Kategori: News in English

Australia’s drug regulator has issued a safety warning over the medicine Phenergan and related products containing the antihistamine drug promethazine.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration said the over-the-counter products should not be given to children under six due to concerns of serious side effects including hyperactivity, aggression and hallucination. Breathing can also become slow or shallow, which can be fatal.

When high doses are given, young children may also experience difficulties in learning and understanding, including reversible cognitive deficit and intellectual disability, the TGA said.

The latest alert follows international and Australian concerns about the medicine in young children, which is commonly used to manage conditions such as hay fever and allergies, travel sickness and for short-term sedation.

What is promethazine?

Promethazine is a “first generation” antihistamine that has been sold over the counter at pharmacies in Australia for decades for a range of conditions.

Unlike many other drugs, first generation antihistamines can cross the blood-brain barrier. This means they affect brain chemistry, resulting in people feeling drowsy and sedated.

In adults this may be useful to bring on sleep. But in children, these drugs can have serious side effects on the nervous system, including those listed in this week’s safety alert.

We’ve known about this for a while

We’ve known about the serious side effects of promethazine in young children for some time.

Advice about 20 years ago in the United States was not to use the drug in children under two years of age. In 2022, the Australian Advisory Committee on Medicines issued its own recommendation to increase the age to six. New Zealand issued a similar warning and advice in May this year.

Over the past ten years, 235 cases of severe side effects to promethazine in both children and adults have been reported to the TGA. From the 77 reported deaths, one was a child under six.

The reported side effects for both adults and children included:

13 cases of accidental overdose (which resulted in 11 deaths)
eight cases of hallucination
seven cases of slow or shallow breathing (which resulted in four deaths)
six cases of lowered consciousness (which resulted in five deaths).

The TGA’s safety alert comes after an internal investigation by the manufacturer of Phenergan, Sanofi-Aventis Healthcare. This investigation was prompted by the 2022 advice from the Advisory Committee on Medicines. The company has now updated its information for consumers and health professionals.

What can you use instead?

For allergies or hay fever in young children, non-sedating antihistamines such as Claratyne (loratadine) or Zyrtec (cetirizine) are preferred. They offer relief without the risks of sedation and the other worrying side effects of promethazine.

For cold or cough symptoms, parents should be reassured these typically get better with time, fluids and rest.

Saline nasal sprays, adequate hydration, a humidifier, or elevating the child’s head can alleviate congestion associated with hay fever. Oral phenylephrine products, marketed for nasal congestion, should be avoided, as evidence shows they are ineffective, but nasal spray formulations of the drug are fine to use.

For fever or discomfort, paracetamol remains a safer choice.

What else can I do?

If you have a bottle of Phenergan or a related product, avoid tipping the medicine down the sink or throwing the bottle in the bin, as this can harm the environment. Instead, return it to the pharmacy for safe and responsible disposal.

A pharmacist can also advise on choosing the most appropriate treatments for your child, and knowing when to seek medical attention.

If your child has concerning side effects from taking promethazine, or any other medicine, call the Poisons Information Centre immediately on 13 11 26. In an emergency in Australia, call 000. Läs mer…

Our analysis of Indonesia’s social forestry permits shows that women remain underrepresented in forest management bodies despite efforts to boost their presence, leaving them out of decisions about their forests.

Social forestry redistributes forest management rights to local communities to advance sustainability and local livelihoods. In 2021, the country revised its social forestry regulations to allow one family representative to participate in social forestry management bodies, ‘giving equal opportunity to both men and women.’

However, our analysis of 400 most recent social forestry permit documents, combined with extended, multi-method field research at four sites, shows that women are often excluded from management bodies but are more involved in social forestry business groups (Kelompok Usaha Perhutanan Sosial or KUPS). These groups focus on the processing and sale of forest products.

This low level of participation in management excludes women from decisions about who receives benefits such as land for cultivation, seedlings, equipment, extension training, and technical information provided by the government and NGOs. The absence of women’s presence may deepen local inequalities and hamper effective forest management.

Gender gaps in social forestry

We reviewed the 400 most recent decree letters issued in 2024 that granted forestry management rights. These included 100 permits each for the managements of Village Forests (Hutan Desa) and Community Forests (Hutan Kemasyarakatan) and their respective KUPS (Table 1). Village Forests are rights collectively held and managed by village administrations, while Community Forests are issued to specific farmer or community groups.

Our analysis found that across Indonesia women are often underrepresented in management groups. On average, only 19.54% of members in Village Forest’s management bodies were women, with participation ranging from none to 80%. This number was even lower in Community Forests, averaging 13.95% women, with some groups having no female members and others up to 56.52%.

However, the available data often lacked details about gender in KUPS-related decrees. Only 19 of 100 Village Forests’ KUPS decrees and 23 of 100 Community Forests’ KUPS decrees included this information.

When gender data was included, women were more involved in KUPS of Village Forests, with an average of 46.32% participation. In contrast, their participation in Community Forests’ KUPS was just 13.06%.

These numbers show that progress in gender representation in Indonesia’s social forestry is mixed. While women are more active in economic activities linked to KUPS, they are still sidelined in formal management roles and decision-making.

Understanding uneven participation

Our field research also highlighted how women and men are participating in, and deriving benefits from, social forestry in Indonesia, while exploring factors influencing women’s (and men’s) involvement.

We focused on four social forestry sites — two Village Forests (Sintang; West Kalimantan province, and Muara Enim; South Sumatra province) and two Community Forests (Gunungkidul; Special Region of Yogyakarta, and Enrekang; South Sulawesi province). We selected sites that reflect different levels of women’s participation.

Table 2 highlights a disparity: while women actively engage in forest land use — such as collecting and processing non-timber forest products and cultivating social forestry land — in two sites (Enrekang and Muara Enim) they are not involved in management bodies where decisions about land use, forest resources and benefit distribution are made.

For example, Masna (pseudonym), a farmer and forest user from Enrekang, shared that her involvement in her village’s forest management body (Kelompok Tani Hutan) was limited to preparing snacks while men made decisions.

Why does this happen?

Deeply rooted gender norms significantly limit women’s involvement in social forestry in some sites. These norms often designate unpaid household and care-giving duties to women, positioning men as the primary decision-makers. This affects women’s confidence and participation in village meetings, where forest management decisions are made reduce women’s participation.

Our findings align with earlier studies showing how gender roles, influenced by discourse promoted by the New Order regime, continue to shape these practices of recognising men as breadwinners and landowners, reinforcing their dominance in formal discussions and decision-making bodies.

Although there are no educational requirements for joining social forestry, research shows that those with more education tend to have more influence. In our study, women in social forestry households averaged fewer years of education (6.6 years) compared to men (8.1 years). Lower education levels, socio-economic challenges, and low confidence in public forums, where education often boosts credibility, can further exclude women.

Geographic barriers such as remote forest locations, rough terrain, and poor roads also hinder women’s participation, making travel difficult and limiting their ability to be involved.

Assistance helps, as do local women leaders

In the Sintang and Gunungkidul sites, women have taken on greater roles in forest management bodies.

In Sintang, support from the Indonesian NGO PUPUK (Association for the Improvement of Small Business) significantly boosted women’s participation in the village forest management body. PUPUK facilitated discussions, provided training at convenient times for women, and encouraged male leaders to back greater female involvement. The number of female members increased from just one in 2018 to 12 women and nine men in a newly formed management body in 2022.

The Tapang tree, sacred in Sintang, West Kalimantan, supports bee nests, providing honey as a vital livelihood source.
Author provided (no reuse)

The social forestry group in Gunungkidul – initially a male-dominated, government-led reforestation project – evolved into a community-driven initiative with strong female leadership. Support from both government and NGOs enabled women to take more active roles in forestry and agriculture, especially as many men (and some women) left to seek work elsewhere.

A university-educated woman now leads this group and has inspired younger women to join forest management and KUPS activities. These include producing traditional herbal drinks (wedang uwuh) and making snacks from taro, cassava, and arrowroot grown on forest land.

Across the study sites, women involved in KUPS have developed skills in forest management, financial planning, product processing, and marketing, earning modest incomes. These activities have also shifted gender roles. For example, in Sintang, when Mirna (pseudonym) became head of the KUPS, her husband started taking on domestic chores like cooking and childcare to support her work.

What’s next?

Tackling gender disparities in social forestry requires targeted policies to ensure women’s voices, especially from marginalised groups, are heard in decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods and access to resources.

Introducing quotas or affirmative measures for forest management bodies can help close the gender gap and ensure more equitable benefit distribution. Evidence from other Global South regions suggests that at least 30% female representation in forest management bodies is necessary for meaningful participation, enabling women to influence decisions more effectively.

Inclusive governance also depends on fair representation of different ethnic and socio-economic groups, particularly poorer households. When disadvantaged groups are poorly represented, the distribution of benefits suffers, limiting the equitable flow of resources and opportunities.

Partnerships with NGOs and civil society groups skilled in addressing gender differences can empower women and marginalized men with the skills and confidence needed to engage in decision-making bodies.

Creating safe spaces is also vital. This includes holding gender-specific discussions in local languages at times that fit with both women’s and men’s schedules.

The government must also commit to regularly monitoring women’s participation by collecting and publishing accurate gender-disaggregated data, specific to each site and region.

A decree issued by Ministry of Environment and Forestry in August introduces a policy shift that allows individuals — not just groups — to apply for social forestry. This could boost women’s participation, provided targeted support helps them step into leadership roles. Without this backing, the risk remains that social forestry will continue to be dominated by elite men.

Rahpriyanto Alam Surya Putra, the director of The Asia Foundation’s Environmental Governance program in Indonesia, and Ike Sulistiowati, Director of PUPUK Indonesia, contributed to this study. Läs mer…

As this year’s UN climate summit reaches its final stage of negotiations, Pacific scholars are calling on world leaders to improve the dispersal system of climate finance to support people living in small island nations.

Last week, we presented the Conference of the Parties (COP29) with a report from the largest Pacific climate adaptation study. The Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) amplifies voices of people with lived experience. It collates data and case studies about climate impacts island nations are already facing and local adaptation strategies they are already practising.

The report shows that climate finance has been mainstreamed into global financial structures which follow the same patterns as development aid.

This means the main global financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, become the “accredited” institutions involved in dispersing funds, adding loan components and making direct access difficult for Pacific nations.

Loading recipient countries with more debt

As a result, some 72% of the money is in the form of loans by the time it reaches people on the ground. The real beneficiaries are private contractors in developed countries who are brought in to build climate-resilient infrastructure.

What may have started off as a humanitarian gesture has ended up loading recipient countries in the Global South, particularly in the Pacific, with more debt.

Recent research shows extreme weather is already costing vulnerable island nations US$141 billion each year. Estimates suggest this will rise to $1 trillion annually by 2030.

Climate finance is an essential point of negotiation at COP29, with the goal of increasing the contributions by wealthy countries.

Last year’s climate summit in Dubai agreed to establish a new fund to compensate developing countries for losses and damages from natural disasters caused by climate change. This diplomatic effort was spearheaded by a group of small island developing states and it is important this fund fills the gaps in current climate finance.

However, closing the gap between the funds currently available and the money needed is only one aspect. We must also transform the process of dispersal to make sure money directly benefits people who already face climate impacts on a daily basis.

Traditional building techniques protect houses from inundation.
Kike Calvo/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Indigenous knowledge and local adaptation

Our report also highlights a range of climate adaptation strategies, including relocating households and villages, already employed by Pacific peoples across the region.

As descendants of great navigators and oceanic settlers who traversed the world’s largest ocean for millennia, Pacific peoples have long developed sophisticated adaptive capacities. Despite living in some of the planet’s smallest and most environmentally challenging places, they have been responding to change in locally relevant and innovative ways for centuries.

This includes traditional building techniques which produce more flexible houses that are easier to rebuild and coastal protections against sea-level rise and beach erosion.

Adaptation practices used in Pacific Islands are mostly based on community Indigenous knowledge and skills passed down over generations. For example, in French Polynesia, the traditional practice of building elevated houses with floors 1.5m above ground level is now subsidised by the government as part of risk prevention.

Pacific islands have also focused increasingly on ecosystem-based approaches that build on their Indigenous knowledge and benefit both communities and ecosystems. In Fiji, Indigenous knowledge has helped to identify native vegetation suitable for reducing coastal erosion and flooding.

Relocation is an adaptation option of last resort. The report includes two case studies of community relocation in Fiji, which highlight the importance of including all social groups in planning to foster positive outcomes.

Changing the narrative

Pacific peoples are intrinsically connected to the ocean and have developed systems of social and ecological resilience which allows them to bounce back quickly from disruption.

Many Pacific people are indeed affected by climate change. But the
constant narrative of vulnerability is problematic. It undermines the very idea of Indigenous and local Pacific agency and resilience.

The complexity of climate impacts requires us to look at what is happening on the ground, especially when applying science-based models and their inherent uncertainties to inform local adaptation decisions.

The report recommends enabling pathways that combine Indigenous knowledge, contemporary science methods and government decision tools to safeguard a balance between ground-up and top-down approaches to adaptation and resilience.

Pacific Island communities have always lived on islands affected by drought, tsunami and tropical cyclones. They had to survive on islands with limited resources.

Over millennia, Pacific peoples developed local knowledge, including cultural
principles and social structures, to thrive in these circumstances. Given existential threats and challenges, especially those facing atoll island communities, we need to draw on climate-related Indigenous knowledge and practices.

In contrast to narratives of vulnerability, legacies of resilience are key to successful climate adaptation. Läs mer…

Children are born to play!

And yet, despite our best efforts, many parents and professionals find that some children are not motivated to get moving and prefer watching television instead. Among the potential causes of this, several studies had revealed that clumsy children, i.e. those with poor motor skills, have a tendency to withdraw from physical, sports and leisure activities.

We are, respectively, a doctoral student in education and a professor of physical activity science and motor development at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Our present research at the Laboratoire de recherche en motricité de l’enfant (Child motor skills research laboratory) aims to understand this little-known phenomenon, particularly when it affects children with a specific learning disability (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysorthographia), in order to avoid the negative cycle of disengagement.

What are motor skills?

Throwing a ball, tinkering or kicking a ball might seem like simple activities. However, to perform them, a person’s brain must continually use sensory information from their body and detect information from their environment to be able to plan, produce and correct movements.

What’s more, a person has to co-ordinate their posture and their fine, gross and ocular motor skills, all the while maintaining their body’s balance to ensure they don’t fall over. Moving is very complex, especially when you have to be precise, follow a set pace, or find strategies to outwit an opponent, for example.

Playing outside, on a variety of terrain, can help children develop motor skills.
(Shutterstock)

These are what we call motor skills. They are particularly important for playing games. Balancing, handling and controlling objects, as well as locomotor movements (e.g. jumping, running) are “fundamental” motor skills. It is essential to develop these in childhood and to practise them regularly in contexts that are both fun and varied, since they become the foundation on which other motor skills are built.

Development of motor skills

Certain factors influence the development of motor skills, such as maturation (age), experience (practice), social context (e.g. overprotection, neglect) and the integrity of the child’s systems from birth (e.g. nervous and musculoskeletal).

Of course, if a child never rides a bike, they won’t have the chance to develop this skill. Lack of stimulation can also cause developmental delays. However, if difficulties persist even after regular practice, we must consider the possibility that the problems are due to neurological deficits.

When a child’s motor skills are inferior to those of other children their age, they are considered to have motor difficulties or a motor disorder if their performance on the standardized motor test is below the 16th percentile.

Which children are at risk of motor difficulties?

Populations at risk of motor difficulties include children who are premature, come from vulnerable backgrounds or have neurological conditions such as neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. developmental co-ordination disorder/dyspraxia).

The latter cause a dysfunction in brain maturation, i.e. an alteration in brain development, which affects children’s abilities, including some that enable them to move efficiently.

Opt for activities that encourage co-operation rather than competition to help children with motor difficulties.
(Shutterstock)

A recent literature review carried out by Mariève Blanchet (co-author of this article) and neuroscientist Christine Assaiante also shows that motor skills are significantly impaired in children with a learning disability who have no other associated disorders. In fact, compared with their typically developing peers of the same age, these children have difficulty performing different types of actions and have to use a variety of compensatory strategies in order to move.

Multiple consequences of motor difficulties

Motor difficulties can be detrimental to children’s learning and overall development.

Because of their clumsiness, these children tend to withdraw from the activities available to them (leisure activities, local parks, sports, games, etc.) since they lack confidence in their abilities. Added to this lack of confidence, these children may also enjoy taking part in activities less, and tire more quickly than their peers.

As a result, they are less physically active, leading to a sedentary lifestyle.

Suggestions for helping these children

It is essential to adapt activities so that young people feel competent moving, and to vary the activities offered to them so that they can make choices, experience success and then commit to physical activity and sport. This is especially important for young people with motor difficulties, such as those with a learning disability.

Here are a few suggestions:

Outdoors: Playing and being active outdoors has a number of benefits. It facilitates social inclusion and increases the intensity of activities, opportunities and the wealth of sensory-motor and cognitive stimulation.
Co-operation: Opt for activities that encourage co-operation rather than competition. Co-operation promotes inclusion, participation and socialization and increases peer acceptance.
Slow progression of activities: Encourage practising the same task in a variety of contexts. For example, a child could run on a flat, linear and regular surface (asphalt), then progress to a sloping surface that has some curves, is irregular (roots on the ground), textured (grass, gravel), unstable (sand, rocks, branches) or narrow (rope, plank, lines on the ground, beam, strip of pavement). They could also run in water and snow. It is important to start with simple tasks (dribbling on the spot) rather than double tasks (dribbling while running or dribbling and listening to instructions).
Free play: Offer periods of activity initiated and directed by the children, with no procedures or structure imposed by an adult, reusing materials that do not necessarily refer to sports (such as cones, rope, boxes, etc.). Free play fosters creativity, independence, motor skills, self-confidence and social inclusion.

For further suggestions and to learn more about motor difficulties, watch the video from the Laboratoire de recherche en motricité de l’enfant. Läs mer…

As the world gathers in Azerbaijan for this year’s annual UN climate conference (COP29), the urgency to act on climate change has never been greater.

The stakes in Baku are high with 2024 on track to be the hottest year recorded, the first to potentially break the 1.5 C Paris Agreement threshold, and Canada experiencing warming rates twice the global average.

Most governments, including here in Canada, are looking to options to mitigate the effects of climate change through regulations or funding new technologies. To this end, nature-based solutions (NbS) offer the most promising path forward.

There are three key strategies for governments to maximize the growth (and impact) of NbS. From removing harmful subsidies to integrating natural assets into financial systems and promoting biodiversity credits, policymakers have a number of tools at their disposal. World leaders in Baku should take notice.

What is a nature-based solution?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) use nature, rather than human-made infrastructure, to mitigate climate change. They can include wildlife corridors, cover cropping, natural water retention measures, wetland restoration and buffer strips.

Such measures sequester carbon and foster biodiversity. They also enhance human health and well-being. What’s more, NbS can help protect human made infrastructure from the effects of climate change, such as floods, storm surges and erosion.

And all these benefits can come at a fraction of the cost of traditional infrastructure.

Read more:
Humans can work with nature to solve big environmental problems – but there’s no quick fix

A recent meta-study of 155 peer-reviewed articles showed that NbS were more effective than engineering solutions in attenuating hazards in 65 per cent of studies and more cost-effective in 71 per cent.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the total global finance for NbS in 2022 reached USD $200 billion. Approximately USD $600 billion will be needed to reach climate, biodiversity and land degradation targets by 2030. Of that total investment, only 18 per cent or USD $35 billion is from the private sector.

In addition to investing directly in nature-based solutions, governments can unlock private sector capital for nature-positive outcomes by providing incentives for private sector investment in NbS.

Enabling nature-based solutions

In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that nearly USD $7 trillion was invested annually in activities that harm nature. Of that total, USD $5 trillion was from the private sector. Approximately 69 per cent of the public sector investments subsidize the fossil fuel industry and 20 per cent subsidize agriculture.

Diverting even just a fraction of the public funds used to subsidize carbon-intensive industries to the USD $600 billion needed to fund NbS could help governments make real meaningful change.

Such advances in funding NbS are, however, politically difficult for governments, as nature does not appear on national accounting ledgers. In contrast, the extraction of natural resources is included in the calculation of gross domestic product, which is an important indicator of the effectiveness of government. This must change.

A presentation on nature-based solutions by a professor of biodiversity from the University of Oxford, Nathalie Seddon.

Conventional approaches to accounting do not allow nature-based assets to appear on government or corporate balance sheets because, unlike engineered assets, they are not bought or sold. This discrepancy disincentivizes economic actors and governments from investing in forests, wetlands and watersheds because the investments cannot be capitalized, or yield measurable financial returns.

It is critical, then, that governments enable accounting for natural assets.

Frameworks exist for doing just that. Indeed, the Capital Coalition and the Natural Assets Initiative have developed excellent examples. In May 2022, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board even released a consultation paper on natural resources reporting.

Authorizing the valuation of natural assets in conventional accounting would be a decision that could unlock significant investments in NbS, while still being light on public finances.

Offer biodiversity credits

Although imperfect, carbon markets have been helpful in attracting capital to fund low-carbon technologies. This capital is, however, often directed at human-made technologies, such as innovations in battery technologies needed for electrification — rather than more cost- and carbon-effective NbS.

Carbon credits motivate decarbonization through human-made infrastructure, such as through energy systems. Biodiversity credits, on the other hand, serve to enhance biodiversity, which is more far-reaching and grounded in NbS.

Such credits can work in several ways. First, companies that reduce biodiversity could offer payments to companies improving biodiversity, such as investments in nature-based infrastructure or landowners who manage their land responsibly. Alternatively, investing in certification bodies can create standards for responsibly produced products, such as wood, concrete or steel.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev attends a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 18, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Progress has been made at COP29 on formalizing global carbon markets. Biodiversity credit markets should receive the same attention.
(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

On Oct. 28, the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (2024) introduced the Framework for High-Integrity Biodiversity Credit Markets to help guide the creation of a biodiversity credits market.

The framework aims to attract significant investments to conserve and restore ecosystems and biodiversity by establishing standards and monitoring systems, which should have the added bonus of tackling greenwashing.

Valuing nature

Valuing nature is not straightforward. There are no clear measures of biodiversity.
Any measure of biodiversity must be sensitive to local ecosystems and local communities. It needs to build on local knowledge, especially from people who live on the land in question, such as Indigenous Peoples.

Yet, people with deep local knowledge are often excluded from such conversations, because corporations and governments generally favour Western science-based knowledge over community-based knowledge. It is critical to engage in inclusive multi-party dialogue for NbS to reach the ambition of sustainable development.

Governments must build on the progress made on carbon markets in Baku and develop an international biodiversity credit system that is based on an inclusive approach before it is too late.

As the world comes together to tackle climate change at the COP29 meeting, civil society, businesses and governments should be looking not for big solutions, but for the cheaper, quicker and often more effective nature-based alternatives.

With just a few key measures, governments can lead the way. Läs mer…

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that harmonised technical standards – an influential form of governance – must be more accessible. Here’s what this landmark decision means.

Technical standardisation, which encompasses standards published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), has become a critical aspect of global regulation. Its scope has expanded far beyond goods, encompassing services, the environment, corporate social responsibility (ISO 26000) and anti-corruption measures (ISO 37000).

This trend is particularly evident within the European Union. The “new approach” to standardisation, launched in the 1980s by then European Commission president Jacques Delors, placed technical standards at the heart of the EU’s single market. The success of this approach, evidenced by the “CE” marking on products, was initially focused on goods and later extended to services. It plays a central role in the recent EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which requires AI computing services to comply with a series of technical standards, including for personal data security.

3,600 harmonised European standards

Over the past 30 years, the European Commission estimates that more than 3,600 “new approach” technical standards have been developed. The sectors covered by these standards represent over 1.5 trillion euros in annual trade – about 10% of the EU’s gross domestic product. These standards, developed by private bodies like the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), are voluntary and require manufacturers and service providers to pay a fee to access them. However, compliance is not optional, because aligning with these standards creates a presumption of conformity with EU law. Failure to comply means manufacturers must either withdraw their products or prove compliance through alternative, often costly, means.

Until recently, these fee-based standards were viewed as a form of self-regulation beyond judicial scrutiny. That changed in 2016 when the CJEU ruled in the James Elliott Construction case that these technical standards produce legal effects, making them “part of the law of the Union”.

Following this ruling, two non-profit organisations, Public.Resource.org and Right to Know, whose mission is to make the law freely accessible to all citizens, asked the European Commission for free access to four harmonised standards. The Commission denied the request, a decision upheld by the General Court of the European Union in July 2021.

On March 5, 2024, the CJEU, the supreme body of the European legal order, overturned the decision, finding that an overriding public interest justified the disclosure of the harmonised standards in question. Moving forward, the Commission will need to grant requests for free access to harmonised standards.

This jurisprudential development has turned the technical standardisation model on its head. Indeed, given that these standards are becoming legalised and will henceforth be free of charge, the production and funding methods of standardisation bodies and the intellectual property protections they rely on must be re-evaluated. This evolution could also be an opportunity to improve the legitimacy of these standards.

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Based on figures from CEN, the potential loss of revenue from making these standards freely accessible could amount to around 11% of the 19 million euros of average annual revenue, or around 2 million euros. This calculation was made by averaging the revenues reported as income for each year between 2019 and 2022 in the 2021 CEN annual report and the 2022 CEN annual report.

Governed by engineers

This amount does not appear to be insurmountable for the Commission to manage, but it should be accompanied by a systemic reform. This reform would aim to involve civil society organisations more effectively, ensuring that technical standards impacting fundamental principles are developed with a diverse range of perspectives in mind. The Commission is best positioned to verify the genuine involvement of all stakeholders and ensure that standards bodies take their input into account.

Technical standards produced by “engineers” are not merely technical, neutral or optional, but are powerful modes of governance that have significant political implications. Consequently, these standards must not escape a democratic adoption procedure and respect for the rule of law under the control of the courts. It is therefore incumbent on the EU’s institutional bodies – the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the European Union – to stop basing public policies, especially non-economic ones, on technical standards.

The EU’s recent AI legislation illustrates this tendency. When public authorities rely on technical standards, it gives the impression that norm-setting is being outsourced, allowing authorities to bypass the political process. This approach may be pragmatic, but it is legally questionable. The CJEU’s recent rulings signal a need for EU public decision-makers to change their approach. Läs mer…

In late 2024, more than 20 years after the birth of Facebook, the impact of social media on our lives cannot be overstated. Initially underestimated by many in business, social media eventually came to be recognised for its power to enable workers to share solutions, ideas and perspectives. While companies took time to see its potential, younger generations have been living part of their lives through social platforms for years. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey reveals that a majority of US youth aged 13 to 17 visit YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat at least “about once a day”, with roughly 15% saying they visit these platforms “almost constantly”.

This widespread use of social media has brought with it an increased focus on its effects on young people, particularly adolescents. Over the past year, we collaborated with our former doctoral student Elena Fumagalli to review research in this area and its potential impact on policymaking. Our findings were surprising and, at times, conflicting. While many studies share evidence of the negative impacts of social media use on adolescent wellbeing, the research we reviewed also showed conflicting findings and a dearth of high-quality research designs. And yet, policy decisions and media coverage are often based on them.

In response to this, we recently published a paper focusing on the most rigorous studies on this topic. Our goal was to identify research that we believe offers valid and dependable conclusions. Through this review, we discovered that social media’s effects on adolescent wellbeing are complex, varying by age, gender and the type of platform use.

The “moving target” of social media research

A critical challenge in this area is what we call the “moving target” problem. Social media platforms are constantly evolving, making it difficult to generalise research findings from one period to another. For example, Facebook today is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago – its functionality, user base and even its name have changed. Similarly, platforms like Instagram have gained popularity, while others such as Friendster, Vine and Google’s Orkut have disappeared.

Given this ever-changing landscape, it’s nearly impossible to draw definitive conclusions from older studies. That’s why we focused our review on research conducted in the past five years, a period marked by significant advances in data collection and analysis. We limited our scope to adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 21 to better understand how social media affects wellbeing during these critical developmental years.

Developmental sensitivity to social media

One of the most significant findings from our paper is that the negative effects of social media vary by age and gender, something which is rarely taken into consideration by authorities and the media. For girls, the most vulnerable period appears to be between 11 and 13 years old, while for boys it is between 14 and 15. These age ranges coincide with the onset of puberty, which we believe plays a significant role in how adolescents experience social media.

The beginning of puberty is already a challenging time for most young people, and social media seems to amplify these challenges. For example, body image issues, which often emerge during adolescence, are exacerbated by the highly curated and idealised content found on platforms like Instagram. While social media didn’t create these issues, it amplifies them like never before, making it harder for adolescents to ignore them.

Interestingly, we also found negative psychological effects for both boys and girls at age 19. This age corresponds to major life transitions such as leaving home, entering college or starting a job, all of which can induce anxiety. Social media appears to intensify these anxieties, possibly by fostering unrealistic expectations about life or creating a sense of inadequacy.

Active versus passive use

Another challenge we encountered in our research is the lack of clear definitions for what constitutes “social media use.” Furthermore, platforms vary significantly in their design, function, and audience, and these differences matter when it comes to their effects on wellbeing. For instance, image-based platforms like Instagram tend to have a more significant negative impact on body image than text-based platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).

Moreover, the way adolescents and young adults use social media also matters. We found that active use, where individuals post and engage with others, is linked to more positive self-esteem. In contrast, passive use, where users merely scroll through content without interacting, is associated with negative effects on wellbeing. These differences are crucial to understanding social media’s impact and need to be better accounted for in future research.

A further factor is the intentional addictiveness of these platforms. Whistleblowers have revealed that many social media companies design their products to be habit-forming, encouraging users to spend more time on their platforms. This makes social media more invasive than previous technologies like television or radio, and its influence is likely to extend into the workplace as today’s adolescents enter the job market.

Beyond adolescence

Our study highlights the need for more long-term, rigorous research to better understand social media’s impact on wellbeing. Recent studies suggest that various moderators – such as the type of platform and patterns of use – can either worsen or mitigate the negative effects of social media. These must be taken into account in evaluating measures to take against these negative consequences.

We also believe it’s important to look beyond adolescence. As the next generation enters the workforce, their social media habits are likely to follow them, potentially affecting their productivity and mental health. This is why we advocate for more longitudinal studies that track social media use over time and examine its long-term effects on wellbeing.

As we have found, despite the complexities and inconsistencies in social media research, politicians and the media often draw simplistic conclusions. For example, the Kids Off Social Media Act, a US bipartisan effort to ban social media for children under 13, reflects a tendency to make blanket statements about the dangers of social media. While it’s true that younger adolescents are more vulnerable to its negative impacts, age is not the only factor that matters. The type of platform, how it’s used, and individual psychological differences also play significant roles. Therefore, we must be careful not to jump to conclusions or implement one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we need nuanced, data-driven policies that account for the many variables at play.

Finally, as social media continues to evolve, so too must our understanding of its effects. More detailed, high-quality research can help guide interventions and programmes that protect the wellbeing of adolescents and young adults. With the right approach, we can better understand and mitigate the risks associated with this powerful technology. Läs mer…

The United Nations calls access to the internet a human right. However, in Canada, the Assembly of First Nations continues to list access to the internet as a problem within First Nations communities. Although 90 per cent of Canadians have access to high-speed internet, 61 per cent of First Nations, especially those in remote or rural areas, cannot say the same.

This fall, the Ontario government announced a $34-million investment plan to address internet access in some hard-to-reach communities in southwestern Ontario. In Ontario, 39 per cent of First Nations do not have access to high-speed internet. Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) will subsidize the project.

Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country.
University of Washington Press

This initiative sounds great, but digital infrastructure like the internet is often determined by non-Indigenous third parties. They set the terms, conditions and profitability of digital access for Indigenous communities. This issue is highlighted by Marisa Duarte, a professor at Arizona State University, who wrote a book critical of third parties infringing on Indigenous sovereignty by controlling network access and data for Indigenous communities in Arizona.

So, how can investments like the one in Ontario be envisioned with ethical and equitable infrastructure?

Indigenous ownership

Based on my preliminary research on data and archive infrastructure, I propose a couple of ways. For one, the ownership of the project should be shifted to Indigenous Peoples.

In this way, the power dynamic is reversed. Instead of being given permission to use a platform where their data is controlled by outsiders, Indigenous people would invite others to share in digital spaces.

A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
University of Alberta Press

Another way to augment this is to learn from Indigenous storytelling and lean into the wisdom of the natural world. To envision how we build, I propose a methodology inspired by beavers in Indigenous storytelling. Specifically, I propose that we consider the building of beaver dams as a starting point for creating and sustaining Indigenous spaces.

I draw upon the work of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg storyteller and scholar, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Audra Simpson, professor of anthropology at Columbia University.

Both situate the beaver dam as an ethical bridge between worlds. They also describe the beaver dam as a site of protest. It is one in which Indigenous thinkers and dreamers build their own sustainable and ethical infrastructure.

Beavers and blockades

In these Indigenous stories, passing on the knowledge to build the beaver dam to the next generation is a form of direct action that is connected to the act of protest.

Blockades are metaphorical in these stories but they are also literally blockades that Indigenous Peoples build during protests to protect their lands and waters.

In this particular case, the blockade, or refusal, is metaphorical and may include saying “no” to third-party control of Internet infrastructure.

A close up of a worker connecting wires on an electrical box to set up an internet connection.
THE CANADIAN PRESS

The beaver dam

While the beaver dam acts as a physical blockade, it is also regenerating the environment around it.

This environmental regeneration by beavers was supported by a NASA grant in 2024.

Using data, land trust managers attracted beavers to areas that needed to bring back water and life following environmental disasters. In this way, people are “enlisting the aid of nature’s most prolific engineers — beavers,” according to NASA science writer Margo Pierce.

This relationship between beavers and the human world is seen as an important part of maintaining harmony in Indigenous communities. As Betasamosake Simpson says, harming the beaver harms everyone in the community because the beaver brings water and life.

Bringing relational practices into design

This emphasis on working together and with nature because everyone is interconnected is a relational practice I believe can be applied to infrastructure, design and policy.

Prof. M. Murphy at the University of Toronto, a leader at the Technoscience Research Unit, thinks through how establishing values and ethics for infrastructure projects can change our relationships.

These small changes can be part of the shift away from public infrastructure that is exclusionary, and towards public infrastructure that is collaborative and a true regenerative public space.

Power and infrastructure

Returning to the story of rural internet in Ontario, whoever builds the digital infrastructure has the power to impact the communities that are gaining access to the internet — their human rights access — through a third party.

However, if the ownership of this new infrastructure remains out of the community, there will likely continue to be a lack of resources put towards building bridges between communities..

For example, my work “Presented on Mapping Assiniboia Residential School Survivor Stories: Did You See Us?” for the Canadian Cartographic Society involves building infrastructure for telling stories using online maps.

This creates a challenge. I am stewarding online spaces for Indigenous storytelling but the infrastructure of my projects is owned by the University of Toronto, and access to it is at the mercy of other third parties.

These bridges are not just invisible ideas or metaphors but real cables and structures through which the internet is shared.

These structures are part of a larger power dynamic being exercised by both the government and private companies. They choose to include only particular Indigenous communities as specialized projects instead of ongoing strategic partners of their businesses.

Building the blockade

To properly work against such power structures, organizations must understand the power dynamics within a community.

There are organizations in Ontario taking on the metaphorical role of the beaver, such as the future Public Library in Ottawa, Ādisōke. This organization has Indigenous partners embedded within its design, infrastructure and future.

Public libraries are potentially hubs for community regeneration, as sites to honour human rights and provide access to both information and internet. But this requires a commitment to long-term funding.

Control and consent

With the Ontario provincial government subsidizing third parties, there is an issue of ownership and control. Communities are not given control of the infrastructure intended to regenerate community.

This is not to say SWIFT or the companies building this infrastructure are actively engaging in bad faith, but the power dynamics obfuscate the infrastructure and how it will relate to the community.

On the surface, it looks like the $34 million is going to subsidize projects to profit from remote areas without having to invest directly.

But, ultimately, for these projects to be successfully integrated, these First Nations communities need to be involved in the building of it: using a model that emulates the beaver dam and includes mutual consent between all parties.

Revisioning

Right now, companies continue to dominate Indigenous data, whether it is the data collected through programs like Zoom, or the very infrastructures that enable Zoom.

However, I am optimistic. Re-envisioning how we engage in building infrastructure as a relational practice, we can build like beavers and aim for structural regeneration and sustainable digital infrastructure in the community’s hands. Läs mer…

The West Coast’s rainy season has arrived in force, as an atmospheric river carrying moisture from the tropics joins a bomb cyclone off the Pacific Northwest coast. Heavy, wet snow began falling in the mountains on Nov. 19, 2024, and bursts of rain have been blasting the Oregon and Northern California coasts. These storms are forecast to last for days, hitting up and down the West Coast. Parts of Washington have seen more than 70 mph winds from the bomb cyclone.

When these two phenomena get together, the weather gets hard to predict, as meteorologist Chad Hecht of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego explains.

What happens when an atmospheric river meets a bomb cyclone?

An atmospheric river is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a long, narrow river of water vapor in the lower atmosphere. These rivers in the sky transport moisture from the subtropics to the mid-latitudes.

When an atmospheric river runs up against North America’s West Coast, the mountains and complex topography force the air to rise, cool, and the moisture to condense and precipitate. That can mean feet of snow at high elevations and rainfall elsewhere.

That’s not always a bad thing. Weaker atmospheric rivers help replenish reservoirs that are essential for supplying water during the dry season. California relies on atmospheric rivers for up to half of its yearly precipitation and streamflow.

This storm, however, is expected to be stronger and more unpredictable than unusual because of the bomb cyclone.

Atmospheric rivers explained.

Atmospheric rivers tend to form out ahead of cold fronts that are associated with low-pressure systems known as extratropical cyclones. These are air mass boundaries circulating around the area of low pressure. A bomb cyclone is a rapidly intensifying extratropical cyclone.

These two weather phenomena go hand in hand. A strong atmospheric river will feed moisture into the low-pressure system, providing fuel for the cyclone. The stronger the low-pressure system becomes, the stronger the atmospheric river becomes.

What will this combo mean for the West Coast?

This atmospheric river is impressive for its duration – it is forecast to continue hitting the coast with moisture for several days and may spread precipitation as far south as Southern California. Its integrated vapor transport – a measure of how much moisture is moving in the atmosphere – suggests that we’ll see a lot of rain and snowfall, with over a foot of precipitation expected in some areas.

On top of that, the bomb cyclone – one of the strongest we’ve seen along the coast – is bringing powerful winds.

While the atmospheric river is hitting the coast, the bomb cyclone will sit over the ocean off the Pacific Northwest and spin. As it spins, it sends small frontal waves through the atmosphere that push the atmospheric river inland. That creates a lot of uncertainty for forecasts.

If you picture the atmospheric river as a fire hose pointed at the coast, these frontal waves are essentially the fireman taking his hands off the fire hose and letting it go all wavy. It can move northward, and then back southward. The question is how far it will go before pivoting, then how quickly it will pivot back.

A forecast for the storm’s vertically integrated vapor transport shows the direction and magnitude of the water flow, measured in kilograms per meter per second.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

So, how long specific parts of the coast will see rainfall and how intense that rainfall will be are the big questions.

The harder and longer it rains, the more impacts you’re likely to see.

The saving grace with this storm is that it’s early in the season, so the soils are relatively dry. That means they’ll be able to soak up more of the moisture. If a storm like this hit in winter, after the soils were already saturated, more water would run off, causing more widespread flooding than an early-season storm.

Are areas recently burned by wildfires in trouble?

With a storm this intense, the main concern in areas recently burned by wildfires is high-intensity precipitation.

When land burns, the surface can become impervious – almost hydrophobic. So, when that surface gets hit with high-intensity precipitation, the water runs off a lot faster than if vegetation or soil was able to absorb the water. Wildfire burn scars tend to be in hilly places, so that can lead to debris flows.

The forecast for the atmospheric river hitting the West Coast, covering Nov. 20-27, 2024, shows a powerful storm. Much of Northern California is expected to experience a Category 4 strength atmospheric river, on a scale of 1 to 5.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

It’s really a matter of chance whether the burn scars get that intense precipitation. A strong cold front can form narrow cold-frontal rain bands that bring bursts of high-intensity rain. These small but powerful rain bands tend to form in dynamically robust storms. Meteorologists are seeing some signatures suggesting that these features could form.

The best advice if you’re in one of those areas is to pay attention to the National Weather Service’s watches and warnings.

Does this storm suggest a wet winter ahead?

Unfortunately, one really impressive storm doesn’t tell us anything about what’s ahead.

We’ve seen seasons with powerful early-season storms and then not much more. October 2021 is an example: A really strong storm hit that month, with record-breaking, 24-hour precipitation accumulations. But then the tap shut off, and California ended up with below-normal rainfall for the rest of the year.

An animation of satellite data shows how the atmospheric river draws moisture from the subtropics and is pushed toward the coast by the bomb cyclone.
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

There are tools that offer some indication of whether the season will be above or below normal, but those aren’t 100% accurate.

For example, the La Niña weather pattern that’s close to forming in the Pacific typically indicates drier than normal conditions across California. But looking at the past 10 years, we’ve had some really wet La Niñas – 2017 being the granddaddy of them all, with record-breaking precipitation in the northern Sierra.

Meteorologists typically have a good sense of what’s coming in the short term, about 10 days out. But what the rest of the season will look like is really an educated guess at this point. Läs mer…

Stan’s new Christmas film Nugget is Dead is a colourful production that follows the rules of the seasonal genre film to a tee – with an Aussie twist and a dash of queer multiculturalism thrown in for good measure.

Most screenwriters refer to the Hallmark Channel as the generic yardstick of Christmas films. The US cable network pumps out dozens of tinsel-tinged offerings each year.

But what exactly are the rules of a Christmas movie? And how does Nugget is Dead fit in with the rest?

A cast stuffed with homegrown talent

Christmas movie screenwriting blogger and podcaster Caryn McCann has laid out the steps of the Christmas film formula, which can be applied to the case in point.

Step 1: choose a cute regional location situated a good distance from the big smoke. Christmas in Australia is, of course, in summer, so no snow-covered Midwest town for us. Instead, what better than an unnamed seaside location reminiscent of a less desirable version of Home and Away’s Summer Bay?

Step 2: find a key character who’s down on love. Enter struggling bisexual registrar Steph Stool (played by Vic Zerbst, who also cowrote the film). Steph’s swanky millennial boyfriend (Alec Snow) has it all, including a double-barrelled surname and an overbearing mum (Tara Morice) from Sydney’s North Shore. But their relationship is floundering at this crucial time of year.

Steph’s zany family, on the other hand, are on the more bogan end of the Australian social order. Notable mention goes to Steph’s OTT (over-the-top), recently separated parents, Jodie and John Stool (Gia Carides and Damien Garvey).

Vic Zerbst plays Steph Stool, with Gia Carides as her mother Jodie Stool.
Lisa Tomasetti

Meanwhile, cowriter Jenna Owen hurls herself into the fun role of ditzy eshay cousin Shayla, who probably gets the most laughs as a foil to Zerbst’s uptight Steph.

The film mostly plays out in the Stool brood’s hometown, but crosscuts to Steph’s boyfriend’s affluent family’s celebrations.

Comedy doubling as class commentary

When Steph is called back home to attend to her dying dog, the titular Nugget, she encounters Step 3: the love interest. In this case, the attractive distraction appears in the form of her poor pooch’s new vet, Ella Lander (Priscilla Doueihy), who quickly becomes enmeshed in the Stool way of life.

Steps 4 and 5 of the form involve the careful balancing of cheerful Christmas traditions alongside drama aplenty. True to form, Nugget is Dead has more than enough fruity pavlova, Christmas crackers and sizzling snags on the barbie.

There are no shortage of Christmas tropes in this film.
Lisa Tomasetti

These elements serve as a vital backdrops to several hectic – and silly – family barneys. I tip my festive headwear to emerging director Imogen McCluskey and director of photography Kate Cornish for capably managing dialogue-heavy scenes that include a large ensemble cast.

The humour in these sections comes from mix of comedic voices, as well as by contrasting ocker “realness” (and groan-worthy dad jokes) with urban upper-middle-class vapidity.

Director Imogen McCluskey experlty handles dialogue-heavy scenes featuring a large ensemble cast.
Lisa Tomasetti

Out with the old

The final steps of the Christmas movie formula come down to the hero, heroine or non-binary protagonist embracing the true spirit of the holiday season – and restoring his, her or their reliance on romance and family values. On this front, Nugget is Dead does not deviate.

The film has an endearing core message about being accepting of poeple’s differences, which helps to extend it away from the genre’s norm.

The film’s core message is about accepting poeple’s differences.
Julia Firak

In an Australian context, the film dabbles in the dreaded cultural cringe. I wasn’t sure if this was a deliberate wink to those in the know, or the result of trying to write for a wider audience and becoming a bit reductive in the process.

Nugget is Dead demonstrates the many ways in which our Christmas customs are becoming less white-bread and heteronormative.

Nugget is Dead is streaming on Stan from November 21. Läs mer…