York experts talk planetary defence, climate change in Antarctica, Canada’s nursing shortage, and more

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission blasted off on Monday, beginning a two-year voyage to a double asteroid system beyond the orbit of Mars. The mission is a follow-up to NASA’s successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which impacted the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022. The goal of that mission was to demonstrate the ability to change the orbit of an asteroid. Both DART and Hera are part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA). Professor Mike Daly, a co-investigator on DART, says AIDA is the first step humanity is taking in planetary defence. “We really are the first generation that have the knowledge and the technologies that could prevent what could be a pretty disastrous outcome on Earth,” Daly tells CBC.

Professor William Colgan speaks to CBC about a photography exhibition highlighting the effects of climate change in Antarctica on display at Berenson Fine Art gallery in Toronto. “We really need to reduce carbon emissions. That is the number one goal in keeping Antarctica the way it should be, which is in a deep frozen slumber,” says Colgan.

Professor Claire Mallette talks to Medscape Medical News about the ramifications of Canada’s nursing shortage. Nursing had more job vacancies in the first quarter of 2023 than any other occupation. The top reported reasons for the increase in vacancies were stress or burnout, concerns about mental health and well-being, and lack of job satisfaction.

Professor Andrea O’Reilly weighs in on Canada’s fertility rate, which has reached an all-time low. “I’m only concerned that we’re not maybe having the necessary conversations about what that stat means,” says O’Reilly. “I think some women are not having children because it’s more permissible and it’s more possible,” she continues, “and I think women are having fewer children because of the state of the world, that it is just so challenging, expensive, exhausting to raise children in a North American context.” O’Reilly tells NOW Toronto that a fertility rate of 1.26 is not something we need to worry about so much as it is a sign of the times. “A hundred years ago, we had families of 14, and then families of eight, then families of four, and families of two, and then families of one or none. That is a huge cultural change, and that’s happened in less than a century,” she says, adding, as with any cultural shift, we need to examine the cause.

Professor Palma Paciocco comments on the role of plea deals and how victims aren’t necessarily consulted. This is in light of a case where a 13-year-old girl awoke in the middle of the night to discover her 27-year-old neighbour near her bed. “We have a very under-resourced criminal justice system relative to the number of charges that come through the door, and the reality is that the system would collapse under its own weight if we didn’t have a large percentage of criminal charges resolved by guilty plea. In other words, we simply cannot afford to have everybody who is charged with a crime go to trial,” Paciocco tells CBC, adding that crown attorneys have “tremendous discretionary authority and power” when it comes to plea bargains.

We have a very under-resourced criminal justice system relative to the number of charges that come through the door, and the reality is that the system would collapse under its own weight if we didn’t have a large percentage of criminal charges resolved by guilty plea.

Paciocco speaking to CBC

Professor Ian Stedman weighs in on British Columbia’s attorney general’s plan to amend provincial laws to unmask special interest groups behind anonymous lobbying campaigns. Niki Sharma hopes to introduce legislation requiring groups behind “grassroots” campaigns to declare who they are and who they are working for. Ontario and the federal government have adopted rules that require disclosure around “grassroots” campaigns, and Stedman says the goal of such laws is to compel special interests to disclose their activity without unduly limiting the ability of ordinary citizens and advocacy groups to communicate concerns to government officials. “Lobbyist registration laws are not about prohibiting people from lobbying,” Stedman tells CBC. “They’re about making sure the lobbying that happens is publicly disclosed so members of the public and interested parties can go online and find out who is trying to influence policy and policymakers.”

In an op-ed for The Conversation, Professor Thomas Klassen writes about the upcoming announcement from the federal government about its immigration plan and immigration levels for the next three years. “Historically, immigration policy has been ‘tap on, tap off,’ with immigration levels increased when the unemployment rate falls and reduced when unemployment rises. Immigration has always been thinly veiled labour market policy; that is, a way to fill jobs,” writes Klassen.

Professor Sapna Sharma and postdoc researcher Joshua Culpepper write about how an increase in human activity, warming temperatures, and stormy conditions are causing more frequent blooms of potentially harmful algae in Lake Superior, the largest, coldest and arguably healthiest of the Great Lakes. “Unfortunately, as the planet warms, more and more parts of Canada are experiencing harmful algal blooms,” writes Sharma and Culpepper.

The Washington Post reports on new research by Professor Sapna Sharma that suggests warming air temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are changing lake-ice quality, threatening people who rely on ice for transportation or recreation.

Professor Emeritus Nicholas C. T. Rogers discusses the origins of Halloween and how dressing up in costume became part of the way we celebrate the holiday, in The Telegraph.

CBC Books is calling Walking & Stealing by Professor Stephen Cain one of the “Canadian books we can’t wait to read this October.” Cain is the author of six full-length collections of poetry and a dozen chapbooks. The highly anticipated Walking & Stealing is a collection of poems about baseball, Toronto and immersing oneself in deep thoughts.

To see: Artist and PhD student Shannon Garden-Smith created an interactive installation for this year’s Nuit Blanche using a solitary material: sand. The 2,500 square-foot floor installation used vibrantly dyed sand to form marbled patterns from the humble material. During the all-night event, attendees were invited to walk through her exhibit, disrupting the sand patterns and muddying colours. “Sand is so everyday; it’s kind of this thing that is super mundane in a lot of ways and so often represented as boring,” Garden-Smith tells TorontoToday. “My hope for the project is that people are reacquainted with the magic of this thing that is everywhere, but also the magic of our everyday movements.” “Snail-work (for the lake)” is part of the festival’s extended program and will remain open to the public at 125 Queens Quay E from 12 to 7 p.m. daily until Sunday, Oct. 13.

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