scientificamerican--2020-08-14--How to Study Racial Disparities

How to Study Racial Disparities

As the United States grapples with the national reckoning over race prompted by the killing of George Floyd , it has become increasingly clear that even a pandemic does not strike equally .
Nationwide , Black people have been 3.7 times as likely as white people to die of COVID-19 , taking age into account ; in some states , Black people have died of COVID-19 at age-adjusted rates five to nine times higher than those of white people .
Against this backdrop , the importance of studying racial disparities in social , economic , and public health outcomes has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the journalists who report on their findings , should exercise caution in trying to uncover the sources of these stark discrepancies .
Studying race , and in particular the relationship between race and social outcomes like health or police violence , comes with both statistical and conceptual challenges , which make understanding exactly why Black people are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates harder than it might seem .
Perhaps the biggest issue arises out of what statisticians call “ post-treatment bias.
” Because racial identity is assigned at birth , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people ’ s lives—where someone lives , how they ’ re educated , the sorts of opportunities they have , and how much money they earn .
To understand the effect of race on a certain outcome—say , police violence , or the likelihood of death among COVID-19 patients—scholars will often control for factors like education , income , health status or occupation .
But all these variables are “ post-treatment , ” or downstream , of race , in the sense that race itself can shape how a person is raised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these variables can distort any results that scholars may find .
Consider the following analogy : if researchers set out to investigate whether smoking leads to death , but controlled for whether someone gets lung cancer , they might find that smoking doesn ’ t increase mortality—because they ’ ve effectively removed an important pathway by which smoking influences health .
What ’ s more , by controlling for lung cancer , they ’ re now comparing the life spans of smokers who don ’ t get lung cancer , who are likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without lung cancer ( and comparing nonsmokers who get lung cancer , a highly unusual group , to smokers who get lung cancer ) .
In the context of race , controlling for almost any socioeconomic or health variable—as most studies on ethnic disparities in COVID-19 deaths do—can create serious biases in an analysis , calling many empirical results into question .
Similar issues abound in the study of race and policing .
Take the recent debate over whether there is evidence of racism in American policing .
Roland Fryer , an economist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white , Black and Hispanic Americans whom they ’ ve stopped at equal rates .
However , as political scientists Dean Knox , Will Lowe , and Jonathan Mummolo point out , if there is initial discrimination in who gets stopped in the first place , estimating racial disparities in how people are treated once they ’ ve been stopped becomes much more complicated—especially since police officers are more likely to stop Black and Hispanic people than white people , and more of those stops are unjustified .
If Black people are stopped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) offenses , “ equal treatment ” in terms of the use of force would actually indicate deeply unequal policing overall .
Being stopped by the police is “ post-treatment ” to race , and failing to account for this bias can lead to erroneous conclusions that may mask the extent of racism in American institutions .
A second challenge , as the political scientists Maya Sen and Omar Wasow point out , comes from the instability of racial labels .
As one study concluded , “ No two measures of race will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19-year survey of thousands of Americans , a full 20 percent of the sample changed either how they were racially classified by others or how they identified themselves .
Survey respondents even changed identification in response to life events : incarceration , unemployment or having an income below the poverty line made respondents more likely to identify as Black , while people who get married are more likely to be seen as and identify as white .
Between the 2000 and 2010 censuses , nearly 10 million respondents altered their self-identified race or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent of Hispanics identified their race and ethnic origin the same way in both censuses .
Another study found that homicide victims were more likely to be classified as Black on their death certificates , while people who died of cirrhosis of the liver were more likely to be classified as Native American—even accounting for the race of the victim as given by their next of kin .
Throughout American history , racial boundaries have shifted considerably .
Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta were once classified as almost Black , while a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ethnic definitions struggled with how to categorize people of South Asian origin : it initially recommended they be labeled white/Caucasian before classifying them as Asian or Pacific Islanders .
And there are big differences in racial definitions across countries : in the United States , thanks to the so-called one-drop rule , a person with any Black heritage has historically been categorized as Black ; in Brazil , an individual is not “ Black ” if he or she has any European ancestry .
In other words , racial identities are largely not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ product of social forces .
Yet as sociologist Ann Morning has documented , the biological view of race still dominates in biology textbooks and among biology undergraduates and biology professors in the U.S.. And when quantitative social scientists study race , they often just include a binary variable for Black or white in an equation .
When this sort of research finds racial disparities in outcomes like COVID-19 mortality rates or police killings , it often raises more questions than it provides answers : it doesn ’ t explain why or how race @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shed much light on potential policy interventions that could help .
But there are better ways to study race .
In a 2016 paper , Sen and Wasow propose that researchers should think about race not as an essential set of unchangeable biological characteristics but rather as what they call “ a bundle of sticks ” that includes factors like skin color , dialect , neighborhood , genes , class , names , and region of ancestry .
While “ race ” itself can not be manipulated in a study , many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with what we mean by race , can be .
By focusing only on one stick in the bundle at a time—rather than on the combination of ancestry , neighborhood , socioeconomic status , skin color , names , and the like that would be conveyed by a simple “ race ” variable—researchers can attempt to isolate exactly which factors lie behind the racial disparities we observe .
For example , researchers can manipulate the name on a resume to study how the perceived race of a job applicant affects their likelihood of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Devah Pager , for example , found that employers responded as much to an applicant with a stereotypically white name and a criminal record as they did to a Black applicant without one .
Or researchers can try to isolate the role of perceived skin color , another stick in the bundle , in racial disparities in policing .
In one recent paper in Nature Human Behaviour , which examines police stops around 7 P.M. , researchers found that Black drivers were more likely to be stopped when it is sunnier ; after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” protects Black drivers from being racially profiled .
Again , by focusing on one factor in the bundle of sticks—perceived skin color , in this case—the researchers isolated other factors that could drive disparities in traffic stops , such as socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics .
Another way to avoid issues of post-treatment bias and the instability of racial labels is to focus on differences within a racial group , rather than attempting comparisons between them , to see which mechanisms might be driving differences in outcomes .
To study educational disparities between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instead of simply conducting an analysis of educational outcomes across the population at large and controlling for race and socioeconomic factors—a common approach that is both contaminated by post-treatment bias and conceptually unclear—researchers could try to isolate within-group variation in one of the bundle of sticks plausibly related to education .
Take the Moving to Opportunity experiment , for example , which involved the random assignment of housing vouchers .
Researchers have analyzed this experiment to compare the academic performance of Black youngsters from high-poverty neighborhoods to similarly situated Black youngsters in moderate-poverty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influence socioeconomic outcomes .
Some of the pitfalls of across-group analysis can be seen in Charles Murray ’ s notorious and deeply flawed book The Bell Curve , which asserted that white Americans possessed a genetic advantage in cognitive ability over Black Americans .
Murray simply compared Black and white differences in IQ tests and concluded that these differences must be , at least in part , genetic .
This analysis views race almost exclusively as an essential biological category , fails to address the complex mix of social factors underpinning racial identity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statistical biases discussed above .
A more sophisticated research design examined Black individuals who varied in levels of European ancestry but shared a similar social environment and identity , and found no relationship between genes associated with white ancestry and cognitive ability .
“ By identifying meaningful within-group differences , ” Sen and Wasow commented , “ scholars can narrow the causal mechanisms that explain disparate across-race outcomes.
” In the context of COVID-19 , researchers should avoid drawing too many conclusions about the underlying causes of racial disparities from studies that simply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effect ” is conceptually unclear—and that control for socioeconomic characteristics and health conditions that are likely downstream of race .
A more promising approach would involve isolating one possible explanation for this gap—say , differences in neighborhood health institutions , incarceration rates , or particular occupational roles and health conditions—and studying differences within racial groups to gain insight into which factors might be driving racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality .
To create a more just society , we must understand the underlying causes of racial disparities in social , economic and public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of disparities between groups—such as the black-white wealth gap or disparities in COVID-19 death rates—is essential , if researchers wish to explain the causes of these disparities they need to make sure they remain sensitive to the statistical , conceptual and historical complexities associated with race .
Researchers are likely to make more progress if they approach race as a composite measure of linked characteristics like dialect , ancestry , neighborhood , class and skin color—rather than as a fixed biological category .

As the United States grapples with the national reckoning over race prompted by the killing of George Floyd, it has become increasingly clear that even a pandemic does not strike equally. Nationwide, Black people have been 3.7 times as likely as white people to die of COVID-19, taking age into account; in some states, Black people have died of COVID-19 at age-adjusted rates five to nine times higher than those of white people.
Against this backdrop, the importance of studying racial disparities in social, economic, and public health outcomes has rarely been clearer. But researchers, and the journalists who report on their findings, should exercise caution in trying to uncover the sources of these stark discrepancies. Studying race, and in particular the relationship between race and social outcomes like health or police violence, comes with both statistical and conceptual challenges, which make understanding exactly why Black people are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates harder than it might seem.
Perhaps the biggest issue arises out of what statisticians call “post-treatment bias.” Because racial identity is assigned at birth, it affects a wide range of other aspects of people’s lives—where someone lives, how they’re educated, the sorts of opportunities they have, and how much money they earn. To understand the effect of race on a certain outcome—say, police violence, or the likelihood of death among COVID-19 patients—scholars will often control for factors like education, income, health status or occupation. But all these variables are “post-treatment,” or downstream, of race, in the sense that race itself can shape how a person is raised, educated and employed. Controlling for these variables can distort any results that scholars may find.
Consider the following analogy: if researchers set out to investigate whether smoking leads to death, but controlled for whether someone gets lung cancer, they might find that smoking doesn’t increase mortality—because they’ve effectively removed an important pathway by which smoking influences health. What’s more, by controlling for lung cancer, they’re now comparing the life spans of smokers who don’t get lung cancer, who are likely to be unusually healthy, to nonsmokers without lung cancer (and comparing nonsmokers who get lung cancer, a highly unusual group, to smokers who get lung cancer). In the context of race, controlling for almost any socioeconomic or health variable—as most studies on ethnic disparities in COVID-19 deaths do—can create serious biases in an analysis, calling many empirical results into question.
Similar issues abound in the study of race and policing. Take the recent debate over whether there is evidence of racism in American policing. Roland Fryer, an economist at Harvard, found that police shoot white, Black and Hispanic Americans whom they’ve stopped at equal rates. However, as political scientists Dean Knox, Will Lowe, and Jonathan Mummolo point out, if there is initial discrimination in who gets stopped in the first place, estimating racial disparities in how people are treated once they’ve been stopped becomes much more complicated—especially since police officers are more likely to stop Black and Hispanic people than white people, and more of those stops are unjustified. If Black people are stopped by police for lesser (or nonexistent) offenses, “equal treatment” in terms of the use of force would actually indicate deeply unequal policing overall. Being stopped by the police is “post-treatment” to race, and failing to account for this bias can lead to erroneous conclusions that may mask the extent of racism in American institutions.
A second challenge, as the political scientists Maya Sen and Omar Wasow point out, comes from the instability of racial labels. As one study concluded, “No two measures of race will capture the same information.” In one 19-year survey of thousands of Americans, a full 20 percent of the sample changed either how they were racially classified by others or how they identified themselves. Survey respondents even changed identification in response to life events: incarceration, unemployment or having an income below the poverty line made respondents more likely to identify as Black, while people who get married are more likely to be seen as and identify as white.
Between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, nearly 10 million respondents altered their self-identified race or response regarding Hispanic origin; only 41 percent of Hispanics identified their race and ethnic origin the same way in both censuses. Another study found that homicide victims were more likely to be classified as Black on their death certificates, while people who died of cirrhosis of the liver were more likely to be classified as Native American—even accounting for the race of the victim as given by their next of kin.
Throughout American history, racial boundaries have shifted considerably. Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta were once classified as almost Black, while a 1974 U.S. federal committee on racial and ethnic definitions struggled with how to categorize people of South Asian origin: it initially recommended they be labeled white/Caucasian before classifying them as Asian or Pacific Islanders.
And there are big differences in racial definitions across countries: in the United States, thanks to the so-called one-drop rule, a person with any Black heritage has historically been categorized as Black; in Brazil, an individual is not “Black” if he or she has any European ancestry.
In other words, racial identities are largely not biologically determined, but are instead the product of social forces. Yet as sociologist Ann Morning has documented, the biological view of race still dominates in biology textbooks and among biology undergraduates and biology professors in the U.S.. And when quantitative social scientists study race, they often just include a binary variable for Black or white in an equation. When this sort of research finds racial disparities in outcomes like COVID-19 mortality rates or police killings, it often raises more questions than it provides answers: it doesn’t explain why or how race affects life outcomes, nor does it shed much light on potential policy interventions that could help.
But there are better ways to study race. In a 2016 paper, Sen and Wasow propose that researchers should think about race not as an essential set of unchangeable biological characteristics but rather as what they call “a bundle of sticks” that includes factors like skin color, dialect, neighborhood, genes, class, names, and region of ancestry. While “race” itself cannot be manipulated in a study, many of these traits, which are closely linked with what we mean by race, can be. By focusing only on one stick in the bundle at a time—rather than on the combination of ancestry, neighborhood, socioeconomic status, skin color, names, and the like that would be conveyed by a simple “race” variable—researchers can attempt to isolate exactly which factors lie behind the racial disparities we observe.
For example, researchers can manipulate the name on a resume to study how the perceived race of a job applicant affects their likelihood of getting hired. The late Harvard sociologist Devah Pager, for example, found that employers responded as much to an applicant with a stereotypically white name and a criminal record as they did to a Black applicant without one. Or researchers can try to isolate the role of perceived skin color, another stick in the bundle, in racial disparities in policing. In one recent paper in Nature Human Behaviour, which examines police stops around 7 P.M., researchers found that Black drivers were more likely to be stopped when it is sunnier; after sunset, a “veil of darkness” protects Black drivers from being racially profiled. Again, by focusing on one factor in the bundle of sticks—perceived skin color, in this case—the researchers isolated other factors that could drive disparities in traffic stops, such as socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics.
Another way to avoid issues of post-treatment bias and the instability of racial labels is to focus on differences within a racial group, rather than attempting comparisons between them, to see which mechanisms might be driving differences in outcomes. To study educational disparities between Blacks and whites, for example, instead of simply conducting an analysis of educational outcomes across the population at large and controlling for race and socioeconomic factors—a common approach that is both contaminated by post-treatment bias and conceptually unclear—researchers could try to isolate within-group variation in one of the bundle of sticks plausibly related to education.
Take the Moving to Opportunity experiment, for example, which involved the random assignment of housing vouchers. Researchers have analyzed this experiment to compare the academic performance of Black youngsters from high-poverty neighborhoods to similarly situated Black youngsters in moderate-poverty neighborhoods, finding that neighborhoods can substantially influence socioeconomic outcomes.
Some of the pitfalls of across-group analysis can be seen in Charles Murray’s notorious and deeply flawed book The Bell Curve, which asserted that white Americans possessed a genetic advantage in cognitive ability over Black Americans. Murray simply compared Black and white differences in IQ tests and concluded that these differences must be, at least in part, genetic. This analysis views race almost exclusively as an essential biological category, fails to address the complex mix of social factors underpinning racial identity, and is vulnerable to all the statistical biases discussed above. A more sophisticated research design examined Black individuals who varied in levels of European ancestry but shared a similar social environment and identity, and found no relationship between genes associated with white ancestry and cognitive ability. “By identifying meaningful within-group differences,” Sen and Wasow commented, “scholars can narrow the causal mechanisms that explain disparate across-race outcomes.”
In the context of COVID-19, researchers should avoid drawing too many conclusions about the underlying causes of racial disparities from studies that simply include a binary variable for race—whose “effect” is conceptually unclear—and that control for socioeconomic characteristics and health conditions that are likely downstream of race. A more promising approach would involve isolating one possible explanation for this gap—say, differences in neighborhood health institutions, incarceration rates, or particular occupational roles and health conditions—and studying differences within racial groups to gain insight into which factors might be driving racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality.
To create a more just society, we must understand the underlying causes of racial disparities in social, economic and public health outcomes. But while studying the extent of disparities between groups—such as the black-white wealth gap or disparities in COVID-19 death rates—is essential, if researchers wish to explain the causes of these disparities they need to make sure they remain sensitive to the statistical, conceptual and historical complexities associated with race. Researchers are likely to make more progress if they approach race as a composite measure of linked characteristics like dialect, ancestry, neighborhood, class and skin color—rather than as a fixed biological category.


scientificamerican--2020-08-14--Light Pollution from Coastal Cities Reaches Seafloor

On a moonless night , a team of researchers boarded a rigid inflatable boat in the coastal city of Plymouth , England .
As they left the illuminated city about three kilometers behind them and entered the darkness of the River Lynher , the notion that light pollution could reach deep below the water ’ s surface seemed dubious at first .
But the scientists soon realized the sky was not so dark after all .
“ We could see the light from the city being reflected across all the clouds all the way up , right above us , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us and off into the distance , ” says Thomas Davies , a marine conservationist at the University of Plymouth .
In that moment , he says , the extent of the light pollution in the area “ really hit home ” for him and his team .
Artificial light at night has long been suspected to disturb ecosystems on land and affect human health .
Light from cities and ships also repels or attracts many species of fish , stresses coral reefs and disrupts the circadian rhythms of wood lice on sandy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his colleagues are the first to quantify the light pollution that reaches the seafloor near coastal cities .
They found that as much as three quarters of the seabed in the Plymouth Sound and Tamar Estuary is bathed in artificial light bright enough to impact the ecosystem .
The results appeared in July in Scientific Reports .
“ It ’ s about time that we start looking at [ light pollution ] from a seafloor perspective , ” says Jørgen Berge , a marine biologist at UiT–the Arctic University of Norway .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention it actually receives.
” Berge studies how marine animals above the Arctic Circle respond to light pollution and was not involved with the new study .
Davies and his colleagues measured the artificial light both above and below the water ’ s surface using oceanographic radiometers mounted on their boat .
Combining their measurements with well-established models of how light travels through the water column , the researchers were able to determine how much blue , green and red light would reach the seabed .
Humans ’ relatively weak eyesight would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But many marine creatures have evolved “ incredible sensitivity ” to light , Davies says .
For instance , tiny crustaceans called copepods migrate vertically each day in response to moonlight , which they can detect more than 80 meters below the surface .
In their analysis , the researchers considered any level of light that copepods can detect to be potentially biologically significant .
They found that on cloudy nights , significant green light would reach 76 percent of the seafloor ’ s area at low tide , while blue would reach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those numbers dropped to 46 and 43 percent , respectively .
“ It ’ s brighter in cloudier conditions because more of the light of the city is being reflected back to the ground by the clouds , ” Davies says .
In both cloudy and clear conditions , biologically significant red light penetrated down to less than 1 percent of the seafloor , mainly because those wavelengths attenuate faster in water than green and blue light do .
Compounding the effect , copepods and other marine organisms tend to rely more on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detect red light as easily .
Although the study focused on one city , scientists expect the results in coastal communities worldwide to be similar or worse .
Raz Tamir , a light pollution researcher at Tel Aviv University , who was not involved with the new work , notes that estuaries tend to be clouded with sediment .
And Davies ’ s study coincided with a bloom of phytoplankton that may have decreased the amount of light reaching the seafloor .
( The bloom was included in the study ’ s model @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he studies , Tamir says , the water ’ s clarity could cause up to 100 percent of the seabed to be exposed to detrimental artificial light .
Now that Davies and his colleagues have established the need for studying light pollution on the seafloor , “ we ’ re trying to expand our modeling process up to a global scale so that we can better understand the global distribution of artificial light , ” he says .
Complementing these efforts are studies of how light pollution affects individual species , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lab , Davies is investigating how animals such as crabs , barnacles and mussels respond to artificial light .
And he is a member of a new international collaboration , called the Global Artificial Light Ocean Network ( GLOW ) , that plans to measure light pollution ’ s effects on coastal algae and invertebrates .
The researchers intended to begin measurements this year but have been unable to do so because of the COVID-19 pandemic , says Cristián Duarte , a GLOW collaborator and marine biologist at the Andrés Bello National University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to grow—more than one billion people are projected to live in coastal areas by 2060—light pollution will likely increase , too .
The transition from yellow incandescents to white LEDs exacerbates the problem because the latter contain more of the blue and green wavelengths that can penetrate deep in the water , Davies says .
Davies encourages people to ask themselves four questions when deciding how to use artificial light : “ Firstly , do I need it ?
Secondly , how much of it do I need ?
Thirdly , when do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what color can it be ?
” These considerations , he hopes , will help communities mitigate the harmful effects of light pollution .

On a moonless night, a team of researchers boarded a rigid inflatable boat in the coastal city of Plymouth, England. As they left the illuminated city about three kilometers behind them and entered the darkness of the River Lynher, the notion that light pollution could reach deep below the water’s surface seemed dubious at first. But the scientists soon realized the sky was not so dark after all. “We could see the light from the city being reflected across all the clouds all the way up, right above us, right over [the] top of us and off into the distance,” says Thomas Davies, a marine conservationist at the University of Plymouth. In that moment, he says, the extent of the light pollution in the area “really hit home” for him and his team.
Artificial light at night has long been suspected to disturb ecosystems on land and affect human health. Light from cities and ships also repels or attracts many species of fish, stresses coral reefs and disrupts the circadian rhythms of wood lice on sandy beaches. But Davies says he and his colleagues are the first to quantify the light pollution that reaches the seafloor near coastal cities. They found that as much as three quarters of the seabed in the Plymouth Sound and Tamar Estuary is bathed in artificial light bright enough to impact the ecosystem. The results appeared in July in Scientific Reports.
“It’s about time that we start looking at [light pollution] from a seafloor perspective,” says Jørgen Berge, a marine biologist at UiT–the Arctic University of Norway. “Its importance is much bigger than the attention it actually receives.” Berge studies how marine animals above the Arctic Circle respond to light pollution and was not involved with the new study.
Davies and his colleagues measured the artificial light both above and below the water’s surface using oceanographic radiometers mounted on their boat. Combining their measurements with well-established models of how light travels through the water column, the researchers were able to determine how much blue, green and red light would reach the seabed. Humans’ relatively weak eyesight would not discern artificial light at those depths. But many marine creatures have evolved “incredible sensitivity” to light, Davies says. For instance, tiny crustaceans called copepods migrate vertically each day in response to moonlight, which they can detect more than 80 meters below the surface.
In their analysis, the researchers considered any level of light that copepods can detect to be potentially biologically significant. They found that on cloudy nights, significant green light would reach 76 percent of the seafloor’s area at low tide, while blue would reach 70 percent. On cloudless nights, those numbers dropped to 46 and 43 percent, respectively. “It’s brighter in cloudier conditions because more of the light of the city is being reflected back to the ground by the clouds,” Davies says.
In both cloudy and clear conditions, biologically significant red light penetrated down to less than 1 percent of the seafloor, mainly because those wavelengths attenuate faster in water than green and blue light do. Compounding the effect, copepods and other marine organisms tend to rely more on green and blue light and do not detect red light as easily.
Although the study focused on one city, scientists expect the results in coastal communities worldwide to be similar or worse. Raz Tamir, a light pollution researcher at Tel Aviv University, who was not involved with the new work, notes that estuaries tend to be clouded with sediment. And Davies’s study coincided with a bloom of phytoplankton that may have decreased the amount of light reaching the seafloor. (The bloom was included in the study’s model.) In the coral reef systems that he studies, Tamir says, the water’s clarity could cause up to 100 percent of the seabed to be exposed to detrimental artificial light.
Now that Davies and his colleagues have established the need for studying light pollution on the seafloor, “we’re trying to expand our modeling process up to a global scale so that we can better understand the global distribution of artificial light,” he says.
Complementing these efforts are studies of how light pollution affects individual species, as well as ecosystem-wide interactions. In the lab, Davies is investigating how animals such as crabs, barnacles and mussels respond to artificial light. And he is a member of a new international collaboration, called the Global Artificial Light Ocean Network (GLOW), that plans to measure light pollution’s effects on coastal algae and invertebrates. The researchers intended to begin measurements this year but have been unable to do so because of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Cristián Duarte, a GLOW collaborator and marine biologist at the Andrés Bello National University in Chile.
As coastal cities continue to grow—more than one billion people are projected to live in coastal areas by 2060—light pollution will likely increase, too. The transition from yellow incandescents to white LEDs exacerbates the problem because the latter contain more of the blue and green wavelengths that can penetrate deep in the water, Davies says.
Davies encourages people to ask themselves four questions when deciding how to use artificial light: “Firstly, do I need it? Secondly, how much of it do I need? Thirdly, when do I need it? And fourthly, what color can it be?” These considerations, he hopes, will help communities mitigate the harmful effects of light pollution.


scientificamerican--2020-08-14--Coronavirus News Roundup, August 8-August 14

In the U , .S.
, “ …community outbreaks of the coronavirus this summer have centered on restaurants and bars , often the largest settings to infect Americans , ” writes Jennifer Steinhauer at The New York Times ( 8/12/20 ) .
Data show that about a quarter of Louisiana ’ s coronavirus cases since March , other than those in nursing homes , prisons , and the like , trace back to bars and restaurants , the story reports .
In Maryland , “ 12 percent of new cases last month were traced to restaurants…and in Colorado , 9 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bars and restaurants , ” Steinhauer reports .
Indoor dining is banned in New York City and many other places , the story states .
Many food-service workers have felt pressured to return to their jobs when restaurants re-opened .
These jobs are often low-paying , may not offer health insurance , and are disproportionately held by Hispanic people , the story states .
A study published 8/7/20 that assessed a laser-beam approach to measuring the effectiveness of face masks received some misleading and incorrect media coverage this week .
This 8/12/20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clears up many of the misconceptions .
First , this was not a study of the effectiveness of face masks for blocking droplets released during speech that potentially contain SARS-CoV-2 .
It was a study of a method for measuring mask effectiveness .
And the sample sizes were too low to serve as a test of effectiveness for cutting transmission risk ( which again , the study was not meant to do ) .
Also , talking is just one of the ways we might release droplets containing the virus .
Singing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
So , don ’ t throw out your unjustly maligned neck-gaiter , the story states .
Most evidence shows that cloth masks , including “ properly worn neck gaiters , filter out the majority of [ SARS-CoV-2 and other ] viral particles and provide some protection for an individual , ” says an infectious diseases researcher at the University of California , San Francisco , who is quoted in the piece .
In an 8/7/20 essay in The New York Times , a prominent epidemiologist and a banker call for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for up to six weeks to “ crush the spread of the virus to less than one new case per 100,000 people per day.
” Currently , the U.S. reports 17 new cases per 100,000 people daily and a total of at least 50,000 new cases daily , write Michael Osterholm , director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota , and Neel Kashkari , president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis .
The essay states that prematurely relaxed lockdowns caused the failure of U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mandates and “ soft ” social distancing policies “ are not enough to control this pandemic , ” the authors write .
A renewed lockdown should “ mandate sheltering in place for everyone but the truly essential workers , ” they add .
Under such a policy , the nation ’ s testing and contact tracing capacity could “ support reopening the economy.
” The authors conclude : “ There is no trade-off between health and the economy .
Both require aggressively getting control of the virus.
” And here ’ s an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 150 U.S. medical professionals , that calls for the U.S. to “ shut down , start over , do it right ” in order to prevent further COVID-19 deaths ( updated 8/13/20 ) .
Researchers now are studying more than 165 vaccine candidates to protect against SARS-CoV-2 , according to The New York Times ’ vaccine tracker , last updated 8/12/20 .
A total of eight now are in phase 3 , that is , being studied in thousands of people for effectiveness and for any rare , unsafe side effects .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ CanSinoBIO vaccine approved by the military in China as a “ specially needed drug ” for soldiers and the Russia Ministry of Health ’ s vaccine that recently made news and reportedly might be produced by the end of this year .
Neither of these two vaccines underwent a phase 3 study , which concerns many biomedical researchers , public-health experts , and others .
By Jonathan Corum , Denise Grady , Sui-Lee Wee , and Carl Zimmer .
This piece by Eric Bender for Knowable ( 7/30/30 ) features a few angles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that I haven ’ t seen elsewhere .
For instance , Bender explains how research teams and regulators have sped up this work ( e.g .
individual teams are testing one or two candidates rather than 20 ; reduced paperwork requirements from regulators ; parallel animal and early human safety experiments ; and round-the-clock work ) .
The piece also describes the safety commitments among developers of vaccines previously approved for other conditions .
The story also clarifies what the endpoint and bar for success are for a phase 3 study ( effectiveness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) of a vaccine candidate : “ The trials [ experiments ] all need to run until tests show that a certain number of participants have been exposed to the virus in their normal lives , ” Bender writes .
Moderna ’ s Phase 3 study is set to enroll about 30,000 healthy people in the U.S. , and the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca Phase 3 study is set to test its candidate in about 50,000 people in the UK and other countries , the story states .
The piece also provides some reassuring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side effects are seen as acceptable while others are not .
This useful interactive , “ Could my symptoms be Covid-19 ?
” is available in English and in Spanish and showcases the work of developers and artists at The New York Times .
Written by Tara Parker-Pope and Mika Grondahl , the 8/5/20 piece makes clear how widely symptoms can vary among people with the disease .
The piece states that four symptoms are very common among people diagnosed with COVID-19 — fever , loss of taste or smell , dry cough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notes several other less common symptoms .
It also describes the most common symptoms in children .
“ If you have a symptom that might be Covid-19 , ” the story states , “ doctors say you should isolate until you can be tested .
Most patients will recover on their own within a few weeks…Seek medical care at any time if you experience trouble breathing , any concerning symptom or take a turn for the worse.
” Sobering reporting by Adam Rogers at Wired makes a strong case that a lack of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , leaders , and policy-makers has significantly hobbled efforts to launch strong studies ( randomized studies on large numbers of people who , along with researchers , are “ blinded ” to whether they receive a treatment or a placebo ) and slowed scientific progress toward finding effective drug treatments for COVID-19 ( 8/10/20 ) .
“ In the U.S. , a lack of central planning , methodological obstacles , and professional pressures meant that since the pandemic began , everyone raced off at top speed , but in different directions , producing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they got results at all , ” Rogers writes .
The piece ends with a solution for the next pandemic — “ a whole network of centers ready to mount clinical trials at a moment ’ s notice.
” You might enjoy “ Your school district ’ s reopening survey , ” by Kara Baskin for McSweeney ’ s ( 8/5/20 ) .

In the U,.S., “…community outbreaks of the coronavirus this summer have centered on restaurants and bars, often the largest settings to infect Americans,” writes Jennifer Steinhauer at The New York Times (8/12/20). Data show that about a quarter of Louisiana’s coronavirus cases since March, other than those in nursing homes, prisons, and the like, trace back to bars and restaurants, the story reports. In Maryland, “12 percent of new cases last month were traced to restaurants…and in Colorado, 9 percent of outbreaks overall have been traced to bars and restaurants,” Steinhauer reports. Indoor dining is banned in New York City and many other places, the story states. Many food-service workers have felt pressured to return to their jobs when restaurants re-opened. These jobs are often low-paying, may not offer health insurance, and are disproportionately held by Hispanic people, the story states.
A study published 8/7/20 that assessed a laser-beam approach to measuring the effectiveness of face masks received some misleading and incorrect media coverage this week. This 8/12/20 story by Jonathan Lambert at Science News clears up many of the misconceptions. First, this was not a study of the effectiveness of face masks for blocking droplets released during speech that potentially contain SARS-CoV-2. It was a study of a method for measuring mask effectiveness. And the sample sizes were too low to serve as a test of effectiveness for cutting transmission risk (which again, the study was not meant to do). Also, talking is just one of the ways we might release droplets containing the virus. Singing, coughing, and sneezing also can release them. So, don’t throw out your unjustly maligned neck-gaiter, the story states. Most evidence shows that cloth masks, including “properly worn neck gaiters, filter out the majority of [SARS-CoV-2 and other] viral particles and provide some protection for an individual,” says an infectious diseases researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who is quoted in the piece.
In an 8/7/20 essay in The New York Times, a prominent epidemiologist and a banker call for a renewed and stricter lockdown in the U.S. for up to six weeks to “crush the spread of the virus to less than one new case per 100,000 people per day.” Currently, the U.S. reports 17 new cases per 100,000 people daily and a total of at least 50,000 new cases daily, write Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The essay states that prematurely relaxed lockdowns caused the failure of U.S. efforts to contain SARS-CoV-2. Public mask mandates and “soft” social distancing policies “are not enough to control this pandemic,” the authors write. A renewed lockdown should “mandate sheltering in place for everyone but the truly essential workers,” they add. Under such a policy, the nation’s testing and contact tracing capacity could “support reopening the economy.” The authors conclude: “There is no trade-off between health and the economy. Both require aggressively getting control of the virus.”
And here’s an open letter, reportedly signed by more than 150 U.S. medical professionals, that calls for the U.S. to “shut down, start over, do it right” in order to prevent further COVID-19 deaths (updated 8/13/20).
Researchers now are studying more than 165 vaccine candidates to protect against SARS-CoV-2, according to The New York Times’ vaccine tracker, last updated 8/12/20. A total of eight now are in phase 3, that is, being studied in thousands of people for effectiveness and for any rare, unsafe side effects. And two have been approved: the CanSinoBIO vaccine approved by the military in China as a “specially needed drug” for soldiers and the Russia Ministry of Health’s vaccine that recently made news and reportedly might be produced by the end of this year. Neither of these two vaccines underwent a phase 3 study, which concerns many biomedical researchers, public-health experts, and others. By Jonathan Corum, Denise Grady, Sui-Lee Wee, and Carl Zimmer.
This piece by Eric Bender for Knowable (7/30/30) features a few angles and nuggets on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development efforts that I haven’t seen elsewhere. For instance, Bender explains how research teams and regulators have sped up this work (e.g. individual teams are testing one or two candidates rather than 20; reduced paperwork requirements from regulators; parallel animal and early human safety experiments; and round-the-clock work). The piece also describes the safety commitments among developers of vaccines previously approved for other conditions. The story also clarifies what the endpoint and bar for success are for a phase 3 study (effectiveness and safety study among thousands of people) of a vaccine candidate: “The trials [experiments] all need to run until tests show that a certain number of participants have been exposed to the virus in their normal lives,” Bender writes. Moderna’s Phase 3 study is set to enroll about 30,000 healthy people in the U.S., and the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca Phase 3 study is set to test its candidate in about 50,000 people in the UK and other countries, the story states. The piece also provides some reassuring information about the context in which certain side effects are seen as acceptable while others are not.
This useful interactive, “Could my symptoms be Covid-19?” is available in English and in Spanish and showcases the work of developers and artists at The New York Times. Written by Tara Parker-Pope and Mika Grondahl, the 8/5/20 piece makes clear how widely symptoms can vary among people with the disease. The piece states that four symptoms are very common among people diagnosed with COVID-19 — fever, loss of taste or smell, dry cough, and fatigue. The piece also notes several other less common symptoms. It also describes the most common symptoms in children. “If you have a symptom that might be Covid-19,” the story states, “doctors say you should isolate until you can be tested. Most patients will recover on their own within a few weeks…Seek medical care at any time if you experience trouble breathing, any concerning symptom or take a turn for the worse.”
Sobering reporting by Adam Rogers at Wired makes a strong case that a lack of coordination among U.S. medical centers, researchers, leaders, and policy-makers has significantly hobbled efforts to launch strong studies (randomized studies on large numbers of people who, along with researchers, are “blinded” to whether they receive a treatment or a placebo) and slowed scientific progress toward finding effective drug treatments for COVID-19 (8/10/20). “In the U.S., a lack of central planning, methodological obstacles, and professional pressures meant that since the pandemic began, everyone raced off at top speed, but in different directions, producing incompatible, unusable, or incoherent results—if they got results at all,” Rogers writes. The piece ends with a solution for the next pandemic — “a whole network of centers ready to mount clinical trials at a moment’s notice.”
You might enjoy “Your school district’s reopening survey,” by Kara Baskin for McSweeney’s (8/5/20).


scientificamerican--2020-08-14--Will 2020 Be the Hottest Year on Record?

With 2020 more than halfway over , it is clear that this year will rank among the hottest in recorded history and possibly break the all-time record set in 2016 .
If 2020 does top the list , it will do so without the major El Niño event that boosted global temperatures four years ago—and thus will provide an important marker of the power of the long-term warming trend driven by human activities that emit greenhouse gases .
“ Until we stop doing that , we ’ re going to see this over and over again , ” says Gavin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Goddard Institute for Space Studies , which keeps the agency ’ s temperature records .
In its first seven months , 2020 has been the second-warmest year on the books , a mere 0.07 degree Fahrenheit behind 2016 at the same point , according to new data released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( whose records go back 141 years ) .
This ranking now means “ there ’ s no question that 2020 will be a top-five year , ” Schmidt says .
By his calculations , it has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hottest year , while NOAA gives it a 37 percent chance .
The variation is partly because of the different ways each agency processes temperature data : NOAA does not extrapolate temperatures over the Arctic to make up for missing data there .
And Schmidt says leaving that information out misses one of the fastest-warming spots on the globe .
One of this 2020 ’ s notable hotspots has been Siberia , which has been covered by an angry , deep-red blotch on global temperature maps .
The region has been exceptionally hot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contributing to this past January being the planet ’ s warmest on record .
More recently the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported 100.4 degrees F. If this figure is verified by the World Meteorological Organization , it would be the first time recorded temperatures above the Arctic Circle have surpassed 100 degrees F. But this hotspot is not the sole reason that 2020 is near the top of the charts .
Above-average temperatures have been prevalent over large swaths of the globe .
Asia , South America and Europe all had a record-warm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most of the world ’ s oceans have also been very warm , says Ahira Sánchez-Lugo , a climatologist at NOAA ’ s National Centers for Environmental Information .
And there are always hotspots somewhere on the globe in a given year , so the one in Siberia is not unusual , Schmidt says .
Last year , for example , the main hotspot was elsewhere in the Arctic , in an area encompassing parts of Alaska , Canada and Greenland .
Broad areas of warmth and more localized hotspots are both linked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s gotten to the point where these intense heat waves would not be possible in any reasonable amount of time in a non-human-perturbed climate , ” Schmidt says .
A recent analysis of the role of global warming in Siberia ’ s prolonged heat found that such extremes would happen around once every 80,000 years in the absence of anthropogenic warming .
These extremes are also happening over larger areas than they would in the absence of climate change , Schmidt says .
The run 2020 is making for the title @ @ @ @ @ @ @ major El Niño event that helped propel 2016 to the top of the rankings .
During an El Niño , a band of warm ocean water covers the tropical Pacific Ocean , which can raise global temperatures .
“ When we have a big El Niño event , we do tend to have a record being broken , ” Schmidt says , adding that this factor is often what causes the record to be broken by a large amount .
But an El Niño is not necessary to take the lead : both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year without one .
“ We ’ ve broken the records pretty consistently , even in years where we didn ’ t have an El Niño , ” Schmidt says .
This fact also speaks to the way the inexorable rise in warming has been steadily elevating the baseline temperatures that events such as El Niño or heat waves add to .
Recently , even years with a La Niña event ( which tend to be cooler , because colder ocean waters spread across the tropical Pacific ) are warmer than El Niño @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point , 1998 , the one 20th-century year that remains in NOAA ’ s top-10 warmest , did have a major El Niño .
It was a record-setting outlier at the time .
But because of global warming , the earth ’ s baseline temperature has shifted so much higher that 1998 is now being left in the dust ( 2016 , which had a similarly strong El Niño , was 0.63 degree F hotter ) .
No matter where 2020 ends up in the standings , it will be warm enough to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ top 10 .
When that happens , all of the 10 warmest years in their records will have occurred since 2005—and the top seven will have occurred since 2014—Sánchez-Lugo says .
That bunching of heat records in more recent years is , again , because of long-term warming , which is stacking the deck for ever more frequent records .
A 2017 analysis in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society noted that between the late 19th century and 1980 , new records for the hottest year would happen about every eight to 11 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been occurring about every three to four years .
So if 2020 takes the top slot , it will not be entirely unexpected—and will be yet another stark example of how far the earth ’ s climate has deviated from its natural course .
“ Everything that you see is conditioned on this long-term trend , ” Schmidt says .
“ I work for NASA , but it ’ s not rocket science .
”

The results are finally in: 2020 was one of the hottest years in recorded history, according to data released today by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By NASA’s reckoning, it tied with 2016 for the hottest year in the books, while NOAA placed it in the number-two spot.
Regardless of its final placement, 2020’s feverish heat came without the major El Niño event that boosted global temperatures to a new high four years ago—and thus the year provides an important marker of the power of the long-term warming trend driven by human activities that emit greenhouse gases. “Until we stop doing that, we’re going to see this over and over again,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which keeps the agency’s temperature records.
In the final reckoning, 2020 was just 0.04 degree Fahrenheit behind 2016, according to NOAA (whose records go back 141 years). NASA found that 2020 was in a statistical tie with 2016. The variation between NASA and NOAA is partly because of the different ways each processes temperature data: NOAA does not extrapolate temperatures over the Arctic to make up for missing data there, and Schmidt says leaving that information out misses one of the fastest-warming spots on the globe.
One of 2020’s notable hotspots was Siberia, which was covered by an angry, deep-red blotch on global temperature maps. The region has been exceptionally hot since the beginning of that year, contributing to last January being the planet’s warmest on record. At one point the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported 100.4 degrees F. If this figure is verified by the World Meteorological Organization, it would be the first time recorded temperatures above the Arctic Circle have surpassed 100 degrees F.
Where temperatures have been warmer or cooler than average across the globe in 2020. Credit: NOAA
But this hotspot is not the sole reason that 2020 is at the top of the charts. Above-average temperatures were prevalent over large swaths of the globe. Europe and Asia had their hottest years on record, while South America and the Caribbean had their second-hottest, according to NOAA. The world’s oceans had their third warmest year. And there are always hotspots somewhere on the globe in a given year—so the one in Siberia is not all that unusual, Schmidt says. In 2019, for example, the main hotspot was elsewhere in the Arctic, in an area encompassing parts of Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
But broad areas of warmth and more localized hotspots are both linked to the long-term warming trend. “It’s gotten to the point where these intense heat waves would not be possible in any reasonable amount of time in a non-human-perturbed climate,” Schmidt says. A recent analysis of the role of global warming in Siberia’s prolonged heat found that such extremes would happen around once every 80,000 years in the absence of anthropogenic warming. These extremes are also happening over larger areas than they would in the absence of climate change, Schmidt says.
Importantly, 2020’s ranking at or near the top of the charts happened without the major El Niño event that helped propel 2016 to the top of the rankings. During an El Niño a band of warm ocean water covers the tropical Pacific Ocean, which can raise global temperatures. “When we have a big El Niño event, we do tend to have a record being broken,” Schmidt says, adding that this factor is often what causes the record to be broken by a large amount. But an El Niño is not necessary to take the lead: both 2014 and 2015 became the then-hottest year without one. “We’ve broken the records pretty consistently, even in years where we didn’t have an El Niño,” Schmidt says. This fact also speaks to the way the inexorable rise in warming has been steadily elevating the baseline temperatures that events such as El Niño or heat waves add to. Recently, even years with a La Niña event (which tend to be cooler, because colder ocean waters spread across the tropical Pacific) are warmer than El Niño years of decades past.
To that point, 1998—the one 20th-century year that had until recently remained in NOAA’s top 10 warmest—did have a major El Niño. It was a record-setting outlier at the time. But because of global warming, the earth’s baseline temperature has shifted so much higher that 1998 is now being left in the dust (2016, which had a similarly strong El Niño, was 0.63 degree F hotter). It has now officially been knocked out of NOAA’s top 10. All of the 10 warmest years in its records have occurred since 2005—and the top seven have occurred since 2014—says Ahira Sánchez-Lugo, a climatologist at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
That bunching of heat records in more recent years is, again, because of long-term warming, which is stacking the deck for ever more frequent records. A 2017 analysis in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society noted that between the late 19th century and 1980, new records for the hottest year would happen about every eight to 11 years. Since 1981, they have been occurring about every three to four years.
So 2020’s high ranking was not entirely unexpected—and is yet another stark example of how far the earth’s climate has deviated from its natural course. “Everything that you see is conditioned on this long-term trend,” Schmidt says. “I work for NASA, but it’s not rocket science.”


scientificamerican--2020-08-14--Trump Administration Completes Climate Dismantling with Methane Rollback

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the final rollback of Obama-era methane rules during a trip yesterday to Pittsburgh .
The move marked the culmination of a 3 ½-year struggle by the Trump administration to undo emissions rules established at the end of President Obama 's second term .
That removal came despite their being supported by a significant segment of the oil and gas industry .
`` Today 's regulatory changes remove redundant paperwork , align with the Clean Air Act , and allow companies the flexibility to satisfy leak-control requirements by complying with equivalent state rules , '' Wheeler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remarks provided from EPA after the event .
Early in the Trump administration , officials tried to kill the rule with a Congressional Review Act resolution and then through litigation .
But in the end , it was forced to complete a full rulemaking .
The rules replacing the Obama standard provide laxer requirements for how new and modified oil and gas production and processing operations must find and repair methane leaks , a significant contributor to climate change .
Owners of transmission and storage infrastructure , which faced requirements under the Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The new rules are designed to ignore climate considerations and put future rules for older , leaky infrastructure out of bounds forever .
Finally , in a move that environmentalists promised would be litigated , the rules try to frustrate potential plans to regulate pollutants from new source categories by demanding that they first undergo a special `` significant contribution '' finding .
A senior EPA official told reporters yesterday that the Obama administration erred in not doing such a finding when it promulgated its rule in 2016 — one reason that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from regulation .
EPA did make a `` significant contribution '' finding for methane from oil and gas facilities in 2016 as part of its rule .
Oil and gas is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States .
The EPA official said that the agency would soon release criteria for what must be included in significant contribution findings .
Environmentalists said there was no justification in the Clean Air Act requiring EPA to complete such a finding before promulgating a rule .
`` It seems like the EPA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to regulate greenhouse gases in the future , '' said Sarah Smith of the Clean Air Task Force .
Smith 's colleague , attorney Jay Duffy , noted that EPA did n't include its position on requiring the finding in the 2019 draft rule for new sources — a fact that might earn a rebuke in court .
EPA 's redo of the Obama mandate moved in two parts to make legal challenges more difficult .
The first lightened requirements for oil and gas producers and processors related to monitoring and repairing leaks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total exemption for low-producing wells that yield 15 barrels of oil a day or less .
Wheeler said the change would remove `` regulatory burdens '' that `` fell heavily on small and medium-sized energy businesses . ''
But Peter Zalzal , an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund , said his group 's research shows that low-producing wells could still leak significant quantities of methane into the atmosphere .
`` What science and what the data shows us is that those wells can have emissions that are as high as high-producing wells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loss rates that are even greater , '' he said .
Since most U.S. well pads are low-producing , the exemption could substantially undermine emissions reductions under the rule .
High-producing wellheads and compressors would be required to monitor and fix leaks semiannually , down from quarterly under the Obama rule .
The second rule EPA finalized yesterday scraps direct methane regulation in favor of targeting volatile organic compounds , or VOCs , a precursor to smog .
Methane can be captured as a byproduct of addressing VOCs for production and processing of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ VOCs allows EPA to exempt transmission and storage facilities from regulation even though both are significant sources of methane .
It also allows the Trump administration to argue that , because no rule for new oil and gas sources of methane has been promulgated , EPA does n't trigger Clean Air Act requirements for proposing rules for older infrastructure that would be free from regulation indefinitely .
Yesterday 's move marks the last major Trump rollback of an Obama-era climate rule .
Ellen Kurlansky , who served as a policy analyst and adviser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Radiation for two decades before departing in 2018 , said Trump 's deregulatory agenda would take years to reverse .
`` Undoing the harm is going to be a big piece of what [ former Vice President Joe ] Biden is going to need to address if Biden gets elected , but it 's not going to be easy , and it 's not going to be quick , '' she said .
Still , the fact these rulemakings are final in the second half of 2020 means that if Biden , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in November , his administration might have some options to reverse the rule more swiftly .
A Democratic-controlled Congress could invalidate it through the Congressional Review Act , or the new administration could decline to defend it in court .
Environmentalists warn that yesterday 's action could have an immense impact on the climate .
Methane , which accounts for about 10 % of man-made U.S. greenhouse gas emissions , is more than 80 times as climate-forcing as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period .
While EPA has touted reductions in methane using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ published in Nature last month showed global methane at an all-time high , with U.S. gas production playing a role .
The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that yesterday 's rules will result in an additional 4.5 million metric tons of methane annually compared with the Obama regime they replace .
That would have the same impact on the climate as having 100 more coal-fired power plants each year , EDF said .
While oil majors had urged EPA to keep federal methane rules in place , independent oil companies and the trade groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Lee Fuller , executive vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America , called the technical rule `` important corrections that are necessary to address flawed programs resulting from the politically driven rush to complete the 2016 regulations . ''
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E & E News .
E & E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net .

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the final rollback of Obama-era methane rules during a trip yesterday to Pittsburgh.
The move marked the culmination of a 3 ½-year struggle by the Trump administration to undo emissions rules established at the end of President Obama's second term. That removal came despite their being supported by a significant segment of the oil and gas industry.
"Today's regulatory changes remove redundant paperwork, align with the Clean Air Act, and allow companies the flexibility to satisfy leak-control requirements by complying with equivalent state rules," Wheeler told a local audience, according to remarks provided from EPA after the event.
Early in the Trump administration, officials tried to kill the rule with a Congressional Review Act resolution and then through litigation. But in the end, it was forced to complete a full rulemaking.
The rules replacing the Obama standard provide laxer requirements for how new and modified oil and gas production and processing operations must find and repair methane leaks, a significant contributor to climate change. Owners of transmission and storage infrastructure, which faced requirements under the Obama rule, are exempted from the standard.
The new rules are designed to ignore climate considerations and put future rules for older, leaky infrastructure out of bounds forever.
Finally, in a move that environmentalists promised would be litigated, the rules try to frustrate potential plans to regulate pollutants from new source categories by demanding that they first undergo a special "significant contribution" finding.
A senior EPA official told reporters yesterday that the Obama administration erred in not doing such a finding when it promulgated its rule in 2016 — one reason that transmission and storage must now be exempted from regulation.
EPA did make a "significant contribution" finding for methane from oil and gas facilities in 2016 as part of its rule. Oil and gas is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States.
The EPA official said that the agency would soon release criteria for what must be included in significant contribution findings.
Environmentalists said there was no justification in the Clean Air Act requiring EPA to complete such a finding before promulgating a rule.
"It seems like the EPA is trying to make it more difficult to regulate greenhouse gases in the future," said Sarah Smith of the Clean Air Task Force.
Smith's colleague, attorney Jay Duffy, noted that EPA didn't include its position on requiring the finding in the 2019 draft rule for new sources — a fact that might earn a rebuke in court.
EPA's redo of the Obama mandate moved in two parts to make legal challenges more difficult.
The first lightened requirements for oil and gas producers and processors related to monitoring and repairing leaks. The most important change provided a total exemption for low-producing wells that yield 15 barrels of oil a day or less.
Wheeler said the change would remove "regulatory burdens" that "fell heavily on small and medium-sized energy businesses."
But Peter Zalzal, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, said his group's research shows that low-producing wells could still leak significant quantities of methane into the atmosphere.
"What science and what the data shows us is that those wells can have emissions that are as high as high-producing wells, and oftentimes, those wells have loss rates that are even greater," he said.
Since most U.S. well pads are low-producing, the exemption could substantially undermine emissions reductions under the rule.
High-producing wellheads and compressors would be required to monitor and fix leaks semiannually, down from quarterly under the Obama rule.
The second rule EPA finalized yesterday scraps direct methane regulation in favor of targeting volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a precursor to smog.
Methane can be captured as a byproduct of addressing VOCs for production and processing of oil and natural gas. But targeting VOCs allows EPA to exempt transmission and storage facilities from regulation even though both are significant sources of methane.
It also allows the Trump administration to argue that, because no rule for new oil and gas sources of methane has been promulgated, EPA doesn't trigger Clean Air Act requirements for proposing rules for older infrastructure that would be free from regulation indefinitely.
Yesterday's move marks the last major Trump rollback of an Obama-era climate rule.
Ellen Kurlansky, who served as a policy analyst and adviser in EPA's Office of Air and Radiation for two decades before departing in 2018, said Trump's deregulatory agenda would take years to reverse.
"Undoing the harm is going to be a big piece of what [former Vice President Joe] Biden is going to need to address if Biden gets elected, but it's not going to be easy, and it's not going to be quick," she said.
Still, the fact these rulemakings are final in the second half of 2020 means that if Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, defeats Trump in November, his administration might have some options to reverse the rule more swiftly. A Democratic-controlled Congress could invalidate it through the Congressional Review Act, or the new administration could decline to defend it in court.
Environmentalists warn that yesterday's action could have an immense impact on the climate.
Methane, which accounts for about 10% of man-made U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, is more than 80 times as climate-forcing as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
While EPA has touted reductions in methane using data provided by producers, a report published in Nature last month showed global methane at an all-time high, with U.S. gas production playing a role.
The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that yesterday's rules will result in an additional 4.5 million metric tons of methane annually compared with the Obama regime they replace. That would have the same impact on the climate as having 100 more coal-fired power plants each year, EDF said.
While oil majors had urged EPA to keep federal methane rules in place, independent oil companies and the trade groups that represent them applauded yesterday's rulemaking.
Lee Fuller, executive vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, called the technical rule "important corrections that are necessary to address flawed programs resulting from the politically driven rush to complete the 2016 regulations."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net.


scientificamerican--2020-08-14--Invisible Qualities such as 'Hardness' Can Pinpoint Objects

We spend a substantial part of our days visually scanning an area for something we want—our keys or ketchup , for example .
For scientists the way we do so “ provides a window into how our minds sift through the information that arrives at our eyes , ” says Jason Fischer , a cognitive neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University .
Past research has focused on readily apparent visual characteristics such as color , shape and size .
But an object 's intrinsic physical properties—things we know from experience but can not see , such as hardness—also come into play @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to immediately see that a brick is heavier than a soda can and harder than a piece of cake , but you know it .
And that knowledge guides how you act on a brick as compared with those other objects , ” says Fischer , senior author on a new study led by graduate student Li Guo .
“ We asked whether that knowledge about objects ' hidden physical properties is , in itself , something you can use to locate objects faster.
” The study was published online in May in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Researchers asked study participants to pick out the image of an item in a grid of other objects as quickly as possible .
Each grid was controlled for the color , size and shape of the objects presented , so participants could not use easy visual cues .
For example , when they were asked to find a cutting board , the grid also included softer but similarly colored items such as a croissant and a bandage and similarly shaped items , among them a sponge , pillow and paper bag .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ used what they knew about an object 's hardness to find it faster , ” Fischer says .
By tracking participants ' eye movements , the team saw that people spent less time examining objects without the correct hardness .
This held even when participants assessed a grid of simplistic black-and-white line drawings in which physical traits were only implied , Guo says .
“ When I 'm searching for an object , thinking about that object summons up a variety of useful information that my mind will leverage to find it as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ It 's a built-in trick that you can use without any awareness of doing so.
” Vivian C. Paulun , a vision researcher at the University of Giessen in Germany , who was not involved in the study , says it shows that a haptic ( touch-based ) property can influence visual attention by association .
“ An obvious next step would be to test whether this effect can be replicated with other mechanical , nonvisual object properties , such as fragility , ” Paulun observes .
“ This would strengthen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visual attention .
”

We spend a substantial part of our days visually scanning an area for something we want—our keys or ketchup, for example. For scientists the way we do so “provides a window into how our minds sift through the information that arrives at our eyes,” says Jason Fischer, a cognitive neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University. Past research has focused on readily apparent visual characteristics such as color, shape and size. But an object's intrinsic physical properties—things we know from experience but cannot see, such as hardness—also come into play.
“You may not be able to immediately see that a brick is heavier than a soda can and harder than a piece of cake, but you know it. And that knowledge guides how you act on a brick as compared with those other objects,” says Fischer, senior author on a new study led by graduate student Li Guo. “We asked whether that knowledge about objects' hidden physical properties is, in itself, something you can use to locate objects faster.” The study was published online in May in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Researchers asked study participants to pick out the image of an item in a grid of other objects as quickly as possible. Each grid was controlled for the color, size and shape of the objects presented, so participants could not use easy visual cues. For example, when they were asked to find a cutting board, the grid also included softer but similarly colored items such as a croissant and a bandage and similarly shaped items, among them a sponge, pillow and paper bag.
The researchers “found that people automatically used what they knew about an object's hardness to find it faster,” Fischer says. By tracking participants' eye movements, the team saw that people spent less time examining objects without the correct hardness. This held even when participants assessed a grid of simplistic black-and-white line drawings in which physical traits were only implied, Guo says.
“When I'm searching for an object, thinking about that object summons up a variety of useful information that my mind will leverage to find it as efficiently as possible,” Fischer explains. “It's a built-in trick that you can use without any awareness of doing so.”
Vivian C. Paulun, a vision researcher at the University of Giessen in Germany, who was not involved in the study, says it shows that a haptic (touch-based) property can influence visual attention by association. “An obvious next step would be to test whether this effect can be replicated with other mechanical, nonvisual object properties, such as fragility,” Paulun observes. “This would strengthen the evidence that physical object properties guide visual attention.”