Tag Archives: minimum

Norway Implements New Minimum Age Requirement of 15 for Social Media to Safeguard Children

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Norway has set a strict minimum age limit of 15 for social media in its efforts to combat tech companies that are deemed harmful to young children’s mental development.

Prime Minister Jonas Gare Stoer of Norway acknowledged the challenges ahead in this battle but emphasized the need for politicians to intervene to shield children from the influence of algorithms.

The utilization of social media platforms by the industry has been criticized for potentially causing users to become fixated and unstable.

Despite Scandinavian countries already having a minimum age limit of 13, a significant percentage of younger children still access social media, as highlighted by a survey by the Norwegian Media Authority.

The government has pledged to implement additional safeguards to prevent children from bypassing age restrictions, including revisions to personal data laws mandating a minimum age of 15 for consenting to personal data processing on social media platforms and the development of age verification barriers.

Emphasizing the need for protection of children from harmful content on social media, the prime minister spoke of the powerful impact that tech companies can have on young minds. He acknowledged the formidable challenge ahead but stressed the essential role of politics in addressing this issue.

While recognizing the potential benefits of social media in fostering community for isolated children, he cautioned against excessive reliance on algorithms for self-expression, citing the risk of becoming overly focused and detached.

Minister for Children and Families Gjersti Toppe engaged with parents in Stavanger to advocate for stricter online regulations for children as a means of supporting parental decisions in safeguarding their children’s online activities.

The government is exploring methods to enforce restrictions without infringing on human rights, such as potentially requiring bank account information.

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Australia has also proposed a social media ban for teenagers and children, with the age limit likely to fall between 14 to 16 years old.

France is currently testing a ban on mobile phone usage in schools for students up to 15 years old, with plans for potential nationwide implementation from January pending the trial’s success.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Tesla announces minimum tariffs for Chinese-made cars exported to EU

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The European Commission has updated its extensive investigation into Chinese government subsidies for electric cars. They have announced that Tesla will be subjected to a 9% tax on Chinese-made cars exported to the EU.

The tariffs imposed on Tesla are significantly lower than the average of 21.3% on cooperating companies and 36.3% on non-cooperating companies. These tariffs were applied after Tesla requested individual action as part of the broader EU investigation.

Compared to the 100% tariffs imposed by the US, the 9% EU tariffs are relatively low and will be added on top of the existing 10% tariffs on EVs from China.

EU officials visited Tesla’s Shanghai facility in June and stated that the company has benefitted from low-cost batteries and Chinese government subsidies, including cheap land and export subsidies.

The 9% tariffs are expected to be in effect by October 31st, pending approval from EU member states.

Furthermore, the European Commission announced a slight reduction in tariffs on Chinese-made EVs after discussions with the companies. Under the latest proposal, BYD would face a 17% tariff, Geely 19.3%, and SAIC 36.3%. These tariffs have been revised downwards since the provisional measures were first announced and could change again.

EU officials confirmed that companies will not have to pay provisional tariffs until the deadline, as concluded that European automakers are under a “threat of harm” rather than actual harm like factory closures or job losses.

EU officials emphasized the need for action to prevent the surge in Chinese EV exports from causing significant harm to EU producers. They stated that their laws allow them to act before actual harm occurs in terms of job losses or factory closures.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimated that China’s EV support will reach $5.6 billion by 2022, when direct payments to manufacturers are phased out.

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BYD has been the largest beneficiary, receiving $3.7 billion in support, while Tesla received about $426 million for its Shanghai factory.

According to a report by China trade website Soapbox, 45% of Beijing’s electric car exports between June 2020 and June 2024 were headed to the EU.

Chinese manufacturers ramped up exports in April ahead of expected tariffs, with import registrations of Chinese-made EVs increasing from April to May before declining, as shown by customs data.

Source: www.theguardian.com

New research uncovers that the Great Oxidation Event persisted for a minimum of 200 million years

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About 2.5 billion years ago, free oxygen first began to accumulate in meaningful levels in Earth's atmosphere, setting the stage for the emergence of complex life. Scientists call this phenomenon Great Oxidation EventBut a new study led by researchers at the University of Utah suggests that Earth's early buildup of oxygen wasn't as simple as that moniker suggests.

The Great Oxidation Event refers to the transition from a slowly reducing Archean atmosphere-ocean system to an oxygen-rich atmosphere and shallow ocean during the early Paleoproterozoic. Image courtesy of Hadeano.

“The new data suggest that the early rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere was dynamic, possibly progressing intermittently up until 2.2 billion years ago,” said Dr Chadrin Ostrander, a researcher at the University of Utah.

“Our data validate this hypothesis and go a step further by extending this dynamics to the ocean.”

By analysing stable thallium isotope ratios and redox-sensitive elements, Dr Ostrander and his colleagues found evidence of fluctuations in ocean oxygen levels that are consistent with changes in atmospheric oxygen.

The discovery helps improve understanding of the complex processes that shaped oxygen levels on Earth at key times in its history and paved the way for the evolution of life as we know it.

“We have no idea what was going on in the oceans where Earth's earliest life forms are thought to have arisen and evolved,” Dr Ostrander said.

“So knowing the oxygen content of the ocean and how it evolved over time is probably more important for early life than the atmosphere.”

In 2021, researchers discovered that oxygen wasn't permanently present in the atmosphere until about 200 million years after the global oxygenation process began — much later than previously thought.

Definitive evidence for an anoxic atmosphere is the presence of rare mass-independent sulfur isotope signatures in the sediment record prior to the Great Oxidation Event.

There are very few known processes on Earth that could produce these sulfur isotope signatures, and atmospheric oxygen would almost certainly be absent for them to be preserved in the rock record.

For the first half of Earth's existence, its atmosphere and oceans were almost devoid of oxygen. This gas was likely produced by cyanobacteria in the oceans before the Great Oxidation Event, but during this early epoch the oxygen was rapidly destroyed in reactions with exposed minerals and volcanic gases.

Scientists found that traces of rare sulfur isotopes disappeared and reappeared, suggesting that atmospheric oxygen increased and decreased multiple times during the Great Oxidation Event – it wasn't a single “event.”

“When oxygen began to be produced, the Earth was not ready to be oxygenated. The Earth needed time to evolve biologically, geologically and chemically to encourage oxygenation,” Dr Ostrander said.

“It's like a seesaw. Oxygen is produced, but there's so much oxygen destruction that nothing happens.”

“We're still trying to figure out when the scales will tip completely and Earth will no longer be able to go back to an oxygen-free atmosphere.”

To map ocean oxygen levels during the Great Oxidation Event, the authors relied on expertise in stable thallium isotopes.

Thallium isotope ratios are sensitive to the burial of manganese oxides to the seafloor, a process that requires oxygen in seawater.

The team looked at thallium isotopes in the same ocean shales, which have recently been shown to be able to track fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen during the Great Oxidation Event, along with rare sulfur isotopes.

The researchers found a significant enrichment of the lighter isotope thallium-203 in the shale, a pattern best explained by the burial of manganese oxides on the ocean floor and the buildup of oxygen in the water.

These enrichments were found in the same samples that lacked the rare sulfur isotope signature, meaning the atmosphere was no longer anoxic, and they disappeared once the rare sulfur isotope signature reappeared.

These findings were supported by redox-sensitive element enrichments, a more classical means of tracing ancient oxygen changes.

“The sulfur isotopes indicate that the atmosphere was oxygenated, and the thallium isotopes indicate that the oceans were oxygenated,” Dr Ostrander said.

“Sulfur isotopes indicate that the atmosphere has become anoxic again, and thallium isotopes indicate the same for the oceans.”

“So the atmosphere and oceans were simultaneously oxygenating and deoxygenating. This is new and exciting information for people interested in the ancient Earth.”

of Investigation result Published in the journal Nature.

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Ostrander Commercial othersCoupled oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans began 2.3 billion years ago. NaturePublished online June 12, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07551-5

Source: www.sci.news

Climate talks will only meet minimum requirements after hottest year in human history

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday that the era of fossil fuels “must end” and that science suggests there is no way to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) without eliminating fossil fuel use. It has been shown that it is impossible to contain, he added.

“Whether we like it or not, the phasing out of fossil fuels is inevitable.” he wrote to x. “Let’s hope it’s not too late.”

The COP28 climate summit was controversial from the start. The host country, the UAE, is rich in oil resources, and the conference chairman, Sultan Al Jaber, is the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC.

At the beginning of the conference, Al-Jabbar addressed criticism at an online event in late November, claiming there was “no science” to support the need to phase out fossil fuels to curb global warming. I took a bath. As first reported by the Guardian.

The incident comes amid waning confidence that oil companies are working to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Big oil and gas companies have previously signaled they would do their part to transition to clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but over the past year they have walked back many of those claims. Critics have accused the industry of “greenwashing,” even as companies ramp up exploration and hundreds of new oil and gas projects are approved around the world.

Throughout the meeting, which culminated in extension negotiations, critics questioned how much could have been accomplished on fossil fuels when it was held in Dubai and led by Al Jaber. These concerns came to the forefront when it became clear that the final deal did not commit to phasing out fossil fuels.

Although the phrases “migration” and “phasing out” are similar, there are important differences between them. Phasing means that their use in the energy system is eventually eliminated, whereas “transition” represents a compromise, meaning that their use is reduced but still continues .

Nate Hartmann, a former State Department official and founder and director of the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability, said an open question heading into the meeting is whether world leaders will seriously discuss the future of fossil fuels. He said that.

“There was a risk that it could have been an exercise to avoid problems,” he said.

But Hartmann said countries should “transition” away from fossil fuels in an equitable manner, triple the amount of renewable energy installed by 2030 and step up leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. He said the final agreement he is seeking makes clear that: World leaders actually envisioned a future without fossil fuels.

“The results show that this issue was not only substantively discussed, but also highlighted in the document. There are good and strong elements,” said Hartmann, who attended the 21st COP this year. Told. “Sending this kind of signal about the transition away from fossil fuels is going to be important.”

Still, the agreement is not legally binding, and its critics, especially leaders of poor developing and island nations that are disproportionately affected by climate change, argue that it does not eliminate fossil fuels. , says it is not enough to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Global warming.

Many climate scientists and activists have expressed frustration that calls for the “phasing out” of fossil fuels have been significantly weakened.

“While the COP28 consensus rightly emphasizes nature as a solution, it is unfortunate that it does not recognize the need to phase out the use of fossil fuels,” said the nonprofit National Wildlife Refuge. said Mustafa Santiago Ali, the federation’s executive vice president for conservation and justice. he said in a statement Wednesday.

Emotions were further heightened when the draft agreement was published earlier this week.goa I wrote it on Monday’s X. “COP28 is now on the brink of complete failure.”

Over the past 30 years, countries have finally realized that in order to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by around 2050 and avoid the worst consequences of climate change, countries need to transition away from fossil fuels. It was first agreed upon at the United Nations Summit.

It was hailed as a major milestone, as it merely touched on an issue that had been an issue at previous COP meetings.

“The fact that the phasing out of fossil fuels is now at the center of the international scene is in itself unimaginable five years ago, and is a huge step forward,” said the director of the Stockholm Environmental Research Institute and senior scientist. Michael Lazarus said. , based in Seattle. “That means fossil fuels now have an expiration date, an expiration date. We are at a point where we can envision a transition away from fossil fuels.”

Lazarus said the consensus nature of international processes – in which all countries participating in the deliberations have a de facto veto – makes global progress difficult.

“People talk about how it’s just words and not actions, but the arguments that come out of these international conferences have incredible resonance and have the power to change the conversation,” Lazarus said. Told. “Unless we have a sense of global action to phase out fossil fuels and reduce emissions across the board, countries will not have the same incentives to act in the ways they need to.” I guess.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com