Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jake M Robinson, Ecologist and Researcher, Flinders University

It’s been more than two years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of us vividly recalls the first confirmed cases being reported in our home towns. COVID-19 spread across the planet at lightning speed, and the confirmed death toll is approaching 6.5 million. Communities and economies around the world have been devastated, and many societies need a recovery plan.

A growing number of scientists, including us in an article published today in The Lancet Planetary Health, argue protecting and restoring nature can help societies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and even help prevent future pandemics. Thriving ecosystems are vital for humans and the rest of nature.

The ongoing destruction of nature is a recipe for disaster. Research points to direct links between the destruction of nature and infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

For instance, the removal of rainforests for agriculture and new towns increases our contact with wildlife that host novel viruses – the kind that “jump the species barrier”. Some cause major disease outbreaks like COVID-19.

In our Lancet Planetary Health paper, we use COVID-19 as a case study to demonstrate how restoring ecosystems can help to combat the health and social problems associated with pandemics.

Read more:
‘Stealth privatisation’ in iconic national parks threatens public access to nature’s health boost

We are running out of time to restore ecosystems

Ecosystem restoration is the repair of natural systems – such as forests, grasslands and coral reefs – that have been damaged or destroyed. Unfortunately, human activities such as urbanisation, deforestation and pollution could leave 95% of the planet’s land severely damaged by 2050.

The UN has declared 2021 to 2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The declaration reflects the growing urgency and scale of ecosystem restoration that we must undertake.

There are several ways in which protecting and restoring nature are vital to humanity’s recovery from COVID-19.

1. Enhancing the immune system

The environment is brimful of microscopic life forms: dense clouds of bacteria, tiny fungi, algae and other life forms live in the soil, plants, water and air. Growing evidence suggests exposure to a diverse range of these invisible critters from an early age is vital to our health.

This exposure “primes” our immune systems and allows them to build strong armies of cells that protect us from pathogens. Indeed, having a healthy immune system is important in combating diseases such as COVID-19.

However, the diversity of these beneficial microbes is often much lower in degraded ecosystems than in more natural and diverse areas, such as forests with many different species of plants and animals. Therefore, restoring degraded ecosystems is important for both wildlife and our immune systems.

Furthermore, research suggests exposure to chemicals emitted by some plants – called phytoncides – can boost our immune system and help us fight off viral infections.

Read more:
How the trees in your local park help protect you from disease

2. Letting nature be thy medicine

Spending time in natural environments is widely recognised as important for our health and wellbeing. After all, we are part of nature!

Evidence shows engaging with natural spaces such as forests, meadows and lakes can improve our mental health, reduce blood pressure and enhance our recovery from stress. In Japan, forest bathing – shinrin-yoku – is officially endorsed as a form of nature therapy.

In another of our studies, we showed spending time in nature helped people cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, many people don’t have easy access to high-quality, biodiverse environments. Restoring these environments in urban areas is fundamental to people’s ability to cope with current and future pandemics. And some cities are doing just that; the Adelaide National Park City is a case in point.

Read more:
1 in 4 Australians is lonely. Quality green spaces in our cities offer a solution

3. Reducing the risk of future pandemics

Restoring wild places and reducing human-wildlife interactions could keep diseases at bay and minimise the risk of spillover events. These events occur when a pathogen in one species jumps to another, such as humans. This pathogen can then wreak havoc on human populations and lead to the next pandemic.

It’s important to prevent further encroachment by humans into these wild places for our own sake!

Read more:
Historic Amazon rainforest fires threaten climate and raise risk of new diseases

4. Improving social equity

The pandemic shone a spotlight on social inequity and its impacts on public health. Many people in deprived areas:

• were more easily infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus

• suffered from more severe COVID-19 symptoms

• had fewer opportunities to enhance their general wellbeing.

Our paper discusses the importance of ensuring equal access to biodiverse environments. Restoring ecosystems can improve people’s living environments and create “green job” opportunities in deprived areas. Actions such as tree planting, ecotherapy and environmental management are emerging areas of job growth.

Read more:
How cities can add accessible green space in a post-coronavirus world

However, we also have a warning: creating green spaces in urban areas can lead to deprived residents being displaced by more affluent ones. Effective safeguards against this gentrification are needed.

Ecosystem restoration should be viewed as a public health intervention. Urgent policy action is required at all levels, from local government to intergovernmental platforms, to transform social, economic and financial models to deliver a simultaneous healthy recovery of ecosystems and humanity.

Jake M Robinson is affiliated with Flinders University and is a member of the UNFCCC Resilience Frontiers think tank.

Christopher Daniels receives funding from the Department for Environment and Water South Australia via the Koala Life not for profit foundation and from the Australian Research Council. He is Chair of the Green Adelaide Landscape Board and holds Adjunct Professor positions at the University of South Australia and Adelaide University.

Martin Breed receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Flinders Foundation, and New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

– ref. From microbes to forest bathing, here are 4 ways healing nature is vital to our recovery from COVID-19 – https://theconversation.com/from-microbes-to-forest-bathing-here-are-4-ways-healing-nature-is-vital-to-our-recovery-from-covid-19-188458

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Ryan Maloney, Research fellow, Griffith University

Modern medicine seems to advance with time thanks to research breakthroughs. Hence it’s often thought that further into the past, only simpler medical practices existed.

The medical expertise of foraging communities such as hunter-gatherers has been thought to be rudimentary and unchanging. It’s been argued that shifts towards settled agricultural life within the past 10,000 years were what created new health problems and advances in medical culture; this includes surgery.

Published today in the journal Nature, we report a discovery shattering this longstanding trope of popular imagination – the skeleton of a young adult from Borneo whose lower left leg was amputated in childhood by a prehistoric surgeon 31,000 years ago.

This finding pre-dates the previous oldest known evidence for amputation surgery by a staggering 24,000 years. It suggests that human medical knowledge and surgical procedures were far more advanced in the distant past of our species than previously thought.

The Borneo discovery

In 2018, some of the earliest known rock art was found in caves of East Kalimantan, Borneo, dating to 40,000 years ago.

The following year, archaeologists from Griffith University, University of Western Australia, and Indonesian institutions of archaeology and conservation (Arkeologi, Bahasa dan Sastra, Pusat Riset Arkeometri BRIN / Balai Pelestarian Cagar Budaya Kalimantan Timur) searched remote caves in dense rainforest for archaeological finds that could shed light on the lifeways of these early artists.

Led by local Dayak colleagues, the team travelled to a remote camp via a multi-day canoe and hiking journey. It was accessible only by boat at certain times of the year.

During these field trips, in early 2020 the team conducted archaeological excavation within Liang Tebo cave. There, they uncovered a complete human burial, with grave goods of brightly coloured red ochre pigments and stone burial markers.

Upon closer analysis of the leg bones of the remains, an unexpected discovery emerged.

Evidence for amputation at 31,000 years

Multiple dating techniques (radiocarbon, uranium-series, and electron-spin-resonance) confirmed the burial had taken place 31,000 years ago, making it Southeast Asia’s oldest known grave. Skeletal analyses confirmed the lower left limb had been surgically amputated; the way the bone tissue had changed over time (known as “bone remodelling”) matched clinical cases of successful amputation that hadn’t become infected.

The healed bone confirms an injury that wasn’t fatal to the patient, implying the surgeon or surgeons likely understood the need to manage and treat it. They were able to prevent infection after the invasive surgery, allowing the person to survive into adulthood.

Medical developments in tropical rainforests

In the tropical rainforests of Borneo, hot and humid conditions create the perfect breeding ground for various microbes, and therefore increase the chances of getting a wound infected. But the rainforests also have astonishingly rich plant species diversity. This vast “natural pharmacy” may have prompted early flourishing in the use of botanical resources.

The surgeons treating the amputation patient could have drawn upon locally available botanical resources before, during, and after the procedure. Such medicinal plants could have provided anaesthetics and antimicrobial remedies preventing infection.

Surviving a childhood amputation and living into adulthood among rainforest caves of Borneo also suggests a high degree of community care. A community that painted complex figurative art had also seemingly mastered the complexities of surgical amputation 31,000 years ago.

Sea levels being much lower at this time, Borneo was still connected to Asia. This means the survivor of this surgery also lived close to the potential departing shorelines of ice-age Asia, from where the world’s first mariners departed earlier still, eventually reaching what is now Australia.

This new finding adds to a growing body of evidence that the first modern human groups to reach our part of the world tens of thousands of years ago had medical knowledge and skills beyond what was previously thought.

Read more:
65,000-year-old ‘stone Swiss Army knives’ show early humans had long-distance social networks

Tim Ryan Maloney receives funding from the Australian Research Council FT170100025, as well as DP220100462.

Adam Brumm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Adhi Oktaviana is PhD Candidate at Griffith University, Australia and Researcher at Research Center of Archaeometry, BRIN, Indonesia

Dr India Ella Dilkes-Hall receives funding from Forrest Research Foundation.

Maxime Aubert receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The National Geographic Society, and Google.

Melandri Vlok is a member of the research team.

Renaud Joannes-Boyau receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. World’s earliest evidence of a successful surgical amputation found in 31,000-year-old grave in Borneo – https://theconversation.com/worlds-earliest-evidence-of-a-successful-surgical-amputation-found-in-31-000-year-old-grave-in-borneo-189683

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University

When the Liberal Party’s most senior right-wing figure, Peter Dutton, forced a leadership spill in 2018, ending Malcolm Turnbull’s premiership, even some moderates in the party room preferred him over the hyper-ambitious Scott Morrison.
Yet it was to the latter they reluctantly turned, judging him less frightening to voters.

That calculation paid off handsomely with Morrison’s almost lone-hand “miracle” win in the 2019 general election.

Four years later though, after the religious and secretive Morrison had steered the party into its current trench, Liberals unanimously decided there was no viable alternative to Dutton as leader after all.

Many on the Labor side were delighted, viewing Dutton as essentially unelectable, citing his bullish fear-mongering over African gangs, Chinese drums of war, and asylum-seekers.
The decision to install, unopposed, a largely unpopular right-wing leader after Australian voters had just shifted to the left and towards female candidates, speaks to an entirely different calculation being made by Liberals about their leadership in 2022.

Read more:
Did Australia just make a move to the left?

Where Morrison had been considered more sellable, by 2022, Dutton’s image problem with young people, cosmopolitans, and particularly with women, hardly mattered.

It was not his ability to win seats three years hence that was paramount in their minds, but the Queenslander’s bona fides as a native conservative speaker capable of holding the centre-right parties together after their electoral drubbing.

Put simply, the fact that Dutton is from Queensland, is well-liked internally, and moreover is trusted, meant he offered the best chance of steadying a party banished from office and adrift from its core values of small government and fiscal restraint.

It is against this largely existential metric in the early months of an ascendant Labor government that Dutton’s preferment is best understood.

Of course, from Dutton’s point of view, he wants to do both – hold his beleaguered show together and then win back voters by putting Labor under such extreme pressure that he might ultimately become prime minister.

Right now though, these objectives are pulling him (and them) in different directions.

Published opinion polls such as Resolve Monitor and Newspoll suggest voters saw little in Dutton’s ascension to reassure them that the former government imbibed their stern message through the ballot box.

Read more:
Labor extends big lead in Newspoll, but Morgan is much better for Coalition

Yet Dutton remains unchallenged in his leadership and committed to his course. So far, there has been no moderate repositioning.

Despite a key take-out from the election being the defeat of several prominent Liberal men in “safe seats” at the hands of strong female independent candidates, it was left to Dutton’s deputy leader Sussan Ley to acknowledge the Liberal Party’s need to do better on women’s issues.

Neither was there any acceptance that the Coalition’s decade-long assault on climate science had been a political and policy disaster, damaging Australia’s reputation and driving voters across the country towards pro-climate action candidates.

True to his image, Dutton offered no real contrition or apology, no reflection on the electorate’s judgement, and no white flag.

The reason for this bullish stance, underlined by refusing to support the 43% 2030 target in legislation? In two words, Coalition unity.

Presumably, Dutton knows that retreating on climate would weaken a distinct electoral advantage now enjoyed by Labor, while also helping to soften his “hard man” image into the bargain.

Yet the fear is that certain Nationals and even some hard-line Liberals, would rebel and perhaps even break away if the Coalition parties were to go green. Defections to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and from the Liberals to the Nationals, are thought possible.

As one party insider and Dutton admirer told me, “Peter can’t guarantee a win at the next election from here but he can pretty much lock in a loss if the centre-right fractures or goes to war with itself”.

Yet Dutton faces a critical dilemma. Self-evidently, playing hard-ball to hold his forces together in defeat takes him further away from the disaffected Liberal voters he needs to win back to be competitive.

Boycotting the recent jobs and skills or “union” summit as he dubbed it, while decrying attendees as union “thugs”, seems straight out of the high-impact/maximum aggression playbook used by Tony Abbott.

Does Dutton seriously hold the view that this tactic can work again in the greener and more feminised politics of the 2020s – especially against a unified Labor government?

For him, reaching the requisite 76 seats in the 151-seat House of Representatives without retaking some or all of the previously “safe” electorates lost to so-called “teal” independents in 2022 is a mammoth task. It could even see further metropolitan losses to highly credentialed independents.

And yet retaking these electorates without a decisive step to the middle-ground on key issues such as climate, women’s representation, corruption/parliamentary integrity, and the Uluru agenda, seems equally unlikely.

However, according to one school of thought, Dutton has made all the right calls.

On emissions, former minister and fellow Queensland senator, George Brandis, has argued Dutton should ignore current public opinion, and presumably the national interest (or even what is right) and hope that soaring energy and living costs remain sufficiently salient at the next election to drive voters back to the Coalition. Again, this is right out of the Abbott playbook.

This might play well in the base but risks further shredding the Liberal Party’s standing in middle Australia – especially as younger voters enter the electoral roll. Is it worth the reputational damage?

It is well known in Australian politics that opposition leaders appointed in the wake of removal from office almost never become prime minister. Some don’t even get the chance to contest an election.

The last example federally was in the 1910s.

This is hardly surprising when you consider that the most recent single-term government federally was Labor’s James Scullin 1929-32. Thirty-two, by the way, was also the unemployment rate, whereas currently it is closer to 3%.

Strategically, Dutton is right to prioritise his own survival, given that opposition leaders are more vulnerable to their own party rooms than they are to voters.

But he must also lead in a way that provides his colleagues with a realistic belief that government is attainable. This is where greater electoral sensitivity might be useful.

While new governments are invariably re-elected, what is less appreciated is that they also tend to lose seats at their first return to the ballot box. Think Bob Hawke in 1984, John Howard in 1998, Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard in 2010 and Tony Abbott/Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.

Anthony Albanese’s two-seat majority would be easily obliterated by the seat losses sustained by each of these prime ministers facing their first elections as incumbents.

So the question for Dutton is, does aggressive partisanship on climate, women, and the other issues, really offer the best hope for regaining Australia’s centre-ground in 2025?

An alternative course would be to use his conservative credibility with his colleagues to affect a modernisation along similar lines to those of the broader population.

Call it the difference between being a leader or merely a cheerleader.

Mark Kenny 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. Dutton’s high-wire act: holding the Coalition together while presenting as an alternative government – https://theconversation.com/duttons-high-wire-act-holding-the-coalition-together-while-presenting-as-an-alternative-government-189964

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreea S. Calude, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Waikato

Which sentence is easier to understand? “He was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition.” Or, “He was carried home drunk.” Most people choose the latter, for obvious reasons.

This century-old example is a useful illustration of how “plain language” can be used to communicate more clearly, from everyday interactions right through to government documents.

The new Plain Language Bill now before parliament aims to make this more than just an ideal. Comprehensible information from government organisations, it argues, is a basic democratic right.

The push for simplicity

Plain language movements originated in the 1970s in several countries, including the UK, US and Canada. And there’s some indication the very first mention of plain language dates back as far as the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s.

However old, these movements strove for clear, straightforward and accessible language in official documents. This is not merely a “nice-to-have”. In some cases it can save your life – pandemic instructions from the Ministry of Health, for example.

Read more:
Language puts ordinary people at a disadvantage in the criminal justice system

And there is also an element of linguistic equality to it: minority, migrant and marginalised communities have more difficulty understanding complex and jargon-laden documents, which tip the scales even further against them.

What is plain language?

There is no single definition of plain language, but both the UK and US commonly use the one proposed by the International Plain Language Working Group:

A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.

In practice, it is easier to recognise a text written in plain language than one that is not. But it also depends on who is reading it. What may be plain language for some, will not be for others.

That said, basic tenets of plain language texts in English include:

• using concise sentences (15-20 words max)

• positive (not negative) clauses

• active, not passive voice (“if you break the law” not “if the law is broken”)

• verbs rather than complex nouns (“identify” not “indentification”)

• common words rather than jargon.

Although the principles of plain language are not new, mandating them through New Zealand legislation is.

The Plain Language Bill

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Plain Language Bill aims to:

improve the effectiveness and accountability of public service agencies and Crown agents, and to improve the accessibility of certain documents that they make available to the public, by providing for those documents to use language that is (a) appropriate to the intended audience; and (b) clear, concise, and well organised.

The bill before parliament does not explicitly define plain language beyond this description. We’ll have to wait for the details.

If the bill is passed into law, the Public Service Commissioner will have to produce material to help agencies comply with plain language requirements.

Only after seeing this guidance material will we know what effect reforms might have on government documents. So, MPs will essentially be voting without knowing what the bill will actually require agencies to do in practice.

The devil in the details

There are some other important things to note about what the bill does and doesn’t do.

It aims to improve accessibility of documents for people with disabilities. It does not affect the use of te reo Māori in government agency documents, nor does it propose to compel agencies to translate documents into languages other than English.

Perhaps most importantly, the bill does not include any enforcement mechanisms, although agencies and agents will be required to report their progress.

The bill is procedural in nature: it creates no enforceable rights or obligations. Members of the public will not be able to seek any form of remedy if they continue to find documents difficult to understand.

International experience

Given that New Zealand’s bill is closely modelled on the Plain Writing Act 2010 in the US, it is useful to consider the law’s impact there.

After it was passed, plain language advocates in the US were initially unimpressed by its impact. But the Center for Plain Language, a non-governmental organisation that publishes report cards on writing quality in government agency documents, noted significant improvements between 2013 and 2021.

Read more:
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In 2013, half of the 20 agencies reviewed either failed or required improvement to meet plain writing requirements, while in 2021 every agency passed.

Will it work?

Will this bill work to make government documents more accessible for New Zealanders? The short answer is, we don’t know yet. But the US experience suggests some progress is likely.

One thing the New Zealand bill is already doing, however, is increasing awareness of the need for clear communication. Some MPs have voiced concern about the cost of the reforms, the lack of enforceability, and even that the new law will increase bureaucracy.

However, important insights can be gained from regular reporting. There are also potential financial benefits from reducing the volume of followup communication with government agencies.

Overall, there is a clear social benefit in improving official communication. And instead of being conveyed to their place of residence in a state of intoxication, perhaps drunks will just be carried home.

Andreea S. Calude received funding from The Royal Society Marsden Grant (2018-2020).

Sam Campbell 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. The end of jargon: will New Zealand’s plain language law finally make bureaucrats talk like normal people? – https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-jargon-will-new-zealands-plain-language-law-finally-make-bureaucrats-talk-like-normal-people-189870

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Stone, General practitioner; Associate Professor, ANU Medical School, Australian National University

Mental health and suicide prevention have become critical topics of public discussion in the last few decades. Awareness of mental illness has been advanced by public campaigns and personal stories.

There has been tireless advocacy from consumer and carer organisations and mental health institutes. Health care workers, teachers and community members have increased their capacity and expertise in mental health work.

Despite this, mental illness rates continue to rise. Suicide has increased over the last decade, particularly in adolescents and even in children.

So on another RUOK Day, it is understandable we feel unsure a simple question can make a difference. What good is simply asking a family member, friend, or colleague if they are OK? Are we just performing empathy without purpose, making a token query that is ultimately futile? And what do we do if they say “no”?

Poor mental health and mental illness are not the same thing. Just like physical wellbeing, we can be unhealthy without being sick. So how can we best offer support to people who need help across a range of mental health needs?

Recognising stress

Sometimes, people are mentally unwell because of situational stress. Grief, relationship breakdown, job stress, natural disasters and other difficult life circumstances can affect our health, and mean we need additional support.

For other people, stress is long term and severe. People who live with poverty, violence, carer stress, discrimination and loneliness often experience a life of poor health.

People with chronic severe stress often develop physical and mental illnesses, and need additional support.

Increasingly, we are also seeing people struggling with deeper existential issues, particularly in adolescence. Issues like climate change can be so overwhelming young people can feel life has no purpose or meaning.

Read more:
‘Brain fingerprinting’ of adolescents might be able to predict mental health problems down the line

Knowing how to help

When people disclose the pain of grief, the feeling of overwhelm, or the hopelessness of poverty, it can be difficult to know how to help. Practical strategies like dropping off a meal, or offering to pick up the children from school can be enormously helpful. But so can listening without judgement or offering remedies. A person living with a difficult situation has likely already done their best to solve problems. They may need support more than solutions.

We can help on an individual level, but we can also contribute as a community to local initiatives like food banks, visiting services for the elderly, youth health initiatives.

We can also advocate for fairer and more equitable policies at a state and federal level. No mental health initiative will protect vulnerable Australians if they don’t have a roof over their head, food on the table and safe refuge from violence.

Read more:
Psychological tips aren’t enough – policies need to address structural inequities so everyone can flourish

Understanding trauma

People who live with the legacy of trauma can have memories, experiences and emotions that affect them daily, often without warning. Survivors of trauma often have poor physical and mental health. We are only beginning to understand the impact trauma has on the body as well as the mind.

If people disclose trauma, the most important response is to listen. We shouldn’t try to take over managing the situation. People who live with trauma often have little control over their situation, and it is important to support their own decisions and choices.

A simple question like “how can I help?” can allow people to seek support while still maintaining a sense of control.

Treating mental illness

There is a spectrum of mental ill-health, and people who are very unwell may be experiencing mental illness. Mental illnesses can be short term or lifelong, mild to severe, and cover a range of symptoms including distressing thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours.

People with long term mental illnesses can have periods of stability, and times of crisis, and often need to rely on carers for support.

The diagnosis of a mental illness is often quite difficult, particularly for people who live with other complex needs. Cultural diversity, intellectual disability, physical illness, neurodiversity and other issues can complicate diagnosis. So it’s essential to consult a health professional who is able to make a diagnosis safely.

Although it is tempting to make a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions using online programs and checklists, mental health symptoms can overlap with a number of physical diseases, including thyroid disease, anaemia and even diabetes or heart disease. For this reason, a physical check-up with a GP can help.

On RUOK Day, checking in with people with a known history of mental illness is important. Although there is often support in the early stages of illness, people with chronic disease of any type often describe feeling lonely and isolated in the longer term.

Read more:
Mental distress is much worse for people with disabilities, and many health professionals don’t know how to help

Living with suffering

We do not have a cure for everything. It is uncomfortable to recognise life is not fair and bad things can and do happen to good people.

It is tempting to offer a raft of potential remedies to avoid having to sit with the profound pain of another human being. It makes us realise we are also vulnerable, and this is uncomfortable.

For this reason, many people with long term suffering often experience loneliness. On RUOK Day, it is worth considering how we as a community can better support the people who need comfort and care all year round.

Read more:
There is an urgent need to prevent the lifelong damage caused by adverse childhood experiences

Are we OK?

We may feel comfortable discussing mental health for others but find it difficult to seek mental health support for ourselves.

Self-stigma is real, and prevents us from seeking appropriate care. Guilt and shame can also be symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Perhaps RUOK Day is a good opportunity to book a physical and mental health check-up with your GP.

Finally, we all need to honestly discuss and address the ways we contribute to poor mental health in the community. Workplaces that normalise financial abuse, bullying and harassment cause harm. Domestic violence causes harm. Poverty and discrimination cause harm.

Checking in and connecting with those around us has merit in some circumstances – but we can all reduce mental harm by addressing our own behaviour at an individual, local and national level.

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

Louise Stone receives funding from ACT health to research mental health services for young people in the ACT.

– ref. It’s RUOK Day – but ‘how can I help?’ might be a better question to ask – https://theconversation.com/its-ruok-day-but-how-can-i-help-might-be-a-better-question-to-ask-190064

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pears, Senior Industry Fellow, RMIT University

Heat pumps are becoming all the rage around a world that has to slash carbon emissions rapidly while cutting energy costs. In buildings, they replace space heating and water heating – and provide cooling as a bonus.

A heat pump extracts heat from outside, concentrates it (using an electric compressor) to raise the temperature, and pumps the heat to where it is needed. Indeed, millions of Australian homes already have heat pumps in the form of refrigerators and reverse-cycle air conditioners bought for cooling. They can heat as well, and save a lot of money compared with other forms of heating!

Even before the restrictions on Russian gas supply, many European countries were rolling out heat pumps – even in cold climates. Now, government policies are accelerating change. The United States, which has had very cheap gas in recent years, has joined the rush: President Joe Biden has declared heat pumps are “essential to the national defence” and ordered production be ramped up.

The ACT government is encouraging electrification of buildings using heat pumps, and is considering legislation to mandate this in new housing developments. The Victorian government recently launched a Gas Substitution Roadmap and is reframing its incentives programs towards heat pumps. Other states and territories are also reviewing policies.

Read more:
Biden just declared heat pumps and solar panels essential to national defense – here’s why and the challenges ahead

Just how big are the energy cost savings?

Relative to an electric fan heater or traditional electric hot water service, I calculate a heat pump can save 60-85% on energy costs, which is a similar range to ACT government estimates.

Comparisons with gas are tricky, as efficiencies and energy prices vary a lot. Typically, though, a heat pump costs around half as much for heating as gas. If, instead of exporting your excess rooftop solar output, you use it to run a heat pump, I calculate it will be up to 90% cheaper than gas.

Heat pumps are also good for the climate. My calculations show a typical heat pump using average Australian electricity from the grid will cut emissions by about a quarter relative to gas, and three-quarters relative to an electric fan or panel heater.

If a high-efficiency heat pump replaces inefficient gas heating or runs mainly on solar, reductions can be much bigger. The gap is widening as zero-emission renewable electricity replaces coal and gas generation, and heat pumps become even more efficient.

Read more:
Good news – there’s a clean energy gold rush under way. We’ll need it to tackle energy price turbulence and coal’s exodus

How do heat pumps work?

Heat pumps available today achieve 300-600% efficiency – that is, for each unit of electricity consumed, they produce three to six units of heat. Heat pumps can operate in freezing conditions too.

How is this possible, when the maximum efficiency of traditional electric and gas heaters is 100%, and cold air is cold?

It’s not magic. Think about your fridge, which is a small heat pump. Inside the fridge is a cold panel called an evaporator. It absorbs heat from the warm food and other sources, because heat flows naturally from a warmer object to a cooler object. The electric motor under the fridge drives a compressor that concentrates the heat to a higher temperature, which it dumps into your kitchen. The sides and back of a typical fridge get warm as this happens. So your fridge cools the food while heating the kitchen a bit.

A heat pump obeys the laws of thermodynamics, which allow it to operate at efficiencies from 200% to over 1,000% in theory. But the bigger the temperature difference, the less efficient the heat pump is.

If a heat pump needs to draw heat from the environment, how can it work in cold weather? Remember your fridge keeps the freezer compartment cold while pumping heat into your kitchen. The laws of physics are at play. What we experience as a cold temperature is actually quite hot: it’s all relative.

Outer space is close to a temperature known as absolute zero, zero degrees Kelvin, or –273℃. So a temperature of 0℃ (at which water freezes), or even the recommended freezer temperature of -18℃, is actually quite hot relative to outer space.

The main problem for a heat pump in “cold” weather is that ice can form on its heat exchanger, as water vapour in the air cools and condenses, then freezes. This ice blocks the air flow that normally provides the “hot” air to the heat pump. Heat pumps can be designed to minimise this problem.

Read more:
Heat pumps: UK to install 600,000 a year by 2028 but electrical grid will need massive investment to cope

How do you choose the right heat pump for your home?

Selecting a suitable heat pump (more commonly known as a reverse-cycle air conditioner) can be tricky, as most advisers are used to discussing gas options. Resources such as yourhome.gov.au, choice.com.au and the popular Facebook page My Efficient Electric Home can help.

All household units must carry energy labels (see energyrating.gov.au): the more stars the better. The independent FairAir web calculator allows you to estimate heating and cooling requirements of a home and the size needed to maintain comfort.

Bigger heat pumps are more expensive, so unnecessary oversizing can cost a lot more. Also, insulating, sealing drafts and other building efficiency measures allow you to buy a smaller, cheaper heat pump that will use even less energy and provide better comfort.

When using a heat pump, it is very important to clean its filter every few months. A blocked filter reduces efficiency and the heating and cooling output. If you have an older heat pump that no longer delivers as much heat (or cooling), it may have lost some refrigerant and need a top-up.

Alan Pears provides advice and consults to the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity and Energy Efficiency Council as well as governments and community groups such as Renew on issues related to heat pumps.

– ref. Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics – https://theconversation.com/heat-pumps-can-cut-your-energy-costs-by-up-to-90-its-not-magic-just-a-smart-use-of-the-laws-of-physics-185711

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Head of Energy, Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National University

As of Wednesday night, Labor’s climate change bill was poised to pass the Senate after the government agreed to amendments proposed by independent senator David Pocock to improve accountability and transparency.

The law would set a national emissions target for 2030 and define a process to ratchet it up over time, as well as enshrining the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The independent Climate Change Authority will recommend future targets. These are sound and useful elements and will serve Australia’s climate policymaking well.

Yet three important elements are not in the bill: a long-term roadmap, securing the future of the Climate Change Authority, and measures for a proper national conversation on our journey to net-zero emissions. And the 43% emissions reduction target should be considered only a starting point.

Is 43% emissions reduction enough?

The bill mandates that Australia reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. Labor took that target to the federal election and has been unwilling to negotiate on it since winning office.

Is a 43% reduction in Australia’s emissions adequate in the context of the Paris Agreement?

There is no single objective yardstick for which country should do how much towards a global goal. And the trajectory of global emissions after 2030 – as well as before – matters greatly for longer-term global warming.

But an assessment is nevertheless possible, and it suggests that strengthening the target, perhaps by a lot, would be appropriate.

Emissions reductions in this broad range are what’s needed globally to limit warming to 2℃ compared to pre-industrial levels.

But high-income, high-emitting countries – Australia prominent among them – are rightfully expected to reduce their carbon footprint more quickly than developing countries, or countries where the economy is already relatively low-carbon.

What’s more, the effort needed by Australia to meet the 43% target is less than that required by many other countries. This is due to reductions in emissions from the land use and forestry sector more than a decade ago, and because we have lots of opportunities to cut emissions easily.

Big further reductions can be made by accelerating the shift from coal to renewables, better energy efficiency, electrifying transport, and cleaner processes in industry and agriculture.

An Australian reduction of the present order is definitely incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5℃ – the global aspiration for limiting climate change. And it would be a contortion to argue it’s somehow in line with “well below 2℃”, the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal.

All that said, a 43% emission reduction target improves a lot on the previous government’s target. And enshrining it in law sends an important message. It makes zero-emissions options much more investable, and signals internationally that Australia is back on climate change action.

Read more:
Red dirt, yellow sun, green steel: how Australia could benefit from a global shift to emissions-free steel

A trajectory to net-zero

Attention will soon shift to Australia’s 2035 emissions target. The bill commits the Climate Change Authority to recommend that target, and new targets every five years from then on.

If the government of the day does not accept that advice, it will need to explain its dissent to parliament. That is good process.

But Australia also needs to plot a forward trajectory beyond the next five-year period, because the investments that matter most are made on longer timescales.

Such “roadmapping” would shed light on questions such as:

• what are the indicative targets for 2040 and beyond, on the way to net-zero emissions?

• what might be the balance between remaining greenhouse gas emissions and removing emissions from the atmosphere, whether through forests and land-based carbon, or technological solutions?

The Climate Change Authority may choose to do such an analysis, mapping out scenarios and possible trajectories. But such advice would have stronger standing if there was a legal requirement for it.

Read more:
‘A new climate politics’: the 47th parliament must be a contest of ideas for a hotter, low-carbon Australia

Securing the Climate Change Authority

The bill puts the Climate Change Authority centre stage, but it doesn’t make sure it will always be properly equipped to do its job.

A future government might not like to hear a strong independent voice, and could quieten it by starving it. It’s happened before, following the Abbott government’s attempt to abolish the authority.

The Climate Change Authority needs to run a deeply inclusive and very extensive consultation process for future recommendations on the target. Not just roundtables and submissions to a website, but a really big effort to take the analysis to groups right across Australian society and take their views into account.

Let’s hope this and future governments will give their political backing for an inclusive process, and fund the authority to do so.

A proper national conversation

In any case, Australia needs a national long-term emissions reduction strategy. It should answer questions such as:

• what will the shift to net-zero emissions mean for our economy, both nationally and regionally?

• what needs to be done to prepare for the changes, maximise the upsides and deal with the downsides?

Such a strategy must be much more than just another report based on modelling with some stakeholder discussions along the way. What’s needed is a proper national conversation about how we tackle the transition to net-zero emissions.

This would bring out all available information and the many different perspectives, opportunities and vulnerabilities. It requires people coming together to really understand the issues and, where possible, to forge agreement.

That conversation should involve all major groups: businesses and business associations, non-government organisations, unions, community leaders, youth groups and so forth. The research sector would provide data and analysis, and the media would make the debate a public one, in many formats and dimensions.

Governments at all levels would be involved – but they would not control the process.

Some political instincts run against such truly open processes. But they’re essential – and the climate change bill doesn’t directly provide for them.

Read more:
A promising new dawn is ours for the taking – so let’s stop counting the coal Australia must leave in the ground

Frank Jotzo has no affiliations or funding that present a conflict of interest with regard to this article.

– ref. Labor’s climate change bill is set to become law – but 3 important measures are omitted – https://theconversation.com/labors-climate-change-bill-is-set-to-become-law-but-3-important-measures-are-omitted-190102

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shane Dawson, Executive Dean UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia

We know Australian schools are in the grip of a teacher shortage. Federal and state education ministers are currently putting together a plan to fix it, which is due in December.

One of the key planks so far is making sure more students finish their teaching degrees.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has regularly cited Education Department data which shows people are not finishing their teaching degrees at higher rates than other fields of study. This is based on looking at student cohorts over a six-year period. As he said last month:

50% of young people who go into a teaching degree finish it. On average it’s about 70% of people who go into any other degree finish it. Now what’s going wrong there?

At first glance these figures are alarming. But they are also an overly simple and misleading way to look at the issue. In fact, completion rates for teaching degrees are comparable to other similar programs.

What are university completion rates?

University completion rates are worked out using the total number of students who start a degree for a given year and then calculating the percentage of this group who graduate four, six or nine years later.

For example, assume 100 students start a teaching degree in 2012. A 50% completion rate translates to 50 students completing that degree by 2018 (six years post commencement is the generally noted range).

Comparatively, the average for other programs is noted as 70% – meaning that in the same time frame and with the same commencing number of students, 70 students completed their degree by 2018.

Read more:
Too many people drop out of teaching degrees – here are 4 ways to keep them studying

Three year degrees vs four year degrees

While the figures for teaching degrees look grim, it is important to note that degrees are not all of the same duration.

Three-year degrees are most common at the undergraduate level, but there are also four and five year bachelor degrees.

Undergraduate, teaching (education) programs are four years. This means a student doing part-time study will take eight years to graduate. This muddies the calculations.

For example, let’s compare a three-year bachelor of science degree with a four-year bachelor of education. Let’s assume they each have 100 students and the retention rate is 90% for each year of study. In this example, the completion rate for the three year program is 73%. For a four-year program with the same retention rate that figure drops to 65%.

The retention rate is the same in both examples, but the completion rate changes because the degree takes one year longer.

So, if we are going to look at completion rates over a six-year period (as Clare is doing with that headline figure), it would be to more accurate to compare teaching degrees with other four-year undergraduate courses.

For example, the four-year social work undergraduate degree has a six-year completion rate of 50%, like teaching degrees.

And if you look at the Education Department’s data over a nine-year period (which gives people plenty of time to complete the degree part-time), the difference between teaching and other degrees is much smaller. There is a 69% completion rate for primary and secondary teacher undergraduate education compared to 73% for all other programs.

When comparing postgraduate masters-level teacher education programs, which typically take 18 months to two years full-time, the teaching qualifications have much higher completion rates. Postgraduate completion rates over a four-year time period for primary and secondary teaching are 76% compared to 71% for all other postgraduate programs.

What is ‘going wrong’?

While there are always improvements that can be made to teaching degrees, a more complete understanding of “what’s going wrong” is critical before planning further reforms within a discipline that has been in constant reform for most of the past decade.

Read more:
Teacher shortages are a global problem – ‘prioritising’ Australian visas won’t solve ours

This is particularly the case when Clare is talking about allocating funding to universities based on the “highest completion rates”.

The new national plan to tackle teacher shortages must consider how Australia can increase the number and diversity of teachers graduating and entering the workforce. At the same time, there is a dire need to address issues linked to retaining quality teachers within the profession.

The use of data to make sweeping generalisations will do little to help.

Clare’s comment

A spokesperson for Clare told The Conversation:

There is a shortage of teachers in Australia and the data shows that the graduation [rate] is still too low.

That is why the Minister has asked University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott to lead a review into Initial Teacher Education [degrees which qualify teachers for the classroom], the details of which will be announced shortly.

Shane Dawson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Anna Sullivan receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is Board Chair and Director of the Media Centre for Education Research Australia.

Barney Dalgarno has received research grant funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a Board member of the Australian Council of Deans of Education and of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute.

Donna Pendergast is a Director of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.

– ref. Yes, some students are dropping out of teaching degrees, but not at the rate you think – https://theconversation.com/yes-some-students-are-dropping-out-of-teaching-degrees-but-not-at-the-rate-you-think-189467

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patricia Ranald, Honorary research associate, University of Sydney

British oil and gas miner Rockhopper Explorations last month won £210 million plus interest (about A$360 million) in compensation over Italy’s 2015 ban on oil and gas drilling within its territorial seas.

It’s a portent of claims Australia may face from British companies invested in Australia’s fossil-fuel industries if the United Kingdom gets its way and joins the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which Australia is a signatory.

Rockhopper had invested £33 million in plans to drill for oil off Italy’s east coast in the Adriatic Sea. The compensation covers all profits it would have made. Its claim was enabled by a so-called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause in the Energy Charter Treaty signed by Italy and Britain in the 1990s.

All trade agreements have systems for settling disputes between governments. Some also have ISDS clauses that give private foreign investors the right to claim compensation for future lost profits due to changes in law or policy.

Since the late 1980s, British companies have lodged 90 claims against foreign governments using ISDS provisions – the third-highest number after US and Dutch companies.

This raises the question of what may happen if British mining and energy companies gain ISDS provisions to seek compensation from the Australian government over its climate policies.

Britain’s interest in the CPTPP

ISDS provisions are what tobacco giant Philip Morris used to claim A$4 billion in compensation after the Australian government introduced plain packaging laws for tobacco products in 2011.

It did so under an Australian investment agreement with Hong Kong. Though this gambit ultimately failed, the case took years and cost the Australian government $12 million in legal costs

Read more:
When even winning is losing. The surprising cost of defeating Philip Morris over plain packaging

Currently there are no ISDS provisions in treaties between Australia and the UK.

ISDS was excluded from the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (AUKFTA) signed in December 2021 due to “the confidence we share in each other’s legal systems” – although only after a robust public debate. (The treaty, not yet in force, is being reviewed by an Australian parliamentary committee prior to ratification.)

But ISDS is included in the existing Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) between Australia and ten other Pacific rim nations, which the UK is keen to join.

As UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan outlined while in Australia last week:

The UK is aiming to accede by the end of this year, and joining CPTPP is a demonstration of our foreign policy focus aligning with the global economic tilt towards the Indo-Pacific.

British interests in Australian mining and energy

Australia and the CPTPP’s other members – Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam – must agree for the UK application to succeed.

Trevelyan argued the UK would “bring a new, strong and persuasive voice” to the partnership as “a like-minded friend to Australia”. But its membership would also expose the Australian government to ISDS cases by UK companies against climate action regulation.

The UK is the second-highest source of foreign investment in Australia. UK-based fossil-fuel investors include Anglo American, BP and Shell.

Climate concerns about ISDS claims

A comprehensive study published in May shows increasing use of ISDS clauses in trade agreements by fossil fuel companies to claim billions in compensation for government decisions to phase out fossil fuels. The study’s authors recommend ISDS mechanisms be removed from trade agreements.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s May 2022 report Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability also warns that ISDS clauses in trade agreements threaten action to reduce emissions.

Read more:
How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billions

For example, the Westmoreland Coal Company sought compensation from Canada over the province of Alberta’s decision to phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030.

The US-based company, an investor in two Alberta coal mines, did so using ISDS provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It case was unsuccessful, but only due to technicalities regarding changes in the company’s ownership.

In Europe, German energy companies RWE and Uniper have ISDS cases pending against the Netherlands (under the Energy Charter Treaty) over its moves to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2030.

But there is a simple solution

The Australian government has an easy option to stop this exposure, based on two precedents: the exclusion of ISDS from the Australia-UK free-trade deal; and how Australia and New Zealand have dealt with ISDS in the CPTPP.

Before signing the CPTPP in 2018, Australia and New Zealand exchanged legally binding side letters excluding each other from using the ISDS clauses against each other.

It makes sense for the Australian government to do the same with the UK, given the disproportionate risk of ISDS claims by British fossil fuel investors.

The Albanese government was elected with a policy platform opposing ISDS. It can easily implement this by making a similar exchange of letters a condition of agreeing to the UK joining the CPTPP.

Dr Patricia Ranald is an honorary research associate at the University of Sydney and the honorary convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network. She does not receive any benefits or external funding.

– ref. British investors could sue Australia over climate action if UK joins trans-Pacific trade pact – https://theconversation.com/british-investors-could-sue-australia-over-climate-action-if-uk-joins-trans-pacific-trade-pact-190049

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney

In this new series, our writers introduce us to a favourite painting.

For almost as long as I can remember I have loved the pictures of Paul Klee (1879-1940). When I was growing up my parents owned a strange little lithograph by him called Phantom Perspective. It shows a wafer-thin man lying asleep in a dormitory of inflowing straight lines.

Like one of the curious fish in Klee’s child-like visual aquaria, I was hooked.

It was on his famous trip to Tunisia in April 1914 that Klee painted Hammamet with Its Mosque, now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Travelling down the east coast of the Maghrebian nation with two artist pals, August Macke and Louis Moilliet, the trio used lightweight watercolour kits and sketching blocks to record their impressions.

Tunis, St. Germain, Hammamet and the holy city of Kairouan became the sites of their collaborative visual enterprise.

Klee had recently been in Paris to visit Robert Delaunay, the artist who converted Picasso’s and Braque’s austere version of Cubism into a lyrical interplay of coloured squares and triangles.

Klee adapted this language in all his Tunisian works, and it was in Kairouan, in a café at the end of a day’s painting the domes of the city, that he declared in a moment of ecstasy:

Colour and I are one. I am a painter!

Hammamet with Its Mosque, as solid in its composition of diagonals within squares as its substance is evanescent, proves him right.

Read more:
Three questions not to ask about art – and four to ask instead

‘The city is magnificent’

Hammamet was a small fishing port – the Hadrumetum of Carthaginian times – whose walled medina and inner fortress or Casbah still exist today. I spent three days there in 2014 on an aesthetic pilgrimage.

I was armed with maps from the Baedeker guidebook the German-speaking trio had used, postcards of the town dating from 1905, and the delightful diaries in which Klee wrote:

The city is magnificent, right by the sea, full of bends and sharp corners.

Hammamet’s medieval mosque, with its square minaret, crenellated muezzin’s gallery, and flagstaff at 45 degrees, is depicted in Klee’s watercolour with surprising accuracy.

My eyes told me as much, as did the vintage postcards. But one building was missing: Klee’s right-hand tower with its wine-coloured windows. There was nothing in today’s cleaned-up Casbah that corresponded to it.

And why, I asked myself, did the painter embellish the foreground of buff and pink triangles with star-shaped forms and green stripes?

My general thesis, in contrast to scholars who saw Klee as an abstractionist who used free invention in making his coloured pictorial tapestries, was that Klee (and Macke) used “real” elements from the observed world to fuel their plastic inventions – savvy combinations of the observed, the supposed and the superposed.

‘Archives of the planet’

Through a painstaking sifting of photographic evidence, I learned that from around 1910 until Tunisian Independence in 1956, Hammamet’s Kasbah was surmounted by a two (and then three) storey blockhouse called the “poste optique”, or optical station.

Since 1881 Tunisia had been a French Protectorate. With war looming, the French army set up a flashing optical telegraph using towers with a clear line of sight up and down the coast.

Hammamet’s new poste optique was photographed by a visiting French officer, a Lieutenant Klipfel, in 1910.

But this account of Klee’s image was incomplete because the minaret and the poste optique stood over 100 metres apart. Did Klee bring the two towers together artificially, using a painter’s creative license? That would hardly be unusual, landscape painters having done as much, from Claude Lorrain in the 17th century.

A chance discovery at the Musée Albert Kahn, outside Paris, provided the explanation.

Albert Kahn was a wealthy French philanthropist who from 1909-1931 sent photographers to 50 countries around the world to form the “Archives of the Planet”, using the new technologies of colour photography and film.

Kahn’s most prolific opérateur was Frédéric Gadmer, who on April 26 1931 visited Hammamet and took three colour photographs – two from the beach, and the other beyond the crumbling walls of the medina. This last view brought together the minaret in the centre and the poste optique well behind it.

In the foreground is flowering ground-cover and a few low-lying gravestones: the start of the Hammamet’s sandy Marine Cemetery which still stands today.

Painter and photographer had found the same motif – the floral and the ancient with a spice of modern – in their rambles around Hammamet.

Pre-war avant-garde painting

This snippet of art-historical research convinced Michael Baumgartner, former curator of the Paul Klee Foundation, that Klee was more concerned than we knew with the architectural substance of this culture which he so admired.

Indeed from this perfectly-balanced, whimsical sketch – which he cut up at home, gluing the bottom red strip to the top and providing a handwritten title and date – Klee derived a series of three increasingly grand compositions.

These were Motif from Hammamet, Abstraction of a Motif from Hammamet and On a Motif from Hammamet.

The four of them together comprise one of the great moments of pre-war avant-garde painting.

As a child I admired Klee, who was himself one of the first modern artists to admire child art. The apparent simplicity of Hammamet with Its Mosque, this little picture with a monumental impact, belies a complex history of cross-cultural encounter.

Read more:
Jacques-Louis David’s The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of his Dead Sons is a gruesome and compelling painting

Roger Benjamin receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. My pilgrimage to the site of Paul Klee’s Hammamet with Its Mosque – https://theconversation.com/my-pilgrimage-to-the-site-of-paul-klees-hammamet-with-its-mosque-187359

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maurice Huguenin, PhD Candidate, UNSW Sydney

Over the last 50 years, the oceans have been working in overdrive to slow global warming, absorbing about 40% of our carbon dioxide emissions, and over 90% of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere.

But as our research published today in Nature Communications has found, some oceans work harder than others.

We used a computational global ocean circulation model to examine exactly how ocean warming has played out over the last 50 years. And we found the Southern Ocean has dominated the global absorption of heat. In fact, Southern Ocean heat uptake accounts for almost all the planet’s ocean warming, thereby controlling the rate of climate change.

This Southern Ocean warming and its associated impacts are effectively irreversible on human time scales, because it takes millennia for heat trapped deep in the ocean to be released back into the atmosphere.

This means changes happening now will be felt for generations to come – and those changes are only set to get worse, unless we can stop carbon dioxide emissions and achieve net zero.

It’s important yet difficult to measure ocean heating

Ocean warming buffers the worst impacts of climate change, but it’s not without cost. Sea levels are rising because heat causes water to expand and ice to melt. Marine ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented heat stress, and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is changing.

Yet, we still don’t know enough about exactly when, where and how ocean warming occurs. This is because of three factors.

First, temperature changes at the ocean surface and in the atmosphere just above track each other closely. This makes it difficult to know exactly where excess heat is entering the ocean.

Second, we don’t have measurements tracking temperatures over all of the ocean. In particular, we have very sparse observations in the deep ocean, in remote locations around Antarctica and under sea ice.

Last, the observations we do have don’t go back very far in time. Reliable data from deeper than 700 metres depth is virtually non-existent prior to the 1990s, apart from observations along specific research cruise tracks.

Our modelling approach

To work out the intricacies of how ocean warming has played out, we first ran an ocean model with atmospheric conditions perpetually stuck in the 1960s, prior to any significant human-caused climate change.

Then, we separately allowed each ocean basin to move forward in time and experience climate change, while all other basins were held back to experience the climate of the 1960s.

We also separated out the effects of atmospheric warming from surface wind-driven changes to see how much each factor contributes to the observed ocean warming.

By taking this modelling approach, we could isolate that the Southern Ocean is the most important absorber of this heat, despite only covering about 15% of the total ocean’s surface area.

Read more:
An ocean like no other: the Southern Ocean’s ecological richness and significance for global climate

In fact, the Southern Ocean alone could account for virtually all global ocean heat uptake, with the Pacific and Atlantic basins losing any heat gained back into the atmosphere.

One significant ecological impact of strong Southern Ocean warming is on Antarctic krill. When ocean warming occurs beyond temperatures they can tolerate, the krill’s habitat contracts and they move even further south to cooler waters.

As krill is a key component of the food web, this will also change the distribution and population of larger predators, such as commercially viable tooth and ice fish. It will also further increase stress for penguins and whales already under threat today.

So why is the Southern Ocean absorbing so much heat?

This largely comes down to the geographic set-up of the region, with strong westerly winds surrounding Antarctica exerting their influence over an ocean that’s uninterrupted by land masses.

This means the Southern Ocean winds blow over a vast distance, continuously bringing masses of cold water to the surface. The cold water is pushed northward, readily absorbing vast quantities of heat from the warmer atmosphere, before the excess heat is pumped into the ocean’s interior around 45-55°S (a latitude band just south of Tasmania, New Zealand, and the southern regions of South America).

Read more:
Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly

This warming uptake is facilitated by both the warmer atmosphere caused by our greenhouse gas emissions, as well as wind-driven circulation which is important for getting heat into the ocean interior.

And when we combine the warming and wind effects only over the Southern Ocean, with the remaining oceans held back to the climate of the 1960s, we can explain almost all of the global ocean heat uptake.

But that’s not to say the other ocean basins aren’t warming. They are, it’s just that the heat they gain locally from the atmosphere cannot account for this warming. Instead, the massive heat uptake in the Southern Ocean is what has driven changes in total ocean heat content worldwide over the past half century.

We have much to learn

While this discovery sheds new light on the Southern Ocean as a key driver of global ocean warming, we still have a lot to learn, particularly about ocean warming beyond the 50 years we highlight in our study. All future projections, including even the most optimistic scenarios, predict an even warmer ocean in future.

And if the Southern Ocean continues to account for the vast majority of ocean heat uptake until 2100, we might see its heat content increase by as much as seven times more than what we have already seen up to today.

This will have enormous impacts around the globe: including further disturbances to the Southern Ocean food web, rapid melting of Antarctic ice shelves, and changes in the ocean conveyor belt.

Read more:
Smoke from the Black Summer fires created an algal bloom bigger than Australia in the Southern Ocean

To capture all of these changes, it’s vital we continue and expand our observations taken in the Southern Ocean.

One of the most important new data streams will be new ocean floats that can measure deeper ocean temperatures, as well as small temperature sensors on elephant seals, which give us essential data of oceanic conditions in winter under Antarctic sea ice.

Even more important is the recognition that the less carbon dioxide we emit, the less ocean change we will lock in. This will ultimately limit the disruption of livelihoods for the billions of people living near the coast worldwide.

Maurice Huguenin is supported by a Scientia PhD scholarship from the University of New South Wales.

Matthew England receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Ryan Holmes receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The Southern Ocean absorbs more heat than any other ocean on Earth, and the impacts will be felt for generations – https://theconversation.com/the-southern-ocean-absorbs-more-heat-than-any-other-ocean-on-earth-and-the-impacts-will-be-felt-for-generations-189561

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

Tuesday’s national accounts show Australia ending 2021-22 on a strong note.

Gross domestic product grew by a historically robust 0.9% in the three months to June, and by an unusually-high 3.6% over the year.

Australia’s economy is now more than 5% bigger than it was before COVID, a better performance than most comparable economies.

The main drivers of the 0.9% jump in activity were household spending and exports.

Household spending grew 2.2% in the quarter, exports grew 5.5%.

Each contributed about one percentage point to the growth in GDP. Working the other way was a smaller build-up of inventories (unsold stock) that lowers the amount of production needed to meet the increased demand.

Households have been saving less in order to spend more. Since the start of this year, household saving has slipped from 13.5% to a more normal 8.7%.

Spending has also been supported by the fall of unemployment, now down to a near half-century low of 3.4%, a low that might be sustained for quite a while.

In good news for government tax revenue, the value of Australia’s mineral exports also climbed due to higher commodity prices.

Price isn’t taken into account in compiling the most-widely quoted GDP measure, which is “real” GDP, a measure of volumes rather than prices.

Australia’s terms of trade (the ratio of export prices to import prices) reached an all-time high.

Investment spending by companies continued to remain flat, after rebounding from COVID last year.

As highlighted by ACTU secretary Sally McManus, the share of national income accruing to labour remains at a near 60-year low.

In the June quarter profits again grew faster than wages. It remains to be seen whether initiatives from the Jobs and Skills Summit will do much to change this.

Today’s good-looking news may not be a good guide to the future.

The three months to June were barely affected by the Reserve Bank’s five successive interest rate rises that began in May.

Monetary policy is famously said to have “long and variable lags”.

The Reserve Bank is almost certainly not done with interest rate increases. On Tuesday it said it expected to increase rates “further over the months ahead”.

But it also said it was “not on a pre-set path”.

Economic management is about to get harder

The Bank has to navigate between the Scylla of the inflation it would get from not lifting interest rates enough and the Charybdis of the recession it would get from lifting them too much. It is trying to find a Goldilocks path of “just right”.

As it happens, there’s a piece of news that should gladden its heart in the national accounts. Last year, it was giving the impression it wouldn’t lift rates until wage growth took off. This year in May it lost patience and lifted rates anyway, saying its business liaison program suggested companies were starting to pay more.

The national accounts show the compensation of employees (wages plus super) grew 7% over 2021-22, well above the official wage growth figure of 2.6%.

It might be beginning to get what it wanted.

John Hawkins formerly worked as a senior economist in the Reserve Bank and Australian Treasury.

– ref. Australia’s June quarter national accounts show GDP doing well – for now – https://theconversation.com/australias-june-quarter-national-accounts-show-gdp-doing-well-for-now-189951

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Qamar Schuyler, Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmospheres, CSIRO

If you flip over a plastic food container, you’ll see tiny writing on it – something like “AS 2070”. This means the product meets the Australian standard for plastics safe to use for food.

These often unrecognised standards are a part of daily life. Australia has a set of exacting standards which set quality benchmarks for many products. They act as guidelines for design and manufacture of plastic items, shaping the specific polymers used, the ability to use recycled content, and compostability.

There’s a real opportunity to do more here. The issues of plastic waste in our seas and the effects on wildlife are catalysing major public concern. Part of the problem of plastic waste is the difficulty of reusing many types of plastics as the feedstock for new products. We also need stronger incentives to reduce plastic in manufacturing and design.

That’s where standards can come in. The European Union has used standards and legislation to nudge the plastics industry towards a true circular economy. This means minimising the use of plastic where possible, while ensuring old plastics can be turned into new products rather than turning into waste which could end up in our seas. We can do the same, harnessing standards to reduce plastic waste. How? By requiring companies to minimise plastic packaging and setting guidelines for products to be made of specific polymers while avoiding others.

Our new research found a total of 95 standards. Nine of these are Australian. This means there is a great opportunity for Australian experts to get involved in the national and international standards development process.

Why do standards matter?

Think of standards as guidelines and codes of practice. Standards give product manufacturers a framework for the minimum quality and safety required to be able to sell them in Australia. They also help to provide a common language and enhance compatibility and efficiency across markets.

Globally, standards affect an estimated 80% of the world trade. They have real impact. If a product cannot meet the applicable standard in the country or jurisdiction it is intended for, it won’t be accepted.

Plastic recyclers can use standards to ensure their products meet specific requirements, and so provide quality assurance for manufacturers who buy the recycled plastics to make other products.

Standards for plastic reuse can ensure certain products can be used over and over. Labelling standards can also help us as consumers know which items we can and can’t recycle.

Both industry and government may choose to introduce standards. Standards can also increase consumer confidence, promote social acceptance of recycled products and maintain or increase the value of recycled plastics – a vital step towards a circular economy.

Read more:
Here’s how the new global treaty on plastic pollution can help solve this crisis

By bringing in new standards for other stages of the plastics supply chain, we could leverage this powerful tool and help standardise parts of the emerging international circular economy in plastics.

Standards could help us reduce waste at all stages of a product’s lifecycle, from design to manufacture to recycling to reuse.

What did we find?

We worked with Standards Australia to map existing plastics standards around the world. We also went looking for missing links which, if filled, could help to better manage plastic waste.

The majority of existing plastic standards – both Australian and international – are focused on recycling and recovery or waste disposal parts of plastic’s lifecycle.

To create a true circular economy for plastics, we’ll need to update existing standards and develop more which specifically focus on the early stages of plastic production, such as design or creation of the basic building blocks of plastics.

Think of nurdles, the pea-sized plastic beads produced in their trillions as a key first step to making many plastics. When nurdles spill into the sea, they’re very bad news for wildlife. If we create standards focused on these steps, we can help reduce their impact.

Adding more standards could also help us tackle the challenges around making products reusable and recyclable, as well as cutting how much packaging is needed for products.

We can also use them to help assess biodegradable products, to ensure they don’t make existing waste or recycling streams harder to process.

And importantly, standardising the labelling of products could help us as consumers. Imagine if labels on plastic products included the amount of recycled plastics, as well as a rating of how recyclable or compostable the product was.

This would give manufacturers incentives to make simpler products better able to be recycled. It would also avoid specific problems such as multi-layer plastics which are not cost effective to recycle.

In short, plastic standards are an often overlooked way for us to improve how we use and reuse these extraordinarily versatile modern materials.

Plastics don’t have to become environmentally destructive waste. They can be almost endlessly useful – if we require it.

Read more:
Local efforts have cut plastic waste on Australia’s beaches by almost 30% in 6 years

Qamar Schuyler 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. With better standards, we could make plastics endlessly useful – and slash waste. Here’s how – https://theconversation.com/with-better-standards-we-could-make-plastics-endlessly-useful-and-slash-waste-heres-how-189985

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Murphy, Associate Professor of Nutrition & Dietetics and Accredited Practicing Dietitian, University of South Australia

Soy is common in many Asian cuisines, and is growing more popular in Western countries as many people aim for predominantly plant-based diets. It offers many potential health benefits and is generally cheaper than meat.

However, you might have heard soy is linked to cancer risk, or that it can have a “feminising” effect on men.

But what does the research actually say on this?

In fact, most research finds eating a moderate amount of soy is unlikely to cause problems and may even provide benefits. All said, you can safely include moderate amounts of soy foods in your daily diet.

Read more:
Why Australian dietary recommendations on fat need to change

Does soy ‘feminise’ men? Not likely

Soy is rich in high quality protein, and contains B vitamins, fibre, minerals and the isoflavones daidzein, genistein and glycitein.

Isoflavones have a similar structure to natural estrogen and are sometimes called “phytoestrogens” (phyto means plant). Soy isoflavones can bind to estrogen receptors in the body. They can act in a way similar to natural estrogen but with a much, much weaker effect.

Some studies have flagged concerns but these tend to be related to people consuming extremely high amounts of soy – such as one unusual case report about a man with gynecomastia (enlarged breast tissue in men) who, it turned out, was drinking almost three litres of soy milk a day.

As one literature review noted, many of the other studies highlighting concerns in this area are are based on animals trials or rare one-off cases (case reports).

The same literature review noted that while more long term data in Western countries is needed, moderate amounts of soy in “traditional soy preparations offer modest health benefits with very limited risk for potential adverse health effects.”

What about soy and cancer risk?

One study of 73,223 Chinese women over more than seven years found:

Women who consumed a high amount of soy foods consistently during adolescence and adulthood had a substantially reduced risk of breast cancer. No significant association with soy food consumption was found for postmenopausal breast cancer.

This could be due to different types and amounts of soy eaten (as well as genetics).

Some animal trials and studies in cells show very high doses of isoflavones or isolated soy protein may stimulate breast cancer growth, but this is not evident in human trials.

A study in Japanese males reported high intake of miso soup (1-5 cups per day), might increase the risk of gastric cancer.

But the authors also said:

We thought that some other ingredients in miso soup might also play a role […] For example, high concentrations of salt in miso soup could also increase the risk of gastric cancer.

What about heart health?

Soy contains isoflavones, healthy fats like polyunsaturated fats, fibre, vitamins and minerals, and is also low in saturated fat.

Swapping meat in the diet with soy products is going to reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat while also boosting intake of important nutrients.

A study with nearly half a million Chinese adults free of cardiovascular disease, showed those who consumed soy four or more days a week had significantly lower risk of death from a heart attack compared with those who never ate soy.

Replacing red meat with plant proteins including soy products has been associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease.

A moderate intake is fine

If you want to include soy in your diet, choose whole soy foods like calcium-enriched soy beverages, tempeh, soy bread, tofu and soybeans over highly processed options high in salt and saturated fat.

Research on soy is ongoing and we still need more long-term data on intakes in Australia and health benefits.

Overall, however, moderate amounts of soy foods can be consumed as part of a healthy diet and may even help with some symptoms of menopause.

According to the Victorian government’s Better Health Channel:

one or two daily serves of soy products can be beneficial to our health.

Harvard University’s School of Public Health says soy:

can safely be consumed several times a week, and probably more often, and is likely to provide health benefits – especially when eaten as an alternative to red and processed meat.

So don’t stress too much about the soy milk in your coffee and tea or the tofu burger for lunch.

Read more:
Soy, oat, almond, rice, coconut, dairy: which ‘milk’ is best for our health?

Karen Murphy receives funding and/or support from the National Health Medical Research Council. In the last 10 years she has had funding from Dairy Australia and the Pork CRC.

– ref. Have you heard soy is linked to cancer risk or can ‘feminise’ men? Here’s what the science really says – https://theconversation.com/have-you-heard-soy-is-linked-to-cancer-risk-or-can-feminise-men-heres-what-the-science-really-says-186813

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Bessell, Professor of Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

What does a “fair go” look like for Australian children? We asked 130 children aged between seven and 13 years what makes communities strong, supportive, and fair.

Many felt communities are about care and connection. As one ten-year-old girl said, “a community is really just a group of people that help you and always look out for you”.

The children in our research identified five themes that matter in determining whether they have a fair go – or not.

1) Good relationships are essential to children’s experiences of community. An 11-year-old boy said “I love my community, because I know people and everyone is friendly”.

When children know their neighbours and are treated with respect by caring people, they feel included, safe, and supported. But too many children mentioned adults who are rude or dismissive towards them – and they usually felt it was because they were young.

2) Feeling safe is very important to children – but many described the frightening ways some adults behave in their communities, most often because of excessive alcohol or drug use. Aggressive and dangerous driving also makes children feel unsafe and vulnerable in their neighbourhoods.

3) Inclusive places ensure children can actively participate in their communities, but many described feeling unwelcome in public places. Some talked about places designed for very young children and places for teenagers to hang out – but said there was very little for those in middle childhood. Children wanted a say in how public places were designed. As one nine-year-old girl said, “We – us kids – should decide what playground we get, because the adults who design it don’t play on it. It’s our equipment”.

Often, children described parks that are littered with broken glass or dog poo, making them unpleasant places to play. A common concern for children is a lack of footpaths, making it hard for them to safely move around their neighbourhoods.

4) Household resources make an enormous difference to whether children can make the most of their communities. Some children said their family had to move regularly because rent is so expensive. As a result, they never feel part of any place they live. Many could not afford to take part in activities in their communities.

5) Children also spoke about public good and infrastructure – things that also matter to adults. Health care is high on children’s list of what is most important. This is not what we might expect young children to focus on, but many described long waits in emergency rooms when they or their families were ill or injured. Homelessness was also an issue that worried children.

A small number of those involved in the research had experienced homelessness directly – but many more observed it, and said it was deeply unfair. An eight-year-old boy said, when people are homeless “they don’t have stuff, and some people think they are not the same as us. But they are, and it’s not right”.

Read more:
We asked children how they experienced poverty. Here are 6 changes needed now

Children described the complexities of communities and the many factors that determine whether they have a fair go or not. Analysing the themes children identified, and the detail within each, was challenging – until a nine-year-old girl said “communities are like a jigsaw puzzle. You need to have all the pieces in place to make them work”.

And so, the community jigsaw was born. The jigsaw presents the five major themes children identified, and the most important pieces within each. When all the pieces are in place, communities are strong and supportive – not only for children, but for people of all ages. As the pieces fall away, communities become less fair and children feel more vulnerable.

Our research was across communities with different socioeconomic profiles. While children in all communities raised similar issues – chidlren’s experiences varied greatly and reflected inequalities in Australia. Those in more disadvantaged communities were far more likely to experience challenges.

Children living in less advantaged communities often talked about caring, friendly people who helped each other, but also described deep structural problems: a lack of public transport, poor services, few parks and playgrounds. Children from lower-income communities were more likely to describe not being able to participate in activities or visit places (such as movies or the local pool) due to the cost.

There are lessons from this research for how we can ensure every child, in every community really does have a fair go.

First, the way adults treat children, even in small, everyday encounters, matters. For many children, the words and gestures used by adults make them feel vulnerable and excluded.

Second, there are structural and systemic issues that mean some children do not get a fair go. From policies that fail to address poverty and disadvantage to planning that is not child inclusive, too many children are being left behind.

Two initiatives would begin to address this immediately: the adoption of child rights impact statements (already in place in some parts of Australia) and child-friendly planning.

Our research shows is it time for us to listen to children – and to act to ensure they are all safe and supported. In the process, we might make communities fairer for everyone.

Sharon Bessell receives funding from:
The Australian Research Council
The Norwegian Research Council
The Paul Ramsay Foundation
The Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

– ref. We asked Australian children what they needed from their communities. Here’s what they said – https://theconversation.com/we-asked-australian-children-what-they-needed-from-their-communities-heres-what-they-said-189772

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct professor of architecture, University of Adelaide

If COVID-19 had taught us anything it surely must be that poorly ventilated buildings can be a health hazard. Yet due to a weakness in current rules they continue to be built.

Under Australia’s National Construction Code it is possible to build a nightclub for 1,000 people with no ventilation. And it is possible to build a school for 600 people with no ventilation, or an aged care centre for 300 people with no ventilation.

This is because the Code requires windows that can be opened for natural ventilation, but nothing requires them to be opened in service.

And where the Code requires mechanical ventilation (fans or air conditioning) it is possible to build a hospital where the air that is supplied to patient rooms travels back to the air conditioning unit via corridors. A recent design in Footscray is typical.

This means that visitors, patients and health care workers have to travel through airborne effluent from unwell people to reach them.

Rules for water, few for air

The Code has rules for ensuring the purity of water delivered through plumbing, but no rules for ensuring the purity of air, or requirement to deliver a minimum standard of ventilation in buildings accessed by the public.

The Code’s revised Indoor Air Quality Handbook is now out for consultation.

The handbook is a guide for practice that is meant to go beyond the bare bones of the Code.

The revisions include nothing that would ensure indoor air was free from particulates, carcinogenic gases such as nitrogen oxide and benzine, pathogens such as bacteria, mould and fungal spores, or viruses – such as COVID-19.

Read more:
Poorly ventilated schools are a super-spreader event waiting to happen. It may be as simple as opening windows

The Code and Handbook say buildings can be “deemed to satisfy” air quality requirements if they provide one of two things:

• “natural ventilation” using openable windows measuring 5% of the floor area

• “mechanical ventilation” complying with Australian Standard 1668.2

But no law or regulation prevents the construction of a naturally-ventilated building that can be operated with its windows shut.

In a home, opening and shutting windows is within the control of the occupant.

But in a publicly accessible building, occupants normally are unable to control windows, and in winter or summer they are often shut to control the temperature.

Airborne particles kill millions

Worldwide, pre-COVID, acute respiratory illnesses such as colds and influenza caused an estimated 18 billion upper airway infections and 340 million lower respiratory infections every year, resulting in more than 2.7 million deaths and economic losses in the billions.

More broadly, tiny particles with widths as small as small as 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) were responsible for more than four million deaths each year.

Read more:
I live in an apartment. How can I cut my risk of getting COVID?

One single airborne viral disease, COVID-19, has now claimed between 17 million and 25 million lives worldwide. Most transmission occurred indoors.

Good ventilation and high-efficiency particulate absorbing filtration could have prevented much of it.

This ought to be fixed at the top, with national indoor air quality standards that progressively apply to all buildings accessed by the public.

No parts-per-million standard

Ideally, the standards would include upper limits for all contaminants, down to and including a width of 2.5 microns.

These contaminants include bacteria, viruses, pollen and spores as well as particulates from bushfire smoke, vehicles and combustion processes.

Ventilation should also be sufficient to ensure that gaseous contaminants generated by building contents and indoor activities stay at safe levels.

Relatively inexpensive and reasonably accurate handheld devices are now available to measure contaminants and could be used to monitor compliance.

Schools ought to be the first priority.

Many schools operated by state and Catholic education systems suffer from a massive shortfall in capital spending, contrasting with Rolls-Royce provisions at many high-fee private schools.

Nearly all state and low-fee schools operate in buildings in which heating, ventilation and air conditioning is an overlay on a natural ventilation.

Usually, these systems just recirculate air, or worse, in the case of unflued gas heaters, pollute it. Teachers ought not to be placed in the position of having to choose between thermal comfort and good ventilation.

This should not mean windows are set so they are always open. It should mean the building is safe even if the windows are shut.

This will cost money, but the benefits to children are likely to outweigh the costs.

The revision of the Indoor Air Quality Handbook is an opportunity for the Building Codes Board to start reforming the code so it takes health into proper account, rather than continuing to kick the can down the road.

Geoff Hanmer 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. Poorly ventilated buildings are allowed under Australia rules – it’s time to fix it – https://theconversation.com/poorly-ventilated-buildings-are-allowed-under-australia-rules-its-time-to-fix-it-189229

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gail Iles, Senior Lecturer in Physics, RMIT University

Earlier this week, the Artemis I Moon mission was scrubbed again; now we have to wait for a new launch window.

Just 40 minutes before the Space Launch System rocket was set to take off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on September 3, a leaking fuel line caused engineers to scrub the launch.

So what is a launch window, and why can’t a rocket go up at any time? And what does it mean to “scrub” it?

Waiting for the right alignment

A launch window is like waiting for the stars to align. The rocket will be “thrown” off the surface of Earth. This toss must be timed perfectly so the craft’s resulting path through space sends it – and everything it’s carrying – towards the intended location at the right time.

For Artemis I – a mission to send the Orion capsule into orbit around the Moon – the “right time” means waiting for the Moon to be as close to Earth as possible (known as “perigee”) during its 28-day cycle. Hence why we’ll now be waiting roughly four weeks for the next moonshot.

With much of the flight path relying on gravity assists (a “swing-by” that uses the momentum of a large body to increase or decrease the speed of a passing craft) from both Earth and the Moon, and because we want the Orion capsule to come back safely, the timing is crucial.

Orion must slingshot past the Moon, not crash into it, so the positions of the rocket launcher, Earth, Moon and lunar capsule must all be known precisely at all times.

It was a similar story with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. In this case, mission controllers were making sure it didn’t hit the Moon on its way to Lagrange Point 2 – a gravitationally balanced spot between Earth and the Sun. The launch of the telescope was scrubbed a couple of times to avoid bad weather; it eventually launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket on Christmas Day 2021.

Read more:
The Webb telescope has released its very first exoplanet image – here’s what we can learn from it

‘Weird’ mission lingo

So why is it called “scrubbing” the launch and not cancelling it? Turns out there’s some fairly specific lingo for space missions.

There are actually five different words used for abandoned space missions. “Scrubbed”, “cancelled”, “scrapped”, “retired” and “terminated” all sound alike, but to mission planners they mean different things.

A mission that is “cancelled” will not be launched. For example, the International X-ray Laboratory was planned to be launched in 2021 as a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), but due to budget cuts it was cancelled. Planning had gone into it, research had been done, but nothing was built. This is a mission cancellation, which usually happens in the developmental stages.

If the mission is part of a program that is axed, this is “termination”. So if Russia leaves the International Space Station program, its participation will be terminated, even though the ISS mission continues. This is the same as when NASA terminated participation in the ESA ExoMars mission.

On the other hand, the last Saturn V rockets were “scrapped” when the last three Apollo missions were “cancelled”. Two Saturn V rockets are on display at Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, made up of “scraps” from several older rockets and missions.

Finally, we’re used to seeing astronauts retire, but the same happens to space missions too. The Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and STS (space shuttle) programs have all been “retired”. This means no further missions of that type will occur.

Read more:
We need to protect the heritage of the Apollo missions

Scrubbed

So, why was the Artemis I launch scrubbed? The expression “scrubbed” is a leftover from the days when mission details were handwritten on a chalk board. If bad weather or equipment failure happened, the mission start time information was wiped off the chalkboard with a damp cloth – scrubbed.

It’s still assumed the mission will happen, but it will be rescheduled for a different time.

This is good news for all those eagerly waiting to see Moon missions happen again for the first time in 50 years. The Artemis I launch has merely been postponed to the next available launch window.

Read more:
NASA is launching the 1st stage of the Artemis mission – here’s why humans are going back to the Moon

Gail Iles 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. Why do we always need to wait for ‘launch windows’ to get a rocket to space? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-always-need-to-wait-for-launch-windows-to-get-a-rocket-to-space-189971

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mirella Atherton, Lecturer in Law, University of Newcastle

The Albanese government will keep its election commitment to abolish the cashless debit card. Cashless cards limited the financial autonomy of over 17,000 participants, a disproportionate number of whom are First Nations people.

The cashless debit card represents a payment partnership that has linked the welfare system with the banking and financial services sector. The aim of the card has been to police how welfare recipients spend social security benefits.

The card emerged from prior policies of compulsory income management and reduces access to discretionary cash by permitting spending only on certain items.

The new government is right to abolish the cashless debit card. The card is incompatible with the fundamental principle of informed choice in financial services. Even worse, this system imposes financial control that is inescapable, dehumanising and discriminatory.

Read more:
There’s mounting evidence against cashless debit cards, but the government is ploughing on regardless

History of financial discrimination

The Senate stolen wages inquiry of 2006 noted a history of discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers and wage appropriation that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries.

Multiple submissions to that inquiry attributed poverty experienced by First Nations people to this history of stolen wages and other monies, where governments sought to control the lives of Aboriginal people by making them wards of the state or otherwise placing them under the power of “protectors”, Aboriginal Protection Boards or similar government institutions.

These institutions nominally held the wages and other entitlements of Aboriginal workers in trust (as Aboriginal people were not considered capable of managing money). But the moneys were frequently not paid, used for other state purposes, or stolen by “protectors”.

The inquiry noted evidence that governments were negligent in their administration of the misappropriated wages of First Nations people.

Despite this history, governments in recent years have implemented policies with clear links to wage control programs of the past. Compulsory income management and cashless debit card systems have been implemented with the justification that these systems reduce violence and harm associated with alcohol, gambling and drug use.

Read more:
Has Labor learnt from the failure of the cashless debit card?

The cashless debit card is introduced

A trial of the cashless debit card commenced in 2016. By 2021, it had extended to multiple sites, as identified by the Department of Social Services. This latest form of income management has been applied disproportionately to First Nations people and has gendered outcomes for women.

Research into the experiences of Aboriginal women subject to income management in the Northern Territory revealed that it was stigmatising. It also restricted women’s freedom of consumer choice and did not improve women’s capacity to care for their children.

The cashless debit card scheme echoes the overtly paternalistic motivations of earlier government efforts to control the incomes of Aboriginal people.

For example, the 1912 Maternity Allowance Act declared “Aboriginal natives of Australia” were ineligible to receive benefits. Aboriginal women were often expressly excluded from receiving such payments when they were introduced, and later subject to the appropriation of those benefits by government or missions.

Read more:
Why is the government trying to make the cashless debit card permanent? Research shows it does not work

The use of a cashless debit card system – as with similar historical examples – is a compounding factor that intersects with other sources of disadvantage and vulnerability. First Nations women need financial autonomy to manage social impacts in their communities.

UK use of a similar system for asylum seekers

Restricted debit cards are used in other countries for vulnerable groups. For example, refused asylum seekers in the UK receive temporary support through restricted debit cards that can be used to buy food and toiletries at specified stores.

Asylum seekers living on this support reported that the system curtailed their freedoms, privacy and ability to make financial decisions. The UK scheme, like those used in Australia, reinforced the exclusion of people living in poverty.

Financial decision making is critical to an individual’s ability to make informed choices. Cashless debit card systems undermine the fundamental principle of informed choice, and would clearly be unacceptable to demographic groups with greater social and political capital than those subject to them.

Read more:
Australia has been stigmatising unemployed people for almost 100 years. COVID-19 is our big chance to change this

Abolish the system mindfully

We welcome the government’s decision to abolish the cashless debit card. However, careful consultation is called for in the process.

Typically, debit cards are only issued with the prior consent of the consumer. The cashless debit card is an exception to this requirement, with cards issued to people without their consent.

It is incumbent on governments to ensure the free, prior and informed consent of First Nations people in welfare and financial services initiatives. Programs initiated without the informed consent of participants have seldom been looked on well throughout history.

It is known that financial institutions can collect huge volumes of data, and the cashless debit card system has not been subject to disclosure requirements. There is a risk that data collected from the cards could be shared without the card holders’ knowledge or permission. We would like the government to carefully consider what will be done with this data; where it will be housed, who will have access to it, how long will it be stored and what will happen to it afterwards.

Read more:
‘I don’t want anybody to see me using it’: cashless welfare cards do more harm than good

Another consideration for the government should be what support is offered to former card holders when the system is abolished. The cashless debit card has not encouraged saving and instead has debilitated people and entrenched poverty.

Use of the card was not supported by financial literacy or wellbeing programs. In future, information and financial assistance could be implemented in consultation with First Nations communities and organisations.

The government should be mindful that the financial needs of First Nations people, particularly women, are complex. Restrictions on financial autonomy can have an amplified effect for some communities. This is especially true for communities routinely subject to income controls.

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

– ref. Eliminating cashless debit cards is great, but the government must be careful about what it does next – https://theconversation.com/eliminating-cashless-debit-cards-is-great-but-the-government-must-be-careful-about-what-it-does-next-189304

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Almost everyone who’s moved house has a story to tell – the truck was too small, the power got cut off too soon, the cat got lost on the day. Moving house can be stressful, but the better prepared you are, the higher the chances you’ll enjoy the result.

But this is unlikely if you’re moving to prison.

When you are arrested and detained in custody – or when your court hearing ends with unexpected imprisonment – there’s no time to sort out feeding the cat, picking kids up from school or redirecting mail.

Currently in New Zealand, only exceptional circumstances mean people get time to prepare for jail. The Sentencing Act permits a two month deferral on humanitarian grounds, such as terminal illness or suicide risk. But there’s no allowance for the normal – and often traumatic – disruption of going to prison in the first place.

Fitting your life into a suitcase

One of my specialist research areas is prison architecture, and it was looking into the issue of prisoner property that first made me think about the transition to prison life. Prisoner property is a largely invisible issue, as most of us rarely think about how prison affects people’s lives.

But prison isn’t simply the removal of someone from society. It’s an extreme example of how architecture can fit or not fit someone’s life. Almost everything we associate with being at home – the ability to control the space we live in, to make choices about how we occupy space, to have things with personal significance around us – is taken away.

Read more:
Sam Uffindell was lucky to avoid NZ’s criminal justice system as a schoolboy – but it was the right outcome

The unique power dynamics inherent to prisons make it difficult to separate their built environments from the specific demands of life behind bars. Architecture is always about the way people use buildings; even the banal issue of how much storage space there is. In prison these mundane details become – literally – inescapable.

The challenge of moving, of being in a new space, is amplified in prison. The human aspects of an environment are stripped down to what you can fit into the equivalent space of a small suitcase.

In New Zealand this “suitcase” for stored prisoner property is 500mm x 400mm x 300mm – less than your checked-in luggage for an Air New Zealand flight.

Time to prepare

Giving as many people as possible time to prepare for prison won’t increase their storage space, but it will enable them to prepare psychologically and get their affairs in order.

As Australia’s Justice Action advocacy group explains, going to prison can mean losing things that make a home:

Every item, gift, photo of loved ones and clothing. Certificates and formal documentation are lost too […] many prisoners […] lose everything except the clothes they were wearing on arrest.

Having a partner can make some things easier, but not everything.

In some countries, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the US federal system, a deferred prison start date is a norm for low-risk prisoners. In the US it’s called voluntary or self-surrender. In Norway it’s the “waiting list” or “call up” system.

On the face of it, this sounds positive. Norwegian research found time before prison helped prisoners prepare practically and emotionally.

Read more:
Overhaul of NZ women’s prison system highlights the risk and doubt surrounding use of force on inmates

One went on a road trip to show his son the prison where he was going to serve time. Another celebrated Christmas with family in November because he’d be in prison in December. Others worked overtime to reduce the financial cost of imprisonment.

People can also investigate what prison life will be like. Some find taking themselves to prison is less humiliating than arriving in a prison van. Importantly, this time also helped prisoners maintain positive relationships after their release.

But it’s not all positive. Waiting can be hard. One interviewee told researchers:

You get worn out mentally, have trouble sleeping and it takes so much time where you just wait and wait and wait and wait […] you live in a sort of vacuum.

In Norway, some people wait months or years – and this delay doesn’t reduce their overall sentence. This is because the waiting list is to prevent prison overcrowding. It is an alternative to building more prisons, not a way to better prepare people for prison.

Read more:
How a maximum security prison offers a pathway to academic excellence and a PhD

A better life after prison

But that’s no reason why New Zealand couldn’t take this system – in the spirit of Kiwi ingenuity – and import it for positive outcomes.

For example, we could expand the Sentencing Act so that low-risk prisoners have time to arrange power of attorney for their financial and legal matters, or spend time with whānau to better prepare them for life with a family member in prison.

It’s well understood that good reintegration into society after prison can reduce reoffending. The Norwegian research suggests time before prison also matters.

Too little attention is given to the damage caused by uprooting people from their social networks and their homes. Reducing this impact on those going to prison, and who pose no public risk, would be humane. It might also foster better outcomes when prisoners return home.

Christine McCarthy is a former president of the Wellington Howard League.

– ref. Prison turns life upside down – giving low-risk prisoners longer to prepare for their sentences would benefit everyone – https://theconversation.com/prison-turns-life-upside-down-giving-low-risk-prisoners-longer-to-prepare-for-their-sentences-would-benefit-everyone-189382

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Carah, Associate Professor in Digital Media, The University of Queensland

Once upon a time, most advertisements were public. If we wanted to see what advertisers were doing, we could easily find it – on TV, in newspapers and magazines, and on billboards around the city.

This meant governments, civil society and citizens could keep advertisers in check, especially when they advertised products that might be harmful – such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pharmaceuticals, financial services or unhealthy food.

However, the rise of online ads has led to a kind of “dark advertising”. Ads are often only visible to their intended targets, they disappear moments after they have been seen, and no one except the platforms knows how, when, where or why the ads appear.

In a new study conducted for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), we audited the advertising transparency of seven major digital platforms. The results were grim: none of the platforms are transparent enough for the public to understand what advertising they publish, and how it is targeted.

Why does transparency matter?

Dark ads on digital platforms shape public life. They have been used to spread political falsehoods, target racial groups, and perpetuate gender bias.

Dark advertising on digital platforms is also a problem when it comes to addictive and harmful products such as alcohol, gambling and unhealthy food.

Read more:
Facebook ads have enabled discrimination based on gender, race and age. We need to know how ‘dark ads’ affect Australians

In a recent study with VicHealth, we found age-restricted products such as alcohol and gambling were targeted to people under the age of 18 on digital platforms. At present, however, there is no way to systematically monitor what kinds of alcohol and gambling advertisements children are seeing.

Advertisements are optimised to drive engagement, such as through clicks or purchases, and target people who are the most likely to engage. For example, people identified as high-volume alcohol consumers will likely receive more alcohol ads.

This optimisation can have extreme results. A study by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and Cancer Council WA found one user received 107 advertisements for alcohol products on Facebook and Instagram in a single hour on a Friday night in April 2020.

How transparent is advertising on digital platforms?

We evaluated the transparency of advertising on major digital platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Google search, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok – by asking the following nine questions:

• is there a comprehensive and permanent archive of all the ads published on the platform?
• can the archive be accessed using an application programming interface (API)?
• is there a public searchable dashboard that is updated in real time?
• are ads stored in the archive permanently?
• can we access deleted advertisements?
• can we download the ads for analysis?
• are we able to see what types of users the ad targeted?
• how much did it cost to run the advertisement?
• can we tell how many people the advertisement reached?

All platforms included in our evaluation failed to meet basic transparency criteria, meaning advertising on the platform is not observable by civil society, researchers or regulators. For the most part, advertising can only be seen by its targets.

Notably, TikTok had no transparency measures at all to allow observation of advertising on the platform.

Other platforms weren’t much better, with none offering a comprehensive or permanent advertising archive. This means that once an advertising campaign has ended, there is no way to observe what ads were disseminated.

Facebook and Instagram are the only platforms to publish a list of all currently active advertisements. However, most of these ads are deleted after the campaign becomes inactive and are no longer observable.

Platforms also fail to provide contextual information for advertisements, such as advertising spend and reach, or how advertisements are being targeted.

Read more:
‘Transparency reports’ from tech giants are vague on how they’re combating misinformation. It’s time for legislation

Without this information, it is difficult to understand who is being targeted with advertising on these platforms. For example, we can’t be sure companies selling harmful and addictive products aren’t targeting children or people recovering from addiction. Platforms and advertisers ask us to simply trust them.

We did find platforms are starting to provide some information on one narrowly defined category of advertising: “issues, elections or politics”. This shows there is no technical reason for keeping information about other kinds of advertising from the public. Rather, platforms are choosing to keep it secret.

Bringing advertising back into public view

When digital advertising can be systematically monitored, it will be possible to hold digital platforms and marketers accountable for their business practices.

Our assessment of advertising transparency on digital platforms demonstrates that they are not currently observable or accountable to the public. Consumers, civil society, regulators and even advertisers all have a stake in ensuring a stronger public understanding of how the dark advertising models of digital platforms operate.

The limited steps platforms have taken to create public archives, particularly in the case of political advertising, demonstrate that change is possible. And the detailed dashboards about ad performance they offer advertisers illustrate there are no technical barriers to accountability.

Nicholas Carah is Deputy Chair of Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education. Nicholas receives funding from the Australian Research Council, VicHealth and Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.

Aimee Brownbill is Senior Policy and Research Advisor at the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.

Amy Dobson receives funding from the Australian Research Council (LPLP190101051 DPDP220100152), VicHealth, and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.

Brady Robards receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE190100858, LP190101051, SR200200364), VicHealth, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Department of Education, Skills & Employment.

Daniel Angus receives funding from Australian Research Council through Discovery Projects DP200100519 ‘Using machine vision to explore Instagram’s everyday promotional cultures’, DP200101317 ‘Evaluating the Challenge of ‘Fake News’ and Other Malinformation’, and Linkage Project LP190101051 ‘Young Australians and the Promotion of Alcohol on Social Media’. He is an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society, CE200100005.

Kiah Hawker, Lauren Hayden, and Xue Ying Tan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How dark is ‘dark advertising’? We audited Facebook, Google and other platforms to find out – https://theconversation.com/how-dark-is-dark-advertising-we-audited-facebook-google-and-other-platforms-to-find-out-189310

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Director, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre; Associate Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Arts, Monash University

How prevalent is young people’s use of family violence in Australia, what form does it take and how does it intersect with experiences of child abuse? These were the key questions we set out to investigate in our new study, which is the first of its kind in Australia.

Funded by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, we surveyed 5,000 young people aged 16-20.

The results provide the most in-depth capture of the complex nature of young people’s use and experiences of family violence in Australia to date.

We found one in five young people we surveyed reported using family violence.

We also found it was very common for young people who had used family violence to have experienced family violence themselves – at least 89% of young people in our study who had used family violence reported experiencing child abuse.

Adolescent family violence in Australia

There is increasing recognition of the prevalence and harms of adolescent family violence.

This refers to the use of family violence (including physical, emotional, psychological, verbal, financial and /or sexual abuse) by a young person against their parent, carer, sibling or other family member within the home.

Family violence used by adolescents has often been recognised and responded to as a distinct form of family violence.

Our study shows why it must be understood as part of intergenerational experiences of family violence.

The nature of young people’s use of family violence

Among the respondents who reported using family violence, the most common forms of family violence reported were verbal abuse (15%), physical violence (10%) and emotional/psychological abuse (5%).

Siblings and mothers were most at risk of being victims of adolescent family violence. Around 51% of the young people who had used violence in the home had done so against their mother, while 68% had used violence against a sibling (including step-siblings).

Young people with a disability, and young people who identified as having a diverse gender and/or sexual identity, were more likely to use family violence. They were also more likely to have been subjected to violence in the home.

This finding is critical, as it demonstrates the need for a suite of tailored and individualised responses for children and young people.

‘I didn’t know how to break the cycle’

Our study shows that young people who use family violence have often experienced child abuse themselves.

As an 18-year-old female in our study reflected:

My own behaviour felt like a mirror of the behaviour I experienced which I hated but I didn’t know how to break the cycle because regardless of how I changed my behaviour, I still experienced the same abuse.

89% of young people surveyed who had used family violence at least episodically reported previous experiences of child abuse. This increased to 96% among young people who reported frequent use of family violence against one or more family members.

Read more:
Abused by our grown-up children: mothers open up about this little-understood form of domestic violence

Our study defined child abuse in two ways: witnessing violence between other family members, and being directly subjected to abuse.

Young people who had both witnessed violence between other family members, and had been directly subjected to abuse, were more than nine times more likely to use violence in the home than respondents who hadn’t experienced any child abuse.

We also found these young people were:

• 2.7 times more likely to use violence in the home than respondents who had witnessed abuse between other family members (but not been subjected to targeted abuse)
• and 2.3 times more likely to use violence in the home than respondents who had been subjected to targeted abuse perpetrated by family members (but not witnessed violence).

The survey invited young people to provide details on the factors they felt had led to their use of family violence. Our analysis found many young people attributed their use of violence to “retaliation”. For example, 93% of young people whose siblings had been violent towards them had in turn used violence against their siblings.

These findings highlight the complex nature of family violence experienced by young people. We emphasise the need to view children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right when trying to understand and respond to their use of family violence.

Significant impacts

Children and young people reported family violence had extensive impacts on all aspects of their lives.

Young people described the physical impacts of abuse, as well as the profound impacts on their emotional and social wellbeing, and their engagement with school.

One 20-year-old male explained:

My life is ruined, and I’m confused […] Nothing makes sense, I don’t know what’s going, I feel really bad, I hate everything. Sorry […] my life is pointless.

Many young people in our study struggled to make sense of their experiences of family violence along with their own use of violence in the home, often in retaliation, self-defence or as a learned pattern of behaviour.

Child-centred early interventions

Of the young people who were able to provide the age when they had started to use violence against family members (60%), 42% were ten years old or younger.

Recognising the substantial overlap with childhood experiences of family violence and other forms of abuse, these findings highlight the critical need to ensure availability of, and access to, child-centred early interventions for young Australians who experience family violence in early childhood.

Responses to these complex experiences require a trauma-informed lens, which recognises young people’s behaviours in the context of their experiences of abuse.

Trauma-informed and age appropriate supports should be integrated into schools, specialist domestic violence and family service providers, and across the health system. These supports should be designed to meet short- and long-term recovery needs.

Since 2016, when the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence described children as the “silent victims” of family violence, there have been calls to strengthen interventions and recovery support for children as victim-survivors in their own right.

Our study repeats that call, providing a significant evidence base from which Australian policymakers and service providers can better understand the complexity of children and young people’s experiences of family violence.

This research highlights the need to respond to victim-survivors of family violence holistically, ensuring recovery support to mothers and children as the primary victim-survivors of family violence.

Kate currently receives funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Victorian Government and the Department of Social Services. This piece is written by Kate Fitz-Gibbon in her capacity as Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and are wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s role as Chair of Respect Victoria.

Silke Meyer currently receives funding for family violence and child protection related research from the Australian Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Department for Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs.

– ref. Almost 9 in 10 young Australians who use family violence experienced child abuse: new research – https://theconversation.com/almost-9-in-10-young-australians-who-use-family-violence-experienced-child-abuse-new-research-190058

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Dunn, Lecturer in Anatomy and Cell Biology, Western Sydney University

As a new parent, I’ve become acutely aware of every person in the vicinity of my daughter who has the slightest sniffle or looks vaguely unwell.

After multiple trips to emergency in her six months of life and a bout of COVID, my protective instincts are in overdrive. But I know illness is an inevitability.

A few days after a family gathering we get the call – my nephew has hand, foot and mouth disease and I should be on the look out for signs in my daughter.

So what is it?

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious infection, most commonly caused by the coxsackie group of viruses. While highly contagious, most cases will be relatively mild.

It’s different from foot-and-mouth disease in animals which has been in the news lately.

There have also been reports of a “tomato flu” impacting children in India. Preliminary evidence suggests it’s hand, foot and mouth disease.

What are the symptoms?

The tell-tale symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease include:

• mild fever
• small white blisters or a red rash appearing within the mouth or on the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet, which can be painful
• sore throat, often linked to the spread of blistering within the mouth and throat.

In younger children, the rash can also be apparent around the buttocks.

Fussiness, irritability and loss of appetite are often reported in children, which could be linked to the sore throat and blisters within the mouth.

Symptoms usually resolve in seven to ten days, with a low risk of complications.

How does it spread?

Hand, foot and mouth disease is highly contagious and spreads from person to person through faeces, coughing and sneezing, direct contact with blisters and contact with contaminated surfaces.

Symptoms will normally appear within three to five days of contact.

How can you prevent it?

Given the modes of transmission, the best form of prevention is good hand hygiene. Washing hands after contact with potential transmission sources greatly reduces the likelihood of contracting the disease.

Keeping children home from school and daycare is advised until the blisters have dried, the rash is gone and all other symptoms are fully resolved.

However, the virus can remain in faeces for several weeks after symptoms have cleared.

Read more:
Yes, we should be keeping the healthier hand-washing habits we developed at the start of the pandemic

Hand, foot and mouth disease is commonly reported in day care centres and schools, with the majority of cases in children ten years and under.

So, teaching children good hand hygiene is one of the most effective tools in stopping hand, foot and mouth disease.

Hand, foot and mouth disease can also transmit to adults. In most cases, adults are largely asymptomatic but are still contagious.

How is it treated?

Most cases are relatively mild, with only paracetamol needed to help alleviate discomfort.

If blistering has spread to the mouth, the associated soreness with swallowing may lead to dehydration and needs to be monitored.

As the fluid contained inside the blisters is contagious for hand, foot and mouth, it’s important to let them dry on their own and not pop them.

In extremely rare cases, the class of viruses which cause hand, foot and mouth can impact the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Persistent fever that isn’t responding to paracetamol, rapid breathing and excessive tiredness could all be signs of severe hand, foot and mouth infection. Severe hand, foot and mouth disease will require medical assistance.

It often seems like hand, foot and mouth disease is on a march through local schools and daycare centres. Practising good hand hygiene and teaching children those same practices is the best defence against contracting and transmitting this disease.

But then I look over at my six-month-old daughter and see the delight she’s taking in sucking on her hand. This is going to be an uphill battle.

James Dunn 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. What is hand, foot and mouth disease? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-hand-foot-and-mouth-disease-189535

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Denniss, Adjunct Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Fossil fuel subsidies from major economies including Australia reached close to US$700 billion in 2021, almost doubling from 2020, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency and OECD.

These subsidies are expected to keep rising in 2022 as governments worldwide attempt to use fossil fuel subsidies to shield customers from the high energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Australia spends billions each year giving subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, despite our climate change commitments. The Australia Institute estimates that in the 2021-22 budget period, Australian federal and state governments’ total fossil fuel subsidies cost A$11.6 billion. That’s up $1.3 billion on the previous year.

Subsidies play an important role in economies like Australia. By pushing the prices of things down below the cost of producing them, subsidies make everything from schools and hospitals to the ABC and childcare much cheaper and more widely available than they would otherwise be.

But it makes absolutely no economic sense to provide subsidies to things that a government is, or should be, trying to discourage.

Read more:
Opening 10 new oil and gas sites is a win for fossil fuel companies – but a staggering loss for the rest of Australia

Australia is a top emitter

Back in 2009 Australia and the other major economies that make up the G20 all promised to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.

But as the new report makes clear, the policy reality of many countries doesn’t come close to matching their ambitious rhetoric of reining in public funding for the major cause of climate change.

Australia is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world. Despite our relatively low population, we come in 15th for total emissions and 8th for per capita emissions. Only major fossil fuel-producing nations rank higher, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

We are even more “successful” at exporting fossil fuels than burning them, ranking third in the world behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Despite Labor’s improved target to cut 43% of Australia’s emissions by 2030, Australia is still looking to open up huge new coal and gas projects.

Read more:
The ultra-polluting Scarborough-Pluto gas project could blow through Labor’s climate target – and it just got the green light

Australia is failing at transitioning away from fossil fuels. Emissions from burning fossil fuels in transport, electricity and industry are all much higher now than they were back in 1997 when Australia signed on to the Kyoto Protocol.

Our fossil fuel exports have risen strongly since then as well, with 114 new fossil fuel projects awaiting approval in Australia, many for the export market.

Subsidies play a major role in this

The federal government subsidises the cost of exploring for coal, oil and gas in Australia, the infrastructure needed to extract and transport those fossil fuels, and then subsidises the use of them as well.

Of the $11.6 billion Australian governments spent on this in 2021-2022, $10.5 billion is accounted for by the federal government alone.

By far the largest of the federal subsidy is the $8 billion Fuel Tax Credit Scheme. This refunds the cost of diesel fuel excise to select industries, with around half going to mining industries.

The cost of these diesel excise refunds is greater than the annual $7.5 billion budget for the Australian Army.

Subsidies work, but only if we are subsidising things we want more of. It’s important we subsidised vaccines to help manage the COVID crisis, and that the previous and current federal governments subsidise renewable energy.

But subsidising fossil fuels when you are trying to transition away from them is like subsidising cigarettes when you are trying to encourage people to quit.

So far, the new government hasn’t indicated it has any plans to cease subsidising fossil fuels.

Economists call subsidies for things governments are ostensibly trying to discourage, “perverse”. So why would the Albanese government continue to spend billions on fossil fuel subsidies, and delay the transition away from coal and gas that voters and climate scientists want to see the back of?

Reasoning is numerous and bizarre

The arguments for keeping Australia’s perverse subsidies are as numerous as they are bizarre.

One argument is that subsidies will help people manage rising energy costs. But direct cash payments to low income earners would be a far cheaper and more equitable solution. Subsidies lock in the status quo, while cash supports help smooth the transition away from climate-wrecking industries.

Back in 2011, after signing on to the G20 pledge to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, the Gillard government declared it had no subsidies to phase out.

But documents released under the freedom of information act showed the treasury had, in fact, identified 17 fossil fuel subsidies that should have been declared and phased out.

At the other end of the spectrum, Senator Matt Canavan argued in 2016 that because all previous coal mines in Australia have benefited from subsidies, it would have been unfair to not subsidise the Adani mine as well.

Labor’s Minister for Resources Madeleine King stated to the Guardian last month: “projects involving these traditional [fossil fuel] energy sources stack up environmentally, economically, and socially, we will support them.”

But if they need expensive subsidies to “stack up”, then they clearly aren’t economically viable. And if the fossil fuel industry doesn’t need the subsidies, then why would any government keep providing them?

Removing fossil fuel subsidies should be the first step taken by any government serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What the latest data makes clear is that its not just Australian governments that are yet to muster the political courage to do something so simple.

Richard Denniss is the executive director of The Australia Institute.

– ref. We pay billions to subsidise Australia’s fossil fuel industry. This makes absolutely no economic sense – https://theconversation.com/we-pay-billions-to-subsidise-australias-fossil-fuel-industry-this-makes-absolutely-no-economic-sense-189866

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Johnson, Lecturer in Finance, Griffith University

Australia’s appetite for home renovations remains strong, with around A$1 billion worth of alterations and additions to homes approved in July.

But rising interest rates and shortages in labour and material may have some would-be renovators wondering: is this still a good idea?

Here are five questions worth considering.

Read more:
What adds value to your house? How to decide between renovating and selling

1. What would a successful renovation look like – before, during and after?

As with any major financial decision, you need to understand how the renovation fits with your broader life goals. Why do you want to do it?

There’s a big difference between a “nice-to-have” new kitchen and a “must-have” modified bathroom for mobility needs.

Let’s say you’re choosing, rather than needing, to renovate.

Consider whether the choice is for capital gain at sale in the short term (up to five years). Flipping a property will incur transaction costs such as stamp duty and legal fees, so factor those into the overall cost. Can you still afford it?

Or are you looking to live in the house over the longer term? Will the renovation deliver lifestyle enjoyment over many years? For some, that may make a period of financial belt-tightening worth it.

It’s never just about the capital gain, increased floor space, amenity or privacy.

A renovation affects areas of life satisfaction beyond finances – including family life, relationships, work, health, and lifestyle opportunities such as being able to afford to travel.

2. Have you done the sums?

You may have quotes from designers or builders. Check the detail including allowances for budget variations. Consider whether some changes – such as solar, good insulation and energy-smart design – may reduce bills over time.

You can use the government’s online Moneysmart calculator to work out what your increased payments would be on a larger mortgage after you’ve paid for a renovation.

Say you have a 25-year mortgage and are considering a $150,000 renovation. That may cost you around $10,000 extra annually in mortgage payments, particularly if interest rates were to increase from a variable rate of 3.5% now to 5.5% over the next few years.

That $10,000 would be in addition to the increase in repayments on your existing mortgage, which (on the average new owner-occupier Australian mortgage of about $610,000) could be around $8,500 extra if rates went up by two percentage points.

3. How much risk can you stomach?

If you had a sudden shock to your income, expenses or health, how long could you cover all your expenses without having to sell major assets or go without lifestyle staples?

This may depend on a range of factors, including whether you have income protection or other insurances, and if you have a savings buffer.

One indicator of your risk is your debt-to-income ratio (total debt divided by before-tax annual income, excluding compulsory superannuation contributions).

Lenders and regulators consider a ratio above six to be high. However, 23.1% of borrowers in the March quarter 2022 had a ratio of six or more.

Your personal debt comfort zone might be much more conservative. Only you will know how much debt you can live with before it stresses you out so much it’s not worth it.

If you have determined your full project is too risky for now, you might consider doing the renovation in stages. But while this might get you a smaller mortgage in the short term, it can cost more in the long run and draw out the time frame.

What if you’ve already had an architect or designer draw up plans and get approvals, but no longer want to renovate? You might consider selling the house with the approved plans; this is still a good value-adding option.

4. What expert advice can you get?

Seeking expert advice from architects, designers, landscapers, builders or project managers before and during the renovation can get you better value, less stress and fewer mistakes overall.

Word-of-mouth recommendations can help, but check the Master Builder Association listings and ratings for builders, too.

It’s vital you do your due diligence on the quality, reliability, solvency, style, insurance and cost of experts you enlist.

That can include seeking advice from a building and construction expert lawyer to check the contract before you sign.

Choose someone who is easy to talk to, listens and understands your goals. The relationship with your build and design team will be crucial.

5. What role do my emotions play?

Almost every episode of renovation reality shows seems to feature an emotional breakdown and a massive budget blowout.

Emotions are an important consideration throughout your renovation. Financial decisions are never just about money.

If maintaining relationships and a healthy stress level is part of what a successful renovation looks like for you, plan ahead for that.

If that means moving into a rental for the renovation period, add it to the budget considerations.

Renovating can be exciting and exhausting, but beware of some of the common renovation decision-making biases.

One is the sunk cost fallacy, where the time and money you’ve sunk into the project so far can make it hard to change or abandon plans.

Even paying a small deposit can lead to an irrational reluctance to change course.

Then there’s decision fatigue, where mental energy gets depleted with each decision (and there are a lot). It gets tempting to give in to whatever seems easiest at the time.

Be prepared to take more time to contemplate high-stakes decisions, and get advice, particularly in areas where you have no experience. Getting the right advice at the right time over a renovation could be among the most important financial decisions you ever make.

Read more:
How much can I spend on my home renovation? A personal finance expert explains

Di Johnson 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. Building costs have soared. Is it time to abandon my home renovation plans? – https://theconversation.com/building-costs-have-soared-is-it-time-to-abandon-my-home-renovation-plans-188298

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Australians on our humiliatingly-low unemployment benefit are about to get their biggest payday ever.

On September 20, the single rate of JobSeeker will climb A$25.70 per fortnight from $642.70 to $668.40. That’s the biggest automatic increase since the payment began at the turn of the 1990s, and twice as big as the next-biggest.

But it will still be a pitiful $17,378 a year – not even two-thirds of the way to meeting the Melbourne Institute’s poverty line of around $28,600 a year.

If the official forecasts turn out to be correct, the next increase (on March 20) will be of a similar order, meaning JobSeeker will have jumped 7.75% in a year, which ought not to be surprising, because inflation will have reached 7.75%.

Until now, pensioners have had a better deal

JobSeeker is linked to inflation, the rate of increase in prices, which has been low since the early 1990s. Wages and national income per person have climbed faster.

Pensioners, including age pensioners, have had a better deal. Since the 1990s, their incomes have been linked to male total average earnings, with a bonus clause that gives them inflation if male earnings don’t climb enough.

The difference between the growth in male earnings and inflation hasn’t amounted to much in any given year – typically 0.6 percentage points, meaning that if inflation was 2.5%, wages were likely to climb 3.1%.

But because wages nearly always grew by more than inflation, even if not by much, over time the compounding of those differences came to matter a lot.

JobSeeker (when it was called Newstart) used to be close to the age pension. In 1997 JobSeeker was A$321.50 per fortnight, and the age pension was $347.80.

But an accumulation of larger percentage increases in the pension (and a one-off increase in the pension) meant that by 2019, on the eve of COVID, the pension was 50% bigger.

Projections based on the then-prevailing rates of inflation and wages growth suggested that, unless something changed, the pension would be twice as much as JobSeeker by 2070.

So weak had JobSeeker become in relation to general living standards (well below the poverty line) that early in COVID in 2020 the Coalition effectively doubled it by adding on a $550 per fortnight coronavirus supplement.

Not enough to ‘meet the cost of groceries’

In an implicit acknowledgement that JobSeeker was no longer enough to feed and house people, then Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the temporary bonus would allow unemployed people to “meet the costs of their groceries and other bills”.

When the temporary supplement ended, the treasurer lifted JobSeeker by only a little – $50 a fortnight, making the point that unemployment was meant to be temporary, whereas the age pension was for the remainder of a pensioner’s life.

There are two other important differences.

One is that the age pension goes to an identifiable voting bloc – the three in every five Australians aged 65 and older. Dudding them would cost votes. There aren’t as many unemployed, and many of them are just passing through unemployment.

Matching JobSeeker to the pension would cost billions

The other difference is that JobSeeker is now so low relative to the pension that boosting it from its present $642.70 per fortnight to anything like the pension rate of $901 per fortnight would cost multiples of the $2.2 billion per year the government budgeted for the $50 increase.

Unemployed Australians (and those on Youth Allowance and other payments that have only increased in line with the consumer price index) seemed condemned to live an income so low as to raise concerns even 12 years ago about:

issues about its effectiveness in providing sufficient support for those experiencing a job loss, or enabling someone to look for a suitable job

And no, those concerns about Australia’s comparatively low unemployment benefits weren’t raised from the Australian Council of Social Service – it was from the hardly radical Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2010. (These days the OECD is headed by former Liberal finance minister Mathias Cormann.)

Former prime minister John Howard has expressed regret about allowing JobSeeker to fall so low relative to the pension. In opposition, Anthony Albanese said it was not enough to live on.

Abbott tried to put pensions in line with jobless benefits

Just for now, the collapse in wages growth and the resurgence in inflation has frustrated what seems to have been a deliberate decision to allow JobSeeker to grow more slowly than the pension.

But it ought to be frustrated for good. Whatever the arguments for setting JobSeeker lower than the pension (the Centre for Independent Studies says pensions are for those out of work for “legitimate reasons”) there’s no defensible argument for a system that allows one to keep falling relative to the other.

Tony Abbott’s Coalition government deserves credit, sort of, for acknowledging this. In its first “horror budget” in 2014, it promised to put pension increases on the same footing as increases in the unemployment benefit.

Read more:
There are lots of poverty lines, and JobSeeker isn’t above any of them

“We promised at the last election not to change pensions in this term of government
and we won’t,” his treasurer told parliament.

But beyond the next election, from September 2017, pensions would only increase in line with inflation, in tandem with unemployment benefits.

Like much of the rest of that budget, the measure didn’t survive a change of treasurer and prime minister.

Cheaper than the Stage 3 tax cuts

In the lead-up to the 2019 election, Labor promised an independent review of JobSeeker. Albanese withdrew the promise ahead of the 2022 election, saying the budget could not withstand it.

His commitments were about priorities. The starting cost of the previous government’s legislated Stage 3 tax cuts, supported by Labor, is $17.7 billion per year, which is less than making JobSeeker match the rate of the pension.

Half of the Stage 3 benefits accrue to Australians earning $180,000 or more.

Beyond the September 20 increase, lifting JobSeeker further in future would change the lives of Australians on $17,378.

In a Radio National interview on Monday, Albanese sounded as if he was open to doing something soon.

When inflation comes down, he won’t be able to rely on unusually high price rises to do the work for him.

Peter Martin 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. Australians on unemployment benefits are set for two record paydays – but it’s a sign of a broken system, long overdue for a fix – https://theconversation.com/australians-on-unemployment-benefits-are-set-for-two-record-paydays-but-its-a-sign-of-a-broken-system-long-overdue-for-a-fix-189954

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

As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team.

In this podcast, Politics and Society editor Amanda Dunn and Michelle discuss Tuesday’s interest rate rise of 50 basis points – the fifth increase in a row – as well as the imminent passage of Labor’s climate legislation though the senate (with minor gestures to crossbencher David Pocock), and the industrial relations negotiations coming out of last week’s summit. They also canvass Scott Morrison flagging he’s staying in parliament for the time being – just as an Essential poll finds a narrow majority of voters want him to leave.

Michelle Grattan 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. Word from The Hill: More mortgage pain, Labor’s climate legislation nearly done, and Scott Morrison staying put – https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-more-mortgage-pain-labors-climate-legislation-nearly-done-and-scott-morrison-staying-put-190078

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

As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team.

In this podcast, Politics and Society editor Amanda Dunn and Michelle discuss Tuesday’s interest rate rise of 50 basis points – the fifth increase in a row – as well as the imminent passage of Labor’s climate legislation though the senate (with minor gestures to crossbencher David Pocock), and the industrial relations negotiations coming out of last week’s summit. They also canvass Scott Morrison flagging he’s staying in parliament for the time being – just as an Essential poll finds a narrow majority of voters want him to leave.

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. More mortgage pain, Labor’s climate legislation nearly done, and Scott Morrison staying put – https://theconversation.com/more-mortgage-pain-labors-climate-legislation-nearly-done-and-scott-morrison-staying-put-190078

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashleigh Barrett-Young, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, University of Otago

The retina has long been poeticised as the window to the soul, but research now shows it could be a window to the brain and act as an early warning system for cognitive decline.

A growing body of research suggests the retina is thinner in people with Alzheimer’s disease, reflecting the cell loss that is a hallmark of the neurodegenerative disease.

We investigated a group of middle-aged people who are part of the Dunedin Study, a comprehensive longitudinal project that has continued for five decades. We found people with thinner retinal nerve fibre layers (one of the cell layers in the retina) had slower mental processing speed. This is one of the first cognitive processes to decline in Alzheimer’s disease.

The people in our study were 45 years old, which is young for investigating age-related neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s. But treatments and interventions are most effective when administered during the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s and it is crucial to find ways of identifying people’s risk as early as possible. Easy risk identification will also help with clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease treatments.

Why the retina is a good biomarker for the brain

The retina (the back of your eye) is part of the central nervous system, and some of its cells connect directly to the brain.

Many of the processes that happen in the brain also occur in retinal ganglion cells, another layer of cells that make up the retina. This includes some of the abnormal processes common in Alzheimer’s disease, such as the abnormal deposition of amyloid beta protein and cell loss.

Retinal imaging has many advantages over other imaging technologies. It’s fast, with each scan taking only a few seconds, non-invasive, painless and relatively cheap.

It’s also already widely available. In Aotearoa, every hospital eye department has an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device for imaging the retina, and these devices are increasingly available in primary care clinics and retail optometrists.

Retinal imaging also lends itself to being interpreted by artificial intelligence applications. This means assessment of Alzheimer’s disease risk from the retina could be quick, easy and widely available.

For these reasons, researchers are beginning to investigate how early the retina starts to thin in Alzheimer’s disease. The disease has an insidious onset, with a gradual decline in cognitive processes such as memory, but the underlying pathology tends to be fairly far along by the time people notice the symptoms and seek medical treatment.

If we can detect retinal thinning before the symptoms become apparent, it could be possible to identify people who are in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Retinal thinning and cognitive decline in middle age

The people we studied are all part of the unique Dunedin Study, which tracked the development of a thousand babies born in Ōtepoti Dunedin between April 1972 and March 1973.

They’ve been assessed repeatedly every few years since, on a wide range of topics including mental health, risk-taking behaviours, respiratory and cardiovascular function, social support and dental health, among others.

They’ve also repeatedly undergone cognitive tests since they were children, each time using similar formats and standardised tests. This means we can compare their cognitive performance in middle age with their own results from childhood.

Read more:
Vaccine resistance has its roots in negative childhood experiences, a major study finds

Most cognitive tests used in Alzheimer’s studies are blunt tools designed to detect large drops in cognition. But the detailed cognitive data we have allow us to detect even small cognitive changes.

Using statistical techniques, we used each person’s cognitive scores in childhood to predict what we’d expect their cognitive score to be at age 45, and measured how far away they were from what we’d predicted.

A number of study members’ scores were substantially lower than what we’d expect, indicating they were experiencing cognitive decline, even in middle age.

Why this matters

While there are a number of potential causes of cognitive decline, papers from our research group are building up a picture of the factors associated with this outcome. We found people experiencing cognitive decline by 45 have older looking brains and more tiny bleeds and lesions, known as hyperintensities, in their white matter (measured using MRI).

Our research found people with thinner retinas had older looking brains and other structural brain abnormalities. This suggests cognitive decline, detected in its earliest stages, is associated with cell loss in the brain and the retina.

Read more:
Illuminating the brain one neuron and synapse at a time – 5 essential reads about how researchers are using new tools to map its structure and function

To investigate this question even further, we are now focusing on measuring study members’ levels of a specific type of protein (phosphorylated tau pTau181) which is abundant in neurons and deposited in cells in several neurodegenerative diseases. This is thought to be one of the earliest indicators of Alzheimer’s disease, and it will help us to understand whether the changes we are observing are specific to Alzheimer’s disease and how early they can be detected.

Developing treatments for advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease has been ineffective so far, and it seems likely future pharmaceutical treatments will be most effective in the earliest stages of the disease.

Also, lifestyle-based interventions may help to mitigate symptomatic cognitive decline. This makes early identification of people who would benefit from these interventions extremely important.

Ashleigh Barrett-Young receives funding from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand.

– ref. A window to the brain: the retina gives away signs of Alzheimer’s disease and could help with early detection – https://theconversation.com/a-window-to-the-brain-the-retina-gives-away-signs-of-alzheimers-disease-and-could-help-with-early-detection-188655

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Plater, Adjunct Senior Academic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Health, University of Sydney

If you’s white, you’s all right
If you’s brown, stick around

But if you’s black, oh brother
Get back, get back, get back

Big Bill Broonzy ‘Black, Brown and White Blues’

It takes a celebrity

During a recent podcast from Meghan Markle’s weekly series Archetypes, the Duchess of Sussex briefly riffed with Mariah Carey about their shared experiences of “colourism”.

Apparently, to some Markle watchers she was too black. To others, she was too white. And for many, she was neither black nor white. According to Markle, the interest in her mixed-race heritage only became weaponised against her after she married a white prince.

The hierarchy of skin shade

Markle was feeling the sting of the global phenomenon known variously as colourism, pigmentocracy or shadeism. These descriptors represent a skin shade stratification system, with deep roots in white supremacy, predicated on the racist notion that dark skin represents savagery, irrationality, and inferiority, while light skin is defined by civility, rationality, and superiority.

Colourism bias is so ingrained that it is often practised among people who share a race or ethnicity. It’s also possible for someone to practice colourism against themselves.

Read more:
Racism is different than colorism – here’s how

Skin shade discrimination, and its hierarchical roots, values, and effects, has been extensively debated in the US and other neocolonial nations, particularly in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

However, it is largely absent from race and racism discussions in Australia. This is likely due to our ongoing reluctance to fully face up to our history of structural violence against Aboriginal people during the protection, segregation, and forced assimilation eras of the 19th and 20th centuries.

This was the period when the so-called science of eugenics bestowed legitimacy on skin shade discrimination as a way of determining the worth of an individual. It informed the policies now infamously known as “breeding out the colour” of Aboriginal people deemed fit for assimilation, and “smoothing the dying pillow” of those perceived unviable for the White Australia project.

Shadeism is one result of this and other state-sanctioned genocidal attempts to rid the nation of its First Peoples.

Read more:
Women of color spend more than $8 billion on bleaching creams worldwide every year

Black-skins, brown-skins, and white-skins

Despite its anaemic presence in Australia’s racism debate, shadeism is an everyday burden for many black, brown, and white-skinned Aboriginal people. But it is complicated, as these interview extracts from a recent study on the workplace experiences of university-educated Aboriginal people show:

Gerard

I’m Aboriginal and Irish, and proud of my heritage. I grew up blackfella-way in a town camp near Darwin. But I’m called a yellafella, or a brown-skin, or a half-caste. Sometimes my brown skin is sought after because the white bosses need an Aboriginal person to do a job. But then that will get used against me by black people because I’m too white for that job. Or by white people because I’m too black for that job. Or by white-skinned Aboriginal people because I’m too brown and they wanted that job. Have I confused you yet?

Loretta

They think you’re the right type but they don’t know what type you are really. And if you turn out to be not what they expect they ditch you because you don’t fit the mould. They want our blackness but we can’t be too black for them, we have to act white. If you can’t act like a white person you’re inappropriate, they just won’t tolerate it.

Tone down the colour

As Gerard and Loretta suggest, being a brown-skin can sometimes mean greater acceptance by white people, provided they “tone down the colour”. In other words, they fare better in mainstream society if they can culturally mirror whiteness.

This is known as culturism, and it is used to fill the gap left behind by discredited notions of racial inferiority. It serves the same purpose as racism in that it measures the worth of other cultures against white standards and finds them wanting.

Many First Nations people, Australians of colour, and migrants of colour know all too well the racially stratified association with cultural inferiority formed by many in dominant Australian society.

Multiple whammys

The shadeism and culturism experienced by the Aboriginal study participants, and other black, brown, and white-skinned Aboriginal people, could be seen as a triple-whammy. They are too black to pass as white. Too white to pass as black. And too connected to culture, kin, and country to be what mainstream Australia prefers its minority racial groups to be – white clones sheathed in dark skin.

Add to that its quasi-hierarchical effect in workplaces and communities, which can drive a wedge between black, brown, and white-skinned Aboriginal people, and you have a shadeist and culturist quadruple-whammy.

Giving up isn’t an option

It was tempting to finish this article on a positive note by writing about hope, allyship, and how together we might ultimately defeat racism, shadeism, and culturism. But as always, a sovereign and unplacated Aboriginal person (Gerard) said it best:

I’m a survivor of racism. I have to be. I have to live and feed the kids. And yeah, sometimes I do feel like giving up battling the system. It’s not good for your health, and many more will go against you. But I know the old people, my ancestors, are watching. Giving up isn’t an option.

Postscript: Eighty-one years ago, African American blues artist, Big Bill Broonzy, wrote Black, Brown and White Blues. Needless to say, its sentiment resonates today.

Suzanne Plater 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. Meghan Markle’s podcast sparked a global discussion around colourism. What is it and how does it look in Australia? – https://theconversation.com/meghan-markles-podcast-sparked-a-global-discussion-around-colourism-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-look-in-australia-189864

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meredith Nash, Professor and Associate Dean – Diversity, Belonging, Inclusion, and Equity, Australian National University

In October 2017, Antarctic science had its own #MeToo moment. Science magazine published a piece on allegations of abuse of female geoscientists in Antarctica – the most remote environment in the world.

US geologist Jane Willenbring detailed appalling sexual harassment during periods of Antarctic fieldwork in the 1990s by her Boston University PhD supervisor David Marchant. After a lengthy investigation, Marchant was fired, and a glacier was renamed to wipe his name off the map.

Willenbring’s testimony was shocking to many in the broader public. But anecdotally, sexual harassment has been an integral part of working in Antarctica for women.

72% of women report harassment

This was confirmed in a recently released report commissioned by the National Science Foundation, which reveals that US Antarctic stations are “plagued” by sexual harassment.

Seventy-two per cent of women surveyed in the report said sexual harassment was a problem in the US Antarctic Program (USAP). Alarmingly, there was low consensus among senior USAP leadership that harassment is a serious problem. Infrastructure to prevent sexual harassment in the program is described as “virtually absent”.

The report includes stomach-churning extracts from interviews with past and current USAP expeditioners:

Every woman I knew down there had an assault or harassment experience that had occurred on ice.

Most people forget that Antarctica is not just a remote, largely empty continent – it’s also a workplace like any other. But the extreme isolation and confinement can create a permissive environment for harassment.

“What happens in Antarctica, stays in Antarctica” encapsulates a view that Antarctica is removed from home not just geographically, but in terms of ethical standards.

Why is sexual harassment rife in Antarctica?

Sexual harassment is an umbrella term. It refers to behaviour that demeans or humiliates an individual based on their sex.

It is prevalent in Antarctica due to historical, cultural and relational factors.

Historically, Antarctica has been a site for masculine feats of endurance, and women were long denied access to the continent – until the early 1980s – in the US, United Kingdom and Australia.

Although women are working in Antarctica in greater numbers now, the cultures of Antarctic science and expeditions remain dominated by men and masculinity. Most Antarctic expeditioners are men, and men dominate senior science leadership in Australia and elsewhere.

Read more:
Finding Shackleton’s ship: why our fascination with Antarctica endures

The hierarchies at play

Making sexual harassment visible and addressing it institutionally is difficult in Antarctica.

One reason is the hierarchical nature of relationships inside Antarctic stations, in scientific research, and in the field.

For instance, PhD students in Antarctic science heavily rely on their supervisors to provide feedback, funding, fieldwork opportunities and mentorship throughout the candidature. The fear of losing this support often motivates them to stay silent about sexual harassment.

For example, Willenbring waited until she had a tenured academic position – nearly 17 years after her last Antarctic expedition with Marchant – to report her harassment claim because she was no longer worried he could ruin her career.

Women who work in Antarctica also rarely report sexual harassment because working in small teams in remote stations or field camps can make it difficult to report incidents or to leave the situation. Reporting is often not seen as viable solution when the human resources office is more than 4,000km away.

Women also often hesitate to complain because they worry it will end their Antarctic career.

Read more:
People stationed in Antarctica menstruate too – and it’s a struggle. Here’s how we can support them

It’s time for a change

Five years since the ##MeToo movement began, little has changed in Antarctica.

National Antarctic programs have done relatively little to explicitly address harassment as a primary safety issue on station and in the field.

And sexual harassment is not confined to the USAP. In 2018, I surveyed women in the Australian Antarctic Program about their experiences of harassment.

My findings are disturbingly similar to the results of the USAP report. Sixty-three per cent of women who responded to my survey reported having experienced inappropriate or sexual remarks when in the field.

Organisational leadership is vital for helping bring about cultural change. In Antarctica, this includes National Antarctic programs and international committees such as the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs.

These bodies play a vital role in communicating the importance of building respectful station and field environments, and fostering a culture of prevention. The onus should not be on victim–survivors to come forward.

What can we do to stop harassment?

We know what needs to be done. Here are key recommendations for positive change:

• National Antarctic programs explicitly defining sexual harassment and setting out individual and institutional responsibilities

• treating sexual harassment as a serious work health and safety issue. Providing more expansive definitions of “risk” and “danger” in training, policies and relevant field manuals

• expeditioners should have information about multiple channels through which to make a complaint and understand how the reporting process works

• regularly communicating the policies and appropriately training expeditioners in relation to their content

• not relying solely on victim-survivors formally reporting to make abuse visible. We should focus on preventing harassment from happening in the first place.

Respectful, inclusive workplace environments do not happen by accident – they are intentionally created. One consistent factor that emerges across accounts of sexual harassment in Antarctica is that many women feel they were insufficiently prepared for what they would encounter.

Sexual harassment is linked to many significant negative health outcomes. It is unethical to continue to recruit women to work in Antarctica if National Antarctic programs have few mechanisms to keep them safe.

Meredith Nash previously served as Senior Advisor – Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity at the Australian Antarctic Division (2020-22). She previously received funding from the Australian Antarctic Division.

– ref. Antarctic stations are plagued by sexual harassment – it’s time for things to change – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-stations-are-plagued-by-sexual-harassment-its-time-for-things-to-change-189984

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McIntyre, Professor, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health (Dunedin), University of Otago

As the New Zealand government reviews mask mandates and other pandemic measures this week, we argue it’s time to reconsider the overall COVID strategy.

With the arrival of Omicron, the pandemic landscape has changed worldwide. Omicron’s latest BA.5 variant now dominates and, in the second half of 2022, most people in all countries have acquired immunity either from vaccination or infection, or both.

In countries like New Zealand, which are emerging from a “zero COVID” elimination strategy, governments must make the difficult transition to community transmission, particularly with respect to managing expectations.

On the one hand, a group of New Zealand public health experts recently advocated a sweeping package of measures in a strategy focused on minimising infection. This includes broadened eligibility for boosters, continued mask wearing in schools and funds to support better ventilation and extended isolation if infected.

At the other end of the spectrum is an “immunity-driven” strategy, which prioritises prevention of severe illness based on three considerations:

• with Omicron, even those adopting the most stringent avoidance measures can be infected

• SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is here to stay and most people will encounter it multiple times throughout their lives

• hybrid immunity from vaccination and infection is broader and more long-lived than either alone.

Given these complexities, what are the uncertainties and trade-offs governments, the experts advising them and the public must balance? We argue it is time to focus on prevention of severe disease – and here’s why.

NZ compares favourably with other countries in the region

In June 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) revised its global COVID-19 vaccination strategy. This included an aspirational goal of 100% vaccination of healthcare workers and adults over 60.

New Zealand is close to this goal. For people over 65, two-dose coverage is above 95% and first booster coverage above 80%. Fewer than 5% of those eligible for their first booster are yet to receive it. For health care workers, booster doses remain mandatory so current employees have full coverage.

For people older than 65 and living in residential aged care, New Zealand achieved 89% booster coverage by mid-February 2022. This head start pre-Omicron is likely to be the most significant contributor to New Zealand’s globally almost unique lower than expected total number of deaths from any cause in the two years before July 2022.

In stark contrast, other countries in the Asia Pacific region with similarly stringent non-pharmaceutical measures at the onset of Omicron had much higher excess mortality. This includes Australia, where booster coverage in aged care was below 10% in January 2022.

It also includes Hong Kong, where less than 50% of people over 70 had received two doses and suffered world-record death rates when Omicron hit; and Singapore, which has the world’s highest two-dose coverage among children aged five to 11 (above 75%) but 5% of people over 80 remained unvaccinated in August 2022.

More than six months into the Omicron era, more than 80% of New Zealand adults have received at least two doses of vaccine. This is among the top 25 countries worldwide. But significant coverage gaps remain for Māori adults under 50.

What about severe morbidity?

In France, during the Delta period, people with no other health conditions made up 50% overall of 28 million with two vaccine doses. But they accounted for only 10% of 5,345 hospitalisations and 2% of 996 deaths due to COVID.

The highest risk of severe disease in two-dose recipients was among people in older age groups, post transplant, on dialysis and those living with cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, mental disability or active lung cancer. Risk increased with each additional health condition and for people in poorer areas.

Read more:
COVID: masks and free tests may not curb omicron spread – here’s what we should focus on instead

When Delta was prevalent, adults (especially people over 50) required a booster dose to maintain good protection. Post Omicron, second booster doses supplemented by early use of antivirals and prophylactic antibody therapy substantially improve protection in fully vaccinated people still vulnerable to severe disease.

What about younger, low-risk populations? In children and adolescents, the vaccine protects well against the low risk of severe disease. This direct protection should be the driver of vaccination, not transient reductions in infection in their household, school or community. We recommend regular reviews of the risk-benefit trade-offs for mask wearing in schools.

How to protect people from long COVID

Long COVID is a challenging topic, complicated by changing definitions, mixing of data from pre- and post-vaccine periods, and differences in age groups.

New research finds the risk of developing long COVID is substantially lower in the Omicron period overall. Long COVID is also substantially less common in fully vaccinated people, including healthcare workers. We do not yet have data about the risk of long COVID with hybrid immunity.

Read more:
New COVID variants could emerge from animals or from people with chronic infections – but it’s not cause for panic

As New Zealand emerges from its Omicron peak, increasing hybrid immunity, and a good – albeit not perfect – toolbox to protect people at risk of severe disease, changes the risk-benefit balance from an indirect “minimising infection” strategy towards direct “maximising immunity” approaches.

It is time to discuss whether New Zealand is ready to measure the success of its COVID strategy by how well it prevents severe disease or wants to measure success by the number of infections of any severity. Making this decision requires critical examination of the benefits, harms and cost effectiveness of each approach.

Peter McIntyre has received funding from the Otago Medical Research Foundation and the Health Research Council as a principal investigator and is a named investigator on current grants from the Health Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. The views expressed in this piece are his own and not those of any of the bodies he is employed by or affiliated with.

Helen Petousis-Harris has been lead investigator on research funded by GSK and COIVD-19 related research funded by the MoH. She has served on Advisory Boards for GSK, Pfizer, Seqirus, and Merck. All honoraria go to institution. She has served on COVID-19 related Advisory Groups for MBIE and the MoH. She has received major grants from US CDC for COVID-19 related research.

James Ussher is Science Director of the Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, which has received funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry of Health. The views expressed in this piece are his own and not those of any of the bodies he is employed by or affiliated with.

The views expressed in this piece are her own and not those of any of the bodies she is employed by or affiliated with.

– ref. How should New Zealand manage COVID from now – limit all infections or focus on preventing severe disease? – https://theconversation.com/how-should-new-zealand-manage-covid-from-now-limit-all-infections-or-focus-on-preventing-severe-disease-189461

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist), The Conversation

This week’s Newspoll is the second since the May federal election, after the first appeared five weeks ago. Labor led by 57-43, a one point gain for Labor. Primary votes were 37% Labor (steady), 31% Coalition (down two), 13% Greens (up one), 7% One Nation (up one), 2% UAP (steady) and 10% for all Others (steady).

61% were satisfied with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s performance (steady) while 29% were dissatisfied (up three), for a net approval of +32, down three points. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s net approval dropped four points to -8. Albanese led Dutton as better PM by 61-22 (59-25 five weeks ago).

This poll was conducted August 31 to September 3 from a sample of 1,505. Newspoll figures are from The Poll Bludger.

The drop in Dutton’s ratings and the increase in Labor’s lead may be due to the revelations of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s secret ministries.

Analyst Kevin Bonham said this Newspoll was the biggest lead for either side since February 2015 after Tony Abbott’s Prince Philip knighthood. But honeymoon polling is not predictive of the next election.

However, Bonham said Victorian Labor will want federal Labor’s honeymoon to continue until the Victorian state election on November 26. A popular federal government will reduce the federal drag on the same state political parties.

Morgan: 52-48 to Labor

Morgan continues to show the Coalition doing much better than other polls. Their weekly update video, for polling conducted August 22-28, gave Labor a 52-48 lead, a one-point gain for the Coalition since the previous week. Primary votes were 39.5% Coalition (up one), 36% Labor (down 1.5), 10.5% Greens (down one) and 4% One Nation (up 1.5).

Morgan has usually been the best poll for Labor, but now it is easily the Coalition’s best poll. Will this skew to the Coalition in Morgan relative to other polls continue?

A Morgan poll taken in late August from a sample of 1,240, had 61% preferring to partner with the US for security issues, with the European Union on 22% and the UK on 14%. On preferred economic partner, 43% selected the EU, 25% the US and 22% the UK.

Essential poll: Albanese’s ratings rebound

In an Essential poll, conducted in the days before September 6 from a sample of 1,070, 59% approved of Albanese’s performance (up four since August), and 25% disapproved (down three), for a net approval of +34, up seven points. Albanese’s ratings had fallen from a high June peak in July and August.

Regarding Morrison’s secret ministries, by 51-25 respondents thought he should resign from federal parliament, and by 59-18 they thought he should appear at an inquiry into the issue. A federal ICAC was supported by 76-15 (78-11 in October 2021).

Respondents were asked whether they trusted various institutions. The most trusted was scientific bodies like CSIRO (71% at least some trust, 23% little or no trust). State health authorities were trusted by 62-33. Politicians were the least trusted, with state parliaments at 48-47 trust and the federal parliament at 48-46 not trusted.

Trust in health authorities peaked at 70% in May 2021, but declined to 59% by June this year. It has now rebounded a little to 62%. Federal parliament’s trust has continued to decline from 55% in August 2020. The beginning of the COVID pandemic explains the high trust ratings in 2020.

Additional Resolve federal and NSW questions

The Poll Bludger reported August 31 that additional questions from the federal Resolve poll I reported August 23 had 62% supporting the 43% cut to carbon emissions, including 27% strongly supporting. Opposition was at 19%, including 10% strongly opposed.

In a New South Wales Resolve poll, conducted with the federal survey from a sample of about 500, 56% thought former NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro’s trade commissioner appointment a case of “jobs for the boys”, with only 14% selecting the alternative that Barilaro was a worthy candidate in a fair process.

By 45-27, respondents thought Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet had handled the Barilaro affair badly.

Liz Truss will be Britain’s next PM

The result of the UK Conservative postal membership vote was announced Monday, with Liz Truss defeating Rishi Sunak by a 57.4-42.6 margin. Truss will now replace Boris Johnson as UK prime minister after Johnson was forced to resign as Conservative leader in early July, though he remained caretaker PM.

I covered this and some upcoming international elections for The Poll Bludger on Monday. Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is likely to be ousted in October by a former left-wing president.

Adrian Beaumont 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. Labor extends big lead in Newspoll, but Morgan is much better for Coalition – https://theconversation.com/labor-extends-big-lead-in-newspoll-but-morgan-is-much-better-for-coalition-189872

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivienne Lewis, Assistant professor – Psychology, University of Canberra

We usually think of eating as simple – a biological response to how hungry or full we feel.

But eating and enjoyment is a very complex process. Our upbringing, the influence of others such as family and friends, our emotions, media, education and our health status are all strong influences on how, what and when we eat. Then there is how food is cooked and prepared, our religious beliefs and values, and our access to food.

When I work with people with eating disorders, I frequently hear loved ones asking why sufferers don’t just eat like a “normal person”. They can’t understand why they struggle to eat. I try to explain eating is strongly influenced by the way we think about food, our bodies and ourselves.

Experimenting with taste

Sensory sensitivity can have a strong influence on our food preferences. This can be a factor for people with autism, who might be sensitive to how foods taste, feel, look or smell.

They might be hypersensitive to sensations others wouldn’t be bothered by. For example, they may not like the way a food feels in their mouth and so develop an aversion to that type of food.

Often this is called “fussy eating” where a person won’t eat certain foods. Hypersensitivity becomes a problem if it means a person is very restricted in what they will eat to the point where they may become malnourished or unhealthy as a result of their food choices. This can be annoying and concerning for families and loved ones. Specialist dietitians and psychologists may be able to work with people with aversions and sensitivities.

People who are not autistic may maintain dietary restrictions and preferences too. Our culture and familiarity with certain foods affect our eating habits and enjoyment of food. How experimental we are with foods often depends on how varied our diet has been growing up. For example, when children are exposed to a limited variety of foods they are often less inclined to try unfamiliar foods as adolescents and adults due to a fear of the unknown.

Read more:
Six ways to improve meal times with your children

Eating as a chore

Some people avoid eating and take a long time to eat foods. In extreme cases, this is associated with restrictive eating disorders and food aversions.

Food aversion is when a person doesn’t enjoy food or gets very little pleasure from eating. Meals may be seen as an inconvenience or chore. People may only eat highly processed foods such as takeaway or drive-through burgers. They might go long periods without eating if the limited food they like isn’t available. It’s like a phobia of eating.

If people lose a lot of body weight due to their reluctance to eat or become unhealthy generally, treatment revolves around eating by the clock and setting a routine as well as desensitisation to food, which can make it more of a chore. Eating more socially with friends and making the eating experience more pleasurable can help.

Sometimes when meal times have been associated with negative experiences such as arguing at dinner time, the pleasure of eating with family can be lost. Pairing eating with pleasurable interactions is important for healthy eating.

Good foods and bad foods

Food preferences can also be learnt. In eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, people develop a lot of rules around what foods are “good” or “bad”. Usually we attach these value judgements to low calorie or “healthy” foods. Eating these foods might make a person feel more comfortable and positive about themselves. If they eat “bad” foods, typically those high in sugar and carbohydrates, they might feel guilty and negative about their body and themselves.

When these beliefs become rigid and restrictive, re-education can help people be more flexible with their eating such as being able to eat foods without guilt. I like to talk about all foods being “good” foods and focusing on their function in and for the body. For example, sugar helps give us energy, carbohydrates help us concentrate.

Read more:
Treating a child’s mental illness sometimes means getting the whole family involved

Food as reward

We also eat in response to our emotions. We might engage in “stress eating” to distract ourselves from a pressing problem, or eat treats to reward ourselves for doing something we don’t like.

When children are given lollies, ice cream or something else they really like to eat and perhaps don’t have very often for good behaviour or an achievement, food becomes a powerful reward.

The reverse action – being deprived of food, such as dessert, for poor behaviour – is also powerful.

Complex associations

So, the way we eat and what we eat is related to how we are feeling, who we are with, our experiences with food, our associations with particular types of foods, as well as our simple biological need for fuel and energy.

More than just a simple response to hunger, our relationship with food is a complex interplay of our emotions, our familiarity with food, our senses and our culture and upbringing.

Read more:
Serving up choice and dignity in aged care – how meals are enjoyed is about more than what’s on the plate

Vivienne Lewis 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. When I work with people with eating disorders, I see many rules around ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods – but eating is never that simple – https://theconversation.com/when-i-work-with-people-with-eating-disorders-i-see-many-rules-around-good-and-bad-foods-but-eating-is-never-that-simple-188803

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University

The evidence is clear: microplastics have contaminated every corner of the globe. We can’t escape exposure to these tiny bits of plastic (less than 5mm across) in the environment, which includes the homes where people spend most of their time.

Recent research has discovered microplastics in the blood of humans. However, the question of harm to humans remains unresolved. Despite concerns that some substances in microplastics could cause cancer or damage our DNA, we still have a poor grasp of the true risks of harm.

Our study of global microplastics exposure inside homes across 29 countries, published today, shows people living in lower-income countries and young children are at greater risk of exposure. But our analysis of the chemical composition of microplastics in the home shows the specific health risk is surprisingly low. The study covered all the continents, including Australia.

The current challenge in understanding health risks from microplastics is the very limited data on toxic effects of the petrochemicals used in plastics production.

A recurrent theme in the environmental health research literature is that early concerns about suspect chemicals and related compounds, including those found in plastics, were eventually justified. The effects of suspect substances only become clear after extensive toxicological and epidemiological research.

Read more:
You’re eating microplastics in ways you don’t even realise

What did the new study look at?

Our study investigated three main questions relating to exposure to microplastics inside homes:

1. what are the impacts in different countries across the world?

2. who is most at risk?

3. what are the specific health risks?

We reached out to residents across 29 countries to collect their indoor atmospheric dust over a one-month period. At 108 homes sampled across these countries, we also collected information about households and behaviours. This helped us to better understand possible sources and causes of microplastics in dust. These data included:

• how often floors were cleaned

• flooring type

• presence or absence of children

• number of people living in each home

• percentage of full-time workers.

In each home, atmospheric dust particles were collected in specially cleaned and prepared glass Petri dishes. We measured the levels of microplastics in the collected dust using a suite of microscopic techniques and instruments. We used infrared spectroscopy – which identifies substances by how they interact with light – to determine the chemical composition of these microplastics.

Read more:
House dust from 35 countries reveals our global toxic contaminant exposure and health risk

What did the study find?

The household dust contained a wide variety of synthetic polymer fibres. The most common were:

• polyester (as polyethylene terephthalate) at 9.1%, which is used in clothing fabrics

• polyamide (7.7%), which is mainly used in textiles

• polyvinyls (5.8%), which are used in floor varnishes

• polyurethane (4.4%), which is used in surface coatings of furniture and in bedding

• polyethylene (3.6%), a common polymer used in food containers and reusable bags.

We examined the prevalence and risk of microplastics according to the gross national income of each country, grouped as low, medium and high-income (such as Australia). Overall, we found lower-income countries have higher loads of microplastics, which were deposited at an average daily rate of 3,518 fibres per square metre. The rates for medium-income and high-income countries were 1,268 and 1,257 fibres/m²/day.

In low-income countries, the most prevalent synthetic polymer fibres were made of polyurethane (11.1% of all fibres in samples). In high-income countries, polyamide and polyester were the most prevalent microplastic types (11.2% and 9.8% respectively).

So what are the health risks?

For the first time we could attribute the health risk across countries according to incomes. Our analyses showed lower-income countries are at higher risk from microplastic pollution. This aligns with research findings on other toxic exposures – poorer countries and people are most at risk from pollution.

Nevertheless, we found the overall risk from microplastics exposure was low. We used the US Environmental Protection Agency’s toxicity information on polymers in the microplastics to calculate health risk based on the types and levels we detected.

Low-income countries had a higher lifetime risk of cancers due to indoor microplastic exposure at 4.7 people per million. High-income countries were next at 1.9 per million, with medium-income countries at 1.2 per million.

We attributed these differences in cancer risk to the different percentages of carcinogenic substances in the microplastics found in household dust.

We calculated the sum of the carcinogenic risk from inhalation and ingestion of the following chemicals in the microplastic fibres: vinyl chloride (polyvinyl chloride), acrylonitrile (polyacrylics) and propylene oxide (polyurethane). Because toxicity data for polymers are limited, the assessment was a minimum estimate of true risk.

Children are at greater risk irrespective of income, which is true for many types of environmental exposures. This is because of their smaller size and weight, and tendency to have more contact with the floor and to put their hands in their mouths more often than adults.

Our analysis indicated that the microplastics came mainly from sources inside the home, and not from outside. Synthetic polymer-based materials are used widely in high-income countries in products such as carpets, furniture, clothing and food containers. We anticipated levels of microplastic shedding in the home might be greater in these countries.

However, analysis of the data showed the only factor obviously linked with levels of microplastics in deposited dust was how often they were vacuumed. Frequent vacuuming reduces microplastic levels.

Vacuuming was more frequent in higher-income countries. Factors that influence the type of cleaning include people’s preference for sweeping and mopping versus vacuuming, as well as their access to and capacity to afford electronic vacuum cleaners.

Read more:
We’re all ingesting microplastics at home, and these might be toxic for our health. Here are some tips to reduce your risk

What can we do to reduce the risks?

Based on this and our previous study data, it is clear vacuuming regularly, instead of sweeping, is associated with less airborne microplastics indoors. Other obvious actions – such as choosing natural fibres for clothing, carpets and furnishings instead of petrochemical-based polymer fibres – can reduce the shedding of microplastics indoors.

Future research needs to focus on developing more complete profiles of the harmful effects of each of the toxic petrochemical-based synthetic polymers that can produce microplastics. This will give us a better understanding of the risks of exposure to these ubiquitous pollutants.

Mark Patrick Taylor received funding via an Australian Government Citizen Science Grant (2017-2020), CSG55984 ‘Citizen insights to the composition and risks of household dust’ (the DustSafe project). The VegeSafe and DustSafe programs are supported by publication donations to Macquarie University. He is a full-time employee of EPA Victoria, appointed to the statutory role of Chief Environmental Scientist.

Neda Sharifi Soltani works for Macquarie University. She receives funding from Macquarie University.

Scott P. Wilson has received funding from state and federal grants, corporate entities and philanthropic and charitable organisations to undertake his research . He undertook this work while employed by Macquarie University but is currently employed by Earthwatch Australia.

– ref. Microplastics are common in homes across 29 countries. New research shows who’s most at risk – https://theconversation.com/microplastics-are-common-in-homes-across-29-countries-new-research-shows-whos-most-at-risk-189051