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August 1, 2025

How can I tell if I am lonely? What are some of the signs?

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Marlee Bower, Senior Research Fellow, Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Without even realising it, your world sometimes gradually gets smaller: less walking, fewer days in the office, cancelling on friends. Watching plans disintegrate on the chat as friends struggle to settle on a date or place for a catch-up.

You might start to feel a bit flat or disconnected. Subtle changes in habit and mood take hold. Could you be … lonely?

It’s not a label many of us identify with easily, especially if you know you’ve got friends, or are in a happy relationship.

But loneliness can happen to us all from time to time – and identifying it is the first step to fixing it.

So, what is loneliness?

Loneliness is the distress we feel when our relationships don’t meet our needs – in quality or quantity.

It’s not the same as being objectively alone (otherwise known as “social isolation”).

You can feel deeply lonely even while surrounded by friends, or totally content on your own.

Loneliness is subjective; many people don’t realise they’re lonely until the feeling becomes persistent.

What are some of the signs to look for?

You may feel a physical coldness, emptiness or hollowness (I’ve heard it described as feeling like you are missing an organ). Some research shows social pain is experienced similarly in the brain to physical pain.

Behavioural signs may include:

changes in routine
trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep
changed appetite (maybe you’re eating more or less than you normally would, or have less variety in your diet)
withdrawing from plans you would usually enjoy (perhaps you’re skipping a regular exercise class, or going to shows or sports events less often).

Emotionally, you may feel:

a persistent sadness
tired
disconnected
like you don’t belong, even when you are with others.

You may also feel more sensitive to rejection or criticism.

A man walks with a paper bag on his head. — Sometimes, your world shrinks so gradually you barely notice it – until things get quite bad.
francescoch/Getty Images

But you’re not alone and you’re not broken.

Loneliness is a normal response to disconnection.

The late US neuroscientist John Cacioppo described loneliness as an evolutionary alarm system.

In the past, being separated from your tribe meant danger and risk from predators, so our brains developed a way to push us back towards connection.

The pain of loneliness is designed to keep us connected and safe.

Why is it often hard to recognise loneliness?

Sadly, there’s still a lot of stigma around admitting loneliness, especially for men.

Many people resist identifying as lonely, or feel this marks them as a “loser”.

But this silence can make the problem worse.

When no one talks about it, it becomes harder to break the cycle of loneliness, and the stigma remains.

While passing loneliness is normal, chronic or persistent loneliness can hurt our health.

Research shows chronic loneliness is associated with:

depression
anxiety
weakened immunity
heart disease
earlier death.

Loneliness can also become self-reinforcing. When loneliness feels normal, it can start to shape how you see the world: you expect rejection, withdraw more and the cycle deepens.

The earlier you notice you’re lonely, the easier it is to break.

But I’m in a relationship, have loads of friends and a rewarding job

Yes, but you can still be lonely.

Most of us need different kinds of relationships to thrive. It’s not about how many people you know, but whether you feel connected and have a meaningful role in these relationships.

You may feel lonely even with strong friendships if you are lacking deeper connection, shared identity or a sense of community.

This doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful, or a bad friend.

It just means you need more or different kinds of connection.

OK, I’ve realised I am lonely. Now what?

Start by asking yourself: what kind of connection am I missing?

Is it one-to-one friendships? A partner? Casual social interactions? A shared purpose or community?

Then reflect on what’s helped you feel more connected in the past. For some, it’s joining a choir, a book club or a sports group. For others, it may be volunteering or just saying “yes” to small social moments, like chatting with your local barista or learning the name of the local butcher.

If you’re still struggling, a psychologist can help with tailored strategies for building connection.

The structural causes of loneliness

It’s also important to remember loneliness is often not because of personal failings or overall mental health.

My own research shows loneliness is often shaped by structural factors, such as poor planning in our local neighbourhood environments, financial inequality, work pressures, social norms, or even long-term effects of restrictions from the COVID pandemic.

We are also learning more about how climate change can disrupt social connection and worsen loneliness due to, for example, higher temperatures or bushfires.

Loneliness is normal, common, human and completely solvable.

Start by noticing it in yourself and reach out if you can.

Let’s start talking about it more, so others can feel less alone too.

Marlee Bower receives funding from the Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative, the BHP Foundation, AHURI and NHMRC. She is affiliated with the University of Sydney Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank.

– ref. How can I tell if I am lonely? What are some of the signs? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-i-tell-if-i-am-lonely-what-are-some-of-the-signs-261262

August 1, 2025

A Hawaiian epic made in NZ: why Jason Momoa’s Chief of War wasn’t filmed in its star’s homeland

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Duncan Caillard, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology

Jason Momoa’s historical epic Chief of War, launching August 1 on Apple TV+, is a triumph of Hawaiians telling their own stories – despite the fact their film and TV production industry now struggles to be viable.

The series stars Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) as Kaʻaina, an ali’i (chief) who fights for – and later rises against – King Kamehameha I during the bloody reunification of Hawaii.

Already receiving advance praise, the nine-episode first season co-stars New Zealand actors Temeura Morrison, Cliff Curtis and Luciane Buchanan, alongside Hawaiian actors Kaina Makua, Brandon Finn and Moses Goods.

A passion project for Momoa, the Hawaiian star co-created the series with writer Thomas Pa’a Sibbett after years in development. With a reported budget of US$340 million, it is one of the most expensive television series ever produced.

It is also a milestone in Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) representation onscreen. Controversially, however, the production only spent a month in Hawaiʻi, and was mostly shot in New Zealand with non-Hawaiian crews.

Momoa has even expressed an interest in New Zealand citizenship, but the choice of location is more a reflection of the troubled state of the film industry in Hawaiʻi. On the other hand, it is a measure of the success of the New Zealand screen industry, with potential lessons for other countries in the Pacific.

Ea o Moʻolelo – story sovereignty

Set at the turn of the 19th century, Chief of War tells the moʻolelo (story, history) of King Kamehameha I’s conquest of the archipelago.

Hawaiʻi was historically governed by aliʻi nui (high chiefs), and each island was ruled independently. Motivated by the threat of European colonisation and empowered by Western weaponry, Kamehameha established the Hawaiian Kingdom, culminating in full unification in 1810.

The series is an important example of what authors Dean Hamer and Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu have called “Ea o Moʻolelo”, or story sovereignty, which emphasises Indigenous peoples’ right to control their own narrative by respecting the “the inalienable right of a story to its own unique contents, style and purpose”.

Chief of War is also the biggest Hawaiian television series ever produced. Although Hawaiʻi remains a popular setting onscreen, these productions have rarely involved Hawaiians in key decision-making roles.

Sea of troubles

The series hits screens at a time of major disruption in Hollywood, with streaming services upending established business models.

“Linear” network television faces declining viewership and advertising revenue. Movie studios struggle to draw audiences to theatres. The consequences for workers in the the industry have been severe, as the 2023 writers strike showed.

Those changes have had a catastrophic impact on the Hawaiʻi film industry, too.

Long a popular location – Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980, 2010-2020), Magnum P.I. (1980-1988, 2018-2024) and Lost (2004-2010) were all shot on location in Hawaiʻi – it is an expensive place to film.

Actors, crew and production equipment often have to be flown in from the continental United States, and producers compete with tourism for costly accommodation.

Kaina Makua as King Kamehameha and New Zealand actor Luciane Buchanan as Ka’ahumanu in Chief of War.
Apple TV+

An industry in transition

These are not uncommon problems in distant locations, and many governments try to attract screen productions through tax incentives and rebates on portions of the production costs.

New Zealand, for example, offers a 20-25% rebate for international productions and 40% for local productions. Hawaiʻi offers a 22-27% rebate.

But this is less than other US states offer, such as Georgia (30%), Louisiana (40%) and New Mexico (40%). Hawaiʻi also has an annual cap of US$50 million on rebates.

To make things even harder, Hawaiʻi offers only limited support for Indigenous filmmakers. Governments in Australia and New Zealand provide targeted funding and support for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori filmmakers.

By contrast, the Hawaiʻi Film Commission doesn’t provide direct grants to local filmmakers or producers (Indigenous or otherwise). Small amounts of government funding have been administered through the Public Broadcasting Service, but this is now in jeopardy after US President Donald Trump recently cut federal funding.

The Hawaiʻi screen industry faces a perfect storm. For the first time since 2004, film and TV production has ground to a halt. Many workers now doubt the long-term sustainability of their careers.

Lessons from Aotearoa NZ

While there are lessons Hawaiʻi legislators and industry leaders could learn from New Zealand’s example, there should also be a measure of caution.

The Hawaiʻi tax credit system is out of date. But despite industry lobbying, legislation to update it failed to reach the floor of the legislature earlier this year. New tax settings would help make local production viable again.

Secondly, decades of investment in Māori cinema have seen it become diverse, engaging and creatively accomplished. Hawaiʻi could benefit from greater direct investment in Hawaiian storytelling, respecting its cultural value even if it doesn’t turn a commercial profit.

On the other hand, New Zealand has a favourable currency exchange rate with the US which can’t be replicated in Hawaiʻi. And New Zealand film production workers have seen their rights to unionise watered down compared to their American peers.

But if Hawaiʻi can get its settings right, a possible second season of Chief of War may yet be filmed there, which could mark a genuine rejuvenation of its own film industry.

Duncan Caillard 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. A Hawaiian epic made in NZ: why Jason Momoa’s Chief of War wasn’t filmed in its star’s homeland – https://theconversation.com/a-hawaiian-epic-made-in-nz-why-jason-momoas-chief-of-war-wasnt-filmed-in-its-stars-homeland-261742

August 1, 2025

Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Lucinda Chambers, PhD Candidate in Marine Bioacoustics, UNSW Sydney

Late in the evening, the Antarctic sky flushes pink. The male leopard seal wakes and slips from the ice into the water. There, he’ll spend the night singing underwater amongst the floating ice floes.

For the next two months he sings every night. He will sing so loudly, the ice around him vibrates. Each song is a sequence of trills and hoots, performed in a particular pattern.

In a world first, we analysed leopard seal songs and found the predictability of their patterns was remarkably similar to the nursery rhymes humans sing.

We think this is a deliberate strategy. While leopard seals are solitary animals, the males need their call to carry clearly across vast stretches of icy ocean, to woo a mate.

A seal on an ice floe in Antarctica — Solitary leopard seals want their call to carry.
Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A season of underwater solos

Leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are named after their spotted coats. They live on ice and surrounding waters in Antarctica.

Leopard seals are especially vocal during breeding season, which lasts from late October to early January. A female leopard seal sings for a few hours on the days she is in heat. But the males are the real showstoppers.

Each night, the males perform underwater solos for up to 13 hours. They dive into the sea, singing underwater for about two minutes before returning to the water’s surface to breathe and rest. This demanding routine continues for weeks.

A male leopard seal weighs about 320 kilograms, but produces surprisingly high-pitched trills, similar to those of a tiny cricket.

Within a leopard seal population, the sounds themselves don’t vary much in pitch or duration. But the order and pattern in which the sounds are produced varies considerably between individuals.

Our research examined these individual songs. We compared them to that of other vocal animals, and to human music.

Listening to songs from the sea

The data used in the study was collected by one author of this article, Tracey Rogers, in the 1990s.

Rogers rode her quad bike across the Antarctic ice to the edge of the sea and marked 26 individual male seals with dye as they slept. Then she returned to record their songs at night.

The new research involved analysing these recordings, to better understand their structure and patterns. We did this by measuring the “entropy” of their sequences. Entropy measures how predictable or random a sequence is.

We found the songs are composed of five key “notes” or call types. Listen to each one below.

A low double trill.
Tracey Rogers UNSW Sydney, CC BY-SA28.5 KB (download)

A hoot with low single trill.
Tracey Rogers UNSW Sydney, CC BY-SA53.8 KB (download)

High double trill.
Tracey Rogers UNSW Sydney, CC BY-SA29.7 KB (download)

Low descending single trill.
Tracey Rogers UNSW Sydney, CC BY-SA49 KB (download)

Medium single trill.
Tracey Rogers UNSW Sydney, CC BY-SA22.7 KB (download)

A remarkably predictable pattern

We then compared the songs of the male leopard seals with several styles of human music: baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary, as well as songs by The Beatles and nursery rhymes.

What stood out was the similarity between the predictability of human nursery rhymes and leopard seal calls. Nursery rhymes are simple, repetitive and easy to remember — and that’s what we heard in the leopard seal songs.

The range of “entropy” was similar to the 39 nursery rhymes from the Golden Song Book, a collection of words and sheet music for classic children’s songs, which was first published in 1945. It includes classics such:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Frère Jacques
Ring Around a Rosy
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Humpty Dumpty
Three Blind Mice
Rockabye Baby.

For humans, the predictable structure of a nursery rhyme melody helps make it simple enough for a child to learn. For a leopard seal, this predictability may enable the individual to learn its song and keep singing it over multiple days. This consistency is important, because changes in pitch or frequency can create miscommunication.

Like sperm whales, leopard seals may also use song to set themselves apart from others and signal their fitness to reproduce. The greater structure in the songs helps ensure listeners accurately receive the message and identify who is singing.

Male leopard seals produce high-pitched cricket-like trills.

An evolving song?

Leopard seals sound very different to humans. But our research shows the complexity and structure of their songs is remarkably similar to our own nursery rhymes.

Communication through song is a very common animal behaviour. However, structure and predictability in mammal song has only been studied in a handful of species. We know very little about what drives it.

Understanding animal communication is important. It can improve conservation efforts and animal welfare, and provide important information about animal cognition and evolution.

Technology has advanced rapidly since our recordings were made in the 1990s. In future, we hope to revisit Antarctica to record and study further, to better understand if new call types have emerged, and if patterns of leopard seal song evolve from generation to generation.

Tracey Rogers receives funding from ARC.

Lucinda Chambers 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. Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes – https://theconversation.com/rockabye-baby-the-love-songs-of-lonely-leopard-seals-resemble-human-nursery-rhymes-262113

July 31, 2025

Accessible, high-quality summer programs and Black joy support Black children’s return to school

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ardavan Eizadirad, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier University

Summer is popularly imagined as bringing joy to all young people. Yet it is not an equal break or of the same quality for all students.

Learning loss is the decline in academic skills and knowledge that can occur when students are not engaged in structured learning, especially during extended breaks like summer.

It disproportionately impacts Black and low-income students who face greater systemic disadvantages within the education system.

Black families face challenges in accessing culturally relevant and affirming summer opportunities. As work by education researcher Obianuju Juliet Bushi and others has documented, for many Black families, the question isn’t just “what will my child do this summer?” It’s “where can my child go to be safe, affirmed and supported?”

Without access to affordable enrichment programs during the summmer, many students fall behind in reading and math, further widening the opportunity gap when school resumes in September.

As the manager of research with the charitable, Black-led non-profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE) in the Jane Finch area of Toronto, I share insights about how culturally responsive community programs can address opportunity gaps, and how parents in Black families can support their kids’ successful transition back to school.

This article draws on insights from conversations I have had with various YAAACE program participants, parents and educators, as well as leadership, including Devon Jones, Nene, and Dave Mitchell.

Anti-Black racism in education

Despite Canada’s reputation for multiculturalism, systemic anti-Black racism remains deeply embedded in the education system, contributing to unequal opportunities for students.

The opportunity gap refers to the unequal access to resources, supports and learning experiences that affect students’ ability to succeed, often based on race, income and geography.

In March 2025, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a report, “Dreams Delayed: Addressing Systemic Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination in Ontario’s Public Education System.”

The findings confirmed that Ontario’s schools are saturated with systemic barriers for Black children and their families. These barriers include: disproportionate discipline; being streamed into non-academic tracks; lack of Black leadership in schools; Eurocentric curriculum; insufficient disaggregated identity-based data collection; and lack of access to culturally affirming environments.

The cost is devastating and contributes to academic underachievement, racial trauma, disengagement and the reproduction of the school-to-prison pipeline.

This is particularly the case in low-income communities.

Centring Black excellence

Black youth often face higher exposure to poverty, systemic underemployment, community violence and the emotional weight of intergenerational trauma and racism.

While these experiences shape the mental health and academic outcomes of students, schools often lack culturally relevant supports or trauma-informed responses.

Summer programs are one important part of countering anti-Black racism in schools. These can support student transitions by mitigating learning loss and helping to close the opportunity gap.

Programs that centre Africentricity and Black excellence led by staff with lived experiences provide culturally responsive and emotionally supportive environments that affirm Black identities.

This builds confidence in Black students and ensures students return to school in the fall better prepared to thrive academically, socially, emotionally and culturally.

Community-driven youth programs

Since 2007, YAAACE has provided academic, athletic, family supports, employment and mentorship to more than 1,000 children and families annually across Toronto. Its programs are led by Black educators and mentors who reflect the community and understand the lived experiences of the youth they serve in low-income communities like the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

YAAACE’s seven-week Summer Institute offers a model that affirms identity, cultivates belonging and accelerates achievement. Each summer, approximately 300 students from grades 3 through 12 attend the institute, which blends literacy and numeracy instruction with culturally responsive learning, arts-based programming, robotics, mentorship and athletics.

Students are taught by Ontario certified teachers and supported by Black staff and practitioners trained in trauma-informed care. For families who can’t afford camp fees, the program is free or subsidized.

This is a results-based, community-driven intervention that mitigates the opportunity gap for Black students from low-income communities by creating access to experiential learning opportunities. It’s also violence prevention and intervention that builds character and supports students, with a focus on the early years.

Cycle of empowerment

YAAACE’s Inspire Academy Mathematics Program provides early access to high school math courses. Grade 8 graduates earn a high school math credit through an intensive summer course led by a team of teachers and teacher assistants in a supportive, inclusive environment. In cases where students are behind provincial standards, they receive additional supports with low staff-to-student ratios.

Based on assessments administered by the teachers and reports provided to all the parents, students leave the institute more confident in their academics, better prepared to return to school and grounded culturally in who they are. Families report higher levels of engagement and lower levels of stress knowing their children are in safer, affirming spaces.

Many of YAAACE’s youth return as peer leaders and mentors, reinforcing a cycle of empowerment.

Programs like YAAACE do not just help kids do better in school. They also reduce long-term costs to the health-care, justice and social service systems by interrupting cycles of trauma and marginalization before they escalate.

Tips for parents

Summer is a crucial time to support children’s learning and well-being, especially for Black families navigating systems that often overlook their strengths.

Below are three practical ways to support your child during the summer break and when school starts in September.

Centre empowering examples of Black identity and culture: Expose your children to books, films, music and conversations that celebrate Black history and excellence, Africentricity and positive role models. Affirming cultural roots builds pride, resilience and a sense of belonging in systems that too often erase or distort those narratives from stereotypical perspectives.

Create routines that balance learning and Black joy: Set daily routines that include reading, writing or problem solving but just as much make space for rest, play, creativity and movement rooted in Black joy. Learning should be holistic and joyful. It’s important as parents, guardians and community leaders that we not only talk about this but more importantly model it.

‘Refresh, Revive, Thrive: Black Joy in Education’ with Andrew B. Campbell, assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

Stay engaged and be an advocate: Get to know your child’s teachers and school administrators, review school policies to be familiar with how to navigate them (for example, getting accommodations for your child’s needs) and request culturally affirming resources. Don’t hesitate to raise concerns, as your advocacy helps create more supportive learning environments and shows your child that their success is worth fighting for.

Partnerships with Black-led organizations

Trauma-informed, culturally responsive education must become a system-wide standard.

This becomes a reality by building long-term partnerships with Black-led community organizations. It means embedding mental health supports and curriculum content that reflect the cultural identities and lived realities of Black diasporas. And it means collecting disaggregated race-based data to track progress and guide informed decision-making.

It starts by funding proven data-driven programs, training educators and holding systems accountable to measurable outcomes.

Ardavan Eizadirad receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

– ref. Accessible, high-quality summer programs and Black joy support Black children’s return to school – https://theconversation.com/accessible-high-quality-summer-programs-and-black-joy-support-black-childrens-return-to-school-261908

July 31, 2025

Here’s how you can make your garden a safe and biodiverse space for urban wildlife

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ann Dale, Professor Emerita, Environment & Sustainability, Royal Roads University

Simple things like avoiding chemical pesticides and leaving leaves where they fall can help make your garden a more welcoming environment for wildlife and support biodiversity. (Jeffrey Hamilton/Unsplash)

Biodiversity is essential to mitigating and adapting to climate change, enhancing the resilience of ecosystems and safeguarding the ecological functions that all living beings depend on for survival.

There is little doubt that we are at a critical point in the loss of biodiversity in Canada with thousands of species currently in danger of disappearing, while global experts continue to warn about Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction.

As a response to the cascading climate crisis, wildlife habitat gardens have grown in popularity. These are spaces designed to attract and sustain local wildlife, and include efforts such as rewilded meadows, pollinator patches, rain gardens, naturalized lawns and others.

Cultivating a garden for biodiversity is not an all-in or nothing task. In fact, there is a wide range of simple actions anyone can take to regenerate and conserve biodiversity right at home.

We are currently organizing a biodiversity public literacy campaign at the National Environmental Treasure, a people’s trust fund devoted to funding Canadian environmental organizations.

Last year, we partnered with Prof. Nina-Marie Lister and the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University on their Bylaws for Biodiversity research, along with Nature Canada and FLAP Canada, to develop Gardening for Biodiversity resources.

Supporting biodiversity in your garden

flowers and green plants around a sign reading habitat garden — Educational, ecologically informed signage can help interpret the garden for visitors. These signs serve as a practical tool to share gardening practices and highlight the garden’s environmental benefits with the community.
(Nina Marie Lister)

Together, we’ve created a series of free, fact-based guides to help people learn how to cultivate biodiversity and support for wildlife habitat in private gardens.

This series currently includes four comprehensive booklets, each focusing on key aspects of biodiversity gardening:

While there are plenty of great garden practices out there, these are five easy and impactful ways to boost biodiversity and cultivate a garden safe for urban wildlife, taken directly from our booklets.

Use alternatives to pesticides

Pesticides in your garden can harm beneficial insects and can be detrimental to the environment, wildlife and human health. Instead of using chemical-based pesticides, try natural alternatives like biopesticides, horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps that can be just as effective.

Likewise, attracting predatory insects and wildlife into your garden who will actively feed on the harmful pest is also an effective starting point as this is a process of pest-control that occurs naturally in healthy ecosystems.

There are also DIY pesticides, such as sea salt spray, water-vinegar mixtures and coffee grounds.

yellow flowers in a garden — A rewilded habitat meadow featuring a selection of native wildflowers and habitat logs left to enrich the soil, support pollinators and offer seating for visitors.
(Nina Marie Lister)

Leave the leaves

Decomposing plant litter, like fallen dead leaves, tree bark, needles and twigs, is an important component of maintaining soil health, nutrient cycling and biodiversity.

By choosing to leave the leaves in your garden, you will support the variety of species who overwinter in them, from bees and caterpillars, to butterflies, spiders and more.

Prioritize pollinator-attractive plants

In addition to pollination, insects are beneficial for a variety of other reasons including for pest control, seed dispersal and decomposition.

The best way to attract insects largely depends on which insect you are trying to attract. But as a general rule, it is always a good practice to source plants locally and prioritize native species.

Next best to native plants are benign ornamentals and non-natives. Cultivating a diverse range of flowers, especially native plants and herbs, promotes a resilient ecosystem. It also helps natives out-compete invasive species and to reverse the downward trends of mass species decline.

Make your garden safe for birds

Birds contribute to healthy ecosystems: they pollinate plants, disperse seeds and prey on insects. Unfortunately, North American bird populations are experiencing a rapid decline due to habitat loss, degradation and other global pressures.

Aadopting bird-safe gardening practices offers a powerful way to combat these threats and support biodiversity conservation on a local scale. Beyond core habitat elements, additional practices can enhance the garden’s appeal to birds.

Organic gardening without pesticides or herbicides, keeping cats indoors, removing potential entanglement hazards and using bird-collision prevention markers on reflective surfaces can not only attract birds, but also ensure their safety as well.

A small chubby bird with an orange breast standing on a stone ledge in a garden — Birds contribute to healthy ecosystems: they pollinate plants, disperse seeds and prey on insects.
(Unsplash/Richard Bell)

Advocate for biodiversity

Although there’s been a growing movement toward more biodiversity-supporting practices, outdated municipal bylaws and enforcement policies continue to limit the potential of habitat gardens.

These disputes over the scope and application of bylaws have brought attention to various legal contradictions and outcomes that negatively impact progress on biodiversity recovery, all the while undermining and negating related environmental objectives on private land.

By advocating and encouraging your municipal leaders to adopt science-based biodiversity-supportive bylaws, you help to establish the legal frameworks and political agendas that directly impact long-term ecological health and promote sustainable development and the regeneration of biodiversity.

Ann Dale receives funding from the CRC Secretariat, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Hewlett Foundation.

Sabrina Careri 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. Here’s how you can make your garden a safe and biodiverse space for urban wildlife – https://theconversation.com/heres-how-you-can-make-your-garden-a-safe-and-biodiverse-space-for-urban-wildlife-261151

July 31, 2025

Will the latest diplomatic moves to end the war in Gaza work?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation

This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.

It feels as if things are moving at completely different speeds in Gaza and in the outside world. From the embattled Gaza Strip the narrative is depressingly familiar. Dozens more Palestinian civilians have been killed in the past 24 hours as they try to get hold of scarce supplies of food.

Aid agencies report that despite air drops of supplies and “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting, the amount of food getting through to the starving people of Gaza remains pitifully insufficient.

Two more children are reported to have died of starvation, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths to 159, according to Palestinian sources quoted by al-Jazeera.

US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Jerusalem for more talks as the US president Donald Trump posted his latest bout of social media diplomacy on his TruthSocial site, a message which appears pretty faithful to the Netanyahu government’s position: “The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!”

Both sides continue to reject the other side’s demands, bringing ceasefire negotiations to an effective standstill.

In the outside world, meanwhile, events seem to be gathering pace. A “high-level conference” at the United Nations in New York brought together representatives of 17 states, the European Union and the Arab League, resulting in “a comprehensive and actionable framework for the implementation of the two-state solution and the achievement of peace and security for all”.

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What first catches the eye about this proposal, which was signed by Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Egypt and Jordan, is that it links a peace deal with the disarming and disbanding of Hamas. It also condemns the militant group’s savage attack on southern Israel on October 23 2023, which was the catalyst for the latest and arguably most grievous chapter of this eight-decade conflict. It’s the first time the Arab League has taken either of these positions.

The New York declaration, as it has been dubbed, envisages the complete withdrawal of Israeli security forces from Gaza and an end to the displacement of Palestinians. Government will be the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and a conference to be scheduled in Egypt will design a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, much of which has been destroyed in the 20-month assault by the Israel Defense Forces.

It is, writes Scott Lucas, a “bold initiative” which, “in theory could end the Israeli mass killing in Gaza, remove Hamas from power and begin the implementation of a process for a state of Palestine. The question is whether it has any chance of success.”

Lucas, an expert in US and Middle East politics at the Clinton Institute of University College Dublin, is not particularly sanguine about the short-term prospects for a ceasefire and the alleviation of the desperate conditions for the people of Gaza. But what it represents more than anything else, is “yet another marker of Israel’s increasing isolation”.

He points to recent announcements that France, the UK (subject to conditions) and Canada will recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly in September. The prospect of normalisation between Israel and Arab states, at the top of the agenda a few short years ago, is now very unlikely. And in the US, which remains Israel’s staunchest ally, a Gallup poll recently found that public opinion is turning against Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

But how important are the declarations by France, the UK and Canada of intent to potentially recognise Palestinian statehood, asks Malak Benslama-Dabdoub. As expert in international law at Royal Holloway University of London, who has focused on the question of Palestinian statelessness, Benslama-Dabdoub thinks that the French and British pledges bear closer examination.

The French declaration was made on July 24 on Twitter by the president, Emmanuel Macron. Macron envisages a “demilitarised” state, something Benslama-Dabdoub sees as a serious problem, as it effectively denies the fundamental right of states to self-determination and would rob a future Palestinian state of the necessary right to self-defence.

The declaration by the UK prime minister that Britain may also recognise Palestinian statehood in September is framed as a threat rather than a pledge. Unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, allows the UN to recommence humanitarian efforts and engages in a long-term sustainable peace process, the UK will go ahead with recognising Palestine at the UN.

You have to consider that the UK government’s statement said that the position has always been that “Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people”. So to frame this as a threat rather than a demand is arguably to deny that “inalienable right”.

Paul Rogers also sees serious problems with the pledges to recognise Palestinian statehood. Demands for Hamas to disarm and play no further role in Palestinian government he sees as a non-starter as is the thought of a demilitarised Palestine. “Neither plan has the slightest chance of getting off the ground.”

Rogers, who has researched and written on the Middle East for more than 30 years, also thinks that without the full backing of the US there is very little chance that a peace plan could succeed.

Rogers finds it hard to believe that Washington will change tack on the Palestinian question, “unless the US president somehow gets the idea that his own reputation is being damaged”. There’s always a chance of this. News from the Gaza Strip is relentlessly horrifying and the aforementioned polls suggest many voters are reassessing their views of the conflict. But Trump is heavily indebted for his re-election to the far-right Christian Zionist movement, who wield a great deal of power with the White House.

The other thing that might influence the conflict is if enough of the IDF’s top brass recognise the futility of waging what has always been an unwinnable conflict. This, writes Rogers, is whispered about in Israel’s military circles and one eminent retired general, Itzhak Brik, has come out and said: “Hamas has defeated us.”

These, writes Rogers, are currently the only routes to an end to the conflict.

Inside Trumpian diplomacy

We mentioned earlier that the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has also pledged to recognise the state of Palestine in September. This was immediately greeted by Trump with the threat that he does so it will derail a trade deal with the US. Whether this will cut any ice with Carney, who had to make concessions to get the trade deal done in the first place, remains to be seen.

But there’s a broader point here, writes Stefan Wolff. As Wolff reports, this week the foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda got together in Washington to sign a ceasefire deal, brokered by the US. Trump also claims to have successfully ended a conflict between India and Pakistan at the end of May and hostilities between Thailand and Cambodia earlier this month.

Meanwhile his efforts to secure peace deals, or even a lasting ceasefire, in Gaza or Ukraine have been unsuccessful.

Wolff considers why some countries respond to Trump’s diplomatic efforts while others don’t. There are a number of reasons, principally the US president’s ability to apply leverage through trade deals or sanctions and the differing complexity of the conflicts.

He also points to the depleted resources of the US state department, Trump’s use of personal envoys with little foreign affairs experience and the US president’s insistence on making all the important decisions himself. He concludes: “The White House simply may not have the bandwidth for the level of engagement that would be necessary to get to a deal in Ukraine and the Middle East.”

One US government department whose resources haven’t been depleted under Donald Trump is the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as Ice. Part of the Department of Homeland Security, Ice has been responsible for identifying and detaining non-citizens and undocumented migrants.

Their agents carry guns, wear masks and typically operate in plain clothes, although they often wear military kit. The agency received massive funding via Trump’s One Bzig Beautiful Bill Act earlier this month, which will allow the agency to recruit hundreds, if not thousands, of new agents. The number of arrests is increasing steadily, as is the disquiet their operations are prompting in many American cities, where opposition protests are also growing.

Dafydd Townley, an expert in US politics at the University of Portsmouth, explains how Ice operates and where it sits in Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of illegal migrants from the US.

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– ref. Will the latest diplomatic moves to end the war in Gaza work? – https://theconversation.com/will-the-latest-diplomatic-moves-to-end-the-war-in-gaza-work-262380

July 31, 2025

European gloom over the Trump deal is misplaced. It’s probably the best the EU could have achieved

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Maha Rafi Atal, Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

The trade deal between the US and the European Union, squeezed in days before the re-introduction of Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, is reflective of the new politics of global trade. Faced with the threat of 30% baseline tariffs from Washington, as well as additional levies on specific sectors, the EU has secured a partial reprieve of a flat 15% tariff on all goods.

Was this the best the bloc could have achieved? In the time available, it may well have been. The 15% rate is higher than the UK secured earlier this year, but it’s significantly below the level applied to China and Mexico, and on par with Japan.

The EU has also managed a “zero-for-zero” tariffs deal on some hi-tech goods, notably semiconductors vital for products like phones and laptops. This is something the UK did not push for or secure in its own framework agreed with the US president.

What’s more, EU leaders have argued that agreeing to the deal has security benefits in protecting dwindling US support for European defence. The urgency of Europe’s security concerns in Ukraine made these talks different from trade negotiations in the first Trump administration, when Europe could afford to be more aggressive.

The biggest winners in this deal are Europe’s carmakers. The US has collapsed various sector-specific duties on goods like aircraft, cars and automotive parts into the 15% ceiling. This effectively reduces tariffs on EU-made cars (from 27.5%).

American automakers, meanwhile, rely heavily on parts from Mexico and China – still subject to higher tariffs at the time of writing. This makes EU vehicles more competitive for US consumers than “American” cars that rely on overseas parts.

Most importantly however, like the UK deal before it, the new EU agreement is a statement of understanding between the White House and the European Commission, rather than a formal treaty. A treaty would be subject to parliamentary ratification on both sides.

But the semi-formal nature of this agreement allows both Trump and European leaders to portray the deal as a “win” by playing fast and loose with what’s actually in it.

For example, the Trump administration will celebrate an EU commitment to buy US$250 billion (£189 billion) in US energy imports annually. Yet the concession holds no legal weight in the EU. The European Commission, which negotiated with Trump, does not buy any energy nor does it manage the power grid inside its 27 member states.

The commission can encourage, but cannot compel, those states to buy American. (Indeed, it might want to do so anyway, since it helps it to pivot away from Russian gas). But ultimately, member states and businesses decide where their energy supply comes from, and they are not direct parties to the deal. Only a formal treaty ratified by the European parliament would compel them.

No guarantees from Trump

The informal nature of this agreement also allows EU member states to protest against what they see as capitulation to Trump’s demands without real consequence. After all, there is not yet a treaty text they would be required to vote on or implement.

The Trump administration similarly imposed its sweeping tariff threats in early spring without a vote from Congress, and has been making ad hoc changes to the rates in the same way.

On the one hand, this means European countries may not ultimately be required to implement some of the deal’s less savoury elements such as the energy purchases or lowering the bloc’s own tariffs on US goods.

On the other hand, this means the Trump administration – notorious for abrupt changes of turn – can also renege at any time. In reality, there is little the EU can do about this. The question of leverage looms large. Trump’s longstanding antipathy towards the EU – seeing it less as an ally and more as a rival – meant that Brussels was never negotiating from a position of strength.

The fact that the EU avoided the worst-case scenario, protected key sectors and secured other sector-specific advantages suggests a deal shaped not by triumph, but by containment of Trump. Since the deal was announced, the picture emerging from many European leaders has been one of gloom. True, the EU didn’t win – but it survived. And that, for now, is probably enough.

Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

Maha Rafi Atal 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. European gloom over the Trump deal is misplaced. It’s probably the best the EU could have achieved – https://theconversation.com/european-gloom-over-the-trump-deal-is-misplaced-its-probably-the-best-the-eu-could-have-achieved-262369

July 31, 2025

By building the world’s biggest dam, China hopes to control more than just its water supply

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Harper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of East London

China’s already vast infrastructure programme has entered a new phase as building work starts on the Motuo hydropower project.

The dam will consist of five cascade hydropower stations arranged from upstream to downstream and, once completed, will be the world’s largest source of hydroelectric power. It will be four times larger than China’s previous signature hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam, which spans the Yangtse river in central China.

The Chinese premier, Li Qiang, has described the proposed mega dam as the “project of the century”. In several ways, Li’s description is apt. The vast scale of the project is a reflection of China’s geopolitical status and ambitions.

Possibly the most controversial aspect of the dam is its location. The site is on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau. This is connected to the Brahmaputra river which flows into the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh as well as Bangladesh. It is an important source of water for Bangladesh and India.

Both nations have voiced concerns over the dam, particularly since it can potentially affect their water supplies. The tension with India over the dam is compounded by the fact that Arunachal Pradesh has been a focal point of Sino-Indian tensions. China claims the region, which it refers to as Zangnan, saying it is part of what it calls South Tibet.

At the same time, the dam presents Beijing with a potentially formidable geopolitical tool in its dealings with the Indian government. The location of the dam means that it is possible for Beijing to restrict India’s water supply.

This potential to control downstream water supply to another country has been demonstrated by the effects that earlier dam projects in the region have had on the nations of the Mekong river delta in 2019. As a result, this gives Beijing a significant degree of leverage over its neighbours.

One country restricting water supply to put pressure on another is by no means unprecedented. In fact in April 2025, following a terror attack by Pakistan-based The Resistance Front in Kashmir, which killed 26 people (mainly tourists), India suspended the Indus waters treaty, restricting water supplies to Pakistani farmers in the region. So the potential for China’s dam to disrupt water flows will further compound the already tense geopolitics of southern Asia.

Concrete titans

The Motuo mega dam is an advertisement of China’s prowess when it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects. China’s expertise with massive infrastructure projects is a big part of modern Chinese diplomacy through its massive belt and road initiative.

This involves joint ventures with many developing nations to build large-scale infrastructure, such as ports, rail systems and the like. It has caused much consternation in Washington and Brussels, which view these initiatives as a wider effort to build Chinese influence at their expense.

The completion of the dam will will bring Beijing significant symbolic capital as a demonstration of China’s power and prosperity – an integral feature of the image of China that Beijing is very keen to promote. It can also be seen as a manifestation of both China’s aspiration and its longstanding fears.

Harnessing the rivers

The Motuo hydropower project also represents the latest chapter of China’s long battle for control of its rivers, a key story in the development of Chinese civilisation.

Rivers such as the Yangtze have been at the heart of the prosperity of several Chinese dynasties (the Yangtse is still a major economic driver in modern China) and has devastated others. The massive Yangtse flood of 1441 threatened the stability of the Ming dynasty, while an estimated 2 million people died when the river flooded in 1931.

France 24 report on the construction of the mega dam project.

Such struggles have been embodied in Chinese mythology in the form of the Gun-Yu myth. This tells the story of the way floods displaced the population of ancient China, probably based on an actual flooding at Jishi Gorge on the Yellow River in what is now Qinghai province in 1920BC.

This has led to the common motif of rivers needing human control to abate natural disaster, a theme present in much classical Chinese culture and poetry.

The pursuit of controlling China’s rivers has also been one of the primary influences on the formation of the Chinese state, as characterised by the concept of zhishui 治水 (controlling the rivers). Efforts to control the Yangtze have shaped the centralised system of governance that has characterised China throughout its history. In this sense, the Motuo hydropower project represents the latest chapter in China’s quest to harness the power of its rivers.

Such a quest remains imperative for China and its importance has been further underlined by the challenges of climate change, which has seen natural resources such as water becoming increasingly limited. The Ganges river has already been identified as one of the world’s water scarcity hotspots.

As well as sustaining China’s population, the hydropower provided by the dam is another part of China’s wider push towards self-sufficiency. It’s estimated that the dam could generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year – about the same about produced by the whole UK. While this will meet the needs of the local population, it also further entrenches China’s ability to produce cheap electricity – something that has enabled China to become and remain a manufacturing superpower.

Construction has only just begun, but Motuo hydropower project has already become a microcosm of China’s wider push towards development. It’s also a gamechanger in the geopolitics of Asia, giving China the potential to exert greater control in shaping the region’s water supplies. This in turn will give it greater power to shape the geopolitics of the region.

At the same time, it is also the latest chapter of China’s longstanding quest to harness its waterways, which now has regional implications beyond anything China’s previous dynasties could imagine.

Tom Harper 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. By building the world’s biggest dam, China hopes to control more than just its water supply – https://theconversation.com/by-building-the-worlds-biggest-dam-china-hopes-to-control-more-than-just-its-water-supply-261984

July 31, 2025

Your dog can read your mind – sort of

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura Elin Pigott, Senior Lecturer in Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation, Course Leader in the College of Health and Life Sciences, London South Bank University

Your dog tilts its head when you cry, paces when you’re stressed, and somehow appears at your side during your worst moments. Coincidence? Not even close.

Thousands of years of co-evolution have given dogs special ways to tune in to our voices, faces and even brain chemistry. From brain regions devoted to processing our speech to the “love hormone” or oxytocin that surges when we lock eyes, your dog’s mind is hardwired to pick up on what you’re feeling.

The evidence for this extraordinary emotional intelligence begins in the brain itself. Dogs’ brains have dedicated areas that are sensitive to voice, similar to those in humans. In a brain imaging study, researchers found that dogs possess voice-processing regions in their temporal cortex that light up in response to vocal sounds.

Dogs respond not just to any sound, but to the emotional tone of your voice. Brain scans reveal that emotionally charged sounds – a laugh, a cry, an angry shout – activate dogs’ auditory cortex and the amygdala – a part of the brain involved in processing emotions.

Dogs are also skilled face readers. When shown images of human faces, dogs exhibit increased brain activity. One study found that seeing a familiar human face activates a dog’s reward centres and emotional centres – meaning your dog’s brain is processing your expressions, perhaps not in words but in feelings.

Dogs don’t just observe your emotions; they can “catch” them too. Researchers call this emotional contagion, a basic form of empathy where one individual mirrors another’s emotional state. A 2019 study found that some dog-human pairs had synchronised cardiac patterns during stressful times, with their heartbeats mirroring each other.

This emotional contagion doesn’t require complex reasoning – it’s more of an automatic empathy arising from close bonding. Your dog’s empathetic yawns or whines are probably due to learned association and emotional attunement rather than literal mind-mirroring.

The oxytocin effect

The most remarkable discovery in canine-human bonding may be the chemical connection we share. When dogs and humans make gentle eye contact, both partners experience a surge of oxytocin, often dubbed the “love hormone”.

In one study, owners who held long mutual gazes with their dogs had significantly higher oxytocin levels afterwards, and so did their dogs.

This oxytocin feedback loop reinforces bonding, much like the gaze between a parent and infant. Astonishingly, this effect is unique to domesticated dogs: hand-raised wolves did not respond the same way to human eye contact. As dogs became domesticated, they evolved this interspecies oxytocin loop as a way to glue them emotionally to their humans. Those soulful eyes your pup gives you are chemically binding you two together.

Beyond eye contact, dogs are surprisingly skilled at reading human body language and facial expressions. Experiments demonstrate that pet dogs can distinguish a smiling face from an angry face, even in photos.

Dogs show a subtle right-hemisphere bias when processing emotional cues, tending to gaze toward the left side of a human’s face when assessing expressions – a pattern also seen in humans and primates.

A woman looking at her cute beagle puppy. — When dogs and humans make eye contact, both experience a surge of oxytocin.
Dmytro Zinkevych/Shutterstock.com

Dogs rely on multiple senses to discern how you’re feeling. A cheerful, high-pitched “Good boy!” with a relaxed posture sends a very different message than a stern shout with rigid body language. Remarkably, they can even sniff out emotions. In a 2018 study, dogs exposed to sweat from scared people exhibited more stress than dogs that smelled “happy” sweat. In essence, your anxiety smells unpleasant to your dog, whereas your relaxed happiness can put them at ease.

Bred for friendship

How did dogs become so remarkably attuned to human emotions? The answer lies in their evolutionary journey alongside us. Dogs have smaller brains than their wild wolf ancestors, but in the process of domestication, their brains may have rewired to enhance social and emotional intelligence.

Clues come from a Russian fox domestication experiment. Foxes bred for tameness showed increased grey matter in regions related to emotion and reward. These results challenge the assumption that domestication makes animals less intelligent. Instead, breeding animals to be friendly and social can enhance the brain pathways that help them form bonds.

In dogs, thousands of years living as our companions have fine-tuned brain pathways for reading human social signals. While your dog’s brain may be smaller than a wolf’s, it may be uniquely optimised to love and understand humans.

Dogs probably aren’t pondering why you’re upset or realising that you have distinct thoughts and intentions. Instead, they excel at picking up on what you’re projecting and respond accordingly.

So dogs may not be able to read our minds, but by reading our behaviour and feelings, they meet us emotionally in a way few other animals can. In our hectic modern world, that cross-species empathy is not just endearing; it’s evolutionary and socially meaningful, reminding us that the language of friendship sometimes transcends words entirely.

Laura Elin Pigott 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. Your dog can read your mind – sort of – https://theconversation.com/your-dog-can-read-your-mind-sort-of-261720

July 31, 2025

Why some underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis – and others, just little ripples

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matthew Blackett, Reader in Physical Geography and Natural Hazards, Coventry University

After a massive earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka, a peninsula in the far east of Russia, on July 30 2025, the world watched as the resultant tsunami spread from the epicentre and across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a jet plane.

In some local areas, such as in Russia’s northern Kuril Islands, tsunami waves reached heights of over three metres. However, across the Pacific there was widespread relief in the hours that followed as the feared scenario of large waves striking coastal communities did not materialise. Why was this?

Not all underwater earthquakes result in tsunamis. For a tsunami to be generated, the Earth’s crust at the earthquake site must be pushed upwards in a movement known as vertical displacement. This typically occurs during reverse faulting, or its shallow-angled form known as thrust faulting, where one block of the Earth’s crust is forced up and over another, along what is called a fault plane.

It is no coincidence that this type of faulting movement occurred at a subduction zone on “the Pacific ring of fire”, where the dense oceanic Pacific plate is being forced beneath the less dense Eurasian continental plate.

These zones are known for generating powerful earthquakes and tsunamis because they are sites of intense compression, which leads to thrust faulting and the sudden vertical movement of the seafloor. Indeed, it was the ring of fire that was also responsible for the two most significant tsunami-generating earthquakes of recent times: the 2004 Indonesian Boxing Day and March 2011 Tohoku earthquakes.

Why did the Indonesian and Japanese earthquakes generate waves over 30 metres high, but the recent magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Kamchatka (one of the strongest ever recorded) didn’t? The answer lies in the geology involved in these events.

In the case of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, the sea floor was measured to have risen by up to five metres within a rupture zone of 750,000 sq km.

For the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, estimates indicate the seafloor was thrust upwards by nearly three metres within a rupture zone of 90,000 sq km.

Preliminary data from the recent Kamchatka event has been processed into what geologists call a finite fault model. Rather than representing the earthquake as a single point, these models show where and how the crust ruptured, including the length of that rupture in Earth’s crust, its depth and what direction it followed.

The model results show that the two sides of the fault slipped by up to ten metres along a fault plane of 18°, resulting in about three metres of vertical uplift. Think of it like walking ten metres up an 18° slope: you don’t rise ten metres into the air, you only rise about three metres, because most of your movement is forward rather than upward.

However, since much of this occurred at depths greater than 20km (over an area of 70,000 sq km) the seabed displacement would probably have been reduced as the overlying rock layers absorbed and diffused the motion before it reached the surface.

For comparison, the associated slippage for the Tohoku and Indonesian events was as shallow as 5km in places.

An added complication

So, while the size of sea floor uplift is key to determining how much energy a tsunami begins with, it is the processes that follow – as the wave travels and interacts with the coastline – that can transform an insignificant tsunami into a devastating wall of water at the shore.

As a tsunami travels across the open ocean it is often barely noticeable – a long, low ripple spread over tens of kilometres. But as it nears land, the front of the wave slows down due to friction with the seabed, while the back continues at speed, causing the wave to rise in height. This effect is strongest in places where the sea floor gets shallow quickly near the coast.

The shape of the coastline is also important. Bays, inlets and estuaries can act like funnels that further amplify the wave as it reaches shore. Crescent City in California is a prime example. Fortunately however, when the wave arrived in Crescent City on July 30 2025, it reached a height of just 1.22 metres – still the highest recorded in the continental US.

So, not every powerful undersea earthquake leads to a devastating tsunami — it depends not just on the magnitude, but on how much the sea floor is lifted and whether that vertical movement reaches the ocean surface.

In the case of the recent Russian quake, although the slip was substantial, much of it occurred at depth, meaning the energy wasn’t transferred effectively to the water above. All of this shows that while earthquake size is important, it’s the precise characteristics of the rupture that truly decide whether a tsunami becomes destructive or remains largely insignificant.

Matthew Blackett 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. Why some underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis – and others, just little ripples – https://theconversation.com/why-some-underwater-earthquakes-cause-tsunamis-and-others-just-little-ripples-262352