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December 2, 2025

Why British Museum has ended 15-year Japan Tobacco deal – and what it means for future partnerships

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Allen Gallagher, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Health, University of Bath

The British Museum has long faced controversy over its sponsors. Nicolas Lysandrou/Unsplash

The British Museum has ended its controversial 15-year sponsorship with Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

The sponsorship has attracted a lot of criticism in that time. In 2016, 1,000 public health experts wrote an open letter calling for London’s cultural institutions, including the British Museum, to end “morally unacceptable” sponsorship from tobacco sponsors.

Despite this, as reported in both 2023 and 2025 by our Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, the British Museum had continued to have a close relationship with JTI.

It is therefore welcome news that the UK government has finally intervened to end the partnership. It comes following a freedom of information request from the research and campaign organisation Culture Unstained. This revealed that the Department for Health had raised concerns about the partnership earlier this year to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, the government department that funds the British Museum. As a result, the museum’s trustees decided not to continue the partnership upon its expiration in September.

This is long overdue. Many other cultural institutions in the UK have already ceased entering into agreements with such companies, given the immense damage tobacco products do to public health.

Tate, for example, stopped accepting all sponsorship from tobacco companies in 1991. The National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum each gradually did the same, leaving The British Museum as the only major UK national art museum still accepting money from a tobacco company.

The British Museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, previously argued there needed to be “very good, clear reasons for turning down money that would help keep the British Museum free to the public”.

Ties to a harmful industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) became a popular concept in the 1950s. It was originally interpreted as a positive development whereby companies committed resources to further societal gain instead of company profit. By the 1960s, however, more critical interpretations had emerged.

CSR began to be seen as “fundamentally subversive” by business researchers, and now it is commonly interpreted as a mechanism for large corporations to legitimise and consolidate power. For health-harming industries such as tobacco, CSR campaigns can help them “clean” their image by claiming to be investing in society, while simultaneously causing extensive public health harms.

Indeed, sponsoring cultural institutions is a well-documented tobacco industry tactic. Among public health practitioners and researchers, it’s widely seen as part of the industry’s efforts to improve its public image and achieve policy influence.

Viewed in this light, the British Museum’s sponsorship from JTI could be viewed as a deliberate effort by a harmful company to improve its own reputation by exploiting the reputation of a UK cultural institution.

Government funding of the British Museum during its tobacco sponsorship contradicts the world’s first public health treaty. The World Health Organization framework convention on tobacco control was adopted in 2003 and has been signed by over 182 countries and the EU as of 2025.

It aims to protect populations from the harms of tobacco through various measures to reduce tobacco consumption, such as preventing people from starting the habit and protecting them from the harm of secondhand smoke.

Article 5.3 of the treaty aims to protect policymaking from the vested interests of the tobacco industry, given the “fundamental and irreconcilable” conflict between the industry’s commercial interests and public health.

This article and its implementation guidelines stipulate that parties should aim to limit interactions with the tobacco industry. This includes rejecting all partnerships with tobacco companies and curbing their CSR activities.

The government’s financial support of the British Museum, while the museum received JTI sponsorship, was therefore problematic.

The future of sponsorship

Unfortunately, despite the welcome British Museum developments, the tobacco industry continues its connections to other UK cultural institutions. Both the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Arts continue to accept JTI sponsorship. Hopefully, the British Museum case will draw the attention of other institutions, encouraging them to follow suit.

Tobacco industry sponsorship of the British Museum has hopefully now become a thing of the past. However, it should be noted that the museum continues to accept sponsorship from other health-harming industries. Its ten-year partnership with oil producer BP, for example, has also come under scrutiny. As with the JTI sponsorship, the British Museum appears behind the curve. Other institutions like the Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery and Tate galleries have already cut ties with BP.

Time will tell whether the end of the JTI sponsorship will encourage other cultural institutions to reject tobacco industry sponsorship. We need to remain alert and vigilant regarding current and future partnerships entered into by the British Museum and other UK cultural institutions.

This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

Allen Gallagher receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (www.bloomberg.org).

Duncan Thomas receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (www.bloomberg.org).

Sophie Braznell receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (www.bloomberg.org).

– ref. Why British Museum has ended 15-year Japan Tobacco deal – and what it means for future partnerships – https://theconversation.com/why-british-museum-has-ended-15-year-japan-tobacco-deal-and-what-it-means-for-future-partnerships-270598

December 2, 2025

Empathy and reasoning aren’t rivals – new research shows they work together to drive people to help more

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Kyle Fiore Law, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Sustainability, Arizona State University

What motivates people to donate their time or money to make the world better? Alistair Berg/DigitalVision via Getty Images

For years, philosophers and psychologists have debated whether empathy helps or hinders the ways people decide how to help others. Critics of empathy argue that it makes people care too narrowly – focusing on individual stories rather than the broader needs of society – while careful reasoning enables more impartial, evidence-based choices.

Our new research, forthcoming in the academic journal PNAS Nexus, a flagship peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests this “heart versus head” argument is too simple. Empathy and reasoning aren’t rivals – they work together. Each one on its own predicts more generous, far-reaching acts of assistance. And when they operate side by side, people tend to help in the fairest ways – not favoring some over others – and in ways that touch the most lives.

We studied two groups that regularly help others at personal cost. One consisted of living organ donors who gave kidneys to strangers. The other included “effective altruists,” who use evidence and logic to direct substantial portions of their income or careers toward causes that save the most lives per dollar, such as fighting extreme poverty or preventable illness.

All participants completed survey measures of empathy – essentially, how much they care about and are moved by others’ suffering. They also completed survey measures of reasoning. These assess how often people slow down, reflect and think through things before deciding what to do.

We also examined how these abilities related to a range of altruistic judgments and behaviors, from hypothetical choices – such as deciding whether to help a close friend or a distant stranger – to real-world donations.

On average, organ donors scored higher on empathy, and effective altruists scored higher on reflective reasoning – slowing down and thinking things through. But across all participants, both traits were linked to broader, more outward-looking helping. People with either an elevated heart or head, and especially those with both compared with average adults, tended to support distant others and focus on helping as many people as possible.

Even among organ donors, whose empathic ability is far above average adults’, empathy did not make them biased toward those who were close or familiar. When we measured their altruistic judgments and real-world donations, they were just as likely as average adults, and sometimes even more likely, to favor causes that saved the greatest number of lives.

These patterns challenge the assumption that empathy can narrow moral concern. In practice, we found, empathy can broaden it.

Why it matters

A Black woman in a red apron over a blue top walks with an older white woman holding food packets. — Relying on reason alone isn’t enough to inspire people to help strangers.
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc./Digital Vision via Getty Image

Many of today’s most urgent problems – poverty, climate change, global health – depend on motivating people to care about strangers and to use limited resources effectively.

Appeals to empathy alone may inspire giving but not necessarily the most effective giving. Appeals to reason alone can leave people unmoved, as often facts and numbers don’t stir anyone to care. Our findings suggest that the most powerful approach may be to pair empathy’s motivation with reasoning’s direction.

Empathy provides the emotional spark – a reminder that others’ suffering matters. Reasoning helps steer that motivation toward where help will have the greatest impact. Together, they encourage helping that is both compassionate and consequential.

What’s next

Future research needs to determine how empathy and reasoning can be strengthened in everyday decision-making. Could emotional stories paired with clear evidence about what works best help people choose actions that do the most good?

We also don’t yet know whether people who focus their giving beyond the boundaries of their immediate social circles, like effective altruists, pay any social cost for doing so – perhaps by inadvertently signaling less investment in close others. Promisingly, early evidence from organ donors shows that those who help strangers often maintain strong, stable relationships with their closest friends and family members.

Perhaps most importantly, researchers need to rethink how altruism is understood. Psychology lacks a clear framework for explaining how empathy and reasoning work together, for whom they work best, and the situations where they come apart.

Developing that kind of model would reshape how we think about helping – when helping expands, when it stalls, and why. While such core questions remain, the present findings offer reason for optimism.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

The research relevant to this article was funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Stylianos Syropoulos 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. Empathy and reasoning aren’t rivals – new research shows they work together to drive people to help more – https://theconversation.com/empathy-and-reasoning-arent-rivals-new-research-shows-they-work-together-to-drive-people-to-help-more-266913

December 2, 2025

The future of work — according to Generation Z — is purposeful, digital and flexible

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Eddy Ng, Smith Professor of Equity and Inclusion in Business, Queen’s University, Ontario

As Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — enters the workforce in growing numbers, Canadian employers are encountering a cohort whose expectations and behaviours signal a fundamental shift from current norms.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z brings pragmatic sensibilities shaped by the unique social, economic and technological landscapes of their upbringing.

Gen Z grew up amid economic uncertainty, technological upheaval and heightened social awareness. Unlike millennials, who entered the job market with “great expectations” for rapid promotions and pay raises, Gen Z is more pragmatic.

And so if Canadian organizations want to attract, engage with and retain this generation of talent, it’s essential to understand what makes them tick.

Purpose, values and why Gen Z stays

Recent research shows that this generation values job security, work-life balance and mental health above all else. These preferences are shaped by formative experiences, including observing their Gen X parents navigate dual-career households and witnessing economic disruptions and automation-driven restructuring.

For Gen Z, stability is seen as essential for their well-being at work.

This generation is ambitious, albeit in ways that diverge from traditional hierarchical advancement. Rather than prioritizing vertical mobility, they seek roles that provide flexibility, meaningful contribution and alignment with personal values.

Central to Gen Z’s workplace vision is a desire to work for organizations that prioritize diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility. This generation is the most racially diverse in Canadian history and has grown up in a more socially conscious environment. They tend to hold strong views around equal treatment and environmental sustainability, often expecting their employers to “walk the talk.”

One report suggests that Gen Z employees are significantly more likely to remain with organizations that offer purpose-driven work, with retention likelihood increasing by a factor of 3.6 when such alignment exists.

The rise of “conscious unbossing”

One notable trend within Gen Z is the preference for collaboration over authority.

A recent survey reveals that nearly half of Gen Z professionals favour promotions that do not entail supervisory responsibilities. This reluctance stems from the perceived drawbacks of traditional leadership roles, including heightened stress, rigid scheduling and diminished autonomy.

Some Gen Z workers even indicate a willingness to accept reduced compensation to avoid managerial obligations. This phenomenon, described as “conscious unbossing,” presents a structural challenge for organizations anticipating leadership gaps as baby boomers retire and millennials ascend to senior positions. This means a reconceptualization of leadership, emphasizing project-based authority, mentorship opportunities and expertise-driven influence rather than hierarchical control.

This generation is also the first to grow up entirely within a digital ecosystem, resulting in expectations for seamless technological integration across work processes. Gen Z actively leverages AI tools for skill development, yet formal organizational training often lags behind these self-directed practices. If organizations don’t offer structured, technnology-based learning, digital gaps among employees will grow.

Employers will need to invest in continuous learning opportunities such as micro-credentialing, AI-driven platforms and intergenerational mentorship that can enhance skill acquisition while respecting Gen Z’s preference for autonomy.

Flexible work arrangements also constitute an important characteristic of Gen Z workers’ employment preferences. Having studied and entered the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, they view remote and hybrid work arrangements as normal rather than an exception.

Flexible scheduling and outcome-based performance metrics are perceived as baseline expectations rather than discretionary benefits. Employers that adhere rigidly to traditional work structures risk attrition among Gen Z employees. Instead, employers should prioritize policies that emphasize results over physical presence.

How employers must adapt or risk losing talent

To attract and retain Gen Z talent, Canadian employers should adopt evidence-based strategies that include redefining career pathways by moving away from traditional linear models toward frameworks that emphasize lateral mobility, project leadership and skills-based advancement.

As AI and algorithmic HR systems become more prevalent, employers must consider how these tools align with Gen Z’s ways of working. They expect technology to enhance — but not replace — the human side of work.

While AI and automation can improve efficiency, Gen Z places a premium on trust and authentic relationships. Employers should ensure transparency in algorithmic decision-making and maintain opportunities for personal interaction, as these elements are critical to engagement and retention for this cohort that values connection as much as convenience.

Sustainability is another priority for Gen Z. For this generation, climate action is not a marketing slogan, but a moral imperative. Employers must move beyond superficial “greenwashing” and embed sustainability into employment practices, from eco-friendly benefits to green office policies.

These initiatives should be inclusive, ensuring that environmental efforts also advance equity and deliver tangible benefits for all employees. Gen Z expects organizations to demonstrate measurable progress on both ecological and social fronts. Likewise, diversity and inclusion will remain critical for Gen Z, even in politically polarized environments.

And because this generation values guidance but prefers collaborative, non-hierarchical relationships, mentorship must also evolve. Employers should expand mentoring programs to include underrepresented groups, creating pathways for career stability and growth.

Understanding Gen Z and taking the steps to meet these new professionals where they are will help employers create the necessary trust for meaningful growth.

Eddy Ng receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. The future of work — according to Generation Z — is purposeful, digital and flexible – https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-work-according-to-generation-z-is-purposeful-digital-and-flexible-268951

December 2, 2025

From earthquakes to wildfires, Canada is woefully ill-prepared for disasters

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Brodie Ramin, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

A fault line in Canada’s Yukon territory has stirred after more than 12,000 years of geological sleep. Researchers studying the Tintina Fault, which stretches 1,000 kilometres from northeast British Columbia into the Yukon and towards Alaska, have found evidence that the fault has built up at least six metres of unrelieved strain.

Like a loaded weapon, it may now be primed for a massive earthquake. To most Canadians, the news passed as a remote curiosity from the North, but the fault lies within a tectonic system that extends under Western Canada and hints at deeper vulnerabilities in eastern Ontario and beyond. Below the surface lies an uneasy truth: Canada is not immune to catastrophe.

A wildfire burned through the hills of Los Angeles in early 2025. Schools closed, emergency alerts buzzed across phones and emergency crews scrambled to get ahead of the flames as Southern California experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, again.

Meanwhile, in Canada, smoke from record-breaking wildfires blanketed major cities, sending air quality plummeting in Ottawa, Toronto and Montréal.

These events may feel far apart, but they share one common feature: a failure to act before the crisis hits.

Ignoring early warning signs

A recent survey found that most Canadians don’t believe their communities are ready for a major disaster. And yet, outside of the occasional fire drill or emergency alert test, Canadians continue living as though preparedness is someone else’s job.

But readiness isn’t just about cramming bottled water into your basement or changing the batteries in your smoke alarms. It’s about how we think, and more importantly, what we choose to ignore.

As a writer and prevention-minded physician, I’ve spent years studying how disasters unfold and how they might have been prevented. My new book, Written in Blood: Lessons on Prevention from a Risky World, investigates tragedies like nuclear meltdowns, natural disasters and pandemics. In case after case, I found a pattern: early warning signs were ignored, systems failed to communicate and people trusted that “someone else” had it covered.

The real danger isn’t nature or technology, it’s complacency.

Responding to the last disaster, not the next one

In Canada, the year 2023 saw the most hectares burned in wildfire history. Yet only one in four Canadian households reported making any preparation for a weather-related emergency in the past year.

When we ignore the cracks in our systems, we normalize risk. It’s easy to imagine preparedness as the government’s job or the job of emergency responders. But the reality is more complex, and the responsibilities should be more widespread.

Cities continue using outdated flood-risk maps that underestimate current climate realities. Schools overlook basic upgrades to improve air quality or ventilation. Transit networks run on aging infrastructure.

Canada’s cyber-security agency recently warned that hostile entities are targeting internet-connected control systems across the country, including those that manage water supplies, energy infrastructure and agricultural operations.

The lesson here isn’t that Canadians need to panic, it’s that they need to think differently. In sectors like aviation or nuclear energy, safety is baked into every process. These fields rely on layered safeguards, robust near-miss reporting and a culture of constant vigilance. They know safety isn’t a checkbox, it’s a mindset.

So why doesn’t that same mindset exist in other parts of our society, and how can Canadian officials ensure it does?

A prevention mindset

Instead of reacting to disasters once they happen, Canadians should be asking:

What could go wrong here?
What would I wish I had done if it does go wrong?

This approach — a prevention mindset — doesn’t mean living in fear. It means being proactive when the headlines are quiet. It means investing in safety when no crisis is visible and building defences before something breaks.

Take the Los Angeles wildfire as a case study. Fire crews had been warning about dry conditions for months. Urban expansion and outdated building codes exacerbated the damage.

At the same time, cities in Canada had barely updated evacuation plans or wildfire risk assessments, despite years of worsening climate conditions. Last summer, toxic wildfire smoke shut down outdoor events , harmed the lung health of a large proportion of Canadians and exposed major planning failures.

These are not just “acts of God.” They’re also policy choices, deferred upgrades and missing item lines in a budget. And they are repeated across sectors — from health care to cybersecurity, from education to urban planning.

Safety must be built

Disasters feel sudden, but their roots often stretch back years. In Written in Blood, I explore the slow buildup to catastrophes like the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, the Notre- Dame fire in Paris and the Beirut port explosion. These were not lightning strikes — they were failures of imagination, leadership and system design.

The next crisis, whether wildfire, data breach, infrastructure collapse or disease outbreak, is already somewhere on the horizon.

The question isn’t if it will happen. It’s whether we will meet it with surprise — or with a plan.

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

– ref. From earthquakes to wildfires, Canada is woefully ill-prepared for disasters – https://theconversation.com/from-earthquakes-to-wildfires-canada-is-woefully-ill-prepared-for-disasters-270848

December 2, 2025

Ctrl-alt-defy: How Ukrainians have used memes to counter Russia’s propaganda machine

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michel Bouchard, Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia

As Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv in February 2022, a quick Russian victory seemed assured. But as Ukrainian soldiers fought off Russian invaders, Ukrainian netizens launched waves of memes to provide hope to a nation under existential threat.

These memes often mocked Russian hubris and incompetence, drawing upon news and online clips as fodder to attack Russian propaganda.

One early meme taunted Russia after Ukrainians changed road signs to confuse the military convoys. The memes show a road sign indicating that the invaders should go straight and “go fuck yourself,” turn left to “go fuck yourself again” and head “to Russia to go fuck yourself.”

Another meme involved the young Ukrainian Border Guard at Snake Island, assailed by the Russian battleship the Moskva. The final words radioed to the enemy were: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” This phrase quickly became a meme, a shirt, and — just a few weeks later — a commemorative stamp issued by the Ukrainian post office.

Memes and genes

The term “meme” was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 to describe “a unit of cultural transmission or a unit of imitation.”

He based it on the Greek word mimeme (something imitated). It was meant to parallel the biological concept of a gene — both the meme and the gene seek to replicate themselves and, if successful, are widely disseminated. They can also mutate, taking on new meanings as they evolve.

Memes came of age on social media platforms like Twitter, now X. They usually combine iconic images or short videos with pithy text to create humorous digital cultural creations circulated on social media. Much like the traditional editorial cartoons, they often offer social and political commentary on current events. Still, they are much more anarchic, as anyone can create and share memes, hoping they will go viral.

Memes are invariably highly symbolic and often draw in disparate elements from history and current events.

In one Ukrainian meme highlighting karmic retribution, a soldier and a dog watch the sinking Moskva as the dog cries out: “This is for my doghouse.” This meme refers to a photo circulated online that showed a doghouse perched on a Russian tank loaded with goods pillaged from Ukrainian households. The meme satirically highlighted Russian looting and tied it to the sinking of the Russian warship.

A meme shows a man and a dog watching a Russian warship sink as they stand next to a Ukrainian flag. — Mocking the sinking Russian warship Moskva, the dog calls out: ‘This is for my doghouse — in other words, karmic payback for Russian pillaging, looting and terror.
(Facebook)

Ukrainian meme crusaders aim to counter Russian propaganda that justified Russia’s invasion. These propaganda efforts include paid detractors in Russian troll factories, as well as Russian and foreign vatniks — jingoistic proponents of Russian propaganda parroting unquestioningly what is put forward by Russian political and military leaders.

The term dates back to the 1960s, when grey cotton-wool jackets were issued to Soviet soldiers. The modern-day vatnik has been depicted disparagingly by Russian artist Anton Chadski as a patched-up hand with a black eye, a red nose and missing teeth. The image circulated widely on Russian social media and became prominent during the preliminary Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014.

The role of NAFO

An image shows two dogs and says it's always morally correct to cyberbully Russian ambassadors. — A NAFO meme.
(NAFO)

One of the most prominent and high-profile online communities of pro-Ukrainian keyboard warriors is the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO/OFAN). It’s an internet meme and social media movement dedicated to battling propaganda and disinformation about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It floods the social media posts of Russian officials, propagandists and vatniks with memes.

NAFO “fellas” use avatars depicting Shiba Inu dogs in various dress and poses. It has grown to tens of thousands of fellas with no set leadership, but all guided by the catchphrase “see a fella, follow a fella.”

A black-and-white sketch of Putin in an outhouse. — A meme of Putin in an outhouse.
(Telegram)

Memes like those created and circulate by NAFO also serve to insult Russia, presenting the nation as an outhouse, the army as inept and the Russian soldier as “orcs,” a fictional race of brutal and aggressive humanoids famously depicted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

In one meme, a cloven-hooved, crowned Vladimir Putin rides an outhouse tank spewing filth. Above him, the Russian word paRasha is written, which means a prison outhouse seat and is also used to signify nonsense, or simply bullshit. The “Rasha” is capitalized, playing on the Russian pronunciation of the English word Russia.

Latest memes

Ukraine-focused meme-making continues. Memes have emerged mocking U.S. President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan.

In one, there is a massive American flag and Trump in the background; the plan is presented as a 28-component Trojan horse for Ukraine.

Ukrainian aren’t just focused on Russia — they also challenge Ukrainian leaders and officials. In a recent meme, a pair of Ukrainian state operatives note: “And (Steve) Witkoff’s tapes are much more interesting than Mindich’s tapes…”

This is a double-barrelled jab. It refers to the 1,000-plus hours of secret recordings that were made during the explosive investigation of Ukrainian-Israeli entrepreneur Tymur Mindich’s alleged $100-million Ukrainian energy sector kick-backs, and revelations that Wirkoff, Trump’s envoy in peace talks, was advising Russian officials.

Ongoing Ukrainian memes are a testament to Ukraine’s continuing resistance to Russia, even when outsiders like Trump tell them they “have no cards” to play and that they should capitulate to Russia. They are a powerful force in contemporary Ukrainian nationalism.

Ukrainian scholar Daria Antsybor, a folklorist and anthropologist, co-authored this piece.

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

– ref. Ctrl-alt-defy: How Ukrainians have used memes to counter Russia’s propaganda machine – https://theconversation.com/ctrl-alt-defy-how-ukrainians-have-used-memes-to-counter-russias-propaganda-machine-270767

December 2, 2025

Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Eli Elster, Doctoral Candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, Davis

A belief in ghosts could be a way to explain a strange experience while asleep. ‘The Nightmare’ by Johann Heinrich Füssli/Wikimedia Commons

On Feb. 22, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes towed a homemade rocket to the Mojave Desert and launched himself into the sky. His goal? To view the flatness of the Earth from space. This was his third attempt, and tragically it was fatal. Hughes crashed shortly after takeoff and died.

Hughes’ nickname – Mad Mike – might strike you as apt. Is it not crazy to risk your life fighting for a theory that was disproven in ancient Greece?

But Hughes’ conviction, though striking, is not unique. Across all recorded cultures, people have held strong beliefs that seemed to lack evidence in their favor – one might refer to them as “extraordinary beliefs.”

For evolutionary anthropologists like me, the ubiquity of these kinds of beliefs is a puzzle. Human brains evolved to form accurate models of the world. Most of the time, we do a pretty good job. So why do people also often adopt and develop beliefs that lack strong supporting evidence?

In a new review in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, I propose a simple answer. People come to believe in flat Earth, spirits and microchipped vaccines for the same reasons they come to believe in anything else. Their experiences lead them to think those beliefs are true.

Theories of extraordinary belief

Most social scientists have taken a different view on this subject. Supernatural beliefs, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience have struck researchers as totally impervious to contrary evidence. Consequently, they have assumed that experience is not relevant to the formation of those beliefs. Instead, they’ve focused on two other explanatory factors.

The first common explanation is cognitive biases. Many psychologists argue that humans possess mental shortcuts for reasoning about how the world works. For instance, people are quite prone to seeing intentions and intelligence behind random events. A bias of this kind might explain why people often believe that deities control phenomena such as weather or illness.

The second factor is social dynamics: People adopt certain beliefs not because they’re sure that they’re true but because other people hold those beliefs, or they want to signal something about themselves to others. For example, some conspiracy theorists may adopt strange beliefs because those beliefs come with a community of loyal and supportive co-believers.

Both of these approaches can partly explain how people come to hold extraordinary beliefs. But they discount three ways that experience, in tandem with the other two factors, can shape extraordinary beliefs.

vast grassy landscape with blue sky and white clouds — Science says one thing, but your eyes tell you the Earth looks pretty darn flat.
sharply_done/E+ via Getty Images

1. Experience as a filter

First, I propose that experience can act as a filter. It determines which extraordinary beliefs can successfully spread throughout a population.

Take the flat Earth theory as an example. We know with absolute certainty that it’s false, but it’s no more or less wrong than a theory that the Earth is shaped like a cone. So what makes flat Earth so much more successful than this equally incorrect alternative?

The answer is as obvious as it seems – the Earth looks flat when you’re standing on it, not cone-shaped. Visual evidence favors one extraordinary belief over the others. Of course, scientific evidence clearly shows that the Earth is round; but it’s not surprising that some people prefer to trust what their eyes are telling them.

2. Experience as a spark

My second argument is that experience acts as a spark for extraordinary beliefs. Strange experiences, such as auditory hallucinations, are difficult to explain and understand. So people do their best to explain them – and in doing so, they come up with beliefs that seem fittingly strange.

For this pathway, sleep paralysis is a good case study. Sleep paralysis happens in the space between sleeping and waking – you feel like you’re awake, but you can’t move or speak. It’s terrifying and quite common. And interestingly, sufferers usually feel like there’s a threatening agent sitting on their chest.

As a scientist, I interpret sleep paralysis as the result of neural confusion. But it’s not difficult to picture how someone without a scientific background – that is, nearly every human being in history – might interpret the experience as evidence of supernatural beings.

3. Experience as a tool

To me, the third potential route to extraordinary beliefs is especially intriguing. In many cases, people don’t just develop extraordinary beliefs; they develop immersive practices that make those beliefs feel true.

For instance, imagine that you’re a farmer living in the highlands of Lesotho in southern Africa, where I conduct ethnographic fieldwork. You suffer a series of miscarriages, and you want to know why. So you go to a traditional healer – she tells you that you can learn the answer from your ancestors by drinking a hallucinogenic brew. You drink the brew. Soon after, you begin to see spirits; they speak to you and explain your misfortune.

Shaman in colorful outfit and necklaces ladles from a clay pot — A shaman might administer a psychoactive substance that affects how you experience the world around you.
Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images

Clearly, an experience like this one might reinforce your belief in the existence of spirits. Such immersive practices – such as prayer, ritualistic dance and the religious use of psychoactive substances – create evidence that makes the associated beliefs feel true.

What’s next?

Extraordinary beliefs are not inherently good or bad. In particular, religious beliefs provide meaning, security and a sense of community for billions of people.

But some extraordinary beliefs are sources of serious concern: Misinformation about science and politics is rampant and immensely dangerous. By recognizing how those beliefs are shaped by experience, researchers can find better ways to combat their spread.

Just as importantly, though, my suggested perspective might encourage more compassion and kinship toward people who hold beliefs that seem very different from yours. They are not “mad” or insincere. Like any other human being, they think the evidence is on their side.

Eli Elster 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. Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs – https://theconversation.com/flat-earth-spirits-and-conspiracy-theories-experience-can-shape-even-extraordinary-beliefs-271145

December 2, 2025

Winter storms blanket the East, while the US West is wondering: Where’s the snow?

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Adrienne Marshall, Assistant Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Much of the West has seen a slow start to the 2026 snow season. Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

Ski season is here, but while the eastern half of the U.S. digs out from wintery storms, the western U.S. snow season has been off to a very slow start.

The snowpack was far below normal across most of the West on Dec. 1, 2025. Denver didn’t see its first measurable snowfall until Nov. 29 – more than a month past normal, and one of its latest first-snow dates on record.

But a late start isn’t necessarily reason to worry about the snow season ahead.

Adrienne Marshall, a hydrologist in Colorado who studies how snowfall is changing in the West, explains what forecasters are watching and how rising temperatures are affecting the future of the West’s beloved snow.

Weather map show precipitation outlook, with a strip across Colorado, Utah and up to Oregon in a band with equal chances of wetter or drier conditions. — The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s seasonal outlook for January through March 2026 largely follows a typical La Niña pattern, with warmer and drier conditions to the south, and wetter and cooler conditions to the north.
NOAA

What are snow forecasters paying attention to right now?

It’s still early in the snow season, so there’s a lot of uncertainty in the forecasts. A late first snow doesn’t necessarily mean a low-snow year.

But there are some patterns that we know influence snowfall that forecasters are watching.

For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting La Niña conditions for this winter, possibly switching to neutral midway through. La Niña involves cooler-than-usual sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator west of South America. Cooler ocean temperatures in that region can influence weather patterns across the U.S., but so can several other factors.

La Niña – and its opposite, El Niño – don’t tell us what will happen for certain. Instead, they load the dice toward wetter or drier conditions, depending on where you are. La Niñas are generally associated with cooler, wetter conditions in the Pacific Northwest and a little bit warmer, drier conditions in the U.S. Southwest, but not always.

When we look at the consequences for snow, La Niña does tend to mean more snow in the Pacific Northwest and less in the Southwest, but, again, there’s a lot of variability.

A map show the snowpack in most of the West is more than 50% below normal. — Scientists often gauge snow conditions by snow-water equivalent, a measure of the amount of water stored in a snowpack. Most of the Western U.S. was far below normal on Nov. 30, 2025. Parts of the Southwest were above normal, but this early in the season, normal is very low to begin with in many of those areas.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Snow conditions also depend heavily on individual storms, and those are more random than the seasonal pattern indicated by La Niña.

If you look at NOAA’s seasonal outlook maps, most of Colorado and Utah are in the gap between the cooler and wetter pattern to the north and the warmer and drier pattern to the south expected during winter 2026. So, the outlook suggests roughly equal chances of more or less snow than normal and warmer or cooler weather across many major ski areas.

How is climate change affecting snowfall in the West?

In the West, snow measurements date back a century, so we can see some trends.

Starting in the 1920s, surveyors would go out into the mountains and measure the snowpack in March and April every year. Those records suggest snowfall has declined in most of the West. We also see evidence of more midwinter melting.

How much snow falls is driven by both temperature and precipitation, and temperature is warming

In the past few years, research has been able to directly attribute observed changes in the spring snowpack to human-caused climate change. Rising temperatures have led to decreases in snow, particularly in the Southwest. The effects of warming temperatures on overall precipitation are less clear, but the net effect in the western U.S. is a decrease in the spring snowpack.

When we look at climate change projections for the western U.S. in future years, we see with a high degree of confidence that we can expect less snow in warmer climates. In scenarios where the world produces more greenhouse gas emissions, that’s worse for snow seasons.

Should states be worried about water supplies?

This winter’s forecast isn’t extreme at this point, so the impact on the year’s water supplies is a pretty big question mark.

Snowpack – how much snow is on the ground in March or April – sums up the snowfall, minus the melt, for the year. The snowpack also affects water supplies for the rest of the year.

The West’s water infrastructure system was built assuming there would be a natural reservoir of snow in the mountains. California relies on the snowpack for about a third of its annual water supply.

However, rising temperatures are leading to earlier snowmelt in some areas. Evidence suggests that climate change is also expected to cause more rain-on-snow events at high elevations, which can cause very rapid snowmelt.

a man stands on a road that is flooded on both sides as far as the camera can see. Trees are surrounded by flood water on one side. — When snow melts quickly, it can cause flooding. That happened in 2023 in California, when fast melting from a heavy snow season flooded wide areas of farmland and almond orchards covering what was once Tulare Lake.
Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Both create challenges for water managers, who want to store as much snowmelt runoff as possible in reservoirs so it’s available through the summer, when states need it most for agriculture and for generating hydropower to meet high electricity demand. If the snow melts early, water resource managers face some tough decisions, because they also need to leave room in their reservoirs to manage flooding. Earlier snowmelt sometimes means they have to release stored water.

When we look at reservoir levels in the Colorado River basin, particularly the big reservoirs – Lake Powell and Lake Mead – we see a pattern of decline over time. They have had some very good snow and water years, and also particularly challenging ones, including a long-running drought. The long-term trends suggest an imbalance between supply and growing demand.

What else does snowfall affect, such as fire risk?

During low-snow years, the snowpack disappears sooner, and the soils dry out earlier in the year. That essentially leaves a longer summer dry period and more stress on trees.

There is evidence that we tend to have bigger fire seasons after low-snow winters. That can be because the forests are left with drier fuels, which sets the ecosystem up to burn. That’s obviously a major concern in the West.

Snow is also important to a lot of wildlife species that are adapted to it. One example is the wolverine, an endangered species that requires deep snow for denning over the winter.

What snow lessons should people take away from climate projections?

Overall, climate projections suggest our biggest snow years will be less snowy in anticipated warmer climates, and that very low snow years are expected to be more common.

But it’s important to remember that climate projections are based on scenarios of how much greenhouse gas might be emitted in the future – they are not predictions of the future. The world can still reduce its emissions to create a less risky scenario. In fact, while the most ambitious emissions reductions are looking less likely, the worst emissions scenarios are also less likely under current policies.

Understanding how choices can change climate projections can be empowering. Projections are saying: Here’s what we expect to happen if the world emits a lot of greenhouse gases, and here’s what we expect to happen if we emit fewer greenhouse gases based on recent trends.

The choices we make will affect our future snow seasons and the wider climate.

This article has been updated to correct the references to Denver, which saw one of its latest snowfalls on record.

Adrienne Marshall receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Geological Survey, the Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and has received previous funding from the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

– ref. Winter storms blanket the East, while the US West is wondering: Where’s the snow? – https://theconversation.com/winter-storms-blanket-the-east-while-the-us-west-is-wondering-wheres-the-snow-270928

December 2, 2025

South Africa needs to rethink how it measures intellectual and developmental disabilities – what’s lacking

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Lieketseng Ned, Lecturer, Stellenbosch University

The effective planning and delivery of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in South Africa is severely constrained by the lack of reliable data.

Intellectual disability is characterised by significant limitations in:

intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem solving)
adaptive behaviour (a range of everyday social and practical skills)

which originate before the age of 22.

Developmental disabilities are a diverse group of chronic conditions due to an impairment in physical, learning, language, or behaviour areas. Intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome are some of the conditions.

South Africa measures disability at population level using the Washington Group Short Set of six functional questions. This ensures international comparability. But it doesn’t adequately capture intellectual and development disabilities. This is because the questions only capture difficulties in doing basic activities. They don’t capture a diagnosis. It’s therefore difficult to know what diagnoses have led people to report difficulties.

This makes disaggregation by disability diagnosis difficult. Data disaggregation by disability types is key. It contributes to effective policy, resource allocation and budgeting as well as appropriate intervention and targeted services.

This article builds on our work researching disability in South Africa for over 10 years.

In it, we propose pragmatic steps to improve the ability to monitor the status of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities of all ages. South Africa can add to the evidence base by producing robust, actionable metrics that strengthen population data. In turn this will enhance planning and implementation.

Current measurement landscape

Disability measurement in South Africa rests on two main pillars.

The first is administrative records. These include:

the South African Social Security Agency’s medical assessments for disability grants
the Department of Basic Education’s records of learners with special needs
the South African Revenue Service’s Disability Tax Rebate system (which also requires a medical diagnosis and assessment)
the Department of Health healthcare registers.

These all provide useful service-level insights. But they only capture people already in contact with services. And they use different coding standards.

The second pillar is population-based surveys. These include Washington Group questions on disability. This generates internationally comparable prevalence estimates. But this measurement doesn’t include children under 5 years. The nature of the questions also means that a wide range of predominantly invisible disabilities are missed.

For children, the Washington Group/Unicef Child Functioning Module is internationally recognised as a valid measure for 2–17 year olds. It is available and recommended. But it’s still not widely implemented in South Africa.

As a result, the current system remains inadequate in reliably disaggregating data by disability type, age, severity or onset.

Measurement limitations

Population-based measures of functioning don’t provide a diagnosis. It is therefore difficult to identify people with intellectual and developmental disability within the data.

Additionally, the Washington Group does not ask about psychosocial functioning. An example of such a question could be: Do you have difficulty forming relationships?. Relying on it alone may undercount many people whose primary impairments are cognitive, adaptive or psychosocial.

Ideally, it would be beneficial to have both the diagnosis and the functional profile.

National reporting also leaves an important early-childhood blind spot. Infants and many toddlers (0–4 years) are not captured in the same way as older children and adults. Yet this is the period when early detection and intervention can have the most impact. The Washington Group/Unicef measure improves data for children from 2 to 4 years. But it isn’t embedded in the country’s data collection platforms.

Data on young children are further limited by uneven developmental surveillance and the narrow use of the Road to Health Booklet. The booklet serves as a comprehensive record of a child’s medical history, health status, growth and development.

Administrative records are also inconsistently coded and weakly linked. This makes them an unreliable source of data on type of disability. Single-item indicators (for example, “difficulty communicating”) risk misclassification unless analysed alongside onset and other related functioning.

What is possible?

The question that we asked in our recently completed country assessment in collaboration with Special Olympics South Africa is:

how does one use data on the functioning profile to understand diagnosis and vice versa?

Such a crosswalk would allow identification of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the data. As an initial step, we created and used a composite indicator. This could potentially assist in identifying people 5 years and older.

For each dataset, we used a combination of the already existing Washington Group Short Set variables to create the new “With intellectual and developmental disabilities” variable.

This was followed by running cross-tabulations of the “with possible intellectual and developmental disabilities” versus “without intellectual and developmental disabilities” with a number of other health-related variables. These cross-tabulations were used to identify gaps in accessing health care services.

We acknowledge that this is an imperfect measure. But it provides a starting point to try and understand the trends in access to health care.

Next steps

We recommend the following:

Amend survey instruments to include the Washington Group alongside diagnosis questions for those under five.
Do research to understand the functional profile of people with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities based on their responses to the Washington Group Short Set.
Expand training for field staff on the new modules. This should include interviewing techniques.
Ensure national and subnational coordination.
Publish detailed breakdowns by disability type, by age group (including under 5), and by region.

The authors 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. South Africa needs to rethink how it measures intellectual and developmental disabilities – what’s lacking – https://theconversation.com/south-africa-needs-to-rethink-how-it-measures-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities-whats-lacking-268497

December 2, 2025

African land policy reforms have been good for women and communities – but review of 18 countries shows major gaps

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Marc Wegerif, Senior Lecturer, Development Studies, University of Pretoria

Land tenure is the relationship, defined in law and customs, that people as individuals or groups have with land. It involves a bundle of rights to land, such as the right to use, sell, or bequeath land. Secure tenure is crucial for people to have secure homes, for food production, and for the economy. For many it is also central to their identity and culture.

While there is broad agreement on the importance of effective governance of secure land tenure, the best way to achieve this is the subject of much debate. The core contestation is between commodifying land through individual rights and markets, versus protecting it as a social good through communal rights to prevent landlessness and inequality. An overlapping debate is between more customary or traditional systems and those based on statutory law and democratic principles.

Food systems, economic justice, and agrarian reform have been the focus of my scholarship over the last 20 years. Seeing both progress and the same old debates continue, my two co-researchers and I felt it a good moment to examine what has happened with land tenure governance and what we can learn from that.

Our research involved conducting a comprehensive review of 18 countries – 16 in Africa and two in Asia – between 2021 and 2023.

Our study found a significant shift towards the recognition of customary rights and the strengthening of women’s land rights. These are driven by a wave of new policies, legislation and programmes such as those in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Malawi.

Although progress has been made, the struggle over land – balancing market interests with social protection, individual rights with communal governance – remains highly contested. Learning from the good examples and seeing what still needs to be done is crucial for further debates and action on the issue of land rights and governance.

The findings

Our review involved extensive interviews with a range of actors from government, civil society and academia in each country and a review of policies, legislation and other documents.

Our study also came just over ten years after the adoption of the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure.

The two are internationally agreed guidelines intended to assist national governments to improve their land policies and governance. We used them as benchmarks against which to review the land tenure governance arrangements in each country.

We found that the past two decades have seen a remarkable surge in land policy and legislative activity. Fifteen of the 18 countries studied have adopted new or substantially amended land policies or laws since 2000. Twelve have done so since 2012.

Central achievements of these reforms have been the strengthening of women’s land rights and improved legal recognition of customary and communal land tenure systems. This is seen in the adoption of policies and legislation that recognise customary land rights and prohibit gender discrimination.

This has led to the increased inclusion of community participation in land decision making procedures. There are also programmes that have been implemented to register customary land rights.

Some countries, such as Zambia, have set targets for the minimum amount of land that should go to women. Such interventions have improved the land rights of millions who have historically been vulnerable to dispossession.

These shifts, in particular recognising communal and customary land rights, represent a move away from the wholesale individualisation, privatisation and commoditisation of land.

The proponents of land privatisation, most notably the World Bank, argue that it unlocks access to capital and leads to the transfer of land to those who can use it most effectively.

Those arguing against it claim that it has not worked, particularly in Africa, and leads to greater land inequality and landlessness.

Instead, the 15 countries in this study that have adopted new policies and legislation in the last two decades are forging a middle path. They are seeking to secure traditional rights while unlocking development potential, such as by securing farmers’ rights and enabling investments. The formal registration of individual rights to customary land has been achieved cost-effectively in several contexts, without a full privatisation of land and without leading to widespread landlessness.

Crucially, and contrary to earlier fears, recent land registration efforts have often benefited women more than men in several settings, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia.

The success stories

Two standout examples illustrate the potential of well-crafted and implemented reforms.

In Sierra Leone, the passage of the Customary Land Rights Act and the National Land Commission Act in 2022 set new benchmarks for protecting community and women’s rights. These laws entrench the increasingly recognised requirement of “free, prior and informed consent” from affected communities and families before any changes to their land rights or use can proceed.

The law breaks new ground by explicitly stipulating that such consent must be given by both “adult male and female members of the affected community,” ensuring women’s voices are heard. Furthermore, the Customary Land Rights Act mandates that a minimum of 60% of both women and men in families must approve decisions concerning family land. This is a potentially powerful measure to protect the interests of all dependants in extended families.

In Ethiopia, a different kind of success story has unfolded through a massive, state-driven land certification programme. This has resulted in the registration of individual community land rights to over 25 million land parcels.

This was achieved at a remarkably low cost of just US$8.50 per title and provided to beneficiaries for free. The programme has had a positive gender impact with 23%-24% of certificates issued in the names of women alone (compared to 14%-15% to men) and a further 55% issued as joint titles to couples.

This demonstrates that large-scale, cost-effective land registration that strengthens women’s tenure security is achievable.

Examples of stalled reform

Our study also revealed numerous implementation gaps. Policies and laws may align with international voluntary guidelines principles on paper. But translation into tangible security for citizens is often weak.

Furthermore, several countries, such as Cameroon and Senegal, are hampered by a failure to adopt new legislation altogether and still operate with land laws that are over 50 years old.

South Africa serves as a stark example of stalled reform. Following the end of apartheid over three decades ago, there was a flurry of post-liberation land legislation. However, the country has failed to finalise new legislation to address tenure insecurity on communal land, which is home to approximately 20 million people. The 2004 Communal Land Rights Act was declared unconstitutional, and a subsequent 2017 draft bill has yet to be passed.

Consequently, land governance in these areas remains in a legal vacuum.

South Africa also continues to rely on an outdated, slow and expensive land registration system for private land. The country has failed to implement a modern, fit-for-purpose national land registry that could serve all citizens. This legislative and administrative inertia has left the country’s land reform programme perpetually underperforming and land distribution as unequal as ever.

The journey is far from complete

The overall trajectory of land tenure governance in the first decades of the 21st century is one of cautious optimism. The examples of Sierra Leone’s progressive laws and Ethiopia’s mass certification show what is possible with political will and innovative approaches.

However, the journey is far from complete. The challenges of implementation are immense, and countries like South Africa, Cameroon and Senegal highlight the critical need to modernise legal frameworks and land administration.

Marc Wegerif receives research funding from the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS). He is a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Pretoria and a Principal Investigator with the CoE-FS.

– ref. African land policy reforms have been good for women and communities – but review of 18 countries shows major gaps – https://theconversation.com/african-land-policy-reforms-have-been-good-for-women-and-communities-but-review-of-18-countries-shows-major-gaps-268318

December 2, 2025

Fossil hunters find tracks of animals from about 3 million years ago – a first in South Africa

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University

South Africa is well known for its fossil heritage, a record of plants and animals that tells us what the world was like long ago.

Over the past 15 years, our research group at the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience at Nelson Mandela University has studied some of these ancient species by examining the tracks and traces they left during the Pleistocene Epoch (a period from about 1.8 million years ago to 11,700 years ago, sometimes known as the “Ice Ages”). We have identified more than 350 vertebrate tracksites along the coast from this time. These animals left their tracks and traces in sandy surfaces that hardened into rock over time. The oldest fossil track we’ve found is around 400,000 years old.

All this time we were aware that there might be more, even older trace fossils to find further inland. We knew that up to 30km inland there were cemented dunes formed from wind-blown sand, probably around 3 million years old. These dunes, which are now rock, are known as the Wankoe Formation.

However, there were problems with finding any fossils there. There seemed to be a relatively limited number of suitable rock outcrops, showing what used to be dune surfaces. And often those that we did find were eroded and calcified: good for finding caves and mineral formations (like stalagmites), but not for finding tracks – or so it seemed. In addition, much of the Wankoe Formation is on private property, and permission would be needed to access potential sites.

We realised that to find any fossil traces we would have to focus on the areas where the original rock layers were well preserved and visible.
Then one of our team members, Given Banda, identified what appeared to be a trackway on an inland surface near his home community. This was a spur to action, and next, when staying in the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve to research nearby coastal tracks, we chanced upon more inland track-like features. A more thorough reconnaissance in the reserve followed, and the more we looked, the more tracks we found, including one that’s certainly a trackway (see photo below).

The results of our findings were recently published.

No vertebrate tracks had previously been identified in the Wankoe Formation. We have found that the formation is rich in fossils and that vertebrate tracks are common there. Furthermore, these seem to be the first recorded Pliocene vertebrate tracks described from southern Africa. The Pliocene was an epoch from about 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago. These findings therefore add to what we know about ancient environments.

New treasure trove of fossil tracks and traces

The Wankoe Formation track discoveries are important for three main reasons:

they might tell us more about body fossils
we might find traces of human ancestor species
the tracks are raised rather than indented, which is rare.

Firstly, there is a wonderful Pliocene body fossil site just a few hundred kilometres away. Known as Langebaanweg or, more popularly, the West Coast Fossil Park, the site boasts a vast array of extinct creatures. The body fossil record and trace fossil (ichnological record can not only complement each other, but have the potential to yield new findings that constructively inform and enrich each other.

For example, on the coast we have found trackways of giraffe and giant tortoises, that were not known to inhabit the region based on the body fossil record. We hope that we can complement the body fossil record with our ichnological findings. Already we have identified a tracksite that suggests a possible wolverine trackmaker, consistent with the finding of an extinct wolverine at Langebaanweg.

Secondly, when we started work on the younger deposits on the coast 15 years ago, we knew that we needed to be on the lookout for hominin tracksites, as we were aware that ancestral hominins had been there at the time. Since then, we have found more than 20 such sites. These make up by far the largest archive of hominin tracksites more than 40,000 years old in the world.

We can try to apply similar thinking to our Pliocene discoveries inland from the coast.

Pliocene deposits are not encountered that often in Africa, and these Western Cape examples seem to be among the only ones described from southern Africa. The Laetoli site in Tanzania is globally famous for its australopithecine trackways, which remain the only tracks of these possible ancestors of our Homo genus from the Pliocene. They are also the oldest unequivocal tracks of their kind in the world.

While we have not yet found tracks that are conclusively of primate origin in the Wankoe Formation, and we do not know precisely when australopithecines may have first appeared in this region, we are aware of the potential, and need to keep exploring.

Thirdly, the tracks we are finding are different, and are special in their own right. Many of them are “pedestalled”, meaning that instead of forming hollows, they are raised above the surface.

The principle of their origin can easily be replicated on a modern dune surface, provided that the sand is slightly moist (cohesive) and a strong wind is blowing. If you walk along such a surface, you will leave your tracks in the form of depressions. But if you return an hour later, they might be raised above the surface. This is because you will have compressed underlying layers when you made your tracks, and the wind has blown the surrounding sand away but is not strong enough to remove the compressed areas below your tracks. The same principle occurs in snow, where it is much more readily observed (see photo below).

Fossilised pedestalled tracks are globally rare, and the potential for finding more of them is intriguing.

More to find?

Our subsequent explorations have continued to deliver results, and we now realise that even rocks that have been weathered can sometimes preserve tracks, sometimes in profile. (See photo: the underlying layers have been distorted by the weight of the trackmaker.)

We have also found body fossils in the form of trees, roots and bone material embedded in these layers of wind-blown, hardened sand that require further study.

It is perhaps not surprising that the dunes that now form the Wankoe Formation contained tracks on their surfaces. However, the welcome news is that despite all the calcification and weathering that has occurred, evidence of these tracks has not been obliterated.

We now realise that if we know where to look, there will be many suitable surfaces and exposures to explore. And the possibility of finding the tracks of ancestral hominins from the Pliocene forms a new “holy grail” for our research team.

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

– ref. Fossil hunters find tracks of animals from about 3 million years ago – a first in South Africa – https://theconversation.com/fossil-hunters-find-tracks-of-animals-from-about-3-million-years-ago-a-first-in-south-africa-267567