Month: January 2023

Daily News 25 Jan 2023

Researchers Propose Compulsory Climate Change Teaching in Core Law Curriculum

[I wonder if this includes bird law ~cr]

For immediate release: Tuesday 24 January 2023

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

Academics from Durham University are urging that climate change education should be made compulsory across the core law curriculum in Higher Education.

The researchers evaluated students’ engagement and their broader views concerning climate change education by integrating climate change and environmental law into the core curriculum at the University of Exeter, a Russell Group University.

The results showed that law students want to study climate law and the climate context of law as part of their core curriculum.

Students also said that climate change education should be compulsory and taught across the programme.

In the study, the researchers argue that climate change is still perceived as a niche topic and that students are leaving Law School without a proper understanding of the legal framework or social context within which they will practice.

They emphasise the importance of understanding climate constitutional legislation and net zero, climate risk and interpretation of legal rules in the context of climate change.

Their findings are published in the leading generalist law journal, Legal Studies.

Students graduating from law school will spend their working lives needing to understand and apply legal norms in the context of a society dealing with the impacts of climate change, while transitioning to ‘net zero’ carbon economies.

Legal educators now face the responsibility of ensuring that law graduates are equipped with adequate knowledge of climate law and social context in which they will operate.

Lead researcher Dr Kim Bouwer, of Durham Law School, Durham University, said: “We have been working on a cross-curriculum approach to climate education at Durham Law School for this academic year, and have found that integrating materials relating to climate change in various modules not only has been very natural, but also supports students’ study of law.

“We are considering how to approach this long term as part of a broader curriculum review.”

The approach has been developed based upon previous research by Dr Kim Bouwer conducted at the University of Exeter.

As a part of the experiment, Dr Bouwer designed and delivered climate change education in Land Law and conducted the study to evaluate students’ engagement and their broader views concerning climate change education.

The work was carried out by three Exeter graduates, who were law students at the time of the research, who surveyed, and held focus groups with, other students.

ENDS

Media Information

Dr Kim Bouwer is available for interview and can be contacted on kim.bouwer@durham.ac.uk.

Alternatively, please contact Durham University Communications Office for interview requests on communications.team@durham.ac.uk.

Source

“Climate Change isn’t Optional: Climate Change in the Core Law Curriculum”, (2022), K. Bouwer, E. John, O. Luke, and A. Rozhan, Legal Studies – Cambridge University Press.

Full paper can be viewed online: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2022.35

Graphics

Associated image is available via the following link: https://bit.ly/durhamuniversity-climate-change-law

About Durham University

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK.

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.

We conduct boundary-breaking research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2023).

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide).

For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/

END OF MEDIA RELEASE – issued by Durham University Communications Office.

JOURNAL

Legal Studies

DOI

10.1017/lst.2022.35

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

From EurekAlert!

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January 25, 2023 at 08:42AM

Daily News 25 Jan 2023

The World is Not Ending | Bjørn Lomborg | EP 315

Bjorn Lomborg joins Jordan Peterson on his podcast to explore the idea of how we do good in the world most effectively.
In order to get to a point where we can discuss investing in better education and nutrition, we also need to confront the sense of impending doom that has swept the western world and specifically today’s young people. Together, Peterson and Lomborg break down the ideas of social credit and easy activism, and paint the picture of a world we can strive for, without the demonization and destruction of the one we currently inhabit.

Interviews Videos Climate change Development Education Energy Environment Governance Hunger and Malnutrition Innovation & technology EnglishJordan B Peterson Podcast on YouTubehttps://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkRJb4UbPMWatch the full video

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January 25, 2023 at 08:25AM

Daily News 25 Jan 2023

Earth’s inner core rotating slower than surface, study suggests

Some uncertainties with this topic. Researchers here propose a 70-year cycle, but other theories say 20-30 years, or even no cycle at all.
– – –
Earth’s inner core, a hot iron ball the size of Pluto, has stopped spinning faster than the planet’s surface and might now be rotating slower than it, research suggested on Monday.

Roughly 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) below the surface we live on, this “planet within the planet” can spin independently because it floats in the liquid metal outer core, says Phys.org.

Exactly how the inner core rotates has been a matter of debate between scientists—and the latest research is expected to prove controversial.

What little is known about the inner core comes from measuring the tiny differences in seismic waves—created by earthquakes or sometimes nuclear explosions—as they pass through the middle of the Earth.

Seeking to track the inner core’s movements, new research published in the journal Nature Geoscience analyzed seismic waves from repeating earthquakes over the last six decades.

“We believe the inner core rotates, relative to the Earth’s surface, back and forth, like a swing,” the study’s authors, Xiaodong Song and Yi Yang of China’s Peking University, told AFP.

“One cycle of the swing is about seven decades,” the authors said.

The inner core started rotating slightly faster than the rest of the planet in the early 1970s, the study said.

But it had been slowing down before coming in sync with Earth’s rotation around 2009, it added.

There has been a “negative trend” since, the study said, meaning the inner core is now rotating slower than the surface.

The researchers predicted the next change would occur in the mid-2040s.

They said this rotation timeline roughly lines up with changes in what is called the “length of day”—small variations in the exact time it takes Earth to rotate on its axis.

Stuck in the middle

So far there is little to indicate that what the inner core does has much effect on surface dwellers.

But the researchers said they believed there were physical links between all Earth’s layers, from the inner core to the surface.

“We hope our study can motivate some researchers to build and test models which treat the whole Earth as an integrated dynamic system,” they said.

Experts not involved in the study expressed caution about its findings, pointing to several other theories and warning that many mysteries remain about the center of the Earth.

Full article here.

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January 25, 2023 at 07:47AM

Daily News 25 Jan 2023

Your Tax Dollars At Work

We are having one of the coldest winters on record here in Wyoming, with another bout of record cold in the forecast. Ventusky – Wind, Rain and Temperature Maps 10-Day Temperature Outlook for the Conterminous U.S. The Farmer’s Almanac correctly … Continue reading →

via Real Climate Science

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January 25, 2023 at 07:14AM