Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Vincent, Professor of Optometry and Vision Science, Queensland University of Technology

When you think of John Lennon from The Beatles, you’re likely to picture him with his circular, wire-rimmed glasses.

But at times, he wore contact lenses, or at least he tried to. They kept pinging out of his eyes.

Why and what Lennon did to help his contacts stick is part history and part vision science.

As I propose in my paper, it also involved smoking a lot of pot.

Lennon didn’t like wearing glasses

Before 1967, Lennon was rarely seen in public wearing glasses. His reluctance to wear them started in childhood, when he was found to be shortsighted at about the age of seven.

Nigel Walley was Lennon’s childhood friend and manager of The Quarrymen, the forerunner to The Beatles. Walley told the BBC:

He was as blind as a bat – he had glasses but he would never wear them. He was very vain about that.

In 1980, Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine:

I spent the whole of my childhood with […] me glasses off because glasses were sissy.

Even during extensive touring during Beatlemania (1963–66), Lennon never wore glasses during live performances, unlike his hero Buddy Holly.

Then Lennon tried contacts … ping!

Roy Orbison’s guitarist Bobby Goldsboro introduced Lennon to contact lenses in 1963.

But Lennon’s foray into contact lenses was relatively short-lived. They kept on falling out – including while filming a comedy sketch, on stage (when a fan threw a jelly baby on stage that hit him in the eye) and in the pool.

Why? That’s likely a combination of the lenses available at the time and the shape of Lennon’s eye.

The soft, flexible contact lenses worn by millions today were not commercially available until 1971. In the 60s, there were only inflexible (rigid) contact lenses, of which there were two types.

Large “scleral” lenses rested on the white of the eye (the sclera). These were partially covered by the eyelids and were rarely dislodged.

But smaller “corneal” lenses rested on the front surface of the cornea (the outermost clear layer of the eye). These were the type more likely to dislodge and the ones Lennon likely wore.

Why did Lennon’s contact lenses regularly fall out? Based on the prescription for glasses he wore in 1971, Lennon was not only shortsighted, but had a moderate amount of astigmatism.

Astigmatism is an imperfection in the curvature of the cornea, in Lennon’s case like the curve of a rugby ball lying on its side. And it was Lennon’s astigmatism that most likely led to his frequent loss of contact lenses.

At the time, manufacturers did not typically modify the shape of the back surface of a contact lens to accommodate the shape of a cornea with astigmatism.

So when a standard rigid lens is fitted to a cornea like Lennon’s, the lens is unstable and slides down when someone raises their upper eyelid. That’s when it can ping from the eye.

What’s pot got to do with it?

Lennon realised he could do one thing to keep his contact lenses in. According to an interview with his optometrist, Lennon said:

I tried to wear them, but the only way I could keep them in my bloody eyes was to get bloody stoned first.

So how could smoking pot help with his contact lenses?

This likely led his upper eyelids to droop (known as ptosis). We don’t know how exactly cannabis is related to the position of the eyelid. But several animal experiments
have reported cannabis-related ptosis. Cannabis may reduce the function of the levator palpebrae superioris, the muscle that raises the upper eyelid.

So while Lennon was stoned, his lowered eyelids would have helped secure the top of the lens in place.

Lennon wore contact lenses from late 1963 to late 1966. This coincides with The Beatles’ peak use of cannabis. For instance, Lennon refers to their 1965 Rubber Soul album as “the pot album”.

Back to glasses

Ultimately, Lennon’s poorly fitting contact lenses led him to abandon wearing them by 1967 and he began wearing glasses in public.

His frustrating experience with contact lenses may have played a role in the genesis of his iconic bespectacled look, which is still instantly recognisable over half a century later.

Steve Vincent has received research funding from Alcon, CooperVision, and Menicon.

– ref. John Lennon wore contact lenses that kept on pinging out. Then he smoked pot and the rest is history – https://theconversation.com/john-lennon-wore-contact-lenses-that-kept-on-pinging-out-then-he-smoked-pot-and-the-rest-is-history-235595

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Hare, Adjunct Professor of Energy, Murdoch University

Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels. While this coal and gas is burned beyond our borders, the climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions affect us all.

My colleagues and I at global research and policy institute Climate Analytics were commissioned to find out just how big Australia’s carbon footprint really is. Our detailed analysis of the nation’s fossil fuel exports and associated emissions is the most comprehensive to date. The report, released today, clearly shows Australia plays a major role in climate change.

We found Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter, after Russia and the United States. But it gets worse when the fuel is used. Australia exports so much coal that our nation is the second-largest exporter of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions.

Unfortunately, just when we need to be cutting emissions, Australia is doubling down on fossil gas extraction mainly for LNG production and export. Federal government policies enabling and/or promoting continued high fossil fuel exports threaten to sabotage international efforts to limit global warming.

Australia’s fossil fuel carbon footprint

Australia’s contribution to global warming can only be understood by considering its fossil fuel exports alongside its domestic emissions.

Our research found Australia’s coal and gas exports were responsible for 1.15 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2023. An additional 46 million tonnes of CO₂ were emitted domestically in the process of extracting, processing and distributing those fossil fuels purely for export. That takes the total to 1.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ attributable to fossil fuel exports.

In other words, Australia’s global fossil fuel carbon footprint is three times larger than its domestic footprint. Around 80% of the damage is done overseas.

The International Energy Agency has clearly said there should be no new fossil fuel development if the world is to limit warming to 1.5°C – the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal. Yet Australia continues to approve new fossil fuel exploration and production.

Overall, exports of Australian fossil fuels – and hence fossil fuel CO₂ emissions – are expected to continue at close to current levels through to 2035, under current government policies.

Thermal coal exports, which are burned mainly for electricity production, are expected to slightly decline by 2035 from their all-time high in 2023. But exports of metallurgical coal, used in steel-making, and LNG are expected to stay about the same in 2035 as they are today.

Blowing the carbon budget

Between 2023 and 2035, Australia’s fossil fuel exports alone would consume around 7.5% of the world’s estimated remaining global carbon budget of about 200 billion tonnes of CO₂. This is the amount of CO₂ that could still be emitted from 2024 onwards if we are to limit peak warming to 1.5°C with 50% probability.

But rather than decreasing, CO₂ emissions from Australia’s fossil fuel exports are set to increase under current government policies. In other words, in the next 11 years, by 2035, exported fossil fuel CO₂ emissions will exceed by 50% that of the entire 63 year period from 1961 to 2023.

If we include domestic CO₂ emissions from current policies, this means by 2035 Australia, with 0.3% of the world’s population, would consume 9% of the total remaining carbon budget.

Undermining the Paris Agreement

In December, at the COP28 international climate conference in Dubai, governments including Australia agreed on the first “global stocktake” of greenhouse gas emissions. It called for:

transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.

The stocktake also called on all countries to align their nationally determined contributions with the 1.5°C limit.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s response at the time was to call for Australia to be a “renewable energy superpower”. But his government appears to believe this includes embracing a gas export strategy.

Current government policy is not aligned with Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit. Our new report shows the government’s focus on maintaining high levels of fossil fuel exports is completely inconsistent with reducing global CO2 emissions to levels compatible with the 1.5°C goal.

Australia mainly exports fossil fuels to Japan, China, South Korea and India. These countries, which accounted for about 43% of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions in 2022, are also signatories to the Paris Agreement. So they have set 2030 emissions reduction targets and net-zero goals of their own. Continuing to import fossil fuels is incompatible with their own commitments.

Japan’s LNG imports fell 8% in 2023 to their lowest levels since 2009 and are expected to drop by a further 25% by 2030. Given the current energy security and LNG debate, it should be noted Japanese companies on-sold more LNG in 2020–22 than they purchased from Australia.

Thwarting national emissions reduction efforts

Australia’s planned expansion of fossil fuels, notably its gas exports, will add to the country’s domestic emissions and make it harder for it to meet even its own domestic target. That’s because a sizeable chunk of domestic fossil fuel CO₂ emissions (7.5%) comes from processing gas for export.

Our analysis also shows Australia’s plans are completely inconsistent with the global stocktake’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels. The government and gas industry’s arguments that more fossil gas is needed to get to net zero are also at odds with the science.

Time for a fossil fuel phase-out

Australia has a massive interest in the world as a whole decarbonising fast enough to limit warming to 1.5°C.

For example, children born in Australia today face much more extreme heat, floods and other disasters during their lifetimes than previous generations. This exposure can be very substantially reduced by limiting warming to 1.5°C. The choices Australia, as a major fossil fuel exporter, makes now in this critical decade will determine what happens to them.

By failing to initiate an orderly phase-out of fossil fuel exports, Australia also risks undermining its own stated ambition of becoming a renewable energy superpower.

It is in our nation’s interests to develop and implement an orderly exit – just as we are doing for our domestic emissions – working cooperatively with affected communities and overseas buyers. Doing anything less will only hurt us in the end.

Bill Hare receives funding from the European Climate Foundation, Climate Works Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropy, and the IKEA Foundation. This work was funded by the Australia Institute of Human Rights at the University of New South Wales.

– ref. Dug up in Australia, burned around the world – exporting fossil fuels undermines climate targets – https://theconversation.com/dug-up-in-australia-burned-around-the-world-exporting-fossil-fuels-undermines-climate-targets-236248

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian A. Wright, Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University

The growth of cities worldwide is contributing to more intense drought conditions in many cities, including Sydney, a new Chinese study has found. This is adding to urban heat and water stress. These important findings point to the need to improve how we design and build cities to make them more liveable and resilient.

The study has used a massive 40 years of weather station data collected from urban and rural areas around the globe. Larger cities and those with less green cover are associated with even greater worsening of drought.

The Greater Sydney region was one of six cities selected from around the world for additional, more detailed model simulations. These explore how urbanisation is making local drought conditions worse in Sydney and the other cities. On January 4 2020, the western Sydney suburb of Penrith was the hottest place on Earth that day. It reached a scorching 48.9°C degrees.

A few parts of the world, such as the US west coast, Mediterranean and South-East Queensland, bucked the global trends. This was attributed to cities that cluster near the coast in areas where the ocean cools the land and sea breezes bring moisture to these cities.

How cities affect heat and moisture levels

This new investigation is highly relevant as more than half of the world’s people (56%) now live in cities.

The study adds to our growing knowledge that urban development has many adverse impacts on the natural environment. We know cities affect local microclimates in many ways. Urban areas have previously been shown to influence cloud development.

And it’s well known urban areas can be hotter than non-urban areas. It’s called the urban heat island effect.

This effect is due to the loss of natural vegetation and its replacement by man-made materials. Buildings, roads, parking areas and other infrastructure absorb the sun’s heat during the day and reflect heat in the day and night, increasing the overall temperature of the city.

Urban development also changes the movement and storage of water in urban catchments. Known as the urban stream syndrome, it’s largely due to the human-made impervious surfaces. Roads, roofs, parking areas, footpaths and other artificial surfaces cover much of our cities.

Impervious surfaces reduce the natural soaking of rainwater into the soil. As a result, these hard man-made surfaces contribute to dry and hot urban soils.

There is a close link between air temperature and the amount of moisture the air can hold. This is a function of physics. As air temperature rises (as it does in urban areas) the air can hold about 7% more water vapour for every 1°C degree increase.

This is having far-reaching effects around the world. One result is that heavy rain and storms are becoming more common and intense.

For a short time after heavy rain, hard urban surfaces transform most of the rain into runoff. This can cause flash flooding in cities. But afterwards the soils and few remaining plants and trees often still need watering to make up for the lack of water soaking into the ground.

Loss of urban plants has big impacts

The new study adds to our knowledge by showing urban areas might also suffer more intense droughts due to the effects of urban development itself. This is linked to higher air temperatures as a result of the urban heat island effect and also to dryer conditions from the closely related urban dry island effect.

Important exceptions were found, including South-East Queensland cities, where urban areas can be strongly influenced by being close to the ocean.

The research highlights the substantial role plants play in urban air temperature and air moisture. This is due to plant evapotranspiration. This process drives their uptake of moisture from the soil.

The water flows through their tissues to their leaves and then is released as water vapour into the surrounding air. As well as providing the plant with nutrients, this process of “evapotranspiration” helps cool the plant. At the same time, evaporating water from the leaves adds moisture to the air and has a natural cooling effect.

The research paper states:

[T]he loss of vegetation often associated with urbanization further decreases urban evapotranspiration, resulting in the intensification of local atmospheric dryness.

Shading by plants, and particularly trees, also has a major influence by cooling air, soil and urban materials.

As urban growth leads to fewer plants and more buildings and artificial surfaces, this reduces the cooling effects from plants. Fewer plants transpiring also results in a loss of air moisture.

What’s the solution for cities?

This research is very complex. But, importantly, it has used real data from a large number of weather stations in cities and surrounding rural areas worldwide. The data used daily rainfall and temperature records collected over four decades (1980-2020).

Analysis of real data has been used to substantiate the theory that urban areas can increase the intensity of droughts.

Why is this important? Many cities are already struggling to provide enough water for their residents. Even mega-cities, such as Mexico City, are approaching “day zero” when they could effectively run out of water.

What can we do about this? We need to apply our knowledge about the broad benefits of urban green spaces. These parks, reserves and gardens are important for urban communities to connect with nature.

This new study shows how important these urban green spaces also are to help reduce the severity of droughts.

Ian A. Wright has received funding from local state and Australian Government and the water industry. He previously worked for Sydney Water and Sydney Catchment Authority.

– ref. Urban growth is leading to more intense droughts for most of the world’s cities – and Sydney is a case study for areas at risk – https://theconversation.com/urban-growth-is-leading-to-more-intense-droughts-for-most-of-the-worlds-cities-and-sydney-is-a-case-study-for-areas-at-risk-236315

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow School of Education, The University of Queensland

The recent Closing the Gap report had some promising news for education, with a 25% increase in Aboriginal children enrolled in childcare over the past seven years.

But other report figures show there are still big issues to solve in schools. This includes only 68% of Indigenous people aged 20-24 finishing Year 12.

This comes on top of regular reporting of poor or “lagging” educational outcomes for Indigenous students.

However, we still don’t have clear data on one factor that may be influencing this: the high – and unacceptable – rates of Indigenous students been excluded from school.

What are exclusions?

School exclusion usually involves a student being prevented from attending school. This can be on a short-term basis (suspension) or permanently (exclusion/expulsion). Students who are past the compulsory age of schooling may have their enrolment cancelled, instead of being expelled.

Whatever form exclusions take, it means students are away from school and are not learning. This can understandably make it hard for students to stay engaged with education and it can hurt their learning outcomes.

Exclusions are meant to be a last resort for schools in managing student behaviour and can sometimes be framed as being about student/staff “safety”.

A history of excluding Indigenous students

In March this year, a National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition report told a disturbing story of the systematic exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from education from the early 19th century to the present day.

The report outlined explicit policies that sought to exclude Indigenous peoples from education, including segregated schooling. This formed part of wider government policies to exclude Indigenous people from the same opportunities for non-Indigenous people.

It also showed while these policies were eventually replaced, the practice of excluding Indigenous students remains a problem today.

How bad is the problem?

State and territory governments collect data on school suspensions and exclusions. Only some make them publicly available.

In Queensland public schools in 2023, there were 81,918 incidents that lead to a suspension, expulsion or enrolment cancellation. Of these, 20,924 (26%) involved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, even though Indigenous students only make up only 11% of the student population.

We are not sure how many Indigenous students received more than one suspension. However, we do know 171 suspensions were given to Indigenous students who were in the first year of school (called prep in Queensland). Additionally, there was a 98% increase in “disciplinary absences” given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students when moving from Year 6 to Year 7. These rates remained high in Years 8 and 9.

Just over a quarter (27%) of Year 11 students who had their enrolments cancelled were Indigenous.

In New South Wales in 2022, Aboriginal students made up 9% of government school enrolments but accounted for 25% of the total number of suspensions. This included 417 children in the first three years of school (up to Year 2) receiving short suspensions (up to four school days). A further 84 young children received long suspensions averaging 8.7 school days.

There is nothing to suggest Queensland and NSW results would differ from other states. But not all states and territories make these data available, or make them easy for the public to find. So the full extent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students being subjected to suspensions or other disciplinary absences is unclear.

The US example

We also know suspension and exclusionary practices disproportionately impact Black and minority students in the United States. Research shows these contribute to poorer educational outcomes, impacts on employment and increased risk of engagement with police and the justice system. Critically, it also leads to school-induced racial trauma.

Racial trauma, sometimes also defined as “race-based traumatic stress”, refers to the distress, compromised wellbeing and emotional trauma that results from racism. Research shows racial trauma in schools can harm children’s development and academic performance.

What can we do?

Accessing the data to understand the extent of the problem is important, but addressing these alarming rates of exclusionary discipline is urgent.

Research shows some schools are having success at reducing suspensions across all student populations.

For example, the Positive Behaviour for Learning framework is used in about one third of Australian schools. It offers graduated levels of support to keep students engaged at school. Restorative practices see teachers facilitate conversations with students after an incident, shifting the focus from punishment to the impact of their behaviour and making amends. Mentoring programs help students learn the social and behavioural skills to be successful at school and feel a sense of belonging.

Academic interventions involve supporting students to keep up with their academic work with the aim of also reducing behaviour issues. In-school suspensions can see a student suspended from their regular routine but still engaged at school with other activities, often isolated from their peers.

However, we do not know how effective these interventions are for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Or if they have been adapted to be culturally responsive.

What should happen next?

There is a dire lack of evidence about how to address Indigenous school exclusion.

Not having clear data also means we don’t know if certain groups are disproportionately affected. For example, Indigenous students with disability or Indigenous students in out-of-home care.

What we do know is solutions must include Indigenous leadership, be co-designed and evidence based. Co-design has the potential to address power imbalances, with Indigenous people leading the identification of problems and creating new solutions.

Marnee Shay receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian government and the Queensland government.

Shiralee Poed receives funding from a number of government and Catholic education departments across Australia. She is the immediate past chair of the Association for Positive Behaviour Support Australia and has previously served as an ex-officio on the International Association for Positive Behaviour Support.

– ref. Aboriginal children as young as 5 are getting suspended from school. We can’t ‘close the gap’ if this is happening – https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-children-as-young-as-5-are-getting-suspended-from-school-we-cant-close-the-gap-if-this-is-happening-235889

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hilary A Smith, Honorary Research Fellow (Linguistics), Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

From the beginning of the 2025 school year, all schools will be required to use structured literacy – also known as “phonics” or the “science of reading” – to teach children how to read. But the very nature of this approach to reading could cause bilingual children to lose their second language.

Structured literacy teaches children to decode the relationships between sounds and letters. Readers use decoding to “sound out” words they don’t recognise.

But teaching children decoding in English is different from teaching reading in other languages, which have different sound systems. Losing these second languages will be to the detriment of students, with research repeatedly highlighting the benefits of bilingualism.

Looking beyond English

According to the 2018 Census, the four most common languages after English were te reo Māori, Samoan, Northern Chinese including Mandarin, and Hindi.

These all have different sound systems, and in the case of Chinese or Hindi, their writing scripts represent sounds in a completely different way from the English alphabet.

Reading instruction needs to take into account the many varied language backgrounds of children in Aotearoa, including Deaf children who use our other official language, New Zealand Sign Language, as well as those who have special needs.

Doing this will not only encourage the retention of a child’s mother tongue. Research has shown education approaches that support children’s first languages also result in benefits for the students’ English acquisition.

For example, a 2017 review of bilingual education found that “strong additive bilingual approaches”, such as those focusing on supporting both Pasifika languages and English, outperformed other programmes.

My own research in Papua New Guinea examined the best ways of developing children’s literacy. We found that introducing a large number of culturally relevant English books accounted for statistically significant literacy gains in both English and Tok Pisin (English-based creole).

The literacy benefits of books that are interesting to the reader are widely supported by global research.

The benefits of bilingualism

International research clearly shows bilingualism has cognitive, academic, social, cultural and economic benefits.

But an increased focus on phonics and structured literacy in Aotearoa cannot adequately support bilingualism because the materials used here are mostly – if not all – based on English.

Research found the focus on English in schools means many bilingual children who enter schools speaking their heritage languages shift to English only and leave school monolingual.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Many teachers work to support the range of languages spoken by each of the children they teach, using differentiated and individualised approaches.

These teachers may not know the children’s languages themselves, so they use a variety of strategies in their teaching. This can include “translanguaging”, which explicitly encourages children to move between their two (or more) languages.

Such activities might include reading and reciting religious texts such as the Bible, or reading books or online newspapers in their heritage languages.

Making room for other languages

New Zealand should use some of the flexibility possible in the “science of reading” to support approaches such as translanguaging to encourage bilingual learning.

Some international approaches based on the “science of reading”, such as Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan’s work with bilingual Spanish and English children in the United States, are focusing on multiliteracy through structured literacy.

These approaches advocate a range of effective practices for teachers to respond to the multilingual needs of students, such as learning as much as possible about their languages so they can compare different sound and spelling systems.

Expanding mandates

Current research and practice in English language literacy in Aotearoa based on structured literacy approaches is too often independent of our other strong research programs in second language acquisition and bilingualism.

Bringing these traditions together would support children’s learning to read and write in both English and any other languages they speak. It would also leverage the benefits bilingualism can bring to their English acquisition.

Rather than mandates for literacy programs which focus only on English, the government should instead consider supporting programs which will build and develop the literacy of all children in Aotearoa.

Hilary A Smith is co-convenor of the Languages Alliance Aotearoa NZ and president of Applied Linguistics in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a past president of the Teachers to Speakers of Other Languages Aotearoa New Zealand. She received funding from the PNG-Australia Partnership through the University of Canberra.

– ref. Bilingualism under threat: structured literacy will make it harder for children to hold on to their mother tongue – https://theconversation.com/bilingualism-under-threat-structured-literacy-will-make-it-harder-for-children-to-hold-on-to-their-mother-tongue-236140

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University

The new Stan Original Australian crime series, Critical Incident, joins a long and impressive list of local crime dramas from streaming platforms, including Scrublands (2023) and Binge’s recent release High Country.

This time, the camera zooms in on various multicultural locations across Western Sydney – providing a compelling aesthetic as the backdrop. That said, the story itself misses some key opportunities to engage in more in-depth discussions about the role (and justification) of policing in diverse communities.

A high-stakes pursuit

Set in Western Sydney and starring Akshay Khanna and Zoë Boe, along with Simone Kessell and Erik Thomson, Critical Incident unpacks the psychological turmoil that occurs when things go horribly wrong for Senior Constable Zilficar “Zil” Ahmed (played by Khanna) while on the job.

Following a long and exhausting night on the beat – and out of uniform – Zil pursues Dalia (Zoë Boe), who matches a description given over his police walkie-talkie: a teenage girl of Asian appearance, wearing a red top, who minutes earlier threatened police officers with a flick knife. She is considered dangerous.

Zil hollers for Dalia to stop, but she runs. He gives chase. They soon find themselves running down a busy peak-hour train platform at Blacktown Railway Station. In close pursuit, Zil accidentally knocks a commuter who, caught off balance, falls onto the tracks and is struck by the oncoming train.

Dalia is cornered by two uniformed police officers at the other end of the station. She is arrested, but is determined not to be the suspect.

A simplistic police narrative

Dalia’s reason for running from Zil sets up a series of complex questions about racial profiling and policing within the highly multicultural City of Blacktown, Sydney.

The scenario also asks fascinating questions of gender and age dynamics. If a plain clothed man yells “stop, police” to a teenage girl, is it reasonable for her to be suspicious and run? Another question raised here concerns the weight of the police uniform, wherein an officer disrobed of his loses all sense of societal authority.

The first two episodes – with their broad societal questions about police relations within communities such as Blacktown – are both gripping and excellently paced. However, the show pivots to something less interesting as it subsequently starts to focus on Zil’s determination to prove Dalia isn’t all she seems to be.

As Dalia moves deeper into the criminal underbelly of drug pushing, Zil is eventually vindicated for his hunch to pursue her at all costs.

The narrative seems to reinforce the idea that police officers only pursue “bad” people. But what are the consequences when they pursue the wrong person? This seems a far more interesting question than what is explored in later episodes.

Authentic aesthetics

The producers of Critical Incident have made a point of saying “this is not a cop show. This is not an organised crime show. This is drama. A drama about when things go wrong on the job and it just so happens your job is being a police officer”.

Nevertheless, considering where the show goes with its plotting of police procedure and crooked cops, it plays out very much like a cop drama – and will certainly appeal to fans of such cat-and-mouse scenarios.

Those wanting more of a psychological drama set within policing, such as BBC’s The Responder (2022), may be left feeling unsatisfied with where Critical Incident ultimately goes.

Another criticism of the show is that it struggles to elicit any meaningful sense of empathy with the central characters. It is hard to feel very deeply for these characters when they are hurt, endangered or even killed.

Part of the issue is the speed for which the show is plotted. Things move at a breakneck pace, without the necessary screen time needed to build rapport between the audience and the characters.

The teenager Zil accidentally pushes onto the train tracks is barely mentioned or drawn into the story in any satisfactory way. This seems like an odd oversight considering this character becomes collateral damage in Zil and Dalia’s reckless chase, which begs the question of when police pursuits are justified – and when they merely put civilians at risk.

Visually, Critical Incident has an authentic aesthetic, with filming taking place on location in Western Sydney’s suburbs of Blacktown, Granville, Parramatta and Greenacre. As such, it draws obvious comparison to the critically acclaimed SBS police series, East West 101 (2007–11), also set in Sydney’s industrial and multicultural areas.

If Critical Incident continues past its first season, it would be interesting to see it expand beyond the familiar interior police drama narrative and dig deeper into the multicultural aspects of its locations and characters, in a similar way to East West 101.

Critical Incident is streaming on Stan from today.

Stephen Gaunson 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. Critical Incident: new series set in Western Sydney examines the role of policing in diverse communities – with mixed results – https://theconversation.com/critical-incident-new-series-set-in-western-sydney-examines-the-role-of-policing-in-diverse-communities-with-mixed-results-234686

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College

Since the 1940s, there has been a broad shift away from public transit across the U.S., and service has declined in many cities, including New York, Boston, Denver, Orlando and St. Louis. A look back at the last national mass transit boom helps explain the challenges that confront modern transit agencies.

Starting in the 19th century, transit companies worked closely with real estate developers to develop “streetcar suburbs” for a growing population. The companies kept fares low, thanks to corporate consolidation, government regulation and thrifty management.

During World War II, producing weapons and supplies for troops fighting abroad became the nation’s top priority. Gasoline, tires and autos were strictly rationed, so most commuters had few ways to get to work other than public transit.

In Baltimore, for example, people could ride a streetcar anywhere in the city in 1943 for 10 cents. With wartime production booming, the city’s Baltimore Transit Company packed customers into every streetcar and bus it could find.

Here and in other racially divided northern and border cities, public transit was an integrated space that was fundamental to social mobility. Tens of thousands of Black workers, part of the Great Migration from southern to northern states, enjoyed access to comparatively excellent citywide networks of streetcars, buses and electric trolleybuses.

After the war, consumer demand and public policy swung the other way. Many white commuters took advantage of the GI Bill, federally subsidized mortgages, an expanding highway network and cheap automobiles to escape mass transit – and the neighborhoods that it served.

Black Americans, in contrast, were largely shut out from access to these benefits. Many remained trapped in decaying urban cores.

By the 1960s, most white riders lived on the urban periphery and were politically opposed to transit expansion and public ownership of transit networks. In response, politicians prioritized improving streets and highways through steps that included removing streetcar tracks and trams to speed up automobile traffic.

For example, Maryland did not take over the financially struggling, privately owned Baltimore Transit Company until 1970 – neglecting an increasingly poor and Black population’s transportation needs.

By 1968, a bus ride cost 30 cents for much lower-quality service. Streetcars were gone, the buses were old or aging fast, and they ran infrequently, with few easy connections to suburban jobs.

Even after Maryland took over the transit system, the state didn’t provide enough funds to make up for decades of disinvestment. In 2020, a study estimated that metropolitan Baltimore commuters had to spend an hour or more on a bus or train to reach 91.5% of regional jobs.

This cycle of decline also occurred in other cities such as Chicago and Atlanta, further driving down ridership. By 2019, just 5% of U.S. commuters typically used public transit. The COVID-19 pandemic reduced this share to 3.1% in 2022.

Transit agencies in some cities, including Washington and Los Angeles, are working to reverse this trend, aided by deep regional subsidies, horrendous traffic and construction of apartment complexes near transit stops. As the harmful effects of car dependence on public health and the environment become increasingly clear, affordable and reliable public transit can still lure riders back onto buses and trains.

Nicholas Dagen Bloom 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. A packed Baltimore trolley illustrates the ups and downs of US public transit – https://theconversation.com/a-packed-baltimore-trolley-illustrates-the-ups-and-downs-of-us-public-transit-234627

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elisa Hill-Yardin, Professor and Head, Gut-Brain Axis Laboratory, RMIT University

A study out recently has prompted much media attention about the role of plastics in developing autism.

In particular, the study focused on exposure to a component of hard plastics – bisphenol A, or BPA – in the womb and the risk of boys developing this neurodevelopmental disorder.

Importantly, the study doesn’t show plastics containing BPA cause autism.

But it suggests BPA might play a role in oestrogen levels in infant and school-aged boys, which can then affect their chance of being diagnosed with autism.

Let’s tease out the details.

Remind me, what is BPA?

BPA is a component of hard plastics that has been used for a few decades. Because BPA is found in plastics used for food and some drink containers, many people are exposed to low levels of BPA every day.

But concerns about how BPA impacts our health have been around for some time because it can also weakly mimic the effects of the hormone oestrogen in our body.

Even though this action is weak, there are worries about health because we are exposed to low levels across our lifetime. Some countries have banned BPA in baby bottles, as a precaution; Australia is voluntarily phasing it out in baby bottles.

What is autism and what causes it?

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed based on difficulties with social communication and repetitive and/or restrictive behaviours.

People with autism may experience other issues, such as seizures, changes in motor function (for example, difficulties with fine motor coordination, such as holding a pencil or turning a key to open a door), anxiety, sensory issues, sleeping problems as well as gut upsets.

There’s a broad range of the intensity of these symptoms, so people with autism experience daily life in vastly different ways.

So far most studies have described autistic people who are able to interact very well in the community, and in fact may demonstrate outstanding skills in certain areas. But there’s a big gap in our knowledge around the large number of profoundly autistic people, who require 24-hour care.

There is a strong influence of genetics in autism with more than 1,000 genes associated with it. But we don’t know what causes autism in most cases. There are a few reasons for this.

It is not standard practice to undertake detailed gene sequencing for children with autism. Although there are clearly some individual genes responsible for certain types of autism, more often autism may result from the complex interaction of many genes which is very difficult to detect, even in large scale studies.

Environmental factors can also contribute to developing autism. For example, some antiseizure medications are no longer prescribed for pregnant women due to the increased risk of their children developing neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism.

This latest study looks at another possible environmental factor: being exposed to BPA in the womb. There were several parts to the research, including studies with humans and mice.

What did they find in humans?

The researchers looked at a group (or cohort) of 1,074 Australian children; roughly half were boys. They found 43 children (29 boys and 14 girls) had an autism diagnosis by age seven to 11 (average age nine years).

They collected urine from 847 mothers late in their pregnancy and measured the amount of BPA. They then focused their analysis on samples with the highest levels of BPA.

They also measured gene changes by analysing blood from the umbilical cord at birth. This was to check aromatase enzyme activity, which is associated with oestrogen levels. Children with gene changes that might indicate lower levels of oestrogens were classified as having “low aromatase activity”.

The team found a link between high maternal BPA levels and a greater risk of autism in boys with low aromatase activity.

In the final analysis, the researchers said there were too few girls with an autism diagnosis plus low aromatase levels to analyse. So their conclusions were limited to boys.

What did they find in mice?

The team also studied the effect of mice being exposed to BPA in the womb.

In mice exposed to BPA this way, they saw increased grooming behaviour (said to indicate repetitive behaviour) and decreased social approach behaviour (said to indicate reduced social interaction).

The team also saw changes in the amygdala region of the brain after BPA treatment. This region is important for processing social interactions.

The researchers concluded that high levels of BPA can dampen the aromatase enzyme to alter oestrogen production and modify how neurons in mouse brains grow.

But we should be cautious about these mice results for a number of reasons:

• we cannot assume mouse behaviour directly translates to human behaviour

• not all mice were given BPA using the same method – some were injected under the skin, others ate BPA in a sugary jelly. This may influence levels of BPA the mice actually received or how it was metabolised

• the daily dosage delivered (50 micrograms per kilogram) was higher than the levels people in Australia would be exposed to, and much higher than levels found in the mothers’ urine in the study.

What’s the take-home message?

Finding a link between two factors – in this case BPA exposure in the womb and autism – doesn’t say one causes the other.

However the researchers do propose a mechanism, based on their mice study. They propose that high levels of BPA can dampen the aromatase enzyme to alter oestrogen production and modify how neurons in mouse brains grow.

Have we found what causes autism? Based on this study alone, no. Not all babies of women with BPA in their urine had autism, so exposure to these plastics alone isn’t sufficient to cause autism. There are likely a range of factors, including genetics, that contribute.

This study does hint, however, that there could be a gene-environment interaction and babies with certain gene variations could be more susceptible to BPA effects and have an increased risk of autism. But we would need more research to clarify.

It’s important to understand there are many other possible contributors to autism with similar amounts of evidence. And ultimately, we still don’t know for sure what causes autism for most people.

Elisa Hill-Yardin receives funding from Axial Therapeutics, and is a scientific advisor for Adepa (Periobiotics). Elisa is also the treasurer for the Australasian Society for Autonomic Neuroscience (ASAN).

– ref. Do plastics cause autism? Here’s what the latest study really says – https://theconversation.com/do-plastics-cause-autism-heres-what-the-latest-study-really-says-236401

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hopkins, Lecturer in Communication, University of Southern Queensland

Over the course of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Charlotte Dujardin went from being Great Britain’s most successful Olympics dressage rider to one of the most digitally shamed athletes in the history of the internet.

A video emerged which not only damaged Dujardin’s career but reignited debate around horse welfare in elite horse sports.

By the time the video was published online by mainstream media, it had already gone viral on Facebook.

The video shows Dujardin deliberately striking the legs of a student’s horse multiple times with a whip during a training session.

The footage is actually four years old, and questions have to be asked about the timing of its release during the Olympics. But both Dujardin, and elite level dressage, are now under intense public scrutiny.

The fallout

On her Facebook page, Dujardin apologised and withdrew from the Paris games.

She admitted she felt “deeply ashamed,” and acknowledged she should have “set a better example.”

But this did not stop the merciless online mobbing. Much of it came from fellow dressage riders desperate to distance themselves from what appears to be animal abuse.

The fallout has been immense.

Some activists and social media commentators have targeted other Olympic riders and the brands that sponsor them.

An online petition has also been started to remove horses from the Olympics.

On the other hand, some riders have taken issue with the treatment of Dujardin, claiming she has been unfairly framed. Some supporters have united on social media under the hashtag #istandwithcharlotte.

What are rule-makers doing?

At the time of writing, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) is investigating the Dujardin incident. On its website the FEI is very clear about its commitment to prioritising horse welfare in horse sports.

Excessive use of whips is already prohibited in most horse sports.

Long before Paris 2024, reports recommended strengthening surveillance with regard to horse health and wellbeing in the Olympics. But how this would be enforced in private training barns is not clear.

The FEI has also been criticised for perceived failings in its response to earlier scandals, such as in 2021 when the coach of Germany’s modern pentathlon team was disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics for punching a horse.

That shameful scene was painful to watch but it should invoke some compassion for both horse and rider, who were clearly both suffering.

Why would a rider need to whip a horse?

In analysing the situation, it is time to move the discussion beyond online public shaming to consider animal agency and horse welfare.

Perhaps wisely, Dujardin has not attempted to explain or excuse her actions in her public statements so far. But this means we don’t know why she whipped the horse in the training session.

It is possible she was training the horse to perform the kind of extravagant movement which is routinely rewarded in dressage scores at the elite level.

Sadly, there are many more horses who suffer far worse abuse in other industries and settings, much of it also caught on film.

The reason Dujardin was dragged into a maelstrom of digital shaming so quickly was due in part to the special, emotional place of the show horse in our popular culture.

It was also due in part to who she is or was: a global sports celebrity who embodied the hopes and dreams of her fans.

Back in 2012 Dujardin was a hero – not just for winning gold in London. She also achieved the seemingly impossible feat of rising to the top of the international dressage scene without the financial and political backing of a wealthy family.

The horse she rode so elegantly, Valegro, also looked like he had stepped out of a fairytale.

The dangers of ‘Disneyfication’

Everyone in horse sports says they want to improve welfare standards and put horses first.

Those raised on Disney images of anthropomorphised horses might like to imagine these majestic creatures naturally choose to “dance” with their beloved owners to music in the dressage arena. But horses have to be trained to “dance” in this way, usually through the application of artificial aids and pressure.

Ironically, Dujardin herself had previously profited significantly from the wider “Disneyfication” of horses in our culture. In happier times, that collective fantasy fed into her narrative and celebrity brand as “The Girl on the Dancing Horse”.

Both social media and the mainstream media have long invested in stereotypical misrepresentations of female athletes as either magical princesses or ghastly villains.

A compassionate, multispecies approach to welfare would not treat horses as tools or trophies. Nor would it put human emotions and desires at the centre of horse welfare issues.

All of this is a stark reminder that it is humans, not horses, who dream of Olympic gold and glory.

Susan Hopkins 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 Paris Olympics horse-whipping scandal shows the dangers of ‘Disneyfication’ in horse sports – https://theconversation.com/the-paris-olympics-horse-whipping-scandal-shows-the-dangers-of-disneyfication-in-horse-sports-235672

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nancy Kong, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney

Loneliness isn’t just awful for individuals – it has society-wide impacts too. It significantly contributes to mental health issues, sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, and early death. Researchers have even compared its impact on health to that of smoking.

Loneliness is everywhere, yet we understand so little about why some people feel it more keenly than others.

Our new study, published recently in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, looked at this question. We wanted to better understand the relationship between loneliness and physical isolation (such as living under lockdown and rarely seeing others).

By analysing five years’ worth of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we found physical solitude doesn’t always mean loneliness.

In other words, people who are not physically isolated can experience loneliness – and people who are in physical isolation could still be OK.

Our findings challenge the widely held assumption by some people that being alone may be the same as being lonely. It also provides further impetus to disentangle loneliness, physical isolation, and social isolation.

What we did and what we found

We looked at survey data that tracked more than 17,000 individuals over five years in Australia.

Every year, the same group of people were asked to rate, from one to seven, how much they agreed with the statement “I often feel very lonely”.

Tracking the same people over time allowed us to study how changes in circumstances affected feelings of loneliness.

We were particularly interested in how COVID lockdowns affected feelings of loneliness. We compared changes in loneliness levels between those who experienced extended lockdowns and those who had little to no lockdown.

Interestingly, we found physical isolation, represented by the number of lockdown days, did not significantly affect loneliness.

Accounting for factors such as working from home, health status, job industry, household composition, and dwelling types did not change these results.

This finding challenges the widely held belief, by some, that being more physically isolated may be related to higher levels of loneliness.

We were also interested in the potential long-term effects of physical isolation, so we looked at survey data two years after lockdown.

We had wondered whether the impacts of lockdown on loneliness (if any) persisted over time – but found no significant long-term effects.

Physical isolation is tough on extroverts and young people

We were also interested in how loneliness might be influenced by factors such as income, age, gender, ethnicity, personality, living arrangements, and remoteness.

The HILDA Survey also asked people personality questions and, using this data, we could determine how introverted or extroverted they were.

Our analysis of the results found only extroverts and young people showed increased loneliness during physical isolation.

We were also interested in whether people may anchor their feelings to their friends’, family’s, and community’s experiences. If all your friends and relatives are in physical isolation, does that mean you’re less likely to feel lonely?

We found, however, for those who are in lockdown, the proximity to lockdown borders (meaning you live near a local government area that was not subject to lockdowns) did not significantly impact loneliness. This suggests people did not feel more or less lonely based on their immediate neighbours’ experiences.

Quality of community and social interactions is key

In fact, the survey data we examined showed many people who were physically isolated from others did not change how satisfied they were with their community compared to before physical isolation.

And those who were very satisfied with their community had lower levels of loneliness.

This underscores the importance of a supportive community in reducing the risk of loneliness.

We also found people in lockdown who maintained regular social interactions (such as via phone call or online) reported lower levels of loneliness. In other words, people who were in physical isolation but kept in touch with friends or relatives felt less lonely.

Interestingly, we also found that merely having access to the internet does not reduce loneliness; it’s how you use the internet that matters.

We found couples locked down together reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction, spending more time doing household work, playing with kids, and less time running errands and commuting. These factors could also explain why lockdowns did not increase loneliness for these people.

Addressing the root causes of loneliness

Our study challenges the idea that “being alone” and “being lonely” are the same thing.

We found social interactions (whether online or via phone) and support networks are crucial. This could help policymakers and mental health professionals to develop more interventions focused on fostering social connections rather than merely addressing physical isolation.

Addressing the root causes of loneliness and fostering social connections is essential to improving overall wellbeing.

Jack Lam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Nancy Kong 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. Lonely extroverts, happy hermits: why being alone isn’t the same as being lonely – and why it matters – https://theconversation.com/lonely-extroverts-happy-hermits-why-being-alone-isnt-the-same-as-being-lonely-and-why-it-matters-235767

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne

In 1874, a surgeon in South Australia telegraphed wound care instructions for a patient 2,000 kilometres away. A few years later, in 1879, a letter in The Lancet medical journal suggested physicians use the telephone to cut down on unnecessary patient visits.

As the telephone and telegraph spread, the idea of telemedicine – literally “healing at a distance” – inspired science fiction writers to conjure up new ways of treating patients across great distances.

Real-world technology has developed in tandem with scifi speculation ever since. Today, certain kinds of telemedicine have become commonplace, while other futuristic tools are in the offing.

The radio doctor and the teledactyl

In his 1909 short story The Machine Stops, English novelist E.M. Forster described a telemedicine apparatus that, when telegraphed, descends from the ceiling to care for patients in the comfort of their home. His story is also the earliest description of instant messaging and a kind of internet – both important for real-life telemedicine.

In 1924, Radio News magazine printed a cover story showing the future “Radio Doctor”. The cover depicts a physician examining a patient through a screen. Although the magazine story itself was a bizarre fiction that had little to do with a radio doctor, the imagery is evocative.

In a 1925 cover story for Science and Invention, US writer Hugo Gernsback describes a device called “The Teledactyl” (from tele, meaning far, and dactyl, meaning finger). The device uses radio transmitters and television screens to allow a doctor to interact with a patient. The added twist – the physician touches the patient using a remotely controlled mechanical hand set up in the patient’s home.

Gernsback was a futurist and pioneer in radio and electrical engineering. Nicknamed the “Father of Science Fiction”, Gernsback used fictional stories to educate readers on science and technology, and often included extensive scientific details in his writings. He helped establish science fiction as a literary genre, and the annual Hugo Awards are named after him.

From seafarers to spacefarers

The radio was important for early telemedicine. In the 1920s, physicians across the globe started using the radio to evaluate, diagnose, treat, and provide medical advice for sick or wounded seafarers and passengers. The radio is still used to provide medical consultation to ships at sea.

In 1955, Gernsback returned to the idea of distance medicine with “The Teledoctor”. This imaginary device uses the telephone and a closed-circuit television with mechanical arms controlled by the physician to provide remote patient care. Gernsback said the doctor of the future “will be able to do almost anything through teledoctoring that he can do in person”.

In 1959, psychiatrists in Nebraska started using two-way closed-circuit televisions to conduct psychiatric consultations between two locations. This is considered one of the first examples of modern-day telemedicine. Early telemedicine networks were expensive to develop and maintain, which limited broader use.

In the 1960s, NASA began efforts to integrate telemedicine into every human spaceflight program. By 1971, a telemedicine system was ready for trial on Earth – in the Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Healthcare (STARPAHC) program. Using a two-way television and radio connection and remote telemetry, the program connected Tohono Oʼodham people (then known as Papago) with nurses and physicians hundreds of miles away.

The internet and a pandemic

It wasn’t until 1970 that the word telemedicine was officially coined by US doctor Thomas Bird. Bird and his colleagues set up an audiovisual circuit between the Massachusetts General Hospital and Logan Airport to provide medical consultations to airport employees.

From the 1970s onward, telemedicine started gaining more traction. The internet, officially born in 1983, brought new ways to connect patients and physicians.

Satellites could connect physicians and patients across greater distances without the need for two-way closed-circuit televisions. The cost to develop and maintain a telemedicine network decreased in the 1980s, opening the door to wider adoption.

In his 1999 science fiction novel Starfish, Canadian writer Peter Watts describes a device called the “Medical Mantis”. This device allows a physician to remotely examine and perform procedures on patients deep beneath the ocean’s surface. In the early 2000s, NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations started testing teleoperated surgical robots in undersea environments.

The evolution of telemedicine has kept pace with advances in information and communication technology. Yet, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, telemedicine remained little used.

It took the global COVID pandemic to make telemedicine an integral part of modern healthcare. Most of this is consultations via video call – not so far away from what Gernsback envisioned a century, though so far without the robotic hands.

What’s next? One likely factor pushing real-world telemedicine to match the dreams of science fiction will be developments in human spaceflight.

As humans progress in space exploration, the future of telemedicine may look more like science fiction. Earth-based monitoring of astronauts’ health will require technological breakthroughs to keep pace with them as they travel deeper into space.

Debbie Passey 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. From science fiction to telemedicine: the surprising 150-year history of long-range medical treatment – https://theconversation.com/from-science-fiction-to-telemedicine-the-surprising-150-year-history-of-long-range-medical-treatment-235213

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tenaw Tiruye, Postdoctoral Researcher, Cancer Epidemiology and Population Health, University of South Australia

Every year more than 24,000 Australian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, making it the most frequently diagnosed cancer among Australian men.

Despite high survival rates – around 96% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will survive for at least five years – prostate cancer can significantly affect mens’ mental wellbeing. This can apply through all stages of the illness, including diagnosis, treatment and follow up.

Rates of anxiety, depression and suicide are higher among men with prostate cancer than in the general population.

In our recent study, we wanted to understand the scale and timing of mental health issues among men with prostate cancer. Our findings suggest we need to offer them more support, sooner.

What we found

We looked at 13,693 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in South Australia between 2012 and 2020. We analysed prostate cancer registry data alongside data from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

Using this data, we tracked medication prescriptions (such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications) and mental health service use (such as GP mental health visits and psychiatrist visits) five years before and five years after prostate cancer diagnosis.

We found the proportion of men using antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications rose from 34.5% five years before a diagnosis to 40.3% five years afterwards. Some 10.2% used mental health services five years before, compared with 12.1% five years afterwards. GP mental health visits were most common, rising from 7.8% to 10.6%.

The most significant increase in the use of medicines and health services for mental illness occurred around the time of prostate cancer diagnosis. Some 15% of men started on antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications at the time of their diagnosis, while 6.4% sought help from mental health services for the first time.

Notably, the true impact of a prostate cancer diagnosis on men’s mental health is likely to be underestimated in our study. We only looked at mental health services subsidised by Medicare, but some men may access mental health services privately or through community services. And of course, some men with mental health issues may not seek help at all.

Men may be less likely to seek help

Our research suggests there’s a tendency for men to take medication rather than get help from mental health services. This may reflect a preference for medication, but could also be due to limited availability of services, or stigma around getting help.

Research shows many cancer patients are reluctant to seek help for mental health concerns.

Evidence on general help-seeking behaviours suggests men may be even less likely to seek support than women. Whether it’s the stigma surrounding mental health, or a fear about being seen as weak, only one-quarter of men say they would seek help from a mental health professional if they were experiencing personal or emotional problems.

Early intervention is key

Given the trends in medication and mental health service use we observed in our study, men appear to be most vulnerable to psychological issues around the time of their prostate cancer diagnosis. This vulnerability might stem from the stress of being diagnosed with cancer, treatment decisions, and concerns about the future.

As such, there would be value in incorporating mental health screening into routine prostate cancer diagnosis processes. Early identification of mental health issues is important to pave the way for timely interventions and support, which can significantly improve mental wellbeing.

Rather than waiting for men to proactively seek out mental health supports after they’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer, we should be offering those identified by such screening support at diagnosis and throughout treatment.

What do we need to do?

Psychological issues are one of the most frequently reported unmet needs among men with prostate cancer.

Improving access to mental health care may include increasing the annual sessions of Medicare-subsidised mental health services and offering more access to GP mental health plans for men with prostate cancer.

Initiatives such as counselling services offered by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and the Cancer Council, as well as the appointment of prostate cancer nurses, could be expanded.

It would also be worthwhile to expand telehealth services. These provide an important option where costs or distance may make access to mental health services difficult for some prostate cancer patients.

Finally, we must normalise mental health discussions to ensure men with prostate cancer have every opportunity to voice their struggles and get the support they need.

This is particularly important given the wide-ranging effects of mental health problems on a person’s quality of life, health outcomes, and the overall burden on the health system.

The study discussed in this article was funded by the Movember Foundation.

Kerri Beckmann receives funding from Cancer Council SA’s Beat Cancer Project.

– ref. Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer experience poor mental health. We need to support them better – https://theconversation.com/many-men-diagnosed-with-prostate-cancer-experience-poor-mental-health-we-need-to-support-them-better-236330

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blanche Verlie, Horizon Research Fellow and Lecturer, University of Sydney

The deep complexities of climate change raise a myriad of challenges for humanity – not least of which is how best to respond. Should we throw ourselves into slashing carbon emissions and stabilising Earth’s climate as soon as possible? Or accept our fate and go into survival mode?

A recently published book tackles this question. In Living Hot: Surviving and Thriving on a Heating Planet, public ethicist Clive Hamilton and energy expert George Wilkenfeld urge Australia to get serious about climate adaptation.

Many of the pair’s arguments make perfect sense. The path to decarbonisation is challenging, and progress has been far too slow. And of course, the world has already heated far too much and more damage is already locked in – so adapting is vital.

However, I disagree with the central thesis of the book: that humanity cannot adapt adequately to climate change if we keep trying so hard to reduce emissions. This is not an either-or proposition: we must do both.

Not a zero-sum game

Climate mitigation refers to efforts to reduce the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Adaptation involves adjusting our lives to cope with life on a hotter planet – such as higher seas and more extreme weather.

Much of Living Hot is devoted to outlining the barriers and limits to Australia’s mitigation task.

I agree with some of the authors’ analysis. Efforts to capture carbon and store it underground are an ineffective distraction. And some emissions-reduction activities can damage the environment, such as mining critical minerals and building renewable energy infrastructure.

However, I find other parts of the book problematic.

Hamilton and Wilkenfeld argue that hopes of returning to a safe climate are “wishful thinking”. They say Australia has been too slow on climate action and has wasted its chance of becoming a renewable energy superpower and attempts to “electrify everything” – replacing our coal- and gas-powered economy with renewable energy, and electric vehicles and appliances – will likely fail.

Overall, the pair believe while Australia should still strive to meet its international obligations to reduce emissions, our primary focus should now be on planning to live on an overheated planet. Or in their words: “our only choice now is to focus on adaptation”.

I have several issues with this argument. First, it’s broadly accepted in the academic literature that reducing emissions is vital if adaptation is to be successful. As the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure.

It stands to reason that the hotter the planet, the harder adaptation becomes.

Second, Hamilton and Wilkenfeld devote a large portion of the book to outlining the problems with mitigation, but apply a far less critical lens to the many barriers and limits to adaptation.

Transforming society to adapt to climate change will be no easy task. The book does note some complexities involved in, say, retrofitting homes to make them more resilient to disasters, or relocating flood-prone communities. It touches on the futility of building river levees and seawalls, and the general challenges of building community consensus for change.

But to me, this part of the analysis feels underdone. Exactly how will we get Australians on board with adaptation actions such as pre-emptively relocating entire regions, when we have barely embraced far easier changes, such as eating less meat?

Hamilton and Wilkenfeld argue the challenges inherent in mitigation – such as cost and political resistance, or our slowness to act – are essentially now insurmountable. Yet this same logic is not applied to the adaptation discussion.

All this leaves me wondering why Hamilton and Wilkenfeld didn’t argue for a two-pronged approach: full-throttle emissions reduction coupled with transformative adaptation.

Hamilton himself has done much in the past to raise public awareness of the need to heed the science and cut emissions. By approaching mitigation and adaptation hand-in-hand, we could harness community concern about climate change to kickstart and bolster adaptation actions.

Australians are increasingly climate-literate. It seems far-fetched to imagine people would accept the argument that mitigation has essentially failed and we must now accept catastrophic heating.

Despondency is not ‘natural’

At the end of Living Hot, Hamilton and Wilkenfeld discuss the “personal oddesey” of researching and writing the book. They write:

Making ourselves peer into the abyss of an Australian society struggling to cope with an unending series of extreme events meant reconfiguring our picture of what the future will be like.

I get it. The grief is real, the terror is real. In fact, I’ve written a book about it.

Yet I disagree when Hamilton and Wilkenfeld write it is “natural to be despondent when thinking about climate change”.

Yes, feeling disillusioned about climate crisis is common, and valid. So too is feeling overwhelmed, cynical, horrified, depressed, confused, isolated or angry.

But as my research has shown, feelings of climate distress are not “natural”. They arise from emotional violence inflicted on us by political systems that know a public that feels disillusioned, overwhelmed and burnt-out is less likely to fight the expansion of fossil-fuelled capitalism.

And not everyone feels the same way about the climate crisis. For example, men and women experience it very differently.

And those of us insulated from climate impacts, such as older, white people living in affluent nations, might be less inclined to act.

Others do not have this luxury. Those on the frontlines of the climate crisis – young people, Pacific Islanders, disaster survivors, First Nations peoples, and others vulnerable to climate change – cannot give up. Many already live with the catastrophic impacts of global warming, or will still be alive when the worst effects are felt. They do not call for us to lower our mitigation ambitions. They keep fighting.

As part of a recent collaborative research project, I spoke to wildlife carers about their efforts to care for animals during the Black Summer bushfires. These people went to extreme lengths – compromising their finances, physical and mental health – to save or care for as many animals as they could.

Of course, the number of animals they were able to save pales in comparison to three billion displaced or incinerated. Still, these people didn’t quit.

It’s in these acts of perseverance, in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, where we can truly find hope.

Blanche Verlie received funding from the Australian Commonwealth Government via a Bushfire Recovery Grant from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources under grant number GA223763 for the wildlife carer research discussed in this article. Blanche is on the Board of Directors of Climate for Change.

– ref. Clive Hamilton says dreams of a safe climate are ‘wishful thinking’ – but the young and the vulnerable will keep fighting – https://theconversation.com/clive-hamilton-says-dreams-of-a-safe-climate-are-wishful-thinking-but-the-young-and-the-vulnerable-will-keep-fighting-236335

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gwyn McClelland, Senior Lecturer, Japanese Studies, University of New England

Japan’s population crisis isn’t letting up, despite ongoing efforts by its government to boost fertility rates. According to data released in June, birth rates fell for the eighth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a record low.

The data came shortly after a report by the Population Strategy Council warning that 744 of the nation’s 1,729 municipalities were at risk of disappearing by 2050.

The figures – startling as they are – are perhaps unsurprising considering Japan’s fertility rate has been on a decades-long downturn. But what does this feel like for the people who live there?

My research on the remote Gotō Islands of Western Japan, known for the 2018 UNESCO World Heritage sites of the Hidden Christians, provides a window into life in a quickly depopulating place.

A traumatic history

On the island of Hisaka, my interviewees explained how a population of around 4,500 in the 1950s has rapidly fallen to fewer than 250 people today. Arriving here is like travelling to a deep past with no cinemas, no fast food restaurants and few transport alternatives apart from boats.

Although they are naturally beautiful and verdant, the Gotō Islands are also marred by the symptoms of depopulation, from abandoned houses to cars and even vending machines.

The return to nature is evident: no people means the roads and houses are overgrown by forests. In some places without human life, wild deer, cattle and boar cause damage to the environment.

Depopulation is not a new problem on the Gotō Islands, which are remembered as the arrival place of Japanese Christians fleeing religious persecution since the late 1700s.

These Hidden Christians originally arrived on the invitation of the local Daimyo, or Lord, to farm the land and make it productive.

In 2018, four locations on the religiously diverse Gotō Islands were named as UNESCO World Heritage sites. These stunning landscapes are now known for their Catholic churches, alongside a traumatic history.

Exploring the Gotō

I have travelled to the Gotō Islands multiple times since 2022. I spoke with the people of the islands – and in particular to the descendants of the famed minority, the Hidden Christians.

Five of the interviews I conducted in this project are now online in both the original Japanese and with English transcripts.

Naru Island Junior High School Principal Miyamoto Kin’ichirō (born 1972) explained to me that when he went to school on the neighbouring island, Hisaka, there were just under 1,000 residents and 43 students at the school.

Today, there are more residents on Naru Island – just under 4,000 – but only 19 students at the school where he works. Kin’ichirō used the Japanese phrase “tonde mo nai” to express his concerns about the future:

In 50 years from now, it will be a situation ‘beyond help’ […] when there are basically no children on the island, and it is only the elderly.

Some islands of the Gotō archipelago are already abandoned.

One afternoon, my interviewee Kuzushima Yoshinobu (born 1956) took me on his boat to see the tiny island of Kazura-shima, which his community left wholesale almost 50 years ago.

He showed me the location of the removed church and a fig tree he had climbed as a child, now surrounded by the remains of the community’s village.

The Hidden Christians, which included Kuzushima’s ancestors, came from the mainland to the Gotō after 1797 in response to a call to repopulate and cultivate the islands’ neglected areas.

While the remote island inlets were inhospitable, they were the perfect place for peasants to hide outlawed Christian religious practices under the umbrella of apparent Shintoism and Buddhism.

The places that were the most difficult for the Hidden Christians to settle at were among the first to become uninhabited in the 20th century.

When I asked Hidden Christian descendant Urakami Sachiko (born 1943) about her hopes for the islands, she said:

at this point, I feel like there is no hope. I think that this island [Naru Island] will probably become uninhabited in some decades.

She playfully continued:

the young people who are from this place, I really want them to try a bit harder.

In what is called U-taan (U-turn) in Japanese, Sachiko and others like her returned to the islands later in life after living on the mainland.

One tourist guide and atheist, Iriguchi Hitoshi, showed me maps on which he had scrawled many historical migrations so he could explain the history to tourists.

But he said he was most worried about the most recent migration away from the islands, warning that young people with Hidden Christian and Catholic heritage would lose their faith as they moved to the mainlands.

“Faith’s base-camp is disappearing,” he said.

A history of helping

Not all of the islands have suffered population decline in the same way. Since the pandemic, a number of young and middle-aged people have come from Osaka and Tokyo to live and work remotely on the Gotō.

In 2024, the city of Fukue rejoiced that its number of residents had actually increased. I met some of the young people who brought their families here, found jobs and were welcomed by the locals.

I noted how the people living in these remote places helped each other out and shared resources.

Two of my interviewees and descendants of the Hidden Christians, Miyamoto Fujie and Jitsuo, took me along as they bought vegetables on a neighbouring island and sold them to the villagers of Hisaka Island (where there was no longer a shop) for 100 yen a bag (about A$1).

In fact, while some aspects of the Hidden Christian history include extreme persecution and prejudice, the historical cooperation between Buddhist, Shinto and Hidden Christian communities on the Gotō is one positive aspect of this story.

As explained by Sakatani Nobuko, a Buddhist guide (and collaborator on my project) on Hisaka Island:

because there is that history of helping each other as well as the difficult, the history is very rich.

Gwyn McClelland was a fellow of the Japan Foundation, and the National Library of Australia (NLA) in researching the Hidden Christian World Heritage Goto Islands. The Yanai Initiative (UCLA) and Waseda University supported the Japan Past and Present Digital Humanities Project, and the University of New England (UNE), Anaiwan Country, Armidale also supported this research.

– ref. How do 4,500 people become 250? The stark reality of life on Japan’s rapidly depopulating Gotō Islands – https://theconversation.com/how-do-4-500-people-become-250-the-stark-reality-of-life-on-japans-rapidly-depopulating-goto-islands-235778

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

The Albanese government might be likened to the harried house-husband struggling with untidy rooms, dog hairs on the carpet, and piles of clothes in or waiting for the washing machine.

All this, with a property inspection looming that threatens a forced move into less salubrious accommodation.

With less than a year to go until the latest date for an election, the government is looking overwhelmed by its list of “still to do” and “issues outstanding” items. Starting things is always easier than completing them. Obstacles and distractions turn up.

Early in the term, the Senate was more compliant. Now, with the Greens as well as the Coalition muscling up for the election, and the crossbench more diverse after defections (including Fatima Payman from Labor), negotiations on bills have become more complicated.

Deals must soon be clinched on some major items if the government is to avoid them becoming “fails” on the report card.

Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten, has legislation to reform the scheme due to be debated in the Senate when parliament resumes on Monday after the winter recess.

With the government committed to significantly reducing the growth in the cost of the NDIS, the “Getting the NDIS Back on Track” bill is designed to create the “scaffolding” for a batch of changes to bring the scheme back to its more limited original intent.

Shorten has been negotiating with the Liberals, who have put forward amendments, and pressing the states, which have cavilled at having to take a bigger role in providing services. Shorten’s aim is for the bill to be passed in the sitting fortnight.

On another front, Special Minister of State Don Farrell has had to further delay introducing legislation for his proposed reforms of election spending and donations. That’s been put off a month, until September. There is no deal so far with the opposition or crossbench: the government is hoping the Liberals might eventually play ball.

Negotiations aiming for a bipartisan agreement to put aged care funding on a more sustainable basis (involving extra government money and additional consumer imposts) have dragged on endlessly, with legislation yet to be introduced.

More immediately, the battle with the nefarious CFMEU has become predictably difficult. The Fair Work Commission’s general manager, who is the regulator, has applied to the federal court to install an administrator in the union’s construction division. New Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has reiterated he’ll introduce legislation next week unless the union consents to the administrator.

One of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ key reforms is to restructure the Reserve Bank, establishing two separate boards (one an expert in monetary policy, the other for administration) instead of the present single board. The legislation hasn’t been introduced yet because Chalmers – who wants changes to the bank to be bipartisan – hasn’t been able to reach an agreement with the Liberals.

Sprucing the government’s house also involves decluttering. At the weekend Anthony Albanese tossed out the earlier plan for a Makaratta Commission to deal with truth-telling and treaty.

Post referendum, Albanese is taking his Indigenous policy in a fresh direction, emphasising economic empowerment rather than the remaining parts of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Predictably, this has left some in the Indigenous constituency further disillusioned and others downright angry. Things weren’t helped by the PM seeking to leave the impression the government had never supported a commission, although money remains in the budget for one.

Months ago, at risk of another rebuff from the High Court, the government tried to rush through legislation to make it a crime for non-citizens to refuse to co-operate in their deportation (for example, by declining to provide documents).

Labor expected the opposition to wave the bill through. Instead it was sent to a Senate inquiry. Meanwhile the government won the relevant court case, reducing the need for the draconian measures in the legislation. Now this bill is in limbo.

Then there’s the religious discrimination legislation, which was an election promise. This bill has been drafted and shown to the opposition but not publicly released. Albanese has said he won’t go ahead with it unless there is bipartisan agreement – which there is not.

Assuming Albanese pronounces the bill dead, the declared intention is to go ahead with separate legislation against hate speech.

As the government struggles with a legislative agenda facing blocks and other delays, the economic backdrop gyrates.

An August interest rate hike was avoided with better-than-feared inflation figures, but the relief has been dampened by a public row breaking out this week between the Reserve Bank and the government over the role of its spending in contributing to, or reducing, inflation.

The bank is tut-tutting about government spending (state as well as federal) and pointing out that the anti-inflation effect of the budget energy price relief will be only temporary. It also believes the economy is “running a bit hot”. Chalmers is pushing back on its various contentions.

Under the revised arrangements for the Reserve Bank that Chalmers has been able to put in place, which includes a regular Governor’s press conference, we are hearing a lot more from the Reserve Bank, a complication, at best, for the treasurer.

This week the government unveiled another dollop of spending – a 15% increase in wages for child care workers, costing $3.56 billion.

This was provided for in the May budget but not announced. The timing is politically neat: 10% pre-election and 5% post-election.

So is the timing of the condition the government has imposed on the childcare providers – not to increase fees by more than 4.4% for one year, until after the election.

Some observers have noted that Chalmers, hyperactive and ambitious, has been more subdued since the budget. If the government falls into minority at the election, it would be defying history if some tensions between the prime minister and treasurer did not emerge in the second term.

Labor colleagues privately have become more critical of Albanese as the election draws nearer. They’re worried about the polls, surprised Peter Dutton is cutting through to the extent he is, and concerned Albanese, while talking a lot, is not more effectively reaching an electorate that is worried about the present and pessimistic about the future.

Given that Albanese in the 2022 election, when he was kicking with the wind in the final quarter (to use his terminology), did not seem a great campaigner, his colleagues will want him to sharpen his messaging for what will be a tougher fight next time.

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: Albanese government has a lot of housework ahead of voters’ property inspection – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-albanese-government-has-a-lot-of-housework-ahead-of-voters-property-inspection-236334

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University

Olympian Tom Daley is the most decorated diver in Britain’s history. He is also an avid knitter. At the Paris 2024 Olympics Daley added a fifth medal to his collection – and caught the world’s attention knitting a bright blue “Paris 24” jumper while travelling to the games and in the stands.

At the Tokyo Olympics, where Daley was first spotted knitting, he explained its positive impact on his mental health.

It just turned into my mindfulness, my meditation, my calm and my way to escape the stresses of everyday life and, in particular, going to an Olympics.

The mental health benefits of knitting are well established. So why is someone famous like Daley knitting in public still so surprising?

Knitting is gendered

Knitting is usually associated with women – especially older women – as a hobby done at home. In a large international survey of knitting, 99% of respondents identified as female.

But the history of yarn crafts and gender is more tangled. In Europe in the middle ages, knitting guilds were exclusive and reserved for men. They were part of a respected Europe-wide trade addressing a demand for knitted products that could not be satisfied by domestic workers alone.

The industrial revolution made the production of clothed goods cheaper and faster than hand-knitting. Knitting and other needle crafts became a leisure activity for women, done in the private sphere of the home.

World Wars I and II turned the spotlight back on knitting as a “patriotic duty”, but it was still largely taken up by women.

During COVID lockdowns, knitting saw another resurgence. But knitting still most often makes headlines when men – especially famous men like Daley or actor Ryan Gosling – do it.

Men who knit are often seen as subverting the stereotype it’s an activity for older women.

Knitting the stress away

Knitting can produce a sense of pride and accomplishment. But for an elite sportsperson like Daley – whose accomplishments already include four gold medals and one silver – its benefits lie elsewhere.

Read more:
Despair after four years of pressure: how do Olympians deal with disappointment?

Olympics-level sport relies on perfect scores and world records. When it comes to knitting, many of the mental health benefits are associated with the process, rather than the end result.

Daley says knitting is the “one thing” that allows him to switch off completely, describing it as “my therapy”.

The Olympian says he could

knit for hours on end, honestly. There’s something that’s so satisfying to me about just having that rhythm and that little “click-clack” of the knitting needles. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t knit.

Knitting can create a “flow” state through rhythmic, repetitive movements of the yarn and needle. Flow offers us a balance between challenge, accessibility and a sense of control.

It’s been shown to have benefits relieving stress in high-pressure jobs beyond elite sport. Among surgeons, knitting has been found to improve wellbeing as well as manual dexterity, crucial to their role.

For other health professionals – including oncology nurses and mental health workers – knitting has helped to reduce “compassion fatigue” and burnout. Participants described the soothing noise of their knitting needles. They developed and strengthened team bonds through collective knitting practices.

Another study showed knitting in primary school may boost children’s executive function. That includes the ability to pay attention, remember relevant details and block out distractions.

As a regular creative practice, it has also been used in the treatment of grief, depression and subduing intrusive thoughts, as well countering chronic pain and cognitive decline.

Knitting is a community

The evidence for the benefits of knitting is often based on self-reporting. These studies tend to produce consistent results and involve large population samples.

This may point to another benefit of knitting: its social aspect.

Knitting and other yarn crafts can be done alone, and usually require simple materials. But they also provide a chance to socialise by bringing people together around a common interest, which can help reduce loneliness.

The free needle craft database and social network Ravelry contains more than one million patterns, contributed by users. “Yarn bombing” projects aim to engage the community and beautify public places by covering objects such as benches and stop signs with wool.

The interest in Daley’s knitting online videos have formed a community of their own.

In them he shows the process of making the jumper, not just the finished product. That includes where he “went wrong” and had to unwind his work.

His pride in the finished product – a little bit wonky, but “made with love” – can be a refreshing antidote to the flawless achievements often on display at the Olympics.

Gabrielle Weidemann receives funding from the Australian Research Council and from the Department of Defence. None of this funding is associated with the mental health effects of knitting.

Michelle O’Shea 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. Knitting helps Tom Daley switch off. Its mental health benefits are not just for Olympians – https://theconversation.com/knitting-helps-tom-daley-switch-off-its-mental-health-benefits-are-not-just-for-olympians-236051