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Who are the Uyghurs? Sep 28, 2020

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Who are the Uyghurs? Thanks for asking!

The Uyghurs are a Turkish-speaking Muslim ethnic group. Some 11 million live in the Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China. They are one of 56 ethnic groups living in the country.

For decades now, the Uyghurs have been subjected to systemic discrimination and intrusive surveillance from the Chinese authorities. But only in the last few years has the issue really been discussed at an international level. Human rights groups have repeatedly demanded official explanations of the repressive measures implemented.

When did repression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang start?

Back when the People’s Republic of China was declared by Mao Zedong in 1949, Uyghurs made up 75% of the Xinjiang region’s population. In 2010 that figure had dropped to 45%, compared to 40% of the Han Chinese majority ethnic group.

It’s claimed that the Chinese powers set out to deliberately repopulate Xinjiang with Han Chinese, and diminish the presence of minorities.

Relations between the Hans and Uyghurs have been complicated since the 18th century. The Xinjiang Independence movement has long sought to establish the region as a homeland for the Uyghurs, wishing to rename it East Turkistan.

In response to the movement’s growth in the late 20th century, as well as 9/11, the Chinese government started introducing counter-measures. Last year, the New York Times obtained hundreds of pages of leaked Communist Party documents which exposed the intentional crackdown on Muslims.

These included secret speeches from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who expressed his wish to be much harsher and show no pity, after a Uyghur terrorist attack killed 31 people at a train station in 2014. In 2016, he appointed a new party leader to the region, charged with “deradicalising” its inhabitants.

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What is Peter Pan Syndrome? Sep 26, 2020

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What is Peter Pan Syndrome? Thanks for asking!

Peter Pan was the original Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, a character from J.M. Barrie’s 1911 children’s novel. But some people also struggle with adulthood for a long time, due to the “real world” responsibilities it brings.

American psychoanalyst Dan Kiley noticed this pattern of behaviour in some of his patients during the 1970s and 80s. He wrote a book entitled “The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up.” While Kiley’s work focused on men, the so-called Peter Pan Syndrome can affect women too.

What are the symptoms of Peter Pan Syndrome then?

Kiley noticed that many young adults were afraid of growing up and bearing the weight of adulthood on their shoulders. Once reaching an adult age, they continued to remain “kidults”.

It’s not a recognised condition with a clinical diagnosis, but there is some consensus about the signs and attitudes relating to Peter Pan Syndrome. Those who have the syndrome often struggle with relationships, showing emotional unavailability and avoiding addressing issues.

Finding or holding onto a job may also be a point of difficulty. Peter Pans might bet their hopes on a longshot dream like becoming a professional athlete or self-supporting actor.

The syndrome is often discussed alongside narcissism, as there are some similarities, such as a failure to accept accountability or a fear of criticism for example. But Peter Pans don’t necessarily meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, or always have narcissistic traits.

So what’s behind this syndrome then?

A lot of the time, people affected by Peter Pan Syndrome haven’t fully lived their youth and have been thrown into adulthood too quickly. In other cases, it may be people who have experienced a

violent trauma which ruined their innocence at a young age.

To protect themselves, they unconsciously keep their emotional development at the childhood stage. Michael Jackson is a prominent example of a celebrity who was labelled as having Peter Pan Syndrome. Jackson said he developed his Neverland ranch to live the childhood he never had, having been an entertainment performer from an early age.

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What is green hydrogen? Sep 24, 2020

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What is green hydrogen? Thanks for asking!

Green hydrogen is an alternative to fossil fuels which is made by using renewable energy technologies.

In reality, manufacturers have been using hydrogen as an energy source for years, but only grey hydrogen, which has a highly polluting production process. So could green hydrogen be the sustainable fuel of the future?

There are certainly promising signs; it can power cars, producing three times more energy than petrol for the same weight. Furthermore, it stocks electricity significantly better than our current batteries.

Wow, that sounds amazing. So, where can I find some green hydrogen then?

That’s the issue. Let’s go back to chemistry 101 and talk about the non-toxic colourless gas known as hydrogen.

If you remember the periodic table, you should know that hydrogen is element number one, and its symbol is the letter H. It’s the simplest element and the most abundant chemical substance in the universe.

However, it can’t be found in its pure state on planet Earth. Rather, it is found in various compounds with carbon, known as hydrocarbons. And of course in molecular forms like water, which has a chemical formula of H20. That means two atoms of hydrogen for one atom of oxygen.

Until now, manufacturers have used different techniques to separate hydrogen from other elements. For example mixing methane and steam at 1000°C or burning charcoal at over 1200°C. As a result, for every kilo of hydrogen produced, 10kg of CO2 is also emitted. Current hydrogen production pollutes as much as global air transport.

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What is environmental amnesia? Sep 23, 2020

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What is environmental amnesia? Thanks for asking!

Why are we so slow to become aware of climate change and act against it? The explanation may lie in our brains, which are affected by environmental amnesia.

This term was invented in 1999 by American psychologist Peter H. Khan. He theorised that humans were forgetting the history of the environment, or more accurately becoming used to its degradation from generation to generation.

Children tend to base their view of what is a “normal” environment on what they experience at a young age. This is true even though in reality they are increasingly growing up in polluted ecosystems.

When they grow older, it then becomes difficult to change their viewpoint, as that norm has become their reference point.

I guess it’s hard to ‘forget’ something you’ve never seen yourself!

Fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly discussed the similar concept of a “shifting baseline syndrome” in 1995. He noted that fishing researchers tended to assess stock based on the norm at the start of their career. That didn’t necessarily take into account that the stock level was already depleted compared to previous generations.

Many were unable to accurately identify the baseline population size of how abundant a species of fish was before human exploitation.

So why does this happen then?

We usually remember the history of our ancestors, from ancient times to the World Wars. That is because we are taught about it at school from an early age, whereas the history of the environment is seldom taught, if at all. In addition, many of us live in urban areas, further and further away from nature.

National Trust research published in 2018 showed that UK children play outdoors for an average of 4 hours per week, which is less than half than their parents’ generation.

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What is Amazon deforestation? Sep 21, 2020

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What is Amazon deforestation? Thanks for asking!

Situated in South America, the Amazon tropical rainforest is home to somewhere between 50 and 70% of the world’s biodiversity, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

It stretches across Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Ecuador, Bolivia and most of all Brazil, which contains 60% of the Amazon alone.

Huge fires are currently ripping through various parts of the rainforest, which could end up being even worse than the 2019 outbreak. This is closely linked to the issue of deforestation.

After more than a decade of downward trajectory, Amazon deforestation has risen abruptly in the last two years.

We’ve been talking about deforestation in the Amazon for a long time; when did it actually start?

Deforestation began in the 1960s, but went up considerably between 1991 and 2003. Several local, national and international factors are to blame.

There have been huge peaks in deforestation over the years, while measures taken by former Brazilian President Lula had some impact in slowing the rate in the first decade of the 21st century.

In 2009, a Greenpeace report claimed that 80% of the deforested area in Brazil was being used for cattle farming. Soy plantations were also cited as a key problem. Trees are cut down for timber, then the cleared land is used for grazing cattle or cultivating soybeans.

In the first six months of 2020, 3000km2 of forest have been cut down.The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has stated that Brazil is the country where the most forest has been lost in the last decade.

What has happened since Jair Bolsonaro became head of state in Brazil?

Unfortunately, it’s had a real negative impact. When Bolsonaro became President in January 2019, deforestation immediately increased by 54%. And that trend has continued since.

Bolsonaro encouraged cattle farmers and miners to ramp up operations in the Amazon. Their deforestation is often illegal, with many accused of deliberately starting fires to free land for their activities. In 2019, exports of beef from the region went up 32%.

In addition to destroying biodiversity, deforestation threatens the lives of native tribes living in the Amazon. In 2020, the Brazilian government proposed a draft bill allowing mining and farming to take place on indigenous lands.

Human activity and global warming are pushing the situation to a point of no return. Scientists say it may already be too late for the Amazon rainforest to regenerate.

A few different scenarios have been outlined. The World Bank claims that 40% of the Amazon will have disappeared by 2050. Meanwhile, the WWF believes it could be as much as 55% by 2030.

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What is transhumanism? Sep 19, 2020

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What is transhumanism? Thanks for asking!

Transhumanism is all about improving the human condition by enhancing our intellect and physiology.

From 2021, billionaire Elon Musk is planning to test brain implants on human beings. With his Neuralink device, he is looking to create an interface to treat and enhance our brains. So is the merging of man and machine just around the corner?

The transhumanist movement advocates surpassing our biological limits through technology. That means using tools such as implants or chips to cure illnesses, improve performance and even prevent death. And humans have been dreaming of immortality since time began. Transhumanism is a bit like the digital version of the fountain of youth or the philosopher’s stone.

But this time around, it’s not a fantasy - are we really are going to become transhumans?

Elon Musk, head of Tesla and Starlink, believes strongly in transhumanism. His Neuralink project promises to create a neural interface which cures epilepsy or Parkinson’s. With time, the aim is to allow our brains to communicate directly with computers.

In late August, he introduced a pig called Gertrude at a press demo. The Neuralink brain-machine interface was implanted in her brain, with her brain signals analysed by a computer which could predict her movements. Musk used the occasion to announce that American health authorities had given permission for similar tests on humans to begin in 2021.

But beyond PR and marketing, the reality is that Musk himself hasn’t really invented anything. Such techniques have been around for years. One of the first examples dates back to 2006, when scientists helped Matthew Nagle, a young paralysed man, to control a mouse cursor using a chip in his brain! Since then, mind-controlled prosthetic arms and hands have also been developed, sometimes without the need for a brain implant. Thanks to these transhuman inventions, scientists hope to make blind people see again and help paralysed people to walk.

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What is OPEC? Sep 17, 2020

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What is OPEC? Thanks for asking!

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is an international cartel currently made up of thirteen member states. Over the years, it has played an important role in the global economy, coordinating the petroleum policies of its members. But right now, its influence is waning, due in no small part to the Covid-19 pandemic.

OPEC was created in 1960 in Baghdad. At the time, there was a high level of competition between petrol companies, meaning prices were low. The main petrol-producing Arabic countries therefore decided to join forces to rival Western companies. Together, they decided to produce less petrol, forcing prices up as a result.

All about supply and demand, huh!

And it worked! That’s how founding members Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Venezuela increased their power on the international scene. By determining petrol prices, they were directly influencing the world economy. OPEC’s actions even led to the first oil crisis in 1973. During the Yom Kippur war, its members decided to stop supplying petrol to allies of Israel. The effect was immediate, with the price of a barrel increasing fourfold in just a few months.

Despite this exploit, OPEC member countries haven’t always enjoyed great diplomatic relations between one another. Due to wars and disunity, its influence on petrol prices is more and more limited. OPEC’s current member countries are between them home to over 80% of the world’s proven oil reserves.

Wow, they really are the petroleum cartel!

And yet combined they only account for 40% of global oil production. That’s because OPEC has serious competition from other countries, in particular the United States. In the last few decades, the US has become the number one petroleum producer in the world.

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What is Novichok? Sep 16, 2020

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What is Novichok? Thanks for asking!

Novichok is a family of chemical agents which disrupts communication between nerves and muscles. Its name means newcomer in Russian and it was developed in closed laboratories during the Cold War, as part of the Soviet Foliant programme.

The international community only discovered the existence of Novichok in the early 1990s, after a Russian chemist revealed the truth about the programme in a Moscow daily newspaper.

In early September 2020, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny came out of the medically induced coma he had been in for three weeks. Tests carried out at a military laboratory in Germany, where Navalny was hospitalised, showed that he had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.

The substance exists in two forms: liquid, which can be mixed into food or drink; and solid, as a powder.

Is Novichok poisoning lethal then?

Novichoks bind to the acetylcholinesterase enzyme, known as AChE for short. Its role is to break down the acetylcholine neurotransmitter when released into synapses.

Symptoms of novichok poisoning can include nausea, spasms, heart failure and respiratory arrest, leading to death through suffocation. The lack of oxygen can quickly lead to significant brain damage.

Novichok agents are at least five times as lethal as other chemical agents such as VX or Sarin. Anyone who has been poisoned needs immediate medical attention if they are to survive.

In the case of Navalny, he started feeling the effects of the poisoning on August 20th, while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was then quickly evacuated to Berlin in a medical airplane.

Although Navalny has now come out of his coma, doctors can’t rule out long-term effects.

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What is negationism? Sep 14, 2020

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What is negationism? Thanks for asking!

Historical negationism refers to the practice of manipulating historical records to deny that certain events happened, or distort the narrative around them.

The term is relatively recent, having been coined by French historian Henry Rousso in 1987, relating to Holocaust Denial. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

Holocaust denial is certainly one of the most well-known and common examples of negationism. But similar distortion strategies have been seen relating to other genocides and war crimes across the world.

Negationism is a crime in some countries like Germany, while elsewhere the approach is more cautious, due to questions about freedom of speech. Other laws can apply to negationist statements, if they are also of a hateful or discriminatory nature.

So what exactly does negationism look like?

Techniques include using forged documents to justify an alternative version of events, creating doubt about genuine documents, manipulating statistics and deliberately mistranslating texts. Then you’ve got the destruction of physical evidence through book burning or smashing statues.

In the case of Holocaust Denial, some deny the existence of the gas chambers in concentration camps. They downplay the extent of Hitler’s Final Solution, claiming that the Nazis merely deported Jews and didn’t exterminate them. Others recognise that there was mass murder, but put the death toll significantly lower than the accepted figure of 5-6 million.

Surveys in recent years have shown there is still a shocking level of Holocaust denial in the 21st century. Just last year, a survey found that 5% of UK adults do not believe the Holocaust took place. In other regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, awareness levels are much lower. But among those who have heard of the Holocaust, only half or less believe it has been accurately described by history.

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What is the Great Barrier Reef? Sep 12, 2020

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What is the Great Barrier Reef? Thanks for asking!

The Great Barrier Reef is planet Earth’s largest living structure. It has remarkably rich biodiversity, but is gradually disappearing due to pollution caused by humans. Tourists have been absent from the reef since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. But paradoxically, this isn’t likely to help the situation. The reef is located in the sea off the coast of North-East Australian territory Queensland. Its surface area is larger than that of Italy and it can even be seen from space! In some places the corals can be found several miles underwater; in others just under the surface. According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the diverse Reef ecosystem is home to 1625 species of fish, including 1400 coral reef species. Then you’ve got over 3000 species of molluscs, 630 species of echinoderm, 14 breeding species of sea snakes, 215 species of birds, six species of marine turtles, 30 species of whales and dolphins, 133 species of sharks and rays, and much more. Among them are many vulnerable and endangered species.

Well it sounds like they won’t be there for much longer, if the situation is as bad as I understand?

Indeed, the Great Barrier Reef is under threat. It’s estimated that up to half the corals have disappeared in the last few years. One of the biggest dangers to the reef is the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feeds on coral and has few predators.

So why are they suddenly invading the Barrier Reef? And what about the tourism? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen the last episodes, you can click here:

What is cancel culture ?

What is the Louise Michel ?

What is collapsology?

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