Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Benjamin Larue, Faculty Affiliate in Wildlife Biology, University of Montana

Delegates are gathering in Campo Grande, Brazil, for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The meeting aims to address growing threats to migratory animals — from birds and whales to large land mammals.

The outcome could matter for caribou — one of Canada’s most recognizable wildlife species, immortalized on the country’s 25-cent quarters. Canada has not ratified the convention, but COP15 still matters here: it sets global norms and shines an international spotlight on a crisis unfolding in Canada’s North.

Every year, migratory tundra caribou travel hundreds — sometimes thousands — of kilometres across the Arctic and subarctic. These journeys are the longest known terrestrial migrations on Earth.

As large herds of caribou migrate between the boreal forest in winter and the tundra in summer, they move nutrients across vast landscapes and shape vegetation, soils and food webs.

Their migrations also sustain Indigenous cultures and ways of life across the Arctic. For Inuit in Kugluktuk, caribou are part of a relationship of respect and reciprocity that supports physical, cultural and spiritual well-being. Generations of lived experience on the land have produced an deep understanding of caribou.

But today, caribou migrations are in peril. Once numbering around 470,000 animals, the Bathurst caribou herd has collapsed by more than 99 per cent since the 1980s. Today, only about 3,600 remain.

Within a single human lifetime, one of the great migrations of the North has nearly disappeared, a decline witnessed first-hand by people in Kugluktuk. Other herds across the North American Arctic tell similar stories, with devastating effects on Indigenous communities.

Navigating the perils of a changing Arctic

Animals learned to migrate because it helps them survive. For caribou, travelling long distances to calving grounds offers major advantages. First, migration allows females to time giving birth with the brief burst of nutritious spring vegetation, when plants provide the protein levels needed for females to nurse growing calves.

Second, when tens of thousands of females gather to give birth within a short window of time, predators such as wolves and bears can only consume a small fraction of calves — a phenomenon ecologists call “predator swamping.”

But the ecological conditions that once made caribou migrations so effective are changing.

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Read more:
New research indicates caribou populations could decline 80 per cent by 2100

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Arctic warming is altering vegetation growth in northern ecosystems. In many regions, plants growth is starting earlier in spring. Migratory animals like caribou may not always adjust their movements at the same pace, potentially creating mismatches between migrations and peak food availability.

Climate change may also be reshaping species interactions. Grizzly bears appear to be increasingly present in parts of the tundra where they were historically less common, potentially increasing predation during the calving season.

We recently conducted research into this trend, along with colleagues, using a large network of camera traps. We documented substantial overlap between grizzly bears and Bathurst caribou during calving.

If predators are increasingly present where calves are born and climate change affects the timing of resources available to mothers, migration may no longer be as advantageous.

Infrastructural barriers to migration

Migration depends on something deceptively simple: space. Caribou must be able to move freely across vast landscapes. Around the world, roads, fences and other human infrastructure have fragmented migration routes and limited the space available to animals.

The Arctic remains one of the last places where large-scale terrestrial migrations still unfold largely intact. But that distinction is increasingly under pressure.

Proposed infrastructure projects such as the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor in northern Canada and the Ambler Road Project in Alaska would cross hundreds of kilometres of key caribou migratory routes. For Indigenous communities, the stakes are high.

People from these communities have repeatedly raised concerns about the potential impacts of such projects. Their voices, and the land-based knowledge that informs them, must be central to planning and consent processes. Too often, consultation occurs only after major decisions have already been made and local voices are muted.

Where development proceeds, Indigenous Peoples must also be meaningful beneficiaries rather than communities left to bear the ecological and cultural costs of projects that threaten the wildlife they depend on.

Studies of caribou and other migratory ungulates show that roads and industrial activity can disrupt movements, reduce landscape connectivity and affect survival. These concerns have led some Indigenous organizations to oppose new road construction and resource development in caribou habitat, citing the long-term risks to herd viability. Together, Inuit and scientific knowledge contribute to wildlife co-management, and under Nunavut’s co-management system, Inuit are a strong voice for wildlife — especially caribou.

Protecting migrations in a changing world

Globally, migratory species are declining at alarming rates. A recent United Nations report found that nearly half of migratory species are experiencing population declines.

This week, governments from around the world are in Brazil for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. As a non-party to the convention, Canada is not bound by its outcomes — but the moral and diplomatic pressure to act is no less real.

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Indigenous-led conservation aims to rekindle caribou abundance and traditions

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The tools exist: transboundary protections, migratory corridor designations and co-ordinated limits on industrial development in critical habitat. What’s lacking is the political will to apply them at the scale the crisis demands.

For these measures to succeed for caribou, they must also incorporate Indigenous land rights alongside practical mitigation measures — such as seasonal traffic restrictions — that allow caribou to move freely across their migration routes.

Protecting caribou migrations also requires confronting the broader climate crisis driving Arctic change. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, and the phenological mismatches and shifting species ranges that threaten caribou will only intensify as greenhouse gas emissions rise. That means saving caribou migrations ultimately demands a rapid and genuine reduction in our collective carbon footprint.

As delegates gather in Brazil, the fate of Arctic caribou migrations should serve as both a warning and a test. Caribou migrations are among the great natural wonders of our planet. Whether future generations will still witness them depends on decisions being made right now — and on whether those decisions finally centre the peoples who live with, and for, the caribou.

Benjamin Larue receives funding from the Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellowship, the World Wildlife Fund and the National Geographic Society.

Allen Niptanatiak and Amanda Dumond 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. Canada’s migratory caribou are under threat. Will we act before it’s too late? – https://theconversation.com/canadas-migratory-caribou-are-under-threat-will-we-act-before-its-too-late-277591

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ronald W. Pruessen, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Toronto

Is United States President Donald Trump lurching toward decline and fall? Will he and his MAGA movement reprise Lyndon B. Johnson’s story, when the quagmire of the Vietnam War took the Democratic president out of the 1968 election and gave Republican Richard Nixon the opening he needed to defeat the Democrats?

Trump’s war on Iran is already hurting him politically. More than half of Americans disapprove of the decision to join Israel and attack Iran.

And Iran is not the only problem for Trump and MAGA. The loss of 92,000 jobs in February offers little good news. Neither does a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the tariff strategy at the core of Trump’s economic plan. There’s also the lingering risk posed by ongoing media and public attention to the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Amid all these storm clouds, Trump’s extreme and bizarre behaviour shows no signs of abating. His provocative boorishness continues: as with the “Good, I’m glad he’s dead” posting about the death of former FBI director Robert Mueller and the baseball cap he wore at the “dignified transfer” of the remains of U.S. soldiers who have died in the conflict.

Other disturbing and ultimately weightier behaviour has included Trump’s bulldozing of the American Constitution as readily as the East Wing of the White House by ignoring congressional powers, weaponizing the Department of Justice and fostering kleptocracy for friends and family via cryptocurrency ventures.

Without discounting the toll of the extreme and bizarre, however, the potential impact of a traditional force hiding in plain sight may prove more powerful. Will Trump’s 2024 voters shift loyalties because the purportedly amazing “deal maker” has forgotten that buyers have cancellation options when they become unhappy?

Parallels to LBJ

Former president Lyndon B. Johnson — known colloquially as LBJ — may offer the most dramatic cautionary tale for Trump. The shrewd Texan was a master of congressional coalitions crucial to achieving transformative “Great Society” milestones
like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the “War on Poverty.”

Becoming president after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson’s triumph in his own right in the 1964 election turned gradually toward disaster. The costs of a protracted conflict in Vietnam — that “bitch of a war,” in Johnson’s own words — was the primary driver in his reversal of electoral fortunes.

But his problems were also compounded by backlash against radicalization within the Civil Rights Movement, the tradition-shaking tremors emanating from the 1960s “counterculture” and the so-called sexual revolution.

Wilson and Truman

There are other lessons for Trump in the experiences of Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman.

Wilson predated LBJ in a dramatic loss of support among once-enthusiastic voters.

At the end of the First World War, the 38th president and his Democrats faced disaster in 1919-20, when struggles at the Paris Peace Conference and the flaws of its Treaty of Versailles made it clear that a messianic crusade to “end all wars” and “make the world safe for democracy” had been vastly oversold.

Wilson damaged his party further by refusing to compromise with congressional internationalists of both parties (partially attributable to the president’s October 1919 stroke). Republicans went on to win the 1920, 1924 and 1928 elections.

Feisty Harry Truman came to the presidency after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1945 death and made his “Fair Deal” extensions of FDR’s New Deal popular enough to win election himself in 1948.

Serious problems then emerged when Soviet testing of an atomic bomb, and the emergence of the People’s Republic of China spurred Cold War anxieties. All of this was intensified by Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s rants about “pinko” domestic subversives and the mounting frustrations of a long-stalemated war in Korea.

Republicans under Dwight Eisenhower easily won the 1952 election.

Trump’s turn?

There’s little evidence Trump cares much about or understands historical precedents, but if he does, he might be experiencing some alarm at the moment.

The specifics of Trump’s transactional relationship with voters may not repeat past patterns exactly, but the underlying dynamics of political transactionalism are difficult to suppress.

Buyers’ remorse, in fact, may dramatically reveal itself later this year in the mid-term elections.

Promising “golden age” economic growth, Trump has instead delivered results that range from disappointing to devastating. Lurching tariff policies have caused tensions in profitable trade relationships, including Canada, and increases in prices.

Any easing of inflation is now seriously threatened by a war-related oil crisis. Gas price increases already greater than 20 per cent signal a cascading impact on manufacturing and food production costs. Voters do not need Democrat messaging to feel affordability stress — they’re living it.

ICE overkill

Trump also set immigration correction as a primary goal, tapping into clear voter desire. But his administration has used excessive force and scale that have turned off many voters.

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The year 2025 may have resulted in a 93 per cent drop in apprehensions of unauthorized entrants at U.S. borders, but it also brought ICE ferocity, slayings of American citizens and the fierceness of incarcerations in facilities like Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” without due process.

There have also been disruptions of neighbourhoods and workplaces across the country as long-time “illegals” are rounded up or forced into hiding.

Another vaunted Trump promise: an “America First” stance that avoided the global activism requiring costly military ventures.

And yet, Trump has made threats against Greenland and Canada, embarked upon a military invasion of Venezuela and extracted President Victor Maduro, and launched military operations in Somalia, Yemen and Syria.

The ongoing war in Iran has now been waged with ever-shifting justifications and without congressional authorization.

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Allies or enemies? Trump’s threats against Canada and Greenland put NATO in a tough spot

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Consequences

Flawed delivery on key campaign commitments reveals core weaknesses in Trump’s “art of the deal” posturing — particularly his insensitivity to the two-way-street dynamic of a successful transactional relationship with voters.

In a democratic system, even an imperfect one, voters show support for promises both made and kept.

There can be patience about the pacing of the delivery of those promises, as Trump seemed to be granted about inflation in the early months of his second presidency. There can be pragmatism about the realities of overseas conflicts of the kind LBJ enjoyed in the Vietnam War’s initial stages.

At some point, however, voters usually shift course because they see they’re not getting what they voted for. Will this fate befall Trump in November?

Ronald W. Pruessen has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Vietnam ruined Lyndon B. Johnson’s political career. Will Donald Trump face the same fate over Iran? – https://theconversation.com/vietnam-ruined-lyndon-b-johnsons-political-career-will-donald-trump-face-the-same-fate-over-iran-278847

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Allan Greer, Professor Emeritus of History, McGill University

With health-conscious young people drinking less than ever before, it’s interesting to look back to an earlier century when Canadians consumed more liquor — a lot more, in fact.

According to my estimates, the average consumption of spirits in the 1700s was about 15 times higher than today’s figures. Between the 1720s and the 1830s, the colonies that would later become Canada were awash in rum.

As I explain in my recent book, Canada in the Age of Rum, the spirit became deeply embedded in the economic life of early Canada.

Cheap rum came pouring in from New England and the Caribbean, supplemented with local production from distilleries in Halifax, Québec City and Montréal. It mostly fed the hard-drinking workforces of industries like fish, fur and timber.

Rum, labour and survival in the fisheries

In the 18th century, alcohol was considered good for the health and warming to the body: just the thing for people working outdoors in a cold climate. But that’s not the main reason that rum flowed into Canada in such prodigious quantities.

More importantly, it provided a solution to export industries’ chronic labour problem. Every spring, Newfoundland fishing skippers had to hire four or five men to catch, clean and salt-dry cod for shipment abroad. Since the pool of qualified fishing hands was small and competition for their services stiff, generous salaries were offered. The catch was that payment was deferred until the end of the season.

In the meantime, the boat master would supply the men with free room and board, plus as much rum as they desired. The latter was charged against their salary at four to four times the retail price.

Consequently, when it came time to settle accounts in the fall, many fishermen found they had drunk away their wages. Some had even racked up a negative balance and had to sign on for the next season to work off their debts.

Under-capitalized and indebted to their merchant-suppliers, fishing entrepreneurs would have gone under if they paid their crews in full, but alcohol conferred the magical ability to claw back wages and hold on to workers for the future.

Drinking on the job

Far from prohibiting drinking on the job, employers actively encouraged it, since the more the men drank, the less they had to be paid.

A similar logic prevailed in the fur trade. The North West Company shipped hundreds of thousands of litres of rum every year from Montréal to destinations as far away as the Mackenzie River and the Pacific coast.

Some of this liquor was for Indigenous customers, but much was destined to slake the thirst of the French Canadian voyageurs who paddled the company’s canoes and manned its trading posts. In this industry, too, skilled labour was scarce and nominal salaries high, more in aggregate than the company could afford to pay.

Traders like Sir Alexander Mackenzie developed a policy of plying their crews with liquor during downtimes to cut costs and retain workers. This strategy was very effective. An 1805 ledger shows that 83 per cent of northern voyageurs were in debt to the company and that many signed on for another three years to pay for the overpriced rum they had already consumed.

Alcohol and the fur trade

Traders also found rum indispensable in their dealings with the Indigenous people who supplied them with furs.

The fur trade was rarely a matter of direct barter. From the trader’s point of view, it was more a matter of exchange mediated by credit.

Each fall, traders gave hunters the supplies they needed for the winter hunt, such as blankets, ammunition and pots. They kept a record of the debts incurred and expected the hunters to return with pelts of a corresponding value the following spring.

It made perfect sense from a capitalist perspective: value for value according to an implied contract.

Indigenous people saw things differently, however. For them, the exchange of goods always took place as part of a relationship of mutual support: gifts were a device to turn strangers into friends, as were hospitality, advice, protection and participation in ceremonies.

If circumstances prevented a hunter from delivering as many pelts as expected, that was a violation of contract for the trader, but not for the Indigenous person. One does what one can in a spirit of alliance, without numerical calculations or rigid deadlines.

Alcohol proved useful in bridging the gap between these divergent economic universes. After cultivating a taste for liquor in preliminary contacts, traders would present a keg of watered-down rum when hunters accepted goods “on credit.” Another keg would be gifted when they returned to pay their “debts.”

In between, a trader might distribute drinks as an incentive to be more productive. Rarely was alcohol treated as merchandise for sale. And despite enduring racist stereotypes, Indigenous people drank less liquor than the non-Indigenous.

The hidden cost of a rum-soaked economy

Alcohol played a vital role in making capitalism work in 18th-century Canada.

It was used in an effort to make Indigenous people conform to the ways of the global market and to ensure a supply of cheap labour at a time when workers were scarce.

Huge quantities of low-cost rum made all this possible, though it did exact a social cost in widespread drunkenness, lethal accidents, violence and spousal abuse.

Today’s capitalism thrives on other addictions, especially consumerism fuelled by digital media, while alcohol’s empire seems to be declining.

Allan Greer 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. Alcoholic capitalism: How rum fuelled Canada’s early economy – https://theconversation.com/alcoholic-capitalism-how-rum-fuelled-canadas-early-economy-277829

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Zuhra Abawi, Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream), Faculty of Education, York University, Canada

The rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism is playing out in Ontario schools, widely influenced by broader geopolitical and social issues.

Although Muslims are the fastest growing religious minority in Canada, schools are often sites of both forms of racism.

While we acknowledge that Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are two distinct forms of oppression, they often overlap and intersect to produce racial discrimination and violence, such as surveillance and censorship.

We recently engaged in a study with people who are studying and practising to become teachers (pre-service teachers). We were interested in how prepared they are to challenge anti-Muslim bias and anti-Palestinian racism in Ontario schools.

We did this through interviews with 32 teacher candidates across Ontario. We focused on pre-service teacher perspectives so we could gauge current issues and gaps in teacher education programs.

The findings of our study, which documented gendered Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in Ontario schools, points to the need for systemic changes in the province’s schools to better reflect the cultural and religious diversity in these spaces.

The findings also point to the growing challenges facing teacher education programs in light of increasingly racially and religiously diverse Ontario public schools.

Contextualizing Islamophobia and ARP

Following the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, incidents of anti-Muslim racism have skyrocketed, at times driven by assumptions that conflate negative and dehumanizing views of Palestinians with Islam and vice versa. These instances of anti-Muslim bias are exacerbated by the growth of white supremacist and right-wing populist movements in Canada and abroad.

Anti-Muslim racism, intersecting with Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, affect Muslims of various ethno-racial backgrounds, Canadians of Palestinian backgrounds (Muslims and Christians alike) and individuals who are in solidarity with Palestinian human rights and liberation. While Islamophobia has been well documented in Canada, there is limited research on anti-Palestinian racism in schooling.

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Anti-Palestinian racism is a distinct form of racial oppression that renders Palestinian identities, histories, lived experiences and resistance as suspect. Media discourses overwhelmingly dehumanize Muslims and Palestinians alike as subjects that are undeserving of sympathy. This manifests itself when school-aged children are policed and disciplined for their identities and opinions as they relate to Palestine.

In addition to the silencing of students and educators who express solidarity with Palestine, studies indicate that teachers in Ontario routinely subject their Muslim students to lower academic standards and expectations and demonstrate religious insensitivity.

Study participants

We recruited participants for our study from two-year teacher education programs from universities across southern Ontario. Of the 32 participants, 26 identified as female and six as male. Twenty identified as racialized and 12 as white. Nineteen participants identified as non-Muslim and 13 as Muslims.

Participants were recruited through listservs at various faculties of education.

We asked participants questions related to their attitudes towards preparedness for teaching Muslim students, their experiences working with Muslim students, as well as how they felt their faculties and schools where they worked in practicums responded to issues of racism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism.

Stereotypes of Muslim males

Through the interviews, we found that Islamophobia manifested itself through gender-based stereotypes of Muslim males and suspicion around observing religious rituals in schools.

While gendered Islamophobia often occurs through depictions of Muslim women and girls as passive and oppressed, our study uncovered how pre-service teachers observed a different gendered dynamic.

Pre-service teachers regularly observed how teachers perceived Muslim male students as innately sexist and misogynistic. Assumptions around Muslim males being dangerous and misogynistic have been an enduring trope in the global war on terror.

Several participants described how their associate teachers or teachers in the staff room made comments about how Muslim male students did not respect female teachers and classmates and were raised to be “disrespectful” and “sexist” towards women; the staff believed this was because of their culture and religion.

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Male teachers can challenge misogyny in schools every day, not just on International Women’s Day

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Suspicion about prayer times

The surveillance of prayer spaces and suspicion about what students were “up to” during prayer times were another key finding.

Our participants described how Muslim students were regularly accused of skipping class or aimlessly wandering the halls, while using their daily prayers as an excuse for such behaviour. These claims were never substantiated or proven by the teachers making the accusations.

These attitudes from associate teachers cast an air of suspicion around Muslim students, implying a need for their surveillance.

Policing Palestinian solidarity, expression

Anti-Palestinian racism occurred through policing solidarity with Palestinian rights. Educators and students self-censored related to Palestine, fearing punitive measures if they voiced their views freely.

Pre-service teachers described how students were sanctioned by teachers for wearing keffiyehs, were told to remove stickers in their lockers that expressed solidarity with Palestine and were even prevented from doing a Palestinian cultural dance for a multicultural school event.

These measures were usually invoked to mitigate the discomfort of some teachers and students. This was prioritized over the freedom of expression of Palestinian students, educators and allies.

Even more revealing was that many teachers and students decided to self-censor their views related to Palestine both in school and outside of school on social media platforms.

These self-policing measures were indicative of the fear and hostility that students and teachers have been exposed to in Ontario public schools and schools elsewhere surrounding Palestinian solidarity.

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Social studies as ‘neutral?’ That’s a myth, and pressures teachers to avoid contentious issues

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Cultures of surveillance

Our study highlights how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism have played out in Ontario schools to perpetuate a culture of surveillance, policing, censorship and punishment in public schools.

Additionally, our study draws attention to existing research about the lack of meaningful support for racialized and Muslim students in Ontario schools, despite the recent trend of equity, diversity and inclusion-oriented policies.

Despite institutional commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion from the province and school boards, Muslim and Palestinian students, educators and communities are treated as exceptions.

The findings of our study point to the need for systemic changes in Ontario schools to better reflect the cultural and religious diversity in these spaces. Our participants alluded to the importance of allyship when defending the rights of oppressed student groups in schools.

Need for allyship

Educators who are in positions of power and who believe in equal rights within schools need to be advocates for those who cannot speak up.

A critical step forward to empower marginalized voices in schools is also to increase staff representation to better reflect school demographics.

Our study points to the need for more Muslims as well as other educators from underrepresented backgrounds who can assist in carving out spaces of understanding, belonging and high expectations for the increasingly diverse student bodies in Ontario schools.

In doing so, educators will be positioned to leverage the cultural capital of their students to better facilitate success for all students.

Zuhra Abawi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We received a grant from SSHRC to fund this study.

Naved Bakali receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We received an Insight Development Grant to fund this study.

– ref. People studying to become teachers speak about Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in Ontario schools – https://theconversation.com/people-studying-to-become-teachers-speak-about-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-in-ontario-schools-277712

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Costanza Musu, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Since the start of the ongoing United States–Israeli military campaign against Iran, the human toll of the conflict has mounted relentlessly.

Civilian casualties have been reported across the country, and the bombing campaign has caused widespread destruction to infrastructure. Alongside military targets, thousands of civilian buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the first weeks of the war.

Amid this destruction, another dimension of the conflict is increasingly drawing international concern: the damage inflicted on Iran’s cultural heritage.

Several historically significant sites, including UNESCO landmarks, have been affected. Blasts in Tehran have damaged the Golestan Palace, while strikes in Isfahan hit structures around Naqsh-e Jahan Square, including Ali Qapu Palace, Chehel Sotoun and the Masjed-e Jameh.

The destruction of such sites highlights a frequently overlooked consequence of warfare: when the rules governing the conduct of war are stretched or ignored, cultural heritage, like civilian lives, becomes collateral damage.

Rules of engagement

Warfare is not meant to be unconstrained. It is governed by international humanitarian law, which sets limits on how military force can be used once hostilities begin. These rules are intended to reduce the human and material devastation of armed conflict by protecting civilians and civilian objects.

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States implement these legal obligations through rules of engagement, which guide how and when force may be used in compliance with international humanitarian law: what U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has dismissively called “stupid rules of engagement.”

International humanitarian law protects cultural heritage. After the widespread destruction of the Second World War, states adopted the 1954 Hague Convention, recognizing monuments, museums and archeological sites as specially protected cultural property, and requiring warring nations to refrain from attacking them except in cases of imperative military necessity.

Ignoring cultural property protections runs counter to a lesson many military forces, including the United States, have come to recognize: that safeguarding cultural heritage is not only a legal obligation, but also strategically smart.

Over the past two decades, this approach has increasingly been integrated into military doctrine. By protecting monuments and historic sites, military forces signal respect for a society’s identity, build trust with local populations and advance broader political objectives by fostering local civilian support.

Shifting public sentiment

In the current conflict, American officials have argued that the military campaign is aimed not at Iran’s people but at the regime that has ruled the country since the 1979 revolution.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that the future of Iran now lies in the hands of its citizens, implying that the weakening of the regime could allow Iranians to shape a different political future.

Initially, some voices in the Iranian diaspora and within Iran welcomed the strikes in the hope that they might open the door to political change.

Yet the scale of the destruction inflicted on cities, infrastructure and cultural landmarks appears to be shifting public sentiment, allowing the Iranian leadership to rally the population around a narrative of national unity against foreign aggression.

At the same time, the conflict is threatening cultural heritage beyond Iran. Iranian missiles have struck areas in and around Jerusalem, where its Old Town contains some of the most significant religious and historical sites in the world within barely one square kilometre. These sites are sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

If the stated objective of the military campaign is to weaken the Iranian government and open the possibility for political change, the destruction of cultural heritage will produce the opposite effect. Cultural monuments, historic cities and religious sites are not simply architectural artifacts; they are powerful symbols of collective identity and historical continuity.

When they’re damaged or destroyed by foreign military force, the attack is often perceived not only as a strike against a government but an assault on the nation itself.

Rallying citizens

History offers many examples of how damage to cultural heritage during wars can galvanize nationalist sentiment and strengthen the legitimacy of governments under pressure. Examples include the destruction of the Old Bridge of Mostar during the Bosnian War, which became a powerful symbol of national loss and identity, to the levelling of Palmyra’s ancient temples by ISIS, which the Syrian government invoked to reinforce claims of cultural guardianship and political legitimacy.

Rather than weakening the Iranian leadership, widespread destruction, particularly when it affects cultural landmarks, may instead help it mobilize public anger and rally citizens around the defence of the country.

Both international law and historical experience point in the same direction: protecting cultural heritage is not only a humanitarian obligation, but a strategic consideration in conflicts with long-term outcomes that depend on the attitudes of the people affected.

Costanza Musu receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. War in Iran: Why destroying cultural heritage is such a foolish strategic move in any conflict – https://theconversation.com/war-in-iran-why-destroying-cultural-heritage-is-such-a-foolish-strategic-move-in-any-conflict-277922

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Samantha Lawler, Associate Professor, Astronomy, University of Regina

More than 10,000 Starlink satellites currently orbit the Earth. We see them crawling across dark skies, no matter how remote our location, and streaking through images from research telescopes.

SpaceX recently announced that it wants to launch one million more of these satellites as orbital data centres for AI computing power.

A few years ago, we wrote a paper predicting what the night sky would look like with 65,000 satellites from four planned megaconstellations: SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s Kuiper (now Leo), the U.K.’s OneWeb and China’s Guowang. We calibrated our models to observations of real Starlink satellites and came up with a startling prediction: One in 15 visible points in the night sky would be a satellite, not a star.

A million satellites would be so much worse.

The human eye can see fewer than 4,500 stars in an unpolluted night sky. If we permit SpaceX to launch these satellites, we will see more satellites than stars — for large portions of the night and the year, throughout the world. This will severely damage the night sky for everyone on Earth.

SpaceX’s proposal also completely fails to account for atmospheric pollution, collision risk or how to develop the technology needed to disperse waste heat from orbital data centres.

Predicting the night sky

SpaceX has filed its million-satellite proposal to the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and has only provided bare-bones information about these new satellites so far.

We do know that the proposed constellation will have satellites in much higher orbits, making them visible for longer periods of the night.

We decided to build an updated simulation, using the website of astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. This includes a set of orbits consistent with the limited information in SpaceX’s filing.

We used the observed brightness of Starlink satellites as a reference, scaling the brightness model by considering size jumps between Starlink V1, V2 and predictions for V3, and assuming even higher complexity and power requirements.

There are many factors we don’t know anything about, so there is some uncertainty in the brightness we predict.

In the figure above, each grey circle shows a simulation of the full night sky, as seen from latitude 50 degrees north at midnight on the summer solstice.

The left circle shows the night sky with SpaceX’s orbital data centres (SXODC), and the right shows the night sky with 42,000 Starlink satellites for comparison.

The coloured points show the positions and brightness of satellites in the sky, with blue the faintest and yellow the brightest. Below each all-sky simulation we list the number of sunlit satellites in the sky (Ntot) and the number of naked-eye visible satellites (Nvis), with tens of thousands predicted for SXODC.

Each of our simulations shows there will be more visible satellites than stars for large portions of the night and the year.

It is hard to overstate this: Should a million new satellites be launched, in the orbits and with the sizes proposed, the stars we are able to see at night would be completely overwhelmed by artificial satellites — throughout the world.

This does not even account for additional large satellite system proposals filed to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in recent years by numerous national governments.

A satellite crematorium

SpaceX’s proposal is that these new satellites will operate as orbital data centres.

Data centres on the ground are drawing increasing criticism for the huge amounts of water and electricity they use. In an impressive feat of greenwashing, SpaceX suggests that launching data centres into orbit is better for the environment. This is only true if you ignore all the consequences of satellite launch, orbital operations and re-entry.

We can already measure atmospheric pollution from “re-entries,” when satellites fall back to Earth. We know that multiple satellites are falling every day and that if they do not fully burn up on re-entry, debris falls on the ground with risk for injury and death.

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Read more:
SpaceX space junk crashed onto Saskatchewan farmland, highlighting a potential impending disaster

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Increasing densities of satellites also drive up collision risks in orbit. And using the atmosphere as a satellite crematorium is changing the atmosphere in ways we don’t yet understand.

Practically, it is not at all clear whether the proposed orbital data centres are feasible any time soon. To operate data centres in orbit, they would need to disperse huge amounts of waste heat. Despite the greenwashing, this is actually very hard to do in space as they would have to manage the intense radiation from the sun, while cooling the satellite by radiation.

SpaceX should know this well: one of the first brightness mitigations they tested for Starlink was “darksat,” a Starlink satellite they effectively just painted black. The satellite overheated and the electronics fried.

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Read more:
A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’

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A slap in the face for astronomers

SpaceX has done a lot of engineering work to make its Starlink satellites fainter. They are still too bright for research astronomy, but thanks to new coatings, their brightness has not increased dramatically even as SpaceX has launched larger and larger satellites.

SpaceX’s proposal for one million AI data centre satellites with enormous power requirements does not include any discussion of the co-ordination agreement for dark and quiet skies required by the FCC.

It feels like a slap in the face after many astronomers have spent years working with SpaceX on ways to mitigate their Starlink megaconstellation and save the night sky.

Orbital space is a finite resource

The SpaceX filing does not include exact orbits, the size or shape of satellites or the casualty risk from de-orbiting (other than a vague promise that it won’t exceed 0.01 per cent per satellite). It doesn’t even include any information on how the company plans to develop the technology that does not currently exist but is needed to make this plan work.

Despite how shockingly little information SpaceX provided, the FCC accepted SpaceX’s filing and opened the comment period within four days. Astronomers and dark sky advocates worldwide scrambled to write and submit comments in the short four weeks that the comment period was open.

The scientific process is slow and careful and it often takes months or years to publish a peer-reviewed result. Companies like SpaceX have stated repeatedly that their method is to “move fast and break things.” They are now close to breaking the atmosphere, the night sky and anything on the ground or in space that their satellites and rockets fall on or crash into.

Earth’s orbital space is a finite resource. There is an evolving set of international guidelines for operating in outer space, grounded in a set of high-level international rules. Yet, those rules and guidelines are inadequate.

One corporation based in one country should not be allowed to ruin orbit, the night sky, and the atmosphere for everyone else in the world.

Samantha Lawler receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is a fellow of the Outer Space Institute.

Aaron Boley receives funding from NSERC, the Canada Tri-agency, and the Department of National Defence. He co-directs the Outer Space Institute.

Hanno Rein receives funding from NSERC.

– ref. A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky — for everyone on Earth – https://theconversation.com/a-million-new-spacex-satellites-will-destroy-the-night-sky-for-everyone-on-earth-277938

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emma A. Climie, Associate Professor in School & Applied Child Psychology, University of Calgary

When people think about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), they often picture a hyperactive young boy running around a classroom, not the quiet girl daydreaming in the corner, the chatty student who can’t finish her work or the mother who is chronically late and constantly searching for her keys.

Yet all of these individuals — boys and girls, men and women — may be showing signs of ADHD, a neurodevelopmental condition that can significantly affect daily functioning.

As psychologists and researchers who are focused on understanding ADHD in girls and women across the lifespan, we want to better understand the social, emotional, cognitive and hormonal factors that uniquely intersect with ADHD in girls and women. Our combined research examines the experiences of ADHD in girls in childhood and adolescence through adulthood and older adulthood, with a focus on understanding how girls and women can thrive.

Girls with ADHD

School-aged and adolescent girls with ADHD often slip through the cracks. They are frequently described as “spacey” or daydream-y and tend to display fewer overtly disruptive behaviours than boys. Instead, they may hold in their stress, which can lead to misdiagnoses of anxiety or depression, rather than accurate identification of ADHD.

There are, however, clear signs. Girls with ADHD are often emotionally sensitive, may experience social difficulties (such as interrupting conversations or struggling to read social cues) and tend to show more “internalized” hyperactivity, like hair-twirling, skin-picking or leg-bouncing.

As they enter puberty (often beginning between ages nine and 11), girls with ADHD face heightened risks of academic difficulties, earlier substance-related concerns and increased rates of mood disorders.

Hormonal changes during this period may also affect the effectiveness of ADHD medications, creating additional challenges at an already vulnerable developmental stage.

Women with ADHD

When we work with women with ADHD, we often hear comments like: “I was diagnosed because my child was diagnosed.” Many women were not identified in childhood, only later recognizing that the challenges their children face closely mirror their own experiences growing up.

Women who have been living with unrecognized ADHD symptoms for many years often develop strong coping strategies that allow them to function well, but major life transitions (such as becoming a parent or entering menopause) can disrupt these strategies. When that happens, approaches that once worked may become less effective, leading to more noticeable challenges. Currently, women in their 30s and 40s represent one of the fastest-growing groups receiving stimulant prescriptions for ADHD, suggesting a rise in diagnoses in this demographic.

So, what does ADHD look like in women?

Women with ADHD frequently describe a range of experiences that, while not explicitly listed in the diagnostic criteria, significantly affect their daily lives. For example, many report “masking” their behaviour or emotions, in an effort to not stand out. They may overcompensate to appear organized and competent, spending excessive time on tasks to avoid mistakes or criticism.

Over time, these patterns can contribute to chronic stress and exhaustion and often present as anxiety or depression, further delaying accurate identification and appropriate support. In addition, women with ADHD often experience difficulties with task initiation, procrastination and completing tasks on time. These challenges can affect both their personal and professional lives, contributing to chronic stress, self-doubt and burnout.

ADHD in later life

As women enter mid-life, many say they experience a significant worsening of their ADHD symptoms, likely resulting from both normal brain aging and menopausal changes. The frontal lobes of the brain usually begin to function less efficiently as people get older, and people aging with ADHD may be particularly impacted by these age-related changes because of pre-existing differences in the structure and functioning of their brain’s frontal lobes.

Women with ADHD may face even greater challenges than men as they age, in part because of declines in estrogen that occur during menopause. Estrogen works together with dopamine (an important brain chemical) to enhance mood and cognition; when estrogen levels decrease (for example, during peri-menopause), dopamine’s positive effects are less pronounced.

Many women with ADHD experience these hormone fluctuations as more extreme than other women, suggesting that perimenopause might be an especially challenging time for them.

What do I do if I think I have ADHD?

If you think you may have ADHD, an important step in diagnosis is determining that at least some symptoms have been present for a long time (rather than having started only recently), and ensuring those symptoms aren’t better accounted for by another medical or psychiatric condition.

A family doctor is often well positioned to make these determinations because they are familiar with your health history and usually have followed you over an extended period of your life. If you think you may have ADHD, speaking with your family doctor about your concerns is typically a good first step.

You can also connect with the Centre for ADHD Awareness, Canada to get more information about ADHD testing, diagnoses and supports.

Emma Climie receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Azrieli Foundation, and the Carlson Family Research Award in ADHD. She is a Member of the Board of Directors for CADDRA – Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance.

Brandy Callahan receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Canada Research Chairs Program.

– ref. Not just boys: The overlooked story of ADHD in women and girls – https://theconversation.com/not-just-boys-the-overlooked-story-of-adhd-in-women-and-girls-275686

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Larissa Speak, Assistant Professor, Lakehead University

In January, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) initiated an assessment of a proposed nuclear waste repository in northwestern Ontario. The repository is being advanced by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is charged with finding a long-term solution to Canada’s mounting nuclear fuel waste.

The NWMO has proposed building an underground repository at a site near the Township of Ignace and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. The proposal has received support from the township and First Nation, but it remains deeply contentious with other First Nations.

The impact assessment process recently began with the NWMO filing an initial project description, followed by a public commenting period. Nearly 900 comments were received, including written submissions from 22 First Nations, five regional and treaty organizations, and the Assembly of First Nations.

Many of the responses from First Nations hinge on differing interpretations of free, prior and informed consent. The NWMO sought the consent of one First Nation near the proposed repository site. However, Indigenous submissions argue that NWMO should also seek consent from all First Nations whose rights, interests, territories and watersheds could be affected by a repository.

Our research includes a focus on the administrative, regulatory and legal processes being used to make decisions about nuclear waste disposal. We’re especially concerned that Indigenous consent is being framed in a way that excludes many First Nations whose members and territories could be affected by the proposed repository.

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Read more:
Ontario’s proposed nuclear waste repository poses millennia-long ethical questions

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Free, prior and informed consent

In 2005, the NWMO publicly committed to a consent-based siting process, including finding a “willing host” for its proposed waste repository. In 2018, it committed to seeking free, prior and informed consent from affected Indigenous Peoples.

The principle of seeking Indigenous consent is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It states that governments should seek input and consent from affected Indigenous communities for any developments that take place on their territories.

In particular, Article 29 of UNDRIP states that “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”

The NWMO began its site selection process in 2010. In 2024, the municipality of Ignace signed a hosting agreement with the NWMO. Later that year, Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation members voted in favour of “in-depth environmental and technical assessments” to determine a suitable site.

Shortly thereafter, the NWMO announced that it had selected a site in northwestern Ontario, with Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation as host communities.

First Nations criticize the process

The site selection process was contentious, with several potentially affected municipalities, First Nations and regional/treaty organizations voicing opposition. Many First Nations were critical of the NWMO’s site selection process, particularly their approach to seeking Indigenous consent.

Eagle Lake First Nation is challenging the NWMO’s site selection decision in court, arguing that the repository site is on its traditional territory and that the project cannot proceed without its free, prior and informed consent.

The NWMO said the repository site was chosen “following extensive technical study and community engagement,” and that Eagle Lake is an “important community in the region” it wants to work with.

The NWMO’s initial project description made no mention of regional and Indigenous opposition to its proposed repository. Instead, it emphasizes the consent of adjacent communities and its engagement with Wabigoon First Nation’s laws and processes.

Nipissing First Nation expressed concern that “consent is treated as a local regime, while the risk is region-wide and intergenerational.” As a result, “one nation is positioned as a moral and political shield for a project that affects many others.”

Other First Nations raised concerns with the large monetary payments NWMO made to host communities. Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation noted:

“The magnitude of these expenditures far exceeds what is reasonably required to support neutral engagement or capacity building and appear to have been a decisive factor in securing local acquiescence.”

Eagle Lake First Nation and Ojibway Nation of Saugeen — both First Nations with territorial claims to the repository site — emphasized that their nations have not consented to the NWMO’s proposal.

NWMO recently released a response to various comments from project stakeholders. However, the response does not acknowledge these criticisms from First Nations.

Consent for widespread risk

First Nations called on the NWMO to seek the free, prior and informed consent of all affected First Nations, including those with overlapping territorial claims to the repository site, those whose territories encompass other essential project activities like nuclear waste transportation and repackaging and those situated downstream of project activities.

Considering the scale and scope of project activities and the potential for widespread harm should something go wrong, the Indigenous understanding of consent offers a standard that recognizes interconnectedness, interdependence and ecological reality.

Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation called on the IAAC to require NWMO to develop a strategy “that addresses all potentially impacted First Nations, including those impacted by used nuclear fuel repackaging at existing storage sites and along transportation corridors.”

Kebaowek First Nation also called for the recognition of FPIC rights of “all First Nations whose lands, territories and/or other resources may be affected.”

Several Indigenous communities argued that the NWMO must engage with the laws, processes and protocols of affected First Nations. Grand Council Treaty #3’s submission asserted that the impact assessment process should be put on hold until it is harmonized with the grand council’s laws and protocols.

Eagle Lake First Nation and Ojibway Nation of Saugeen also called for the impact assessment process to be put on hold until territorial disputes to the repository site are resolved and the NWMO obtains their consent.

NWMO’s recent response to comments on the initial project description did not directly address whether additional First Nations and Treaty organizations also have a right to provide or withhold consent to the proposed repository.

Given the positions of many First Nations, NWMO must seek input from all First Nations affected by the repository project before it goes any further. And the IAAC should carefully examine the impact assessment process to ensure engagement with First Nations and treaty organizations focuses on obtaining their free, prior and informed consent.

Larissa Speak has received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is affiliated with Niniibawtamin Anishinaabe Aki, an Indigenous-led group concerned with the disposal of nuclear waste on Anishinaabe territory. She is a member of Animikii-wajiw or Fort William First Nation.

John Sinclair receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is a long time member of the Canadian Environment Network’s Environmental Planning and Assessment Caucus.

Warren Bernauer receives funding from the Canada Research Chair program. He is affiliated with Niniibawtamin Anishinaabe Aki, an Indigenous-led group concerned with the disposal of nuclear waste on Anishinaabe territory.

– ref. Ontario’s proposed nuclear waste repository must obtain consent from all affected First Nations – https://theconversation.com/ontarios-proposed-nuclear-waste-repository-must-obtain-consent-from-all-affected-first-nations-277735

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Robert Chernomas, Professor Of Economics, University of Manitoba

Political leaders like United States President Donald Trump and business oligarchs like Elon Musk have increasingly suggested that human behaviour and social outcomes are rooted in genetics.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that problematic behaviours are genetic and inherent, while Musk has advocated for “intelligent” people to have children. His Grokipedia even frames racist concepts like racial nationalism positively while drawing on eugenic ideas, claiming that preserving distinct racial genetic profiles “maximizes individuals’ inclusive fitness.”

These arguments are taking us back to one of the darkest periods in human intellectual history: when eugenics was alive and well. Eugenics is the mistaken belief that a society’s genetic pool can be “improved” by limiting the reproduction of those deemed inferior and encouraging the breeding of those deemed superior.

Eugenics is now regarded as “the most egregious example of the destructive misuse of science in all human history,” as evolutionary biologist Richard Prum put it.

Yet this pseudoscientific way of thinking has not disappeared. It has re-emerged in new forms, primarily among tech capitalists and conservative politicians advocating for policies like forced migration, fertility assistance and genetic engineering to create a “fitter” nation.

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Read more:
Racism never went away – it simply changed shape

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In our recent book, The American Gene: Unnatural Selection Along Class, Race, and Gender Lines, we show that differences in complex behavioural traits among groups are not the natural outcome of inborn human biology, but the product of systemic economic inequality.

We can illustrate this by focusing on two of the most popularly discussed in the nature-versus-nurture debate: health and intelligence.

The limits of the human genome

The US$3 billion Human Genome Project set out to identify “the key genes underlying the great medical scourges of humankind.” Bill Clinton called it “the most important, most wondrous map ever produced” when he was U.S. president.

Yet except for rare diseases caused by one or a few genes, genomic data has had limited success in predicting complex diseases like heart disease, cancer, mental health disorders or addiction.

Scientists have found dozens of genetic variations associated with complex diseases, but the combined effects of these genes have explained very little about heritable risk. Even with the complete human genome sequenced, predicting health outcomes from genetics has proven challenging.

In fact, in 2013, the Food and Drug Administration ordered 23andMe to stop marketing certain genetic disease risk information to consumers until they received regulatory clearance.

Environment shapes health more than genes

Some scientists, including molecular biologist James Watson, the first director of the Human Genome Project and a disgraced Nobel laureate, have argued that genetics largely determine health hierarchies.

He once suggested that New Jersey’s high cancer rates were mostly due to residents’ “genetic constitution” rather than environmental factors.

This logic is flawed. It would suggest that the people of New Jersey had uniquely cancer-prone DNA compared to the rest of the population, which seems unlikely. Further undermining Watson’s theory is the fact that cancer rates followed the changing location of the chemical industry, which fled New Jersey’s increasingly costly environmental regulations for Louisiana.

“Cancer Alley” in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River lined with some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical production plants — became home to the nation’s highest cancer rates, affecting the region’s disproportionate Black and Brown population.

In the words of bio-statistician Melanie Goodman: “ZIP Code is a better predictor of health than genetic code.”

Further evidence against genetic determinism comes from migrant studies. Research has found ethnic groups with low breast cancer rates in their home countries, such as China, Japan and the Philippines, often experience higher disease rates after migration.

Similar patterns appear in studies of coronary heart disease among people of Japanese ancestry who lived in Japan, Hawaii and California. Those who adopted more westernized lifestyles had higher rates of disease.

Intelligence is a product of opportunity

Researchers like Richard Hernstein, Charles Murray, David Reich and Nicholas Wade have insisted on a link between genetics, race or ethnicity, and what they describe as a hierarchy of intelligence.

In these arguments, Ashkenazi Jews are often placed at the top of the hierarchy, while people of African descent are placed lower. Although the discussion always revolves around genetic inheritance, they have yet to identify the specific genes that would justify this hierarchy.

Where proponents attempted to provide empirical support, the argument often rested on a residual claim: even after accounting for all the social variables that might influence intelligence, an unexplained component remained and was therefore presumed to be genetic.

On the other side of the debate are researchers like James Flynn, who argued intelligence is determined more by environment than genetics.

Flynn documented a steady rise in intelligence test scores across the 20th century in a pattern now known as the “Flynn Effect.” He found that between 1933 and 1983, American IQs increased by around three points per decade. He argued people’s minds were sharpened by better education and more intellectually demanding jobs and hobbies.

Flynn also found larger impacts in lower-income nations. Kenya and several Caribbean nations, for example, had much larger increases in IQ scores than Scandinavian countries because, he argued, the conditions for learning had improved more in the former nations than the latter.

Lived experience influences our genes

Advances in the revolutionary field of epigenetics have shifted the nature-versus-nurture debate by identifying a pathway through which lived experience can impact what were previously thought to be fixed processes.

Epigenetics refers to mechanisms that affect gene expression — how much a gene is used or not — without changing the DNA sequence itself. These mechanisms function somewhat like a dimmer switch, turning genes on and off, or adjusting the intensity of their effects.

Growing evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms are impacted by the conditions in which people live, which in turn influence human traits and outcomes. Some of these epigenetic changes may even be transmitted across generations.

In other words, nurture has a direct influence on nature.

Claims about the supposed genetic superiority of some human beings over others rarely account for the complexity of these additional types of inheritance.

Opportunity matters more than genetics

A growing body of research suggests that social and economic opportunity plays a far greater role in shaping human outcomes than genetic inheritance.

As biologist Siddhartha Mukherjee pointed out, “it is impossible to ascertain any human, genetic potential without first equalizing environments.”

Decades earlier, Henry Wallace, who served as vice-president under Franklin D. Roosevelt, similarly suggested that if children from rich and poor families were given the same food clothing, education, care and protection, class lines would likely disappear.

Historical evidence supports this view. Our research shows that when structural barriers are reduced and marginalized groups have the same opportunities as more privileged groups, inequalities shrink dramatically.

By way of example, the economic and social changes following U.S. civil rights legislation led to major improvements in the health, education and income of Black Americans — despite no change in their genetic makeup — highlighting the role of structural racism and social policy.

People should be significantly more concerned with the effects of the policies imposed by the Trumps and Musks of the world than the DNA passed on by their parents.

Ian Hudson receives funding from SSHRC. Ian Hudson is a Research Associate for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Robert Chernomas 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. Claims about genetic superiority ignore the real drivers of human inequality – https://theconversation.com/claims-about-genetic-superiority-ignore-the-real-drivers-of-human-inequality-275393

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Frédéric Dimanche, Professor and former Director (2015-2025), Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Toronto Metropolitan University

Geopolitical tensions, rising gas and jet fuel prices and regional unrest are introducing uncertainty for many international travellers in 2026.

The ongoing war in the Middle East has disrupted airspace and tourism across the region, with flights cancelled or rerouted and major hubs like Dubai affected.

Rising oil prices tied to the conflict are already leading to higher ticket fares. Canadians in affected regions have been asked to leave at the earliest opportunity, and many are seeking help from the government to do so.

These challenges follow earlier disruptions closer to home. The American attack on Venezuela prompted the Canadian government to advise Canadians to avoid Cuba — a popular winter destination. This resulted in many returning early or cancelling trips.

In February, civil unrest in western Mexico, particularly in Puerto Vallarta, caused travellers to interrupt their vacations and others to cancel or reschedule flights.

With such disruptions causing anxiety for Canadian travellers, there are many uncertainties as to where it might be safe to travel, whether to cancel travel plans and what travellers should do to lower risks.

Disruptions reshape travel — but don’t stop it

Tourism researchers have long observed that global travel is highly sensitive to political, economic and environmental events. Tourism crises are disruptions that affect consumer confidence, travel demand, transportation networks and the reputation of destinations.

Yet when problems arise in one region of the world, travel does not stop; it often shifts to other destinations. Airlines adjust routes, tour operators move customers to alternative locations and travellers change their plans.

Recent patterns reflect this adjustment. As Canadians continue avoiding travelling to the U.S., industry travel experts have noted increased trips to France, Japan and Mexico.

While most international travel continues safely, Canadians should be aware of current disturbances and practical steps to mitigate risk and travel confidently.

1. Is flying safe?

Flying remains the safest mode of transportation. In times of conflict, countries collaborate with aviation authorities, airlines and air traffic controllers to define “safe corridors” for all civil aircraft to use.

These corridors around regions currently avoided (such as the Middle East and Ukraine) are easy to identify with websites such as Flight Radar. This site also provides an airport disruption map that identifies airports experiencing delays and cancelled flights.

2. Will the trip become more expensive?

Kerosene is one of airlines’ highest costs after labour, and fares have already become much more expensive for both domestic and international routes in the past few days.

Airline pricing depends on input costs, demand and network adjustments as airlines reallocate planes to alternative destinations. If travel demand decreases, airlines propose fewer flights to the destination.

It’s recommended to book refundable or exchangeable tickets as early as possible to get cheaper fares, with the flexibility to change them as needed.

3. Will travel cause more stress?

Travellers should prepare for possible longer flight times to avoid dangerous regions, missed connections or cancellations. Currently the Middle East war makes it difficult for Canadians to travel to (and from) the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Experienced travellers know that travel problems can lead to frustration, anxiety, fatigue and sometimes anger, all exacerbated by other passengers’ behaviours, long wait times at the gate and long customer service lines to rebook a cancelled flight.

Social and news media may magnify anxiety and stress, as travellers share concerns and read about others’ situations.

4. How should travellers adapt to avoid risk?

When disruptions affect a destination, travellers typically cancel plans and find substitutes. They shift to destinations that offer similar experiences with fewer risks.

For example, Canadians who might have chosen Cuba may instead opt for Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Jamaica. These destinations offer similar all-inclusive beach vacations and have strong airline connections with Canadian cities.

Travellers should pay attention to international news, especially in sensitive regions. The current situation in the Middle East remains unpredictable, and travel recovery progress can be promptly suspended.

Consumers react to crises by avoiding the destination and finding substitute destinations, sometimes domestically: risk avoidance and feeling safe remain essential conditions for people to travel.

Practical advice for travellers

1. Check official travel advisories. Before leaving Canada, consult the government’s travel advisory website for up-to-date information about risks, entry requirements and local conditions.

2. Book your trip with a travel advisor. Travel professionals can support you before, during and after your trip. They will act as your advocate in a crisis by helping to manage disruptions, rebooking plans and handling emergencies with access to 24/7 assistance.

3. Register with the Canadian government. Canadians travelling abroad should consider registering with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service. This allows the government to contact travellers during emergencies or major disruptions.

4. Choose flexible travel arrangements. Try to book flights and accommodations that allow changes or cancellations.

5. Purchase comprehensive travel insurance. A good policy should cover medical emergencies, trip cancellations and travel interruptions. However, read the fine print; not all policies cover war or political events.

6. Check airline policies. Airlines should offer flexibility during disruptions, including waiving change fees, providing full refunds if passengers choose not to fly and proactively contacting affected travellers. But previous crises have taught us that getting support or compensation from an airline is not easy.

7. Finally, plan for contingencies. Travellers should have backup payment methods, keep copies of important documents and allow extra time for flight connections. In destinations experiencing disruptions, bringing small essentials (such as medications or portable chargers) can also be helpful.

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. Planning a trip? Here’s what you should know before taking off – https://theconversation.com/planning-a-trip-heres-what-you-should-know-before-taking-off-277823