In the News
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November 17, 2021
A new bipartisan bill would ensure that political donors-turned-ambassadors are qualified for the job. “There were some really embarrassing nominations during the previous administration. The fact remains, however, that it is the right of the president to nominate any person to be an ambassador,” most of whom are rarely rejected by the U.S. Senate as “blatantly unqualified,” said Melvyn Levitsky, professor of international policy and practice.
The Detroit News -
November 17, 2021
“The fact that it is a phasedown, not a phaseout, and that there are qualifying adjectives around coal and fossil fuel subsidies doesn’t take away from the fact that it is … a clear recognition by all the parties of the critical role fossil fuels have played in the problem,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, on the historic mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change — in the Glasgow climate pact.
The Hill -
November 16, 2021
“It is fanciful to think that (political) campaigns will cease to be built, in some significant measure, on lies and appeals to the less rational elements of human cognition, but to the extent that the persuasive value of deceitful messaging can be diminished by alerting people to signs of psychological manipulation and by effective counter-messaging, the country and its voters will be better off,” wrote Richard Lempert, professor emeritus of law and sociology.
The American Prospect -
November 16, 2021
“It’s true that children are generally at a lower risk of severe COVID disease, hospitalization and death compared to adults. However, their risk is certainly not zero,’’ said Elizabeth Lloyd, assistant professor of pediatrics. “We also know the pandemic has affected kids in many other ways so the vaccine may benefit kids from having less disruptions from exposures in their daily activities which we know are very important for normal childhood development.’’
The Oakland Press -
November 16, 2021
The aftermath of the Astroworld Festival incident is raising concerns about how footage and misinformation related to the event is being circulated on social media. “Extremity carries capital. It’s what gets clicks, shares, comments,” said Scott W. Campbell, professor of communication and media. “We’re getting a deeper taste into what kind of trauma can be captured and shared, and this incident is an example of that and how psychologically shattering it can be for some people.”
The Wall Street Journal -
November 15, 2021
Unlike air pollution, it’s easy to overlook the potential harm caused by the sonic landscape of urban environments, says Rick Neitzel, professor of environmental health sciences: “Let your elected officials know that noise is a problem that needs to be dealt with. With enough public demand, programs can be developed to systematically lower noise levels in our country and reduce the need for each of us to take individual action.”
Discover -
November 15, 2021
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Russia and Eastern Europe is “startling,” says Elizabeth King, associate professor of health behavior and health education and faculty associate at the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. “Misinformation is spreading as fast as the virus,” she said. “The spread of misinformation around vaccines was a concern even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Washington Post -
November 15, 2021
“We’ve never recorded as many people talking about high home prices or high appliance prices or high TV prices,” said Richard Curtin, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the U-M Institute for Social Research. “We get a large share of people talking about the reduction of their living standards due to inflation,” made worse because “consumers see no effective economic policies that would restrain inflation.”
Bloomberg -
November 12, 2021
Research by Gregory Tarlé, professor of physics, and colleagues suggests that as the universe expands at an accelerating rate, black holes grow larger, too. Supermassive black holes have masses huge enough and lifetimes long enough to be affected by this expansion, the astrophysicists say. And it’s not that everything is simply getting bigger — huge masses like galaxies are getting farther away from us as the space in between expands.
Gizmodo -
November 12, 2021
The move away from agroforestry — the integration of trees and shrubs to create a more ecologically diverse system that provides an abundance of crops and environmental benefits for farmers — has heralded a true crisis for coffee and the livelihoods of those who produce it, says Ivette Perfecto, professor of environment and sustainability: “The kind of system that is intensive coffee plantations, or very large-scale coffee monocultures, I see that as the crisis.”
Vox
