Kategori: News in English

The Canadian Space Agency announced a competition today to name Canada’s first-ever rover mission to the moon. This unmanned mission will explore the south polar region of the moon to search for water ice and explore its unique geology.

I am a professor and planetary geologist. I am also the principal investigator for Canada’s first rover mission to the moon and a member of the science team for the upcoming Artemis III mission, the first human trip to the moon since 1972.

A piece on Canada’s moon rover mission. (Global News)

A Canadian first

It is almost two years to the day that Canadensys Aerospace Corporation and its team was selected to build the Canadian lunar rover.

This mission is hugely significant because it’s not only the first rover that Canada will send to the moon, but it will be the first-ever Canadian-led mission to another planetary body.

While Canadian technology has made it to the surface of the moon and Mars before, it’s always been on missions led by other nations.

Not that this is a bad thing: science is only possible through collaboration. But it’s a testament to the calibre of Canada’s space community that, for the first time in history, we are in the driver’s seat.

Canada’s first rover mission is truly a team effort. Supporting Canadensys are seven Canadian companies that will build various parts of the rover and its science instruments.

I am proud to lead the science team, which includes faculty and students from six Canadian universities in Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. In keeping with the spirit of collaboration in space, we also have several scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom on our team.

One of the science instruments is also being provided by the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, supported by NASA. In return, Canada gets a launch from NASA.

Infographic on Canada’s lunar rover mission.
(Canadian Space Agency), CC BY

What’s in a name?

Every mission needs a name, but not everything is equal when it comes to naming spacecraft. Satellites, for example, are often named in a very functional way — like Radarsat, Canada’s flagship satellite program.

When it comes to rover missions, however, NASA has been choosing inspirational names since the early 1990s with its first Mars rover, Sojourner. Then came along Spirit and Opportunity in 2004 followed by Curiosity eight years later.

The most recent arrival on Mars was Perseverance in 2021, which is currently emerging from a deep meteorite impact crater called Jezero.

NASA’s goal in naming its rovers is to inspire interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); this has undoubtedly been a huge success.

The connection to rovers has also become deeply personal, evident in the outpouring of grief when Oppy — the nickname given to NASA’s Opportunity rover — was declared “dead” in 2019.

The European Space Agency followed suit with its hugely popular animated stories for the Rosetta mission — the first mission designed to orbit and land on a comet — that depicted its Philae lander with a backpack and yellow helmet.

The Philae lander depicted with a backpack and yellow helmet.
(European Space Agency), CC BY

Four potential names

The names of NASA’s series of Mars rovers are inspirational and capture the quest of exploration. In contrast, the Apollo and Artemis programs and many other space missions were named after figures in Greek mythology. Other mission names have historical connotations; some also allude to the culture and values of the country leading the mission.

For Canada’s first moon rover, the Canadian Space Agency has come up with a shortlist of four potential names that conjure up various characteristics of Canada as well as capturing the spirit and goals of the mission:

Athabasca — A famous river that flows from the Rockies through Alberta to Lake Athabasca. Canada’s rivers have been used for millennia and continue to be pathways of discovery, transport and exchange.

Courage — A name that would be representative of the work that has led to the Canadian lunar rover mission.

Glacier — Not only are glaciers associated with the polar regions of Canada, but one of the goals of the rover mission is to find water ice on the moon.

Pol-R — A word play on polar. Canada is a polar country and the rover mission will be landing in the south polar region of the Moon.

The online voting form to name Canada’s first rover mission to the moon is open until Dec. 20, 2024.

The Canadian lunar rover pictured on the surface of the moon in a virtual reality environment. Will it be named Athabasca, Courage, Glacier or Pol-R?
(Canadian Space Agency)

The work continues

As our team waits for Canadians to choose the name of our mission, we are hard at work on all aspects of its design and implementation.

In June, we got the green light for our preliminary design review aimed at assessing whether the original design met all the requirements set forth by the government of Canada, and that the risks, cost and schedule, were all acceptable.

We haven’t chosen an easy mission for Canada’s first trip to the moon. We are going to one of the most hostile regions of the lunar surface: the South Pole. Because of this, our rover must survive very long and cold lunar nights, where the temperature can drop below minus 200C for up to 14 Earth days.

We also have to pack all the hardware, plus our six science instruments, into the rover, which is the size of a small coffee table and weighs only 35 kilograms.

The author, Gordon Osinski, poses next to an early prototype of the Canadian lunar rover.
(Gordon Osinski), Author provided (no reuse)

I recently provided an update on the science of our soon-to-be-named mission at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy. In addition to talking about our science instruments, I also delved into the three main objectives of the mission:

To investigate the geology of this unique region of the moon where, so far, no human or robot has ever been.
To search for water ice, a major discovery in the decades since the Apollo missions. The moon was thought to be devoid of water, but satellite observations suggest deposits of water ice may be present in this polar region. But we need boots on the ground — or wheels, in our case — to confirm these satellite observations.
To study the radiation environment of this region in preparation for the return of humans to the moon.

Canada’s long involvement in space rovers

Over the past two decades, the Canadian Space Agency has funded the construction of a series of prototype planetary rovers ranging from small so-called nano-rovers to massive machines capable of carrying two astronauts. Our new lunar rover has a lot of heritage behind it.

The Canadian Space Agency’s fleet of prototype rovers.
(Canadian Space Agency), CC BY

If not for the delay to the launch of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover mission, originally scheduled for 2022, Canada would have already had wheels on Mars. The wheels, chassis and drive train for the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover was built by Canada’s MDA Space. Launch is now set for 2028.

Canada has also set its sights on a much bigger moon rover. Announced in the 2023 federal budget, Canada aims to build a lunar utility vehicle that will help to transport cargo, perform science investigations and support astronauts on the moon.

This rover will be a major contribution to the NASA-led Artemis program. Following the flight of Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on the upcoming Artemis II lunar flyby mission, the Lunar Utility Vehicle, Canadarm3 and other Canadian contributions to the Artemis program will ensure a Canadian will one day walk on the moon. Läs mer…

Scientists have found new evidence that desertification, potentially linked to global warming, leads to large amounts of nutrient-rich dust landing in the sea, causing ocean algae to grow rapidly. Biological oceanographer John A. Gittings and an international group of researchers have found an example of this phenomenon in the Indian Ocean south-east of Madagascar.

They analysed satellite images that showed how the colour of the sea in that area had changed over the years. Phytoplankton (microscopic algae found in the oceans) affect the colour of the water when they grow rapidly in response to higher levels of nutrients – including iron that’s found in dust. The researchers found that drought in southern Africa’s drylands had caused the strongest phytoplankton bloom in about 27 years, south-east of Madagascar.

What is a phytoplankton bloom?

Millions of tiny organisms called phytoplankton live in every aquatic environment. They are critical components of the Earth system – phytoplankton are estimated to produce about 50% of Earth’s oxygen.

They have a crucial role in the global carbon cycle.

Phytoplankton also form the foundation of marine food webs. They provide an essential food source for organisms like zooplankton (tiny marine animals), which in turn sustain larger species such as fish and whales. This directly benefits fisheries and human communities that rely on them.

Read more:
As the oceans warm, deep-living algae are thriving – with major potential effects for the marine ecosystem

Just like land plants, they grow more in certain seasons. When light, nutrients and other conditions, such as temperature, are at the best level for phytoplankton, they can rapidly multiply and flourish. This leads to the development of a phytoplankton bloom.

Phytoplankton cells contain chlorophyll, a green pigment that affects the colour of oceanic surface waters. This can be detected from space using specialised satellite ocean colour sensors. It is difficult to say exactly how many phytoplankton cells made up the bloom. However, this bloom off the Madagascar coast covered an estimated 2,000km².

How the phytoplankton bloomed.
Courtesy European Space Agency.

During the spring/summer of 2019/2020 in the southern hemisphere, an exceptional phytoplankton bloom was discovered in the Indian Ocean south-east of Madagascar. This was during a period of the year when blooms are not expected. The bloom began in November 2019 before diffusing into the Mozambique channel and broader Madagascar basin in December 2019 and January 2020.

What were the causes of this?

To determine the cause, we conducted an in-depth analysis of what’s known as Lagrangian trajectories in this part of the ocean. This is like following the path of an object as it moves through space. Imagine you’re watching a leaf floating on a river: instead of just looking at the river’s flow, you focus on the leaf’s journey, tracking where it goes and how it moves over time.

We analysed the movement of water parcels (a mass of water of similar properties that can be tracked). This allowed us to investigate whether nutrients important for phytoplankton growth had originated from the east coast of Madagascar and the south-east Africa continental shelf. We then explored whether the settling of dust from the air or atmosphere could have been what had fertilised the ocean.

Read more:
Earth’s oldest, tiniest creatures are poised to be climate change winners – and the repercussions could be huge

We found that in the 60 days prior to the bloom beginning, about 75% of water parcels we tracked to the bloom area did not originate from nearby land masses.

The bloom near Madagascar was caused by nutrient-rich dust that blew from drought-stricken drylands in the western parts of southern Africa. The Etosha and Makgadikgadi salt pans in Namibia and Botswana, pans and ephemeral rivers in the coastal Namibian desert, as well as the south-western Kalahari pan belt, are major suppliers of dust to the Southern Ocean and its outer edges.

Carried over long distances by wind, the dust was deposited into the nutrient-limited surface waters south-east of Madagascar through intense rainfall events. Blooms of this magnitude are rare. But rising air temperatures, increasing dryness, and higher dust emissions in southern Africa suggest that such events could become more common in the future.

How was ocean and marine life affected?

The effects of the 2019/2020 bloom on the broader marine food web in waters south-east of Madagascar still need to be fully investigated. But this abundant food supply could have potentially boosted populations of zooplankton and fish species in the region.

The oceans play a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making them essential for climate regulation. During the 2019/2020 bloom, the region acted as a significant carbon sink because of the high rates of photosynthesis occurring. (Photosynthesis is the process by which plants and algae use sunlight to produce food; in doing so, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air.) As the phytoplankton thrived during the bloom, they took in large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Read more:
Inside the world of tiny phytoplankton – microscopic algae that provide most of our oxygen

Phytoplankton blooms like this one are uncommon. This one was the first of its kind since the beginning of the satellite ocean colour data record – in other words, the first in about 27 years.

Current trends in air temperatures, aridity and dust emissions in southern Africa suggest that such events could become more probable in the future. Together with recent findings on ocean fertilisation by drought-induced megafires in Australia, our results point towards a potential link between global warming, drought, aerosol emissions and ocean blooms.

Dust that fertilises the ocean and leads to an increased number of phytoplankton blooms could help remove carbon from the atmosphere. This will only be confirmed by further research. Läs mer…

ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods has urged president-elect Donald Trump to not take the US out of the Paris agreement on climate change. “We need a global system for managing emissions”, he said in an interview at the annual UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Though Woods’ words were unusually high profile and direct, some of his equivalents at rival fossil fuel firms have expressed similar sentiments.

On the face of it, big oil and gas firms – and ExxonMobil is one of the very biggest – are a surprise proponent of the Paris agreement, which seeks to defend ambitious targets on climate change. After all, these are the very organisations that have financially benefited from contributing to the crisis, and that fought for decades to kill the climate agenda. It’s hard to believe they’re now working for its survival.

One obvious explanation is greenwashing. When oil and gas firms claim to offset their emissions, for example, many people will intuitively recognise an obvious attempt to improve their reputation that has little credibility in practice. These firms of course continue to intensively extract and supply fossil fuels that directly exacerbate global warming.

But there is more to it than simple greenwashing or chasing a positive headline. There are sound strategic (if not moral) reasons why these firms have now decided to at least appear to cooperate with an agenda to reduce emissions.

A global framework helps global firms

The sheer scale of these firms (ExxonMobil operates in more than 60 countries) means they might naturally benefit from a standardised global framework for addressing climate change. This allows multinationals to exploit coordination efficiencies and reduces their uncertainties.

Woods, the ExxonMobil boss, also warned of a “polarised political environment” and the economic impact of “policy switching back and forth as political cycles occur”. The Paris agreement should, in theory, survive changes of government in any one country.

The Paris agreement has already survived one term of Donald Trump.
Avivi Aharon / shutterstock

At the same time, fossil fuel firms have a further interest in being at the table. Their involvement means they can influence things like how quickly we plan to transition to a greener economy and what the transition will involve.

Being part of the emerging discourse about the survival of the Paris agreement perhaps enables them to have a say and build legitimacy for a continued reliance on particular parts of their non-renewable portfolio, like natural gas.

The E in ESG

Even mainstream investors now want firms to explicitly consider so-called environment, social and governance (ESG) impacts. These firms therefore have to be seen to deliver the E in ESG. Whether they’re entirely sincere is less straightforward, and we should interpret their efforts with some caution.

Research my colleagues and I conducted on large firms’ increasing involvement in sustainability initiatives and standards points to a worrying “penalty zone” for the environment. It appears investors do indeed reward some explicit sustainability activities, but they also penalise firms that do “too much”.

After an initial win-win, where firms are rewarded for doing some sustainability, there is a tipping point beyond which being more sustainable weakens financial performance. The implication is that these oil and gas firms must be seen by important stakeholders to be doing just the right amount of sustainability to drive financial performance, and no more.

Large oil and gas firms supporting the Paris agreement is therefore not surprising, especially when we understand it as a strategic response within a politically contested arena.

Now that outright climate denial is no longer an option, influencing the status quo might be their best bet. The involvement of powerful actors can introduce contradictions that delay action, creating what scholars term a “climate impasse”. Such delay serves as useful cover for fossil fuel firms to continue their operations.

Good reason to doubt their motives

There are other good reasons to be sceptical. When colleagues and I researched human rights in the oil and gas industry, we found that claims to be socially responsible often did not reflect the reality. The big firms did have accountability policies but they commonly overstated the actions firms would actually take.

Having human rights policies in place can reassure stakeholders with ESG concerns, yet human rights abuses are still commonplace in the supply chains of large fossil fuel and mining firms, and victims rarely receive an apology, financial compensation or any other remedy.

This kind of hypocrisy is why we must remain alert. When these large oil and gas firms appear to play leading roles as global citizens in addressing climate change, we have perhaps good reason to doubt their motives.

It seems unlikely that their underlying aim is to find the fastest route to reducing emissions. Instead, we might better interpret these moves as tactics to influence the development of norms in the emerging climate change frameworks in ways that can benefit their existing business of extracting and selling fossil fuels.

It will be interesting to follow the public reaction to the apparent incongruence. It’s not yet clear if oil and gas firms will be perceived as making a genuine U-turn, or condemned for showing blatant hypocrisy regarding an increasingly urgent issue of critical societal importance.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get our award-winning weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far. Läs mer…

In the last few years, there has been a spate of military coups in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea. Military rule, long dormant in African politics, is back.

Coup leaders have suppressed protest, gagged the media and spilled much civilian blood in the name of public safety. They claim to be protecting their people from enemies both internal and external – some invented to justify their takeovers and others very real (while military regimes have arguably made violent extremism worse, they did not create it).

The generals fight with one another as much as with their enemies, leading to duelling coups in Burkina Faso and a full-on civil war in Sudan.

In west Africa, soldiers have shaken up the geopolitical order, pushing away France and the United States, while drawing the Russian Federation (or more precisely, Russia-funded mercenaries) closer.

Outside observers, and a fair number of insiders, were blindsided by these events. That’s because military rule, with its drab aesthetics and Cold War trappings, seemed like a relic of the past. Explanations for its return have mostly focused on meddling outsiders, especially Russia. Others emphasise the inherent vice of African states – the weaknesses that were there from the beginning of independence, including poverty and corruption, that made people disenchanted with democracy.

I’m a military historian, and over the last few years I watched with alarm as the history I was writing about military dictatorships in the 1980s became current events. Military rule has deep roots, as my open-access book Soldier’s Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire argues. The coups of the last few years are a return to one of independent Africa’s most important political traditions: militarism.

Militarism, or rule by soldiers, is a form of government where military objectives blur into politics, and the values of the armed forces become the values of the state at large.

West Africa’s recent string of coups can only be understood in the long view of postcolonial history. The military regimes of the past were brutally innovative. They made new rules, new institutions and new standards for how people should interact. They promised to make Africa an orderly and prosperous paradise. They failed, but their promises were popular.

Africa’s military regimes

Militaries ruled by force, not consensus, but plenty of people liked their disciplinary verve. Whipping the public into shape, sometimes literally, had a real appeal to people who felt that the world had become too unruly. Independence did not always mean freedom, and soldiers’ rigid ideas shaped decolonisation in ways that we’re only starting to understand.

Long submerged by more hopeful ideological currents, militarism is now rising back to the surface of African politics. My book describes where militarism came from, and why it lasted so long.

Petty and paranoid

Between 1956 and 2001 there were about 80 successful coups, 108 failed ones and 139 plots across Africa south of the Sahara. Some countries had many coups (Sudan has the highest, with 18 known attempts since 1950) while others had none (like Botswana). But even in places where the military wasn’t in charge, the threat of a military takeover shaped how civilians governed.

The successful coups produced military regimes that were remarkably durable. Their leaders promised their regimes would be “transitional” or “custodial” and that they would hand back power to civilians as soon as they could.

Soldier’s Paradise cover image.
Duke University Press

Few did, and in some countries military rule lasted for decades. This could involve a graveyard-like stability where a single soldier-king ruled for an entire generation (like Burkina Faso), or constant turmoil as one junta gave way to another (like Nigeria). Military governments were petty and paranoid – each officer knew he had a line of rivals behind him waiting for their moment.

In these “revolutions”, as coup plotters called their takeovers, a new ideology emerged. Militarism was a coherent and relatively consistent vision for society, even though not all military regimes were the same. It had its own political values (obedience, discipline), morals (honour, bravery, respect for rank), and an economic logic (order, which they promised would bring prosperity).

It had a distinct aesthetic, and a vision for what Africa should look and feel like. The military’s internal principles became the rules of politics at large. Officers came to believe that the training they used to make civilians into soldiers could transform their countries from the ground up. Some came to believe, ironically, that only strict discipline would bring true freedom.

The army officers who took power tried to remake their societies along military lines. They had utopian plans, and their ideology could not be boiled down to the big ideas of their times, like capitalism and communism. There were military regimes of the left, right and centre; radical and conservative; nativist and internationalist.

Militarism was a freestanding ideology, not just American liberalism, Soviet socialism or European neocolonialism dressed up in a uniform. Powerful outsiders pulled some of the strings in African politics, but not all of them, and officers were proud of the fact that they followed no one’s orders but their own.

Military tyranny

Part of militarism’s appeal was its maverick independence, and military regimes endeared themselves to the public by cutting ties with unpopular foreigners, just like Niger and Burkina Faso did with France in 2023.

Soldiers ran their countries like they fought wars. Combat was their metaphor for politics. Their goal was to win – and they accepted that people would get hurt along the way.

But what did “winning” look like when the enemy was their own people? They declared war on indiscipline, drugs and crime. To civilians, all of this was hard to distinguish from tyranny, and military rule felt like a long, brutal occupation.

No military dictatorship succeeded in making the martial utopia that soldiers promised. Other parts of government pushed back against the military’s plans, and African judiciaries proved especially formidable opponents. Civil society groups fought them tooth and nail, and challenges came from abroad, especially from the African diaspora.

Like most revolutions that don’t succeed, militarists blamed the public for not committing to their vision and outsiders for sabotaging them. They do this today, too.

Today’s military regimes don’t seem to have the same long-term visions of their predecessors, but the longer they stay in power the more likely they are to start making plans. Despite all their promises to return to the barracks, they don’t seem to be going any time soon.

If we’re trying to anticipate what the continent’s military regimes might do next, it makes sense to look to the past. In the late 20th century, military regimes promised to make Africa into a “soldier’s paradise”. That promise is part of their strategy today. Läs mer…

In Japanese society, prostitution is often framed as a necessary evil – a way to maintain social harmony by providing men with an outlet for their pent-up sexual desires.

While there are a number of issues with this view – such as the implication that men are inherently unable to control their sexual impulses – it also has a critical flaw: It frames prostitution as something that only men want or need.

In Japan, female sexuality is often seen through the narrow lens of heterosexual romance and motherhood.

“Rezu fūzoku” upends this view.

Rezu fūzoku, which roughly translates to “lesbian sexual entertainment,” refers to agencies where female sex workers provide sex to female clients. And in Japan, it’s entirely legal. I began investigating female-to-female commercial sex and escort services in 2023. After initially studying the phenomenon of female-to-male crossdressers offering nonsexual, romantic dates to female clients, I decided to expand the investigation to focus on clients seeking sex and romance. The names of the sex workers and clients I interviewed in my research have been changed in this article to protect their anonymity.

Tapping into a niche market

Unlike in many countries that historically criminalized homosexual acts, Japan only briefly outlawed them in the 1870s, during an era of rapid Western-inspired legal reforms.

After that period, the country did not reintroduce laws criminalizing homosexual acts, allowing same-sex relationships to exist largely without legal interference – even if they remained frowned upon in Japanese society.

Furthermore, homosexual prostitution has never been illegal. Japan did enact a strict anti-prostitution law in 1956 that bans the practice, which it exclusively defines as penetrative, paid sex between a man and a woman. As a result, any paid-for activity that falls outside of this definition – such as homosexual sex – is not considered illegal.

For my research, I interviewed a man named Obō, the founder of the Lesbian Girls Club, an agency with branches in Osaka and Tokyo providing female sex workers for female clients.

Obō started out his career as a web developer but soon became burned out and disillusioned.

“I wanted to start my own business, and since I was building websites for several adult entertainment shops, I decided to try something similar. It quickly became clear that while the market was flooded with services for men, there were almost none for women.”

So Obō opened Lesbian Girls Club in 2007, an agency arranging meetups between sex workers and female clients in hotels, rather than at a brothel. Since then, it’s become an institution in Japan, with some of his original sex workers still working for Obō.

A diverse clientele

Initially a niche market, rezu fūzoku gained wider attention when the manga artist Nagata Kabi used Obō’s agency and later chronicled her experience in her work “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness.”

Nagata Kabi created ‘My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness’ after frequenting a Lesbian Girls Club.
Wikimedia Commons

The award-winning manga, which was also released in the U.S. and Europe, introduced the service to many Japanese women who hadn’t previously known about it.

Despite the term “rezu” – lesbian – in the name, Obō’s agency welcomes women of all sexual orientations.

“Some of our clients are lesbians,” he told me. “But many are straight, also married. Most are between 26 and 35 years old, though we also have clients in their 60s and 70s.”

Many Japanese women still find it difficult to explore their sexuality and express their sexual desires, even with their partners. This often leads to unsatisfactory sexual experiences, which can pave the way for sexless relationships– something which is increasingly commonplace in Japan and a situation that many users of rezu fūzoku services shared with me.

As Yuriko, a 35-year-old heterosexual client of rezu fūzoku, explained, “For the very first time I really enjoyed sex! Rezu fūzoku gave me the chance to try new things and to feel good.”

Sex is wellness

In my interviews, the term “iyashi” often popped up.

It means “healing” and refers to activities or services that provide relief from daily stress and negative feelings. Just as yoga classes or massages are seen as forms of iyashi, sex – especially commercial sex – is also branded this way in Japan.

“Men do not understand women and their bodies,” Yuriko said. “But sexuality is a fundamental part of life, and ignoring it only leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. Sex is iyashi.”

The use of this word shows how prostitution in Japan is not always viewed as something to be ashamed of but can also be seen as a form of self-care.

For instance, the practice of dispatching a sex worker to a hotel where she meets the client is called in Japanese “deriheru,” or delivery health, stressing the connection with the iyashi realm. Also, a 90-minute session with a professional sex worker for women is often called “wellness course,” which ties sex to physical and psychological well-being.

Sex workers themselves also emphasize the connection between their occupation and iyashi practices, often referring to themselves as “therapists” or “cast” and downplaying the sexual aspects of their work, instead highlighting the wellness-related ones. Aware of the positive impact their services have on women, many of them expressed pride in their work during our interviews.

“It’s rewarding,” Moe, who has been in the industry for six years, told me. “When a customer tells me she was really struggling but now feels she can try a little harder because we met, I feel glad I chose this job.”

Her colleague, Makiko, agreed. “I am proud of this job. It’s very important to me, and I believe it’s quite needed in society.”

Despite the widespread stigma against sex workers in Japanese society, the legal status of rezu fūzoku services offers employees greater protection and ensures clear working conditions.

And as a marker of how the industry has grown, Tokyo alone is currently home to over 10 rezu fūzoku agencies, according to my research.

‘A refuge for the heart’

Yet, despite the existence of services aimed at women’s sexual well-being, gender inequality remains rampant in Japan.

Women still face significant social and economic barriers. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, Japan ranks 118th out of 146 countries for gender equality and holds the lowest position among G7 nations.

Many of the women who use the services are heterosexual – and are simply looking for a safe place to talk and explore their sexuality.
Yuki Kondo/DigitalVision via Getty Images

By catering to women’s sexual desires outside of the traditional heterosexual framework, rezu fūzoku challenges conventional narratives about women’s sexuality. In a country that has been experiencing falling marriage and birth rates, listening to women and understanding their needs has become increasingly important.

This legal form of sex work clearly fills a need, offering women a safe place to try new things and entrust their sexual pleasure to an expert – who happens to be another woman. One thing that stood out in my research was how popular the service was among women in heterosexual relationships who seemed eager to explore desires that may be difficult to share with a partner.

But what female clients seek often goes beyond sex itself. Many women simply want intimacy – being hugged, cuddled and cared for in a way that is missing not only in the lives of single women but also in those of women in relationships.

“I use this service for comfort and healing,” said Sachi, a 42-year-old woman who’s married to a man. “It is a kind of refuge for the heart offering emotional richness.” Läs mer…

Young families with children are a shrinking part of the U.S. population in many areas. The decline is especially pronounced in major urban centers, including Boston, San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Jose and Washington, D.C.

During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, many families with children moved to suburban or rural areas in search of more space. From mid-2020 through mid-2022, populations of young children fell by 10% in large urban counties that make up metro New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.

This trend has continued: Americans ages 25 to 44 – the years when people typically start families – are increasingly moving to rural counties and small metro areas.

From my research in economic development and public finance, I have observed unique local factors that influence this trend, but also recurring themes. Here are some reasons why major cities are losing young families, and the effects that follow.

What young families contribute to cities

Families form the backbone of thriving communities. Their presence positively affects city infrastructure, local economies and overall quality of life.

Some people may wonder how this can be true when school districts within cities have to spend money on public schools. In fact, along with property tax payments, young families contribute to the economy by spending on housing, groceries, child care, health care, recreation and education. They create demand for family-oriented goods and services, which helps generate stable jobs in sectors such as education, health care, retail and hospitality.

By participating in local events, volunteering and connecting with their neighbors, young families help create lively communities. This kind of engagement fosters a sense of belonging and helps strengthen cities’ social fabric.

Young families help cities maintain or increase their population, which can counter urban shrinkage and decline. They are important advocates for high-quality public services such as schools, parks and libraries, and recreational amenities such as swimming pools and playing fields.

Families often advocate for features that promote healthy living, and for cleaner environments with lower pollution levels and reduced traffic congestion. Neighborhoods with young families tend to have lower crime rates due to parents’ investment in their children’s safety and well-being.

Moving out of urban centers

Why are these families leaving large cities? There are many reasons, including high costs of living and housing, quality of education and school systems, crime and safety concerns and environmental and health factors.

Together, these drivers make many cities less attractive environments for families. Many families are choosing suburban or rural locales where they perceive a better quality of life for raising children.

Declining birth rates also help to explain why the number of households with children continues to shrink in major cities. For many reasons, including concerns about the future as well as current economic conditions, younger Americans are having fewer children, which is reducing household size.

High living costs are a major factor driving young families out of many large U.S. cities.

Cities without kids

When cities lose significant numbers of young families, there can be far-reaching social, economic and demographic impacts. Declining numbers of students can lead to school consolidations or closures.

Reduced demand for family-sized homes and rental properties may depress property values. The city’s labor force can shrink, affecting its local economy and tax base.

As young families leave, declining property and sales tax revenues can make it harder to fund services and maintain infrastructure. Since schools and youth organizations often are hubs for community engagement, residents’ sense of community may weaken over time.

Where the kids are

Some cities are bucking this trend. For example, Austin, Texas, has become a major tech hub in recent years, with many companies relocating or expanding there and creating jobs. Austin’s relatively low cost of living, strong public school system and abundant parks and recreational activities make it a destination that’s often highly rated for families.

Raleigh, North Carolina, is another popular draw for young families with children. It offers a strong job market in technology, health care and education; affordable housing; high-quality schools; and a growing population of young professionals and families.

Other “baby boomtowns” currently attracting young families include Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Boise, Salt Lake City, Orlando and Nashville.

Attracting young families

Overall, families with children consider many factors in choosing a place to live. Affordable and family-friendly housing is usually a top priority. Cities seeking to attract families could prioritize developing affordable single-family homes, townhomes and apartments with family-friendly features, such as common play spaces.

Developers may require incentives to build two- to four-bedroom units, instead of the studios and one-bedroom units that typically are marketed to young professionals. Creating mixed-income housing developments is a way to foster diverse, vibrant communities and avoid gentrification.

Another priority for attracting and retaining young families is well-funded public schools with excellent teachers, resources and extracurricular activities. School systems may be able to collaborate with local colleges and universities to offer family-friendly programs, dual enrollment for high school students and continuing education for parents. Working families also need access to affordable, high-quality preschools and day care centers.

Investing in community policing strategies, neighborhood watch programs and youth engagement initiatives can help to build a sense of safety. Adopting traffic-calming measures by constructing more pedestrian crossings and providing safe routes to schools can reduce the risk of accidents and make streets safer for families.

Recreation is another important area for investment. Creating and maintaining safe parks, with playgrounds, picnic areas and sports facilities, will serve residents of all ages. Walkable neighborhoods, with bike paths and green spaces that promote active lifestyles, are also very appealing to young families.

Parks can build community by offering recreational programs, sports leagues, cultural events, summer camps, art classes and holiday celebrations. Activities like these can help make cities feel like welcoming places. Cities can host events such as farmers markets, outdoor movie nights and seasonal festivals, and promote community sharing to create a sense of belonging.

Most cities don’t have the resources to pursue all of these goals at once. But to attract and retain young families, I believe picking one or two as targets is a good way to move forward. Läs mer…

Mold growth in your home can be unsettling. Blackened spots and dusty patches on the walls are signs that something is amiss, but it is important to distinguish between mold growth that is a nuisance and mold growth that may be harmful.

There are more than 1 million species of fungi. Some are used to produce important medications. Others can cause life-threatening infections when they grow in the body.

Microscopic fungi that grow in homes are a problem because they can trigger asthma and other allergies. In my work as a fungal biologist, however, I have yet to encounter robust scientific evidence to support claims that indoor molds are responsible for other serious illnesses.

What are molds?

Molds are microscopic fungi that grow on everything. This may sound like an exaggeration, but pick any material and a mold will be there, from the leaves on your houseplant to the grain in your pantry and every pinch of soil on the ground. They form splotches on the outside of buildings, grow in crevices on concrete paths and roads, and even live peacefully on our bodies.

Molds are important players in life on Earth. They’re great recyclers that fertilize the planet with fresh nutrients as they rot organic materials. Mildew is another word for mold.

Mold colonies on a culture dish.
Jonathan Knowles/Stone via Getty Images

Fungi, including molds, produce microscopic, seed-like particles called spores that spread in the air. Mold spores are produced on stalks. There are so many of these spores that you inhale them with every breath. Thousands could fit within the period at the end of this sentence.

When these spores land on surfaces, they germinate to form threads that elongate, and they branch to create spidery colonies that expand into circular patches. After mold colonies have grown for a few days, they start producing a new generation of spores.

Where do indoor molds grow?

Molds can grow in any building. Even in the cleanest homes, there will be traces of mold growth beneath bathroom and kitchen sinks. They’re also likely to grow on shower curtains, as well as in sink drains, dishwashers and washing machines.

Molds grow wherever water collects, but they become a problem in buildings only when there is a persistent plumbing leak, or in flooded homes.

Mold can grow in damp or poorly ventilated areas of your home.
Urban78/iStock via Getty Images Plus

There are many species of indoor molds, which an expert can identify by looking at their spores with a microscope.

The types of molds that grow in homes include species of Aspergillus and Penicillium, which are difficult to tell apart. These are joined by Cladosporium and Chaetomium, which loves to grow on wet carpets.

Stachybotrys is another common fungus in homes. I’ve found it under plant pots in my living room.

When does mold growth become a problem?

Problematic mold growth occurs when drywall becomes soaked through and mold colonies develop into large, brown or black patches. If the damaged area is smaller than a pizza box, you can probably clean it yourself. But more extensive mold growth often requires removing and replacing the drywall. Either way, solving the plumbing leak or protecting the home from flooding is essential to prevent the mold from returning.

A home with a serious mold problem caused by a plumbing leak.
Nicholas Money

In cases of severe mold growth, you can hire an indoor air quality specialist to measure the concentration of airborne spores in the home. Low concentrations of spores are normal and present no hazard, but high concentrations of spores can cause allergies.

During air testing, a specialist will sample the air inside and outside the home on the same day. If the level of spores measured in indoor air is much higher than the level measured in the outdoor air, molds are likely growing somewhere inside the home.

Another indication of mold growth inside the home is the presence of different kinds of molds in the outdoor and indoor air. Professional air sampling will identify both of these issues.

Why are indoor molds a problem?

Indoor molds present three problems. First, they create an unappealing living space by discoloring surfaces and creating unpleasant, moldy smells. Second, their spores, which float in the air, can cause asthma and allergic rhinitis, or hay fever.

Finally, some molds produce poisonous chemicals called mycotoxins. There is no scientific evidence linking mycotoxins produced by indoor molds to illnesses among homeowners. But mycotoxins could cause problems in the most severe cases of mold damage – usually in flooded homes. Irrespective of mycotoxin problems, you should treat mold growth in these more severe situations to prevent allergies.

The black mold Stachybotrys is a common indoor mold.
Nicholas Money

The mold called Stachybotrys has been called the toxic black mold since its growth was linked to lung bleeding in infants in Cleveland in the 1990s. This fungus grows on drywall when it becomes soaked with water and produces a range of mycotoxins.

Black mold spores are sticky and are not blown into the air very easily. This behavior limits the number of spores that anyone around will likely inhale, and it means that any dose of the toxins you might absorb from indoor mold is vanishingly small. But the developing lungs of babies and children are particularly vulnerable to damage. This is why it is important to limit mold growth in homes and address the sources of moisture that stimulate its development.

Knowing when indoor molds require attention is a useful skill for every homeowner and can allow them to avoid unnecessary stress. Läs mer…

Diabetes develops when the body fails to manage its blood glucose levels. One form of diabetes causes the body to not respond to insulin at all. Called Type 1 diabetes, or T1D, this autoimmune disease happens when the body’s defense system mistakes its own insulin-producing cells as foreign and kills them. On average, T1D can lead patients to lose an average of 32 years of healthy life.

Current treatment for T1D involves lifelong insulin injections. While effective, patients taking insulin risk developing low blood glucose levels, which can cause symptoms such as shakiness, irritability, hunger, confusion and dizziness. Severe cases can result in seizures or unconsciousness. Real-time blood glucose monitors and injection devices can help avoid low blood sugar levels by controlling insulin release, but they don’t work for some patients.

For these patients, a treatment called islet transplantation can help better control blood glucose by giving them both new insulin-producing cells as well as cells that prevent glucose levels from falling too low. However, it is limited by donor availability and the need to use immunosuppressive drugs. Only about 10% of T1D patients are eligible for islet transplants.

In my work as a diabetes researcher, my colleagues and I have found that making islets from stem cells can help overcome transplantation challenges.

History of islet transplantation

Islet transplantation for Type 1 diabetes was FDA approved in 2023 after more than a century of investigation.

Insulin-producing cells, also called beta cells, are located in regions of the pancreas called islets of Langerhans. They are present in clusters of cells that produce other hormones involved in metabolism, such as glucagon, which increases blood glucose levels; somatostatin, which inhibits insulin and glucagon; and ghrelin, which signals hunger. Anatomist Paul Langerhans discovered islets in 1869 while studying the microscopic anatomy of the pancreas, observing that these cell clusters stained distinctly from other cells.

The road to islet transplantation has faced many hurdles since pathologist Gustave-Édouard Laguesse first speculated about the role islets play in hormone production in the late 19th century. In 1893, researchers attempted to treat a 13-year-old boy dying of diabetes with a sheep pancreas transplant. While they saw a slight improvement in blood glucose levels, the boy died three days after the procedure.

The islets of Langerhans, located in the pancreas and colored yellow here, secrete hormones such as insulin and glucagon.
Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Interest in islet transplantation was renewed in 1972, when scientist Paul E. Lacy successfully transplanted islets in a diabetic rat. After that, many research groups tried islet transplantation in people, with no or limited success.

In 1999, transplant surgeon James Shapiro and his team successfully transplanted islets in seven patients in Edmonton, Canada, by transplanting a large number of islets from two to three donors at once and using immunosuppressive drugs. Through the Edmonton protocol, these patients were able to manage their diabetes without insulin for a year. By 2012, over 1,800 patients underwent islet transplants based on this technique, and about 90% survived through seven years of follow-up. The first FDA-approved islet transplant therapy is based on the Edmonton protocol.

Stem cells as a source of islets

Islet transplantation is now considered a minor surgery, where islets are injected into a vein in the liver using a catheter. As simple as it may seem, there are many challenges associated with the procedure, including its high cost and a limited availability of donor islets. Transplantation also requires lifelong use of immunosuppressive drugs that allow the foreign islets to live and function in the body. But the use of immunosuppressants also increases the risk of other infections.

To overcome these challenges, researchers are looking into using stem cells to create an unlimited source of islets.

There are two kinds of stem cells scientists are using for islet transplants: embryonic stem cells, or ESCs, and induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. Both types can mature into islets in the lab.

Each has benefits and drawbacks.

There are ethical concerns regarding ESCs, since they are obtained from dead human embryos. Transplanting ESCs would still require immunosuppressive drugs, limiting their use. Thus, researchers are working to either encapsulate or make mutations in ESC islets to protect them from the body’s immune system.

Conversely, iPSCs are obtained from skin, blood or fat cells of the patient undergoing transplantation. Since the transplant involves the patient’s own cells, it bypasses the need for immunosuppressive drugs. But the cost of generating iPSC islets for each patient is a major barrier.

A long life with Type 1 diabetes is possible.

Stem cell islet challenges

While iPSCs could theoretically avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs, this method still needs to be tested in the clinic.

T1D patients who have genetic mutations causing the disease currently cannot use iPSC islets, since the cells that would be taken to create stem cells may also carry the same disease-causing mutation of their islet cells. Many available gene-editing tools could potentially remove those mutations and generate functional iPSC islets.

In addition to the challenge of genetic tweaking, price is a major issue for islet transplantation. Transplanting islets made from stem cells is more expensive than insulin therapy because of higher manufacturing costs. Efforts to scale up the process and make it more cost effective include creating biobanks for iPSC matching. This would allow iPSC islets to be used for more than one patient, reducing costs by avoiding the need to generate freshly modified islets for each patient. Embryonic stem cell islets have a similar advantage, as the same batch of cells can be used for all patients.

There is also a risk of tumors forming from these stem cell islets after transplantation. So far, lab studies on rodents and clinical trials in people have rarely shown any cancer. This suggests the chances of these cells forming a tumor are low.

That being said, many rounds of research and development are required before stem cell islets can be used in the clinic. It is a laborious trek, but I believe a few more optimizations can help researchers beat diabetes and save lives. Läs mer…

Is it possible to bridge America’s stark political divisions?

In the wake of a presidential election that many feared could tear the U.S. apart, this question is on many people’s minds.

A record-high 80% of Americans believe the U.S. is greatly divided on “the most important values”. Ahead of the election, a similar percentage of Americans said they feared violence and threats to democracy. Almost half the country believes people on the other side of the political divide are “downright evil.”

Some say that the vitriolic rhetoric of political leaders and social media influencers is partly to blame for the country’s state of toxic polarization. Others cite social media platforms that amplify misinformation and polarization.

There is, however, reason for hope.

I say this as an anthropologist of peace and conflict. After working abroad, I began doing research on the threat of violence in the U.S. in 2016. In 2021, I published a related book, “It Can Happen Here.”

Now, I am researching polarization in the U.S. – and ways to counter it. I have visited large Make America Great Again events for my research. I have also gone to small workshops run by nonprofit organizations like Urban Rural Action that are dedicated to building social cohesion and bridging America’s divides. Some refer to the growing number of these organizations as a “bridging movement.”

Their work is not easy, but they have shown that connecting with and listening to others who hold different political views is possible.

Here are three strategies these organizations are using – and people can try to use in their own daily lives – to reduce political polarization:

1. Listen first

Pearce Godwin, a former Republican-leaning consultant from North Carolina, was one of the first “bridgers.”

In 2013, Godwin was doing Christian humanitarian work in Africa. Upset by the vitriol of U.S. politics, Godwin, who had worked on Capitol Hill, wrote a commentary, “It’s Time to Listen,” while on an overnight bus trip across Uganda.

Multiple U.S. newspapers published his column, which called for what is the starting point of most bridging work: People should listen first to understand.

Later that year, Godwin started a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization, the Listen First Project, to promote this message through activities like a 2014 “Listen First, Vote Second” public relations and media campaign.

After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Godwin decided to expand Listen First work. He established the #ListenFirst Coalition with three other similar organizations: The Village Square, Living Room Conversations and National Institute for Civil Discourse.

Today, this coalition includes over 500 organizations, whose work ranges from one-off dialogue skills workshops to longer-term projects that seek to build social cohesion in the U.S.

2. Be curious, not dogmatic

Braver Angels dates back to 2016 and is another large nonprofit organization that is part of the #ListenFirst Coalition.

On Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024, Braver Angels organized hundreds of pairs of Trump and Kamala Harris supporters to stand at polling stations and demonstrate that dialogue across the political divide is possible. Some held signs that read “Vote Red, Vote Blue, We’re All Americans Through and Through.”

During the past year, I have observed Braver Angels workshops on media bias, public education, immigration and the 2024 election.

Their fishbowl exercise stands out.

Designed by Bill Doherty, a couples therapist and co-founder of Braver Angels, the fishbowl involves a group of Republicans and Democrats talking.

People in the group take turns speaking on a particular political topic, while the others – along with a larger group of observers – listen to what they say without speaking. After peering into this “fishbowl,” each group member discusses what they discovered by listening to the other group. Many mention their “surprise” at points of agreement on certain issues and the thoughtful reasoning behind positions “on the other side” they had previously dismissed.

The exercise illustrates a key starting point of bridging work: Be curious, instead of trying to prove you are right. Learn how someone on the other side of an issue understands and perceives something.

3. Burst out of your bubble

Another key strategy to overcome division is helping people burst out of their bubble. The idea is that people can objectively detach from and examine their assumptions, and then try to explore alternative views outside their social media, news information and community silos.

One #ListenFirst Coalition partner, AllSides, tries to help people do this through a digital platform that shows how the same news of the day is being reported by left, right and center media organizations. It also has an online tool, “Rate Your Bias,” which helps users become aware of their own assumptions.

People can use these tools to compare different stances on issues like federal taxes and civil liberties – and how their own positions line up. People can also search for individual media outlets to see if the majority of other users have rated these organizations as liberal, conservative or center.

When people identify their own biases – which can become evident as they examine the media outlets they like, for example – it can help them become more curious and open. It also helps them move out of the information silos that divide people.

The bridging movement is not without its challenges. People who lean red are sometimes suspicious of these initiatives, which give people information on voting and democracy and can be perceived as having a liberal bias.

Group diversity is also a challenge. Based on my observations, Braver Angels participants tend to be older, white and educated.

And other groups, like #ListenFirst Coalition partner Urban Rural Action, have to spend considerable time and effort getting a diverse range of people in their programs.

But, given America’s stark political divisions, I think there is a clear need and desire for the depolarization work these groups do.

The vast majority of people in the U.S. are concerned about the current state of polarization in the nation. These bridging groups show a way forward and offer strategies to help Americans build bridges across the country’s deepening political divide. Läs mer…

Companies around the world are increasingly committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to slow and ultimately reverse climate change.

One indicator is the number of companies that have set emissions targets as part of the Science Based Targets initiative, or SBTi, a global nonprofit organization. That number grew from 164 companies in late 2018 to over 6,600 by November 2024. And thousands more have committed to lower their emissions.

It’s not always a smooth road, however. Some of those companies – including big names like Microsoft and Walmart – have had to pull back on some of their SBTi commitments.

We study the history of SBTi pledges to understand these commitments and what can undermine them. We believe there is more to the story of these pullbacks than meets the eye.

What is net zero?

To understand corporate climate commitments, let’s start with the concept of “net zero.”

The Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and ideally to 1.5 C (2.7 F). Meeting the more ambitious target of 1.5 C will require reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by around 2050.

Net zero is the point at which the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere is balanced by greenhouse gases removed, either through natural sources like forests or technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

The Science Based Targets initiative, developed alongside the Paris Agreement in 2015, provides a framework to help companies align their efforts with the 1.5 C goal.

SBTi commitments have grown quickly

To join the initiative, companies begin by signing a letter of commitment to set near-term (2030) and long-term (2050) targets for reducing their emissions. Companies have 24 months to develop targets that adhere to SBTi guidelines. If the targets are validated and approved by SBTi, the company announces its targets publicly. The targets must be revalidated every five years, or they expire.

The number of global companies committing to and setting targets with SBTi has grown rapidly in recent years.

By the end of 2023, 7,929 companies representing 39% of global market capitalization had committed to set targets, and 4,205 had targets already validated by SBTi. By November 2024, that number had grown to 6,614.

This impressive participation is particularly significant given SBTi’s high expectations. SBTi requires near-term targets to be set so companies reduce emissions by at least 42% by 2030 from 2020 levels.

Why some companies have pulled back

So, why are companies like, Walmart, Microsoft and Amazon scaling back their commitments with SBTi?

While some people attribute these moves to political pressure from fossil fuel supporters, a closer look at data since 2013 reveals a more complex set of factors that may better explain their actions.

We found that, over the past decade, 695 companies either withdrew near- or long-term commitments or had a commitment that expired and was terminated by SBTi. These actions were concentrated in two distinct periods.

The first period followed SBTi’s decision in April 2019 to update its criteria, including tightening the minimum target from under 2 C to either “well below 2 C” or 1.5 C. We believe several companies were unprepared to meet the new requirements. Among the 500 companies that had either committed to or set a target by the end of 2018, 94 (18.8%) terminated their initial commitments after the criteria changed.

The second period was after January 2023, when SBTi introduced a new compliance policy and began removing commitments that had expired. In this period, 531 commitments were terminated – 497 of them because the commitment expired, and 16 because the company withdrew.

It’s important to recognize that SBTi strategically raised the bar to encourage companies to accelerate their progress in addressing climate change.

Reasons some companies have struggled

In a report in March 2024, SBTi provided a candid look at companies’ climate commitments from 2019 to 2021 and, importantly, where they struggled.

Approximately half of the companies that responded to its survey identified the complexity of addressing Scope 3 emissions – emissions from a company’s supply chain and use of its products – as a primary obstacle to setting net-zero targets. The supply chain is often considered a blind spot for measuring environmental impact and is difficult for companies to control.

On the day the report was released, SBTi removed the long-term commitments of 239 companies. About 60% of those companies had near-term targets that remained.

Amazon has more than 15,000 electric delivery vans on the road as part of its effort to cut its energy emissions. However, it has struggled with cutting emissions generated by its suppliers.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

This helps explain the news around companies such as Walmart, Microsoft and Amazon.

Walmart’s and Microsoft’s long-term net-zero commitments were terminated, though both companies still have valid near-term targets with SBTi.

Moreover, both reaffirm their environmental commitments in their annual reports. Walmart is currently finalizing its Scope 3 emissions analysis to inform future strategy development, and Microsoft is investing in carbon removal technologies to become carbon-negative by 2030.

Amazon presents a more challenging case. The company may have faced difficulty meeting SBTi’s stringent mandate, particularly around supply chain emissions. Amazon has said it is still committed to reaching net-zero emissions and plans to explore setting targets with other organizations.

Many companies are on track

Our analysis of SBTi’s progress data, which includes all companies that had set a target by 2022 for which SBTi has emissions data, reveals that companies are cutting their emissions by a median annual rate of 5.4%.

Looking just at direct emissions from companies’ operations (Scope 1) and their purchased electricity (Scope 2), companies did even better. The median annual emissions decrease was 7.25% for companies with both Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets.

Scope 2 emissions are the low-hanging fruit and frequently align with cost-saving measures like improving energy efficiency.

Scope 3 emissions, those generated by companies’ suppliers and by consumer use of their products, are the biggest challenge. Companies with a separate Scope 3 target only reduced those emissions by a median annual rate of about 3%.

In 2024, SBTi announced plans to revise its Net-Zero Standard and allow companies to use carbon offsets to meet their Scope 3 emissions targets, drawing intense criticism. Carbon offsets allow companies to pay projects to reduce emissions on their behalf, such as by planting trees or managing forests.

SBTi’s challenge lies in finding a balance that maintains the integrity of its standards while encouraging broader participation, especially from high-impact industries.

Other ways companies are reducing emissions

While setting and achieving SBTi targets signals a strong commitment to combating climate change, many companies are setting emissions goals and working toward them without joining SBTi.

An example is the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact. It was created to accelerate the adoption of 20 technology- and market-ready solutions and includes nearly 70 companies, from multinationals headquartered in Georgia like Delta and UPS to small- and medium-size enterprises operating in the state.

Through the compact, companies are advancing initiatives with local economic benefits. For example, they are exploring ways to maximize Georgia forests’ ability to remove carbon and discussing effective ways to deploy sustainable aviation fuels.

The road to net-zero emissions will be bumpy. Yet the rapid growth of global corporate commitments, as well as action by a wider range of companies at the regional level, suggests corporate efforts are nevertheless moving forward. Läs mer…