwaves. Thermic law is the concept that violent crime is higher in hotter seasons. These patterns might be explained by temperature-aggression theory: that hot weather can cause an increase in aggressive behaviours.

    For other criminologists, it is not the temperature itself that causes increased violence, but how people’s behaviour changes due to the heat. For example, people are taking time off work or school, socialising, and drinking. Unstructured time and spaces, combined with alcohol and a holiday feel all lead to increases in violence.

    Misrepresenting risk

    By sentimentalising the summer of 1976, we strip away its lessons. Worse, we risk repeating its mistakes. One Conservative MP described people concerned about the 2022 heatwave as “snowflakes” and “cowards”. Quite an odd response after the British public was asked to “protect the NHS” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    This protection apparently did not extend to looking after each other in a heatwave. In fact, heatwaves are largely an invisible risk. We are told not to fuss, but there is often little communication on how to keep safe.

    A lack of policy and examples of political scepticism connect with a key theme in the comments under that meme: climate change denial. If we had a heatwave in 1976 then what we are experiencing now is nothing new, right? Wrong.

    The heatwave in 1976 was bad: thousands died, fires raged, and water ran dry. But it was also an anomaly; a hot summer in a relatively cool decade. Heatwaves are now more frequent, more intense and longer lasting. Temperatures reached over 40°C in 2022, while the maximum in 1976 was 4°C-5°C cooler.

    Still, each time a weather warning is issued, it is met with a wave of derision. There is the same online discourse as is expressed in this meme. This attitude is not just flippant, it is dangerous. It undermines vital public messaging, discourages precautionary action, and fuels complacency among those least at risk, while leaving the most vulnerable even more exposed.

    History can offer crucial perspective. But only if we treat it honestly. That means moving beyond memeified memories of the past and reckoning with the complexity of what really happened. It means challenging the stories we tell ourselves. Many did live through the 1976 heatwave. But many also died: quietly, invisibly and avoidably. Their stories are not part of the nostalgia. They should be.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Stephanie Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The dangers of romanticising Britain’s 1976 heatwave – https://theconversation.com/the-dangers-of-romanticising-britains-1976-heatwave-260046

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Could England and Wales introduce jury-free trials? Here’s how they work in other countries

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natalie Hodgson, Assistant Professor in Law, University of Nottingham

    The right to trial by jury is a fundamental part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. But under new proposals to address a record backlog of almost 77,000 Crown Court cases, some cases could now be heard by judge alone.

    Sir Brian Leveson has delivered part one of his independent review of the criminal courts, making 45 recommendations to address delays in the criminal justice process. One of his recommendations is that serious offences could be tried by a judge alone without a jury. Our evidence to the review explored how judge-alone trials have been used in other countries.

    Currently, a person can only be tried without a jury at Crown Court if there is a risk of jury tampering. Under Leveson’s proposal, judge-alone trials will be expanded to cases where a defendant requests to be tried without a jury, serious and complex fraud offences and where the case is likely to be lengthy or particularly complex.

    To understand how this might work, we can to look to other countries where judge-alone trials are used. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US all permit judge-alone trials in circumstances similar to what Leveson is recommending. A defendant can choose to be tried by a judge instead of a jury in certain circumstances.

    Defendants tend to express a preference for trial by judge alone if they are concerned that prejudicial media coverage or the nature of the offences might bias jurors against them. Leveson recommends that judges should decide whether a defendant’s request for a judge-alone trial should be granted, but stops short of identifying the factors that a judge should consider.

    Leveson leaves open the question of whether judge-alone trials should be available for all offences, or whether certain offences should be exempt. Some countries limit which offences can be heard without a jury. For example, in the Australian Capital Territory, a defendant cannot request a trial without a jury for murder or certain sexual offences.

    In New South Wales, judges are advised against permitting a judge-alone trial when the offence involves consideration of “community standards”. This recognises that members of the community have an important role to play in deciding whether a defendant has acted “reasonably”, “negligently” or “dishonestly”. For example, if a person is charged with manslaughter the jury may need to consider whether the defendant’s actions were “unreasonable”, which is best determined by members of the community.

    Are judge-alone trials unfair to defendants?

    Lawyers often raise concerns about judge-alone trials being unfair to defendants. Based on what we know from other countries, there is no strong evidence that this is the case. However, that is not to say that concerns about unfairness are unwarranted.

    If judges convict at higher rates than juries, that might suggest that judge-alone trials are unfair. However, the best available study, conducted in New South Wales, found that judges were actually slightly less likely than juries to find a defendant guilty.

    Juries do not explain their verdicts. In all countries which use judge-alone trials, judges must give reasons for their decisions. Knowing why a defendant was found guilty might make trials even more fair, providing a basis for an appeal against conviction if an error was made.

    One key issue with judge-alone trials is inadmissible evidence. Ordinarily, jurors are sent out of the courtroom while the judge and lawyers make decisions about what evidence the jury is allowed to hear. Evidence might be excluded because it is irrelevant, prejudicial or was collected in breach of the defendant’s rights. In these scenarios, the jury is never made aware of the evidence.

    However, in a judge-alone trial, the judge sees all the evidence, even if they decide that some of it should not be used. There is a risk that judges might be subconsciously impacted by inadmissible evidence in reaching their verdict.

    Judge-alone trials also raise issues about diversity of decision-makers. In England and Wales, only 11% of judges are from an ethnic minority background compared to 18% of the population. Ideally, juries contain people from a range of backgrounds. Some defendants might feel more confident that they will be tried fairly by a jury than a judge.

    Ultimately, one way to safeguard against concerns about unfairness is to give defendants the ability to choose whether or not they would like to be tried by a judge alone. Leveson’s recommendations suggest that most judge-alone trials would occur at the request of the defendant. However, judge-alone trials could be ordered against the defendant’s wishes in cases involving fraud or that are long and complex.

    Juries play an important role in the legal system in England and Wales. Through jury service, members of the community contribute to the administration of justice. The inclusion of a range of viewpoints and experiences in determining criminal verdicts enhances the legitimacy of the justice system.

    It is important that we continue to have juries in criminal trials. However, that is not to say that judge-alone trials cannot or should not play a role. The current backlog means that victims and defendants are having to wait years for their day in court. We desperately need to address this, and allowing defendants to elect a judge-alone trial may help to reduce delays to justice.

    While judge-alone trials are not inherently unfair, any rollout in England and Wales should be closely monitored and evaluated. It is important that we do not sacrifice fairness for efficiency as we work to address the issues affecting our justice system.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Could England and Wales introduce jury-free trials? Here’s how they work in other countries – https://theconversation.com/could-england-and-wales-introduce-jury-free-trials-heres-how-they-work-in-other-countries-259489

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How tea, chocolate and apples could help lower your blood pressure

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Head of Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Surrey

    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    We’re constantly told to “eat healthy” – but what does that actually mean? Even doctors sometimes struggle to offer clear, practical advice on which specific foods support health, why they work and what real benefits people can expect.

    A growing body of research is starting to offer some answers. Along with colleagues, I have researched whether a group of plant compounds called flavan-3-ols could help lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel function. The results suggest these everyday compounds may have real potential for protecting heart health.

    Flavan-3-ols – sometimes called flavanols or catechins – are natural plant compounds that belong to the flavonoid family. They’re part of what gives plants their colour and helps protect them from sunlight and pests.

    For us, they show up in some of our most familiar foods: cocoa, green and black tea, grapes, apples and even some berries. That slightly tart or bitter note you taste in dark chocolate or strong tea? That’s flavan-3-ols at work.

    Scientists have long been interested in their health effects. In 2022, the Cosmos trial (Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study), which followed over 21,000 people, found that cocoa flavanols, but not multivitamin supplements, reduced deaths from cardiovascular disease by 27%. Our study set out to dig even deeper, focusing specifically on their effects on blood pressure and endothelial function (how well blood vessels dilate and respond to blood flow).

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    We analysed data from 145 randomised controlled trials involving more than 5,200 participants. These studies tested a range of flavan-3-ol-rich foods and supplements, including cocoa, tea, grapes, apples and isolated compounds like epicatechin, and measured their effects on two key cardiovascular markers: blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation (FMD): a measure of how well the inner lining of blood vessels functions.

    The studies ranged from short-term (a single dose) to longer-term interventions lasting weeks or months. On average, participants consumed about 586 mg of flavan-3-ols daily; roughly the amount found in two to three cups of tea, one to two servings of dark chocolate, two tablespoons of cocoa powder, or a couple of apples.

    Regular consumption of flavan-3-ols led to an average drop in office blood pressure of 2.8 mmHg systolic (the top number) and 2.0 mmHg diastolic (the bottom number).

    But for people who started with elevated blood pressure or diagnosed hypertension, the benefits were even greater with reductions of up to 6–7 mmHg systolic and 4 mmHg diastolic. That’s comparable to the effects of some prescription blood pressure medications and could significantly lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

    We also found that flavan-3-ols improved endothelial function, with an average 1.7% increase in FMD after sustained intake. This benefit appeared even in participants whose blood pressure was already normal, suggesting these compounds may help protect blood vessels through multiple pathways.

    Side effects were uncommon and typically mild, usually limited to minor digestive issues, suggesting that adding flavan-3-ol-rich foods to your diet is generally safe.

    Supporting cardiovascular health

    While the benefits were most pronounced in those with high blood pressure, even people with normal readings saw improvements in vascular function. This suggests flavan-3-ols may help prevent cardiovascular problems before they begin.

    High blood pressure is one of the major drivers of heart disease worldwide, even at levels that don’t qualify as full-blown hypertension (140/90 mmHg or higher). Recent guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology now recognise that even “elevated” blood pressure (120–139 systolic and 70–89 diastolic) carries increased risk.

    Lifestyle changes, particularly diet and exercise, are recommended by doctors as first-line strategies. But patients and even healthcare providers often lack clear, specific guidance on which foods truly make a difference. Our findings help fill this gap by showing that boosting flavan-3-ol intake through everyday foods may offer a simple, evidence-based way to support cardiovascular health.

    What about supplements?

    Some studies tested supplements or isolated flavan-3-ol compounds, but these generally showed smaller effects than whole foods like tea or cocoa. This may be because other beneficial compounds in whole foods work together, enhancing absorption and effectiveness.

    At present, it appears both safer and more effective to focus on getting flavan-3-ols from foods rather than high-dose supplements, especially for people taking medications, since interactions are not fully understood.

    The studies we reviewed suggest that 500–600 mg of flavan-3-ols daily may be enough to see benefits. You could reach this by combining two to three cups of green or black tea, one to two servings (about 56g) of dark chocolate or two to three tablespoons of cocoa powder, two to three apples, plus other flavan-3-ol-rich fruits like grapes, pears and berries

    Eating apples, pears, grapes and berries could help support your heart health.
    Oksana Klymenko/Shutterstock

    Small daily swaps, then, like trading a sugary snack for an apple and a piece of dark chocolate or adding an extra cup of tea, could gradually improve your heart health over time. Because flavan-3-ol content can vary between foods, monitoring your blood pressure at home may help you see if it’s making a difference for you.

    More research is needed, particularly in people with diabetes, where the results were less consistent. We also need to better understand how flavan-3-ols interact with medications and whether even greater benefits can be achieved when combined with other healthy habits.

    But the evidence is now strong enough to recommend flavan-3-ol-rich foods as part of a heart-healthy diet. As clinicians seek practical, affordable lifestyle strategies for patients, these findings bring us closer to the idea of using food as medicine.

    Of course, flavan-3-ols aren’t a magic fix. They won’t replace medication for everyone. But combined with other healthy habits, they may offer a meaningful – and delicious – boost to cardiovascular health. And unlike many health fads, this isn’t about exotic superfoods or expensive powders. It’s about foods many of us already enjoy, used a little more intentionally.

    Christian Heiss has received funding from Lipton Teas & Infusions, Ageless Science, iThera, the Medical Research Council, the EPSRC, European Partnership on Metrology, co-financed from European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme and UK Research and Innovation. He is member of the board of the European Society of Vascular Medicine, president of the Vascular, Lipid and Metabolic Medicine Council of the Royal Society of Medicine, and chairperson-elect of the ESC WG Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Diseases.

    – ref. How tea, chocolate and apples could help lower your blood pressure – https://theconversation.com/how-tea-chocolate-and-apples-could-help-lower-your-blood-pressure-256631

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Action is the antidote to ecological grief and climate anxiety – an ecotherapist explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise Taylor, Early Career Researcher and Ecotherapist, Queen’s University Belfast

    Brussels, Belgium. 21st February 2019. High school and university students stage a protest against the climate policies of the Belgian government. Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

    There’s a popular quote by the 13th-century poet and spiritual teacher Rumi: “The cure for the pain is in the pain.” This line often echoes through my mind when I’m working with clients, especially those experiencing ecological grief and climate anxiety.

    As an ecotherapist – a therapist guided by nature and nature-based therapeutic approaches – and environmental researcher, I work with people who are navigating the emotional weight of ecological breakdown.

    Ecotherapy helps people reconnect with the natural world as a way to support mental and emotional wellbeing. It might involve walking in green spaces, mindfulness practices in nature, working with natural materials, or nature-based rituals.

    Whether it’s planting a garden, sitting under a tree, or engaging in conservation efforts, ecotherapy helps people feel more grounded, more connected and more resilient both emotionally and spiritually.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    In my practice, I’ve noticed that younger people are more likely to experience climate anxiety, while older generations tend to experience ecological grief. The difference is subtle but important. Anxiety often relates to what lies ahead and a sense of powerlessness. Grief is about what has already been lost.

    This emotional divide makes sense when we consider what has happened to the natural world over recent decades. Older adults have witnessed the loss of species, habitats and biodiversity in real time. Many have rich memories and relationships with landscapes that no longer exist as they once did. Meanwhile, younger generations face the terrifying uncertainty of a rapidly changing climate and an increasingly unstable future.

    Both grief and anxiety are valid, but they are not the same.

    I have explored these experiences in depth while researching nature connection, mental health and how the climate and ecological crisis is reshaping this relationship.

    At the outset, I assumed that greater connection with nature would always lead to improved mental wellbeing. But that wasn’t the full picture.

    What I found instead was that deepening our connection with the natural world can indeed foster healing, but it can also sharpen our awareness of the damage being done. This heightened sensitivity can trigger emotional pain, despair and even a decline in mental wellbeing.

    Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung once said, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” That’s exactly what climate-anxious and ecologically grieving people are expressing: the deep psychological toll of recognising the scale of the crisis we’re facing. For some, it affects their ability to function, to enjoy their lives and to maintain relationships.

    How to stay well

    The question I kept returning to in my work was this: how do we stay well in a time of collapse? My research pointed to one consistent answer: action.

    Engaging in pro-environmental actions emerged as the most effective way people coped with emotional strain. These weren’t merely acts of activism — they became spiritual practices, grounded in care, connection and meaning. Through these actions, people began to reclaim a sense of power and purpose in the face of overwhelming ecological loss.

    For many, this was also a path back to what eco-philosophers call the ecological self: the part of us that extends beyond the individual and identifies with the living world.

    This self isn’t driven by ego or personal gain, but by the impulse to build relationships, nurture communities and support the flourishing of all life. It represents an expanded way of being; one that understands health and healing as collective, not just personal.

    Importantly, these actions don’t have to be large-scale. They might involve growing your own herbs or vegetables, for instance, or joining a local conservation effort, forming a community group to protect waterways or green spaces, or participating in climate strikes and land defence work. What matters is that the action is relational: rooted in reciprocity and care.

    The conclusion of my research was clear: in the face of ecological distress, mental wellbeing is sustained not by thoughts, but by meaningful action.

    Healing through action

    In Northern Ireland, where I live and work, I’ve seen a growing grassroots environmental movement. Communities are stepping up to protect landscapes under threat, from campaigns to defend the Sperrin Mountains from gold mining, to local resistance against the pollution that’s devastating Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in Ireland and the UK.

    This is unpaid, often invisible labour, but it’s powerful. It gives people a way to process their emotions, to feel less helpless and to turn grief into agency.

    Many environmentalists talk about “saving the planet”. But the truth is, the Earth will go on. What’s under threat is us: our ways of life, our communities, our ability to thrive. The dread we feel is rooted in the enormity of this realisation.

    To stay well while caring deeply about the Earth means learning to live with this pain, and still choosing to act. It requires us to show up, to be present and to tend to both the human and non-human world with care and reciprocity. As we do, we become more empowered and less overwhelmed.

    If you are struggling with climate anxiety or ecological grief, know this: the goal isn’t to suppress your feelings. The goal is to acknowledge them, and then use them as fuel for meaningful action.

    Don’t underestimate small acts. The way forward isn’t to wait for hope: it’s to create it through connection, courage and commitment.

    In a time of ecological uncertainty, wellness doesn’t come from thinking differently. It comes from doing differently.

    Louise Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Action is the antidote to ecological grief and climate anxiety – an ecotherapist explains – https://theconversation.com/action-is-the-antidote-to-ecological-grief-and-climate-anxiety-an-ecotherapist-explains-260428

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