Category: Academic Analysis

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Plus les femmes travaillent, plus la société en bénéficie. Mais discrimiration et obstacles demeurent

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Norrin Halilem, Full professor in Knowledge and Innovation Management, Science Populariser, Université Laval

Quand les femmes ont accès au travail, à des revenus décents et au contrôle de leurs ressources – ce qu’on appelle l’autonomisation économique –, l’ensemble de la société en bénéficie. Pourtant, discriminations et obstacles structurels maintiennent encore des millions de femmes dans la précarité.

C’est notamment l’avis de deux chercheuses spécialistes des questions d’égalité, ainsi que des membres du Groupe des Nations unies sur l’autonomisation économique des femmes, qui, dans un rapport, soulignaient que cette autonomisation constitue « une stratégie judicieuse pour le développement, la croissance économique et la prospérité des entreprises ».

Ainsi, une participation plus équitable des femmes dans le monde du travail génère plusieurs bénéfices majeurs, dont une croissance économique accrue et une réduction des inégalités salariales, qui profite non seulement aux femmes, mais aussi à leur entourage.

Sur le plan de la croissance, l’agence de notation et d’analyse financière Moody’s estime que la réduction des écarts entre les femmes et les hommes, sur le marché du travail et dans les postes de direction, dans les pays de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), augmenterait la croissance mondiale de plus de 7 %, soit environ 7 trillions de dollars. Ce potentiel serait encore plus élevé si ces écarts étaient également réduits dans des pays comme la Chine et l’Inde.

Par ailleurs, dans un rapport sur les questions de genre, l’OCDE rappelle que les femmes ont tendance à partager une part plus importante de leurs revenus et profits avec leur entourage, en consacrant jusqu’à 90 % pour leur famille et leur communauté (contre 30 à 40 % pour les hommes).

Cet « effet multiplicateur » renforce donc les bénéfices au-delà des gains individuels, puisque les femmes priorisent davantage l’éducation, la santé et la nutrition de leurs enfants. Ainsi, l’intégration des femmes au marché du travail ne réduit pas seulement la pauvreté actuelle : elle prépare une génération mieux formée, en meilleure santé et plus productive.

Professeur titulaire à l’Université Laval en gestion des connaissances et de l’innovation et vulgarisateur scientifique, j’ai coécrit cet article avec Marion Garnier, auteure d’un projet de recherche sur les initiatives de développement et l’entrepreneuriat des femmes.



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Les revenus des femmes diminuent après la naissance d’un enfant. Voici pourquoi

Quels sont les défis auxquels les femmes sont confrontées ?

Dans une revue systématique couvrant 20 années de littérature scientifique sur l’autonomisation des femmes, de 2000 et 2020, des chercheurs ont montré que de nombreux obstacles et difficultés jonchent le chemin de l’intégration économique de femmes : les barrières liées aux opportunités économiques accessibles, aux traditions sociales et culturelles, mais aussi les discriminations liées à leur genre, à leurs situations familiales, à leurs responsabilités parentales ou encore au milieu de vie (urbain ou rural).

Selon l’Organisation mondiale du travail, près de 60 % des travailleurs dans le monde, soit près de 2 milliards de personnes, évoluent dans l’économie informelle, c’est-à-dire des activités non déclarées ou non réglementées, sans protection sociale ni droits du travail, dont 63 % d’hommes actifs et 58 % de femmes actives.

De plus, ces chiffres masquent des inégalités de genre puisque dans les pays à faible revenu et dans une partie des pays à revenu modéré, les femmes ont une proportion plus élevée que les hommes dans l’économie informelle. Par exemple, dans les pays africains, en moyenne, les femmes actives sont près de 90 % dans l’informel, pour 82,7 % dans le cas des hommes. Aussi, à l’échelle mondiale, les femmes sont aussi plus présentes dans les emplois informels les plus vulnérables.

Par ailleurs, les normes traditionnelles empêchent souvent les femmes de communiquer avec des hommes extérieurs à leur famille, ce qui restreint leurs opportunités économiques. Les mariages précoces et le manque d’accès aux soins de santé reproductive aggravent leur situation économique. Dans ce contexte, la « pénalité de la maternité » s’ajoute. Par exemple, au Sénégal, le mariage est associé à une baisse de la probabilité pour les hommes de travailler dans l’informel, surtout en milieu urbain (-10,2 %), tandis qu’il n’a pas d’effet statistiquement significatif sur la situation professionnelle des femmes. Pire encore, la naissance de chaque enfant augmente de 1,4 % le risque des femmes de travailler dans l’informel en ville, alors qu’il diminue de 0,6 % pour les hommes.

De plus, le revenu des femmes ne garantit pas nécessairement davantage de liberté pour elles dans d’autres domaines et peut même créer des tensions. Dans de nombreuses sociétés, les mentalités patriarcales dévaluent le travail féminin rémunéré, le percevant parfois comme une menace, ce qui peut entraîner des conflits familiaux.

Finalement, les femmes rencontrent également davantage de difficultés d’accès aux services financiers, subissant des discriminations pour obtenir des crédits ou de meilleurs taux, pour fournir des garanties suffisantes ou encore pour obtenir un capital initial pour démarrer une activité entrepreneuriale. En somme, les femmes font face à une discrimination systémique (illustrée dans la figure suivante) où chaque difficulté en alimente d’autres dans un cercle vicieux.



À lire aussi :
Le travail invisible, une lutte sans fin pour les femmes

Les solutions mises en œuvre à l’échelle internationale

Plusieurs solutions sont déployées dans les zones économiquement défavorisées. Des initiatives de terrain, au Bangladesh ou en Ouganda combinent des formations techniques, des services d’accompagnement psychologique (confiance, motivation, initiative) et d’accès au marché local pour permettre aux femmes de générer des revenus réguliers et renforcer leur légitimité sociale.

Déjà des milliers d’abonnés à l’infolettre de La Conversation. Et vous ? Abonnez-vous gratuitement à notre infolettre pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux contemporains.

D’autres initiatives, comme des réseaux de vente directe en Afrique du Sud ou en Inde permettent aux femmes de générer des revenus tout en développant leur confiance en elles. Aussi, le microcrédit, comme le Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) en Inde, propose des prêts sans garantie pour créer ou développer des microentreprises non agricoles, visant à renforcer l’estime de soi et l’intégration sociale des femmes.

Toutefois, ces solutions doivent tenir compte des réalités de genre et des pressions socioculturelles susceptibles d’entraîner des résistances masculines et de démobiliser les participantes. Les systèmes de distribution inclusifs, s’ils imposent des normes étrangères inadaptées, peuvent aussi créer des tensions et rendre les femmes dépendantes des acteurs extérieurs dans les chaînes de production et de distribution mondiales.

Même le microcrédit peut réduire l’autonomie en entraînant l’endettement lorsque les emprunteuses ne contrôlent pas l’utilisation des fonds. Au Bangladesh, 43 % des femmes ayant reçu un prêt n’en contrôlaient pas l’usage.

En reconnaissant les réalités des femmes et en créant des solutions qui leur redonnent réellement le contrôle, il devient possible de transformer les risques de dépendance en véritables chemins d’autonomie.

La Conversation Canada

Norrin Halilem ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Plus les femmes travaillent, plus la société en bénéficie. Mais discrimiration et obstacles demeurent – https://theconversation.com/plus-les-femmes-travaillent-plus-la-societe-en-beneficie-mais-discrimiration-et-obstacles-demeurent-270222

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Far from random, China’s global port network is clustering near the world’s riskiest trade routes

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Dylan Spencer, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Georgia Southern University

The silhouettes of the container cranes in the Port of Balboa in Panama City on Feb. 24, 2026. Martin Bernetti/ AFP via Getty Images

In late February 2026, the Panamanian government took control of two ports in the Panama Canal that had been operated by a Hong Kong conglomerate for two decades. The move is the latest in a long-simmering legal battle after Panama’s high court voided the company’s contracts.

Far from just a local dispute, however, the episode has drawn in the United States and China, whose competition over global ports and trade routes has intensified in recent years, including in the crucial Panama Canal Zone, where China’s presence has repeatedly drawn the ire of the Trump administration.

Chinese firms now own or operate terminals at more than 90 ports worldwide, including many of the busiest. The network spans Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with growing activity in South America.

The scale of China’s involvement in overseas ports has fueled debate over whether these investments are purely commercial or serve broader strategic goals.

Much of that debate has relied on case studies and politicized headlines, including in the case of the Panama Canal. But understanding where these ports are located, and whether there are consistent patterns in the countries that host them, is important given that disruptions to global shipping lanes can reverberate across the world economy.

In a recent study, we – researchers in maritime security, global infrastructure and trade – built the first global database of Chinese-affiliated ports and analyzed 133 coastal countries to understand why some host Chinese port investments while others do not.

We found that China’s overseas port expansion is not random. Far from being driven primarily by general business climate measures, the investments cluster near maritime chokepoints and piracy-prone shipping corridors, with more modest evidence that resource-rich countries are also more likely to host these ports.

The importance of chokepoints

Some sea routes are more important than others. The Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca are examples of chokepoints – narrow routes through which large volumes of global trade and energy shipments must pass.

In our findings, countries near primary or secondary chokepoints, such as Panama or countries bordering the Dover Strait, such as France, were substantially more likely to host a Chinese-affiliated port. Put simply, proximity to critical trade bottlenecks strongly predicts Chinese investments.

A map of the world has various points marked out
Chokepoints are found along sensitive shipping corridors.
Spencer/Christiansen/Pires/Tsai/Gondhali/Petrossian

This makes economic sense. China depends heavily on maritime trade to sustain economic growth. And ports near chokepoints sit along the world’s most sensitive shipping corridors and offer long-term commercial access in strategic locations.

Despite concerns in the West that Beijing is developing ports for military reasons, not every port is a naval base in disguise.

Most Chinese-affiliated facilities are commercial terminals. However, commercial infrastructure can still have strategic value. China’s first overseas military logistics base in Djibouti sits alongside the Chinese-operated Doraleh port complex. A report from the Congressional Research Service notes that the facility supports naval operations and regional access in the western Indian Ocean.

That does not make other Chinese-owned or operated ports military installations. But control over terminals, logistics platforms, and supply chain data can shape economic and security relationships over time.

The role of piracy and resources

The same corridors in which Beijing is concentrating port investment are also hot spots for maritime crime. In separate research, we found that seaports can facilitate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing when oversight is weak. Our latest findings show that Chinese-affiliated ports are more common in countries already experiencing piracy and maritime insecurity.

That overlap does not mean ports cause illicit activity, but it shows these investments often occur in higher-risk maritime environments.

One of the most surprising findings from our study was the relationship between piracy and port investment.

Between 1991 and 2018, thousands of piracy incidents were recorded worldwide. But rather than avoiding risky waters, Chinese-affiliated ports are more common in countries experiencing higher levels of piracy.

Why invest in unstable corridors? One explanation is that piracy signals where trade routes are both vulnerable and valuable. Investing in ports in areas such as the Gulf of Guinea or parts of Southeast Asia may help Beijing protect its shipping interests. In this sense, piracy may signal not just risk but opportunity.

Cranes are seen next to a large ship.
Chinese investment has poured into countries around the world, including Singapore.
Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images

We also examined natural resource wealth of port host nations using a broad measure that includes extractive mineral and agricultural resources. We found modest evidence that countries with higher resource levels were more likely to host at least one Chinese-affiliated port, though this relationship was not consistent across all models.

Some commonly cited explanations as to where and why China invests in ports did not hold up in our analysis.

Broad measures of business climate and governance, such as ease of doing business or institutional stability, were not consistent predictors of Chinese-affiliated port presence.

This suggests that geography and maritime risk factors may matter more than general economic or governance indicators.

Broader implications

Whatever the motivations behind Chinese investments, their implications extend beyond local trade and logistics.

Ports are no longer just local infrastructure projects. They are nodes in global supply chains and increasingly in geopolitical competition.

And while not every investment signals a covert military ambition, it would be naive to treat all port projects as politically neutral.



Read more:
China is losing ground in Latin America

Recent U.S. policy responses reflect these growing concerns. In early 2026, the White House outlined a plan to strengthen the U.S. shipping industry and reduce reliance on foreign-controlled maritime infrastructure. The administration has also taken a closer look at foreign involvement in key facilities in the Western Hemisphere, including ports linked to the Panama Canal.

Such moves suggest that control over maritime infrastructure is no longer viewed in Washington as just a commercial issue but increasingly as a matter of economic and national security.

And as the map of countries with Chinese-affiliated ports suggests, Beijing’s investments are following the world’s most consequential trade routes not by accident, but by design.

The Conversation

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Far from random, China’s global port network is clustering near the world’s riskiest trade routes – https://theconversation.com/far-from-random-chinas-global-port-network-is-clustering-near-the-worlds-riskiest-trade-routes-274934

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When unpaid cooking, cleaning and child care get a dollar value, income inequality in the US shrinks – but the gap has grown since 1965

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Leila Gautham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Leeds

Keeping up with chores takes a lot of time and is worth money. jubaphoto/E+ via Getty Images

When economists track inequality, they typically focus on income and spending.

But a significant share of the services that families actually consume – meals cooked at home, child care, housecleaning and lawn mowing – is produced by unpaid labor that never appears in these conventional measures.

As economists who study caregiving and inequality, we wanted to know whether accounting for unpaid work at home might change our understanding of inequality in American living standards – the gap between what richer and poorer Americans can actually afford to consume.

To find out, we conducted a study, published in the March 2026 issue of the Journal of Public Economics, in which we estimated the dollar value of unpaid housework and child care and added it to standard measures of income and spending for U.S. households from 1965 to 2018. Economists call these broader measures “extended income” and “extended consumption.”

We found that unpaid work used to significantly cushion inequality through the provision of many services. But we also determined that this cushion has been thinning for 50 years. Our findings indicate that the inequality in living standards has grown more than standard data suggest.

Counting unpaid work reduces inequality

To visualize these findings, consider the financial situation faced by two families.

While both have two adults and two children, their income from their salaries and other cash flows – including everything from stock dividends to Social Security benefits – is different. One has two earners bringing in a total of US$150,000. The other has a single breadwinner making $110,000 and a stay-at-home spouse. The lower-income family gets 45 more hours per week of unpaid chores done.

If every hour of those chores were worth $17, the typical wage for a housekeeper, that unpaid work would be worth roughly $39,780 a year. Factor it in, and the gap between the two families shrinks from $40,000 to just $220.

Extended income, the economic term that includes not just what’s in your paycheck but the value of doing the laundry, home repairs and other unpaid work yourself for your own benefit, tends to be more equally distributed than earned income.

The reason for this consistency is straightforward: Rich and poor families generally devote about the same amount of time to housework and child care.

A shrinking buffer

Because we valued everyone’s unpaid hours at the same wage in our study, adding unpaid work to income narrowed the gap between the top and the bottom somewhat.

But we also found evidence that this equalizing effect is eroding.

Between 1965 and 2018, the average amount of time that Americans devoted to unpaid chores at home fell, driven by changes in what women did. Their average number of hours fell from 37 to 24 per week. Meanwhile, men increased the time they spent on unpaid chores a little: Their number of weekly unpaid hours of work rose from 12 in 1968 to 15 in 2018.

To be clear, we did not try to figure out why these hours of unpaid work fell. Among the many reasons for the change could be the large increase in women’s employment and the growth of time-saving technology, such as dishwashers.

Lowest-income families hit hardest

We studied these shifts by combining three national datasets: time diary surveys from the American Heritage Time Use Study, income data from the Current Population Survey and expenditure data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey.

To put a dollar figure on unpaid work, we valued each hour at what U.S. housekeepers typically earn in a particular year.

The decline in unpaid work hit low-income households hardest – not because they cut more hours, but because unpaid work made up a much larger share of their total income.

We found that the income gap between households near the top and those near the bottom between 1965 and 2018 grew around 40% using conventional measures. Once we added unpaid work, this gap grew by 66%. For household spending, the contrast is similar: conventional inequality barely budged – up 4%. When we incorporated the value of unpaid work at home, inequality grew by 18%.

Overall, we determined that a typical U.S. family’s extended income grew 40% from 1965 to 2018. That was a much slower pace than the 69% growth in the income they earned from their paid work and other cash flows over the same period.

Who lost the most

Conventional data suggest that the gap between middle-income and poor households was generally stable during this period. Once we accounted for unpaid work, however, that is no longer true: This gap grew substantially.

Single-parent families – mostly headed by single mothers – were hit especially hard. Their income from paid employment rose sharply, but this came with large declines in the value of their unpaid work at home.

While they could afford to spend more on purchased goods and services, once unpaid work is factored in, single parents saw no net improvement relative to married parents.

A man rakes leaves.
Those leaves won’t rake themselves.
Herman Bresser/Moment via Getty Images

What it means

The roughly 20-percentage-point increase in the share of women working outside the home over the past six decades was driven by expanded opportunity and economic necessity.

It has brought enormous economic benefits to those women and their families. But it has also meant that families – especially those with the least income – lost a cushion of services that women used to do in their own homes.

Our findings suggest that looking only at changes in income and spending can exaggerate improvements in living standards for the lowest-income Americans over the past five decades.

When you do fewer hours of chores that need to be done, you wind up paying other people to do them for you, and that costs money.

Otherwise, you have to make do with fewer services than you had before.

The Conversation

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. When unpaid cooking, cleaning and child care get a dollar value, income inequality in the US shrinks – but the gap has grown since 1965 – https://theconversation.com/when-unpaid-cooking-cleaning-and-child-care-get-a-dollar-value-income-inequality-in-the-us-shrinks-but-the-gap-has-grown-since-1965-275499

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Brazilian jiu-jitsu is having its #MeToo moment

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Matt Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Sociology, Coastal Carolina University

Andre Galvao, wearing black, competes in the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2014. Francois Nel/Getty Images

A #MeToo-style reckoning appears to be unfolding within Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

In February 2026, Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Andre Galvao was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, including a teenager who had trained at Atos Jiu Jitsu, the school Galvao co-founded in San Diego in 2008 that now boasts academies around the world.

The backlash was swift: Multiple gyms and high-profile athletes affiliated with Atos severed ties with the school.

Galvao dismissed the accusations as “false rumors” and stated he is “taking the proper legal steps to protect the integrity” of Atos.

On Feb. 6, 2026, however, Atos Jiu Jitsu announced it had removed Galvao from his leadership posts. Many other gyms and athletes without a direct connection to Galvao or Atos nonetheless took the news as an opportunity to post messages about their commitment to safety for their gym members.

In a sport that has long struggled with addressing sexual harassment and misconduct, we see the widespread condemnation of Galvao as a watershed moment. And it comes on the heels of research we conducted to better understand the unique challenges that female martial artists face.

A sport built on trust

For those unfamiliar with the sport, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art focused on grappling and ground fighting – think wrestling, but with submission techniques like arm bars, shoulder locks and chokeholds. It’s essentially the grappling on the ground part of UFC, minus the punches and knee strikes.

Although almost all Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions are split by gender, sparring and drilling routinely happen between men and women. It typically involves physical contact, usually between two people with different levels of strength and experience.

For these reasons, trust, restraint and respect are essential.

When your opponent successfully applies a technique that limits your movement and from which you cannot escape, you “tap out” to signal that you have accepted defeat. When you submit, your opponent is obligated to let go immediately to avoid causing injury or unconsciousness.

A young woman in a white martial arts suit performs an arm bar on a young man as the two grapple on a blue mat.
Trust and restraint are paramount in jiu-jitsu.
Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images

Much of the attention on sexual harassment in the sport has historically focused on incidents of assault. And a review of news coverage between 1989 and 2018 identified 177 incidents of martial arts coaches being convicted of sexual offenses.

But the kind of harassment that may not rise to the level of a crime in most countries – more pervasive and more subtle, but nonetheless insidious – has largely remained unacknowledged in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Blissful ignorance or something more insidious?

Whether it’s through inappropriate or sexualized comments both on and off the mat – or through unsolicited remarks about their bodies or appearance – women encounter a far different training environment than their male counterparts.

This is what we wanted to explore in our own research.

In 2021, we conducted a survey on martial arts participation that generated responses from 289 martial artists – 209 men, 77 women and 2 nonbinary people – in the U.S. and around the world. Most of them listed Brazilian jiu-jitsu as their primary art.

In the analysis, 43% of our survey respondents – 51% of women and 40% of men – indicated that they were aware of harassment in their martial arts community, which ranged from bullying to sexual harassment, to sexual assault.

But harassment was just one issue raised. The survey revealed a wider problem of “gender blindness” in martial arts, which involves simply ignoring or overlooking the impact that gender can have on participation, practice and performance.

When asked, “What does it mean to be a woman in martial arts?” 62% of men responded with statements that actively downplayed or ignored the ways gender shapes the sport. For example, one man noted that “the beauty of martial arts” is that “anyone can do it,” regardless of age, ability, “gender, shape or size.”

By contrast, nearly two-thirds of women in our survey indicated that being a woman in martial arts does, in fact, matter. They said they had fewer training opportunities, revealed that they felt they needed to work twice as hard to prove themselves, and highlighted safety concerns.

Two young women grappling on a blue mat.
For many women practicing jiu-jitsu, their gender plays a part in the experience.
Fenom Kimonos/Powered by She

It isn’t clear whether the gender blindness among male martial artists reflected optimism, ignorance or something else. But the impact is the same: Women see gender as central to their experience. Men generally perceive gender to be irrelevant to the sport, and they don’t realize what women deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Unfortunately, gender blindness isn’t just relegated to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Long studied by sociologists and gender scholars, it’s a pattern that lays the groundwork for abuse across all types of sports. And where gender blindness exists in combination with rigid hierarchies, it enables abuses of power and a culture of silence.

When people refuse or fail to recognize how gender shapes the experiences of women in sports, it becomes much harder to address conditions that allow for harassment and assault to occur. For example, when inappropriate contact or groping during training is dismissed as merely “accidental” or minimized as someone being “handsy,” it signals that this behavior is trivial rather than harmful. And it creates an environment where women – and men – may feel uncomfortable coming forward or speaking out.

Some prominent figures in the Brazilian jiu-jistu community are making this connection.

In a recent postmatch victory speech, Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion and coach Adele Fornarino issued a call to action. Criticizing the hierarchical structure of the sport, she emphasized that people in positions of power are taking advantage of the vulnerable and called for “no more blissful ignorance.”

What comes next?

In jiu-jitsu, men have traditionally held positions of power. By and large, they’ve been the owners of gyms, the instructors leading classes, the holders of black belts.

Two young women wearing white martial arts suits watch a young man in a white martial art suits hold the arm of another young man in a white martial arts suit.
Two women observe a move being demonstrated during a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class at a gym in Boston in 2013.
Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

But this has been changing: The adult black belt women’s division at the 2025 International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation World Championships saw a 40% increase in participants over the previous year. By contrast, participation in the men’s division decreased by 18%.

More women are standing side by side with men at the front of the class as leaders and experts. As a result, it’s possible that many male martial artists are more likely to respect, trust and see their female peers as equals.

When they live up to what they can be, the martial arts are a place where men and women struggle together and protect each other. They can develop unique friendships, cultivate empathy and practice mutual support.

Men and women having the opportunity to train together in the same gym can lead to what German sociologist Max Weber called “verstehen”: the kind of understanding that comes from working closely enough with someone to grasp the fears, aspirations and experiences that drive them. Spaces that allow for that depth of connection are all too rare.

We see the swift denunciation of Galvao, a legend in the sport, as a sign that Brazilian jiu-jitsu may be progressing toward a culture centered on care, concern and restraint instead of dominance and power.

The Conversation

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is having its #MeToo moment – https://theconversation.com/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-is-having-its-metoo-moment-275916

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Front lines of humor: Dark humor voices Ukrainians’ hopes for victory

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Neringa Klumbytė, Professor of Anthropology, Miami University; Lithuanian Institute of History

A banner reading, ‘Regrettably, Putin did not die today. We are waiting …’ hangs in the City Garden of Odesa, Ukraine, on April 1, 2023. Viacheslav Onyshchenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images News

In 1991, a simple line appeared in Broom, a Lithuanian satire and humor journal. “A shortest joke: Communism,” it said. A one-liner to celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, a shortest joke could be told about Russia’s war in Ukraine: “Liberation.”

Since the Russian Federation began its “special military operation” to “liberate” Ukrainians on Feb. 24, 2022, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, cities have been destroyed, and water and land have been contaminated. But people in Ukraine still laugh. Laugh to overcome pain, express solidarity and resilience, and hope for the victory.

In the first two months of 2026, there have been over 200 attacks on energy infrastructure across Ukraine, damaging thermal and hydroelectric plants and causing prolonged electricity outages. Millions were left without power or with just a few hours of electricity. I asked my friend in Kyiv how she is holding up. She responded, “Organic matter survives better in cold.”

I have studied humor in authoritarian and democratic states for many years. I have been fascinated by humor’s power to overcome pain and liberate from absurdity and oppression. In Ukraine, war humor has mobilized people, expressed their resistance and helped them overcome daily hardships.

Dangerous jokes

Throughout history, satirists and cartoonists have faced punishment, prison and even executions. Lenin and Stalin, like Mao and Hitler, allowed no laughter at the expense of themselves or their regimes. The power of humor lies in its capacity to mobilize people for a common cause. It is a weapon of the powerful as well as the powerless.

In authoritarian states, official humor reinforces the state’s political ideology and is a propaganda tool. Soviet satire and humor journals, for example, ridiculed Western imperialism. They satirized various ills of Western societies – high crime rates, unemployment, homelessness, corruption and poverty – while presenting the Soviet Union as more advanced.

Since 2022, many comedians have left Russia, some under threat. Like in Soviet times, anti-regime jokes can be told in kitchens and among friends but cannot freely circulate. In state media comedy shows, jokes about Putin are told from time to time, but they are used to bolster his image as a powerful, cunning leader, and hold up Russia as a great country.

War humor

In democratic societies, people are generally free to laugh at what they want. Ukrainian humor circulates from grassroots social media to government offices, to business sites. Since 2022, Ukrainian social media has been flooded by jokes – producing the biggest virtual humor archive in the history of wars.

But war humor is different from humor in times of peace. It can be hateful, obscene, grotesque, vulgar and dark. It fulfills many functions, from defense mechanism and survival strategy to a form of escape.

When lights went off in the winter of 2026, Ukrainians joked that even without light, they can see that “Putin is a ‘khuylo’” – an obscene punch line. Some jokes noted that Ukrainians do not have electricity but have power; or that there is no electricity in Ukraine, but there is light – and there is no light in Russia.

War humor has also been a form of resistance and perseverance. After Putin’s nuclear threats in 2022, memes about an orgy on Kyiv’s Mount Shchekavitsa in the event of an “end of the world” began to spread online. People were invited to join in case they had unfulfilled sexual fantasies. Memes multiplied of a couple passionately kissing in the background of a nuclear mushroom cloud.

One young man, presumably one of 15,000 who signed up for the orgy on Telegram, told Radio Free Europe, “It’s an attempt to show that the more they try to scare us, the more we will transform it into something else.”

Similar groups popped up, including a group promoting an orgy on Odesa’s Derybasivska Street. The orgy idea led to other forms of civic activism, such as the Soloma Cats charity foundation organizing first-aid training on Mount Shchekavitsa.

Laughing toward victory

Humor also is a form of news and commentary. Some people learn about international events, policy decisions and even battle victories from jokes rather than the mainstream media.

At the beginning of the war, internet memes laughed at European leaders’ reluctance to supply arms to Ukraine. Billionaire Elon Musk was mocked in October 2022 after suggesting a plan for peace that would repeat elections in annexed regions, recognize Crimea as Russian territory and make Ukraine a neutral country. Even Pope Francis was laughed at for his March 2024 suggestion that Ukraine should wave “the white flag and negotiate” to save lives, which for Ukrainians meant surrendering their sovereignty.

During the Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive in 2022, humor spread news of victories in Kherson, Bakhmut and other cities, laughing at Russian forces. Memes commonly portrayed Russian soldiers as incompetent, indoctrinated, or as zombies. Comparisons to Orcs in “The Lord of the Rings” were prominent, with one meme suggesting, “Stop calling Orcs Russians, it’s offensive toward Orcs.”

In response to reports of Russian soldiers stealing loot to sell in Belarussian open markets, Ukrainians created a meme of reselling captured Russian tanks at a “farmer’s market.” Another joke about Russian looting: “Did you take Kharkiv?” “No.” “Kyiv?” “No.” “What did you take?” “A washing machine, a mixer, and shoes …”

Some of the jokes provide commentary on global geopolitics, including Russia’s propaganda that it had been threatened by NATO. “Did you hear? It turns out Russia is at war with NATO,” one man asks. “How is it going for them?” asks another. “They already lost tens of thousands of soldiers and a ton of military equipment.” “And NATO?” “Oh, they have not arrived yet.”

In some ways, such jokes are a counteroffensive against Russian disinformation. In fact-checking, journalists fight propaganda with logical arguments, but propaganda targets emotions, identity and fears. Humor does not argue; it changes the context itself, subverting the message. And whereas fact-checking treats an opponent seriously, humor makes them ridiculous.

Ultimately, Ukrainians’ laughter communicates resistance, solidarity and dedication to victory. In one joke, a husband asks his wife why she bought seven bottles of wine. What about water and preserves, in case the war drags on? The woman responds: “I am getting ready to celebrate the victory!”

The Conversation

Neringa Klumbytė does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Front lines of humor: Dark humor voices Ukrainians’ hopes for victory – https://theconversation.com/front-lines-of-humor-dark-humor-voices-ukrainians-hopes-for-victory-265948

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That cosy candle? It’s also polluting the air you’re breathing

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Karin Rosenkilde Laursen, Postdoctoral fellow in Public Health, Aarhus University

During the winter months, when days are short and cold and nights are long and dark, creating a warm and cosy indoor atmosphere can feel especially important.

Where I live in Denmark, around 75% of the population burns candles two or more times a week, and 34% use them daily during the winter months.

In fact, Denmark is often said to be the country with the highest per-capita candle consumption in Europe. Danes burn around 5.8kg of candle wax per person per year – the equivalent of about six bags of sugar.

Yet, nice as they can look, studies show burning candles is one of the biggest sources of indoor air pollution. This is because when burning, candles emit a large number of ultrafine particles.

These particles are so small that they are invisible to the human eye, and more than a thousand times thinner than a human hair. They can remain airborne for long periods, and when candles are blown out, the concentration of these particles (including soot) increases even further.

Candles vs cooking

In our experiments conducted in exposure chambers (where the climate is controlled) at Aarhus University, we examined how indoor air is affected both by burning candles and cooking pork in an oven.

Cooking – and especially frying – is known to emit high concentrations of particles due to combustion (the process of burning something). Particles from combustion processes are among the most harmful to human health – but less is known about the role that particles emitted from candles plays when it comes to indoor air pollution.

Our research found that while both candles and cooking emit high levels of particles, the number of particles from candles was much higher. Even more significant was the difference in particle size: cooking produced particles about 80 nanometers wide, whereas candles generated particles around seven-to=eight nanometers in size – much smaller and much easier for our lungs to inhale.

We also measured chemical compounds in the air, and found that burning candles produced not only soot particles but gases such as nitrogen dioxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – a group of chemicals associated with inflammation and even cancer.

The particles we breathe

Ultrafine particles are of particular concern from a health perspective. They are easily inhaled into our lungs, but research has found they are excreted from the body very slowly.

Due to their extremely small size, particles from candles can penetrate deep into our smallest airways, known as the alveoli, and may even enter the bloodstream. From there, they can reach organs such as the heart and brain.

Indeed, the particles formed when candles are burning are remarkably similar to those found in diesel exhausts in size and composition. These particles have been linked to increased mortality rates from lung and cardiovascular diseases.

Candles on window sill next to plant.
Ultrafine particles from burning candles are invisible to the eye, but harmful to your lungs.
pexels/skylar kang, CC BY

In our study, we also investigated how candle burning affects young adults with mild asthma. We found subtle but measurable biological changes following exposure to candle emissions.

Some markers of airway and blood inflammation were altered, and participants reported irritation and discomfort. Other studies among healthy adults have observed small decreases in lung function, changes in arterial stiffness and heart rate, and reduced cognitive function after exposure to burning candles.

Light and dark

You might be thinking: all this from just a candle? But it’s worth remembering that people with chronic conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are far more sensitive to particulate air pollution.

Because people with these conditions already have chronically inflamed airways, even relatively low levels of pollution — including particles released by burning candles — can be enough to trigger symptoms.

Children, older adults and people with chronic illnesses are also particularly vulnerable to air pollution, due to immaturity of their lungs or weakened immune systems.

Indeed, for anyone with asthma or other respiratory conditions, the quality of indoor air is not a minor detail, but a key factor in day-to-day symptom control and long-term respiratory health.

Blow out all the candles?

But that’s not to say those without lung disease or asthma aren’t affected. As research shows, burning candles affects not only the indoor environment but potentially everyone’s health. Fortunately, a few simple steps can help maintain a healthier indoor climate.

Try using LED candles, for example, or light only a few candles at once. You should also place candles away from drafts to avoid a flickering flame, which can produce more soot and smoke. Trim your candles’ wicks to reduce soot formation, too. And candles should never be burned near (or by) people with respiratory disease.

Most importantly, air out the room afterwards by opening your windows. Such measures can help reduce the number of particles significantly, and make all the difference when it comes to keeping your cosy or hygge-time healthy.

The Conversation

Karin Laursen received funding from Realdania and Innovationsfonden (Denmark) to conduct exposure trials with burning candles.

– ref. That cosy candle? It’s also polluting the air you’re breathing – https://theconversation.com/that-cosy-candle-its-also-polluting-the-air-youre-breathing-269126

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Most plastic waste is contaminated – our new ‘nano’ recycling tech embraces this messy reality

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Conor Boland, Assistant Professor of Materials Science, Dublin City University

Conor Boland (right) with colleague James Carton in the lab, Kyran O’Brien/Dublin City University, CC BY-NC-ND

A plastic drinks bottle is one of the most “recyclable” objects in the modern waste stream. It is lightweight and collected in huge volumes. Yet even for this item, the reality of recycling is messy: labels, inks, caps, food residues, colourants and the occasional wrong plastic all get bundled together. The chemistry may be simple, but the waste is not.

My team is developing a new way to deal with contaminated plastic waste. Instead of assuming perfect sorting, we start from the reality that waste streams are mixed, inconsistent and often dirty – and design chemistry that can tolerate that.

Using nanomaterial-based catalysts, we drive depolymerisation, a process that breaks plastics back into their molecular building blocks. By tuning the reaction, it becomes possible to selectively target specific plastics even in mixed or impure streams. The aim is a process built for real-world waste, not laboratory conditions.

This work matters because the scale of the problem is vast. Globally, only about 9% of plastic waste is recycled after losses and residues are accounted for. Much of the rest is sent to landfill, burned or leaks into the environment.

Recycling can look deceptively successful when you only track what gets collected.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the single polymer – molecular material – used in many bottles. In Europe, collection for PET drinks bottles has reached around three-quarters in recent years. But collection is only the start. What happens next determines whether plastic truly circulates or quietly exits the system.

dirty empty plastic bottle on white background
Most plastic waste is contaminated.
lusia599/Shutterstock

Most PET today is recycled mechanically: the plastic is sorted, washed, melted and remoulded. This works well for clean, colourless material, but it is sensitive to contamination and additives. A small amount of the wrong polymer can weaken a batch. Dyes and stabilisers can persist. Each heating cycle can slightly reduce performance. Over time, the material drifts away from the quality required for food-grade packaging and is often downcycled into lower-value products.

That is why chemical recycling attracts attention. Instead of melting plastics into new shapes, the aim is to break the polymer back into small molecules that can be purified and used again, effectively returning it to its chemical building blocks.

Recent reviews of chemical recycling highlight both the promise and the technical challenges, especially when waste streams are mixed. The difficulty is not proving that plastics can be broken down in a laboratory. It is making that chemistry work reliably with real-world waste.

Nanomaterials are engineered at a very small scale – thousands of times thinner than a human hair – which gives them a large reactive surface area. That surface can be tuned to encourage specific chemical reactions while discouraging others, making depolymerisation faster and more controllable. Broader catalytic depolymerisation research highlights how advanced materials may help make these processes more practical at scale.

Embracing imperfections

Contamination tolerance shapes the economics of recycling. Studies in waste management show that mixed or contaminated plastics drive up recycling costs because they require extra separation and cleaning. Water, energy and labour are spent chasing purity. A chemistry that can accept dirtier inputs could shift where value is created.

When plastics cannot be recycled into new products, they are often incinerated or landfilled. A UN roadmap on plastic pollution argues that more circular approaches could significantly reduce waste and emissions. That requires seeing plastic not just as rubbish, but as stored carbon that can be redirected.

Plastics are often treated as rubbish, but chemically they are concentrated carbon and hydrogen. If those molecules can be reorganised rather than discarded, waste plastic becomes a potential feedstock for hydrogen production. Hydrogen is widely discussed as a future fuel and industrial feedstock, yet most hydrogen today is still produced from fossil fuels.

According to the International Energy Agency, global hydrogen production in 2023 emitted about 920 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. If hydrogen demand grows for industry, transport and energy storage, its carbon footprint will matter. Some emerging research explores converting plastic waste into hydrogen-rich gas using catalysts to guide the breakdown of long plastic molecules. By carefully controlling the reaction conditions, the process can favour the production of hydrogen rather than unwanted by-products.

In this way, waste plastic shifts from being purely a recycling challenge to becoming a potential feedstock for lower-carbon energy systems.

The practical test for any of these approaches is straightforward: do they keep working when feedstock changes day to day? A bale that is mostly bottles but includes trays. A batch with too much dye. A stream with traces of paper and glue.

Industrial reality is rarely tidy. If that variability can be dealt with under less than ideal conditions rather than having to eliminate it, plastic waste becomes an imperfect, but still incredibly useful, raw material. In a world where waste is inevitable, designing processes that work with the mess may prove more important than designing ones that only work without it.

The Conversation

Conor Boland receives funding from the Research Ireland – Gas Networks Ireland Innovation Challenge 2025 (25/FIP/GNI/14147)

– ref. Most plastic waste is contaminated – our new ‘nano’ recycling tech embraces this messy reality – https://theconversation.com/most-plastic-waste-is-contaminated-our-new-nano-recycling-tech-embraces-this-messy-reality-277103

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Tsunami en Méditerranée : pourquoi Nice doit se préparer à évacuer

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Frédéric Leone, Professeur des Universités, Géographe des risques et des catastrophes "naturelles", Volcanographe, Cartographe, Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier III

Selon l’Unesco, citée en 2022, « la probabilité d’une vague de tsunami de plus d’un mètre en Méditerranée dans les trente prochaines années est proche de 100 % ». Arno Smit/Unsplash, CC BY

La Méditerranée est souvent perçue comme peu exposée au risque de tsunami. Pourtant, l’histoire et les modélisations récentes montrent que des vagues destructrices ont déjà atteint les côtes françaises et pourraient le faire à nouveau. Les résultats d’un projet mené sur la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur montrent pourquoi l’anticipation et l’évacuation préventive restent les seuls moyens réellement efficaces de protection.

Les tsunamis, anciennement dénommés raz-de-marées en France ou maremoti en Italie, sont parmi les phénomènes naturels les plus destructeurs. Déclenchés par des séismes, des glissements sous-marins ou des éruptions volcaniques, ils se propagent rapidement sur de longues distances avant de libérer leur énergie au voisinage des côtes, sous forme de submersions brutales et de courants extrêmement puissants.

De quelques centimètres à plusieurs mètres de hauteur, cette submersion se caractérise généralement par plusieurs trains d’ondes et les premières vagues ne sont pas forcément les plus grosses. La vitesse du courant est telle que la pression exercée sur les infrastructures littorales peut atteindre plusieurs tonnes au mètre carré.

À l’échelle mondiale, ils ont provoqué depuis 1970 plus de 250 000 décès, notamment lors des catastrophes du 26 décembre 2004 dans l’océan Indien et du 11 mars 2011 au Japon.

Un risque que l’on croit lointain, et pourtant…

Dans l’imaginaire collectif, le tsunami reste associé au Pacifique ou à l’océan Indien. En Méditerranée, il est souvent perçu comme marginal. Cette représentation est trompeuse. L’Unesco, en charge de la prévention de ce risque au niveau mondial, a déclaré en juin 2022 que :

« Les statistiques montrent que la probabilité d’une vague de tsunami de plus d’un mètre en Méditerranée dans les trente prochaines années est proche de 100 %. »

Après le Pacifique, c’est dans ce bassin que l’on recense le plus grand nombre de tsunamis historiques, dont plusieurs ont touché les côtes françaises.

Selon les données disponibles, une vingtaine d’événements ont été signalés sur le littoral méditerranéen français entre le XVIᵉ siècle et le début des années 2000, avec des hauteurs de vagues parfois supérieures à deux mètres.

Des délais d’évacuation parfois très courts

Les sources des tsunamis méditerranéens peuvent être locales ou lointaines. Dans certains scénarios, le temps d’arrivée des premières vagues peut être inférieur à dix minutes, notamment en cas de glissement sous-marin ou de séisme proche de la côte, comme en mer de Ligurie entre la Corse et les côtes italiennes. À l’inverse, des tsunamis générés plus loin de l’Hexagone, par exemple au niveau de la marge nord maghrébine, peuvent atteindre la côte d’Azur en moins de 90 minutes.

Le séisme de Boumerdès (Algérie) du 21 mai 2003 a ainsi provoqué des perturbations sur l’ensemble du littoral méditerranéen français. Une enquête de terrain a montré que huit ports de plaisance de la Côte d’Azur avaient connu des baisses importantes du niveau de la mer (de 50 cm à 1,5 m), des purges de bassins, de forts tourbillons et courants, des embarcations endommagées, compatibles avec des phénomènes de résonances portuaires. Les effets ont été observés sur le littoral azuréen une heure et quart après le séisme.

D’origine plus locale, le tsunami déclenché le 16 octobre 1979 par l’effondrement sous-marin d’une partie du chantier du nouveau port de commerce de Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), adjacent à l’aéroport, a causé la mort de huit personnes et des dégâts importants à Antibes, à Cannes et à Nice. Le phénomène a été observé à Antibes durant une trentaine de minutes.

Un autre scénario pouvant prendre naissance au plus proche des côtes est celui du tsunami d’origine sismique survenu en mer de Ligurie, le 23 février 1887, à la suite d’un séisme sous-marin de magnitude de 6,5 à 6,8. Les témoignages de l’époque relatent un retrait brutal de la mer d’environ un mètre à Antibes et Cannes, laissant à sec des bateaux de pêche, avant l’arrivée d’une vague atteignant près de deux mètres, venue recouvrir les plages.

Ces événements rappellent que l’effet de surprise peut être total, en particulier lorsque les délais sont très courts. Dans ces conditions, les dispositifs d’alerte classiques montrent leurs limites. La capacité des populations à évacuer rapidement devient alors déterminante.

Deux scénarios de tsunamis pouvant affecter les côtes méditerranéennes (rouge : séisme sous-marin proche de la côte algérienne, vert : glissement sous-marin en mer Ligure)
Deux scénarios de tsunami pouvant affecter les côtes méditerranéennes (rouge : séisme sous-marin proche de la côte algérienne ; vert : glissement sous-marin en mer de Ligurie).
Sahal, Leone & Péroche, 2013, Fourni par l’auteur

Un système d’alerte opérationnel pour la France

Depuis juillet 2012, la France dispose d’un système national d’alerte aux tsunamis, opéré par le Centre d’alerte aux tsunamis (Cenalt), en lien avec le dispositif international coordonné par l’Unesco en Méditerranée. Ce système permet de détecter rapidement les séismes potentiellement tsunamigènes et de transmettre une alerte en moins de quinze minutes auprès du centre opérationnel de gestion interministérielle des crises (Cogic), et des centres d’alerte étrangers.

C’est ensuite à la charge des autorités de diffuser les messages d’alerte aux populations, en particulier au moyen de la plateforme FR-Alert qui permet d’envoyer des notifications sur les téléphones portables des personnes présentes dans la zone de danger.

Toutefois, ce dispositif global ne couvre que les tsunamis d’origine sismique lointaine et reste peu efficace face aux tsunamis locaux ou liés à des glissements sous-marins, pour lesquels le temps d’arrivée du tsunami sur les côtes peut être inférieur au délai d’alerte. C’est la raison pour laquelle il est important de sensibiliser les populations riveraines à la détection des signes précurseurs : le séisme ressenti, les mouvements anormaux de la mer, le plus souvent un retrait précédant l’arrivée du tsunami, mais pas toujours.

Nice Côte d’Azur : un territoire très exposé

Sur l’ensemble des côtes méditerranéennes françaises, une zone terrestre à évacuer a été définie par les services de l’État et l’Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry, en croisant altitude, distance à la mer et données historiques. Elle correspond à la portion littorale dont l’altitude est inférieure à 5 mètres et dont la distance par rapport à la mer est inférieure à 200 mètres. Le long des entrées fluviales cette distance est étendue à 500 mètres par rapport à l’embouchure.

En incluant la Corse, cela concerne 1 700 km de côtes, 187 communes de Méditerranée française, et au moins 164 000 résidents. En pleine saison estivale il faut également considérer une estimation de près de 835 000 usagers des plages à évacuer en cas de tsunami.

Nombre de résidents estimés dans la zone à évacuer, pour chaque commune du littoral méditerranéen français
Nombre de résidents estimés dans la zone à évacuer, pour chaque commune du littoral méditerranéen français.
Carles et coll., 2023, Fourni par l’auteur

La Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur concentre de nombreux facteurs de vulnérabilité : urbanisation dense, forte attractivité touristique, plages très fréquentées. Nos travaux de photo-interprétation et de modélisation ont permis d’estimer la présence simultanée de plusieurs dizaines de milliers de personnes dans la zone à évacuer lors des périodes de forte fréquentation (entre 10 000 et 87 000 personnes sur les plages, suivant la saison et l’heure).

Schéma de principe pour la définition de la zone à évacuer en cas de tsunami sur l’arc méditerranéen
Schéma de principe pour la définition de la zone à évacuer en cas de tsunami sur l’arc méditerranéen.
MIIAM, 2019, Fourni par l’auteur

Évacuer avant le tsunami : le plan prévu pour la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur

Face à un tsunami, l’évacuation est le seul moyen de protection efficace. L’expérience internationale montre que des évacuations rapides et bien préparées peuvent sauver l’immense majorité des populations exposées. Ces évacuations réactives ont, par exemple, permis de sauver 96 % des habitants du littoral japonais lors du grand tsunami de la côte du Tōhoku du 11 mars 2011.

À Nice Côte d’Azur, une stratégie globale d’évacuation a été élaborée avec l’appui de la recherche scientifique (Laboratoire de géographie et d’aménagement, Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry). Elle repose sur des itinéraires pédestres optimisés, tenant compte des pentes, des obstacles, des vitesses de déplacement et des points de congestion. Des sites refuges situés hors de portée des vagues ont été identifiés et validés avec les autorités locales. Les itinéraires d’évacuation ont été modélisés au moyen d’algorithme de recherche des chemins les plus rapides.

Au total, près d’une centaine de sites refuges ont été cartographiés et intégrés dans des plans d’évacuation opérationnels, conçus pour guider les populations vers une mise en sécurité rapide.

Les tous premiers panneaux de prévention du risque tsunami posés à Nice le 27 février 2026
Les tout premiers panneaux de prévention du risque tsunami posés à Nice, le 27 février 2026.
C. Thomin, MNCA, 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

De la science à l’action : préparer les populations

La prévention ne repose pas uniquement sur des cartes. Elle passe aussi par l’appropriation du risque par les populations. Des actions de sensibilisation, des exercices d’évacuation, notamment en milieu scolaire ainsi que le déploiement progressif d’une signalétique spécifique contribuent à ancrer les bons comportements. Plusieurs actions de ce type ont été réalisées à Nice avec le concours des étudiants de Montpellier.

À Nice, une plateforme d’information accessible au public avec des cartes interactives permet également de consulter les zones à évacuer, les itinéraires et les consignes à suivre en cas d’alerte. Ces outils contribuent au développement d’une véritable culture du risque tsunami.

Interface cartographique en ligne permettant de localiser la zone à évacuer, les sites refuges, et les itinéraires en cas de tsunami sur la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur
Interface cartographique en ligne permettant de localiser la zone à évacuer, les sites refuges et les itinéraires en cas de tsunami sur le territoire de la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur.
LAGAM/UMPV, 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

Vers des territoires « Tsunami Ready »

Au-delà du cas azuréen, la méthode développée est transposable à d’autres littoraux français et européens, en Méditerranée comme en outre-mer, où les délais d’arrivée des tsunamis peuvent être tout aussi courts.

Ces démarches s’inscrivent dans l’objectif de reconnaissance internationale Tsunami Ready (territoires préparés aux tsunamis) porté par l’Unesco. Ce programme en 12 points vise à certifier les territoires capables d’anticiper le risque, de préparer leurs populations et d’organiser une réponse adaptée.

Les premières communes d’Europe dotées de ce label ont d’ailleurs bénéficié de l’accompagnement scientifique et technique de notre équipe. Il s’agit de Deshaies en Guadeloupe et de Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), en attendant la reconnaissance toute prochaine de la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur.

Face à une vague qui peut arriver en quelques minutes, être prêt à évacuer peut faire toute la différence.

Article écrit avec la collaboration de Louis Monnier, Monique Gherardi, Matthieu Péroche et Noé Carles, Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry.

The Conversation

Frédéric Leone ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Tsunami en Méditerranée : pourquoi Nice doit se préparer à évacuer – https://theconversation.com/tsunami-en-mediterranee-pourquoi-nice-doit-se-preparer-a-evacuer-276795

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Espace : après les drapeaux sur la Lune et une Tesla dans l’espace, une exploration postcoloniale est-elle possible ?

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Jacques Arnould, Expert éthique, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)

La Tesla Roadster d’Elon Musk, dans l’espace. Falcon Heavy Demo Mission/SpaceX

La galaxie d’Andromède, la planète Mars, les missions Apollo hier et Artémis aujourd’hui : avez-vous remarqué combien d’astres et de missions spatiales portent des noms de dieux romains ou grecs ? Certaines conceptions de la conquête spatiale reflètent des doctrines colonialistes. Comment les dépasser ?

Souvenez-vous : le 6 février 2018, Elon Musk a envoyé vers Mars sa propre Tesla, avec, à bord, un mannequin habillé d’une combinaison spatiale. Le message était clair : la colonisation de la planète rouge par le milliardaire américain avait commencé ! Certes, huit ans plus tard, les fusées de la société SpaceX n’ont pas encore atteint la surface de Mars et les projets de colonie restent à l’état de magnifiques images de synthèse ; pourtant, l’enthousiasme ne fléchit pas chez les aficionados de l’espace, et l’inquiétude chez bien d’autres : jamais nous n’avons été aussi près d’une colonisation de l’espace.

Pour la réaliser, bien des défis technologiques et humains restent à relever ; mais l’affaire est suffisamment sérieuse pour y appliquer une analyse et une critique sérieuses. Nous savons trop bien de quelle manière les humains ont colonisé notre Terre. Voulons-nous agir de même dans l’espace ?

Nous irons conquérir la Lune

Elon Musk n’est pas le premier à vouloir conquérir une planète. Ce projet a toujours été associé aux rêves et aux réalisations de voyage dans le ciel. N’en prenons que deux exemples, non dénués d’humour.

Le premier est une satire, issue d’un journal anglais, The Examiner. Le 3 janvier 1808, il prête à Napoléon des propos guerriers de conquête et de colonisation de l’espace :

« Alors je pourrai constituer une armée de ballons, dont Garnerin sera le général, et prendre possession de la Comète. Cela me permettra de conquérir le système solaire, ensuite j’irai avec mes armées dans les autres systèmes, enfin – je pense –, je rencontrerai le Diable. »

Le second exemple est sorti des archives des imageries d’Épinal : dans la forme d’un cerf-volant, un zouave grimpe hardiment une échelle appuyée sur la Lune. « Nous irons conquérir la Lune », claironne la légende ; au même moment où les frères d’armes du zouave sont engagés dans la colonisation de l’Afrique du Nord.

L’espace, une « terra nullius » à explorer, à envahir ?

Jusqu’à preuve du contraire, l’espace extra-atmosphérique présente une propriété assez rare sur notre planète : il est inhabité (je rappelle ici que les scientifiques n’ont pour l’instant aucune preuve de l’existence de la moindre forme de vie, de la moindre biosphère extraterrestre). En terme juridique, l’espace pourrait donc être considéré comme une terra nullius, selon l’expression latine qui désignait des terres « sans habitants » – à l’époque, il s’agissait plus précisément de dire « sans populations chrétiennes » – et, par suite, n’appartenant à personne.

Dans le passé, cette doctrine, validée par le pouvoir religieux, a justifié la prise de possession de ces territoires par les souverains (chrétiens) d’Europe ; et c’est une perspective que les inspirateurs du droit de l’espace et les législateurs spatiaux ont tenté d’écarter en proposant de déclarer les corps célestes patrimoine commun de l’humanité.

Ainsi, le traité de l’Espace, adopté par l’ONU en décembre 1966, a déclaré l’espace bien commun et a été signé par les grandes puissances de l’époque, États-Unis et Union soviétique en tête : l’espace appartient à tous ; son exploitation est possible… comme l’illustre la lucrative activité des satellites de communication.

vue d’artiste d’une colonie spatiale
Dans les années 1970, l’idée d’établir des colonies dans l’espace était en plein essor. Ici une vue d’artiste de champs à l’intérieur d’un vaisseau spatial.
NASA Ames Research Center, CC BY

Toutefois, lorsque l’accord sur la Lune, proposée par l’ONU treize ans plus tard, propose de déclarer l’astre des nuits patrimoine commun de l’humanité et donc d’y interdire toute forme d’exploitation, les puissances spatiales refusent de le signer. Il n’est aujourd’hui ratifié que par 18 États dépourvus de grandes ambitions spatiales.

Devons-nous conclure que les puissances spatiales, établies ou en devenir, caressent des rêves de conquête et de colonisation ? La décision de l’administration Obama de l’hiver 2015 de soutenir et de préserver les initiatives de ses entreprises nationales en matière d’exploitation des ressources spatiales, suivie par des initiatives analogues de la part des gouvernements du Luxembourg, des Émirats arabes unis et du Japon, pourrait faire penser à la politique des comptoirs lancée par les puissances européennes à partir du XVᵉ siècle. Les défis technologiques à relever sont aussi importants que les débats juridiques et politiques à résoudre.

Quant à l’immense vide spatial et, notamment, le domaine des orbites autour de la Terre : ce territoire était incontestablement inhabité jusqu’à l’arrivée du premier Spoutnik, puis du premier cosmonaute. Toutefois, il possède à son tour une caractéristique singulière, celle d’être impérativement à usage commun, du simple fait de la mécanique céleste : tout corps y est en mouvement et n’occupe un point de l’espace que très brièvement. Le seul mode possible d’appropriation relève de la saturation, autrement dit d’une occupation par le nombre : fin 2025, entre 50 et 65 % des satellites en orbite autour de la Terre appartenaient à un seul opérateur, SpaceX.

S’il est inapproprié de parler d’une « colonisation des orbites circumterrestres », il est à craindre que les règles et les lois qui gouvernent l’usage de cet espace soient celles du plus fort, du plus nombreux, du premier arrivé.

Pouvons-nous décoloniser le passé spatial ?

Que pouvons-nous conclure ici ? Qu’à formellement parler la colonisation de l’espace lui-même n’a pas encore commencé et que, par voie de conséquence, l’enjeu actuel et à venir constitue moins à décoloniser l’espace qu’à en empêcher la colonisation future.

En revanche, force est de constater que l’esprit des 70 premières années de l’entreprise spatiale a bien été imprégné par certains traits communs aux politiques, aux récits, aux symboles de la colonisation. À l’époque des missions Apollo, n’était-il pas question de « conquête de l’espace », plutôt que de son exploration ? Si planter un drapeau sur le sol lunaire n’a jamais été interprété comme une volonté d’appropriation, le geste a tout de même été effectué pour affirmer la supériorité technique des États-Unis et, donc, une forme de suprématie politique.

Aussi symbolique quoique moins violente est l’habitude de baptiser les astres et leurs topographies en s’inspirant des mythologies et de l’histoire de l’Occident. Entamer la décolonisation de l’espace peut alors consister à recourir désormais à d’autres mythologies pour baptiser les corps célestes que découvrent les astronomes. Baptiser Oumuamua, en hawaïen « l’éclaireur », l’objet interstellaire repéré le 19 octobre 2017 en est une illustration.

Que dire dès lors des revendications émises par plusieurs peuples amérindiens lors de missions lunaires, qu’il s’agisse de celles des années 1960 ou celle plus récente menée début 2024 par la société états-unienne Astrobotic ? Pour ces populations, la Lune appartient au domaine du sacré : y poser des vaisseaux robotiques, habités ou transportant les cendres de Terriens, n’est-ce pas accomplir un sacrilège, autrement dit une forme extrême de colonisation ?

Vers un futur postcolonial

Les raisons ne manquent donc pas de porter dans les affaires spatiales le souci de décolonisation qui marque aujourd’hui de nombreux discours à propos de l’espace, quitte à y inclure l’apport des ingénieurs allemands (éventuellement nazis) dans le développement spatial de pays, comme les États-Unis et la France, ou encore la politique menée par la France sur le territoire guyanais afin d’y implanter la base spatiale de Kourou, qui succéderait en 1968 à celle d’Hammaguir après l’indépendance de l’Algérie.

Ce souci est indispensable ; mais il n’est pas suffisant.

Le processus de décolonisation doit conduire à une perspective postcoloniale, autrement dit à l’instauration de politiques, de gouvernances des activités humaines dans l’espace qui soient autant que possible débarrassées des principaux caractères néfastes de la colonisation : la soumission violente et l’exploitation brutale d’une partie de l’humanité par une autre, l’exploitation jusqu’au saccage de ressources communes, la destruction de cultures et de traditions ancestrales, etc.

Dans cette perspective, les discours, les revendications et les programmes spatiaux de certains acteurs du NewSpace (les stations spatiales de Jeff Bezos, les colonies martiennes d’Elon Musk) peuvent susciter bien des soucis, bien des craintes, tant ils mettent en avant les seuls intérêts de ces entrepreneurs, les seuls plaisirs ou la seule sécurité de quelques privilégiés.

De plus, l’argument de l’espèce humaine interplanétaire est loin d’être moralement convaincant. Où est-il « écrit » que nous devions nous répandre au-delà des frontières terrestres, au détriment de possibles biosphères extraterrestres ? À quel « échantillon » humain pourrions-nous confier le soin des expansions extraterrestres ? Ou, pour le dire autrement, quelle partie de l’humanité serait « laissée » sur une Terre dont nous savons l’avenir menacé ?

N’oublions pas pour autant les récits d’hier et d’aujourd’hui qui décrivent des communautés humaines installées durablement dans l’espace. Non pour alimenter les rêves de paradis retrouvé, comme ceux imaginés par le gourou du NewSpace que fut Gerard O’Neill, mais pour mener le travail critique imaginé par Thomas More dans son célèbre ouvrage, l’Utopie.

Publié dans sa version finale en 1518, ce petit ouvrage, « non moins salutaire qu’agréable » selon les mots mêmes de son auteur, invitait ses premiers lecteurs à partir pour une cité totalement imaginaire, un non-lieu aussi bien qu’un non-temps, qui servait de miroir pour porter un regard critique sur leur propre société. Le philosophe britannique ne cherchait ni à rompre brutalement les liens avec un passé ni à s’échapper dans un futur idéalisé, mais avant tout à remettre l’être humain au centre du souci commun, à lui construire un futur à la mesure de sa condition, celle éprouvée dans le passé et dans le présent, celle pensée et espérée pour le futur.

The Conversation

Jacques Arnould ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Espace : après les drapeaux sur la Lune et une Tesla dans l’espace, une exploration postcoloniale est-elle possible ? – https://theconversation.com/espace-apres-les-drapeaux-sur-la-lune-et-une-tesla-dans-lespace-une-exploration-postcoloniale-est-elle-possible-275159

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The novel that changed my mind – ten experts share a perspective‑shifting read

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anneliese Hodge, PhD Candidate, Ecotoxicology, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Alphavector/Shutterstock

Our beliefs aren’t fixed. They’re shaped, stretched and sometimes overturned by the ideas we encounter as we move through life. For many of us, novels are the moments where that shift happens.

For World Book Day, we asked ten academic experts to share a work of fiction that has challenged their assumptions and changed their thinking in a lasting way.

1. A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines (1968)

A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines showed me that my potential could not be defined by anyone but myself. The novel made me realise how easily labels from teachers and colleagues can become self-fulfilling. If you’re consistently told that you’re bad at something, you often end up believing it; like the main character Billy, and like myself, when my A-Level biology teacher told me I wouldn’t amount to anything in science and that I should quit.

Hines shows that potential isn’t determined by the people who underestimate you. Learning thrives when it is fuelled by passion and determination, and Billy’s dedication to training his kestrel Kes mirrored my own dedication to become a scientist.

The novel reminded me that the most meaningful growth happens when you trust your abilities more than the limitations other people put on you.

Anneliese Hodge is a PhD researcher in biological sciences

2. Beautiful World Where Are You? by Sally Rooney (2021)

Beautiful World Where Are You? follows the lives and loves of two friends for a period in their late 20s. It is the novel that changed my mind in relation to writing about sexual consent, at least, writing explicitly and positively about it.

I thought that consent was a subject rarely tackled by writers, unless to violate it or teach teenagers. In the latter case, it was usually done in a responsible style – not something stylish or sexy. Choosing a formative diet of 19th-century novels from the western canon undoubtedly biased my perceptions. Beautiful World shattered them. Its graphic sex scenes are peppered with the language of consent. Alright? OK? Can I? Do you want? Yes.

Rooney normalises seeking and giving clear, continuous consent, regardless of gender. Consent is integral to these scenes and part of the pleasure for characters and – if her bestseller status is any indication – readers.

Sarah Olive is a senior lecturer in English literature

3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2004)

I grew up Roman Catholic in an all-boys school, and I first read Purple Hibiscus as a teenager, when faith was not a question but a climate of incense, rosaries and the quiet mathematics of guilt.

The novel follows Kambili, a Nigerian teenager navigating family, politics and belief under a father whose strict Catholicism masks violence and silence. One scene, in which he pours boiling water over her feet while praying for her soul, captures that terrible fusion of devotion and control.

Across the novel, Adichie unsettled me. I had assumed to question the church was to wound God. She showed me that devotion and questioning can live in the same breath, and that faith is deepened by honest attention rather than unexamined obedience.

This insight continues to shape my thinking about identity, scholarship and everyday moral life, including on African diaspora faith and international development.

Edward Ademolu is a lecturer in cultural competency

4. The Years by Annie Ernaux (2008)

The Years by Annie Ernaux changed my mind on how a life can be narrated.

Childhood by Nathalie Sarraute had already pushed the boundaries of autobiography in 1983 by splitting the narrating self and exposing the inconsistencies of memory. Ernaux masterfully continued along that path, showing how the images and memories that shape us are at once both personal and collective.

The book’s protagonist is approached through descriptions of photographs taken over the years by family members and others. These passages are interwoven with images, events and stories cutting across generations.

What emerges is a fragmented, patchwork portrait that is able to provoke the strongest emotions – immensely more than in a narration where the illusion of the singularity of a life is maintained. And this is probably because of its strange realism, allowing proximity through impersonality. Reading it, I encountered a life as an open space, a theatre of memory where I could wander, moving in and out, getting closer or just passing by.

Cecilia Benaglia is associate professor of French and comparative literature

5. Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future opened my eyes. Not only to the future reality of climate change, but it also made it clear to me that my naive belief that we could engineer our way out of the problem was very far from the truth.

I’d never read a more visceral description of what living and dying in a world ravaged by climate change would feel like. When the temperature climbs and we hit 100% humidity it’s simply impossible for the human body to cool itself, leaving the power grid straining to keep up with demand as those who can afford it attempt to stay alive with air conditioning.

Nothing short of a fundamental shift in what we value and how we act as a collective can get us close to avoiding the worst consequences of the climate crisis, and whichever way we choose the world will change beyond recognition. We just have to pick which path to follow.

Richard Sulley is a senior research fellow in sustainability policy



Read more:
Top climate books to look out for in 2026 – recommended by experts

6. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

In Never Let Me Go, humans are farmed so their organs can be harvested by benefactors whenever needed. The book raises numerous moral questions but the core question for me is – how far will we go to meet a human need?

History suggests that we will damage our natural environment and destroy human lives, societies and even civilisations, to meet some human needs. We face this question now regarding technology such as AI and genetic engineering. They meet human needs of quick data processing or improved health outcomes, but present untold negative risks. Our activities around fossil fuels and minerals raise similar concerns.

This core question, raised by my reading of the novel, has shaped my career. It led me to leave a career in business to retrain as a philosopher so that I could combine business theory with philosophy. I now explore ways of continuing to innovate, but do so more awake to the potential harms and perhaps to make trade-offs that favour human dignity rather than economic progress alone.

Athol Williams is a senior fellow in strategy, leadership & ethics



Read more:
Kazuo Ishiguro said he won the Nobel Prize for making people cry – 20 years later, Never Let Me Go should make us angry

7. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye had a deep impact on me. It changed how I understand racism. The novel shows that racism is not just built into institutions and systems. It also shapes how people see themselves and the world around them. In the book, whiteness is treated as the standard for everything – beauty, goodness, success, and even what it means to be fully human.

The novel details how Pecola Breedlove, an African-American girl growing up in post-Great Depression Ohio, internalises anti-Black racism and develops a crippling inferiority complex through her desperate yearning to have blue eyes. The psychopathological effects of internalising anti-Black racism lead to Breedlove’s eventual insanity, which in a way constitutes her only protection from the misogynoir world.

What is further instructive about Morrison’s work is that it shows what literature, rather than highly technical theory, can do – connects us at a deeply emotional level, helping forge cultures of empathy and care.

Paul Giladi is a reader in philosophy

8. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871)

Middlemarch calls itself a “study in provincial life”. It traces a picture of how – even in the 19th century – shifts in religion and science created complicated webs of human relationships.

I read the novel when I was 16, an age at which few people’s ideals are taken particularly seriously. Nevertheless, its central character, Dorothea, gave me a hugely formative model of an unapologetically clever, ardent woman shut out from formal education and struggling to find a meaningful channel for the intensity of her faith. Dorothea keeps searching for meaning, no matter how often she stumbles.

Middlemarch changed my mind by teaching me a kind of consolatory optimism: that whether we place our faith in religion or science, both can set us out “with a glorious equipment of hope and enthusiasm and get broken by the way”. To persist, we need “patience with each other and the world”.

Miranda Jane Mourby is a PhD candidate in law

9. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966)

Back when I was 17, youthfully arrogant and thinking intelligence to be the only virtue worthy of measure, an unassuming sci-fi novel found me.

Flowers for Algernon is told through progress reports penned by the main character, Charlie. Charlie is born with a very low IQ, and is chosen to become the first human subject for an experimental treatment that enhances his IQ over time, eventually making him a genius. The treatment is not successful long term – and so what goes up must also come down.

Transhumanism is the philosophical movement in favour of transforming the human condition through technology, including enhancing cognitive abilities. Flowers for Algernon changed my naïve acceptance of the transhumanist core premises, as the novel forces you to ask instead: What makes intelligence good? Who is this enhancement for, and who does it benefit? How do we define what makes humans “better”?

In these days of tech billionaires investing in gene-editing and hailing the coming of artificial general intelligence, words from this novel still echo in my head: “Intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn.”

Sarah Moth-Lund Christensen is a fellow in AI and In/equality

10. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2016)

Whenever I’m asked if I “live to work” or “work to live”, I think of the adage: “I do not dream of labour.” My position has been troubled once, namely by Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.

Murata’s novel follows Keiko, a convenience store worker who is socially shamed to leave her job and find a husband. Despite establishing a fake relationship with her workshy former colleague Shiraha, she still earns scorn from their respective families. Keiko ultimately leaves, determined to work at a convenience store again.

Initially, I was tempted to read this as a sad ending. Considering the novel’s critique of how society forces people into specific “norms” against their better judgement, I suddenly paused; was I missing the point?

This is not to say that the novel presents Keiko’s return to low-wage work as a fully positive thing. There is a gothic quality to Keiko’s view that she is a mere appendage of the store’s ecosystem. However, the ending made me consider: as a reader, was I adding to socially prescribed assumptions of what a “happy” ending might look like?

Lillian Hingley is a researcher and tutor in English

Has a novel ever changed your mind? Let us know in the comments below.

The Conversation

Richard Sulley receives funding from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment

Anneliese Hodge, Athol Williams, Cecilia Benaglia, Edward Ademolu, Lillian Hingley, Miranda Jane Mourby, Paul Giladi, Sarah Moth-Lund Christensen, and Sarah Olive do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The novel that changed my mind – ten experts share a perspective‑shifting read – https://theconversation.com/the-novel-that-changed-my-mind-ten-experts-share-a-perspective-shifting-read-274073