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Three reasons to support environmental defenders

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

So much so that after his visit to the UK in January, Michel Forst, the UN representative for environmental defenders, stated that he found their treatment “extremely worrying”.

Key Points:

So much so that after his visit to the UK in January, Michel Forst, the UN representative for environmental defenders, stated that he found their treatment “extremely worrying”.
This ambitious international environmental agreement, which I have spent more than ten years studying and writing a book about, was designed to empower and protect environmental defenders.
But environmental defenders insist that these desperate and disruptive actions are nothing compared to the risks that political inaction pose to human health and that of our planet.
Here are three reasons not to be mad at the protestors.

1. Democracies depend on citizen engagement

Healthy democracies welcome and depend on an active and engaged citizens to thrive.
These examples are all worrying signals for the state of our democracy, and our planet.
The repression and criminalisation of environmental protesters and those undertaking acts of civil disobedience spells trouble for our democracies as well as our planet.

2. Environmental problems need diverse solutions

Environmental harm can operate in ways that are not always well understood by those in power.
Planetary problems therefore need a diverse range of solutions and everyone affected needs to be represented and have their interests heard.
The Aarhus Convention also promotes active public participation in relation to environmental decision-making.

3. Suppressing protest won’t solve the planetary crisis

Lethal air, filthy rivers, collapsing food chains, the climate crisis – these problems will all continue unabated, and soon become much more inconvenient than having to get off the bus to walk the last mile to work.
Forst, in his report, puts it like this: “states must address the root causes of mobilisation” not the mobilisation itself.

Emily Barritt is a trustee of the Environmental Law Foundation

Are tomorrow’s engineers ready to face AI’s ethical challenges?

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Research, Algorithm, Pressure, Science, Intelligence, Education, Ethics, News, AI, Faculty, Student, Woman, STEM, Apathy, Workforce, Privacy, Problem solving, Workplace, Engineering

A test version of a Roomba vacuum collects images of users in private situations.

Key Points:

A test version of a Roomba vacuum collects images of users in private situations.
The general public depends on software engineers and computer scientists to ensure these technologies are created in a safe and ethical manner.
What’s more, some appear apathetic about the moral dilemmas their careers may bring – just as advances in AI intensify such dilemmas.

Aware, but unprepared

We asked students about their experiences with ethical challenges in engineering, their knowledge of ethical dilemmas in the field and how they would respond to scenarios in the future.
When asked, however, “Do you feel equipped to respond in concerning or unethical situations?” students often said no.
“Do YOU know who I’m supposed to go to?” Another was troubled by the lack of training: “I [would be] dealing with that with no experience.

Other researchers have similarly found that many engineering students do not feel satisfied with the ethics training they do receive. Common training usually emphasizes professional codes of conduct, rather than the complex socio-technical factors underlying ethical decision-making. Research suggests that even when presented with particular scenarios or case studies, engineering students often struggle to recognize ethical dilemmas.

‘A box to check off’

A study assessing undergraduate STEM curricula in the U.S. found that coverage of ethical issues varied greatly in terms of content, amount and how seriously it is presented.
Additionally, an analysis of academic literature about engineering education found that ethics is often considered nonessential training.
[Misusage] issues are not their concern.” One of us, Erin Cech, followed a cohort of 326 engineering students from four U.S. colleges.
Following them after they left college, we found that their concerns regarding ethics did not rebound once these new graduates entered the workforce.

Joining the work world

When engineers do receive ethics training as part of their degree, it seems to work.
Along with engineering professor Cynthia Finelli, we conducted a survey of over 500 employed engineers.

Over a quarter of these practicing engineers reported encountering a concerning ethical situation at work.
Yet approximately one-third said they have never received training in public welfare – not during their education, and not during their career.

Elana Goldenkoff receives funding from National Science Foundation and Schmidt Futures. Erin A. Cech receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

TikTok fears point to larger problem: Poor media literacy in the social media age

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

The U.S. government moved closer to banning the video social media app TikTok after the House of Representatives attached the measure to an emergency spending bill on Apr.

Key Points:

The U.S. government moved closer to banning the video social media app TikTok after the House of Representatives attached the measure to an emergency spending bill on Apr.
The move could improve the bill’s chances in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has indicated that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
The bill would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to either sell its American holdings to a U.S. company or face a ban in the country.
For one, ByteDance can be required to assist the Chinese Communist Party in gathering intelligence, according to the Chinese National Intelligence Law.
The fact that China, a country that Americans criticize for its authoritarian practices, bans social media platforms is hardly a reason for the U.S. to do the same.
Here’s why I think the recent move against TikTok misses the larger point: Americans’ sources of information have declined in quality and the problem goes beyond any one social media platform.

The deeper problem

But the proposed solution of switching to American ownership of the app ignores an even more fundamental threat.
The deeper problem is not that the Chinese government can easily manipulate content on the app.
It is, rather, that people think it is OK to get their news from social media in the first place.
In other words, the real national security vulnerability is that people have acquiesced to informing themselves through social media.

Media and technology literacy

Research suggests that it will only be alleviated by inculcating media and technology literacy habits from an early age.
My colleagues and I have just launched a pilot program to boost digital media literacy with the Boston Mayor’s Youth Council.
Some of these measures to boost media and technology literacy might not be popular among tech users and tech companies.

The Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston receives funding from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Nir Eisikovits serves as the data ethics advisor to Hour25AI, a startup dedicated to reducing digital distractions.

Hateful graffiti blights communities and it’s something we need to tackle urgently

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Hateful graffiti and other imagery plague communities across the UK, spreading a toxic message of division.

Key Points:

Hateful graffiti and other imagery plague communities across the UK, spreading a toxic message of division.
Such graffiti targets people based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity.
This is why we’ve developed an app called StreetSnap to record instances of hateful graffiti and other visuals.
The Weiner Holocaust Library and several other locations around London have been targeted by a spate of far-right racist graffiti.

Under-reporting

Issues such as war, immigration, people seeking asylum and the rising costs of living are changing and challenging communities.
As a result, it is now more important than ever that hateful graffiti and symbols are better understood.
But one Australian study showed that hateful graffiti can heighten people’s perceptions of insecurity and fear of crime.
Hateful graffiti, whether fuelled by malicious intent or simply ignorance, may have the same destructive effect on individuals, groups and communities.

StreetSnap

Our intention is that this will allow for easier communication between various authorities, as well as identification and removal by councils.
More importantly, though, the data gathered can be used to identify and understand patterns and help monitor community tensions.

Melanie Morgan is affiliated with Swansea University and is employed through SMART Partnership Grant Funding from Welsh Government. Lella Nouri receives funding from Welsh Government, Bridgend & Swansea Council. She is affiliated with Swansea University and is the Founder of StreetSnap. She also consults Welsh Government on the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.

Visualising the 1800s or designing wedding invitations: 6 ways you can use AI beyond generating text

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.

Key Points:

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.
But our recent research demonstrates how generative AI can be used for much more than this, returning results in different formats.
On the one hand, AI tools are neutral – they can be used for good or ill depending on one’s intent.

1. Imagining what lies beyond the frame

Adobe’s recently developed “generative expand” tool allows users to expand the canvas of their photos and have Photoshop “imagine” what is happening beyond the frame.
You might do this when trying to edit a square Instagram photo to fit a 4x6 inch photo frame.

2. Visualising the past or the future

Photography was only invented within the past 200 years, and camera-equipped smartphones within the last 25.
That leaves us with plenty of things that existed before cameras were common, yet we might want to visualise them.
NASA currently works with artists to illustrate concepts we can’t see, but artists could also draw on AI to help create these renderings.

3. Brainstorming how to visualise difficult concepts

As one of the deepest places on Earth, few people have ever seen it firsthand.
Or creating a layered illustration that shows the flora and fauna that live at each of the ocean’s five zones above the trench.

4. Visualising data

For example, you might upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT 4 and ask it to visualise the results.
Or, if the data is already publicly available (such as Earth’s population over time), you might ask a chatbot to visualise it without even having to supply a spreadsheet.

5. Creating simple moving images

You can create a simple yet effective animation by uploading a photo to an AI tool like Runway and giving it an animation command, such as zooming in, zooming out or tracking from left to right. That’s what I’ve done with this historical photo preserved by the State Library of Western Australia.

I used this description to create the following video:
Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.
Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.

6. Generating a colour palette or simple graphics

In these cases, having a consistent colour palette can help unify your design.
You can ask generative AI services like Midjourney or Gemini to create a colour palette for you based on the event or its vibe.
This is true for both browser-based generators like Adobe Firefly, as well as desktop apps with built-in AI, like Adobe Illustrator.

T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

South Africans tasted the fruits of freedom and then corruption snatched them away – podcast

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Mbeki would lead the country for the next nine years, a period of relatively high economic growth which enabled South Africans to begin to taste the fruits of freedom.

Key Points:

Mbeki would lead the country for the next nine years, a period of relatively high economic growth which enabled South Africans to begin to taste the fruits of freedom.
To mark 30 years since South Africa’s post-apartheid transition began, The Conversation Weekly podcast is running a special three-part podcast series, What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa?
When Mandela took over as president of South Africa in 1994, the country’s economy was emerging from a long recession.
It’s a no-brainer that you’re going to have to find ways of transferring ownership of that capital.

The Zuma years

In 2008, Mbeki’s presidency came to an end when the ANC recalled him, paving the way for the ascension of his successor, Jacob Zuma, after the 2009 national and provincial elections.
Zuma’s years in office unleashed what many see as a significant turning point in South Africa’s democratic history.
Allegations of state capture and corruption dogged the Zuma presidency, particularly centred around his relationship with three businessmen called the Gupta brothers.

Disclosure statement

Mashupye Maserumule has received funding from the National Research Foundation. He is a member of the National Planning Commission and the South African Association of Public Administration and Management. Michael Sachs coordinates the Public Economy Project, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation. He was a member and employee of the ANC in the 1990s and 2000s, and later on a government official.

Credits

Special thanks for this series to Gary Oberholzer, Jabulani Sikhakhane, Caroline Southey and Moina Spooner at The Conversation Africa.
This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, with production assistance from Katie Flood.
Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.

Snorkelling artists showcase Scotland’s diverse marine life in thought-provoking exhibition

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

In the vibrant ebb and flow of Glasgow’s Byres Road, a new residency of snorkelling artists shines a light on the hidden deep.

Key Points:

In the vibrant ebb and flow of Glasgow’s Byres Road, a new residency of snorkelling artists shines a light on the hidden deep.
This exhibition showcases their diverse range of multimedia artworks, from illustration and printmaking to audio recordings of underwater seascapes and animation.

Installation artist Vicki Fleck’s work uses a variety of media while “exploring the fluid, spongy and colourful landscape” underwater.
She says she has been particularly inspired by the horizonless perspective of the snorkeller, “where everything comes up and towards”.

Internationally acclaimed wildlife artist and scientific illustrator Rachel Brooks’s detailed ink pieces capture the often-overlooked marine life found in UK coastal waters, while drawing on her expertise in zoology and marine biology.

This residency has also inspired poems and storytelling, exhibited with QR codes that direct people to podcasts and compositions by some participants.
Composer and sound artist Nicolette MacLeod creates work that invites people to listen to a series of compositions and podcast episodes made in response to the residency experience.

Hope spots

The goal is to create a global network of hope spots, as far flung as the Galápagos and the Great Barrier Reef, that together help protect the hugely unexplored, yet fragile, ocean habitats beneath the waves.
The Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot, on the west coast, is the first in Scotland and the only designated hope spot in UK coastal waters.

These residencies give artists access to new pastures of inspiration and discovery. By collaborating with marine scientists during this experience, the artists are encouraged to bring the mysteries and beauty of the largely unseen underwater worlds to a larger public. This can enlighten and educate people about the critical role that the ocean and its teeming-yet-threatened populations play in our own survival.

Visual storytelling

Using visual narratives to communicate information can help demystify and explain sometimes complex, inaccessible and unfathomable places and lifeforms that most people would not normally have access to, or knowledge of.
Visual narratives have a potency that supersedes textual formats.

This form of storytelling presents information, data and ideas in a more accessible, visual context that allows more people to see the bigger picture.
It can be hard for people to connect with the sea other than by looking out over its seemingly endless surface.
But art initiatives can unite people to engage with causes that might otherwise escape their notice, because visual storytelling brings this subject matter closer to home.

Chris Mackenzie 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.

Low pay and few contracts make freelance journalism a bleak prospect in 2024

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Journalism, Risk, National Union, Patreon, Copyright, Newsroom, Research, News, WhatsApp

With fewer opportunities for steady employment in this undeniably bleak landscape, freelancing is becoming the new normal for prospective journalists.

Key Points:

With fewer opportunities for steady employment in this undeniably bleak landscape, freelancing is becoming the new normal for prospective journalists.
Squarely in the remit of the digital gig economy, freelancers can expect to “rise and grind” in this new reality.
This was the main question driving our recent survey into the earnings, contracts and copyright of UK-based freelance journalists.

Funding and income

Our respondents confirmed that they would hesitate to encourage a young person to become a freelancer nowadays given the limited prospects offered in the profession.
Low levels of income for freelancers have been attributed to a range of complex factors surrounding new technologies and business models – particularly the move from physical print to digital media distribution.
But our research suggests that big tech’s use of news content is just one (relatively small) factor among many affecting freelancers’ income.
As a result, freelancers lose the capacity for future earnings through royalties or licensing fees for republications or adaptations of their work.

Who can be a journalist today?

Inevitably, the result of an unlivable baseline income and tenuous working conditions is that there are limitations on who actually gets to be a freelance journalist.
Our findings indicate that freelancers need to rely on other sources of income, either from another job or from a partner to support their career.
This has created an expectation in the industry that everyone has an additional income, resulting in the “crowding out” of marginalised demographic groups.

This survey was commissioned by the UK Authors' Licensing and Collection Society in collaboration with the National Union of Journalists. The commissioners do not control the analysis of the findings.

After Just for Laughs’ bankruptcy, we should ask Canadian comedians what they need to succeed

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

It’s still not clear how Juste Pour Rire / Just for Laughs (JPR/JFL) went from one of the biggest comedy festivals in the world to bankruptcy.

Key Points:

It’s still not clear how Juste Pour Rire / Just for Laughs (JPR/JFL) went from one of the biggest comedy festivals in the world to bankruptcy.
On April 12, La Presse reported the festival lost $800,000 in an email phishing scheme in 2023.
The company also applied for protection from creditors under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

From burst to bust

JPR was founded by businessman Gilbert Rozon in 1983 as a two-day French-language comedy event in Montréal. In 1985, Rozon was joined by promoter Andrew Nulman who brought the event to anglophone audiences and co-founded the company’s bilingual iteration. JPR/JFL is a behemoth in Canadian comedy and tourism. The flagship festival still took place in Montréal but expanded nationally and globally.

Conflicts around sexual assault, harassment

In recent years, JFL has contended with a series of high-profile conflicts.
At the height of #MeToo in 2017, Rozon stepped down as president after being named in numerous sexual assault allegations.
This also brought back to light Rozon’s previous 1998 sexual assault charge that he plead guilty to.
: Sexual misconduct and the pursuit of justice
Mausner said Rozon’s stepping down was a “a surface-level solution for a systemic problem” and called the festival an “accessory to sexual assaults.” Following the earlier assault allegations, the organization implemented an
anti-harassment policy and brought in new investment partners.

Royalties issues, pandemic challenges

The channel, which once played exclusively Canadian content, would now primarily feature classic JPR/JFL recordings, meaning a substantial reduction in royalties for Canadian comedians.
Intense public pushback from comedians led JPR/JFL to walk back their proposal and commit to playing 100 per cent Canadian content.
The pandemic hit live festivals hard, but JPR/JFL did receive significant monetary assistance from government sources.

Blockbuster festivals, broke comedians

Canadian comedians often think of performing at JPR/JFL as a massive career goal.
But for years, JPR/JFL has been taken to task for their prioritization of American comedians.
Even if JPR/JFL survives restructuring, comic Sam Sferrazza says this likely will mean “bringing in more bankable American talent paid for by Canadian taxpayers and artistic institutions.” Canadian funding agencies tend to favour blockbuster events like JPR/JFL but in the world of art grants, stand-up comedians are at a disadvantage.

Boosting international exposure

But what if we created an environment where they not only wanted to stay but could stay.
One option is boosting Canada’s comedic digital content internationally.

Funding for local comedians and festivals

Another option is putting more funding directly into the pockets of individual Canadian comedians, producers, and (smaller) festivals, strengthening the comedy industry nationwide.
We need to be asking comedians what they need to succeed and recognizing their work as both artists and contributors to Canadian culture.

Madison Trusolino has received funding for her research from SSHRC, OGS and the Jackman Humanities Institute.

Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after dark

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Pollination, Temperature, Bee, Wetland, Environment, Science, Moth, Ant, Swimming, Climate, Sleep, Research, News, Thermoregulation, Human, Water, Honey, Literature, Pest control, Data, Animal, Wasp, Agriculture

We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night.

Key Points:

We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night.
Our global analysis confirms there are indeed more insects out at night than during the day, on average.
And now we know for sure, we can make more strident efforts to conserve insects and preserve their vital place in the natural world.

Building a global dataset of sleepless nights

We narrowed these down to studies using methods that would not influence the results.
For instance, we excluded studies that collected insects by using sweep nets or beating branches, as these methods can capture resting insects along with active ones.
These include pitfall traps (for crawling insects), flight interception traps (for flying insects) and aquatic drift nets (for swimming insects).

Eventually, we honed in on 99 studies published between 1959 and 2022. These studies spanned all continents except Antarctica and encompassed a wide range of habitats on both land and water.

What did we find?

We found more mayflies, caddisflies, moths and earwigs at night. On the other hand, there were more thrips, bees, wasps and ants during the day.

In these aquatic areas, there could be twice as many insects active during the night.
In contrast, land-based insects were generally more active during the day, especially in grasslands and savannas.
We also found insects were more active at night in warmer parts of the globe, where there are higher maximum temperatures.

Findings underscore the threats to nocturnal insects

Insects perform many vital “ecosystem services” such as pollination, nutrient cycling and pest control. Many of these services may be provided at night, when more insects are active. This means we need to curtail some of our own activities to support theirs. For instance, artificial lighting is detrimental to nocturnal insects.

In the hottest regions of the globe such as the tropics, the warming trend may further reduce the activity of nocturnal insects that struggle to cope with heat.
Read more:
Insects will struggle to keep pace with global temperature rise – which could be bad news for humans

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