Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Ramsay, Emeritus Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne

In 2020, for the first time in Australia, more than half the shareholders of a public company voted in support of a climate change resolution put forward by shareholders in the face of opposition from the company’s board of directors.

The resolution, advanced at Woodside Petroleum’s annual general meeting, called for the company to establish hard targets to bring its own emissions and the emissions caused by the use of its products globally in line with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below two degrees.

A similar resolution followed at this year’s AGL annual general meeting, gaining the support of 52% of the shareholders.

Although the Woodside vote was described as a “breakthrough moment”, it is part of an increase in shareholder activism around environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that’s been building for several years.

Our analysis of shareholder ESG resolutions put forward in listed Australian companies between 2002 and 2019 finds they have increased in number, prominence and impact.

Shareholder ESG Resolutions per year

A record 36 shareholder ESG resolutions were put forward in 2020. So far in 2021 a further 20 have been put forward, with more foreshadowed.

The resolutions have been concentrated in a small number of companies and industries.

Four industries – energy, banking, insurance and materials – accounted for 83.5% of the resolutions, with the 139 resolutions recorded between 2002 and the first part of 2021 concentrated in only 28 companies.

They were generally the companies most exposed to the risk of climate change or which provide finance to these companies.

More climate resolutions are succeeding

Several have been subjected to more than one campaign a year. The company with the most is Origin Energy, facing 24 resolutions in the last six years.

Of the 83 shareholder ESG resolutions advanced between 2002 and 2019, 48 concerned climate change. A further 26 notionally related to governance, but the governance resolutions were often the ones needed to enable consideration of issues such as climate change.

The others related to workers’ rights, human rights, obtaining the consent of Aboriginal native title holders to fracking activities, and gambling.

Read more:
Rio Tinto’s climate resolution marks a significant shift in investor culture

Almost all were proposed by just two groups: the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and Market Forces.

Until last year the level of support garnered by shareholder ESG resolutions was small, averaging 9.7%. In 2020, support jumped to 14.7%.

In 2021 to date it has climbed to 28%, bolstered by two resolutions of Rio Tinto shareholders that attracted 99% after winning the support of Rio Tinto’s board.

Success needn’t mean being put to a vote

Our study sought input from proponents of ESG resolutions, institutional shareholders, company directors, governance professionals and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

We found that winning votes isn’t the only objective of those who propose these resolutions.

Another is to get companies to respond positively even though the resolutions will be defeated, and sometimes in return for the resolutions being withdrawn before the annual general meeting.

As an example, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility submitted a resolution for this year’s Woodside annual general meeting calling on the company to prepare an annual climate report that would include Woodside’s strategy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and put the report to a shareholder advisory vote.

It withdrew the resolution after Woodside announced it would put climate reporting to an advisory vote of shareholders at its 2022 annual general meeting.

Some of those we interviewed said shareholder ESG resolutions distracted the companies from what they should be doing.

Others said they ran the risk of blurring the distinct roles of directors and shareholders. Many said the process for getting shareholder ESG resolutions on the agenda for annual general meetings is cumbersome.

However, almost all of those interviewed – and not just the proponents of the resolutions – saw them as a valuable way of letting companies know what their shareholders really think about how they should respond to the challenges of climate change and other issues.

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.

– ref. Australian companies are facing more climate-focused ESG resolutions than ever before, and they are paying quiet dividends – https://theconversation.com/australian-companies-are-facing-more-climate-focused-esg-resolutions-than-ever-before-and-they-are-paying-quiet-dividends-170466

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

Review: The Linda McCartney Retrospective, Ballarat International Foto Biennale

The Linda McCartney Retrospective has toured the world, taking on a new life in each location, morphing and connecting to the local milieu. It morphs again here for Ballarat’s International Foto Biennale. The 200 works included are curated from the artist’s vast archive of half a million photographs by her famous husband Sir Paul McCartney and their daughters, photographer Mary and fashion designer Stella.

The show contains work across 30 years, from her earliest images of rock stars such as the Beatles and Janis Joplin in the 1960s, through to images of the everyday, self-portraits, experiments with form and commentary on causes dear to her heart, especially animal liberation.

Before meeting Paul McCartney in 1967, Linda Eastman (no relation to the Kodak-Eastman family) aleady enjoyed a successful career. She was named US Female Photographer of the Year in 1967. In 1968, she became the first female photographer to shoot the cover of Rolling Stone with an acclaimed portrait of Eric Clapton.

Despite her credentials, she was best known as Paul’s wife rather than an artist in her own right. It is widely reported he often joked that he ruined his wife’s career, but since her death in 1998, Paul has ensured her legacy with books and international retrospectives.

This retrospective includes never before exhibited material, including photographs captured during the McCartney family’s Australian visits for the 1975 Wings and 1993 New World tours.

For local audiences, this provides a connection with images of down-time, press scrums and press conferences (including one with Norman Gunston), landmarks, crew, fans, sunsets and Greenpeace activists. Whether it is the quality of the light or the openness of the faces, these images stand out as quintessentially Australian.

From the shadows

McCartney achieves a direct sense of connection and intimacy with her subjects. The images speak of the moment shared, often unposed and character-revealing.

This idea also occurs in her self-portraits – often mirror reflections – reminding the viewer this is her life and her experience. Direct quotes are framing banners: “Looking out from deep below my eyes, I capture moments of my life … .”

In a video she says: “you’ve got to click on the moment, not before and not after”. This sense gives her work a spontaneity and lightness.

Other images enable fleeting glimpses, such as Mick Jagger 1966. Looking back, framed by a curtain as he moves through a doorway, he just registers her. I wondered if there is something female about this approach, that women might be able to just “be there” so quietly.

Perhaps this could be related to gender relations, where women are imperceivable, non-threatening, only just there in a man’s world. Alternatively, it could show her ability to step into the shadows, to better observe.

There are also portraits of McCartney taken by others. Two taken by Jim Morrison stand out, particularly one very sensual one on a bed taken in 1967. Both photographs reflect a sense that the tables are turned, and it is she who is being looked at.

Many of McCartney’s family images depict Paul at play with their children. In the photograph Paul and James Los Angles 1983, father and son are in a bubble bath and Paul hams up the scene of being sucked under the water with an open-mouthed scream, evocative of Edvard Munch.

In another, Paul and Children East Hampton New York 1975, he is depicted with them all trailing behind him like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In Self Portrait with Paul London 1970, Paul and Linda face the mirror in a bathroom. She holds a camera, slightly angled to him, and he holds an imaginary one.

In all this, you get the sense of his collaboration with her theatrical agenda.

Artistic conversations

Photographs by the Australian artist Rhonda Senbergs line the laneway to the McCartney show, highlighting the synergy between the women. Senbergs photographed the Australian artworld, her family, Prime Ministers and ordinary people with a similar approach and style to McCarthy. They were both self-taught, and, tragically, they both died of breast cancer in 1998 at 57 years old.

Both photographers share an approach characterised by humour and playfulness bordering on theatricality. This is an example of the important work of a curator, how one show illuminates another, and vice versa.

Read more:
Remembering Rhonda Senbergs: friend, art-world insider, unsung star

The Art Gallery of Ballarat is supported by an army of volunteers. This is also the case for the entire Biennale, operating seven days a week over four months. The core program has 12 indoor and 16 outdoor exhibits and there are 120 shows in all with the Open Program straddling the city’s cafes, streetscapes and buildings.

One volunteer, Sarah Masters, tells me she volunteers because of “reciprocity – if you want a vibrant art culture, it is about supporting that where you live”.

I find the volunteers offer interesting snippets of information about the show, or the building, or can identify an obscure object that catches your eye. They are the heroes of this regional arts scene and a key to nurturing and sustaining the cultural heart of this city.

The Linda McCartney Retrospective and The Ballarat International Foto Biennale run until 9 January 2022. Bookings are advised.

Lisa French 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.

– ref. On the intimate and character-revealing photographs of Linda McCartney – Paul’s wife, and a stunning artist – https://theconversation.com/on-the-intimate-and-character-revealing-photographs-of-linda-mccartney-pauls-wife-and-a-stunning-artist-170957

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgina Heydon, Associate professor in Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University

With Cleo Smith safely returned to her family, and charges laid against her alleged abductor, much of the media’s focus has now turned to the question of how police can best piece together the details of what exactly happened to her during the 18 days she was missing.

Child psychologists have described how, with appropriate questioning techniques, a four-year-old can indeed recall and describe detailed memories of their recent experiences. But what about the questioning of the relevant adults, whose recall might also not be perfect, or who might be unwilling to volunteer the necessary information?

Movies and television shows often show police using tough, aggressive questioning techniques on suspects. But the evidence suggests a calm, measured and open approach can help interviewers collect the best information with which to build a prosecution.

Perhaps surprisingly, that means the techniques used to compile evidence from Cleo herself may not be all that different from an interview with an adult witness, or even with Terence Darrell Kelly, the 36-year-old man now charged with her abduction.

Building the case

Child interviewing techniques are based on research about memory and cognition. Creating a safe and comfortable space for the child will help them recall crucial details, and every care is taken to avoid “contaminating” the evidence by asking leading questions. Asking if a child saw “some dolls” when the child has previously only mentioned “some toys” would introduce new information into the child’s narrative, making it hard for them to be sure what they have remembered rather than what was suggested to them.

Young children such as Cleo are also still learning language skills, so the interview questions must also take account of their level of linguistic development. In a question that uses the passive voice, such as “was the dog attacked by the man”, children younger than about seven years will struggle to figure out who is doing the attacking and who is being attacked. Their answers to these types of question can be very unreliable. Multi-part questions (“who was there and what were they wearing”) and forced-choice questions (“was the car white or grey?”) are also problematic.

Of course, some of these considerations apply equally to adults.

The best-practice models of police investigative interviewing are those developed in the United Kingdom during the 1990s, called “cognitive interviewing”. This approach involves five phases, known by the mnemonic “PEACE”:

• Preparation and Planning – assembling all the available information and preparing an appropriate strategy and questions. This happens before the interview begins.

• Engage and Explain – the first part of the interview, which involves building rapport and explaining the purpose and format of the interview.

• Account – the main body of the interview, in which the interviewee has an opportunity to give their narrative, and interviewers ask questions for further detail.

• Closure – confirming the information collected with the interviewee, and providing further information and support.

• Evaluation – after the interview is complete, the interviewers assess the information gathered, the quality of the interview, and the next steps.

This approach emphasises the use of open questions, such as “tell me everything that happened on the night Cleo went missing – even little things you think aren’t important”.

The second part of this question is designed to counter people’s natural tendency not to include lengthy and detailed descriptions in response to questions in ordinary conversation.

Police interviewing puts a strong emphasis on the elicitation of a free narrative at the start of the interview, and at any point where new information is sought. All possible effort must be made to encourage the suspect to tell their own story in their own words, before probing questions are used to clarify the details and prepare for the strategic presentation of evidence.

Closed questions with a limited range of possible answers, such as “who were you with?” or “what was he wearing on his head?”, and yes/no questions such as “did you go to Cleo’s tent?” are regarded as last-resort options.

Adults vary enormously in their language abilities, and a skilled interviewer will adapt their vocabulary, grammar and questioning style as appropriate. This might mean asking simpler questions, but also using a similar level of informality, and the same terminology, that the interviewee uses. This can build rapport and promote clear communication, which is especially important in relation to taboo topics such as body parts, or other idiosyncratic words like names.

Some interviewees might also have special communication needs, which might require a language interpreter or support person to be present.

Read more:
When missing children return: how can we avoid adding to Cleo Smith’s trauma?

It’s not like the movies

Television and movie convention tells us that police interviewing is forceful and even coercive, particularly in strongly emotional cases such as an alleged child abduction.

This trope is based on the real-life Reid technique, widely used in the United States since the 1960s. Not dissimilar to the proverbial “good cop, bad cop” routine, this approach aims to put extreme pressure on any subject deemed uncooperative or untruthful, before offering sympathy and understanding if a confession seems to be forthcoming.

Unsurprisingly, researchers have raised concerns that this technique generates high rates of false confessions.

According to a growing weight of evidence, it’s now clear the best way to interview an adult, even someone accused of child abduction, is to draw on the same principles that underpin child interviewing.

To achieve the best results – that is, a judicial verdict based on fair and just processes and high-quality evidence – investigators will use interviewing techniques that avoid police “contamination” of the evidence, and focus instead on reliable, narrative-based contributions from the suspect.

When the stakes are high, the principles of investigative interviewing established by the UK Home Office offer the best guidance. The focus is on respecting the interviewee’s rights, gathering high-quality, unbiased and reliable information, and following due process in the hopes of maximising the chances of securing a conviction if appropriate.

Georgina Heydon 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.

– ref. Cleo Smith case: how ‘cognitive interviewing’ can help police compile the most reliable evidence – https://theconversation.com/cleo-smith-case-how-cognitive-interviewing-can-help-police-compile-the-most-reliable-evidence-171294

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society and NATSEM, University of Canberra

The Reserve Bank has used Friday’s quarterly assessment of the economy to declare that lockdowns have “delayed but not derailed” Australia’s recovery.

It says economic activity probably contracted 2.5% in the three months to September, but the December quarter (the one we are in now) will regain most of what was lost, leaving the economy recovering much as it would have were it not for the mid-year lockdowns.

Taken together with last year’s descent into recession and quick bounce back it paints a picture of a W-shaped recovery, even on what the Bank has graphed as its “downside” scenario.

Reserve Bank GDP forecasts

As a sign of emerging confidence it points to an increase in the number of people prepared to change jobs because they are looking for something better or different.

It says this is partly a bounce back from the start of the COVID recession when workers appeared to put plans they might have had to change jobs on hold.

Reasons people left jobs in past three months

The Bank is concerned about property markets at home and abroad.

It says the possible collapse of the large and highly leveraged Chinese developer Evergrande might “lead to a significant slowdown in the Chinese economy”.

Average home prices have reached fresh highs in most Australian cities.

Median Australian home prices

It says while interest payments have declined by around one percentage point of disposable income since March 2020 because of lower interest rates, the financial system faces risks associated with high and rising household indebtedness.

While it says mortgage rates will climb, and while financial market pricing implies quite rapid increases in the Bank’s cash rate, it doesn’t expect to lift the rate until 2024 (which is the year after Governor Philip Lowe’s term is due to end, raising the prospect of him completing his seven-year term without once lifting rates).

Implied market cash rate forecasts

The Bank has consistently said it will “not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2–3% target range”.

It has also said it is not enough for inflation to be merely forecast to be within the range, creating a high bar for action.

Although at 2.1% over the year underlying inflation is the highest it has been since 2015, it is still towards the bottom of the Bank’s target band.

Inflation weaker than it seems

And the rate reflects some temporary factors. Some of it is due to the rebound in petrol prices as demand has picked up as people have returned to work, something that won’t continue.

The Bank expects underlying inflation over the course of 2022 to be 2.25%. Although well above the previous forecast of 1.75%, it is below the mid point of its target.

It doesn’t expect inflation of 2.5% until 2023, suggesting no rate hike until then.

Read more:
Reserve Bank not for turning. No rate hike until unemployment near 4.5%

The labour market outlook is little changed from the Bank’s August statement. It expects unemployment to fall to a historic low 4.25% by the end of 2022 and then to 4% in 2023.

Even then, in 2023, it expects only modest wage growth of 3%, doing little to support the sustainably higher inflation it says it would need to see before it lifts rates.

John Hawkins is a former economic forecaster in the Reserve Bank and Treasury.

– ref. RBA says we are in a W-shaped recovery, with housing one of the few concerns – https://theconversation.com/rba-says-we-are-in-a-w-shaped-recovery-with-housing-one-of-the-few-concerns-170716

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Rose, Research fellow, Australian National University

The Fair Work Commission’s ruling that Australian farm workers paid piece rates to pick fruit and vegetables must now get a base wage of $25.41 an hour is long overdue and absolutely necessary.

In theory, anyone working in Australia should be paid a minimum wage. But piecework payments, by which workers are paid solely on what they produce with no guarantee of a minimum rate, have lingered on as a common practice in the agricultural sector.

As the commission’s ruling notes: “A substantial proportion of the seasonal harvesting workforce are engaged on piece rates and more than half of the seasonal harvesting workforce are temporary migrant workers. These characteristics render the seasonal harvesting workforce vulnerable to exploitation.”

Piecework arrangements needn’t be exploitative. It depends on the rates – whether they’re enough to make a living in a bad season, when fruit is scarce. By law, they should be. In practice they haven’t been. The Fair Work Commission has acknowledged and sought to address this. It’s about time.

Underpayment is an open secret

The Horticulture Award, which covers farm fruit and vegetable pickers, does set minimum weekly and hourly rates. But it also permits full-time, part-time or casual employees to make a piece-rate agreement with their employee.

Such agreements must be entered into “without coercion or duress”, and the agreed rate is meant to “enable the average competent employee to earn at least 15% more per hour than the minimum hourly rate” set in the award.

This has not been the reality for many.

Read more:
We’ve let wage exploitation become the default experience of migrant workers

In 2017 the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey found wage theft common for migrant workers. Of 4,322 participants in the survey, 46% earned no more than $15 an hour, while 30% earned $12 a hour or less. Wage theft was prevalent across a range of industries, but the worst paid jobs were in farm work. Of the migrants working as fruit and vegetable pickers, 31% earned $10 per hour or less, while 15% earned $5 an hour or less.

A 2019 study by Unions NSW and the Migrant Worker Centre
in Victoria found similarly grim results. Of 1,300 migrant workers surveyed, 78% reported being underpaid at some point, and 34% on piece rates had never signed an agreement. The lowest piece rates reported were from grape and zucchini farms, where respondents reported earning as little as $9 a day.

Just ask any backpacker working in the sector if they know anyone who has been ripped off. It’s not exactly a secret. I’ve picked fruit myself and experienced it firsthand.

A particularly vulnerable workforce

It is worth noting that not all migrant farm workers have been equally vulnerable.

The Seasonal Worker Program, for workers from nine Pacific nations and Timor Leste, has been more tightly regulated, and generally successful in avoiding the sort of exploitation described above. In 2019 this program offered about 12,000 visas. Stephen Howes of the Development Policy Centre has argued the program could be expanded to more than 100,000 places.

Read more:
Why closing our borders to foreign workers could see fruit and vegetable prices spike

Far more vulnerable to exploitation have been those on the more laissez-faire Working Holiday Maker Scheme – better known as the backpackers’ visa. This visa requires 88 days of farm work to stay in Australia for a year, and a further 180 days to stay for a second year. The evidence is that many accept being underpaid for those periods as a cost of staying in Australia.

Newly arrived Australian residents, particularly refugees, are also at risk, due to unfamiliarity with working rights and entitlements.

Read more:
Why Australian unions should welcome the new Agricultural Visa

Closing a loophole

If piece rates are set at a fair level, and the agreement is truly voluntary, such payment can be win-win – good for the farmer and an opportunity for a motivated worker to earn better money than just working for a flat minimum rate.

A lot of my career has involved working abroad in places where the poor and unconnected have no hope of getting ahead. Researching on Australian agriculture I’ve often been touched by the stories I’ve heard of experienced pickers, who plan to keep picking to save enough money to buy land of their own. They tend to be fierce and hard-working. You don’t want to get between them and the good fruit.

But not everyone is an experienced picker able to look out for their own interests. That is why a base rate is essential.

The problem with the piecemeal rate provisions in the the Horticulture Award was that clause 15.2(i) stated:

Nothing in this award guarantees an employee on a piecework rate will earn at least the minimum ordinary time weekly rate or hourly rate in this award for the type of employment and the classification level of the employee, as the employee’s earnings are contingent on their productivity.

The Australian Workers Union applied in December 2020 to have this clause struck out and replaced with a provision setting a minimum hourly rate for piecework. This application was supported by the United Workers’ Union, the Australian Council of Social Service, and the state governments of Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

Read more:
How migrant workers are critical to the future of Australia’s agricultural industry

The application was opposed by the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, the Australian Industry Group and the National Farmer’s Federation.

In its decision on October 3, the Fair Work Commission said while some pieceworkers earn significantly more than the target rate for the “average competent employee”, the totality of the evidence “presents a picture of significant underpayment of pieceworkers”.

The best way to look at this is the Fair Work Commission closing a loophole.

It was already the responsibility of employers to pay piece rates high enough to allow competent workers make 15% more the minimum wage. Rather than thinking of this ruling as imposing an “extra cost” on farmers, it should been seen as putting in place a mechanism to ensure compliance with law.

A base rate takes the prospect of vulnerable workers getting paid $3 an hour off the table. That’s not asking for a lot.

Michael Rose 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.

– ref. Closing the loophole: a minimum wage for Australia’s farm workers is long overdue – https://theconversation.com/closing-the-loophole-a-minimum-wage-for-australias-farm-workers-is-long-overdue-171291

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Walter, Commissioner, Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, University of Tasmania

There can be no Treaty without truth.

This simple but powerful statement is the reason for the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission’s mandate to reveal, record and analyse the systemic injustices experienced by Victorian First Peoples since colonisation.

Named from a Wamba Wamba word meaning truth, the Yoo-rrook mandate will take three years from 2021-24. This is a significant step for truth-telling in Victoria.

Truth-telling commissions are formal bodies tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoings in the hope of resolving conflict and repairing relationships.

Read more:
Victoria’s truth-telling commission: to move forward, we need to answer for the legacies of colonisation

Yoo-rrook’s strategic vision is for a transformed Victoria. A Victoria based on truth and justice, grounded in First Peoples’ enduring spirit, cultures and self-determination.

As any other royal commission, Yoo-rrook will have broad powers to hold public hearings, compel evidence and make recommendations to the Victorian government as to what should change.

The commission’s letters patent is the legal document from the governor-general setting up the Yoo-rrok’s royal commission. This document essentially gives instructions to Yoo-rrook about how to inquire into the experience of past and present systemic injustices for Victorian First Peoples.

The letters patent details a wide-ranging set of obligations that can be summarised as:

• establishing an official record of the impact of systemic injustice on the First Peoples of Victoria from colonisation to the present

• developing a shared understand among all Victorians on the impact of these systemic injustices, as well as the diversity, strength and resilience of First Peoples

• determining the causes and consequences of systemic injustice and make recommendations for system reform and changes to laws, policy and education.

The commission’s findings also aim to support the founding of a new relationship between First Peoples, the state, and the people of Victoria, inclusive of informing Treaty negotiations.

Establishment of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission

An historical first for Australia, a truth-telling commission was an agreed action of the Victorian government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

The First Peoples’ Assembly was established in 2019 and is the elected representative body of Traditional Owners and other Victorian Aboriginal people.
This is a crucial step in the realisation of the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018.

Yoo-rrook began in May with the appointment of five commissioners. Independently selected from 64 applicants, we are:

• Chairperson: Professor Eleanor Bourke (Wergaia/Wamba Wamba)
• Dr Wayne Atkinson (Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung)
• Sue-Anne Hunter (Wurundjeri/Ngurai illum wurrung)
• Distinguished Professor Maggie Walter (Palawa)
• Professor the Honourable Kevin Bell AM QC (non-Indigenous)

Yoo-rrook employs a human rights framework aligned to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. To ensure the priority of First Peoples’ voices and knowledge, this framework is enacted through a methodology that weaves together First Peoples knowledge systems, worldviews and Western methods of scientific analysis. This methodology ensures an approach that respects Victorian First Peoples values and culture.

The commission’s terms of reference are extensive.

The instructions to inquire into historical systemic injustices perpetrated against First Peoples include (among other areas):

• cultural violations, such as denial of First Peoples’ law and lore by colonial state authorities and systems

• theft and misappropriation of land and culture

• dispossession and displacement of Aboriginal peoples, families and children

• massacres, wars and killings

• unfair policies and practices in areas such as labour, the justice system, child protection and welfare, and health care

The findings of the royal commission’s inquiry into these areas will be the basis for the official record, and more details will come.

Priority #1: Sovereignty over knowledge

Yoo-rrook is the first Aboriginal-led royal commission. It is also the first in which the foundational evidence is First Peoples voices, stories and knowledges. The commission has now determined four strategic priorities for its first year.

To maximise participation, Yoo-rrook’s first strategic priority has been to build strong foundations to bring about trust that First Peoples’ voices will be heard, and the commission’s processes are conducted in a culturally appropriate way.

Despite the COVID-19 lockdowns of the last six months, the commissioners and commission staff have consulted (mostly online) with Traditional Owner groups and many Aboriginal community-controlled organisations across Victoria.

Yoo-rrook is instructed to uphold the sovereignty of First Peoples over their knowledge and stories. This will be done through the Indigenous data sovereignty principles, which is the right of First Peoples to own, control, access and possess their respective data.

This means the First Peoples who provide evidence to Yoo-rrook will maintain ownership of their respective data, determining how their information is treated with regards to confidentiality and accessibility.

This is significant because with past royal commissions, evidence has been available to the public. This is not always in First Peoples’ best interest.

Priority #2: Culturally appropriate ways of collecting evidence

Yoo-rrook’s second strategic priority is to focus on formal evidence collection from Elders and those who are unwell.

The commission is acutely aware of First Peoples unease toward formal processes such as these. So, culturally safe systems have been developed.

For example, the commission is accepting evidence in relation to the experience of historic and ongoing systemic injustice in a myriad of ways. These include individual witness statements, group testimony and testimony through cultural means, such as ceremony, dance and art. Evidence can also be given confidentially and on Country, with ongoing support for social and emotional wellbeing in place.

Priority #3: Creating a public record of systemic injustice

The third strategic priority is to develop a comprehensive picture of systemic injustices against First Peoples as part of the official record of what happened in Victoria.

This will be done via the compilation and interrogation of existing knowledge sources. This work has begun with the collection of official records, academic studies and legislative materials.

Priority #4: Reviewing the criminal justice system

The fourth priority is to review current reform processes in criminal justice and law enforcement.

This will begin with First Peoples’ experiences with these systems and an examination of the implementation of Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s recommendations in Victoria.

Setting a global precedent

The task of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission is intimidating and the timeframe is short. Yoo-rrook is required to deliver an interim report in June 2022 and a final report in June 2024.

It is the only truth-telling commission anywhere authorised to scrutinise First Peoples’ experiences of systemic injustices, past and present, arising from colonisation.

That Yoo-rrook has been initiated in Victoria should be a matter of pride for all Victorians. The commission is setting a national and global precedent. Because Yoo-rrook is the first, it assuredly will not be the last.

The world is watching.

If you are interested in reaching out to the commission, you can do so here.

Maggie Walter is a Commissioner with the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission and also Distinguished Professor of Sociology (adjunct) University of Tasmania and receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Minderoo Foundation

Professor the Hon Kevin Bell AM QC is also the Executive Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law in the Faculty of Law at Monash University.

Eleanor Bourke, Sue-Anne Hunter, and Wayne Atkinson 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.

– ref. From dispossession to massacres, the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission sets a new standard for truth-telling – https://theconversation.com/from-dispossession-to-massacres-the-yoo-rrook-justice-commission-sets-a-new-standard-for-truth-telling-170632

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic University

What is energy made of? — Ela, age 8, Melbourne

Hi Ela! What a great question!

For scientists, energy is not really a thing and so it isn’t made of something else, in the way a house is made of bricks.

Energy is more like a capacity. A capacity is an ability to do something.

Energy and work

Think of a musician: they have the capacity to play an instrument. A painter has the capacity to paint.

Energy is the capacity for something to do work.

Something does work when it exerts a force on another object, pushing the object to move in a particular direction.

What does that mean? Well, imagine someone throws a ball to you and you hit it with a bat. When the bat hits the ball, it changes the ball’s speed and direction.

Energy is the capacity the bat has to change the direction of the ball. When the bat is swinging, it can change the direction of any ball it hits.

When you swing the bat, you put energy stored in your muscles into it. The harder you swing, the more work the bat can do, so the more energy it carries.

Types of energy

There are many ways for something to do work, so there are different kinds of energy.

We have already encountered one: the swinging of the bat. This is called kinetic energy. It is the energy something has because it is moving.

Another kind of energy is potential energy. Potential energy is the capacity something has to do work because of its position in relation to other objects.

This means putting things in certain places gives them energy.

Here’s a fun example: imagine putting a bucket of water on top of a door that is half open. When someone walks through the door, the bucket will fall on their head.

Because the bucket is on top of the door, it can fall. And when it falls, it can do some work. Not only will it soak whoever walks through the door, but it will also hit them on the head.

So the bucket has the capacity to do work just because it is put on top of the door, and not because it is moving. That capacity is the bucket’s potential energy.

Einstein’s famous equation

The famous physicist Albert Einstein made an equation about energy, which you may have seen before: E = m c ².

In this equation, the E is for energy, the m is for mass (which is roughly how much matter, or physical stuff, is in something), and c means the speed of light.

What the equation seems to say is that energy equals mass times some number. So then, isn’t energy made of something after all?

Not quite, because some things with no mass can still have energy. For example, light. We know it has energy because we catch light’s energy in solar panels, and turn it into electricity.

Read more:
Curious Kids: how do solar panels work?

But light is made of tiny particles called photons, and photons have no mass.

So, if energy were made of mass, then light would have no energy at all! That would make a mystery out of solar power.

As it turns out, even though light has no mass it does have something called momentum, which gives it a capacity to do work.

Read more:
Curious Kids: is light a wave or a particle?

Mass, energy and momentum

There’s a more complicated version of Einstein’s equation that shows how energy is related to mass and momentum.

One important thing to know is that light moves very fast. Because the amount of energy in something depends on how much mass it has multiplied by the square of the speed of light, that means a little bit of matter carries a lot of energy!

Light travels almost 300 million metres in a single second, which means one kilogram of mass is equivalent to almost nine quintillion joules of energy! That’s a 9 with 18 zeroes after it: 9,000,000,000,000,000,000.

The trick is unleashing that capacity. That’s actually how nuclear bombs (and nuclear power) work: they unlock the energy captured in matter to produce an enormous effect.

Read more:
Testing the theory: taking Einstein to primary schools

Sam Baron receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Curious Kids: what is energy made of? – https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-is-energy-made-of-169940

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Lain Dare discuss the week in politics.

They talk about how Scott Morrison fared at the G20 Summit and the Glasgow Climate Conference, in a trip dominated by the spectacular row with the French over the cancellation of their submarine deal. On the sidelines of the G20 French President Emmanuel Macron labelled Scott Morrison a liar and the PM responded with some very undiplomatic leaking.

Now back home, Morrison will try to “move on”, with a campaigning trip through NSW and Victoria in the coming week.

Michelle Grattan 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.

– ref. VIDEO: Michelle Grattan on Scott Morrison’s foreign misadventure – https://theconversation.com/video-michelle-grattan-on-scott-morrisons-foreign-misadventure-171292

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Chand, Lecturer in Visual Communication Design, University of Newcastle

Animation and character design allow us to hold a mirror up to society. We get to see humanity, warts and all, and understand the complexity of what it means to be human. But this reflection of ourselves ties back to a very old artform: the ideas of masking our real selves in the festivity of the Roman Catholic concept of Carnival.

One of the strongest contemporary adult animated shows right now is Big Mouth, the nuanced, lewd, coming-of-age series on Netflix. The show investigates the complex, awkward and often taboo experiences of pubescent teens: cultural identity, sexual identity and inclusivity, social media, pornography, periods, masturbation, anxiety and depression.

Through the use of carnival, Big Mouth tells complex stories about what it means to be a teenager with a monster-verse of shoulder angels. Shoulder angels (or representations of our conscience) have traditionally been a small angel or devil, representing good or bad.

Big Mouth draws on a rich history of adult animation while also making the genre entirely its own.

Disarming the viewer through play

Animation allows us to disassociate from reality and create a visual dimension to explore ideas: the drawings act as a mask through which viewers engage in a form of role playing, hidden identity and a sense of play.

Masks have been an important part of many cultures from the Tengu Matsuri mask, Junkanoo masks, Dinagyang masks, Dia de los Muertos masks, Venetian carnival masks, to the masks of the Hindu Gods.

Carnival was traditionally a Christian celebration in the last three days before Lent, where the sumptuary laws – the restraint on consumption and luxury – were suspended. During this time, people could wear a mask and break from the conventional rules of society, their identity, hierarchies and become other-than-self.

Like the Carnival, the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of Carnivalesque is a literary device used to assist people in unshackling themselves: using a mask to explore the complexities of experience without consequence.

In animated form, Carnivalesque utilises four techniques: laughter, bodily excess, Billingsgate (or vitriolic language) and inversions of normal social roles. Big Mouth employs a range of these elements in the character design and dialogue to engage the audience in social commentary.

From family fare to adult sitcoms

The animated sitcom has been evolving since the middle of the last century, and with it questions of what is “appropriate” for viewers. Betty Boop first appeared in 1930s. Drawing influences from burlesque, the lewd nature of the show was highly criticised. Soon, censorship would play an important role in limiting sexually suggestive content.

From 1934 to 1968, animation was self-censored by the Hays Code: a set of guidelines preventing profanity, suggestive nudity, excessive violence and sexual content. This gave rise to the closed morality tale built around the nuclear family and patriarchal structure presented in The Flinstones (1960-66) and the The Jetsons (1962-63).

In 1989, The Simpsons moved animated content into the adult frame, each episode dealing with a particular cultural and moral issue.

With the advent of cable television, cartoons could move even more firmly into the adult realm. We saw the rise of absurdity in Beavis and Butt-head (1993-2011) and Family Guy (1999-) and the introduction of crude language and sexual innuendo in South Park (1997-). 2001 saw the launch of US cable network Adult Swim, with its suite of adult-focused content.

Even in this age, Big Mouth is not without its critics. It is often vulgar and has been criticised for sexualising puberty too much. Critics have asked: has it gone too far? Is this really how these issues should be explored?

Read more:
The gods of ancient Egypt as seen through ‘BoJack Horseman’

Hormones become monsters

At the heart of good animation is character design, with strong characters translating the human experience – goals, mannerisms, habits and worldviews – into moving abstract versions of ourselves. Animation manipulates the character to give a drawing life. We view the characters in the carnival as if they could be our experiences.

In Big Mouth, chemicals and inanimate objects become personified, allowing the show to explore complex topics.

Maury and Connie are “Hormone Monsters”, who become the internal conversation around the rushes of chemicals influencing teen decisions. Tito the Anxiety Mosquito and Depression Kitty introduce the way mental illness can feel and operate. Gratitoad and other characters explore the positivity we experience together, and eats anxiety. Pam the Sex Pillow and the Shame Wizard present ways we feel in response to other people.

In the new fifth season we are introduced to Lovebugs and Hateworms. All of these characters help communicate the relationship we have with our experiences.

Breaking taboos

Big Mouth creator Nick Kroll has described how using animation allows them to tell stories which they “might not be able to discuss” in live action shows starring actual teens or tweens. A character like a hormone monster or shame wizard, he says:

gives us a lot of latitude to have these more complicated discussions and delve into the subjects kids are dealing with.

Growing up is never easy, but visualising complex ideas can enhance our shared experience. Watching a coming-of-age show as an adult allows us to reflect and better communicate the complex experience of puberty.

Read more:
21st-century character designs reflect our concerns, as always

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.

– ref. Big Mouth, an animated series about periods, masturbation and anxiety. What’s not to like? – https://theconversation.com/big-mouth-an-animated-series-about-periods-masturbation-and-anxiety-whats-not-to-like-168849

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Researcher, Climate Council, and Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

The first week of the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow are drawing to a close. While there’s still a way to go, progress so far gives some hope the Paris climate agreement struck six years ago is working.

Major powers brought significant commitments to cut emissions this decade and pledged to shift toward net-zero emissions. New coalitions were also announced for decarbonising sectors of the global economy. These include phasing out coal-fired power, pledges to cut global methane emissions, ending deforestation and plans for net-zero emissions shipping.

The two-week summit, known as COP26, is a critical test of global cooperation to tackle the climate crisis. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required, every five years, to produce more ambitious national plans to reduce emissions. Delayed one year by the COVID pandemic, this year is when new plans are due.

Pledges made at the summit so far could start to bend the global emissions curve downwards. Credible projections from an expert team, including Professor Malte Meinshausen at the University of Melbourne, suggest if new pledges are fully funded and met, global warming could be limited to to 1.9℃ this century. The International Energy Agency came to a similar conclusion.

This is real progress. But the Earth system reacts to what we put in the atmosphere, not promises made at summits. So pledges need to be backed by finance, and the necessary policies and actions across energy and land use.

A significant ambition gap on emissions reduction also remains, and more climate action is needed this decade to avoid catastrophic warming. Achieving necessary emissions reductions by 2030 will be a key focus of the second week of the Glasgow talks, especially as global emissions are projected to rebound strongly in 2021 (after the drop induced last year by COVID-19).

For its part, Australia contributed virtually nothing to global efforts in Glasgow. Alone among advanced economies, Australia set no new target to cut emissions this decade. If anything, this week added to Australia’s reputation as a member of a small and isolated group of countries – with the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia – resisting climate action.

Global momentum: What did major powers bring to Glasgow?

Since the last UN climate summit we’ve seen a worldwide surge in momentum toward climate action. More than 100 countries – accounting for more than two-thirds of the global economy – have set firm dates for achieving net-zero emissions.

Perhaps more importantly, in the lead up to the Glasgow summit the world’s advanced economies – including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand – all strengthened their 2030 targets. The G7 group of countries pledged to halve their collective emissions by 2030.

Major economies in the developing world also brought new commitments to COP26. China pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 and strengthened its 2030 targets. It now plans to peak emissions by the end of the decade.

This week India also pledged to achieve net-zero by 2070 and ramp up installation of renewable energy. By 2030, half of India’s electricity will come from renewable sources.

The opening days of COP26 also saw a suite of new announcements for decarbonising sectors of the global economy. The UK declared the end of coal was in sight, as it launched a new global coalition to phase out coal-fired power.

Read more:
COP26: global deforestation deal will fail if countries like Australia don’t lift their game on land clearing

More than 100 countries signed on to a new pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030. More than 120 countries also promised to end deforestation by 2030.

The US also joined a coalition of countries that plans to achieve net-zero emissions in global shipping.

But this week the developed world fell short of fulfilling a decade-old promise – to deliver US$100 billion each year to help poorer nations deal with climate impacts.

Fulfilling commitments on climate finance will be critically important for building trust in the talks. For it’s part, Australia pledged an additional A$500 million in climate finance to countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific – a figure well short of Australia’s fair share of global efforts. Australia also refused to rejoin the Green Climate Fund.

Missing the moment: The Australian Way

While the rest of the world is getting on with the race to a net-zero emissions economy, Australia is barely out of the starting blocks. Australia brought to Glasgow the same 2030 emissions target that it took to Paris six years ago – even as key allies pledged much stronger targets.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived with scant plans to accompany his last-minute announcement on net-zero by 2050. The strategy, which comprised little more than a brochure, failed to provide a credible pathway to that target and was met with derision across the world.

On the way to Glasgow, at the G20 leaders meeting in Rome, Australia blocked global momentum to reduce emissions by resisting calls for a phase out of coal power. Australia also refused to sign on to the global pledge on methane.

Worse still, Australia is using COP26 to actively promote fossil fuels. Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor says the summit is a chance to promote investment in Australian gas projects, and Australian fossil fuel company Santos was prominently branded at the venue’s Australia Pavilion.

The federal government is promoting carbon capture and storage as a climate solution, despite it being widely regarded as a licence to prolong the use of fossil fuels. The technology is also eye-wateringly expensive and not yet proven at scale.

The closing stretch

Week one in Glasgow has delivered more climate action than the world promised in Paris six years ago. However, the summit outcomes still fall well short of what is required to limit warming to 1.5℃. Attention will now turn to negotiating an outcome to further increase climate ambition this decade.

Vulnerable countries have proposed countries yet to deliver enhanced 2030 targets be required to come back in 2022, well before COP27, with stronger targets to cut emissions.

This week, the United States rejoined the High Ambition Coalition, a group of countries from across traditional negotiating blocs in the UN climate talks. Led by the Marshall Islands, the group was crucial in securing the 2015 Paris Agreement.

In Glasgow, this coalition is pressing for an outcome that will keep the world on track to limiting warming to 1.5℃.

But significant differences persist between the US and China. Many developing countries want to see more commitment to climate finance from wealthy nations before they will pledge new targets. Can consensus be reached in Glasgow? We’ll be watching the negotiations closely next week to find out.

Read more:
Global emissions almost back to pre-pandemic levels after unprecedented drop in 2020, new analysis shows

Wesley Morgan is a researcher with the Climate Council

– ref. COP26: it’s half-time at the crucial Glasgow climate change summit – and here’s the score – https://theconversation.com/cop26-its-half-time-at-the-crucial-glasgow-climate-change-summit-and-heres-the-score-170869

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Yu, Professor of Immunology, The University of Queensland

After COVID emerged, it didn’t take long for clinicians and scientists to notice the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects children and adults very differently.

One of the earliest studies, from March 2020, reported 40–50% of infected children suffered cough and fever, but they had much milder symptoms than adults.

Subsequent information from health authorities noted children were less likely to develop severe disease and rarely died from COVID.

However, clinicians found a very small number of children, despite having mild or even no symptoms initially, developed an inflammatory reaction about four weeks after infection.

In May last year, doctors reported the very first cases of 18 children with hyperinflammatory shock, resulting in one death. Most of the patients tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 but positive for antibodies, suggesting they had been infected previously.

This prompted the World Health Organization, and health bodies in the United Kingdom and United States, to define the condition as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS).

What are the symptoms?

Since there is no diagnostic test, the conditions are defined by fever and elevated inflammatory markers in children with current or recent SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID exposure within four weeks before the onset of symptoms.

Clinical presentation for organ dysfunction includes abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, skin rash, conjunctivitis, red cracked lips and, in severe cases, hypotension (low blood pressure) and shock.

Read more:
COVID-19 increases the chance of getting an autoimmune condition. Here’s what the science says so far

How common is it?

MIS-C is rare. According to data from European primary care records, South Korean claims and US claims and hospital databases, MIS-C was seen in fewer than 0.1-0.3% of people in the 30-day period following the diagnosis of COVID-19.

A US study found a similar incidence of MIS-C at under 0.05%. This study also found the incidence of MIS-C was higher among Black, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander persons compared with white persons.

The studies were conducted before the Delta variant became dominant, so further research is required to update the incidence of MIS-C after infection with Delta.

What causes it?

The cause of inflammation underlying MIS-C is not well understood.

Patients with MIS-C were initially reported to show features similar to Kawasaki disease, which causes swelling (inflammation) in the walls of medium-sized arteries, particularly the coronary arteries in children.

However, children with MIS-C are generally older (mostly school-aged) than patients with Kawasaki disease (mostly younger than five years of age) and presented with intestinal involvement and heart attack.

Researchers compared immune cells and immunoregulatory molecules in healthy children, children with Kawasaki disease enrolled in the study before COVID, children infected with SARS-CoV-2, and children presenting with MIS-C. The analysis revealed the inflammatory response in MIS-C differs from those of severe acute COVID and Kawasaki disease.

Importantly, the investigation discovered the abnormal production of antibodies in patients with MIS-C that recognise endothelial cells (which line blood vessels) and immune cells. In cases of MIS-C, the antibodies react to the body itself – this means they interfere with normal physiological functions and promote inflammation.

Once they are generated, autoantibodies grow step-by-step via interactions between immune cells lasting for weeks. This aligns with the fact MIS-C starts about four weeks from the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Scientists still need to formally establish whether autoantibodies contribute to how MIS-C begins, or the patient’s deterioration when they have the syndrome.

How is it treated?

Scientists are still working on understanding MIS-C, so there is no specific therapy for it.

Paediatric clinicians with expertise in intensive care, immunology and rheumatology, infectious diseases, haematology, and cardiology have developed suggestions, consensus and guidance for managing MIS-C.

Patients are treated with corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins, which have anti-inflammatory effects.

Therapies are also being tested that block molecules involved in inflammation – such as cytokines, proteins that help cells communicate.

Most children recover fully from this illness.

Read more:
Taking one for the team: 6 ways our cells can die and help fight infectious disease

What about Delta?

The Delta variant is more contagious than previous strains. Transmission at schools and early childhood education and care services in New South Wales occured at a rate five times higher than the ancestral COVID strains of 2020.

US figures report 148,222 child COVID cases in the first week of October. Children represented 24.8% of the total weekly cases (children, under age 18, make up 22.2% of the US population). So the increase in infections in children pose a significant risk of more MIS-C.

Vaccines will reduce the risk

To prevent infection and reduce the risk of severe illness caused by infection, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) granted provisional approval for COVID vaccination in children aged 12 years and over.

The TGA has also said Pfizer can apply for provisional approval of its COVID vaccine for children 5-11 years of age.

In later September, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced the results of 2,268 children aged 5-11 who received one-third the amount of vaccine given to adults and adolescents. The results demonstrate the vaccine is safe and produces a significant immune response in young children. The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for emergency use in children 5-11 years of age.

Read more:
Under-12s are increasingly catching COVID-19. How sick are they getting and when will we be able to vaccinate them?

MIS-C is rare in children and vaccination will further reduce its incidence. Nevertheless, it is still a major risk for children infected with SARS-CoV-2 and should not be overlooked.

If a child experiences a SARS-CoV-2 infection, even with mild or no symptoms, but after a few weeks, begins a fever with one of the following symptoms – stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, bloodshot eyes, skin rash, dizziness or lightheadedness – they should be given immediate medical attention.

Di Yu receives funding from The University of Queensland, The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Bellberry Limited and Eureka TechIN.

– ref. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome after COVID in children is rare but makes the body fight itself – https://theconversation.com/multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-after-covid-in-children-is-rare-but-makes-the-body-fight-itself-166822

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandre Wadih Raffoul, PhD Candidate, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Uppsala University

Young people across the world have taken to the streets again, demanding decision-makers at COP26 listen to the science. But if science is to live up to these expectations, a fundamental rethinking of research ethics in light of the climate and ecological crises is needed.

The ongoing planetary crises create new ethical dilemmas for researchers. The three main principles of research ethics – do no harm, integrity, and responsibility – remain relevant to avoid wrongdoing. But these were formulated reactively, in response to scandals in biomedical research, and could not anticipate these new challenges.

We are proposing a move from a negative ethics focused on avoiding harm to a positive research ethics. These new ethics are needed to guide the global scientific community in relation to civil society and politics during the climate and ecological crises.

Read more:
Why we need engineers who study ethics as much as maths

Do no harm

According to the “do no harm” imperative, researchers have a responsibility to avoid hurting humans or animals directly involved in their research. But what does “do no harm” mean in the midst of climate and ecological crises?

A growing group of scientists question the carbon footprint of academic activities, ranging from flying to conferences to developing artificial intelligence. The long-term and unpredictable consequences of research have also come back into focus. An example is the debate about the high risks of geoengineering.

Read more:
A global carbon removal industry is coming – experts explain the problems it must overcome

The “do no harm” principle should thus be broadened in two ways:

1. it should include humans, animals and ecosystems that are traditionally not considered part of the research process, but can be negatively affected by it

2. it should better account for the long-term, indirect or unintended consequences of research projects or new technologies.

But if averting the climate crisis requires the complete transformation of society within ten years, is it enough for research to “do no harm”? Inspired by post-colonial approaches to research ethics, we suggest moving beyond this negative principle and towards a positive, regenerative science.

This science would actively contribute to the project of regenerating society and ecosystems. It would be motivated by an analysis of the suffering already taking place and acknowledge historical responsibilities and power relations.

Read more:
Four reasons why restoring nature is the most important endeavour of our time

Act with integrity

The principle of integrity asks researchers to follow rigorous protocols, disclose conflicts of interest, refrain from manipulating data, and abstain from plagiarism. But can science be rigorous if it overlooks environmental variables?

Some disciplines ignore the predictions of IPCC reports, as well as indications of mass extinction and ecosystem collapse. They also struggle to reflect the complex and delicate interconnection between humanity and nature in their practical recommendations.

For example, by focusing heavily on GDP growth, mainstream economics portrays our planetary habitat mostly as a resource to use or exploit. The idea of geoengineering also largely rests on an understanding of our life-support systems as a set of disconnected pieces that can be engineered.

Ultimately, “integrity means wholeness”. It implies acknowledging that we are parts of a fragile and interconnected web of life, which we need to preserve.

Researchers should thus account for ecological dimensions in their analyses. They should also interrogate the conception of the humanity-nature relationship that implicitly underpins their work.

Take responsibility

According to the “responsibility” principle, research should be relevant to society and communicated to the public. But in a climate crisis, findings can be so dramatic, their implications for society so huge and controversial, that the word “responsibility” takes a new, heavier meaning.

In this context, some scientists do not dare to speak out, fearing to appear biased. As a result, they fail to influence the public debate.

Others are tempted to adjust their research to political demands. An example is the inclusion of unrealistic amounts of “negative carbon emissions” in climate models to satisfy policymakers. This was criticised for unintentionally providing a scientific cover-up for climate inaction.

Read more:
Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap

Yet other researchers suggest that focusing mainly on technological innovation can resolve the ecological crises. It’s a discourse that delays action by decreasing the sense of emergency in tackling these crises.

The “responsibility” principle should therefore be enriched in three ways:

1. scientists should take their own findings seriously and stand up for their societal implications, even when it is uncomfortable to do so

2. researchers should defend the scientific process itself from the influence of political and economic interests

3. scientists should remain humble as to what science can achieve. This means acknowledging the limits to our knowledge of an infinitely complex world, as well as the slow pace and unpredictable consequences of technological development.

From words to deeds

The research ethics sketched here need to be further developed. They can then be incorporated into global guidelines for individual researchers, but also for governments, universities and funding agencies.

Academic research will be at the heart of any solution to the climate and ecological crises. Embracing this responsibility and facing these existential threats requires much more from universities than the adoption of sustainability plans.

Read more:
Climate change is the most important mission for universities of the 21st century

Emma Elfversson receives funding from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas). She is a member of the Swedish Green party (Miljöpartiet).

Helen Avery receives funding from the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas).

Alexandre Wadih Raffoul, David Fopp, and Ryan Carolan 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.

– ref. The climate crisis gives science a new role. Here’s how research ethics must change too – https://theconversation.com/the-climate-crisis-gives-science-a-new-role-heres-how-research-ethics-must-change-too-171201

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Hughes, Distinguished Professor, James Cook University

Just 2% of the Great Barrier Reef remains untouched by bleaching since 1998 and 80% of individual reefs have bleached severely once, twice or three times since 2016, our new study reveals today.

We measured the impacts of five marine heatwaves on the Great Barrier Reef over the past three decades: in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020. We found these bouts of extreme temperatures have transformed it into a checkerboard of bleached reefs with very different recent histories.

Whether we still have a functioning Great Barrier Reef in the decades to come depends on how much higher we allow global temperatures to rise. The bleaching events we’ve already seen in recent years are a result of the world warming by 1.2℃ since pre-industrial times.

World leaders meeting at the climate summit in Glasgow must commit to more ambitious promises to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions. It’s vital for the future of corals reefs, and for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods and food security.

Coral in a hotter climate

The Great Barrier Reef is comprised of more than 3,000 individual reefs stretching for 2,300 kilometres, and supports more than 60,000 jobs in reef tourism.

Under climate change, the frequency, intensity and scale of climate extremes is changing rapidly, including the record-breaking marine heatwaves that cause corals to bleach. Bleaching is a stress response by overheated corals, where they lose their colour and many struggle to survive.

If all new COP26 pledges by individual countries are actually met, then the projected increase in average global warming could be brought down to 1.9℃. In theory, this would put us in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to keep global warming below 2℃, but preferably 1.5℃, this century.

However, it is still not enough to prevent the ongoing degradation of the world’s coral reefs. The damage to coral reefs from anthropogenic heating so far is very clear, and further warming will continue to ratchet down reefs throughout the tropics.

Read more:
Not declaring the Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’ only postpones the inevitable

Ecological memories of heatwaves

Most reefs today are in early recovery mode, as coral populations begin to re-build since they last experienced bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020. It takes about a decade for a decent recovery of the fastest growing corals, and much longer for slow-growing species. Many coastal reefs that were severely bleached in 1998 have never fully recovered.

Each bleaching event so far has a different geographic footprint. Drawing upon satellite data, we measured the duration and intensity of heat stress that the Great Barrier Reef experienced each summer, to explain why different parts were affected during all five events.

The bleaching responses of corals differed greatly in each event, and was strongly influenced by the recent history of previous bleaching. For this reason, it’s important to measure the extent and severity of bleaching directly, where it actually occurs, and not rely exclusively on water temperature data from satellites as an indirect proxy.

We found the most vulnerable reefs each year were the ones that had not bleached for a decade or longer. On the other hand, when successive episodes were close together in time (one to four years apart), the heat threshold for severe bleaching increased. In other words, the earlier event had hardened regions of the Great Barrier Reef to subsequent impacts.

For example, in 2002 and 2017, it took much more heat to trigger similar levels of bleaching that were measured in 1998 and 2016. The threshold for bleaching was much higher on reefs that had experienced an earlier episode of heat stress.

Similarly, southern corals, which escaped bleaching in 2016 and 2017, were the most vulnerable in 2020, compared to central and northern reefs that had bleached severely in previous events.

Many different mechanisms could generate these historical effects, or ecological memories. One is heavy losses of the more heat-susceptible coral species during an earlier event – dead corals don’t re-bleach.

Read more:
We just spent two weeks surveying the Great Barrier Reef. What we saw was an utter tragedy

Nowhere left to hide

Only a single cluster of reefs remains unbleached in the far south, downstream from the rest of the Great Barrier Reef, in a small region that has remained consistently cool through the summer months during all five mass bleaching events. These reefs lie at the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, where upwelling of cool water may offer some protection from heatwaves, at least so far.

In theory, a judiciously placed network of well-protected, climate-resistant reefs might help to repopulate the broader seascape, if greenhouse gas emissions are curtailed to stabilise temperatures later this century.

But the unbleached southern reefs are too few in number, and too far away from the rest of the Great Barrier Reef to produce and deliver sufficient coral larvae, to promote a long-distance recovery.

Instead, future replenishment of depleted coral populations is more likely to be local. It would come from the billions of larvae produced by recovering adults on nearby reefs that have not bleached for a while, or by corals inhabiting reef in deeper waters which tend to experience less heat stress than those living in shallow water.

Read more:
‘This situation brings me to despair’: two reef scientists share their climate grief

Future recovery of corals will increasingly be temporary and incomplete, before being interrupted again by the inevitable next bleaching event. Consequently, the patchiness of living coral on the Great Barrier Reef will increase further, and corals will continue to decline under climate change.

Our findings make it clear we no longer have the luxury of studying individual climate-related events that were once unprecedented, or very rare. Instead, as the world gets hotter, it’s increasingly important to understand the effects and combined outcomes of sequences of rapid-fire catastrophes.

Terry Hughes receives funding from The Australian Research Foundation.

Sean Connolly has received funding from the Australian Research Councilfor research including effects of climate change on coral reefs, and he currently receives funding from the Mark and Rachel Rohr foundation for work on climate resilience in the Tropical East Pacific.

– ref. 5 major heatwaves in 30 years has turned the Great Barrier Reef into a bleached checkerboard – https://theconversation.com/5-major-heatwaves-in-30-years-has-turned-the-great-barrier-reef-into-a-bleached-checkerboard-170719

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

Several times this week, protesters have forced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to abandon events aimed to support the COVID vaccination rollout.

Over the past few weeks, thousands have gathered, in breach of COVID restrictions and public health measures, to protest against lockdowns and vaccination mandates. The PM has described such protests as “obviously illegal” and “morally wrong”.

As Delta infections rise and several professions now face mandatory vaccination as part of the drive to get to 90% vaccination rates, protests will likely expand.

But so will penalties for intentional breaches of COVID orders as amendments come into effect this month. A person who intentionally fails to comply with restrictions could face fines of up to NZ$12,000 (up from $4,000) or six months in prison. The maximum fine for failing to wear a mask where it is mandatory rises to $4,000 (from $300).

The importance of protests

Protesting is part of Aotearoa’s identity. New Zealanders have protested against poverty, war, nuclear weapons, gender inequality and the loss of Māori land and customary rights. Several protests — including those against the 1981 Springbok tour — have divided the nation.

Although there is no specific right to protest in law, protesting is a manifestation of rights to freedom of movement, association and peaceful assembly. Globally, these rights are protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and the ensuing framework of human rights treaties. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees these rights.

But despite the legal underpinnings of the right to protest, specific protest actions must be in accordance with the law. They must not be unduly disorderly, violent or unsafe.

Read more:
COVID-19 ‘freedom’ rallies actually undermine liberty – here’s why

No right to disorderly protest

The restrictions on the right to protest can be seen in the criminalisation of certain conduct. For example, if someone behaves offensively in a public place, they could face a $1,000 fine. Indecent or obscene words can cost up to $500.

The fine could go to $2,000 and three months in prison if the behaviour becomes disorderly by acting or encouraging others to behave in a riotous, threatening or violent manner.

Threatening a police officer, or committing an actual assault, could result in a $6,000 fine or six months in prison. Common assault on other citizens carries the same penalty. Causing wilful damage to property could cost a protester up to $2,000, the same as graffiti. Obstructing a public road without the correct authority can result in a $1,000 fine.

Even excessive noise or burning the national flag, if done in a particularly offensive way intended to dishonour it, could have repercussions for the protester.

Limits on crowd sizes

COVID rules also currently restrict the right to peaceful assembly. These restrictions have been justified by the need to protect public health, which is recognised in international law. However, any such restrictive measures must be specifically aimed at preventing disease.

While New Zealand’s alert level 4 was very strict, alert level 3 is a little more liberal. Currently, Aucklanders are still expected to stay home, with exceptions for those who can’t work from home. Most events can’t proceed, except for ten-person gatherings at weddings, civil unions, funerals and tangihanga.

From next week, when restrictions are expected to ease further, Aucklanders will enjoy the freedom of larger outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people. Some shops will also reopen.

The question now is how authorities should respond to growing protests, some of which may involve illegal activity, in terms of breaching the above orders. The guiding principles for the police are that they must act to ensure public support and confidence, remain independent and impartial and act professionally, ethically and with integrity.

Read more:
Public protest or selfish ratbaggery? Why free speech doesn’t give you the right to endanger other people’s health

The importance of restraint

With any intervention to uphold the law, the police must consider keeping the peace and maintaining public safety as well as reassuring the community.

In Australia, some COVID protests have gotten out of hand and police responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray. With very few exceptions, this approach is absolutely wrong. The guiding principle must be maximum restraint in the use of force when confronting protests.

The emphasis must be on de-escalation of tense and volatile situations. The decision to intervene should only be taken at the highest level of the police force, when there is no other means to protect the public order from an imminent risk of violence.

This is not to say those who break the laws should not be brought to justice. They should — but after the event, not during it. Although rules may be broken, non-aggressive crowds of protesters should not be unnecessarily dispersed.

The current tactic of identifying those who break the rules and bringing them to justice later for their illegal activity is correct and appropriate for a country that values the importance of protests, as well as law and order.

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.

– ref. Protesting during a pandemic: New Zealand’s balancing act between a long tradition of protests and COVID rules – https://theconversation.com/protesting-during-a-pandemic-new-zealands-balancing-act-between-a-long-tradition-of-protests-and-covid-rules-171104

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grayson Cooke, Associate Professor, Chair of Creative Arts, Southern Cross University

Clouds have been objects of reverie and wonder throughout human history, inspiring art and imagination, and of course warning of extreme weather events.

Clouds are also central players in Earth’s climate. They move water around the globe, reflect sunlight and interact with radiation emitted by the Earth, and in so doing can both cool and warm the planet.

How clouds react as the planet heats up is a matter of serious concern. As the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reiterates, we sit on the brink of a precipice in terms of our ability to slow or halt the global heating humans are causing.

Climate scientists study clouds closely, but translating scientific findings into forms that catch the public imagination is not always an easy task. Our new film, Path 99, uses satellite imagery and the tools of art and science to show clouds in a spectacular new light.

Satellites, clouds and invalid data

Remote sensing satellite data is produced by a very large multinational effort, and it makes an immense contribution to our knowledge of the world. Meteorology, geoscience and climate science all rely on satellite data.

But we can gain even more from this data if we explore it via the creative arts. When we bring knowledge to life through imagination and feeling, we can create new ways of experiencing, understanding and responding to our planet.

Read more:
Curious Kids: where do clouds come from and why do they have different shapes?

Path 99 – which launches next week at the New Zealand International Film Festival – uses satellite images of clouds over Australia to highlight the importance of clouds to climate. Designed to be viewed on the domed screen of a planetarium with an enveloping electronic soundtrack, it combines art, science and Earth.

We used data from two satellites, America’s Landsat 8 and Japan’s Himawari 8, made available by Geoscience Australia and the Digital Earth Australia program, and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Landsat 8 is an Earth observation satellite mainly used for monitoring environmental conditions at ground level. Its orbit takes it over the poles while the planet spins beneath it, which means it can view the entire globe over the course of a 16-day cycle of 233 orbits or “paths”. The track running down the centre of Australia is path 99, hence the film’s title.

Read more:
An artist’s surreal view of Australia – created from satellite data captured 700km above Earth

For geoscientists, clouds are an obstruction to the view of the land from orbit. They use software to comb through satellite data pixel by pixel, identifying and removing clouds and other atmospheric noise to obtain clear images.

At any given time, clouds cover around two-thirds of Earth, so what the scientists sift out creates a vast archive of “invalid data” – a multi-year record of incredible cloud formations.

Our project focuses on this “invalid data”, showing the clouds, cloud shadow and gauzy fragments of land that are deemed unusable for scientific Earth observation.

A scientist’s waste can be an artist’s treasure. Projects like ours, combining art and science, show what can be gained when we look at the aesthetic qualities of the objects of scientific enquiry from a more human-centred perspective.

Clouds in a new light

Landsat 8’s sensor records what is known as “multi-spectral” imagery. This is data recorded in “bands” that isolate specific parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible light to the near infrared.

Scientists use the infrared bands to study plants and water. When we used them to render clouds, we discovered startling colours, textures and forms.

The dramatic shift in colouration that results from mapping the infrared bands into the visible spectrum, turning shades of white and grey into highly coloured tableaux, translates clouds into something radically unexpected.

Scientifically speaking, the coloured images reveal the remarkable spectral complexity of clouds, in terms of which wavelengths of sunlight they reflect and which they absorb. The variations in colour reflect wide ranges of cloud temperatures, densities, and heights, as well as the presence or absence of dust and other aerosol particles.

Tracing vapour

The Himawari 8 satellite sits in a geostationary orbit high above a point on the equator just north of Papua New Guinea. Its field of view allows it to record multi-spectral images of much of the Asia-Pacific region every 10 minutes, including several infrared bands used to track gases and other particles in the atmosphere.

In the video clips shown in this article, Path 99 uses bands designed to show the transport of water vapour around the planet. This allows us to see Australia’s clouds in their wider context, as part of the massive circulations that distribute thermal energy around the Earth.

Heads in the clouds

As modern human existence increasingly transforms the Earth, its atmosphere and climate, we need new ways to understand, represent and address this impact.

Cloud behaviours are vital clues to the extent of the changes in climate and weather. Now more than ever, we should all have our heads in the clouds.

Read more:
Artists are not at the negotiating table at COP26 but art is everywhere. What can they accomplish through their work?

This project has been produced with the support of Geoscience Australia and Digital Earth Australia, and with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) which is supported by the Australian Government.

Christian Jakob receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Dugal McKinnon 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.

– ref. Clouds in a new light: rejected satellite data gives a fresh view of our floating companions – https://theconversation.com/clouds-in-a-new-light-rejected-satellite-data-gives-a-fresh-view-of-our-floating-companions-168373

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Cunneen, Senior Lecturer in English and Literacy Education, Student Success and LANTITE coordinator, University of Canberra

At the start of each university year, we ask first-year students a question: how many have been told by their secondary teachers not to use Wikipedia? Without fail, nearly every hand shoots up. Wikipedia offers free and reliable information instantly. So why do teachers almost universally distrust it?

Wikipedia has community-enforced policies on neutrality, reliability and notability. This means all information “must be presented accurately and without bias”; sources must come from a third party; and a Wikipedia article is notable and should be created if there has been “third-party coverage of the topic in reliable sources”.

Wikipedia is free, non-profit, and has been operating for over two decades, making it an internet success story. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult to separate truth from falsehood, Wikipedia is an accessible tool for fact-checking and fighting misinformation.

Why is Wikipedia so reliable?

Many teachers point out that anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, not just experts on the subject. But this doesn’t make Wikipedia’s information unreliable. It’s virtually impossible, for instance, for conspiracies to remain published on Wikipedia.

Read more:
On the job with a ‘Wikipedian in residence’

For popular articles, Wikipedia’s online community of volunteers, administrators and bots ensure edits are based on reliable citations. Popular articles are reviewed thousands of times. Some media experts, such as Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s computing centre, argue that because of this painstaking process, a highly-edited article on Wikipedia might be the most reliable source of information ever created.

Traditional academic articles – the most common source of scientific evidence – are typically only peer-reviewed by up to three people and then never edited again.

Read more:
Explainer: what is peer review?

Less frequently edited articles on Wikipedia might be less reliable than popular ones. But it’s easy to find out how an article has been created and modified on Wikipedia. All modifications to an article are archived in its “history” page. Disputes between editors about the article’s content are documented in its “talk” page.

To use Wikipedia effectively, school students need to be taught to find and analyse these pages of an article, so they can quickly assess the article’s reliability.

Is information on Wikipedia too shallow?

Many teachers also argue the information on Wikipedia is too basic, particularly for tertiary students. This argument supposes all fact-checking must involve deep engagement. But this is not best practice for conducting initial investigation into a subject online. Deep research needs to come later, once the validity of the source has been established.

Still, some teachers are horrified by the idea students need to be taught to assess information quickly and superficially. If you look up the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, you will find “critical and creative thinking” encourages deep, broad reflection. Educators who conflate “critical” and “media” literacy may be inclined to believe analysis of online material must be slow and thorough.

Yet the reality is we live in an “attention economy” where everyone and everything on the internet is vying for our attention. Our time is precious, so engaging deeply with spurious online content, and potentially falling down misinformation rabbit holes, wastes a most valuable commodity – our attention.

Wikipedia can be a tool for better media literacy

Research suggests Australian children are not getting sufficient instruction in spotting fake news. Only one in five young Australians in 2020 reported having a lesson during the past year that helped them decide whether news stories could be trusted.

Our students clearly need more media literacy education, and Wikipedia can be a good media literacy instrument. One way is to use it is with “lateral reading”. This means when faced with an unfamiliar online claim, students should leave the web page they’re on and open a new browser tab. They can then investigate what trusted sources say about the claim.

Read more:
We live in an age of ‘fake news’. But Australian children are not learning enough about media literacy

Wikipedia is the perfect classroom resource for this purpose, even for primary-aged students. When first encountering unfamiliar information, students can be encouraged to go to the relevant Wikipedia page to check reliability. If the unknown information isn’t verifiable, they can discard it and move on.

More experienced fact-checkers can also beeline to the authoritative references at the bottom of each Wikipedia article.

In the future, we hope first-year university students enter our classrooms already understanding the value of Wikipedia. This will mean a widespread cultural shift has taken place in Australian primary and secondary schools. In a time of climate change and pandemics, everyone needs to be able to separate fact from fiction. Wikipedia can be part of the remedy.

Rachel Cunneen has received grants from the ACT Education Directorate; The University of Canberra and the US Embassy (Aust).

Mathieu O’Neil has received grants from the ACT Education Directorate; The University of Canberra and the US Embassy (Aust). He is affiliated with the Digital Commons Policy Council.

– ref. Students are told not to use Wikipedia for research. But it’s a trustworthy source – https://theconversation.com/students-are-told-not-to-use-wikipedia-for-research-but-its-a-trustworthy-source-168834

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

Here’s a story from the Bible. As far as I know, it’s the first reported instance of the branch of economics known as “implementation theory”.

It’s from the First Book of Kings, Chapter 3, starting at Verse 16.

Two women came before King Solomon with two babies, one dead and one alive.

Each claimed the live boy was her son, and the dead boy belonged to the other.

Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for him and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby, don’t kill him!”

The other said, “neither I nor you shall have him, cut him in two!”

Then Solomon gave his ruling:

Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.

Implementation theory asks the following question: given a social objective, can we design a game or “mechanism” whose predicted outcome is desirable?

If you think that sounds broad, you are right. A social objective could be almost anything: what public goods to provide, whom to elect, what our environmental or defence policy should be, how to pay for things.

Solomon pioneered “implementation theory”

This suggests a tantalising possibility. Maybe some central authority, a “mechanism designer” like King Solomon could construct a series of questions for the parties involved that would lead us to the best outcome for society.

Solomon might have begun the practice, but the formal study of it began with another wise person, Eric Maskin, in 1977. He went on, three decades later, to win the Nobel Prize for his work.

Read more:
Economic theories that have changed us: game theory

Maskin spoke about “social choice functions”. A social choice function is a sort-of formula that takes as an input all the relevant attributes of the people in a society and gives as an output the best social choice.

You could envisage one where the output was the best environmental policy and the best way to pay for it and the input was all the views in society.

But Maskin discovered that only certain types of problems can be solved this way.

It’s less easy than Solomon made it look

Among the problems that cannot be solved this way are those where decisions have distributional consequences, such as whether to build a road which will leave some people better off and and some people relatively worse off.

Another problem is while a mechanism might implement a desirable outcome, it might not be the only desirable outcome. In the language of economics, it might be an equilibrium, but not the only equilibrium.

Later economists have helped. John Moore and Raphael Repullo showed that by allowing for sequential rather than simultaneous announcements by players, it is possible to resolve both of these limitations: We are able to implement any social choice function as a unique equilibrium. Wow!

But there’s progress

If that sounds too good to be true it kind of is. With co-authors, I have shown that sequential mechanisms might not properly work if there is even a tiny amount of incomplete information shared between the players.

Ernst Fehr, Mike Powell and Tom Wilkening have shown that a lot depends on what is observable.

In an attempt to get social choice functions with sequential announcements to work, I and others have proposed a new type of mechanism that is impervious to incomplete information and to some departures from rationality.

Read more:
The legacy of John Nash and his equilibrium theory

I am not saying we can construct mechanisms to solve all public policy questions.

What I am saying is the work done so far provides important lessons.

1. People need incentives to reveal their private information. If we expect people to provide information needed for making better public policy, we need to make it in their interests to reveal it.

2. For policy to be robust it needs to be simple. Complicated policy (just like complicated implementation mechanisms) can be “gamed” to deliver the wrong result.

3. We should be modest about what a central Solomon-like authority can do. Central rulers can be powerful, but they often have less information than what is dispersed in society, and have to respect the decision-making processes of others.

Editor’s note: This has been Richard Holden’s 300th contribution to The Conversation.

Richard Holden is president-elect of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

– ref. Vital Signs: Borrowing from King Solomon, economists are getting closer to working out how good leaders can make good decisions – https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-borrowing-from-king-solomon-economists-are-getting-closer-to-working-out-how-good-leaders-can-make-good-decisions-171106

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lydia Edwards, Fashion historian, Edith Cowan University

More famous men are wearing dresses: from actor Billy Porter on the red carpet to singer-songwriter Harry Styles on the cover of Vogue. They have prompted much commentary, both positive and negative, leading fashion commentators to ask if frocks might become a regular part of men’s sartorial landscape.

At this year’s Met Gala, racing car driver Lewis Hamilton wore a white lace dress over a black suit and singer Troye Sivan wore a simple black gown. More recently, rapper Lil Nas X wore a purple suit with a matching train to the MTV Video Music Awards and a Cinderella-style gown at an earlier award ceremony.

The trend signifies a return to ancient sartorial norms, when more androgynous clothing was accepted and, indeed, required.

Such clothes were not “dresses” as we understand them today: the dress is a garment that has become indelibly “feminine”. But could skirts and dresses become mainstream garb for 21st century men beyond these celebrity trailblazers?

Our contemporary construct of masculinity is, of course, relatively recent. Until the early 20th century, boys and girls wore dresses until boys were “breeched” (put into breeches or “short trousers”) at around seven years old.

Pink was a manly colour, and it was almost impossible to tell boy and girl toddlers apart.

Read more:
Girlie or girl power? Breast cancer and the cult(ure) of pink

Androgynous frocks

Before the 15th century, much clothing for men and women was fairly androgynous, particularly outside Europe – where in many cultures this continues today.

Japanese kimono are robes with only subtle hints at gender difference. In parts of North Africa, the jellabiya – a long, loose robe perfect for the warm climate – is worn daily by men and women.

Ancient Egyptian men, including pharaohs, wore the schenti, a wrap skirt similar to a kilt. This garment was so practical and versatile it remained popular for over 2,000 years.

Ancient Greece and Rome saw universal wearing of the tunica, a simple gown that was shorter and looser for men, but constructed the same way for both sexes.

The elite wore longer chiton and toga, which could be more elaborately accessorised to indicate the wearer’s gender. In these societies, the higher a man was on the social ladder, the longer his gown.

Divided garments (not then known as “trousers”) were generally worn only by soldiers and the working class. To ancient Greeks and Romans, leg coverings were more representative of the barbarian than powerful, civilised men.

From 800 AD, bifurcated (divided, two-legged) styles slowly emerged in the Christian world, propagated by the medieval emperor Charlemagne as a way of linking physicality and aggression with new European concepts of “manliness”. Such garments later came to symbolise (male) control and authority.

This was a gradual process, however. In medieval Europe, men and women wore long, layered clothing and tunics until the slow advent of tailoring in the 1400s. Even armour, the most “macho” of male attire, could still feature a metal “skirt” pleated similarly to contemporary tunics.

From the 15th century on, shorter tunics took hold for men, beneath which they could wear hose or stockings and, later, breeches.

Aside from brief outlier trends, (for example the lampooned and short-lived “petticoat breeches”) men’s hemlines continued to move north.

The advent of stockings and a codpiece and, until the 1820s, relatively tight-fitting pants for men, acted as a non-verbal reminder of their political and economic power.

This was in stark contrast to the treatment of women’s legs, which as one writer put it in 1818:

although dressed, are […] immediately connected with parts which are not, and which decency strictly conceals from view.

Repression of expression

Women fought for a long time to wear trousers, making discreet strides in the adoption of bloomers as underwear in the 19th century. While gradually accepted as trouser-wearers in the early 20th century (and in the professional realm from the late 1960s), the same freedom of clothing choice has not been given to men.

For women, wearing trousers represented physical freedom, making certain jobs – and therefore, financial freedom – easier. Men do not have that same need, in a practical sense, to adopt dresses.

Arguably, a dress does not make any aspect of life easier, but it does allow an individual to express themselves in different ways. Restricting this suggests repression of far more than physical movement.

It could be argued that since the 18th century, (in the west at least), men have played second fiddle to women in terms of glamour and excitement in clothing. Contrary to popular belief, it was generally women who imposed what we now see as extravagant and restrictive sartorial customs, such as the cage crinoline. For many women, fashion was the one area of life over which they had some control.

Read more:
From ‘macaronis’ to mohawks, men’s fashion has always been political

During the 19th century, an era famously described by psychologist Carl Flugel as the “great male renunciation” of brilliant fashion, men had eye-wateringly little choice of garments compared to women. The monopoly of the (male) suit has perhaps been a result of this one-sidedness. Promoting dresses for men could redress the imbalance.

Fitting dresses to men

If dresses are to become a genuine part of menswear once again, we need first to establish what differences, if any, there will be with women’s. How will the fit be determined? How will they be worn?

This is not necessarily the same as producing androgynous or gender fluid clothes. It is about dresses that will allow men, who wish it, to still feel masculine – as trousers can make women feel feminine.

While fashion slacks were often made to conform to a woman’s body (putting aside utilitarian and wartime uniforms) there seem to be very few dresses made exclusively for the male physique.

Billy Porter’s velvet tuxedo gown worn to the 2019 Oscars was an exception. A hybrid male and female garment, it used black to create a link to contemporary womenswear, and men’s traditional evening wear. Crafted by designer Christian Siriano, it consisted of a tuxedo-style bodice with voluminous, ballgown skirt.

Read more:
And the best penguin Oscar … a closer look at the tuxedo

This dress was elite rather than mainstream fashion, created exclusively for Porter. Styles’ ethereal Gucci number on the Vogue cover is likewise hardly accessible to the everyday consumer, demanding a high level of confidence to pull off.

The same can be said of frocks and frock-spirations chosen by Carl Clemons-Hopkins at the 2021 Emmys and Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness at the Creative Arts Emmys in 2018.

As Oscar Wilde put it when discussing women’s dress reform in the 1880s:

If the divided skirt is to be of any positive value, it must give up all idea of being identical in appearance with an ordinary skirt … [it must] … sacrifice its foolish frills and flounces.

Perhaps men’s dresses should aim for that same end: not to masquerade as anything else, but to take on a life of their own as new, separate garments.

A viable option?

Examples such as Porter’s and Styles’ frocks prompt intrigued debate. Other examples of men wearing dresses are usually associated with transvestism or those undergoing gender reassignment.

Huge progress over the past few decades has made their visibility and acceptance far more widespread, along with gender fluid and queer identity becoming a regular part of the fashion landscape, thanks to designers such as Harris Reed, Telfar Clemens and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy. Each, in their own way, are creating and championing fluid fashion, showing the world how it can be done.

However, we are not yet at the point where most men would consider a dress a viable option, or where a man wearing a dress would not provoke assumptions around sexuality or gender identity. We also seem to be at a crossroads in terms of how men in dresses are received by different communities.

A controversy arose earlier this year when cisgender man, the rapper Kid Cudi, performed on Saturday Night Live wearing a dress intended to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain.

In 1993, Cobain had boldly donned a similarly patterned, but shorter frock on the cover of The Face magazine, attracting considerable backlash.

In 2021, wearing a fuller, longer, more classically “feminine” style, Cudi was met largely with praise. However, some commentators – particularly those from the LGBTQI community – felt his choice was nothing but a “costume” worn by a performer.

Some pointed out that what was a publicity stunt for him amounted to a “life and death” decision, for which trans people have been severely bullied. The reality is that however casually a man might wear a dress, and whatever his motivations for doing so, the choice is fraught with political, emotional and social ramifications. It will be commented on and judged, positively or negatively.

Earlier this year, singer Post Malone’s stylist Catherine Hahn put the singer in a dress, another tribute to Cobain.

The success of this outfit inspired her to create “a unisex dress that could be worn every day. To work, to school, to skateboard in, or on a date.” The result is a calf-length, oversized plaid shirt that recalls 90s grunge styles and certainly offers a fun, fresh, casual option for men.

However, it is still unisex, rather than aimed specifically at men. Its shirt-like cut makes it a familiar, non-threatening segue for those wishing to experiment with dresses. This style is the closest we have seen to a potentially mainstream, workable male frock option.

Dresses are likely to remain a novelty for many men, a defiant show of bravery and individuality akin to the female pioneers of the rational and aesthetic dress movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Mind you, during this pandemic, there has been a surge in male skirt designs by the likes of Burberry and Stefan Cooke.

Many of these take inspiration from the traditional “man skirt”, the kilt. But longer, calf-length, pleated and A-line examples have been championed too. More men may have felt comfortable experimenting with a skirt or dress during the privacy of lockdown.

The year 2020 was a seismic shift in life as well as fashion. But given the highly gendered and ingrained nature of clothing codes, it seems unlikely we will see men’s dresses go mainstream anytime soon.

Lydia Edwards 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.

– ref. Friday essay: will the perfect men’s dress ever exist – and would men wear it? – https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-will-the-perfect-mens-dress-ever-exist-and-would-men-wear-it-170112

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

When Scott Morrison fronted the travelling media at a stopover in Dubai on his way home, he looked drained. Here was a man in need of a steaming hot bath, and a big political reset.

He’s presumably had the opportunity for the former; he and his advisers will be mulling over the latter for a long while yet. It’s not an easy assignment, especially when it involves issues of integrity.

The “character” question is important in politics. In recent political history, it was part of the downfall of then Labor leader Mark Latham, who had appeared a strong prospect in the lead-up to the 2004 election.

Morrison has long been regarded as a slippery political player. The imbroglio with the French, in which Emmanuel Macron branded him a liar and he responded with a leaked Macron text, has further tarnished Morrison’s personal reputation – even accepting Australians won’t be inclined to side with France.

Labor is banking on these events playing into the negatives about Morrison that are already in some voters’ minds. Anthony Albanese said: “The only thing that the prime minister has accomplished on this trip is proving that he can’t be trusted”.

To adapt a line from Morrison’s climate policy mantra, the issue is not the “if” or “when” he needs to move forward, but the “how”.

With next year’s election rushing towards him, Morrison personally is no longer a clear asset for the government, as he was in 2019. It may be that, if the Coalition wins another term, it will be more in spite of him than because of him.

The Coalition normally wants “trust” to be a part of its pitch to voters. But how to do this, when the tag “liar” has been pinned onto its leader?

It’s difficult, although not impossible on the history. Immediately before he called the 2004 election, John Howard’s integrity had been freshly disputed in a hangover from the 2001 “children overboard” affair. That didn’t stop him making “trust” the centrepiece when he announced the poll. “Who do you trust to keep interest rates low?” he asked.

Read more:
View from The Hill: A battered Scott Morrison proclaims it’s time to ‘move on’

“Trust” can operate at more than one level. A voter might regard a leader as someone loose with the truth, but still trust him or her over the alternative to manage the economy or national security. It becomes a matter of which “trust” issue weighs more heavily with the electorate.

On the economic front, this government can expect to have a strong story for its election pitch. The September-quarter numbers, when they come, will show the economy having gone backwards because of the lockdowns, but the quarters that follow are looking good.

Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe said this week: “As vaccination rates increase even further and restrictions are eased, the economy is expected to bounce back relatively quickly”. Growth of 3% is forecast over 2021, with 5.5½% and 2.5% over the following two years. Lowe did add the obvious uncertainty – “the possibility of a further setback on the health front”.

The government can argue that, in economic terms, it sustained the community through the pandemic and therefore can be trusted on economic management.

But it may regard the “trust” ground in general as too treacherous, especially as linking “trust” and “politicians” raises a horse laugh in the community these days. “Who do you regard as more competent to manage the economy?” might avoid the hazards of having Morrison campaigning on “trust”.

The prime minister no doubt would like to rope in “national security” as a pillar of his election pitch and he would have thought the trilateral AUKUS agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom provided the ideal platform.

But, important as AUKUS is, relying on it in political terms has become more problematic. Not only does that take Morrison back to the fracas with the French, but there are increasing questions over the much-vaunted promise of nuclear-powered submarines.

All we have is an 18-month consultation process for these boats. We don’t know whether the design would come from the US or the UK. We do know the first sub wouldn’t appear for nearly two decades.

Given the Coalition’s abysmal performance over most of its term on submarines, some of the initial shine has gone off this deal, although it retains the public support of Labor.

Read more:
View from The Hill: How will Macron’s ‘pants on fire’ claim about Morrison play in the focus groups?

More generally, Labor is sticking close to the government on security issues, denying it a fight.

Ironically, the issue that was predicted to cause Morrison trouble on his trip – the government’s lacklustre commitment on climate policy for COP26 – turned out to be the least of his problems.

Australia’s policy didn’t impress, but that was overshadowed by the more general and important disappointments at the conference.

So, the political strategists will now be asking, where does this leave the climate issue for the election?

Still potent, one would guess, but lacking some of the sharpness it had before Glasgow – both because that focal point will have passed and because the conference, which is still running, isn’t as ground-breaking as many hoped.

Labor would be savvy to position its climate policy as somewhat more ambitious than Morrison’s but not too much more.

On the government side the Nationals, having reluctantly climbed on board for net-zero in 2050, are already feeling heat in Queensland. They need the government to pull out all stops to announce soon the trade-offs they were promised.

Morrison’s troubles strengthen the case for him to wait until May for the election and launch it off the back of an April budget.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg pointed on Thursday to an expected pre-poll budget. Asked on Sky to confirm there’d be a budget before the election he said, “Well, the prime minister’s spoken in those terms”.

Read more:
‘I don’t think, I know’ – what makes Macron’s comments about Morrison so extraordinary and so worrying

This would be the third election in a row that effectively started with a budget. That worked for Morrison in 2019; it didn’t go so well for Malcolm Turnbull in 2016, when he lost a swag of seats.

A budget – if received well – can usefully frame the campaign. If the economic outlook is rosy, as it looks like it may be, a pre-election budget can emphasise that. It can be used to put new policy in the most positive light (the wrinkles may only emerge later).

Another budget would give more prominence to Frydenberg, which would be an advantage if Morrison is tracking as damaged.

An April budget could also be a challenge for Labor, potentially forcing it into a more reactive position.

But while the arguments are strong for using a budget as the campaign’s start, there can be risks – one of them being that if there’s a sudden change of circumstances the government can’t delay – it has run out of time. And as Morrison’s trip showed so graphically, politics is always about the unexpected.

Michelle Grattan 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.

– ref. Grattan on Friday: If the government is re-elected it may be in spite of Scott Morrison rather than because of him – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-if-the-government-is-re-elected-it-may-be-in-spite-of-scott-morrison-rather-than-because-of-him-171213

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

So the Parrot, as H. G. Nelson called him, has been pushed off his perch, Sky News having refused to renew his contract.

Over 36 years, Alan Jones became one of the most powerful, divisive and socially destructive voices the Australian media has ever produced.

At the same time, in rating terms, he became a phenomenon. In April 2020, he achieved his 226th ratings win in the Sydney breakfast time slot, a performance that has never been equalled and probably never will be.

It was an accomplishment built on three foundations. He was articulate in the red-blooded language of conservative outrage that his listeners felt but could not put into words. He had an unerring instinct for the issues that would inflame them, and he persuaded them that he was their champion in the corridors of power.

His broadcasting career began in 1985 when he joined Radio 2UE in Sydney as its mornings host. He moved to the breakfast shift in 1988 and soon took it to number one.

In 2001, he moved from 2UE to 2GB, taking a large slice of his audience with him and making that station number one in the Sydney breakfast market, a position it has recently regained after slipping briefly when Jones left in May 2020.
For a long time, he was politically untouchable.

In 1999, he was caught up in what became known as the cash-for-comment scandal. His evidence to the ensuing Australian Broadcasting Authority inquiry was dismissed by the counsel assisting, Julian Burnside, QC, as defying belief.

Read more:
The times suited him, then passed him by: the Alan Jones radio era comes to an end

In 2000, the inquiry made adverse findings against him.

Politically, he remained untouched. Within a few weeks, he was hosting an event for John Howard, who was then prime minister, and in 2001, he was dining with the Labor premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, to discuss government policy.

The following week, Carr dispatched his police minister-designate, Michael Costa, to Jones’ home to discuss law-and-order policy.

For his part, Howard used Jones’ program to reach that audience segment known as “Howard’s battlers”, occupants of what Jones called Struggle Street, of which Sydney’s western suburbs have a plentiful number and where Jones rated strongly.

To the extent he was able to put the issues of this audience directly to the likes of Howard and Carr, Jones was indeed a voice for the otherwise voiceless in the corridors of power. Whether this had any effect on voting intentions is another question.

Author and social researcher Rebecca Huntley has written that after 15 years of research, she had not found Jones to be any more influential with voters than ABC Radio or The Sydney Morning Herald. She concluded:

For a long time at 2GB, he was commercially untouchable, too.

In 2005, he was found by the Australian Communications and Media Authority to have breached the radio code of practice by inciting violence against people of Middle Eastern ethnicity in a series of incendiary broadcasts leading up to the race riots at Cronulla Beach that year.

The ACMA characteristically decided it was sufficient to enter into a “dialogue” with 2GB.

In 2012, he said Julia Gillard, who was then prime minister, should be put in a chaff bag, taken out to sea and dumped. At about the same time, he made a speech to the Sydney University Liberal Club in which he said Gillard’s recently deceased father had “died of shame” at the lies her daughter told.

In the aftermath of this, social media pressure on big advertisers such as Harvey Norman, Big W and Mercedes-Benz was so intense that Jones’ employer, Macquarie Radio, suspended all advertising on the show to take the pressure off them.

In 2019, Jones told Scott Morrison, who had by then become known as the “2GB prime minister”, to shove a sock down the throat of New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Jones was outraged Ardern had said Australia would have to answer to the nations of the Pacific on climate change.

This time, advertisers boycotted the Jones show in droves, costing 2GB an estimated 50% of the show’s revenue.

Macquarie Radio was getting sick of him. In addition to these advertising losses, in 2018, he had cost the network $3.75 million in a defamation action brought against it by four brothers whom Jones had wrongly accused of causing the deaths of people in Grantham, near Toowoomba, during the Queensland floods of 2011.

In May 2020, he retired from 2GB, but was snapped up Sky News amid great fanfare for a personal nightly spot at 8pm.

His ratings were poor. He routinely came fourth behind other Sky-at-Night luminaries such as Andrew Bolt, Paul Murray and Peta Credlin.

The COVID-19 disinformation he routinely spread on the program was a factor in Sky’s being suspended by YouTube for seven days in early August.

Shortly before that, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph had dropped his column, which he had also used to spread COVID disinformation.

Whatever his talents, and however impressive his record, he has been a canker on Australian democracy.

Finally he seems to have run out of platforms, not because of the harm he has done to the social fabric but because he is no longer rating well and bringing in big advertising dollars.

That is the way it was always going to end.

Denis Muller 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.

– ref. The last squawk? Alan Jones finally seems to have nowhere to go – https://theconversation.com/the-last-squawk-alan-jones-finally-seems-to-have-nowhere-to-go-171212

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Newman, Professorial Fellow in Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne

Four-year-old Cleo Smith was found by Western Australian police earlier this week, 18 days after going missing from a remote campsite.

Being taken and removed from one’s family is a significantly traumatic event for any child. It disrupts their entire world.

Children are dependent on their families and attachment figures for their sense of security and support. Sudden loss of these important relationships can result in fear, a sense of abandonment and confusion. Children left alone can become withdrawn and depressed and have little understanding of why this has happened to them.

There can be long-term effects, such as memories of the fearful experience, sleep disruption and anxiety. Some children will have difficultly rebuilding their sense of security and trust.

As a child psychiatrist who’s researched trauma, I’m interested in how we can ensure such children recover.

Family members, the media and the public also need to avoid certain actions or behaviours that could re-traumatise the child.

How can the child recover?

The first priority after finding the child is to immediately re-establish a sense of safety and stability, and to reunite them with their family.

The most important thing is to avoid intrusive, probing questioning straight away as this can be frightening and distressing. It’s a normal response for the child to try and not think about what they’ve just been through.

They will take their own time before they’re able to share details of their experiences, and will need considerable support and care to do this.

Intrusive questioning may re-traumatise the child. For survivors of trauma, being asked to focus on their memories and experiences of fear can be distressing and bring back the terror of the experience, particularly if they’re not ready to think about the events.

Police forces have skilled interviewers who understand and avoid this when recovering a child, and perform the interviews gradually.

There are open questions about any other sort of trauma Cleo may have experienced, but for now we don’t have any information on this. We might never know all the details and we need to respect the family’s right to privacy.

Some children might benefit from counselling, particularly if they have severe anxiety symptoms or have been held for a long time.

Children held for a long time often become dependent on their captor for survival, as they adapt to their situation and attempt to survive. It’s a very strange and traumatising position for the child to be in and may take a long time to recover from.

Over time, it’s important for attachment figures such as parents and carers to allow children to express fears in a gentle way.

Children may have “disguised anxieties”. They may develop fear about some other thing or event, for example storms or dogs, because they’re expressing anxiety about the traumatic event in a disguised way.

Adults should listen, not probe

Caregivers need to be guided by the child’s willingness to disclose, and when.

The response to trauma varies considerably. Some children tell parents or carers a lot about the experience at first. Others may disclose small details little by little over time, while some may not speak about details for months or years.

Parents or carers need to let the child speak at their own pace and be guided by the child’s level of anxiety. The aim is to give the child a safe space to speak to trusted people who can support them.

When they do start talking about their experience, adults must listen carefully and validate their feelings. Adults should reassure the child that he or she is safe now. It’s not a good idea to probe.

Believing what the child says is crucial.

Read more:
‘It’s real to them, so adults should listen’: what children want you to know to help them feel safe

Let’s not get carried away with speculation

We don’t know what the long-term consequences for Cleo will be. This will depend on what she’s been exposed to, which we don’t know yet. And we don’t always get a sense of closure – this isn’t as important as working on the best way to support her recovery.

The media should avoid premature comment and speculation on what might have occurred. The media currently have no idea what kind of person the suspect is and shouldn’t speculate on his behaviours and motives.

It’s also not helpful for the media to focus on extreme ideas about risk to children at the hands of predatory offenders.

Read more:
Missing and found: understanding the privacy needs of missing people

As the public, we shouldn’t speculate about the circumstances either or prejudge those involved. Police are methodical and thorough in their work and will need time to piece together the story of what may have happened.

The local community, and many members of the public, are likely to be anxious and fearful. A missing child strikes at the core of our desire to care for children. This may have negative impacts on community trust and relationships.

If this was random act, there’s the potential for ongoing fear. And it’s potentially more scary than the stereotypes we think of, such as a planned attack by a ring of perpetrators. A random attack is harder to make sense of, terrifying and unsettling.

Parents need support, too

Cleo’s parents, and any parents in a similar situation, have been through a horrendous ordeal.

They have the vital role of helping a child feel safe again, so they also need support to do this.

All parents may feel increased anxiety about child safety in the face of this event. Children may also hear about Cleo’s experience and worry this could happen to them. Fear is contagious when such a traumatic event impacts a community.

If parents are worried about their child showing trauma or anxiety symptoms, they should speak to GP who can refer to a psychologist or psychiatrist if more support is needed.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Louise Newman 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.

– ref. When missing children return: how can we avoid adding to Cleo Smith’s trauma? – https://theconversation.com/when-missing-children-return-how-can-we-avoid-adding-to-cleo-smiths-trauma-171200

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Graves, Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University

Virgin birth – which involves the development of an unfertilised egg – has preoccupied humans for aeons. And although it can’t happen in mammals, it does seem to be possible in other animals with backbones (vertebrates), such as birds and lizards.

A recent paper led by researchers from San Diego Zoo in the United States reports two fatherless male chicks raised in a program to save the Californian condor from extinction. Could the species be restored by a single surviving female?

Sexual reproduction is fundamental in all vertebrates. Normally it requires an egg from a female to be fertilised by a sperm from a male, so each parent contributes one copy of the genome.

Violation of this rule, as for the fatherless condor chicks, tells us a lot about why sexual reproduction is such a good biological strategy – as well as how sex works in all animals, including humans.

How the fatherless chicks were identified

The magnificent California condor, a type of vulture, is the largest flying bird in North America. In 1982 the species declined to a population of just 22 individuals, sparking an ambitious captive breeding program led by San Diego Zoo which has seen numbers start to grow.

With so few birds, the team had to be careful not to choose parents that were closely related, as a lack of genetic variation would produce less vigorous offspring and steepen the slide to extinction.

The researchers conducted a detailed genetic study of the birds to avoid this, using DNA markers that were specific for condors and which varied between individual birds. They collected feathers, blood and eggshells from nearly 1,000 birds over 30 years.

By analysing these data, they established parentage, confirming that half the DNA markers in each chick came from a female and half from a male, as you’d expect. They continued to follow the fates of hundreds of captive-bred chicks in the colony, and after releasing them into the wild.

But there was something unusual about two male chicks, as detailed in the recent paper. These chicks, which hatched several years apart from eggs laid by different females, had DNA markers that all came from the female parent. There was no trace of markers from the male she’d been paired with.

Virgin birth

The development of unfertilised eggs is called “parthenogenesis” (from Greek words that literally mean “virgin creation”). It’s quite common in insects and other invertebrates like aphids and starfish, and can be accomplished by several different mechanisms. But it’s very rare in vertebrates.

There have been reports of parthenogenesis in fish and reptiles that were housed without males. In Tennessee, a lonely female Komodo dragon held in captivity for many years gave up on finding a mate and produced three viable offspring on her own. So did a female python and a boa, although these parthenogenic offspring all died early.

Some lizards, however, have adopted parthenogenesis as a way of life. There are female-only species in Australia and the US in which females lay eggs carrying only combinations of their own genes.

Parthenogenesis also happens in domesticated chickens and turkeys raised in the absence of a male, but the embryo usually dies. There are only a few reports of fatherless male turkeys that made it to adulthood, and just one or two that produced sperm.

How does it happen?

In birds, parthenogenisis always results from an egg cell carrying a single copy of the genome (haploid). Eggs are made in the ovary of a female by a special sort of cell division called meiosis, which shuffles up the genome and also halves the chromosome number. Sperm cells are made by the same process in the testis of a male.

Normally an egg cell and a sperm cell fuse (fertilisation), incorporating both parents genomes and restoring the usual (diploid) number of chromosomes.

But in parthenogenesis, the egg cell is not fertilised. Instead, it achieves a diploid state either by fusing with another cell from the same division — which is normally jettisoned — or by replicating its genome without the cell being divided.

So rather than getting one genome from the mother and a different one from the father, the resulting egg only has a subset of the mother’s genes in a double dose.

Fatherless birds will always be male

Condors, like other birds, determine sex by Z and W sex chromosomes. These work in the opposite way to the human XX (female) and XY (male) system, in which the SRY gene on the Y chromosome determines maleness.

However, in birds males are ZZ and females are ZW. Sex is determined by the dosage of a gene (DMRT1) on the Z chromosome. The ZZ combination has two copies of the DMRT1 gene and makes a male, whereas the ZW combination has only one copy and makes a female.

Read more:
How birds become male or female, and occasionally both

Haploid egg cells receive either a Z or a W from the ZW mother. Their diploid derivatives will therefore be ZZ (normal male) or WW (dead). The reason WW embryos can’t develop is because the W chromosome contains hardly any genes, whereas the Z chromosome has 900 genes which are vital for development.

Fatherless chicks must therefore be ZZ males, as was observed.

Why virgin birth fails

Is it possible an endangered bird species such as the condor could be resuscitated from a lone female survivor, by hatching a fatherless male chick and breeding with it?

Well not quite. It turns out parthenogens (fatherless animals) don’t do so well. Neither of the two fatherless condors produced offspring of their own. One died before reaching sexual maturity and the other was weak and submissive – making it a poor prospect for fatherhood.

In chickens and turkeys, parthenogenesis produces either dead embryos or weak hatchlings. Even female-only lizard species, though they seem robust, are generally the product of a recent blending of two species which messed up meiosis and left them no other option. These species don’t seem to last long.

Why do parthenogens do so poorly? The answer goes to the core of a fundamental biological question. That is: why do we have sex at all? You’d think it would be more efficient for the mother’s genome to be simply handed down to her clonal offspring without bothering about meiosis.

Variation is key

But the evidence says it’s not healthy to have a genome consisting entirely of the mother’s genes. Genetic variation is all-important in the health of an individual and its species. Mixing the gene variants from male and female parents is vital.

Read more:
These sex-starved creatures scavenge new genes from other pondlife

In diploid offspring with two parental genomes, good variants can cover for mutants. Individuals that inherit genes only from the mother may have two copies of a maternal mutant gene that weakens them – without a healthy version from a male parent to compensate.

Variation also helps protect populations from deadly viruses, bacteria and parasites. Meiosis and fertilisation provide many rearrangements of different gene variants, which can baffle pathogens. Without this added protection, pathogens could run amok in a population of clones, and a genetically similar population would not contain resistant animals.

So the ability of condor females to hatch chicks without a father is unlikely to save the species. On the bright side, human efforts have now led to hundreds of females – and males – flying the Californian skies.

Jenny Graves receives funding from the Australian Research Council

– ref. The endangered condor surprised researchers by producing fatherless chicks. Could ‘virgin birth’ rescue the species? – https://theconversation.com/the-endangered-condor-surprised-researchers-by-producing-fatherless-chicks-could-virgin-birth-rescue-the-species-170965

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist, Office of the Chief Scientist

The role played by University of Sydney Professor Edward Holmes in the COVID pandemic is already the stuff of legend. His decision to tweet the genome of SARS-CoV-2 on January 11 2020, making the data freely available to everyone, sparked urgent work in labs around the world to develop a test and a vaccine.

Within days, the first diagnostic tests were available, and that weekend, scientists at Moderna and Pfizer are reported to have downloaded the genome and set to work on their mRNA vaccines, bringing a new technology to medicine in record time.

But it is the deeper story I find most exciting. It is a story of excellent, painstaking research over many years, as the scientific community developed an understanding of genomics and virus behaviour, built a record of genetic sequences, and developed techniques to intervene at the tiniest scales.

This foundational work meant that when the pandemic struck, science was ready. Reports began to appear of a novel coronavirus causing illness in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of December 2019; Holmes’s tweet detailing the full genome of the virus was posted less than a fortnight later.

Read more:
4 of our greatest achievements in vaccine science (that led to COVID vaccines)

It is also a story of scientific expertise and confidence. While most of the world was coming to terms with the concept of a coronavirus, Holmes and other experts realised immediately what they were dealing with, and knew their first obligation was to share the information so researchers and their industry colleagues could go to work.

And it is a story of collaboration. As Holmes has pointed out, he would not have had the genome to share without deep scientific relationships. That day, he was on the phone with a colleague in China, Zhang Yongzhen, who held the genome information, and another in Edinburgh, who helped prepare the data for release.

A prizewinning effort

The lessons for scientific endeavour are clear, and Holmes is now the deserved recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, presented at a virtual event last night.

The pandemic has demonstrated the vital importance of global research collaborations and open sharing of findings, which makes science faster, more efficient and more accurate.

More than 400,000 papers have been written on COVID. Their open publication has allowed the development of vaccines and therapeutics at breakneck speed, saving millions of lives. The pandemic has highlighted the benefits of making research findings openly available for researchers, policy-makers, educators and others, and I am now championing an open-access approach for Australia.

One of the welcome aspects of the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes is the recognition it gives to great science teaching, which plays a crucial role in inspiring our young people to start on that path towards a scientific career. This year’s awards celebrated the work of Scott Graham, who has inspired students at Barker College in Hornsby, NSW, to study agriculture, and Megan Hayes, a STEM specialist at Mudgeeraba Creek State School in Queensland.

Four other scientists were recognised at the awards, all of whom demonstrate the drive that underpins great science and propels its practitioners to find ways to benefit the community.

Professor Sherene Loi, a medical oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, was recognised for her world-leading breast-cancer research that led to the development of a biomarker that is now routine in breast-cancer diagnosis in many countries.

Dr Keith Bannister, a research engineer with CSIRO Space and Astronomy, modified the CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope to increase the detection rate of “fast radio bursts”. These mysterious bursts of intense energy from distant galaxies last just milliseconds but can release as much energy as the Sun emits in decades.

Bannister designed and built a system to preserve the data from the CSIRO’s radio telescope, and to track the source of the bursts.

Read more:
A brief history: what we know so far about fast radio bursts across the universe

Associate Professor Michael Bowen, at the University of Sydney, discovered a molecule with potential for treating brain disorders and tackling the opioid epidemic. This has led to a world-first clinical trial, now starting in Australia.

Also at the University of Sydney, Professor Anthony Weiss was recognised for developing and commercialising a natural “squirtable” skin-repair product, based on the protein that gives human tissue its elasticity. A spin-off company he founded has now been sold to one of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies for A$334 million.

The achievements of these scientists are so important to Australia, as are the efforts of the many researchers and technologists who sit behind them doing foundational work that builds over years, and collaborating in teams to tackle the difficult problems that are part and parcel of scientific discovery and impact.

Their achievements give me confidence we will solve today’s great challenges as we place science at the heart of efforts to tackle climate resilience, respond to the pandemic, and build the high-tech industries of the future.

Cathy Foley 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.

– ref. Professor who tweeted the coronavirus genome, paving the way for new vaccines, scoops major Australian science award – https://theconversation.com/professor-who-tweeted-the-coronavirus-genome-paving-the-way-for-new-vaccines-scoops-major-australian-science-award-171208

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanna Trnka, Associate Professor, University of Auckland

The recent announcement of a new Ministry for Disabled People is a watershed moment for people living with disabilities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It comes none too soon, as COVID-19 has affected disability communities badly. Lockdown, particularly at levels 3 and 4, has put many disabled people in a nefarious catch-22. The very measures put in place to protect them are also often responsible for exacerbating their health conditions.

In our research we document the views of young New Zealanders with central nervous system disorders such as celebral palsy, chronic pain or illness, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Our findings show repeatedly that young people with disabilities would like to have a greater voice in determining policies and services — and in identifying what their needs actually are.

Throughout the pandemic, the government has emphasised the need to protect the vulnerable, including those with underlying health issues and disabilities. But, overwhelmingly, the messaging has been to non-disabled people about the needs of the disabled population. Very little space has been made for the voices of the vulnerable.

Disability rights activists and scholars have long argued people with disabilities are as limited by society’s perceptions of their impairments as by the impairments themselves.

They are often restricted from being fully able to participate in their own care because society takes being able-bodied for granted. Curbs on pavements that don’t allow for easy wheelchair access are just one obvious example.

Read more:
How pandemic responses neglected disabled people’s rights

Disabling the disabled

During the pandemic, it has become evident how social priorities further disable people with disabilities. Some of the provisions necessary for large-scale lockdowns — such as remote learning and working from home — are the very same disability activists have spent years, if not decades, campaigning for.

When the abled-bodied required these services, there was widespread mobilisation to shift education, corporate and other working environments and conferences online.

Another evident gap is the impact of long-term lockdowns on health and well-being. There is now a well-documented backlog of healthcare provision, including in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and surgeries. While this has widespread implications for all New Zealanders, it is particularly detrimental to individuals with disabilities who often rely on such services more urgently.

Read more:
Only one fifth of school students with disability had enough support during the remote learning period

One of the young people we spoke with suffers from a central nervous system disorder that causes severe body-wide chronic pain and generalised weakness on her right side. She said the delay in treatments such as physiotherapy has made her physical conditions much harder to bear while also causing her to worry about possible long-term deterioration.

Others mentioned repeated delays of care for chronic pain. Appointments were sometimes put off for more than three months.

The consequences included not only ongoing physical pain but also not being able to take part in activities like exercise, drawing or gaming. Previously, such activities helped take the edge off living through lockdown.

Towards a new normal

Our interviews and online observations also revealed lockdowns have doubled the mental health burden for many disabled youth, adding to or intensifying existing issues on top of other disabilities.

Their social media posts frequently note frustration over the suspension of regular services. Some wonder if they can’t access care because they aren’t currently “manic or psychotic” enough. One said there seemed to be a widely held assumption people can somehow “put crisis aside during lockdown”.

Many we spoke to were also unaware of the reinstatement, in late October, of health services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and dental therapy in regions currently under alert level 3 restrictions. This suggests better communication is needed.

We are not suggesting lockdowns are not justifiable. But their cost should be more openly discussed and better managed. We also need to hear from a range of people, including those in whose name these measures are being promoted.

Hopefully the new Ministry for Disabled People will be an avenue for this kind of engagement.

But these changes must permeate more broadly as part of looking at ways we can all be protected from COVID while also trying to mitigate disadvantage falling too heavily on those who are already struggling.

Any much-vaunted “return to normal” must include a rethinking of what normality is. The previous status quo required significant improvements, particularly for the disabled community. Let’s hope the new normal includes and values the complexity of individuals with disabilities.

Susanna Trnka is the Principal Investigator on a Marsden project on youth and wellbeing, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand. The grant also funded Luca Muir’s research.

Luca Muir is a disabilities rights activist and a graduate student in social anthropology at the University of Auckland.

– ref. A new ministry sets out to improve services and accessibility for New Zealanders living with disabilities – https://theconversation.com/a-new-ministry-sets-out-to-improve-services-and-accessibility-for-new-zealanders-living-with-disabilities-171099

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Bainton, Associate Professor, The University of Queensland

As the world shifts to renewable energy and fossil fuel industries close down, what will happen to the local workforce, communities and businesses that depend on them?

This week, at the global climate summit in Glasgow, business, government, and civil society leaders discussed how a “just transition” can help address the social challenges ahead. The term “just transition” is about prioritising decent work and quality jobs for displaced workers as coal mines, oil refineries, power plants and more, are rapidly phased out.

But, as we explain in our recent research paper, the idea of a just transition needs to expand. Many new mines will be required to meet demand for minerals used in clean energy infrastructure. And these mines may come with enormous impacts, including new forms of inequality, social exclusion, and impacts on land and natural resources.

If we fail to balance the social impacts of climate change with responsible climate action, we risk substituting one kind of harm for another – and this would be a disaster of another kind.

Justice in the energy transition

The world will need vast amounts of minerals and metals for clean technology, including iron ore for wind and solar power infrastructure, copper for electrification systems, and nickel for battery storage.

The mines for these energy transition minerals are likely to be deeper, lower grade, more energy and water-intensive, and built on Indigenous peoples’ lands. They will produce more mine waste and more hazardous tailings (mining residue).

Installing new renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, will also cause social and environmental impacts. These projects need large areas of land, which can limit the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Read more:
Why most Aboriginal people have little say over clean energy projects planned for their land

The International Energy Agency predicts the combined revenues from critical minerals will overtake fossil fuels before 2040. Given this soaring demand, governments will be under pressure to attract investment, and approve new mines.

This will seriously test community consultation and processes for obtaining free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous peoples.

Big new mines also carry the potential to leave costly mining legacies. The historical problem of environmental clean-up and abandoned mines is an issue worldwide, as mined rocks can seep acid and heavy metals into waterways for decades. Building more mines would add to this problem.

We’ve already seen big impacts from mining energy transition minerals in, for example, Australia. At McArthur River, Traditional Owners continue to oppose the environmental and social impacts of lead and zinc mining to the nearby township of Borroloola, including the leaking of potentially harmful contaminants and smouldering waste rock.

Some countries are scrambling to secure the materials they need to transition their energy systems. China for instance has a monopoly on the production of rare-earth elements, such as neodymium, which are essential for renewable technologies like wind turbines and electric vehicles.

The uncertainty in the supply of these minerals could trigger new geopolitical conflicts, putting the era of open competition on global commodities markets under pressure. This could reduce transparency, and further increase human rights risks in supply chains.

A just transition must work to avoid these kind of sacrifice zones in remote mining communities and along global supply chains in the name of climate action.

Expanding the idea is gaining traction

A just transition was first proposed by the trade union movement in the 1970s. It was also mentioned in the preamble to the Paris Agreement and reaffirmed in the 2018 Silesia Declaration.

Read more:
Land, culture, livelihood: what Indigenous people stand to lose from climate ‘solutions’

The roundtable at Glasgow this week was a milestone, as it put the full scope of a just transition on the COP agenda. In opening the roundtable, former Irish president and climate justice campaigner Mary Robinson said the energy transition should uphold human rights, gender equality and the rights of workers everywhere.

Likewise, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said climate action should enable workers and communities to thrive with new jobs in a socially inclusive green economy. This underpins calls for a Green New Deal across the world.

And the Institute for Human Rights and Business, which convened the roundtable this week, plans to host a just transition event at every future COP.

So what do we need to do?

It’s taken decades to get the social impacts of climate change on the global agenda. Now, we must put greater focus on the social impacts of climate action.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is an important place to start. This is an essential instrument to help all companies – mining, renewable technology and finance – take responsibility for their social and environmental impacts.

Read more:
COP26: a four-minute guide by a climate scientist

The principles require businesses to conduct human rights due diligence to avoid harming workers, local communities and people further down the renewables supply chain. This requires companies to understand where they may infringe on the rights of others, and act on these findings.

This is similar to the idea of climatising human rights, where powerful parties are held legally accountable for their climate impacts and actions.

The European Union is considering mandatory human rights due diligence laws, compelling businesses to assess the social and human rights impacts of climate action whether they’re extracting minerals or building renewable energy projects. This would be an important step towards climatising human rights.

These initiatives provide a platform for change. What’s missing is real action to carry them forward and achieve justice across all aspects of the energy transition.

That’s why tracking progress will be vital. The World Benchmarking Alliance has launched a just transitions assessment tool, and its findings were damning. It showed high-emitting companies are not using their influence to protect people, manage social impacts and advocate for a just transition.

This needs to change, urgently, as increased rates of extraction under the stress of climate change will create new patterns of harm.

This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage of COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.

Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. Read more of our U.S. and global coverage.

Deanna is chief investigator of an ARC Linkage grant on public-private inquiries in mining; member of the International Council of Mining and Metals independent expert review panel; and trustee and member of the international advisory council for the Institute for Human Rights and Business. She is Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) at The University of Queensland (UQ). CSRM conducts applied research with communities, governments, and mining companies.

Nick Bainton 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.

– ref. More clean energy means more mines – we shouldn’t sacrifice communities in the name of climate action – https://theconversation.com/more-clean-energy-means-more-mines-we-shouldnt-sacrifice-communities-in-the-name-of-climate-action-170938