Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Articles”
Climate change is a serious threat to humans, animals, and the earth’s ecosystems. Nevertheless, effective climate action has been delayed, partly because some still deny that there is a problem. In a new thesis in psychology, Kirsti Jylhä at Uppsala University has studied the psychology behind climate change denial. The results show that individuals who accept hierarchical power structures tend …
SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT More than 160,000 children were disciplined using corporal punishment in public schools in the United States in the 2011-2012 school year, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. School corporal punishment, which typically involves striking a child with a wooden board or paddle, is currently legal in public schools in …
If you think a delusional market is healthy, it’s time for a psychiatric exam. What diagnosis would an experienced psychiatrist offer when presented with the bizarre behavior of the U.S. stock market? We assume that the wild mood swings of greed and fear are “normal” for markets devoted to short-term profit and speculation, but the stock market’s disconnect from reality is …
The ocean circulation that is responsible for England’s mild climate appears to be slowing down. The shift is not sudden or dramatic, as in the 2004 sci-fi movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” but it is a real effect that has consequences for the climates of eastern North America and Western Europe. Also unlike in that movie, and in theories of …
Jean-Paul Pougala’s April 14, 2011 piece in Pambazuka News titled “The Lies Behind the West’s War on Libya” describes how Africa first developed its own transcontinental communications system by purchasing a telecommunications satellite on December 26, 2007: the African Development Bank ponied up $50 million toward the nearly $400 million cost of the orbiter and the West African Development Bank added $27 …
Climate change is happening faster than many species can adapt to − and climate is changing between 3,000 and 20,000 times faster than many grassland species can respond. Since the grass family includes wheat, corn, rice, sorghum, oats, rye, barley and many other plants that underwrite human survival, this is serious news. Although the new research by scientists in the …
“Drained” from taking local municipalities to court over fracking bans, a fossil fuel industry group is now considering charging local officials who suggest such prohibitions with criminal prosecution, new reporting by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette revealed Tuesday. In the face of federal governmental inaction, more and more local municipalities have passed bans on fracking to address the mounting public health and environmental problems caused by the toxic drilling process. In …
One evening in the year 1745, a distinguished scientist was dining in a private room at a tavern in London, when suddenly he noticed a man sitting in a corner and apparently speaking to him. Fearing for his sanity, the scientist hurried home and fell asleep. Later that night, the man from the tavern appeared in the scientist’s dreams claiming …
In order to overcome the partisanship on both sides of this U.S. Presidential contest, the corruption of both of the candidates needs to be acknowledged, and a quick way to do that is to consider the cases of their respective charities (we’ll go beyond that to a broader view afterward): On September 10th, David A. Farenthold headlined in the Washington Post, «How …
For younger generations in the United States, it is hard to know how to vote in any way that will accommodate the future. The Democratic Party is not the party of change. This article will analyze three issues: first, how the Democratic Party in the 21st has shown absolute continuity with the Republican Party on major issues, often in rhetoric and …
