That statement can be found in McGraw Hill’s seventh-grade textbook Texas Science, one of dozens of books up for adoption in the state’s first major consideration of new science instructional materials since 2013. The Texas State Board of Education held its initial public hearing about the proposed materials on August 29 and is expected to make a final decision about them after a second hearing in November. Textbooks that the board adopts will sit on classroom shelves in Texas beginning next fall, and they are likely to influence textbooks across the country.

The books have already engendered controversy. Climate education advocates have asked the state to adopt the new materials because despite their flaws, they include substantial climate content that explains the science underlying the climate crisis; the last set of textbooks adopted by the state a decade ago largely did not. Yet some supporters of the fossil-fuel industry, including a congressional representative, say the books represent, in the words of that representative, an infiltration of “the radical climate lobby” into education, and have asked people to pressure the state to reject them.

The books have been written expressly to conform to Texas’s new science standards—expectations about what students learn in each class and grade. When the State Board of Education updated the standards in 2021, it chose to include information about the climate crisis in a required class—middle school science—for the first time in Texas history. As first reported by Scientific American in 2022, however, the new climate standards did not go as far as many educators hoped. After a concerted campaign by the Texas Energy Council, an industry association that primarily represents oil and gas companies, the board limited the breadth and depth of its new climate science standards. This spring, as reported by E&E News, the board took the additional step of changing its textbook policy to explicitly favor books that emphasize fossil fuels’ “positive” aspects.

Because Texas is among the largest textbook markets in the U.S., the state has had long-standing influence over textbooks published nationwide. That means content written with Texan politics—and the state’s fossil-fuel industry—in mind winds up in classrooms across the country. Textbooks often have a long shelf life, so the approved materials will likely be read by children into the 2030s.

The bulk of public comment at the hour-long public hearing on August 29 comprised testimony by climate education advocates encouraging the board to approve the proposed books as they are because for the most part, their content about the climate crisis is accurate and direct. An 11^th-grade student who testified at the hearing, Marygrace Beinke, argued that it is essential that her fellow students—as well as “our future presidents, teachers and scientists”—understand the threat the climate crisis poses. “Climate change isn’t patient or ineffable,” she said. “It’s a simple cause and effect, something we can and have to stop. Leaving these kids blind to that—it’s not just poor form but dangerous.”

Some members of the board appeared sensitive to the effect that teaching about climate change would have on students’ perception of the oil and gas industry. Board member Will Hickman, who works as an in-house attorney for Shell Oil, asked a testifier whether instructional materials “should also include the benefits” of burning carbon. “We could turn the lights off and turn off the air-conditioning in here. It’d be 110 degrees, and we’d be sitting in the dark,” he said. “Is there a benefit to turning the lights on, turning on the air-conditioning?” The testifier responded that Hickman had conflated the use of fossil fuels with the benefits of electricity, which can be produced with renewable sources.

A few weeks after the meeting, the aforementioned congressperson, Representative August Pfluger of Texas, who represents a portion of the state’s fossil-fuel-rich Permian Basin, wrote a post on Facebook in which he requested that his followers submit a comment to the State Board of Education asking for students to be taught “the truth about the importance of secure, reliable energy produced in the Permian Basin.” He noted that the new science standards require eighth graders to learn about climate change. “We cannot allow the radical climate lobby to infiltrate Texas middle schools and brainwash our children,” he wrote. Pfluger sits on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. His office did not return a call for comment.

To examine how political tensions have affected the upcoming textbooks, I reviewed the climate content in the new middle school science textbook sets put forth by the three largest K–12 publishers: McGraw Hill, Savvas Learning Company (formerly Pearson K12 Learning) and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), which together accounted for four of every five textbooks in U.S. public middle school science classrooms as of 2018. My review found that the proposed new textbooks include much more robust information about the climate crisis than their earlier editions did. In some cases, however, the books appear to cloud the human causes of the crisis.

Each of the three sets—McGraw Hill’s Texas Science, Savvas’s Texas Experience Science and HMH’s Into Science Texas—put the bulk of their climate content in a chapter of an eighth-grade science textbook. Overall, these respective chapters describe recent climate change’s mechanism, impact and human origins without equivocation. But in places, they seem to downplay the role of fossil fuels. Oil, gas and coal account for more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations, yet the chapters each spend more words on the contributions of deforestation, agriculture and urbanization than they do on fossil fuels. In places, the books lean on the phrase “releasing greenhouse gases” rather than “emitting greenhouse gases” or “burning fossil fuels.” The HMH book closes its chapter by highlighting the climate contributions of deforestation, urbanization and “carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by human activities.” Representatives from HMH did not respond to requests for comment about that language.

McGraw Hill’s eighth-grade climate section begins with a scenario for students to evaluate in which four friends are discussing recent climate change. One suggests that while there is evidence of humans impacting the climate, it’s “not considered scientific evidence.” A second says, “I think we now have evidence that supports the idea that humans are affecting Earth’s climate.” A third suggests that “we need more evidence,” while a fourth asserts that climate change “is a natural event. There is no evidence that human activities affect climate.” The book instructs students to evaluate which of the four characters they agree with.

Asking students to debate the causes of climate change is not uncommon: more than half of science teachers across the U.S. say they teach the causes of climate change as a debate. Expert climate educators discourage this approach, however, noting that it could leave students with the misunderstanding that the causes of the climate crisis are also debated by scientists, which they are not.

Outside of the eighth-grade chapters specific to recent climate change, the subject appears in a smattering of other places but not always robustly. In two places, McGraw Hill’s seventh-grade book asserts that both human and natural activities have recently increased carbon levels in the atmosphere. In a response to questions about Texas Science’s climate content, a McGraw Hill representative said that the company “is committed to developing accurate and effective educational materials aligned to the standards and curriculum requirements of our customers. We highly value the insight that our customers and the public bring to discussions of our content during this adoption process, which is ongoing.”

A section in Savvas’s eighth-grade Texas Experience Science about how scientists learn about past climates by studying glaciers lists natural factors that have caused the climate to change over the course of time, including “distance from the sun” and “ups and downs” in ocean temperature. “But these naturally occurring events do not entirely explain the Earth’s temperature changes over the last few centuries. Human activities are another cause,” the section states. “Greenhouse gases are playing a role in warming the planet.”

In an e-mail to Scientific American, representatives of Savvas defended this language, saying that it and other climate content in the book are “fully aligned” with Texas’s new middle school science standards and that Savvas is “committed to ensuring our learning solutions provide the teachers and students we serve with the most accurate, relevant, fact-based, and pedagogically sound content.” Jesse Wilcox of the University of Northern Iowa, a co-author of the textbook, wrote in an e-mail that “we recognize humans are causing climate change. We note in the curriculum that nature, by itself, doesn’t account for the climate change we are experiencing and that greenhouse gases are warming the planet. While we want students to understand that our current climate is a human-caused problem, we also want students to recognize that natural factors (e.g., changes in radiation, orbital changes, and volcanic eruptions) influence climate. This is not a denial of human-caused climate change, but rather, a more complete understanding of factors that impact our climate on Earth.”

The textbooks are still drafts and were initially submitted for public review in April. As part of the adoption process, the Texas Education Agency organized two panels of reviewers to examine them. Neither set of panels asked for changes to the climate content of the three major textbook companies’ middle school books.

Nevertheless, when McGraw Hill presented the changes it planned to make to these drafts, it included tweaks to the eighth-grade climate change material. In one case, the original language said:

“The main way humans have contributed to climate change is by burning fossil fuels to power automobiles and to produce electrical energy. Burning the fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which increases the amount of solar energy that is trapped in the atmosphere. Deforestation also increases carbon dioxide emissions, contributing to global warming.”

In the edited version, this language was changed, and another reference to urbanization was added:

“The main way humans have contributed to climate change is by burning fossil fuels to meet energy demand. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Deforestation and urbanization also increase carbon dioxide emissions, contributing to global warming.”

When asked about these and other proposed edits by Scientific American, a McGraw Hill representative said changes were made for editorial reasons, “such as clarity, length, consistency, and alignment to standards.”

The previous set of middle school science textbooks McGraw Hill put up for adoption in Texas was called iScience and published in 2012. A book in the set suggested that the cause of the climate crisis wasn’t fully understood: “Although many scientists agree with” the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s conclusion that human industry has caused the crisis, “some scientists propose that global warming is due to natural climate cycles.” Editions of the textbook were also sold in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma. By 2018 versions of iScience sat on the shelves of a quarter of American middle school science classrooms, all with that language intact. In 2021 when I asked why that and other inaccurate language about climate change had been written into their science textbooks, McGraw Hill representatives responded that the content had been written between 2007 and 2009, when, they said, the U.N. IPCC “was still in its infancy,” and the science for the human causes of climate change wasn’t as settled as it is today. Yet the IPCC was formed in 1988 and issued its first warning about global warming in 1990.

Two groups of climate education advocates, the Texas Freedom Network and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), conducted their own joint review of the proposed new textbooks’ climate content and found it overall met the limited requirements of the new standards. But in an interview, NCSE’s deputy director Glenn Branch noted that “even the best of the books have lots of room for improvement.”

Judy Dickey, a doctoral student at Texas A&M’s Atmospheric Sciences program and former high school teacher, was one of the reviewers. She says the middle school textbooks left her with the impression that the publishers had watered down the contributions of fossil fuels to the crisis while overemphasizing the contributions of urbanization and deforestation.

“I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it felt like they were trying to shift the blame to other countries,” she says. “Deforestation and urbanization are not a North American problem, so it’s like saying that it’s all these other evil countries that are responsible for climate change.”

The textbooks’ suggestions that nature is contributing to the crisis are “100 percent false,” Dickey says, because while there are natural sources of greenhouse gases, the evidence suggests the planet would be in a cooling cycle if it were not for human emissions.

The Texas State Board of Education is expected to make its final decision about the textbooks at its next meeting, which will take place during the week of November 14. Texas residents can submit written comments on the proposed textbooks until October 30.

The Gender Social Norms Index released yesterday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offers a look at gender equality as measured by people's personal gender bias. The data, which was collected from 75 countries covering 81% of the world's population, found that 91% of men and 86% of women show at least one clear bias against women in the areas of politics, economics, education, and physical integrity.

In other words, 9 out of 10 people worldwide—both men and women—are biased against women in vital areas that impact the world in major ways. Splendid.

Belmont University’s Innovation Labs Partners with TBN

This funding allows the Innovation Labs, established in 2022, to work alongside the Transformational Business Network (TBN), creating the Transformational Business Network Alliance. This strategic partnership will enable both organizations to expand their support for social entrepreneurs and innovators in developing regions around the world. By leveraging their combined resources and expertise, the Transformational Business Network Alliance aims to foster sustainable economic growth and social impact through the promotion of innovative, ethical business models.

Encouraging Development and Reducing Poverty

The objective of this collaboration is to encourage human development and reduce poverty in economically disadvantaged and underserved areas through business-focused solutions. By engaging in these partnerships, organizations aim to foster sustainable economic growth and create meaningful employment opportunities for local communities. Not only do these business-driven approaches empower individuals, but they also contribute to the overall advancement of the regions involved, ultimately leading to a higher quality of life and greater social equity.

Ambitious Goals for the Next Five Years

In the coming five years, the TBN Alliance aspires to initiate approximately 1,800 ventures, generating nearly 11,850 new employment opportunities in frontier and burgeoning markets around the globe. To achieve this ambitious goal, the TBN Alliance will focus on partnering with local entities, fostering innovation, and providing resources to assist in the development and growth of these ventures. Their emphasis on sustainability and social impact will in turn contribute to the overall improvement of the communities involved, resulting in long-term benefits and economic growth.

Startups Addressing Poverty and Fostering Local Entrepreneurship

These startups will strive to tackle poverty by generating jobs, providing essential goods and services, developing affordable innovations, and testing solutions in smaller communities. A crucial aspect of these startups’ initiatives includes addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by impoverished communities while simultaneously fostering local entrepreneurship and self-reliance. By emphasizing sustainability and long-term development, these innovative companies aim to create a meaningful impact on the lives of millions of individuals and contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty.

TBN’s Track Record of Success

Since its inception in 2003, TBN has assisted over 800 entrepreneurs and set up 429 ventures in Asia, Africa, Indonesia, and the Americas, enabling them to positively impact their local communities and contribute to the global economy. These ventures have helped create sustainable job opportunities, enhance skill development, and provide access to essential services for millions of people in these regions.

Innovation and Empowerment in Current Projects

Successful projects like Kopernik, Agape, and Bawa Hope are already making a notable difference. These innovative initiatives have not only brought forth sustainable solutions to some of the most pressing global problems, but they have also empowered grassroots communities to actively participate in their own development and growth. Through continued collaboration and perseverance, the success of these projects has the potential to inspire and pave the way for even more impactful and transformative efforts in the future.

Facilitating Economies of Scale and Accelerated Innovation

This partnership between Belmont Innovation Labs and TBN will facilitate economies of scale through the combined expertise and resources of both organizations. As a result, businesses and startups can anticipate accelerated innovation, reduced operational costs, and increased competitiveness within their respective industries.

Supporting Businesses Addressing Social Issues Globally

Through this initiative, businesses tackling social challenges, such as education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation, will receive crucial funding and resources to expand their impact. By facilitating partnerships between these businesses and key stakeholders, the aim is to foster sustainable development and empower underprivileged communities worldwide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the Belmont University’s Innovation Labs and TBN partnership?

The purpose of this collaboration is to create the Transformational Business Network Alliance, which aims to encourage human development, reduce poverty, and foster sustainable economic growth in economically disadvantaged and underserved areas through business-focused solutions.

What are the goals of the TBN Alliance for the next five years?

In the coming five years, the TBN Alliance aims to initiate approximately 1,800 ventures, generating nearly 11,850 new employment opportunities in frontier and burgeoning markets around the globe.

How do startups contribute to poverty reduction and local entrepreneurship?

Startups help tackle poverty by generating jobs, providing essential goods and services, developing affordable innovations, and testing solutions in smaller communities. They address the specific needs and challenges faced by impoverished communities while fostering local entrepreneurship and self-reliance.

What is TBN’s track record of success?

Since 2003, TBN has assisted over 800 entrepreneurs and established 429 ventures in Asia, Africa, Indonesia, and the Americas. These ventures have created sustainable job opportunities, enhanced skill development, and provided access to essential services for millions of people in these regions.

What are some examples of successful projects?

Successful projects like Kopernik, Agape, and Bawa Hope have brought forth sustainable solutions to global problems and empowered grassroots communities to participate in their own development and growth.

How does this partnership facilitate economies of scale and accelerated innovation?

This partnership combines the expertise and resources of both Belmont Innovation Labs and TBN, enabling businesses and startups to anticipate accelerated innovation, reduced operational costs, and increased competitiveness within their industries.

How are businesses addressing social issues globally supported by this initiative?

Through this initiative, businesses tackling social challenges, such as education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation, will receive crucial funding and resources to expand their impact. By facilitating partnerships between these businesses and key stakeholders, the aim is to foster sustainable development and empower underprivileged communities worldwide.

First Reported on: pridepublishinggroup.com

The post Innovation Lab Sets Up Global Entrepreneurs for Social Impact appeared first on Under30CEO.

United Nations Women, the U.N.’s entity for “women’s empowerment” last issued a press release on October 5. It was about providing women with technical climate-resilient farming skills. Women for Women International, a nonprofit that gives support to female survivors of war, has not released a statement on the terrorist attacks in Israel. The organization’s last post was a Maya Angelou stock quote: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” Same with the Global Fund for Women — its last post was on October 6, about “LGBTQI-led groups, organizations, or networks in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal or Togo.” The Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Equality Fund (formerly the MATCH International Women’s Fund), Plan International, and the Women’s Refugee Commission have all been silent on Hamas’s terrorist attacks.

Organizations that acknowledge Hamas’s crimes against Israeli women do so half-heartedly. Equality Now commented vaguely on the “Israel-Hamas conflict” today:

As we witness the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, we condemn any use of sexual and gender based violence as a weapon of war, which is a grave violation of international human rights. All perpetrators must be held to account within the context of the rule of law.

The specific needs and vulnerabilities of women and children on all sides should be prioritized. 

We highlight the importance of working towards lasting and sustainable peace through reinvigorated efforts via the Middle East Peace Process. This should be done in accordance with international law, with women involved at every stage.

Israeli women are fighting for their right to protect their children, protect their bodies, and sustain their lives. Women of the world who claim to care about global humanitarianism are watching terrorists burn Israeli girls alive, rip babies from mother’s hands, shoot children in front of their parents, rape women in the streets, and parade naked female bodies around Gaza — and they somehow can’t muster a word.

Credits:  HALEY STRACK, is a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism and a recent graduate of Hillsdale College.

Square — the financial services giant known for its small point-of-sale systems — has listed Good Fortune Barbershop in its top five businesses prioritizing sustainability.

The barbershop is a finalist in Square’s inaugural awards, Square 50, which highlights 50 businesses across the globe. Square 50 encompasses 10 categories, including sustainability; people can vote for their favourite business in each category.

Good Fortune Barbershop is the only nominee from Winnipeg and one of seven in Canada.

“It feels awesome,” said Sam Rivait, co-owner of Good Fortune. “We are small, so our impact can only be so big, but I do feel like we try really hard.”

The South Osborne shop houses five barber chairs. Clients coming and going from those chairs accumulated, collectively, around 250 pounds of hair last year.

This year, the number will be closer to 500 pounds — there are more barbers, Rivait said. Good Fortune Barbershop recycles hair through Green Circle Salons, an organization dedicated to recycling and reclaiming barbershop and hair salon waste.

“I see that we are creating waste,” noted Rivait, 33. “I think it’s irresponsible to not be doing what you can to make sure you’re not making the planet worse.”

The business pays to recycle its customers’ hair. It bakes the roughly $1 fee into patrons’ bills.

When Rivait is not shaving locks, she might be planning a community cleanup — Good Fortune hosts an annual event drawing about 100 volunteers.

Rivait drew inspiration from West Broadway, where she had seen similar community cleanups.

“Once the snow melts, there’s just garbage everywhere. I kind of just tell volunteers, pay attention to the river walk, any bus routes, back lanes,” Rivait said.

She and co-owner Cait Bousfield have scoured for environmentally friendly cleaning products to use in the shop and stock hair-care products that are not tested on animals.

The owners wouldn’t have started a business without incorporating green-centred actions, Rivait said.

“We only have one planet. It’s so frustrating sometimes for me to see when people don’t care,” she said.

“There’s no going back from the damage that we cause.”

However, it’s often more work to make environmentally conscious choices, and it’s usually not cheap, Rivait relayed.

“It is hard to be put in positions sometimes where you’re like, ‘Well, this more sustainable decision is going to cost twice as much money,’ especially as a small business,” she said.

She wishes there were more incentives for Manitoba businesses to make green choices.

She would like to retrofit the South Osborne barbershop, but cost is a barrier.

“So many businesses are challenged on so many fronts — higher costs, labour challenges, recovering from COVID,” said Derek Earl, president of the non-profit BizforClimate. “As important as (saving the environment) is, it becomes another thing they have to learn and invest in.”

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

‘So many businesses are challenged on so many fronts — higher costs, labour challenges, recovering from COVID. As important as (saving the environment) is, it becomes another thing they have to learn and invest in’ — Derek Earl, president of BizforClimate

Manitoba businesses signing BizforClimate’s pledge show they want local politicians to prioritize action to limit global warming.

Nearly 170 companies have signed.

“This is our long-term competitiveness. This is about the economy that’s going to take us into the future,” Earl said. “Investors are looking for low emissions … companies (are) going to locate in cleaner jurisdictions.

“We should try to be on the forefront.”

There are local green incentives available, such as Efficiency Manitoba rebates, Earl noted. Still, BizforClimate signatories have indicated they believe more incentives would help.

A clear picture from government on Manitoba’s direction toward net zero emissions would also be useful, Earl said.

“There are quite a number of resources out there,” he added, highlighting BizforClimate and Manitoba Chambers of Commerce online toolkits. “(But) there is a clear need for some ongoing training and ways we can make it easier for business.”

Square chose Good Fortune Barbershop as one of its top five sustainability focused businesses by using first-party data and insights, Saumil Mehta, Square’s head of point of sale and omnichannel, wrote in an email.

Good Fortune joins businesses in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and France being recognized for “putting the planet first and prioritizing sustainability in their operations in remarkable ways,” Mehta wrote.

Each company is a source of inspiration to staff and customers, he added.

“We really love to see local businesses like Good Fortune setting the example for what it means to be a leader while also aligning the owners’ core values with how their business operates in Winnipeg,” Mehta stated.

Good Fortune Barbershop uses Square and has tested the corporation’s prototypes in the past, Rivait said. The Manitoba entrepreneurs didn’t apply for Square 50.

Square began Square 50 this year to celebrate resilient businesses who have faced unique challenges over the years, according to Mehta.

People can vote for their favourite business in each of the 10 categories. Voting is open at squareup.com and closes Oct. 24 at 3 a.m. CT. Winners, to be announced on Nov. 15, receive Square equipment.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Leading the charge on 'Innovating for a Net-Zero Future' is CommBank's General Manager of Climate Strategy and Commitments, Alex Matthews, who helms the institution's climate and carbon efforts. With a decade of experience spanning the US and Asia Pacific, he'll explore how larger organisations and investment firms can collaborate on furthering climate tech and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Joining him is Kirstin Hunter, whose career includes varied roles as a corporate lawyer, management consultant, Co-Founder of Australia's first fossil fuel-free super and now the managing director of Techstars. Hunter is particularly interested in purpose-driven startups that attempt to solve some of the dire social and environmental issues we're currently facing, so she's sure to have some valuable insights to share.

Paul Hunyor also adds his 20 years of experience as an investor to the panel. As the Co-Founder and Managing Director of a global climate investment firm, he has firsthand knowledge of identifying and endorsing businesses that have a positive impact on our environment.

On the climate fintech front is Katherine McConnell, who founded a platform that makes sustainable home improvements more affordable and accessible. McConnell received B&T's Sustainability Crusader Award for her pioneering work and was listed as one of The Australian's 100 Green Power Players this year.

'Innovating for a Net-Zero Future: the Climate Tech Imperative' will be presented by Commonwealth Bank as part of the SXSW Sydney Conference. The panel will take place from 11.30am–12.30pm on Monday, October 16 at the ICC Sydney.

with its spooky costumes and haunted houses, is a time for fun and indulgence. It’s also a time when the candy industry goes into overdrive, producing an immense amount of sweet treats for eager trick-or-treaters. However, as environmental concerns grow, more people are seeking ways to celebrate this holiday sustainably. This article explores brands that offer eco-friendly candy alternatives for Halloween 2023.

1. Unreal Candy

Unreal Candy is a brand committed to making sweets that are free from artificial ingredients, preservatives, and high fructose corn syrup. They use sustainably sourced ingredients and eco-friendly packaging, ensuring their treats are as good for the planet as they are for your taste buds. Unreal Candy offers a wide range of options, from peanut butter cups to chocolate gems, all with a commitment to sustainable practices.

2. Alter Eco

Alter Eco specializes in organic and Fair Trade chocolate, perfect for those looking to enjoy ethically sourced and environmentally friendly treats. Their chocolate bars, truffles, and quinoa puffs are made with certified organic ingredients, and they work directly with small-scale farmers to promote sustainable agriculture and fair wages.

3. YumEarth

YumEarth is dedicated to creating delicious, allergy-friendly, and organic candies. Their Halloween-themed lollipops and gummy candies are made with natural flavours and colours, and they are free from common allergens. YumEarth also uses recyclable packaging and strives to reduce waste in their production process.

4. Surf Sweets

Surf Sweets specializes in organic gummy candies that are made without artificial colours and flavours. Their candies are non-GMO and gluten-free, making them a great choice for children with dietary restrictions. Surf Sweets also uses sustainable practices in their production and packaging, which includes recyclable and compostable materials.

5. Endangered Species Chocolate

Endangered Species Chocolate goes the extra mile by not only producing delicious chocolate bars but also supporting wildlife conservation. Their products feature endangered animals on the packaging, and a portion of their profits goes towards supporting conservation efforts. The company is committed to using ethically sourced cocoa and sustainable farming practices.

6. SmartSweets

SmartSweets is on a mission to “kick sugar” by offering low-sugar and low-calorie gummy candies. Their products are sweetened with natural ingredients like stevia and monk fruit, and they are free from artificial colours and flavours. SmartSweets’ commitment to reducing sugar consumption aligns with the goal of promoting healthier and more sustainable candy options.

7. Torie & Howard

Torie & Howard is known for its organic and non-GMO hard candies and chewy fruit chews. These candies are made with simple, natural ingredients and come in eco-friendly packaging. The company is dedicated to supporting sustainable agriculture and responsible sourcing of ingredients.

The fight against climate change is one of the biggest battles humanity has ever undertaken, but a new paper published today in the journal Science Advances, a warming climate is only one skirmish in a much larger war.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have updated a global sustainability framework, known as the Planetary Boundary (PB) concept, and it’s all-around bad news. First introduced in 2009, the PB concept focuses on nine planetary boundaries, of which climate change is only one—others include things like biosphere integrity, ozone depletion, ocean acidification, and freshwater change.

Staying within the “safe operating space” below these boundaries means maintaining the sustainable Earth that we’ve come to know throughout the Holocene. But crossing one of these nine boundaries means increasing the likelihood of a planetary calamity.

According to new research, humans have now crossed six.

“Respecting and maintaining interactions in the Earth system so that they remain similar to those that have controlled Earth conditions for the past ~12,00 years are critical for ensuring human activities do not trigger dramatic changes in Earth’s condition,” a press statement reads. “We can regard [planetary boundaries] as we do our own blood pressure. A BP over 120/80 is not a guarantee of a heart attack but it increases the risk of one.”

Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), originally composed this framework to bring much needed attention to other areas of the climate crisis. For example, this new paper argues that integrity of the biosphere is the “second pillar of stability of our planet” next to climate change. So while climate change might be the most important side effect of human-induced environmental degradation, it isn’t the only on-going crisis that needs to be addressed.

While six of these boundaries have been crossed, the paper warns that an additional two boundaries—atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification—are increasing toward the boundary threshold. In fact, the only boundary that doesn’t appear to be increasing is the stratospheric ozone depletion.

One of the key takeaways of the study is how biomass affects biodiversity. The scientists’ work shows that 30 percent of energy that was available for supporting biodiversity before the Industrial Revolution has now been appropriated by humans. This is likely the key driver behind biodiversity loss throughout the world. Similar studies will need to analyze further interconnections among these boundaries, and how the transgression of one boundary can greatly impact another.

The fight against climate change is as important as ever, but it’s worth remembering that keeping the thermostat from rising 2 degrees Celsius is only one front in the on-going battle to keep Earth habitable for future generations.

Credits DARREN ORF

Triggered by intense rainfall from a climate-change-supercharged Mediterranean cyclone^⁠, the Libyan dam collapses released floodwater that deposited a portion of the city of Derna in the Mediterranean Sea, drowned thousands of people, displaced tens of thousands more, and has left nearly 300,000^⁠ children at increased risk of disease and malnutrition. Just as unprecedented fires, floods, and storms this year have introduced many people to the dangers of climate change, the immensity of the Derna tragedy has focused attention on the unappreciated risks that dams pose.

The dam-building industry was already in decline long before the Derna disaster. “Peak dams,” the moment when dam-building began to ebb, is now believed to have occurred at least a decade ago^⁠. “There will not be another ‘dam revolution’ to match the scale of the high-intensity dam construction experienced in the early to middle 20th century,” proclaimed a 2021 United Nations University study^⁠. It found that global construction of large dams fell from about 1,500 a year in the late 1970s to about 50 a year in 2020. In Africa, the continent with the highest remaining hydropower potential, a study^⁠ published in Science last month concluded that the decreasing cost of wind and solar energy will make hydroelectric dams non-competitive by 2030.

The increasing danger of dams stems in part from a simple fact: they are aging. Most of the world’s dams were built before 1985^⁠ and are either approaching or have passed the point when they need substantial repair, which is about 50 years old. Yet few are being repaired. In the U.S., where the average dam is 65 years old^⁠, the dangers have been well-documented for decades yet barely heeded. In 2021, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued an infrastructure “report card”^⁠ on which U.S. dams were given a grade of “D”— the same grade dams have received in every ASCE report card since the first in 1998^⁠.

A February 2023 study by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated that rehabilitating 65,000 of the U.S.’s large- and medium-sized dams would cost $157.5 billion^⁠—a price tag that will continue^⁠ to mount as repair work is deferred. And a 2022 Associated Press analysis identified 2,200 U.S. dams that need repairs and would threaten downstream populations if they fail. State and federal funding for repairs has been increasing^⁠ but nowhere near the amount needed to ensure safety. Politicians once took delight in a new dam’s ribbon-cutting, but they have always shown far less interest in providing funding for the un-sexy job of dam maintenance.

In other countries, where government budgets are far more strained than in the U.S., the situation is much worse. In Libya, the failing dams’ weaknesses were well-known. A study^⁠ of the two dams published last year presciently warned that “immediate measures must be taken for regular maintenance… because in the event of a huge flood, the result will be disastrous” for downstream residents. One reason repairs didn’t take place is that Libya is still reeling from the 2014-2020 civil war and is plagued by two rival administrations. In fact, according to a report^⁠ last week in Foreign Policy, more than $2 million was allocated for maintenance of the two dams in 2012 and 2013, but no work ever took place. Libya is one of dozens of countries where dysfunction stymies dam maintenance.

Climate change also makes dam collapse more likely. The design of virtually all the world’s large dams was based on hydrological records that were often insufficient to begin with and certainly didn’t take climate change into account. Now, not only are those records out-of-date, but the huge variability that climate change has introduced into precipitation levels complicates all dam planning. By making both extended droughts and unprecedented floods more frequent, climate change has forced reductions and even stoppages of hydropower generation of some dams, while also subjecting many to floods bigger than they were designed to withstand. Floods presumed to occur once in 1,000 years may now happen once or twice a decade^⁠. On top of all this, as climate change intensifies, it will generate even bigger storms and floods.

The risk that dams pose to humans^⁠ can be partially offset by more carefully monitoring weather forecasts, releasing water behind dams if necessary^⁠, and installing warning systems that alert imperiled people of the need to evacuate. 

But the best way to eliminate the danger is to remove dams entirely. This is especially true for older dams, whose reservoirs become filled with sediment that displaces water and reduces their effectiveness as electricity generators and water storers—and removal often costs less than repairs. Yet dam removal is still in its infancy. Out of the U.S.’s several million dams^⁠ of all sizes, about 2,000^⁠ mostly small dams have been dismantled. Still, the movement is gaining momentum in the U.S. and Europe.

Removal’s greatest benefit is environmental: in returning rivers to free-flowing conditions, it reunites rivers with their floodplains, restores riparian habitat, improves water quality, and re-enables circulation of migrating fish.

Removal also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The idea that dams are “clean” is a widespread misconception, still endlessly promoted by international dam builders and sometimes cited erroneously even by environmentalists. But reservoirs—particularly in tropical and sub-tropical regions—emit methane, sometimes copiously, mostly as a byproduct of decomposing plants and other organic matter near reservoir bottoms. A 2021 study in Global Biochemical Cycles found that the world’s reservoirs emit every year the equivalent of more than a gigaton of carbon dioxide—more greenhouse gas than Germany, the world’s sixth largest emitter.

As dams’ immense environmental damage has surfaced in recent decades, it has become apparent that dams and fossil fuels share many of the same attributes. For a time both delivered a bounty that transformed the world, while their environmental liabilities were hidden. They’re poster children for the seductive allures of technology and its transience—of top-down, growth-at-all-costs economic development and the illusion that humans are exempt from nature’s dominion. Now we measure their costs in bodies swept out to sea.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania and member of an expert panel that helped guide an accompanying report, tells Rodrigo Pérez Ortega of Science. “And much needed.”

The field of genetics has historically been misused to justify pre-existing prejudices. The early American eugenics movement, which believed that so-called “undesirable” traits were determined by genes, formed the basis for genocide in Nazi Germany. During the 1960s and 1970s, discriminatory policies in the United States targeted Black people based on sickle cell disease, which does not solely affect people with African ancestry. Eugenicists created a pseudoscientific footing for racism, classism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism and sexism that began in the late 1800s and still has an impact today.

With its statement, ASHG released a new report detailing its connections to such injustices during its 75-year history. The report was the result of a self-investigation launched by the society in the wake of the racial justice movement following the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. An outside contractor and a 13-member board of experts helped create the report, titled “Facing Our History—Building an Equitable Future.”

While ASHG did not directly support the eugenics movement, nine of its early leaders had leadership positions within the American Eugenics Society—and three of them held these roles during their time as ASHG president, per the report. Additionally, multiple ASHG presidents in the 1950s supported both voluntary and forced sterilizations of people who were seen as genetically “unfit,” including people with disabilities. It wouldn’t be until the 1990s that ASHG took a public stance against the eugenics movement.

“The report and its findings are painful and document a history that must be told and taught so we can prevent its resurgence,” says Brendan Lee, a geneticist at the Baylor College of Medicine and ASHG’s president, in the statement.

Some traits that eugenicists believed “could be eliminated from the population by manipulating genetic inheritance” have no actual biological basis, such as race, per the report. But similar beliefs about race persist today, despite scientific consensus otherwise, Charles Rotimi, former ASHG president and scientific director in the inherited disease branch of the National Institutes of Health, tells the Washington Post’s Sydney Trent.

“I call it genetic innuendo,” Rotimi tells the publication. “It is the feeling that these racial categories have some genetic way of defining them, which has never been true.”

In addition to its apology, ASHG announced new commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. Immediately, it will suspend the use of individual names for its professional awards until they are reviewed for ties to eugenics or other discrimination. Previously, the highest annual award of the society was named after William Allan, a known eugenicist who supported sterilizations.

The organization will also continue to promote diversity in its leadership and the field more broadly. A recent survey found the workforce of genetics and genomics is 67 percent white. ASHG also plans to advocate for more diversity in genetics research, since currently 78 percent of the field’s global research participants are of European descent, per the report.

Erik Peterson, a historian of science at the University of Alabama, tells Science that the report is “a great first step,” but he hopes ASHG will also continue its commitment—for example, by advocating for universities to include the history of human genetics and eugenics in genetics programs across the country.

Lee tells the Post that the apology and report are just the beginning of the work ASHG plans to do. “I think we all recognize that it’s not something that’s ‘one and done’ at all,” he says. “I think that it’s [about] a continuous engagement, and hopefully the trust will be built up over a period of time.”