tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/q-a-100901/articlesQ+A – The Conversation2024-03-28T00:10:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267812024-03-28T00:10:00Z2024-03-28T00:10:00ZBridges can be protected from ship collisions – an expert on structures in disasters explains how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584868/original/file-20240327-24-swqhqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2988%2C1965&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A cargo ship hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Florida's Tampa Bay in 1980, collapsing one span and killing 35 people.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BridgeCollapses-List/8ccc0211108542268f8c2a39403265d7/photo">AP Photo/Jackie Green</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The MV Dali, a 984-foot, 100,000-ton cargo ship, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-53169b379820032f832de4016c655d1b">rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge</a> when leaving Baltimore harbor on March 26, 2024, causing a portion of the bridge to collapse.</em></p>
<p><em>In an interview, University of Michigan civil engineer <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=764wTXMAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">Sherif El-Tawil</a> explained how often ships collide with bridges, what can be done to protect bridges from collisions, and how a similar disaster in Florida in 1980 – just three years after the Key bridge opened – changed the way bridges are built.</em></p>
<p><strong>This is not the first time a ship has taken out a bridge. What’s the history of ship-bridge collisions?</strong></p>
<p>This is an extremely rare event. To my knowledge, there are about 40 or so recorded events in the past 65 years that involved similar type of damage to a bridge caused by a ship. So they seem to occur on average about once every one and a half to two years around the world. When you consider that there are millions of bridges around the world – and most of them cross waterways – you can imagine how rare this is.</p>
<p>The most influential case was the 1980 <a href="https://www.structuremag.org/?p=20417">Sunshine Skyway Bridge collision</a> in Florida, which prompted the federal government to take action in terms of developing guidelines for designing bridges for ship collision. By the early 1990s the provisions were developed and incorporated into the bridge design code, the AASHTO specifications. The <a href="https://transportation.org/">American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials</a> produces the design code every bridge in the United States must conform to.</p>
<p><strong>What was different about the Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster from previous bridge collisions?</strong></p>
<p>There were casualties. The fact that a crash could bring down a bridge, just like in the Baltimore situation, prompted the concern: Can we do something about it? And that something was those specifications that came out and eventually became incorporated in the national design document.</p>
<p>What those specifications say is that you either design the bridge for the impact force that a ship can deliver or you must protect the bridge against that impact force. So you must have a protective system. That’s why I was surprised that this bridge did not have a protective system, some type of barrier, around it. I have not examined the structural plans of this bridge. All I could see is the pictures that were published online, but protective systems would be very visible and recognizable if they were there.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster in 1980 prompted improvements in bridge safety.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>What is currently mandated for new bridge construction, and is it sufficient to handle today’s massive cargo ships?</strong></p>
<p>I estimate, based on the published speed and weight of the MV Dali, that the impact force was in the range of 30 million pounds. This is a massive force, and you need a massive structure to withstand that kind of force. But it is doable if you have a huge pier. That might dictate the design of the bridge and what it could look like. Most likely it could not be a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/truss-bridge">truss bridge</a>. It may be a <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/bridge7.htm">cable stay bridge</a> that has a very large tower that is capable of taking that load.</p>
<p>If you cannot design for that load, then you have to consider other alternatives. And that’s what the specifications say. They’re very clear about this. And those alternatives could be to build an island around the pier or a rock wall, or put dolphins – standalone structures set in the riverbed – adjacent to it, or put on fenders that absorb the energy so the ship doesn’t come in so fast. All of these are ways you can mitigate the impact.</p>
<p>Engineers design structures – and bridges are no exception – for a certain probability of failure, because if we didn’t, the cost would be prohibitive. Theoretically, you could build a structure that would never fail, but you’d have to put infinite money into it. For a critical bridge of this type, we would consider an acceptable chance for failure to be <a href="https://conference-service.com/pianc-panama/documents/agenda/data/full_papers/full_paper_46.pdf">1 in 10,000 years</a>.</p>
<p>Based on published information, I tried to compute what the probability of this event would be, and it turns out to be 1 in 100,000 years or so. The ship made a beeline directly to the pier that was vulnerable. It was just shocking to see such a rare event unfold. </p>
<p>The authority of the bridge must have considered protecting it, and the low probability of this occurring must have played a role in whether they would invest or not in protective measures. Because any type of construction in water or on water is very expensive.</p>
<p><strong>Is it feasible to protect older bridges?</strong></p>
<p>I think so. For some of them it might be lower tech like the island idea. And it could use maybe rocks or concrete components that would prevent the ship from reaching the pier at all. </p>
<p>It was a massive ship with a flared bow. The lower part of the ship, which extends beyond the bow, I believe struck the foundation system, but the bow reached the pier. The pier was like an A shape, so the bow snapped one side of the A. The other side could not support the weight of the bridge and so the whole thing collapsed. If somebody kicks your feet from underneath you, you’re just going to fall. That’s exactly what happened.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Video captured the moment the Dali hit a pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How many bridges are vulnerable to ship collisions?</strong></p>
<p>I don’t know the number, but I know that bridges that are in this category, that are long span, major bridges like this, are probably less than 0.1% of the bridges in the U.S. And some of them do not necessarily cross waterways, so that’s a subset that is an even lower percentage. So it’s a rare event occurring to a rare kind of bridge. </p>
<p><strong>Are cargo ships getting larger, and is that a consideration for protecting bridges?</strong></p>
<p>I expect so because there is an economy of scale. Bigger ships would be cheaper for transporting goods. But I cannot envision that the designer of this bridge 50 years ago or so would have thought that a ship this size could impact the bridge. I’m sure they would have taken steps to address that. It just didn’t cross their mind.</p>
<p>If this bridge had been designed to the current specifications, I believe it would have survived. There are two reasons a ship would deliver this kind of force: It’s moving too fast or it’s too heavy. And those two factors are taken into consideration in the impact force for which we design. So if we are taking those explicitly into consideration, then a bigger ship, yes, it’s a bigger force, and we would design for that. </p>
<p>But let’s go forward another 50 years and imagine you have a much larger ship that comes into being. At that time, bridges will have been designed for smaller ships, and you have the same problem all over again. It’s hard to predict how big these things will go. You can design for current ships, but as they evolve, it’s hard to predict many years into the future.</p>
<p><strong>Are there other takeaways from this disaster?</strong></p>
<p>The loss of this bridge, beyond the tragic loss of life, is going to be felt for many months if not years. It’s not a straightforward process to replace a bridge of this magnitude, of this span distance. It’s something that will require a lot of planning and a lot of resources to come back again to where we were before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherif El-Tawil receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>A civil engineer explains why ships taking out bridges is rare, and describes how bridge builders protect the structures from ship collisions.Sherif El-Tawil, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2264662024-03-27T12:37:43Z2024-03-27T12:37:43ZCancer often requires more than one treatment − an oncologist explains why some patients like Kate Middleton receive both chemotherapy and surgery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584520/original/file-20240326-28-t6obtc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some cancer patients receive additional treatment after surgery with the goal of eliminating any remaining tumor cells.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/chemotherapy-royalty-free-image/724233739">BSIP/Collection Mix: Subjects via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When Kate Middleton, the princess of Wales, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kate-middleton-cancer-diagnosis-what-we-know-edefdc8674d100c8d6eb4619c85561d5">announced in March 2024</a> that she was receiving “preventive chemotherapy” following abdominal surgery, many wondered what that entails. Formally known as adjuvant therapy, administering chemotherapy or other treatments after surgery is a common approach to treating certain types of cancer and is not necessarily intended to prevent cancer.</em> </p>
<p><em>Oncologist <a href="https://www.obgyn.pitt.edu/people/alexander-b-olawaiye-md">Alexander Olawaiye</a> of the University of Pittsburgh explains what factors doctors take into account when devising a cancer treatment plan.</em></p>
<h2>Why are some cancers treated with surgery but not others?</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types">many types of cancer treatment</a>, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal therapy, among others. Sometimes doctors combine multiple types of treatment. Which is the best treatment approach depends on which organ the tumor originated from and how much the tumor has spread at the time of diagnosis.</p>
<p>Broadly speaking, there are <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/solid-tumor">two types of cancers</a>: solid tumors – or visible tumors that can be seen by the naked eye or through imaging – and liquid tumors, such as blood cancers. The primary treatment for solid cancers is surgery to physically remove the tumor, with the goal of getting rid of all tissues involved with the tumor. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/ovarian-cancer/treating/surgery.html">ovarian cancer</a>, surgery often includes removing the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the uterus, along with any visible cancer tissue in the rest of the belly. Sometimes this requires removing the spleen or part of the small intestine or liver. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of arm with IV line placed, resting on chair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584529/original/file-20240326-30-1wb0zl.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>
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<span class="caption">For some cancer patients, systemic treatment such as chemotherapy may be a better option than surgery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-hand-with-iv-drip-infusion-in-treatment-royalty-free-image/1485546449">SeventyFour/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>For skin cancers <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/melanoma-skin-cancer/treating/surgery.html">such as melanoma</a>, surgery involves removing both the tumor and a good margin of normal-looking skin with it to capture any remaining cancer cells that may not be visible in the surrounding healthy skin. Likewise, a surgeon may also remove nearby lymph nodes.</p>
<p>When solid cancer is diagnosed early, the success of treatment following surgery is typically high. For example, an <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types/cervical/survival">estimated 91% of cervical cancer</a> patients who are diagnosed early are still alive at least five years after diagnosis. Endometrial cancer patients who are diagnosed early have an estimated <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/endometrial-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html">five-year survival rate of 95%</a>.</p>
<h2>Why do some cancers recur?</h2>
<p>Despite surgical removal, many tumors come back. Researchers don’t fully understand why cancers recur, but there are <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/diagnosis-staging/diagnosis/tumor-grade">certain red flags</a> that indicate the potential for recurrence.</p>
<p>One is how different the cancer cells look compared with healthy cells. The more different, the more aggressive the tumor. When a tumor is more aggressive, it’s more likely to invade neighboring tissues and spread to other parts of the body.</p>
<p>Another is the extent the cancer has spread at the time of diagnosis. This is what determines the stage of the cancer. For example, stage 1 cancer refers to a tumor that is confined to the organ it originally developed from. Stage 4 cancer refers to a tumor that has spread far from its origins to grow on other organs. The higher the stage, the higher the risk for a worse outcome.</p>
<p>A third factor is the organ where the cancer first originated. For instance, pancreatic cancers tend to be fatal even when diagnosed early because these tumors don’t respond well to therapy. Ovarian cancer can have <a href="https://theconversation.com/ovarian-cancer-is-not-a-silent-killer-recognizing-its-symptoms-could-help-reduce-misdiagnosis-and-late-detection-181415">symptoms that are difficult to recognize</a>, leading to late diagnoses. On the other hand, breast cancer and thyroid cancer tend to be less aggressive for longer periods of time, even when diagnosed at an advanced stage.</p>
<h2>What is adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy?</h2>
<p>For patients with tumors that can be surgically removed, they often also receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.1241">before or after the procedure</a>. Doctors prescribe this additional, or adjuvant, treatment depending on the patient’s risk of recurrence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types/recurrent-cancer">Recurrence typically happens</a> when cancer cells escape from the tumor prior to or during surgical removal. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation after the procedure is aimed at killing these cells so they don’t settle down and grow somewhere else in the body later on.</p>
<p>In some cases, surgical removal is not feasible or not advisable. This could be because the cancer has spread so much that completely cutting it out is impossible or the risk of complications or disability from the surgery is high. </p>
<p>For example, primary surgery often isn’t a good option for ovarian cancer, since most patients are diagnosed in advanced stages; complete surgical removal, even if possible, may involve removing important organs such as the rectum and colon. This can lead to the need for a colostomy or ileostomy, where stool is passed directly from the large or small intestine to a bag outside the belly. Surgical removal of breast cancer may mean losing the affected breast.</p>
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<span class="caption">Some surgeries to remove tumors can lead to unwanted side effects or complications.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/doctor-and-nurse-medical-team-are-performing-royalty-free-image/1332985409">Gumpanat/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>The risk of unwanted side effects from surgical removal can be reduced through neoadjuvant therapy, or administering chemotherapy or radiation before the procedure to shrink the tumor and reduce the amount of surgery required. Studies have shown that neoadjuvant therapy can help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa0908806">ovarian cancer</a> patients avoid colostomies after surgery and allow <a href="https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2001.19.22.4224">breast cancer</a> patients to opt for a procedure that conserves their breast.</p>
<p>Neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment can include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these treatments. Further advances in research will offer doctors and patients even more approaches to effectively treat cancer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Olawaiye 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>There are many approaches to treating cancer. Which ones work best is determined on an individual basis and informed by each tumor.Alexander Olawaiye, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225612024-02-07T13:11:48Z2024-02-07T13:11:48ZBiden’s ‘hard look’ at liquefied natural gas exports raises a critical question: How does natural gas fit with US climate goals?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573502/original/file-20240205-30-63bf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3784%2C2623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A heat exchanger and transfer pipes at Dominion Energy's Cove Point LNG Terminal in Lusby, Md.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChesapeakeBayLNGExports/60c6ff33c115496fb821bf89276bd5e9/photo">AP Photo/Cliff Owen</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Biden administration has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-temporary-pause-on-pending-approvals-of-liquefied-natural-gas-exports/">frozen pending decisions</a> on permit applications to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to countries other than <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/trade/priority-issues/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements">U.S. free trade partners</a>. During this pause, which will last for up to 15 months, the administration has pledged to take a “hard look” at economic, environmental and national security issues associated with exporting LNG.</em> </p>
<p><em>Environmental advocates, who have expressed alarm over the rapid growth of U.S. LNG exports and their effects on Earth’s climate, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/biden-pauses-approval-new-lng-export-projects-win-climate-activists-2024-01-26/">praised this step</a>. Critics, including energy companies and members of Congress, argue that it threatens <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-26/europe-faces-the-chill-as-biden-freezes-new-lng-export-permits">European energy security</a> and <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/cornyn-freezing-lng-exports-threatens-texas-jobs-18645141.php">energy jobs in the U.S.</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3RI02dcAAAAJ&hl=en">Emily Grubert</a>, associate professor of sustainable energy policy at the University of Notre Dame and a former official at the U.S. Department of Energy, explains why large-scale LNG exports raise complex questions for U.S. policymakers.</em></p>
<h2>Is the US a major LNG supplier?</h2>
<p>The U.S. is now <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=60582">the world’s largest LNG exporter</a>. In November 2023, the most recent month with full data, the U.S. exported <a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_move_expc_s1_m.htm">about 390 billion cubic feet</a> of LNG, a record high. </p>
<p>The U.S. has been a net exporter since 2017, with export volumes now equal to about 15% of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_cons_sum_dcu_nus_m.htm">our domestic consumption</a>. This gas sells for higher prices than natural gas delivered domestically, but it also costs more to process and deliver. As of 2022, the U.S. <a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_move_expc_s1_a.htm">provided 20%</a> of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57000">total global LNG exports</a>.</p>
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<h2>Are there plans for exporting even more LNG?</h2>
<p>The U.S. Energy Administration projects that North American LNG export capacity – largely from the U.S. – is likely to <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=60944">more than double</a> from its current level by the end of 2027. In the U.S., five LNG export terminals are currently under construction, and are not affected by the current pause. </p>
<p>Applications for <a href="https://www.ferc.gov/media/us-lng-export-terminals-existing-approved-not-yet-built-and-proposed">additional export terminals</a> are under review. These are the applications for which decisions have been <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-temporary-pause-on-pending-approvals-of-liquefied-natural-gas-exports/">temporarily paused</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing nine proposed new LNG plants in coastal Texas and Louisiana." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573559/original/file-20240205-19-bt2p5p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Proposed North American LNG export terminals as of July 5, 2022. Except for terminals in Alaska, Maryland and Georgia, most U.S. LNG infrastructure is already concentrated along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/7.%20LNG%20Maps%207-5-2022%20-%20Exports_ds.pdf">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does LNG fit into a transition away from fossil fuel?</h2>
<p>LNG, and natural gas in general, has an uneasy place in the decarbonization transition. Natural gas is a fossil fuel. Burning it produces carbon dioxide that <a href="https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/co2_vol_mass.php">contributes to climate change</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, natural gas that has been processed for use is essentially pure methane, which is itself a greenhouse gas. When natural gas leaks to the atmosphere from sources like wells, pipelines or processing plants, it adds to climate change. Since the mid-1800s, human activities – mainly, burning fossil fuel – have raised Earth’s temperature by roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 Celsius) above preindustrial levels. Methane has <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf603">caused about 0.9 degrees F (0.5 C) of that warming</a> above preindustrial global temperatures. </p>
<p>LNG is not a transition away from fossil fuel – it is a fossil fuel. Hypothetically, substituting LNG for more carbon-intensive fuels, like coal or other natural gas supplies with higher methane emissions, could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near term. </p>
<p>But there’s debate over <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac71ba">how much LNG is actually useful in that context</a>, especially when it comes to whether LNG would actually prompt switching from coal to gas, and if so, whether the long-term lock-in of fossil gas use is worth it. Meanwhile, investing in new LNG infrastructure means either committing to operate these facilities for years, or planning to <a href="https://energy.mit.edu/news/energy-transition-could-leave-fossil-energy-producers-and-investors-with-costly-stranded-assets/">strand expensive assets</a> by retiring them early. </p>
<p>LNG terminals also have significant local impacts. In addition to methane, they emit large quantities of other air pollutants, including <a href="https://thelensnola.org/2023/05/26/groups-seek-federal-intervention-for-lng-company-they-deem-air-permit-offender/">nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds</a>. Tanker traffic to and from them can <a href="https://www.ehn.org/lng-environmental-justice-2666656588.html">damage marshes and waterways</a>. Building more terminals, especially in areas where energy facilities <a href="https://lailluminator.com/2023/03/20/sacrifice-zone-gulf-coast-helps-meet-global-natural-gas-needs-but-at-what-cost/">are already concentrated</a>, raises important health and environmental justice concerns.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hJgbyqSMLYE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. LNG export boom could offer economic benefits, but also local and global environmental damage from producing, shipping and consuming natural gas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions will require a commitment to actually shift away from fossil fuel. In my view, it’s not clear that deploying LNG will achieve this goal unless it’s done with an explicit plan and mechanism to ensure that the gas is only used where it is actually needed and can support an emissions phaseout.</p>
<h2>What do you think this policy review should consider?</h2>
<p>As I see it, the most important step is to develop a coherent national strategy for the role of natural gas in the U.S. energy system, consistent with the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-catalyze-global-climate-action-through-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate/#">stringent goals</a> of making the U.S. electricity supply carbon-free electricity by 2035 and achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas economy by 2050. </p>
<p>Such a blueprint would need to include a plan for reshaping the nation’s energy infrastructure to phase out use of natural gas, along with coal and oil. In theory, it could include targeted deployment of gas resources to ensure that energy needs are being met while zero-carbon resources are deployed along the way. </p>
<p>I’d like to see a clear articulation of the climate, health and energy system impacts of approving additional LNG export terminals, with enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that the U.S. will meet defined limits on climate and other pollution, and on operational conditions. I’d also like to see health and environmental justice considerations deeply embedded into energy and climate decisions in general, and especially for LNG projects. </p>
<p>These plants are sited mainly in communities that <a href="https://prismreports.org/2023/02/20/lng-climate-sacrifice-zones/">have suffered high rates of illness, premature deaths and environmental damage</a> from hosting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/21/oil-refineries-pollution-gulf-coast-epa/">fossil fuel infrastructure</a> for decades. Many of them have <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/emissions-rising-seas-test-game-changer-lng-project/">said they don’t want</a> additional LNG development. In my view, without clarity on where the U.S. is going on this issue, it will be extremely difficult to make good decisions about LNG, and about natural gas in general.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Grubert served in 2021-2022 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Carbon Management and, later, as Senior Advisor in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the US Department of Energy, which has permitting authority over LNG terminals. She was not involved with LNG decisions.</span></em></p>The US, a minor liquefied natural gas supplier a decade ago, now is the world’s top source. That’s good for energy security, but bad for Earth’s climate. An energy scholar explains the trade-offs.Emily Grubert, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210692024-01-19T13:41:11Z2024-01-19T13:41:11ZBoeing door plug blowout highlights a possible crisis of competence − an aircraft safety expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569659/original/file-20240116-21-w7tewc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C5439%2C3612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An investigator examines the frame of a Boeing aircraft whose door plug blew out in flight.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BoeingEmergencyLanding/390bb7248d0f4069b1b987492afbc254/photo">National Transportation Safety Board via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/us/what-happened-alaska-airlines-flight-1282/index.html">in-flight blowout of the side of a Boeing 737 Max 9</a>, federal regulators have grounded planes and are stepping up scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing process.</em></p>
<p><em>The Jan. 5, 2024, explosive decompression after takeoff was related to a component called a “door plug” being ejected from the fuselage of the aircraft. This was after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alaska-airlines-portland-oregon-emergency-landing-aab8ee1e594369ab48fa3ce60f3acdc6">three prior flights of that plane</a> had registered warning signals about cabin pressurization. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that incident.</em></p>
<p><em>In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into Boeing’s manufacturing process. Other incidents have raised concerns about other 737 Max aircraft – not just <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-airplane-crash-investigations-work-according-to-an-aviation-safety-expert-113602">fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019</a>, but more recent examples of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67919436">bolts or other fittings or fasteners</a> not being up to standards.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I0IMxAkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Daniel Kwasi Adjekum</a>, an aviation safety expert and professor of aviation at the University of North Dakota, to explain the significance of the incident, the government’s response and what it all means for the flying public.</em></p>
<h2>Why is Boeing – not the airline – responsible for the door plug being secure?</h2>
<p>Under U.S. federal requirements, the number of occupants in an aircraft and the seating arrangements determine the <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-25/subpart-D/subject-group-ECFR88992669bab3b52/section-25.807">number and placements of emergency exit doors</a>. Airplane manufacturers build fuselages with enough openings to accommodate all the doors that might be needed. If airlines choose to use the highest-density seating arrangements, they need to use all of the openings for actual exit doors. But not all airlines pack the seats in that tightly; on those planes, some emergency doors are not needed. Those spaces are filled by door plugs.</p>
<p>In the case of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, the door plugs are fitted by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, which is the supplier of the airframe to Boeing. The final assembly of the aircraft is carried out at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington. Quality control checks are done at Spirit AeroSystems, and then another round of quality checks is done by Boeing. These include a high-pressure test to ensure that the cabin can be pressurized safely and to ensure the integrity of the fuselage and pressure bulkheads.</p>
<p>Normally, the plugs are not removed during those tests at the Boeing facility, though they are checked to ensure they are correctly aligned with the rest of the fuselage. Overall, it is Boeing’s responsibility, as the original equipment manufacturer, to ensure the components conform to the FAA’s design, manufacturing, installation and performance requirements. </p>
<h2>Do the airlines have any reason to inspect the bolts that fasten the plugs in place?</h2>
<p>Under normal circumstances, once they are delivered and initially inspected, door plugs and their components are not adjusted by the airline maintenance team, though their integrity is checked as part of stipulated maintenance checks. Records from Alaska Airlines suggest that on previous flights before this incident, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alaska-airlines-portland-oregon-emergency-landing-aab8ee1e594369ab48fa3ce60f3acdc6">pilots had received cockpit alerts</a> indicating a failure of the aircraft’s cabin auto-pressurization system.</p>
<p>In a situation like that, where there are suspected cabin pressurization issues, it may be possible for airline maintenance crews to check all cabin doors, windows, seals and potentially door plugs as part of a thorough troubleshooting process, but they would be subject to Boeing’s procedures for inspecting a door plug.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Airline seats sit next to an opening in the side of an aircraft." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569658/original/file-20240116-23-6pkv4l.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 view of the opening in the side of a Boeing aircraft that lost a door plug in midflight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BoeingEmergencyLanding/d6bae2b392f74ac88efa0f8f7ffbb5af/photo">NTSB via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do FAA investigations involve?</h2>
<p>The design, testing, certification and approval process for any new aeronautical product is supposed to be in compliance with strict <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-25?toc=1">legal and FAA regulatory standards</a>.</p>
<p>As part of the investigations in this case, the FAA will <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1224444590/boeing-faa-737-max-9-alaska-airlines-door-plug">review the engineering and manufacturing processes</a> for the Boeing 737 Max 9, including the processes for vendors and suppliers, to determine if those standards were met. The <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-reviews-data-from-preliminary-inspections-of-boeing-737-max-9/">FAA will review documentation</a> on quality control and assurance processes and analyze components. </p>
<p>The FAA has said it is <a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-increasing-oversight-boeing-production-and-manufacturing">considering bringing in a third party</a> to conduct an audit of the engineering and manufacturing processes for the Boeing 737 Max 9. The findings and recommendations from the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/08/1223427243/boeing-flight-door-plug-alaska-airlines">National Transportation Safety Board incident investigation</a> may also provide valuable information.</p>
<h2>How do airlines deal with having so many airplanes that are now out of service pending their various inspections?</h2>
<p>With all these aircraft grounded, you need hangars and parking places for temporary storage. And it costs. In the U.S. alone we’re talking about <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/list-airlines-boeing-max-9-1858436">171 airplanes</a> on the ground. </p>
<p>That is a huge financial loss to airlines, which are otherwise benefiting from a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/12/business/alaska-and-united-flights-canceled-737-max/index.html">surge in air service demand and increased passenger interest</a>.</p>
<p>Airlines’ fleet plans – entailing which aircraft they send on which routes and in what sequence – will be disrupted. Some high-traffic routes normally served by these aircraft will have to be done by other aircraft with limited seat and load capacities. That can reduce expected revenue.</p>
<p>The current scenario will also affect flight crew scheduling. Some crew members may have their work hours reduced or eliminated, at least for a period of time.</p>
<p>Once investigators have determined what went wrong, and how to fix whatever it was, that corrective action will also take a lot of maintenance work, in addition to the normal maintenance work for keeping the rest of the planes fit for flying.</p>
<p>It also appears that the <a href="https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/updates-grounding-boeing-737-max-9-aircraft">FAA may want to inspect each plane</a> after it is fixed before certifying it to return to service. That will require significant amounts of inspection time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two planes sit parked on the tarmac at an airport." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569660/original/file-20240116-21-b90elk.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">Two Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft sit on the ground at an Oregon airport on Jan. 9, 2024, awaiting approval to take to the skies once again.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/alaska-airlines-boeing-737-max-9-aircrafts-n705al-and-news-photo/1913163434">Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does an airliner manufacturer regain public confidence? Have other companies dealt with this before?</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, McDonnell Douglas had airworthiness issues with the DC-10 aircraft. Its <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/book-excerpt-flight-981-disaster-180967121">cargo door sometimes opened midflight</a>, resulting in injuries and <a href="https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9781588345608">fatalities</a>.</p>
<p>The incidents were a big public relations problem for McDonnell Douglas, but using recommendations from the accident investigations, the company managed to redesign the door. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, ATR had its own issues with the <a href="https://www.faa.gov/lessons_learned/transport_airplane/accidents/N401AM">ATR 72’s de-icing system</a>. The company completely redesigned the system and gradually came back into the market.</p>
<p>Airbus has also faced similar challenges: Some <a href="https://simpleflying.com/a320neo-engine-troubles/">Airbus A320neos using Pratt and Whitney 1100G engines</a> had vibration problems that required review with engine manufacturers and regulators.</p>
<p>Most aircraft manufacturers are aware technical issues can surface after deploying a product into the market. That is why it’s important for them to get continuous feedback from operators on reliability and safety. </p>
<p>Boeing’s situation is difficult in part because of previous problems with other 737 Max models, including fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. In my view, the company will need a lot of transparency and leadership to address these hits to its reputation.</p>
<p>To me, the company’s best chance for surviving this crisis would be to take full responsibility for what has happened and avoid blaming its suppliers. Boeing could involve airline executives, pilots, engineers, cabin crew, media and others in a wide-ranging discussion of quality and safety. If Boeing could win the confidence of these key stakeholders who operate its aircraft, that could help reestablish credibility for its brand with the traveling public.</p>
<p>In early 2023, Boeing was planning to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-add-737-max-line-it-boosts-production-2023-01-30/">ramp up production of the 737 Max line</a>. My suggestion would be that the company make product safety and quality an immediate priority and worry later about maximizing production goals and profits, after Boeing’s reputation is restored.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Kwasi Adjekum has previously received funding from the National Academies of Sciences Gulf Research Program. </span></em></p>Boeing is under increased public and government scrutiny in the wake of dangerous events that have people worried about the safety of air travel.Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, Assistant Professor of Aviation, University of North DakotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145202023-12-08T13:35:54Z2023-12-08T13:35:54ZMichigan is spending $107M more on pre-K − here’s what the money will buy<p><em>About <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/YB2022_FullReport.pdf">one-third</a> of the nation’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded prekindergarten programs.</em></p>
<p><em>In Michigan, 32% of 4-year-olds attend the state’s public pre-K program. However, the state has invested an additional <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/08/16/expansions-to-gsrp-will-benefit-thousands-of-children-and-families">US$107 million</a> from its 2023-24 budget to educate 4-year-olds, 20% more money compared to the prior year.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://marsal.umich.edu/directory/faculty-staff/christina-j-weiland">Christina Weiland</a>, associate professor of education at the University of Michigan, and <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/ajay-chaudry">Ajay Chaudry</a>, research scholar at New York University, are co-authors of “<a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/cradle-kindergarten-2ndEdition">Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality</a>,” a book about how to make affordable, high-quality early care and education available for all U.S. families.</em></p>
<p><em>Here, they answer five questions about Michigan’s new investment in preschool education.</em></p>
<p><strong>How many kids attend public pre-K in Michigan?</strong></p>
<p>Michigan’s <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mileap/early-childhood-education/early-learners-and-care/gsrp">Great Start Readiness Program</a> is a voluntary public pre-K program for 4-year-olds operating in all but one of Michigan’s 83 counties. Classrooms are offered in both public schools and in community-based partner organizations.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">majority of children</a> who attend qualify based on their family’s income. Kids whose parents earn up to 300% of the federal poverty line, or <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1c92a9207f3ed5915ca020d58fe77696/detailed-guidelines-2023.pdf">$90,000 for a family of 4</a>, are eligible. Children can also <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/gsrp/implementation/risk_factor_definitions.pdf?rev=578c7255aee44ef4a94199f6956bf3d8">gain access to the program</a> if they have a disability, at least one of their parents has not graduated from high school or is illiterate, or English is not the primary language in their home. </p>
<p>In the 2021-22 school year, <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">the program operated</a> in 2,524 classrooms and enrolled 30,872 children across Michigan. By our team’s estimates, enrollment increased to 33,200 in 2022-23. </p>
<p><iframe id="JAMAW" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JAMAW/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>What are the strengths of the program, and where could it do better?</strong> </p>
<p>Michigan is <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/YB2022_FullReport.pdf">one of only five states</a> to meet all 10 quality benchmarks set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, a research institution based at Rutgers University. </p>
<p>Some of the program’s notable strengths include requiring universal developmental and health screenings for students, offering in-classroom coaching for all Great Start teachers and requiring lead teachers to have a college degree and specialized early education training. Nationally, only about half of state pre-K programs require a college degree for teachers and only about a third require coaching. </p>
<p>Like all state-funded pre-K programs, Great Start also has some room for improvement. In a recent <a href="https://edpolicy.umich.edu/sites/epi/files/2023-12/MI%20Pre-K%20for%20All%20Report_v8_0.pdf">policy brief</a>, our team highlighted several critical areas for further investment. For example, there are large gaps in pay and benefits for Great Start teachers compared with K-12 teachers in the state. <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">These gaps</a> amount to an average of $17,500 less per year for state pre-K teachers in public schools and $25,000 less per year for those in community-based programs. </p>
<p>These pay gaps help explain why 18% of lead teachers and 28% of assistant teachers still needed additional courses to meet the program’s educational requirements in the 2021-22 school year. </p>
<p>Pay parity for Great Start teachers would help Michigan school systems recruit additional qualified teachers. In 2021-22, <a href="https://cep.msu.edu/upload/gsrp/GSRP%20Annual%20Report%202021-22.pdf">the vacancy rate</a> was 4% for lead teachers and 6% for assistant teachers.</p>
<p>Also, Michigan ranks <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SE_FullReport.pdf">near the bottom</a> of states in early childhood inclusion, a model that allows children with special needs to attend preschool alongside their typically developing peers.</p>
<p>And finally, just as in most public pre-K programs nationally, most Great Start classrooms use curricula that have been repeatedly outperformed by other options. Children – especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds – learn more from <a href="https://www.srcd.org/sites/default/files/resources/FINAL_SRCDCEB-CurriculaCoaching.pdf">evidence-based curricula</a>. However, less effective curricula persist in preschool programs around the country due in part to the history of early childhood education but also because of policy decisions.</p>
<p><strong>What is Michigan’s new investment slated to fund?</strong></p>
<p>The $107 million in additional funding for Great Start covers three critical areas. </p>
<p>First, new funding is meant to increase the number of children served and get kids off waitlists. </p>
<p>Second, additional funding is targeted to better meet the needs of working families. Historically, Great Start programs have served children four days per week for 30 weeks per year. With this new investment, some programs will offer children instruction five days per week and 36 weeks per year, bringing Great Start in line with the public school calendar. The expanded schedule stands to boost child learning, better match family work schedules and enable some families who were previously shut out to enroll.</p>
<p>Finally, $35 million is slated for classroom startup grants of $25,000 to help open new classrooms and expand existing programs in public schools and community-based organizations. </p>
<p><strong>What does research say about the benefits of public pre-K?</strong></p>
<p>Decades of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/puzzling-it-out-the-current-state-of-scientific-knowledge-on-pre-kindergarten-effects/">rigorous research</a> show that children who attend high-quality pre-K programs are more ready for kindergarten, meaning they have on average stronger language, literacy, math, social emotional and executive function skills than their peers who did not attend preschool. Dual-language learners, children of color, children from families with low incomes and children with disabilities <a href="https://www.srcd.org/news/investing-our-future-evidence-base-preschool-education">particularly benefit</a> from high-quality pre-K. </p>
<p>Pre-K also <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/effects-universal-preschool-washington-d-c/">supports families</a> by giving parents time to work. </p>
<p>The benefits of preschool can <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/puzzling-it-out-the-current-state-of-scientific-knowledge-on-pre-kindergarten-effects/">last into adulthood</a>, improving high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates and the long-term health of kids who attend.</p>
<p>Families with higher incomes in the U.S. have historically had <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/do-we-already-have-universal-preschool/">more access</a> to high-quality preschool than families with less means. Public pre-K programs help fill that gap.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young Black boy pushes a car along a colorful playmat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562226/original/file-20231128-23-czpy93.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">Children who attend high-quality preschools can reap benefits into adulthood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/boy-playing-chevrolet-camaro-toy-on-floor-3BztcJxliEM">Segun Osunyomi/unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What’s next in Michigan?</strong></p>
<p>Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/01/26/michigans-children-to-benefit-from-governor-whitmers-education-proposals">announced intentions</a> to continue to expand public pre-K, including a goal of offering universal pre-K to all Michigan 4-year-olds by <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2023/08/16/expansions-to-gsrp-will-benefit-thousands-of-children-and-families">the end of 2026</a>.</p>
<p>To date, only six states – Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin – plus D.C. have achieved <a href="https://nieer.org/the-state-of-preschool-yearbook-2022">universal preschool</a> for 4-year-olds, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina J. Weiland 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>Scholars who study disparities in early care and education answer five questions about Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program.Christina J. Weiland, Associate Professor of Education, University of MichiganAjay Chaudry, Research Scholar, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161342023-10-23T12:25:56Z2023-10-23T12:25:56ZKey Trump co-defendants accept plea deals – a legal expert explains what that means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555062/original/file-20231020-27-i8c42b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C10%2C6887%2C4588&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenneth Chesebro, left, is sworn in during his plea deal hearing in Atlanta on Oct. 20, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GeorgiaElectionIndictment/3e9f856573cb416c9b45ea3dfea0d620/photo">Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://apnews.com/article/sidney-powell-plea-deal-georgia-election-indictment-ec7dc601ad78d756643aa2544028e9f5">Sidney Powell</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chesebro-jury-selection-georgia-election-indictment-2e558eefdffd9c1eaa7ec8c31bf76044">Kenneth Chesebro</a>, two people <a href="https://theconversation.com/fulton-county-charges-donald-trump-with-racketeering-other-felonies-a-georgia-election-law-expert-explains-5-key-things-to-know-211582">charged in Georgia with racketeering and other crimes</a> alongside former President Donald Trump, have accepted plea deals that let them avoid the jail time their original charges could have imposed. In exchange, they each agreed to provide testimony in the case.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ySfVNFAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Cynthia Alkon</a>, a law professor at Texas A&M University School of Law who studies plea bargaining, to explain what these legal agreements are and how they work.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is a plea deal, or plea bargain, and how is it made?</h2>
<p>A plea deal is a negotiated agreement between the prosecution and defense to settle a criminal case without going to trial. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158356619/plea-bargains-criminal-cases-justice">Well over 90%</a> of resolved criminal cases end through plea deals and not jury trials. </p>
<p>The criminal legal system relies on plea bargaining to manage caseloads. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the 2012 case <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/10-209">Lafler v. Cooper</a>, recognized this when he wrote that “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.” </p>
<p>Plea deals may include agreements to dismiss charges or reduce charges. The plea negotiation process varies. The defendant might accept the first offer the prosecutor makes, or there might be extended back and forth between the defense and prosecution. Plea deals can also include conditions, such as that the defendant agree to testify against a co-defendant or in another case. </p>
<p>In many cases, the charges are straightforward, the defendant has no particular defense, and the prosecution offer will be accepted <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/arraignment">at arraignment</a>, which is the first time a defendant appears in court. In other cases, the risk in going to trial is high, meaning the defendant could get sentenced to a much longer term in prison, and defendants choose to take the plea offer rather than <a href="https://texaslawreview.org/plea-bargainings-uncertainty-problem/">risk a worse outcome</a> after trial.</p>
<h2>2. Why do prosecutors use plea deals?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/anatomy-discretion-analysis-prosecutorial-decision-making-summary">Prosecutors have extraordinary power</a> in the criminal legal system and are able to decide what charges to file and whether to make a plea offer. In most cases, the prosecutor will make a plea offer at some point. Defendants have no constitutional right to a plea deal – in fact, plea deals require defendants to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plea_bargain">waive three key constitutional rights</a>: the right to a jury trial, to confront witnesses and to avoid self-incrimination. </p>
<p>Prosecutors rely on plea bargaining at times to strengthen their cases by offering deals contingent on a defendant agreeing to testify against another person. In the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/us/kenneth-chesebro-trump-guilty-plea-georgia.html">deals accepted by both Chesebro and Powell</a>, they each agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and provide testimony in the case whose defendants include Trump.</p>
<p>In more serious cases, such as murder, plea deals are less frequent, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4036850">but still happen regularly</a>. Prosecutors may make offers with time conditions, such as the offer is good “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2994581">today only</a>.” If the defendant doesn’t accept by the deadline, the plea deal will be withdrawn. </p>
<p>The plea deal could also be withdrawn if the prosecutor gets new evidence, including information about additional prior convictions or that a <a href="https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2022/06/man-loses-appeal-of-da-plea-bargain-withdrawal/">new criminal case has been filed against the defendant</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Why do defendants use plea deals?</h2>
<p>Defendants often do not have many options, and they generally have <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/criminal_justice/committees/taskforces/plea_bargain_tf/">far less power and fewer resources than the prosecution</a>. Due to the serious consequences of criminal convictions, including the possibility of long periods of time in prison, defendants are often left to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09564-y">choose between a bad plea offer and a worse outcome</a> if they go to trial.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-unequal-burden-of-crime-and-incarceration-on-americas-poor/">vast majority</a> of people arrested and charged with crimes are poor. Criminal defendants are <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons-the-sentencing-project/">disproportionately people of color</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1192%2Fbjo.2022.63">people with mental illness</a>, people with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11920-013-0414-z">substance abuse problems</a> and who have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F13218719.2020.1855267">suffered from trauma</a> or have <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh241/files/media/document/victims-witnesses-defendant.pdf">cognitive or other disabilities</a>.</p>
<p>Indigent legal services, such as public defender offices, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-public-defenders-could-lose-hundreds-staff-budget-shortfall-officials-2023-07-19/">continue to be underfunded</a>, and defendants may not have access to a lawyer, or their lawyer may not have time or resources to provide competent legal assistance. </p>
<p>Defendants may agree to take a plea deal because they <a href="https://www.justia.com/criminal/plea-bargains/reasons-to-accept-a-plea-bargain/">do not want to risk going to trial</a> or they do not want to spend the time to wait to go to trial. <a href="https://www.justia.com/criminal/plea-bargains/reasons-to-accept-a-plea-bargain/">Concerns about wait times for trial</a> can be even more of an issue for defendants who are in jail and are offered a “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/time_served">time served deal</a>.” In such situations, if they accept the plea deal, they will get out of jail immediately. If not, they may have to wait in jail for weeks or months for their trial. </p>
<p>Defendants also decide to accept plea deals because they are afraid of the consequences of going to trial. If a case carries a potential jail or prison term, defendants may decide to accept a deal to <a href="https://www.justia.com/criminal/plea-bargains/reasons-to-accept-a-plea-bargain/">avoid going to jail or to avoid going for a longer term</a>. But defendants may decide to reject a plea deal because they think it is not fair, or if they are innocent, although some studies indicate that the innocent may be <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23364853">even more risk averse and more likely to plead guilty</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a black robe sitting in front of an American flag and another flag, holding a piece of paper and pointing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555100/original/file-20231021-29-e8xnpp.jpeg?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">Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee hears motions from attorneys representing Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell in Atlanta on Sept. 14, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GeorgiaElectionIndictment/e903115e35364c63afae069988fd7c35/photo?Query=Donald%20Trump%20chesebro%20powell&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=86&currentItemNo=61">Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. What is the judge’s role in a plea deal?</h2>
<p>The judge has to agree to the plea deal, but it is unusual for a judge to reject a plea deal. </p>
<p>If the prosecutor does not make an offer, the defendant may decide to do what’s called “<a href="https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-open-plea.html">plead open” to the court</a>, bypassing the prosecutor and putting their sentence in the hands of the judge. Depending on the jurisdiction, this might be after the judge has indicated what the sentence would be. </p>
<p>Judges do not have the authority to dismiss charges on their own, without prosecution agreement, if a defendant pleads guilty. In some jurisdictions, judges may discuss the plea offer from the prosecutor with the defendant and encourage them to take the deal, though in some circumstances that might <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hoflr32&div=52&id=&page=">look like coercion</a> by the judge. </p>
<p>In the federal system, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_11">judges are not allowed to have any discussion</a> about plea bargaining with the parties. </p>
<h2>5. Is a person who accepts a plea deal still held accountable for the crimes they were charged with?</h2>
<p>Yes, they are still held accountable after a plea deal. Defendants who plead guilty – or in some circumstances “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/nolo_contendere">no contest</a>” – are convicted of whatever charges they plead to. This means they will have a criminal record and have to do whatever the agreed sentence is. </p>
<p>In addition to probation, jail or prison time, and/or fines, a criminal conviction may <a href="https://ccresourcecenter.org/state-restoration-profiles/50-state-comparisoncomparison-of-criminal-records-in-licensing-and-employment/">disqualify someone from a professional license</a>. It may disqualify them from <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/eligibility/requirements/criminal-convictions">federal student loans</a>, <a href="https://ccresourcecenter.org/state-restoration-profiles/50-state-comparisoncomparison-of-criminal-records-in-licensing-and-employment/">housing</a> and <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights">voting</a>. And depending on the charge, it could <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/04/12/can-get-housing-felony-hud-says-yes/9510564002/">limit where they can live</a>. <a href="https://niccc.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/">Criminal convictions can also make it</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/finding-jobs-with-criminal-record-hard-despite-millions-of-openings-rcna120082">harder to get jobs</a>. </p>
<p>One of the concerns about plea bargaining is that its <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=4028883">overuse has contributed to mass incarceration</a>, as millions have been sentenced to jail and prison after a plea deal. This stands in contrast to the more unusual Powell and Chesebro plea deals, as both defendants had the advantage of resources, strong legal representation and leverage, which enabled them to successfully negotiate to avoid jail time in exchange for testimony.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia Alkon 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>With co-defendants of Donald Trump accepting plea bargains, an expert in criminal law explains what these legal agreements are and how they work.Cynthia Alkon, Professor of Law, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2136212023-09-25T12:21:07Z2023-09-25T12:21:07ZFlesh-eating bacteria infections are on the rise in the US − a microbiologist explains how to protect yourself<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549431/original/file-20230920-17-vywy11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1576%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Vibrio vulnificus_ infections are spreading across the U.S. because of climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=7812">CDC/Janice Haney Carr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flesh-eating bacteria sounds like the premise of a bad horror movie, but it’s a growing – and potentially fatal – threat to people.</p>
<p>In September 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00497.asp">issued a health advisory</a> alerting doctors and public health officials of an increase in flesh-eating bacteria cases that can cause serious wound infections. </p>
<p><a href="https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/13502/sullivan-william">I’m a professor</a> at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where <a href="https://www.sullivanlab.com/">my laboratory</a> studies <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mN6ZaFkAAAAJ&hl=en">microbiology and infectious disease</a>. Here’s why the CDC is so concerned about this deadly infection – and ways to avoid contracting it.</p>
<h2>What does ‘flesh-eating’ mean?</h2>
<p>There are several types of bacteria that can infect open wounds and cause a rare condition called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097%2F01.NURSE.0000694752.85118.62">necrotizing fasciitis</a>. These bacteria do not merely damage the surface of the skin – they release toxins that destroy the underlying tissue, including muscles, nerves and blood vessels. Once the bacteria reach the bloodstream, they gain ready access to additional tissues and organ systems. If left untreated, necrotizing fasciitis can be fatal, sometimes within 48 hours.</p>
<p>The bacterial species <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/index.html">group A <em>Streptococcus</em></a>, or group A strep, is the most common culprit behind necrotizing fasciitis. But the CDC’s latest warning points to an additional suspect, a type of bacteria called <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vibrio/wounds.html"><em>Vibrio vulnificus</em></a>. There are only <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00497.asp">150 to 200 cases</a> of <em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> in the U.S. each year, but the mortality rate is high, with 1 in 5 people succumbing to the infection.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FZrb8ttsfg8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Climate change may be driving the rise in flesh-eating bacteria infections in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do you catch flesh-eating bacteria?</h2>
<p><em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> primarily lives in warm seawater but can also be found in brackish water – areas where the ocean mixes with freshwater. Most infections in the U.S. occur in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.0174">warmer months, between May and October</a>. People who swim, fish or wade in these bodies of water can contract the bacteria through an open wound or sore.</p>
<p><em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> can also get into seafood harvested from these waters, especially shellfish like oysters. Eating such foods raw or undercooked can lead to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vibrio/food.html">food poisoning</a>, and handling them while having an open wound can provide an entry point for the bacteria to cause necrotizing fasciitis. In the U.S., <em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> is a leading cause of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00997">seafood-associated fatality</a>.</p>
<h2>Why are flesh-eating bacteria infections rising?</h2>
<p><em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> is found in warm coastal waters around the world. In the U.S., this includes southern Gulf Coast states. But rising ocean temperatures due to global warming are creating new habitats for this type of bacteria, which can now be found along the East Coast as far north as <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00497.asp">New York and Connecticut</a>. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28247-2">recent study</a> noted that <em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> wound infections increased eightfold between 1988 and 2018 in the eastern U.S. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/flesh-eating-bacteria-on-the-rise-in-florida-following-hurricane-ian">Climate change</a> is also fueling stronger hurricanes and storm surges, which have been associated with spikes in flesh-eating bacteria infection cases.</p>
<p>Aside from increasing water temperatures, the number of people who are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2762295/">most vulnerable to severe infection</a>, including those <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-diabetes-cases-on-pace-to-soar-to-1-3-billion-people-in-the-next-3-decades-new-study-finds-208832">with diabetes</a> and those taking medications that suppress immunity, is on the rise.</p>
<h2>What are symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis? How is it treated?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-public/necrotizing-fasciitis.html#symptoms">Early symptoms</a> of an infected wound include fever, redness, intense pain or swelling at the site of injury. If you have these symptoms, seek medical attention without delay. Necrotizing fasciitis can <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-public/necrotizing-fasciitis.html#symptoms">progress quickly</a>, producing ulcers, blisters, skin discoloration and pus.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-public/necrotizing-fasciitis.html">Treating flesh-eating bacteria</a> is a race against time. Clinicians administer antibiotics directly into the bloodstream to kill the bacteria. In many cases, damaged tissue needs to be surgically removed to stop the rapid spread of the infection. This sometimes <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33623768/">results in amputation</a> of affected limbs.</p>
<p>Researchers are concerned that an increasing number of cases are becoming impossible to treat because <em>Vibrio vulnificus</em> has evolved <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00997">resistance to certain antibiotics</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pGxIXTvSpTM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Necrotizing fasciitis is rare but deadly.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do I protect myself?</h2>
<p>The CDC offers several recommendations to help <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vibrio/wounds.html">prevent infection</a>. </p>
<p>People who have a fresh cut, including a new piercing or tattoo, are advised to stay out of water that could be home to <em>Vibrio vulnificus</em>. Otherwise, the wound should be completely covered with a waterproof bandage. </p>
<p>People with an open wound should also avoid handling raw seafood or fish. Wounds that occur while fishing, preparing seafood or swimming should be washed immediately and thoroughly with soap and water.</p>
<p>Anyone can contract necrotizing fasciitis, but people with weakened immune systems are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.0174">most susceptible to severe disease</a>. This includes people taking immunosuppressive medications or those who have pre-existing conditions such as liver disease, cancer, HIV or diabetes.</p>
<p>It is important to bear in mind that necrotizing fasciitis presently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097%2F01.NURSE.0000694752.85118.62">remains very rare</a>. But given its severity, it is beneficial to stay informed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Sullivan receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Warmer ocean waters are fueling the spread of the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus. Infections can lead to a rare but fatal condition called necrotizing fasciitis.Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077792023-06-29T12:17:01Z2023-06-29T12:17:01ZDisasters like bridge collapses put transportation agencies’ emergency plans to the test<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584441/original/file-20240326-18-k42fw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5150%2C3193&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A container ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, 2024, collapsing a section of the bridge. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MarylandBridgeCollapse/3ab19a4aa7274ec49065520bb79aa9ea/photo">AP Photo/Steve Ruark</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A container ship <a href="https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-53169b379820032f832de4016c655d1b">rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore</a> around 1:30 a.m. on March 26, 2024, causing a portion of the bridge to collapse into Baltimore Harbor. Officials called the event a mass casualty and were searching for people in the waters of the busy port.</em> </p>
<p><em>This event occurred less than a year after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/06/11/bridge-collapse-philadelphia-interstate-95/">a portion of Interstate 95 collapsed</a> in north Philadelphia during a truck fire. That disaster was initially expected to snarl traffic for months, but a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/23/i-95-bridge-reopening-friday/70349844007/">temporary six-lane roadway</a> was constructed in 12 days to serve motorists while a permanent overpass was rebuilt.</em></p>
<p><em>U.S. cities often face similar challenges when <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/memphis-cracked-i-40-bridge-creates-headache-traffic-shipping-n1267187">routine wear and tear</a>, <a href="https://abc7news.com/loma-prieta-quake-earthquake-when-was-magnitude/5605965/">natural disasters</a> or major accidents damage roads and bridges. Transportation engineer <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RxdHmbMAAAAJ&hl=en">Lee D. Han</a> explains how planners, transit agencies and city governments anticipate and manage these disruptions.</em></p>
<h2>How do agencies plan for disruptions like this?</h2>
<p>Planning is a central mission for state and metropolitan transportation agencies. </p>
<p>Traditional long-term planning focuses on anticipating and preparing for growing and shifting transportation demand patterns. These changes are driven by regional and national economic and population trends. </p>
<p>Shorter-term planning is about ensuring mobility and safety during service disruptions. These events can include construction, major scheduled events like <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/bonnaroo-traffic-tdot-prepares-for-traffic-in-manchester/">music festivals</a>, traffic incidents such as crashes and hazardous material spills, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9488(2007)133:1(3)">emergency evacuations</a>, and events like the bridge collapse in Baltimore.</p>
<p>Agencies have limited resources, so they typically set priorities based on how likely a given scenario is, its potential adverse effects and the countermeasures that officials have available. </p>
<p>For bridges, the <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/">Federal Highway Administration</a> sets standards and requires states to carry out periodic inspections. In addition, agencies develop a detouring plan for each bridge in case of a structural failure or service disruption. In Baltimore, Key Bridge traffic will be <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/travel-around-francis-scott-key-bridge-collapse-baltimore-traffic/">routed through two tunnels</a> that pass under the harbor, but trucks carrying hazardous materials will have to take longer detours.</p>
<p>Major bridges, such as those at Mississippi River crossings, are crucial to the nation’s economy and security. They require significant planning, commitment and coordination between multiple agencies. There usually are multiple contingency plans in place to deal with immediate traffic control, incident response and field operations during longer-term bridge repair or reconstruction projects. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Francis Scott Key Bridge carries more than 30,000 vehicles daily past the Port of Baltimore, which serves many container ships daily.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are some major challenges of rerouting traffic?</h2>
<p>Bridges are potential choke points in highway networks. When a bridge fails, traffic immediately stops and begins to flow elsewhere, even without a formal detouring plan. Transportation agencies need to build or find excess capacity before a bridge fails, so that the disrupted traffic has alternative routes. </p>
<p>This is usually manageable in major urban areas that have many parallel routes and bridges and built-in redundancy in their road networks. But for rural areas, failure of a major bridge can mean extra hours or even days of travel. </p>
<p>When traffic has to be rerouted off an interstate highway, it can cause safety and access problems. If large trucks are diverted to local streets that were not designed for such vehicles, they may get stuck on railroad tracks or in spaces too small for them to turn around. Heavy trucks can damage roads and bridges with low weight limits, and tall trucks may be too large to fit through low-clearance underpasses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A highway at night, jammed with traffic on one side, the other side empty." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584443/original/file-20240326-30-m7kk1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traffic is jammed on I-10 westbound amid evacuations ahead of Hurricane Delta on Oct. 8, 2020, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/traffic-is-jammed-on-i-10-westbound-amid-evacuations-ahead-news-photo/1279252464">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Successful rerouting requires a lot of coordination between agencies and jurisdictions. They may have to adjust road signal timing to deal with extra cars and changed traffic patterns. Local drivers may need to be directed away from these alternative routes to prevent major congestion. </p>
<p>It’s also important to communicate with navigation apps like <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/about/#!/">Google Maps</a> and <a href="https://www.waze.com/apps/">Waze</a>, which every driver has access to. Route choices that speed up individual trips may cause serious congestion if everyone decides to take the same alternate route and it doesn’t have enough capacity to handle the extra traffic.</p>
<h2>Can these events permanently change commuting and traffic patterns?</h2>
<p>In some cases, yes. Some repairs take months, such as the 2022 crack in the <a href="https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2022-02-21/how-authorities-missed-the-flaw-that-nearly-brought-down-the-i-40-bridge">I-40 Hernando De Soto Bridge</a> across the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee. Others can stretch over years, such as the 2007 collapse of the <a href="https://www.lrl.mn.gov/guides/guides?issue=bridges">I-35W bridge</a> in Minneapolis. Some structures are rebuilt elsewhere, like the <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/marchapril-1998/replacing-oaklands-cypress-freeway">I-880 Cypress Street viaduct</a> in Oakland, California, which collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. </p>
<p>While traffic is disrupted, motorists change their commute patterns or may even switch to other modes, such as buses or commuter rail. But after repairs are completed, even if some commuters don’t return to their old routes, new traffic soon will take advantage of the restored capacity. In the end, it’s hard to tell just by looking at usage whether commuters have changed their travel patterns permanently.</p>
<h2>Will money from the 2021 infrastructure bill reduce the risk of these kinds of events?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, things do fall apart. U.S. infrastructure has been <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/">deteriorating for decades</a>. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association has estimated that <a href="https://artbabridgereport.org/">1 in 3 U.S. bridges need repair</a>. </p>
<p>At the current rate, we are unlikely to catch up to a state of good repair any time soon. But strategic investments like the 2021 infrastructure bill can likely help repair and address critical deterioration concerns for some high-risk bridges, roads, dams and other structures. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This time-lapse video shows crews working around the clock to build a temporary roadway at the site of a collapsed overpass on Interstate 95 in north Philadelphia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Can public transit fill part of the gap?</h2>
<p>Public transit may be able to fill the gap in several ways when key roadway links are destroyed or damaged.</p>
<p>Fixed-route rail transit services, such as Washington, D.C.’s Metro and commuter rail services in Chicago, typically have exclusive rights of way, which let them travel at higher speed than buses on surface streets. They also have high capacity that can be increased by adding more cars to each train or running trains more frequently. </p>
<p>If those systems’ routes are not disrupted due to something like a bridge collapse, they may be able to operate above their normal loads. Drivers can shift to transit as long as their trip origins and destinations are conveniently located near transit stations.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1772554130365550738"}"></div></p>
<p>Bus transit services don’t usually have exclusive rights of way or means to add extra carrying capacity per vehicle. But they have more flexibility to extend the service areas that they cover and connect otherwise non-walkable locales.</p>
<p>Coordinating use of various transit services and creatively adjusting bus lines could address some local travel needs, such as daily commutes and school and shopping trips. But local public transit services struggle to fill longer-distance gaps that extend beyond their service areas.</p>
<p>In major urban areas like Philadelphia that have large populations and have invested a lot in their transit systems, public transit could carry as much as 25% of daily commute trips. But for disruptions outside of major cities, such as a bridge collapse on an interstate highway in a rural area, public transit probably won’t have much of a role.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that public transit services are for moving people. Freight shipments, which rely on trucks and other specialized vehicles, also need to get through or around disrupted zones. This often requires large commercial trucks either to use nearby local streets that weren’t designed for such big, heavy vehicles, or to make long-distance detours. That increases delays, pollution, safety risks and transportation costs that will eventually be passed on to consumers.</p>
<p><em>This is an update of an article originally published on June 29, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee D. Han receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Transportation. </span></em></p>Transportation agencies plan for events like major bridge or highway collapses, but these events can disrupt traffic for months and affect residential neighborhoods as well as motorists.Lee D. Han, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076992023-06-16T12:37:28Z2023-06-16T12:37:28ZThe US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532028/original/file-20230614-21396-ritl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Depleted uranium shells will equip M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, also from the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/wEMMNV">Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw, USMC/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Biden administration has agreed to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-set-to-approve-depleted-uranium-tank-rounds-for-ukraine-f6d98dcf">provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells</a> to equip M1A1 Abrams tanks that the U.S. is sending there. Britain has already delivered tanks to Ukraine equipped with depleted-uranium shells.</em></p>
<p><em>DU munitions, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium">developed in the 1970s</a>, are not nuclear weapons and do not produce a nuclear explosion. But soldiers or civilians can be exposed to the uranium, either in combat or afterward. Health physicist <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathryn-Higley">Kathryn Higley</a> explains what depleted uranium is and what’s known about potential health and environmental risks.</em></p>
<h2>What is depleted uranium?</h2>
<p>Uranium, symbolized by the letter U, is a naturally occurring element that is radioactive. Natural uranium is composed primarily of three isotopes: U-234, U-235 and U-238. </p>
<p>These isotopes are all uranium and have the same chemical characteristics, but they have slightly different masses, as indicated by the numbers 234, 235 and 238. Depleted uranium is mainly U-238, with small amounts of other isotopes, including U-235. </p>
<p>The isotope U-235 <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/fissile-material.html">is fissile</a>, which means that it can be split in a reaction that releases a lot of energy. U-235 in fairly low concentrations is used as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors; in high concentrations, it can power nuclear weapons. </p>
<p>Engineers use <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-enrichment.html">a process called enrichment</a> to extract U-235 from natural uranium ore. What’s left over after this process removes some of the U-235 is called depleted uranium. </p>
<p>All uranium is radioactive, and each isotope <a href="https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management/depleted-uranium">has its own unique half-life</a>. U-238, the most abundant naturally occurring isotope, constitutes about 99.27% of all natural uranium. It takes approximately 4.5 billion years – roughly the life of the Earth – for half of a given quantity of uranium-238 to decay into other elements. U-235 has a half life of about 700 million years and represents about 0.72% of natural uranium. </p>
<p>Depleted uranium is <a href="https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management/depleted-uranium">about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium</a>. All isotopes of uranium decay over time, emitting both radiation and energetic particles and transforming into different chemical elements. In this process, they produce specific isotopes of other radioactive elements such as thorium, protactinium and radium.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KiJQSIrIIio?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Depleted uranium tank shells are extremely hard and dense and can penetrate the walls of Russian tanks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why is depleted uranium used in munitions?</h2>
<p>Depleted uranium can be manufactured into a very dense material – <a href="https://hps.org/documents/dufactsheet.pdf">about 1.7 times more dense than lead</a>. This gives it some desirable characteristics in munitions.</p>
<p>Because DU is a byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle, plenty of it is readily available. Formed into a projectile, such as a bullet or shell, its high density helps the munition penetrate into a target. Advanced tanks use DU in their armor to protect against armor-piercing munitions.</p>
<p>DU’s density also gives the munition a higher momentum, which enables it to push through materials. Once the munition penetrates a target, it may fragment into smaller pieces and ignite, <a href="https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/depleted-uranium/penetrators.html">causing further damage</a>. </p>
<h2>Where have depleted uranium munitions been used?</h2>
<p>Depleted uranium munitions have been used in the Gulf War in 1990-1991, the Kosovo conflict in the Balkans in 1998-1999 and in U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the U.S. and the U.K., Russia, France and China are known to have DU munitions in their arsenals, and other <a href="https://www.icbuw.eu/depleted-uranium-weapons-state-of-affairs-2022/">countries may be importing them</a>. </p>
<p>DU also has nonmilitary applications. Its high density makes it useful for stopping radiation in medical, research and nuclear facilities. It can also be used as ballast to balance weight and provide stability in ships and aircraft. </p>
<p>The alpha radiation that DU emits is not strong enough to penetrate human skin, so <a href="https://www.webmd.com/health-insurance/what-to-know-depleted-uranium-exposure-veterans">just being near depleted uranium is not a health risk</a>. But it may become a health hazard if it is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium">ingested or inhaled</a>, or shrapnel fragments are <a href="https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/toxic_fragments/index.asp">retained in the body</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A row of munitions with pointed tips" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Army 25 mm rounds of depleted uranium ammunition, photographed Feb. 11, 2004, in Tikrit, Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/row-of-us-army-25mm-rounds-of-depleted-uranium-ammunition-news-photo/2973518">Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Will these munitions create health or environmental risks on Ukrainian soil?</h2>
<p>Numerous studies have investigated the <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/66930/W?sequence=1">potential health effects</a> of <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1106087.pdf">exposure to depleted uranium</a>. They include health studies of soldiers hit by DU shrapnel, and biomonitoring – collecting samples of urine, feces, fingernail clippings and hair from exposed individuals. Investigations have included reviews of military personnel exposed <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11979/review-of-the-toxicologic-and-radiologic-risks-to-military-personnel-from-exposures-to-depleted-uranium-during-and-after-combat">during and after combat</a>.</p>
<p>Some studies have observed uranium above natural concentrations in samples collected from soldiers serving in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Afghanistan who had embedded DU fragments in their bodies. In other instances, researchers studying <a href="https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp">Gulf War Illness</a> in veterans did not find a difference in uranium concentrations in urine between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82535-3">exposed and unexposed groups</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Administration started monitoring service members for DU exposure during the Gulf War, and this program is still running. So far, the agencies have not observed adverse clinical effects <a href="https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Health-Readiness/Environmental-Exposures/Depleted-Uranium/Effects-and-Exposures/Health-Effects">related to documented exposures</a>.</p>
<p>Fragments and much smaller particles from exploded DU munitions can remain in soil long after conflicts end. This has raised concerns about possible radiation or toxic threats to people who come across these materials, such as local residents or peacekeeping forces. In general, studies of people who were inadvertently exposed to battlefield remnants of depleted uranium munitions show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.03.024">low radiation doses</a> and <a href="https://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/pub1164_web.pdf">low levels of chemical exposure</a> that were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500551">generally indistinguishable from background level</a>. </p>
<p>In terms of environmental impacts, the scientific literature is largely silent on the extent to which plants or animals can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.106077">absorb DU from munition fragments</a>, although laboratory studies indicate that this is possible. Researchers and health professionals agree that very high levels of uranium, depleted or otherwise, may cause chemical toxicity in plants – but if this were to happen, it would likely be in the immediate vicinity <a href="https://doi.org/10.2172/4296157">where the munitions exploded</a>. Scientists continue to examine how DU particles behave in the environment, in order to improve our ability to predict <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.106077">long-term environmental effects</a>.</p>
<p>It’s already clear that large areas of Ukraine’s territory will contain the residues of conflict, including <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230221-the-toxic-legacy-of-the-ukraine-war">weapon fragments, spilled fuels and explosive residues</a>, long after the fighting there ends. The U.S. and U.K. governments clearly believe that providing DU munitions will improve Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian tanks and bring this conflict to an end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Higley receives / has received funding from U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Vanderbilt University. She is affiliated with the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Nuclear Energy Agency. </span></em></p>Depleted uranium munitions are bad news for enemy tanks, but are not nuclear weapons, and studies have shown that they pose low risks of radiation or chemical exposure.Kathryn Higley, Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074822023-06-12T11:49:48Z2023-06-12T11:49:48Z‘If you want to die in jail, keep talking’ – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531249/original/file-20230611-23-dl1h4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2953%2C1921&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-president-donald-trump-speaks-to-staff-and-reporters-news-photo/1258608437?adppopup=true">Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Lawyer Thomas A. Durkin has spent much of his career working in <a href="https://www.luc.edu/law/faculty/facultyandadministrationprofiles/durkin-thomas.shtml">national security law</a>, representing clients in a variety of national security and domestic terrorism matters. <a href="https://www.luc.edu/law/faculty/facultyandadministrationprofiles/ferguson-joseph.shtml">Joseph Ferguson</a> was a national security prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where Durkin was also a prosecutor. Both teach national security law at Loyola University, Chicago. The Conversation U.S.’s democracy editor, Naomi Schalit, spoke with the two attorneys about <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23839628-trump-indictment">the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump</a> on Espionage Act and other charges related to his retention of national security-related classified documents.</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republicans-repeat-trumps-claim-doj-weaponization-after-2nd/story?id=99963397">The word “weaponized”</a> has been <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-magnifies-attacks-justice-department-post-charges-speech-2023-06-10/">used by Trump</a>, his supporters and even his GOP rivals to describe the Department of Justice. Do you see the Trump prosecution as different in any notable way from other Espionage Act prosecutions that you’ve worked on or observed?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: Obviously, it’s different because of who the defendant is. But I see it in kind of an opposite way: If Trump were anyone other than a former president, he would not have been given the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/reality-winner-nsa-sentence.html">luxury of a summons to appear in court</a>. There would be a team of armed FBI agents outside his door at 6:30 in the morning, he would have been arrested and the government would be immediately moving to detain. So the idea that he’s being treated differently is true – but not from the way his supporters seem to be arguing. </p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: What you have is a method, manner and means of pursuing this matter and bringing it forward to indictment that actually completely comports with the deepest traditions and standards of the Department of Justice, which would normally consider all contexts and the best interests of society. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark haired man with a bear approaching a lectern." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531252/original/file-20230611-150540-ts7ejl.jpeg?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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Special Counsel Jack Smith briefly discussed the Trump indictment on June 9, 2023, in Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/special-counsel-jack-smith-makes-a-statement-from-the-news-photo/1258577211?adppopup=true">Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><strong>If Trump were your client, what would you advise him to do?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: The first thing I would do is show him a guidelines memo, which we typically create for every client to help them understand the potential consequences of the charges. Under the <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2023/06/qa-on-trumps-federal-indictment/">U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the consequences for Trump under this indictment are serious</a>. My quick calculations indicate that you’re talking about 51 to 63 months in the best case and in the worst case, which I’m not sure would apply, 210 to 262 months. </p>
<p>Whether he wants to roll heavy dice, that’s up to him. But those are very heavy dice. </p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: I might pull media statements that he has made in the last couple years and explain to him how they have complicated the ability to defend him. I’d put on the table to him that I need to see every statement that he is going to make in the political realm about this before he makes it. I’d tell him he’s otherwise basically hanging himself. </p>
<p>I’d tell him: If you want to die in jail, keep talking. But if you want to try to figure out a way that brings about an acceptable resolution - a plea deal that opens the door to a lighter jail sentence than what the guidelines threaten and, possibly, even no jail time – you need to turn it down or at least have it screened by your lawyers. </p>
<p><strong>Are there specific things he might say between now and a trial that could deepen his trouble?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: No question about that. And people should understand that the things that he said already are being used as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23839628-trump-indictment">evidence of intent</a>. From now on, the repetition of them constitutes new admissible evidence. It’s not like, “Oh, I’ve already said it, so I might as well keep saying it.” </p>
<p>That does not mean that he cannot offer the broad brush characterization, “I’m being wronged. This is the weaponization of law enforcement and the justice system against me, and I will be vindicated,” however imprudent I might think that was. But anything that goes beyond that, and into the actual particulars, referencing the documents themselves, will just make it worse. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pile of pages from an indictment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531253/original/file-20230611-25-wqcduw.jpeg?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">Pages from the unsealed federal indictment of former President Donald Trump on 37 felony counts in the classified documents probe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photo-illustration-pages-are-viewed-from-the-news-photo/1258567425?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><strong>The Trump indictment provides <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/09/trump-indictment-takeaways-00101376">extensive details</a> of what was said and done. Do you take those as true, or as allegations that need to be proved?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: Both. They are technically the allegations that need to be proven, but when you’re speaking at that level of granularity, these are things that actually exist in proof, the proof that is to come. </p>
<p>The government basically raises the bar when it provides this form of granularity. The federal government is a risk-averse enterprise when it comes to these matters, so nothing is put in the indictment unless it exists in actual fact.</p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: If you’re defending someone, you treat the allegations as true.</p>
<p><strong>Can you imagine a situation with all of the facts laid out in this indictment but where they would not indict?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: No.</p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: That’s why we both say that in fundamental respects, this isn’t different from other national security cases. These cases work from the premise that this is a fundamental compromising of the interests of the United States. And those are the cases that the government pursues tooth and nail. With so much in the public domain, and with so much of the defendant himself speaking to all of this, it almost puts the government in a position of saying, “Well, OK, if we have to, here we go.”</p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: There’s only one reason the government could not bring this case, and that’s fear of violence or an attack on the republic. Once you do that, then you might as well close the Department of Justice and forget about any rule of law. </p>
<p><strong>Trump knows a lot of state secrets. An angry Trump in prison has risks. If he were found guilty, what does incarceration look like for him?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: I can tell you what it would mean to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-espionage-act-what-might-it-mean-donald-trump-2023-06-11/">anyone else</a>. They’d be put in a hole in the wall in <a href="https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/flm/">maximum security at Florence, Colorado</a>, and they would apply what’s called “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-24000-requests-special-confinement-conditions">Special Administrative Measures</a>.” Several of my terrorism clients have had those imposed on them. There’s a microphone outside their solitary confinement to monitor anything that they say, even between prisoners. Their mail is extremely limited. Their telephone contact is extremely limited. And that’s what would happen to anyone else similarly situated. </p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: Trump’s insistence on keeping talking about this creates a record that would justify isolation in maximum security on the basis that “We can’t trust this man not to continue to talk. We can’t trust him not to further share these secrets with people who may wish to do harm with them. The only way to avoid that is to put him in isolation in supermax where he doesn’t get to talk with people, except under these extremely closely monitored circumstances, certainly isn’t in a general population situation, gets to take a walk in a courtyard for one hour out of the 24 hours of the day, and the other 23 hours, leaving him mostly without human contact.”</p>
<p><strong>Is there a specific line he could cross that would force the government to seek to detain him prior to trial?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Durkin</strong>: I predict that if he keeps it up, and especially if he keeps suggesting or threatening violence, that the government will be put in a position where they don’t have a choice but to try to move to detain him. In the real world, that’s what would happen if it was anybody but him. Normally, you can’t be threatening this type of stuff without being put in detention. </p>
<p><strong>Ferguson</strong>: The smart play here would be for a judge to put him under a gag order that instructs him on what he may and may not say publicly. That’s already been done by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177644144/trump-stormy-daniels-judge-new-york-hush-money-case-carroll">a New York judge in the other pending criminal case</a> against Trump. This would be a complicated exercise in balancing First Amendment rights with national security interests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you were Trump’s lawyer, what would you advise him to do now? Two national security specialists have some words for and about the former president after his federal indictment.Thomas A. Durkin, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Loyola University ChicagoJoseph Ferguson, Co-Director, National Security and Civil Rights Program, Loyola University ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071642023-06-08T12:30:43Z2023-06-08T12:30:43ZWill faster federal reviews speed up the clean energy shift? Two legal scholars explain what the National Environmental Policy Act does and doesn’t do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530445/original/file-20230606-19-c60dar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2396%2C1589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NEPA requires federal agencies to analyze environmental impacts of projects like interstate highway construction.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/big-dig-workers-work-in-the-area-of-ft-point-on-the-route-news-photo/114791218">John Bohn/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The National Environmental Policy Act, enacted in 1970, is widely viewed as a <a href="https://www.eli.org/land-biodiversity/national-environmental-policy-act-nepa">keystone U.S. environmental law</a>. For any major federal action that affects the environment, such as building an interstate highway or licensing a nuclear power plant, NEPA requires relevant agencies to analyze environmental impacts, consider reasonable alternatives and accept public input. It also allows citizens to sue if they believe government has not complied.</em> </p>
<p><em>Critics argue that NEPA reviews <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/reform-of-the-national-environmental-policy-act/">delay projects and drive up costs</a>. In May 2023 negotiations over raising the federal debt ceiling, President Joe Biden agreed to certain <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/05/28/background-press-call-on-the-bipartisan-budget-agreement/">changes to NEPA reviews</a>, which both the White House and congressional Republicans said would streamline permitting for infrastructure projects. Legal scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x0K9avIAAAAJ&hl=en">J.B. Ruhl</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qD5L-u0AAAAJ&hl=en">James Salzman</a> explain these changes and what they mean for protecting the environment and expanding clean energy production.</em></p>
<h2>What kinds of projects typically require NEPA reviews?</h2>
<p>The statutory text of NEPA is quite sparse and open-ended. When people speak of what NEPA requires, they really are talking about how the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/">Council on Environmental Quality</a>, or CEQ, federal agencies and the courts have implemented the law over the past 50 years. </p>
<p>The simple requirement is for agencies to create a detailed statement on the impacts of any major federal action that significantly affects the environment. A whole body of law and policy creates filters that sort projects into different NEPA buckets. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E5YQ0ZvA-rQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">NEPA requires all federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of their major actions, consider alternatives and receive public comment.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, only projects that will be carried out, funded or authorized by a federal agency are subject to NEPA. That’s a pretty big universe, but it also excludes a lot. For example, a wind farm built on private land by a private utility might not require any federal funding or approval. That means it wouldn’t be subject to NEPA. </p>
<p>If a project is subject to NEPA, the federal agency that has primary oversight assesses its impacts to decide how much analysis is needed. Many agencies use a classification known as <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/nepa-practice/categorical-exclusions.html">categorical exclusions</a> to winnow out minor actions that they know have no significant impacts, either individually or cumulatively. For example, the Interior Department categorically excludes planned burns to clear brush on <a href="https://bianepatracker2.doi.gov/doi_and_bureau_categorical_exclusions.pdf">areas smaller than 4,500 acres</a>. </p>
<p>If the expected impacts are more extensive, but it’s not clear by how much, the agency can prepare an environmental assessment. If that assessment finds the impacts to the human environment will not be significant, that’s the end of the NEPA process. </p>
<p>If the impacts are significant, the agency will prepare a <a href="https://cdxapps.epa.gov/cdx-enepa-II/public/action/eis/search;jsessionid=A75C26C6A17A75907053FA67AC41B7AE?search=&__fsk=2062199394#results">full-blown environmental impact statement</a>, or EIS, which is a far more intensive process. <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/laws-regulations/regulations.html">CEQ guidelines</a> establish an elaborate template of topics agencies must evaluate, and the public has opportunities to comment on a draft version. </p>
<p>A CEQ review of EISs prepared by all federal agencies from 2010 through 2018 found that, on average, it took <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/nepa-practice/CEQ_EIS_Timeline_Report_2020-6-12.pdf">about four and a half years</a> to issue an EIS, not including added time if someone sued. The lengths of these reviews ranged widely but <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/nepa-practice/CEQ_EIS_Length_Report_2020-6-12.pdf">averaged 575 pages</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Flow chart showing numerous steps in the NEPA process." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&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 schematic of the NEPA process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/agency/nepa/process.html">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If an agency conducts lots of the same actions under a particular program, such as timber leasing on federal land, it might conduct a high-level programmatic EIS to cover the large-scale issues and then follow up with individual NEPA analyses for specific projects. </p>
<p>Decisions not to issue an EIS can be challenged in court. So can the EIS itself if critics believe that it’s inadequate.</p>
<h2>What are NEPA critics’ central arguments?</h2>
<p>Critiques of NEPA come from many different interests. The law mainly affects land development, industry and resource extraction activities such as logging, mining and drilling for oil and gas, particularly on federal public lands. </p>
<p>NEPA requires an impact assessment, but it doesn’t prescribe any particular outcome. Still, it unquestionably can add substantial time and cost to any significant project. If a project is controversial, interested parties can submit public comments that get their views on the record. If opponents aren’t happy with the final EIS, they can sue the agency responsible for the decision in federal court. </p>
<p>Between agency review and litigation, NEPA can add many years to a project’s development timeline before it is “shovel ready.” For example, it takes <a href="https://www.perc.org/2022/06/14/does-environmental-review-worsen-the-wildfire-crisis/">roughly four to seven years</a> to complete environmental reviews for prescribed burns that the U.S. Forest Service carries out to reduce wildfire risks.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1651944242137145344"}"></div></p>
<p>Supporters argue that NEPA reviews have <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/never-eliminate-public-advice-nepa-success-stories">avoided many bad decisions</a>. In our view, the NEPA process is an important feature of the country’s stewardship of its natural resources. But we also share the growing concern that it can be used to <a href="https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1654456917081595905">delay building renewable energy infrastructure</a> that the U.S. urgently needs to mitigate climate change. </p>
<h2>Did the debt ceiling agreement significantly change the NEPA process?</h2>
<p>Many of the changes are little more than tweaks. Others codify long-standing practices based on how the Council on Environmental Quality, agencies and courts implement the law. </p>
<p>One notable change is requiring a single lead agency and a single environmental impact statement for projects, even when those projects require multiple agency approvals. There also are some new time and page limits. For example, environmental impact statements will be required to be completed within two years and be no more that 150 pages long for most projects, and 300 pages for the most complex projects. </p>
<p>There also are some changes to definitions, such as what constitutes a “major federal action,” that narrow NEPA’s scope to some degree, although it will take time to sort out their meaning. Overall, we do not see these changes as a major overhaul of NEPA. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dredge deposits crushed shells off a floating platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.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 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers places crushed shells in Maryland’s Tred Avon River as part of efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s historic oyster reefs. After a 2009 NEPA review spotlighted risks associated with the proposed use of disease-resistant imported Chinese oysters, native oysters were used instead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/QosdpW">Sean Fritzges, U.S. Army/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Will the changes speed up work on clean energy systems?</h2>
<p>Maybe, but not nearly as much as needed. First, NEPA applies to projects that need federal funding or approval, such as under the Endangered Species Act. Getting that money or agency green light can also involve delays and litigation independent of the NEPA review.</p>
<p>Second, many state and local laws can affect large renewable energy projects, and those statutes can also be used to slow projects down. The bottom line is that to move the needle, politicians will have to do more to reform the project review process.</p>
<p>The debt ceiling agreement left several big questions unaddressed. They include <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-needs-a-macrogrid-to-move-electricity-from-areas-that-make-it-to-areas-that-need-it-155938">where to build high-voltage electric transmission lines</a>; which <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-outlines-roadmap-continued-renewable-energy-progress-public-lands">federal public lands and offshore waters</a> can be used for power lines and renewable power production; and where to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-worried-about-its-critical-minerals-supply-chains-essential-for-electric-vehicles-wind-power-and-the-nations-defense-157465">mine for essential minerals</a>.
Beyond those immediate priorities, if carbon sequestration technology can be developed and scaled up, the U.S. will need an enormous <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage-epas-new-power-plant-standards-proposal-gives-it-a-boost-but-ccs-is-not-a-quick-solution-205462">buildout of carbon capture and storage infrastructure</a> to meet net-zero goals. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e0yWihp9RGg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As renewable energy scales up in the U.S., local opposition could impede some utility-scale projects.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of these involve incredibly complex permitting processes, and tweaking NEPA won’t change that. Other hot-button issues – including federal preemption of state and local laws, impacts on Native American cultural lands, and environmental justice – will make further permitting reforms politically difficult. </p>
<p>Even this first small measure was hotly contested, and happened now only because it was tied to the debt limit legislation. As the inclusion of federal approval for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/31/debt-deal-mountain-valley-pipeline/">Mountain Valley gas pipeline</a> in the debt ceiling agreement shows, in politics you need a quid in exchange for a quo. We expect to see a lot more deal-making if Congress takes permitting reform seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J.B. Ruhl is Of Counsel to Smith-Robertson, a law firm located in Austin, Texas that occasionally provides Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and other environmental compliance counseling to infrastructure development projects, including wind power production facilities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Salzman serves on the board of the Environmental Defense Center, an environmental advocacy group on the central coast of California.</span></em></p>Do environmental reviews improve projects or delay them and drive up costs? Two legal scholars explain how the law works and how it could influence the ongoing transition to renewable energy.J.B. Ruhl, Professor of Law, Director, Program on Law and Innovation, and Co-director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt UniversityJames Salzman, Professor of Environmental Law, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047562023-05-22T20:05:48Z2023-05-22T20:05:48ZStan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?<p>This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. </p>
<p>“I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. </p>
<p>Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life.</p>
<p>Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. </p>
<p>Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him.</p>
<p>“This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.”</p>
<p>He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe?</p>
<h2>The death of the white queen</h2>
<p>In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. </p>
<p>Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. </p>
<p>Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. </p>
<p>History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">The End of History: Francis Fukuyama's controversial idea explained</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. </p>
<p>Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. </p>
<p>And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring.</p>
<p>Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">Racism is real, race is not: a philosopher's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2>
<p>In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. </p>
<p>The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants.</p>
<p>In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. </p>
<p>In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2>
<p>In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. </p>
<p>Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. </p>
<p>The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. </p>
<p>The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. </p>
<p>In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. </p>
<p>The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. </p>
<p>In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. </p>
<p>And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Norman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stan Grant’s new book, The Queen is Dead, is revealing in terms of his decision to step down from public life. ‘I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,’ he writes.Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031002023-04-04T12:19:38Z2023-04-04T12:19:38ZHow the indictment of Donald Trump is a ‘strange and different’ event for America, according to political scientists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518856/original/file-20230401-26-vgxsr6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6002%2C4001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It was big news when a grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/newspaper-front-pages-with-former-us-president-donald-trump-news-photo/1250118227?adppopup=true">Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-indictment-wont-keep-him-from-presidential-race-but-will-make-his-reelection-bid-much-harder-197677">indictment of a former president</a> of the United States, Donald Trump, is history happening in real time. The Conversation asked political scientists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FlYT3TEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">James D. Long</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=W54pBFgAAAAJ">Victor Menaldo</a>, both at the University of Washington, to help readers understand the meaning of this moment in the U.S. The two scholars have written about the lessons other democracies can teach the U.S. about <a href="https://theconversation.com/prosecuting-a-president-is-divisive-and-sometimes-destabilizing-heres-why-many-countries-do-it-anyway-188565">prosecuting a president</a> and provide the context for Trump’s arraignment in a Manhattan courthouse.</em> </p>
<h2>What was the first thing you thought when you heard that the grand jury voted to indict Trump?</h2>
<p><strong>James Long</strong>: The first thought I had was about the grand jury, and how much work it is to be on a grand jury. It becomes a part-time job. And how wonderful that we live in a country where that’s how these things are decided. Twenty-three people performed this service that is so critical to the functioning of our country and our democracy. They do it not just for Donald Trump’s case, but for many types of cases. There was something very touching about it.</p>
<p>The strength of our legal system is the thing that makes me proud. What makes me sad is that we’re in this situation. If you think about all the battles that have been fought to make our democracy better, stronger and more inclusive over more than 200 years – we’re now at a place where someone has threatened that to pursue their own interests. That’s just a sad thing to have to experience as a country. I’m glad that we’re going through it following the rule of law, as opposed to fighting it out as a political matter in the streets or fighting a war or something else disastrous, as other countries have done.</p>
<p><strong>Victor Menaldo</strong>: I thought of cases that are similar, analogs in other parts of the world. Prime Minister <a href="https://theconversation.com/prosecuting-ex-presidents-for-corruption-is-trending-worldwide-but-its-not-always-great-for-democracy-156931">Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel</a> came to mind. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-evo-morales-bolivia-50747531a0c6a757cd5f423ccf8e84d5">Evo Morales in Bolivia</a> came to mind. A <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190321-brazil-fall-three-former-presidents">bunch of Brazilian former presidents</a> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/31/lula-looks-to-restore-brazils-tarnished-global-stature">came to mind</a> – the past four, in fact – who went through different stages of prosecution or impeachment, or some were arrested, some spent time in jail.</p>
<p>I also thought about the politics and how Trump might continue down the path he’s been on – getting folks inflamed and throwing fireballs and muddying the waters. How far will he go, and what purposes will that serve – maybe intimidating judges, witnesses and juries and the like – in terms of bolstering his campaign?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark suit and white shirt holds an upturned fist." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518862/original/file-20230401-28-kvtf32.jpeg?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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump after speaking during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-u-s-president-donald-trump-prepares-to-depart-after-news-photo/1476375191?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can this indictment do to America?</h2>
<p><strong>James Long</strong>: My generation lived through <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/legacy/Clinton-Lewinsky-story.pdf">President Bill Clinton’s impeachment</a>. As I’ve grown older, I’ve seen other things that other presidents have gotten away with. So I probably thought the indictment would not have been that surprising. </p>
<p>Yet the indictment is shocking to me now. It’s also just shocking in the sense that Trump has spent his entire life in litigation and either getting away with stuff or not, but never being potentially held at a personal level legally liable in a criminal matter – although he does still have the presumption of innocence. It was very shocking to me to think that this has finally happened – like, this really is strange and different.</p>
<p><strong>Victor Menaldo</strong>: I tend to see the U.S. as less exceptional these days, at least politically, because of Trump. The various <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-investigations-civil-criminal.html">investigations of Trump</a>, and now the indictment, are less surprising than they might have been at one time. Americans had anticipated that a shoe would drop eventually, and this indictment was the shoe, or one of the first shoes. It was bound to happen, because Trump has been pushing the envelope for so long.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarianism-and-the-elite-origins-of-democracy/29C0246C5474CBC5184B2967AD4206ED">co-authored a book in 2018</a> with <a href="https://political-science.uchicago.edu/directory/michael-albertus">Michael Albertus</a>. Our fundamental premise was that the fear of prosecution drives a lot of politics, across countries and across time. It’s basic to whether you’ll have a democracy or whether the democracy will weaken. </p>
<p>So if you’re afraid of prosecution, you might, if you’re a dictator, prevent democracy at all costs. If you were very nasty, you’d make sure that democracy doesn’t happen or that it happens on your terms, because if it happens on someone else’s terms, you’re going to end up in a prison. You’re going to try to craft a system where the judiciary is beholden to you so you don’t get in any trouble.</p>
<p>My other thought is, thank goodness that this happened once Trump was out of power. You don’t control the machinery of government when you’re out of power. You don’t control the Justice Department. Your power is weak politically, even though Trump is the putative <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/30/trump-indictment-republicans-rally/">leader of the Republican Party</a> and <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2024-gop-primary-election-tracker/">front-runner in the GOP</a> for the 2024 nomination. But he lacks the cachet he once had and he lacks the powers he would otherwise use to cause much damage. That gives me optimism that this prosecution might not be as existential to our system as it would have been, let’s say, when he was still in power.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a a white T-shirt setting up a metal barricade in front of a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518861/original/file-20230401-28-bpbu79.jpeg?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">New York Police Department workers set up barricades outside the offices of the Manhattan district attorney on April 1, 2023, in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-with-the-nypd-set-up-barricades-outside-the-offices-news-photo/1250351591?adppopup=true">Kena Betancur/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Are the arrest and booking symbolically important in the grand story of Trump and America?</h2>
<p><strong>James Long</strong>: Certainly. I think that is going to be the image that is next to his obituary – a former president’s mug shot.</p>
<p>I believe that Trump’s political stock has declined every day since he’s left office. I think he thinks this prosecution will help him, and it might short term. I think he’s going to try to use that image, much like Jesus on the cross, to say, essentially, “Here I am being martyred at the hands of a Democratic DA in a Democratic state among a grand jury probably made up of citizens who are all Democrats out to get me, and a judge out to get me!”</p>
<p>That mug shot might be an image he’s going to exploit, but ultimately, I believe it’s going to be embarrassing to him. I don’t think moderate Republicans will vote for somebody who is being prosecuted. I think they’re going to shop around. The <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/2024-state-primary-election-dates">first primary is a little less than a year</a> away. There’s a long time for the Republicans to politically realign themselves behind another candidate.</p>
<p><strong>Victor Menaldo</strong>: Trump’s best move, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/">according to his theory of the world</a>, is to be a martyr and to weaponize the symbolism of a former president being indicted and claim it’s totally politicized.</p>
<p>I would say that anyone who cares about the rule of law in general, Democrats and the folks in these judicial proceedings, in particular, they have to be very careful not to reinforce that weaponization narrative there. I believe the prosecutors will probably do unconventional things and treat Trump differently from your typical defendant. They’ll reduce the odds that there is going to be some mug shot that goes viral, they won’t cuff him, won’t do the perp walk. They’ll treat him with respect and dignity. </p>
<p>How they handle his arraignment is going to be a fascinating game to observe – how to lower the profile of that moment. Their best strategy would be to play it down and try to uphold the dignity of the office or former office. Trump’s best move is to say this prosecution is weaponization of the legal system, milk the idea he’s being persecuted for all it’s worth and some of that will probably stick with his core supporters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the first time, a former US president has been indicted, and two scholars describe what it means for democracy – and for them.James D. Long, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of WashingtonVictor Menaldo, Professor of Political Science, Co-founder of the Political Economy Forum, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1960922023-01-17T13:33:37Z2023-01-17T13:33:37ZNew Israeli power broker seeks to rewrite history to justify violence against Palestinians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504054/original/file-20230111-32622-gmqh9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C8556%2C5717&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Right-wing Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has a long history of anti-Palestinian efforts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPoliticsUndoingProgress/f99f718548a1496da9e2cc880294717b/photo">AP Photo/Oded Balilty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A right-wing Israeli politician is trying to recast a key part of American history.</em></p>
<p><em>That’s not a usual subject for an Israeli Cabinet member. But Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and the international community. A rewrite of American history could help him do it.</em></p>
<p><em>In a November 2022 speech in Jerusalem after the recent Israeli elections, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-25/ty-article/.premium/likud-and-otzma-yehudit-sign-agreement-giving-ben-gvir-public-security-ministry/00000184-ad14-dd96-ad8c-efbc35f60000">Ben-Gvir</a> memorialized <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179339/meir-kahane">Rabbi Meir Kahane</a>, an ultranationalist leader from the U.S. who moved to Israel and was both elected to Israel’s Parliament and convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990. Ben-Gvir declared that Kahane and his followers saved Jews from the Soviet Union’s antisemitism during the 1970s and 1980s.</em></p>
<p><em>Kahane is best known in the U.S. as the founder of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/jewish-defense-league">Jewish Defense League</a>, which was originally headquartered in New York City. From the 1960s through about 2001, this group was responsible for numerous terrorist and racist attacks against African Americans, Muslims, Jewish academics and public figures, as well as foreign diplomats.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked Curtis Hutt, the executive director of the <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/goldstein-center-for-human-rights/index.php">Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights</a> at the University of Nebraska Omaha – an academic unit supported by donors who fought to free Soviet Jewry – to review Ben-Gvir’s claim and his motivations.</em></p>
<h2>Who is this person?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/11/03/who-is-itamar-ben-gvir-israels-kingmaker">Itamar Ben-Gvir</a> is a newly elected member of the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature. He has also been <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-25/ty-article/.premium/likud-and-otzma-yehudit-sign-agreement-giving-ben-gvir-public-security-ministry/00000184-ad14-dd96-ad8c-efbc35f60000">appointed national security minister</a> in the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who in December 2022 again became Israel’s prime minister, a post he previously held from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.</p>
<p>Ben-Gvir is a longtime supporter of Israeli Kahanist movements fighting for a theocratic Jewish state. The members of those movements support Israeli dominion over the territory they call “greater Israel,” which includes not only present-day Israel but also the Palestinian territories. </p>
<h2>What role and power does he have in the Israeli government?</h2>
<p>Ben-Gvir is a critical part of the Knesset’s majority coalition led by Netanyahu.
As the new minister of national security with an expanded portfolio, he is now in charge of Israel’s police and border police in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. </p>
<p>Other members of the political party he leads, Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power,” now hold ministry positions charged with expanding Jewish development in the Galilee and Negev regions, as well as overseeing cultural and religious heritage. </p>
<h2>What constituencies does he represent?</h2>
<p>In 1971, Kahane came to Israel from the U.S. and founded the <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/israeli-elections-and-parties/parties/kach/">Kach Party</a> to bring his views to the voting public, but it was disqualified from participating in electoral politics in 1987 when changes to Israeli law banned groups that incited racism.</p>
<p>In 1994, Kach member Baruch Goldstein, who had also been a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170706170942/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/25/newsid_4167000/4167929.stm">member of the Jewish Defense League</a>, massacred 29 Muslim worshippers in a mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As a result, both Israel and the U.S. declared Kach to be a terrorist organization.</p>
<p>In 2007, Ben-Gvir was <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel/ben-gvir-convicted-of-inciting-to-racism">convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization</a> – Kach. He also once had a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221027-israel-s-far-right-leader-ben-gvir-wins-adoring-young-fans">portrait of Goldstein</a> hanging in his living room.</p>
<p>In the 2009 election that brought Netanyahu back into power from the opposition, Kahanist disciple <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/otzma-party-is-dangerous-i-know-because-i-banned-its-leader-from-the-us-581759">Michael Ben-Ari</a> was elected to the Knesset for the first time. Four years later, he formed a new Kahanist party, Otzma Yehudit, which didn’t win any Knesset seats in the 2013 elections. In 2019, Ben-Ari was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/18/israel-top-court-bans-jewish-powers-michael-ben-ari-from-polls">banned from running for public office</a> because of his alleged extremist activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man points toward another man as they are separated by police officers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504283/original/file-20230112-21-5qrxw5.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">In the Palestinian-dominated Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir, center, with arm extended, argues with demonstrators objecting to forced evictions of Palestinian residents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-jerusalem-right-wing-knesset-member-itamar-news-photo/1232806654">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At that time, Ben-Gvir, who was seen as <a href="https://tomerpersicoenglish.wordpress.com/2022/08/30/ben-gvir-and-the-danger-of-kahanism-in-israel/">being more moderate</a> and more politically skilled than Ben-Ari, took over party leadership.</p>
<p>In 2022, an alliance between Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2019-01-15/ty-article/.premium/radical-settler-proud-homophobe-and-wunderkind-new-leader-of-israels-far-right/0000017f-e499-d7b2-a77f-e79fce7e0000">Bezalel Smotrich</a>’s messianic Religious Nationalists resulted in their candidates’ winning 15 Knesset seats, becoming the third-largest political bloc in Israel and Netanyahu’s primary coalition partner. </p>
<p>Ben-Gvir’s position as co-leader of this extreme right-wing alliance is so strong that his agreement to join Netanyahu’s coalition government includes a commitment to remove the clause in Israel’s Basic Law disqualifying a person from serving in the Knesset <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-netanyahu-said-planning-end-to-ban-on-mks-who-are-racist-reject-democracy/">for inciting racism</a> – for which Kahane was first banned, and of which Ben-Gvir has also been convicted. </p>
<h2>What is Ben-Gvir saying about Rabbi Kahane and his activity?</h2>
<p>In his November 2022 speech in honor of Kahane, Ben-Gvir credited Kahane and the Jewish Defense League for leading the successful fight against antisemitism and, specifically, in freeing Jews from the USSR. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, it was extremely difficult for Soviet citizens to leave the country. This put religious minorities like Jews, Protestants and Roman Catholics – all of whom were persecuted by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz047">atheist regime</a> – at great risk. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jewish communities across the U.S. <a href="https://ajhs.org/holdings/archive-of-the-american-soviet-jewry-movement/">mobilized</a> on behalf of Soviet Jews, seeking to get them safely out of the country, often to Israel.</p>
<p>Throughout this period, the Jewish Defense League <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/08/14/ex-jewish-league-leaders-plead-guilty-in-bombings/44542d46-be49-42d2-bd0f-b1ff0ec1d825/">repeatedly physically attacked Soviet officials and cultural figures</a> in the U.S. The group took over a New York City synagogue to demonstrate against Soviet diplomats whose offices were across the street. </p>
<p>Members <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/jewish-defense-league">poured blood on a Soviet official</a> in Washington, D.C. They also <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-03-mn-13199-story.html">set off an explosive device</a> during a performance by a Soviet dance troupe. A bomb planted in the office of an agent finding work for Soviet entertainers killed the secretary, <a href="https://forward.com/news/131489/when-violence-overcame-a-freedom-struggle/">Iris Kones</a>. </p>
<p>In my view – and the <a href="https://www.jta.org/archive/goldmann-jdl-tactics-a-catastrophe-soviet-jews-differ-on-jdlers-indicted">views of many Jewish leaders</a> at the time – these efforts did not encourage the Soviet Union to change its policies or to release imprisoned dissidents. They were also exclusively focused on Russian Jews, rather than other religious minorities in the USSR, who were in a similar position as Roman Catholics and evangelicals. For the Jewish Defense League and others in Israel like new Israeli Cabinet member <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/he-campaigned-for-soviet-immigration-now-avi-maoz-is-poised-to-fight-against-it/">Avi Maoz</a>, it was a battle to protect Jews from threats, not a struggle to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">improve human rights</a> for all.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a tie and a woman holding a folder speak to each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503635/original/file-20230109-9391-92ygc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sen. Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, and Shirley Goldstein, an advocate for Jewish and human rights, speak while working on a federal law aimed at freeing Soviet Jews from oppression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/goldstein-center-for-human-rights/about-us/goldstein-family.php">Goldstein Family Archives in the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, the human rights aspect of the struggle in the USSR was a central focus of a U.S. political movement. A wide range of groups, including the Jewish community and its allies, but also <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/10/reclaiming-human-rights-changing-world-order/7-evangelicals-and-human-rights">Christians in the United States</a> who were likewise aware of abuses against their own churches in the USSR, pushed Congress to act. </p>
<p>In 1975, that effort – not the work of the Jewish Defense League – achieved the enactment of the <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-16.html">Jackson-Vanik amendment</a>, which curbed U.S. trade with countries that restricted freedom of movement and other basic human rights. As a result of Jackson-Vanik, by the year 2000, 573,000 refugees, including large numbers of Jews, were able to come to the U.S. Another million Jews made their way to Israel.</p>
<h2>What is Ben-Gvir trying to claim credit for?</h2>
<p>Ben-Gvir wants to rehabilitate Kahane’s terrorist legacy to gain support among the larger Jewish public in Israel and the U.S. For Ben-Gvir, Kahane’s so-called past successes – as exemplified in the fight to free Soviet Jewry – justify contemporary violent Kahanist tactics on behalf of Israeli Jews against Palestinians, political and religious opposition, the LGBTQ community and others. </p>
<p>He claims that the Jewish Defense League’s violence, even against innocent people, freed the Soviet Jews. In doing so, he is seeking to take credit for what was really a human rights effort. In the meantime, Ben-Gvir and his allies claim that <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-says-human-rights-organizations-are-existential-threat-to-israel">human rights organizations and activists are a danger to Israel</a> because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Ben-Gvir wants people to think that Kahanists were responsible for rescuing Jews from the USSR. History shows that this is not true. Kahanists acted at odds with the human rights activists and politicians responsible for the victory. Ben-Gvir and his allies act to only protect the rights of <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-calls-for-revoking-state-recognition-of-reform-conversions/">those they consider to be observant Jews</a> in Israel. In my view, Ben-Gvir, as Israel’s new national security minister, sees Kahane-style aggressions as the best way to protect the Jewish nation-state.</p>
<p>Just as Kahane was uninterested in advocating for the rights of non-Jews in the USSR or elsewhere, I see Ben-Gvir promising aggressive “Jews First” governance for Israel, and a Jewish state expanded at the expense of Palestinians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am the Executive Director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights.</span></em></p>A claim about how persecuted Jews were freed from the Soviet Union decades ago relates to how Palestinians might be treated today.Curtis Hutt, Executive Director, Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939952022-11-14T13:28:19Z2022-11-14T13:28:19ZBird flu has made a comeback, driving up prices for holiday turkeys<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493636/original/file-20221105-11-s3rd8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C4%2C2766%2C1785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Healthy turkeys on a farm in West Newfield, Maine.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/turkey-eye-a-photographer-from-their-side-of-the-fence-news-photo/1237706083">Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-commercial-backyard-flocks">outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza</a> has spread through chicken and turkey flocks in 46 states since it was first detected in Indiana on Feb. 8, 2022. The outbreak is also taking a heavy toll in <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bird-flu-cases-on-the-rise-what-this-means-for-poultry-and-egg-prices-1.6095332">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/2021-2022-data-show-largest-avian-flu-epidemic-europe-ever">Europe</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>Better known as bird flu, avian influenza is a family of highly contagious viruses that are not typically harmful to most wild birds that transmit it, but are deadly to domesticated birds. The virus spreads quickly through poultry flocks and almost always causes severe disease or death, so when it is detected, officials quarantine the site and cull all the birds in the infected flock.</em> </p>
<p><em>As of early November, this outbreak had led to the culling of over 50 million birds from Maine to Oregon, driving up prices for eggs and poultry – <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/turkey-shortage-thanksgiving-2022">including holiday turkeys</a>. This matches the toll from a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=86281">2014-2015 bird flu outbreak</a> that previously was considered the most significant animal disease event in U.S. history. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lLdLWigAAAAJ&hl=en">Yuko Sato</a>, an associate professor of veterinary medicine who works with poultry producers, explains why so many birds are getting sick and whether the outbreak threatens human health.</em></p>
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<h2>Why is avian influenza so deadly for domesticated birds but not for wild birds that carry it?</h2>
<p>Avian influenza (AI) is a contagious virus that affects all birds. There are two groups of aviain influenza viruses that cause disease in chickens: highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) and low pathogenic AI (LPAI). </p>
<p>HPAI viruses cause high mortality in poultry, and occasionally in some wild birds. LPAI can cause mild to moderate disease in poultry, and usually little to no clinical signs of illness in wild birds. </p>
<p>The primary <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section10.html">natural hosts and reservoir</a> of AI viruses are wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese. This means that the virus is well adapted to them, and these birds do not typically get sick when they are infected with it. </p>
<p>But when domesticated poultry, such as chickens and turkeys, come in direct or indirect contact with feces of infected wild birds, they become infected and start to show symptoms, such as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/hpai/hpai-background-clinical-illness.htm">lethargy, coughing and sneezing and sudden death</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of US and Canada showing avian influenza distribution among commercial, backyard and wild bird flocks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493635/original/file-20221105-15-ciub47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Migrating wild birds, most of which are not harmed by avian influenza, are known to spread the disease to commercial and backyard flocks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/distribution-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-h5-and-h5n1-north-america-20212022">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>There are multiple strains of avian influenza. What type is this outbreak, and is it dangerous to humans?</h2>
<p>The virus of concern in this outbreak is a Eurasian H5N1 HPAI virus that causes high mortality and severe clinical signs in domesticated poultry. Scientists who <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza-surveillance">monitor wild bird flocks</a> have also detected a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/genetic-reassortment">reassortant virus</a> that contains genes from both the Eurasian H5 and low pathogenic North American viruses. Reassortment happens when multiple strains of the virus circulating in the bird population exchange genes to create a new strain of the virus, much as new strains of COVID-19 like omicron and delta have emerged during the ongoing pandemic.</p>
<p>According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2021-2022/h5n1-low-risk-public.htm">the risk to public health from this outbreak is low</a>. No human illnesses were associated with the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2015/update-h5-outbreak-birds.htm">2014-2015 H5N1 outbreak in the U.S.</a></p>
<p>The only known human case in the U.S. during the current outbreak was found in a man in Colorado who <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html">had contact with infected birds</a>. The man tested positive once, then negative on follow-up tests, and reported only mild symptoms, so health experts theorized that the virus may have been present in his nose <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/04/29/10-people-under-watch-after-bird-flu-detected-in-man/">without actually causing an infection</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Health officials recommend avoiding direct contact with wild birds to avoid spreading avian flu.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are these outbreaks connected to wild bird migration?</h2>
<p>Yes, wild bird migration has been an important factor in this outbreak. Scientists have detected the same H5N1 virus that is infecting poultry in <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-wild-birds">more than 3,000 wild birds</a> during this outbreak, compared with 75 detections during the 2014-2015 outbreak. This tells us that the virus is highly prevalent in wild bird populations. </p>
<p>While most detections occur in ducks and geese, the virus has also been found in other bird species, including raptors, such as eagles and vultures, and other waterfowl, such as swans and <a href="https://www.mycouriertribune.com/outdoors/pelican-found-in-county-with-bird-flu">pelicans</a>. Birds of prey are among the most susceptible: As of early November 2022, wildlife agencies had <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-wild-birds">reported</a> more than 300 bird flu deaths in black vultures, over 200 deaths in bald eagles and more than 100 each in great horned owls and red-tailed hawks.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service conducts targeted sampling to test wild birds in fall and early winter, which <a href="https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/">correlates with migration season</a>. This helps scientists and wildlife managers understand where avian flu viruses may be introduced to domestic flocks, track their spread and monitor for any reassortment.</p>
<p>Because there are high amounts of virus circulating, wildlife agencies advise against <a href="https://wildlife.utah.gov/avian-influenza.html">handling or eating game birds that appear sick</a>. Waterfowl can also be infected, with no signs of illness, so hunters need to be especially careful not to handle or eat game birds without properly cleaning their clothing and equipment afterward and ensuring the birds are cooked to an <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/avian-influenza-guidance-for-waterfowl-hunters">internal temperature of 165 degrees F (74 C)</a> before consuming them.</p>
<p>Hunters and other members of the public are advised not to approach any wild animals that are acting strange and to report any such sightings to officials. In some cases, avian flu viruses have spilled over to other wild animals, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2711.211281">red foxes</a>, <a href="https://wdfw.medium.com/avian-influenza-common-questions-and-answers-regarding-transmission-to-mammals-b70a73d53a66">raccoons</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/health/avian-flu-h5n1-foxes.html">skunks, opossums and bobcats</a>. We did not see this trend in 2014-15.</p>
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<p>HPAI is a transboundary disease, which means it is highly contagious and spreads rapidly across national borders. Some research indicates that detection of HPAI viruses in wild birds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22171">has become more common</a>. </p>
<p>Detection of HPAI in wild birds is seasonal, with a peak in February and a low point in September. Many migratory bird species <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza">travel thousands of miles between continents</a>, posing a continuing risk of AI virus transmission.</p>
<p>On the positive side, we have better diagnostic tests for much more rapid and improved detection of avian influenza compared to 20 to 30 years ago, and can use molecular diagnostics such as <a href="https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-glossary#1">polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests</a> – the same method labs use to detect COVID-19 infections. </p>
<h2>How are poultry farmers affected when HPAI is detected in their flocks?</h2>
<p>To detect AI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees routine testing of flocks by farmers and carries out federal inspection programs to ensure that eggs and birds are safe and free of virus. When H5N1 is diagnosed on a farm or in a backyard flock, state and federal officials will quarantine the site and cull and dispose of all the birds in the infected flock. Then the site is cleaned and decontaminated, a process that includes removing organic materials like manure and chicken feed that can <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/creating-a-farm-plan-for-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza">harbor virus particles</a>. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/pos-hpai-stop-avian-influenza-outbreaks.508.pdf">several weeks</a> without new virus detections, the area is required to test negative in order to be deemed free of infection. We call this process the four D’s of outbreak control: diagnosis, depopulation, disposal and decontamination.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wire cages hold chicken figurines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456409/original/file-20220405-12-hkn2vr.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">Live birds are banned at agricultural fairs during bird flu outbreaks to avoid spreading infections. These fake chickens were on display at the Cabarrus County, N.C., fair in 2015, a previous H5N1 outbreak year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/real-birds-banned-at-state-fairs-due-to-bird-flu-these-are-news-photo/582537669">Elizabeth W. Kearley via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Flock owners are eligible for federal <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-hpai-indemnity-and-compensation.508.pdf">indemnity payments</a> for birds and eggs that have to be destroyed because of avian influenza, as well as for the costs of removing birds and cleaning and disinfecting their farms. This support is designed to help producers move past an outbreak, get their farms back in condition for restocking and get back into business as soon as possible. </p>
<p>But these payments <a href="https://www.fcsamerica.com/resources/education/common-ground/common-ground/2022/05/24/financial-best-practices-in-the-face-of-avian-influenza">almost never cover all of farmers’ expenses</a>. Poultry farms can’t always recover financially from major bird flu outbreaks. That makes it especially important to focus on <a href="http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/information-sheets/biosecurity-measures-combat-avian-influenza-threat">prevention strategies</a> to keep the virus out. </p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to reflect reported avian influenza deaths in birds of prey.</em></p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/bird-flu-is-killing-millions-of-chickens-and-turkeys-across-the-us-180299">article</a> originally published on April 7, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yuko Sato receives funding from the US Department of Agriculture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, allied industry companies, the Pew Foundation, the Egg Industry Center, the US Poultry & Egg Association, and internally through Iowa State University. She is affiliated with the Iowa Poultry Association, the Iowa Turkey Federation, United Egg Producers and the US Animal Health Association. </span></em></p>Hunters are warned to take precautions handling wild birds, and the virus can spill over to non-avian species, so no one should approach wild animals that appear ill.Yuko Sato, Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928022022-11-01T12:46:19Z2022-11-01T12:46:19ZBeyond passenger cars and pickups: 5 questions answered about electrifying trucks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491972/original/file-20221026-13-xcxwfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C10%2C6689%2C4456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trucks line up to load and unload at the Port of Los Angeles in Long Beach, California.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trucks-line-up-to-drop-off-their-loads-at-the-port-of-los-news-photo/1228408112">Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As part of its effort to reduce air pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, California is pursuing aggressive policies to promote clean trucks. The state already requires that by 2035, all new cars and other light-duty vehicles sold in the state must be <a href="https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/08/20220826-acc2.html">zero emission</a>. Its powerful <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/">Air Resources Board</a> has adopted rules requiring that most trucks be zero emission by 2035, and is now proposing that all trucks sold by 2040 <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-21/california-regulators-new-big-rigs-zero-emission-by-2040">must be zero emission</a>. The Conversation asked a panel of transportation experts from the University of California, Davis what’s involved in such a rapid transition.</em></p>
<h2>1. Why is California targeting medium- and heavy-duty trucks?</h2>
<p>Although diesel engines are valuable for moving heavy loads, they also are major polluters. Diesel trucks account for <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/diesel-fuel/diesel-and-the-environment.php">one-fourth of greenhouse gas emissions</a> and <a href="https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/documents/TransportationWhitePaper.pdf">about half of conventional air pollution</a> from transportation in U.S. cities. </p>
<p>Pollutants in diesel exhaust include nitrogen oxides, fine particulates and <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/overview-diesel-exhaust-and-health">numerous cancer-causing compounds</a>. Since many disadvantaged communities are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/03/09/redlining-pollution-environmental-justice/">located near highways and industrial centers</a>, their residents are especially affected by diesel truck pollution. Two regions in California – the <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/3460147-the-best-and-worst-u-s-cities-for-air-quality/">Central Valley and Los Angeles-Long Beach</a> – have some of the dirtiest air in the U.S., so the state has placed particular emphasis on cutting diesel use. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Almost all diesel fuel in the U.S. is used in trucks, not in passenger vehicles.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Are zero-emission trucks ready to go?</h2>
<p>To a degree, yes. Some new models, mainly powered by batteries but some by <a href="https://www.energy.gov/public-services/vehicles/hydrogen-fuel-cells">hydrogen fuel cells</a>, are available on the market, and more are being announced almost daily. </p>
<p>But the production volumes are still small, and there are many variations of truck models needed for very diverse applications, from delivering mail locally and plowing snow to hauling goods cross-country. Many of these needs cannot be met with currently offered zero-emission trucks. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0p14c77j">hurdle</a> is that new electric truck models have <a href="https://theicct.org/cost-electric-semi-feb22/">higher purchase prices</a> than comparable diesel trucks. However, as the market for zero-emission trucks grows, economies of scale should bring these costs down significantly. We already see this happening with <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2022/trends-in-electric-light-duty-vehicles">zero-emission cars and light-duty trucks</a>.</p>
<p>The total cost of ownership for zero-emission trucks, which includes the purchase price, fuel costs and maintenance, is <a href="https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/research-product/current-and-future-performance-and-costs-battery-electric-trucks-review-key">already competitive in some applications</a> with conventional diesel trucks. One example is trucks used for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2022.102783">local goods delivery</a> by companies like Amazon, UPS and FedEx. This stage is also known as last-mile delivery – getting a product to a buyer’s door.</p>
<p>These trucks are typically driven less than <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kr753nm">150 miles per day</a>, so they don’t need large battery packs. Their lower energy costs and reduced maintenance needs often offset their higher purchase costs, so owners save money on them over time. </p>
<p>Our studies indicate that by 2025 and especially by 2030, many applications for battery trucks, and perhaps hydrogen fuel cell trucks, will have <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1g89p8dn">competitive or even lower total costs of ownership</a> than comparable diesel trucks. That’s especially true because of California subsidies and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128353">incentives</a>, such as the <a href="https://californiahvip.org/">Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project</a>, which reduces the cost of new electric trucks and buses. And the state’s <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/low-carbon-fuel-standard">Low Carbon Fuel Standard</a> greatly reduces the cost of low-carbon fuels and electricity for truck and bus fleets.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a white shuttle bus painted with branding and '100% Zero Emission.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492193/original/file-20221027-25221-5wsypi.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zeem Solutions CEO Paul Gioupis poses in one of his company’s vehicles. Zeem, based in Inglewood, California, rents fleets of zero-emission trucks, vans and shuttle buses to other companies for a flat monthly fee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/paul-gioupis-ceo-of-zeem-solutions-allows-companies-to-news-photo/1408096502">Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The market in California is already reacting to these policy signals and is developing quickly. In the past year, there has been a large increase in sales of last-mile electric delivery trucks, and companies have stepped up their pledges to procure such vehicles. </p>
<p>Over 150 zero-emission truck models are commercially available and eligible for state incentive funding. They range from <a href="https://californiahvip.org/vehicle-category/2b/">large pickup trucks</a> to <a href="https://californiahvip.org/vehicle-category/heavy-duty/">heavy-duty tractor units for tractor-trailer combinations</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Is there enough charging infrastructure to support all these vehicles?</h2>
<p>Providing near-zero-carbon electricity for EVs and hydrogen for fuel cells, and expanding charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure, is just as important as getting zero-emission trucks on the roads.</p>
<p>Fleet owners will need to install chargers that can charge their battery-powered trucks overnight, or sometimes during the day. These stations may require so much power that utilities will need to install additional hardware to bring electricity from the grid to the stations to meet potentially high demands at certain times. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vP5iRWqV-V4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video from the utility Southern California Edison shows some of the steps involved in electrifying medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fuel cell trucks will require hydrogen stations installed either at fleet depots or public locations. These will allow fast refueling without high instantaneous demands on the system. But producing the hydrogen will require electricity, which will put an additional burden on the electric system.</p>
<p>Presently there are few public or private charging or hydrogen stations for truck fleets in California. But the California Public Utility Commission has allowed utilities to charge their customers to install a significant number of <a href="https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/electrical-energy/infrastructure/transportation-electrification/approved-te-investments">stations throughout the state</a>. And the U.S. Department of Energy recently allocated $8 billion for construction of <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-launches-bipartisan-infrastructure-laws-8-billion-program-clean-hydrogen-hubs-across">hydrogen hubs</a> – networks for producing, processing, storing and delivering clean hydrogen – across the country. </p>
<p>Despite these efforts, the rollout of charging and hydrogen infrastructure will likely slow the transition to zero-emission trucks, especially long-haul trucks.</p>
<h2>4. Who would be affected by a diesel truck ban?</h2>
<p>California’s rules will affect both truck manufacturers and truck users. The state’s <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/advanced-clean-trucks">Advanced Clean Trucks rule</a>, adopted in 2020, requires the sale of increasing percentages of zero emission trucks starting in 2024. By 2035, 40% to 75% of all trucks, depending on the truck type, must be zero emission. </p>
<p>A new proposal scheduled for adoption in early 2023, the <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/advanced-clean-fleets">Advanced Clean Fleets rule</a>, would require fleets with over 50 trucks to purchase an increasing number of zero-emission trucks over time, with the requirement that all truck sales and purchases be zero emission by 2040. </p>
<p>These two policies would work together. The Advanced Clean Trucks rule ensures that zero-emission trucks will become available to fleets, and the Advanced Clean Fleets rule would give truck manufacturers confidence that the zero-emission trucks they produce will find buyers. </p>
<p>These two rules are the most ambitious in the world in accelerating a transition to zero-emission trucks. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1285224795530055682"}"></div></p>
<h2>5. Are other states emulating California?</h2>
<p>Yes, there is strong interest in many other states in electrifying trucking. Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have already <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-06/how-zero-emission-laws-will-reshape-u-s-trucking?sref=Hjm5biAW">adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks rule</a>, and <a href="https://www.electrictrucksnow.com/states">others are in the process of doing so</a>. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have <a href="https://www.electrificationcoalition.org/nevada-joins-multi-state-agreement-to-electrify-trucks-and-buses/">agreed to work together</a> to foster a self-sustaining market for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. </p>
<p>We expect that transitioning to zero-emission truck fleets will require strong policy support at least until the 2030s and perhaps longer. The transition should become self-sufficient in most cases as production scales up and fleets adapt their operations, resulting in lower costs. This could be soon, especially with medium-duty trucks. </p>
<p>Converting large long-haul trucks will be especially challenging because they need large amounts of onboard energy storage and benefit from rapid refueling. Fuel cell systems with hydrogen may make the most sense for many of these vehicles; fleets will ultimately decide which technologies are best for them. </p>
<p>The transition to zero-emission trucks will be disruptive for many fleets and businesses, and will require government support during the early years of the transition. Overall, though, we believe prospects are bright for zero-emission trucking, with enormous clean air and climate benefits, and eventually, cost savings for truck owners.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192802/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Sperling receives funding from a variety of government agencies and foundations. He is a board member with the California Air Resources Board and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lewis Fulton, via UC Davis, receives funding from a range of organizations involved in manufacturing vehicles, installing infrastructure, and other activities relevant to the market development of battery-electric vehicles. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marshall Miller receives funding via UC Davis from a range of organizations involved in manufacturing vehicles, installing infrastructure, and other activities relevant to the market development of battery-electric vehicles.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel Jaller receives funding from Federal and State agencies, foundations, truck manufacturers, and other organizations.
He has provided advisory to startup companies in the transportation and trucking fields, and is an Amazon Scholar working on worldwide sustainability efforts for Amazon.</span></em></p>As California goes on regulating air pollution, other states often follow – including the Golden State’s ambitious goals for cleaning up emissions from trucking.Daniel Sperling, Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Founding Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, DavisLewis Fulton, Co-director, STEPS (Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways), University of California, DavisMarshall Miller, Senior Development Engineer, institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, DavisMiguel Jaller, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908752022-10-13T12:18:13Z2022-10-13T12:18:13ZCOVID-19 rapid tests can breed confusion – here’s how to make sense of the results and what to do, according to 3 testing experts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489443/original/file-20221012-5658-i7ulul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=725%2C0%2C7921%2C5743&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technique matters when it comes to getting a sufficient amount of virus for a rapid test.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-asian-mom-carrying-out-a-covid-19-self-test-royalty-free-image/1361590313?phrase=negative%20covid%20test&adppopup=true">Images By Tang Ming Tung/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As fall temperatures set in, <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-should-you-get-the-new-covid-19-booster-and-the-flu-shot-now-is-the-right-time-for-both-190826">cold and flu season</a> gets into full swing and holiday travel picks up, people will undoubtedly have questions about COVID-19 testing. Is this the year people can finally return to large gatherings for traditional celebrations? What role does testing play when deciding whether to go out or stay home?</p>
<p>Adding to the confusion are personal accounts of people who are experiencing confusing or seemingly contradictory test results.</p>
<p><a href="https://profiles.umassmed.edu/display/14945561">We are</a> <a href="https://profiles.umassmed.edu/display/26835692">part of a team</a> that has <a href="https://www.nih.gov/research-training/medical-research-initiatives/radx/radx-programs">developed and tested SARS-CoV-2 tests</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OJ3tLoQAAAAJ&hl=en">since the early days</a> of the pandemic. Additionally, some of us are <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/965/yukari-carol-manabe">infectious disease specialists</a> with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0qpdrlIAAAAJ&hl=en">decades of experience</a>. </p>
<p>Our insights from both the cutting edge of rapid testing research as well as our clinical perspectives from working directly with patients can help people figure out how to make the best use of rapid tests.</p>
<h2>Multiple negative tests, then a positive - why?</h2>
<p>SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-pcr-and-antigen-covid-19-test-a-molecular-biologist-explains-170917">takes time to build up</a> in the body, like many other viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory illness. Typically it takes two to three days to test positive after exposure. Our research group <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab337">has demonstrated this</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001216">as have others</a>. </p>
<p>Rapid tests detect parts of the virus that are present in the sample collected from your nose or mouth. If the virus has not replicated to a high enough level in that part of your body, a test will be negative. Only when the amount of virus is high enough will a person’s test become positive. For most omicron variants in circulation today, this is one to three days, depending on the initial amount of virus you get exposed to.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_NMO3d8jq20?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A newscaster rapid tests for COVID-19 on live TV.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why do some people test positive for extended periods of time?</h2>
<p>It’s important to clarify which type of test we’re talking about in this situation. Studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.16015">have shown that</a> some people can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ams2.525">test positive for a month or more</a> with a PCR test. The reason for this is twofold: PCR tests are capable of detecting extremely small amounts of genetic material, and fragments of the virus can remain in the respiratory system for a long time before being cleared.</p>
<p>When it comes to rapid tests, there are reports that some people test positive for an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac391">extended period of time</a> with the current strains of the omicron variant compared with earlier variants. Several <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac693">studies show that</a> most people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac510">no longer test positive after five to seven days</a> from their first positive test, but between 10% to 20% of people continue to test positive for 10 to 14 days. </p>
<p>But why it takes longer for some people to clear the virus than others is still unknown. Possible explanations include <a href="https://www.today.com/health/health/still-testing-positive-covid-19-rcna12099">a person’s vaccination status</a> or the ability of one’s immune system to clear the virus. </p>
<p>In addition, a small number of people who have been treated with <a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/COVID-19/Therapeutics/Products/Paxlovid/Pages/default.aspx">the oral antiviral drug Paxlovid</a> have tested negative on rapid antigen tests, with no symptoms, only to <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2022/pdf/CDC_HAN_467.pdf">“rebound” seven to 14 days after</a> their initial positive test. In these cases, people sometimes experience recurring or even occasionally worse symptoms than they had before, along with positive rapid test results. People who experience this should isolate again, as it has been shown that people with rebound cases <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056%2FNEJMc2206449">can transmit the virus to others</a>.</p>
<h2>Why do I have COVID-19 symptoms but still test negative?</h2>
<p>There are several possible explanations for why you might get negative rapid tests even when you have COVID-like symptoms. The most likely is that you have an infection of something other than SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<p>Many different viruses and bacteria can make us sick. Since mask mandates have been lifted in most settings, many viruses that didn’t circulate widely during the pandemic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-should-you-get-the-new-covid-19-booster-and-the-flu-shot-now-is-the-right-time-for-both-190826">like influenza</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html">Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV</a>, are becoming common once again and making people sick. </p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/well/live/covid-testing-household-transmission.html">a mild COVID-19 infection</a> in a person that’s been vaccinated and boosted may result in a viral level that’s high enough to cause symptoms but too low to result in a positive rapid test. </p>
<p>Finally, the use of poor technique when sampling your nose or mouth may result in too little virus to yield a positive test. Many tests with nasal swabbing require you to swab for at least 15 seconds in each nostril. A failure to swab according to package instructions could result in a negative test. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab337">Our previous studies</a> show that if you are symptomatic and do two rapid antigen tests 48 hours apart rather than just one, you are <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-accurate-are-rapid-antigen-tests-two-testing-experts-explain-the-latest-data-180405">more highly likely to test positive</a> if you are infected with SARS-CoV-2.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DItTMLVrr38?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Self-swabbing: It sounds kind of cringy, but it’s really not so bad.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do rapid tests work against the current strains of SARS-CoV-2?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M22-0760">Multiple studies</a> have examined the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.28143">performance of rapid tests</a> against the omicron variant. </p>
<p>Fortunately, these studies show that all the rapid tests that have been authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.27.22271090">detect the current omicron variants</a> just as well as previous variants such as alpha and delta. If a symptomatic person tests positive on a rapid test, they likely have COVID-19. If you are exposed to someone who has COVID-19, or have symptoms but receive a negative test, you should take another test in 48 hours. If you then test positive or if your symptoms get worse, contact your health care provider. </p>
<h2>What’s the best way to use and interpret rapid tests before gatherings?</h2>
<p>Testing remains an important tool to identify infected people and limit the spread of the virus. It’s still a good idea to take a rapid test before visiting people, especially older people and those with weakened immune systems. </p>
<p>If you believe you may be infected, the FDA <a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/home-covid-19-antigen-tests-take-steps-reduce-your-risk-false-negative-fda-safety-communication">recently updated their testing guidance</a> largely based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.05.22278466">data our lab collected</a>. The testing regimen most likely to identify if you’re infected is to take two tests 48 hours apart if you have symptoms. If you don’t have symptoms, take three tests, one every 48 hours.</p>
<h2>Does a positive test mean you can spread COVID to others?</h2>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that if you test positive for COVID-19, you should stay home for at least <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html">five days from the date of your positive test and isolate from others</a>. People are likely to be most infectious during these first five days. After you end isolation and feel better, consider taking a rapid test again. </p>
<p>If you have two negative tests 48 hours apart, you are most likely no longer infectious. If your rapid tests are positive, you may still be infectious, even if you are past day 10 after your positive test. If possible, you should wear a mask. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.26.22280387">Multiple studies have shown</a> a correlation between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi5273">the time an individual tests positive</a> on a rapid test and when live virus can be collected from a person, which is a common way to determine if someone is infectious. </p>
<p>Testing is still an important tool to keep people safe from COVID-19 and to avoid spreading it to others. Knowing your status and deciding to test is a decision that individuals make based on their own tolerance for risk around contracting COVID-19. </p>
<p>People who are older or at higher risk of severe disease may want to test frequently after an exposure or if they have symptoms. Some people may also be worried about having COVID-19 and transmitting it to others who may be at higher risk for hospitalization. When combined with other measures such as vaccination and staying home when you’re sick, testing can reduce the impact of COVID-19 on all of our lives in the coming months.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Hafer receives funding from NIH grants UL1TR001453 and U54HL143541.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Apurv Soni receives funding from NIH grants UL1TR001453 and U54HL143541.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yukari Manabe receives funding from the NIH. She has received research grant support to Johns Hopkins University from Hologic, Cepheid, Roche, ChemBio, Becton Dickinson, miDiagnostics, and has provided consultative support to Abbott.</span></em></p>Rapid tests can be an incredibly useful tool for early detection of COVID-19. Unfortunately, they sometimes leave people with more questions than answers.Nathaniel Hafer, Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine, UMass Chan Medical SchoolApurv Soni, Assistant Professor of Medicine, UMass Chan Medical SchoolYukari Manabe, Associate Director of Global Health Research and Innovation Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1919952022-10-07T12:18:38Z2022-10-07T12:18:38ZNobel Prize: How click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry are transforming the pharmaceutical and material industries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488596/original/file-20221006-12-btim8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2190%2C1369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Click chemistry joins molecules together by reacting an azide with a cyclooctyne.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/human-hands-connect-two-circles-royalty-free-image/1360214925">Boris Zhitkov/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2022/press-release/">2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry</a> was awarded to scientists Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for their development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.</em> </p>
<p><em>These techniques have been used in a number of sectors, including <a href="https://www.statnews.com/sponsor/2021/12/22/it-takes-two-the-future-of-click-chemistry-therapeutics/">delivering treatments</a> that can kill cancer cells without perturbing healthy cells as well as sustainably and quickly producing large amounts of polymers to build materials. One click chemistry-based drug is currently undergoing <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04106492">phase 2 clinical trials</a>. Bertozzi is a scientific adviser of the company developing the drug.</em></p>
<p><em>We asked chemistry Ph.D. candidate <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HaxobcoAAAAJ&hl=en">Heyang (Peter) Zhang</a> of the <a href="http://lin.chem.buffalo.edu">Lin Lab</a> at the University at Buffalo to talk about how these techniques figure in his own research and how they have transformed his field and other industries.</em></p>
<h2>1. How does click and bioorthogonal chemistry work?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00028-z">Click chemistry</a>, as the name suggests, is a way of building molecules like snapping Lego blocks together. It takes two molecules to click, so researchers refer to each one as click partners. </p>
<p>K. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal independently discovered that <a href="https://ehs.stanford.edu/reference/information-azide-compounds">azide</a>, a high-energy molecule with three nitrogens bonded together, and <a href="https://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/molecule_gallery/03_alkynes/00_alkynes.htm">alkyne</a>, a relatively inert and naturally rare molecule with two carbons triple-bonded together, are great click partners in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/cr0783479">presence of a copper catalyst</a>. They found that the copper catalyst can bring the two pieces together in an optimal arrangement that snaps them together. Prior to this technique, researchers did not have a way to quickly and precisely make new molecules under accessible conditions, like using water as a solvent at room temperature.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of click chemistry reaction" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=162&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=162&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488632/original/file-20221006-26-yu5sd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=204&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By combining an azide with a cyclooctyne, bioorthogonal chemistry allows researchers to join molecules quickly together without disturbing the rest of the cell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clickscheme.png">Cliu89/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chemical biologists quickly realized that click reactions can be a fantastic way to probe living systems like cells because they produce little to no toxic byproducts and can happen quickly. However, the copper catalyst is itself toxic to living systems.</p>
<p>Carolyn Bertozzi devised a workaround for this issue by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ja044996f">removing the copper catalyst from the reaction</a>. She did this by placing the alkyne into a ring structure, which drives the reaction forward using the ring strain produced from molecules forced into a cyclical shape. These bioorthogonal reactions, or reactions that happen “parallel” to the chemical environment of the cell, can occur in cells without perturbing their normal chemistry.</p>
<h2>2. How do you use this chemistry in your work?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://youtu.be/-Ch3VJhIbH4">an interview</a>, Carolyn Bertozzi stated that the next steps for bioorthogonal chemistry are to find new reactions and applications for it. Our lab’s research focuses exactly on that. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I apply this technique to track molecules we are interested in as they naturally behave in a cell. In a living cell, we were able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b00126">add a probe to a receptor</a> that plays a role in a number of cellular processes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Carolyn Bertozzi is one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find new reactions, our lab has spent the last 15 years to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202200175">push how fast bioorthogonal reactions can run</a>. Speed is important because many molecules in living organisms are present in low concentrations, and using too much of the chemicals required for the reaction can be toxic for the cell. The faster the reaction, the fewer the unwanted side reactions.</p>
<p>We pioneered another way to achieve click and bioorthogonal reactions with even faster speed. Instead of using an azide and an alkyne like the Nobel Prize winners did originally, we used two other molecules that join together when a light is shined on them. With this technique, we are able to add molecules to the surface of a live cell in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c10354">as little as 15 seconds</a>. We can then observe how a particular structure on a cell functions in its natural environment, or detect how it changes when exposing it to drugs or other substances. Researchers can then more easily test how cells react to potential treatments.</p>
<p>Currently, we are working to develop a new method of triggering these reactions without light. We are actively working on using bioorthogonal chemistry to improve PET imaging to screen and monitor tumors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Digram depicting " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488633/original/file-20221006-12-s0i0ni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bioorthogonal chemistry can be used for ‘click-to-release’ cancer drugs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03880-y">Rossin 2018 (Nature Communications)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Why are these techniques so important to your field?</h2>
<p>Prior to click and bioorthogonal chemistry, there was no way of visualizing molecules in living cells in their natural state.</p>
<p>As an analogy, imagine you needed to find a specific dollar bill with the serial number 01234567. That would be a pretty daunting task. It would require you to go through every dollar you can get your hands on and verify whether the serial number is the one you are looking for. </p>
<p>Tracking molecules in our body is just as hard, if not more. Because biological environments are so complex, it was previously impossible to add a probe to just the molecule of interest without accidentally tagging something else, or worse, altering the normal chemistry of the cell. With bioorthogonal reactions, however, researchers can essentially add a GPS tracker to the molecule without affecting the rest of the cell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heyang (Peter) Zhang works in Lin's lab at the University at Buffalo.</span></em></p>Click and bioorthogonal chemistry has enabled researchers to closely study how molecules work in their natural state in living organisms, with applications that span from cancer treatment to polymers.Heyang (Peter) Zhang, PhD Candidate in Chemistry, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881392022-09-01T12:23:22Z2022-09-01T12:23:22ZBlack girls are 4.19 times more likely to get suspended than white girls – and hiring more teachers of color is only part of the solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478992/original/file-20220812-24-20aubq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6709%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Race, class and gender can not only impact the education that students receive, but also the punishments they receive.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diverse-group-of-teenage-high-school-students-royalty-free-image/1135672430">Courtney Hale/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://faculty.utk.edu/Andrea.Joseph">Andrea Joseph-McCatty</a> is an assistant professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. Her research examines disproportional school suspensions and, in particular, the ways in which inequity impacts the experiences of students of color. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Dr. Andrea Joseph-McCatty discusses her research on understanding and addressing racially disproportional school suspensions.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG2xGZELbyg&feature=emb_logo">You recently gave a talk</a> about the disproportionate suspension of Black girls in the U.S. Why is equity so hard in our schools?</strong></p>
<p>Most recently my work has focused on understanding and addressing racially disproportional school suspensions and the ways in which those are also gender disproportionate. For example, we know nationally that in the <a href="https://ocrdata.ed.gov/estimations/2017-2018">2017-2018 academic year</a>, over 2.5 million children received one or more out-of-school suspensions. While these numbers are going down compared to years prior, students of color and students with disabilities are receiving <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-exclusionary-school-discipline.pdf">a greater share</a> of suspensions and expulsions. </p>
<p>It’s also important to disaggregate the data to understand trends at the intersection of race, gender, class and other student characteristics. For example, in 2017-2018, Black girls <a href="https://genderjusticeandopportunity.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/National-Data-on-School-Discipline-by-Race-and-Gender.pdf">had 4.19</a> times the risk of receiving an out-of-school suspension compared to white girls. Nationally, they are the only group of girls <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-exclusionary-school-discipline.pdf">disproportionately suspended</a> in relation to their enrollment. </p>
<p>To address high and disproportional suspensions, schools have implemented multitiered interventions, such as restorative justice practices, and positive behavior interventions, which create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments. While some studies show a reduction in high and disproportional suspensions from these efforts, discipline disparities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085917741725">often persist</a>. </p>
<p>However, some schools are seeking to change these disproportional rates for Black girls and other girls of color by partnering with community organizations such as <a href="https://www.gwensgirls.org/">Gwen’s Girls Incorporated</a>, <a href="https://www.thefinddesign.org/">The F.I.N.D. Design</a> and <a href="https://codeswitch.org/">Code Switch</a>, among others, to provide gender and culturally responsive interventions.</p>
<p>Yet, a major barrier to intervention is the perception adults hold about Black girls. Instead of receiving developmentally appropriate and socioemotional support, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3000695">many Black girls are adultified</a> – a concept coined to describe how Black girls are disproportionately perceived as less innocent, needing less nurturing, less protection, less support, knowing more about sex and adult topics, and are more adultlike than their peers.</p>
<p>While some may generally assume that students only receive school discipline for breaking school rules, social scientists have used data to show how race, gender, disability and class bias at the intersection of punitive discipline policies and systematic inequities lead to disproportional suspensions. </p>
<p>For example, we know that<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/02/23/penalizing-black-hair-in-the-name-of-academic-success-is-undeniably-racist-unfounded-and-against-the-law/"> Black girls in particular are getting disciplined</a> in school for wearing their natural hair in afros or having braids, both of which are styles that allow Black girls to embrace their beauty and have cultural pride in the face of Eurocentric beauty ideals that suggest that straight hair is more professional and neat.</p>
<p>In other cases, Black girls are more likely to receive school discipline outcomes for subjective infractions such as tone of voice, clothing and disrespect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916646610">compared to other girls</a>. And that’s part of the way racial and gender discrimination intersect to create disproportional suspensions for Black girls. In my research, I build on these ideas and also explore how adverse childhood experiences, including neglect, abuse, neighborhood violence and parent incarceration and/or death, become another layer by which Black girls are misunderstood. </p>
<p><a href="https://faculty.utk.edu/Andrea.Joseph">In my research and community partnerships, we explore</a> how race, gender and adultification bias are shaping the way adults perceive the behaviors of Black girls and how this might impact how their trauma-response behaviors are perceived. Will it be met with punishment or support? Increasingly, schools are <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=SB0170&GA=111">adopting trauma-informed practices</a> and policies to decrease the punishment of childhood adversities in school. </p>
<p>But I wonder if they account for the way that race, gender and class bias and inequities both inform adverse childhood experiences and inform adult perceptions about children’s behaviors. While school-based trauma-informed practices are a step in the right direction, the next question I also ask is, how are school districts defining what an adverse childhood experience (ACE) is? Are they using the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s0749-3797(98)00017-8">early measure</a> normed on a predominantly white middle-class population, or are they using the [expanded measure] that surveyed a diverse population and <a href="https://www.philadelphiaaces.org/philadelphia-ace-survey">identified additional ACEs</a> such as racial discrimination, foster care involvement, neighborhood violence and bullying? </p>
<p>Without using the expanded definition, it is possible that schools are continuing to overlook students’ needs and instead punish their trauma. My colleagues and I suggest that practitioners need <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2022.2027314">trauma-informed professional development</a> at the intersection of race and gender at minimum to begin to provide robust support for students of color experiencing adversity.</p>
<p><strong>Does the race of the teacher play a role in all this?</strong></p>
<p>I would say yes, but I don’t think it’s a simple answer. I think there is a movement that says, hey, we still need more teachers of color to foster a more equitable environment. While there is research to suggest that Black teachers are less likely to suspended Black students, this is not always a consistent finding for boys and girls, and across school demographics, because having a diverse workforce does not <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/07/20/educator-bias-is-associated-with-racial-disparities-in-student-achievement-and-discipline/">totally eliminate bias</a>.</p>
<p>Therefore, having more teachers of color is not the sole solution to addressing disproportional suspensions. It can help in terms of seeing students’ behaviors in context, particularly when an educator of color comes from a similar cultural context, gender context and class as that young person. However, despite these benefits and their training, it is an uphill battle for any educator to teach in a school system that has not addressed past and present funding, practice and policy inequities. </p>
<p>So when we think about change, it’s really systemic change that we need. We need whole school change to begin to address some of these inequities. Meanwhile, as I continue to co-advocate with my community partners for Black girls, we’ll continue to ask, “Is your intervention intersectional”? – meaning does it take into account the the interconnected nature of social categorizations and discrimination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Joseph-McCatty received funding from The University of Tennessee College of Social Work's Social Justice Innovation Initiative for her research on Black girls and disproportional suspension.
Dr. Joseph-McCatty is a former employee of Gwen's Girls Inc. (PA) and is a current board member for the FIND Design (TN) whose focus is to "mitigate the effects of systemic and personal trauma on Black girls, and other girls of color ages 11-17".</span></em></p>A social work scholar researches why school suspensions disproportionately affect students from certain groups and what can be done to change that.Andrea Joseph-McCatty, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856722022-07-15T12:19:19Z2022-07-15T12:19:19ZHow sustainable manufacturing could help reduce the environmental impact of industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471480/original/file-20220628-14471-auzmdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4041%2C2683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sustainable manufacturing offers ways to reduce environmental impact.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/gas-turbine-engine-on-stand-for-overhaul-royalty-free-image/117240210">Fertnig/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://www.rit.edu/directory/nzneie-nabil-nasr">Nabil Nasr</a> is the associate provost and director of the <a href="https://www.rit.edu/sustainabilityinstitute/">Golisano Institute for Sustainability</a> at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also the CEO of the <a href="https://remadeinstitute.org/">Remade Institute</a>, which was established by the U.S. government to conduct early-stage R&D to accelerate the transition to circular economy, which is a sustainable industrial model for improved resource efficiency and decreased systemic energy, emissions and waste generation. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Here, Nasr explains some of the ideas behind sustainable manufacturing and why they matter. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nabil Nasr, associate provost and director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology, discusses sustainable manufacturing and other topics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How would you explain sustainable manufacturing? What does the average person not know or understand about sustainable manufacturing?</strong></p>
<p>When we talk about sustainable manufacturing, we mean cleaner and more efficient systems with less resource consumption, less waste and emissions. It is to simply minimize any negative impact on the environment while we are still meeting demand, but in much more efficient and sustainable ways. One example of sustainable manufacturing is an automotive factory carrying out its production capacity with 10% of its typical emission due to advanced and efficient processing technology, reducing its production waste to near zero by figuring out how to switch its shipping containers of supplied parts from single use to reusable ones, accept more recycled materials in production, and through innovation make their products more efficient and last longer.</p>
<p>Sustainability is about the proper balance in a system. In our industrial system, it means we are taking into account the impact of what we do and also making sure we understand the impact on the supply side of natural resources that we use. It is understanding environmental impacts and making sure we’re not causing negative impacts unnecessarily. It’s being able to ensure that we are able to satisfy our demands now and in the future without facing any environmental challenges. </p>
<p>Early on at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, emissions, waste and natural resource consumption were low. A lot of the manufacturing impacts on the environment were not taken into account because the volumes that we were generating were much, much lower than we have today. The methods and approaches in manufacturing we use today are really built on a lot of those approaches that we developed back then.</p>
<p>The reality is that the situation today has drastically changed, but our approaches have not. There is plenty of industrialization going on around the globe. And, there is plenty of pollution and waste generated. In addition, a lot of materials we use in manufacturing are nonrenewable resources. </p>
<p><strong>So it sounds like countries that are industrialized now picked up a lot of bad habits. And we know that growth is coming from these developing nations and we don’t want them to repeat those bad habits. But we want to raise their standard of living just without the consequences that we brought to the environment.</strong></p>
<p>Yeah, absolutely. So there was an article I read a long time ago that said China and India either will destroy the world or save it. And I think the rationale was that if China and India copy the model and technologies used in the West to building its industrial system, the world will see drastic negative impact on the environment. The key factor here is the significantly high scale of activities needed to support their very large populations. However, if they are much more innovative and come up with much more efficient and cleaner methods better than used in the West to build up industrial enterprises, they would save the world because the scale of what they do is significant.</p>
<p><strong>In talking about how these two countries could either ruin or save the world, do you remain an optimist?</strong></p>
<p>Absolutely. I serve on the the United Nations Environment Program’s International Resource Panel. One of the IRP’s roles is to inform policy through validated independent scientific studies. One of the panel’s reports is called the Global Resources Outlook. The last report was published in <a href="https://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/global-resources-outlook">2019</a>. </p>
<p>The experts are saying that if business as usual continues, we’re probably going to increase greenhouse gas emission by 43% by 2060. However, if we employ effective sustainability measures across the globe, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a significant percentage, even by as much as 90%. <a href="https://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/re-defining-value-manufacturing-revolution">A 2018 study I led for the IRP</a> found that applying remanufacturing alongside other resource recovery methods like comprehensive refurbishment, repair and reuse could cut greenhouse gas emissions of those products by 79%–99% across manufacturing supply chains. </p>
<p>So there is optimism if we employ many sustainability measures. However, I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s always disappointing to see that the indicators are there; the approaches to address some of those issues are identified, but the will to actually employ them isn’t. Despite this, I’m still optimistic because we know enough about the right path forward and it is still not too late to move in the right direction.</p>
<p><strong>Were there any lessons we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that we can apply to challenges we’re facing?</strong></p>
<p>We learned a lot from the COVID crisis. When the risk became known, even though not all agreed, people around the globe took significant measures and actions to address the challenge. We accepted changes to the way we live and interact, we marshaled all of our resources to develop vaccines and address the medical supply shortages. The bottom line is that we rose to the occasion and we, in most part, took actions to deal with the risk in a significant way. </p>
<p>The environmental challenges we face today, like climate change, are serious global challenges as well. However, they have been occurring over a long time and, unfortunately, mostly have not been taken as seriously as they should have been. We certainly have learned that when we have the will to address serious challenges, we can meet them.</p>
<p><strong>Final question. Give me the elevator pitch on remanufacturing.</strong></p>
<p>Remanufacturing is a process by which we bring a product that has been used back to a like-new-or-better condition. Through a rigorous industrial process, we disassemble the product to the component level. We clean, inspect and restore it, qualifying every part. We then reassemble the product similar to what happened when it was built the first time. The reality is that by doing so, you’re using anywhere from 70% to 90% of the materials recovered from the use phase. This has significantly far lower impacts on the environment when compared to making new products from raw materials.</p>
<p>You don’t mine virgin material for that. You’re saving the energy that made those parts; you’re saving the capital equipment that made those parts; you’re saving the labor cost. So the savings are significant. The overall savings are about 50%. For example, a <a href="https://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/re-defining-value-manufacturing-revolution">remanufactured vehicle part in the United States</a> requires less than 10% of the energy needed to make a new one, and less than 5% of new materials. That means lower costs for the producer while providing the consumer with a very high-quality product. Examples of commonly remanufactured products are construction equipment, automotive engines and transmissions, medical equipment and aircraft parts. Those products are similar to brand-new products, and companies like Xerox, Caterpillar and GE all have made remanufacturing an important part of their overall operations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nabil Nasr receives funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and works with companies on research projects, such as Caterpillar. He serves as a trustee with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Board member at the Remanufacturing Industry Council. </span></em></p>Learning lessons from the past could help reduce the impact of future industrialization.Nabil Nasr, Associate Provost Academic Affairs and Director of GIS, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1869852022-07-14T12:32:34Z2022-07-14T12:32:34ZEnriching uranium is the key factor in how quickly Iran could produce a nuclear weapon – here’s where it stands today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473964/original/file-20220713-9624-ktt0iy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C435%2C3199%2C1858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A cascade of gas centrifuges at a U.S. enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, in 1984. Iran is using similar technology to enrich uranium.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Gas_centrifuge_cascade.jpg">U.S. Department of Energy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Iran’s nuclear program was a major topic in President Joe Biden’s July 13-16, 2022 trip to the Middle East. The most challenging part of producing nuclear weapons is making the material that fuels them, and Iran is known to have produced uranium that is near-weapons grade.</em> </p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked Brandeis University professor <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=45b03f10247276eeaf30fadbc8afc2261b06795d">Gary Samore</a>, who worked on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation in the U.S. government for over 20 years, to explain why uranium enrichment is central to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and where the Iranian effort stands now.</em></p>
<h2>What does it mean to enrich uranium?</h2>
<p>Natural uranium contains two main isotopes, or forms whose atoms contain the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. It’s about 99.3% uranium-238 and 0.7% uranium-235. The uranium-235 isotope can be used to generate nuclear power for peaceful purposes, or nuclear explosives for military purposes. </p>
<p>Enrichment is the process of separating out and increasing the concentration of U-235 to higher levels above natural uranium. Generally speaking, lower levels of enriched uranium, such as uranium with 5% U-235, are commonly used for nuclear reactor fuel. Higher levels of enrichment, such as 90% U-235, are most desirable for nuclear weapons. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of a single centrifuge for enriching uranium." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473966/original/file-20220713-2711-jxjxxz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&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 gas centrifuge separates uranium-235 atoms, which can sustain a nuclear chain reaction, from much more abundant atoms of uranium-238, which cannot. As the centrifuge rotates at high speed, uranium hexafluoride gas is pumped into it. The heavier U-238 molecules move toward the outer edge, and the lighter U-235 molecules move toward the center. The ‘product stream’ of gas enriched in U-235 is pumped through many more centrifuges, increasing the concentration of U-235 at each stage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_centrifuge#/media/File:Countercurrent_Gas_Centrifuge.svg">Inductiveload/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For military purposes, why are higher levels of enrichment important?</h2>
<p>The higher the level of enrichment, the smaller the amount of nuclear material necessary to produce a nuclear weapon. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iaea.org/">International Atomic Energy Agency</a> identifies 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of 90% enriched uranium as a “significant quantity” necessary for a simple nuclear weapon. But larger amounts of lower-enriched uranium can also work. </p>
<p>For example, the “<a href="https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196219/little-boy-atomic-bomb/">Little Boy</a>” atomic bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 used about 64 kilograms of uranium (141 pounds) enriched to <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/the-weight-of-a-butterfly/">an average of 80% U-235</a>. </p>
<p>From a nuclear weapons design standpoint, smaller amounts of higher-enriched nuclear material are more desirable because that reduces the size and weight of the nuclear weapon and makes it easier to deliver. As a result, modern nuclear weapons based on uranium typically use uranium enriched to 90% to 93% U-235, which is known as weapons-grade uranium, for the primary fuel. </p>
<h2>What had Iran achieved prior to the 2015 nuclear deal?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-iran-nuclear-deal">2015 nuclear deal</a> between Iran, the U.S. China, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany put significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, in return for relief from a number of international sanctions. When the deal was adopted, Iran had mastered the basic technology for enriching uranium with gas centrifuges – cylinders that spin uranium in gas form at very high speeds to separate the heavier U-238 isotope from the lighter U-235 isotope. </p>
<p>At its two principal enrichment facilities, <a href="https://www.nti.org/education-center/facilities/natanz-enrichment-complex/">Natanz</a> and <a href="https://www.nti.org/education-center/facilities/fordow-fuel-enrichment-plant/">Fordow</a>, Iran was operating about 18,000 first-generation IR-1 centrifuges and about 1,000 second-generation IR-2 centrifuges. It had also accumulated a stockpile of roughly 7,000 kilograms (about 15,430 pounds) of low-enriched uranium (under 5%) and about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of 20% enrichment uranium. </p>
<p>Based on these capabilities, Iran’s “<a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/irans-nuclear-breakout-time-fact-sheet">breakout time</a>” to produce about 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of 90% enriched uranium – enough for a single nuclear weapon – was estimated to be one or two months. </p>
<p>Breakout time is not intended to suggest that Iran would necessarily decide to produce weapons-grade uranium at these inspected facilities, because the risk of detection and of potential negative international reaction is very high. </p>
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<h2>How did the nuclear deal constrain Iran’s activities?</h2>
<p>The 2015 nuclear deal put physical constraints on Iran’s enrichment program for 10 to 15 years, including the number and type of centrifuges Iran could operate, the size of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium and its maximum enrichment level. </p>
<p>For 15 years, no enrichment would take place at Fordow, and Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium would be limited to 300 kilograms (660 pounds) at a maximum enrichment level of 3.67%. And for 10 years, its centrifuges would be limited to about 6,000 IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz. </p>
<p>In order to meet these physical limits, Iran <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/world/middleeast/iran-hands-over-stockpile-of-enriched-uranium-to-russia.html">shipped out to Russia</a> most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium and its entire stockpile of 20% enriched uranium. It also <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/blog/2015-11-19/iran-dismantling-centrifuges-iaea-reports">dismantled for storage inside Iran</a> most of its IR-1 centrifuges and all of its more advanced IR-2 centrifuges. As a consequence of these limits, Iran’s “breakout time” was extended from a month or two before the deal to about one year after the deal.</p>
<p>After year 10 of the deal, however, Iran was allowed to start replacing its IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz with more advanced models, which it was permitted to continue to research and develop during the first decade of the deal. As these more powerful advanced centrifuges were installed, breakout time would probably have shrunk to about a few months by year 15 of the deal.</p>
<p>As part of the deal, Iran also agreed to enhanced international inspections and monitoring of its nuclear facilities. </p>
<h2>What has Iran done since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal in 2018?</h2>
<p>Since the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/world/middleeast/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html">withdrew from the nuclear deal</a>, Iran has gradually exceeded the agreement’s limits. It has increased its stockpile of 5% enriched uranium; resumed producing 20% enriched uranium; initiated production of 60% enriched uranium, resumed enrichment at Fordow; and manufactured and installed advanced centrifuges at both Natanz and Fordow. </p>
<p>Iran has also begun to restrict international monitoring of its nuclear facilities. In June 2022, for example, Iran announced that it was disconnecting cameras installed under the 2015 nuclear deal to monitor its nuclear facilities.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reacts to Iran’s removal of monitoring cameras from its nuclear facilities.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As of May 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Iran had about 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of 5% enriched uranium, about 240 kilograms (530 pounds) of 20% enriched uranium and <a href="https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/22/06/gov2022-24.pdf">40 kilograms (88 pounds) of 60% enriched uranium</a>. </p>
<p>As a result of this growing stockpile of enriched uranium and the use of advanced centrifuges, Iran’s estimated breakout time has been reduced to a few weeks. So far, however, Iran has not decided to begin production of weapons-grade (90%) enriched uranium, even though it is technically capable of doing so. </p>
<p>Most likely, Iran is behaving cautiously because its leaders are concerned that producing weapons-grade uranium would trigger a strong international reaction, which could range from additional sanctions to military attack.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Samore Samore previously served as President Barack Obama’s White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and President Bill Clinton’s Senior Director for Non-proliferation and Export Controls.</span></em></p>Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons centers on producing weapons-grade uranium. Here’s what reports about Iran enriching uranium indicate about its progress toward the bomb.Gary Samore, Professor of the Practice of Politics and Crown Family Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845222022-06-13T12:29:32Z2022-06-13T12:29:32ZImmigrants are only 3.5% of people worldwide – and their negative impact is often exaggerated, in the U.S. and around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467598/original/file-20220607-20-e7lvii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6700%2C4463&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Academic research plays an important role in helping dispel myths and misconceptions about migration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-participate-in-a-special-memorial-day-naturalization-news-photo/1241038894">Spencer Platt/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>-<em><a href="https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/ernesto.cfm">Ernesto Castañeda</a> is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at American University and the Director of the <a href="https://www.ernestocastaneda.com/immigrationlab.html">Immigration Lab</a>. Castañeda explains why immigration is an important force counteracting population decline in the U.S. and why that matters to the economy and America’s global power. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ernesto Castañeda speaks about his work studying immigration and migration.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>What do you study?</strong></p>
<p>I direct the Immigration Lab where we conduct research around migration – in all its aspects. For example, emigration – people leaving their countries of origin; or internal migration – people moving within a country. There are millions of people living in a different province or state than where they were born, such as in China or the U.S. We also study international migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, people that cross borders looking for economic opportunities or trying to reunite with family.</p>
<p>We have studied refugees from Central America in Washington D.C., as well as from Afghanistan. We have also compared immigrants from Latin America in New York and those from North Africa in European <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cities-help-immigrants-feel-at-home-4-charts-97501">cities</a>. I’ve been studying migration since 2003, so almost 20 years.</p>
<p><strong>Immigration is a hot topic now. How different are they than when you started studying it 20 years ago?</strong></p>
<p>It’s funny because in the media we always highlight the new things, and there are indeed new twists and turns, new characters. But the story, the dynamics, the human drama, the structural issues are basically the same. So, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s why it’s easier to understand new crises, because immigration researchers have seen something similar happening in the past.</p>
<p><strong>How politicized is immigration?</strong></p>
<p>Immigration is something that has been with us for a long, long time. It’s something that is going to keep happening. It’s something that no one state can fully stop forever. But unfortunately, since as long as I can remember, it is something that has been politicized. There are a lot of misunderstandings by people in the public. Especially because politicians have, for a long time and in different places, used this topic for their short-term political advantage. So it’s something that is recurrent. Nonetheless, when I meet immigrants every day, the realities of their lives and what they are going through are very different from what you hear from the mouths of politicians and from a lot of media outlets.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://american.academia.edu/ErnestoCastaneda">research</a> has tried to understand what happened in the past and what’s going on right now in the streets in order to try to improve our understanding about immigration. If you look at all types of data, there are way more <a href="https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/immigrants-to-the-u-s-create-more-jobs-than-they-take">opportunities</a> born of migration than problems.</p>
<p><strong>The latest census shows that if it wasn’t for immigration, the US population would actually be in decline. So there’s a lot on the line as far as available workers, yes?</strong> </p>
<p>Yes, although some people think that the decline of immigration is not a bad thing, especially if it means maintaining a white majority. Yet immigration is not about a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/08/a-deadly-ideology-how-the-great-replacement-theory-went-mainstream">great replacement</a>” conspiracy but about the maintenance of a successful trajectory of economic growth, cultural vibrancy, scientific and technical innovation. In the economic system that we live in, one of the main ways that the economy keeps growing is by bringing in new labor. Cultural differences disappear across time and family generations. Furthermore, we are talking about changes around the edges. The great majority, over 80%, of the U.S. population has been and will likely continue to be U.S.-born.</p>
<p>Early in the pandemic, people were scared, and rightly so. It made sense to reduce air travel, border crossings and refugee resettlement. In the last couple of years, because of Title 42, which allows the government to prohibit the entry of persons who potentially pose a health risk at ports of entry, even asylum seekers have been sent back to Mexico and made to wait there. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, just in the U.S., we have lost over a million people because of COVID-19. People are also worried about inflation. But inflation has also been made worse by COVID deaths, people staying out of the workforce and by declining immigration, all resulting in a scarcity of workers. </p>
<p>So in the last couple of years we’ve seen an important decrease in migration while American couples have on average two children, keeping the population <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/12/us-population-grew-in-2021-slowest-rate-since-founding-of-the-nation.html">barely growing</a>. So, the current population will not grow without immigration. Declining population growth also means a decrease in economic growth and the influence of the U.S. abroad. If this occurs, then you’d have to be ready to make less money and spend more in goods and services. I don’t think we’re ready for that to be the norm. If we stop taking immigrants in, innovations, population and economic growth will take place in a different part of the globe.</p>
<p><strong>In your almost 20 years of research, what’s one thing that would surprise someone who is not in the field you’re studying?</strong></p>
<p>It’s important for everyone to know that most people do not want to leave their hometown. Most people want to stick around because that’s where their loved ones, family members and friends are. It is the place they know, and they have an attachment to the place. It takes a lot – like an invasion, hunger, a great educational or professional opportunity – to want to leave your home.</p>
<p>Another thing that’s important to know is that <a href="https://www.un.org/en/desa/international-migration-2020-highlights">only around 3.5% of the world</a> population lives in a different country than where they were born. There are as many people moving within China as through international borders. So, international migration is a very important phenomenon for immigrants themselves – we’re talking about the futures of many individuals and families. But in terms of the global population, it’s a very small proportion. And this is not because of immigration deterrence and border fences.</p>
<p>So we’re talking about an exception. Unfortunately, politicians and people make it sound like it’s the main problem. </p>
<p>People may think that immigrants are more likely to commit crime, yet it is the opposite. Immigrants are much <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/3/24/htm">less likely</a> to commit any crimes than the U.S.-born. They are also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27013329/">less likely to use drugs</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498585651/Building-Walls-Excluding-Latin-People-in-the-United-States">border wall</a> is a monument to intolerance and racism that actively stigmatizes people in the area. Anti-immigrant policies and speech are driven by national politics, scapegoating, misinformation, and dramatic images about caravans, border camps, and border crossers without providing the full context and actual descriptions of reality. There are a lot of myths around migration, but when you look at the data qualitatively, quantitatively, in different societies, in different periods, it is almost the opposite from what people think. That is why academic research on immigration is very important to rectify the story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ernesto Castañeda has received funding from NIH, NSF, and American University. </span></em></p>A sociologist shares what his research has taught him about migration.Ernesto Castañeda, Associate Professor of Sociology, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1826452022-05-27T12:29:48Z2022-05-27T12:29:48ZDesegregating schools requires more than giving parents free choices – a scholar studies the choices parents of all races make<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462572/original/file-20220511-11-l02abw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C3%2C2121%2C1400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racial bias may play a role both in the schools that families choose for their children and the experiences their children have.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/child-dressed-in-red-walking-across-red-and-blue-royalty-free-image/1083675448">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/sociology/faculty/ch48723">Chantal Hailey</a> is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts.Her work focuses on the role of race and racism in how people choose schools and the other spaces they inhabit, and how racism influences inequality. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Chantal Hailey discusses her research about how race and racism influence school choice.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>What do you study?</strong></p>
<p>My research at this moment focuses on <a href="https://integratedschools.org/podcast/s7e14-unpacking-the-racial-hierarchy-in-school-choices/">school choice</a> in New York City, and particularly the role of race in how people choose high schools in New York City. This is important for a couple of reasons. One, New York City is the largest school district in the United States. Over a million kids attend school in this school district. </p>
<p>And in 2014, there was a <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cx4b8pf">study</a> that came out that was completely surprising to me as someone who was new to New York City. It said that New York state’s schools were the most segregated in the country. And that was surprising for two reasons. One, we often think of New York and particularly New York City as this really racially diverse metropolitan area.</p>
<p>The other reason this is surprising is that, for high school in particular, there is school choice, which means students can choose to attend school anywhere across the city. A lot of the reasons we think about or talk about school segregation is that it’s tied to racially segregated housing and neighborhoods.</p>
<p>But in New York City, those two ties are broken up. People can technically choose to attend school anywhere across the city. But yet you still see these really stark patterns of segregation. </p>
<p>I ask in my work, why do we still see racial sorting patterns across schools and really stark racial segregation? I use both data from families’ actual applications to high schools and an experiment to understand why we see segregation in New York City schools.</p>
<p><strong>What’s one thing you want people to take away from your research?</strong></p>
<p>Even though we might think of school choice as a race-neutral policy, the ways in which families interact with school choice policies are very racialized. By that, I mean a couple of things: One, that means <a href="https://chantalahailey.com/working-papers/">families interpret information</a> about schools through what I call their racial prisms – that is, their racial biases toward groups, general cultural stereotypes around groups, other experiences and exposures to different racial groups.</p>
<p>So families are interpreting information about schools through race. They also have racial preferences for schools.</p>
<p>In the experiment and in the administrative data, I examine schools that are the exact same but differ only by their racial demographics. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00380407211065179">what I find</a> is that families across different racial groups express racial preferences for schools. So in particular, I find that white and Asian families have had really stark desires to avoid Black and Latino spaces.</p>
<p>I find that Latino families also want to avoid majority Black schools, and I find that Black families often desire not to to attend majority-white schools. So again, I really want to emphasize that even though we might think of school choice as race neutral or even a racial equity policy, the ways in which people are interacting with that policy are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08959048221087211">very racialized </a>and based upon their own experiences and exposures and cultural stereotypes in our larger structure of racism.</p>
<p><strong>What inspired you to study the field that you’re in right now?</strong></p>
<p>My own schooling experiences. I experienced many different kinds of racialized school spaces, from a majority-Black elementary school to racially mixed middle schools to a private, all-girls majority-white school. Across all those spaces, I saw different resources that were available. I saw different racialized treatment of students across these different spaces. </p>
<p>I knew that race was central in both how I experienced those spaces and in my decisions and my mom’s decisions to move me across these spaces. So I wanted to understand the patterns of race and school choice from a larger context and how it influences students’ racialized outcomes and their experiences within school spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Hailey receives funding from the Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD042849), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE1342536, the Institute of Education Sciences–funded Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (IES-PIRT) Program at New York University, and the Ford Foundation Dissertation Grant.</span></em></p>Inspired by her own experience with the education system, a professor of sociology explores how race and racism influence school choice and education.Chantal Hailey, Assistant Professor of Sociology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1823162022-05-18T12:12:00Z2022-05-18T12:12:00ZRacism is different than colorism – here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461096/original/file-20220503-26-n2bhyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3600%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The preference for lighter skin has its roots in colonial histories.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/beautician-applies-a-skin-toning-treatment-on-a-woman-at-a-news-photo/1013442704">STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://socialwork.msu.edu/directory/hall-ronald.html">Ronald Hall</a> is a professor in the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. He has written over 200 books/articles/monographs, etc., on colorism – discrimination on the basis of skin tone, often among the same ethnic or racial group. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Ronald Hall speaks about his experience researching colorism.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>Why does your research matter and why do you study it?</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Hall:</strong> This research matters as <a href="https://www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2021/09/26/opinion/the-new-multiracial-america-opens-a-new-era-for-the-nation/">the nation</a> and indeed the world assume a more multiracial demographic. I study it to correct some of the errors made by “experts” and prepare for the future. </p>
<p>I grew up a child of the ‘60s, and I saw and heard about a lot of racism – but I didn’t understand as a kid how to connect that to my life directly. By the time I started college in the '70s, I wanted to approach racism from a different perspective.</p>
<p>I realized that the same kinds of behaviors that we normally label as racism are actually a form of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5505-0">colorism</a> that’s acted out <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0362-3319(01)00171-9">among people of color</a>. “Experts” refer to colorism as a bias against dark-skinned persons exclusively, but I view it more broadly as bias via complexion regardless of skin color.</p>
<p>It’s a taboo subject. I guess for fear of being embarrassed, we just don’t discuss it publicly, and I decided to change that.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize that it’s a misconception to think it’s something localized to African Americans. When I started to study this topic with my own money, I took to traveling the world. And it took me about 11 years. I’ve collected quantitative and qualitative data from all racial groups, including African-descended Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians.</p>
<p><strong>What’s something about your research that people would be surprised by?</strong></p>
<p>Most would be surprised to know that it exists among Asians.</p>
<p>Also, I thought people in Africa of African descent would idealize African features. But in fact, having been there, particularly when I visited South Africa about 15-20 years ago, that wasn’t true. This is the product of colonization. And the Black South Africans were colonized by Europeans, and so you find this behavior that is a norm as much in Black Africa as it is anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>I had a focus group at one of the universities in South Africa, and I gave a question to the students. I said, “You have the ability to determine the skin color, the hair texture, the eye color of your expected daughter. And you can design their features any way you so choose.” And for about a minute, there was silence in the room.</p>
<p>Eventually one young man bravely raised his hand – a South African. He said, “I want my daughter to have blond hair, blue eyes and white skin.” And this is in the aftermath of apartheid. I was shocked by that. I was shocked. </p>
<p>One article I published using this data pertains to the “bleaching syndrome” <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb01450.x">among Latinx Americans</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What do you think led to his wanting that? The social value that we put on those physical features?</strong> </p>
<p>My guess is that this young man had been seduced by apartheid
and dominated by a Western, Eurocentric environment where everything white is ideal. Although apartheid officially ended in 1994, it is now embedded in the culture, which may extended decades into the future.</p>
<p>Fortunately or unfortunately, I believe the world is given to Eurocentric ideals. One of the most dangerous phenomena that I came across is, there is currently a global market in something called bleaching creams. For example, <a href="https://face2faceafrica.com/article/top-5-african-countries-where-women-bleach-their-skin-to-look-white">77% of Nigerians</a> use bleaching creams.</p>
<p>Bleaching creams are cosmetic products that compromise a person’s melanin, and a result of using it is that a person will have lighter skin. And what concerned me about bleaching creams, which is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-of-color-spend-more-than-8-billion-on-bleaching-creams-worldwide-every-year-153178">worldwide billion-dollar market</a>, with the largest markets <a href="https://theconversation.com/bleached-girls-india-and-its-love-for-light-skin-80655">in Asia</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/self-love-not-bans-will-bring-an-end-to-africas-bleaching-syndrome-77985">in Africa</a>, those creams contain something called <a href="http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-87530-9198/hydroquinone-skin-bleaching-cream/details">hydroquinone</a>).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-works-protect-consumers-potentially-harmful-otc-skin-lightening-products#:%7E:text=FDA%20has%20received%20reports%20of,skin%20lightening%20products%20containing%20hydroquinone.">The FDA has reported</a> serious side effects including skin rashes, facial swelling and skin discoloration from hydroquinone. As of September 2020, manufacturers and distributors of over-the-counter skin lightening products that do not have FDA approval were required to be removed from the market.</p>
<p>And one last point about these creams: Light skin worldwide has traditionally been viewed as a feminine trait. Dark skin is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692070">masculine trait</a>, hence the notion “tall, dark and handsome.” In my travels in India, particularly in the south of India, where you have darker-complexioned Indians, there’s a product called Fair and Lovely that is a popular product used by Indian women.</p>
<p>But now they have something called Fair and Handsome. So you have men, Indian men, who are darker-complexioned, seeking to <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-men-are-swapping-tall-dark-and-handsome-for-tall-fair-and-debonair-93144">get lighter skin</a>.</p>
<p><strong>How many countries have you traveled to in doing your research?</strong> </p>
<p>I’d probably say 25 to 30 over 10 to 15 years. I only realized that there’s a lot more that I need to learn about this topic. I do a lot of work in the Philippines. They use bleaching creams, but they discovered something new, and I don’t think it exists anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>It’s a supplement called <a href="https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.0801a04">glutathione</a>. There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.0801a04">evidence</a> that a byproduct of glutathione is that if you use it, you can get a lighter complexion. It’s not toxic like the bleaching creams. But women are injecting this <a href="https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-717/glutathione">product into their veins</a>. It was not intended for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald E. Hall 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 social work shares what he has learned about colorism by conducting research in more than 20 countries over the past few decades.Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812282022-04-22T12:09:31Z2022-04-22T12:09:31ZPeople of color have been missing in the disability rights movement – looking through history may help explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457777/original/file-20220412-13-9ufn9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C0%2C6824%2C4535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Building a more inclusive future means understanding why certain groups were absent in history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-on-wheelchair-with-her-collegue-at-office-royalty-free-image/1314933629">kyotokushige/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://polisci.richmond.edu/faculty/jerkulwa/">Jennifer Erkulwater</a> is a professor of political science at the University of Richmond. Her scholarship focuses on the politics of poverty, Social Security and disability rights. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Jennifer Erkulwater speaks on her research about people of color and the disability rights movement.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>What is your research focused on?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> My current work involves trying to understand why people of color seem to be missing in debates about disability rights. </p>
<p>People of color, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/materials/infographic-disabilities-ethnicity-race.html">especially African Americans</a>, are more likely to report medical impairments than whites, and yet popular media tends to showcase largely white people with disabilities. It’s an absence that’s been critiqued on social media with the hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite.</p>
<p>I think about this from a political angle. The history of the U.S. disability rights movement is almost exclusively a history of white people. Political debates about disability rarely focus on the distinctive ways that people of color experience disability. I’ve tried to understand that silence. My work has looked largely at the role that public policy, namely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X18000172">the Social Security Act</a>, has played in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000143">defining disability as white</a>, as well as the strategies of disability organizations to create a coherent social movement of people with disabilities.</p>
<p><strong>What would people find surprising about your work?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> It’s not that the absence of people of color among people with disabilities was surprising because I kind of knew that just studying the politics of poverty. <a href="https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/disability-race-poverty-in-america.pdf">People of color and people with disabilities</a> are much more likely to experience spells of poverty, rely on income support and struggle with unemployment than the general population. But I also knew political debates about access and employment for people with disabilities tend to center on the needs and experiences <a href="https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/re-producing-white-privilege-through-disability-accommodations-4c16a746c0dc">of whites</a>. I wanted to figure out why that was the case.</p>
<p>I think that it was surprising, going back through the history and the politics of it, that absence is continual. And even in the 1960s and 1970s with some of the grassroots groups that came about to advocate for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000143">civil rights</a> of people with disabilities, they would say we should really get more people of color.</p>
<p>But not only would it not happen, there was also a sense that advocating for people of color within the disability rights movement competed with trying to build a coherent disability identity. </p>
<p>Not only did activists in the 1970s fear that assertions of racial identity would divide people with disabilities from one another, but throughout the 1980s activists posed disability rights as the antithesis of welfare, at a time when the term “welfare” became deeply racialized. One of the arguments activists and members of Congress made for the Americans with Disabilities Act in the late 1980s was that if the government banned discrimination against the disabled, then people with disabilities could get a job rather than having to depend on welfare to make ends meet. </p>
<p>*<em>What motivates you to keep doing the research that you’re doing today?</em></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> I just find it really interesting that you have a puzzle. Nobody’s ever thought about it before. I want to know the answer to it.</p>
<p>So some of the things that I’ve researched reach all the way back to the 1930s, the 1940s – but the politics are still relevant today.</p>
<p>How do you be inclusive? How do you as an activist in a social movement try to encompass the diversity of people you claim to speak for? I think a lot about the ways in which policies and laws frame some groups, like people with disabilities, as people whose needs we should respond to, but others, like “the poor” or people on welfare, as undeserving of social assistance. </p>
<p><strong>What’s the one thing you would want people to take away from your research?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Erkulwater:</strong> It is really hard to be inclusive. Like really, really, really hard.</p>
<p>White activists with disabilities sometimes argued that Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus, but the disabled couldn’t even get on the bus. That argument erases Black people with disabilities, whose exclusion is the result of both racism and ableism. When advocating for human rights, it’s important to recognize that our movements include people of marginalized identities, and there is value in centering those experiences and perspectives. </p>
<p>So many contemporary movements draw inspiration from the Black civil rights movement. That is rightly so, but these comparisons can end up excluding African Americans. Drawing parallels with the Black civil rights movement is useful if the purpose is to show points of affinity and build common cause, (but) less so if the purpose is to compare suffering. Comparing the oppression of white people with disabilities to that of African Americans under Jim Crow inherently excludes people of color with disabilities and engages in a competition over who is more deserving.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I find that to be a really productive way of building coalitions and trying to encompass the range of experiences and struggles that people go through. And so trying to listen to that, to be thoughtful, to constantly be mindful of that and to act on it in a way that’s ethical – I think that that’s a challenge. And I think that it’s important to recognize that. And it’s OK to make mistakes as long as you try to fix it.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Erkulwater 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 political scientist speaks about the questions that have driven her research on disability rights and history.Jennifer Erkulwater, Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.