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Category: Antarctica

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation – a CU Boulder administrator explains

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Massimo Ruzzene, Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation, University of Colorado Boulder

    Federal funding cuts to the University of Colorado Boulder have already impacted research and could cause even more harm. Glenn J. Asakawa/University of Colorado

    The Trump administration has been freezing or reducing federal grants to universities across the country.

    Over the past several months, universities have lost more than US$11 billion in funding, according to NPR. More than two dozen universities, including the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Denver, have been affected. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts.

    The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Colorado Boulder, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university he works for and Colorado’s local economy.

    How important are federal funds to CU Boulder?

    Federal funding pays for approximately 70% of CU Boulder’s research each year. That’s about $495 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

    The other 30% of research funding comes from a variety of sources. The second-largest is international partnerships at $127 million. Last year, CU Boulder also received $27 million in philanthropic gifts to support research and approximately $29 million from collaborations with industry.

    CU Boulder uses this money to fund research that advances fields like artificial intelligence, space exploration and planetary sciences, quantum technologies, biosciences and climate and energy.

    At CU Boulder, federal funding also supports research projects like the Dust Accelerator Laboratory that helps us understand the composition and structure of cosmic dust. This research allows scientists to reconstruct the processes that formed planets, moons and organic molecules.

    How much federal funding has CU Boulder lost?

    So far in 2025, CU Boulder has received 56 grant cancellations or stop-work orders. Those amount to approximately $30 million in lost funding. This number is not inclusive of awards that are on hold and awaiting action by the sponsor.

    This number also does not include the funds that have not been accessible due the considerable lag in funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
    Nationwide, National Science Foundation funding has dropped by more than 50% through the end of May of this year compared to the average of the past 10 years. The university anticipates that our funding received from these agencies will drop a similar amount, but the numbers are still being collected for this year.

    What research has been impacted?

    A wide variety. To take just one example, CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research investigate how to monitor, predict, respond to and recover from extreme weather conditions and natural disasters.

    This research directly impacts the safety, well-being and prosperity of Colorado residents facing wildfires, droughts and floods.

    Michael Gooseff, a researcher from the College of Engineering and Applied Science, collects weather data from the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.
    Byron Adams/University of Colorado Boulder

    Past research from these groups includes recovery efforts following the 2021 Marshall Fire in the Boulder area. Researchers collaborated with local governments and watershed groups to monitor environmental impacts and develop dashboards that detailed their findings.

    How might cuts affect Colorado’s aerospace economy?

    Colorado has more aerospace jobs per capita than any other state. The sector employs more than 55,000 people and contributes significantly to both Colorado’s economy and the national economy.

    This ecosystem encompasses research universities such as CU Boulder and Colorado-based startups like Blue Canyon Technologies and Ursa Major Technologies. It also includes established global companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

    At CU Boulder, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics is one of the world’s premier space science research institutions. Researchers at the lab design, build and operate spacecraft and other instruments that contribute critical data. That data helps us understand Earth’s atmosphere, the Sun, planetary systems and deep space phenomena. If the projects the lab supports are cut, then it’s likely the lab will be cut as well.

    The Presidential Budget Request proposes up to 24% cuts to NASA’s annual budget. These include reductions of 47% for the Science Mission Directorate. The directorate supports more than a dozen space missions at CU Boulder. That cut could have an immediate impact on university programs of approximately $50 million.

    Scientists test the solar arrays on NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter spacecraft at Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver.
    Photo courtesy of LASP

    One of the largest space missions CU Boulder is involved in is the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter. MAVEN, as it’s known, provides telecommunications and space weather monitoring capabilities. These are necessary to support future human and robotic missions to Mars over the next decade and beyond, a stated priority for the White House. If MAVEN were to be canceled, experts estimate that it would cost almost $1 billion to restart it.

    Have the cuts hit quantum research?

    While the federal government has identified quantum technology as a national priority, the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal only maintains existing funding levels. It does not introduce new investments or initiatives.

    I’m concerned that this stagnation, amid broader cuts to science agencies, could undermine progress in this field and undercut the training of its critical workforce. The result could be the U.S. ceding its leadership in quantum innovation to global competitors.

    Massimo Ruzzene receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    – ref. How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation – a CU Boulder administrator explains – https://theconversation.com/how-slashing-university-research-grants-impacts-colorados-economy-and-national-innovation-a-cu-boulder-administrator-explains-257869

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – New study maps key regions for killer whales in Australian waters – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University
     
    While well documented in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctica, much less is known about killer whales  (Orcinus orca) in Australia. However, orcas are actually sighted year-round in all coastal states and territories and a new Flinders University study has now mapped this across three key regions.
     
    Research led by Flinders University’s Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) models the distribution of killer whales in Australian waters, shedding light on habitat preferences and uncovering ecological distinctions between populations.
     
    In collaboration with the Cetacean Research Centre of WA, Project ORCA and Killer Whales Australia, the paper published in Ecology and Evolution collates 1310 sightings of killer whales around the country from the past four decades. Species distribution modelling is used to pinpoint places of high habitat suitability in southeast, southwest, and northwest Australia – notably the Bonney Upwelling (South Australia / Victoria), Bremer Sub-basin (Western Australia), and Ningaloo Reef (WA).
     
     “This work greatly increases our understanding of killer whales in Australian waters and identifies areas of biological importance for management and monitoring,” says Flinders University CEBEL PhD candidate Marissa Hutchings, lead author of the article.
     
    “Not only now do we have a nationwide picture, but our findings also support the idea that at least two ecologically distinct forms of killer whales exist in Australia – a temperate and a tropical form.”
     
    The research calls for stronger conservation measures to protect these unique populations – “particularly given their role as apex predators in the marine ecosystem and the fact that some of their most important habitats are currently only partially protected by legislation,” she says.
     
    “More research will be vital in ensuring that this species can be adequately managed in a changing environment, but this will only be made possible by collaboration between researchers, citizen scientists, and marine users to improve the size and accessibility of datasets on both killer whales and their prey.”
     
    Another author on the paper, Flinders University Associate Professor Guido Parra, says differences in range and drivers of occurrence are important to recognise because anthropogenic stressors such as commercial fishing, marine tourism, offshore drilling, and chemical pollutants are becoming increasingly prevalent in Australia.
     
    Senior author Flinders Associate Professor Luciana Möller says the study complements ongoing research into the genetics, feeding ecology and diversification of Australia’s killer whale populations – as well as highlights the usefulness of citizen science data.
     
     “We hope this study will help inform the conservation of this species, which is still considered data deficient and remains to be adequately protected under Australian Government legislation.”
     
    The article, ‘Species distribution modeling of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Australian waters’ (2025) by Marissa J Hutchings (Flinders University), Guido J Parra (Flinders) and John A Totterdell (Cetacean Research Centre of WA), Rebecca Wellard (Project ORCA & Curtin University), David M Donnelly (Killer Whales Australia), Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo (Flinders) and Luciana Möller (Flinders) has been published in Ecology and Evolution (Wiley) DOI: 10.1002/ece3.71359.  First published: 3 July 2025
     
    Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Royal Society for South Australia (RSSA) Small Research Grants Scheme. Researchers thank research collaborators and citizen scientists for providing the supporting data.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – New study maps key regions for killer whales in Australian waters – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University
     
    While well documented in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctica, much less is known about killer whales  (Orcinus orca) in Australia. However, orcas are actually sighted year-round in all coastal states and territories and a new Flinders University study has now mapped this across three key regions.
     
    Research led by Flinders University’s Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) models the distribution of killer whales in Australian waters, shedding light on habitat preferences and uncovering ecological distinctions between populations.
     
    In collaboration with the Cetacean Research Centre of WA, Project ORCA and Killer Whales Australia, the paper published in Ecology and Evolution collates 1310 sightings of killer whales around the country from the past four decades. Species distribution modelling is used to pinpoint places of high habitat suitability in southeast, southwest, and northwest Australia – notably the Bonney Upwelling (South Australia / Victoria), Bremer Sub-basin (Western Australia), and Ningaloo Reef (WA).
     
     “This work greatly increases our understanding of killer whales in Australian waters and identifies areas of biological importance for management and monitoring,” says Flinders University CEBEL PhD candidate Marissa Hutchings, lead author of the article.
     
    “Not only now do we have a nationwide picture, but our findings also support the idea that at least two ecologically distinct forms of killer whales exist in Australia – a temperate and a tropical form.”
     
    The research calls for stronger conservation measures to protect these unique populations – “particularly given their role as apex predators in the marine ecosystem and the fact that some of their most important habitats are currently only partially protected by legislation,” she says.
     
    “More research will be vital in ensuring that this species can be adequately managed in a changing environment, but this will only be made possible by collaboration between researchers, citizen scientists, and marine users to improve the size and accessibility of datasets on both killer whales and their prey.”
     
    Another author on the paper, Flinders University Associate Professor Guido Parra, says differences in range and drivers of occurrence are important to recognise because anthropogenic stressors such as commercial fishing, marine tourism, offshore drilling, and chemical pollutants are becoming increasingly prevalent in Australia.
     
    Senior author Flinders Associate Professor Luciana Möller says the study complements ongoing research into the genetics, feeding ecology and diversification of Australia’s killer whale populations – as well as highlights the usefulness of citizen science data.
     
     “We hope this study will help inform the conservation of this species, which is still considered data deficient and remains to be adequately protected under Australian Government legislation.”
     
    The article, ‘Species distribution modeling of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Australian waters’ (2025) by Marissa J Hutchings (Flinders University), Guido J Parra (Flinders) and John A Totterdell (Cetacean Research Centre of WA), Rebecca Wellard (Project ORCA & Curtin University), David M Donnelly (Killer Whales Australia), Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo (Flinders) and Luciana Möller (Flinders) has been published in Ecology and Evolution (Wiley) DOI: 10.1002/ece3.71359.  First published: 3 July 2025
     
    Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Royal Society for South Australia (RSSA) Small Research Grants Scheme. Researchers thank research collaborators and citizen scientists for providing the supporting data.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – New study maps key regions for killer whales in Australian waters – Flinders

    Source: Flinders University
     
    While well documented in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctica, much less is known about killer whales  (Orcinus orca) in Australia. However, orcas are actually sighted year-round in all coastal states and territories and a new Flinders University study has now mapped this across three key regions.
     
    Research led by Flinders University’s Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) models the distribution of killer whales in Australian waters, shedding light on habitat preferences and uncovering ecological distinctions between populations.
     
    In collaboration with the Cetacean Research Centre of WA, Project ORCA and Killer Whales Australia, the paper published in Ecology and Evolution collates 1310 sightings of killer whales around the country from the past four decades. Species distribution modelling is used to pinpoint places of high habitat suitability in southeast, southwest, and northwest Australia – notably the Bonney Upwelling (South Australia / Victoria), Bremer Sub-basin (Western Australia), and Ningaloo Reef (WA).
     
     “This work greatly increases our understanding of killer whales in Australian waters and identifies areas of biological importance for management and monitoring,” says Flinders University CEBEL PhD candidate Marissa Hutchings, lead author of the article.
     
    “Not only now do we have a nationwide picture, but our findings also support the idea that at least two ecologically distinct forms of killer whales exist in Australia – a temperate and a tropical form.”
     
    The research calls for stronger conservation measures to protect these unique populations – “particularly given their role as apex predators in the marine ecosystem and the fact that some of their most important habitats are currently only partially protected by legislation,” she says.
     
    “More research will be vital in ensuring that this species can be adequately managed in a changing environment, but this will only be made possible by collaboration between researchers, citizen scientists, and marine users to improve the size and accessibility of datasets on both killer whales and their prey.”
     
    Another author on the paper, Flinders University Associate Professor Guido Parra, says differences in range and drivers of occurrence are important to recognise because anthropogenic stressors such as commercial fishing, marine tourism, offshore drilling, and chemical pollutants are becoming increasingly prevalent in Australia.
     
    Senior author Flinders Associate Professor Luciana Möller says the study complements ongoing research into the genetics, feeding ecology and diversification of Australia’s killer whale populations – as well as highlights the usefulness of citizen science data.
     
     “We hope this study will help inform the conservation of this species, which is still considered data deficient and remains to be adequately protected under Australian Government legislation.”
     
    The article, ‘Species distribution modeling of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Australian waters’ (2025) by Marissa J Hutchings (Flinders University), Guido J Parra (Flinders) and John A Totterdell (Cetacean Research Centre of WA), Rebecca Wellard (Project ORCA & Curtin University), David M Donnelly (Killer Whales Australia), Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo (Flinders) and Luciana Möller (Flinders) has been published in Ecology and Evolution (Wiley) DOI: 10.1002/ece3.71359.  First published: 3 July 2025
     
    Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Royal Society for South Australia (RSSA) Small Research Grants Scheme. Researchers thank research collaborators and citizen scientists for providing the supporting data.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Are people at the South Pole upside down?

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Abigail Bishop, Ph.D. Student in Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

    When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

    I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

    I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

    As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from to . All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

    How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
    The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

    After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

    Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

    ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
    NASA

    An out-of-this-world perspective

    To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

    If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

    Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

    That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

    These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

    This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
    Abigail Bishop

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

    – ref. Are people at the South Pole upside down? – https://theconversation.com/are-people-at-the-south-pole-upside-down-256754

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Are people at the South Pole upside down?

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Abigail Bishop, Ph.D. Student in Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

    When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

    I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

    I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

    As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from to . All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

    How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
    The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

    After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

    Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

    ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
    NASA

    An out-of-this-world perspective

    To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

    If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

    Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

    That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

    These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

    This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
    Abigail Bishop

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

    – ref. Are people at the South Pole upside down? – https://theconversation.com/are-people-at-the-south-pole-upside-down-256754

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Are people at the South Pole upside down?

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Abigail Bishop, Ph.D. Student in Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

    When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

    I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

    I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

    As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from to . All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

    How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
    The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

    After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

    Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

    ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
    NASA

    An out-of-this-world perspective

    To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

    If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

    Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

    That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

    These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

    This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
    Abigail Bishop

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

    – ref. Are people at the South Pole upside down? – https://theconversation.com/are-people-at-the-south-pole-upside-down-256754

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Are people at the South Pole upside down?

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Abigail Bishop, Ph.D. Student in Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

    When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

    I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

    I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

    As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from to . All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

    How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
    The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

    After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

    Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

    ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
    NASA

    An out-of-this-world perspective

    To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

    If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

    Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

    That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

    These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

    This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
    Abigail Bishop

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

    – ref. Are people at the South Pole upside down? – https://theconversation.com/are-people-at-the-south-pole-upside-down-256754

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Are people at the South Pole upside down?

    Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Abigail Bishop, Ph.D. Student in Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

    When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

    I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

    I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

    As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from to . All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

    How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
    The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

    After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

    Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

    ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
    NASA

    An out-of-this-world perspective

    To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

    If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

    Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

    That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

    These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

    This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
    Abigail Bishop

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

    – ref. Are people at the South Pole upside down? – https://theconversation.com/are-people-at-the-south-pole-upside-down-256754

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘Plenty of fish in the sea’? Not anymore, say UN experts in Nice

    Source: United Nations 4

    As yachts bobbed gently and delegates streamed by in a rising tide of lanyards and iPads at Port Lympia, Nice’s historic harbor, that statistic sent a ripple through the conference’s third day – a stark reminder that the world’s oceans are under growing pressure from overfishing, climate change and unsustainable management.

    Presented dockside at a press conference by Manuel Barange, Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the report offered a detailed global snapshot of how human activity is steadily draining the ocean – and how sound management can bring it back.

    “To use a banking comparison,” Mr. Barange told UN News in an interview ahead of the report’s launch, “we are extracting more than the interest the bank gives us. We are depleting the populations.”

    The Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources 2025, which draws on data from 2,570 marine fish stocks – the widest scope used by FAO yet – paints a complex picture: while over a third of stocks are being overexploited, 77 per cent of fish consumed globally still come from sustainable sources thanks to stronger yields from well-managed fisheries.

    “Management works,” Mr. Barange said. “We know how to rebuild populations.”

    A global patchwork

    Regional disparities remain stark. In the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada, over 90 per cent of stocks are sustainably fished. In Australia and New Zealand, the figure exceeds 85 per cent. The Antarctic – governed by strict international regulations – reports 100 per cent sustainability.

    But along northwest Africa’s coast, from Morocco to the Gulf of Guinea, over half of all stocks are overfished, with little sign of recovery. The Mediterranean and Black Sea fare even worse: 65 per cent of stocks there are unsustainable. Yet there is a positive sign – the number of boats going out to fish in that region has declined by nearly a third over the past decade, offering hope that policy shifts are beginning to take effect.

    UN News/Fabrice Robinet

    Assistant Director-General Manuel Barange, of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), unveiled the agency’s report on the world’s fish stocks.

    For Mr. Barange, the lesson is clear: where management systems exist – and are backed by resources – stocks recover.

    But science-based management is expensive. “Some regions can’t afford the infrastructure needed for control and monitoring, the science needed, the institutions needed,” he said.

    “We need to build up capacity for the regions that are not doing so well. Not to blame them, but to understand the reasons why they are not doing so well and support them in rebuilding their populations.”

    From collapse to comeback

    Perhaps the clearest example of recovery may be tuna. Once on the brink, the saltwater fish has made a remarkable comeback. Today, 87 per cent of major tuna stocks are sustainably fished, and 99 per cent of the global market comes from those stocks.

    “This is a very significant turnaround,” Mr. Barange said. “Because we have taken management seriously, we have set up monitoring systems, we set up management systems, compliance systems.”

    The full findings in the FAO’s new report are likely to shape policy discussions far beyond Nice. The agency has worked closely with 25 regional fisheries-management organizations to promote accountability and reform, and Mr. Barange believes the model is replicable – if the political will holds.

    Fish, livelihoods, and the blue economy

    Countries were reported to have finalized negotiations over the political declaration expected to be adopted on Friday at the close of UNOC3, as the conference is known. The statement will form part of the Nice Ocean Action Plan and is intended to align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – the 2022 agreement to protect 30 per cent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030.

    As the heat climbed once again over the stone quays of Nice – a city perched in one of Europe’s most climate-vulnerable regions – sustainable fisheries took center stage inside the conference halls. Action panels focused on supporting small-scale fishers and advancing inclusive ocean economies, with delegates exploring how to align conservation goals with social equity – especially in regions where millions depend on fishing for survival.

    We’re not apart from the ocean – we’re a part of it – FAO’s Manuel Barange

    “There are 600 million people worldwide who depend on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods,” Mr. Barange said. “In some countries, aquatic animals are the main source of protein. We’re not apart from the ocean – we’re a part of it.”

    As the conference moves into its final stretch, FAO’s warning shines like a beacon: one-third of the world’s fish stocks remain under too much pressure. But the data also offer something that can be elusive in the climate and biodiversity space – evidence that recovery is possible.

    Three days in, the FAO report underscores a central message voiced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on Monday, as he opened the summit: recovery is still within reach.

    “What was lost in a generation,” he said, “can return in a generation.”

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Guterres calls for an end to ocean ‘plunder’ as UN summit opens in France

    Source: United Nations MIL OSI b

    “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource,” he told delegates gathered at the port of Nice. “But we are failing it.”

    Oceans, he warned, are absorbing 90 per cent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and buckling under the strain: overfishing, rising temperatures, plastic pollution, acidification. Coral reefs are dying. Fish stocks are collapsing. Rising seas, he said, could soon “submerge deltas, destroy crops, and swallow coastlines — threatening many islands’ survival.”

    Call for stewardship

    More than 50 Heads of State and Government took part in the opening ceremony, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — a show of political force underscoring the summit’s weight.

    In total, over 120 countries are participating in the five-day gathering, known by the shorthand UNOC3, signaling a growing recognition that ocean health is inseparable from climate stability, food security, and global equity.

    French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is co-hosting the summit alongside Costa Rica, followed with a forceful appeal for science, law, and multilateral resolve.

    “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is for sale, any more than Antarctica or the high seas are for sale,” he declared. “If the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling.”

    He insisted the fate of the seas could not be left to markets or opinion. “The first response is therefore multilateralism,” Mr. Macron said. “The climate, like biodiversity, is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of scientifically established facts.”

    Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles took the podium next, thanking Mr. Guterres for elevating the ocean on the global agenda, then shifting to a stark warning.

    “The ocean is speaking to us — with bleached coral reefs, with storms, with wounded mangroves,” he said. “There’s no time left for rhetoric. Now is the time to act.”

    Condemning decades of treating the ocean as an “infinite pantry and global waste dump,” Mr. Chaves urged a shift from exploitation to stewardship.

    UN News/Heyi Zou

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the opening ceremony of UNOC3

    “Costa Rica is a small country, but this change has started,” he said. “We are now declaring peace with the ocean.”

    Most notably, the Costa Rican leader called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters until science can adequately assess the risks — a position already backed by 33 countries, he noted.

    A treaty within reach

    One of the summit’s core objectives is to help bring into force the landmark High Seas Treaty — known as the BBNJ accord — adopted in 2023 to safeguard life in international waters. Sixty ratifications are required for the treaty to become binding international law. Emmanuel Macron announced that this milestone is now within reach.

    “In addition to the 50 or so ratifications already submitted here in the last few hours, 15 countries have formally committed to joining them,” he said. “This means that the political agreement has been reached, which allows us to say that this [Treaty] will be properly implemented.”

    Whether the legal threshold is crossed this week or shortly after, the French President added, “it’s a win.”

    UN News/Heyi Zou

    The plenary hall of the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice.

    High-stakes negotiations in the ‘Blue Zone’

    The tone set by the opening speeches made clear that Nice will be the stage for high-stakes negotiations — on finalizing a global treaty on plastic pollution, scaling up ocean finance, and navigating conflicting opinions surrounding seabed mining.

    Hundreds of new pledges are expected to be announced, building on more than 2,000 voluntary commitments made since the first UN Ocean Conference in 2017. The week-long talks will culminate in the adoption of a political declaration and the unveiling of the Nice Ocean Action Plan, a blueprint aligned with the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a 2022 agreement to protect 30 per cent of marine and terrestrial ecosystems by 2030.

    “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” António Guterres warned.

    The summit is being held in a purpose-built venue overlooking Port Lympia, Nice’s historic marina, now transformed into the secured diplomatic ‘Blue Zone.’ On Sunday, a symbolic ceremony led by Li Junhua, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the conference, saw the French and UN flags raised above the harbor.

    “This ceremony marks not only the formal transfer of this historic port into the hands of the United Nations, but also the beginning of a week of shared commitment, responsibility, and hope,” said Mr. Li.

    UN News/Fabrice Robinet

    Ludovic Burns Tuki marked the start of the summit by blowing a pu, a traditional conch shell

    Culture, science, and collective memory

    Before the negotiations began in earnest, Monday’s opening turned to ritual and reflection. Polynesian climate activist Ludovic Burns Tuki marked the start of the summit by blowing a pu, a traditional conch shell.

    “It’s a way to call everyone,” he told UN News after the ceremony. “I blow with the support of our ancestors.” In Polynesian navigation, the conch is sounded upon arrival at a new island to signal peaceful intent. Mr. Tuki, born in Tahiti to parents from the Tuamotu and Easter Islands, sees the ocean as both boundary and bond.

    “We are not only countries,” he said. “We need to think like a collective system, because this is one ocean, one people, a future for all.”

    The cultural segment also included a blessing by Tahitian historian Hinano Murphy, a martial arts performance by French taekwondo master Olivier Sicard, a scientific reflection by deep-sea explorer Antje Boetius, and a poetic testimony by Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, accompanied by kora musician Wassa Kouyaté.

    What was lost can return

    The goals of the Conference are ambitious but clear: to advance the ‘30 by 30’ pledge, promote sustainable fisheries, decarbonize maritime transport, and unlock new streams of “blue finance,” including ocean bonds and debt-for-nature swaps to support vulnerable coastal states.

    In addition to plenary sessions, Monday will feature two high-level action panels: one on conserving and restoring marine ecosystems — including deep-sea habitats — and another on strengthening scientific cooperation, technology exchange, and education to bridge the gap between science and policy.

    In his opening statement, António Guterres stressed that Sustainable Development Goal 14 , on ‘Life Below Water’, remains the least funded of the 17 UN global goals.

    “This must change,” he said. “We need bold models to unlock private capital.”

    “What was lost in a generation,” he concluded, “can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors — teeming with life and diversity — can be more than legend. It can be our legacy.”

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Darla Hatton MacDonald, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Tasmania

    VCG via Getty Images

    The number of tourists heading to Antarctica has been skyrocketing. From fewer than 8,000 a year about three decades ago, nearly 125,000 tourists flocked to the icy continent in 2023–24. The trend is likely to continue in the long term.

    Unchecked tourism growth in Antarctica risks undermining the very environment that draws visitors. This would be bad for operators and tourists. It would also be bad for Antarctica – and the planet.

    Over the past two weeks, the nations that decide what human activities are permitted in Antarctica have convened in Italy. The meeting incorporates discussions by a special working group that aims to address tourism issues.

    It’s not easy to manage tourist visitors to a continent beyond any one country’s control. So, how do we stop Antarctica being loved to death? The answer may lie in economics.

    Future visitor trends

    We recently modelled future visitor trends in Antarctica. A conservative scenario shows by 2033–34, visitor numbers could reach around 285,000. Under the least conservative scenario, numbers could reach 450,000 – however, this figure incorporates pent-up demand from COVID shutdowns that will likely diminish.

    The vast majority of the Antarctic tourism industry comprises cruise-ship tourism in the Antarctic Peninsula. A small percentage of visitors travel to the Ross Sea region and parts of the continent’s interior.

    Antarctic tourism is managed by an international set of agreements together known as the Antarctic Treaty System, as well as the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO).

    The Treaty System is notoriously slow-moving and riven by geopolitics, and IAATO does not have the power to cap visitor numbers.

    Pressure on a fragile continent

    About two-thirds of Antarctic tourists land on the continent. The visitors can threaten fragile ecosystems by:

    • compacting soils
    • trampling fragile vegetation
    • introducing non-native microbes and plant species
    • disturbing breeding colonies of birds and seals.

    Even when cruise ships don’t dock, they can cause problems such as air, water and noise pollution – as well as anchoring that can damage the seabed.

    Then there’s carbon emissions. Each cruise ship traveller to Antarctica typically produces between 3.2 and 4.1 tonnes of carbon, not including travel to the port of departure. This is similar to the carbon emissions an average person produces in a year.

    Global warming caused by carbon emissions is damaging Antarctica. At the Peninsula region, glaciers and ice shelves are retreating and sea ice is shrinking, affecting wildlife and vegetation.

    Of course, Antarctic tourism represents only a tiny fraction of overall emissions. However, the industry has a moral obligation to protect the place that maintains it. And tourism in Antarctica can compound damage from climate change, tipping delicate ecosystems into decline.

    Some operators use hybrid ships and less polluting fuels, and offset emissions to offer carbon-neutral travel.

    IAATO has pledged to halve emissions by 2050 – a positive step, but far short of the net-zero targets set by the International Maritime Organization.

    Can economics protect Antarctica?

    Market-based tools – such as taxes, cap-and-trade schemes and certification – have been used in environmental management around the world. Research shows these tools could also prevent Antarctic tourist numbers from getting out of control.

    One option is requiring visitors to pay a tourism tax. This would help raise revenue to support environmental monitoring and enforcement in Antarctica, as well as fund research.

    Such a tax already exists in the small South Asian nation of Bhutan, where each tourist pays a tax of US$100 (A$152) a night. But while a tax might deter the budget-conscious, it probably wouldn’t deter high income, experience-driven tourists.

    Alternatively, a cap-and-trade system would create a limited number of Antarctica visitor permits for a fixed period. The initial distribution of permits could be among tourism operators or countries, via negotiation, auction or lottery. Unused permits could then be sold, making them quite valuable.

    Caps have been successful at managing tourism impacts elsewhere, such as Lord Howe Island, although there are no trades allowed in that system.

    Any cap on tourist numbers in Antarctica, and rules for trading, must be based on evidence about what the environment can handle. But there is a lack of precise data on Antarctica’s carrying capacity. And permit allocations amongst the operators and nations would need to be fair and inclusive.

    Alternatively, existing industry standards could be augmented with independent schemes certifying particular practices – for example, reducing carbon footprints. This could be backed by robust monitoring and enforcement to avoid greenwashing.

    Looking ahead

    Given the complexities of Antarctic governance, our research finds that the most workable solution is a combination of these market-based options, alongside other regulatory measures.

    So far, parties to the Antarctic treaty have made very few binding rules for the tourism industry. And some market-based levers will be more acceptable to the parties than others. But doing nothing is not a solution.

    The authors would like to acknowledge Valeria Senigaglia, Natalie Stoeckl and Jing Tian and the rest of the team for their contributions to the research upon which this article was based.

    Darla Hatton MacDonald receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations Centre, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and the Soils CRC. She has received in-kind support from Antarctic tour operator HX.

    Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Dutch Research Council, and DFAT. She also receives in-kind support and occasional funding from Antarctic tourism operator HX and in-kind support from other tour operators.

    – ref. More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death – https://theconversation.com/more-and-more-tourists-are-flocking-to-antarctica-lets-stop-it-from-being-loved-to-death-258294

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania

    Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock

    Ice loss in Antarctica and its impact on the planet – sea level rise, changes to ocean currents and disturbance of wildlife and food webs – has been in the news a lot lately. All of these threats were likely on the minds of the delegates to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, which finishes up today in Milan, Italy.

    This meeting is where decisions are made about the continent’s future. These decisions rely on evidence from scientific research. Moreover, only countries that produce significant Antarctic research – as well as being parties to the treaty – get to have a final say in these decisions.

    Our new report – published as a preprint through the University of the Arctic – shows the rate of research on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean is falling at exactly the time when it should be increasing. Moreover, research leadership is changing, with China taking the lead for the first time.

    This points to a dangerous disinvestment in Antarctic research just when it is needed, alongside a changing of the guard in national influence. Antarctica and the research done there are key to everyone’s future, so it’s vital to understand what this change might lead to.

    Why is Antarctic research so important?

    With the Antarctic region rapidly warming, its ice shelves destabilising and sea ice shrinking, understanding the South Polar environment is more crucial than ever.

    Ice loss in Antarctica not only contributes to sea level rise, but impacts wildlife habitats and local food chains. It also changes the dynamics of ocean currents, which could interfere with global food webs, including international fisheries that supply a growing amount of food.

    Research to understand these impacts is vital. First, knowing the impact of our actions – particularly carbon emissions – gives us an increased drive to make changes and lobby governments to do so.

    Second, even when changes are already locked in, to prepare ourselves we need to know what these changes will look like.

    And third, we need to understand the threats to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean environment to govern it properly. This is where the treaty comes in.

    What is the Antarctic Treaty?

    The region below 60 degrees south is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, along with subsequent agreements. Together they are known as the Antarctic Treaty System.

    Fifty-eight countries are parties to the treaty, but only 29 of them – called consultative parties – can make binding decisions about the region. They comprise the 12 original signatories from 1959, along with 17 more recent signatory nations that produce substantial scientific research relating to Antarctica.

    This makes research a key part of a nation’s influence over what happens in Antarctica.

    For most of its history, the Antarctic Treaty System has functioned remarkably well. It maintained peace in the region during the Cold War, facilitated scientific cooperation, and put arguments about territorial claims on indefinite hold. It indefinitely forbade mining, and managed fisheries.

    Lately, however, there has been growing dysfunction in the treaty system.

    Environmental protections that might seem obvious – such as marine protected areas and special protections for threatened emperor penguins – have stalled.

    Because decisions are made by consensus, any country can effectively block progress. Russia and China – both long-term actors in the system – have been at the centre of the impasse.



    Read more:
    Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    What did our report find?

    Tracking the amount of Antarctic research being done tells us whether nations as a whole are investing enough in understanding the region and its global impact.

    It also tells us which nations are investing the most and are therefore likely to have substantial influence.

    Our new report examined the number of papers published on Antarctic and Southern Ocean topics from 2016 to 2024, using the Scopus database. We also looked at other factors, such as the countries affiliated with each paper.

    The results show five significant changes are happening in the world of Antarctic research.

    • The number of Antarctic and Southern Ocean publications peaked in 2021 and then fell slightly yearly through to 2024.
    • While the United States has for decades been the leader in Antarctic research, China overtook them in 2022.
    • If we look only at the high-quality publications (those published in the best 25% of journals) China still took over the US, in 2024.
    • Of the top six countries in overall publications (China, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Russia) all except China have declined in publication numbers since 2016.
    • Although collaboration in publications is higher for Antarctic research than in non-Antarctic fields, Russia, India and China have anomalously low rates of co-authorship compared with many other signatory countries.

    Why is this research decline a problem?

    A recent parliamentary inquiry in Australia emphasised the need for funding certainty. In the UK, a House of Commons committee report considered it “imperative for the UK to significantly expand its research efforts in Antarctica”, in particular in relation to sea level rise.

    US commentators have pointed to the inadequacy of the country’s icebreaker infrastructure. The Trump administration’s recent cuts to Antarctic funding are only likely to exacerbate the situation. Meanwhile China has built a fifth station in Antarctica and announced plans for a sixth.

    Given the nation’s population and global influence, China’s leadership in Antarctic research is not surprising. If China were to take a lead in Antarctic environmental protection that matched its scientific heft, its move to lead position in the research ranks could be positive. Stronger multi-country collaboration in research could also strengthen overall cooperation.

    But the overall drop in global Antarctic research investment is a problem however you look at it. We ignore it at our peril.

    Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Dutch Research Council, the Council on Australian and Latin American Relations DFAT and HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions). She has received in-kind support from Hurtigruten Expeditions in the recent past. The University of Tasmania is a member of the UArctic, which has provided support for this project.

    Keith Larson is affiliated with the UArctic and European Polar Board. The UArctic paid for the development and publication of this report. The UArctic Thematic Network on Research Analytics and Bibliometrics conducted the analysis and developed the report. The Arctic Centre at Umeå University provided in-kind support for staff time on the report.

    – ref. Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-research-is-in-decline-and-the-timing-couldnt-be-worse-260197

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Sechin Points Out Lack of Scientific Basis for Climate Alarmism

    Source: Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    From a scientific point of view, the large-scale introduction of RES will not have the expected effect on the climate. The refusal of the main initiators of the climate agenda from its implementation and the termination of preferential financing of “green” projects is confirmed by objective conclusions of a number of scientists. This was stated by Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, during the Energy Panel of the XXVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

    Sechin noted that the whole concept of “net zero” is based on the assumption of climate destruction due to the growing concentration of carbon dioxide. However, recent studies by Western experts have confirmed earlier conclusions by Nobel laureate John Clauser about the dominant influence of clouds on climate processes. “Even a slight decrease in cloud cover at altitudes below 2,000 meters can increase solar heating of the Earth’s surface by a few per cent. This effect is several times greater than the effect that doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have on climate,” said the CEO of Rosneft.

    According to the conclusions of American physicists Richard Lindzen and William Happer, achieving “net zero” in the U.S. by 2050 will avoid a temperature rise of only two hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit, and worldwide – only thirteen hundredths of a degree. The effect looks obviously disproportionate to the amount of costs required, Igor Sechin emphasized.

    He also noted the ambiguity of the thesis about the reduction of the ice cover, which is often used by supporters of the theory of the “green” transition. Recent studies by Chinese scientists have shown that from 2021 to 2023 in Antarctica there was a significant increase in ice mass, 108 gigatons annually.

    The CEO of Rosneft believes that the development of RES should be based on time-tested traditional energy sources in order not to undermine global energy security. Historically, the energy transition has always been the result of growing inter-fuel competition based on the principle of the greatest efficiency. Therefore, today, coal remains the largest source of electricity in the world and the second largest source of energy with a 25% share of the global energy mix.

     “Global demand for the fuel set a new record of 8.8 billion tons last year and international agencies have once again been forced to revise expectations for peak demand,” Sechin summarized. Despite growing global concern over global warming, global coal consumption has grown by 75% since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and by almost 15% since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

    Department of Information and Advertising
    Rosneft Oil Company
    June 21, 2025

    Please note; this information is the raw content received directly from the information source. This is exactly what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 3, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 3, 2025.

    Childcare sexual abuse is mostly committed by men. Failing to recognise that puts children at risk
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Delanie Woodlock, Senior research fellow, UNSW Sydney Australians are reeling from the news that Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 offences against children, including rape. As 1,200 children await results for sexually transmitted infections, a horror no parent should ever

    Overtourism is reshaping communities in Europe – could Australia be next?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Adjunct professor and adjunct senior lecturer in tourism management, University of South Australia Bumble Dee/Shutterstock A media frenzy erupted over the recent Jeff Bezos “wedding of the century” in Venice. Also notable were the public protests that showed tensions around tourism, especially mass tourism, are

    How should I talk to my kids about abuse and body safety?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Westrupp, Associate Professor in Psychology, Deakin University Jose Luis Peleaz/Getty Hearing about child abuse in trusted places such as childcare centres is every parent’s worst nightmare. So, how can we talk to our kids about it and help them stay safe? While it’s not always possible

    Creative Australia’s backflip on Venice Biennale representatives exposes deep governance failures
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cairnduff, Lecturer in Media and Communications, The University of Melbourne The reinstatement of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale closes a bruising recent cultural episode and exposes the fragility of the systems meant to protect artistic freedom

    Catholic Church warns against PNG declaring itself a ‘Christian country’
    By Reinhard Minong in Port Moresby The Catholic Church has strongly warned against Papua New Guinea’s political rhetoric and push to declare the nation a Christian country, saying such a move threatens constitutional freedoms and risks dangerous implications for the country’s future. Speaking before the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communication on Tuesday at Rapopo during

    Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock Ice loss in Antarctica and its impact on the planet – sea level rise, changes to ocean currents and disturbance of wildlife and food webs – has been in the news a lot

    Homes are more than walls and a roof, especially for Indigenous people. It’s time housing policy reflects that
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giles Gunesekera, PhD Researcher, University of Technology Sydney Australia is experiencing a housing crisis. But for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the challenge runs deeper than high rents and limited supply. A major problem is that housing in Australia is rarely designed with Indigenous communities

    Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island – SBS podcast
    Pacific Media Watch In July 1985, Australia’s Pacific territory of Norfolk Island (pop. 2188) became the centre of a real life international spy thriller. Four French agents sailed there on board the Ouvéa, a yacht from Kanaky New Caledonia, after bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. The Rainbow Warrior was

    Trump is not like other presidents – but can he beat the ‘second term curse’ that haunts the White House?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato Getty Images While he likes to provoke opponents with the possibility of serving a third term, Donald Trump faces a more immediate historical burden that has plagued so many presidents: the “second term curse”. Twenty-one US

    More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darla Hatton MacDonald, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Tasmania VCG via Getty Images The number of tourists heading to Antarctica has been skyrocketing. From fewer than 8,000 a year about three decades ago, nearly 125,000 tourists flocked to the icy continent in 2023–24. The trend is

    Australia’s superannuation regulator is worried about your fund’s spending. Should you be?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney GettyImages skynesher/Getty Australia’s superannuation regulator has written to Australian superannuation funds raising concerns their spending might not be benefiting members. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is not just concerned with the type of expenses, but with the corporate

    Thumbs up: good or passive aggressive? How emojis became the most confusing kind of online language
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Ferdinands, Lecturer in Digital Content Creation, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney The Conversation, CC BY Emojis, as well as memes and other forms of short-form content, have become central to how we express ourselves and connect online. Yet as meanings shift across different

    Lung cancer screening hopes to save lives. But we also need to watch for possible harms
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Bell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney There is much to commend about Australia’s lung cancer screening program, which started on July 1. The program is based on gold-standard trial evidence showing this type of screening is likely to reduce

    Uganda’s ride-hailing motorbike service promised safety – but drivers are under pressure to speed
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rich Mallett, Research Associate and Independent Researcher, ODI Global Motorcycle-taxis are one of the fastest and most convenient ways to get around Uganda’s congested capital, Kampala. But they are also the most dangerous. Though they account for one-third of public transport trips taking place within the city,

    Philadelphia’s $2B affordable housing plan relies heavily on municipal bonds, which can come with hidden costs for taxpayers
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jade Craig, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Mississippi The Parker administration says it will issue $800 million in bonds over the next four years to fund affordable housing. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation, CC BY-NC-SA Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative, which was included in

    Around 250 million years ago, Earth was near-lifeless and locked in a hothouse state. Now scientists know why
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Merdith, DECRA Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide Some 252 million years ago, almost all life on Earth disappeared. Known as the Permian–Triassic mass extinction – or the Great Dying – this was the most catastrophic of the five mass extinction events recognised in

    Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerrynne Liddle on seizing more opportunities with Indigenous Australians
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra From this Sunday, Australians will be celebrating NAIDOC Week, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The week highlights the achievements, history and culture of Australia’s First Peoples. It’s also a time to reflect on the huge effort needed to

    Supervision gaps can lead to child abuse – what can be done?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marg Rogers, Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education; Post Doctoral Fellow, Manna Institute, University of New England Suwatchai Pluemruetai/Shutterstock The horrific allegations of child abuse by an early childhood educator in Victoria came to light at a time when the early learning sector was already under fire for

    Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has passed the US Senate – these are the winners and losers
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lester Munson, Non-Resident Fellow, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Igor Link/Shutterstock One of the unique aspects of Washington life is a Senate “vote-a-rama,” in which the upper house of Congress tortures itself by pulling a marathon all-nighter of speeches, amendments and votes on a critical

    Tonga cybersecurity attack wake-up call for Pacific, warns expert
    By Teuila Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Tongan cybersecurity expert says the country’s health data hack is a “wake-up call” for the whole region. Siosaia Vaipuna, a former director of Tonga’s cybersecurity agency, spoke to RNZ Pacific in the wake of the June 15 cyberattack on the country’s Health Ministry. Vaipuna said Tonga and

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 3, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 3, 2025.

    Childcare sexual abuse is mostly committed by men. Failing to recognise that puts children at risk
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Delanie Woodlock, Senior research fellow, UNSW Sydney Australians are reeling from the news that Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 offences against children, including rape. As 1,200 children await results for sexually transmitted infections, a horror no parent should ever

    Overtourism is reshaping communities in Europe – could Australia be next?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Adjunct professor and adjunct senior lecturer in tourism management, University of South Australia Bumble Dee/Shutterstock A media frenzy erupted over the recent Jeff Bezos “wedding of the century” in Venice. Also notable were the public protests that showed tensions around tourism, especially mass tourism, are

    How should I talk to my kids about abuse and body safety?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Westrupp, Associate Professor in Psychology, Deakin University Jose Luis Peleaz/Getty Hearing about child abuse in trusted places such as childcare centres is every parent’s worst nightmare. So, how can we talk to our kids about it and help them stay safe? While it’s not always possible

    Creative Australia’s backflip on Venice Biennale representatives exposes deep governance failures
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cairnduff, Lecturer in Media and Communications, The University of Melbourne The reinstatement of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale closes a bruising recent cultural episode and exposes the fragility of the systems meant to protect artistic freedom

    Catholic Church warns against PNG declaring itself a ‘Christian country’
    By Reinhard Minong in Port Moresby The Catholic Church has strongly warned against Papua New Guinea’s political rhetoric and push to declare the nation a Christian country, saying such a move threatens constitutional freedoms and risks dangerous implications for the country’s future. Speaking before the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communication on Tuesday at Rapopo during

    Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock Ice loss in Antarctica and its impact on the planet – sea level rise, changes to ocean currents and disturbance of wildlife and food webs – has been in the news a lot

    Homes are more than walls and a roof, especially for Indigenous people. It’s time housing policy reflects that
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giles Gunesekera, PhD Researcher, University of Technology Sydney Australia is experiencing a housing crisis. But for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the challenge runs deeper than high rents and limited supply. A major problem is that housing in Australia is rarely designed with Indigenous communities

    Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island – SBS podcast
    Pacific Media Watch In July 1985, Australia’s Pacific territory of Norfolk Island (pop. 2188) became the centre of a real life international spy thriller. Four French agents sailed there on board the Ouvéa, a yacht from Kanaky New Caledonia, after bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. The Rainbow Warrior was

    Trump is not like other presidents – but can he beat the ‘second term curse’ that haunts the White House?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato Getty Images While he likes to provoke opponents with the possibility of serving a third term, Donald Trump faces a more immediate historical burden that has plagued so many presidents: the “second term curse”. Twenty-one US

    More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darla Hatton MacDonald, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Tasmania VCG via Getty Images The number of tourists heading to Antarctica has been skyrocketing. From fewer than 8,000 a year about three decades ago, nearly 125,000 tourists flocked to the icy continent in 2023–24. The trend is

    Australia’s superannuation regulator is worried about your fund’s spending. Should you be?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney GettyImages skynesher/Getty Australia’s superannuation regulator has written to Australian superannuation funds raising concerns their spending might not be benefiting members. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is not just concerned with the type of expenses, but with the corporate

    Thumbs up: good or passive aggressive? How emojis became the most confusing kind of online language
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Ferdinands, Lecturer in Digital Content Creation, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney The Conversation, CC BY Emojis, as well as memes and other forms of short-form content, have become central to how we express ourselves and connect online. Yet as meanings shift across different

    Lung cancer screening hopes to save lives. But we also need to watch for possible harms
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Bell, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney There is much to commend about Australia’s lung cancer screening program, which started on July 1. The program is based on gold-standard trial evidence showing this type of screening is likely to reduce

    Uganda’s ride-hailing motorbike service promised safety – but drivers are under pressure to speed
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rich Mallett, Research Associate and Independent Researcher, ODI Global Motorcycle-taxis are one of the fastest and most convenient ways to get around Uganda’s congested capital, Kampala. But they are also the most dangerous. Though they account for one-third of public transport trips taking place within the city,

    Philadelphia’s $2B affordable housing plan relies heavily on municipal bonds, which can come with hidden costs for taxpayers
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jade Craig, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Mississippi The Parker administration says it will issue $800 million in bonds over the next four years to fund affordable housing. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation, CC BY-NC-SA Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative, which was included in

    Around 250 million years ago, Earth was near-lifeless and locked in a hothouse state. Now scientists know why
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Merdith, DECRA Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide Some 252 million years ago, almost all life on Earth disappeared. Known as the Permian–Triassic mass extinction – or the Great Dying – this was the most catastrophic of the five mass extinction events recognised in

    Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerrynne Liddle on seizing more opportunities with Indigenous Australians
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra From this Sunday, Australians will be celebrating NAIDOC Week, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The week highlights the achievements, history and culture of Australia’s First Peoples. It’s also a time to reflect on the huge effort needed to

    Supervision gaps can lead to child abuse – what can be done?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marg Rogers, Senior Lecturer, Early Childhood Education; Post Doctoral Fellow, Manna Institute, University of New England Suwatchai Pluemruetai/Shutterstock The horrific allegations of child abuse by an early childhood educator in Victoria came to light at a time when the early learning sector was already under fire for

    Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has passed the US Senate – these are the winners and losers
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lester Munson, Non-Resident Fellow, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Igor Link/Shutterstock One of the unique aspects of Washington life is a Senate “vote-a-rama,” in which the upper house of Congress tortures itself by pulling a marathon all-nighter of speeches, amendments and votes on a critical

    Tonga cybersecurity attack wake-up call for Pacific, warns expert
    By Teuila Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Tongan cybersecurity expert says the country’s health data hack is a “wake-up call” for the whole region. Siosaia Vaipuna, a former director of Tonga’s cybersecurity agency, spoke to RNZ Pacific in the wake of the June 15 cyberattack on the country’s Health Ministry. Vaipuna said Tonga and

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania

    Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock

    Ice loss in Antarctica and its impact on the planet – sea level rise, changes to ocean currents and disturbance of wildlife and food webs – has been in the news a lot lately. All of these threats were likely on the minds of the delegates to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, which finishes up today in Milan, Italy.

    This meeting is where decisions are made about the continent’s future. These decisions rely on evidence from scientific research. Moreover, only countries that produce significant Antarctic research – as well as being parties to the treaty – get to have a final say in these decisions.

    Our new report – published as a preprint through the University of the Arctic – shows the rate of research on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean is falling at exactly the time when it should be increasing. Moreover, research leadership is changing, with China taking the lead for the first time.

    This points to a dangerous disinvestment in Antarctic research just when it is needed, alongside a changing of the guard in national influence. Antarctica and the research done there are key to everyone’s future, so it’s vital to understand what this change might lead to.

    Why is Antarctic research so important?

    With the Antarctic region rapidly warming, its ice shelves destabilising and sea ice shrinking, understanding the South Polar environment is more crucial than ever.

    Ice loss in Antarctica not only contributes to sea level rise, but impacts wildlife habitats and local food chains. It also changes the dynamics of ocean currents, which could interfere with global food webs, including international fisheries that supply a growing amount of food.

    Research to understand these impacts is vital. First, knowing the impact of our actions – particularly carbon emissions – gives us an increased drive to make changes and lobby governments to do so.

    Second, even when changes are already locked in, to prepare ourselves we need to know what these changes will look like.

    And third, we need to understand the threats to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean environment to govern it properly. This is where the treaty comes in.

    What is the Antarctic Treaty?

    The region below 60 degrees south is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, along with subsequent agreements. Together they are known as the Antarctic Treaty System.

    Fifty-eight countries are parties to the treaty, but only 29 of them – called consultative parties – can make binding decisions about the region. They comprise the 12 original signatories from 1959, along with 17 more recent signatory nations that produce substantial scientific research relating to Antarctica.

    This makes research a key part of a nation’s influence over what happens in Antarctica.

    For most of its history, the Antarctic Treaty System has functioned remarkably well. It maintained peace in the region during the Cold War, facilitated scientific cooperation, and put arguments about territorial claims on indefinite hold. It indefinitely forbade mining, and managed fisheries.

    Lately, however, there has been growing dysfunction in the treaty system.

    Environmental protections that might seem obvious – such as marine protected areas and special protections for threatened emperor penguins – have stalled.

    Because decisions are made by consensus, any country can effectively block progress. Russia and China – both long-term actors in the system – have been at the centre of the impasse.



    Read more:
    Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    What did our report find?

    Tracking the amount of Antarctic research being done tells us whether nations as a whole are investing enough in understanding the region and its global impact.

    It also tells us which nations are investing the most and are therefore likely to have substantial influence.

    Our new report examined the number of papers published on Antarctic and Southern Ocean topics from 2016 to 2024, using the Scopus database. We also looked at other factors, such as the countries affiliated with each paper.

    The results show five significant changes are happening in the world of Antarctic research.

    • The number of Antarctic and Southern Ocean publications peaked in 2021 and then fell slightly yearly through to 2024.
    • While the United States has for decades been the leader in Antarctic research, China overtook them in 2022.
    • If we look only at the high-quality publications (those published in the best 25% of journals) China still took over the US, in 2024.
    • Of the top six countries in overall publications (China, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Russia) all except China have declined in publication numbers since 2016.
    • Although collaboration in publications is higher for Antarctic research than in non-Antarctic fields, Russia, India and China have anomalously low rates of co-authorship compared with many other signatory countries.

    Why is this research decline a problem?

    A recent parliamentary inquiry in Australia emphasised the need for funding certainty. In the UK, a House of Commons committee report considered it “imperative for the UK to significantly expand its research efforts in Antarctica”, in particular in relation to sea level rise.

    US commentators have pointed to the inadequacy of the country’s icebreaker infrastructure. The Trump administration’s recent cuts to Antarctic funding are only likely to exacerbate the situation. Meanwhile China has built a fifth station in Antarctica and announced plans for a sixth.

    Given the nation’s population and global influence, China’s leadership in Antarctic research is not surprising. If China were to take a lead in Antarctic environmental protection that matched its scientific heft, its move to lead position in the research ranks could be positive. Stronger multi-country collaboration in research could also strengthen overall cooperation.

    But the overall drop in global Antarctic research investment is a problem however you look at it. We ignore it at our peril.

    Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Dutch Research Council, the Council on Australian and Latin American Relations DFAT and HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions). She has received in-kind support from Hurtigruten Expeditions in the recent past. The University of Tasmania is a member of the UArctic, which has provided support for this project.

    Keith Larson is affiliated with the UArctic and European Polar Board. The UArctic paid for the development and publication of this report. The UArctic Thematic Network on Research Analytics and Bibliometrics conducted the analysis and developed the report. The Arctic Centre at Umeå University provided in-kind support for staff time on the report.

    – ref. Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-research-is-in-decline-and-the-timing-couldnt-be-worse-260197

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania

    Oleksandr Matsibura/Shutterstock

    Ice loss in Antarctica and its impact on the planet – sea level rise, changes to ocean currents and disturbance of wildlife and food webs – has been in the news a lot lately. All of these threats were likely on the minds of the delegates to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, which finishes up today in Milan, Italy.

    This meeting is where decisions are made about the continent’s future. These decisions rely on evidence from scientific research. Moreover, only countries that produce significant Antarctic research – as well as being parties to the treaty – get to have a final say in these decisions.

    Our new report – published as a preprint through the University of the Arctic – shows the rate of research on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean is falling at exactly the time when it should be increasing. Moreover, research leadership is changing, with China taking the lead for the first time.

    This points to a dangerous disinvestment in Antarctic research just when it is needed, alongside a changing of the guard in national influence. Antarctica and the research done there are key to everyone’s future, so it’s vital to understand what this change might lead to.

    Why is Antarctic research so important?

    With the Antarctic region rapidly warming, its ice shelves destabilising and sea ice shrinking, understanding the South Polar environment is more crucial than ever.

    Ice loss in Antarctica not only contributes to sea level rise, but impacts wildlife habitats and local food chains. It also changes the dynamics of ocean currents, which could interfere with global food webs, including international fisheries that supply a growing amount of food.

    Research to understand these impacts is vital. First, knowing the impact of our actions – particularly carbon emissions – gives us an increased drive to make changes and lobby governments to do so.

    Second, even when changes are already locked in, to prepare ourselves we need to know what these changes will look like.

    And third, we need to understand the threats to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean environment to govern it properly. This is where the treaty comes in.

    What is the Antarctic Treaty?

    The region below 60 degrees south is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, along with subsequent agreements. Together they are known as the Antarctic Treaty System.

    Fifty-eight countries are parties to the treaty, but only 29 of them – called consultative parties – can make binding decisions about the region. They comprise the 12 original signatories from 1959, along with 17 more recent signatory nations that produce substantial scientific research relating to Antarctica.

    This makes research a key part of a nation’s influence over what happens in Antarctica.

    For most of its history, the Antarctic Treaty System has functioned remarkably well. It maintained peace in the region during the Cold War, facilitated scientific cooperation, and put arguments about territorial claims on indefinite hold. It indefinitely forbade mining, and managed fisheries.

    Lately, however, there has been growing dysfunction in the treaty system.

    Environmental protections that might seem obvious – such as marine protected areas and special protections for threatened emperor penguins – have stalled.

    Because decisions are made by consensus, any country can effectively block progress. Russia and China – both long-term actors in the system – have been at the centre of the impasse.



    Read more:
    Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    What did our report find?

    Tracking the amount of Antarctic research being done tells us whether nations as a whole are investing enough in understanding the region and its global impact.

    It also tells us which nations are investing the most and are therefore likely to have substantial influence.

    Our new report examined the number of papers published on Antarctic and Southern Ocean topics from 2016 to 2024, using the Scopus database. We also looked at other factors, such as the countries affiliated with each paper.

    The results show five significant changes are happening in the world of Antarctic research.

    • The number of Antarctic and Southern Ocean publications peaked in 2021 and then fell slightly yearly through to 2024.
    • While the United States has for decades been the leader in Antarctic research, China overtook them in 2022.
    • If we look only at the high-quality publications (those published in the best 25% of journals) China still took over the US, in 2024.
    • Of the top six countries in overall publications (China, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Russia) all except China have declined in publication numbers since 2016.
    • Although collaboration in publications is higher for Antarctic research than in non-Antarctic fields, Russia, India and China have anomalously low rates of co-authorship compared with many other signatory countries.

    Why is this research decline a problem?

    A recent parliamentary inquiry in Australia emphasised the need for funding certainty. In the UK, a House of Commons committee report considered it “imperative for the UK to significantly expand its research efforts in Antarctica”, in particular in relation to sea level rise.

    US commentators have pointed to the inadequacy of the country’s icebreaker infrastructure. The Trump administration’s recent cuts to Antarctic funding are only likely to exacerbate the situation. Meanwhile China has built a fifth station in Antarctica and announced plans for a sixth.

    Given the nation’s population and global influence, China’s leadership in Antarctic research is not surprising. If China were to take a lead in Antarctic environmental protection that matched its scientific heft, its move to lead position in the research ranks could be positive. Stronger multi-country collaboration in research could also strengthen overall cooperation.

    But the overall drop in global Antarctic research investment is a problem however you look at it. We ignore it at our peril.

    Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Dutch Research Council, the Council on Australian and Latin American Relations DFAT and HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions). She has received in-kind support from Hurtigruten Expeditions in the recent past. The University of Tasmania is a member of the UArctic, which has provided support for this project.

    Keith Larson is affiliated with the UArctic and European Polar Board. The UArctic paid for the development and publication of this report. The UArctic Thematic Network on Research Analytics and Bibliometrics conducted the analysis and developed the report. The Arctic Centre at Umeå University provided in-kind support for staff time on the report.

    – ref. Antarctic research is in decline, and the timing couldn’t be worse – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-research-is-in-decline-and-the-timing-couldnt-be-worse-260197

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darla Hatton MacDonald, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Tasmania

    VCG via Getty Images

    The number of tourists heading to Antarctica has been skyrocketing. From fewer than 8,000 a year about three decades ago, nearly 125,000 tourists flocked to the icy continent in 2023–24. The trend is likely to continue in the long term.

    Unchecked tourism growth in Antarctica risks undermining the very environment that draws visitors. This would be bad for operators and tourists. It would also be bad for Antarctica – and the planet.

    Over the past two weeks, the nations that decide what human activities are permitted in Antarctica have convened in Italy. The meeting incorporates discussions by a special working group that aims to address tourism issues.

    It’s not easy to manage tourist visitors to a continent beyond any one country’s control. So, how do we stop Antarctica being loved to death? The answer may lie in economics.

    Future visitor trends

    We recently modelled future visitor trends in Antarctica. A conservative scenario shows by 2033–34, visitor numbers could reach around 285,000. Under the least conservative scenario, numbers could reach 450,000 – however, this figure incorporates pent-up demand from COVID shutdowns that will likely diminish.

    The vast majority of the Antarctic tourism industry comprises cruise-ship tourism in the Antarctic Peninsula. A small percentage of visitors travel to the Ross Sea region and parts of the continent’s interior.

    Antarctic tourism is managed by an international set of agreements together known as the Antarctic Treaty System, as well as the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO).

    The Treaty System is notoriously slow-moving and riven by geopolitics, and IAATO does not have the power to cap visitor numbers.

    Pressure on a fragile continent

    About two-thirds of Antarctic tourists land on the continent. The visitors can threaten fragile ecosystems by:

    • compacting soils
    • trampling fragile vegetation
    • introducing non-native microbes and plant species
    • disturbing breeding colonies of birds and seals.

    Even when cruise ships don’t dock, they can cause problems such as air, water and noise pollution – as well as anchoring that can damage the seabed.

    Then there’s carbon emissions. Each cruise ship traveller to Antarctica typically produces between 3.2 and 4.1 tonnes of carbon, not including travel to the port of departure. This is similar to the carbon emissions an average person produces in a year.

    Global warming caused by carbon emissions is damaging Antarctica. At the Peninsula region, glaciers and ice shelves are retreating and sea ice is shrinking, affecting wildlife and vegetation.

    Of course, Antarctic tourism represents only a tiny fraction of overall emissions. However, the industry has a moral obligation to protect the place that maintains it. And tourism in Antarctica can compound damage from climate change, tipping delicate ecosystems into decline.

    Some operators use hybrid ships and less polluting fuels, and offset emissions to offer carbon-neutral travel.

    IAATO has pledged to halve emissions by 2050 – a positive step, but far short of the net-zero targets set by the International Maritime Organization.

    Can economics protect Antarctica?

    Market-based tools – such as taxes, cap-and-trade schemes and certification – have been used in environmental management around the world. Research shows these tools could also prevent Antarctic tourist numbers from getting out of control.

    One option is requiring visitors to pay a tourism tax. This would help raise revenue to support environmental monitoring and enforcement in Antarctica, as well as fund research.

    Such a tax already exists in the small South Asian nation of Bhutan, where each tourist pays a tax of US$100 (A$152) a night. But while a tax might deter the budget-conscious, it probably wouldn’t deter high income, experience-driven tourists.

    Alternatively, a cap-and-trade system would create a limited number of Antarctica visitor permits for a fixed period. The initial distribution of permits could be among tourism operators or countries, via negotiation, auction or lottery. Unused permits could then be sold, making them quite valuable.

    Caps have been successful at managing tourism impacts elsewhere, such as Lord Howe Island, although there are no trades allowed in that system.

    Any cap on tourist numbers in Antarctica, and rules for trading, must be based on evidence about what the environment can handle. But there is a lack of precise data on Antarctica’s carrying capacity. And permit allocations amongst the operators and nations would need to be fair and inclusive.

    Alternatively, existing industry standards could be augmented with independent schemes certifying particular practices – for example, reducing carbon footprints. This could be backed by robust monitoring and enforcement to avoid greenwashing.

    Looking ahead

    Given the complexities of Antarctic governance, our research finds that the most workable solution is a combination of these market-based options, alongside other regulatory measures.

    So far, parties to the Antarctic treaty have made very few binding rules for the tourism industry. And some market-based levers will be more acceptable to the parties than others. But doing nothing is not a solution.

    The authors would like to acknowledge Valeria Senigaglia, Natalie Stoeckl and Jing Tian and the rest of the team for their contributions to the research upon which this article was based.

    Darla Hatton MacDonald receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations Centre, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and the Soils CRC. She has received in-kind support from Antarctic tour operator HX.

    Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Dutch Research Council, and DFAT. She also receives in-kind support and occasional funding from Antarctic tourism operator HX and in-kind support from other tour operators.

    – ref. More and more tourists are flocking to Antarctica. Let’s stop it from being loved to death – https://theconversation.com/more-and-more-tourists-are-flocking-to-antarctica-lets-stop-it-from-being-loved-to-death-258294

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Review of sustainability measures for orange roughy (ORH 3B) and blue mackerel (EMA 1) – 2025 October round

    Source: NZ Ministry for Primary Industries

    Have your say

    Fisheries New Zealand is seeking feedback on proposed changes to sustainability measures for orange roughy in ORH 3B and blue mackerel in EMA 1 as part of the 2025 October sustainability round.

    The ORH 3B stock covers orange roughy across Southland, the East Coast of the South Island, the Sub-Antarctic and the Chatham Islands. The EMA 1 stock covers blue mackerel across the East Coast of Northland, and Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

    We invite feedback from tangata whenua, stakeholders, and the public on the proposals for these stocks. Summaries of the proposals are on this page and full details are in the consultation documents. 

    The closing time and date for submissions on the ORH 3B and EMA 1 proposals is 9am on 28 July 2025.

    Summary of the proposals and consultation documents

    Supporting document

    Information on the interpretation and application of the statutory considerations relevant to TAC decisions is provided in the Legal Appendix. 

    Legal Appendix: Overview of legislative requirements and other considerations in relation to sustainability measures [PDF, 389 KB]

    About the proposed changes

    Fisheries New Zealand reviews catch limits for selected stocks twice a year. This is consistent with the purpose of the Fisheries Act 1996 to allow for sustainable utilisation.

    These proposals have been assessed:

    • in the context of the relevant statutory requirements
    • using the best available information, including the latest scientific information on the status of the stocks and tangata whenua and stakeholder input.

    Related consultation

    There is related consultation underway for other fish stocks as part of the 2025 October sustainability round. Submissions on that consultation close earlier (5pm on 23 July 2025).

    Review of sustainability measures for 1 October 2025

    Making your submission

    Email your feedback on the proposals set out in the ORH 3B and EMA 1 consultation documents by 9am on 28 July 2025 to FMsubmissions@mpi.govt.nz 

    A template is available to help you complete your submission.

    Submission template [DOCX]

    While we prefer email, you can post written submissions to:

    2025 Sustainability Review
    Fisheries Management
    Fisheries New Zealand
    PO Box 2526
    Wellington 6140
    New Zealand.

    What to include

    Make sure you tell us in your submission:

    • the title of the consultation document
    • your name and title
    • your organisation’s name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it)
    • your contact details (such as phone number, address, and email).

    Submissions are public information

    Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

    People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.

    If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

    Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 2, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 2, 2025.

    Parents of kids in daycare are terrified following Melbourne abuse allegations. What can they do?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Arlanda Harris, Associate Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University Parents have been left reeling by news a male Melbourne childcare worker has been charged with 70 counts related to the alleged sexual abuse of young children in his care. The charges include sexual penetration

    We all have kangaroos hopping around our coin purse – and they’ve been on money since 1795
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University The one tonne gold kangaroo coin at the Perth Mint. Shutterstock On the Australian one dollar coin, you will often find the famous representation of a mob of five kangaroos. But when did the kangaroo first appear on

    The Bradbury Group features Palestinian journalist Dr Yousef Aljamal, Middle East report and political panel
    Asia Pacific Report In the new weekly political podcast, The Bradbury Group, last night presenter Martyn Bradbury talked with visiting Palestinian journalist Dr Yousef Aljamal. They assess the current situation in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and what New Zealand should be doing. As Bradbury, publisher of The Daily Blog, notes, “Fourth Estate public broadcasting

    New laws to make it harder for large Australian and foreign companies to avoid paying tax
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerrie Sadiq, Professor of Taxation, QUT Business School, and ARC Future Fellow, Queensland University of Technology The Conversation, CC BY The beginning of the financial year means for the first time in Australia the public will see previously unreleased tax reports produced by multinational taxpayers. These documents,

    ‘Shit in, shit out’: AI is coming for agriculture, but farmers aren’t convinced
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney David Gray / AFP / Getty Images Australian farms are at the forefront of a wave of technological change coming to agriculture. Over the past decade, more than US$200 billion (A$305 billion) has been invested globally

    The National Anti-Corruption Commission turns 2 – has it restored integrity to federal government?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) opened its doors two years ago this week amid much fanfare and high expectations. Since then the body has attracted considerable criticism, overshadowing a solid,

    Gum disease, decay, missing teeth: why people with mental illness have poorer oral health
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bonnie Clough, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images People with poor mental health face many challenges. One that’s perhaps lesser known is that they’re more likely than the overall population to have poor oral health. Research has shown people with serious mental illness

    Farming within Earth’s limits is still possible – but it will take a Herculean effort
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michalis Hadjikakou, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University Patrick Pleul/Getty The way we currently produce and consume food takes a big toll on the environment. Worldwide, farming is responsible for more than 20%

    News laws to make it harder for large Australian and foreign companies to avoid paying tax
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerrie Sadiq, Professor of Taxation, QUT Business School, and ARC Future Fellow, Queensland University of Technology The Conversation, CC BY The beginning of the financial year means for the first time in Australia the public will see previously unreleased tax reports produced by multinational taxpayers. These documents,

    What did ancient Rome smell like? Honestly, often pretty rank
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas J. Derrick, Gale Research Fellow in Ancient Glass and Material Culture, Macquarie University minoandriani/Getty Images The roar of the arena crowd, the bustle of the Roman forum, the grand temples, the Roman army in red with glistening shields and armour – when people imagine ancient Rome,

    Memo to Shane Jones: what if NZ needs more regional government, not less?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeffrey McNeill, Honorary Research Associate, School of People, Environment and Planning, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University If the headlines are anything to go by, New Zealand’s regional councils are on life support. Regional Development Minister Shane Jones recently wondered whether “there’s going to be a

    Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Doddridge, Senior Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania An icebreaker approaches Denman Glacier in March, when there was 70% less Antarctic sea ice than usual. Pete Harmsen AAD On her first dedicated scientific voyage to Antarctica in March, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina found

    Micronesian Summit in Majuro this week aims to be ‘one step ahead’
    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal/RNZ Pacific correspondent in Majuro The Micronesian Islands Forum cranks up with officials meetings this week in Majuro, with the official opening for top leadership from the islands tomorrow morning. Marshall Islands leaders are being joined at this summit by their counterparts from Kiribati, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia,

    Distressed by all the bad news? Here’s how to stay informed but still look after yourself
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Reza Shabahang, Research Fellow in Human Cybersecurity, Monash University and Academic Researcher in Media Psychology, Flinders University KieferPix/Shutterstock If you’re feeling like the news is particularly bad at the moment, you’re not alone. But many of us can’t look away – and don’t want to. Engaging with

    What are police allowed to do at protests and who keeps them in check?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Hine, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of the Sunshine Coast Earlier this week, former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas was hospitalised with serious injuries after being arrested at a protest in Sydney. This incident sparked public outcry, raising questions about the limits of police power and what

    Trump demands an end to the war in Gaza – could a ceasefire be close?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock Hopes are rising that Israel and Hamas could be inching closer to a ceasefire in the 20-month war in Gaza. US President Donald Trump is urging progress, taking to social media to demand: MAKE THE DEAL IN

    A new ‘prac payment’ has just kicked in. But it ignores many uni students
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Lambert, Associate Professor Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Wollongong Fly View Productions/ Getting Images On Tuesday, some Australian university students got access to a new payment. The Commonwealth Prac Payment is available to eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. It will provide A$331.65 a

    ‘I’m going to send letters’: the deadline for Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ trade tariffs is looming
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Draper, Professor, and Executive Director: Institute for International Trade, and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Trade and Environment, University of Adelaide Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images US President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on implementing so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on some 180 trading partners ends on

    2 polls have Tasmania headed for another hung parliament, but disagree on which party is ahead
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Two Tasmanian state polls imply another hung parliament at the July 19 election under Tasmania’s proportional system. In one of these polls, Labor leads the Liberals, while

    Preventive versus pre-emptive strikes.
    Headline: Preventive versus pre-emptive strikes. – 36th Parallel Assessments Photo credit: Reuters. Conceptual clarity is important in any context but especially when it comes to international relations, foreign policy and the initiation of conflict. Recent events in the Middle East have shown once again how clarity in the use of words is often deliberately obfuscated

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Edward Doddridge, Senior Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

    An icebreaker approaches Denman Glacier in March, when there was 70% less Antarctic sea ice than usual. Pete Harmsen AAD

    On her first dedicated scientific voyage to Antarctica in March, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina found the area sea-ice free. Scientists were able to reach places never sampled before.

    Over the past four summers, Antarctic sea ice extent has hit new lows.

    I’m part of a large group of scientists who set out to explore the consequences of summer sea ice loss after the record lows of 2022 and 2023. Together we rounded up the latest publications, then gathered new evidence using satellites, computer modelling, and robotic ocean sampling devices. Today we can finally reveal what we found.

    It’s bad news on many levels, because Antarctic sea ice is vital for the world’s climate and ecosystems. But we need to get a grip on what’s happening – and use this concerning data to prompt faster action on climate change.

    Sea ice around Antarctica waxes and wanes with the seasons, growing in the cold months and melting in warm ones. But this rhythmic cycle is changing.

    What we did and what we found

    Our team used a huge range of approaches to study the consequences of sea ice loss.

    We used satellites to understand sea ice loss over summer, measuring everything from ice thickness and extent to the length of time each year when sea ice is absent.

    Satellite data was also used to calculate how much of the Antarctic coast was exposed to open ocean waves. We were then able to quantify the relationship between sea ice loss and iceberg calving.

    Data from free-drifting ocean robots was used to understand how sea ice loss affects the tiny plants that support the marine food web.

    Every other kind of available data was then harnessed to explore the full impact of sea ice changes on ecosystems.

    Voyage reports from international colleagues came in handy when studying how sea ice loss affected Antarctic resupply missions.

    We also used computer models to simulate the impact of dramatic summer sea ice loss on the ocean.

    In summary, our extensive research reveals four key consequences of summer sea ice loss in Antarctica.

    1. Ocean warming is compounding

    Bright white sea ice reflects about 90% of the incoming energy from sunlight, while the darker ocean absorbs about 90%. So if there’s less summer sea ice, the ocean absorbs much more heat.

    This means the ocean surface warms more in an extreme low sea ice year, such as 2016 – when everything changed.

    Until recently, the Southern Ocean would reset over winter. If there was a summer with low sea ice cover, the ocean would warm a bit. But over winter, the extra heat would shift into the atmosphere.

    That’s not working anymore. We know this from measuring sea surface temperatures, but we have also confirmed this relationship using computer models.

    What’s happening instead is when summer sea ice is very low, as in 2016, it triggers ocean warming that persists. It takes about three years for the system to fully recover. But recovery is becoming less and less likely, given warming is building from year to year.

    Comparing an average sea ice summer (a) to an extreme low sea ice summer (b) in which there is less sea ice for wildlife and more sunlight is absorbed by the ocean. The ice shelf is more exposed to ocean waves, calving more icebergs. The ocean is also less productive and tourist vessels can make a closer approach.
    Doddridge, E., W., et al. (2025) PNAS Nexus., CC BY-NC-ND

    2. More icebergs are forming

    Sea ice protects Antarctica’s coast from ocean waves.

    On average, about a third of the continent’s coastline is exposed over summer. But this is changing. In 2022 and 2023, more than half of the Antarctic coast was exposed.

    Our research shows more icebergs break away from Antarctic ice sheets in years with less sea ice. During an average summer, about 100 icebergs break away. Summers with low sea ice produce about twice as many icebergs.

    Antarctic ice sheets without sea ice are more exposed to waves.
    Pete Harmsen AAD

    3. Wildlife squeezed off the ice

    Many species of seals and penguins rely on sea ice, especially for breeding and moulting.

    Entire colonies of emperor penguins experienced “catastrophic breeding failure” in 2022, when sea ice melted before chicks were ready to go to sea.

    After giving birth, crabeater seals need large, stable sea ice platforms for 2–3 weeks until their pups are weaned. The ice provides shelter and protection from predators. Less summer sea-ice cover makes large platforms harder to find.

    Many seal and penguin species also take refuge on the sea ice when moulting. These species must avoid the icy water while their new feathers or fur grows, or risk dying of hypothermia.

    4. Logistical challenges at the end of the world

    Low summer sea ice makes it harder for people working in Antarctica. Shrinking summer sea ice will narrow the time window during which Antarctic bases can be resupplied over the ice. These bases may soon need to be resupplied from different locations, or using more difficult methods such as small boats.

    Supply ships typically unload their cargo directly onto the sea ice, but that may have to change.
    Jared McGhie, Australian Antarctic Division

    No longer safe

    Anarctic sea ice began to change rapidly in 2015 and 2016. Since then it has remained well below the long-term average.

    The dataset we use relies on measurements from US Department of Defense satellites. Late last month, the department announced it would no longer provide this data to the scientific community. While this has since been delayed to July 31, significant uncertainty remains.

    One of the biggest challenges in climate science is gathering and maintaining consistent long-term datasets. Without these, we don’t accurately know how much our climate is changing. Observing the entire Earth is hard enough when we all work together. It’s going to be almost impossible if we don’t share our data.

    Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies (the difference between the long-term average and the measurement) for the entire satellite record since the late 1970s.
    Edward Doddridge, using data from the US NSIDC Sea Ice Index, version 3., CC BY

    Recent low sea ice summers present a scientific challenge. The system is currently changing faster than our scientific community can study it.

    But vanishing sea ice also presents a challenge to society. The only way to prevent even more drastic changes in the future is to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.

    Edward Doddridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-summer-sea-ice-is-at-record-lows-heres-how-it-will-harm-the-planet-and-us-256104

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Going to extremes – understanding Antarctic sea-ice decline

    Source: Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

    Most people will never see Antarctic sea ice up close, but its presence or absence affects our day-to-day lives.
    Now scientists are questioning whether a ‘regime shift’ to a new state of diminished Antarctic sea-ice coverage is underway, due to recent record lows.
    If so, it will have impacts across climate, ecological and societal systems, according to new research published in PNAS Nexus.

    These impacts include ocean warming, increased iceberg calving, habitat loss and sea-level rise, and effects on fisheries, Antarctic tourism, and even the mental health of the global human population.
    Led by Australian Antarctic Program Partnership oceanographer Dr Edward Doddridge, the international team assessed the impacts of extreme summer sea-ice lows, and the challenges to predicting and mitigating change.
    “Antarctic sea ice provides climate and ecosystem services of regional and global significance,” Dr Doddridge said.
    “There are far reaching negative impacts caused by sea-ice loss.
    “However, we do not sufficiently understand the baseline system to be able to predict how it will respond to the dramatic changes we are already observing.
    “To predict future changes, and to potentially mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on Antarctica, we urgently need to improve our knowledge through new observations and modelling studies.”
    What’s at stake?
    While sea-ice loss affects many things, the research team identified three key impacts:

    Reduced summer sea-ice cover exposes more of the ocean to sunlight. This leads to surface water warming that promotes further sea-ice loss. Ocean warming increases melting under glacial ice shelves, which could lead to increased iceberg calving. Warmer water also affects the flow of deep-water currents that help move ocean heat around the globe, influencing the planet’s climate.
    Sea-ice loss exposes the ice shelves that fringe the Antarctic continent to damaging ocean swells and storms. These can weaken the ice shelves, leading to iceberg calving. As ice shelves slow the flow of ice from the interior of the Antarctic continent to the coast, iceberg calving allows this interior ice flow to speed up, contributing to sea-level rise.
    Sea ice provides breeding habitat for penguin and seal species, and a refuge for many marine species from predators. It is also an important nursery habitat and source of food (sea-ice algae) for Antarctic krill – an important prey species for many Southern Ocean inhabitants. Adverse sea-ice conditions that persist over several seasons could see population declines in these sea-ice dependent species.

    The research team also identified socio-economic and wellbeing impacts, affecting fisheries, tourism, scientific research, ice-navigation, coastal operations, and the mental health (climate anxiety) of the global population.
    For example, shorter sea-ice seasons will reduce the window for over-ice resupplies of Antarctic stations. There could also be increased shipping pressures on the continent, including from alien species incursions, fuel spills and an increase in the number and movement of tourist vessels to and from new locations.
    Research co-author and sea-ice system expert, Dr Petra Heil, from the Australian Antarctic Division, said the paper highlighted the need for ongoing, year-round, field-based and satellite measurements of circumpolar sea-ice variables (especially thickness), and sub-surface ocean variables.
    This would allow integrated analyses of the Southern Ocean processes contributing to the recent sea-ice deficits.
    “As shown in climate simulations, continued greenhouse gas emissions, even at reduced rate, will further accelerate persistent deficits of sea ice, and with it a lack of the critical climate and ecosystem functions it provides,” Dr Heil said.
    “To conserve and preserve the physical environment and ecosystems of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean we must prioritise an immediate and sustained transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
    “Ultimately our decison for immediate and deep action will provide the maximum future proofing we can have in terms of lifestyle and economic values.”
    Learn more about Antarctic sea ice in our feature ‘Sea ice in crisis’.
    This content was last updated 8 minutes ago on 2 July 2025.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Doddridge, Senior Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

    An icebreaker approaches Denman Glacier in March, when there was 70% less Antarctic sea ice than usual. Pete Harmsen AAD

    On her first dedicated scientific voyage to Antarctica in March, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina found the area sea-ice free. Scientists were able to reach places never sampled before.

    Over the past four summers, Antarctic sea ice extent has hit new lows.

    I’m part of a large group of scientists who set out to explore the consequences of summer sea ice loss after the record lows of 2022 and 2023. Together we rounded up the latest publications, then gathered new evidence using satellites, computer modelling, and robotic ocean sampling devices. Today we can finally reveal what we found.

    It’s bad news on many levels, because Antarctic sea ice is vital for the world’s climate and ecosystems. But we need to get a grip on what’s happening – and use this concerning data to prompt faster action on climate change.

    Sea ice around Antarctica waxes and wanes with the seasons, growing in the cold months and melting in warm ones. But this rhythmic cycle is changing.

    What we did and what we found

    Our team used a huge range of approaches to study the consequences of sea ice loss.

    We used satellites to understand sea ice loss over summer, measuring everything from ice thickness and extent to the length of time each year when sea ice is absent.

    Satellite data was also used to calculate how much of the Antarctic coast was exposed to open ocean waves. We were then able to quantify the relationship between sea ice loss and iceberg calving.

    Data from free-drifting ocean robots was used to understand how sea ice loss affects the tiny plants that support the marine food web.

    Every other kind of available data was then harnessed to explore the full impact of sea ice changes on ecosystems.

    Voyage reports from international colleagues came in handy when studying how sea ice loss affected Antarctic resupply missions.

    We also used computer models to simulate the impact of dramatic summer sea ice loss on the ocean.

    In summary, our extensive research reveals four key consequences of summer sea ice loss in Antarctica.

    1. Ocean warming is compounding

    Bright white sea ice reflects about 90% of the incoming energy from sunlight, while the darker ocean absorbs about 90%. So if there’s less summer sea ice, the ocean absorbs much more heat.

    This means the ocean surface warms more in an extreme low sea ice year, such as 2016 – when everything changed.

    Until recently, the Southern Ocean would reset over winter. If there was a summer with low sea ice cover, the ocean would warm a bit. But over winter, the extra heat would shift into the atmosphere.

    That’s not working anymore. We know this from measuring sea surface temperatures, but we have also confirmed this relationship using computer models.

    What’s happening instead is when summer sea ice is very low, as in 2016, it triggers ocean warming that persists. It takes about three years for the system to fully recover. But recovery is becoming less and less likely, given warming is building from year to year.

    Comparing an average sea ice summer (a) to an extreme low sea ice summer (b) in which there is less sea ice for wildlife and more sunlight is absorbed by the ocean. The ice shelf is more exposed to ocean waves, calving more icebergs. The ocean is also less productive and tourist vessels can make a closer approach.
    Doddridge, E., W., et al. (2025) PNAS Nexus., CC BY-NC-ND

    2. More icebergs are forming

    Sea ice protects Antarctica’s coast from ocean waves.

    On average, about a third of the continent’s coastline is exposed over summer. But this is changing. In 2022 and 2023, more than half of the Antarctic coast was exposed.

    Our research shows more icebergs break away from Antarctic ice sheets in years with less sea ice. During an average summer, about 100 icebergs break away. Summers with low sea ice produce about twice as many icebergs.

    Antarctic ice sheets without sea ice are more exposed to waves.
    Pete Harmsen AAD

    3. Wildlife squeezed off the ice

    Many species of seals and penguins rely on sea ice, especially for breeding and moulting.

    Entire colonies of emperor penguins experienced “catastrophic breeding failure” in 2022, when sea ice melted before chicks were ready to go to sea.

    After giving birth, crabeater seals need large, stable sea ice platforms for 2–3 weeks until their pups are weaned. The ice provides shelter and protection from predators. Less summer sea-ice cover makes large platforms harder to find.

    Many seal and penguin species also take refuge on the sea ice when moulting. These species must avoid the icy water while their new feathers or fur grows, or risk dying of hypothermia.

    4. Logistical challenges at the end of the world

    Low summer sea ice makes it harder for people working in Antarctica. Shrinking summer sea ice will narrow the time window during which Antarctic bases can be resupplied over the ice. These bases may soon need to be resupplied from different locations, or using more difficult methods such as small boats.

    Supply ships typically unload their cargo directly onto the sea ice, but that may have to change.
    Jared McGhie, Australian Antarctic Division

    No longer safe

    Anarctic sea ice began to change rapidly in 2015 and 2016. Since then it has remained well below the long-term average.

    The dataset we use relies on measurements from US Department of Defense satellites. Late last month, the department announced it would no longer provide this data to the scientific community. While this has since been delayed to July 31, significant uncertainty remains.

    One of the biggest challenges in climate science is gathering and maintaining consistent long-term datasets. Without these, we don’t accurately know how much our climate is changing. Observing the entire Earth is hard enough when we all work together. It’s going to be almost impossible if we don’t share our data.

    Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies (the difference between the long-term average and the measurement) for the entire satellite record since the late 1970s.
    Edward Doddridge, using data from the US NSIDC Sea Ice Index, version 3., CC BY

    Recent low sea ice summers present a scientific challenge. The system is currently changing faster than our scientific community can study it.

    But vanishing sea ice also presents a challenge to society. The only way to prevent even more drastic changes in the future is to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.

    Edward Doddridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-summer-sea-ice-is-at-record-lows-heres-how-it-will-harm-the-planet-and-us-256104

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Doddridge, Senior Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

    An icebreaker approaches Denman Glacier in March, when there was 70% less Antarctic sea ice than usual. Pete Harmsen AAD

    On her first dedicated scientific voyage to Antarctica in March, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina found the area sea-ice free. Scientists were able to reach places never sampled before.

    Over the past four summers, Antarctic sea ice extent has hit new lows.

    I’m part of a large group of scientists who set out to explore the consequences of summer sea ice loss after the record lows of 2022 and 2023. Together we rounded up the latest publications, then gathered new evidence using satellites, computer modelling, and robotic ocean sampling devices. Today we can finally reveal what we found.

    It’s bad news on many levels, because Antarctic sea ice is vital for the world’s climate and ecosystems. But we need to get a grip on what’s happening – and use this concerning data to prompt faster action on climate change.

    Sea ice around Antarctica waxes and wanes with the seasons, growing in the cold months and melting in warm ones. But this rhythmic cycle is changing.

    What we did and what we found

    Our team used a huge range of approaches to study the consequences of sea ice loss.

    We used satellites to understand sea ice loss over summer, measuring everything from ice thickness and extent to the length of time each year when sea ice is absent.

    Satellite data was also used to calculate how much of the Antarctic coast was exposed to open ocean waves. We were then able to quantify the relationship between sea ice loss and iceberg calving.

    Data from free-drifting ocean robots was used to understand how sea ice loss affects the tiny plants that support the marine food web.

    Every other kind of available data was then harnessed to explore the full impact of sea ice changes on ecosystems.

    Voyage reports from international colleagues came in handy when studying how sea ice loss affected Antarctic resupply missions.

    We also used computer models to simulate the impact of dramatic summer sea ice loss on the ocean.

    In summary, our extensive research reveals four key consequences of summer sea ice loss in Antarctica.

    1. Ocean warming is compounding

    Bright white sea ice reflects about 90% of the incoming energy from sunlight, while the darker ocean absorbs about 90%. So if there’s less summer sea ice, the ocean absorbs much more heat.

    This means the ocean surface warms more in an extreme low sea ice year, such as 2016 – when everything changed.

    Until recently, the Southern Ocean would reset over winter. If there was a summer with low sea ice cover, the ocean would warm a bit. But over winter, the extra heat would shift into the atmosphere.

    That’s not working anymore. We know this from measuring sea surface temperatures, but we have also confirmed this relationship using computer models.

    What’s happening instead is when summer sea ice is very low, as in 2016, it triggers ocean warming that persists. It takes about three years for the system to fully recover. But recovery is becoming less and less likely, given warming is building from year to year.

    Comparing an average sea ice summer (a) to an extreme low sea ice summer (b) in which there is less sea ice for wildlife and more sunlight is absorbed by the ocean. The ice shelf is more exposed to ocean waves, calving more icebergs. The ocean is also less productive and tourist vessels can make a closer approach.
    Doddridge, E., W., et al. (2025) PNAS Nexus., CC BY-NC-ND

    2. More icebergs are forming

    Sea ice protects Antarctica’s coast from ocean waves.

    On average, about a third of the continent’s coastline is exposed over summer. But this is changing. In 2022 and 2023, more than half of the Antarctic coast was exposed.

    Our research shows more icebergs break away from Antarctic ice sheets in years with less sea ice. During an average summer, about 100 icebergs break away. Summers with low sea ice produce about twice as many icebergs.

    Antarctic ice sheets without sea ice are more exposed to waves.
    Pete Harmsen AAD

    3. Wildlife squeezed off the ice

    Many species of seals and penguins rely on sea ice, especially for breeding and moulting.

    Entire colonies of emperor penguins experienced “catastrophic breeding failure” in 2022, when sea ice melted before chicks were ready to go to sea.

    After giving birth, crabeater seals need large, stable sea ice platforms for 2–3 weeks until their pups are weaned. The ice provides shelter and protection from predators. Less summer sea-ice cover makes large platforms harder to find.

    Many seal and penguin species also take refuge on the sea ice when moulting. These species must avoid the icy water while their new feathers or fur grows, or risk dying of hypothermia.

    4. Logistical challenges at the end of the world

    Low summer sea ice makes it harder for people working in Antarctica. Shrinking summer sea ice will narrow the time window during which Antarctic bases can be resupplied over the ice. These bases may soon need to be resupplied from different locations, or using more difficult methods such as small boats.

    Supply ships typically unload their cargo directly onto the sea ice, but that may have to change.
    Jared McGhie, Australian Antarctic Division

    No longer safe

    Anarctic sea ice began to change rapidly in 2015 and 2016. Since then it has remained well below the long-term average.

    The dataset we use relies on measurements from US Department of Defense satellites. Late last month, the department announced it would no longer provide this data to the scientific community. While this has since been delayed to July 31, significant uncertainty remains.

    One of the biggest challenges in climate science is gathering and maintaining consistent long-term datasets. Without these, we don’t accurately know how much our climate is changing. Observing the entire Earth is hard enough when we all work together. It’s going to be almost impossible if we don’t share our data.

    Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies (the difference between the long-term average and the measurement) for the entire satellite record since the late 1970s.
    Edward Doddridge, using data from the US NSIDC Sea Ice Index, version 3., CC BY

    Recent low sea ice summers present a scientific challenge. The system is currently changing faster than our scientific community can study it.

    But vanishing sea ice also presents a challenge to society. The only way to prevent even more drastic changes in the future is to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.

    Edward Doddridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Antarctic summer sea ice is at record lows. Here’s how it will harm the planet – and us – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-summer-sea-ice-is-at-record-lows-heres-how-it-will-harm-the-planet-and-us-256104

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ‘The Ability to Give and Receive Love’: Researchers Look at Effects of Acceptance, Rejection

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    Even at 90 years old, Ronald P. Rohner still works 365 days a year.

    That’s holidays, weekends, sick days, and everything in between, he says. But the professor emeritus and director of the Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection knows he’s not going to be able to keep pace forever – no matter how much he wants.

    He’s picked Sumbleen Ali ’21 Ph.D., a research scientist at the Center and an assistant professor at SUNY Oneonta, to carry on the Center’s global mission, as they seek to advance research on Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory, known as IPARTheory, and continue to expand its reach worldwide.

    It’s part of what the two have put into their latest book, “Global Perspectives on Parental Acceptance and Rejection: Lessons Learned from IPARTheory,” published this spring.

    Rohner and Ali sat with UConn Today recently to talk about interpersonal acceptance and rejection, what started Rohner’s study of it, and what their advice is for lay people.

    IPARTheory, short for Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory, has a global reach with thousands of downloads from people worldwide. This map from late May shows the latest reach. (Contributed art)

    How did you get started with this research?

    Rohner: It all came from a passage in this 1956 book that was my favorite textbook when I was an undergraduate. The author said that, in general, rejected children tend to be fearful, insecure, attention seeking, jealous, hostile, and lonely. Because of some previous experiences I’d had working in Morocco, I thought that wouldn’t be true. That may be true for Americans, but that’s not true for people all over the world – especially the people I’d encountered in Morocco in the 1950s. One of my first assignments in graduate school was to use the cross-cultural survey method, that’s when you draw a sample of societies from around the world and code them in a certain way to see what’s true and not true for people worldwide. When I did the analysis, I discovered that some of what was said in my undergraduate book was true and some of it wasn’t. That completely captured my attention. Every class thereafter during my graduate career if I could possibly fit it in, I built on that initial cross-cultural study, and when I came to UConn in 1964, I continued doing these kinds of cross-cultural studies to find out what we’re really like as human beings.

    What are some of the things you’ve found?

     
    Rohner: We’ve worked with several hundred thousand people over the past 60-some-odd years on every continent except Antarctica, and while doing that, we’ve learned many lessons about what we’re like and not like as human beings. The beauty of the work we do is that we can now empirically document three things, among others. First, humans everywhere – in any place in the world that we’ve found so far – understand themselves to be cared about or not cared about in the same four ways. So far, no exceptions. Second, if you feel the person or people who are most important to you – these are usually parents when we’re kids and intimate partners when we’re adults, but there could be others like teachers or coaches – if you feel that person doesn’t really want you, appreciate you, care about you, love you, if you feel rejected by that person, most people will respond in exactly the same way. A cluster of 10 things start to happen. We get anxious, insecure. We have anger problems. Our self-esteem is impaired. Children can have issues of cognitive distortions, in which they start to think about themselves in distorted ways. The third important lesson comes from Sumbleen’s work.

    Ali: I came to UConn as a psychology student and enjoyed working with Ron so much that I decided to pursue a graduate degree in human development and family sciences. In conversations about IPARTheory, we developed an argument that parental acceptance and rejection might be rooted in our shared biocultural evolution, and I wanted to investigate how that shows up in the brain. This became the focus of my dissertation – the first in affective neuroscience at UConn – under the guidance of my Ph.D. advisors, Preston Britner and Ron Rohner. The research examined how early parental experiences shape emotional regulation. We scanned the brains of students who reported either parental acceptance or rejection while they played a simulated ball-tossing game designed to mimic social exclusion. Those with rejection histories showed more activity in areas linked to emotion and memory, suggesting they were re-experiencing past rejection. Participants who felt loved showed more activation in regions tied to rational thinking, possibly reframing the experience. Now, we’re analyzing resting-state brain data to see whether differences in brain connectivity appear even without an external task.

    Why is this research so important?

     
    Rohner: If you bang your thumb, it’s going to hurt. Two weeks from now you’re going to remember that when you did that, it hurt – but you’re probably not going to feel the pain. With rejection, though, every time you think about it for the rest of your life, it can light up your brain in the same way it did when it was happening. I sometimes say the childhood of rejected kids can bully them for the rest of their lives. A rejected child who as an adult gets into an intimate relationship with a partner who is patient and has other supportive traits can help the rejected person to start feeling cared about, maybe for the first time in her or his life. That can go a long way, but we haven’t found anything yet that completely erases those experiences of early childhood.

    Really, there aren’t any exceptions?

     
    Ali: IPARTheory does identify a group of people we call ‘affective copers.’ These are individuals who might have experienced rejection from their parents or one parent, but they don’t show psychological maladjustment to the same degree that other rejected individuals do because they had a buffer in their life, like a grandparent, an intimate partner, a friend, or a sibling who provided them with love and shelter and protection.

    Rohner: We’re exploring this theory of ‘affective copers’ because if we can find out what helps some people then maybe clinicians and other professionals can use that information with their clients to help them overcome their feelings of rejection. We have clinical partners all over the world – in the courts, schools, clinical settings. IPARTheory is being applied everywhere to help people with custody issues, parental alienation, etcetera. The reason this has become so widespread around the world is because it works for people everywhere.

    People experience rejection all the time. How do how do some get through these situations better than others?

     
    Rohner: Someone like a bus driver, for instance, you don’t really care about them, so if they’re snotty to you, you’re going to get irritated, but it will roll off easier. If you’re ostracized from a peer group, that hurts too, and it’ll light up the brain but it’s not going to have the same long-term effects as being hurt by an attachment figure. We have an adage in IPARTheory that we call the ‘emotional moon phenomenon’ that says: ‘Sometimes I’m happy, sometimes I’m blue. My mood all day depends on my relationship with you.’ An attachment figure for us in IPARTheory is someone with whom your feelings of happiness and welfare are to some extent dependent on your relationship with that other person. When things are going well between you and them, times are great. When things start going out of whack, you get upset and stay that way. That’s an attachment figure. The bus driver is not an attachment figure. The breakup of even a bad intimate relationship is painful and will have an enduring effect for many people for a long time, but if you come from a loving family when that relationship ends there will be a period of upset, but you’ll tap the resilience from your prior background to get you through the hard times.

    Do you have any advice for lay people?

    Rohner: There’s no single experience in human life that’s more important, that has greater impact over the entire course of your life than the experience of being cared about by the people who are most important to you. That’s the fundamental lesson behind all of this. I don’t care what somebody says about what’s going on in a relationship, it’s what you feel is going on that makes the difference in your life.

    Ali: Early experiences of parental love, acceptance, or rejection leave children with far more than just memories. They fundamentally shape how children, and the adults they become, perceive themselves, relate to others, and make sense of the world. To that end, we have to keep working to understand why some parents love their children versus why others don’t, the ability to give and receive love. Our goal is for people to better understand themselves and understand those around them. Through our research and advocacy, we want to build a better community and foster healthy interpersonal relationships by improving our understanding of one another.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Scientists in Antarctica: why they’re there and what they’ve found

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By David William Hedding, Professor in Geography, University of South Africa

    A media storm blew up in mid-March 2025 when a researcher at South Africa’s isolated Sanae IV base in Antarctica accused one of its nine team members of becoming violent.

    The Conversation Africa asked geomorphologist David William Hedding, who has previously carried out research from the frozen continent, about the work researchers do in Antarctica, what conditions are like and why it matters.

    What do researchers focus on when they’re working in Antarctica?

    Currently, the main focus of research in the Antarctic revolves around climate change because the White Continent is a good barometer for changes in global cycles. It has a unique and fragile environment. It’s an extreme climate which makes it highly sensitive to any changes in global climate and atmospheric conditions. Importantly, the Antarctic remains relatively untouched by humans, so we are able to study processes and responses of natural systems.

    Also, the geographic location of Antarctic enables science that is less suitable elsewhere on the planet. An example of this is the work on space weather (primarily disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity). Studying space weather is significant because the magnetic field of the Earth can impact communication platforms, technology, infrastructure and even human health.

    How many countries have teams working there? Where does South Africa fit in?

    Currently, about 30 countries have research stations in the Antarctic but these bases serve a far wider community of researchers. Collaboration is a key component of research in the Antarctic because many study sites are isolated, logistics are a challenge and resources are typically limited.

    The South African base in Antarctica, named SANAE IV usually has between 10 and 12 researchers and base personnel. This research station is situated on a nunatak (a mountain piercing through the ice) in Western Dronning Maud Land. It is an extremely remote location approximately 220km inland from the ice-shelf.

    The researchers and base personnel remain in Antarctica for approximately 15 months working through the cold and dark winter months.

    What have been some of the biggest ‘finds’?

    The biggest research finding from the Antarctic was the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985 by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. This discovery led to the creation and implementation of the Montreal Protocol, a treaty to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (synthetic chemical compounds composed of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon) which destroy ozone. This was a major breakthrough in terms of slowly healing the ozone layer.

    The second most significant piece of research to come from the Antarctic has been the use of ice cores to reconstruct past climates. Ice cores preserve air bubbles which provide a wealth of information about the conditions of the atmosphere over time. Importantly, ice cores provide an uninterrupted and detailed window into the past 1.2 million years. This is important because only by understanding past climates and the earth’s responses to those changes are we able to predict future responses. This is significant because of the imminent threats resulting from anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change.

    What conditions do scientists work under?

    Conducting research in the Antarctic is extremely difficult for three primary reasons: remoteness, the cold and daylight.

    The remoteness of many study sites makes it difficult to reach. Distances are vast from the limited number of bases in the Antarctic. Thus, logistics for science in the Antarctic is a major challenge and requires collaboration and planning. For example, the geologists from the University of Johannesburg, who work from the SANAE IV base in Antarctica, often spend weeks in the field collecting samples. They travel significant distances via snow mobile and remain self-sufficient while conducting science in tough conditions.

    These tough conditions relate specifically to the cold. Most science only occurs in the austral summer months when temperatures become marginally bearable. Also, the summer season only provides a short window in which to operate because access to Antarctic by sea is limited by extent and thickness of the sea ice.

    Lastly, during summer there is 24 hours of daylight which lengthens the working day but these conditions are also short-lived.

    Why it is important to do scientific work in the area?

    The Antarctic is intricately linked to global systems and plays a major role in influencing these systems.

    For example, climate change will cause significant melting of land-based ice in Antarctica which when added to the oceans will cause sea-level rise and disruptions to global oceanic currents. Therefore, it is critical that we obtain a better understanding of how responses of terrestrial systems, such as the Antarctic, will impact oceanic systems because ultimately changes in ocean currents will impact the oceanic food web.

    In the context of climate change, sea-level rise is a major concern as it will have global impacts for society, so it is critical that the impacts are investigated to enable society to build resilience and adapt.

    David William Hedding receives funding from the National Research Foundation.

    – ref. Scientists in Antarctica: why they’re there and what they’ve found – https://theconversation.com/scientists-in-antarctica-why-theyre-there-and-what-theyve-found-252752

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Scientists in Antarctica: why they’re there and what they’ve found

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By David William Hedding, Professor in Geography, University of South Africa

    A media storm blew up in mid-March 2025 when a researcher at South Africa’s isolated Sanae IV base in Antarctica accused one of its nine team members of becoming violent.

    The Conversation Africa asked geomorphologist David William Hedding, who has previously carried out research from the frozen continent, about the work researchers do in Antarctica, what conditions are like and why it matters.

    What do researchers focus on when they’re working in Antarctica?

    Currently, the main focus of research in the Antarctic revolves around climate change because the White Continent is a good barometer for changes in global cycles. It has a unique and fragile environment. It’s an extreme climate which makes it highly sensitive to any changes in global climate and atmospheric conditions. Importantly, the Antarctic remains relatively untouched by humans, so we are able to study processes and responses of natural systems.

    Also, the geographic location of Antarctic enables science that is less suitable elsewhere on the planet. An example of this is the work on space weather (primarily disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity). Studying space weather is significant because the magnetic field of the Earth can impact communication platforms, technology, infrastructure and even human health.

    How many countries have teams working there? Where does South Africa fit in?

    Currently, about 30 countries have research stations in the Antarctic but these bases serve a far wider community of researchers. Collaboration is a key component of research in the Antarctic because many study sites are isolated, logistics are a challenge and resources are typically limited.

    The South African base in Antarctica, named SANAE IV usually has between 10 and 12 researchers and base personnel. This research station is situated on a nunatak (a mountain piercing through the ice) in Western Dronning Maud Land. It is an extremely remote location approximately 220km inland from the ice-shelf.

    The researchers and base personnel remain in Antarctica for approximately 15 months working through the cold and dark winter months.

    What have been some of the biggest ‘finds’?

    The biggest research finding from the Antarctic was the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985 by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. This discovery led to the creation and implementation of the Montreal Protocol, a treaty to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (synthetic chemical compounds composed of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon) which destroy ozone. This was a major breakthrough in terms of slowly healing the ozone layer.

    The second most significant piece of research to come from the Antarctic has been the use of ice cores to reconstruct past climates. Ice cores preserve air bubbles which provide a wealth of information about the conditions of the atmosphere over time. Importantly, ice cores provide an uninterrupted and detailed window into the past 1.2 million years. This is important because only by understanding past climates and the earth’s responses to those changes are we able to predict future responses. This is significant because of the imminent threats resulting from anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change.

    What conditions do scientists work under?

    Conducting research in the Antarctic is extremely difficult for three primary reasons: remoteness, the cold and daylight.

    The remoteness of many study sites makes it difficult to reach. Distances are vast from the limited number of bases in the Antarctic. Thus, logistics for science in the Antarctic is a major challenge and requires collaboration and planning. For example, the geologists from the University of Johannesburg, who work from the SANAE IV base in Antarctica, often spend weeks in the field collecting samples. They travel significant distances via snow mobile and remain self-sufficient while conducting science in tough conditions.

    These tough conditions relate specifically to the cold. Most science only occurs in the austral summer months when temperatures become marginally bearable. Also, the summer season only provides a short window in which to operate because access to Antarctic by sea is limited by extent and thickness of the sea ice.

    Lastly, during summer there is 24 hours of daylight which lengthens the working day but these conditions are also short-lived.

    Why it is important to do scientific work in the area?

    The Antarctic is intricately linked to global systems and plays a major role in influencing these systems.

    For example, climate change will cause significant melting of land-based ice in Antarctica which when added to the oceans will cause sea-level rise and disruptions to global oceanic currents. Therefore, it is critical that we obtain a better understanding of how responses of terrestrial systems, such as the Antarctic, will impact oceanic systems because ultimately changes in ocean currents will impact the oceanic food web.

    In the context of climate change, sea-level rise is a major concern as it will have global impacts for society, so it is critical that the impacts are investigated to enable society to build resilience and adapt.

    David William Hedding receives funding from the National Research Foundation.

    – ref. Scientists in Antarctica: why they’re there and what they’ve found – https://theconversation.com/scientists-in-antarctica-why-theyre-there-and-what-theyve-found-252752

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: ‘Completely unexpected’: Antarctic sea ice may be in terminal decline due to rising Southern Ocean salinity

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alessandro Silvano, NERC Independent Research Fellow in Oceanography, University of Southampton

    Adélie penguins rely on Antarctic sea ice for habitat. Nick Dale Photo/Shutterstock

    The ocean around Antarctica is rapidly getting saltier at the same time as sea ice is retreating at a record pace. Since 2015, the frozen continent has lost sea ice similar to the size of Greenland. That ice hasn’t returned, marking the largest global environmental change during the past decade.

    This finding caught us off guard – melting ice typically makes the ocean fresher. But new satellite data shows the opposite is happening, and that’s a big problem. Saltier water at the ocean surface behaves differently than fresher seawater by drawing up heat from the deep ocean and making it harder for sea ice to regrow.

    The loss of Antarctic sea ice has global consequences. Less sea ice means less habitat for penguins and other ice-dwelling species. More of the heat stored in the ocean is released into the atmosphere when ice melts, increasing the number and intensity of storms and accelerating global warming. This brings heatwaves on land and melts even more of the Antarctic ice sheet, which raises sea levels globally.

    Our new study has revealed that the Southern Ocean is changing, but in a different way to what we expected. We may have passed a tipping point and entered a new state defined by persistent sea ice decline, sustained by a newly discovered feedback loop.

    The Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica, which is fringed by sea ice.
    Nasa

    A surprising discovery

    Monitoring the Southern Ocean is no small task. It’s one of the most remote and stormy places on Earth, and is covered in darkness for several months a year. Thanks to new European Space Agency satellites and underwater robots which stay below the ocean surface measuring temperature and salinity, we can now observe what is happening in real time.

    Our team at the University of Southampton worked with colleagues at the Barcelona Expert Centre and the European Space Agency to develop new algorithms to track ocean surface conditions in polar regions from satellites. By combining satellite observations with data from underwater robots, we built a 15-year picture of changes in ocean salinity, temperature and sea ice.

    What we found was astonishing. Around 2015, surface salinity in the Southern Ocean began rising sharply – just as sea ice extent started to crash. This reversal was completely unexpected. For decades, the surface had been getting fresher and colder, helping sea ice expand.

    The annual summer minimum extent of Antarctic sea ice dropped precipitously in 2015.
    NOAA Climate.gov/National Snow and Ice Data Center

    To understand why this matters, it helps to think of the Southern Ocean as a series of layers. Normally, the cold, fresh surface water sits on top of warmer, saltier water deep below. This layering (or stratification, as scientists call it) traps heat in the ocean depths, keeping surface waters cool and helping sea ice to form.

    Saltier water is denser and therefore heavier. So, when surface waters become saltier, they sink more readily, stirring the ocean’s layers and allowing heat from the deep to rise. This upward heat flux can melt sea ice from below, even during winter, making it harder for ice to reform. This vertical circulation also draws up more salt from deeper layers, reinforcing the cycle.

    A powerful feedback loop is created: more salinity brings more heat to the surface, which melts more ice, which then allows more heat to be absorbed from the Sun. My colleagues and I saw these processes first hand in 2016-2017 with the return of the Maud Rise polynya, which is a gaping hole in the sea ice that is nearly four times the size of Wales and last appeared in the 1970s.

    What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay there

    Losing Antarctic sea ice is a planetary problem. Sea ice acts like a giant mirror reflecting sunlight back into space. Without it, more energy stays in the Earth system, speeding up global warming, intensifying storms and driving sea level rise in coastal cities worldwide.

    Wildlife also suffers. Emperor penguins rely on sea ice to breed and raise their chicks. Tiny krill – shrimp-like crustaceans which form the foundation of the Antarctic food chain as food for whales and seals – feed on algae that grow beneath the ice. Without that ice, entire ecosystems start to unravel.

    What’s happening at the bottom of the world is rippling outward, reshaping weather systems, ocean currents and life on land and sea.

    Feedback loops are accelerating the loss of Antarctic sea ice.
    University of Southampton

    Antarctica is no longer the stable, frozen continent we once believed it to be. It is changing rapidly, and in ways that current climate models didn’t foresee. Until recently, those models assumed a warming world would increase precipitation and ice-melting, freshening surface waters and helping keep Antarctic sea ice relatively stable. That assumption no longer holds.

    Our findings show that the salinity of surface water is rising, the ocean’s layered structure is breaking down and sea ice is declining faster than expected. If we don’t update our scientific models, we risk being caught off guard by changes we could have prepared for. Indeed, the ultimate driver of the 2015 salinity increase remains uncertain, underscoring the need for scientists to revise their perspective on the Antarctic system and highlighting the urgency of further research.

    We need to keep watching, yet ongoing satellite and ocean monitoring is threatened by funding cuts. This research offers us an early warning signal, a planetary thermometer and a strategic tool for tracking a rapidly shifting climate. Without accurate, continuous data, it will be impossible to adapt to the changes in store.

    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.

    Alessandro Silvano is a Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdom Research and Innovation) Independent Research Fellow.

    – ref. ‘Completely unexpected’: Antarctic sea ice may be in terminal decline due to rising Southern Ocean salinity – https://theconversation.com/completely-unexpected-antarctic-sea-ice-may-be-in-terminal-decline-due-to-rising-southern-ocean-salinity-259743

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

    NASA, CC BY-NC-ND

    How do you measure climate change? One way is by recording temperatures in different places over a long period of time. While this works well, natural variation can make it harder to see longer-term trends.

    But another approach can give us a very clear sense of what’s going on: track how much heat enters Earth’s atmosphere and how much heat leaves. This is Earth’s energy budget, and it’s now well and truly out of balance.

    Our recent research found this imbalance has more than doubled over the last 20 years. Other researchers have come to the same conclusions. This imbalance is now substantially more than climate models have suggested.

    In the mid-2000s, the energy imbalance was about 0.6 watts per square metre (W/m2) on average. In recent years, the average was about 1.3 W/m2. This means the rate at which energy is accumulating near the planet’s surface has doubled.

    These findings suggest climate change might well accelerate in the coming years. Worse still, this worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding uncertainty in the United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat.

    Energy in, energy out

    Earth’s energy budget functions a bit like your bank account, where money comes in and money goes out. If you reduce your spending, you’ll build up cash in your account. Here, energy is the currency.

    Life on Earth depends on a balance between heat coming in from the Sun and heat leaving. This balance is tipping to one side.

    Solar energy hits Earth and warms it. The atmosphere’s heat-trapping greenhouse gases keep some of this energy.

    But the burning of coal, oil and gas has now added more than two trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These trap more and more heat, preventing it from leaving.

    Some of this extra heat is warming the land or melting sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. But this is a tiny fraction. Fully 90% has gone into the oceans due to their huge heat capacity.

    Earth naturally sheds heat in several ways. One way is by reflecting incoming heat off of clouds, snow and ice and back out to space. Infrared radiation is also emitted back to space.

    From the beginning of human civilisation up until just a century ago, the average surface temperature was about 14°C. The accumulating energy imbalance has now pushed average temperatures 1.3-1.5°C higher.

    Ice and reflective clouds reflect heat back to space. As the Earth heats up, most trapped heat goes into the oceans but some melts ice and heats the land and air. Pictured: Icebergs from the Jacobshavn glacier in Greenland, the largest outside Antarctica.
    Ashley Cooper/Getty

    Tracking faster than the models

    Scientists keep track of the energy budget in two ways.

    First, we can directly measure the heat coming from the Sun and going back out to space, using the sensitive radiometers on monitoring satellites. This dataset and its predecessors date back to the late 1980s.

    Second, we can accurately track the build-up of heat in the oceans and atmosphere by taking temperature readings. Thousands of robotic floats have monitored temperatures in the world’s oceans since the 1990s.

    Both methods show the energy imbalance has grown rapidly.

    The doubling of the energy imbalance has come as a shock, because the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn’t predict such a large and rapid change.

    Typically, the models forecast less than half of the change we’re seeing in the real world.

    Why has it changed so fast?

    We don’t yet have a full explanation. But new research suggests changes in clouds is a big factor.

    Clouds have a cooling effect overall. But the area covered by highly reflective white clouds has shrunk, while the area of jumbled, less reflective clouds has grown.

    It isn’t clear why the clouds are changing. One possible factor could be the consequences of successful efforts to reduce sulfur in shipping fuel from 2020, as burning the dirtier fuel may have had a brightening effect on clouds. However, the accelerating energy budget imbalance began before this change.

    Natural fluctuations in the climate system such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation might also be playing a role. Finally – and most worryingly – the cloud changes might be part of a trend caused by global warming itself, that is, a positive feedback on climate change.

    Dense blankets of white clouds reflect the most heat. But the area covered by these clouds is shrinking.
    Adhivaswut/Shutterstock

    What does this mean?

    These findings suggest recent extremely hot years are not one-offs but may reflect a strengthening of warming over the coming decade or longer.

    This will mean a higher chance of more intense climate impacts from searing heatwaves, droughts and extreme rains on land, and more intense and long lasting marine heatwaves.

    This imbalance may lead to worse longer-term consequences. New research shows the only climate models coming close to simulating real world measurements are those with a higher “climate sensitivity”. That means these models predict more severe warming beyond the next few decades in scenarios where emissions are not rapidly reduced.

    We don’t know yet whether other factors are at play, however. It’s still too early to definitively say we are on a high-sensitivity trajectory.

    Our eyes in the sky

    We’ve known the solution for a long time: stop the routine burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions such as deforestation.

    Keeping accurate records over long periods of time is essential if we are to spot unexpected changes.

    Satellites, in particular, are our advance warning system, telling us about heat storage changes roughly a decade before other methods.

    But funding cuts and drastic priority shifts in the United States may threaten essential satellite climate monitoring.

    Steven Sherwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Mindaroo Foundation.

    Benoit Meyssignac receives funding from the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the French National Space Agency.

    Thorsten Mauritsen receives funding from the European Research Council, the European Space Agency, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish National Space Agency and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research.

    – ref. Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years – https://theconversation.com/earth-is-trapping-much-more-heat-than-climate-models-forecast-and-the-rate-has-doubled-in-20-years-258822

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –