They’re the modern way to find love according to the 323 million people who use them worldwide, but dating apps are fuelling an obsession with cosmetic surgery that may not have a happy ending.
A new study by researchers at the University of South Australia has shed light on how dating app female users are far more likely to undergo cosmetic procedures and digitally alter their looks on screen than non-users.
The emphasis on appearance, particularly with the swipe-based apps, plays a role in influencing 20% of women to change their looks via dermal fillers and anti-wrinkle injections in particular.
UniSA Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) graduate, and provisional psychologist, Naomi Burkhardt, who led the study published in Computers in Human Behaviour, says that while the increasing popularity of dating apps has reduced the stigma of using them to find love, there is a downside.
“The visual nature of dating apps, which prioritise photo-based profiles, places significant pressure on users to present themselves in an idealised matter which is not genuine,” Burkhardt says.
The researchers surveyed 308 Australian women aged 18 to 72 and found that nearly half of them had used a dating app in the past two years and one in five reported undergoing at least one cosmetic procedure.
Women who used dating apps had significantly more positive attitudes towards cosmetic surgery compared to non-users and those who altered their appearances digitally were also more likely to consider cosmetic procedures.
Apart from the pressures to enhance physical appearance, dating apps could also be partly responsible for an increase in overall body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, anxiety and poor self-esteem among women.
Earlier studies have investigated links between social media use in general and an increased acceptance of cosmetic surgery, but there is little data looking at dating apps specifically.
UniSA co-author Lauren Conboy suggests several interventions to address the psychological impacts of dating apps, including incorporating features that promote authenticity.
“Introducing more personality-based matching algorithms could also be considered to reduce the emphasis on physical looks, and apps could offer built-in body image interventions such as self-compassion exercises to mitigate the pressures to alter one’s appearance.”
Online dating has become increasingly popular in recent years and the trend is expected to continue, with dating website eHarmony predicting that by 2040, more than 70% of relationships will begin online.
UniSA co-author Dr John Mingoia, an online lecturer in psychology, says that dating apps have the potential to create healthier environments, where users can connect without feeling the need to confirm to unrealistic beauty standards.
“Hopefully this research can guide future studies to develop interventions to improve the authenticity of dating app use as well as support practitioners to better identify the motivations for women wanting to change their appearance,” Dr Mingoia says.
Notes for editors
“Swipe, Style, Surgery: Exploring Dating App Use, Self-Presentation Style, and Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery” is authored by University of South Australia researchers Naomi Burkhardt, Dr John Mingoia and Lauren Conboy. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2025.108568
United States President Donald Trump has made a series of high-profile threats against Canada and other countries since his second term began a month ago — but his proposed educational reforms also require serious attention.
The 10 principles for educational revision include “restoring parental rights” by allowing parents to vote to appoint local school principals; abolishing teacher tenure, which will undermine teachers’ unions; and introducing merit pay. In addition, there are plans to “create a credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life.”
Trump declared during his inauguration speech that “we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country … All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.”
Evidently, significant educational reform is a high priority.
Reforms to the American education system should be cause for concern for Canadians. The overt attacks on public education that we are seeing in the U.S. are already occurring in Canada, albeit often in more insidious and fragmented ways.
The parental rights movement also aims to undermine school-based sexual health education, which most parents support.
Across provinces
In 2023, Saskatchewan passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 to use a different pronoun or name in school.
This year, Alberta introduced a more expansive bill banning gender-affirming care for children under the age of 16 and banning trans women and girls from competing in female sports.
The parental rights rhetoric, a dog-whistle for anti-2SLGBTQ+ views, is not new in Canada. However, it seems to be finding renewed energy, especially in conservative-led provinces.
Anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric can also found in recent attempts to advocate for book bans (like in Chilliwack B.C. and in Manitoba in 2022) or in protests against Drag Queen story hours (in Ontario in 2023).
Similarly, attempts to undermine teachers and their unions are occurring.
For example, the Manitoba government recently passed Bill 35. The legislation was introduced under the premise of addressing teacher sexual misconduct, but the bill’s language was broadened to include teacher “competence” and “professionalism.”
Strong public schools rely on qualified teachers whose professional judgment and autonomy is protected and supported, in part, by teacher unions.
The events unfolding in the U.S. should act as a warning to Canadians, calling us to pay close attention to what is happening in our local school districts and school boards.
Being able to understand and identify regressive reform efforts and how they are subverting public education and democracy — as we endeavour to foster and build real relationships in our local school communities — is of urgent and national concern.
Melanie D. Janzen receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is a volunteer for People for Public Education Manitoba.
Jordan Laidlaw is a volunteer for People for Public Education Manitoba.
With two months to go before flight, the Apollo 13 prime crew of James Lovell, Thomas Mattingly, Fred Haise, and backups John Young, John Swigert, and Charles Duke continued to train for the 10-day mission planned to land in the Fra Mauro highlands region of the Moon. Engineers continued to prepare the Saturn V rocket and spacecraft at the launch pad for the April 11, 1970, liftoff and completed the Flight Readiness Test of the vehicle. All six astronauts spent many hours in flight simulators training while the Moon walkers practiced landing the Lunar Module and rehearsed their planned Moon walks. The crew for the next Moon landing mission, Apollo 14, participated in a geology field trip as part of their training for the flight then planned for October 1970. Meanwhile, NASA released Apollo 12 lunar samples to scientists and the Apollo 12 crew set off on a Presidential world goodwill tour. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers completed the Flight Readiness Test of the Apollo 13 Saturn V on Feb. 26. The test ensured that all systems are flight ready and compatible with ground support equipment, and the astronauts simulated portions of the countdown and powered flight. Successful completion of the readiness test cleared the way for a countdown dress rehearsal at the end of March.
One of the greatest challenges astronauts faced during a lunar mission entailed completing a safe landing on the lunar surface. In addition to time spent in simulators, Apollo mission commanders and their backups trained for the final few hundred feet of the descent using the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle at Ellington Air Force Base near the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston. Bell Aerosystems of Buffalo, New York, built the trainer for NASA to simulate the flying characteristics of the Lunar Module. Lovell and Young completed several flights in February 1970. Due to scheduling constraints with the trainer, lunar module pilots trained for their role in the landing using the Lunar Landing Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Haise and Duke completed training sessions at the Langley facility in February.
The astronauts trained for moonwalks with parabolic flights aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft that simulated the low lunar gravity, practicing their ladder descent to the surface. On the ground, they rehearsed the moonwalks, setting up the American flag and the large S-band communications antenna, and collecting lunar samples. Engineers improved their spacesuits to make the expected longer spacewalks more comfortable for the crew members by installing eight-ounce bags of water inside the helmets for hydration.
During their 35 hours on the Moon’s surface, Lovell and Haise planned to conduct two four-hour spacewalks to set up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), a suite of four investigations designed to collect data about the lunar environment after the astronauts’ departure, and to conduct geologic explorations of the landing site. The four experiments included the:
Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment designed to measure the flexes of charged particles
Cold Cathode Gauge Experiment designed to measure the pressure of the lunar atmosphere
Heat Flow Experiment designed to make thermal measurements of the lunar subsurface
Passive Seismic Experiment designed to measure any moonquakes, either naturally occurring or caused by artificial means
As an additional investigation, the astronauts planned to deploy and retrieve the Solar Wind Composition experiment, a sheet of aluminum foil to collect particles from the solar wind for analysis by scientists back on Earth after about 20 hours of exposure on the lunar surface.
With one lunar mission just two months away, NASA continued preparations for the following flight, Apollo 14, then scheduled for October 1970 with a landing targeted for the Littrow region of the Moon, an area scientists believed to be of volcanic origin. Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell and their backups Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Joe Engle learned spacecraft systems in the simulators. Accompanied by a team of geologists led by Richard Jahns, Shepard, Mitchell, Cernan, and Engle participated in a geology expedition to the Pinacate Mountain Range in northern Mexico Feb. 14-18, 1970. The astronauts practiced using the Modular Equipment Transporter, a two-wheeled conveyance to transport tools and samples on the lunar surface.
On Feb. 13, 1970, NASA began releasing Apollo 12 lunar samples to 139 U.S. and 54 international scientists in 16 countries, a total of 28.6 pounds of material. On Feb. 16, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean, accompanied by their wives and NASA and State Department officials, departed Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base for their 38-day Bullseye Presidential Goodwill World Tour. They first traveled to Latin America, making stops in Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Panama before continuing on to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The groundbreaking science and discoveries made during Apollo missions has pushed NASA to explore the Moon more than ever before through the Artemis program. Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal scattering or diffusion. Retroreflectors are mirrors that reflect the incoming light back in the same incoming direction. Calculating the time required for the beams to bounce back allowed scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, both of which are directly affected by Earth’s gravitational pull. More than 50 years later, on the cusp of NASA’s crewed Artemis missions to the Moon, lunar research still leverages data from those Apollo-era retroreflectors.
Berrien Moore III, Dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma (OU), director of the National Weather Center in Norman, OK, and Vice President for Weather and Climate Programs, died on December 17, 2024. Berrien earned an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina in 1963 and a doctorate degree from the University of Virginia in 1969. After graduating, he taught mathematics at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and became tenured in 1976. In 1987, Berrien became director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (ISEOS) at UNH. NASA chose ISEOS to be one of the 24 founding members of the “Working Prototype Federation” of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) in 1998. Still active more than 25 years later, ESIP is now a thriving nonprofit entity funded by cooperative agreements with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey, which brings together interdisciplinary collaborations (among over 170 partners) to share technical knowledge and engage with data users. Berrien left UNH in 2008, to serve as the founding Executive Director of Climate Central, a think-tank based in Princeton, NJ, which is dedicated to providing objective and understandable information about climate change Berrien moved to OU in 2010. Given his diverse academic, research, and career experience in global carbon cycle, biogeochemistry, remote sensing, environmental and space policy, and mathematics, Berrien was a natural choice to become the architect and principal investigator for the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCARB), a proposed NASA Earth Venture Mission that would have monitored plant health and vegetation stress throughout the Americas from geostationary orbit, probing natural sources, sinks, and exchange processes that control carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane in the atmosphere. While the mission was ultimately cancelled, the lessons learned are being applied to similar current and future Earth observing endeavors, e,g, NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission. Berrien served on and chaired numerous government-affiliated scientific committees throughout his career. From 1995–1998 he served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Global Change Research, which produced the landmark report, “Global Environment Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade.” In 2011, he was an author on the National Research Council’s (NRC) decadal survey, “Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategies for the Future.” Berrien participated on international scientific committees as well. From 1998–2002, he was the chair of the Science Committee of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP). He was also a lead author within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Assessment Report, which was released in 2001. Berrien served in several roles specific to NASA, including as a committee member and later chair of the organization’s Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee. He served as Chair of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Payload Advisory Committee, member and Chair of NASA’s Earth Science and Applications Committee, and member of the NASA Advisory Council. He was also active at NOAA, having chaired the agency’s Research Review Team and served on the Research and Development Portfolio Review Team for NOAA’s Science Advisory Board. Berrien received NASA’s highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, for outstanding service and the NOAA Administrator’s Recognition Award. He also received the 2007 Dryden Lectureship in Research Medal from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was honored for his contributions to the IPCC when the organization received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Jeff Dozier, an environmental scientist, snow hydrologist, researcher, academic – and former Earth Observing System Project Scientist – died on November 17, 2024. Jeff’s research focused on snow hydrology and biogeochemistry in mountain environments and addressed the role of stored and melting snow in the hydrologic cycle as well as the economic and social impact on water resources. In these efforts, he embraced remote sensing with satellites to measure snow properties and energy balance. He was a Project Scientist with the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System, contributing to the design and management of very large information systems that would impact spatial modeling and environmental informatics. Jeff served as the second EOS Project Scientist from 1990–1992. During that time, he worked with the NASA science community to – in his own words – “accomplish the goals of EOS, the most important of which is to develop the capability to predict or assess plausible environmental changes – both natural and human-induced – that will occur in the future. Meeting this challenge for the next decade to century requires the integration of knowledge from the traditional disciplines and information from many different sources into a coherent view of the Earth system. EOS is the largest project in the history of NASA and arguably the most important national and international scientific mission of the next two decades.” Jeff’s work alongside Michael Matson, was featured in a 2019 NASA Earth Science news article: “NASA Tracks Wildfires From Above to Aid Firefighters Below.” While working at NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service building in Camp Springs, MD, the pair detected methane fires in the Persian Gulf using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument on the NOAA-6 satellite – marking the first time that such a small fire had been seen from space. Jeff went on to develop a mathematical method to distinguish small fires from other sources of heat, which become the foundation for nearly all subsequent satellite fire-detection algorithms. At the time of his death, Jeff was Principal Investigator of a NASA-funded project with the objective of testing whether data from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission could be used to help refine the estimate for the snowpack melting rate. In the 2024 Earth Science news article, “NASA’s EMIT Will Explore Diverse Science Questions on Extended Mission,” Jeff indicated that EMIT’s ability to ‘see’ well into the infrared (IR) spectrum of light is key to his group’s efforts because ice is “pretty absorptive at near-IR and shortwave-IR wavelengths.” The results from this research will help inform water management decisions in states, such as California, where meltwater makes up the majority of the agricultural water supply. Jeff earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from California State University, Hayward (now California State University, East Bay) and a Master’s of Science degree and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He spent his career teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he was named the founding Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB in 1994. As the Dean, he recruited renowned faculty and developed one of the top environmental programs in the country. After his role as Dean, Jeff returned as a professor at Bren, educating the next generation of Earth scientists.
Pierre Morel, the first director of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and founding member of WCRP’s Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Core project, died on December 10, 2024. Pierre began his research as a theoretical physicist. His doctoral thesis examined the existence and properties of a condensed superfluid state of liquid Helium 3 at very low temperature. He lectured on basic physics, geophysical fluid dynamics, and climate science. As his career progressed, he focused his research on studying the circulation of the atmosphere. He was devoted to the development of numerical modelling of atmospheric flow that laid the groundwork for the study of climatology. Pierre’s work played an integral role in the development of tools used to study the atmosphere, many of which are still active today. Examples include Project Éole – an experimental wind energy plant conceived in the 1980s and created in Quebec, Canada that closed down in 1993; the ARGOS satellite, a collaboration between the Centre National d’Études Spatiale (CNES) [French Space Agency], National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and NASA, to collect and relay meteorological and oceanographic data around the world that launched in 1978; the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) system, which was developed by the U.S. – specifically NOAA, NASA, and the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force – Canada, and France, with the first satellite launch in 1982; and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites’ METEOSAT series of geostationary satellites, which launched in 1977 and remain active today. The launch of Meteosat–12 in 2022 was the first METEOSAT Third Generation (MTG) launch. Early in his career, Pierre was the director of the French Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) before he became the director of the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). In 1980 he became the first chairman of the WCRP, where he steered a broad interdisciplinary research program in global climate and Earth system science that involved the participation of atmospheric, oceanic, hydrological, and polar scientists worldwide. Pierre was later in charge of planetary programs at NASA and was involved in discussions about the future of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) in the mid-to-late 1990s. As an example, the Earth Observer article, “Minutes Of The Fourteenth Earth Science Enterprise/Earth Observing System (ESE/EOS) Investigators Working Group Meeting,” includes a summary of a presentation Pierre gave that focused on flight mission planning for the EOS “second series,” which was NASA’s plan at the time although ultimately not pursued, with the “first series” (i.e., Terra, Aqua, Aura) enduring much longer than anticipated. Pierre was the recipient of the 2008 Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership for his outstanding contributions to geophysical fluid dynamics, his leadership in the development of climate research, and the applications of space observation to meteorology and the Earth system science.
Introduction The NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) is an interdisciplinary scientific program within NASA’s Earth Science program that aims to develop the capability for periodic global inventories of land use and land cover from space. The program’s goal is to develop the mapping, monitoring and modeling capabilities necessary to simulate the processes taking place and evaluate the consequences of observed and predicted changes. The South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI) has a similar goal for South/Southeast Asia, as it seeks to develop innovative regional research, education, and capacity building programs involving state-of-the-art remote sensing, natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences to enrich land use/cover change (LUCC) science in South/Southeast Asia. Thus it makes sense for these two entities to periodically meet jointly to discuss their endeavors. The latest of these joint meetings took place January 1–February 2, 2024, in Hanoi, Vietnam. A total of 85 participants attended the three-day, in-person meeting—see Photo. A total of 85 participants attended the three-day, in-person meeting. The attendees represented multiple international institutions, including NASA (Headquarters and Centers), the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), other American academic institutions, the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC, the event host), the Vietnam National University’s University of Engineering and Technology, and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, the Japanese National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES), Center for Environmental Sciences, and the University of Tokyo. In addition, several international programs participated, including GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM), the System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), Global Observation of Forest and Land-use Dynamics (GOFC–GOLD), and NASA Harvest.
Meeting Overview The purpose of the 2024 NASA LCLUC–SARI Synthesis meeting was to discuss LUCC issues – with a particular focus on their impact on Southeast Asian countries. Presenters highlighted ongoing projects aimed to advance our understanding of the spatial extent, intensity, social consequences, and impacts on the environment in South/Southeast Asian countries. While presenters reported on specific science results, they also were intentional to review and synthesize work from other related projects going on in Southeast Asia. Meeting Goal The meeting’s overarching goal was to create a comprehensive and holistic understanding of various LUCC issues by examining them from multiple angles, including: collating information; employing interdisciplinary approaches; integrating research; identifying key insights; and enhancing regional collaborations. The meeting sought to bring the investigators together to bridge gaps, promote collaborations, and advance knowledge regarding LUCC issues in the region. The meeting format also provided ample time between sessions for networking to promote coordination and collaboration among scientists and teams. Meeting and Summary Format The meeting consisted of seven sessions that focused on various LUCC issues. The summary report that follows is organized by day and then by session. All presentations in Session I and II are summarized (i.e., with all speakers, affiliations, and appropriate titles identified). The keynote presentation(s) from Sessions III–VI are summarized similarly. The technical presentations in each of these sessions are presented as narrative summaries. Session VII consisted of topical discussions to close out the meeting and summaries of these discussions are included herein. Sessions III–VI also included panel discussions, but to keep the article length more manageable, summaries of these discussions have been omitted. Readers interested in learning more about the panel discussions or viewing any of these presentations in full can access the information on the Joint LCLUC–SARI Synthesis meeting website. DAY ONE The first day of the meeting included welcoming remarks from the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam (Session I), program executives of LCLUC and SARI, as well as from national space agencies in South and Southeast Asia (Session II), and other LCLUC-thematic/overview presentations (Session III). Session 1: Welcoming Remarks Garik Gutman [NASA Headquarters—LCLUC Program Manager], Vu Tuan [VNSC’s Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST)—Vice Director General], Chris Justice [University of Maryland, College Park (UMD)—LCLUC Program Scientist], Matsunaga Tsuneo [National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan], and Krishna Vadrevu [NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center—SARI Lead] delivered opening remarks that highlighted collaborations across air pollution, agriculture, forestry, urban development, and other LUCC research areas. While each of the speakers covered different topics, they emphasized common themes, including advancing new science algorithms, co-developing products, and fostering applications through capacity building and training. After the opening remarks, special guest Marc Knapper [U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam] gave a presentation in which he emphasized the value of collaborative research between U.S. and Vietnamese scientists to address environmental challenges – especially climate change and LUCC issues. He expressed appreciation to the meeting organizers for promoting these collaborations and highlighted the joint initiatives between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to monitor environmental health and climate change, develop policies to reduce emissions, and support adaptation in agriculture. The U.S.–Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership emphasizes the commitment to address climate challenges and advance bilateral research. He concluded by encouraging active participation from all attendees and stressed the need for ongoing international collaboration to develop effective LUCC policies. Session-II: Programmatic and Space Agency Presentations NOTE: Other than Ambassador Knapper, the presenters in Session I gave welcoming remarks and programmatic and/or space agency presentations in Session II,. Garik Gutman began the second session by presenting an overview of the LCLUC program, which aims to enhance understanding of LUCC dynamics and environmental implications by integrating diverse data sources (i.e., satellite remote sensing) with socioeconomic and ecological datasets for a comprehensive view of land-use change drivers and consequences. Over the past 25 years, LCLUC has funded over 325 projects involving more than 800 researchers, resulting in over 1500 publications. The program’s focus balances project distribution that spans detection and monitoring, and impacts and consequences, including drivers, modeling, and synthesis. Gutman highlighted examples of population growth and urban expansion in Southeast Asia, resulting in environmental and socio-economic impacts. Urbanization accelerates deforestation, shifts farming practices to higher-value crops, and contributes to the loss of wetlands. This transformation alters the carbon cycle, degrades air quality, and increases flooding risks due to reduced rainwater absorption. Multi-source remote sensing data and social dimensions are essential in addressing LUCC issues, and the program aims to foster international collaborations and capacity building in land-change science through partnerships and training initiatives. (To learn more about the recent activities of the LCLUC Science Team, see Summary of the 2024 Land Cover Land Use Change Science Team Meeting.) Krishna Vadrevu explained how SARI connects regional and national projects with researchers from the U.S. and local institutions to advance LUCC mapping, monitoring, and impact assessments through shared methodologies and data. The initiative has spurred extensive activities, including meetings, training sessions, publications, collaborations, and fieldwork. To date, the LCLUC program has funded 35 SARI projects and helped build collaborations with space agencies, universities, and decision-makers worldwide. SARI Principal Investigators have documented notable land-cover and land-use transformations, observing shifts in land conversion practices across Asia. For example, the transition from traditional slash-and-burn practices for subsistence agriculture to industrial oil palm and rubber plantations in Southeast Asia. Rapid urbanization has also reshaped several South and Southeast Asian regions, expanding both horizontally in rural areas and vertically in urban centers. The current SARI solicitation funds three projects across Asia, integrating the latest remote sensing data and methods to map, monitor, and assess LUCC drivers and impacts to support policy-making. Vu Tuan provided a comprehensive overview of Vietnam’s advances in satellite technology and Earth observation capabilities, particularly through the LOTUSat-1 satellite (name derived from the “Lotus” flower), which is equipped with an advanced X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor capable of providing high-resolution imagery [ranging from 1–16 m (3–52 ft)]. This satellite is integral to Vietnam’s efforts to enhance disaster management and climate change mitigation, as well as to support a range of applications in topography, agriculture, forestry, and water management, as well as in oceanography and environmental monitoring. The VNSC’s efforts are part of a broader strategy to build national expertise and self-reliance in satellite technology, such as developing a range of small satellites (e.g., NanoDragon, PicoDragon, and MicroDragon) that progress in size and capability. Alongside satellite development, the VNSC has established key infrastructure, facilities, and capacity building in Hanoi, Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh City to support satellite assembly, integration, testing, and operation. Tuan showcased the application of remotely sensed LUCC data to map and monitor urban expansion in Ha Long city from 2000–2023 and the policies needed to manage these changes sustainably – see Figure 1.
Tsuneo Matsunaga provided a detailed overview of Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) series of satellites, data from which provide valuable insights into global greenhouse gas (GHG) trends and support international climate agreements, including the Paris Agreement. Matsunaga reviewed the first two satellites in the series: GOSAT and GOSAT-2, then previewed the next satellite in the series: GOSAT-GW, which is scheduled to launch in 2025. GOSAT-GW will fly the Total Anthropogenic and Natural Emissions Mapping Observatory–3 (TANSO-3) – an improved version of TANSO-2, which flies on GOSAT-2. TANSO-3 includes a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS-3) that has improved spatial resolution [10.5 km (6.5 mi)] over TANSO-FTS-2 and precision that matches or exceeds that of its predecessor. TANSO-FTS-3 will allow estimates with precision better than 1 ppm for carbon dioxide (CO2) and 10 ppb for methane (CH4), as well as enabling nitrogen dioxide (NO2) measurements. GOSAT–GW will also fly the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR3) that will monitor water cycle components (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture) and ocean surface winds. AMSR3 builds on the heritage of three previous AMSR instruments that have flown on NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) missions. Matsunaga also highlighted the importance of ground-based validation networks, such as the Total Carbon Column Observing Network, COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network, and the Pandora Global Network, to ensure satellite data accuracy. Son Nghiem [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)] addressed dynamic LUCC in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The synthesis study examined the factors that evolve along the rural–urban continuum (RUC). Nghiem showcased this effort using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission to map a typical RUC in Bac Lieu, Vietnam – see Figure 2.
Nghiem described the study, which examined the role of rapid urbanization, agricultural conversion, climate change, and environment–human feedback processes in causing non-stationary and unpredictable impacts. This work illustrates how traditional trend analysis is insufficient for future planning. The study also examined whether slower or more gradual changes could inform policy development. To test these hypotheses, his research will integrate high-resolution radar and hyperspectral data with socioeconomic analyses. The study highlights the need for policies that are flexible and responsive to the unique challenges of different areas, particularly in “hot-spot” regions experiencing rapid changes. Peilei Fan [Tufts University] presented a study that synthesizes the complex patterns of LUCC, identifying both the spatial and temporal dynamics that characterize transitions in urban systems. The study explores key drivers, including economic development, population growth, urbanization, agricultural expansion, and policy shifts. She emphasized the importance of understanding these drivers for sustainable land management and urban planning. For example, the Yangon region of Myanmar has undergone rapid urbanization – see Figure 3. Her work reveals the need for integrated approaches that consider both urban and rural perspectives to manage land resources effectively and mitigate negative environmental and social impacts. Through a combination of case studies, statistical analysis, and policy review, Fan and her team aim to provide a nuanced understanding of the interactions between human activities and environmental changes occurring in the rapidly transforming landscapes of Southeast Asia.
Session III: Land Cover/Land Use Change Studies Tanapat Tanaratkaittikul [Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand] highlighted GISTDA activities, which play a crucial role in advancing Thailand’s technological capabilities and addressing both national and global challenges, including Thailand Earth Observation System (THEOS) and its successors: THEOS-2 and THEOS-2A. THEOS-1, which launched in 2008, provides 2-m (6-ft) panchromatic and 15-m (45-ft) multispectral resolution with a 26-day revisit cycle, which can be reduced to 3 days with off-nadir pointing. Launched in 2023, THEOS-2 includes two satellites – THEOS-2A [a very high-resolution satellite with 0.5-m (1.5-ft) panchromatic and 2-m (6-ft) multispectral imagery] and THEOS-2B [a high-resolution satellite with 4-m (12-ft) multispectral resolution] – with a five-day revisit cycle. GISTDA also develops geospatial applications for drought assessment, flood prediction, and carbon credit calculations to support government decision-making and climate initiatives. GISTDA partners with international collaborators on regional projects, such as the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund Project. Eric Vermote [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center] presented a keynote that focused on atmospheric correction of land remote sensing data and related algorithm updates. He highlighted the necessity of correcting surface imaging for atmospheric effects, such as molecular scattering, aerosol scattering, and gaseous absorption, which can significantly distort the satellite spectral signals and lead to potential errors in applications, such as land cover mapping, vegetation monitoring, and climate change studies. Vermote explained that the surface reflectance algorithm uses precise vector radiative transfer modeling to improve accuracy by incorporating atmospheric parameter inversion. It also adjusts for various atmospheric conditions and aerosol types – enhancing corrections across regions and seasons. He explained that SkyCam – a network of ground-based cameras – provides real-time assessments of cloud cover that can be used to validate cloud masks, while the Cloud and Aerosol Measurement System (CAMSIS) offers additional ground validation by measuring atmospheric conditions. He said that together, SkyCam and CAMSIS improve satellite-derived cloud masks, supporting more accurate climate models and environmental monitoring. Vermote’s work highlights the ongoing advancement of atmospheric correction methods in remote sensing. Other presentations in this session included one in which the speaker described how Yangon, the capital city in Myanmar, is undergoing rapid urbanization and industrial growth. From 1990–2020, the urban area expanded by over 225% – largely at the expense of agricultural and green lands. Twenty-nine industrial zones cover about 10.92% of the city, which have attracted significant foreign direct investment, particularly in labor-intensive sectors. This growth has led to challenges with land confiscations, inadequate infrastructure, and environmental issues (e.g., air pollution). Additionally, rural migration for employment has resulted in informal settlements, emphasizing the need for comprehensive urban planning that balances economic development with social equity and sustainability. Another presentation highlighted varying LUCC trends across Vietnam. In the Northern and Central Coastal Uplands, for example, swidden systems are shifting toward permanent tree crops, such as rubber and coffee. Meanwhile, the Red River Delta is seeing urban densification and consolidation of farmland – transitioning from rice to mixed farming with increased fruit and flower production. Similarly, the Central Coastal Lowlands and Southeastern regions are experiencing urban growth and a shift from coastal agriculture – in this case, to shrimp farming – leading to mangrove loss. The Central Highlands is moving from swidden to tree crops, particularly fruit trees, while the Mekong River Delta is increasing rice cropping and aquaculture. These changes contribute to urbanization, altered farming practices, and biodiversity loss. Advanced algorithms (e.g., the Time-Feature Convolutional Neural Network model) are being used to effectively map these varied LUCC changes in Vietnam. Another presenter explained how 10-m (33-ft) resolution spatially gridded population datasets are essential to address LUCC in environmental and socio-demographic research. There was also a demonstration of PopGrid, which is a collaborative initiative that provides access to various global-gridded population databases, which are valuable for regional LUCC studies and can support informed decision-making and policy development. DAY TWO The second day’s presentations centered around urban LUCC (Session IV) as well as interconnections between agriculture and water resources. (Session V). Session IV: Urban Land Cover/Land Use Change Gay Perez [Philippines Remote Sensing Agency (PhilSA)] presented a keynote focused on PhilSA’s mission to advance Philippines as a space-capable country by developing indigenous satellite and launch technologies. He explained that PhilSA provides satellite data in various categories, including sovereign, commercial, open-access, and disaster-activated. He noted that the ground infrastructure – which includes three stations and a new facility in Quezon – supports efficient data processing. For example, Perez stated that in 2023, PhilSA produced over 10,000 maps for disaster relief, agricultural assessments, and conservation planning. Perez reviewed PhilSA’s Diwata-2 mission, which launched in 2018 and operates in a Sun-synchronous orbit around 620 km (385 mi) above Earth. With a 10-day revisit capability, it features a high-precision telescope [4.7 m (15ft) resolution], a multispectral imager with four bands, an enhanced resolution camera, and a wide-field camera. Since launch, Diwata-2 has captured over 100,000 global images, covering 95% of the Philippines. Looking to the near future, Perez reported that PhilSA’s launch of the Multispectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) satellite is planned for 2025. He explained that MULA will capture images with a 5-m (~16-ft) resolution and 10–20-day revisit time, featuring 10 spectral bands for vegetation, water, and urban analysis. Perez also described the Drought and Crop Assessment and Forecasting project, which addresses drought risks and mapping ground motion in areas, e.g., Baguio City and Pangasinan. Through partnerships in the Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution Information (PAPGAPI) and the Pandora Asia Network, PhilSA monitors air quality across key locations, tracking urban pollution and cross-border particulate transport. PhilSA continues to strengthen Southeast Asian partnerships to drive sustainable development in the region. Jiquan Chen [Michigan State University] presented the second keynote address, which focused on the Urban Rural Continuum (URC). Chen emphasized the importance of synthesizing studies that explore factors such as population dynamics, living standards, and economic development in the URC. Key considerations include differentiating between two- and three-dimensional infrastructures and understanding constraints from historical contexts. Chen highlighted critical variables from his analysis including net primary productivity, household income, and essential infrastructure elements, such as transportation and healthcare systems. He advocated for integrated models that combine mechanistic and empirical approaches to grasp the dynamics of URC changes, stressing their implications for urban planning, environmental sustainability, and social equity. He concluded with a call for collaboration to enhance these models and tackle challenges arising from the changing urban–rural landscape. Tep Makathy [Cambodian Institute For Urban Studies] discussed urbanization in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He explained that significant LUCC and infrastructure developments have been fueled by direct foreign investment; however, this development has resulted in environmental degradation, urban flooding, and infrastructure strain. Tackling pollution, congestion, preservation of green spaces, and preserving the historical heritage of the city will require sustainable urban planning efforts. Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang [Vietnam Japan University, Vietnam National University, Hanoi] explained how flooding poses a significant annual threat to infrastructure and livelihoods in Can Tho, Vietnam. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate climate change considerations into land-use planning by enhancing the accuracy of vegetation layer classifications. Doing so will improve the representation of land-cover dynamics in models that decision-makers use when planning urban development. In addition, Hang reported that a more comprehensive survey of dyke systems will improve flood protection and identify areas needing reinforcement or redesign. These studies could also explore salinity intrusion in coastal agricultural areas that could impact crop yields and endanger food security. In this session, two presenters highlighted how SAR data, which uses high backscatter to enhance the radar signal, is being used to assist with mapping urban areas in their respective countries. The phase stability and orientation of building structures across SAR images aid in consistent monitoring and backscatter, producing distinct image textures specific to urban settings. Researchers can use this heterogeneity and texture to map urban footprints, enabling automated discrimination between urban and non-urban areas. The first presenters showed how Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar techniques, such as Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and Persistent Scatterer (PS) have been highly effective for mapping and monitoring land subsidence in coastal and urban areas in Vietnam. This approach has been applied to areas along the Saigon River as well as in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The second presenter described an approach (using SAR data with multitemporal coherence and the K-means classification method) that has been used effectively to study urban growth in the Denpasar Greater Area of Indonesia between 2016 and 2022. The technique identified the conversion of 4376 km2 (1690 mi2) of rural to built-up areas, averaging 72.9 hectares (0.3 mi2) per year. Urban sprawl was predominantly observed in the North Kuta District, where the shift from agricultural to built-up land use has been accompanied by severe traffic congestion and other environmental issues. Another presenter showed how data from the QuikSCAT instrument, which flew on the Quick Scatterometer satellite, and from the Sentinel-1 C-band SAR can be combined to measure and analyze urban built-up volume, specifically focusing on the vertical growth of buildings across various cities. By integrating these datasets, researchers can assess urban expansion, monitor the development of high-rise buildings, and evaluate the impact of urbanization on infrastructure and land use. This information is essential for urban planning, helping city planners and policymakers make informed decisions to accommodate growing populations and enhance sustainable urban development. Session V – LUCC, Agriculture, and Water Resources Chris Justice presented the keynote for this session, in which he addressed the GEOGLAM initiative and the NASA Harvest program. GEOGLAM, initiated by the G20 Agriculture Ministers in 2011, focuses on agriculture and food security to increase market transparency and improve food security. These efforts leverage satellite-based Earth observations to produce and disseminate timely, relevant, and actionable information about agricultural conditions at national, regional, and global scales to support agricultural markets and provide early warnings for proactive responses to emerging food emergencies. NASA Harvest uses satellite Earth observations to benefit global food security, sustainability, and agriculture for disaster response, climate risk assessments, and policy support. Justice also emphasized the use of open science and open data principles, promoting the integration of Earth observation data into national and international agricultural monitoring systems. He also discussed the development and application of essential agricultural variables, in situ data requirements, and the need for comprehensive and accurate satellite data products. During this session, another presentation focused on how VNSC is engaged in several agricultural projects, including mapping rice crops, estimating yields, and assessing environmental impacts. VNSC has created high-accuracy rice maps for different seasons that the Vietnamese government uses to monitor and manage agricultural production. Current initiatives involve using satellite data to estimate CH4 emissions from rice paddies, biomass mapping, and monitoring rice straw burning. For example, in the Mekong Delta, numerous environmental factors, including climate change-induced stress (e.g., sea-level rise), flooding, drought, land subsidence, and saltwater intrusion, along with human activities like dam construction, sand mining, and groundwater extraction, threaten the sustainability of rice farming and farmer livelihoods. To address these challenges, sustainable agricultural practices are essential to improving rice quality, diversify farming systems, adopt low-carbon techniques, and enhance water management. Presentations highlighted the importance of both optical and SAR data for LUCC studies, particularly in mapping agricultural areas. A study using Landsat time-series data demonstrated its value in monitoring agricultural LUCC in Houa Phan Province, Laos, and Son La Province, Vietnam. Land cover types were classified through spectral pattern analysis, identifying distinct classes based on Landsat reflectance values. The findings revealed significant natural forest loss alongside increases in cropland and forest plantations due to agricultural expansion. High-resolution imagery validated these results, indicating the scalability of this approach for broader regional and global land-cover monitoring. Another study showcased the effectiveness of SAR data from the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (PALSAR-2) on the Japanese Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) for mapping and monitoring agricultural land use in Suphanburi, Thailand. This data proved particularly useful for capturing seasonal variations and diverse agricultural practices. Supervised machine learning methods, such as Random Forest classifiers, combined with innovative spatial averaging techniques, achieved high accuracy in distinguishing various agricultural conditions. In the session, presenters also discussed the use of Sentinel-1 SAR data for mapping submerged and non-submerged paddy soils was highlighted, demonstrating its effectiveness in understanding water management issues see – Figure 4. Additionally, large-scale remote sensing data and cloud computing were shown to provide unprecedented opportunities for tracking agricultural land-use changes in greater detail. Case studies from India and China illustrated key challenges, such as groundwater depletion in irrigated agriculture across the Indo-Ganges region and the impacts on food, water, and air quality in both countries.
The session also focused on Water–Energy–Food (WEF) issues related to the Mekong River Basin’s extensive network of hydroelectric dams, which present both benefits and challenges. While these dams support sectors such as irrigated agriculture and hydropower, they also disrupt vital ecosystem services, including fish habitats and biodiversity. Collaborative studies integrating satellite and ground data, hydrological models, and socio-economic frameworks highlight the need to balance these benefits with ecological and social costs. Achieving sustainable management requires cross-sectoral and cross-border cooperation, as well as the incorporation of traditional knowledge to address WEF trade-offs and governance challenges in the region. DAY THREE The third day included a session that explored the impacts of fire, GHG emissions, and pollution (Session VI) as well as a summary discussion on synthesis (Session VII). Session VI: Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Pollution Chris Elvidge [Colorado School of Mines] presented a keynote on the capabilities and applications of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Nightfire [VNF] system, an advanced satellite-based tool developed by the Earth Observation Group. VIIRS Nightfire uses four near- and short-wave infrared channels, initially designed for daytime imaging, to detect and monitor infrared emissions at night. The system identifies various combustion sources, including both flaming and non-flaming activities (e.g., biomass burning, gas flaring, and industrial processes). It calculates the temperature, source area, and radiant heat of detected infrared emitters using physical laws to enable precise monitoring of combustion events and provide insight into exothermic and endothermic processes. Elvidge explained that VNF has been vital for near-real-time data in Southeast Asia. The system has been used to issue daily alerts for Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Recent updates in Version 4 (V4) include atmospheric corrections and testing for secondary emitters with algorithmic improvements – with a 50% success rate in identifying additional heat sources. The Earth Observation Group maintains a multiyear catalog of over 20,000 industrial infrared emitters available through the Global Infrared Emitter Explorer (GIREE) web-map service. With VIIRS sensors expected to operate until about 2040 on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) platforms, this system ensures long-term, robust monitoring and analysis of global combustion events, proving essential for tracking the environmental impacts of industrial activities and natural combustion processes on the atmosphere and ecosystems. Toshimasa Ohara [Center for Environmental Science, Japan—Research Director] continued with the second keynote and provided an in-depth analysis of long-term trends in anthropogenic emissions across Asia. The regional mission inventory in Asia encompasses a range of pollutants and offers detailed emissions data from 1950–2020 at high spatial and temporal resolutions. The study employs both bottom-up and top-down approaches for estimating emissions, integrating satellite observations to validate data and address uncertainties. Notably, emissions from China, India, and Japan have shown signs of stabilization or reduction, attributed to stricter emission control policies and technological advancements. Ohara also highlighted Japan’s effective air pollution measures and the importance of extensive observational data in corroborating emission trends. His presentation emphasized the need for improved methodologies in emission inventory development and validation across Asia, aiming to enhance policymaking and environmental management in rapidly industrializing regions. Several presenters during this session focused on innovative approaches to understand and mitigate GHG emissions and air pollution. One presenter showed how NO2 data from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the European Sentinel-5 Precursor have been validated against ground-based observations from Pandora stations in Japan, highlighting the influence of atmospheric conditions on measurement accuracy. Another presenter described an innovative system that GISTDA used to combine satellite remote sensing data with Artificial Intelligence (AI). This system was used to monitor and analyze the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere in Thailand. (In this context fine is defined as particles with diameters ≤ 2.5 µm, or PM2.5.) These applications, which are accessible through online, cloud-based platforms and mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, allow users, including citizens, government officers, and policymakers, to access PM2.5 data in real-time through web and mobile interfaces. A project under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Thailand is focused on improving air quality monitoring across the Asia–Pacific region by integrating satellite and ground-based data. At the core of this effort, the Pandora Asia Network, which includes 30 ground-based instruments measuring pollutants such as NO₂ and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), is complemented by high-resolution observations from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) aboard South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2B (GK-2B) satellite. The initiative also provides training sessions to strengthen regional expertise in remote sensing technologies for air quality management and develops decision support systems for evidence-based policymaking, particularly for monitoring pollution sources and transboundary effects like volcanic eruptions. Future plans include expanding the Pandora network and enhancing data integration to support local environmental management practices. PM2.5 levels in Vietnam are influenced by both local emissions and long-range pollutant transport, particularly in urban areas.The Vietnam University of Engineering and Technology, in conjunction with VNSC, continues to map and monitor PM2.5 using satellites and machine learning while addressing data quality issues that stem from missing satellite data and limited ground monitoring stations – see Figure 5. In addition to mapping and monitoring pollutants, another presentater explained that significant research is underway to address their health impacts. In Hanoi, exposure to pollutants ( e.g., PM2.5, PM10, and NO2) has led to increased rates of respiratory diseases (e.g., pneumonia, bronchitis, and asthma) among children, as well as elevated instances of cardiovascular diseases among adults. A substantial mortality burden is attributable to fine particulate matter – particularly in densely populated areas like Hanoi. Compliance with stricter air quality guidelines could potentially prevent thousands of premature deaths. For example, preventive measures enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reduced pollution levels that were associated with a decrease in avoidable mortality rates. In response to these challenges, Vietnam has implemented air quality management policies, including national technical regulations and action plans aimed at controlling emissions and enhancing monitoring; however, current national standards still fall short of the more stringent guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization. Improved air quality standards and effective policy interventions are needed to mitigate the health risks associated with air pollution in Vietnam.
Another presenter explained how food production in Southeast Asia contributes about 40% of the region’s total GHG emissions – with rice and beef production identified as the largest contributors for plant-based and animal-based emissions, respectively. Another presentation focused on a study that examined GHG emissions from agricultural activities, which suggests that animal-based food production – particularly beef – generates substantially higher GHG emissions per kg of food produced compared to plant-based foods, such as wheat and rice. Beef has an emission intensity of about 69 kg of CO2 equivalent-per-kg, compared to 2 to 3 kg of CO2 equivalent-per-kg for plant-based foods. The study points to mitigation strategies (e.g., changing dietary patterns, improving agricultural practices) and adopting sustainable land management. Participants agreed that a comprehensive policy framework is needed to address the environmental impacts of food production and reduce GHG emissions in the agricultural sector. In another presentation, the speaker highlighted the fact that Southeast Asian countries need an advanced monitoring, reporting, and verification system to track GHG emissions – particularly within high-carbon reservoirs like rice paddies. To achieve this, cutting-edge technologies (e.g., satellite remote sensing, low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, and Internet of Things devices) can be beneficial in creating sophisticated digital twin technology for sustainable rice production and GHG mitigation. Another presentation featured a discussion about pollution resulting from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia, which is significantly impacting air quality. Indonesia’s tropical peatlands – among the world’s largest and most diverse – face significant threats from frequent fires. Repeated burning has transformed forests into shrubs and secondary vegetation regions, with fires particularly affecting forest edges and contributing to a further retreat of intact forest areas. High-resolution data is essential to map and monitor changes in forest cover, including pollution impacts. Another speaker described a web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application that has been developed to support carbon offsetting efforts in Laos – to address significant environmental challenges, e.g., deforestation and climate change. Advanced technologies (e.g., remote sensing, GIS, and Global Navigation Satellite Systems) are used to monitor land-use changes, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem health. By integrating various spatial datasets, the web GIS app enhances data collection precision, streamlines monitoring processes, and provides real-time information to stakeholders for informed decision-making. This initiative fosters collaboration among local communities, government agencies, and international partners, while emphasizing the importance of government support and international partnerships. Ultimately, the web GIS application represents a significant advancement in Laos’s commitment to environmental sustainability, economic growth, and the creation of a greener future. Session VII. Discussion Session on Synthesis The meeting concluded with a comprehensive discussion on synthesizing themes related to LUCC. The session focused on three themes: LUCC, agriculture, and air pollution. The session focused on trends and projections as well as the resulting impacts in the coming years. It also highlighted research related to these topics to inform more sustainable land use policies. A panel of experts from different Southeast Asian countries addressed these topics. A summary of the key points shared by the panelists for each theme during the discussion is provided below. LUCC Discussions This discussion focused on the challenges of balancing economic development with environmental sustainability in Southeast Asian countries, e.g., mining in Myanmar, agriculture in Vietnam, and rising land prices in Thailand. More LUCC research is needed to inform decision-making and improve land-use planning during transitions from agriculture to industrialization while ensuring food security. The panelists also discussed urban sprawl and infrastructure development along main roads in several Southeast Asian countries, highlighting the social and environmental challenges arising from uncoordinated growth. It was noted that urban infrastructure lags behind population increases, resulting in traffic congestion, pollution, and social inequality. Cambodia, for example, has increased foreign investments, which presents similar dilemmas of economic growth accompanied by significant environmental degradation. Indonesia is another example of a Southeast Asian nation facing rapid urbanization and inadequate spatial planning, leading to flooding, groundwater depletion, and pollution. These issues further highlight the need for integrated satellite monitoring to inform land-use policies. Finally, recognizing the importance of public infrastructure in growth management, it was reported that the Thai government is already using technology to manage urban development alongside green spaces. Panelists agreed that LUCC research is critical for guiding policymakers toward sustainable land-use practices – emphasizing the necessity for improved communication between researchers and policymakers. While the integration of technologies (e.g., GIS and remote sensing) is beginning to influence policy decisions, room for improvement remains. In summary, the discussions stressed the importance of better planning, technology integration, and policy-informed research to reconcile economic growth with sustainability. Participants also highlighted the need to engage policymakers, non-government organizations, and the private sector in using scientific evidence for sustainable development. Capacity building in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where GIS and remote sensing technologies are still developing, is crucial. Community involvement is essential for translating research findings into actionable policies to address real-world challenges and social equity. Agriculture Discussions These discussions explored the intricate relationships between agricultural practices, economic growth, and environmental sustainability in Southeast Asia. As an example, despite national policies to manage the land transition in Vietnam, rapid conversions from forest to agricultural land and further to residential and industrial continue. While it is recognized that strict land management plans may hinder future adaptability, further regulation is needed. These rapid shifts in land use have increased land for economic development – especially in industrial and residential sectors – and contribute to environmental degradation, e.g., pollution and soil erosion. In Thailand, land is distributed among agriculture (50%), forest (30%), and urban (20%) areas. Despite a long history of agricultural practices, Vietnam faces new challenges from climate change and extreme weather. Thailand, meanwhile, is exploring carbon credits to incentivize sustainable farming practices – although this requires significant investment and time. The nation is well-equipped with a robust water supply system, and ongoing efforts to enhance crop yields on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, salinity levels, and flooding intensity have increased as a result of the rise in incidents of extreme weather, prompting advancements in rice farming mechanization to be implemented that are modeled after practices that have been successfully used in the Philippines. Despite these advances, issues (e.g., over-application of rice seeds) remain. The dominant land cover type in Malaysia is tropical rainforest, although agriculture – particularly oil palm plantations – also plays a significant role in land use. While stable, it shares environmental concerns with Indonesia. The country is integrating solar energy initiatives, placing solar panels on former agricultural lands and recreational areas, which raises coastal environmental concerns. In Taiwan, substantial land use changes have stemmed from solar panel installations to support green energy goals but have led to increased temperatures and altered wind patterns. All panelists agreed that remote sensing technologies are vital to inform agricultural policy across the region. They emphasized the need to transition from academic research to actionable insights that directly inform policy. Panelists also discussed the challenge of securing funding for actionable research – underlining the importance of recognizing the transition required for research to inform operational use. Some countries (e.g., Thailand) have established operational crop monitoring systems, while others (e.g., Vietnam) primarily depend on research projects. Despite progress in Malaysia’s monitoring of oil palm plantations, a comprehensive operational monitoring system is still lacking in many areas. The participants concluded that increased efforts are needed to promote the wider adoption of remote sensing technologies for agricultural and environmental monitoring, with emphasis on developing operational systems that can be integrated into policy and decision-making processes. Air Pollution Discussions The discussion on air pollution focused on various sources in Southeast Asia, which included both local and transboundary factors. Panelists highlighted that motor vehicles, industrial activities, and power plants are major contributors to pollutants, such as PM2.5, NO2, ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO). Forest fires in Indonesia – particularly from South Sumatra and Riau provinces – are significantly impacting neighboring countries, e.g., Malaysia. A study found that most PM2.5 pollution in Kuala Lumpur originates from Indonesia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pollution levels dropped sharply due to reduced economic activity; however, data from 2018–2023 shows that PM2.5 levels have returned to pre-pandemic conditions. The Indonesian government is actively working to reduce deforestation and emissions, aiming for a 29% reduction by 2030. Indonesia is also participating in carbon markets and receiving international payments for emission reductions. Indonesia’s emissions also stem from energy production, industrial activities, and land-use changes, including peat fires. The Indonesian government reports anthropogenic sources – particularly from the energy sector and industrial activities, forest and peat fires, waste, and agriculture – continue to escalate. While Indonesia is addressing these issues, growing population and energy demands continue to drive pollution levels higher. Vietnam and Laos are facing similar challenges related to air pollution – particularly from agricultural residue burning. Both governments are working on expanding air quality monitoring, regulating waste burning, and developing policies to mitigate pollution. Vietnam has been developing provincial air quality management plans and expanding its monitoring network. Laos has seen increased awareness of pollution, accompanied by government measures aimed at restricting burning and improving waste management practices. The panelists agreed that collaborative efforts for regional cooperation are essential to address air pollution. This will require collaboration in research and data sharing to inform policy decisions. There is a growing interest in leveraging satellite technology and modeling approaches to enhance air quality forecasting and management. To ensure that research translates into effective policy, communication of scientific findings to policymakers is essential – particularly by clearly communicating complex research concepts in accessible formats. All panelists agreed on the importance of improving governance, transparency, and scientific communication to better translate research into policy actions, highlighting collaborations with international organizations – including NASA – to address air quality issues. While significant challenges related to air pollution persist in Southeast Asia, noteworthy efforts are underway to improve awareness, research, and collaborative governance aimed at enhancing air quality and reducing emissions. Conclusion The LCLUC–SARI Synthesis meeting fostered collaboration among researchers and provided valuable updates on recent developments in LUCC research, exchange of ideas, integration of new data products, and discussions on emerging science directions. This structured dialogue (particularly the discussions in each session) helped the attendees identify priorities and needs within the LUCC community. All panelists and meeting participants commended the SARI leadership for their proactive role in facilitating collaborations and discussions that promote capacity-building activities across the region. SARI activities have significantly contributed to enhancing the collective ability of countries in South and Southeast Asia to address pressing environmental challenges. The meeting participants emphasized the importance of maintaining and expanding these collaborative efforts, which are crucial for fostering partnerships among governments, research institutions, and local communities. They urged SARI to continue organizing workshops, training sessions, and knowledge-sharing platforms that can equip stakeholders with the necessary skills and resources to tackle environmental issues such as air pollution, deforestation, climate change, and sustainable land management. Krishna VadrevuNASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centerkrishna.p.vadrevu@nasa.gov Vu TuanVietnam National Science Center, Vietnamvatuan@vnsc.org.vn Than NguyenVietnam National University Engineering and Technology, Vietnamthanhntn@vnu.edu.vn Son NghiemJet Propulsion Laboratoryson.v.nghiem@jpl.nasa.gov Tsuneo MatsunagaNational Institute of Environmental Studies, Japanmatsunag@nies.go.jp Garik GutmanNASA Headquartersggutman@nasa.gov Christopher JusticeUniversity of Maryland College Parkcjustice@umd.edu
Australian subscribers to the print edition of The New Yorker will know the feeling: it arrives once a week, or sometimes, as buses do, in pairs.
You may briefly regret the environmental impact of all that paper, but once it’s unwrapped it’s a source of anticipation. You check out the cover, read Shouts and Murmurs, and flip through the cartoons.
You might even tackle the book reviews or dive into an article. But most of all, you inhale the history of a century of brilliantly edited and stainlessly written essays.
The New Yorker will publish four issues to mark its centenary, including this one featuring the magazine’s mascot, Eustace Tilley. The New Yorker
100 years, thousands of issues, countless stories
The New Yorker has evolved alongside a century of monumental change. From the roaring 20s to the age unfolding, it has been a steadfast investigator of history, covering wars, political upheavals, cultural shifts and social revolutions.
It has also fostered the growth of renowned editors such as William Shawn, Robert Gottlieb and Tina Brown, all of whom helped shape it into an institution.
Antiguan-American novelist Jamaica Kincaid has written dozens of New Yorker articles over the decades. Wikimedia
When The New Yorker was founded in 1925 by Harold Ross, it was a lighthearted, satirical magazine designed for the city’s social elite. Early issues leaned into what articles editor Susan Morrison called a “fizziness and café society […] vibe.”
Originally focused on humour and satire, the magazine gradually developed into a serious publication known for long-form journalism, in-depth political analysis and high-calibre fiction.
World War II marked a turning point. The war demanded serious, in-depth reporting, and The New Yorker rose to the challenge.
It was the war which really helped The New Yorker find its feet in terms of important non-fiction reporting […] with many more substantial writers on staff able to cover subjects at length and in detail and with authority.
The shift towards serious investigative journalism was evident in the groundbreaking 1946 publication of John Hersey’s Hiroshima, which took up an entire issue. The approach of dedicating extensive space to a single subject was repeated at key historical moments, such as the death of Princess Diana and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
A special issue was released on September 15 1997 to memorialise Princess Diana. The New Yorker
Compelling readers to slow down and engage
With some 47 issues delivered annually, The New Yorker demands readers carve out time to engage deeply with a range of hard-hitting topics. Its style of slow investigative journalism can’t be consumed in a few seconds while scrolling through social media.
Alongside its seriousness, it retains some of its effervescence through comics and extraordinary breadth, drawing readers into unexpected topics – neuroscience, fountains, squirrels – through meticulously crafted narratives.
The magazine continues in this dual function tradition, reflecting the nuance of the wider world within its covers. The tension between the immense depth and breadth of content and the finite time of readers adds to its allure. It’s a challenge for those willing to invest the time to peruse and digest its pages.
David Remnick, editor since 1998, has guided the magazine with a vision that blends tradition and innovation. In his own words, the goal is to
persist in our commitment to the joys of what Ross first envisaged as a comic weekly. But we are particularly committed to the far richer publication that emerged over time: a journal of record and imagination, reportage and poetry, words and art, commentary on the moment and reflections on the age.
The elegant trappings of a storied past
While the approach to content has evolved, some aspects of The New Yorker have remained consistent. Its visual identity, for instance, has been remarkably stable: famously done in an illustrative style, and unadorned by headlines or teasers.
The vintage aesthetic of the illustrative covers traces its origins back to 1925. The magazine employs a mix of in-house artists and freelance illustrators, with a history of collaboration with notable artists including Saul Steinberg and Art Spiegelman.
Over time, the cover art has maintained a focus on bold, thought-provoking imagery that addresses timely issues. Many covers have become cultural history, such as the black-on-black 9/11 cover.
Today, the New Yorker’s pared-back style conveys a quiet authority. It’s not swayed by fleeting trends, but remains steadfast in its dedication to art and culture, and its origins.
More than a magazine
Subscribing to The New Yorker isn’t just a matter of interest; it’s an act of intellectual self-definition. Our media choices are powerful tools in our process of self-creation.
The New Yorker has built an enviable devotion among its readers. Their homes are filled with stacks of old issues, unopened, standing as testament to their ongoing relationship with the publication.
To subscribe to the magazine is to participate in a cultural shorthand – an aspiration toward intellectual engagement. Shutterstock
Owning the magazine also signals an affiliation with a specific reading class, regardless of whether the content is ever read. The very act of displaying The New Yorker fashions an image of sophistication, intellectualism and cultural awareness.
But the stacks come with a distinct kind of guilt, too. What does it say about you that you haven’t made time to stay up to date with one of the world’s most famous outlets for investigative journalism and cutting-edge fiction?
This tension speaks to the dual nature of The New Yorker experience: holding onto a subscription signals a commitment to personal growth, yet unread magazines reflect the complexity of modern life – where time for deep, reflective reading competes with daily obligations and the instant gratification offered by digital media.
The New Yorker’s significance isn’t just about the quality of its investigative journalism or the breadth of its storytelling; it’s about identity. To subscribe is to participate in a cultural shorthand – an aspiration toward intellectual engagement.
And who knows, if you hold onto your copies long enough, perhaps they’ll become valuable relics commanding prices in the thousands, much like the first issue does today.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In the past 12 months, more than 1,300 people have died on Australia’s roads. In January alone, there were 114 road deaths in Australia – roughly 20% more than the average for that month over the previous five years.
Our new study projects these tragedies are set to continue over the next 25 years, despite a commitment by Australian governments to achieving zero deaths on the nation’s roads by 2050.
Published in the journal Injury, our study uses a modelling tool to forecast the number of road fatalities in 2030, 2040 and 2050. Importantly, it also identifies the people and regions at higher risks, which provides an opportunity for taking a more nuanced and targeted approach to road safety.
Clear trends
Improved vehicle safety technology, stricter traffic laws and public awareness campaigns have led to a significant drop in the number of road deaths over the past several decades in Australia. But tragically, the number of people dying on Australia’s roads is still high.
The data reveal some clear trends. For example, weekdays see fewer fatalities, likely due to routine commuting and lower-risk behaviours. On the other hand, weekends, particularly Saturdays, experience spikes linked to alcohol consumption and more social travel.
December emerges as the deadliest month. This is likely driven by holiday travel surges, with secondary peaks in March and October tied to school holidays and seasonal weather changes that affect road conditions.
Geographic disparities further complicate the picture. Urban centres in New South Wales and Victoria such as Sydney and Melbourne account for 35% to 40% of fatalities, in part because of dense traffic volumes, complex intersections and pedestrian-heavy zones.
In contrast, rural and remote areas, though less congested, have more severe road accidents because of inadequate road infrastructure and higher speed limits. For example, the Northern Territory, with vast stretches of high-speed highways, records the highest fatality rate, while the Australian Capital Territory, with its urban planning emphasis on safety, reports the lowest.
Speed zones of 51–80 km/h are particularly lethal for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. This underscores the crucial role of speed management in urban and rural areas alike.
Demographic risks also remain entrenched. For example, men constitute more than 70% of fatalities – in part because they are more likely to engage in risky behaviour such as speeding and drunk driving. Young drivers (17–25 years) and middle-aged adults (40–64 years) are also over-represented due to a combination of inexperience, overconfidence and high mileage.
In good news, child fatalities (0–16 years) have sharply declined. This reflects the success of targeted measures like child seat laws and school zone safety campaigns.
To forecast these trends over the next 25 years, our new study used a modelling tool called Prophet developed by tech company Meta.
We fed 35 years of road data – from 1989 to 2024 – into the model. This data came from Australia’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. It incorporated variables such as road user type, age, gender, speed limits and geographic location.
To refine predictions, we also incorporated public holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
Prophet outperformed other models we tested, including SARIMA and ETS. It did a better job at modelling past changes in road safety. And it especially excelled at handling non-linear trends, multiple seasonal patterns (daily, weekly, yearly) and the effects of holiday periods.
An unmet target
The findings of the study are cause for some cautious optimism.
Overall, by 2050 fatalities are expected to decline. But Australia’s ambitious zero fatality target by the middle of the century will remain unmet.
The modelling indicates annual male fatalities will drop from 855 in 2030 to 798 in 2050, while female fatalities will plummet from 229 to 92.
There will also be a drop in the number of child fatalities – from 37 in 2030 to just two in 2050. But the model shows a troubling rise of the number of older drivers (over 65) dying on Australia’s roads – from 273 in 2030 to 301 in 2050. This reflects Australia’s ageing population, with more people expected to have both reduced mobility and reduced reflexes.
Motorcyclist fatalities buck the overall trend, rising from 229 in 2030 to 253 in 2050. This signals urgent needs for dedicated lanes and better rider education.
Regionally, Queensland and the Northern Territory lag due to rural road risks. Urban areas with speed limits lower than 80 km/h show steadier declines.
Motorcyclist fatalities are expected to rise from 229 in 2030 to 253 in 2050. FotoDax/Shutterstock
A shared priority
Based on these findings, our study provides several recommendations to mitigate the risk of death on Australia’s roads.
Speed management: enforce dynamic speed limits in high-risk zones such as school areas and holiday corridors, and expand 80 km/h zones on rural highways.
Targeted campaigns: launch gender-specific safety initiatives for men (for example, anti-speeding programs) and age-focused interventions, such as mandatory refresher courses for drivers over 65.
Infrastructure upgrades: invest in rural road safety such as median barriers and better signage, as well as dedicated cyclist pathways.
Technology integration: accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicles to reduce crashes caused by human error and risky behaviours, and pilot artificial intelligence-driven traffic systems for real-time hazard detection.
Expand public transport: subsidise off-peak travel and rural transit networks to reduce how much people – particularly high-risk groups – depend on car travel.
Better enforcement: strengthen weekend and nighttime policing of roads and deploy more mobile speed cameras during peak holiday periods.
By following these recommendations, Australia can move closer to its vision of safer roads. Our findings underscore that sustained progress demands not only rigorous policy, but also community engagement.
Ali Soltani has received funding from the Flinders Foundation, the National Road Safety Action Grant (NRSAGP), and the Lifetime Support Authority Grant in 2024. He is also a FIAS (French Institute of Advanced Studies) Fellow, Le Studium, under the Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission (2024–25). Additionally, he has affiliations with the Planning Institute of Australia, SA Branch, and has received multiple research and travel grants.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Sadaf Mollaei, Arrell Research Chair in the Business of Food and Assistant Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Even with the growing public interest around plant-rich diets, the number of people adopting these diets remains low, particularly in Canada. Rethinking what we call these foods could help.(Shutterstock)
“Vegan,” “vegetarian,” “meatless,” “plant-based,” “plant-rich,” “plant-forward,” “animal-free”: these are all terms used to describe foods or diets that are mostly or completely made of non-animal sources.
This list can go on and, although these terms are to some extent related, they’re not the same. For example, the term “vegan,” coined in 1944 by The Vegan Society, is used to define products that contain no animal-based ingredients.
According to Canada’s Food Guide, “vegetarian diets are those that exclude some or all animal products,” whereas a plant-based diet is defined as one that “puts more emphasis on eating plant foods such as vegetables and fruits, whole-grains and legumes (beans) and less emphasis on eating animal foods.”
In another definition, The British Dietetic Association describes a plant-based diet as “based on foods that come from plants with few or no ingredients that come from animals.”
For many, plant-based foods are often perceived as an unfamiliar option that lacks in taste or does not align with their cultural food norms. Many consumers are also confused about the true meaning of these terms, which makes choosing food more complicated.
What is the result of all this confusion and perceived barriers? Even though there are a variety of plant-based food options available in stores, and various restaurants offering vegan/vegetarian dishes or full menus, plant-based foods are not many people’s choice.
Many consumers are confused about the meaning of labels like ‘vegan,’ ‘plant-based’ and ‘plant-forward.’ (Shutterstock)
A recent report by Globe Scan, an international insights and advisory firm, showed that “although 68 per cent of people worldwide express interest in consuming more plant-based foods, only 20 per cent do so regularly, down from 23 per cent in 2023.”
The report noted that with rising food costs, many consumers have returned to “cheaper, familiar foods” rather than plant-based alternatives. Therefore, there is a growing need for more population-level support and interventions to help consumers navigate their food choices.
The responsibility and pressure to make the “right” choice should not be solely on the consumer. They cannot be expected to make radical and sudden changes to their eating habits such as entirely eliminating meat. However, small modifications, such as gradually reducing animal-based food (instaed of complete elimiation) and moving towards plant-rich diets, is a promising solution.
So, what does this mean for food producers, restaurant owners and decision-makers who want to promote their products? They should use appealing language and framing to describe food, whether it’s the description on a menu or labels on a package. It’s important to avoid using labels that create more confusion or reinforce the feeling of unfamiliarity.
Here are four low-cost tips and recommendations that could help positively influence consumer choices:
1) Leverage the halo effect
The halo effect is a cognitive bias where one positive characteristic or impression of a product influences the overall perception. In terms of food labelling, this means people might be more likely to purchase food if the name is appealing to them.
Research shows labelling food vegan can decrease consumers’ taste expectations and, in turn, their purchasing intentions. On the contrary, labels and names that use appealing language that promotes delicious, high-quality food, evokes enjoyment and increases positive reactions is a strategy that has proven effective in altering consumer choices.
Using variants of ‘plant-based’ in food labelling instead of vegan or vegetarian has proven to increase mainstream consumer purchasing intent. (Shutterstock)
2) Emphasize the role of sensory appeal
A study by The Good Food Institute found that consumers responded more favourably to plant-based burgers described with indulgent terms compared to those labelled with health-focused or restrictive language.
Why? Because using descriptive language that highlights the taste, texture and overall eating experience attracts a broader audience. Terms such as savoury, juicy or spicy can enhance the appeal of plant-based dishes. Think about “Juicy American Burger” versus a plant-based alternative that might be described simply as “Vegan Burger.”
3) Refrain from using terms with negative connotation
Steer clear of labels that may imply restriction, compromise or carry unintended negative connotations. Instead focus on terminology that implies inclusivity and offers complementary choices. The terms vegan and vegetarian are shown to be associated with negative stereotypes and feelings among some consumers, particularly the term vegan.
Steer clear of labels that may imply restriction, compromise or carry unintended negative connotations. (Shutterstock)
A further recommendation is to avoid labels such as plant-based milk “substitute” (for example for oat milk) or “veggie burger,” which can imply a replacement for existing choice and create an unnecessary competition between the choices.
4) Highlight provenance and culinary tradition
Plant-rich diets are not a new invention. Many food cultures around the globe have been plant-based for many years. Therefore, there is no need to reinvent the wheel to come up with labels and names. Take falafel, for example: it is essentially a veggie burger with a different name, yet it is popular among consumers.
Research also demonstrates highlighting food origins (also known as the country-of-origin effect) and including geographic references makes foods more appealing; for example, Panera Bread had a boost is soup sales by changing the name of one dish from “Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup” to “Cuban Black Bean Soup.”
Adopting a plant-rich diet is considered healthy and can be budget-friendly. Using language that appeals to consumers, instead of unfamiliar terms that may have negative associations for many people, can help encourage these dietary choices among a broader group of consumers.
Sadaf Mollaei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Foreshadowing the Super Bowl, Students From Across the State Showcased Their Academic Prowess at the Colorado High School Science Bowl
Left to right: Stargate Charter School’s coach poses with teammates Melinda, Shirley, Jacob, Leo, and Tristan after they won first place in the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL
The match kicked off with a question from the moderator that had the audience on the edge of its seats.
“If a periodic wave on a string has its frequency doubled, the power carried in the wave is multiplied by what factor?”
For many, this might have led to a fumble. But for 17-year-old Jacob from Stargate Charter School, it was a perfect pass. Without missing a beat, the team captain buzzed in with confidence:
“Four.”
With each correct response, Stargate continued to move the ball down the field, racking up points. Teammates Leo, Shirley, Tristan, and Melinda worked together like a well-oiled offense, securing their school’s regional championship title.
The stakes were high on Feb. 8, 2025, with 24 teams from 19 Colorado schools vying for the chance to represent Colorado in the National Science Bowl Finals in Washington D.C. This was not just any scrimmage—this was a battle of the best and brightest.
Since its creation in 1991, the tournament has become one of the United States’ largest and most prestigious science competitions, aiming to inspire young people to excel in mathematics and science and to consider careers in these fields. The tournament is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with its top sponsors including DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver.
Students were asked five rounds of 18 questions during the preliminary rounds, with the top 16 teams advancing to the double elimination rounds, where the competition grew more intense.
Unlikely Victors Take the Gold
After over seven hours of fast-paced, high-stakes matches, Stargate found themselves face to face with the reigning champions, Fossil Ridge High School. Just one year earlier, Fossil Ridge had narrowly defeated them, snatching victory away in the final moments. Now, Stargate had a shot at redemption, and the pressure was on.
“Up to this point in the tournament, we hadn’t actually faced them. I didn’t know what to expect,” admitted Tristan, a Stargate team member.
But any nerves quickly evaporated as Stargate dominated the round. With an explosive performance, they crushed Fossil Ridge’s four-year winning streak with a final score of 106 to 22.
The win left many in the crowd astonished, as Stargate almost did not compete at all. Due to a registration error, they were initially left off the roster. It was not until two days before the event that they got the call—another team had to drop out due to illness, and Stargate was being subbed in.
The problem? They had not been training for the Science Bowl at all.
Until that point, they had been preparing for the Knowledge Bowl, a competition that covers a much broader range of topics, including geography and literature. Switching gears at the last minute, the team had to rely on their quick adaptability and deep passion for STEM.
“In between every round, if we had like a 30-minute break, we would kind of just study,” Tristan said.
Students from Stargate Charter School celebrate a correct answer during the double elimination rounds of the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL
A Love of the Game
The dedication to learning was evident not only in Stargate’s performance but also in every team that participated. Across the competition, students poured their time and energy into sharpening their skills.
Alani, a sophomore from Centennial High School in Pueblo, shared that one of the most exciting aspects of the competition was seeing how much her knowledge and understanding of such complex concepts had grown since the previous year. To train for the tournament, her team met multiple times a week after school, letting their curiosity guide them as they studied.
“When we didn’t know a subject, we would look at articles and research about it. Then we identified a few areas we were weak in, and we all kind of researched them on our own,” Alani said.
This year, the following Colorado schools were on the Science Bowl roster:
Colorado Early Colleges Windsor
Centennial High School
Chatfield High School
Cherry Creek High School
Fairview High School
Fort Collins High School
Fossil Ridge High School
Kent Denver School
Lakewood High School
Liberty Common School
Merit Academy
Poudre High School
Ridgeview Classical Schools
Rock Canyon High School
Rocky Mountain High School
Severance High School
Smoky Hill High School
Stargate Charter School
The Vanguard School
Derek Passarelli, DOE Acting Under Secretary for Science and Innovation, has helped organize the Science Bowl for 25 years. He remains inspired by the brilliance and dedication of the students who participate.
“Every year I get to see the most amazing students in Colorado doing the most amazing kind of work,” he said.
Students from Fossil Ridge High School share a laugh as they introduce themselves before the double elimination rounds of the Colorado High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. The team won second place. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL
Opportunities Beyond High School
To encourage the students’ thirst for knowledge, MSU Denver had booths set up for the competitors to visit between rounds.
Among the booths were representatives from MSU Denver’s Classroom to Career Hub, which helps students explore different career options as they study, connecting them with internships, scholarships, and other opportunities.
Lori Marie Huertas, the assistant director of MSU Denver’s industry partnerships, spoke with students about an upcoming opportunity to network with and learn from industry professionals and nonprofits about the opportunities they have both now and after they graduate. One of the partners is Equipando Padres, a nonprofit dedicated to helping parents know how to support their children as they transition out of high school.
“[We’re] just encouraging them to understand that MSU Denver is a resource for them now, while they’re a high school student, and even in the future,” Huertas said. “We have events where they can come, and so [we’re] encouraging them to do that and maybe even concurrent education.”
The Final Whistle
For many of the competitors, the Science Bowl was more than just a chance to win prizes—it was a celebration of their curiosity, dedication, and hard work. Events like the Science Bowl encourage young minds to think critically, collaborate under pressure, and deepen their understanding of complex subjects.
With innovation and hard work being essential to progress, these students are a beacon of hope. Their love of learning and willingness to tackle tough challenges signal a bright future not only for themselves but also for the scientific community and the world at large.
Students from Fossil Ridge High School and Stargate Charter School compete in the final round of the High School Science Bowl at Metropolitan State University Denver. Photo by Brooke Buchan, NREL
“Embrace this experience and just the fact that you all have a love of knowledge and curiosity. It’s an incredible thing,” Passarelli said. “And then maybe one day you will bring that knowledge and curiosity to the Department of Energy or one of the national labs!”
With their championship win, Stargate is now preparing for the National Science Bowl Finals in Washington, D.C. The road to victory is not over yet—but if their performance at regionals was any indication, they are ready to take on the best in the nation.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
February 19, 2025
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST) and Ranking Member of the CST Aviation, Space and Innovation Subcommittee—is demanding a more detailed explanation from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau on why the FAA abruptly fired hundreds of employees in the wake of multiple deadly airplane crashes. In her letter, Duckworth is requesting multiple answers from the FAA by this Friday, February 21, regarding the reasoning behind these firings and the impact these firings will have on passenger safety and our ongoing aviation safety crisis.
In the letter, Duckworth wrote: “I am alarmed about the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) abrupt firing of hundreds of FAA employees. In the wake of multiple deadly airplane crashes, Congress and the flying public need a more detailed explanation. At a minimum, we need to know why this sudden reduction was necessary, what type of work these employees were doing, and what kind of analysis FAA conducted – if any – to ensure this would not adversely impact safety, increase flight delays or harm FAA operations.”
This letter comes after the Trump Administration assured that no air traffic controllers and no critical safety personnel were fired. Duckworth’s letter, however, raises her concerns that air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel cannot effectively do their jobs without certain systems and resources—many of which require maintenance by workers who may have been fired. Duckworth urges the FAA to remain focused on implementing the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act—which the Senator helped co-author—to help address the air traffic controller shortage and boost other critical parts of the aviation workforce, and questions whether firing hundreds of employes will help the FAA meet these goals.
In her letter, Duckworth is requesting responses to the following questions:
Why did FAA find it necessary to fire nearly 400 probationary employees?
How does firing these nearly 400 probationary employees improve safety for the flying public?
Please provide a breakdown of the types of positions the fired probationary employees held, including how many were fired from each type of position.
How many of these terminations were performance-based?
Did FAA conduct an analysis of the impact these firings would have on passenger safety, flight delays and FAA operations? If so, please provide the result of that analysis. If FAA did not conduct any such impact analysis, please so state.
A copy of the letter is available on the Senator’s website and below:
Dear Acting Administrator Rocheleau:
I am alarmed about the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) abrupt firing of hundreds of FAA employees. In the wake of multiple deadly airplane crashes, Congress and the flying public need a more detailed explanation.
At a minimum, we need to know why this sudden reduction was necessary, what type of work these employees were doing, and what kind of analysis FAA conducted – if any – to ensure this would not adversely impact safety, increase flight delays or harm FAA operations.
A broad assurance that no air traffic controllers or critical safety personnel were terminated does not answer these questions. FAA’s mission is safety, and its critical safety personnel cannot do their jobs without proper resources. For example, air traffic controllers rely on systems to manage communications, monitor weather and conduct surveillance and navigation. Maintaining these systems is essential. Yet, according to a press report impacted FAA employees include individuals hired to work on, “FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance.”[1]
Our Nation’s aviation system has struggled since the pandemic, when so much experience left our workforce. We saw a spike in close calls, in response to which FAA held a safety summit to try to figure out ways to build back our safety margin.
Congress held hearings and passed a bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act to help address the air traffic controller shortage and boost other critical parts of the aviation workforce. The law also provides safety enhancements like airport surface situational awareness technologies.
FAA should be laser focused on implementing this law, restoring our aviation system’s safety margin and preventing more tragic crashes. I do not understand how terminating these employees furthers this goal, and FAA has yet to provide an explanation.
Please provide responses to the following by 12pm E.T. on Friday February 21, 2025:
Why did FAA find it necessary to fire nearly 400 probationary employees?
How does firing these nearly 400 probationary employees improve safety for the flying public?
Please provide a breakdown of the types of positions the fired probationary employees held, including how many were fired from each type of position.
How many of these terminations were performance-based?
Did FAA conduct an analysis of the impact these firings would have on passenger safety, flight delays and FAA operations? If so, please provide the result of that analysis. If FAA did not conduct any such impact analysis, please so state.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) and partners are joining the international Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) to boost conservation efforts on subantarctic Maukahuka/Auckland Island, Rakiura/Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands.
The IOCC, led by international conservation groups, Island Conservation and Re:wild, and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, aims to restore at least 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems around the world by 2030.
An ambitious plan to remove invasive species, protect threatened wildlife, and restore the island ecosystems so they’re resilient to climate change has been agreed by DOC, Ngāi Tahu, Moriori, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and community partners.
DOC’s Director-General Penny Nelson says joining the IOCC will help New Zealand promote and amplify groundbreaking island conservation on the world stage.
“For millions of years, New Zealand’s native species evolved separately from the rest of the world. They’re unique, they’re only found here, and once they’re gone from here, they’re gone from everywhere.
“These islands are precious remnants of a prehistoric world. Protecting and restoring them will make sure they become safe havens for iconic native species once more.
“We want to see the return of fields of chest-high flowering megaherbs on Maukahuka/Auckland Island, thriving colonies of diverse seabirds like tāiko and albatross on the Chatham Islands and Rakiura becoming a refuge for kākāpō.
“Partnering with the IOCC connects us with international donors who want to restore nature. It will boost government investment so we can scale up the most complex and challenging island conservation projects New Zealand has ever attempted.
“We’re thrilled that just last month a generous New Zealander donated $100,000 to the Auckland Island project, adding to the $11.5 million already raised through philanthropy across the three projects,” Penny Nelson says.
Penny Becker, CEO of Island Conservation, says, “We are beyond excited to welcome these three important New Zealand restoration projects into our global portfolio of island-ocean ecosystems.
“By restoring these islands, we can make a tangible difference for biodiversity and oceans. Investing in these projects is an investment in the health and future of our planet.”
Signatory partners are celebrating the launch of New Zealand’s participation in the IOCC at an event at Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff, hosted by Te Rūnaka o Awarua.
Awarua Rūnaka spokesperson and co-chair of Te Puka Rakiura Trust Dean Whaanga, says, “Te Rūnaka o Awarua is delighted to be hosting this event to launch the entry of these three motu (islands) into the IOCC.
“Two of the three islands – Rakiura/Stewart Island and Maukahuka/Auckland Island – are located within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā (territory) and our role as kaitiaki (guardians) of these motu is of immense significance to our whānau (people).
“Our success in restoring the small offshore islands surrounding Rakiura has laid the pathway for the mahi that needs to be done on Rakiura and Maukahuka,” Dean Whaanga says.
New Zealand is world renowned for island conservation work with over 110 successful island pest eradications achieved so far and an ambitious nationwide Predator Free 2050 goal. However, the three latest island projects will be ground-breaking in their scale and complexity.
Each island is 4-15 times larger than the biggest New Zealand island (Campbell Island) previously cleared of pests. Their remoteness from the mainland, difficult terrain, wild weather and multiple animal pest species presents unique challenges. Human settlements are also present on Rakiura and the Chatham Islands, marking a first for New Zealand predator free projects of this scale. The local communities play a crucial part in the restoration of these islands.
Plans for removing introduced predators from the three islands have been underway for many years and are well advanced. Extensive research and feasibility work has been undertaken, involving a wide range of expertise including in science, predator control, planning and logistics, and community engagement. Investment in these projects will unlock new methods and grow the toolbox for eradicating harmful introduced predators both in Aotearoa and around the world.
The government has invested $54 million in the three island conservation projects, which are estimated to cost a total of $202 million. With $11.5 million donated so far, this leaves $137 million still to be raised.
Funds raised towards the three island conservation projects will be managed by the New Zealand Nature Fund (NZNF), which is supporting New Zealand’s IOCC pledge. NZNF is also embarking on a major campaign with donors and philanthropists.
Donate today to help restore the natural biodiversity of these three unique islands: www.nznaturefund.org/iocc.
Signatories to New Zealand’s IOCC pledge are the Department of Conservation, Te Rūnanga o Hokonui, Te Rūnaka o Awarua, Te Rūnaka o Waihōpai, Te Rūnaka o Ōraka Aparima, Te Puka Rakiura Trust (Predator Free Rakiura), Hokotehi Moriori Trust, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri Iwi Trust and Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust. Predator Free NZ Trust and Predator Free 2050 Ltd are supporting partners.
DOC is coordinating the partnerships with all groups involved in the IOCC pledge.
Maukahuka/Auckland Island, located 465km south of Bluff, is a renowned World Heritage Site and nature reserve. Dubbed the ‘seabird capital of the world’, it’s a hub for breeding seabirds, including four albatross species. The island’s rich biodiversity (including over 100 species found nowhere else) is at threat from mice, pigs and feral cats. Planning is well underway for the eradication of the three invasive mammals which is estimated to cost $78 million. This project is led by DOC in partnership with Ngāi Tahu.
Rakiura/Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third largest island, is 90% public conservation land including Rakiura National Park. Home to a tokoeka brown kiwi population, it’s surrounded by many pest-free islands with thriving tītī/sooty shearwater and other seabird populations. Te Puka Rakiura Trust, Ngāi Tahu and DOC are working together towards the goal to eradicate feral cats, rats, possums, and hedgehogs from the island. The vision is to restore the island for the return of kākāpō and other wildlife previously found there.
Chatham Islands, located 800km east of Aotearoa, is a haven for native birds and plants found nowhere else like the kakaruia/karure/Chatham Island black robin, Chatham Island tāiko/magenta petrel and Chatham Island albatross/toroa/hopo. The IOCC pledge is to continue removing feral cats from Rangihaute/Rangiauria/Pitt Island and complete the first phase of the Predator Free project on Rēkohu/Wharekauri/main Chatham by removing possums and feral cats. The long-term goal is to remove possums, feral cats and rats from the whole archipelago and see the seabird-driven ecosystem thriving. This community-driven project is led by the Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust with Hokotehi Moriori Trust and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, supported by DOC, Chatham Islands Council and Predator Free 2050 Ltd.
Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) and 26 other Republican Senate colleagues in reintroducing legislation to prohibit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service from banning the use of lead ammunition or tackle on public lands unless such action is supported by the best available science.
“Limitations or bans on traditional ammo and tackle create an unnecessary burden for Idaho’s hunters and anglers,” said Crapo. “This in turn restricts important state revenues and participation in the conservation and management of our incredible lands. I am proud to stand for the right of Idahoans to participate in our rich tradition of hunting and fishing for food and recreation.”
Download the bill text here.
Additional co-sponsors of the bill include Senators John Thune (R-South Dakota), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Rick Scott (R-Florida), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), Mike Rounds (R- South Dakota), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Jim Justice (R-West Virginia), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi).
Background:
In 2022, USFWS entered into settlement negotiations with activist organizations over a lawsuit regarding the use of traditional ammunition and tackle on over three million acres of federal land. Crapo joined his colleagues in urging USFWS Director Martha Williams not to cave in to activists’ calls to restrict the use of lead ammo and tackle on public lands. Crapo co-sponsored the bill in the 118th and 117th Congresses.
Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
02.20.25
Cantwell Reintroduces Bipartisan Bill to Take WA-Developed, Low-Barrier Fentanyl Treatment Pilot Program Nationwide
In UW study, access to Health Engagement Hubs shown to reduce fatal overdoses by a staggering 68%; Hubs would offer access to safe & free addiction treatment without an appointment
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) reintroduced the Fatal Overdose Reduction Act, a bipartisan bill that would expand a Washington-state-developed, low-barrier fentanyl treatment pilot program across the United States.
“The fentanyl crisis continues to kill and tear apart communities all across the country,” said Sen. Cantwell. “We need to be protecting Medicaid, the largest payer of substance use treatment in the United States, to ensure we are using every tool possible to fight this epidemic. This bipartisan bill would leverage Medicaid to expand a locally developed community treatment center model that has proven remarkably successful at reducing fatal overdoses.”
The Health Engagement Hub model was developed by Dr. Caleb Banta-Green at the University of Washington. The innovative hub model provides a one-stop shop where substance use disorder patients can receive near-immediate FDA-approved treatment (buprenorphine) and access primary care, harm reduction, and other social services without an appointment.
Research data from UW shows that, among 825 participants, this community-based, medication-first approach decreased overdose mortality rates by 68%.
READ MORE:
The Seattle Times — Federal bill to reduce opioid deaths deserves bipartisan support
The Washington State Standard — Could WA’s health ‘hub’ model treating opioid addiction go nationwide?
Oregon Public Broadcasting — Opioid hub treatment model shows success in Washington, could come to Oregon
In 2023, the Washington State Legislature funded a $4 million state pilot program to establish health engagement hubs because the model demonstrates great potential in addressing the opioid epidemic.
In May 2024 – the same day Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Cassidy originally introduced the Fatal Overdose Reduction Act — Dr. Banta-Green addressed Sen. Cantwell and colleagues about the effectiveness of the Health Engagement Hub model during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee titled “Front Lines of the Fentanyl Crisis: Supporting Communities and Combating Addiction through Prevention and Treatment.”
“We really need to allow people to access care rapidly and stay engaged. The process of recovery […] for opioids and stimulants, it’s about three years. And during that process of recovery, people are often returning to use,” Dr. Banta-Green said. “We need a place that people can start today and come back tomorrow, no matter what.”
That hearing can be watched HERE; a transcript of Sen. Cantwell and Dr. Banta-Green’s remarks is HERE.
The Fatal Overdose Reduction Act would allow existing and qualifying entities to receive a Health Engagement Hub certification, similar to the process for mental health treatment centers to be designated as Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers. Under this bipartisan bill, certified Health Engagement Hubs would receive enhanced Medicaid payments for providing services including substance use disorder treatment, primary care, and case management. Certified hubs would also operate under a “no wrong doors” approach and offer services in a drop-in manner without prior appointment or proof of payment.
To qualify as a Health Engagement Hub, an organization would need to offer:
Substance use disorder treatment using FDA-approved medications;
Harm reduction services such as overdose education, naloxone distribution, and emotional counseling;
Patient-centered physical and behavioral health care services such as primary care, disease vaccination, psychiatric care, and secure medication storage;
Case management, care navigation, and care coordination services including housing, identification, employment, recovery support, family reunification, and criminal-legal services; and
Community health outreach and navigation services.
In addition, a Health Engagement Hub must meet certain minimum staffing requirements:
One part-time or full-time health care provider who is licensed to practice in the state and is licensed and registered to prescribe controlled substances;
One part-time or full-time registered professional nurse or licensed practical nurse who can provide medication management, medical case management, care coordination, wound care, vaccine administration, and community-based outreach;
One part-time or full-time licensed behavioral health staff who is qualified to assess and provide counseling and treatment recommendations for substance use and mental health diagnoses; and
A full-time team of outreach, engagement, and care navigation staff. This could include peer counselors, community health workers, and recovery coaches. At least 50% of such staff must be individuals with a personal history of addiction treatment and recovery.
Read the bill text HERE.
In 2023 and 2024, Sen. Cantwell traveled across the State of Washington to 10 communities — Tacoma, Everett, Tri-Cities, Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Port Angeles, Walla Walla, Yakima, and Longview – hearing from people on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis, including first responders, law enforcement, health care providers, and people with firsthand experience of fentanyl addiction. She’s since used what she heard in those roundtables to craft and champion specific legislative solutions, including:
In addition, Sen. Cantwell voted for a series of federal funding bills allocating $1.69 billion to combat fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming into the United States, including an additional $385.2 million to increase security at U.S. ports of entry, with the goal of catching more illegal drugs like fentanyl before they make it across the border. Critical funding will go toward Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology at land and sea ports of entries. NII technologies—like large-scale X-ray and Gamma ray imaging systems, as well as a variety of portable and handheld technologies—allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help detect and prevent contraband from being smuggled into the country without disrupting flow at the border.
A full timeline of Sen. Cantwell’s actions to combat the fentanyl crisis is available HERE.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Katya Alkhateeb, Senior Researcher in International Human Rights Law & Humanitarian Law at Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex
The capture of Damascus by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad last December sent shockwaves through Syria’s political landscape, heralding an unprecedented shift in power. The rise to power of HTS, formerly the Al-Nusra Front, is a litmus test for assessing whether militant Islamist organisations can evolve through state-building.
At the heart of transforming Syria must be the development and safeguarding of women’s rights. This will prove a revealing lens through which to measure the sincerity of HTS’s professed reforms.
But so far a stark disparity has emerged between their rhetoric of inclusivity and reality. This appears to involve perpetuating entrenched institutional practices of patriarchal conservatism.
After seizing Damascus, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa took pains to project an image of inclusive governance. He claimed: “Syria is a nation of many identities and beliefs, and our duty is to ensure they coexist peacefully within a just system.” He highlighted that 60% of university students in the city of Idlib are women, and portrayed HTS as a moderate force that values women’s roles in society.
Yet interviews with senior regime figures as well as policy decisions and governance practices expose these statements as hollow. Instead they suggest a deep-seated commitment to hardline religious conservatism.
The new administration’s official spokesperson, Obaida Arnaout, said recently that appointing a woman to a role in the ministry of defence would not “align with her essence, her biological and psychological nature”. This was framed as acknowledging women’s suitability for other roles, but it ultimately reflects a deeply conservative, patriarchal attitude.
Likewise, the appointment of Aisha al-Dibs to lead the office for women’s affairs initially appeared to signal progress. But her first few statements suggested a regressive agenda.
Blaming civil society organisations for “rising divorce rates”, she vowed that “the constitution will be based on Islamic Sharia”. She added that she would “not allow space for those who disagree with my ideology”.
Al-Dibs’s vision of empowerment appears to be rigidly conservative. It effectively reduces women’s roles to family, husband and domestic priorities.
These two examples highlight in HTS what appears to be a strategy of commandeering state institutions to enforce a radicalised version of Islam, a key trait of political Jihadism.
The new HTS-backed justice minister, Shadi al-Waisi epitomises this trend. In 2015, as a judge in the northern city of Idlib – at the time under the control of the Al-Nusra Front – he was recorded on video ordering women to be executed for adultery. An HTS representative has since dismissed this as “a phase we have surpassed”. But Al-Waisi still argues that since most people in Syria are Muslim, religious Sharia law should take priority.
As far as women’s role in the judiciary is concerned, a statement from Arnaout casts doubt on whether they will be allowed to continue to act as judges, a hard-won right under the Assad regime. In 2017, 30% of judicial posts were occupied by women.
But in an interview with Lebanese TV channel Al-Jadeed in December 2024, Arnaout said: “Certainly, women have the right to learn and be educated in any field, whether in education, law, the judiciary, or other fields, but the job has to suit her nature.” She added: “For a woman to assume a judicial position, this could be examined by experts, and it is too early to talk about it.”
Education policy has also become a key battleground. The new administration has introduced sweeping reforms. These include dropping evolution and big bang theory from science and changing the history curriculum to reflect a more Islamic slant.
Beyond the classroom, HTS’s hardline policies pervade public life. Women are segregated on buses, strict dress codes are heavily propagated. Meanwhile building new mosques is taking precedence over rebuilding war-torn infrastructure.
HTS’s unwillingness to embrace genuine pluralism suggest the regime is more interested in rebranding its ideology than in reforming it.
Diplomatic promises and realities on the ground
While determining how to engage with the HTS regime, other countries need to be aware of this. They must act in the knowledge that rhetoric of inclusivity appears – at present at least – to be simply that: rhetoric. Firm pressure from international stakeholders such as the United Nations will be needed to hold HTS accountable to a transition to a fully inclusive new system of government.
A conference held in Paris on February 13 and attended by representatives of a broad range of Arab and European countries underscored the international commitment to this principle. Delegates produced a joint statement that called for: “A peaceful, credible, orderly and swift inclusive transition … so that a representative and inclusive governance that represents all components of Syrian society and includes women from the onset can be formed.”
The explicit mention of women and inclusive representation in this statement stands in stark contrast to the reality of the transitional process. Just a day earlier, on February 12, the appointed preparatory committee for the upcoming National Dialogue Conference, which will thrash out a new “political identity” for Syria, revealed the limitations of this commitment.
While the seven-member committee includes two women, five members have strong ties to Islamist movements and three of the seven are directly linked to HTS.
The committee’s composition notably fails to represent Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious communities, with no Kurdish, Alawite, or Druze representatives. This raises questions about the genuine commitment to inclusive governance in the transition process.
The contradiction between HTS rhetoric and its actions on diversity and inclusivity, especially when it comes to respecting women’s rights, is not just a domestic issue but a critical test of its global standing.
The new regime’s treatment of women and its enforcement of conservative ideology in violation of legal and human rights expose its broader intentions. Failing to address these signs risks condemning Syria to a repressive future.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
When I first arrived at the top secret Porton Down laboratory, I was aware of very little about its activities. I knew it was the UK’s chemical defence research centre and that over the years it had conducted tests with chemical agents on humans.
But what really happened there was shrouded in mystery. This made it a place which was by turns fascinating and scary. Its association with the cold war, reinforced by images of gas mask-wearing soldiers and reports of dangerous (and in one case fatal) experiments, also made it seem a little sinister.
The shroud of secrecy resulted in it being the subject of some lively fiction, such as The Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean, which revolves around the theft of two deadly germ warfare agents from a secret research facility and in the “Hounds of Baskerville” episode of the BBC drama Sherlock in which the hero uncovers a sinister plot involving animals experiments.
Even Porton’s own publicity material recognises that where secrecy exists imagination can take flight, and attests:
No aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down or any other Dstl [Defence Science and Technology Laboratory] site.
But it’s also the place where in recent years scientists analysed samples confirming that a Novichok nerve agent had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter (coincidentally, just a few miles away). And where an active research programme on Ebola played an important role in the UK’s support to Sierra Leone during the 2014 outbreak.
So what is the truth? Over three years my research took me into the heart of the mystery, as I studied its extensive historical archive. The reality was not as I expected. I came across no aliens, but I did discover records of experiments that ran from the ordinary, through to the bizarre. And sadly, in one isolated case, the lethal.
Arriving at Porton Down, for example, was unexpectedly low key. The main gate is located off a public road on an otherwise quiet stretch between Porton Down village and the A30. It is in many ways visually similar to the entrance to Lancaster University in the north of England where I work as a lecturer in epidemiology.
Bar some signs announcing it as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (dstl) of the Ministry of Defence, the road is devoid of obvious security. No barriers block entry. This sense of the extraordinary hiding behind the ordinary was reinforced by the undistinguished visitor car park from where it is a short walk to the nondescript single story reception building.
There is also (perhaps unusually for a government chemical weapons research centre) a bus stop next to the main gate, from where you can get the number 66 to Salisbury.
So on my first visit in 2002 I made that short walk from the visitor car park to the reception and announced myself. I was pleased to find I was expected and looked into the security camera as bidden. After a hard stare from the receptionist I was issued, on that my first day, with a temporary pass. On it was written: “MUST BE ACCOMPANIED AT ALL TIMES” in bright red.
My contact, Dawn, arrived and led me through the main gate where security started to become more obvious. An armed policeman gave us a small nod as we passed through, his hands staying firmly on the machine gun strapped to his chest. Dawn paid little attention other than a brief hello and we were inside, heading to the headquarters.
It was from here that the management of Porton Down organised the programmes of testing which had ultimately resulted in my presence there – to research the health effects of chemical experiments on humans.
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Since its inception in 1916 it has researched chemical weapons, protective measures against chemical weapons, and has recruited over 20,000 volunteers to participate in tests in its research programmes.
Hut 42 – opening the archive
This archive was opened to my colleagues and I after previously being firmly hidden from public view. This shift in approach was the result of government approval for a study into the long-term health of the human volunteers. The action was triggered by complaints from a group of people who had been tested on and who claimed their health had been damaged as a result.
The government was also keen to ward off accusations of cover ups. In 1953 Ronald Maddison, a young RAF volunteer, died in a nerve agent experiment at the site. The original inquest was held in secret and returned a verdict of misadventure. But in 2004 the government ordered a second, public, inquest.
This, along with a police investigation into the behaviour of some of the Porton Down scientists persuaded the government to fund independent research into the health effect of the experiments.
A research group from the department of public health at the University of Oxford won IS WON RIGHT WORD? sk I was part of that group. Porton participated fully and opened its doors and archive to the project. I went ahead of the research team to deal with the practicalities of gaining access. My first task was to set up an office. So Dawn led me onwards to the building that had been put aside for our use.
We passed into the inner, more secure, area. This part of Porton Down was where the main scientific work was carried out. This inner secure area was surrounded by a high chain link fence and there was one principal entry point, next to a guard room.
Inspecting our passes was another armed MoD police officer. Alerted by my red pass he was all for barring my way until Dawn stepped in. Now vouched for, we were waved through and passed onwards to the building that would become my home for the best part of three years – hut 42.
‘People had neat handwriting then’
Hut 42 was a nondescript redbrick, single-story building, which sits next to the main library and information centre and from the outside could be mistaken for a school boiler room. In it were five desks and several metal filing cabinets closed with combination locks.
Our purpose there was to study the historical archive, including the handwritten books of experiment data. We then transferred that material into a database for later analysis. This process took four people two years of hard work, but we were lucky.
Porton Down’s record keeping was excellent. Early on I had worried that handwritten records would be hard to decipher and had asked a Porton Down librarian whether they would be legible. “Definitely”, was the reply. “People had neat handwriting then. It’s the records from the 1970s you’ll have to watch. They’re dreadfully scrappy,” he said.
And so it was proved. The records of tests from an era before computers, carried out with substances such as mustard gas, were routinely neatly and clearly documented.
Porton Down experiment book, showing drop tests to the arms during one of the first nerve agent tests.
A picture of a page in one of the experiment books on which is recorded the first nerve agent test for Tabun on April 10, 1945. Thomas Keegan
I met Porton Down’s resident medical doctor in the archive to start discussing the nature of the experiments. Simon (not his real name) was in his mid-thirties with boyish curly hair and an anorak. “You’ll find everything you’ll need in here, in these cupboards,” he said. “First, I’ll show you how to open the cupboard. It’s like this”, he said. “A five number combination. Five times anticlockwise to reach the first number, four times clockwise for the second, three times anticlockwise for the third and so on.”
There was a pause while he demonstrated. “Sometimes they can be a bit sticky”, he said after the first attempt. He got the cupboard open on the second try.
The archive was a mixture of handwritten experimental and administrative records. The administrative records were essentially lists of attendees with dates and personal characteristics such as age. The experimental records reported the results of the tests with people in a variety of ways. Some were in the form of descriptive text, others used pictograms to record the site visually, for example where a drop of mustard gas was placed on the skin. Many contained tables of data, all hand drawn and as legible as if they had been printed. Our cupboards contained around 140 such books spanning a period from the start of the second world war to the end of the 1980s.
The story the records told was a fascinating one.
In the 50 years following the outbreak of the second world war, Porton Down encouraged over 20,000 men, nearly all members of the UK armed forces, to take part in experiments at the site.
These men (the regular armed forces had yet to admit women) took part in a programme of tests that ran from experiments using liquid mustard “gas” dropped onto bare skin to inhalation of nerve agents. There were also tests with antidotes and other gasses and liquids too.
Chemical experiments
The records show that between 1939 and 1989, over 400 different substances were tested at Porton. Mustard gas, sarin, and nitrogen mustard were frequently tested. These chemicals are known as “vesicants” for their ability to cause fluid filled blisters (or vesicles) on the skin or any other site of contact. First world war soldiers were familiar with the horrors of this gas, which was first used by Germany at the Battle of Ypres in 1915. John Singer Sergeant’s powerful painting Gassed expressed the effect of mustard gas on soldiers exposed in the trenches.
Other major chemical tests were riot control agents, such as CS and CR, these being the only chemicals tested that have been used by UK forces in peacetime, their purpose being crowd control.
Mostly, we were kept far away from anything other than paper records. As Britain had given up its chemical arsenal and any offensive capability in the 1950s, there was, as Simon had explained, no stores of chemical agents at Porton Down, except of course, small amounts of those that were needed to test human defences. By a circuitous route however, I came nearer to some than I was expecting.
‘Would you like a sniff?’
Hut 42, was not, it turned out, wholly for our use. While some Porton staff shared access to the archive and popped in now and then to examine records and take photocopies, the building had one other permanent resident – Porton Down’s in-house historian Gradon Carter. Carter was in his late 70s and had worked at Porton Down as an archivist for more than 20 years. He prided himself on knowing more than anyone alive about the history and administration of the institution.
He wore tweed and had the air of a world weary Latin master, but rather than the accoutrements of his trade being Latin textbooks, his were the paraphernalia of chemical warfare. Around his desk were examples of gas masks from various periods of history, and on the wall, posters inviting people to “always carry your gas mask”.
One of his exhibits was a box, about the size of a packet of breakfast cereal, which contained glass phials, each carefully labelled with the contents. These included mustard gas, lewsite and phosgene.
The box was from the 1940s. It was a training tool to help troops recognise different gasses on the battlefield. “Would you like a sniff of mustard?”, he offered. It so happened I did. Nearly 60 years after it was first bottled, I can report that Carter’s mustard gas had very little smell, but I was reluctant to get close to test any of its other properties. He re-corked it. “Some lewisite?” he suggested.
Lewisite was produced in 1918 for use in the first world war but its production was too late for it to be used. Another vesicant, it causes blistering of the skin and mucous membranes (eyes, nose, throat) on contact.
I declined Carter’s kind offer.
Other chemicals appeared in the records less frequently. There were the lovely vomiting agents, which are designed to winkle their way under your gas mask to make you sick, which will make you take off your gas mask making you vulnerable to the next wave of attack by, for example, nerve agents.
These agents were relatively standard members of a chemical arsenal. In an effort to expand its horizons, Porton Down opened its collective mind in the early 1960s to the usefulness of psychedelics in warfare and tested LSD for its potential as a disruptor of enemy military discipline.
The tests showed that troops became unable to put up much of a fight, but ultimately the chemicals were rejected as means of mass disruption. You can see a video of a test at Porton Down with LSD below.
In the video, a troop of Royal Marines can be seen taking part in an exercise during which they are given LSD. Not long afterwards the men become barely capable of military action and seem to find almost everything funny. One man seems not to know which end of a bazooka to point at the enemy.
The most commonly tested substances at Porton, according to our data, were mustard gas, lewisite and pyridostigmine (more of which later) with thousands of tests undertaken. Less frequently tested were a basket of chemicals including sodium amytal (a barbiturate) and more strangely perhaps, 49 tests with pastinacea sativa – the irritant wild parsnip.
Not all men who took part in tests did so with chemical agents. Many visited Porton Down and were “tested” with substances that were not intended to be harmful but which must have been providing useful information of some kind. Some people were tested with “lubricating oil” (498 people) and “ethanol” (204 people). Many tests were with protective equipment such as materials for protective suits and with respirators.
Nerve agent tests
Around 3,000 people were tested with nerve agents. The number of nerve agents tested was not extensive, with six principal agents recorded. These were tabun, (known as GA), soman (GD), sarin (GB), cyclo sarin (GF), and methylphosphonothioic acid (VX).
The period of nerve agent research ran from the early postwar period to the late 1980s, and coincided with the cold war, when military tension between the Nato countries and the USSR was high.
The archive was rich in information on these tests. The records included detail of the time and place of each test along with details of who took part, noting both staff and volunteer participants. Records on the early tests are especially revealing.
Chambers like this were used to carry out tests on nerve agents. Thomas Keegan
For example, in 1945 nerve agents were not yet known to Porton Down scientists. They had come close to discovering nerve agents when they had worked on PF-3, a chemical of the same organophosphate type as the nerve agents, but they had not thought it sufficiently toxic.
However, these agents were well known to German scientists, and to the German military who weaponised them during the second world war. Despite fears to the contrary, gas was not used in the fighting, though Germany had clearly prepared for chemical warfare.
Nazi agents and gin and tonic
Advancing US forces moving through Germany came across stockpiles of artillery shells in a railway marshalling yard near Osnabrück that contained suspicious liquids. The markings on the shells – a white ring on one type and green and yellow rings on the other – were new to the Americans. The shells were sent to the US and Porton Down for investigation.
After initial analysis, Porton scientists found that the shells with the white ring contained tear gas. The other contained an unknown substance (later it would be named tabun).
Tabun is one of the extremely toxic organophosphate nerve agents. It has a fruity odour reminiscent of bitter almonds. Exposure can cause death in minutes. Between 1 and 10 mL of tabun on the skin can be fatal.
On April 10 1945, after some laboratory tests, the scientists decided to test the new chemical on people. In fact, as Carter pointed out to me, disaster could have struck immediately as the first nerve agent to arrive at Porton for testing was transported to the lab in a test tube stoppered only with cotton wool.
Thinking this was a new variety of mustard gas, they placed drops on the participants’ skin. The scientists also placed drops in the eyes of some rabbits. The records show that before any serious effect to the humans could be noted one of the rabbits died, giving the scientists running the tests a fright.
The chemical was quickly wiped off the men’s arms and the test ended there. According to a brief memoir supplied by Carter, Dr Ainsworth (who was involved in the tests) said that Captain Fairly (the Porton scientist being tested on) had been shaken by the experience but recovered “after a stiff gin and tonic in his office”.
This sporting attitude to self-testing was not uncommon among scientists, however. Dr Ainsworth later tested a method for reducing the effect of a splash of nerve agent on the skin which involved a tourniquet and opening a vein – something he thought worked well.
But he was used to the pioneering methods of the day. “Taste this,” the pharmacologist John (later Sir John) Gaddum had ordered on one previous occasion. Dr Ainsworth sipped the liquid offered and reported that it tasted a little like gin. “That’s strange”, Professor Gaddum said. “I can’t taste anything. It’s diluted lewisite and the rats simply won’t drink it.”
Back at the wartime testing lab they were keen to find out more about what was now understood to be a new type of chemical agent developed by German scientists and weaponsied by their armed forces. The following week, ten people were exposed in a chamber, at the higher concentration of 1 in 5 million. In the pioneering spirit not uncommon at Porton, four of the subjects: Commandant Notley, Major Sadd, Mr Wheeler and Major Curten were Porton staff. Major Curten reported having a tightness of chest, and a slight contraction of the pupils, unlike the commandant who had no reaction but thought the gas smelled of boiled sweets.
An undated photograph of the southern end of the Porton Down campus showing the bus stop outside. The grey building is thought to be one of the exposure chambers. Thomas Keegan
Later that morning the scientists had another go, this time at a higher concentration, 1 in 1 million. The symptoms were now more noticeable, with more than one person vomiting and others needing treatment the following day for the persistent symptoms of headaches and eye pain.
Given what we have since learned about tabun, it seems at the very least cavalier of the scientists to conduct these tests on themselves and others. They were were lucky not to have been seriously injured or even killed, but those were the risks they seemed willing to take.
Fatal consequences
The last entries in the archive for nerve agent tests were for 1989 so newer compounds such as novichok, used in an attempted assassination in nearby Salisbury, were not included. One later nerve agent tested in the 1960s was VX, then a scarily potent new nerve agent.
According to the Centers for Disease Control in the US, VX is one of the most toxic of the known chemical warfare agents. It is tasteless and odourless and exposure can cause death in minutes. As little as one drop of VX on the skin can be fatal.
It was not developed into a weapon by the UK, as by then it had abandoned an offensive capability, but tests were carried out on a relatively small number of volunteers. I mentioned VX to Carter. He recalled that the first sample of VX was first discovered, accidentally, at an ICI chemical factory in the UK and sent to Porton in the regular post. Luckily, nobody was exposed.
In one notorious episode however, the tests of nerve agents on humans did not go as expected.
As I referred to earlier, in 1953, during an early nerve agent experiment, the young airman, Ronald Maddison died. Testing was paused at Porton after an inquiry by the eminent Cambridge academic Lord Adrian and limits on exposures were set after resumption in 1954. A second inquest into the death returned a verdict of unlawful killing in 2004.
One of the founders of the Porton Down Veterans Group, Ken Earl was in the same experiment. He remembered vividly being in the same chamber as Maddison, and while not affected seriously at the time, felt his health issues later in life were directly related to the test. In an interview with the BBC, he attributed the many health problems he suffered through his life, including skin conditions, depression and a heart irregularity, to his experience at Porton Down.
Our research could not establish a direct link to the kind of ill health Earl suffered. But our data on the short-term effects did show a good deal about the immediate aftermath of a nerve agent exposure, similar to the type Earl experienced.
The physiological effect of exposure to nerve agents varies greatly between individuals as our previous research has shown. The strength of symptoms varies too. Five of the six participants in the same test as Maddison did not report adverse effects other than feeling a bit cold.
However, tests before this had shown that certain effects were consistently seen with nerve agent exposures. In July 1951 six people participated in a test with soman. The lab book notes:
5/5 experienced pain in eyes, blinker effect and blurred vision 30 minutes after exposure (these symptoms continued for 24 hours). 1 participant vomited 4 hours after exposure. 2 participants vomited 24 hours after exposure. Eye pain and vision improved after 48 hours but not normal – return to normal after 5 days. 4/5 given multiple doses of atropine.
While these effects must have been unpleasant, it is also shown that participants in nerve agent tests had between one and two “exposures”. Those in tests with other chemicals such as mustard gas may have had many.
To further regulate exposures, strict limits on the amount of nerve agent allowed in tests were imposed after Maddison died. The levels of exposure typically experienced by servicemen induced: pinpoint pupils (miosis), headaches, a tightness in the chest and vomiting. These symptoms recur many times in the records, as does documentation of the drugs used to treat them, typically atropine and pralidoxime.
A new era
Despite the range of agents which have been developed, chemical weapons have rarely been used by states in conflict, perhaps held back by adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention or by their difficulty of use.
Despite this they were used by Iraq (not then bound by the CWC) in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), who used mustard gas and tabun against Iranian troops. They have also been used by states against civilians – for example by Iraq against its Kurdish population and more than once by Syria against its civilian population between 2014 and 2020.
In 2017, North Korean agents used VX to assassinate Kim Jong-nam, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And more recently the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent. He later recovered only to die in a Russian prison in early 2024.
These are not just remote threats. As I previously noted, a particularly high-profile example of a state using a chemical weapon to kill someone took place in the UK in 2018 when it is alleged that the Russian state tried to kill an ex-KGB spy using small quantities of the then new and especially toxic nerve agent Novichok.
Sergei Skripal, the intended victim, and his daughter Yulia survived the attack.
A public inquiry heard how the Skripals were found slumped in a park in Salisbury. While the presence of nerve agents was not at first suspected, the emergency services noted how the Skripals suffered from a range of symptoms including pinprick pupils, muscle spasms and vomiting. For those experienced with nerve agents these symptoms are typical.
But these symptoms were not known to Nick Bailey, a detective sergeant who had been assigned to check over a house in Salisbury, home to the two people that had recently been found collapsed. This should have been routine but the first indication to DS Bailey that something was amiss was when he looked in the mirror.
His pupils, normally wide open at this time of night, had shrunk into pinpricks. He was also beginning to feel very strange. But it was when Bailey’s vision fractured and he vomited that he knew something was seriously wrong.
It would later become clear that the agents sent to kill Skripal had sprayed the liquid nerve agent onto the door handle of the Skripal house. Sergei and his daughter both used the handle and were poisoned. So was Bailey, who had closed the door and locked it after his checks on the house later that evening.
Four months later, the boyfriend of Dawn Sturgess found a discarded perfume bottle in nearby Amesbury, picked it up and then later gave it to her as a present. Neither could have imagined it had been used to bring Novichok to Salisbury and left behind by the attackers. Sturgess died after spraying the contents onto her skin. Her boyfriend survived.
It was in partnership with experts at Porton Down that the local health services were able to treat the victims. According to the inquiry, a key challenge was for the hospital to work out what had poisoned the Skripals so they could treat them effectively. Porton Down worked nonstop to determine what type of nerve agent had been used. Once the cause was known the hospital was able to save the Skripals’ lives.
That Porton Down is situated just a few miles from Salisbury where the Novichok attack took place was probably useful to those treating victims. The Russian state however, used this proximity to try to muddy the waters of accountability for the poisoning, but there seems little doubt that blame for the nerve agent poisoning lies with Russia.
Despite the efforts of those agents, five out six people poisoned with Novichok survived, not unscathed perhaps, but alive. That they did so is in some way the result of the expertise and knowledge gained over years of nerve agent research at Porton Down.
It seems clear that the more information about the effects of nerve agent exposure that are known outside specialist research circles the better. Though nerve agent attack is extremely rare the events in Salisbury and Amesbury have shown they are not impossible.
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The research study that took Thomas Keegan to Porton Down was led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Medical Research Council.
Browse through Donald Trump’s ghostwritten memoir, The Art of the Deal, and you’ll come across an aphorism which will go some way to explaining the US president’s approach to negotiating. Having established that he would do nearly anything within legal bounds to win, Trump adds that: “Sometimes, part of making a deal is denigrating your competition.”
It’s an idea which makes a lot of sense when you consider Trump’s record. We saw it time and again on the campaign trail, as he sought to seal the deal with the US public by repeatedly denigrating first Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris. Which begs the question, in seeking to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine, exactly who he sees as the competition he needs to denigrate: Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelensky?
Trump has certainly gone out of his way to excoriate the Ukrainian president over the past day or two, both in public and on his TruthSocial platform. He has variously blamed Zelensky for starting the war, called him a “dictator without elections” and a “modestly successful comedian … very low in Ukrainian polls” who “has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died”.
Putin, meanwhile, takes a rather different view of how to seal a deal with the US president. Far from denigrating Trump, he has set out to charm the flattery-loving president with a view to driving a wedge between the US and Europe, claiming that EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and insisting that “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.
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The Russian president will be well pleased with the events of the past week or so. After three years of increasing isolation under the Biden presidency, he’s now back at the top table with the US president – two powerful men discussing the future of Europe.
For the man who, in 2005, complained that the collapse of the Soviet Union had been “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, to be back deciding the fate of nations is a dream come true, writes James Rodgers of City St George’s, University of London.
Rodgers, a former BBC Moscow correspondent, observes that Putin has fulfilled this mission having “conceded not an inch of occupied Ukrainian territory to get there. Nor has he even undertaken to give back any of what Russian forces have seized since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.”
Not only that, but Putin also appears to have enlisted US support for one of the key objectives that encouraged him to invade Ukraine in the first place: preventing Ukraine from joining Nato. That much was clear from the US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to European defence officials last week. The views of Washington’s European allies (and of the Biden administration) – that Ukraine’s membership of Nato is a matter for the alliance members to decide with Ukraine as a sovereign state in control of its own foreign policy – don’t appear to matter to Trump and his team.
Meanwhile, Trump’s policy volte-face over Ukraine and, more broadly, European security in general has driven a dangerous wedge between the US and its allies in Europe. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, responded by convening a meeting on Monday of the leaders of what the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, described as “the main European countries”. This turned out to include Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the Nato secretary-general and the presidents of the European Council and European Commission.
Passing over the question of how the leaders of the Baltic states felt about this, given they all share a border with Russia (as does Finland) and presumably are well aware of the vulnerability of their position, the fact is Europe is deeply divided over its response to the situation.
As Stefan Wolff observes, the Weimar+ group of countries that met in Paris only represent one shade of opinion within the EU. Meanwhile, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is openly scathing about European efforts to support Ukraine, posting on X: “While President @realDonaldTrump and President Putin negotiate on peace, EU officials issue worthless statements.”
Wolff, an expert in international security at the University of Birmingham, notes that disrupting European unity is a stated aim of the Project 2025 initiative which has guided, if not Trump himself, many of his close advisers. The past week, taking into account both Hegseth’s meeting with European defence ministers and the subsequent appearance by the US vice-president, J.D. Vance, at the Munich Security Conference, has gone a fair way down the path towards achieving that disruption.
At the same time, Vance’s lecture to the conference – during which he was heavily critical of Europe as “the enemy within” which was undermining democracy and threatening free speech – will have united most of those present in anger and dismay at his remarks.
Trump has declared that Zelensky is a “dictator” because he cancelled last year’s election in Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine’s constitution provides that elections are prohibited during periods of martial law. And martial law has been in force since the day of the invasion on February 24 2022.
Lena Surzhko Harned, a professor of political science at Penn State University, writes that the delegitimisation of Zelensky is a tactic Putin has been striving for from the very start. The Kremlin has pushed the narrative that there is no legitimate authority with which to negotiate a peace deal, and that Zelensky’s government is “illegitimate”.
“What Putin needs for this plan to work is a willing partner to help get the message out that Zelensky and the current Ukraine government are not legitimate representatives of their country,” writes Harned. “And into this gap the new US administration appears to have stepped.”
Despite Zelensky still enjoying relatively strong support in recent opinion polls, an election campaign in the middle of this conflict would be a needlessly divisive exercise. And that’s before you consider the potential for Russian interference, which would be seriously debilitating for a country fighting for its survival.
Putin knows all this – and he also knows by framing the issue in a way that suggests Ukraine is dragging its feet over peace, he will enjoy a propaganda coup. And that’s what he is doing, with the apparent support of the US president.
Another way Putin hopes to discredit the Ukrainian leadership is by deliberately excluding it from the talks – at least for the present. Zelensky has said, with the support of his European allies, that there can be no deal without Ukrainian participation.
It’s easy to see why Zelensky and his allies are so adamant that they should be involved, writes Matt Fitzpatrick, a professor of international history at Flinders University. History is littered with examples of large powers getting together to decide the fate of smaller nations that have no agency in the division.
Three such shameful debacles determined the history of much of the 20th century – and not in a good way. The Sykes-Picot agreement divided the Middle East between British and French spheres of influence, and sowed the seed for discord which continues to this day. The Munich conference of 1938, at which the fate of Czechoslovakia was decided without any Czech input, showed Adolf Hitler that naked aggression really does pay. And having failed to learn from either of these, in 1945 the Big Three (Russia, the US and Britain) got together at Yalta to carve up Germany, thereby setting the scene for the cold war.
One of Trump’s assertions this week has been that Zelensky had his chance to strike a deal and avoid all the bloodshed and much of the territorial loss suffered by Ukraine in the three years of war. Reacting to questions about why Zelensky or any Ukrainian diplomats hadn’t been involved in the talks, he scoffed: “Today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Stephen Hall, who specialises in Russian and post-Soviet politics at the University of Bath, recalls the early talks in the spring of 2022. He says that the idea – also floated in the press by several commentators – that Ukraine should have concluded a peace deal in March or April of 2022 after talks in Istanbul is absurd.
While there was momentum for peace, particularly on Kyiv’s part, the two sides were a long way apart on issues such as the size of Ukraine’s military and the fate of territories such as Crimea. “Had Ukraine done a deal based on the Istanbul communique, it would have essentially led to the country becoming a virtual province of Russia – led by a pro-Russian government and banned from seeking alliances with western countries,” Hall writes.
And in any case, back then there was scant support among Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the Biden White House for appeasing Putin by offering him concessions in return for aggression. But that’s now history. Trump and his team appear to have already granted the Russian president some of his dearest wishes before the negotiations proper have even started.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Judith Brocklehurst, Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art Mixed Media, University of Westminster
On entering the Saatchi Gallery’s latest exhibition, which is simply titled Flowers, you might think that you have just walked into a supersized florist’s shop, surrounded by bunches and bunches of blooms.
The aroma of dried flowers comes from Rebecca Louise Law’s monumental arrangement La Fleur Morte (2025), which was created through workshops with people from the local community. As in a flower shop, the viewer is overwhelmed by a heady mix of colour, shape and smell.
Flowers offers an overview of flora not only in contemporary art but in their wider cultural significance. Rooms are loosely organised by theme and medium, with an occasional nod to more serious subjects, such as eroticism, death, danger or decay.
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The first room, Roots, offers historical context for the show, from Van Gogh to William Morris’s floral designs. Dutch 17th-century paintings are recreated for the digital age in Bob and Nick Carter’s video work Transforming Flowers in a Vase (2016).
The irreality of their digitally revived bunch of flowers, presented in a heavy wooden frame, reminds us that those masterly paintings were themselves a construct.
Painters have often arranged flowers that bloomed at different times of the year together in one image. As Bart Cornelis, curator at London’s National Gallery, explained when discussing Dutch flower paintings in 2017, these arrangements are “not realism [but] “a construct … In a sense, that’s what makes it art”.
In the next space, In Bloom, Jim Dine’s black-and-white lithograph Sunflowers (2011) stands out amid the profusion of bright yellows, reds, greens and pinks. With the colour stripped away, the eye is drawn to the flowers’ structure and their dark-seeded heart.
Speaking about the connection between plants and people, artist and subject, Dine has said that “if my personality is revealed in a plant drawing … it would be just the emotion and the way I felt when I depicted it at that moment, that day – or as the days go on, the building up of layers like the unconscious”. This work feels deeply connected to those early Dutch paintings and their small, often-missed memento mori.
In the same room, a whole wall is dedicated to an image of Jeff Koons’ two-storey sculpture Puppy (1992), a dog covered in bedding plants.
Koons’ notorious overt commercialism leads the viewer back to the sense of being in a shop – this time offering high-end floral fashion and jewellery. In one corner, glass display cases hold jewelled brooches by “curatorial partners” Buccellati. Next to them are Marimekko prints in an oversized poster display rack.
Beauty and danger
Stepping into the next room, the viewer moves from shopping arcade back into a gallery to look at flowers in photography and sculpture. Here are more decadent arrays, where visitors are drawn like pollinators to William Darrell’s trippy kinetic sculpture The Machinery of Enchantment (2025).
By the nature of its subject, this show is full of colour and form. It is a reminder that, as art writer Patrick J. Reed explained in relation to photographer and painter Edward Steichen’s 1936 exhibition of freshly cut bouquets of Delphiniums:
The significance of flowers, then as now, is linked to traditions, tastes and class distinctions. To appreciate fine vegetation means to understand, if not possess, ‘well-bred’ decorum; to understand when and how to navigate manicured botanical refreshment.
With Flowers, the Saatchi Gallery offers visitors this opportunity in abundance.
Upstairs, the exhibition is more conceptually curated. The true symbolic power and pervasiveness of flower imagery comes to the fore in a room full of film posters, album sleeves and book covers.
Among them are the disturbingly beautiful posters for Jonathan Glazer’s film Zone of Interest by Neil Kellerhouse. Images from the film spring to mind: the garden next to the concentration camp; the profusion of flowers fertilised by ashes from the ovens. Monstrous actions are shielded by nature.
The relationship between beauty and danger becomes more overt in one of the final rooms, Science: Life or Death. Suddenly, we are amid less decorative fare. Here, under glass domes, are Emma Witter’s exquisitely intricate sculptures of flowers – chillingly, all made of tiny bones.
So, among the seductive splendour of form and colour lurks the reality of depictions of flowers in the contemporary art world. A construct balanced between the need to reflect on human frailty through the relationship with delicate mutable blooms and the harsh edge of producing seductive profitable goods.
Judith Brocklehurst does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
After months of wrangling over public debt and spending decisions, the German government collapsed in November 2024. Among the many disagreements between the parties which made up the governing coalition was how to pay for measures to combat climate change.
Seeking to take advantage of disillusioned voters (who in recent years showed record support for the Greens), populist parties have since cast doubt on the idea of tackling environmental issues at all.
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), for example, the rightwing party which denies the existence of man-made climate change, has raised concerns about energy security and the economic cost of green alternatives.
If the AfD’s broader aim was to take green issues off the political agenda, the plan appears to be working. In the run-up to the general election on February 23 2025, migration and the economy are the most important issues for voters (each on 34%), with climate change lagging far behind (13%).
Nor has the environment been a priority in the parties’ election campaigns. In the first TV debate between the chancellor, the social democrat Olaf Scholz, and his most likely successor, the conservative Friedrich Merz, the topic was ignored almost entirely. A lack of political will and fear of losing voters appear to have relegated environmental policies to the sidelines.
Others want it back at the top of the agenda. Germany’s foreign intelligence service, for example, describes the climate crisis as one of the major risks facing the country, alongside terrorism and war.
Business associations have urged the next government to address climate change mitigation for the sake of German jobs. The Federation of German Industries has demanded an increase in public spending on climate change of as much as €70 billion (£58 billion). Younger voters have called for a nationwide protest to bring the subject back into politicians’ minds.
So have German voters really become sceptical about dealing with climate change?
In a recent study, we found that people who planned to vote for the AfD and the leftwing populist BSW party are indeed sceptical of the need for far-reaching climate policies.
Among voters of these two parties, only 23% (AfD) and 41% (BSW) think that an energy transition is necessary to achieve national climate goals. For Green party voters that figure is 93%, and for SDP supporters it’s 83%.
Voters across the political spectrum have different priorities when it comes to energy supply. For populist party supporters, energy costs trump everything, with only 12% of AfD and 20% of BSW voters considering low emissions important.
These voters are also less likely to assume the energy transition would have positive effects on jobs, and are more likely to fear rising energy costs and security of supply. In short, they are afraid of the social and economic consequences of the energy transition. It is this fear that the far right appears to have been able to mobilise.
Climate costs
Our results are backed up by other research which shows that poorer voters are concerned about the potential costs associated with net zero ambitions.
There is also uncertainty about the possible effects on employment. Many people in Germany believe there will be job losses in their local community as a result of the transition to green energy, and 25% worry they will lose their job.
While these results may seem gloomy, we also found majority support – even among AfD voters – for climate change policies where communities benefit financially from local renewable energy projects, and where citizens feel they have more of a voice in how the energy transition comes into effect.
People want to be heard and participate in a potential transformation. Previous research in psychology has shown that participating in processes and a perception of fairness can increase acceptance.
Research also shows that people fear the effects of climate policies on their personal finances, and that these perceived costs inhibit environmentally friendly behaviour.
But the climate crisis won’t go away, no matter who governs Germany in the coming years. More “once-in-a-century” floods and droughts will hit the nation and bring the climate crisis back to the top of the political agenda.
When this happens, politicians need to ensure they have a positive and credible vision of the future ready to present to voters – where the costs are shared fairly. This will make it harder for populist parties to play on economic worries, and easier to persuade German voters to prioritise the climate crisis.
Vera Trappmann receives funding from Hans Böckler Foundation
Felix Schulz receives funding from the Hans-Böckler-Foundation.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Leda Stawnychko, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Organizational Theory, Mount Royal University
When approached thoughtfully, difficult conversations can provide greater control over your career and workplace interactions.(Shutterstock)
Many professionals struggle with difficult conversations in the workplace, particularly when emotions run high. Your first performance review, for example, was probably uncomfortable. Here’s why.
What makes these conversations challenging isn’t just the subject matter, but the discomfort, tension or uncertainty about how the other person will react.
Neuroscience research shows that when conflict is anticipated, the amygdala — the emotional centre of the brain — activates, flooding the body with stress hormones and making it harder to think clearly and respond calmly.
However, with awareness and preparation, you can learn to manage this stress response and approach difficult conversations with confidence.
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Preparing yourself for these conversations
Conflict is a significant source of stress in the workplace. Employees who cite conflict as their primary source of stress lose about 55 days of productivity per year. This issue is particularly critical for early-career supervisors, for whom conflict resolution is an essential leadership skill.
Understanding why these conversations feel difficult — and learning how to approach them effectively — can help you build stronger workplace relationships, enhance your credibility as a manager and create a more positive professional environment.
One strategy for reducing stress around these conversations is to reframe them as opportunities to strengthen professional relationships. When handled well, these difficult conversations can help you feel more in control of your career and workplace interactions.
Here are three difficult conversations you’ll likely face early in your career, along with strategies for how to navigate them effectively.
For early-career supervisors, developing conflict resolution skills is especially critical, as effective leadership depends on the ability to navigate tough discussions. (Shutterstock)
However, advocating for fair compensation is not just about money — it’s about recognizing your value and setting the foundation for your career growth. To navigate this conversation effectively:
Frame your value strategically: highlight your skills, achievements and your contributions to the organization, emphasizing measurable impact.
2. Setting boundaries at work
Feeling the pressure to prove yourself by agreeing to every request is natural, particularly when you are trying to get established in your field. While a strong work ethic is valuable, consistently overextending yourself can lead to burnout.
Learning how to communicate your limits can help you maintain long-term productivity and professionalism. To address this conversation:
Know your priorities: before setting boundaries, understand what’s reasonable for you. Do you perform best with structured work-life balance, or do you prefer a flexible work-life integration approach? Does your work require uninterrupted, focused work?
Focus on organizational success: instead of framing boundaries as personal limitations, explain how they contribute to overall team efficiency. For instance: “If I can schedule deep-focus time in the morning, I’ll be able to deliver higher-quality work more efficiently.”
3. Addressing workplace conflict
Disagreements and miscommunications are inevitable in any workplace. Addressing workplace conflicts with emotional intelligence and professionalism is key to maintaining strong relationships and credibility. Instead of avoiding the conversation, approach it with curiosity and a focus on problem-solving:
Seek first to understand: before jumping to conclusions, gather all relevant information and reflect on possible perspectives. Could there have been a miscommunication? Was there an external factor at play?
Use future-focused language: avoid accusatory statements and keep the conversation future-orientated toward solutions. You could say, for example: “Let’s establish a process so we’re aligned moving forward.”
By handling these conversations directly and professionally, you demonstrate leadership skill. Addressing misunderstandings openly and respectfully also contributes to a healthier and more collaborative workplace for everyone’s benefit.
Mastering the art of conversation early in your career can set you apart as a thoughtful, capable professional. (Shutterstock)
Rather than allowing unresolved tensions to escalate — or pushing you to consider leaving a job — remind yourself that discomfort is temporary. Being able to cope with feeling uncomfortable is an important career skill to develop.
Whether it’s negotiating your salary, setting boundaries or resolving misunderstandings, these discussions can influence your professional reputation and how colleagues and managers treat you in the workplace.
Taking proactive steps to engage in these conversations with confidence can set the foundation for sustained career success. Start practising these conversations now; the sooner you start, the more skilled you’ll become, and your future self will thank you.
Leda Stawnychko has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Anamika Choudhary does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Talking about climate change is never easy. The issue is complex and upsetting. Headlines bring bad news way more often than good ones.
Techniques based on the extensive analysis of theories and research from social psychology, sociology, environmental and media studies can pave the way for a consistent approach to climate action commitment and citizen empowerment.
Here are five ways to communicate climate stories in a way that keeps people engaged and motivated to take positive action.
1. Give people agency
According to the seminal research published in 1974 by the Canadian-American social psychologist Albert Bandura, humans are capable creatures who can overcome fears and lead happier, motivated lives when led correctly. He conducted a famous experiment with people who were afraid of snakes.
In one scenario, an assistant was holding a snake in their hands or keeping it in a cage, while the scared person was watching. In another scenario, the person was given a snake to hold, in a controlled environment, with the assistants eager to take the snake back at any signs of the person’s discomfort. Bandura discovered that looking at someone holding a glossy, hissy reptile did not improve one’s sense of empowerment much.
However, actually handling the scary creature allowed people to feel more in control – and more likely to overcome their fear. This approach is known for boosting people’s sense of agency. By tackling the problem with one modest action at a time, a person is likely to become more reassured in their capacity to challenge larger issues.
In terms of climate communication, we need to be able to control at least small bits of the situation in order to be psychologically equipped to tackle bigger challenges. Climate communicators can give practical suggestions on lifestyle amendments, feasible activism techniques, political involvement – to nourish the sense of empowerment in the audience.
2. Localise the issue
While researching for my new book, Effective Climate Communication, I discovered that many countries with fewer resources struggle to present local stories related to climate change. They tend to rely on the western agenda of UN climate summits or global reports.
The shortage of correspondents on the ground (see studies on Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria and South Africa, countries in South America and Asia), makes many media in the developing countries ignore the very local consequences of the global heating. When people are less prepared for extreme weather, they’ll be less empowered to demand change from their governments or invest in weather-resilient crops and other prevention techniques.
By capturing perspectives from the local businesses and scientists, people can talk more easily about the direct effects of climate change on the local environment.
For instance, Greenpeace Indonesia focused on three themes on their Instagram page: the imagery of floods and humans affected, the call to switch to renewable energy, and the argument against the “omnibus” bill, which allows coal companies renew their licenses easily every ten years.
Connecting the local impact of climate change with the possible solution – reducing coal mining – brought a considerable number of clicks and comments to the stories. Although the link between Instagram and public opinion is hard to prove, the omnibus bill is still widely contested by Indonesian society.
3. Make stories relatable
Unless you’re called Elon Musk, Bill Gates (the co-founder of Microsoft) or Ursula von der Leyen (president of the European Commission), you don’t have a direct control over the management of climate change at a global level. Yet, it would be amazing to hear more stories of people who may be giving up long-haul flights, rejecting meat and divesting their pension from the fossil fuel funds. There are so many stories that can be told to inspire feelings of connection and hope.
Stories must be made relatable to engage a wider audience in positive climate conversations. fizkes/Shutterstock
According to classic “social proof” theory, if we can be sure that any new behaviour is the social norm, then we’ll be more eager to change. The moment people consider that refraining from eating meat, flying and buying unnecessary stuff are common patterns in their social circles, they will find it easier to follow suit, as shown by this study on the flying intentions of Germans, or research on the effect of social communities on pro-climate decisions in Europe.
4. Avoid ‘doomism’
Watching thrillers about the end of the world on the TV screen can be escapist and weirdly soothing. But witnessing the apocalypse unfold in front of us, through multiple news notifications and social media posts, is less gratifying. The narratives that compare climate change to the end of the humanity are supposed to incite action – but more often than not they lead to freeze or withdrawal reactions.
In some newsrooms, the practice of “the three Ds” flourishes in the face of the planetary problem – denial, delay-ism and dismissal. Doomist storytelling opens the doors for fake prophets and self-proclaimed superheroes who promise to fix the problem but end up in populism and scapegoating.
Avoiding doomism allows for “stubborn optimism”, a concept endorsed by Christiana Figueres, the ex-head of the UN climate change convention from 2010 to 2016. It is the dual approach of acknowledging the severity of the issue and the cost of the delays to action, but looking at the present state of affairs as an opportunity to avoid bigger damage and focus on the near-term solutions.
5. Create a new normal
Having a special climate change section within a media publication is a nice sign that the organisation cares about the problem. But how likely are people to click on it just to discover another ambush of negative stories? Including climate references in the majority of stories, from fashion to travel, helps normalise climate change as a backdrop to all aspects of our lives.
There’s no need for preaching. Nobody wants to be patronised for their decision to take a flight to see the family that lives far away. But subtle travel listicles about local destinations, creative meat-free recipes or an imaginative reinvention of fashion advice as restyling, not buying, can offer up alternatives in creative ways.
It should not be a taboo topic at dinner parties or social events. Avoid “othering” the climate change issue and help people stay aware and committed to tackling the elements of it.
Being aware of climate change as a new norm is healthier than trying to push it away and deny it’s happening. Engagement with the biggest story of our time is the best catalyst for change that we have.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Anastasia Denisova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
Letter Text (PDF)
?Washington (February 20, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today led 12 colleagues in a letter to Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy urging the agency to stop the mass layoffs and firing of essential transportation safety employees and instead focus on prioritizing safety. The lawmakers demand information regarding DOT plans to protect passengers and prevent future crashes.
In the letter the lawmakers write, “At the Department of Transportation, safety must come first, but that commitment appears in doubt as the Trump administration promotes cost-cutting over protecting the public. By offering to buy out federal employees, ordering government agencies to prepare for mass layoffs, firing employees with critical safety functions, giving Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) free reign to cut the federal workforce, and turning Musk, DOGE, and their unqualified staff loose on the air traffic control system, the Trump administration risks undermining decades of safety improvements. We urge you to cease this dangerous approach to governing and request important information on how the Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to prioritize safety in this environment.”
The lawmakers requested responses by March 3 to questions that include:
How many DOT employees were offered the buyout? How many accepted? How many declined or did not respond?
How many DOT employees were ineligible to take the buyout offer?
How many DOT employees have lost their jobs since January 20, 2025?
What is Musk’s and DOGE’s role in reviewing DOT personnel and program information? What steps is the Department is taking to ensure that Musk and the DOGE do not compromise public safety?
What is Musk’s and DOGE’s involvement with the ATC system?
The letter was co-signed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a new state initiative launched in Buffalo to connect youth who repeatedly go missing with services and support that address their needs and the circumstances that cause them to leave home. The Runaway Intervention Program: Services, Training, Opportunity, Prevention, or RIPSTOP, pilot program is designed to increase safety and stability and reduce multiple missing episodes, which put youth at risk of harm and victimization. The Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf is partnering with the Buffalo Police Department and Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo to implement the pilot program developed by the State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) with support from 10 other state agencies.
“Public safety is my top priority and I’m committed to using every tool at my disposal to protect all New Yorkers, especially our most vulnerable population,” Governor Hochul said. “That’s why my administration is supporting this pilot program and several other initiatives to provide assistance to our most vulnerable youth. We thank our partners in my hometown of Buffalo for helping us launch this pilot, which, if successful, will be replicated statewide.”
The pilot will serve children younger than 18 who are involved with social services, and those who are not, providing opportunities to identify specific services and interventions that can reduce or eliminate runaway episodes. The initiative kicked off earlier this week with a community listening circle hosted by the Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf to raise awareness about the pilot and seek community input. A second session is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Martha Mitchell Community Center. The listening circle will be closed to the media to facilitate open and honest dialogue and protect privacy of youth and families in attendance.
New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services Commissioner Rossana Rosado said, “Youth outreach and engagement are critical components in our efforts to prevent crime. When we invest in the future of our youth by providing support, services and opportunities, we improve lives, strengthen families and communities, and increase public safety. I thank Governor Hochul for her commitment to young New Yorkers and my DCJS staff for working with sister state agencies and other partners to spearhead this pilot.”
The Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf will administer the two components of the pilot: a Missing Youth Services Referral Program, and a Multi-Disciplinary Runaway Youth Treatment Team. BestSelf plans to hire a youth runaway coordinator to run the referral program, which is funded by a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. The Buffalo Police Department unit that responds to reports of missing persons, child abuse and domestic violence refers children to the Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf and plans to have an officer at the Center daily as part of the pilot.
BestSelf CEO and President Elizabeth Woike said, “We’re incredibly proud that our Scott Bieler CAC at BestSelf was chosen as the pilot program, consistently proving itself as the premier CAC in New York State. We are looking at the youth runaway crisis through a preventative lens to address larger health issues down the road. Our commitment remains strong to provide cutting-edge treatment and lead the way in collaboration and advocacy.”
Youth who are reported missing are at risk of homelessness, exploitation for sex and/or labor trafficking, academic underachievement that can lead to dropping out of school, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Children with multiple missing episodes are more likely to be depressed, have attempted suicide, and have mental health or substance use issues. Last year, 12,114 reports of missing children younger than 18 were entered into the New York State register, with 94 percent reported by police as runaways. More than half (6,161) of those reports involved a total of 1,772 children. DCJS identified Buffalo for the pilot due to the high number of missing children reports received by the city’s police department, which had already begun working with the Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf to address the issue. During that same time period, the City of Buffalo had 522 missing child reports, with nearly 200 representing multiple incidents.
Staff from the Missing Persons Clearinghouse at DCJS will oversee implementation of the pilot and foster ongoing communication and coordination among all national, state and local partners with the goal of improving how different systems respond and support these youth. The New York State Youth Justice Institute, a partnership between DCJS and the University at Albany, will evaluate the pilot’s implementation and outcomes to determine its success and whether it should be replicated in other communities. The Youth Justice Institute strives to build and strengthen the capacity of localities around New York State to adopt evidence-informed youth justice practices by disseminating information, assisting with implementation and assessing efficacy in existing youth justice programs, and by conducting cutting-edge research to advance the science and practice of evidence-based initiatives.
The following state agencies are participating: the Department of Health; State Education Department; Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs; Office of Addiction Services and Supports; Office of Children and Family Services; Office of Mental Health; Office for People With Developmental Disabilities; Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence; Office of Victim Services; and New York State Police.
The New York City Administration for Children’s Services; New York State Association of Chiefs of Police; New York State Sheriff’s Association; New York State Youth Justice Institute; St. Anne Institute; State of New York Police Juvenile Officers Association; National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; and National Child Protection Task Force also are partners in the initiative.
City of Buffalo Mayor Christopher P. Scanlon said, “I want to thank Governor Hochul for her continued investment in our youth and for recognizing the urgent need to address the challenges facing vulnerable children in our community. One of my administration’s key priorities is collaboration, and the RIPSTOP pilot program is a powerful example of what we can accomplish when we work together. By bringing together New York State, the City of Buffalo, the Buffalo Police Department, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, and the Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf, we are ensuring that at-risk youth receive the care and support they need. This initiative reflects our collective commitment to building a safer, more supportive future for the children of Buffalo.”
Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs Acting Executive Director Maria Lisi-Murray said, “We know from our work safeguarding vulnerable populations that runaway youth are particularly susceptible to trafficking, exploitation, and homelessness. They are also often reluctant to seek help from law enforcement or access critical intervention programs. The RIPSTOP pilot will help bridge those safety and communication gaps by getting youth the support they need sooner to reduce the likelihood of recurrent runaway episodes. Thank you to Governor Hochul for continuing to prioritize the safety of New York’s youth.”
New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James said, “Providing accessible support services to our youth is imperative for their well-being and is key to reducing the number of runaway and missing episodes. The relationship between law enforcement partners, combined with the execution of effective initiatives are essential in carrying out the mission of keeping the youth of New York State safe. I commend Governor Hochul for her continued commitment in making sure each New Yorker has the assistance available they need.”
Office of Addiction Services And Supports Commissioner Dr. Chinazo Cunningham said, “Young people with an unstable home life are at increased risk of experiencing harm when it comes to their health, including the impacts of substance use and addiction. Programs like this support our goal to reach at-risk individuals and direct them to the services and help they need. As one of the agencies involved with the development of this pilot program, alongside our partners in state government and community stakeholders, we are looking forward to seeing the benefits that this will bring to youth in the Buffalo area.”
Office of Victim Services Director Bea Hanson said, “Key to our mission at OVS is advocating for victims’ rights and working to ensure that systems designed to assist them are accessible and meet their needs. We are proud to partner with our sister agencies to improve state services for at-risk youth, protect them from harm and give them the support they need to thrive.”
About the Division of Criminal Justice Services Missing Persons Clearinghouse
The Missing Persons Clearinghouse at the State Division of Criminal Justice Services provides investigative support to local, state and national law enforcement, including cold case reviews; assists left-behind family members, and offers internet safety education programs for children and parents, among other responsibilities. Staff members have extensive experience in law enforcement, training and information technology, and the Clearinghouse accepts leads and tips about missing persons cases it has permission to publicize at [email protected] and 800-346-3543.
About BestSelf Behavioral Health
BestSelf Behavioral Health is the largest community-based behavioral health organization serving Western New York. It offers comprehensive services for mental health and substance use disorders. The organization serves over 41,000 individuals annually across more than 70 locations, focusing on trauma-informed care and person-centered treatment.
Headline: N.C. Arts Council Awards $915,000 to Western N.C. Arts Organizations for Helene Recovery
N.C. Arts Council Awards $915,000 to Western N.C. Arts Organizations for Helene Recovery jejohnson6
The North Carolina Arts Council has awarded $915,000 to nonprofit arts organizations in Western North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene. The grants utilize funds from the North Carolina Arts Foundation’s North Carolina Arts Relief Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and South Art’s Southern Arts Relief and Recovery Fund.
The relief funds will be provided to 69 arts organizations throughout the impacted 26-county region. A list of awardees is available on the NCAC’s website (https://www.ncarts.org/hurricane-helene-relief-grant-award-recipients-2025/open).
“This much-needed grant funding for Western North Carolina arts organizations signals another important step in the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ commitment to recovery in areas affected by Hurricane Helene,” said Arts Council Director Jeff Bell. “The cultural and arts offerings in Western North Carolina are vital to the heritage and economic strength of our entire state.”
The grants support artistic and administrative functions of Western N.C. arts organizations. Recipients may use them to fund salaries, artists’ fees, production, travel, promotion, programming expenses, supplies and equipment, office expenses, and facility operations.
About the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) manages, promotes, and enhances the things that people love about North Carolina – its diverse arts and culture, rich history, and spectacular natural areas. Through its programs, the department enhances education, stimulates economic development, improves public health, expands accessibility, and strengthens community resiliency.
The department manages over 100 locations across the state, including 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, five science museums, four aquariums, 35 state parks, four recreation areas, dozens of state trails and natural areas, the North Carolina Zoo, the State Library, the State Archives, the N.C. Arts Council, the African American Heritage Commission, the American Indian Heritage Commission, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Office of State Archaeology, the Highway Historical Markers program, the N.C. Land and Water Fund, and the Natural Heritage Program. For more information, please visit www.dncr.nc.gov.
Coface announces the appointment of Gonzague Noël as Group Chief Operating Officer. This change is effective as of 3 February 2025. Based in Paris, Gonzague reports to Xavier Durand, Chief Executive Officer of Coface. He replaces Declan Daly, who is pursuing his career outside the Group.
Previously, Gonzague was Head of Global Business Administration & Strategic Initiatives at HSBC CIB, where he was responsible for optimizing resources and improving efficiency.
He began his career at GE Healthcare in 2001 before holding various management positions within GE Corporate and GE Capital, overseeing strategic projects, M&A operations and operational transformations in Europe, Asia and America.
With more than 20 years of international experience, Gonzague brings to Coface solid strategic and operational expertise in the management of large-scale transformation projects. Gonzague holds a Master of science (MSc) from Emlyon Business School.
Q1-2025 results: 5 May 2025 (after market close) Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting: 14 May 2025 H1-2025 results: 31 July 2025 (after market close) 9M-2025 results: 3 November 2025 (after market close)
FINANCIAL INFORMATION This press release, as well as COFACE SA’s integral regulatory information, can be found on the Group’s website: http://www.coface.com/Investors
For regulated information on Alternative Performance Measures (APM), please refer to our Interim Financial Report for H1-2024 and our 2023 Universal Registration Document (see part 3.7 “Key financial performance indicators”).
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COFACE: FOR TRADE With over 75 years of experience and the most extensive international network, Coface is a leader in Trade Credit Insurance & risk management, and a recognized provider of Factoring, Debt Collection, Single Risk insurance, Bonding, and Information Services. Coface’s experts work to the beat of the global economy, helping ~100,000 clients in 100 countries build successful, growing, and dynamic businesses. With Coface’s insight and advice, these companies can make informed decisions. The Group’ solutions strengthen their ability to sell by providing them with reliable information on their commercial partners and protecting them against non-payment risks, both domestically and for export. In 2024, Coface employed ~5,236 people and registered a turnover of €1.84 billion.
COFACE SA is listed in Compartment A of Euronext Paris ISIN: FR0010667147 / Ticker: COFA
DISCLAIMER – Certain declarations featured in this press release may contain forecasts that notably relate to future events, trends, projects or targets. By nature, these forecasts include identified or unidentified risks and uncertainties, and may be affected by many factors likely to give rise to a significant discrepancy between the real results and those stated in these declarations. Please refer to chapter 5 “Main risk factors and their management within the Group” of the Coface Group’s 2023 Universal Registration Document filed with AMF on 5 April 2024 under the number D.24-0242 in order to obtain a description of certain major factors, risks and uncertainties likely to influence the Coface Group’s businesses. The Coface Group disclaims any intention or obligation to publish an update of these forecasts, or provide new information on future events or any other circumstance.
Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
02.20.25
Cantwell, Colleagues File Amicus Brief Over Illegal Inspectors General Firings
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined 26 Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by eight inspectors general (IGs) who were illegally fired by President Donald Trump. The Senators noted that the role of an inspector general is to uncover government waste, corruption, or illegal actions by political appointees and ensure the laws enacted by Congress are faithfully executed. In 2022, by a vote of 93 to 1, the Senate voted to strengthen existing IG protections to require that Congress be notified at least 30 days in advance of the removal of any Inspector General.
“Inspectors General (“IGs”) are responsible for uncovering and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in the administration of federal programs. Their investigations, reports, and audits are crucial tools in uncovering corruption and mismanagement in the executive branch, and IGs are vital to fulfilling Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibilities. For those reasons, Congress requires the President by law to provide notice to Congress, and thus an opportunity for interbranch consultation, before removing an Inspector General from position,” wrote the Senators in the amicus brief.
“IGs are, by design and by law, not partisan political appointees who the President must be able to dispose of at will, lest their faults be attributed to the President,” the Senators continued.
The eight inspectors general who are suing President Trump and other administration officials over their illegal firings are part of a larger group of about 17 independent inspectors general who were illegally fired on January 24. In order to protect the independence of America’s nonpartisan IGs, federal law explicitly requires the President to provide Congress both a 30-day notice and communicate in writing a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons,” for the termination. However, as the plaintiffs explain in their complaint, and as the Senators describe in their amicus brief, President Trump did not follow the law.
Department of Defense
Veterans Affairs
Health and Human Services
State Department
Department of Education
Department of Agriculture
Department of Labor
Small Business Administration
The amicus brief, led by Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY), and Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Chris Coons (D-DE) was also signed by Senators Welch (D-VT), Schiff (D-CA), Luján (D-NM), Blumenthal (D-CT), Van Hollen (D-MD), Duckworth (D-IL), Hassan (D-NH), Bennet (D-CO), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Heinrich (D-NM), Schatz (D-HI), Shaheen (D-NH), Whitehouse (D-RI), Gallego (D-AZ), Slotkin (D-MI), Warren (D-MA), Gillibrand (D-NY), Kelly (D-AZ), Hirono (D-HI), Klobuchar (D-MN), Durbin (D-IL), Peters (D-MI), Reed (D-RI), Booker (D-NJ), and Rosen (D-NV).
BEVERLY HILLS, California, Feb. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Orocidin A/S (“Orocidin”), a subsidiary of Nordicus Partners Corporation (OTCQB: NORD) (“Nordicus” or the “Company”), a financial consulting company specializing in supporting Nordic and U.S. life sciences companies in establishing themselves in the U.S. market, announces a strategic partnership with Syngene International Limited (“Syngene”),
Syngene’s mission is to work as an extension of its client’s team. Together the teams solve the complex challenges associated with GMP peptide development programs using cutting-edge technology and scalable solutions, while maintaining the highest quality standards. Syngene’s capabilities enable efficient and scalable manufacturing with reduced lead times, ensuring the most robust and streamlined supply chain for future commercialization.
“We are very impressed with Syngene’s professionalism, commitment to scientific excellence, and ability to deliver high-quality work on time,” said Allan Wehnert, CEO & Founder of Orocidin. “This partnership secures access to highly skilled scientists and state-of-the-art facilities ensuring the development and progress of Orocidin’s QR-01.”
Alex Del Priore, Senior Vice President – Development & Manufacturing Services, Syngene International Ltd added: “We are delighted to partner with Orocidin in advancing their peptide programs. With a shared focus on speed, scale, and supply chain security, Syngene is well positioned to help biotech companies like Oricidin bring new drugs to market faster and more reliably.”
For further information, contact: Mr. Henrik Rouf Chief Executive Officer hr@nordicuspartners.com Tel +1 310 666 0750
About Orocidin Orocidin’s mission is to develop the preferred treatment against aggressive periodontitis. Our innovative therapeutic agent, QR-01, distinguishes itself through its unique ability to provide treatment of both inflammation and bacterial infection.
About Syngene Syngene International Ltd. is an integrated research, development, and manufacturing services company serving the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutrition, animal health, consumer goods, and specialty chemical sectors. Syngene’s more than 5600 scientists offer both skills and the capacity to deliver great science, robust data security, and world class manufacturing, at speed, to improve time-to-market and lower the cost of innovation. With 2.2 Mn sq. ft of specialized discovery, development, and manufacturing facilities, Syngene works with biotech companies pursuing leading-edge science as well as multinationals, including BMS, GSK, Zoetis and Merck KGaA. For more details, visit www.syngeneintl.com For the Company’s latest Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, visit https://esgreport.syngeneintl.com.
About Nordicus Partners Corporation Nordicus Partners Corporation is the only U.S. publicly traded business accelerator and holding company for Nordic life sciences companies. Leveraging decades of combined management experience in domestic and global corporate sectors, Nordicus excels in corporate finance activities including business and market development, growth strategies, talent acquisition, partnership building, capital raising, and facilitating company acquisitions and sales. In 2024, Nordicus acquired 100% of Orocidin A/S, a Danish preclinical-stage biotech company developing next-generation therapies for periodontitis and 100% of Bio-Convert ApS, a Danish preclinical-stage biotech company dedicated to revolutionizing the treatment of oral leukoplakia. For more information about Nordicus, please visit: www.nordicuspartners.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Threads and BlueSky.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue” or “believe” or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. You should read statements that contain these words carefully because they discuss our plans, strategies, prospects and expectations concerning our business, operating results, financial condition and other similar matters. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. There may be events in the future, however, that we are not able to predict accurately or control. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release speaks only as of the date on which we make it. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Appiah Takyi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
Urban parks in Kumasi, the capital city of Ghana’s Ashanti region, are fast disappearing or in decline. Kumasi was designed 60 years ago as a “garden city”, with green belts, parks and urban green spaces. These have been encroached on by developments and are in a poor condition.
Like other cities in Ghana, Kumasi has been growing. According to the latest population data from Ghana’s Statistical Service, the population of Kumasi in 1950 and 2024 was 99,479 and 3,903,480 respectively. The city’s current annual population growth rate is 3.59%. This growth is a challenge for city authorities.
Adding to the challenge is the fact that in Ghana, political authorities and traditional leadership exist together. It’s the capital of the Ashanti Region and the capital of the ancient Ashanti Kingdom. Most of the land is owned by the traditional authority. This makes it difficult sometimes for city authorities to enforce planning regulations.
We are urban planners who have conducted research on environmental planning, urban informality and inclusive city development. We studied the extent to which areas demarcated as urban parks in the Kumasi Metropolis have been rezoned, and why there’s been encroachment into urban parks.
Our study showed that 88% of the 16 parks studied in the Kumasi Metropolis had either been rezoned or encroached upon by other land uses. This was done in an unplanned way. Zoning regulations have not been enforced and urban sprawl has not been controlled. Part of the reason is that land scarcity drives up its value and customary authorities have an incentive to allow other uses. As a result, the city has lost green spaces that are important for their environmental, traditional and recreational functions.
Decline of urban parks in Kumasi Metropolis
To understand why Kumasi has been losing its green spaces, our study looked at 16 parks across six communities within the Kumasi Metropolis.
The World Health Organization recommends there should be 9m² of green space per city dweller. We calculated that Kumasi currently has only 0.17m² of green space per city dweller.
We also noted significant changes in land zoned for parks. This was mainly due to the politics of land ownership and administration. Other social factors played a part too. The results of the research showed that out of the 16 existing parks studied, 14 (88%) had been rezoned to residential or commercial use or encroached upon by other uses.
The rezoning of parks was gradual, unapproved by local planning authorities, and unplanned. Existing land tenure arrangements and laxity in the enforcement of laws are some of the barriers affecting park development and management in the city.
An official of the city’s Physical Planning Department indicated that places zoned as parks were supposed to be owned, controlled, managed and protected by the state. But this was not the case, because of the complex land tenure arrangement of the city, where most land is customarily owned.
Though Ghana’s land tenure system recognises customary ownership, the determination of land use remains the responsibility of local planning authorities. Land sold for physical developments must conform to an approved scheme prepared by the Physical Planning Department. In most cases, the parks rezoned by the customary owners were in contravention with spatial planning laws (such as the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016).
The representative of the planning department noted that even though it prepared layouts that made provision for parks and open spaces, it was often helpless when it came to enforcement and other land use regulations. We were told that information about the land ownership and transfer process between government agencies and customary landowners was not made available to the department.
Due to poor coordination and increased demand for land for development, about 88% of land demarcated for park development across the study communities had been leased or sold to private developers by the customary landowners.
Our study also revealed a lack of funding for parks development and management. All the agency officials confirmed that parks were planned for but the funds to support their development and management were inadequate. They explained that property values rose as a result of urban development, leading to intense competition among various land uses. We were told that landowners were willing to sell any land available in their community at a higher value without considering its use in the community.
Bringing back the green
The once green city of Kumasi has lost much of its foliage. We suggest that this decline can and should be stopped.
City authorities can incorporate cultural elements that highlight the identity of neighbourhoods to promote ownership and a sense of place in the design of parks. Local planning institutions, custodians of land and residents should collaborate so that plans meet everyone’s needs.
Traditional authorities, together with relevant city authorities, should consciously ensure that parks are developed, protected, managed and sustained. Laws and regulations which guide park use and protection should be enforced strictly.
Finally, parks and green spaces can only survive if there is sustainable funding. City authorities could consider green taxation and charges. For example, they can fine residents whose activities threaten the environment, and use the money to fund parks and green spaces. A percentage of property tax can be dedicated to the protection and development of green spaces in the city.
– Kumasi was called the garden city – but green spaces are vanishing in a clash of landuse regulations – https://theconversation.com/kumasi-was-called-the-garden-city-but-green-spaces-are-vanishing-in-a-clash-of-landuse-regulations-248016
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Appiah Takyi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
Urban parks in Kumasi, the capital city of Ghana’s Ashanti region, are fast disappearing or in decline. Kumasi was designed 60 years ago as a “garden city”, with green belts, parks and urban green spaces. These have been encroached on by developments and are in a poor condition.
Like other cities in Ghana, Kumasi has been growing. According to the latest population data from Ghana’s Statistical Service, the population of Kumasi in 1950 and 2024 was 99,479 and 3,903,480 respectively. The city’s current annual population growth rate is 3.59%.
This growth is a challenge for city authorities.
Adding to the challenge is the fact that in Ghana, political authorities and traditional leadership exist together. It’s the capital of the Ashanti Region and the capital of the ancient Ashanti Kingdom. Most of the land is owned by the traditional authority. This makes it difficult sometimes for city authorities to enforce planning regulations.
We are urban planners who have conducted research on environmental planning, urban informality and inclusive city development. We studied the extent to which areas demarcated as urban parks in the Kumasi Metropolis have been rezoned, and why there’s been encroachment into urban parks.
Our study showed that 88% of the 16 parks studied in the Kumasi Metropolis had either been rezoned or encroached upon by other land uses. This was done in an unplanned way. Zoning regulations have not been enforced and urban sprawl has not been controlled. Part of the reason is that land scarcity drives up its value and customary authorities have an incentive to allow other uses. As a result, the city has lost green spaces that are important for their environmental, traditional and recreational functions.
Decline of urban parks in Kumasi Metropolis
To understand why Kumasi has been losing its green spaces, our study looked at 16 parks across six communities within the Kumasi Metropolis.
The World Health Organization recommends there should be 9m² of green space per city dweller. We calculated that Kumasi currently has only 0.17m² of green space per city dweller.
We also noted significant changes in land zoned for parks. This was mainly due to the politics of land ownership and administration. Other social factors played a part too. The results of the research showed that out of the 16 existing parks studied, 14 (88%) had been rezoned to residential or commercial use or encroached upon by other uses.
The rezoning of parks was gradual, unapproved by local planning authorities, and unplanned. Existing land tenure arrangements and laxity in the enforcement of laws are some of the barriers affecting park development and management in the city.
An official of the city’s Physical Planning Department indicated that places zoned as parks were supposed to be owned, controlled, managed and protected by the state. But this was not the case, because of the complex land tenure arrangement of the city, where most land is customarily owned.
Though Ghana’s land tenure system recognises customary ownership, the determination of land use remains the responsibility of local planning authorities. Land sold for physical developments must conform to an approved scheme prepared by the Physical Planning Department. In most cases, the parks rezoned by the customary owners were in contravention with spatial planning laws (such as the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016).
The representative of the planning department noted that even though it prepared layouts that made provision for parks and open spaces, it was often helpless when it came to enforcement and other land use regulations. We were told that information about the land ownership and transfer process between government agencies and customary landowners was not made available to the department.
Due to poor coordination and increased demand for land for development, about 88% of land demarcated for park development across the study communities had been leased or sold to private developers by the customary landowners.
Our study also revealed a lack of funding for parks development and management. All the agency officials confirmed that parks were planned for but the funds to support their development and management were inadequate. They explained that property values rose as a result of urban development, leading to intense competition among various land uses. We were told that landowners were willing to sell any land available in their community at a higher value without considering its use in the community.
Bringing back the green
The once green city of Kumasi has lost much of its foliage. We suggest that this decline can and should be stopped.
City authorities can incorporate cultural elements that highlight the identity of neighbourhoods to promote ownership and a sense of place in the design of parks. Local planning institutions, custodians of land and residents should collaborate so that plans meet everyone’s needs.
Traditional authorities, together with relevant city authorities, should consciously ensure that parks are developed, protected, managed and sustained. Laws and regulations which guide park use and protection should be enforced strictly.
Finally, parks and green spaces can only survive if there is sustainable funding. City authorities could consider green taxation and charges. For example, they can fine residents whose activities threaten the environment, and use the money to fund parks and green spaces. A percentage of property tax can be dedicated to the protection and development of green spaces in the city.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
