By Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University | – (The Conversation) – Twitter was blocked in Turkey on Feb. 8, 2023, according to internet monitoring service NetBlocks. The outage came amid the massive rescue operation and humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria two days earlier. Access to Twitter […]
Iranian Protesters turn to TikTok to get their Message past government Censors
By Whitney Shylee May, The University of Texas at Austin | – Images of the protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, in Iran and reports of the government’s brutal crackdown have circulated widely on social media. This flow of information comes despite efforts by the Iranian regime […]
In Devastating Earthquake, Many Turkish Buildings Tragically Pancaked – But Why?
By Mark Quigley, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – A pair of huge earthquakes have struck in Turkey, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and unknown numbers injured or displaced. The first quake, near Gaziantep close to the Syrian border, measured 7.8 in magnitude and was felt as far away as the […]
Climate Crisis: Atmospheric rivers are hitting the Arctic more often, and increasingly melting its Sea Ice
By Pengfei Zhang, Penn State | – (The Conversation) – Atmospheric rivers, those long, powerful streams of moisture in the sky, are becoming more frequent in the Arctic, and they’re helping to drive dramatic shrinking of the Arctic’s sea ice cover. While less ice might have some benefits – it would allow more shipping in […]
Western Wildfires destroyed 246% more Homes and Buildings over the past Decade – Scientists explain Why
By Philip Higuera, University of Montana; Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado Boulder, Maxwell Cook, University of Colorado Boulder; and Natasha Stavros, University of Colorado Boulder | – (The Conversation) – It can be tempting to think that the recent wildfire disasters in communities across the West were unlucky, one-off events, but evidence is accumulating that […]
Why the Violence between Israel and the Palestinians may be entering a devastating new Phase
By Susan de Groot Heupner, Griffith University | – (The Conversation) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rushed to the Middle East last week to make yet another push for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians following yet another dramatic escalation in violence between the two sides. Blinken urged peace in his […]
What international Law says about Israel’s planned Destruction of Palestinian assailants’ Homes
Robert Goldman, American University | – After a deadly attack that killed seven people outside an East Jerusalem synagogue, the Israeli government responded by sealing off the home of the Palestinian suspect in preparation for its destruction. The family home of a 13-year-old accused in a separate East Jerusalem shooting has likewise been earmarked for […]
‘Blue marble’: how half a Century of Climate Change has altered the Face of the Earth
By Robert Poole, University of Central Lancashire; Nick Pepin, University of Portsmouth, and Oliver Gruner, University of Portsmouth | – In December 1972, Nasa’s final Apollo mission (Apollo 17) took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth. Many, including science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, had expected that the sight of Earth from […]
Exxon Scientists Accurately Forecast Climate Change back in the 1970s – What if it hadn’t been Covered up and We had Acted
By John Grant, Sheffield Hallam University | – Writers of speculative- and science-fiction often identify a key point in time and explore how a seemingly insignificant event might change the path of humanity. One of these moments came in the 1970s when oil giant Exxon chose to ignore its own commissioned research on the impact […]