The Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection (Swiss Seniorinnen): The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had not done enough to protect its citizens against climate change
On 9 April, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking ruling: states are obliged to protect their citizens from the threats and harms of climate change. Switzerland’s climate action has been insufficient according to judges.
Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection is made up of a group of 2,500 women aged 64 or over. They argued that they are at greater risk of heat-related illness or death than most people — and that, given that temperatures are rising, Switzerland was doing too little to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and contribute to meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement targets. In doing so, Switzerland was violating its duty to protect them. The court agreed with it.
Without prescribing specific years or percentage reductions, the ruling set out how a nation can show it is compliant. It must set out targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. Measures must be implemented in a timely, appropriate and consistent manner. Governments must also provide evidence that they have complied with targets, and update targets regularly.
Two more requirements follow from Article 8 of the ECHR. Information about climate regulations and measures can be given to the public. They must account for citizens’ views in their decisions.
What must Switzerland do now? The executive and legislature must act at the federal, cantonal and municipal levels. They must set a greenhouse-gas budget and emissions pathways with timetables that are scientifically sound, legally binding and capable of bringing about the necessary reductions. Authorities must become more responsive to the needs of people most affected by climate change and find ways of acting on their views.
The Netherlands and Germany have done over similar rulings by their domestic courts and Switzerland should want to do the same. Thanks to the Klima Seniorinnen, policymakers know what level of protection is necessary and have access to cutting-edge studies on emissions budgets.
The Origins of Bioluminescence in Animals Date Back Over Half a Billion Years ago: Understanding the Nature of Airborne Pathogens and SARS-CoV-2
Octocorals probably evolved the ability to make light when the first animals developed eyes. Artificial intelligence is changing weapons of war and the WHO redefined airborne transmission.
An ancient group of glowing corals pushed back the start of bioluminescence in animals to half a billion years ago. “We had no idea it was going to be this old,” says evolutionary marine biologist and study co-author Danielle DeLeo. Tiny crustaceans that lived around 270 million years ago were previously thought to be the earliest glowing animals. The ability to make light is thought to have evolved a long time ago, around the time that the first animals developed eyes.
The strain of monkeypox may have been able to spread through sexual contact. The strain, called clade Ib, has caused a cluster of infections in a conflict-ridden region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This isn’t the first time scientists have warned that the monkeypox virus could become sexually transmissible: similar warnings during a 2017 outbreak in Nigeria were largely ignored. The strain responsible, clade II, is more lethal than the one that caused the global outbreak, but it is still responsible for more deaths than any other strain. “The DRC is surrounded by nine other countries — we’re playing with fire here,” says virologist Nicaise Ndembi.
The WHO changed how it classified airborne pathogens. The distinction between the transmission of small and large viruses has been removed. The division, which some researchers argue was unscientific, justified WHO’s March 2020 assertion that SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, was not airborne. Scientists feel the new definition of spreading through the air isn’t as clear as it could be. The chief scientist of the WHO says that at least people have agreed that this is a baseline terminology.
Source: Daily briefing: The origins of bioluminescence in animals date back over half a billion years
The Play Las Borinqueas Revisited: The Road Towards Human-Matrix Safety in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence-equipped drones are the future of lethal autonomously weapons. Stuart Russell, a computer scientist and campaigner against Artificial Intelligence, says that the technical capability for a system to find a human being and kill them is much more easy than a self-driving car. Some argue that accurate weapons could help vulnerable nations defend themselves. Observers are concerned that it could lead to catastrophic mistakes by passing targeting decisions to an algorithm. The United Nations will discuss the threat of artificial intelligence at a meeting later this year.
When US scientists needed a place to test the first birth-control pill, they looked to Puerto Rico. Many women who took the pill were unaware that they were participating in a clinical trial. The side effects of Debilitating were dismissed as psychosomatic. And when the final product came onto the market, it was too expensive for women like them to afford. The play Las Borinqueas revisits a complicated history. “It’s a long-overdue tribute and, most importantly, a reminder to remain vigilant against abuse and disrespect in studies involving human participants,” writes Nature reporter Mariana Lenharo in her review.
Source: Daily briefing: The origins of bioluminescence in animals date back over half a billion years
Polarstern retrieval of an ocean-monitoring instrument trapped under sea ice: A winner’s choice of an icebreaker photo
This image, taken on top of the icebreaker research vessel Polarstern, shows the delicate process of retrieving an ocean-monitoring instrument called a CTD (short for conductivity, temperature, depth) that had become trapped under sea ice off the coast of northeastern Greenland. CTDs, which are anchored to the sea floor, measure how properties such as salinity and temperature vary with depth. The photo is the winner of a competition. The winning images can be found here.