Mamdani issues AI moratorium in NYC schools

Kids "need to wrestle with tough problems on their own,” New York's mayor said Wednesday.

motherjones.com

IAVS 2026: Internationalising Vegan Sociology

The 2026 IAVS annual meeting will showcase research related to veganism, nonhuman animal rights, and sociological theories of international relevance.

events.humanitix.com

“The customer is the forest”? differences in stakeholder identification between food-energy-water researchers and managers in the Columbia river basin - Socio-Ecological Practice Research

Researchers and resource managers must consider a multiplicity of stakeholders within the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus – the interconnected and interdependent food, energy, and water sectors. To understand differences in perceptions of stakeholders between researchers and resource managers, we conducted focus group interviews with an advisory group of 33 natural resource managers and multi-disciplinary researchers comprised of university faculty, staff, and students primarily in the Columbia River Basin – primarily Washington state. Our research questions asked which stakeholders were viewed as most important, which were currently being left out of decision-making, and how researchers and resource managers thought about nonhuman nature in the context of stakeholder identification. While there was overlap in the identification of key stakeholders, resource managers tended to bring up groups with less power or interest, while researchers focused on more powerful stakeholders or on resource managers themselves. Nonhuman nature came up in interviews as a key concern in decision-making for our advisory group, but less so for faculty and students. Institutional structures and incentives were key in shaping identification of stakeholders.

doi.org

Should incarcerated people receive plant-based food? — Species Unite

In most U.S. prisons, inmates cannot legally obtain plant-based food - even if they offer to pay for it themselves.

speciesunite.com

The Loneliness and Madness of Teaching Tender is the Flesh, International Association of Vegan Sociologists

By Michael D.

vegansociology.com

CDOT completes construction of the I-25 Greenland wildlife overpass North America’s largest wildlife overpass is open for wildlife | Colorado Governor Jared Polis

Douglas County - Elk, pronghorn, mule deer, black bears, mountain lions and a variety of other species are now able to cross the I-25 Greenland wildlife overpass near Larkspur, which is North America’...

governorsoffice.colorado.gov

The carbon intensity of well-being and presidential politics in the United States, 1960–2023

The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) captures the amount of stress that societies place on the environment to produce human well-being. This Brief Report provides a description of the CIWB in ...

doi.org

Roadside zoos are animal welfare disasters — Species Unite

Roadside zoos are a welfare nightmare for animals. They are typically small zoos where wild animals are confined in small cages and frequently forced to interact with visitors in stressful and unnatur...

speciesunite.com

Opinion: Gutting humanities signals the end of innovation in business and STEM

As a college professor, watching the dismantling of America’s education system has been among the most discouraging events of my life. American aspirations to be a leader in the world of business and science — which springs from our country’s support only of STEM fields — portend their own loss as things like humanities classes are being threatened with extinction. The things that provide powerful support for the structural modes of thought that promote ideas and innovation are being swept away. And make no mistake, humanities is as important to innovation as science. As an exercise with my Honors students, I ask them to imagine that a group of space aliens arrive and tell them they can have science or humanities but not both (or they will destroy both). Which would they keep? Most people think about the things that have made their lives healthier or allowed them to enjoy the marvels of modern engineering or computation. Interestingly, humanities came first in human history. It was from the humanities that science was developed. The arts were here long before science and are what made science possible. They are the very ground of business and STEM fields. You can make science out of the humanities, but the reverse is unlikely. It’s because we had to have the imagination to build, the capacity to envision new worlds, before we could create something as innovative as science — especially as it was developed in the 17th century. To imagine, dream, think critically and use our minds’ eyes to conceive of futures differently than we were handed are necessary for conjuring new worlds. I often surprise my students when I tell them there is more truth in fiction than in science. I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek, but I do believe it. Science cannot teach us values. They are derived from insights that we learn to understand from the great art, music and literature of the past. The exercise of the imagination is one of the most crucial skills for bringing novelty, invention and new ideas into the world. Reading great literature and listening to world music, poetry, art and other humanities have been vital to my life. The arts humankind has produced have taught me much about how to live more fully and think more critically, caringly and empathically. These skills taught me to think more deeply about the things I taught as a scientist and mathematician. Yes, I teach STEM subjects. My education includes a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Statistics from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in biomathematics. I teach and do research in the biology department at BYU. But without my humanities leanings and studies, I would not have been a very good scientist. My humanities classes were a master class in creativity, envisioning new futures and how to think. It was the skills we learned in our humanities classes that bring creativity to all our endeavors. It is foolish to think that we can make progress in any field without the depth of imagination provided by our humanities classes. Yet that is the supposition that is spreading across our nation like a plague. And it is wrong. Literature classes are essential for science. Music for business. Art for engineering. Poetry for values. If you want STEM-only thinking for our businesses and sciences, then get ready to hire AI algorithms or robots. They can handle that aspect quite well. However, as of yet, only humans can think imaginatively. We can dream. We can recognize and embrace values. The world you see unfolding in this destruction of the humanities is nothing less than abandoning innovation, creativity and a better future. Lose the humanities, and you lose the very ground of science and business that depend on it. Destroy those, and you lose the creative future for which we all hope. Opinion: Let’s be thoughtful in our approach to higher education in Utah

deseret.com

Stocks or Stakeholders: The Benefits of Considering Animal Interests

"Stocks or Stakeholders: The Benefits of Considering Animal Interests" published on 30 Jun 2025 by Brill.

brill.com

public.tableau.com

doi.org

Live long and prosper: an evaluation of the carbon intensity of subjective well-being in 99 countries, 2014–2021

The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB), measured as a ratio of carbon emissions to life expectancy, is a sustainability measure that simultaneously captures environmental and human well-being. I...

doi.org

Stocks or Stakeholders: The Benefits of Considering Animal Interests

"Stocks or Stakeholders: The Benefits of Considering Animal Interests" published on 30 Jun 2025 by Brill.

brill.com

Militarizing the Climate Crisis: An Analysis of the Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Militarization on Nations’ Carbon Emissions, 1990–2020

ABSTRACT. Building on scholarship in global political economy, historical sociology, and environmental sociology, as well as emerging streams of research o

academic.oup.com

The bird flu vaccine just lost US funding, do we still need it? — Species Unite

We have not yet experienced a bird flu pandemic, and there is little understanding of how dangerous this disease is.

speciesunite.com

Post-Pandemic Rudeness on the Rise: CSU Pueblo Experts Examine 5-Year Social Shift

Five years after COVID-19 social distancing began, nearly half of Americans report increased rudeness in public spaces. CSU Pueblo faculty Dr. Michael Briscoe and Dr. Richard Walker explore how pandem...

newscsupueblo.org

Working time and animal shelter save rates in the United States - Discover Animals

Working time reduction has been proposed as a policy to improve human well-being and reduce environmental harm, and research has confirmed the relationship between working hours and these outcomes. Th...

link.springer.com

Fifteen gray wolves released in Colorado last week as state’s historic wolf reintroduction continues — Species Unite

The successful release is part of plans to restore a self-sustaining population of wolves in the region.

speciesunite.com

The dangers of antibiotic use in animal agriculture — Species Unite

In the United States, around 80% of antibiotics are sold for use in animal agriculture.

speciesunite.com

How to be an "apocalyptic optimist"

Dana R. Fisher calls herself an "apocalyptic optimist" based on her research as a sociologist of large social movements. Her studies suggest that ever-increasing climate disasters will get people out ...

ted.com