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'Every man for himself.' To what extent does this describe your society?

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Has social media made political participation and activism too superficial?

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'Corporations, more so than governments, are the key to a sustainable future.' What is your view?

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'Embracing risks is essential to achieving success in today's world.' To what extent is this true?

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How Social Media and Activism Work Together

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How Social Media and Activism Work Together

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Technology is accelerating the rate at which ideas, relationships, and information are shared. As such, social media is revolutionizing communication and access to information on both a national and global scale. Mass distribution and the ability to effortlessly share information has influenced many facets of modern life, changing the way we think about, connect to, and engage with social justice and activism.

How Social Media and Activism Work Together

People have discovered new ways to communicate and collaborate through social media. Features such as feeds, profiles, and groups on social platforms provide global access to organizations that can promote and increase visibility by sharing and networking. Modern communication students study these virtual platforms, and can even pursue careers creating and distributing digital content. The power of social media can amplify voices, instantaneously spread information, and increase collaboration across diverse groups of people.

Here are some movements and trends that have caught hold in the national and global conversation in part due to their presence across social media.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Association ran an ice bucket challenge in 2014 raised awareness of the disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) - as well as $115 million in donations. The donation amount was transformative for the association, allowing it to invest in research and assistive technologies, as well as to increase access to healthcare and services for people with ALS.

The ice bucket challenge involved dumping a bucket of ice water either over one's own head or somebody else's to promote awareness of, and encourage donations to, ALS research. The challenge went viral on social media, in part due to its nomination system: Once a person had completed the challenge, they would nominate other individuals to complete it as well. If the nominee chose not to, or did not complete the challenge within 24 hours, they were supposed to forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.

The success of the ice bucket challenge was aided by its low barrier to participation, entertainment value (self-made videos that were typically under a minute long), and celebrity participation.

Arab Spring

The early 2010s saw a series of protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions in Tunisia, which spread quickly across North Africa and the Middle East. The revolutions targeted oppressive regimes and low standards of living.

The "Arab Spring" is noted for the young protesters who took to the streets, utilizing social media during the uprisings to organize, create awareness around the political issues, and document the experience on the ground. The use of social media in political uprisings, documenting violence, exercising freedom of speech, and creating space for civic engagement has reinforced the importance and relevance of citizen journalists today.

Studies on the Arab Spring protests discuss the use of social media in these events and their effects on the internal populations of the involved countries, as well as the global awareness that citizen journalism created through the sharing of posts, photos, and videos. Facebook pages and groups created spaces for gathering and community building, sharing stories and information on the ground, and organization for protests in real time. Studies found that though social media helped spark many of the protests through online mobilization, its greatest impact was "acting more as a megaphone than a rallying cry."

The dissemination of information by sharing local self-generated news translating into mass and international media brought the issues and events into the global discussion. This resulted in international pressure against the violent reactions of autocratic regimes to protesters.

Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement began as an online community that worked to combat anti-black racism and police violence that targets African Americans in particular, using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Through the use of the hashtag and social media platforms, the online community has been able to organize, mobilize, and improve its visibility, eventually becoming an organization with more than 40 chapters that work to support black lives.

The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was created by the co-founder and strategic advisor Patrisse Khan-Cullors through inspiration from a love letter written to black people by co-founder Alicia Garza, following the killing of Trayvon Martin. According to the Pew Research Center, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was used nearly 30 million times on Twitter (an average of 17,002 times per day) from its first use in July 2013 to the research cap date of May 1, 2018. The hashtag was slow to gain initial momentum, but has since resulted in daily usage.

The hashtag increases in use during events like protests, demonstrations, speeches, and national discussions, or in response to news stories that affect the black community. Further data from the Pew Research Center study shows the hashtag was commonly used to discuss the relationship between the black community and:

Fatal police-related encounters

Violent acts

Police and law enforcement actions

Specific national politicians and political parties

Race and racial discrimination

Protests and activist events

Utilizing social media and tools such as hashtags encouraged information sharing, helped spread awareness, and provided a space online for the Black Lives Matter community to form and organize.

#LoveWins

The Supreme Court's decision of 2015 to legalize marriage between same-sex couples was celebrated by many people across many platforms. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) had worked throughout the year leading up to the Supreme Court decision with digital marketing campaigns, creating original content and language about loving, committed, same-sex couples to drive the marriage-equality narrative.

With the courthouse win, the HRC's work around #LoveWins was put into full effect through social media, promoting the sharing of messages and photos in support of the victory with the inclusion of the #LoveWins hashtag. The online campaign was a success with 97,592,956 impressions on the breaking news Facebook post from HRC, and #LoveWins trending globally throughout the day with 7 million tweets and 1.4 million photos on Instagram. Celebrities such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Taylor Swift, and many companies and corporations from large to small participated.

#MeToo

The Me Too movement (or #MeToo movement) is a source of solidarity for women of all backgrounds who have experienced sexual harassment. The movement focuses on the experiences of sexual violence survivors from all walks of life. By telling and sharing stories, those who engage with the movement hope to show how common sexual harassment is.

The Me Too movement originated in 2006, but reached the mainstream in 2017 when multiple high-profile actresses opened up about their sexual harassment experiences in the film industry and began sharing the hashtag #MeToo. The popularization of the topic instigated an understanding of the Me Too movement, sexual harassment, and assault, hoping to reduce tolerance of abusive behaviors and increase support for victims.

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a modern example of a grassroots political movement - action from the power of the masses. The Occupy movement operated from a bottom level organization with no official leader, but the mindset that all individuals are leaders. These protests spanned multiple weeks, making splashes nationally and across the globe through the use of social media.

Each locale of the movement would establish its own set of organizational practices, utilizing virtual as well as concrete spaces, and striving to revise proposals until nine-tenths of the participants approved. The phenomenon created by Occupy Wall Street relied on social media's ability to foster unified collective participation.

How Social Media Can Promote Social Justice

The use of social media to uplift voices and stories, create awareness, and build and strengthen relationships creates a space for organizations, activists, and citizens to demand justice.

Coordinating Community Responses

As discovered with movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, social media has the opportunity to create online spaces where people come together and find support. Instances such as the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street showcase the global effect that can take place through the sharing of ideas online, such as massive gatherings that create unity for a cause.

Platforming Lived Experiences

Many social justice causes work to build equity for minorities and underrepresented individuals and groups within society. The stories and struggles of minorities often aren't well known or publicized, but social media can provide a platform to amplify and share them with potentially millions of people across the globe. This exposure helps share lived experiences about racial violence, sexual harassment, and other forms of oppression directly from the underrepresented.

Promoting and Planning Events

As seen with Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and the Black Lives Matter movement, social media can create public awareness around issues in the name of social justice. The ability to reach a larger audience by sharing information empowers communities to organize in the real world around a cause. Political activist group MoveOn plans and organizes swift responses to real-world proceedings in "Rapid-Response Events." MoveOn hosts immediately available information that can set in motion a series of protests with unified demands by 5 p.m. the next day following an event or sequence of political happenings.

Sharing Pictures and Videos

Social media can also be used as a tool not only to organize large-scale protests, but also to document them. Nearly every social movement in the modern world is documented through social media, and news outlets frequently scan sites like Twitter to find new information or evocative imagery of current events.

One highly publicized example is the Hong Kong protests of 2019, in which protesters have used social media to share pictures and videos of events as they occur, battling for a public and global opinion on the pro-democracy movement.

Signal Boosting

Though social media provides the opportunity for the voice of an individual to be amplified, in many cases, this voice can still be lost in the noise of the internet. It takes a community utilizing the share feature to gain traction for a post, allowing it to spread to a much wider audience. This process of signal boosting occurs when fellow social media users share a single message. When done well, signal boosting can cause content to go viral.

Utilize the College Population

Young people use social media more often than their older generations, and the trend of use is statistically unchanged since 2018, according to research from Pew Research Center. The breakdown of platform usage shows that Facebook is the most widely used platform across demographic groups, with roughly 70% of adults saying they use the platform, but that Instagram and Snapchat have an especially strong following among young adults. The research further shows that roughly three-quarters of Facebook users visit the site daily, while 80% of young adults are using Snapchat and Instagram not only daily, but multiple times a day.

With the available attention of college-aged students, and the desire of students for "perspective-taking" in the higher education experience, college campuses are fertile ground for targeted audiences of social justice causes and movements.

There are many ways to utilize social media to network, facilitate awareness, and build conversations online, but it is also important to be aware that colleges and employers are also observing online personas. Participants should always be aware of etiquette and professionalism, which can also lend credibility to a conversation or movement.

Best Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits

For nonprofits and social justice organizers alike, social media can be a powerful resource for sharing a narrative, sharing information, or building a conversation around an issue. Getting in touch with and building an audience can benefit the organization's mission.

Fundraising

A social media fundraising campaign typically works to utilize the diversity of the audience and focus attention on one focused goal. This works to earn smaller donations from a wider pool, improving awareness, which can lead to more donations. Utilizing a call-to-action can augment fundraising efforts. Social media provides a platform to elevate charitable donations and the community, to share stories and connect with donors.

Fundraising through social media is best done with a strategic plan that implements not only a goal, but also a strategy on how to get there, valuing the importance of improving awareness and organically growing an audience. Creating a funnel from awareness, engagement, and finally to conversions is a media strategy that will ensure that views are converting into donations. With the expansion of technology into design and media, having someone on the team with a bachelor's degree in digital media may be the key to designing a campaign: blending technology and design into an aesthetic that will increase the opportunity for shares and mass communication.

Partnering with Influencers

Partnering with a social media influencer who has enough followers to influence public opinion, can greatly boost a message. An individual with a larger audience taking a stance on an issue or promoting a cause may help reach target donor demographics to boost public awareness and perception of a nonprofit.

Promoting Events

Producing an event can build community engagement around a topic, such as protests and rallies, fundraising events, educational or informative events, or used clothing drives. Promoting an event through social media provides the opportunity to capture the attention of, and invite all followers - as well as the potential to reach out to each follower's audience. Utilizing Facebook as a platform to market the event can also help in preparation by providing an estimate of the number of those who are attending.

Sharing Stories

Sharing stories does more than provide information; it also has the opportunity to showcase situations of great need or successes in the movement. Making space for a narrative to be told can let the audience know that there is still work to be done - but also that it is making a difference. In addition to raising awareness, these stories may encourage continued support of the ongoing efforts of the nonprofit or campaign.

Spreading Awareness

For nonprofits and social justice campaigns, utilizing social media can spread awareness of the mission, needs, and sometimes even the existence of an issue. Social media can create a platform for sharing stories, narratives, and photos, providing facts and data in a consumable way, which engages an audience by helping them understand. The work to create awareness helps to build a community around an issue. Social media and networking can be done with focus and dedication, but with the rate at which technology and communication continue to evolve, the help of a professional who has a degree in strategic communication or expert knowledge can drastically improve meeting tangible goals of growth and awareness for a campaign or nonprofit.
Recommended Reading:
What Is Cyberbullying? Understanding Online Harassment and Bullying
Digital Literacy and Online Education
Netiquette and Online Behavior Guidelines

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Social Media as Activism and Social Justice | Maryville Online

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Utilizing social media to serve as a communication tool for social justice can generate awareness, build communities, unite ideas, and share narratives.

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Chan Chun Sing urges S’poreans to exercise individual responsibility & ‘not hoard items unnecessarily’

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Ong Ye Kung also reiterated Chan’s message.

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The Promise of Digital Activism & its Dangers

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The Promise of Digital Activism & its Dangers

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On the day I was scheduled to interview for a position with the White House National Security Council, I found out that my interview would have to be rescheduled due to the toppling of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Even as activists in Tahrir Square were using Twitter and other social media to mobilize a large-scale revolution for democracy and human rights, Mubarak had "shut down" the internet and jailed Egyptian bloggers to crush dissent. Since then, I have been fascinated by the role of social media as an organizing tool, even as I remain cautious about the role of government censorship and surveillance capitalism. From the subsequent uprisings in the Middle East to the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements in the United States to the role of social media in the Ukraine-Russia information war today, it has become apparent that social media is a powerful tool for both those who seek to enhance and those who seek to limit freedom.

Through the Council on Foreign Relations' roundtable series, I was fortunate to speak with Brooke Foucault Welles, associate professor at Northeastern University and coauthor of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice, and Meighan Stone, former adjunct senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and coauthor of Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women's Rights, about how marginalized groups use their social media platforms to advocate for societal improvements. While Foucault Welles focuses on digital social justice activism in the United States and Stone focuses on women's rights activism around the world, both authors observe striking commonalities in their work; namely, that while digital activism has the potential to create transformative and concrete change, there exist a plethora of factors that can limit hashtag activism's efficacy.

Foucault Welles provided some insights as to how hashtag activism influences mainstream media coverage, representing a "transformative opportunity to inject new narratives or to change the narratives and the way we talk about things." The activists at the center of these digital campaigns are incredibly important. While some not familiar with social justice campaigns might believe that movements like Black Lives Matter erupted spontaneously during the summer of 2020, Foucault Welles reminded us that this is not the case. In fact, activists tend to operate in digital networks that overlap with social justice movements that have a presence "on the ground," allowing activists to learn and develop effective strategies to spread their message. As a result, each subsequent movement grows larger and gathers steam more quickly.

When it comes to the international #MeToo movement, Stone said that while the gender gap in technology access remains persistent, young women all over the world are making " concrete legal, economic, and political wins" through their online activism. The global #MeToo movement is both transnational and hyper-local. While activists around the world were inspired by Tarana Burke's movement that American celebrities later popularized as a hashtag, they also focused on specific issues to their communities. Stone brought up the example of young women activists in Nigeria who digitally organized the #NorthNormal campaign in order to push all Nigerian states to adopt the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, which comprehensively addresses violence against women. Hyper-local campaigns have also spread transnationally, as in the case of Loujain al-Hathloul, the women's rights activist whose imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Saudi regime sparked international outcry. Al-Hathloul was released last year.

Despite the power of hashtag activism to change national and international conversations, significant backlash to these online campaigns presents enormous risks to activists. This backlash is certainly not unique to digital activism; Foucault Welles noted that "As soon as any marginalized group starts to have some inroads to power, you get the backlash." Stone agreed, and questioned whether there were any social movements that were not met with backlash. The real question, Stone said, is whether activists decide to endure that backlash or not. While the backlash activists experience is very serious and threatening, it should not be taken as "evidence that the movement is unsuccessful or should stop." Even though backlash in authoritarian regimes is particularly severe, such as the imprisonment of women's activists in Saudi Arabia, backlash presents a problem in democratic countries like the United States as well. In addition to suppression of academic freedom and speech on questions of race (as with bans on " critical race theory" in the classroom and libraries), recent state and local restrictions through legislation, school board policies, and other measures now target LGBTQ+ children and their families. Such restrictions on expression, including self-expression, reflect both the power of civil rights progress as well as the significant retaliation social justice activists face.

Recently too, we have seen a surge in both online and offline activism in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian activists have found creative ways to organize protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin while Ukrainian activists have used the internet to find evidence of Russian war crimes. As a testament to the crucial role large tech companies play, some have observed that Russia's usual disinformation campaigns, on display during Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, are not as effective this time around. Tech companies have implemented new policies and devoted more resources to countering Russian disinformation. Twitter's ban on ads in Russia and Ukraine and Facebook parent company Meta's creation of an operations center staffed by Russian and Ukrainian speakers are some examples of how tech companies have tried to combat Russia's disinformation war. Conversely, others have described these measures as haphazard, inconsistent, and inadequate to confront the magnitude of Russia's disinformation efforts. Moreover, experts have increasingly called attention to coordinated disinformation campaigns on TikTok and TikTok's failure to adequately contain the problem. As one report notes, "Over 180 Russian influencers on TikTok are involved in a seemingly concerted propaganda campaign using the caption 'Russian Lives Matter[.]'" Another report indicates influencers on Russian TikTok are being paid to promote propaganda from the Kremlin.

Digital activism is not as simple as someone clicking "retweet" on Twitter-which all too often involves enormous risk to the activists themselves or can result in spreading disinformation. Foucault Welles reminds us that digital movements depend on the extent to which a few powerful companies are willing to defend free speech, even in the face of immense pressure from national governments. What current tech companies are doing to limit Russian disinformation could prove instructive in other areas. Tech companies could devote far more resources to combating targeted harassment of women's rights activists and journalists, and when national governments are responsible for disinformation or harassment campaigns, tech companies could use strategies similar to the ones they are currently using in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The United States government could also do more to support digital activism by reevaluating its partnerships with authoritarian regimes and directing more aid to women's rights organizations and digital rights groups.

Watch the full roundtable here: Social Justice Movements and Twitter: Digital Revolutions in the United States and Abroad

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The Promise of Digital Activism-and its Dangers

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Social media can be a powerful tool for digital activists-and for the governments trying to silence them.

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What is Google up to in the world of Energy? : Think Smartgrids

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A lui seul, le groupe originaire de la silicone vallée, incarne la menace d'un secteur en proie à une Uberisation prochaine.

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Elon Musk may be forced by a court to go through with his purchase of Twitter, raising questions about how his approach to risk-taking in business might play out on the platform.

Why it matters: Musk's high tolerance for risk at his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, has reshaped industries and intersected with a vast number of employees and consumers.

Driving the news: Newly public texts between Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey give us a glimpse into Musk's potential vision for Twitter.

Across several messages,Musk made clear he wanted to reshape Twitter by hiring chieflyengineers and coders.

That approach has worked for him at Tesla and SpaceX. But Twitter isn't a hardware company. Its product is human communication itself.

And risks taken on the platform have consequences for everyone who touches the public square.

Risk on the roads

What's happening: Local news stories about Tesla crashes bubbled up as the carmaker rolled out its self-driving features.

These are a patchwork of driving assistance features that are currently in beta mode and available to about 160,000 Tesla drivers around the U.S. and Canada.

"Most other companies that are developing self-driving technology are testing their cars on public roads too, but they're doing it with trained safety drivers behind the wheel, ready to take over in case there's a problem," Axios transportation reporter Joann Muller notes.

"But in the case of Tesla, this is just software that's downloaded into your car overnight and you get no special training. So you don't know when someone is driving a Tesla by you, whether that software is engaged or who's driving the car. And so that really puts everyone at risk."

Where it stands: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) released data this summer identifying 392 reported accidents as of May 2022 involving cars operating with assisted driving features.

273, or roughly 69%, involved Teslas.

In 2021, the agency opened an investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system and expanded that investigation nearly a year later.

It's digging into whether Tesla's driver assistance systems increase the risk of car accidents. And if NHTSA finds they do, the next step would be a recall to correct the problem.

NHTSA said it cannot comment on an open investigation, and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Risk on the factory floor

The culture of risk at Tesla reportedly seepsinto the factories, too.

A 2019 Forbes investigation looked at California'sOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations at major automakers from 2014 to 2018.

Forbes reported Tesla had accumulated three times as many violations as its 10 largest competitors combined in that period. The violations were for incidents like major factory floor injuries ranging from severe bone fractures to severed fingertips.

Tesla's autoworkers are not unionized. Unions in auto plants are historically an important lever for workers to use to guarantee safety. It's been widely reported that Tesla has quashed several unionization efforts in their plants.

Risk in space

SpaceX builds risk into the way it builds its rockets, testing them and learning from failed tests and explosions to make better rockets.

"What SpaceX has been able to do is normalize experimentation, normalize failures in a controlled way," says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at the Planetary Society and a longtime SpaceX watcher.

Why it matters: NASA is relying on SpaceX to get people to the Moon. That means "it's tacitly endorsing its risk-taking behavior in the industry," Axios Space reporter Miriam Kramer says.

"SpaceX's Starship is key to NASA's Artemis program to deliver people to the surface of the Moon. The rocket hasn't been to orbit yet, but SpaceX already has a contract with NASA to use Starship as a lunar lander."

"Industry experts aren't convinced it'll work, particularly before 2025, when the first landing is expected."

What to watch

The stakes are high when it comes to who will own and run Twitter. As long as the platform functions as a global public square, engineering it comes close to engineering society. Risks gone wrong there could have consequences for everyone who touches Twitter - which includes governments, activists, journalists, and millions of everyday people.

Go deeper: Listen to the new season of How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter.

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He's taken big risks in space, on the roads and now online.

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Selfish Meritocracy by Goh Chok Tong (2013)

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Selfish Meritocracy by Goh Chok Tong (2013)

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H&M Case Shows How Greenwashing Breaks Brand Promise

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A recent expose on fast-fashion retailer H&M alleges that the company’s environmental promise is undermined by greenwashing.

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The Titan Sub and the Risks of Unregulated Deep-Sea Tourism

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Wealthy adventurers are seeking extreme experiences in space and deep below the ocean-areas with big risks and little regulation.

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Singapore should not be a welfare state but a welfare society: Tharman

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Self-reliance remains core, but Singapore also needs solidarity and social empathy, he said. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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US Perspective on Social Media Movements

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US Perspective on Social Media Movements

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Demonstrators live-stream a protest in Chicago on June 1, 2020. (Javage Logan/Xinhua via Getty)

Social media platforms are important for political and social activists. But while most Americans believe these platforms are an effective tool for raising awareness and creating sustained movements, majorities also believe they are a distraction and lull people into believing they are making a difference when they're not, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Overall, eight-in-ten Americans say social media platforms are very (31%) or somewhat (49%) effective for raising public awareness about political or social issues, according to the survey of U.S. adults conducted July 13-19. A similar share (77%) believes these platforms are at least somewhat effective for creating sustained social movements.

Smaller shares - though still majorities - say social media are at least somewhat effective in getting elected officials to pay attention to issues (65%), influencing policy decisions (63%) or changing people's minds about political or social issues (58%).

Across political parties, more describe these platforms as effective rather than ineffective when it comes to achieving these goals. Still, there are some partisan differences.

Democrats and independents who lean Democratic are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say social media sites are at least somewhat effective as a way to raise public awareness about political or social issues (86% vs. 74%), create sustained social movements (82% vs. 73%) and get elected officials to pay attention to issues (71% vs. 59%). Partisan gaps are more modest when it comes to these platforms' effectiveness at influencing policy or changing people's minds.

Democrats also stand out as seeing social media platforms as very effective for raising awareness: 39% of Democrats say social media are very effective at this, compared with 22% of Republicans.
Related: 55% of U.S. social media users say they are 'worn out' by political posts and discussions
While younger Americans are more likely than their older counterparts to use some social media platforms, there are few age-related differences in views of these sites' effectiveness for political engagement - and party differences persist even among younger adults for some goals. For example, 87% of Democrats ages 18 to 29 say social media sites are at least somewhat effective for raising awareness, compared with 76% of Republicans in the same age group. Democrats ages 18 to 29 are also more likely than their Republican counterparts to say these sites are at least somewhat effective at creating sustained social movements (84% vs. 74%) and getting elected officials to pay attention to issues (72% vs. 60%).

Leading up to the presidential election, social media platforms have played a role in raising awareness about voting issues, spreading information about the presidential candidates and allowing users to engage in online activism and campaigning. But when asked about social media's broader impact on political discourse, there are some signs that Americans think these platforms can have both positive and negative effects.

On the more positive side, about two-thirds of Americans say the statements "social media highlight important issues that might not get a lot of attention otherwise" (65%) and "social media help give a voice to underrepresented groups" (64%) describe social media very or somewhat well. Half of Americans also say the statement "social media make it easier to hold powerful people accountable for their actions" describes these platforms at least somewhat well.

But even larger shares of the public think these platforms are distractions and that people may be engaging in "slacktivism" - a term critics have used to describe activism online. Roughly eight-in-ten Americans (79%) say the statement "social media distract people from issues that are truly important" describes social media very or somewhat well, while a similar share (76%) say the same about the statement "social media make people think they are making a difference when they really aren't."

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to see positive impacts of social media. For instance, three-quarters of Democrats say the statement "social media highlight important issues that may not get a lot of attention otherwise" describes these platforms at least somewhat well, compared with 55% of Republicans. Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to say these platforms help give a voice to underrepresented groups (75% vs. 52%) and make it easier to hold powerful people accountable for their actions (60% vs. 40%).

By comparison, there is more partisan agreement when it comes to some negative aspects of using social media platforms for political engagement. However, Republicans are a bit more likely than Democrats to believe that social media distract people from issues that are truly important (82% vs. 77%) or make people think they are making a difference when they really aren't (80% vs. 74%).

Younger Americans tend to have a more positive outlook about the societal impact of social media. But as with political engagement, partisan differences still exist within the youngest age group. For instance, 70% of Democrats ages 18 to 29 say social media make it easier to hold powerful people accountable for their actions, compared with 49% of Republicans in the same age group. Young Democrats are also more likely than their GOP counterparts to say social media help give a voice to underrepresented groups (82% vs. 63%) and highlight important issues that might not otherwise get attention (79% vs. 64%).

Americans' views on some of these issues are statistically unchanged since 2018, the last time the Center asked these questions. For example, there has been no notable change in people's views about social media helping to give a voice to underrepresented groups, highlighting important issues and distracting people from important issues.

Still, there has been modest change when it comes to the perception that social media make it easier to hold powerful people accountable for their actions. Half of Americans now say this, down from 56% in 2018. At the same time, there has been an uptick in the share of Americans who say social media platforms are making people think they are making a difference when they really aren't, from 71% in 2018 to 76% in the new survey.

Some of these changes persist when looking at partisan affiliation. The share of Republicans who say social media make it easier to hold powerful people accountable for their actions has dropped from 51% in 2018 to 40% today, while views are unchanged among Democrats. Meanwhile, Democrats have become slightly more likely to say social media make people think they are making a difference when they really aren't (+7 percentage points), while Republican views are more consistent across years.
Note: This is part of a series of blog posts leading up to the 2020 presidential election that explores the role of social media in politics today. Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

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Americans think social media can help build movements, but can also be a distraction

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80% of Americans say social media platforms are very or somewhat effective for raising public awareness about political or social issues.

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The world changes fast - and some of those changes put human rights in jeopardy. In our own operations, and through all our business relationships, we have a deep and unfaltering commitment to respect and promote all internationally recognised human rights.

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LOS ANGELES: When Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings declared in 2016 "we love people sharing" accounts, the company had a commanding lead in the streaming business and four years of blistering growth ahead of it. No one had yet heard of Disney Plus or the streaming wars.

But after the platform lost subscribers early last year, Hastings called time on this breezy attitude towards password sharing, which has given rise to an estimated 100 million Netflix freeloaders around the world.

In recent days, the company has launched password crackdowns in the US, UK and more than 100 other countries.

In the US, it has told customers that if they want to share their password, they must pay US$7.99 a month to add a person outside their home, or US$6.99 if they are prepared to have an account with adverts.

BUSINESS IS SLOWING DOWN

The crackdown plus the new push into advertising reflect the tough realities of the streaming business model that Netflix pioneered. In the boom times, investors were willing to overlook eight- or nine-figure quarterly losses as long as subscription growth was strong.

Now, however, new sign-ups have slowed and competition is intense. In the US, the average household has 5.5 streaming subscriptions, notes Jennifer Chan, global strategic director at research group Kantar.

"Overall household streaming penetration hasn't changed very much since the end of COVID-19," Chan said. "So the focus for streamers now is on retaining their current customer base and becoming the priority subscription so that consumers aren't cancelling - and if they are, how do you win them back".

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Commentary: Netflix is taking a necessary risk in tackling its 100 million freeloaders

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Widespread password sharing is incompatible with subscription growth in an intensely competitive market, says the Financial Times' Christopher Grimes.

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SG Kampung - Neighbours helping neighbours

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SG Kampung - Neighbours helping neighbours

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Rekindling the kampung spirit with technology

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Introducing SGKampung, a mobile app created with the hope that neighbours within the same residential estate will create meaningful bonds with one another – just like the good ol’ days!

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The term 'social media activism' is almost an oxymoron. It's right there in the name: activism calls for action to be taken, in an attempt to promote a particular social or political cause. To associate such a concept with something as effortless as posting an Instagram Story or sharing a Facebook post makes a mockery of the practice itself.

Or does it?

Better known by its more pejorative monikers 'clicktivism' or 'slacktivism', social media activism is characterised by the use of relatively low-effort activities to promote a certain cause. With the rise of social media itself, the practice has gained traction all over the globe. Even ex-US President Barack Obama recently raised concerns with how social media is being used in attempts to incite change.

Yet over the last couple of years, social media has empowered causes that arguably would have never grown to the extents that they have today. From the #MeToo movement that first got off the ground after a 2017 tweet by actress Alysssa Milano, to the Black Lives Matter movement that gained traction amidst worldwide Covid-19 lockdowns last year, social media activism has become an inextricable part of the causes we root for today.

Social media activism closer to home

In Singapore, social media activism manifests most commonly in the form of Instagram or Facebook pages dedicated to raising awareness around specific socio-political causes. Whether or not you follow these pages yourselves, you've probably seen the content they put out, in the form of reposts by friends, or even in your suggested posts.

While social media activism can be practised by anyone keen to speak up on a particular issue online, these social justice pages arguably attract the most eyeballs, with no small amount of credit going to the straightforward manner in which information is often packaged and presented to followers.

Masked vigilantes?

With its impressive repertoire of concisely-worded multi-image carousels, The Twain Have Met (@thetwainhavemet) fits the bill for such Instagram pages-but with a few twists. For starters, unlike most other social justice pages, the Singapore-based page touches on a broad range of local socio-political issues, with posts about everything from the job scope of a Nominated Member of Parliament to the death penalty in Singapore.

"I feel like there is no real meaning in just focusing on one issue, when our audience encompasses a spectrum of [diverse and complex] people who would want to hear about different issues," shares Nicole, one of the people behind The Twain Have Met, which has amassed close to ten thousand followers since its inception in 2020. Articulate, vocal and palpably passionate about speaking up on local politics and social issues, Nicole is also particularly hesitant about putting a face to her work online.

The Twain Have Met's strict adherence to protecting the identities of its editors has proven to be effective in not only supporting the page's objectivity, but also people it sought to offer a platform for-at least on one particular occasion.

In August 2020, a series of allegations regarding local influencer Dee Kosh and his sexual advances on minors gained traction on both Twitter and Instagram, prompting individuals to come forward with their experiences online. According to Nicole, the nameless, faceless nature of The Twain Have Met aided in their efforts in reaching out to people who were sexually abused by the influencer.

"Because we were an anonymous [page], they believed in us, in the sense that [they trusted that] we would respect their anonymity too," says Nicole, adding that the survivors also shared with them stories that "weren't shared previously" online.

On what 'real change' looks like

The main arguments against the value of social media activism are typically rooted in the belief that actions online simply lack the capacity to incite real change-at best, it can only serve to raise awareness around certain issues.

But to Nicole, the Dee Kosh incident serves as an important example of how in some instances, raising awareness and inciting real change can be one and the same.

"Dee Kosh is an online personality-the only real way to stop his influence and help [the survivors] get justice would be to raise awareness about what he's done."

In driving the conversation around the issue and providing survivors with an avenue to share about their experiences anonymously, Nicole believes that the efforts of The Twain Have Met were "very meaningful" for many of the survivors involved.

Nicole also highlights how discussion of less mainstream issues on social media can incite real change by encouraging people to deepen their understanding of such issues.

Referring to a recent post on LGBTQ people in Asia throughout history, Nicole shares that a number of people had reached out to The Twain Have Met team to ask where they could find the resources used for the post, in hopes of using the material to talk to their family and friends about the subject.

"One person really stood out to me, because his father had been using traditional Asian [rhetorics] to justify why he was homophobic, and he really just needed something to refute [his father's views]," says Nicole. A few weeks after the team had provided the reader with the resources, he updated them with the news that his father had been receptive to what he had to say.

"What we do online may not really drive big changes, but it does make some change, one person at a time-I think [that should also count as] real change."

Rallying the community in hard times

In the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases in the community, Singapore entered a semi-lockdown in May 2021, thrusting F&B businesses into the fray as dining out became temporarily outlawed. But of those affected, no other group is as hard-hit as the digitally-disadvantaged hawkers without existing arrangements with delivery platforms and social media outreach capabilities.

Enter Wheretodapao (@wheretodapao), an Instagram page born out of a desire to raise awareness of the plight faced by digitally-disadvantaged hawkers in times such as this.

"We just hope to share a more personal side to these hawkers, and raise awareness of this group of less tech-savvy elderly particularly [during] this stay-home season," shares the person who runs the account. They declined to be named.

In a bid to promote as many local hawkers as possible, Wheretodapao's page-runners feature at least three different hawkers based all over the island every day, using their own visits to these hawkers and followers' submissions. It is safe to say that their efforts have paid off-over the course of less than a month, Wheretodapao has amassed over 35,000 followers and counting, attesting to both the page-runners' dedication and the local community's support for the initiative.

But are the hawkers really benefiting?

According to some of the featured hawkers on Wheretodapao, the answer is yes.

"There has been a slight improvement in business [since Wheretodapao featured my submission]," shares Daryl Khoo, son of a hawker who has been featured on Wheretodapao.

Since the post went up, his father, who runs Mei Lock Soursop Juice at Old Airport Road Food Centre, not only saw sales increase by roughly 10 percent, but also a marked increase in young people coming to patronise the stall.

This observation is echoed by Li Xiao Hui, daughter of the couple operating De Li Snacks at Tampines Round Market, another stall that has been featured on Wheretodapao. While her parents could not provide an estimate for how much business has picked up, they have noted an increase in younger folks coming down to the stall since being featured.

The page-runners of Wheretodapao have also received their fair share of Direct Messages from members of the public who have been to patronise some of the featured hawkers.

"They tell us that they go to these hawkers and inform them [that] they've been featured, or that the hawkers themselves tell them [that] business has picked up," shares one of the page-runners.

Not enough to keep some afloat

In spite of Wheretodapao's immense popularity, which has already translated into collaborations with big names like DBS, Foodpanda and JustDabao, its page-runners acknowledge that the trickle down benefits for hawkers isn't equal and that these success stories "can't speak for everyone".

While the page's feature on New Hong Kong Congee at Amoy Street Food Centre remains one of its top-performing posts at over 1,600 likes, owner Mdm Wong has yet to see much "tangible impact".

"That being said my mom was really encouraged [by the support online]. She definitely sees hope," shares Kien Sieng, Mdm Wong's son. He was also the one to submit the write-up for Wheretodapao's feature on his mother's stall.

Some hawkers remain less optimistic.

With a few customers already milling around Traditional Delights, a traditional snack stall at Maxwell Food Centre, before its official opening, one would assume that the attention Wheretodapao has brought the stall has translated to a turnaround in business.

Mdm Seng preparing food for a customer.

Yet the reality could not be more different, at least according to Mdm Seng, the owner of stall. While there has been an increase in footfall to her stall post-feature, she notes that the improvement is slight.

"It's very tough work, and for very little money. I'm basically running a loss-making business," shares Mdm Seng, who adds that she is not sure how long she can continue operating.

Even hawkers on food delivery platforms feel the heat, according to Mr Koh, owner of Maxwell Food Centre's Heng Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice. While the business is on food delivery platforms such as Foodpanda and WhyQ, revenue earned from these platforms only come up to less than $20 a day.

According to Mr Koh, having a relatively stronger online presence also does little in improving sales, given that there are a total of seven different stalls selling chicken rice at Maxwell Food Centre alone.

He adds that it is also difficult to compete with more popular chicken rice stalls that receive a lot of publicity online, namely Michelin-listed Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice.

"What they can earn in one day is equivalent to what we earn in one month," shares Mr Koh.

Lending a voice to the voiceless

With the country under lockdown amid an explosion of COVID-19 cases in migrant worker dormitories in March 2020, there was a surge in interest in the living conditions faced by the people then at the centre of Singapore's struggle with the unfolding pandemic. As images of cramped rooms occupied by a few workers too many and off-putting meals began making their rounds on social media, calls for improvements in living conditions for migrant workers grew.

For its part, the Singapore government announced in June 2020 that it would be trying to improve the standards of migrant worker accommodations. The aim was to decrease the concentration of migrant workers in accommodations by building quick-build dormitories in the short term, and building more spacious, purpose-built dormitories in the long term.

While a step in the right direction, the proposed commitments remain a challenge for the government to deliver on, particularly in light of an ongoing pandemic that continues to keep complex, large-scale plans at a bottleneck-making advocacy and long-term checks on the powers that be more necessary than ever.

Hard truths to keep activism going

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Bangladesh-born MD Sharif Uddin works as a safety coordinator for a Singaporean construction company. He is a migrant worker, but only by day, because night time is when he sits down to pen his thoughts in his diary. And as a migrant worker in Singapore, Mr Uddin has a lot of thoughts-thoughts that were eventually published in Stranger to Myself, a novelised compilation of the diary entries and poetry he has written as a migrant worker over the years.

"Wherever migrant workers are suffering, I try to write about it. I try to write [well], with emotion, because only when I'm showing my feelings do people [understand] our problems," shares Mr Uddin, who remains passionate about spreading awareness of the issues migrant workers in Singapore continue to face, over a year on from the outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the dormitories.

To date, migrant workers remain restricted from leaving their dormitories for any reason besides work and "essentials", such as receiving medical treatment. Even then, their employers would have to apply for a pass for them to be able to leave.

In 2021, Mr Uddin published his second novel, Stranger to My World, which details his ongoing experience of being trapped in perpetual semi-lockdown in the dormitories.

"Imagine sitting and eating in one room and [not being able to] go out to market. Not just [for] a few days but one year. How is your feeling?"

As heartened as he was to see the outpouring of public support for migrant worker rights on social media last year, Mr Uddin remains deeply concerned about the issues he and thousands of other workers like him continue to face. Aside from being confined to their dormitories, Mr Uddin lists overcrowded living quarters, poor salary payment systems and unsafe transportation as other key issues that require action from the relevant authorities.

"We do hard work, but we [just] hope that the government gives us [decent] facilities to sleep, shower and work [in] safely," says Mr Uddin.

With conversations around migrant worker rights having mostly died down in the online sphere, Mr Uddin expresses doubt that much can be done about his situation.

"Only when [the] local community talk[s] about migrant workers will the government take action. Now nobody is talking," says Mr Uddin, adding that many workers remain reluctant to voice these issues to the relevant authorities for fear of jeopardising their relationship with their employers, which could very well land them right back where they came from.

For people like Mr Uddin, the fight for not just better living conditions but better rights for migrant workers remains one that is far from over-and one that needs to be sustained until things truly improve.

Mr Uddin's sentiments are echoed by Abigail Goh, a volunteer at migrant worker welfare organisation Project Chulia Street. While activism on social media has contributed "massively" in driving donations for non-profit organisations like Project Chulia Street, Ms Goh expresses disappointment with how efforts are "on and off".

"I find social media activism useful, but there is the danger that it's just temporary attention because the topic is buzzy, and that's sad. For the public it can be an on and off switch, but for the guys the issues never stop," says Ms Goh.

According to Ms Goh, another issue that arises from sporadic online support for causes like migrant worker welfare is the overload of support in one area during periods of high awareness. In April 2020, images of the meals catered for migrant workers began circulating online, sparking discussion on the poor quality of food for migrant workers and leading to a deluge of food donations from the public.

"Awareness is good, but it's also limited because even when something goes viral, actionable steps aren't always taken," she says, while acknowledging that the onus is more on the government than the public in addressing issues as complex as migrant worker welfare.

Not all doom and gloom

In spite of the issues that come with the sporadic nature of social media activism, the explosion of support online for migrant workers during Singapore's COVID-19 circuit breaker last year had its benefits for non-profit organisations like Project Chulia Street.

On top of a sharp increase in much-needed donations, it became "easier" for non-profit organisations to appeal to bigger donors such as private companies and family offices. For Project Chulia Street, contributions from such donors enable them to buy items in bulk and offer support to beneficiaries on a more timely basis.

Social media was also instrumental in keeping the migrant worker community together amid the ongoing pandemic. During Singapore's circuit breaker period in 2020, Project Chulia Street put together a series of Facebook Live sessions coined ADDA (or "chit-chat" in Bengali) aimed at providing migrant workers with COVID-19-related advice with a doctor.

Conducted fully in Bengali, the series served as a platform for migrant workers to ask questions regarding pressing lockdown concerns such as salary payment and mental wellness. Through ADDA, workers were able to share their thoughts and ideas with each other directly-which, to Ms Goh, made for a "much more empowering" experience for them.

Even without the support of non-profit organisations like Project Chulia Street, migrant workers have been finding ways to stay connected with each other thanks to social media. "Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in Singapore" was a Facebook page started out of a whim by 34-year-old migrant worker Omar Faruque Shipon. Today, the page has over 94,000 followers, with Mr Omar regularly posting Bengali translations and even video explanations of important news in Singapore for migrant workers.

Short of driving sustained, top-down efforts to protect the rights of migrant workers in Singapore, social media nonetheless shows some potential in breaking down the notion that people like Mr Uddin and Mr Omar are just migrant workers; simple, voiceless labourers reduced to their sole function to the rest of us in this society. Wielded well, social media might even have the potential to push across a radical notion-the notion that migrant workers are in fact people, too; people with their own hopes and dreams and fears.

Let's talk about race

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Conversations about xenophobia are always tough. But that remains the situation many immigrants in Singapore are forced to face-particularly those also belonging to one of the ethnic minorities. And with a worrying increase in open acts of racism in Singapore over the last few months, the fear of facing animosity from the local community is "definitely escalating", says T, a Singapore-based Indian expatriate.

While T acknowledges how coverage of xenophobia by both news sites and social justice pages on Instagram do "a great job" at providing in-depth knowledge about the issues faced by both foreigners and ethnic minorities in Singapore, they continue to live in fear of being on the receiving end of race-related violence.

"People who are racist are not going to see these articles and change their minds on behaving the way they do," says T, who also cites the existence of "echo chambers" to be a possible reason for why they have not come across any racist remarks online themselves.

For real change to happen, T thinks that the Government needs to step into enforce racial discrimination laws more actively to send a message to people who hold these prejudices. Until change and action is enforced top-down, and policy changes are made to deal with these issues effectively, I cannot say I feel safe," says T.

An admin of a social justice page who posted about the experiences of multiple Indian expatriates concurs with T's sentiments. "Sometimes, I wonder if what I post has any bearing on what's happening around us. You can see clearly see that people live in their own echo chambers and assume that everyone outside these chambers are bad faith actors," shares the page-runner, who declined to be named.

The page-runner also pointed to social media algorithms as a potential reason for this. "In a world where Facebook and Instagram have financial incentives to feed all of us things that we already agree with, what's going to happen to our shared spaces? " he says.

It goes without saying that any cause worth fighting for will never simply entail a quick repost of a blacked-out box, or even even dedicating one's platform to sharing information about a certain cause. And that's the thing: while social media will never be the be-all-and-end-all for activism, it makes for a pretty formidable weapon in one's toolkit for change. As illustrated by the causes that have (and continue to) moved us as a people, social media activism has great capacity for enacting change-when paired with sense, consistency, and perhaps most importantly, heart.
The names of some of the interviewees have been changed to protect their anonymity

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Does Social Media Activism in Singapore Actually Work?

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Disruptive Innovation: A case study of AirBnB

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Nowadays, a lot of firms lead to generation of disruptive innovation. Existing dominant players and products eventually lose their position…

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In 2021, the COVID-19 crisis still looms large. Many countries are experiencing a third surge of the pandemic. The surges and new strains of COVID, with their continued impact on the overall political economy and society mean the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are at stake. The need for a well-coordinated and holistic global response and recovery is urgent.

The Green New Deal idea goes back to the New Deal of former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Journalist Thomas Friedman is often credited for first calling for a Green New Deal in 2007. By that time, it was becoming clear that the challenge of climate change will require a comprehensive approach, and there was no politically expedient silver bullet.

A Green New Deal combines Roosevelt's government-led, society-wide economic approach of Great Depression era with modern technologies that will shift economies to low carbon.

While the combined health, economic and social impact of COVID crises exacerbate the existing climate and nature emergency, it also offers an opportunity for a smart recovery with a wide-reaching, fundamental restructuring of critical sectors. It makes economic sense to plan green recovery packages and for the transition to be socially inclusive, low-emission and climate-resilient.

This year could be crucial for an inclusive global, green recovery that focuses on renewable energy, green jobs, and ensures social protection for the most vulnerable.
The Korean New Deal
The South Korean government has responded. It's New Deal, plans to invest about US$144 billion in creating 1,901,000 jobs by 2025. The plan focuses on a Digital New Deal and Green New Deal, and includes overarching policy support to strengthen employment and social safety nets.

Korea has identified ten key projects ranging from green mobility to smart healthcare. It includes the central and local governments' involvement to bring innovation and jobs to the regional economy, with half of the money invested outside Seoul.

The Green New Deal focuses on renewable energy, green infrastructure and industrial sector. Its green car subsidy programme offers up to US$17 million in subsidies to people buying electric cars in 2021 and up to US$33.5 million for hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles.

In December 2020, South Korea submitted to the UNFCCC its NDC and 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy. The latter includes Korea's long-term strategy for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
COVID-19 challenges
While Korea has generally been able to respond effectively to COVID-19 with rigorous contact-tracing and other preparations, there have been successive surges in the pandemic. Almost 79,000 South Koreans were infected, and more than 1,400 have died. The government plans to offer free vaccinations to its citizens from now on.

Korea's economy managed to stay open through most of the pandemic. Still, many people, including small businesses, and the self-employed suffered from the economic downturn. With the New Deal moving forward, the government aims to support a post-recovery economic resurgence called "inclusive recovery and takeoff". This will include continuing with stimulus packages to small businesses and individuals. In March, the government will launch the five-year K-New Deal Fund, seeking to invest US$3.5 trillion in 2021, with 35 percent financed by the public sector and 65 percent being raised privately.
Way forward
Korea remains the world's fourth-largest importer of coal and the third-largest investor in overseas coal projects. As its 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy highlights phasing out all coal plants or converting them to liquefied natural gas by 2050, Korea requires a drastic acceleration of clean technology.

The next few months will be exciting. The New Deal's three-pronged model will be led by the private sector and backed by the government and it has generated high interest. Korea has exceptional IT infrastructure and digital competitiveness. It is increasingly recognized as a world leader in research and development, with a sophisticated consumer base pushing technology innovation and partnerships, such as the, UNDP and Samsung Global Goals initative. International companies are exploring the New Deal's key projects to identify market entry and expansion opportunities. Developing countries want to learn from the policy lessons on Korea's recovery.

At the Seoul Global Policy Centre, UNDP has facilitated policy deliberations on green recovery under the Build Back Better webinar series. In May and Dec 2020, we organized two webinars with experts from Korea, Rwanda, Bangladesh and the EU. The discussions covered lessons on green recovery and emphasized the need to maintain momentum. Our latest technical webinar, organized with Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs, included participants from 43 countries. This year, we will continue to highlight and share the various aspects of Korea's Green Recovery and New Deal with partners around the world.

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South Korea's Green New Deal in the year of transition | United Nations Development Programme

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Country launches bold and ambitious plans for carbon neutrality.

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Community spirit among Singaporeans shines through during Covid-19 pandemic, says public service report card

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TraceTogether now covers more than 50 per cent of the population, with more than 2.9 million app and token users as at November, it added. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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How the Milk Tea Alliance Is Uniting Pro-Democracy Activists

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Starting life as a humorous hashtag, the Milk Tea Alliance is becoming a cohesive movement uniting activists in Asia and beyond. Here's how.

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UK Net Zero Policies: What Rishi Sunak has scrapped

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UK Net Zero Policies: What Rishi Sunak has scrapped

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Rishi Sunak has announced a watering-down of the UK's net zero policies, though claims he still wishes to meet the legally binding 2050 target. The prime minister said this was to save money for families, declaring: "If we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people and the resulting backlash will not just be against specific policies, but against the wider mission itself."

But what has he scrapped? Will it actually save the people of the UK any money? And what will it mean for the climate crisis? The Guardian has looked into each policy and what the change means.

Cars

New cars with combustion engines were due to be banned from sale by 2030. This has been pushed back to 2035, with the government claiming it will save consumers money. Sunak said by 2030 he expected "the vast majority" of cars sold would be electric, because they are getting cheaper, and people are buying more, but thatpeople should make that decision themselves - not the government.

Experts disagree. Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: "Delaying the phase-out of petrol and diesel cars would mean that UK drivers will remain exposed to the volatility of international oil prices, which are rising due to cuts by major producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. The UK's dependence on fossil fuels is costly and economically damaging."

He added that the "weakening of the targets ... will undermine investment, as many furious companies have pointed out today".

Peter Chalkley, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the changes would actually end up costing consumers more.

He said: "The vast majority, 80%, of drivers buy secondhand and secondhand petrol cars that would be on the market for literally decades to come. Delaying this policy will push up the cost of motoring as cheaper secondhand EVs that are much cheaper to run than petrol cars will be less available."

It could also cost in a wider sense as car manufacturers lose confidence in the UK because of its ever-changing targets and policies. As Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, said: "Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three."

Sunak spoke of the need to improve the electricity grid - to date, the government has been slow to introduce electric vehicle charging points, especially in some parts of the country, and has failed to upgrade the electricity grid (except for people lucky enough to live near Sunak's swimming pool).

Boilers

The UK's reliance on imported gas is expected to continue for longer as Sunak announced his plans to significantly weaken the plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035, instead aiming for only an 80% phase-out. He also said the 2026 ban on off-grid oil boilers would be delayed to 2035, with only an 80% phase-out target at that date.

He said: "We will give people far more time to make the necessary transition to heat pumps.

"We will never force anyone to rip out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump. You'll only ever have to make the switch when you're replacing your boiler anyway - and even then, not until 2035."

Again, Sunak claims this was aimed at saving households money. While Ward said it was positive that the prime minister announced that grants for people under the boiler upgrade scheme would be increased by 50%, going up to £7,500, he added: "The prime minister appears to have forgotten that the current cost of living crisis has been triggered by a huge increase in the price of natural gas following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the UK would have suffered less if it had moved more quickly to embrace clean electricity and clean alternatives to gas central heating.

Rishi Sunak rolls back net zero targets in reset of UK climate policies - video

"If the winter ahead in Europe is long and cold, natural gas prices will rise again, leading to higher bills for households and businesses and higher inflation."

Chalkley said: "The fact is the gas boiler and petrol car phase-out aren't set to have any impact on those struggling with bills for at least a decade. The boiler phase-out would start in 2035 but only for those whose boiler breaks."

Even then, it is not always more expensive for homes to install heat pumps than traditional gas boilers. Octopus Energy this month unveiled a new heat pump design that, with current government support, can be installed for free in some homes, and for £3,000 in those that need upgrades including insulation. These costs will go down as competition increases and more people install heat pumps. Heat pumps are also cheaper to operate than gas boilers if homes are well insulated.

Andrew Sissons from Nesta, an innovation charity, said there were other low-carbon alternatives to heat pumps being developed, including direct electric heating and new low-carbon fuels. "The main aim of the phase-out date is to give everyone - the heating industry, consumers, regulators - lots of time to prepare for a world without new boilers. If the heating industry - the companies that make boilers and the engineers that fit them in our homes - knows it can't sell gas boilers after 2035, it has time to invest, switch production, retrain and build up its business in low-carbon heating. The other big advantage of a phase-out date is that it starts to wind down use of gas boilers gradually by 2050. Boilers often last about 15 years, so the 2035 date gives enough time for most boilers to be gone in time for net zero in 2050."

Insulation

The UK has some of the most badly insulated housing stock in Europe. Sunak announced he would no longer require homeowners and landlords to meet energy efficiency targets. He promised not to force homeowners into what he termed "expensive insulation upgrades".

There had been plans to fine landlords who failed to upgrade their properties to a certain level of energy efficiency, but these have now been dropped.

This will save an immediate cost to landlords, who will not have to pay to insulate homes they do not live in, but their renters will face costs. Last year, research found that people living in more poorly insulated homes would have to spend £1,000 more on gas over a winter.

Chalkley said: "The one measure that would have brought down bills is the landlord energy efficiency rules. Rented accommodation is some of the worst quality and so most costly to heat with tenants having no power to insulate themselves. [This] will add to the cost of living for those struggling, not make things easier."

Behaviour change

Sunak has been clear in the past he is not going to tell people not to fly as much as they like or to eat less meat. Now he has confirmed his party will not take forward policies that would encourage more sustainable behaviour, such as taxing airlines properly and informing the public of the carbon footprint of meat. These policies, to disincentivise eating meat and flying, have never been proposed by either the Labour or Conservative government but have been discussed by civil servants in government departments as potential ways to help meet net zero.

Sunak said: "The proposal for government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car - I've scrapped it.

"The proposal that we should force you to have seven different bins in your home - I've scrapped it.

"The proposal to make you change your diet and harm British farmers by taxing meat, or to create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday. I've scrapped those too."

While most of the changes that are needed to get to net zero should fall on big businesses rather than being shouldered by the consumer, experts suggest it should be easier and cheaper to make less carbon-emitting choices. For example, catching a train is much more expensive than flying by plane.

On the climate cost of our diets, Henry Dimbleby, a former government food tsar, said: "This isn't primarily, as most people think, about methane. It is about freeing up land. Almost 80% of the land used to feed us in the UK is used to graze animals or produce food to feed to animals. It's a staggeringly inefficient use of resources.

"It is clear that the single biggest change to diet to solve both the climate and biodiversity crises is to eat less meat. But of all the topics we tested with focus groups while writing the national food strategy, it was clear that this is the most politically contentious."

The costs of not reaching net zero

Aside from the direct impact on consumers' pockets, experts point out that by far the largest costs involved in this are the cost of not acting on climate breakdown.

Ward said this weakening of policies could have "a disproportionately negative long-term impact on the UK economy".

"It could hurt economic growth by undermining domestic and overseas investment in a range of sectors that are developing and deploying clean technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles," he said. "And it could make UK households poorer and colder because they will remain highly exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices."

The Office for Budget Responsibility recently found that the costs of continued gas reliance were more than double those of reaching net zero. It also said in 2021 the cost would be mostly offset by savings on fossil fuels, and would be "comparatively modest", amounting to a few billion a year over the period to 2050.

Furthermore, cost of living impacts from extreme weather events and global food systems collapsing will be far greater if we don't urgently act to decarbonise. Ed Hawkins, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said: "Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, which amplifies the consequences of extreme weather events, as we have so clearly seen this summer.

"Climate change will continue until we reach net zero globally, and we will then have to suffer the consequences of that warmer world for decades or more. It also matters how we reach net zero, not just when - delaying action means more emissions which means more severe consequences."

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UK net zero policies: what has Rishi Sunak scrapped?

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PM has outlined plans to delay some climate targets, saying they will save people money. Experts give their view

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Free solo climber Alex Honnold prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: scaling Yosemite’s 3,200-foot El Capitan without a rope.

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SINGAPORE: More people are volunteering for various causes in Singapore, as the country pursues a goal of raising its volunteerism rate to 70 per cent by next year.

It is a target that those in the community are confident can be achieved, with new programmes to attract and retain volunteers and a rising bloc of youth volunteers getting a headstart in school.

Volunteers form a significant core of manpower in the humanitarian and charity services sector, without which many activities cannot be carried out, members of the community here told CNA938 on Monday (Dec 5), which is International Volunteer Day.

The day has been marked by the United Nations since 1985, to recognise and promote the tireless work of volunteers around the world.

IMPORTANCE OF VOLUNTEERS

Ms Charis Chan, director of global engagement for the Singapore Red Cross, said that at least 80 per cent of the organisation's programmes are run by volunteers.

These include humanitarian services such as blood donation drives, overseas disaster response, as well as assistance for local vulnerable families, children and the elderly.

"We will never be able to do so much without volunteers. Especially after COVID, we've been expanding our work so much to reach out to more people," she said.

"A lot of them believe in the true cause and the mission, and the people that they serve."

Ms Michelle Chew, a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Youth Commission representing the Asia Pacific, said that for volunteers like herself, the day is more than just celebrating volunteerism, but to attract more people to step up.

The IFRC is the world's largest humanitarian network, supporting local bodies in more than 192 countries.

"The significance of the day is also to promote the importance of volunteerism. We really want more and more people to take up volunteering because it gives so much impact back to the community and to those around us," said Ms Chew.

She noted that volunteers are people who know their communities the best and are well-equipped with the knowledge to intervene and help.

"We really believe that the volunteers who are from the community themselves will often know best what the community needs and wants, when they face emergencies or certain vulnerabilities that they might have. That is why we put full trust in our volunteers to really, in most cases, run the show," she explained.

DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

Volunteers come from all age groups and all walks of life, said Ms Chan, noting that they can be categorised into three groups.

The first group is the youth, some of whom were exposed to the movement through their co-curricular activities in school.

"They are taught humanitarian values and knowledge, and even after graduating from school and when they eventually start working, they will often volunteer for us," said Ms Chan.

"They do first aid response, they do our overseas missions. This group of people are very impactful and inspiring. They do things out of the box, and they always teach us something new."

Ms Chew herself started out as a young volunteer in secondary school when she was 13 years old, a journey which has continued for the past 10 years.

What draws her to volunteering is that she can help those who are less privileged, and in the process gain many valuable lessons.

"I've learned that there are a lot of people from a variety of backgrounds that are different from myself, and that might be on different pathways of life. But at the end of the day, we are all humans and that is why we're all here for one another," she said.

The second group, said Ms Chan, are people in their mid-40s, who are "quite comfortable in life and want to seek opportunities to help others".

She added that they have relevant skill sets to contribute to the organisation, and form the core manpower of the Singapore Red Cross' programmes.

The last group is people in their mid-50s and older people who have retired early, who want to stay active and healthy and have time on their hands, said Ms Chan.

YOUTH VOLUNTEERS

Ms Chew said everyone has different motivations for volunteering, and the same goes for the youth segment.

In her role, she advises the IFRC governing board on matters concerning youth and youth-related activities.

She explained that more than half of the volunteer base in her organisation is actually made up of young people, so having a dedicated body like hers to represent them is "very important".

"Often, as much as young people are the ones who are on the ground serving their societies or their communities, we don't really get much of a voice at the decision-making table," said Ms Chew.

She said that the landscape has changed over the years, with more people becoming more open-minded in terms of allowing young people to speak up.

"But then comes into the picture whether certain acts are an act of tokenising, or whether it's an act of what I would like to call 'youthwashing'," she noted.

Ms Chew said youth volunteers may be passionate about different areas based on the environment they grew up in.

There are some who are more concerned about local issues within their communities, such as floods and disasters, but there are also others who are very passionate about social movements like mental health, she said.

70 PER CENT TARGET

Singapore is currently pursuing a target of raising its volunteerism rate to 70 per cent by next year, in an effort to address a fast-ageing population.

It was a target announced by then-Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu in 2018, to double the rate from 35 per cent in 2016.

Ms Chan said it is a noble and achievable goal.

She noted that the Singapore Red Cross recently launched a new programme to help bring more people on board the movement. The programme equips people with standard first aid and psychological first aid within two weekends.

"The challenge that we see among volunteers is that they want to give, but we need to train them. We want to make them go on the ground (only) when they are equipped with the relevant skills," she said.

Ms Chan added that the organisation has developed a system to attract, empower and retain its volunteers.

"We don't only train them with the skill sets, we also train them on leadership. We groom them to make important decisions for us on the ground," she said.

Ms Chew said that the 70 per cent target is reachable, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic when a lot more people have been inspired to step up to volunteer.

"What I would really like to emphasise is that volunteerism can come in a lot of forms, and the way forward might really be digital volunteering because we are living in a world which is increasingly without borders," she said, adding that organisations also need to transform to keep up with the times.

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Rising volunteerism in Singapore boosted by youth action, new outreach initiatives

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International Volunteer Day falls on Dec 5 annually, a day marked by the United Nations since 1985, to recognise and promote the tireless work of volunteers globally.

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Last Friday, Simone Biles took a major risk at the U.S. national gymnastics championships: She attempted a "triple double" in her floor exercise - a move never before landed by a woman in competition. Though she initially stuck the landing, she stumbled onto her hands afterwards, clearly frustrated by her failure. Two days later, Biles landed the move, winning the championship and making history.

Simone Biles waves from the podium after winning the all-around gold medal during the 2019 U.S. ... [+]
Getty Images

While her latest feat was remarkable, Biles is no stranger to innovation. She was also the first woman to "land a double twisting double somersault off the balance beam," according to Nick Zaccardi at NBC Sports, and if she performs that and the triple double at October's world championships, both moves will be named after her (in addition to a floor tumbling pass and vault that already are).

Besides her innate athletic ability, Biles' willingness to take risks in the face of failure has undoubtedly helped her become one of the greatest gymnasts in history. Her mentality is one that extends beyond athletics - and applies to the corner suite, as well. As Julie Chapman, CEO of 501cTech, told Columbia Business: "Being a leader is inherently risky... I don't think you can perform at a high level in any part of your life if you're not willing to take risks." Learning to embrace risk, however, is not easy; here are three ways leaders can become more comfortable with doing so.

1. Abandon Expertise

As individuals advance in their fields, they develop experience and wisdom. Although this expertise generally serves as an advantage, it can also hamper risk-taking, and in turn, innovation. "Leaders and managers stuck in the expertise trap," wrote Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, "don't just blind themselves to new ideas-they stop experimenting and taking risks, which ultimately leads to their downfall, because they're seldom learning anything new. It's important to push the limits of your comfort zone, even if there's a danger you'll fall on your face."

One telling example comes from the dramatically different fates of Facebook, which was started by college students in a dorm room, and MySpace, which was managed by business experts at NewsCorp. "[I]t is clear whose risk tolerance paid off," wrote Srini Pillay in the Harvard Business Review. "While this does not give high-risk strategies carte blanche, it does point out how risk mitigation can make you fall into a blinding prudence trap and how taking risks can lead to a big payoff."

Indeed, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has become synonymous with his appetite for risk, once saying: "You are going to make a ton of mistakes, you don't get judged by that. The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

2. Start Small

There is no question that risk is intimidating. A recent report on women's leadership from KPMG found that fewer than half (43%) of women are "open to taking the bigger risks associated with career advancement." To make risk more palatable, leaders should test potential outcomes by taking a series of incremental steps before making major decisions.

In his book Great By Choice, Jim Collins recommended that leaders begin with "low-cost, low-risk, low-distraction experiments." Only after receiving empirical validation, he wrote, should a leader then concentrate their resources into a higher-risk move - a decision that he calls "firing the cannonball." According to Collins, this ability to turn small and proven ideas into great successes is more important than sheer innovation.

To support his theory, Collins dissected the development of the iPod. In 2002, though the new technology had been well received, it only accounted for 3% of Apple's net sales. Based on this limited success, Apple further tested the product's potential by launching the iTunes store. It was only at this point - after receiving more validation - that Apple decided to open up the iPod and iTunes to Windows users. This story, wrote Collins, "illustrates a crucial point: a big, successful venture can look in retrospect like a single-step creative breakthrough when, in fact, it came about as a multistep iterative process."

3. Flip Your Mindset

Humans naturally focus more on the negative repercussions of a risk than on its potentially positive outcomes. "For most people, the fear of losing $100 is more intense than the hope of gaining $150," wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. "We concluded from many such observations that 'losses loom larger than gains' and that people are loss averse." For leaders who would like to be more open to risks, it is important to shift this mindset.

In his book Taking Smart Risks, Doug Sundheim urged leaders to move from the "paralysis perception," which focuses "too much on the losses from taking risks (certainty, comfort, control)" toward the "power perception," which consists of a "balanced focus on the losses from both taking risks and not taking risks (loss of certainty, comfort, and control versus loss of growth, progress, and learning)."

ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia is one leader who has learned to lean into the latter concept. Before turning 30, she left her job at Warner Music Company to begin her fitness subscription business. Though she initially launched two unsuccessful iterations, she recognized the risks of not continuing - and eventually prevailed. ClassPass has since raised $255 million in funding, hired a team of more than 300, and grown to 50 U.S. cities and several countries. "The greatest lesson I've learned is to trust yourself and take risks," she told NextShark. "You cannot fear failure, because it provides the best opportunity to learn."

For leaders, learning to take risks can be incredibly challenging, and in many cases, even nerve-racking. If the examples above are any indication, however, becoming comfortable with risk has the potential for great reward - and is the definition of modern "high-impact leadership," according to Deloitte. Those who are hesitant to adopt this leadership style should seek inspiration from Biles, who once said: "I'd rather regret the risk that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all."

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Simone Biles And The Power Of Risk-Taking

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Besides her innate athletic ability, Biles' willingness to take risks in the face of failure has undoubtedly helped her become one of the greatest gymnasts in history.

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Should bigger states involve themselves in the affairs of other countries?

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Africa has much to gain from a more contained BRI

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Africa has much to gain from a more contained BRI

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Africa has much to gain from a more contained BRI | ISS Africa

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Despite the Belt and Road’s mixed record in Africa, careful involvement in China’s smaller, greener projects could be beneficial.

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The United States Has Its Fingerprints All Over the Chaos in Haiti

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The United States Has Its Fingerprints All Over the Chaos in Haiti

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The United States Has Its Fingerprints All Over the Chaos in Haiti

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The ongoing turmoil in Haiti has been exacerbated by US meddling. There’s a very good chance that the foreign intervention announced yesterday by the United Nations will make things worse.

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Consider the view that a plant-based diet is the only ethical way to eat.

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Ethical Veganism Added To Religion And Worldviews School Programme

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After working with The Vegan Society, Jigsaw Education Group has produced a resource pack on ethical veganism for use in schools

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World cultures and religions that embrace plant-based eating

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World cultures and religions that embrace plant-based eating

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Plant-based eating is no fad. Across the planet, many people have been eating plant-based diets for centuries, way before nut milks were a 'thing'.

Whether for cultural or religious reasons, being vegan or vegetarian is simply a part of life for many, especially those living in the global south.

Here are four food cultures where people eat plant-based, rather than meat and other animal products - and an idea of new vegan recipes to try out.

1. Jamaican Ital food

Ital is the food celebrated by those in the Rastafari movement developed in Jamaica during the 1930s, based on natural living. Rastas are earth-preservers and believe the food they eat should come from the land. This, in principle, is Ital.

Ital food should be natural, organic, unprocessed and free of additives, chemicals and meat. The name derives from the word 'vital'.

Combined with a climate well-suited to growing a variety of fruit and vegetables, this means there are plenty of plant-based options available in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.

The choice to eat Ital is as much of a spiritual decision for Rastas as it is a health conscious one. Their philosophy is to remain as close to nature as possible and respect all forms of animal and plant life. They believe eating pure, organic food increases one's connection with nature.

2. Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine

The cuisine of Eritrea and Ethiopia is full of naturally plant-based dishes. This is largely due to the fasting tradition in the Orthodox Christian religion. Orthodox Christians abstain from all animal products for around 200 days each year, but plant-based foods are still permitted.

Many fast every Wednesday and Friday, during Lent, in the days leading up to Christmas, and during other religious holidays.

The tradition of fasting has been happening for centuries. It's not uncommon for Orthodox-owned businesses, such as butcher shops, to close on fasting days; for cafes to not stock milk and for restaurants to offer a plant-based menu only.

3. India's 400 million vegetarians

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), India has the lowest rate of meat consumption in the world. Researchers estimate that there are more than 400 million people that identify as vegetarian.

Plant-based eating is deeply rooted in three of the prominent religions practiced in India - Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. All these religions believe in the concept of Ahimsa, which means kindness and non-violence towards all living things.

This does not mean India is meat-free, nor is it a requirement for those who follow any of these religions. And still, Indian food remains the most plant-based friendly cuisine in the world. It's not hard to find an Indian restaurant that has a vegetarian or vegan part of the menu.

4. Israel's vegan-friendly culture

Israel has the highest percentage of vegans globally, with around 5.2% of the population considering themselves vegan and 13% percent as vegetarian. Their ever increasing culture of veganism and abundance of plant-based options makes it one of the best countries to visit for vegan and vegetarians.

You'll find plant-based foods such as hummus and falafels at every turn and it's not uncommon for worldwide brands such as Dominos and Ben and Jerry's to offer multiple vegan-friendly options in Israel.

Take action

Struggling with what to eat on a plant-based diet or worried about the limitations of going vegan or vegetarian? No worries.

I hope these examples have shown you that there are loads of delicious and diverse options to choose from. Some say that plant-based diets are limited and bland. But this is far from the truth. There are so many vegan recipes and dishes across the world with the same big, if not better, flavours you get from your favourite meat dishes.

We also don't need to all go vegan or vegetarian - halving the amount of meat and dairy we all eat would already make a huge difference.

Changing our diets to be more plant-based is a great way to make a positive impact for our climate and biodiversity. However, that's only part of the story - we need to put pressure on the companies that produce and sell food to provide more nutritious, affordable plant-based foods and to reduce the amount of meat on their shelves.

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4 world cultures and religions that embrace plant-based eating

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Plant-based eating is no fad. Across the planet, many people have been eating plant-based diets for centuries, way before nut milks were a 'thing'. Whether for cultural or religious reasons, being vegan or vegetarian is simply a part of life for many, especially those living in the global south.

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Religious Groups Are Giving Plant-Based Eating a Boost

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Religious Groups Are Giving Plant-Based Eating a Boost

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Religious Groups Are Giving Plant-Based Eating a Boost

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Spiritual groups have a huge potential to support many more people in altering their diets for the good of the planet, for animals suffering in factory farms, and for the empowering experience of embodying their deepest values.

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Plant-based proteins could extend life expectancy

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Plant-based proteins could extend life expectancy

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Adding More Plant-Based Proteins to Your Diet Could Increase Your Life Expectancy

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Learn how following a plant-based diet could help you live longer.

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Many people are willing to eat plant-based foods to save the climate

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Many people are willing to eat plant-based foods to save the climate

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Each April, Earth Day invites us to reconsider our habits, choices, and responsibilities to the planet. While tree planting, cleanups, and protests receive the spotlight, one often-overlooked climate solution sits quietly on our dinner tables.

Our food choices, particularly the consumption of meat and dairy, contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. As climate change accelerates, shifting toward a plant-based diet could offer a practical and personal form of climate action.

A new survey released just ahead of Earth Day 2025 reinforces this message. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in partnership with Morning Consult, surveyed over 2,000 American adults.

The results suggest a growing awareness of the climate-food link - but also highlight how much education and policy progress is still needed.

Plant-based food, climate, and health

Reducing meat intake can lower individual carbon footprints and boost personal health. That's not just opinion - it's the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ( IPCC) conclusion in its 2022 report, Mitigation of Climate Change. The IPCC highlights diet shifts as powerful climate tools.

"This Earth Day - and every day - people should eat a plant-based diet to keep themselves and the planet healthy," said Roxanne Becker, MBChB, DipIBLM.

She recommends plant-based diets to patients to help prevent chronic diseases and lower emissions.

Despite increasing concern, 54% of Americans don't know which foods cause the most greenhouse gases.

Only 16% correctly identified all five foods (beef, cheese, tofu, vegetables, nuts) in order of emissions. A quarter of respondents ranked tofu and nuts as more polluting than beef.

According to UN data, beef emits 70.6 kg CO₂e per kilogram of food (about 155.7 pounds CO₂e per 2.2 pounds). Cheese comes next at 23.9 kg (52.7 pounds CO₂e), followed by tofu at 3.2 kg (7 pounds), vegetables at 0.7 kg (1.5 pounds), and nuts at 0.4 kg (0.9 pounds).

Cows produce methane while digesting food, in a process called enteric fermentation. This gas escapes when they burp. Methane also forms when manure is stored in tanks or lagoons.

Though methane breaks down faster than CO₂, its warming effect is about 80 times stronger over 20 years. Experts call methane reduction a key climate goal.

Food policies and dietary guidelines

The survey revealed that 40% of Americans support taxing the meat and dairy industry to address emissions. A larger number - 59% - support incentives to help farmers shift from raising animals to growing crops and orchards.

Younger adults show stronger support for policy change. Fifty-six percent of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials say they would consider eating plant-based foods to help the climate.

Most people in the survey - about 60% - believe that the government should include the environmental impact of food in its national diet advice. Right now, the official Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not talk about climate change, pollution, or nature at all.

However, these same guidelines do mention a vegetarian diet option. This plant-based option avoids meat, chicken, and fish. Instead, it includes foods like beans, soy products, nuts, and seeds. Choosing this vegetarian plan instead of the usual one can cut your food-related emissions in half.

So, even though the guidelines don't mention the environment, one of the options they mention is already better for the planet.

Plant-based food and climate action

Eating more plant-based meals helps in several important ways. First, it lowers greenhouse gas emissions, which helps slow down climate change. Producing meat, especially beef, creates a lot of pollution. In contrast, growing plants for food is much cleaner and uses less land and water.

But the benefits go beyond the environment. A plant-based diet can also make you healthier. It may lower your chances of getting diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some types of cancer. That's because plant-based foods are often lower in unhealthy fats and higher in fiber, vitamins, and nutrients.

Choosing more fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, beans, and soy products also supports a more sustainable food system. This means food can be produced in a way that uses fewer natural resources and causes less harm to animals and climate.

As Earth Day gets closer, it's a great time to think about how our meals affect more than just our taste buds. Every food choice we make has an impact. What we eat not only shapes our health but also helps shape the future of the planet.

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Many people are willing to eat plant-based foods to save the climate

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Americans show growing support for plant-based foods to protect health, reduce climate impact, and raise awareness.

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Are Vegans missing out on muscles? Study reveals shocking pitfalls in plant-based diets

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A new study warns that half of long-term vegans may suffer from nutrient deficiencies, particularly in amino acids lysine and leucine, crucial for muscle maintenance. Despite meeting plant protein guidelines, many vegans struggle to absorb these essential nutrients. Experts highlight the need for better dietary planning, emphasizing the importance of carefully balanced plant-based meals to avoid health risks.

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‘There needs to be greater transparency in governance.’ How true is this of your society?

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A Wave of Scandals Is Testing the Singaporean Government’s Ability to Take Criticism

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A Wave of Scandals Is Testing the Singaporean Government’s Ability to Take Criticism

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Scandals Test Singapore’s ‘Thin-Skinned’ Approach to Public Criticism

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Singapore’s hamfisted attempts at controlling the narrative could backfire, drawing even more attention to criticism or questions raised in the first place.

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Singapore's disgraced former minister S. Iswaran jailed in landmark case

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Singapore's disgraced former minister S. Iswaran jailed in landmark case

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Should people be allowed to artificially enhance their bodies for non-medical reasons?

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What to know about Elon Musk's Neuralink

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What to know about Elon Musk's Neuralink

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What to know about Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which put an implant into a human brain

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“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer,” Musk said as he announced the step. “That is the goal.”

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What do people think about Smartglasses?

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What do people think about Smartglasses?

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Smartglasses, a type of wearable device, have evolved rapidly since the pioneering yet ill-fated Google Glass received social backlash in 2013. Early adopters were nicknamed "Glassholes", and the product never reached commercialisation. No one could understand why people would want a weird-looking computer on their face taking photos and recording videos, and getting in the way of social interaction.

This is in stark contrast to the design and functionality of new and emerging smartglass technologies, such as Meta's Ray-Ban Wayfarer Smart Glasses. These are almost indistinguishable from non-computerised eyewear. And while they are not the first to enter the commercial market, their second-generation tech has contributed to a surge in sales in the past year.

However, existing research into smartglasses tends to overlook the broader social risks and perceptions of them. Our new research begins to address these gaps. It examines how these devices are used in everyday contexts - and reveals the diverse and polarised perceptions Australians have towards them.

We found smartglass owners roam in packs and think they're pretty cool - but non-owners are more likely to see the devices as endangering their privacy and facilitating anti-social behaviour. While the two groups did have some common ground, our results make the need for regulation clear.

Owners and non-owners

Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses are a type of miniature, head-worn computer. They look like regular glasses but allow users to record videos, listen to music, make calls and livestream directly to Facebook. The latest version also has inbuilt artificial intelligence technology.

The glasses are considered a precursor to the commercialisation of fully augmented reality (AR) eyewear. The augmentations are overlays that allow wearers to see and hear computer-generated information that appears responsive to the world around them.

By 2034, the virtual and augmented reality headset industry is expected to be worth US$370 billion.

We surveyed 1,037 adult Australians to understand their views about smartglasses.

Younger Australians are more likely than older groups to take up the technology. Interestingly, a significant majority (95.6%) of smartglass owners know someone else who owns smartglasses. This suggests the technology already has "in-groups".

Younger device owners use their glasses more often than older owners. They also report higher instances of risky behaviours such as using the device while driving or in anti-social ways such as filming people without their consent.

This underscores the importance of enhanced regulation that prioritises safety and mitigates risky behaviours.

While owners indicate their smart glasses align with their self-image and social status, non-owners express greater anxieties about privacy and anti-social risks.

Non-owners are particularly concerned about appropriate and safe use in shared spaces. They are much more likely to believe wearing and using the device in public is "rude, inappropriate, or offensive".

Importantly, there are some shared views. For example, both groups recognise the potential benefits of smartglasses and feel similarly that the devices can help people. This bodes well for a future where technology might step in when our human senses are less able.

Potential bias

On face value, the findings reflect growing smartglass adoption, with more than half (58.6%) of participants reporting they own one of these devices. But this almost certainly doesn't reflect smartglass ownership by the general public.

We used Facebook to advertise our survey, as millions of Australians use this social media platform. But the platform may have introduced bias by pushing the survey to smartglass enthusiasts. It's also likely owners of smartglasses would be more inclined to answer a survey about the technology.

The market-leading position of Ray-Ban Meta devices may also mean some survey respondents are deeply embedded in the Meta technology ecosystem and are more likely to find the technology (and its many uses) acceptable.

Growing concerns, better regulation

Overall, our study underscores the need for robust regulation of smartglasses to ensure safe and beneficial use. Non-owners' strong concerns about anti-social outcomes and the potential for misuse highlight the need for further research into how these devices are being used in public spaces.

The ability to surreptitiously record video and take photos has previously caught the attention of Australia's privacy commissioner. But more recent concerns have emerged with students in the United States successfully installing advanced facial recognition software into a pair of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.

These concerns are set to grow as smartglasses become more sophisticated.

For example, in September, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage of the company's annual "Meta Connect" conference, sporting the company's cutting-edge AR glasses.

The ethical and privacy implications of the widespread use of smartglasses give rise to serious concerns about data privacy, heightened surveillance and monitoring. This ultimately impacts public safety and wellbeing. Policymakers must closely monitor smartglass technology and establish frameworks that ensure privacy, security, and fundamental rights while promoting innovation.

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What do people think about smartglasses? New research reveals a complicated picture

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Views differ between owners and non-owners of smartglasses. But both groups agree the technology can help people.

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Ford rolls out Exoskeleton Wearable Tech

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Ford rolls out Exoskeleton Wearable Tech

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Ford Rolls Out Exoskeleton Wearable Technology Globally To Help Lessen Worker Fatigue, Injury | Ford Media Center

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Imagine lifting a bag of flour or a watermelon over your head up to 4,600 times a day as part of your job – that is similar to what some Ford employees do every day as they work to build vehicles around the world.

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The Use of Prescription Drugs in Esports and Gaming

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The Use of Prescription Drugs in Esports and Gaming

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In esports, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, such as Adderall, to improve focus and attention can lead to long-term health risks and problematic gaming.

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Beauty Tourism Is Booming in South Korea

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Beauty Tourism Is Booming in South Korea

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Thanks to These Futuristic Treatments, Beauty Tourism Is Booming in South Korea

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Beauty tourism is growing in South Korea and will only get bigger. Here, dermatologists and creators discuss what to know about the industry.

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TraceTogether data use: Vivian Balakrishnan takes ‘full responsibility’ for error

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TraceTogether data use: Vivian Balakrishnan takes ‘full responsibility’ for error

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TraceTogether data use: Vivian Balakrishnan takes ‘full responsibility’ for error, says it would be ‘unconscionable’ to inhibit police work

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The Government made an error in not stating that data from the TraceTogether contact-tracing system is not exempt from the Criminal Procedure Code, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said on Tuesday (Feb 2), adding that he takes full responsibility for this mistake.

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Public Participation & Sustainable Urban Planning

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Public Participation & Sustainable Urban Planning

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Singapore: Public Participation & Sustainable Urban Planning

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Find out why public involvement is essential to city design and what are some initiatives to encourage citizen participation. Read full article now.

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A look back at the U.S. military exit from Afghanistan

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A look back at the U.S. military exit from Afghanistan

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A year later, a look back at public opinion about the U.S. military exit from Afghanistan

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Here’s how people in the U.S. and elsewhere have viewed the troop evacuation and its aftermath, and their broader attitudes about the war.

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Here’s How Much Aid the United States Has Sent Ukraine

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Here’s How Much Aid the United States Has Sent Ukraine

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Here’s How Much Aid the United States Has Sent Ukraine

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Ten charts illustrate the extraordinary level of support the United States has provided Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders.

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War in Ukraine | Global Conflict Tracker

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Learn about the world’s top hotspots with this interactive Global Conflict Tracker from the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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India’s Opportunity at Myanmar’s Crossroads

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India’s Opportunity at Myanmar’s Crossroads

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India’s Opportunity at Myanmar’s Crossroads - Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM

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Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd Myanmar stands at a critical crossroads, facing an escalating internal crisis a