This article in Science mag reports data in Nature Human Behavior about the problems scientist parents have that they always have had but that now have increased logarithmically, if not exponentially, or maybe those are the same thing. How can a scientist balance professional and parental pressure? This has always been a problem for women, as the peak time for childbirth/rearing corresponds with career expectations. Scientists with children below 5 years of age report working 38% fewer research hours than normal; those raising children between ages 6 and 11 worked 32% fewer hours. The article suggests that teaching loads be redistributed away from professors with small children. One of the professors interviewed said that she is unable to mentor junior colleagues since she is barely surviving with young children at home. What occurs to this writer is: what is going to happen to the development and advancement of scientific thought?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/climate/trump-methane.html
This is a NYT article about the weakening by the EPA of a major climate change regulation, rolling back the last major Obama-era climate rule. New studies, in fact, have indicated that the scale of methane pollution "could be driving the planet toward a climate crisi faster than expected." The discontinuance of these regulations, viewed by the Trump administrations as "burdensome and ineffective" will garner $100 million a year through 2030 and lead to the release of more than 850,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere concurrently. Robert Howarth, an earth systems scientist at Cornell, last year published a study blaming North American gas production for 1/2 of the global increase in methane emissions of the past decade. And the next ten will be worse. The bad news is that emissions are probably higher than what the EPA says they are due to the reliance on self-reported company data by the EPA and some testing that is not comprehensive.
This is an article from NPR about a NY federal judge striking down a Trump administration decision to roll back protections for migratory birds. In the ruling that was rolled back, with the judge citing a quote from "To Kill a Mockingbird", companies that killed a migratory bird during their work would no longer face threats of prosecution, The Audubon Society and other conservation groups filed complaints against the Trump administration in 2018. "For decades this law has been a proven incentive to remind companies to do the right thing for wildlife," interim chief conservation officer for the National Audubon Society, Sarah Greenberger said. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was enacted in 1918. Today, a violation of the act is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $15,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. The birds protected by this law include eagles, owls, mockingbirds and vultures.
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