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Weekend Roundup: Present at the Unraveling
"Present at the Creation" was the title Dean Acheson, the famed American secretary of state from 1949-1953, gave to his memoir, which recounts the vision and construction of the post-World War II institutions of global order such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the trade-opening precursor to the World Trade Organization, and NATO that followed on the heels of the United Nations. In that same era, French diplomat Robert Schuman, considered "the father of Europe," planted the seeds of European integration that have grown for the last several decades into a club of 28 countries with a population of 500 million. Both efforts, aimed at extinguishing the nationalism and protectionism seen as the root cause of world war, fostered the era of globalization now coming to an end. Brexit, like the Trump campaign in the U.S. and the rise of the anti-European Union right on the European continent, marks an historic turn of the tide. Today, we are present at the unraveling of those grand institutions that have outlived their capacity to deliver inclusively and lost the allegiance of their publics.

"Brexit is another demonstration," Craig Calhoun, director of the London School of Economics, writes, "that the big global institutions built in the wake of World War II are no longer able to maintain global order." Popular anger targeted distant and seemingly unaccountable cosmopolitan elites in charge of those institutions for failing to address pressing concerns over immigration and economic dislocation that are part and parcel of interdependence. "Brexit is a rejection of 'Cool Britannia,' the 1990s branding of a cosmopolitan, creative and united Britain as a part of a happy vision of globalization," Calhoun cuttingly quips.

The global order now waning has been the springboard for China's dramatic rise in recent decades. Writing from Beijing, He Yafei worries now that Brexit is only "the first wave of deglobalization" that will "rebalance in the domestic and EU-wide political landscape in favor of those anti-globalization and anti-EU forces." He might add the U.S. as well where Donald Trump this week lashed out at China and trade deals as the cause of America's woes.

The great historical question is what comes next -- a return to nationalism or a leap forward toward responsive new institutions with the capacity and competence to forge a deeper, more inclusive integration that can actually solve the problems at hand? Perpetual suspension in the purgatory between these historic options only fuels highly polarized discontent.

Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer puts his finger squarely on the key contradiction behind chaos in Europe: for all the populist anger against "Brussels," the reality is that nation-states still run the show -- not least his own country whose insistence on protracted austerity policies in financially troubled southern Europe has destabilized politics there. "The EU institutions are blamed for all kinds of problems: globalization, immigration, welfare cuts and Thatcherism, youth unemployment, lack of democracy, and much more," he writes from Berlin. "In fact, by preventing the EU from addressing these issues, the national governments -- helpless to tackle them effectively on their own -- have made these problems worse." Also writing from Germany, Green activist Sven Giegold emphasizes Fischer's point. "Like the amputations practiced in medieval medicine," he says, "Brexit is not a cure. In the face of global challenges, European nation-states cannot secure self-determination and stability on their own. Cooperation with the European Union would make nation-states less vulnerable."

Writing from the dispassionate distance of New Delhi, Dhruva Jaishankar views Brexit as "the first major casualty of digital democracy." "Social media, rather than creating connections with people who possess differing points of view and ideologies," he observes, "tends to reinforce prejudice." Rather than being a force for consensus, the widespread use of social media during the Brexit debate spread misinformation and myths, feeding "polarization and gridlock." Writing from Paris, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, too, sees Brexit as a victory "not of democracy[,] but of demagogy."

This week's horrific suicide attack at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul is yet another indication of how post-World War II institutions have outlived their purpose in the face of new realities. NATO, the defense alliance rooted in the Cold War that ties together Turkey with European states that have also recently been subject to terrorism, is a complete mismatch with the security challenges confronting these countries today. Writing from Istanbul, Behlül Özkan sees the main target of the so-called Islamic State as Turkey's secular democracy because it is the opposite of its idea of a caliphate. Turkish novelist Kaya Genc relates the enveloping mood after the series of recent attacks. "Istanbul as a bridge of cultures belonged to the noughties: the 2010s is the decade of ruptures."

WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones reports personal stories from on the ground in Istanbul about how local residents are reaching out to help the victims and follows the investigation by authorities into Islamic State suspects from post-Soviet states. Dean Obeidallah is upset that the American media does not give the same attention to terror attacks in Muslim-majority places like Istanbul as it does to similar attacks in Paris or Brussels.

"india

Digging for water in India's devastating drought. © Vivek Singh

While headlines from London and Istanbul grip the global attention, a drought in India affecting a staggering 330 million barely registers. Reporting exclusively for The WorldPost from Bundelkhand, a vast rural landscape in north-central India, photojournalist Vivek Singh chronicles the life and death struggle for drops of water in striking black and white images that convey the desperation leading to farmer suicide and mass migration in the country. "As the crisis deepens," Singh says, "the country that celebrated the 1960s agricultural revolution and a resulting boom in production of food grains is now seeing its farmers dying in debt and despair."

In our continuing series on Africa and China presented by Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden, a Nigerian living in Guangzhou asks, "why are Chinese people so racist towards black people?" The two also look at how Chinese ivory smugglers in Namibia are affecting that southern African nation's efforts to curb the illegal trade.

In a thoughtful riposte to a recent interview with "Sapiens" author Yuval Harari in The WorldPost, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explains why we creative humans can't accept an algorithmic account of human life based only in intellectual processes. "The history of human cultures," he writes, "is in good part a narrative of our resistance to native algorithms by means of inventions not predicted by those algorithms." No algorithm could have designed the cultivated beauty of these Japanese gardens and landscapes captured by the sensitive aesthetic of photographer Hidenobu Suzuki. Finally, our Singularity series this week profiles a robot that can wash your dishes.

WHO WE ARE

EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Suzanne Gaber is the Editorial Assistant of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is Social Media Editor.

CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul

EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.

The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.

Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian.

From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Give Zoos A Break And Pay Tribute To Harambe The Gorilla On The One Month Anniversary Of His Death
In my opinion, in regard to the death of Harambe a month after his untimely death, the Cincinnati Zoo made the best decision possible under horrible circumstances.

In the wake of the unfortunate and terribly tragic event at the Zoo, I was invited to participate in a radio interview with The Takeaway, a radio program affiliated with WNYC and Public Radio International.

Jack D'Isidoro, an award-winning freelance multimedia journalist and producer who contributes regularly to the New York Times, reached out to me on May 31st. Unfortunately, I was unable to share my thoughts with his intended audience. I was busy training dogs at my new boarding and enrichment facility in Los Angeles and had missed his email and phone call.

Yesterday, almost a month after Harambe's death, I discovered that I also missed an email alert regarding a post I published in Nat Geo's online editorial news publication on the future of zoos. The piece was cited in a Washington Post article concerning Harambe's fate, which reminded me that nearly a month has passed since we lost this great ape.

Although I did post an article about the tragedy on my public Facebook page hours after it was reported, I never got a chance to share my sentiment publicly. When I heard the news, I was immediately struck by the thought of a zoo having to make such a terrible sacrifice and was grieving for Harambe who I have never even met or knew of. I wanted to let colleagues and FB followers, zoo professionals and activists alike, know of this unfortunate news.

The Washington Post article (http://gmailnews.com/what-harambes-death-means-for-a-critically-endangered-species-of-gorilla-washington-post/) included commentary from a notable zoo historian who I once participated in a radio interview with and Dr. Michael Hutchins, my esteemed colleague and friend, and a prominent zoo and wildlife biologist.

These zoo experts addressed the big picture---the conservation relevance of losing a valuable zoo gorilla. They discussed the impact of the loss of this one animal's potential contribution to the reserve gene pool, which is essentially what a captive population of this critically endangered species represents.

Frankly, the fact that the gorilla is an endangered species still hasn't crossed my mind in regard to this loss of life. This was a beautiful and sentient creature who died at his prime, whether he was in a zoo or free-ranging or contributing to the captive gene pool or not.

I will never have a chance to read and process all the rumor and rhetoric surrounding Harambe that has been generated by the public and the responses from professional experts. However, I keep thinking about him and what a loss this must be for the zoo keepers and staff who cared for him. The staff had to make a horrible life and death decision on his behalf in less than a second. You can't wait for a tranquilizer to take effect when you have to respond in a moment's notice.

To put it in perspective, I once darted an orphaned, 300lb. subadult grizzly bear that I raised from a 9-month-old cub with a syringe pole (similar to a jab stick) while I was standing a few feet away from her at a wildlife sanctuary in Alaska. There was no barrier between us. As she looked the other way, I quickly injected her. I had time on my hands to prepare, no public distraction or interference, and my colleagues from Alaska Department of Fish & Game were on hand to monitor and assist if needed. An unusual and unique circumstance dictated that the animal be tranquilized on exhibit.

However, in a zoo setting far more resources and preparation would go in to such a scheduled chemical immobilization planned for a potentially injurious large animal and any chemical restraint would be conducted behind-the-scenes or before or after visiting hours. Nonetheless, I remember that it felt like a long time had passed before this bear was adequately sedated. In reality, it was at least several minutes.

In Harambe's case, this was an unscheduled and obvious emergency and darting the animal was really not a viable option. Waiting for a tranquilizer to take effect would add substantially more time to an already precarious situation for the boy even if Harambe was indeed protecting him. When an animal receives a remote dart injection, it is typically a surprise to them and they usually don't like it at all. They react as you might react if you were darted with a flying syringe from a great distance. What if he was holding the child and then collapsed on top of him due to the effects of a potent sedative? Anything could have happened. Regardless, I was touched by the public outcry and very much understand the emotions elicited and the public response.

Again, the Zoo made a very difficult choice, but I believe it was the right one. I very much like the Cincinnati Zoo, but I am in no way obligated to defend their actions. I do sit on a board of a zoo advocacy organization, but I'm not financially compensated by the non-profit organization. I just believe in the mission of zoos and I love charismatic creatures that receive exemplary human care in these conservation centers. I have been very fortunate to have interacted with many wonderful zoo animals over the years and the experiences have been tremendously gratifying and rewarding for me. I can only hope I enriched the lives of these animals in return.

I was moved after watching some of the footage as Harambe seemed to embrace the boy as he reached out to hold him. I can only speculate that he was not acting aggressively toward the child and had no such intention to do so. The scene is imprinted in my brain and it is unforgettable. I have a lot of thoughts on the tragedy as a former zookeeper and curator and as a conservationist. But first and foremost, I'm an animal lover like so many of my friends and zoo colleagues and the readership communities who follow Huffington Post. So this decision was hard to process even for someone like me who appreciates the challenges this precarious human-captive animal interaction created for the Zoo.

There are clearly mixed reviews on how the Cincinnati Zoo handled the situation even among some of my colleagues. Some just hope the story dies down. But I'm haunted by what transpired and I felt compelled to offer my perspective as a zoo patron and former zoo employee.

I think zoos do their very best to contain zoo animals and in recent years they have spent extra resources on making sure people can't breach perimeter barriers and get into zoo enclosures, but it is the public's responsibility to keep our children safe and that responsibility falls largely on parents.

In fact, I think that some exhibits should have age limitation restrictions for access. Children who are too young often can't even appreciate the magic of an intimate encounter with a majestic animal icon in a zoo setting like a silverback gorilla. More often than not they seem to incite animals unintentionally by pounding on glass or by running around screaming and crying.

Those are not ways of respecting or dignifying a zoo animal ambassador and their parents should know better. Hopefully teachers and other attendants will also learn from this.

Rather than enriching the experience for the animal, I'm pretty confident some of the behavior of young children leaves sentient zoo animals frustrated, if not demoralized. Anyone can see it is occasionally stimulating for the animals and from a gorilla's perspective, for example, it can be perceived as play when they get to interact with rambunctious kids through glass barriers. However, we should expect some etiquette from zoo visitors. They are guests at a public venue and these animal ambassadors deserve some respect from patrons.

In my opinion, the zoo was left with no choice but to dispatch a beautiful, healthy and robust adult male gorilla. And again, what a terrible predicament for the animal care team to find themselves in.

I recall an incident where a male gorilla broke his neck from a shallow fall in a freak accident in an indoor enclosure at another Ohio zoo. This was twenty years ago. I was in the building doing relief work as a zoo keeper in another animal unit. Unfortunately, no primate care staff member witnessed the incident and there were few helpful reports from patrons. Like the event with Harambe, the other gorilla death was quite unprecedented and has not happened before or since to my knowledge.

In the case of the fallen gorilla, one of our veterinary clinicians responded immediately and tried to resuscitate the animal after the public was ushered out of the building. His three other adult male companions were quickly lured off exhibit into their bedrooms with issued recall commands by a trained and responsive keeper staff. Relocating the other apes was necessary so the vet could access the unconscious animal. The veterinarian, who is board certified in zoo and wildlife medicine, was on the scene just minutes after the emergency was announced through our radio communication system, but sadly he was not able to revive the gorilla after several attempts to administer CPR.

In Harambe's case (based on what I saw in video footage), there was no time to recall him or perhaps other apes in close proximity because the child was already in the exhibit, having breached barriers.

Although Harambe may indeed have been protecting this little boy, the surface features of that gorilla enclosure are to some degree slightly unforgiving to even a much sturdier and more agile young gorilla of comparable age and size to the child. The boy is really lucky to have left the situation relatively unscathed. These enclosures are definitely designed for great apes and not little boys.

The child could have easily broken his neck or otherwise been seriously or fatally injured in all the commotion and all by mere accident. These are big, fast moving primates. Hence, the name "great ape" is an appropriate label for these, the largest of the non-human primates.

By just working around wild animals in captivity, including three species of great apes, provides me with enough insight into the potential hazards in a zoo enclosure. Even the exhibit void of animals can be dangerous for humans to navigate. Keepers are careful when they clean enclosures. It is easy to slip or fall or trip on enrichment items or artificial rock work.

Oddly enough, the barriers in high-rise shopping centers and other public attractions from Niagara Falls to walkway and automobile bypass structures around the country remain in conditions where barriers can be easily breached by unsupervised children. And we hear about tragedies when young children fall to their death or are left severely injured. Who can forget the devastating loss Eric Clapton faced when his young son fell to his death from a high-rise apartment building? And his son was at home with his mom and a maid.

I may be an exceptionally over-educated "retired" zookeeper and curator, but those are the thoughts that I would have shared had I not been training animals during the scheduled radio interview that I was invited to participate in. Rest in peace Harambe. You are missed.

We invite you to join Dr. Schaul's verified public facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jordan.schaul

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What Economists Don't Know About Physics -- And Why It's Killing Us
Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. -- Kenneth Boulding

(Spaceship Earth: NASA)

The mantra of classical economists is "growth." So fixated are they on growth that recessions are often referred to as periods of "negative growth."

The dominant economic paradigm: If we can keep growing the pie, everyone's piece will get larger. Never mind that, as the pie grows, the greedy cut monstrous pieces for themselves and slivers for the rest of us. The foundational assumption itself is flawed. The empty promise of perpetual growth is based on folly -- and on a fluke of evolutionary history that has allowed humankind to temporarily disregard the laws of physics.

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For most of the time humans have inhabited the earth, our numbers were small, and the growth rate of our species was nearly zero. In other words, we were more-or-less in equilibrium with the natural world, as were most species.

The doubling time of the human population just prior to the Industrial Revolution was about 500 years. Following the Industrial Revolution, England's growth rate shot to 1.6 percent, its population doubling every 43 years. What the hell happened?

In two words: fossil fuels. Fossil fuels propelled the Industrial Revolution, which in turn gave us mechanization, rapid transportation, the subjugation of nature, and industrial agriculture, all the ingredients for modern, urbanized, high-density societies. Powered first by coal, then oil, and now gas, the world's human population more than tripled between 1950 and 2010.

Fossil fuels have been a Faustian bargain. Civilization as we know it has been purchased by mortgaging the future. To understand why we need some physics.

Thermodynamicists refer to isolated, closed, and open systems. An isolated system is hermetically sealed: it can exchange neither matter nor energy with its surroundings. At the other extreme, an open system can exchange both. With a semi-permeable boundary, a closed system, can exchange energy but not matter.

Save for a stray meteorite that might increase our planet's mass by a tiny fraction, the earth's mass is static. However, it's surface is subject daily to an enormous flux of solar radiation (sunlight), most of which is re-radiated back to space. So, for all practical purposes, spaceship earth is a closed system.

Mainstream economists tend to think of the economy as an abstract, mathematical automaton independent of the physical world. But economic activity necessarily requires natural resources, which are in finite supply simply because spaceship earth is closed. Fallacy number one: The notion of perpetual economic growth is absurd on face value because it demands an unbounded supply of natural resources and thus an infinitely large earth.

Fallacy number two is more subtle and involves the thermodynamic idea of entropy. Entropy is a slippery concept requiring care. Most commonly, entropy is a quantitative measure of disorder within a thermodynamic system. For example, uncork a perfume bottle in a sealed room, and then watch and wait. After several hours the densely concentrated perfume molecules will have diffused and dispersed all throughout the room. They will not then spontaneously reassemble themselves back inside the perfume bottle. The simple vignette illustrates nature's most fundamental law -- the Second Law of Thermodynamics -- which states that entropy tends to increase over time in an isolated system.

On spaceship earth, the Second Law implies that the order and structure of the economy are purchased at the price of disorder and degradation of the ecosphere. Fortunately, the earth being a closed system (admitting energy), ecological degradation can be reversed, but only on a time scale that is long relative to a human lifespan.

With regard to energy, it is useful to think of entropy as quantifying the concentration (or availability) of the form of energy. Highly concentrated energy -- coal, for example -- has low entropy. Low-grade, diffuse energy -- say, waste heat -- has high entropy. Although energy is conserved, according to the Second Law, entropy tends to increase over time. For example, consider burning coal to produce electricity to power lights, stoves, and refrigerators. All the electrical energy used to power those devices eventually winds up as waste heat. Waste energy is not lost, but at high entropy, it is essentially unusable.

Think then of fossil fuels as concentrated sunlight, the products of millions of years of photosynthesis during the Carboniferous Period. Such dense, low-entropy energy is a fluke of the earth's evolutionary history. Fossil energy has allowed humans to proliferate and civilizations to sprout at an abnormally fast pace, and for the degradation of the earth's biosphere at a rate far beyond her natural ability to regenerate.

Our dependence on fossil energy therefore has us in a double bind. First, fossil fuels are in finite supply. If they run out before sufficient low-entropy replacements are found, civilizations will crash due to energy unavailability. But if we don't soon quit using them, atmospheric CO2 from burning fossils will crash the ecosphere. We're between a rock and a hard place.

The current economic paradigm of perpetual growth greatly exacerbates our dilemma. Having originated during the age of fossil fuels -- when abnormal growth was the rule -- classical economics ignores the fundamental role played by entropy in sustainability and suggests that we can simply continue business as usual into the future. Classical economic theory has thus placed on a trajectory toward catastrophe.

Fortunately, not all economists are blind to physical laws. As early as 1857, John Stuart Mill developed a non-growth "stationary-state" economic model. More recently, the Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) proposed a theory of "evolutionary economics," which considers human economy as a subsystem of evolutionary biology. And in 1977, Herman Daly sounded the clarion call for "ecological economics" with the publication of Steady-State Economics. Daly, a 2014 recipient of the Blue Planet Prize, is currently on staff at the Center for the Advancement of the Steady-State Economy (CASSE).

"Economics for a Full World" -- Daly's 2014 address in Tokyo -- is lucid and accessible. It deserves to be read in entirety for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that he offers concrete and reasonable solutions for both our economic and ecological woes. Here are a few gems from Daly:

Because of exponential growth since World War II, we now live in a full world, but we still behave as if it were empty.

That richer (more net wealth) is better than poorer is a truism. The relevant question, though, is, does growth still make us richer, or has it begun to make us poorer by increasing "illth" faster than wealth?

Examples of "illth" are everywhere, even if they are still unmeasured in national accounts. They include things like nuclear wastes, climate change from excess carbon in the atmosphere, biodiversity loss, depleted mines, deforestation, eroded topsoil, dry wells and rivers, sea level rise, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, gyres of plastic trash in the oceans, and the ozone hole.

Their refusal to acknowledge [ecological limits] is why many economists cannot conceive of the possibility that growth in GDP could ever be uneconomic.

The economy should not be used as an idiot machine dedicated to maximizing waste.

Our vision and policies should be based on the integrated view of the economy as a subsystem of the finite and non-growing ecosphere.

And, quoting John Ruskin, "There is no wealth but life."

Hope remains, but only if humans transition quickly from an unsustainable economic paradigm to one in which "humans and markets are not exempt from the laws of nature."

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Juno Is Arriving At Jupiter On July 4
The national fireworks on July 4 this year will be joined by celestial fireworks as NASA's Juno mission arrives at Jupiter after five years of travel from Earth. Principals of the mission and its scientific experiments discussed the plans for the orbital insertion at a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, today, as Juno reached Jupiter's doorstep. Juno, in Roman mythology, was the wife of the king of the gods, Jupiter.

Juno's path is to thread a needle between Jupiter's radiation belts and its atmosphere. Starting at 11:18 pm EDT (8:18 pm PDT) on July 4's evening, the spacecraft will burn its main engine to slow it from its 165,000 mph speed with respect to Earth, one of the highest speeds ever reached. The burn should last 35 minutes, until 11:53 pm EDT (8:53 pm PDT). Eager scientists and engineers, joined by journalists and those watching on NASA TV around the world, will listen for a beep at the beginning of the engine burn and another beep at the end of the burn, hoping that the exact timing indicates a successful insertion into a polar orbit around Jupiter. All action actually took place 48 minutes earlier, since the radio signals from Jupiter currently take 48 minutes to travel to Earth at the speed of light. The last commands to Juno are being sent today; the spacecraft will then be on its own for a few days, though, of course, it will be monitored.

It will then take a couple of days before the instruments are turned on. The spacecraft has been made to spin faster than previously, 5 rpm, to improve its stabilization before the burn; it will be slowed to 2 rpm for its science observations. Not since the Pioneer spacecraft has rotation been used for stabilization, but this spacecraft is in one of NASA's smaller (and less expensive) spacecraft series, following on the very successful New Horizons spacecraft that flew by Pluto last year.

Most of the instruments deal with Jupiter's particles and magnetic field, which is 20,000 times more powerful than Earth's. The main instruments, to protect them, are in a vault made of 400 pounds of titanium to protect them from high radiation. The Junocam, its imaging camera, is outside that protection, and may not last as long as other instruments; further, it will give images as it rotates that will have to be transformed to the equivalent of steady views.

Juno's instruments will be powered by huge solar panels; end to end, the spacecraft would fill a basketball court from hoop to hoop. A boom at the end of one arm extends even further, to put the magnetic-field measuring equipment as far from the metal at the spacecraft's center as possible, to minimize distortions.

When the planets of our solar system formed about 5 billion years ago, Jupiter took up about half the leftover material besides the Sun. Juno's main goals include discovering what the inside of Jupiter is like, as part of understanding how the planets formed. One specific goal is to discover whether Jupiter has a rocky or ice core of elements heavier than helium. It has been estimated as being 10 to 20 times the Earth's mass; though dense, it is not necessarily solid, even under the huge pressure near Jupiter's center.

Juno will be in an extended elliptical orbit, coming as close as only 5000 miles above the cloudtops at its lowest point. Its 14-day elliptical orbit will be timed so that each time it comes close it passes a few degrees in longitude around the planet, so that by the time it completes three dozen orbits after about a year, it will have mapped the planet at high accuracy completely. But unlike previous spacecraft to Jupiter, it is concentrating on a layer under the visible cloud deck, where the magnetic field is apparently formed. That layer stays much steadier than does Jupiter's atmosphere above it.

Jupiter's magnetosphere is huge; if we could see it, it would appear as big as our Moon appears in our sky. We know from measuring radio signals from Jupiter that the magnetic field rotates like clockwork, even though the cloud deck rotates at different speeds at different latitudes. The magnetic field generates a huge, fairly steady aurora, over twice as large as Earth. The spacecraft has been traveling within Jupiter's magnetosphere, where the magnetic field dominates, for about a week.

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Water Droplets Observed in Distant Spiderweb Galaxy --"Not Where We Expected!"

Astronomers have spotted glowing droplets of condensed water in the distant Spiderweb Galaxy but not where they expected to find them. Detections with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show that the water is located far out in the galaxy and therefore cannot be associated with central, dusty, star-forming regions, as previously thought.

“Observations of light emitted by water and by dust often go hand-in-hand. We usually interpret them as an insight into star-forming regions, with the illumination from young stars warming dust particles and water molecules until they start to glow. Now, thanks to the power of ALMA, we can -- for the first time -- separate out the emissions from the dust and water populations, and pinpoint their exact origins in the galaxy. The results are quite unexpected in that we've found that the water is located nowhere near the dusty stellar nurseries,” explained Bitten Gullberg, of the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, UK.

The Spiderweb Galaxy above as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (optical) in red, the Very Large Array (radio) in green and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (sub-millimetre) in blue. The red colour shows where the stars are located within this system of galaxies. The radio jet is shown in green, and the position of the dust and water are seen in blue. The water is located to the left and right of the central galaxy. The water to the right is at the position where the radio jet bends down wards. The dust is also seen in blue. The dust is located at the central galaxy and in smaller companion galaxies in its surroundings. Credit: NASA/ESA/HST/STScI/NRAO/ESO

The Spiderweb Galaxy is one of the most massive galaxies known. It lies 10 billion light-years away and is made up of dozens of star-forming galaxies in the process of merging together. The ALMA observations show that the light from the dust originates in the Spiderweb Galaxy itself. However, the light from the water is concentrated in two regions far to the east and west of the galaxy core.

Gullberg and her colleagues believe that the explanation lies with powerful jets of radio waves that are ejected from a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Spiderweb Galaxy. The radio jets compress clouds of gas along their path and heat up water molecules contained within the clouds until they emit radiation.

“Our results show how important it is to pinpoint the exact locations and origins for light in galaxies. We may also have new clues to the processes that trigger star formation in interstellar clouds,” said Gullberg. “Stars are born out of cold, dense molecular gas. The regions in the Spiderweb where we've detected water are currently too hot for stars to form. But the interaction with the radio jets changes the composition of the gas clouds. When the molecules have cooled down again, it will be possible for the seeds of new stars to form. These “dew drop” regions could become the next stellar nurseries in this massive, complex galaxy.”

The Daily Galaxy via RAS

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Will NASA's Juno Mission Solve Mystery of Jupiter's Magnetic Field? --"Strongest in Our Solar System"

In three days, July 4th, the spacecraft Juno will arrive at Jupiter, the culmination of a five-year, billion-dollar journey. It's mission: to peer deep inside the gas giant and unravel its origin and evolution. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Jupiter is how it generates its powerful magnetic field, the strongest in the solar system.

One theory is that about halfway to Jupiter's core, the pressures and temperatures become so intense that the hydrogen that makes up 90 percent of the planet -- molecular gas on Earth -- looses hold of its electrons and begins behaving like a liquid metal. Oceans of liquid metallic hydrogen surrounding Jupiter's core would explain its powerful magnetic field.

But how and when does this transition from gas to liquid metal occur? How does it behave? Researchers hope that Juno will shed some light on this exotic state of hydrogen -- but one doesn't need to travel all the way to Jupiter to study it.

Four hundred million miles away, in a small, windowless room in the basement of Lyman Laboratory on Oxford Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, there was, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, a small piece of Jupiter.

Earlier this year, in an experiment about five-feet long, Harvard University researchers say they observed evidence of the abrupt transition of hydrogen from liquid insulator to liquid metal. It is one of the first times such a transition has ever been observed in any experiment.

"This is planetary science on the bench," said Mohamed Zaghoo, the NASA Earth & Space Science Fellow at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "The question of how hydrogen transitions into a metallic state -- whether that is an abrupt transition or not -- has huge implications for planetary science. How hydrogen transitions inside Jupiter, for example, says a lot about the evolution, the temperature and the structure of these gas giants interiors."

In the experiment, Zaghoo, Ashkan Salamat, and senior author Isaac Silvera, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, recreated the extreme pressures and temperatures of Jupiter by squeezing a sample of hydrogen between two diamond tips, about 100 microns wide, and firing short bursts of lasers of increasing intensity to raise the temperature.

This experimental setup is significantly smaller and cheaper than other current techniques to generate metallic hydrogen, most of which rely on huge guns or lasers that generate shock waves to heat and pressurize hydrogen.

The transition of the liquid to metallic hydrogen happens too quickly for human eyes to observe and the sample lasts only a fraction of a second before it deteriorates. So, instead of watching the sample itself for evidence of the transition, the team watched lasers pointed at the sample. When the phase transition occurred, the lasers abruptly reflected.

"At some point, the hydrogen abruptly transitioned from an insulating, transparent state, like glass, to a shiny metallic state that reflected light, like copper, gold or any other metal," Zaghoo said. "Because this experiment, unlike shock wave experiments, isn't destructive, we could run the experiment continuously, doing measurements and monitoring for weeks and months to learn about the transition."

"This is the simplest and most fundamental atomic system, yet modern theory has large variances in predictions for the transition pressure," Silvera said. "Our observation serves as a crucial guide to modern theory."

The results represent a culmination of decades of research by the Silvera group. The data collected could begin to answer some of the fundamental questions about the origins of solar systems.

Metallic hydrogen also has important ramifications here on Earth, especially in energy and materials science. "A lot of people are talking about the hydrogen economy because hydrogen is combustibly clean and it's very abundant," said Zaghoo. "If you can compress hydrogen into high density, it has a lot of energy compacted into it."

"As a rocket fuel, metallic hydrogen would revolutionize rocketry as propellant an order of magnitude more powerful than any known chemical," said Silvera. "This could cut down the time it takes to get to Mars from nine months to about two months, transforming prospects of human space endeavors."

Metallic hydrogen could be used to make room temperature or even higher than room temperature super-conductors. The Juno mission goes hand-in-hand with laboratory experiments into metallic hydrogen, Zaghoo said."The measurements of Jupiter's magnetic field that Juno will be collecting is directly related to our data," he said. "We're not in competition with NASA but, in some ways, we got to Jupiter first."

In the Gemini Observatory image at the top of the page, white indicates cloud features at relatively high altitudes; blue indicates lower cloud structures; and red represents still deeper cloud features. The two red spots appear more white than red, because their tops hover high above the surrounding clouds. Also prominent is the polar stratospheric haze, which makes Jupiter bright near the pole. Other tiny white spots are regions of high clouds, like towering thunderheads. In visible light Jupiter looks orangish, but in the near-infrared the blue color is due to strong absorption features. The blue mid-level clouds are also closest to what one would see in a visual light image.

The Daily Galaxy via Harvard University

"Our Early Solar System Harbored SuperEarths" (Weekend Feature)

"Up to 50% of Earth's Water is Older than Our Solar System" (Today's Most Popular)

"A Fine-Tuned Universe?" --Complex Organic Molecules Discovered in Infant Star System

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Discovery of a Magnetic Field Spanning the Universe --"Solves Mystery of the Missing Antimatter" (Today's Most Popular)

"Both the planet we live on and the star we orbit are made up of 'normal' matter," said Tanmay Vachaspati a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University working at the intersections of particle physics, astrophysics, general relativity, and cosmology. "Although it features in many science fiction stories, antimatter seems to be incredibly rare in nature. With this new result, we have one of the first hints that we might be able to solve this mystery."

The discovery of a 'left-handed' magnetic field that pervades the universe could help explain a long standing mystery the absence of cosmic antimatter. Planets, stars, gas and dust are almost entirely made up of 'normal' matter of the kind we are familiar with on Earth. But theory predicts that there should be a similar amount of antimatter, like normal matter, but with the opposite charge. For example, an antielectron (called a positron) has the same mass as its conventional counterpart, but a positive rather than negative charge.

In 2001 Vachaspati published theoretical models to try to solve this puzzle, which predict that the entire universe is filled with helical (screw-like) magnetic fields. He and his team were inspired to search for evidence of these fields in data from the NASA Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope (FGST). Vachaspati has written extensively on cosmic strings, magnetic monopoles, black holes, and cosmological magnetic fields, and has authored the monograph "Kinks and Domain Walls: an introduction to classical and quantum solitons". He was a Rosenbaum Fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

In 2015, a group of scientists, led by Vachaspati, with collaborators at the University of Washington and Nagoya University, announce their result in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

FGST, launched in 2008, observes gamma rays (electromagnetic radiation with a shorter wavelength than X-rays) from very distant sources, such as the supermassive black holes found in many large galaxies. The gamma rays are sensitive to effect of the magnetic field they travel through on their long journey to the Earth. If the field is helical, it will imprint a spiral pattern on the distribution of gamma rays.

Vachaspati and his team see exactly this effect in the FGST data, allowing them to not only detect the magnetic field but also to measure its properties. The data shows not only a helical field, but also that there is an excess of left-handedness - a fundamental discovery that for the first time suggests the precise mechanism that led to the absence of antimatter.

For example, mechanisms that occur nanoseconds after the Big Bang, when the Higgs field gave masses to all known particles, predict left-handed fields, while mechanisms based on interactions that occur even earlier predict right-handed fields.

This discovery has wide ramifications, as a cosmological magnetic field could play an important role in the formation of the first stars and could seed the stronger field seen in galaxies and clusters of galaxies in the present day.

The image at the top of the page shows colliding matter and antimatter. Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

The Daily Galaxy via RAS

Today's 'Galaxy' Insight --"Life in the Milky Way"

Today's 'Galaxy' Insight --"An ET Technology Beyond Matter?"

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On Climate, Corporations Need to Grow a Soul
Can you imagine the big banks saying: "Hey, Obama! Break us up! We need regulation!" Of course not. That's because corporations almost never take positions that threaten their short-term self-interest. Can you imagine a mainstream corporation leading the charge on, say, marriage equality twenty years ago? Nope. (Richard Socarides, a staffer in the Clinton White House, has written about how hard it was to get business leaders even to talk about the issue then.)

Businesses hate controversy: leadership just wants to keep their heads down and pump out widgets. "Shut up and ski," is what many tell the ski resort I work for when we delve into climate or social issues. Even recent activism by many firms in support of LGBT and transgender rights--which has been hugely effective--proves the point. Those actions weren't risky; rather, like taking a strong position on civil rights in the late seventies, they boarded a train that was leaving the station.

This innate cautiousness is a problem in a climate changed world. When respected organizations like NOAA report that we might see sea level rise of up to 9 feet by 2050-2060, we've got a crisis that's going to require rapid government response. How do you get there when even citizens who consider themselves "alarmed" about global warming take few public actions to drive change, as a new study in the Journal Nature Climate Change reports?

Two studies inform the question. Recent analysis by business school professors Michel Toffel and Aaron Chatterjee showed the strong influence CEO activism has on public views. If, for example, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is reported to oppose a law, that fact increased the number of people who would themselves oppose the law. Second, a 2014 study of 20 years of public opinion data by two political scientists--Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page--showed that business leaders have far more influence on politicians than common citizens.

In short: in this post-Citizen's United world, voter opinions are both influenced by, and trumped by the corporate elite; and most people aren't taking public action on climate anyway. Business voice matters, big time.

That means to stave off nine feet of coastal flooding, we're going to need corporations to help. And to make a difference, they're going to have to take strong political positions that go against their short term self-interest. This type of action--particularly the use of their powerful voice--runs counter to the standard business approach to climate: keep your head down and cut your carbon footprint. The problem is that cutting carbon a little bit at one corporation doesn't solve climate change. And worse, it's an overt dodge of the harder, more controversial work of using voice and influence to drive change. But it's very effective, placating customers, shareholders and employees while freeing business of the need to take meaningful, but riskier, action.

Solving climate change by taking actions that don't solve climate change is a bad place to be. To drive real change, a corporation might have to go beyond , say, supporting a carbon tax in the abstract, which many businesses have already done, but instead demand a large carbon tax, which might hurt the short term bottom line; call out climate denying elected officials; or publicly endorse candidates based on their climate position.

Getting corporations to do any of these things is a big lift. It goes against their Buddha-nature. They move only when then need to, driven by profit. Compare soda manufacturer's nonexistent lobbying response on climate to their well-organized, rapid and well-funded reaction to proposed "obsesity" taxes on sugary drinks in multiple states, as documented in Marion Nestle's new book Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning.)

Not surprisingly, corporations are not bringing out similar knives on climate. Of course they haven't. Why would we expect these fundamentally amoral entities to behave ethically? Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote in Harvard Business Review that "Despite the statements emitted from oil companies' executive suites about taking climate change seriously and supporting a price on carbon, their lobbying presence in Congress is 100% opposed to any action." He also notes that "while Coke and Pepsi have been vocal behind the scenes on the need for climate action, here in Congress their lobbying agencies don't support their position." True, before the Paris climate conference, 365 corporations backed the EPA Clean Power plan, Obama's signature climate rule. But that's not altogether risky, given that the law, under the Clean Air Act, requires such a plan.

We're at a singular time in history. Solutions to the climate crisis, the greatest challenge facing humanity today, are advancing rapidly. Coal is in free fall; the cost of solar and wind energy is plummeting, along with the cost of batteries. In 100 years, we'll have solved the problem. But we don't have 100 years, and so we need to accelerate the process with a policy boost. In a short timeframe, only business voice and lobbying power can make this happen. And so for the first time in history, humans need corporations, their intentionally sociopathic Frankenstein's monster, to grow a soul.

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A Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free California Is Within Reach
California's well-earned reputation as a leader in developing and deploying renewable energy just got a new boost. In recent years, the state has set many impressive goals for the future, such as a goal to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030. In April 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order that requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. But the most promising move of all came recently with the announcement that Diablo Canyon, California's lone remaining nuclear power plant, will close by 2025, once its remaining federal licenses expire. This long-awaited decision is a tremendous victory for supporters of safe, renewable energy.

California's path toward greater uptake of renewable energy has not been without its ups and downs. Some - like the state's legislative counsel - believe that Governor Jerry Brown exceeded his executive authority with his move that pushes for emissions targets beyond 2020, when AB32, California's global landmark warming bill, expires. Others believe it is only commonsense to push for more aggressive targets. After all, the entire point of this exercise is to get and keep greenhouse gas emissions curving downward as rapidly as possible. Ambitious targets help focus the mind and many believe they aren't ambitious enough. For example, Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, believes that a 50 percent renewable energy target by 2030 is "not really a challenge," and, in fact, suggests that a 100 percent renewable energy California is readily achievable.

A recent report from Stanford Engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson concurs: Jacobson's report shows that California and other U.S. states could easily get to 100% renewable energy by 2050 while realizing numerous economic and public health gains. Germany, with an economy much larger than California's, recently produced 90 percent of its power from renewable energy. But, despite these facts, renewables still face pushback, particularly from pro-nuclear advocates who are determined to keep decades-old plants operational, to the detriment of renewable energy.

Some argue that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant should remain open-- despite the nuclear plant's proximity to earthquake faults, the potential for monumental costs related to plant upgrades, and the fact that deployment of renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy storage to fill the 2,240 megawatt gap is a far cheaper and safer alternative.

Critically, organized labor is on board the shuttering of Diablo. That's because, under the proposal, PG&E would provide a retraining and development program to transition some workers to Diablo Canyon's decommissioning, or to other positions at the company. Rep. Lois Capps (CA-24) said in a statement that she was pleased that the company was working with stakeholders "to ensure a responsible transition." Overall, this proposal is a model way to close the chapter on nuclear power in California.

Renewable energy targets of 50 percent were clearly a decisive factor when these diverse groups joined together to take a stand for California's energy future. With this proposal, the support of a state government that has demonstrated a commitment to the environment, and a civically-engaged public, California's energy future is looking cleaner and safer by the day.

With the recent State Lands Commission decision to authorize issuance of a general lease until 2025, we are, now, one step closer to realizing a carbon-free, nuclear-free California. If the remaining regulatory hurdles are cleared, Diablo's closure will be something for all of us to truly celebrate.

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As Haunted As I Am By The Death Of Harambe The Gorilla, I Believe The Zoo Made The Best Decision At The Time
In my opinion, in regard to the death of Harambe a month after his untimely death, the Cincinnati Zoo made the best decision possible under horrible circumstances.

In the wake of the unfortunate and terribly tragic event at the Zoo, I was invited to participate in a radio interview with The Takeaway, a radio program affiliated with WNYC and Public Radio International.

Jack D'Isidoro, an award-winning freelance multimedia journalist and producer who contributes regularly to The New York Times, reached out to me on May 31st. Unfortunately, I was unable to share my thoughts with his intended audience. I was busy training dogs at my new boarding and enrichment facility in Los Angeles and had missed his email and phone call.

This week, a month after Harambe's death, I discovered that I also missed an email alert regarding a post I published in National Geographic's online editorial news publication on the future of zoos. The piece was cited in a Washington Post article concerning Harambe's fate, which reminded me that nearly a month has passed since we lost this great ape.

Although I did post an article about the tragedy on my public Facebook page hours after it was reported, I never got a chance to share my sentiment publicly. When I heard the news, I was immediately struck by the thought of a zoo having to make such a terrible sacrifice and was grieving for Harambe who I have never even met or knew of. I wanted to let colleagues and FB followers, zoo professionals and activists alike, know of this unfortunate news.

The Washington Post article included commentary from a notable zoo historian who I once participated in a radio interview with and Dr. Michael Hutchins, my esteemed colleague and friend, and a prominent zoo and wildlife biologist.

These zoo experts addressed the big picture -- the conservation relevance of losing a valuable zoo gorilla. They discussed the impact of the loss of this one animal's potential contribution to the reserve gene pool, which is essentially what a captive population of this critically endangered species represents.

Frankly, the fact that the gorilla is an endangered species still hasn't crossed my mind in regard to this loss of life. This was a beautiful and sentient creature who died at his prime, whether he was in a zoo or free-ranging or contributing to the captive gene pool or not.

I will never have a chance to read and process all the rumor and rhetoric surrounding Harambe that has been generated by the public and the responses from professional experts. However, I keep thinking about him and what a loss this must be for the zoo keepers and staff who cared for him. The staff had to make a horrible life and death decision on his behalf in less than a second. You can't wait for a tranquilizer to take effect when you have to respond in a moment's notice.

To put it in perspective, I once darted an orphaned, 300 lb. subadult grizzly bear that I raised from a 9-month-old cub with a syringe pole (similar to a jab stick) while I was standing a few feet away from her at a wildlife sanctuary in Alaska. There was no barrier between us. As she looked the other way, I quickly injected her. I had time on my hands to prepare, no public distraction or interference, and my colleagues from Alaska Department of Fish & Game were on hand to monitor and assist if needed. An unusual and unique circumstance dictated that the animal be tranquilized on exhibit.

However, in a zoo setting far more resources and preparation would go in to such a scheduled chemical immobilization planned for a potentially injurious large animal and any chemical restraint would be conducted behind-the-scenes or before or after visiting hours. Nonetheless, I remember that it felt like a long time had passed before this bear was adequately sedated. In reality, it was at least several minutes.

In Harambe's case, this was an unscheduled and obvious emergency and darting the animal was really not a viable option. Waiting for a tranquillizer to take effect would add substantially more time to an already precarious situation for the boy even if Harambe was indeed protecting him. When an animal recieves a remote dart injection, it is typically a surprise to them and they usually don't like it at all. They react as you might react if you were darted with a flying syringe from a great distance. What if he was holding the child and then collapsed on top of him due to the effects of a potent sedative? Anything could have happened. Regardless, I was touched by the public outcry and very much understand the emotions elicited and the public response.

Again, the Zoo made a very difficult choice, but I believe it was the right one. I very much like the Cincinnati Zoo, but I am in no way obligated to defend their actions. I do sit on a board of a zoo advocacy organization, but I'm not financially compensated by the non-profit organization. I just believe in the mission of zoos and I love charismatic creatures that receive exemplary human care in these conservation centers. I have been very fortunate to have interacted with many wonderful zoo animals over the years and the experiences have been tremendously gratifying and rewarding for me. I can only hope I enriched the lives of these animals in return.

I was moved after watching some of the footage as Harambe seemed to embrace the boy as he reached out to hold him. I can only speculate that he was not acting aggressively toward the child and had no such intention to do so. The scene is imprinted in my brain and it is unforgettable. I have a lot of thoughts on the tragedy as a former zoo keeper and curator and as a conservationist. But first and foremost, I'm an animal lover like so many of my friends and zoo colleagues and the readership communities who follow Huffington Post. So this decision was hard to process even for someone like me who appreciates the challenges this precarious human-captive animal interaction created for the Zoo.

There are clearly mixed reviews on how the Cincinnati Zoo handled the situation even among some of my colleagues. Some just hope the story dies down. But I'm haunted by what transpired and I felt compelled to offer my perspective as a zoo patron and former zoo employee.

I think zoos do their very best to contain zoo animals and in recent years they have spent extra resources on making sure people can't breach perimeter barriers and get into zoo enclosures, but it is the public's responsibility to keep our children safe and that responsibility falls largely on parents.

In fact, I think that some exhibits should have age limitation restrictions for access. Children who are too young often can't even appreciate the magic of an intimate encounter with a majestic animal icon in a zoo setting like a silverback gorilla. More often than not they seem to incite animals unintentionally by pounding on glass or by running around screaming and crying.

Those are not ways of respecting or dignifying a zoo animal ambassador and their parents should know better. Hopefully teachers and other attendants will also learn from this.

Rather then enriching the experience for the animal, I'm pretty confident some of the behavior of young children leaves sentient zoo animals frustrated, if not demoralized. Anyone can see it is occasionally stimulating for the animals and from a gorilla's perspective, for example, it can be perceived as play when they get to interact with rambunctious kids through glass barriers. However, we should expect some ettiquette from zoo visitors. They are guests at a public venue and these animal ambassadors deserve some respect from patrons.

In my opinion, the zoo was left with no choice but to dispatch a beautiful, healthy and robust adult male gorilla. And again, what a terrible predicament for the animal care team to find themselves in.

I recall an incident where a male gorilla broke his neck from a shallow fall in a freak accident in an indoor enclosure at another Ohio zoo. This was twenty years ago. I was in the building doing relief work as a zoo keeper in another animal unit. Unfortunately, no primate care staff member witnessed the incident and there were few helpful reports from patrons. Like the event with Harambe, the other gorilla death was quite unprecedented and has not happened before or since to my knowledge.

In the case of the fallen gorilla, one of our veterinary clinicians responded immediately and tried to resuscitate the animal after the public was ushered out of the building. His three other adult male companions were quickly lured off exhibit into their bedrooms with issued recall commands by a trained and responsive keeper staff. Relocating the other apes was neccessary so the vet could access the unconscious animal. The veterinarian, who is board certified in zoo and wildlife medicine, was on the scene just minutes after the emergency was announced through our radio communication system, but sadly he was not able to revive the gorilla after several attempts to administer CPR.

In Harambe's case (based on what I saw in video footage), there was no time to recall him or perhaps other apes in close proximity because the child was already in the exhibit, having breached barriers.

Although Harambe may indeed have been protecting this little boy, the surface features of that gorilla enclosure are to some degree slightly unforgiving to even a much sturdier and more agile young gorilla of comparable age and size to the child. The boy is really lucky to have left the situation relatively unscathed. These enclosures are definitely designed for great apes and not little boys.

The child could have easily broken his neck or otherwise been seriously or fatally injured in all the commotion and all by mere accident. These are big, fast moving primates. Hence, the name "great ape" is an appropriate label for these, the largest of the non-human primates.

By just working around wild animals in captivity, including three species of great apes, provides me with enough insight into the potential hazards in a zoo enclosure. Even the exhibit void of animals can be dangerous for humans to navigate. Keepers are careful when they clean enclosures. It is easy to slip or fall or trip on enrichment items or artificial rock work.

Oddly enough, the barriers in high rise shopping centers and other public attractions from Niagara Falls to walkway and automobile bypass structures around the country remain in conditions where barriers can be easily breached by unsupervised children. And we hear about tragedies when young children fall to their death or are left severely injured. Who can forget the devastating loss Eric Clapton faced when his young son fell to his death from a high rise apartment building? And his son was at home with his mom and a maid.

I may be an exceptionally over-educated "retired" zoo keeper and curator, but those are the thoughts that I would have shared had I not been training animals during the scheduled radio interview that I was invited to participate in. Rest in peace Harambe. You are missed.

We invite you to join Dr. Schaul's verified public facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jordan.schaul

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To Connect with Nature, Live in the City

"We need density but we also need connections to nature," said University of Virginia professor Timothy Beatley, at an event at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to celebrate D.C.'s successful inclusion in the Biophilic Cities Network, a group of leading cities pushing for rich, nature-filled experiences in daily urban life.

Beatley launched the network only a few years ago, but it already seems to have taken off. Building on the impact of his important books, Green Urbanism, Biophilic Cities, and Blue Urbanism, the network is designed to improve knowledge-sharing among cities who seek to merge the built and natural environments. Leading environmental cities -- such as Singapore; Portland; San Francisco; Wellington, New Zealand; and now, Washington, D.C. -- have joined, and another 20-30 cities are now exploring signing on.

Beatley explained how biophilic cities forge deeper, more meaningful connections to nature, which in turn increases social connections and community resilience. He then highlighted some biophilic urban innovations:

Singapore (see video at top) is now putting "nature at the heart of its planning and design process." Singapore's official tagline used to be "garden city," but now it's "the city in a garden." The idea, Beatley explained, is "not to visit a garden but to live in it; not to visit a park, but to live in it." To realize this concept, Singapore has issued a landscape replacement policy that ensures any greenery removed through the process of developing a lot be replaced on the building eventually found there. In reality, though, developers, architects, and landscape architects have doubled or tripled the amount of original green footprint in buildings' structures through the use of sky gardens. "There is now a competition among developers to see who can add more green." The city has also built nearly 300 kilometers of park connectors to create deeper connections between parks and neighborhoods.

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Parkroyal on Pickering by WOHA and Tierra Design / Dezeen

Melbourne, Australia, has pledged to double its tree canopy by 2040. "They are re-imagining the idea of the city in a forest. It's a multi-scale investment in nature -- from the rooftop to the bio-region and everywhere in between." Individual trees are now being registered and made accessible via GIS maps. To further boost engagement, locals can also email love notes to a tree and the trees will write a note back.

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The City of Melbourne's Urban Forest Strategy. Image by Anton Malishev / ArchitectureAU

A number of cities are forging deeper connections to urban wildlife, too. In Bangalore, there's the Slender Loris project that engages citizen scientists in noctural journeys through the city to meet these shy creatures. Austin, Texas has gone completely batty, in a good way. Underneath Congress Bridge, millions of bat fly out at dusk during the warmer months to feed. Above and below the bridge, people gather to watch the amazing exoduses and sometime-murmurations. "There are now bat-watching dinner cruises."

In St. Louis, there's Milkweeds for Monarchs, which has resulted in 250 new butterfly gardens. San Francisco will soon mandate the use of bird-friendly building facades. And in Wellington, city officials are investing in predator-proof fencing in many areas with the goal of "bringing birdsong back."

"Biophilic experiences are multi-sensory. Animal sounds can re-animate our cities. People want more nature; they want to hear birdsong in their neigborhoods," said Beatley.

Stella Tarnay, co-founder of Biophilic DC, wants D.C. to become even more nature-filled. Her group will monitor new city projects to ensure they actually integrate greenery and boost biodiversity. For example, in Adams Morgan, plans are underway to remake the Marie Reed Learning Center with a set of green roofs and gardens, but it will be important to guarantee none of those great landscape plans get cut at the last minute for budgetary reasons.

Also in the works: building more support for the city's wildlife action plan through expanded environmental education programs. As Maribeth DeLorenzo, deputy director of D.C.'s urban sustainability administration, explained, "there are now 270 species of birds in the district, 70 species of fish, 32 species of mammals, and hundreds of species of invertebrates." But greater awareness is needed of these species -- along with the biodiversity benefits of a clean and ecologically-healthy Anacostia River and the district goal of achieving a 40 percent tree canopy by 2032.

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Yes, Benzos Are Bad For You
WARNING: I will be saying very negative things about benzodiazepines in an effort to force doctors to think twice before prescribing them and to discourage patients from ever using them. However, because withdrawal symptoms can be severe and dangerous, individuals already taking benzos in significant doses on a regular basis should not try to stop or reduce their dose without careful medical supervision. More on this later.

Most new wonder drugs turn out to be not so wonderful once we get to know them better. The family of drugs known as benzodiazepines (commonly called "benzos" for short) were wonder drugs of the 1960s. I and many others welcomed their introduction and began prescribing Valium or Librium not just for anxiety, but also for all sorts of other clinical problems beyond this primary indication -- for instance, to soothe psychotic patients' symptoms, to help people with alcohol use disorders quit drinking, to take the edge off agitation in depression and dementia, and to aid sleep. Benzos were reputed to be safe, and initially we were pretty oblivious to the risk of addiction. Before long, benzos became among the most frequently prescribed medications in America.

A second benzo craze began in the1980s when Xanax became the new wonder drug. Its maker, Upjohn (then run by a former head of the NIH), fashioned a brilliant marketing strategy -- hiding the company's wolfish greed for profit under the sheep's clothing of research sponsorship. Upjohn was able to co-opt the top academic psychiatrists from all around the world by organizing the first large-scale international clinical trial of any psychiatric drug. The results were disturbing to me as an outside observer. By then I had wised up to the great risk of benzos and was not surprised to discover that the dose of Xanax needed to treat panic disorder was dangerously close to the dose needed to result in addiction. This should have scared off everyone from using Xanax, but it didn't. Xanax quickly became, and remains, a best seller.

The real wonder of the benzos is that sales continue to boom, despite their having so little utility and no push from pharma marketeering (because patents have run out - thereby decreasing costs and profits.) Between 1996 and 2013, the percentage of people in the U.S. using benzos jumped more than one-third from an already remarkable 4.1 to 5.6 percent. Especially troubling is that benzo use is ridiculously high (nearly one out of ten) in the elderly, the group most likely to be harmed by them. (See below.) And women are twice as likely as men to be given a prescription.

You would expect such a ubiquitous drug to have many clinical uses but you would be wrong -- the psychiatric indications for benzos can be counted on the fingers of one hand. While benzos do wonders for patients with catatonia, this disorder is rarely encountered. Benzos are also useful short-term for severe agitation in psychosis, mania, and depression. And they are sometimes helpful for patients with severe panic disorder who need instant relief in the several weeks before SSRI's kick in. Benzos would be fine for occasional "as needed" use in times of special stress or insomnia. But since you can't predict who will get hooked, it is wise not to try them at all for this purpose. In my opinion, all of the legitimate indications for benzos are very short term. However, in real life most people take them long term, in doses high enough to be addicting, and for the wrong reasons.

Benzo popularity derives from their ability to quickly relieve anxiety, reduce worry, help people relax, and lubricate social anxiety -- kind of like drinking alcohol but in a convenient pill form. Doctors love prescribing benzos because it's the most efficient way to get a complaining patient out of the office in the shortest possible time. The patient is very satisfied at the moment, but may go on to develop a devastating addiction. People love taking them but once hooked can't stop. In short, benzos are very easy to get on, almost impossible to get off.

Benzos harm in three ways -- most dramatic dangers are deadly overdoses. Between 1996 and 2013, the death rate from benzo overdoses exploded by more than 500 percent, from 0.58 per 100,000 people to 3 per 100,000. Benzos are now involved in more than 30 per cent of all overdose deaths, usually in combination with opioids or alcohol.

Second on the list of harms come the painful and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that foster addiction. Benzo withdrawal is a beast- often terrifying, sometimes dangerous, and almost always drawn out over a very long period of time. The anxiety and panic experienced by people stopping benzos is usually much worse than the anxiety and panic that initially led to their use. Other common symptoms are irritability, insomnia, tremors, distractibility, sweating, and confusion. At the extreme, if doses were high and discontinuation is quick, the symptoms resemble alcoholic delirium tremens with hallucinations, psychosis, seizures, and the risk of death. Withdrawal is made even more difficult if, as is common, benzo dependence is complicated by concomitant abuse of alcohol and/or opioids or other drugs. Most people fail in their first attempts at withdrawal. Success rates increase if the withdrawal is done very gradually over a period of many months. Careful medical supervision is always a must.

Third and most insidious, but still very damaging, are the day-to-day impacts on brain functioning. On-going benzo use can be devastating, especially in the elderly, who (bizarrely) are the group most likely to receive a benzo prescription. If you meet an elderly patient who seems dopey, confused, has memory loss, slurred speech, and poor balance, your first thought should be benzo side effects -- not Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Many elders begin their downward spiral to disability and death after a benzo-induced fall that results in broken hips, concussions, or subdural hematomas (a collection of blood outside the brain.) Benzos are also a major risk factor for car and machine accidents.

Easier said than done. Along with opioids and methamphetamine, benzos are the most seductive of drugs. The combination of benzos and opioids is especially seductive and especially deadly. In my book, no one with any history of substance abuse should ever be prescribed a benzo. It will most likely just get added to the mix.

Benzos should never be used as they are most typically used. While safe and effective in low doses for just a few days, they are ineffective and unsafe when taken, as they usually are, in increasing doses over a long period of time. If prescribed at all in someone who has never used them before, it should be cautiously and with warnings. The time period should be short, the dose low, and quantity very limited at any one time. Real world practice flagrantly violates all these concerns - 90 percent of benzo prescriptions are written, often carelessly, by primary care doctors, who can spend only seven minutes with the patient without giving serious thought to the considerable risk of addiction.

The bottom line is that there is only one way to confidently avoid addiction to benzodiazepines: never start taking them. Since we can't predict who will eventually get hooked, the short term gains are rarely worth the long term risks.

It has been more than 30 years since I last prescribed a benzo for anxiety. In my view, the only legitimate uses in psychiatry now are very short-term relief of catatonia, for severe agitation, and for detox from benzos. For everyone else, risk of addiction outweighs the potential benefit of use.

The tough question is what to recommend for those many unfortunates already suffering the tyranny of benzo addiction. Should they stay the course to avoid the rigors and risks of withdrawal or should they make the great effort to detox? This is an individual decision that can't be forced on someone. But the longer you are on them, the harder it gets to stop, and the cognitive side effects of benzos create more and more dysfunction as your brain ages. The best bet is to stick with a determined effort to detox, however long and difficult, under close medical supervision. On a hopeful note, some of the happiest people I have known are those who have overcome their dependence on benzos.

This article was originally published on Recovery Brands' Pro Talk/Pro Corner
http://www.rehabs.com/pro-talk-articles/yes-benzos-are-bad-for-you/

Allen Frances is a professor emeritus at Duke University and was the chairman of the DSM-IV task force.

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Declare Independence From Food Waste

The July 4 weekend marks our nation's birthday and the time when Americans celebrate -- not only with fireworks, but with picnics, backyard BBQs, pool parties. Sadly, one byproduct of these celebrations are the many tons of food that we will inevitably waste after these family gatherings. Today, 40 percent of food produced in the United States is thrown away each year (over two-thirds of that by consumers).

Ketchup with a date label that says it has expired." Salad dressings that are past their "use by" dates, chips and cheese with passed expiration dates. As a result of confusing date labeling policies, consumers regularly toss out foods that are perfectly safe, wholesome, and still taste good.

Our three organizations are actively involved in the national campaign to reduce food waste in America. High on our list of priorities is standardizing date labels on food; indeed it might be the most cost effective intervention to achieving the U.S. government's stated goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030. Solutions are on the horizon.

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have introduced the Food Date Labeling Act, (HR 5298) to address the confusion surrounding date labeling and tackle our nation's mounting food waste problem.

Our three organizations -- the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, the National Consumers League, and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future -- performed a survey in April 2016 to learn more about what American consumers actually know about date labels. The findings? Consumers are confused and misled. Thirty-seven percent said they always throw away food close to or past the date on the package, and 84 percent reported at least occasionally doing so.

What many consumers don't know is that most food is still safe to eat after its expiration date. Date labels are placed on foods by manufacturers and retailers. Wording like "best by" or "freshest by," are simply estimates of when a food item will be at its peak quality, and not an indicator of how safe the food is. Consumers, however, fear that eating food past the date on the label puts them at risk of foodborne illness. In fact, only a few foods -- deli meat and unpasteurized cheeses, for example -- actually pose an increased safety risk if eaten after the expiration date. No one wants to throw out good food or waste the money spent on it. But, relying on today's date labels leads consumers to do just that.

A misunderstanding of who regulates date labels is contributing to the problem. One third of respondents in our survey thought that date labels are federally regulated, and 26 percent said they were unsure who put those labels on. In actuality, except for infant formula, there are no federally mandated date labeling rules. Each state has its own regulations for what the labels mean and what stores can do with food after the date passes. Research from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) shows that 20 states currently restrict sales, and in certain cases, even donations of past-date foods, even if the label is an arbitrary quality estimate.

The Food Date Labeling Act aims to clear up this confusion by requiring manufacturers and retailers to stick with just two date labels: an optional "best if used by" to indicate the estimated date a product will no longer be at its peak quality (such as top flavor or texture); and a required "expires on" label for the few high-risk foods that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) find are actually less safe to eat after a certain date. Retailers would also be able to donate or sell foods after the "best if used by" date passes, which would encourage the distribution of otherwise discarded, but perfectly safe and still tasty food. The bill would have an educational mandate for the FDA and USDA aimed at raising awareness among consumers about what the new labels mean.

Research from the Center for a Livable Future suggests that many consumers are aware of the problem of wasted food and want to be part of the solution -- unfortunately, our nation's current date labeling system is getting in their way. Clearer date labels and more education about what they mean will inevitably help Americans save money, eat safely, and conserve natural resources. That's something worth celebrating.

Emily Broad Leib is the Director of the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, the nation's first food law school clinic, and is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Sally Greenberg is Executive Director of the National Consumers League, the nation's pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, founded in 1899.

Roni Neff, PhD, directs the Food System Sustainability and Public Health Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Does Your Dog Dig? Exactly What You Should Do About It

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Dogs love to dig a lot like toddlers love to throw things. It's a great release. It's an accomplishment. And, for dogs anyway, it creates a wondrously cool resting spot.

But as you probably know, there are few drawbacks to digging, too. The torn-up yard and muddy footprints might come to mind.

If digging's got you down, remember: all is not lost. While you can't eliminate the thrill of digging altogether, there are many things you can do about it.

First, meet George - the Got Mud dog. He's my client's dog, and he wants for nothing. His family dotes on him morning and night. He gets the best food, a storage bin of toys, and his own pool.

Ask George what he lives for though and he'd show you the cavernous holes in his backyard. The one that burst the sprinkler system. The other one that unearthed a vole. The hole so large it toppled a boxwood bush and left a mud pit in its wake.

George is not a bad dog; he's a good dog and mighty pretty even when he's covered in mud. But George is an adolescent, and he gets bored easily when there's no one to play with.

Maybe your dog is a lot like George. Or perhaps your dog digs for different reasons. Digging is like chewing, jumping, barking, and any other activity -- there are many reasons why dogs do what they do.

Consider the choices below, then fill in the blank: My dog digs because...
a) He likes to create cool, shallow pits to rest in.
b) He has something he likes to bury.
c) He's after a mole, insect, or other creature.
d) He's left alone for long hours with nothing else to do
e) His dog-pal is digging, and hey--why not?
f) He's nervous or stressed, and digging is a great release
g) Digging is super fun

Most dogs dig as pups and adolescents - it's a fun, stimulating activity. For perspective, think back on what wild things you did as an adolescent: drive fast, take risks, do drugs... At least your dog won't do any of that.

Whatever the reason, asking your dog not to dig is like asking a kid to never pick up a ball or play with an iPhone. If you love your dog and your dog loves digging, find a way to guide his passion.

Here's a fresh approach to dealing with a digging dog:

1. Never shout, hit, or use an electronic collar.

Human anger doesn't make sense to dogs. Yes, we look scary and intimating, but dogs aren't human. While they may run away, they won't link your craziness to the fun they just had and might even mistake your screaming (aka barking) as entertainment.

As far as vibrating/shock collars, I'm going to come right out and say it: remote trainers ruin dogs. I see it way too often. Getting shocked or vibrated in the midst of fun leads to insanity. Digging is dog play like balls, mud, and water are kids' play. Play, anger, and electricity don't mix.

2. Discover another passion.

My dogs love to dig (as depicted in the 3-in-1 photo), but they also love to chew, tug, and race around. As costly as bones can be, I've found a few that last long and are quite satisfying. My dogs love puzzle toys, too. Spend a bit of time discovering your dog's other interests and capitalize on those by spending 10 minutes playing together or rewarding him with a fun new game.

3. Create a dig-fun zone.

If your dog's drawn to dirt, set your sites on redirecting the fun instead of thinking you can eliminate his passion altogether. If you've got a yard, designate your dig zone as all-out-activity area by tying down favorite chews (so they can't get carried off), placing a tunnel or water tub nearby, as well as create a digging feature. Your digging attraction might encircle a tree, be a pit filled with dirt, sand and mulch, or an actual sandbox. Whatever you do to satisfy your dog's digging dreams, help him form the habit: Say "Go Dig" as you head to your new spot, bury bones, and dig together.

4. Creative discouragements can help. My favorite being the Oregano oil trick:

Preparation Since dogs detest the smell of Oregano oil, prepare a 1x1"square of bread with 20 drops of full-on oregano oil. Discretely place the pre-soaked bread somewhere your dog will find it, preferably indoors and away from other distractions.
Dilute and Pour Once the smell is mapped in your dog's mind, add 10 drops (or more) to a gallon of water. Fill in one of his holes with dirt, then pour your concoction on top of it.

** While you can find inexpensive vials of oregano oil online, you may also try this method with dog spray deterrents, wasabi, or hot sauce.

5. Keep him inside.

Your home is your dog's den -- a safe place to rest and reconnect. If you notice that your dog is digging each time you leave him outside unattended, the message he may be sending is that he doesn't like being outside alone. That's understandable. Think how you'd feel if you got locked out of your home -- you'd probably be frantic, too. Fresh air is only good for dogs if you're out there, too.

Bonus Tip: If your dog seems obsessed with digging in one location, fill the holes with his own stool or large rocks, or place a screen 3" under the top layer of dirt or grass.

So --now that you better understand his reasoning-- there you have it! A new go-to plan for your delightful digger. Digging, chewing, nipping, jumping--young dogs are like young kids. It's always something!

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Are Venezuela's food shortages a sign that food security is still a risk?
From technological advancements in food production to our increasingly interconnected globe, many factors have reduced the risk of wide-scale famines. However, the current food shortages in Venezuela, which have plunged the nation into chaos, highlight that the threat of world hunger is not over for good. To discuss the future of food security, we talked to Stephen Devereux, a development economist from the University of Sussex.

ResearchGate: In this article, researcher Dr. de Waal argues that the time of famines may be over. What's your view on this?

Stephen Devereux: I think Alex de Waal is probably right that the time of catastrophic famines is over, meaning those famines that used to kill hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. But that doesn't mean that we won't have more minor and moderate scale famines in the future. It is important to remember that we have had quite a few famines since the last 'great famine' in Ethiopia in 1984 that Alex mentions in his article. Already in the 21st century there have been four famines - in Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger and Somalia - the last famine was in 2011 in Somalia. Right now we have serious food crises in other countries, including in Ethiopia again, so I think it is a bit premature to say we won't have any famines ever again.

RG: As climate change leads to more extreme weather, it is likely we will see more droughts in the future. What impact could this have on the risk of famines and food insecurity?

Devereux: Climate change has to be divided into two aspects. There's the extreme weather events like droughts, floods and tsunamis, and those obviously create emergencies and require short-term humanitarian relief, which I think we will be able to deal with. Then there's the long-term processes, like the gradual rise of sea levels or the gradual warming of temperatures, which have slower impacts on food security. In the long-term, in areas that are already marginalized, crop yields are going to decline, livestock will suffer because there will be less water, and people's livelihoods will be affected. But there is time to prepare for that.

RG: What are the most important factors in preventing famines?

Devereux: A good way to look at this issue is to see what has changed over time. Look at the countries that used to be famine-prone and examine how they overcame famine, why they don't have famine anymore. One important factor is the spread of democracy. There's no doubt that democratic governments that allow freedom of trade, movement, and information are more likely to prevent famines than countries with repressive or controlling governments that interfere too much in the market or stop people from moving, prevent trade, and suppress information.

Another factor is how well-developed the markets and infrastructure are. It is still the case that some of the areas worst affected by food crisis and famine are those that are very remote and isolated, so it is difficult to get food in - there is no transport infrastructure and people are living in small communities far away from markets. Where you have well developed markets and people can access food through shops and trade and imports, like in cities, you're much less likely to have famine.

"If famines happen, it is because the government or international community failed to respond because they didn't know about the problem, or they were in denial about the problem, or they were playing political games."

RG: Today, politics tend to play a leading factor in the cause of mass starvation. Do you believe that this is less of a threat today than in the past? If so, why?

Devereux: On the contrary, that is the main problem that is remaining. If you look at how famines happen, normally they start off with a disruption in food availability or production, so for example there is a drought and people no longer have enough food. They then turn to the market and try to buy food and if they are too poor to buy food, or if there is no food in the market to buy, they have a problem of access. At this point, you have to have some kind of response. Either the government has to step in and help people buy food, or subsidize the price of food, or, if the government can't do that, the international community has to step in.

That is where politics come in. In the past, when communities were completely isolated and they depended on their own production and local markets, a famine happened because there was no government or international community. Now that we have those institutions in place they should respond and there shouldn't be famines anymore. If famines happen, it is because the government or international community failed to respond because they didn't know about the problem, or they were in denial about the problem, or they were playing political games.

Image credit: Zialater

RG: Could you comment on the food shortages that are currently happening in Venezuela? What is causing this, and do you see a solution to the crisis?

Devereux: I am not an expert on Venezuela, but I think what is happening there is strikingly similar to what happened to countries like North Korea, which had a severe famine in the 90s, because the government intervened too much in the economy. Venezuela seems to have moved from being a free market economy to more like a controlled economy. There is a serious food crisis in Venezuela, because the government interfered in agricultural production and trade, and they are rationing electricity and water. All of these interventions in the economy made it difficult for people to access food. There was not enough being produced and people couldn't buy food as it is being imported at exorbitant black market prices that they can't afford, so people are now rioting to get access.

The obvious solution is to reverse some of the bad policy decisions they've made. For example, if you are forcing businesses to charge very low prices that are below cost for their product, then there is no incentive for producers or traders, so production and markets collapse. In the short term, the situation looks quite bad. The government has to admit that they need help. Venezuela may need to go through an emergency relief and recovery process until the economy can stabilize and the necessary policy changes can be made.

RG: Does globalization play a role in preventing the outbreak of famines?

Devereux: There are different aspects to globalization. The integration of trade is probably positive as it allows food to be moved from surplus areas to deficit areas, either through aid or trade. But another part of globalization that is more complicated is the relationship between donor agencies and organizations on the one hand, and governments and their people on the other. What often happens during a famine is that the relationship between governments and international donors is not good at the critical time, and donors don't respond to government requests for food aid, or governments prevent donors from bringing in food aid.

This happened in Somalia, for example, where Al Shabaab was really instrumental in stopping food aid moving around when there was a food crisis in 2011. It was also a problem in Malawi in 2002 as the donors accused the government of selling the grain reserve and didn't bring food aid in time. In Ethiopia in 1999-2000 the government was fighting a food war against Eritrea and donors didn't send food aid because they thought the government would use it to feed their army.

"We used to think that the global population would grow faster than food production and that this would eventually cause famine. No one talks like that anymore"

RG: What effect has modern technology and farming techniques had on food security?

Devereux: It is quite striking if you look back at the 1970s or 80s, a time when we had this fear that the world would run out of food. This has completely disappeared. We used to think that the global population would grow faster than food production and that this would eventually cause famine. No one talks like that anymore, as we have realized that is not the case. The famines in China and India last century did cause millions of people to die, but today their populations are far larger and yet nobody talks about the risk of famine anymore. This is partly because of massive investments in agricultural production and farming, which means that food production has increased greatly. They are able to feed far larger populations than they even have now. If the world population stabilizes at around 9-10 billion people, which is expected, the technology that we now have will feed these people.

In terms of other technology, one of the most significant improvements has been in telecommunications. You can be in a remote village in Sudan or Somalia and send a text message to the world saying "we are starving here", and that will likely mobilize an international response.

This article originally appeared on ResearchGate News.

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Shark Week, Baby: What We Learn Caring For Pregnant Sharks
It's amazing how much an animal can teach you.

That fact is very evident in my care for the eleven species of sharks at Shedd Aquarium, all of them fascinating, diverse and full of incredible biological traits that continue to give us the privilege of learning from. What's more amazing is caring for these animals as they carry out their natural reproductive cycle. With Shark Week in full swing, I want to shift the focus for a moment from the misunderstanding and sensationalized stories that sharks are dangerous, marauding predators laying wait just offshore to attack a human, and instead take a deeper dive into a subject I find infinitely more interesting- their capacity to be mothers.

Grasping the close relationship between sharks and the water in which they swim, whether at Shedd or in the wild, is important in understanding the type of pre-natal care we provide for them. Even as unborn babies, sharks are at one with the sea. When we think about shark babies, we have to respect how much diversity there is among shark species, as they all reproduce differently.

Whitespotted bamboo shark eggs. ©Shedd Aquarium/Brenna Hernandez

Some sharks are oviparous, or egg laying, like our bamboo sharks. These sharks typically deposit eggs containing a developing embryo in a case or shell. You might find these on a beach, which are commonly called a "mermaid purse." At Shedd, to monitor the health of these eggs before they hatch, we can shine a strong light through the case and actually see the developing embryo inside. The case or shell of the egg (which is quite tough) is actually not watertight, allowing the embryo to be bathed in the water around it. However, the resilient casing does help keep hungry or curious prey at bay in the wild, until the sharklette wriggles out.

Blacktip reef sharks. ©Shedd Aquarium/Brenna Hernandez

Different sharks, like the blacktip reef shark that recently gave birth to pups at the aquarium, are viviparous; meaning, like humans they give birth to live babies. When we monitor the health of these babies before birth we sometimes use an ultrasound - a portable machine we have on site in the A. Watson III Armor Center for Aquatic Health and Welfare -- to look at them much the same way an obstetrician does for a human mom. To monitor the health of these babies before they hatch, in addition to ultrasound, we can shine a strong light through the case and actually see the baby inside. Visitors to the aquarium can often see this in the Wild Reef exhibit where our aquarists have a really cool egg exhibit that includes the same sort of light behind the egg.

Seeing this type of development helps us learn about how many pups they have, how big they are and how they develop throughout their critical growth protected by mom.

So, as tempting as it is to make sharks out to be blood-thirsty predators keen on threatening humans during Shark Week, let's take some time to appreciate what they really are - important marine species that play a vital role in the top-down maintenance of ocean ecosystems around the world. Globally, sharks are threatened with extinction largely due to overfishing (targeted and by-catch) and other unsustainable practices. If you want to learn more about Sharks at Shedd Aquarium, we have a wealth of resources on our website. We also invite you to visit the aquarium - we would love to change your mind about these amazing animals.

Bill Van Bonn, DVM, is Shedd Aquarium's vice president of animal health. With more than 25 years of clinical veterinary experience, Dr. Van Bonn strengthens the aquarium's established animal care and health expertise, overseeing its diverse aquatic medicine initiatives as well as furthering innovative veterinary science at Shedd. Dr. Van Bonn specializes in preventive medicine and enhanced clinical veterinary services for aquatic animals, with a focus on marine mammals. At Shedd, he focuses on providing top-quality care and applying his knowledge of animal health to conservation of their counterparts in the wild. He also oversees the aquarium's Microbiome Project.

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How to See the Future

The debate over the merits of renewable energy is over. For the overwhelming majority of Americans, the advantages of replacing coal, oil, and gas with clean, renewable energy sources come under the heading of glaringly obvious.

Our challenge then, is not to convince people that renewable energy makes sense, but to help them see for themselves that the wave of the future is already breaking all around them. And although that seems like it should be easy, people have spent their entire lives in a fossil-fuel economy that has an illusion of permanence that can be hard to shake off. But The Grid is not The Matrix. People don't need a mysterious red pill to have their eyes opened to a world that's powered by renewable energy. It can be as simple as looking out the window.

Fact: Once someone sees solar panels appear on their neighbor's roof, they are far more likely to go solar themselves. This viral solar effect has been documented by researchers. One house gets solar and then it spreads outward from there. Despite the fact that most people agree that renewable energy is a good idea, seeing it happen in their own neighborhood somehow makes it more real.

This viral effect is helping to drive dramatic double-digit growth for rooftop solar installations year after year after year. Last year the U.S. set a record for rooftop solar installations, and this year is expected to have about twice as many. It took 40 years for solar to be installed on 1 million rooftops in the United States. We should hit the next million within two years.

And there are ways to make this growth happen even faster. One is through public awareness campaigns like the Sierra Club's Ready for 100, which just launched a national tour of nine cities across the U.S. to showcase the demand for clean, renewable energy. Last week, I attended the first one, in Aspen, Colorado (a town that has already achieved 100 percent renewable electricity), and it was fantastic.

But here's an idea: What if we could supercharge that rooftop solar viral effect by making it easy to see the solar potential of every home? To that end, the Sierra Club is collaborating with Google to help map the solar possibilities of residential rooftops across the U.S. Google's solar mapping tool is called Project Sunroof, and it's both powerful and incredibly easy to use. Enter your address into the mapping tool and -- bam! -- you'll see your home's solar potential based on your roof's position, shading, and usable hours of sunlight each year. At the same time, you'll get an estimate of your potential energy bill savings, details about different financing options, and next steps to explore making solar work for you.

Project Sunroof is currently available in 43 states (not yet included are Texas, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Idaho, South Dakota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alaska, and the District of Columbia). If you haven't already gone solar and are curious about how much you could save, you should check it out. Fighting climate change isn't just an obligation; it's an opportunity to create the future we want.

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Doubling Down on Clean Energy in California

Last week, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced that it wants to retire California's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant by 2025. If the California Public Utilities Commission accepts the utility's proposal, it will mean the end of the nuclear era in California. Beyond that milestone, though, it marks what is now an undeniable trend. Clean, renewable energy like wind and solar -- combined with energy efficiency and storage -- can compete with any dirty fuel, be it coal, gas, or nuclear power.

The Sierra Club has unequivocally opposed nuclear energy for more than three decades, and Diablo Canyon is a good illustration of why we do. From the beginning it was a reckless enterprise. Nuclear power plants are not just accidents waiting to happen -- they are mega-disasters waiting to happen. Diablo Canyon was especially risky owing to the discovery of nearby earthquake faults, but no nuclear plant can be guaranteed to be safe. The potential consequences of a nuclear disaster are so horrific by themselves that they overwhelm any risk analysis.

In spite of all that, PG&E would likely have attempted to keep Diablo Canyon open if it could have done so profitably. What's driving the closure of this and other nuclear plants is not the obvious risks they pose, but their inability to compete economically. In Nebraska, the Omaha Public Power District decided to decommission its Fort Calhoun nuclear plant this year not because it had to be shut down owing to flooding of the Missouri River in 2011 but because clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency have helped drive the cost of electricity to levels that the plant couldn't match.

In fact, renewable energy has gotten so cheap so quickly that PG&E says it intends to replace all of the power from Diablo Canyon with carbon-free clean energy. That's a big deal, because Diablo currently generates around 18,000 gigawatt hours per year or 8.5 percent of the state's power mix. It's important to hold PG&E to that commitment. Diablo needs to be replaced with additional clean energy -- above and beyond what it would otherwise have developed -- by the time the plant shuts down less than 10 years from now. How PG&E actually does that (solar, wind, energy efficiency, and storage could all play a role) is less important -- as long as greenhouse gas emissions do not increase as a result of Diablo Canyon's retirement.

The good news is that last year, clean and renewable sources accounted for almost two-thirds of new electrical generation in the U.S. Even so, replacing Diablo Canyon with 100 percent clean, renewable energy is an ambitious goal for both PG&E and the state of California. But the fact that PG&E believes it's possible to do that in less than a decade speaks volumes about how far renewables have come and how quickly it is expected to dominate the energy industry.

It also sets a new, higher bar nationally. If indeed it is possible to do this for the largest power plant in California, then there's no excuse not to attempt to do the same thing on a rapid and responsible timeline for every polluting plant in the United States. From now on, the burden of proof is on polluters to show that clean, renewable energy can't do the job. In our work on retiring coal plants, we've seen utilities repeatedly fail at making that case, and it's only going to get harder to do so going forward.

The Diablo Canyon announcement is more than just another setback for polluting power plants. It reaffirms in a big way that renewable energy will be first and foremost in our future.

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