News Updates

Even as the US government is increasing efforts to help communities and people relocate when threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate change, many of the programs “are riddled with inconsistencies and bureaucracy, often impeding intended outcomes,” according to a POLITICO analysis. In Issues, Kavitha Chintam and her colleagues offer a similar critique, noting in particular that federal programs provide little support for the economically and politically disenfranchised populations bearing the brunt of climate risk. More equitable polices that anticipate and facilitate managed retreat are needed, the authors write, to avoid unacceptable levels of economic and social inequality.

The United States, unlike nearly all other developed nations, is experiencing a continued rise in roadway deaths, the New York Times reports. And the impact hits hardest among especially vulnerable groups including pedestrians and cyclists. In Issues, Megan S. Ryerson and her colleagues describe how research, such as their biometric studies of how walkers, cyclists, and electric scooter riders navigate Philadelphia’s busy JFK Boulevard, can help identify policy and technology remedies. At heart, the authors write, solutions will require shifting “the character of roadways to become spaces not solely for automobiles but shared by diverse users.”

With Russian natural gas imports already blocked by war, France could well face even greater energy challenges this winter as nearly half of the country’s nuclear power reactors are offline following decades of delayed maintenance, the New York Times reports. This would be old news to Guru Madhavan. In Issues, he argues that maintenance is the critical backbone that supports all technology—and indeed is the unsung partner of all innovation. “There can be no useful innovation,” Madhavan writes, “without a vast, invisible infrastructure of maintenance activity that keeps civilization running.”

A cardiologist and entrepreneur hoping to market chicken fillets produced in factories rather than from slaughtered animals tells National Public Radio of the benefits “cultivated” meats offer. In Issues, Alex Smith and Saloni Shah likewise predict that a “transition away from animal meat would bring huge benefits for the environment, for public health, for the ethical treatment of animals—and potentially for workers and the economy.” To best reach these outcomes, the authors write, the US government should help advance the emerging high-tech alternatives and adopt policies to ensure that the resulting shift from conventional meat production is socially equitable.

Just ahead of US midterm elections, Russia has ramped up its online disinformation efforts to undermine the American electoral system and erode public support for aid to Ukraine, the New York Times reports. In Issues, Braden R. Allenby explores the technological and social forces that increasingly make the United States vulnerable to such “weaponized narratives.” Meeting the challenges, he writes, will require both immediate responses to short-circuit hostile digital attacks and longer-term efforts to ensure that the nation’s cultural practices and institutions fully support what citizens value as fundamental principles of life in America.