tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-california-irvine-1169/articlesThe University of California, Irvine2024-01-26T03:31:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214612024-01-26T03:31:34Z2024-01-26T03:31:34ZApa itu energi listrik tenaga air dan bagaimana cara kerjanya?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570162/original/file-20221103-21-bvfyk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1997%2C1326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bendungan Seli'š Ksanka Qlispe' menyediakan listrik yang cukup untuk sekitar 147.000 rumah di Flathead Indian Reservation di Montana.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SQK_Dam_DSC_3657.jpg">Martina Nolte via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p><strong>Apa itu energi listrik tenaga air dan bagaimana cara kerjanya? - Luca, usia 13 tahun, Boston, Massachusetts</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jika kamu pernah mengamati sungai yang mengalir deras menuruni gunung atau bermain ombak di pantai, kamu akan merasakan bahwa air yang bergerak mengandung banyak energi. Sungai dapat mendorong kamu dan kayakmu ke hilir, terkadang dengan sangat cepat. Ombak yang menghantam tubuhmu di pantai dapat menghempaskanmu ke belakang, atau bahkan menjatuhkanmu.</p>
<p>Ada <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/history-hydropower">sejarah panjang dalam memanfaatkan energi dalam air sungai yang mengalir</a> untuk melakukan pekerjaan yang bermanfaat. Selama berabad-abad, orang menggunakan tenaga air <a href="https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/watermill-demonstration-video-flour-water-power">untuk menggiling biji-bijian menjadi tepung dan makanan</a>. Di zaman modern, orang menggunakan tenaga air untuk menghasilkan listrik bersih untuk membantu menyalakan bangunan, pabrik, dan bahkan mobil.</p>
<h2>Energi di air yang mengalir</h2>
<p>Energi dalam air yang bergerak berasal dari gravitasi. Sebagai bagian dari siklus air di bumi, air menguap dari permukaan bumi atau dilepaskan dari tanaman. </p>
<p>Ketika uap air yang dilepaskan terbawa ke tempat yang lebih dingin dan lebih tinggi seperti daerah pegunungan, uap air akan mengembun menjadi tetesan awan. Ketika tetesan awan ini menjadi cukup besar, mereka jatuh dari langit sebagai curah hujan, baik dalam bentuk cairan (hujan) atau, jika cukup dingin, dalam bentuk padatan (salju). </p>
<p>Di atas daratan, curah hujan cenderung jatuh di daerah dataran tinggi pada awalnya.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="siklus air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Siklus air.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/hydro">National Weather Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jika air turun sebagai salju, perlahan-lahan salju akan mencair menjadi air seiring dengan menghangatnya suhu dan mengikuti jalur yang sama. Sungai-sungai terdiri dari air hujan yang dimulai dari dataran tinggi dan mengalir menuruni lereng gunung yang curam.</p>
<h2>Mengubah air yang mengalir menjadi listrik</h2>
<p>Pembangkit listrik tenaga air (PLTA) menangkap energi dalam air yang mengalir dengan menggunakan alat yang disebut turbin. Ketika air mengalir di atas baling-baling turbin—seperti kincir raksasa—baling-baling tersebut berputar. </p>
<p>Turbin yang berputar terhubung ke poros yang berputar di dalam alat yang disebut <a href="https://www.explainthatstuff.com/generators.html">generator</a>, yang menggunakan efek yang disebut <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Qwf4P6x9w">induksi</a> untuk mengubah energi dalam poros yang berputar menjadi listrik.</p>
<p>Ada dua jenis utama PLTA. Jenis pertama disebut fasilitas pembangkit listrik tenaga air “<em>run-of-the-river</em>”. </p>
<p>Fasilitas ini terdiri dari saluran untuk mengalihkan aliran air dari sungai ke turbin. Produksi listrik dari turbin mengikuti waktu aliran sungai. Ketika sungai mengalir penuh dengan banyak mata air yang meleleh, itu berarti turbin dapat menghasilkan lebih banyak listrik. </p>
<p>Kemudian di musim panas, ketika aliran sungai menurun, begitu juga dengan produksi listrik turbin. Fasilitas ini biasanya kecil dan konstruksinya sederhana, tetapi kemampuan untuk mengontrol listrik yang dihasilkan terbatas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="pembangkit listri tenaga air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fasilitas pembangkit listrik tenaga air di sungai.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/types-hydropower-plants">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jenis kedua disebut fasilitas pembangkit listrik tenaga air “waduk” atau “bendungan”. Fasilitas ini menggunakan bendungan untuk menahan aliran sungai dan menciptakan danau buatan di belakang bendungan. </p>
<p>Bendungan PLTA memiliki saluran yang mengontrol berapa banyak air yang mengalir melalui lorong-lorong di dalam bendungan. Turbin di bagian bawah lorong-lorong ini mengubah air yang mengalir menjadi listrik. </p>
<p>Untuk menghasilkan listrik, operator bendungan melepaskan air dari danau buatan. Air ini semakin cepat ketika jatuh dari intake di dekat bagian atas bendungan ke turbin di bagian bawah. Air yang keluar dari turbin dilepaskan kembali ke sungai di bagian hilir. </p>
<p>Fasilitas pembangkit listrik tenaga air waduk ini biasanya berukuran besar dan dapat mempengaruhi habitat sungai, tetapi juga dapat menghasilkan banyak listrik dengan cara yang dapat dikontrol.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="pembangkit listrik tenaga air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fasilitas pembangkit listrik tenaga air berbasis bendungan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/types-hydropower-plants">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Masa depan PLTA</h2>
<p>PLTA bergantung pada ketersediaan air di sungai yang mengalir. Karena perubahan iklim mempengaruhi siklus air, beberapa daerah mungkin memiliki curah hujan yang lebih sedikit dan akibatnya <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2021/08/hydroelectric-drought-how-climate-change-complicates-californias-plans-for-a-carbon-free-future/">listrik yang dihasilkan lebih sedikit</a>. </p>
<p>Selain itu, produksi listrik bukanlah satu-satunya hal yang harus dipikirkan oleh operator bendungan ketika mereka memutuskan berapa banyak air yang akan dialirkan. Mereka harus memastikan untuk menyimpan air di belakang bendungan untuk digunakan oleh masyarakat dan membiarkan air yang cukup untuk melestarikan habitat sungai di bawah bendungan.</p>
<p>PLTA juga dapat berperan dalam membatasi perubahan iklim karena PLTA merupakan bentuk listrik energi terbarukan. Fasilitas PLTA dapat menambah dan mengurangi produksi listrik mereka untuk mengisi kekosongan dalam pembangkit listrik tenaga angin dan matahari.</p>
<hr>
<p>_Rahma Sekar Andini dari Universitas Negeri Malang menerjemahkan artikel ini dari bahasa Inggris</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Tarroja tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Bagaimana air yang mengalir menghasilkan listrik? Seorang insinyur menjelaskan pembangkit listrik tenaga air.Brian Tarroja, Associate Professional Researcher and Lecturer of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199032023-12-20T13:15:44Z2023-12-20T13:15:44Z2023’s historic Hollywood and UAW strikes aren’t labor’s whole story – the total number of Americans walking off the job remained relatively low<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566377/original/file-20231218-27-2y9ix7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C502%2C5470%2C3511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">SAG-AFTRA captain Mary M. Flynn rallies fellow striking actors on a picket line outside Netflix studios in November 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXHollywoodStrikes/5dfb21d54c2f4414bd9f4adde9a2a0e1/photo?Query=hollywood%20strike&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2120&currentItemNo=33">AP Photo/Chris Pizzello</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/unions-workers-2023-strikes-companies-da09de12">More than 492,000 workers</a> – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, autoworkers, hotel cleaners, teachers and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/us/california-labor-strikes.html">during the first 10 months of 2023</a>.</p>
<p>That includes about <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-union-hails-strike-ending-deals-with-automakers-that-would-raise-top-assembly-plant-hourly-pay-to-more-than-40-as-record-contracts-216432">46,000 autoworkers who</a> went on strike for about six weeks, starting in mid-September. The United Auto Workers union won historic gains that have the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/business/economy/uaw-labor.html">potential to transform the industry</a> in its contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the company that includes Chrysler.</p>
<p>In addition, more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-care-workers-gain-21-wage-increase-in-pending-agreement-with-kaiser-permanente-after-historic-strike-215864">75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers</a> took part in the largest strike of U.S. health care workers to date.</p>
<p>This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">lull in U.S. strikes</a> and a <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/union-membership">decline in union membership</a> that began in the 1970s. Today’s strikes may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave constitutes a significant change following <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">decades of unions’ losing ground</a>, it’s far from unprecedented.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=w6GUu_EAAAAJ">We’re sociologists</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=69FEXj0AAAAJ&hl=en">study the history of U.S. labor movements</a>. In our new book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">Union Booms and Busts</a>,” we explore the reasons for swings in <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">the share of working Americans in unions</a> between 1900 and 2015. </p>
<p>We see the rising number of strikes today as a sign that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers at a rally carrying strike signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maryam Rouillard raises her fist on Aug. 8, 2023, while taking part in a one-day strike by Los Angeles municipal workers to protest contract negotiations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-hearse-on-5th-avenue-with-a-sign-that-reads-new-news-photo/1311461424?adppopup=true">Apu Gomes/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Millions on strike</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">number of U.S. workers who go on strike in a given year</a> varies greatly but generally follows broader trends. After World War II ended, through 1981, between 1 million and 4 million Americans went on strike annually. By 1990, that number had plummeted. In some years, it fell below 100,000.</p>
<p>Workers by that point were clearly on the defensive for several reasons. </p>
<p>One dramatic turning point was the showdown between President Ronald Reagan and the country’s air traffic controllers, which culminated in a 1981 strike by their union – the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2006/08/03/5604656/1981-strike-leaves-legacy-for-american-workers">Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization</a>. Like many public workers, air traffic controllers did not have the right to strike, but they called one anyway because of safety concerns and other reasons. Reagan depicted the union as disloyal and ordered that all of PATCO’s striking members be fired. The government turned to supervisors and military controllers as their replacements and <a href="https://libraries.uta.edu/news-events/blog/1981-patco-strike">decertified the union</a>.</p>
<p>That episode sent a strong message to employers that permanently replacing striking workers in certain situations would be tolerated.</p>
<p>There were also many <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/labor-relations-striking-balance-budd/M9781260260502.html">court rulings and new laws</a> that favored big business over labor rights. These included the passage of so-called <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-resources">right-to-work laws</a> that provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces – without requiring the payment of union dues. Many conservative states, like South Dakota and Mississippi, have these laws on the books, along with states with more liberal voters – such as Wisconsin.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/19/union-membership-drops-to-record-low-in-2022-00078525">union membership plunged</a> from <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R47596.html">34.2% of the labor force in 1945</a> to around 10% in 2010, workers became less likely to go on strike.</p>
<p>Wages kept up with productivity gains when unions were stronger than they are today. Wages increased 91.3% as productivity grew by 96.7% between 1948 and 1973. That changed once union membership began to tumble. <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/">Wages stagnated</a> from 1973 to 2013, rising only 9.2% even as productivity grew by 74.4%.</p>
<p><iframe id="euMoy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/euMoy/9/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Prime conditions</h2>
<p>In general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979398203500402">strikes grow more common when economic conditions change</a> in ways that empower workers. That’s especially true with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-47d74791145f0224280ffe908b6e820a">tight labor markets</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-wholesale-federal-reserve-interest-rates-consumers-1838b302c99045749b0597853886d32c">high inflation</a> seen in the U.S. in recent years.</p>
<p>When there are fewer candidates available for every open job and prices are rising, workers become bolder in their demands for higher wages and benefits.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/800649">Political and legal factors</a> can play a role, too. </p>
<p>In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/labor-unions-during-great-depression-and-new-deal/">New Deal enhanced unions’ ability to organize</a>. During World War II, unions agreed to a no-strike pledge – although some workers continued to go on strike.</p>
<p>The number of U.S. <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">workers who went on strike peaked in 1946</a>, a year after the war ended. Conditions were ripe for labor actions at that point for several reasons. The economy was no longer so dedicated to supplying the military, pro-union New Deal legislation was still intact and <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/podcasts/best-my-ability-podcast/season-2-archive/episode-5-strike-wave">wartime strike restrictions</a> were lifted.</p>
<p>In contrast, Reagan’s crushing of the PATCO strike gave employers a green light to permanently replace striking workers in <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes">situations in which doing that was legal</a>.</p>
<p>Likewise, as we describe in our book, employers can take many steps to discourage strikes. But labor organizers can sometimes overcome management’s resistance with creative strategies.</p>
<h2>New economic equations</h2>
<p>Between 1983 and 2022, the share of U.S. <a href="https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet">workers who belonged to unions fell by half, from 20.1%</a> to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/19/majorities-of-adults-see-decline-of-union-membership-as-bad-for-the-u-s-and-working-people=">10.1%</a>. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t reverse that decline, but it did change the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/state-job-vacancies-pay-raises-wage-war-74d1689d573e298be32f3848fcc88f46">balance of power between employers and workers</a> in other ways.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/">great resignation</a>,” a surge in the number of workers quitting their jobs during the pandemic, now seems to be over, or at least cooling down. The number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/unemp-per-job-opening.htm">unemployed people for every job opening</a> reached 4.9 in April 2020, plummeted to 0.5 in December 2021, and has remained low ever since. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many workers have become more dissatisfied with their wages. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/25/teachers-strikes-us-low-pay-covid">strikes by teachers</a> that ramped up in 2018 responded to that frustration. <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA">U.S. inflation, which soared to 8% in 2022</a>, has eroded workers’ purchasing power while <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/us-corporate-profits-soar-taking-margins-to-widest-since-1950">company profits</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inequality-is-growing-in-the-us-and-around-the-world-191642">economic inequality</a> have continued to soar. </p>
<p>Technological breakthroughs that leave workers behind are also contributing to today’s strikes, as they did in other periods.</p>
<p>We’ve studied the role technology played in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">printers’ strikes</a> of the 1890s following the introduction of the linotype machine, which reduced the need for skilled workers, and the <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/dock/1971_strike_history.shtml">longshoremen strike of 1971</a>, which was spurred by a drastic workforce reduction brought about by the <a href="https://www.marineinsight.com/maritime-history/the-history-of-containerization-in-the-shipping-industry/">introduction of shipping containers</a> to transport cargo.</p>
<p>Those are among the precedents for the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-ends-hollywood-5769ab584bca99fe708c67d00d2ec241">actors and screenwriters</a> strikes of 2023, which hinged on the financial implications of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/residuals-hollywood-strike-actors-writers-7c32f386c910a11db4324875d99dc366">streaming in film and television</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-hollywood-actors-and-writers-afraid-of-a-cinema-scholar-explains-how-ai-is-upending-the-movie-and-tv-business-210360">artificial intelligence in the production</a> of movies and shows.</p>
<p>Working conditions, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ups-teamsters-strike-labor-logistics-delivery-a94482dbff7bfb67ad82f607ab127672">health and safety concerns and time off</a>, have also been at the root of many recent strikes.</p>
<p>Health care workers, for example, are going on strike over safe <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nurses-strike-new-jersey-394eb774eea0add0a60c272c5b7819ac">staffing levels</a>. In 2022, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-paid-sick-time-negotiations-norfolk-southern-70327831f881dcf86a43e05d22a5bdd5">rail workers</a> voted to strike over sick days and time off, but were blocked from walking off the job by a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/">U.S. Senate vote and President Joe Biden’s signature</a>.</p>
<p>Time and again, when the conditions have been right, U.S. workers have gone on strike and won. Sometimes more strikes have followed, in waves that have the potential to transform workers’ lives. But it’s still too early to know when this wave will crest. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published <a href="https://theconversation.com/waves-of-strikes-rippling-across-the-us-seem-big-but-the-total-number-of-americans-walking-off-the-job-remains-historically-low-210673">Aug. 24, 2023</a>, with nearly complete data for the number of strikers in 2023 and additional details about several strikes.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219903/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Stepan-Norris received funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Kerrissey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two labor scholars argue that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift.Judith Stepan-Norris, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California, IrvineJasmine Kerrissey, Associate Professor of Sociology; Director of the Labor Center, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2106732023-08-24T12:34:25Z2023-08-24T12:34:25ZWaves of strikes rippling across the US seem big, but the total number of Americans walking off the job remains historically low<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543806/original/file-20230821-29867-j4kcb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C282%2C2946%2C1949&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Striking members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in New York City in 1958.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/STRIKEWOMENGARMENTWORKERS/c439c0641fe5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=1950%20strike&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=46&currentItemNo=0&vs=true">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/03/labor-strikes-compare-unions-past/">More than 323,000 workers</a> – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, hotel cleaners and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/us/california-labor-strikes.html">during the first eight months of 2023</a>. Hundreds of thousands of the employees of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ups-and-teamsters-agree-on-new-contract-averting-costly-strike-that-could-have-delayed-deliveries-for-consumers-and-retailers-210431">delivery giant UPS</a> would have gone on strike, too, had they not reached a last-minute agreement. And nearly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/uaw-workers-may-vote-strike-detroit-three-automakers-next-week-2023-08-15/">150,000 autoworkers</a> may go on a strike of historic proportions in mid-September if the United Autoworkers Union and General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the company that includes Chrysler – don’t agree on a new contract soon.</p>
<p>This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">lull in U.S. strikes</a> and a <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/union-membership">decline in union membership</a> that began in the 1970s. Today’s strikes may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave constitutes a significant change following <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">decades of unions’ losing ground</a>, it’s far from unprecedented.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=w6GUu_EAAAAJ">We’re sociologists</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=69FEXj0AAAAJ&hl=en">study the history of U.S. labor movements</a>. In our new book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">Union Booms and Busts</a>,” we explore the reasons for swings in <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">the share of working Americans in unions</a> between 1900 and 2015. </p>
<p>We see the rising number of strikes today as a sign that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers at a rally carrying strike signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maryam Rouillard puts her fist in the air on Aug. 8, 2023, while taking part in a one-day strike by Los Angeles municipal workers to protest contract negotiations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-hearse-on-5th-avenue-with-a-sign-that-reads-new-news-photo/1311461424?adppopup=true">Apu Gomes/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Millions on strike</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">number of U.S. workers who go on strike in a given year</a> varies greatly but generally follows broader trends. After World War II ended, through 1981, between 1 million and 4 million Americans went on strike annually. By 1990, that number had plummeted. In some years, it fell below 100,000.</p>
<p>Workers by that point were clearly on the defensive for several reasons. </p>
<p>One dramatic turning point was the showdown between President Ronald Reagan and the country’s air traffic controllers, which culminated in a 1981 strike by their union – the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2006/08/03/5604656/1981-strike-leaves-legacy-for-american-workers">Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization</a>. Like many public workers, air traffic controllers did not have the right to strike, but they called one anyway because of safety concerns and other reasons. Reagan depicted the union as disloyal and ordered that all of PATCO’s striking members be fired. The government turned to supervisors and military controllers as their replacements and <a href="https://libraries.uta.edu/news-events/blog/1981-patco-strike">decertified the union</a>.</p>
<p>That episode sent a strong message to employers that permanently replacing striking workers in certain situations would be tolerated.</p>
<p>There were also many <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/labor-relations-striking-balance-budd/M9781260260502.html">court rulings and new laws</a> that favored big business over labor rights. These included the passage of so-called <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-resources">right-to-work laws</a> that provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces – without requiring the payment of union dues. Many conservative states, like South Dakota and Mississippi, have these laws on the books, along with states with more liberal voters – such as Wisconsin.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/19/union-membership-drops-to-record-low-in-2022-00078525">union membership plunged</a> from <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R47596.html">34.2% of the labor force in 1945</a> to around 10% in 2010, workers became less likely to go on strike.</p>
<p>Wages kept up with productivity gains when unions were stronger than they are today. Wages increased 91.3% as productivity grew by 96.7% between 1948 and 1973. That changed once union membership began to tumble. <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/">Wages stagnated</a> from 1973 to 2013, rising only 9.2% even as productivity grew by 74.4%.</p>
<p><iframe id="euMoy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/euMoy/8/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Prime conditions</h2>
<p>In general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979398203500402">strikes grow more common when economic conditions change</a> in ways that empower workers. That’s especially true with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-47d74791145f0224280ffe908b6e820a">tight labor markets</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-wholesale-federal-reserve-interest-rates-consumers-1838b302c99045749b0597853886d32c">high inflation</a> seen in the U.S. in recent years.</p>
<p>When there are fewer candidates available for every open job and prices are rising, workers become bolder in their demands for higher wages and benefits.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/800649">Political and legal factors</a> can play a role, too. </p>
<p>In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/labor-unions-during-great-depression-and-new-deal/">New Deal enhanced unions’ ability to organize</a>. During World War II, unions agreed to a no-strike pledge – although some workers continued to go on strike.</p>
<p>The number of U.S. <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">workers who went on strike peaked in 1946</a>, a year after the war ended. Conditions were ripe for labor actions at that point for several reasons. The economy was no longer so dedicated to supplying the military, pro-union New Deal legislation was still intact and <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/podcasts/best-my-ability-podcast/season-2-archive/episode-5-strike-wave">wartime strike restrictions</a> were lifted.</p>
<p>In contrast, Reagan’s crushing of the PATCO strike gave employers a green light to permanently replace striking workers in <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes">situations in which doing that was legal</a>.</p>
<p>Likewise, as we describe in our book, employers can take many steps to discourage strikes. But labor organizers can sometimes overcome management’s resistance with creative strategies.</p>
<h2>New economic equations</h2>
<p>Between 1983 and 2022, the share of U.S. <a href="https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet">workers who belonged to unions fell by half, from 20.1%</a> to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/19/majorities-of-adults-see-decline-of-union-membership-as-bad-for-the-u-s-and-working-people=">10.1%</a>. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t reverse that decline, but it did change the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/state-job-vacancies-pay-raises-wage-war-74d1689d573e298be32f3848fcc88f46">balance of power between employers and workers</a> in other ways.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/">great resignation</a>,” a surge in the number of workers quitting their jobs during the pandemic, now seems to be over, or at least cooling down. The number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/unemp-per-job-opening.htm">unemployed people for every job opening</a> reached 4.9 in April 2020, plummeted to 0.5 in December 2021, and has remained low ever since. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many workers have become more dissatisfied with their wages. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/25/teachers-strikes-us-low-pay-covid">strikes by teachers</a> that ramped up in 2018 responded to that frustration. <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA">U.S. inflation, which soared to 8% in 2022</a>, has eroded workers’ purchasing power while <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/us-corporate-profits-soar-taking-margins-to-widest-since-1950">company profits</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inequality-is-growing-in-the-us-and-around-the-world-191642">economic inequality</a> have continued to soar. </p>
<p>Technological breakthroughs that leave workers behind are also contributing to today’s strikes, as they did in other periods.</p>
<p>We’ve studied the role technology played in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">printers’ strikes</a> of the 1890s following the introduction of the linotype machine, which reduced the need for skilled workers, and the <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/dock/1971_strike_history.shtml">longshoremen strike of 1971</a>, which was spurred by a drastic workforce reduction brought about by the <a href="https://www.marineinsight.com/maritime-history/the-history-of-containerization-in-the-shipping-industry/">introduction of shipping containers</a> to transport cargo.</p>
<p>Those are among countless precedents for what’s happening now with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hollywood-actors-strike-ca3e3eddc910f1e52d618e5e3c394554">actors and screenwriters</a>. Their strikes hinge on the financial implications of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/residuals-hollywood-strike-actors-writers-7c32f386c910a11db4324875d99dc366">streaming in film and television</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-hollywood-actors-and-writers-afraid-of-a-cinema-scholar-explains-how-ai-is-upending-the-movie-and-tv-business-210360">artificial intelligence in the production</a> of movies and shows.</p>
<p>Working conditions, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ups-teamsters-strike-labor-logistics-delivery-a94482dbff7bfb67ad82f607ab127672">health and safety concerns and time off</a>, have also been at the root of many recent strikes.</p>
<p>Health care workers, for example, are going on strike over safe <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nurses-strike-new-jersey-394eb774eea0add0a60c272c5b7819ac">staffing levels</a>. In 2022, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-paid-sick-time-negotiations-norfolk-southern-70327831f881dcf86a43e05d22a5bdd5">rail workers</a> voted to strike over sick days and time off, they but were blocked from walking off the job by a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/">U.S. Senate vote and President Joe Biden’s signature</a>.</p>
<p>Time and again, when the conditions have been right, U.S. workers have gone on strike and won. Sometimes more strikes have followed, in waves that can transform workers’ lives. But it’s too early to know how big this wave will become.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Stepan-Norris received funding from the National Science Foundation and the University of California.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Kerrissey previously received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for data collection.</span></em></p>Many of the reasons for strikes now – low compensation, technological change, job insecurity and safety concerns – mirror the motives that workers had for walking off the job in decades past.Judith Stepan-Norris, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California, IrvineJasmine Kerrissey, Associate Professor of Sociology; Director of the Labor Center, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2058912023-07-26T12:15:06Z2023-07-26T12:15:06ZMeasuring helium in distant galaxies may give physicists insight into why the universe exists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537554/original/file-20230714-21948-g2t785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C0%2C6698%2C4489&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New measurements from Japan's Subaru telescope have helped researchers study the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1335056886/photo/andromeda-galaxy-surrounded-by-stars.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=yhgVDZmt3gODQx_vm9nzfweVT8-WzwwOpxJehbnynrI=">Javier Zayas Photography/Moment via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When theoretical physicists like myself say that we’re studying why the universe exists, we sound like philosophers. But new data collected by researchers using Japan’s <a href="https://subarutelescope.org/en/">Subaru telescope</a> has revealed insights into that very question.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cylindrical building sitting on a cliff overlooking a sunset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538069/original/file-20230718-7668-yp1ts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japan’s Subaru telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subaru_Telescope._Mauna_Kea_Summit_-_panoramio.jpg">Panoramio/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang">The Big Bang</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-could-an-explosive-big-bang-be-the-birth-of-our-universe-128430">kick-started the universe</a> as we know it 13.8 billion years ago. <a href="https://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/beamline/26/1/26-1-sather.pdf">Many theories</a> in particle physics suggest that for all the matter created at the universe’s conception, an equal amount of antimatter should have been created alongside it. Antimatter, like matter, has mass and takes up space. However, antimatter particles exhibit the opposite properties of their corresponding matter particles. </p>
<p>When pieces of matter and antimatter collide, they <a href="https://home.cern/science/physics/matter-antimatter-asymmetry-problem">annihilate each other in a powerful explosion</a>, leaving behind only energy. The puzzling thing about theories that predict the creation of an equal balance of matter and antimatter is that if they were true, the two would have totally annihilated each other, leaving the universe empty. So there must have been more matter than antimatter at the birth of the universe, because the universe isn’t empty – it’s full of stuff that’s made of matter like galaxies, stars and planets. A little bit of antimatter <a href="https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsantimatter">exists around us</a>, but it is very rare. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://inspirehep.net/authors/2064347">physicist working on Subaru data</a>, I’m interested in this so-called <a href="https://home.cern/science/physics/matter-antimatter-asymmetry-problem">matter-antimatter asymmetry problem</a>. In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">recent study</a>, my collaborators and I found that the telescope’s new measurement of the amount and type of helium in faraway galaxies may offer a solution to this long-standing mystery.</p>
<h2>After the Big Bang</h2>
<p>In the first milliseconds after the Big Bang, the universe was hot, dense and full of elementary particles like protons, neutrons and electrons <a href="https://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html">swimming around in a plasma</a>. Also present in this pool of particles were <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-elusive-neutrino-431">neutrinos</a>, which are very tiny, weakly interacting particles, and antineutrinos, their antimatter counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An image showing a burst of light and color against black space and stars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537553/original/file-20230714-27-ymcvpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Big Bang created fundamental particles that make up other particles like protons and neutrons. Neutrinos are another type of fundamental particle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/big-bang-conceptual-image-royalty-free-illustration/639549057?phrase=the%20big%20bang">Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Physicists believe that just one second after the Big Bang, the nuclei of light <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-our-universes-cosmic-dawn-what-happened-to-all-its-original-hydrogen-65527">elements like hydrogen</a> and helium began to form. This process is known as <a href="https://w.astro.berkeley.edu/%7Emwhite/darkmatter/bbn.html">Big Bang Nucleosynthesis</a>. The nuclei formed were about <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/big-bang-theory5.htm">75% hydrogen nuclei and 24% helium nuclei</a>, plus small amounts of heavier nuclei. </p>
<p>The physics community’s <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Astro/bbnuc.html">most widely accepted theory</a> on the formation of these nuclei tells us that neutrinos and antineutrinos played a fundamental role in the creation of, in particular, helium nuclei. </p>
<p>Helium creation in the early universe happened in a two-step process. First, neutrons and protons converted from one to the other in a <a href="https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March04/Steigman3/Steigman2.html">series of processes</a> involving neutrinos and antineutrinos. As the universe cooled, these processes stopped and the <a href="https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March04/Steigman3/Steigman2.html">ratio of protons to neutrons was set</a>. </p>
<p>As theoretical physicists, we can create models to test how the ratio of protons to neutrons depends on the relative number of neutrinos and antineutrinos in the early universe. If <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">more neutrinos were present</a>, then our models show more protons and fewer neutrons would exist as a result. </p>
<p>As the universe cooled, hydrogen, helium and other elements <a href="https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March04/Steigman3/Steigman2.html">formed from these protons and neutrons</a>. Helium is made up of two protons and two neutrons, and hydrogen is just one proton and no neutrons. So the fewer the neutrons available in the early universe, the less helium would be produced.</p>
<p>Because the nuclei formed during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">can still be observed today</a>, scientists can infer how many neutrinos and antineutrinos were present during the early universe. They do this by looking specifically at galaxies that are rich in light elements like hydrogen and helium.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A diagram showing how protons and neutrons form helium atoms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537555/original/file-20230714-25-rbf648.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a series of high-energy particle collisions, elements like helium are formed in the early universe. Here, D stands for deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron, and γ stands for photons, or light particles. In the series of chain reactions shown, protons and neutrons fuse to form deuterium, then these deuterium nuclei fuse to form helium nuclei.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anne-Katherine Burns</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A clue in helium</h2>
<p>Last year, the Subaru Collaboration – a group of Japanese scientists working on the Subaru telescope – released data on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac9ea1">10 galaxies</a> far outside of our own that are almost exclusively made up of hydrogen and helium. </p>
<p>Using a technique that allows researchers to distinguish different elements from one another <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-seeing-the-universe-through-spectroscopic-eyes-37759">based on the wavelengths of light</a> observed in the telescope, the Subaru scientists determined exactly how much helium exists in each of these 10 galaxies. Importantly, they found less helium than the previously accepted theory predicted. </p>
<p>With this new result, my collaborators and I worked backward to find the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">number of neutrinos and antineutrinos</a> necessary to produce the helium abundance found in the data. Think back to your ninth grade math class when you were asked to solve for “X” in an equation. What my team did was essentially the more sophisticated version of that, where our “X” was the number of neutrinos or antineutrinos.</p>
<p>The previously accepted theory predicted that there should be the same number of neutrinos and antineutrinos in the early universe. However, when we tweaked this theory to give us a prediction that matched the new data set, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">we found that</a> the number of neutrinos was greater than the number of antineutrinos.</p>
<h2>What does it all mean?</h2>
<p>This analysis of new helium-rich galaxy data has a far-reaching consequence – it can be used to explain the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The Subaru data points us directly to a source for that imbalance: neutrinos. In this study, my collaborators and I proved that this new measurement of helium is consistent with there being more neutrinos then antineutrinos in the early universe. Through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.131001">known and likely particle physics processes</a>, the asymmetry in the neutrinos could propagate into an asymmetry in all matter. </p>
<p>The result of our study is a common type of result in the theoretical physics world. Basically, we discovered a viable way in which the matter-antimatter asymmetry could have been produced, but that doesn’t mean it definitely was produced in that way. The fact that the data fits with our theory is a hint that the theory we’ve proposed might be the correct one, but this fact alone doesn’t mean that it is. </p>
<p>So, are these tiny little neutrinos the key to answering the age old question, “Why does anything exist?” According to this new research, they just might be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Katherine Burns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The way particles interacted while the universe was forming seconds after the Big Bang could explain why the universe exists the way it does – a physicist explains matter-antimatter asymmetry.Anne-Katherine Burns, Ph.D. Candidate in Theoretical Particle Physics, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2090202023-07-10T12:32:42Z2023-07-10T12:32:42ZHow small wealthy suburbs contribute to regional housing problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535644/original/file-20230704-21-62j51z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=962%2C138%2C1310%2C888&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The line between Atherton, Calif., (right) and its neighbor is obvious in property sizes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The odd headlines about little towns in the San Francisco Bay Area just keep coming.</p>
<p>First Woodside, a tiny suburb where several Silicon Valley CEOs have lived, tried to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/us/woodside-mountain-lion-housing.html">declare itself a mountain lion habitat</a> to evade a new California law that enabled owners of single-family homes to subdivide their lots to create additional housing.</p>
<p>Then wealthy Atherton, with a population of 7,000 and a <a href="https://therealdeal.com/sanfrancisco/2023/05/01/development-fight-heats-up-in-countrys-richest-city/">median home sale price</a> of US$7.5 million, tried to update its state-mandated housing plan. Until very recently, <a href="https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/atherton_zoning_map_0.png">100% of Atherton’s residentially zoned land</a> allowed only single-family houses on large lots. When the City Council considered rezoning a handful of properties to allow townhouses, strenuous objections poured in from such notable local residents as basketball star <a href="https://padailypost.com/2023/02/05/atherton-rejects-plea-of-the-currys-will-keep-controversial-development-in-housing-plan/">Steph Curry</a> and billionaire venture capitalist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/technology/nimby-housing-silicon-valley-atherton.html">Marc Andreessen</a>. </p>
<p>A council member <a href="https://padailypost.com/2023/04/24/mayor-athertons-specialness-is-being-overlooked-in-quest-to-find-more-housing/">argued</a> that the town should “express and explain the specialness of Atherton … to succeed in reducing [the state’s] expectations of us.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A garden walk with parallel gravel pathways on either side of carefully manicured flower beds and old trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536376/original/file-20230707-19-711ph7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A formal garden and estate operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation reflects the aesthetic of Woodside, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/formal-garden-with-flowers-set-among-hedges-designed-to-news-photo/803294050?adppopup=true">Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On first glance, these might seem like extreme cases of privilege, oddities from quirky California. But as <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/regional-governance-and-the-politics-of-housing-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area">our new book</a> on the politics of housing shows, the ability of small suburban municipalities to limit multifamily housing is more the rule than the exception.</p>
<h2>Small governments’ big role in limiting housing</h2>
<p>Adding new housing is one of the few ways to limit the escalation of <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/housing/2022/10/07/new-york-city-housing-supply-demand">rents</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/upshot/home-prices-surging.html">home prices</a> in high-cost metros like <a href="https://www.spur.org/publications/research/2021-04-19/what-it-will-really-take-create-affordable-bay-area">San Francisco</a>, <a href="https://cbcny.org/research/strategies-boost-housing-production-new-york-city-metropolitan-area">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/meeting-washington-regions-future-housing-needs">Washington</a>, D.C. Even new “luxury” apartments or condos can <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apartment-rents-fall-as-crush-of-new-supply-hits-market-2403c6ea?page=1">reduce competition</a> for older units, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article-abstract/22/6/1309/6362685">taking some pressure off rents</a> for <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/105/2/359/100977/Local-Effects-of-Large-New-Apartment-Buildings-in">people with lower incomes</a>.</p>
<p>However, locating new apartments and townhomes near jobs can be difficult. It means building them in existing communities, where small local governments often constrain housing development.</p>
<p>To study the impact small governments’ opposition is having on housing, we used census tract data from California’s metro areas to examine multifamily housing development between the Census Bureau’s 2008-2012 American Community Survey and its 2014-2018 survey, a time when the housing market was rapidly recovering from the Great Recession.</p>
<p>Over that span, according to our statistical estimates, a typical neighborhood-size <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/about/glossary.html#par_textimage_13">census tract</a> located within a city of 100,000 residents saw the development of 46 more new multifamily units than an otherwise very similar census tract located within a smaller city of 30,000 residents. In other words, smaller cities, which typically are suburban in nature, added far fewer multifamily units.</p>
<p>An extra 46 new apartments might sound like a small number, but it can make a real difference at the neighborhood level. Nearly half the census tracts in our sample – each with around 1,200 to 8,000 residents – gained five or fewer multifamily units.</p>
<h2>Cities across the US face similar struggles</h2>
<p>This pattern of slower rates of multifamily housing development in smaller jurisdictions is hardly unique to the Bay Area.</p>
<p>When we examined census data from metro areas nationwide, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087420988598">similarly found</a> that neighborhoods in small jurisdictions gained fewer multifamily units. We took into account a lengthy list of economic, geographic and demographic factors that could influence neighborhood growth rates, as well as the size of the jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Most big American cities in high-cost regions – think Boston, Denver and Los Angeles – are surrounded by a sea of mostly small independent suburbs.</p>
<p>In many of these communities, residents actively participate in local politics to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/neighborhood-defenders/0677F4F75667B490CBC7A98396DD527A#fndtn-information">fight increases in density and multifamily housing</a>. As proposals for new housing are deflected away from these small communities, housing either doesn’t get built, thus raising rents by limiting residential supply, or it gets pushed to far-flung exurbs that are distant from most jobs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows little change near the city and more housing added over the mountains to the east and down a valley to the south of San Jose and San Francisco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535405/original/file-20230703-259537-cg8fma.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows the change in housing units in the San Francisco Bay Area between the survey’s 2012 and 2018 five-year estimates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.html">Nicholas Marantz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the San Francisco Bay Area, the communities with relatively high increases in housing in our study tended to be at the urban fringe, while many close-in suburbs had stagnant housing development or even a decline in units.</p>
<h2>Inner suburbs could offer housing closer to jobs</h2>
<p>Just because a suburb is small in population does not mean that it is far off the beaten track or irrelevant to a region’s economy.</p>
<p>Atherton, for example, maintained its estate-style residential zoning for decades, smack-dab in the middle of a job-rich area. In fact, our data shows that among the Bay Area municipalities with the best geographic proximity to employment, about half are small suburbs of 30,000 or fewer residents.</p>
<p>Transportation is the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#transportation">largest single contributor to U.S. carbon emissions</a>, yet many people end up commuting long distances because housing is so limited and expensive in job-rich areas. However, many inner suburbs’ land-use plans were set decades ago in vastly different economic eras, and many now claim to be “built out” and done with adding housing.</p>
<h2>What’s standing in the way?</h2>
<p>Why does a municipality’s size matter so much for how many apartments and condos get built? In a word, politics.</p>
<p>Homeowners tend to be the dominant political interest in small suburbs. They may worry that larger or denser residential buildings will decrease their property values, increase traffic or strain local infrastructure. Fears about even minor projects – like the proposal for <a href="https://padailypost.com/2023/02/05/atherton-rejects-plea-of-the-currys-will-keep-controversial-development-in-housing-plan/">16 townhomes</a> near Curry’s estate in Atherton – can get magnified.</p>
<p>To be sure, many homeowners in big cities have similar worries. But in a large, diverse city, anti-growth voices often are counterbalanced by pro-housing interests active in city politics, such as large employers, developers, construction unions or affordable-housing nonprofits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man guides a sign reading " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536377/original/file-20230708-21-xumjge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Urban redevelopment efforts can create more housing through projects such as turning warehouses into apartment buildings like this one in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brian-dwyer-sign-technician-guides-an-ivy-city-sign-being-news-photo/496784922">Ricky Carioti/ The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And though a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/business/economy/housing-crisis-conor-dougherty-golden-gates.html">growing set of YIMBY activists</a> – those advocating “yes in my backyard” – agitate in favor of more housing, suburban elected officials typically feel much more political heat from longtime homeowners than from YIMBY activists.</p>
<h2>How to unlock more housing where it’s needed</h2>
<p>State legislators can unlock the potential for new housing by requiring local governments to relax single-family-only zoning and similar land-use restrictions. <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2023/03/22/colorado-local-housing-preempetion-bill/">Colorado’s governor proposed</a> doing that in 2023, and <a href="https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/research-and-policy/california-housing-laws/">California has passed similar laws</a>. However, that can be politically risky. Local control of land use is an article of faith in many states.</p>
<p>New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s effort to enact land-use reforms that would push localities to rezone for more housing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/nyregion/nyc-suburbs-affordable-housing.html">hit a dead end in that state’s Legislature</a> in 2023. In California, meanwhile, lawsuits by local governments and neighbors of proposed projects proliferate. And some cities – like Woodside, with its mountain lion sanctuary – attempt to creatively dodge state rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a winter jacket, ball cap and face mask walks at night by tents in San Jose used by people who have no solid housing options." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536378/original/file-20230708-25-76fnql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A survey of California’s homeless population published in June 2023 by the University of California San Francisco found the median monthly household income in the six months before a person became homeless was $960. The average one-bedroom rent in the Bay Area is more than twice that.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mayor-sam-liccardo-takes-part-in-the-2022-point-in-time-news-photo/1238901446?adppopup=true">Aric Crabb/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>States could also create incentives for local governments to approve more housing. Certain types of state-collected revenues, such as sales taxes or gasoline taxes, could be distributed to local communities based on each community’s count of bedrooms, with additional credit given for affordable units. This type of incentive might lead local officials to view new apartments as improving their community’s bottom line.</p>
<p>Another approach is for state governments to create metro-level mechanisms designed to represent the needs of housing consumers throughout the region.</p>
<p>States could set up regionwide housing appeals boards authorized to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2020.1712612">reconsider and potentially overturn anti-housing decisions</a> by cities and towns. Oregon took a more ambitious approach in its largest urban region, Portland. Voters created and then strengthened an elective <a href="https://www.oregonmetro.gov/regional-leadership/what-metro">metro government</a> to not just plan but actually carry out key regional land-use priorities. </p>
<p>With that big-picture view and authority, Portland can put more housing in locations most accessible to jobs and transit while protecting sensitive countryside in outlying areas from vehicle-dependent sprawl. In other words, it can put housing where it’s needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul G. Lewis received funding for the research project discussed in this article from the Emmett Shear Charitable Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas J. Marantz received funding for the research project discussed in this article from the Emmett Shear Charitable Trust.</span></em></p>Small suburbs have a track record of blocking new housing. Two urban policy experts explain why that’s a problem and what metro areas could do about it.Paul G. Lewis, Associate Professor of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State UniversityNicholas J. Marantz, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065702023-06-05T12:07:50Z2023-06-05T12:07:50ZBaseless anti-trans claims fuel adoption of harmful laws – two criminologists explain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529672/original/file-20230601-29-zn4nbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C56%2C4716%2C3087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kansas legislators Brenda Landwehr, left, and Chris Croft confer during a vote on an anti-transgender bathroom bill, which both support.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderHealthKansas/63880be5083f47a499bd396dee2a3631/photo">AP Photo/John Hanna</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been seven years since North Carolina made headlines for enacting a “<a href="https://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/46/2/232.full.pdf">bathroom bill</a>” – legislation intended to prevent transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. </p>
<p>After boycotts threatened to cost the state more than <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/27/bathroom-bill-to-cost-north-carolina-376-billion.html">US$3.7 billion</a>, legislators <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/north-carolina-transgender-bathrooms.html">repealed the law</a> in 2017. Since then, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000270">religious</a> <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/rag/11/1/article-p67_5.xml">and</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2021.1">political</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/politics/transgender-laws-republicans.html">conservatives</a> have successfully spread an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/opinion/america-is-being-consumed-by-a-moral-panic-over-trans-people.html">anti-trans</a> <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/anti-trans-moral-panics-endanger-all-young-people/">moral panic</a>, or irrational fear, across the United States.</p>
<p>As far back as 2001, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-republican-transgender-laws-pile-up-setting-2024-battle-lines-2023-05-18/">Republican lawmakers</a> proposed the first of what are now <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/anti-lgbtq-plus-state-bill-rights-dg/index.html">nearly 900 anti-LGBTQ+ bills</a>. <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights">More than 500 of these</a> were introduced in 49 state legislatures and the U.S. Congress during the first five months of 2023. To date, at least <a href="https://translegislation.com/">79 have passed</a>.</p>
<p>Many of these anti-trans laws are <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/inside-playbook-transgender-health-bills-99475030">written</a> <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/165403/groups-pushing-anti-trans-laws-want-divide-lgbtq-movement">and</a> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/31/anti-trans-bills-2023-america">financed</a> by a group of far-right interest groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel and the American Principles Project. </p>
<p>These groups claim their proposed laws would protect cisgender women and girls – those whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth – from the sorts of violent trans people that are often depicted in <a href="https://perma.cc/W43F-7YKZ">movies</a> <a href="https://www.glaad.org/new-york-times-sign-on-letter-from-lgtbq-allied-leaders-and-organizations">and</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/entertainment/transgender-jk-rowling-media-intl/index.html">other</a> <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/kayla-denker-speaks-out-against-death-threats-transphobic-backlash">media</a>. </p>
<p>But as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SYMKKZQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">criminologists</a>, <a href="https://healthpolicyresearch-scholars.org/scholars/alexis-rowland/">we</a> know these claims are without merit. No reliable data supports the argument that transgender people commit violent crimes at higher rates than cisgender men and women. In fact, transgender people are more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306099">four times</a> as likely to be the victim of a crime as cisgender people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C4758%2C3165&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people walk down a sidewalk carrying flags promoting equality and LGBTQ+ rights" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C4758%2C3165&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529654/original/file-20230601-20-9b3l28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators protest against a Tennessee proposal to ban drag shows, one of many anti-trans proposals across the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrideFestivals/156f97554dbe49df84b950452bee9569/photo">John Amis/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Expanding reach</h2>
<p>Anti-trans laws like the one enacted in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-rights-bathroom-law-kansas-b3d068afa2bc02bb15314ee04e8e3899">Kansas</a> over the governor’s veto reach beyond restrooms to limit access to many sex-segregated spaces, including “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-rights-bathroom-law-kansas-b3d068afa2bc02bb15314ee04e8e3899">locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers</a>,” based on the sex assigned at birth to a person who seeks to use those spaces.</p>
<p>As of the end of May 2023, at least <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/map-gender-affirming-care-targeted-us/story?id=97443087">18</a> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/18/gender-affirming-health-care-bans-transgender-lgbt">states</a> had enacted laws within the preceding 12 months that limit medically age-appropriate gender-affirming health care for trans minors, with similar bills pending in 14 more states. And Florida’s barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ regulations even prohibits the mere discussion <a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-ban-684ed25a303f83208a89c556543183cb">of sexuality and gender identity in schools</a> through the 12th grade. Journalist Adam Rhodes called these efforts a “<a href="https://theappeal.org/anti-trans-bills-transgender-state-legislation/">centrally coordinated attack on transgender existence</a>.” </p>
<p>We believe these laws and bills illustrate the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/anti-lgbtq-plus-state-bill-rights-dg/index.html">increasingly</a> <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/us/us-analysis/2023/05/23/floridas-desantis-issues-slew-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation-ahead-of-presidential-campaign/">hostile</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/politics/montana-drag-story-hour-ban/index.html">legislative</a> landscape for LGBTQ+ people despite polls showing that most people in the United States <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/28/americans-complex-views-on-gender-identity-and-transgender-issues/">want trans people to be protected from discrimination</a> in public spaces on the basis of their gender.</p>
<h2>What the data shows</h2>
<p>A variety of <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/myths-and-facts-battling-disinformation-about-transgender-rights">myths</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2023/03/31/we-must-fight-anti-trans-disinformation">false narratives</a>, <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/31/trans-myths-debunked-science/">bad science</a>, <a href="https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol104/iss7/2/">misconceptions</a> and <a href="https://aninjusticemag.com/are-50-of-trans-women-in-prison-sex-offenders-512f949c365a">outright</a> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/41-per-cent-trans-transgender-trans-women-prisoners-sex-offenders-false-study-statistic-this-is-why-a8072431.html">misrepresentations</a> undergird anti-trans laws. The reality, however, is that trans-exclusionary laws do not protect cisgender women and girls from harassment or violence. Rather, they result in dramatic increases in violent victimization for transgender and gender-nonconforming adults and children.</p>
<p>When laws permit transgender people to access sex-segregated spaces in accordance with their gender identities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z">crime rates do not increase</a>. There is <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/bathroom-ban-laws.pdf">no association</a> between trans-inclusive policies and more crime. As one of us wrote in a recent paper, this is likely because, just like cisgender folks, “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4419750">transgender people use locker rooms and restrooms to change clothes and go to the bathroom</a>,” not for sexual gratification or predatory reasons.</p>
<p>Conversely, when trans people are forced by law to use sex-segregated spaces that align with the sex assigned to them at birth instead of their gender identity, two important facts should be noted. </p>
<p>First, no studies show that violent crime rates against cisgender women and girls in such spaces decrease. In other words, cisgender women and girls are no safer than they would be in the absence of anti-trans laws. Certainly, the possibility exists that a cisgender man might pose as a woman to go into certain spaces under <a href="https://perma.cc/C7DB-63RL">false pretenses</a>. But that same possibility remains regardless of whether transgender people are lawfully permitted in those spaces.</p>
<p>Second, trans people are <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306099">significantly more likely</a> to be victimized in sex-segregated spaces than are cisgender people. For instance, while incarcerated in facilities designated for men, trans women are <a href="https://perma.cc/N9QG-3BML">nine to 13 times</a> as likely to be sexually assaulted as the men with whom they are boarded. </p>
<p>In women’s prisons, correctional staff are responsible for 41% of women’s <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/sexual-victimization-prisons-and-jails-reported-inmates-2011-12-update">sexual victimization</a>, with cisgender women committing the balance of nearly all prisoner-on-prisoner violence. Similarly, trans boys and girls who are barred from using the washrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity are respectively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542%2Fpeds.2018-2902">between 26% to 149% more likely</a> to be sexually victimized in the locations they are forced to use than cisgender youths.</p>
<p>In society at large, between <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf">84% and 90%</a> of all crimes of sexual violence are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, not a stranger lurking in the shadows – or the showers or restroom stalls. But trans and nonbinary people feel very unsafe in bathrooms and locker rooms, though others experience relative safety there. In fact, the <a href="https://perma.cc/ZZJ9-78M7">largest study of its kind</a> found that upward of 75% of trans men and 64% of trans women reported that they routinely avoid public restrooms to minimize their chances of being harassed or assaulted.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person cries out while being handled by police officers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529657/original/file-20230601-29-9sd8yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Qween Jean, a transgender rights activist, is arrested May 31, 2023, during a trans-rights demonstration in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/queen-jean-is-arrested-during-a-weekly-protest-in-support-news-photo/1258341307">Stephanie Keith/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lies drive harm</h2>
<p>Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-021-09590-0">criminological data does not support trans-exclusionary laws or policies</a>, advocates of anti-trans laws often resort to <a href="https://www.houstonpress.com/news/mass-shooters-are-almost-never-trans-13743586">lies</a>, flawed anecdotal evidence, or what fact-checkers have called “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-transgender-nashville-shooting-misinformation-cd62492d066d41e820c138256570978c">extreme cherry-picking</a>” to support their position. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4419750">one of us documented</a> how isolated news stories, often from notoriously <a href="https://perma.cc/N6XV-B3HD">transphobic tabloids</a>, conflate the actions of sexual predators with the “dangerousness” of trans women. Although there are undeniably examples of actual transgender people committing crimes, even deeply troubling ones, they are not evidence of any behavioral trends among the broader class of trans people. <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/tennessee-school-shooting-trans-people-guns/">No such</a> <a href="https://issuu.com/sfgnissues/docs/sfgn_04-06-23-smalls/s/22221040">data exists</a>.</p>
<p>We believe the spate of anti-trans proposals represents a textbook example of crime-control theater – an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000099">unnecessary</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000302">ineffective</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0734016817710695">harmful</a> legislative response to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2021.1952971">unfounded fearmongering</a>.</p>
<p>Anti-trans laws are not just baseless. They’re <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2019.1659048">hurtful and damaging</a>, especially to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/anti-trans-moral-panics-endanger-all-young-people/">LGBTQ+ teenagers</a>. <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023/">Recent polls</a> indicate that more than 60% of these people experience <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2023/05/01/mental-health-lgbtq-youth/">deteriorating mental health</a> – including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts – as a result of laws and policies aimed at restricting their personhood.</p>
<p>The criminological research is clear that anti-trans laws do not help the people they are claimed to protect. In fact, these laws inflict harm on people who are even more vulnerable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry F. Fradella has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice, but not with regard to anything relevant to the subject matter of this piece.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexis Rowland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Transgender people are more than four times as likely to be the victim of a crime as cisgender people.Henry F. Fradella, Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Affiliate Professor, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law., Arizona State UniversityAlexis Rowland, Ph.D. Student in Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048862023-05-31T12:39:02Z2023-05-31T12:39:02ZSummer reading: 5 books that explore LGBTQ teen and young adult life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528449/original/file-20230526-19-zowllg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C5137%2C3350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming of age brings new challenges for central characters who are discovering their own sexuality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/reading-at-the-beach-royalty-free-image/102491237?phrase=summer+reading&adppopup=true">Chris Hackett via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In recognition of LGBT Pride Month, The Conversation reached out to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uBrR7S0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Jonathan Alexander</a> – an English professor with a scholarly interest in the interplay between sexuality and literature – for recommendations of young adult fiction books that feature LGBTQ characters. What follows is a list that Alexander, who has just stepped down as the children’s and young adult fiction section editor for the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/">Los Angeles Review of Books</a>, considers as “must-reads” for this summer.</em></p>
<h2>1. Darius the Great Is Not Okay</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Two boys sitting and looking at an urban landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527550/original/file-20230522-19-alwc0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Darius the Great Is Not Okay’ by Adib Khorram.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
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<p>Written by Adib Khorram, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573023/darius-the-great-is-not-okay-by-adib-khorram/">Darius the Great Is Not Okay</a>” is told from the perspective of a Persian American teen battling an anxiety disorder while navigating the complexities of growing up in a culturally mixed household. Darius’ parents – an Iranian immigrant mother and a white father – are kind and sympathetic, even as they are dealing with their own issues, including the dad’s struggle with mental health issues and the mother’s attempt to maintain family relations with relatives in a country that is not only halfway around the world but whose government is viewed with suspicion by many Americans. Still, Darius’ family pulls together, even making a trip to Iran to visit relatives. While there, Darius learns about his cultural background as Persian, makes a lifelong friend in an Iranian cousin, and considers his own sexuality. He might be gay. How will that complicate his life? </p>
<p>Khorram beautifully handles the challenges – and pleasures – of growing up in a culturally mixed but rich and loving household while also dealing with mental health challenges and identity exploration. And there are a lot of sweet touches throughout, including a love of tea and “Star Trek.” Highly recommended for its sensitivity and authenticity. </p>
<h2>2. Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution</h2>
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<img alt="Two teenagers holding hands and smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527556/original/file-20230522-23-49gxsv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution’ by Kacen Callender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/lark-kasim-start-a-revolution_9781419756870/">Abrams Books</a></span>
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<p>Kacen Callender, whose groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/felix-ever-after-kacen-callender?variant=32280909578274">Felix Ever After</a>” delighted readers with its tale of a Black trans boy learning how to navigate being in and out of love, returns with a new book just as compellingly real. Lark and Kasim are old friends whose relationship has seen better days. Lark is working hard at being a writer while also trying to help Kasim figure out how to handle the complexities of living at least part of their young lives in the shadows of social media. Ultimately, the book is as much about forging friendships – and learning how to handle their evolution – as about crushes and teen love. </p>
<p>With richly drawn nonbinary and queer characters, “Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution” joins Callender’s previous award-winning books in contributing beautifully written and deeply imagined Black, queer and trans characters that readers of all kinds will come to love. </p>
<h2>3. Last Night at the Telegraph Club</h2>
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<img alt="An empty city street with two people holding hands under a lamppost." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527560/original/file-20230522-14801-xyo5r1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
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<p>Malinda Lo’s<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565819/last-night-at-the-telegraph-club-by-malinda-lo/"> National Book Award-winning novel</a> is set in mid-20th-century San Francisco, in a Chinese American immigrant community in which Lily Hu has to learn to deal with racism, the “Red Scare” and the possibility that she might be a lesbian. A masterwork of historical young adult literature, “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” introduces readers to how lesbian communities formed – and thrived – even during some of the most repressive and homophobic moments in U.S. history. </p>
<p>Lo’s novel joins her previous works, such as the groundbreaking “<a href="https://www.malindalo.com/ash">Ash</a>,” a retelling of Cinderella from a lesbian perspective, in creating exciting and affirming work for young queer readers, as well as for anyone who cares for those questioning their sexuality and sense of belonging in the world. </p>
<h2>4. Café Con Lychee</h2>
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<img alt="Two boys making eye contact in front of sugary snacks and drinks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527562/original/file-20230522-15-b7kh5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Café Con Lychee’ by Emery Lee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/cafe-con-lychee-emery-lee?variant=40682132668450">Harper Collins Publishers</a></span>
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<p>Emery Lee’s delicious novel centers on the rivalry between an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery in a small Vermont town – with both eateries facing competition from a new fusion restaurant that has just opened. The families that own the cafés each have a young son working in them – Theo and Gabi, respectively – who have to learn to overcome their own rivalry and help their families survive the precarities of operating a business in a world of cutthroat capitalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780063210271/cafe-con-lychee/">Café Con Lychee</a>” shows how love survives economic challenges and family foibles as the two young men move from rivalry to romance. A sweet and nourishing tale, the book offers readers a relatable glimpse into making it – and making out – during a time of economic upheaval.</p>
<h2>5. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe</h2>
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<img alt="A red truck parked on grass at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527563/original/file-20230522-17128-jkclqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’ by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Aristotle-and-Dante-Discover-the-Secrets-of-the-Universe/Benjamin-Alire-Saenz/Aristotle-and-Dante/9781665925419">Simon & Schuster</a></span>
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<p>I want to conclude this year’s summer reading list with an older work – Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s still beautiful, still vital and still very necessary paean to young gay love. Ari and Dante, from two different walks of life, learn to find love and self-acceptance in this beautifully written book. At the start of the book, Ari is dealing with family trouble, including a brother in prison, and Dante is perhaps a bit too smart for his own good. The two meet at a swimming pool one summer, setting the stage for a steamy exploration of friendship that might turn into something more. If you haven’t read “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” catch up this summer with this classic of contemporary LGBTQ young adult fiction, and then check out its recently published sequel, “Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World.” Happy reading!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of young adult fiction presents a fresh list of LGBTQ ‘must-reads’ for the summer of 2023.Jonathan Alexander, Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040882023-05-03T20:36:17Z2023-05-03T20:36:17ZAggression in kids is related to how they read others’ emotions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522843/original/file-20230425-2136-t5th2l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C22%2C3016%2C2089&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Overtly hostile behavior tends to diminish with age except for a minority of children who are at risk of later criminality. This makes childhood a critical time for steering those most in-need away from difficult life paths.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Erinn Acland)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/aggression-in-kids-is-related-to-how-they-read-others--emotions" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It may be surprising to hear that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-005-9001-z">toddlers and preschoolers are the most physically aggressive age demographic</a>. Luckily, they lack coordination and strength, making their attacks less dangerous than those of adults. </p>
<p>Overtly hostile behaviour tends to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00744">diminish with age</a> — except for a minority of children who are at risk of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062594">later criminality</a>. This makes childhood a critical time for steering those most in need of support away from difficult life paths.</p>
<p>Being blind to others’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.08.006">negative emotions</a> (anger, fear, sadness) is linked to callous-unemotional traits in childhood. These traits include a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00909-1">lack of guilt</a> for harming others, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101809">a lack of empathy</a> and generally being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191106287354">unemotional</a>. A poor ability to detect others’ negative emotions is also uniquely tied to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21989">aggression</a>.</p>
<p>If a child hurts someone, but can’t tell they’ve upset them, it means they won’t see the emotional consequences of their actions. The theory is this could make it easier for them to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.71.6.727">continue harming others</a>.</p>
<p>But the caveat here is that not all aggression is equal. </p>
<h2>Types of aggression</h2>
<p>There are two types of aggression that represent differing emotional temperatures: cold-calculated and hot-reactive. </p>
<p>Cold-calculated aggression is when force is used to get a desired outcome. For example, a child hitting a peer to steal their candy without provocation. This type of “cold-hearted” aggression is tied to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423000317">callous-unemotional traits</a>. </p>
<p>Hot-reactive aggression involves harming others in response to provocation. Children who engage in reactive aggression tend to be more “hot-headed.” They have higher <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00533-6">emotionality</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-018-0498-3">unregulated anger</a> and tend to assume <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2018.01.005">hostile intent from others</a>. If a reactive aggressor is bumped by a passerby, for example, they are more likely to assume it was on purpose and hit them in retaliation. </p>
<p>Although these types of aggression seem opposite, someone who is a cold-calculated aggressor in one situation can also be a hot-reactive aggressor in another. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00813-0">type of aggression</a> a child uses the most results in them being categorized as one or the other.</p>
<p>Until now, it was unclear how children’s abilities to read facial expressions might differ between these “hot” and “cold” types of aggression.</p>
<h2>Difficulty recognizing emotions</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423000342">recently published paper</a> assessed two diverse samples of children — one of 300 children, the other of 374.</p>
<p>Children were shown pictures of faces that expressed differing intensities of sadness, anger, fear and happiness in a random order. They were asked to identify which emotion was expressed or whether no emotion was present. We considered caregivers’ education level, child age and child gender in our analyses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of five faces of a woman's face gradually changing expression from mildly sad to very sad. In the first row, the first three faces have 'Neutral' written across them and the word 'Insensitivity' written across the top. The next two faces have 'Sad' written across them. In the second row, the first two faces have 'Anger' written across them and 'Bias' written across the top. The last three faces have 'Sad' written across them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522838/original/file-20230425-2111-xw5dl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children were shown pictures of faces that expressed differing emotions in a random order. Their ability to recognize a particular emotion was determined by the number of faces they identified correctly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Cambridge University Press)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that blindness to others’ anger, fear and sadness was consistently related to using cold-calculated aggression. In other words, children who have difficulty understanding that they upset someone are more likely to harm others to get what they want.</p>
<p>Interestingly, we found that the way children misrecognized angry expressions mattered. Cold-calculated aggression was tied to anger insensitivity. In other words, thinking angry expressions looked emotionless rather than another emotion. </p>
<p>This implies that children who harm others to get what they want aren’t as sensitive to social threats in their environment. This would allow them to remain calm in potentially dangerous situations. </p>
<p>Children who show more callous-unemotional traits and behavioural problems tend to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02397.x">more fearless and less deterred by punishment</a>, perhaps as a consequence of being more blind to threats.</p>
<p>We predicted that hot-reactive aggression would link to seeing anger in faces, regardless of whether the faces were actually angry. But surprisingly, that isn’t what we found.</p>
<p>Instead, thinking negative expressions looked happy was consistently linked to more hot-reactive aggression, but only in early childhood. </p>
<p>Youth who engage in more hot-reactive aggression have been reported to experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00533-6">lower happiness on a daily basis</a>, but are happier than their peers in response to positive events. So, perhaps young reactive aggressors are particularly sensitive to rewarding emotions. This may lead them to see happiness when it isn’t there. </p>
<p>Trouble figuring out the valence of an emotion (mistaking negative for positive emotions) could also be causing social blunders that result in conflict. Think about it: if you believe your friend is feeling happy, you have the green light to keep teasing or joking with them. But, if they are actually upset, this could stir up some serious friction. </p>
<p>This novel, unexpected link still needs to be teased apart in further research for us to understand what exactly is happening here.</p>
<h2>What causes aggression in children?</h2>
<p>Our study was correlational, meaning we can’t say for sure whether reduced emotion recognition causes aggression in children — only that these two things seem to be related.</p>
<p>However, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2012.04.033">2012 study does provide some support</a> for a causal link. Researchers found that improving emotion recognition in callous-unemotional youth through training reduced behavioural problems and increased empathy for others’ feelings, when compared to treatment-as-usual. This means that when callous youth were helped to identify how others feel, some of their behavioural issues resolved.</p>
<p>In our study, children’s ability to recognize emotions explained five per cent or less of their aggression, depending on their age. So, targeting this social skill alone is likely not sufficient to resolve serious aggression. </p>
<p>Addressing systemic causes of violence (e.g., <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.02.011">poverty</a>) and investing in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-014-0167-1">tailored</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.6.4.135">early interventions</a> that target multiple areas of child development and family well-being are necessary for promoting meaningful changes in children’s aggression.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erinn Acland has previously received funding from the Quebec Network on Suicide, Mood Disorders and Related Disorders, NSERC, and the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Peplak has previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>Faces hold crucial clues on what others are thinking and feeling. So, does missing that key social information impact children’s unkind behaviour?Erinn Acland, Postdoctoral Fellow, Developmental Psychology, Université de MontréalJoanna Peplak, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1976762023-02-20T13:20:19Z2023-02-20T13:20:19ZResearch on teen social media use has a racial bias – studies of white kids are widely taken to be universal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510724/original/file-20230216-26-kwzkku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5123%2C3382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White teens and teens of color do not have identical online experiences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenagers-laying-on-floor-using-technology-royalty-free-image/543195707">JGI/Jamie Grill/Tetra images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most research on teen social media use has been conducted on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444813520477">white teens</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650208321782">and college students</a>. As a result, it is unclear to what extent overlooked populations such as racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities and other vulnerable adolescent populations may be using social media in different ways.</p>
<p>You may have read about research on teen social media use in newspapers or other media outlets, but you might not be aware of the limitations of that research. Rarely do press reports mention the details of the sample populations studied. Instead, they generalize research that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35665564/">is often based largely on white teens</a> to all youths.</p>
<p>What is missing, then, especially when it comes to teens of color? We are a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZuHbDP0AAAAJ&hl=en">senior research scientist</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PaaNZUwAAAAJ&hl=en">doctoral student</a> who study the benefits and challenges of <a href="https://www.wcwonline.org/Youth-Media-Wellbeing-Research-Lab/youth-media-wellbeing-research-lab">teen social technology and digital media use</a>. We and our colleague <a href="https://wellesley.academia.edu/RachelHodes">Rachel Hodes</a> recently published a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/handbook-of-adolescent-digital-media-use-and-mental-health/marginalized-and-understudied-populations-using-digital-media/11A8E212846491FFEA02A32EAFDC401E">book chapter</a> on how marginalized and understudied populations use social media. </p>
<p>We found that commonly accepted portrayals of teens online distort or obscure the experiences of teens of color. These teens often have different online experiences, face different harms and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976237.011">may be using social media to share and present</a> underrepresented aspects of themselves and their experiences.</p>
<h2>Particular harms</h2>
<p>On the negative side, teens who are members of racial and ethnic minorities face discrimination online, including racial slurs or jokes, negative stereotyping, body shaming and even threats of harm. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13350">first study of its kind</a> to investigate the mental health implications of online discrimination for Black and <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-using-latinx-if-you-really-want-to-be-inclusive-189358">Latino</a> sixth through 12th graders over time found that these groups had increased risk of depression and anxiety. </p>
<p>In our work at the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab, we demonstrated that Black and Latino fifth through ninth graders <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/lsoe/sites/isprc/Diversity%20Challenge/DC%20Presenter%20Program%20as%20of%209_25_20.pdf">adopt social media at a younger age</a> than their white peers, further exposing them to behavioral health difficulties like sleep disruption. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="an Asian teenage girl wearing headphones in a dark room types on a laptop keyboard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510727/original/file-20230216-14-bzqyz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asian American teens often face racism and bullying online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/asian-young-woman-playing-online-games-on-laptop-royalty-free-image/1249868515">staticnak1983/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite having the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2001/12/12/asian-americans-and-the-internet/">highest reported access</a> to the internet and social media, Asian American youths still remain underrepresented in studies on digital media and well-being. Asian Americans in later adolescence and early adulthood – 18- to 24-year-olds – are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000109">more likely to be cyberbullied</a> than their white or Latino counterparts. </p>
<p>They are also the least likely to report negative experiences on social media in order to avoid embarrassment and maintain a positive image to the outside world. The global pandemic <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00039">triggered a rapid resurgence</a> of hate toward and racial profiling of Asian American communities, which has driven an increase in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000275">discrimination against Asian Americans</a>, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-03-asian-americans-biggest-incidents-online.html">including online</a>.</p>
<h2>Community and coping</h2>
<p>But there is also a growing body of research on the positive effects on youths of color of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120928488">social media that’s designed to be inclusive</a>. Our lab demonstrated that Black and Latino youths ages 11 to 15 were more likely than white and Asian adolescents to <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/lsoe/sites/isprc/Diversity%20Challenge/DC%20Presenter%20Program%20as%20of%209_25_20.pdf">join online groups that made them feel less lonely and isolated</a>. These online communities included group chats on Snapchat, House Party, WhatsApp, Discord, anime fanfiction sites and sports and hobby-related groups. </p>
<p>There were differences between the Black and Latino youths we studied. Black adolescents preferred YouTube video content about relationships or friendships, whereas Latino youths were more likely to seek ways to cope with stress and anxiety. Latino youths were also more likely to use social media to stay in touch with relatives. In general, <a href="https://clalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Social-Media-and-Youth-Wellbeing-Report.pdf">having a sense of belonging on social media</a> has profound effects for young people of color.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a black teenage boy looks at a smart phone he's holding in both hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510726/original/file-20230216-24-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black teens often seek video content about relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/low-angle-view-of-serious-teenage-boy-using-mobile-royalty-free-image/1136196122">Maskot via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>There is limited research that delves into the opportunities and experiences of Asian American and Indigenous adolescents as they explore racial and ethnic identity, especially during early (ages 10 to 13) and midadolescence (ages 11 to 17), and the role that social media plays in this process. </p>
<p>In a study of older adolescents and young adults (ages 18 to 25), Asian Americans reported using social media to seek social support during difficult times <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000109">in more private online channels</a>, which could be a way of avoiding the stigma around mental illness that persists in many Asian cultures. Our current <a href="https://www.thebobaproject.com/">NIH collaboration</a> with Brigham and Women’s Hospital is in the early stages of investigating how Chinese American parents and peers discuss racism and discrimination in online and offline contexts. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948223">Recent research</a> conducted in response to the rise in racism aimed at Asian Americans has found camaraderie and resistance to discrimination in online spaces. This is similar to what has been seen on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476413480247">Black Twitter</a>. While this effect has yet to be documented in adolescents, it is another example of the power of collective racial and ethnic identity in an online community. </p>
<h2>Recognizing differences</h2>
<p>Across all marginalized populations there are untapped opportunities for research and design of social media. Offline risk factors such as bullying, victimization and behavioral problems spill into online spaces, heightening the risk of negative experiences on social media. We believe that researchers and technology developers can avoid amplifying online risks associated with different racial and ethnic identities. </p>
<p>At the same time, we also believe that researchers can focus on positive minority youth development on social media. Being a member of a group that is overlooked or faces discrimination can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.06.022">galvanize people and give them a sense of purpose</a>. They can tackle a mutual goal of community building and authenticity, which, in turn, may promote healthy youth development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Charmaraman receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, Morningstar Family Foundation, and Boston Children's Hospital Digital Wellness Lab. Occasionally, she is a consulting expert with the Jed Foundation and Meta's Wellbeing Creator Collective.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Maya Hernandez, Ph.D. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous teens have different online experiences – both positive and negative – than their white peers. These differences are overlooked when research focuses on white kids.Linda Charmaraman, Director of Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab, Wellesley CollegeJ. Maya Hernandez, Ph.D., Ph.D. Candidate in Social Ecology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990622023-02-06T13:28:10Z2023-02-06T13:28:10ZThe future of flight in a net-zero-carbon world: 9 scenarios, lots of sustainable aviation fuel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508151/original/file-20230203-26-z6qah6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5003%2C3376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some airlines are already experimenting with sustainable aviation fuel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/los-angeles-international-airport-royalty-free-image/567874083">Michael H/Stone Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several <a href="https://carboncredits.com/airlines-race-to-net-zero-carbon-footprint-2/">major airlines</a> have pledged to <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/programs/environment/flynetzero/">reach net-zero</a> carbon emissions by midcentury to fight climate change. It’s an ambitious goal that will require an enormous ramp-up in sustainable aviation fuels, but that alone won’t be enough, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01046-9">our latest research</a> shows.</p>
<p>The idea of jetliners running solely on fuel made from used cooking oil from restaurants or corn stalks might seem futuristic, but it’s <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/first-cooking-oil-powered-military-transporter-aircraft">not that far away</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://earth.org/sustainable-aviation-fuel-companies/">Airlines are</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airbus-a380-saf-cooking-oil-scn/index.html">already experimenting</a> with sustainable aviation fuels, including biofuels made from agriculture residues, trees, corn and used cooking oil, and synthetic fuels made with captured carbon and green hydrogen. </p>
<p>United Airlines, which has been <a href="https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/company/responsibility/sustainable-aviation-fuel.html">using a blend</a> of used oil or waste fat and fossil fuels on some flights from Los Angeles and Amsterdam, recently <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-tallgrass-and-green-plains-form-joint-venture-to-develop-new-sustainable-aviation-fuel-technology-using-ethanol-301734695.html">announced plans</a> to power 50,000 flights a year between its Chicago and Denver hubs using ethanol-based sustainable aviation fuels by 2028. The airline also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-rallies-businesses-and-consumers-with-new-first-of-its-kind-100-million-sustainable-flight-fund-301751293.html">launched a US$100 million fund</a> on Feb. 21, 2023, with Air Canada, Boeing, GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase and Honeywell to invest in sustainable aviation fuel startups to expand the industry.</p>
<p>In a new study, we examined different options for aviation to reach net-zero emissions. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01046-9">bottom line</a>: Replacing fossil jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuels will be crucial, but the industry will still need to invest in <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-machines-scrub-greenhouse-gases-from-the-air-an-inventor-of-direct-air-capture-technology-shows-how-it-works-172306">direct-air carbon capture and storage</a> to offset emissions that can’t be cut. Each pathway has important trade-offs and hurdles. </p>
<h2>Scenarios for the future</h2>
<p>Before the pandemic, in 2019, aviation accounted for <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/aviation">about 3.1%</a> of total global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, and the number of passenger miles traveled each year was rising. If aviation emissions were a country, that would make it the sixth-largest emitter, closely following Japan.</p>
<p>In addition to releasing carbon emissions, burning jet fuel produces soot and water vapor, known as contrails, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834">that contribute to warming</a>, and these are not avoided by switching to sustainable aviation fuels.</p>
<p><iframe id="JtSL9" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JtSL9/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Aviation is also one of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy. Small electric and hydrogen-powered planes are being developed, but long-haul flights with lots of passengers are likely <a href="https://theconversation.com/electric-planes-are-coming-short-hop-regional-flights-could-be-running-on-batteries-in-a-few-years-190098">decades away.
</a></p>
<p>We developed and analyzed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01046-9">nine scenarios</a> spanning a range of projected passenger and freight demand, energy intensity and carbon intensity of aviation to explore how the industry might get to net-zero emissions by 2050.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nine sets of bar charts" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508209/original/file-20230205-19-9oydno.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nine scenarios illustrate how much carbon offsets would be required to reach net-zero emissions, depending on choices made about demand and energy and carbon intensity. Each starts with 2021’s emissions (1.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent). With rising demand and no improvement in carbon intensity, a large amount of carbon capture will be necessary. Less fossil fuel use and slower demand growth reduce offset needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-01046-9">Candelaria Bergero</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that as much as 19.8 exajoules of sustainable aviation fuels could be needed for the entire sector to reach net-zero CO₂ emissions. With other efficiency improvements, that could be reduced to as little as 3 exajoules. To put that into context, 3 exajoules is almost equivalent to all <a href="https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/global-biofuel-production-in-2019-and-forecast-to-2025">biofuels produced in 2019</a> and far surpasses the 0.005 exajoules of <a href="https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2021/Jul/IRENA_Reaching_Zero_Biojet_Fuels_2021.pdf">bio-based jet fuel produced in 2019</a>. An exajoule is a measure of energy.</p>
<p>Flying less and improving airplanes’ energy efficiency, such as using <a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-adds-fuel-saving-arrival-routes-11-airports">more efficient “glide” landings</a> that allow airlines to approach the airport with engines at near idle, can help reduce the amount of fuel needed. But even in our rosiest scenarios – where demand grows at 1% per year, compared to the historical average of 4% per year, and energy efficiency improves by 4% per year rather than 1% – aviation would still need about 3 exajoules of sustainable aviation fuels.</p>
<h2>Why offsets are still necessary</h2>
<p>A rapid expansion in biofuel sustainable aviation fuels is easier said than done. It could require as much as 1.2 million square miles (300 million hectares) of dedicated land to grow crops to turn into fuel – roughly 19% of global cropland today.</p>
<p>Another challenge is cost. The <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/publications/economics/fuel-monitor/">global average price of fossil jet fuel</a> is about about US$3 per gallon ($0.80 per liter), while the cost to produce bio-based jet fuels is often twice as much. The cheapest, <a href="https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2021/Jul/IRENA_Reaching_Zero_Biojet_Fuels_2021.pdf">HEFA</a>, which uses fats, oils and greases, ranges in cost from $2.95 to $8.67 per gallon ($0.78 to $2.29 per liter), but it depends on the availability of waste oil.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2021/Jul/IRENA_Reaching_Zero_Biojet_Fuels_2021.pdf">Fischer-Tropsch biofuels</a>, produced by a chemical reaction that converts carbon monoxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons, range from $3.79 to $8.71 per gallon ($1 to $2.30 per liter). And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.6b00665">synthetic fuels</a> are from $4.92 to $17.79 per gallon ($1.30 to $4.70 per liter).</p>
<p><iframe id="ekKHi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ekKHi/16/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Realistically, reaching net-zero emissions will likely also rely on carbon dioxide removal.</p>
<p>In a future with similar airline use as today, as much as 3.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide would have to be <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/direct-air-capture">captured from the air and locked away</a> – pumped underground, for example – for aviation to reach net-zero. That could cost trillions of dollars.</p>
<p>For these offsets to be effective, the carbon removal would also have to follow a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0415-y">robust eligibility criteria</a> and be effectively permanent. This is <a href="https://carbonmarketwatch.org/flights-of-fancy/">not happening</a> today in airline offsetting programs, where airlines are mostly buying cheap, nonpermanent offsets, such as those involving <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/11/23398780/european-airlines-mislead-customers-carbon-offset-credits-climate-change">forest conservation and management projects</a>.</p>
<p>Some caveats apply to our findings, which could increase the need for offsets even more. </p>
<p>Our assessment assumes sustainable aviation fuels to be net-zero carbon emissions. However, the feedstocks for these fuels <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.12.013">currently have life-cycle emissions</a>, including from fertilizer, farming and transportation. The American Society for Testing Materials also currently has a maximum <a href="https://www.iata.org/contentassets/d13875e9ed784f75bac90f000760e998/saf-technical-certifications.pdf">blend limit: up to 50%</a> sustainable fuels can be blended into conventional jet fuel for aviation in the U.S., though airlines have been testing <a href="https://www.atr-aircraft.com/presspost/first-flight-in-history-with-100-sustainable-aviation-fuel-on-a-regional-commercial-aircraft/">100% blends in Europe</a>. </p>
<h2>How to overcome the final hurdles</h2>
<p>To meet the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">climate goals</a> the world has set, emissions in all sectors must decrease – including aviation.</p>
<p>While reductions in demand would help reduce reliance on sustainable aviation fuels, it’s more likely that more and more people will fly in the future, as more people become wealthier. Efficiency improvements will help decrease the amount of energy needed to power aviation, but it won’t eliminate it.</p>
<p>Scaling up sustainable aviation fuel production could decrease its costs. <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2022-releases/2022-06-21-02/">Quotas</a>, such as those introduced in the <a href="https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/light/topics/fit-55-and-refueleu-aviation">European Union’s “Fit for 55”</a> plan, subsidies and <a href="https://www.thirdway.org/blog/sustainable-aviation-taking-off-thanks-to-inflation-reduction-act">tax credits</a>, like those in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act signed in 2022, and a carbon tax or other price on carbon, can all help achieve this.</p>
<p>Additionally, given the role that capturing carbon from the atmosphere will play in achieving net-zero emissions, a more robust accounting system is needed internationally to ensure that the offsets are compensating for aviation’s non-CO₂ impacts. If these hurdles are overcome, the aviation sector could achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.</p>
<p><em>This updates an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-flight-in-a-net-zero-carbon-world-9-scenarios-lots-of-sustainable-biofuel-199062">article originally published</a> Feb. 6, 2023, to include United Airlines’ investment fund announcement.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199062/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candelaria Bergero's research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven J. Davis's research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture.</span></em></p>Airlines are investing in sustainable biofuel startups and starting to uses alternative fuels, including cooking oil, ag waste and corn ethanol. But biofuels alone won’t be enough, research shows.Candelaria Bergero, Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science, University of California, IrvineSteve Davis, Professor of Earth System Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980562023-01-18T16:08:18Z2023-01-18T16:08:18ZWhy China’s shrinking population is a big deal – counting the social, economic and political costs of an aging, smaller society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505050/original/file-20230118-14-dfw8cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3995%2C2667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will an aging, shrinking population put the brakes on economic growth?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-elderly-man-rides-a-tricycle-on-a-street-in-hangzhou-news-photo/1246295312?phrase=china%20population&adppopup=true">CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout much of recorded human history, China has <a href="http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm">boasted the largest population in the world</a> – and until recently, by some margin.</p>
<p>So news that the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-population-shrinks-first-time-since-1961-2023-01-17/">Chinese population is now in decline</a>, and will sometime later this year be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/india-set-overtake-china-worlds-most-populous-nation-2023-01-17/">surpassed by that of India</a>, is big news even if long predicted. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5098">scholar of Chinese demographics</a>, I know that the figures released by Chinese government on Jan. 17, 2023, showing that for the <a href="https://www.asiaone.com/china/chinas-population-shrinks-first-time-1961">first time in six decades</a>, deaths in the previous year outnumbered births is no mere blip. While that previous year of shrinkage, 1961 – during the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_politics/key_people_events/html/3.stm">Great Leap Forward</a> economic failure, in which <a href="https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/chinas-great-leap-forward/#:%7E:text=From%201960%E2%80%931962%2C%20an%20estimated,this%20disaster%20was%20largely%20preventable.">an estimated 30 million people died of starvation</a> – represented a deviation from the trend, 2022 is a pivot. It is the onset of what is likely to be a long-term decline. By the end of the century, the Chinese population is <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/">expected to shrink by 45%</a>, according to the United Nations. And that is under the assumption that China maintains its current fertility rate of around 1.3 children per couple, which it may not.</p>
<p><iframe id="jbJAh" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/jbJAh/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This decline in numbers will spur a trend that already concerns demographers in China: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02410-2">rapidly aging society</a>. By 2040, around a quarter of the Chinese population is <a href="https://globalcoalitiononaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/China%E2%80%99s-Demographic-Outlook.pdf">predicted to be over the age of 65</a>.</p>
<p>In short, this is a seismic shift. It will have huge symbolic and substantive impacts on China in three main areas. </p>
<h2>Economy</h2>
<p>In the space of 40 years, China has largely completed a historic transformation from an agrarian economy to one <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/april-2016/chinas-rapid-rise-from-backward-agrarian-society-to-industrial-powerhouse-in-just-35-years">based on manufacturing and the service industry</a>. This has been accompanied by <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2018/january/income-living-standards-china">increases in the standard of living and income levels</a>. But the Chinese government has long recognized that the country can no longer rely on the labor-intensive economic growth model of the past. Technological advances and competition from countries that can provide a cheaper workforce such as Vietnam and India have rendered this old model largely obsolete.</p>
<p>This historical turning point in China’s population trend serves as a further wake-up call to move the country’s model more quickly to a post-manufacturing, post-industrial economy – an aging, shrinking population does not fit the purposes of a labor-intensive economic model.</p>
<p>As to what it means for China’s economy, and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2023/01/17/china-population-decline-birth-rate-global-economy-impact/11066270002/">that of the world</a>, population decline and an aging society will certainly provide Beijing with short-term and long-term challenges. In short, it means there will be fewer workers able to feed the economy and spur further economic growth on one side of the ledger; on the other, a growing post-work population will need potentially costly support.</p>
<p>It is perhaps no coincidence then that 2022, as well as being a pivotal year for China in terms of demographics, also saw one of the worst economic performances <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-economy-slows-sharply-q4-2022-growth-one-worst-record-2023-01-17/">the country has experienced since 1976</a>, according to data released on Jan. 17.</p>
<h2>Society</h2>
<p>The rising share of elderly people in China’s population is more than an economic issue – it will also reshape Chinese society. Many of these elderly people only have one child, due to the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3135510/chinas-one-child-policy-what-was-it-and-what-impact-did-it">one-child policy</a> in place for three and a half decades <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-end-of-chinas-one-child-policy/">before being relaxed in 2016</a>. </p>
<p>The large number of aging parents with only one child to rely on for support will likely impose severe constraints – not least for the elderly parents, who will need financial support. They will also need emotional and social support for longer as a result of <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHN/china/life-expectancy">extended life expectancy</a>.</p>
<p>It will also impose constraints on those children themselves, who will need to fulfill obligations to their career, provide for their own children and support their elderly parents simultaneously.</p>
<p>Responsibility will fall on the Chinese government to provide adequate health care and pensions. But unlike in Western democracies that have by now had many decades to develop social safety nets, the speed of the demographic and economic change in China has meant that Beijing struggled to keep pace.</p>
<p>As China’s economy <a href="https://theconversation.com/jiang-zemin-propelled-chinas-economic-rise-in-the-world-leaving-his-successors-to-deal-with-the-massive-inequality-that-followed-195675">underwent rapid growth after 2000</a>, the Chinese government responded by investing tremendously in <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ752324.pdf">education</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-40">health care facilities</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5301df5d4.pdf">extending universal pension coverage</a>. But the demographic shift was so rapid that it meant that political reforms to improve the safety net were always playing catch-up. Even with the vast expansion in coverage, the country’s health care system is still highly inefficient, unequally distributed and inadequate given the growing need.</p>
<p>Similarly, social pension systems are <a href="https://doi.org//10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.100194">highly segmented and unequally distributed</a>.</p>
<h2>Politics</h2>
<p>How the Chinese government responds to the challenges presented by this dramatic demographic shift will be key. Failure to live up to the expectations of the public in its response could result in a crisis for the Chinese Communist Party, whose legitimacy is tied closely to economic growth. Any economic decline could have severe consequences for the Chinese Communist Party. It will also be judged on how well the state is able to fix its social support system.</p>
<p>Indeed, there is already a strong case to be made that the Chinese government has moved too slowly. The one-child policy that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-costs-and-benefits-of-chinas-one-child-policy-20467">played a significant role</a> in the slowing growth, and now decline, in population was a government policy for more than three decades. It has been known since the 1990s that <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=CN">the Chinese fertility rate was too low</a> to sustain current population numbers. Yet it was only in 2016 that Beijing acted and relaxed the policy to allow more couples to have a second, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/31/1001846355/confronted-by-aging-population-china-allows-couples-to-have-three-children">then in 2021 a third</a>, child.</p>
<p>This action to spur population growth, or at least slow its decline, came too late to prevent China from soon losing its crown as the world’s largest nation. Loss of prestige is one thing though, the political impact of any economic downturn resulting from a shrinking population is quite another.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-population-is-now-inexorably-shrinking-bringing-forward-the-day-the-planets-population-turns-down-198061">China's population is now inexorably shrinking, bringing forward the day the planet's population turns down</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Feng Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the first time since 1961, deaths in China have outpaced births – and unlike that one-year decline, the downward trend is likely to continue.Feng Wang, Professor of Sociology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975632023-01-10T20:03:03Z2023-01-10T20:03:03ZAtmospheric rivers over California’s wildfire burn scars raise fears of deadly mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503894/original/file-20230110-24-ifhr7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C98%2C7203%2C4783&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavy rainfall from an atmospheric river triggered mudslides in the Los Angeles area on Jan. 9, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/resident-keeps-watch-on-fredonia-drive-in-studio-city-where-news-photo/1246130093">Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rivers of muddy water from heavy rainfall raced through city streets as thousands of people <a href="https://www.countyofsb.org/3679/Heavy-Rain-Countywide-January-9-10-2023">evacuated homes</a> downhill from California’s <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles/status/1610752719584919553/photo/1">wildfire burn scars</a> amid atmospheric river storms drenching the state in early January 2023. </p>
<p>The evacuations <a href="https://www.ksby.com/evacuation-orders-lifted-for-much-santa-barbara-county-burn-areas">at one point</a> included all of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-flooding-Montecito-evacuation-order-7c151eeaf3f567a125d74245173327f1">Montecito</a>, home to around 8,000 people – and the site of the state’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228">deadliest mudslide</a> on record exactly five years earlier.</p>
<p>Wildfire burn scars are particularly risky because wildfires strip away vegetation and make the soil hydrophobic – meaning it is less able to absorb water. A downpour on these vulnerable landscapes can quickly erode the ground, and fast-moving water can carry the debris, rocks and mud with it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A firefighter knee-deep in mud drags a shovel through the mud in front of a house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503837/original/file-20230110-26-qnwoma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After the 2018 mudslide in Montecito, firefighters checked homes. Twenty-three people died in the disaster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cal-firefighter-alex-jimenez-walks-out-after-marking-a-spot-news-photo/903512378">Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With more storms expected through mid-January, officials warned of a risk of debris flows near several recently burned areas, including <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles/status/1610752719584919553/photo/1">near Santa Barbara and Los Angeles</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MontereyHerald/status/1612183252680470528">Monterey and Santa Cruz</a> <a href="https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01/09/county-officals-urge-residents-to-be-ready-to-evacuate/">counties</a> and the <a href="https://krcrtv.com/news/local/storms-and-burn-scars-create-concern-for-slides-down-trees-in-northstate-forests">Shasta Trinity National Forest</a>. </p>
<p>I study cascading hazards like this, in which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06783-6">consecutive events lead to human disasters</a>. Studies show climate change is raising the risk of multiple compound disasters, including new research showing increasing risks to energy infrastructure. </p>
<h2>When storms hit burn scars</h2>
<p>Five years ago, on Jan. 9, 2018, a deadly cascading disaster struck Montecito, a community in the coastal hills near Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>The cascade of events had started many months earlier with a drought, followed by a wet winter that fueled dense growth of vegetation and shrubs. An unusually warm and dry spring and summer followed, and it dried out the vegetation, turning it into fuel ready to burn. That fall, extreme Santa Ana and Diablo winds created the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228">perfect conditions for wildfires</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2017/12/4/thomas-fire/">Thomas Fire</a> began near Santa Barbara in December 2017 and burned over 280,000 acres. Then, on Jan. 9, 2018, extreme rainfall hit the region – including the burn scar left by the fire. Water raced through the burned landscape above Montecito, eroding the ground and creating the deadliest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228">mudslide-debris flow event</a> in California’s history. More than 400 homes were destroyed in about <a href="https://youtu.be/2cgkcFsLEho">two hours</a>, and 23 people died.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2cgkcFsLEho?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video from the 2018 disaster in Montecito shows how quickly a mudslide can overtake a town.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These kinds of cascading events aren’t unique to California. Australia’s Millennium Drought (1997-2009) also ended with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20123">devastating floods</a> that inundated urban areas and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001465">breached levees</a>. A study linked some of the levee and dike failures to earlier drought conditions, such as cracks forming because of exposure to heat and dryness.</p>
<h2>Individually, they might not have been disasters</h2>
<p>When multiple hazards such as droughts, heat waves, wildfires and extreme rainfall interact, human disasters often result.</p>
<p>The individual hazards might not be very extreme on their own, but combined they can become lethal. These types of events are broadly referred to as compound events. For example, a drought and heat wave might hit at the same time. A cascading event involves compound <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0060-z">events in succession</a>, like wildfires followed by downpours and mudslides.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1608620869651419137"}"></div></p>
<p>With compound and cascading events likely to become more common in a warming world, the ability to prepare for and manage multiple hazards will be increasingly essential.</p>
<h2>Climate change intensifies the risk</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062308">Several</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503667112">research studies</a> have shown that compound events that include both drought and heat waves have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064924">become more severe and frequent</a> in recent years. Studies have also shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-020-01885-y">droughts and heat waves increase</a> the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607171113">likelihood of wildfires</a>. And wildfires can also trigger other cascading hazards, turning otherwise unexceptional events into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06783-6">human disasters</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, extreme rainfall events are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0140-y">expected to intensify</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021975">in a warming climate</a>. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to wetter storms. This means more burned acres could be exposed to potentially extreme rainfall events in a warmer world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustrations of four stages in a cascading disaster, from drought to spring growth to fires to mudslides." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427609/original/file-20211020-16-13latw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of the cascading effects of climate change for wildfires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071719-055228">AghaKouchak et al., Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2020</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cascading hazards are not limited to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab41a6">rain over burned areas</a>. For example, soot and ash <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD008003">deposits on snowpack</a> can increase snowmelt, change the timing of runoff and cause snow-driven flooding.</p>
<p>It’s also important to recognize that human activities and local infrastructure can affect extreme events. Urbanization and deforestation, for example, can intensify flooding and worsen mud or debris flow events and their impacts. That was evident in the videos of muddy water pouring through <a href="https://twitter.com/RossBarbour/status/1612553888644857856">streets in Santa Barbara County</a> on Jan. 9, 2023.</p>
<p>In a recent study, colleagues and I also looked at the risks to energy infrastructure from cascading disasters involving intense rain over burn areas, focusing on natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure. Our results showed that not only will natural gas infrastructure be increasingly exposed to individual hazards, creating the potential for fires, the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab41a6">chances of cascading hazards</a> are expected to increase substantially in a warming climate.</p>
<h2>Managing multiple disasters and climate change</h2>
<p>About a year after the devastating Montecito mudslide in 2018, I visited a location where damage to a natural gas pipeline hit by the mudslide led to a fire that burned multiple homes. Looking upstream, I could see many hills next to one another with similar burned scars, slopes and vegetation cover. Each one can be the ground zero for the next human disaster.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Burned trees on a hillside with no needles and a fire-damaged home. The ground is bare." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427843/original/file-20211021-16-1vglxg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of the location of the Dixie Fire near Greenville shows the bare soil left behind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-an-aerial-view-the-remains-of-a-home-that-was-destroyed-news-photo/1342340548">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite the high risk when extreme rainfall and droughts interact, most research in this area focuses on only rainfall or drought, but not both. Different government agencies oversee flood and drought monitoring, warning and management, even though both are extremes of the same <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-water-cycle-is-intensifying-as-the-climate-warms-ipcc-report-warns-that-means-more-intense-storms-and-flooding-165590">hydrological cycle</a>.</p>
<p>Recent disasters and research show a strong need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2020.100070">integrate management and risk reduction</a> strategies of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04917-5">droughts and flood</a>. Having one agency focus on one hazard can have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0159-0">unintended consequences</a> for another hazard. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2020.100070">maximizing reservoir storage</a> when expecting a drought can increase the flood risk. </p>
<p>Emergency response has improved since the 2018 Montecito disaster, but it’s clear that communities and government agencies still aren’t fully prepared for the scale and potential impacts of future events.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Jan. 10 with the Montecito evacuation lifted. The article is an update to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/evacuations-ordered-as-a-powerful-storm-heads-for-californias-wildfire-burn-scars-raising-risk-of-mudslides-this-is-what-cascading-climate-disasters-look-like-170335">version published</a> Oct. 24, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amir AghaKouchak receives funding from National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA, Caltrans and the California Energy Commission (CEC).</span></em></p>Mudslides start with destabilized land, often from wildfires, and then rain drives the cascading disaster.Amir AghaKouchak, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966382022-12-23T14:00:34Z2022-12-23T14:00:34ZCommittee report focus is not on demonstrators – 5 essential reads on the symbols they carried on Jan. 6<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502173/original/file-20221220-26-jghfgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C7%2C4962%2C3331&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The congressional investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, focused on one man, not the masses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CapitolRiotInvestigation/eb11d0215eb547bf9b79a940c00679ce/photo">Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the <a href="https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/Report_FinalReport_Jan6SelectCommittee.pdf">final report emerges</a> from the congressional committee investigating the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, the focus is on the role of then-President Donald Trump and those close to him. That’s crucial information, but it leaves out another important chapter of the story.</p>
<p>There were thousands of people demonstrating on the streets of Washington, D.C., that day, whose actions are not recounted in detail in the congressional report. They carried a variety of political and ideological flags and signs. The Conversation asked scholars to explain what they saw – including ancient Norse images and more recent flags from U.S. history.</p>
<p>Here are five articles from The Conversation’s coverage, explaining what many of the symbols mean.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, between portraits of senators who both opposed and supported slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporter-of-us-president-donald-trump-carries-a-news-photo/1230455296">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. The Confederate battle flag</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most recognized symbol of white supremacy is the Confederate battle flag. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-confederate-battle-flag-which-rioters-flew-inside-the-us-capitol-has-long-been-a-symbol-of-white-insurrection-153071">Since its debut during the Civil War</a>, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white insurrectionists and reactionaries fighting against rising tides of newly won Black political power,” writes <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jordan-brasher-345465">Jordan Brasher</a> at Columbus State University, who has studied how the Confederacy has been memorialized.</p>
<p>He notes that in one photo from inside the Capitol, the flag’s history came into sharp relief as the man carrying it was standing between “the portraits of two Civil War-era U.S. senators – one an ardent proponent of slavery and the other an abolitionist once beaten unconscious for his views on the Senate floor.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gadsden flags fly at a Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C36%2C6020%2C3974&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gadsden flags fly at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/capitol-police-line-the-barricades-as-trump-supporters-news-photo/1230452268">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. The yellow Gadsden flag</h2>
<p>Another flag with a racist history is the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. A symbol warning of self-defense, it was designed by slave owner and trader Christopher Gadsden when the American Revolution began, as Iowa State University graphic design scholar <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu/faculty/bruski/">Paul Bruski</a> writes.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/yellow-gadsden-flag-prominent-in-capitol-takeover-carries-a-long-and-shifting-history-145142">Because of its creator’s history</a> and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism,” he explains.</p>
<p>It has been adopted by the tea party movement and other Republican-leaning groups, but the flag still carries the legacy, and the name, of its creator.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="U.S. Capitol storming, gallows, Trump supporters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C33%2C5540%2C3631&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A gallows symbolizing the lynching of Jews was among the hate symbols carried as crowds stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-near-the-u-s-capitol-on-january-06-2021-in-news-photo/1230476983?adppopup=true">Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Powerful antisemitism</h2>
<p>Another arm of white supremacy doesn’t target Blacks. Instead, it demonizes Jewish people. Plenty of antisemitic symbols were on display during the riot, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VKv2qFsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jonathan D. Sarna</a> explains.</p>
<p>Sarna is a Brandeis University scholar of American antisemitism and describes the ways that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-scholar-of-american-anti-semitism-explains-the-hate-symbols-present-during-the-us-capitol-riot-152883">[c]alls to exterminate Jews are common in far-right and white nationalist circles</a>.” That included a gallows erected outside the Capitol, evoking a disturbing element of a 1978 novel depicting the takeover of Washington, along with mass lynchings and slaughtering of Jews.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a horned hat and displaying Norse tattoos." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man known as Jake Angeli, now imprisoned for his role in the Capitol riot, wears a horned hat and tattoos of Norse images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-us-president-donald-trump-including-jake-news-photo/1230468102">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Co-opted Norse mythology</h2>
<p>Among the most striking images of the January riot were those of a man wearing a horned hat and no shirt, displaying several large tattoos. He is known as Jake Angeli, but his full name is Jacob Chansley, and he is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/politics/jacob-chansley-qanon-shaman-january-6-sentencing/index.html">serving a 41-month sentence in prison</a> for his role in the riot. </p>
<p>Tom Birkett, a lecturer in Old English at University College Cork in Ireland, explains that many of the symbols Chansley wore are from Norse mythology. However, he explains, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-capitol-riot-the-myths-behind-the-tattoos-worn-by-qanon-shaman-jake-angeli-152996">These symbols have also been co-opted by a growing far-right movement</a>.”</p>
<p>Birkett traces the modern use of Norse symbols back to the Nazis and points out that they are a form of code hidden in plain sight: “If certain symbols are hard for the general public to spot, they are certainly dog whistles to members of an increasingly global white supremacist movement who know exactly what they mean.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rioters scale structures while flying flags outside the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The yellow-and-red-striped flag of the defeated American-backed Republic of Vietnam flies at the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trumps-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230458129">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. An outlier, of sorts</h2>
<p>Another flag was prominent at the Capitol riot, one that doesn’t strictly represent white supremacy: the flag of the former independent country of South Vietnam. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/longbui/">Long T. Bui</a>, a global studies scholar at the University of California, Irvine, explains that when flown by Vietnamese Americans, many of whom support Trump, the flag symbolizes militant nationalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-flag-of-south-vietnam-flew-at-us-capitol-siege-152937">[S]ome Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland</a> as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing,” he explains.</p>
<p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives and is an update of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/symbols-of-white-supremacy-flew-proudly-at-the-capitol-riot-5-essential-reads-153055">article previously published</a> on Jan. 15, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The role of then-President Donald Trump and his aides and advisers is important, but there is a lot more to the story of Jan. 6, 2021, than what happened behind closed doors.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939432022-12-01T13:40:55Z2022-12-01T13:40:55ZSatellites detect no real climate benefit from 10 years of forest carbon offsets in California<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494772/original/file-20221110-27-ibny4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C1542%2C1122&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Redwood forests like this one in California can store large amounts of carbon, but not if they're being cut down.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shane Coffield</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of the companies promising “net-zero” emissions to protect the climate are relying on vast swaths of forests and what are known as <a href="https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/carbon-offsets">carbon offsets</a> to meet that goal.</p>
<p>On paper, carbon offsets appear to balance out a company’s carbon emissions: The company pays to protect trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The company can then claim the absorbed carbon dioxide as an offset that reduces its net impact on the climate.</p>
<p>However, our new satellite analysis reveals what researchers have suspected for years: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">Forest offsets</a> might not actually be doing much for the climate.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/satellites-detect-no-real-climate-benefit-from-10-years-of-forest-carbon-offsets-in-california-193943&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>When we looked at satellite tracking of carbon levels and logging activity in California forests, we found that carbon isn’t increasing in the state’s 37 offset project sites any more than in other areas, and timber companies aren’t logging less than they did before.</p>
<p>The findings send a pretty grim message about efforts to control climate change, and they add to a growing list of concerns about forest offsets. Studies have already shown that projects are <a href="https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer">often overcredited</a> at the beginning and might not last <a href="https://news.uci.edu/2021/07/22/californias-carbon-mitigation-efforts-may-be-thwarted-by-climate-change-itself/">as long as expected</a>. In this case we’re finding a bigger issue: a lack of real climate benefit over the 10 years of the program so far.</p>
<p>But we also see ways to fix the problem.</p>
<h2>How forest carbon offsets work</h2>
<p>Forest carbon offsets work like this: Trees capture carbon dioxide from the air and use it to build mass, effectively locking the carbon away in their wood for the life of the tree.</p>
<p>In California, landowners can receive carbon credits for keeping carbon stocks above a minimum required “baseline” level. <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/compliance-offset-program/offset-verification">Third-party verifiers</a> help the landowners take inventory by <a href="https://rmi.org/can-we-count-on-forest-carbon-credits/">manually measuring</a> a sample of trees. So far, this process has only involved measuring carbon levels relative to baseline and has not leveraged the emerging satellite technologies that we explored.</p>
<p>Forest owners can then sell the carbon credits to private companies, with the idea that they have protected trees that would otherwise be cut down. These include large oil and gas companies that use offsets to meet up to 8% of their state-mandated reductions in emissions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man measures a tree with a tape measure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496597/original/file-20221121-25-2jy9ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most offset projects are verified by manually measuring the size of a sample of trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/here-pnong-man-ply-chhroeut-helps-to-measure-one-of-his-news-photo/167502669">Jerry Redfern/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forest offsets and other “natural climate solutions” have received a great deal of attention from <a href="https://www.msci.com/documents/1296102/26195050/MSCI-Net-ZeroTracker-October.pdf">companies</a>, <a href="https://www.offsetguide.org/understanding-carbon-offsets/carbon-offset-programs/compliance-offset-programs/">governments</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-nature-conservancy-carbon-offsets-trees/">nonprofits</a>, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/08/climate/cop27-carbon-climate-change.html">during the U.N. climate conference</a> in November 2022. California has one of the world’s <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/compliance-offset-program">largest carbon offset programs</a>, with tens of millions of dollars flowing through offset projects, and is often a model for other countries that are <a href="https://qz.com/carbon-offsets-are-making-a-comeback-at-cop27-1849762633">planning new offset programs</a>.</p>
<p>It’s clear that offsets are playing a large and growing role in climate policy, from the individual to the international level. In our view, they need to be backed by the best available science.</p>
<h2>3 potential problems</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">study used satellite data</a> to track <a href="http://emapr.ceoas.oregonstate.edu/getData.html">carbon levels</a>, <a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/CVTNLY">tree harvesting rates</a> and <a href="https://lemma.forestry.oregonstate.edu/data/plot-database">tree species</a> in forest offset projects compared with other similar forests in California.</p>
<p>Satellites offer a more complete record than on-the-ground reports collected at offset projects. That allowed us to assess all of California since 1986.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map shows protected areas and zooms in on one to show how we compared carbon and harvest for the project and similar forests." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496552/original/file-20221121-11-yajora.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using satellite data, we can track carbon changes and harvest rates in offset projects (red) compared with other private forests (black and gray). The highlighted example project started in 2014 (dashed vertical line).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adapted from Coffield et al., 2022, Global Change Biology</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From this broad view, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">identified three problems</a> indicating a lack of climate benefit:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Carbon isn’t being added to these projects faster than before the projects began or faster than in non-offset areas.</p></li>
<li><p>Many of the projects are owned and operated by large timber companies, which manage to meet requirements for offset credits by keeping carbon above the minimum baseline level. However, these lands have been heavily harvested and continue to be harvested.</p></li>
<li><p>In some regions, projects are being put on lands with lower-value tree species that aren’t at risk from logging. For example, at one large timber company in the redwood forests of northwestern California, the offset project is only 4% redwood, compared with 25% redwood on the rest of the company’s property. Instead, the offset project’s area is overgrown with tanoak, which is not marketable timber and doesn’t need to be protected from logging.</p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Color-coded satellite image shows how protected areas are carefully carved out, often allowing higher-quality trees to remain in areas being logged." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495926/original/file-20221117-22-sx5wje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of one large timber company’s properties and offset project, which appears to be protecting lands at less risk of logging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">Adapted from Coffield et al., 2022, Global Change Biology</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How California can fix its offset program</h2>
<p>Our research points to a set of recommendations for California to improve its offsets protocols.</p>
<p>One recommendation is to begin using satellite data to monitor forests and confirm that they are indeed being managed to protect or store more carbon. For example, it could help foresters create <a href="https://verra.org/methodologies/methodology-for-improved-forest-management/">more realistic baselines</a> to compare offsets against. Publicly available <a href="https://gedi.umd.edu/">satellite data</a> is improving and can help make carbon offsetting more transparent and reliable. </p>
<p>California can also avoid putting offset projects on lands that are already being conserved. We found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380">several projects</a> owned by conservation groups on land that already had low harvest rates.</p>
<p>Additionally, California could improve its offset contract protocols to make sure landowners can’t withdraw from an offset program in the future and cut down those trees. Currently there is a penalty for doing so, but it might not be high enough. Landowners may be able to begin a project, receive a huge profit from the initial credits, cut down the trees in 20 to 30 years, pay back their credits plus penalty, and still come out ahead if inflation exceeds the liability.</p>
<p>Ironically, while intended to help mitigate climate change, forest offsets are also vulnerable to it – particularly in wildfire-prone California. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2021AV000384">Research suggests</a> that California is hugely <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.930426">underestimating</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trees-arent-a-climate-change-cure-all-2-new-studies-on-the-life-and-death-of-trees-in-a-warming-world-show-why-182944">climate risks</a> to forest offset projects in the state.</p>
<p>The state protocol requires only 2% or 4% of carbon credits be set aside in an <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/nc-forest_offset_faq_20211027.pdf">insurance pool against wildfires</a>, even though multiple projects have been <a href="https://blog.frontiersin.org/2022/08/05/worrying-finding-in-californias-multi-billion-dollar-climate-initiative-reveals-problem-with-using-forests-to-offset-co2-emissions/">damaged by recent fires</a>. When wildfires occur, the lost carbon can be accounted for by the insurance pool. However, the pool may soon be depleted as yearly burned area increases in a warming climate. The insurance pool must be large enough to cover the worsening droughts, wildfires and disease and beetle infestations.</p>
<p>Considering our findings around the challenges of forest carbon offsets, focusing on other options, such as investing in solar and electrification projects in low-income urban areas, may provide more cost-effective, reliable and just outcomes.</p>
<p>Without improvements to the current system, we may be underestimating our net emissions, contributing to the profits of large emitters and landowners and distracting from the real solutions of transitioning to a clean-energy economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Coffield received funding from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for his graduate studies at UC Irvine. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Randerson receives funding from NASA, the US Dept. of Energy Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the State of California Strategic Growth Council.</span></em></p>Millions of dollars have gone into California’s forest carbon offset program – with little new carbon storage to show for it, a new study suggests.Shane Coffield, Postdoctoral Scientist in Biospheric Sciences, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASAJames Randerson, Professor of Earth Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908862022-11-14T13:27:07Z2022-11-14T13:27:07ZWhat is hydroelectric energy and how does it work?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493383/original/file-20221103-21-bvfyk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1997%2C1326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam provides enough electricity for about 147,000 homes in the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SQK_Dam_DSC_3657.jpg">Martina Nolte via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What is hydroelectric energy and how does it work? – Luca, age 13, Boston, Massachusetts</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you’ve ever observed a river rushing down a mountain or played in the waves at the beach, you’ve felt that moving water contains a lot of energy. A river can push you and your kayak downstream, sometimes very quickly, and waves crashing into you at the beach can knock you back, or even knock you over.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/history-hydropower">long history of harnessing the energy in the flowing waters of rivers</a> to do useful work. For centuries, people used water power <a href="https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/watermill-demonstration-video-flour-water-power">to grind grain to make flour and meal</a>. In modern times, people use water power to generate clean electricity to help power buildings, factories and even cars.</p>
<h2>Energy in flowing waters</h2>
<p>The energy in these moving waters comes from gravity. As part of the Earth’s water cycle, water evaporates from the Earth’s surface or is released from plants. When the released water vapor is carried to cooler, higher altitudes like mountainous regions, it condenses into cloud droplets. When these cloud droplets become big enough, they fall from the sky as precipitation, either as a liquid (rain) or, if it is cold enough, as a solid (snow). Over land, precipitation tends to fall on high altitude areas at first.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing land, a river, a mountain, sun and clouds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490173/original/file-20221017-13-qvvkh1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The water cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/hydro">National Weather Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pull of gravity causes the water to flow. If the water falls as rain, some of it flows downhill into natural channels and becomes rivers. If the water falls as snow, it will slowly melt into water as temperatures warm and follow the same paths. The rivers that form consist of water from precipitation starting at high altitudes and flowing down the steep slopes of mountains.</p>
<h2>Converting flowing water to electricity</h2>
<p>Hydropower facilities capture the energy in flowing water by using a device called a turbine. As water runs over the blades of a turbine – kind of like a giant pinwheel – they spin. This spinning turbine is connected to a shaft that spins inside a device called a <a href="https://www.explainthatstuff.com/generators.html">generator</a>, which uses an effect called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Qwf4P6x9w">induction</a> to convert energy in the spinning shaft to electricity.</p>
<p>There are two main kinds of hydropower facilities. The first kind is called a “run-of-the-river” hydropower facility. These facilities consist of a channel to divert water flow from a river to a turbine. The electricity production from the turbine follows the timing of the river flow. When a river is running full with lots of spring meltwater, it means the turbine can produce more electricity. Later in the summer, when the river flow decreases, so does the turbine’s electricity production. These facilities are typically small and simple to construct, but there is limited ability to control their output.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a graphic showing a river and water diverted to a series of structures" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490177/original/file-20221017-26-3w8wui.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A run-of-the-river hydropower facility.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/types-hydropower-plants">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second kind is called a “reservoir” or “dam” hydropower facility. These facilities use a dam to hold back the flow of a river and create an artificial lake behind the dam. Hydropower dams have intakes that control how much water flows through passages inside the dam. Turbines at the bottom of these passages convert the flowing water into electricity. </p>
<p>To produce electricity, the dam operator releases water from the artificial lake. This water speeds up as it falls down from the intakes near the top of the dam to the turbines near the bottom. The water that exits the turbines is released back into the river downstream. These reservoir hydropower facilities are usually large and can affect river habitats, but they can also produce a lot of electricity in a controllable manner.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a graphic showing a cutaway view of a dam with a turbine at its base" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490178/original/file-20221017-18-c0dtqn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A dam-based hydropower facility.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/types-hydropower-plants">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The future of hydropower</h2>
<p>Hydropower depends on the availability of water in flowing rivers. As climate change affects the water cycle, some regions may have less precipitation and consequently <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2021/08/hydroelectric-drought-how-climate-change-complicates-californias-plans-for-a-carbon-free-future/">less hydropower generation</a>. </p>
<p>Also, making electricity isn’t the only thing dam operators have to think about when they decide how much water to let through. They have to make sure to keep some water behind the dam for people to use and let enough water through to preserve the river habitat below the dam.</p>
<p>Hydropower can also play a role in limiting climate change because it is a form of renewable electricity. Hydropower facilities can increase and decrease their electricity production to fill in gaps in wind and solar generation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Tarroja does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How does flowing water make electricity? An engineer explains hydroelectric generation.Brian Tarroja, Associate Professional Researcher and Lecturer of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1922282022-11-02T12:27:56Z2022-11-02T12:27:56ZWhy schools’ going back to ‘normal’ won’t work for students of color<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491961/original/file-20221026-1498-z5dr49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C8627%2C5497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of color have long needed more from schools than is typically provided.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-indigenous-navajo-young-teacher-checking-her-royalty-free-image/1413335596">THEPALMER/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>National test results released in September 2022 show <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/math-reading-scores-pandemic.html">unprecedented losses</a> in <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/">math and reading scores</a> since the pandemic disrupted schooling for millions of children.</p>
<p>In response, educational leaders and policymakers across the country are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/05/13/restoring-pandemic-losses-will-require-major-changes-in-schools-and-classrooms-superintendents-say/">eager to reverse these trends</a> and catch these students back up to where they would have been.</p>
<p>But this renewed concern seems to overlook a crucial fact: Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools were failing to adequately serve children of color. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aFMqdpIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of racial equity</a> in K-12 education, I see an opportunity to go beyond getting students caught up. Rather than focus only on trying to close pandemic-related gaps, schools could seek to more substantially improve the quality of education they offer, particularly for students of color, if they want to achieve equitable and sustainable results.</p>
<h2>Studying schools</h2>
<p>For more than a decade, I’ve been conducting research on how schools can successfully serve Black and Latino students. Most of this work has focused on New York City, but what I have learned is critical for any school.</p>
<p>In one long-term <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/research-alliance/evaluating-expanded-success-initiative">study of a citywide initiative</a> targeted at improving outcomes for Black and Latino boys, my colleagues and I collected data across more than 100 schools and through interviews with over 500 school leaders, teachers and students. </p>
<p>Based on this work, I’d like to highlight four critical conditions to improve the success and well-being of students of color.</p>
<h2>1. Classrooms that reflect the students they serve</h2>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/causal-effects-cultural-relevance-evidence-ethnic-studies-curriculum">students do better overall</a> when their teachers and <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84024">the books students read</a> reflect their race, ethnicity and cultures. Yet statistics show that seldom happens.</p>
<p>Children’s books <a href="https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/">depict nonhuman characters</a>, like dogs and bears, almost three times as often as they <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/">depict characters who are Black</a>, four times as often than Asian characters, five times as often than Hispanic characters, and nearly 30 times as often than Indigenous characters. </p>
<p>Moreover, while the teacher workforce remains nearly <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020103/index.asp">80% white</a>, research shows that students who had <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w25254">teachers of the same race</a> had better chances of graduating from high school and enrolling in college. </p>
<h2>2. Connection, not control</h2>
<p>Students of color are more than twice as likely to be <a href="https://ocrdata.ed.gov/estimations/2017-2018">arrested at school</a> as their white counterparts. And Black children who behave in the same ways as white children are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2011.12087730">twice as likely</a> to be suspended for the same actions. </p>
<p>Many schools have established <a href="https://www.weareteachers.com/restorative-justice/">restorative justice programs</a>, which emphasize repairing harm versus doling out punishment. These efforts can help <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010096">shift teachers’ roles</a> from controlling student behavior to forming connections with young people. </p>
<p>These connections can also be built outside formal classroom environments. Activities such as peer mentoring groups and student-led clubs are good opportunities for cultivating student-faculty connections. In those environments, students are more likely to <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/research-alliance/research/publications/strategies-improving-school-culture">feel comfortable being themselves</a> and expressing their feelings about both learning and other issues relevant to their lives.</p>
<h2>3. Equitable access to academic challenge</h2>
<p>Teachers <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.04.001">expect less of their Black and Latino students</a> than they do of white and Asian classmates. Black and Latino students are also underrepresented in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2020.1728275">gifted and talented programs</a> and less likely to be placed in such advanced coursework as <a href="https://edtrust.org/resource/inequities-in-advanced-coursework/">eighth-grade algebra</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2018-0189">Advanced Placement courses</a> in high school.</p>
<p>When students have less access to rigorous learning opportunities, it can limit their progress in other areas as well. Students are <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cpb.pdf">more likely to enroll in college</a> when they have taken four years of math and science. Yet Black and Latino students are less likely to be exposed to <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/stem-course-taking.pdf">more advanced math and science courses, such as calculus and physics</a>.</p>
<h2>4. Teacher preparation and support</h2>
<p>Teachers need strong preparation to serve an <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/index.asp">increasingly racially and ethnically</a> diverse student population. But many teacher education programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.7249/RR2990">are not preparing teachers</a> to meet the needs of the students they teach, particularly in schools that primarily serve students of color. </p>
<p>Teachers are required to have ongoing training to keep their <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/all-teachers-go-through-recertification-how-can-we-make-the-process-better/2017/12">subject-matter knowledge up to date</a>. Similarly, school districts could provide ongoing support for teachers to present broader depictions of history and society as part of developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315582066">culturally relevant classrooms</a>, which draw on students’ backgrounds, identities and experiences. </p>
<p>The current political climate has become <a href="https://time.com/6192708/critical-race-theory-teachers-racism/">hostile to educators</a> who broach topics of race and racism. Teachers may call on principals and other education leaders to shield them from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/16/teacher-resignations-firings-culture-wars/">backlash</a> against exposing students to historical or current examples of racial injustice.</p>
<p>As schools seek to address pandemic-related gaps, there is now a unique opportunity to reimagine public education. For many students of color, business as usual wasn’t enough. Let’s learn from where we’ve been and aim for better than a return to normal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriana Villavicencio receives funding from the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation. </span></em></p>A scholar explains why schools can’t focus only on closing pandemic-related learning gaps.Adriana Villavicencio, Assistant Professor of Education, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1896342022-08-31T07:39:11Z2022-08-31T07:39:11ZAhli bahasa jelaskan kapan manusia mulai berbicara?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481746/original/file-20220830-18800-q5adad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Manusia adalah satu-satunya hewan yang dapat mengekspresikan pikirannya dalam kalimat utuh.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/son-whispering-into-fathers-ear-royalty-free-image/1270752418?adppopup=true">Oliver Rossi/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p><strong>Kapan manusia mulai berbicara? – Albert R., umur 12, Florida, Amerika Serikat</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Sebenarnya, tidak ada yang tahu kapan manusia mulai berbicara atau kapan berbicara itu “diciptakan.” Ini merupakan sebuah misteri besar. Tetapi, sebagai <a href="https://www.socsci.uci.edu/%7Erfutrell/">ilmuwan bahasa</a> selama 15 tahun, saya dapat memberi perkiraan terbaik kami tentang masa awal manusia berbicara dengan satu sama lain dengan menggunakan bahasa, dan pendapat kami mengenai permulaannya. </p>
<h2>Bahasa manusia dan berapa lama bahasa itu telah ada</h2>
<p>Berbicara adalah kemampuan yang hanya dimiliki oleh <em>Homo sapiens</em>, spesies kita. Dalam <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24940617">setiap budaya di mana orang bisa mendengar</a>, kita berbicara dengan bahasa lisan. Dan dalam kelompok yang memiliki banyak orang tuli – seperti di <a href="http://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/pdf/EMERGING_SIGN_LANGUAGES.pdf">desa-desa</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_sign_language">tertentu</a> di mana banyak orang terlahir tuli karena alasan genetik – atau di komunitas tuna rungu di seluruh dunia, orang berbicara dengan tangan mereka, menggunakan bahasa isyarat. Seperti bahasa lisan yang jumlahnya banyak dan berbeda-beda, <a href="https://www.littlepassports.com/blog/world-community/the-many-languages-of-sign-language/">bahasa isyarat juga memiliki banyak jenis yang berbeda</a>. </p>
<p>Burung bernyanyi, <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-dogs-bark-are-they-using-words-to-communicate-153345">anjing menggonggong</a>, dan kucing mengeong. Tapi, bentuk-bentuk komunikasi ini sangatlah sederhana jika dibandingkan dengan bahasa manusia. Misalnya, seekor binatang mungkin dapat membuat 10 suara berbeda, tetapi manusia dewasa dapat mengetahui <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0213">lebih dari 20.000 kata</a>. Selain itu, kita adalah <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist197a/hockett60sciam.pdf">satu-satunya hewan</a> yang dapat mengekspresikan pikiran dalam kalimat utuh. Karena bahasa hanya dimiliki manusia dan sangat berbeda dengan dunia hewan, para peneliti tidak benar-benar berpikir bahwa bahasa merupakan sesuatu yang diciptakan; melainkan suatu hal yang berevolusi bersamaan dengan evolusi manusia dari kera. </p>
<p>Untuk itu, kita perlu melihat kembali ke masa awal evolusi manusia untuk mengetahui pertama kali kita mulai berbicara. Para ilmuwan percaya bahwa manusia yang kita kenal sekarang kemungkinan besar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao5961">berevolusi sekitar 300.000 tahun yang lalu</a>. Beberapa nenek moyang kita seperti <em>Homo erectus</em> dan saudara kita seperti Neanderthal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.01.001">mungkin juga memiliki bahasa mereka sendiri</a>, tetapi para peneliti belum tahu pasti.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="gambaran kapur evolusi kera ke manusia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Para ilmuan percaya bahwa nenek moyang manusia telah berbicara.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/evolution-royalty-free-image/163746345?adppopup=true">altmodern/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yang menakjubkan dari hal ini adalah, hampir sepanjang waktu tersebut, bahasa hanya digunakan untuk berbicara. Manusia baru membaca atau menulis <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/the-evolution-of-writing/">kurang lebih 5.000 tahun yang lalu</a>. Hampir sepanjang waktu manusia tinggal di bumi, tidak ada yang membaca buku atau membaca tanda, atau bahkan menulis nama mereka.</p>
<p>Manusia mulai menulis <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/from-accounting-to-writing/">untuk mencatat laporan aktivitas mereka</a>. Contohnya, jika petani Joe berutang tiga domba kepada petani Jill, mereka akan menggambar seekor domba dan menulis tiga tanda. Pada akhirnya, gambar-gambar sederhana ini berubah menjadi hieroglif dan kemudian menjadi huruf-huruf pada alfabet yang kita gunakan saat ini untuk menuliskan segala macam hal, seperti daftar belanjaan, puisi, dan cerita. </p>
<h2>Asal mula berbicara</h2>
<p>Kamu juga mungkin bertanya-tanya dari mana berbicara berasal? Sebelum manusia menggunakan bahasa, bagaimana mereka berkomunikasi satu sama lain? Apakah mereka hanya membuat suara seperti hewan? Sebenarnya, kami juga tidak yakin dengan jawabannya. Tapi, ada dua teori yang mungkin dapat membantu menjawab pertanyaan ini. </p>
<p><a href="https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langorigins.html">Teori pertama</a> mengatakan bahwa bahasa dimulai dengan manusia membuat suara yang berbeda-beda, kebanyakan dengan meniru hal-hal di sekitar mereka, seperti panggilan binatang, suara alam, dan suara alat. Mereka akhirnya mulai menggunakan suara-suara ini untuk berbicara dengan satu sama lain. Mereka mungkin membuat suara angin yang kencang untuk berbicara tentang cuaca atau menirukan suara burung untuk memberi tahu bahwa ada seekor burung di dekat lawan bicaranya. Ratusan tahun kemudian, suara-suara tersebut berubah menjadi kata-kata yang mulai dipelajari sebagai bagian dari bahasa mereka. Pada titik tertentu, manusia mulai merangkai kata-kata untuk membentuk kalimat. </p>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/origins-human-communication">Teori utama lainnya </a>, yang lebih baru dari teori sebelumnya, meyakini bahwa manusia memulai dengan memberi isyarat, seperti menunjuk suatu hal dengan tangan mereka, meniru tindakan menggunakan tubuh mereka, dan membuat ekspresi wajah tertentu. Gerakan-gerakan ini akhirnya berubah menjadi bahasa isyarat yang utuh. Proses ini berlanjut hingga saat ini di desa-desa di mana banyak orang tuli. Jika banyak orang tuli yang tidak tahu bahasa isyarat berkumpul, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_04.html">mereka akan secara spontan menciptakannya</a> dalam kurun waktu beberapa tahun.</p>
<p>Teori ini menduga bahwa manusia akhirnya mulai membuat suara bersama dengan gerak tubuh mereka setelah mengembangkan bahasa isyarat. Pada sebuah titik tertentu, mereka mulai meninggalkan gerakan tubuh untuk berkomunikasi dan beralih ke suara yang kemudian menjadi kata-kata. Menurut teori ini, suara menjadi lebih sering digunakan karena berbicara dengan suara yang keras memungkinkan mereka untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang lain meskipun sedang tidak melihatnya.</p>
<p>Pertanyaan-pertanyaan besar seperti ini membantu kita mengeksplorasi apa artinya menjadi manusia. Hanya manusia yang memiliki bahasa, jadi mencari tahu asal mula bahasa adalah cara kita untuk juga mengetahui dari mana manusia berasal.</p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<p><em>Zalfa Imani Trijatna dari Universitas Indonesia menerjemahkan artikel ini dari bahasa Inggris.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Futrell tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Seorang ilmuwan bahasa menjelaskan bahwa berbicara tidak pernah diciptakan tetapi telah berkembang selama ratusan ribu tahun.Richard Futrell, Associate Professor of Language Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1860832022-08-12T12:16:26Z2022-08-12T12:16:26ZThe metaverse isn’t here yet, but it already has a long history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478566/original/file-20220810-15557-oao8ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3699%2C2575&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As far back as the late '80s people could venture into a virtual online world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot of Habitat from Lucasfilm Games</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nattie’s metaverse romance began with anonymous texting. At first “C” would admit only to living in a nearby town. Nattie eventually learned “Clem” was a man with a solitary office job like hers. For Nattie “lived, as it were, in two worlds” – the world of office tedium and an online world where “she did not lack social intercourse.”</p>
<p>Texting drew them closer: “annoyances became lighter because she told him, and he sympathized.” Nattie soon realized “she had woven a sort of romance about him who was a friend ‘so near and yet so far’.” Their blossoming relationship almost failed when Clem’s co-worker visited Nattie’s office pretending to be Clem, but the deceit was exposed in time for their “romance of dots and dashes” to succeed.</p>
<p>With that last sentence I gave away the ending to “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24353">Wired Love</a>,” source of the quotes above. Published in 1879, Ella Thayer’s novel of “the telegraphic world” makes remarkable predictions. Yet “Wired Love” is planted firmly during the time of what journalist Thomas Standage aptly termed the “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/victorian-internet-9781620405925/">Victorian Internet</a>.” Many aspects of the current metaverse were already familiar 143 years ago. </p>
<h2>What’s old is new</h2>
<p>History is more than fun facts: It deeply shapes ways of thinking and acting. As an anthropologist who’s been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uFsG9kcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">studying virtual worlds</a> for almost two decades, I’ve found that the metaverse’s rich past shapes what too often appears unprecedented.</p>
<p>This isn’t accidental. The contemporary metaverse is overwhelmingly owned and developed by corporations whose profit models demand focus on the Next Big Thing. This typically sidelines history – with massive financial and social implications. </p>
<p>At its core, the metaverse is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-describe-the-metaverse-makes-a-difference-todays-words-could-shape-tomorrows-reality-and-who-benefits-from-it-182819">defined by the concept of the virtual world</a>. As “Wired Love” illustrates, the telegraph and later the telephone constitute early virtual worlds. </p>
<p>Multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, arose in the second half of the 20th century. These virtual worlds appeared on local computer networks in the late 1970s, and entered dial-up internet services in the 1980s and 1990s. Richard Bartle, co-creator of the first MUD, noted that by 1993 <a href="https://mud.co.uk/richard/DesigningVirtualWorlds.pdf">over 10% of all internet traffic</a> was on MUDs. Virtual worlds with graphics, including avatars, date back to <a href="http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html">Habitat</a>, launched in 1985.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UWI8f9QpnR8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Big media companies were already promoting their virtual world offerings in 1987.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With advent of broadband in the 2000s, many key aspects of the contemporary metaverse became established. Longtime metaverse observers like Wagner James Au have <a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/06/sl-metaverse-history.html">repeatedly emphasized</a> how many “new” developments have rehashed long-standing debates.</p>
<h2>Real estate and the laws of virtual physics</h2>
<p>Consider what metaverse history reveals about virtual real estate. <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/06/26/theres-a-strong-bull-case-for-metaverse-real-estat/">Pundits enthuse</a> about the virtual “land rush” and emphasize location. For instance, virtual world <a href="https://www.sandbox.game/en/">The Sandbox</a> sells plots for around $2,300, but in December 2021 <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/snoop-dogg-rapper-metaverse-snoopverse/">someone paid $450,000</a> to purchase land <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61979150">next to a virtual mansion</a> owned by rap star Snoop Dogg. </p>
<p>Why the price spike? <a href="https://today.rtl.lu/news/business-and-tech/a/1935715.html">Co-founder Sebastien Borget explained</a> that The Sandbox has a finite number of plots, and people can access only adjacent plots. Thus, only a few people can own virtual land next to Snoop Dogg.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1441076327948316686"}"></div></p>
<p>I believe that The Sandbox is deeply indebted to the virtual world Second Life, where spaces to practice building have been termed “sandboxes” since its 2002 launch.</p>
<p>Second Life originally had “point-to-point teleportation” (P2P). You could arrive anywhere in an instant. But in 2003 Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, disabled P2P. Residents trying to reach a destination would appear at the nearest “telehub.”</p>
<p>This had implications for real estate. Valuable for businesses and entertainment, plots of land near telehubs sold for top dollar — until 2005, when <a href="https://lindenlab.wordpress.com/2005/11/27/formerly-known-as-telehubs/">Linden Lab suddenly announced</a> the end of telehubs and <a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2005/12/point_to_point_.html">the return of P2P</a>. </p>
<p>Land near former telehubs no longer had special value; <a href="http://alphavilleherald.com/2005/12/extra_extra_bar.html">some people lost thousands of dollars</a>. The most powerful landlord can’t change the laws of physics, but Linden Lab could literally recode scarcity out of existence.</p>
<p>Fast-forward almost 20 years. Land next to Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion is scarce: A plot could cost $450,000 because The Sandbox doesn’t have P2P. But were the company to suddenly add P2P, that $450,000 investment could become nearly worthless. That pundits have tended to ignore this fact reveals the danger of forgetting metaverse history.</p>
<h2>Immersion – sensory or social?</h2>
<p>Another example of metaverse history’s importance concerns the idea of virtual environments. Virtual worlds don’t just connect places; they’re places in their own right. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A vintage black and white photograph of man seated at a desk holding a telephone receiver to his head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478406/original/file-20220809-16-m0dy2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From their earliest days, telephone calls have brought people together across great distances into shared virtual conversational spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/thc.5a42105/">Theodor Horydczak Collection, Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1883/01/22/archives/playing-chess-by-telegraph.html">played chess using the telegraph</a> 150 years ago; those virtual chessboards weren’t located on either end of the wire. <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/101">In 1992 Bruce Sterling noted</a> that telephone calls don’t take place in your phone or in the other person’s phone. They take place in a virtual environment: “The place between the phones. The indefinite place out there, where the two of you, two human beings, actually meet and communicate.”</p>
<p>In 1990, <a href="https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/view/287">Habitat’s founders concluded</a> that the metaverse is defined more by the interactions among people within it than by the technology that creates it. They were particularly skeptical of virtual reality technologies, noting “the almost mystical euphoria that currently seems to surround all this hardware is, in our opinion, both excessive and somewhat misplaced.”</p>
<p>At issue isn’t VR’s potential, but the Matrix-like idea that sensory immersion is necessary to the metaverse in every instance. The key distinction is between <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691168340/coming-of-age-in-second-life">sensory immersion and social immersion</a>. The idea that virtual environments require VR misunderstands “immersion.” It’s also ableist, since not everyone can see or hear. The metaverse’s history indicates that social immersion is the metaverse’s foundation. </p>
<h2>Learning from history</h2>
<p>The metaverse has a long way to go, but it already has a long history. Proximity and immersion are just two examples of crucial topics this history can demystify. </p>
<p>This is important because the current, rampant mystification isn’t accidental. The emerging version of the metaverse is overwhelmingly owned and developed by Big Tech. These companies seek to manufacture the perception that the metaverse is new and futuristic. But metaverse histories are real; they can reveal past mistakes and contribute to better virtual futures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Boellstorff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The metaverse is still unfolding, but it has been developing for more than a century. Rudimentary virtual worlds have existed – in imagination and reality – since the days of the telegraph.Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868772022-08-08T12:20:46Z2022-08-08T12:20:46ZWhen was talking invented? A language scientist explains how this unique feature of human beings may have evolved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475710/original/file-20220722-19-z3alh3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5734%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Humans are the only animals that express their thoughts in full sentences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/son-whispering-into-fathers-ear-royalty-free-image/1270752418?adppopup=true">Oliver Rossi/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>When was talking invented? – Albert R., age 12, Florida</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>The truth is, no one knows for sure when talking was “invented.” It’s a big mystery. But as <a href="https://www.socsci.uci.edu/%7Erfutrell/">a language scientist</a> for 15 years, I can tell you our best guess about when people started talking to each other using language, and how we think it got started.</p>
<h2>Human language and how long it’s been around</h2>
<p>Talking is an activity unique to <em>Homo sapiens</em>, our species. In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24940617">every culture where most people can hear</a>, people talk with spoken language. And in groups where lots of people are deaf – as in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_sign_language">certain</a> <a href="http://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/pdf/EMERGING_SIGN_LANGUAGES.pdf">villages</a> where a lot of people are born deaf for genetic reasons – or in Deaf communities throughout the world, people talk with their hands, using sign languages. There are <a href="https://www.littlepassports.com/blog/world-community/the-many-languages-of-sign-language/">lots of different sign languages</a>, just as there are lots of different spoken languages.</p>
<p>Birds sing songs. <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-dogs-bark-are-they-using-words-to-communicate-153345">Dogs bark</a>, and cats meow. But these forms of communication are simple compared with human language. An animal might make 10 different sounds, for example, but an adult human knows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0213">more than 20,000 words</a>. Additionally, we’re the <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist197a/hockett60sciam.pdf">only animal</a> that expresses thoughts in full sentences. Because language is unique to humans and so different from anything else in the animal kingdom, researchers don’t really think language was invented; instead we think it evolved during human beings’ evolution from other apes. </p>
<p>So to find out when talking started, you have to look back to when humans first evolved. Scientists believe humans as we know them today likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao5961">evolved around 300,000 years ago</a>. Some of our evolutionary ancestors like <em>Homo erectus</em> and cousins like the Neanderthals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.01.001">may have had language too</a>, but researchers don’t know for sure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A chalk drawing of monkey to human evolution" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476369/original/file-20220727-11735-ejyizd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists believe that ancestors to modern humans may have used speech too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/evolution-royalty-free-image/163746345?adppopup=true">altmodern/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s amazing is that for almost all of that time, all people did with language was talk; there wasn’t any reading or writing until <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/the-evolution-of-writing/">roughly 5,000 years ago</a>, which is recent compared with how long modern humans have been around. For almost all of the time that humans existed on planet Earth, no one read a book or a sign, or wrote down their name.</p>
<p>People started writing things down <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/from-accounting-to-writing/">so they could keep track of accounts</a>. For example, if Farmer Joe owed Farmer Jill three sheep, then they would draw a picture of a sheep and write down three marks. Eventually these little pictures turned into hieroglyphics and then into the letters that we use today to write down all kinds of things like grocery lists and poems and stories. </p>
<h2>Where talking comes from</h2>
<p>Another question you might wonder about is where talking comes from. Before people used language, how did they communicate with each other? Did they just make sounds at each other as animals do? The truth is, we don’t know the answer here either. But there are two main theories. </p>
<p><a href="https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langorigins.html">The first theory</a> is that language started with people making different sounds, mostly imitating the things around them, like animal calls, nature sounds and the sounds of tools. Eventually they started using these sounds to talk to each other. They might make the sound of whooshing wind to talk about the weather or imitate the sound of a bird to tell a friend that there was a bird nearby. Then over hundreds of thousands of years, those sounds turned into words that people began to learn as part of their language. At some point, people started stringing the words together to form sentences.</p>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/origins-human-communication">The other main theory</a>, which is a more recent idea, is that people started off by gesturing – pointing at things with their hands, imitating actions using their bodies and making faces. Eventually these gestures turned into a full sign language. This process continues today in villages where lots of people are deaf. If a lot of deaf people who don’t know a sign language come together, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_04.html">they will spontaneously invent one</a> within a few years. </p>
<p>This theory guesses that after developing sign languages, people eventually started making sounds along with their gestures. At some point, they switched to mostly making sounds that became words instead of just using their bodies. The reason they switched to making sounds, the theory goes, is that talking out loud lets you communicate with someone even when you can’t see them. </p>
<p>Big questions like this let all of us explore what it means to be human beings. Only humans have language, and so figuring out where language comes from is a way to figure out where we come from too.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Futrell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A language scientist explains that talking was never invented but has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.Richard Futrell, Associate Professor of Language Science, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1875142022-07-26T07:20:47Z2022-07-26T07:20:47ZPakar Menjawab: Perlukah peneliti saintek belajar ilmu soshum, dan juga sebaliknya?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476016/original/file-20220726-15-zvt1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash/Jesse Orrico)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pertanyaan seputar ilmu sains-teknologi (saintek) dan ilmu sosial-humaniora (soshum) – mulai dari rumpun mana yang lebih superior hingga sepenting apa peneliti menguasai keduanya – merupakan perdebatan yang telah berlangsung lama.</p>
<p>Beberapa waktu lalu, perdebatan ini mencuat kembali di jagad Twitter. </p>
<p>Sebuah utas <a href="https://twitter.com/arinaveda/status/1542557105328394240?s=24&t=SuWSktLO85x4QVQB8KH6aA">mengkritisi seruan</a> bagi peneliti teknik untuk belajar ilmu sosial dan hak asasi manusia (HAM). Dalam komentar lanjutan, sang penulis utas mengatakan bahwa tiap rumpun “punya spektrumnya sendiri”.</p>
<p>Tapi, cukupkah jika tiap peneliti fokus mendalami rumpunnya masing-masing saja? </p>
<p>Berbagai penulis The Conversation menyiratkan bahwa pendekatan ini bisa jadi kurang ideal.</p>
<p>Misalnya, pendewaan sains alam, rekayasa, dan teknologi sebagai solusi pamungkas untuk segala masalah – atau sering disebut <a href="https://books.google.co.id/books/about/To_Save_Everything_Click_Here.html?id=fdggBahA1qsC&redir_esc=y"><em>techno-solutionism</em></a> – kerap membuat peneliti dan pembuat kebijakan <a href="https://theconversation.com/sains-butuh-ilmu-humaniora-untuk-beri-solusi-perubahan-iklim-121871">gagal melihat faktor penting lain</a> seperti budaya, kesenjangan, hingga keadilan hukum di tengah masyarakat.</p>
<p>Sebaliknya, seorang peneliti sosial yang abai terhadap teknologi dan kemajuan digital bisa jadi <a href="https://theconversation.com/teknologi-digital-berpotensi-memicu-revolusi-sains-dalam-penelitian-sosial-80698">melewatkan berbagai metode</a> yang berpotensi membuat risetnya lebih efektif, akurat, dan tidak bias.</p>
<p>Mengingat hal ini, beberapa akademisi juga mendorong supaya peneliti dibekali dengan <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">wawasan lintas disiplin</a> sejak di bangku pendidikan tinggi.</p>
<h2>Dari krisis iklim, banjir, hingga ideologi: krusialnya wawasan lintas disiplin</h2>
<p>Steven D. Allison dan Tyrus Miller dari University of California-Irvine di Amerika Serikat (AS) menjelaskan bagaimana <a href="https://theconversation.com/sains-butuh-ilmu-humaniora-untuk-beri-solusi-perubahan-iklim-121871">upaya penanganan krisis iklim</a> adalah salah satu contoh pentingnya peneliti memiliki wawasan lintas disiplin.</p>
<p>“Banyak orang menganggap perubahan iklim adalah masalah sains, yang hanyalah soal sistem fisika, biologi, dan teknis belaka,” kata mereka.</p>
<p>Bahkan – meski dalam dua dekade ke depan kenaikan iklim bumi bisa melampaui 1,5°C sejak revolusi industri dan <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/09/humans-have-caused-unprecedented-and-irreversible-change-to-climate-scientists-warn">menyebabkan bencana dahsyat</a> bagi manusia – <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch">laporan terbaru panel PBB untuk perubahan iklim (IPCC)</a> hanya membahas etika iklim, keadilan, sosial, dan nilai-nilai kemanusiaan <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter3.pdf">tak lebih dari 10 halaman</a>.</p>
<p>“Dalam pandangan kami, menyelesaikan permasalahan iklim dunia memerlukan kemampuan lebih dari sekadar sains,” tambah Allison dan Miller.</p>
<p>Salah satu faktor sosial yang menurut mereka penting dipahami peneliti iklim, misalnya, adalah bagaimana kebudayaan masyarakat memengaruhi laju emisi karbon.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475862/original/file-20220725-24-9zny1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peneliti iklim bisa merancang solusi yang lebih ampuh dengan ilmu sosial dan humaniora.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(UC Irvine School of Humanities)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Produk budaya – dari novel hingga televisi – menghasilkan mitologi ‘<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/living-oil-9780199899425?cc=us&lang=en&"><em>petro-utopia</em></a>’ di AS . Sejak abad ke-20, kebebasan mengonsumsi bahan bakar fosil terkait erat dengan identitas khas Amerika seperti kemandirian, kebebasan, mobilitas, hingga impian yang tinggi.</p>
<p>Krisis iklim pun memiliki dampak yang tidak merata terhadap masyarakat. Ada berbagai kelompok tertentu yang jauh lebih parah merasakan efeknya; negara <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-fuelled-wave-patterns-pose-an-erosion-risk-for-developing-countries-184064">'Selatan’</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/worldwide-climate-change-is-worse-news-for-women-49668">perempuan</a>, hingga <a href="https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/old-site-downloads/download-524-The-Impact-of-Climate-Change-on-Minorities-and-Indigenous-Peoples.pdf">masyarakat adat</a>.</p>
<p>Sehingga, mengatasi krisis iklim di level masyarakat menjadi lebih ampuh jika peneliti bisa lebih memahami berbagai unsur sosial dari masalah ini.</p>
<p>Sementara, di beberapa negara termasuk Indonesia, agama dan kepercayaan menjadi faktor sosial yang juga penting bagi peneliti iklim untuk memahami motor penggerak aksi hijau di masyarakat.</p>
<p>Dalam <a href="https://theconversation.com/bagaimana-agama-dan-kepercayaan-membentuk-gerakan-peduli-lingkungan-hidup-di-indonesia-126782">analisisnya</a>, Jonathan D. Smith dari University of Leeds di Inggris mengamati banyaknya aksi iklim inisiasi kelompok agama yang berhasil mendorong partisipasi warga – dari ‘<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277947475_Faiths_from_the_Archipelago_Action_on_the_Environment_and_Climate_Change">masjid hijau</a>’, peran pemuka Kristiani dalam Gerakan <a href="https://thegeckoproject.org/articles/saving-aru-the-epic-battle-to-save-the-islands-that-inspired-the-theory-of-evolution/"><em>Save Aru Islands</em></a>, hingga penolakan umat Hindu atas reklamasi Teluk Benoa yang <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/the-coral-triangle/2016/mar/22/mounting-opposition-to-bali-mass-tourism-project">mengancam situs suci</a> di Bali.</p>
<p>Riset dari peneliti kebencanaan <a href="https://theconversation.com/bagaimana-ilmuwan-dan-masyarakat-dapat-bekerja-sama-untuk-menangani-banjir-pelajaran-dari-indonesia-164328">Erich Wolff dan Diego Ramirez-Loveling</a> di Makassar juga menunjukkan bagaimana memahami kebudayaan lokal di Indonesia – seperti pola kehidupan bertetangga – bisa jadi kunci dalam merancang strategi mitigasi banjir.</p>
<p>Sebaliknya, ada manfaat yang bisa didapat oleh peneliti sosial yang mendalami tentang teknik (<em>engineering</em>), teknologi, dan platform digital.</p>
<p>Roby Muhamad dari Universitas Indonesia <a href="https://theconversation.com/teknologi-digital-berpotensi-memicu-revolusi-sains-dalam-penelitian-sosial-80698">mengatakan</a> bahwa riset sosial kebanyakan menggunakan instrumen kualitatif dan survei ketimbang eksperimen. Hal ini terkadang membawa kelemahan; responden riset mereka bisa saja bias, berbohong, atau punya ingatan yang lemah. Ia mengatakan bahwa teknologi digital bisa menambal beberapa kekurangan ini.</p>
<p>Kawan Roby di Princeton University di AS, yakni sosiolog <a href="https://sociology.princeton.edu/people/matthew-j-salganik">Matthew Salganik</a>, misalnya, melakukan percobaan untuk meneliti bagaimana produk budaya menjadi populer. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475863/original/file-20220725-13-c6nn0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Penelitian sosial berbasis teknologi digital dapat membantu ilmuwan memahami manusia lebih dari manusia memahami diri mereka sendiri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/Montri Nipitvittaya)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Salganik membuat beberapa ruang virtual dan merancang sistem untuk mengamati dan mencatat pola pendengaran dan pengunduhan musik dari partisipan risetnya, terutama terhadap musisi tidak dikenal. Ia menemukan bahwa alasan lagu-lagu populer menempati tangga teratas bukan karena kualitasnya, tapi karena banyak orang mengunduhnya – partisipannya cenderung mengikuti selera pasar (<em>going with the herd</em>).</p>
<p>Menurut Roby, dengan riset sosial berbasis teknologi digital dan pengolahan data yang canggih, “ilmuwan akan dapat memahami manusia lebih dari mereka memahami diri mereka sendiri”.</p>
<p>“Lagu tampak tidak berbahaya. Namun, percobaan ini bisa saja direplikasi pada ideologi dan sistem kepercayaan selama kita memiliki alat mengukur perilaku yang pasti,” katanya.</p>
<h2>Menanamkan semangat lintas disiplin sejak pendidikan tinggi</h2>
<p>Berkaca pada pentingnya hal tersebut, Anto Mohsin dari Northwestern University menegaskan pentingnya pendidikan tinggi di Indonesia <a href="https://theconversation.com/belajar-dari-amerika-kurikulum-lintas-disiplin-bisa-dongkrak-kualitas-universitas-dan-sarjana-indonesia-120346">menerapkan kurikulum lintas disiplin</a> – biasanya populer disebut <a href="https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-liberal-arts/"><em>liberal arts</em></a> di AS. Liberal arts bisa meliputi ilmu-ilmu humaniora, sosial, sains, dan seni.</p>
<p>Anto mencontohkan bahwa pada saat ia berkuliah program S1 jurusan teknik mekanika di City College of New York (CCNY), ia harus mengambil beberapa mata kuliah seperti ilmu politik, sejarah, sastra, dan seni sebagai syarat kelulusan. Ini juga berlaku sebaliknya bagi mahasiswa dari fakultas ilmu sosial.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475864/original/file-20220725-12-vr48gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pendidikan lintas disiplin mengajarkan bahwa ilmu pengetahuan tidak berkembang di ruang hampa dan berkaitan erat dengan konteks sosial dan kultural.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/M-SUR)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Kurikulum <em>liberal arts</em>, menurut sosiolog <a href="https://www.warren-wilson.edu/people/siti-kusujiarti/">Siti Kusujiarti</a> yang mengajar di AS, melatih mahasiswa untuk berpikir holistik, sistemik, dan mendasar. Pendidikan ini mengajarkan bahwa ilmu pengetahuan tidak berkembang di ruang hampa dan berkaitan erat dengan konteks sosial dan kultural.</p>
<p>Bahkan, sekadar menerapkan kurikulum tersebut bisa saja tidak cukup. </p>
<p>Tim dari University of Florida <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">menekankan</a> pentingnya kampus “menghubungkan” antara wawasan teknik (<em>engineering</em>) dengan humaniora dalam kurikulum yang terintegrasi, dan bukan hanya mata kuliah terpisah.</p>
<p>Staf fakultas dari teknik material dan juga <em>liberal arts</em> di kampus mereka, bekerja sama dengan organisasi akademik <a href="http://www.mrs.org/home/"><em>Materials Research Society</em> (MRS)</a>, merancang mata kuliah bernama “<a href="https://www.mrs.org/impact-of-materials-on-society-subcommittee-goals/">Dampak Material Bagi Masyarakat</a>” yang diampu dosen teknik, sejarah, antropologi, sosiologi, hingga sastra. Kelas ini menjelajahi berbagai hal – dari bagaimana ketergantungan terhadap material mengubah pola interaksi sosial hingga bagaimana eksploitasi sumber daya material bisa membawa risiko konflik politik.</p>
<p>Salah satu mahasiswa teknik yang mengikuti mata kuliah ini berpendapat, “Kelas ini semakin membuktikan bahwa kita harus belajar berbagai aspek dari cara kerja dunia, tidak hanya ilmu teknik, untuk menjadi insinyur yang baik.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Cukupkah tiap peneliti fokus mendalami rumpunnya masing-masing saja? Berbagai penulis The Conversation menyiratkan pendekatan ini bisa jadi membuat kontribusi mereka ke masyarakat kurang berdampak.Luthfi T. Dzulfikar, Youth + Education EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.