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1101 lines
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<title>22 April, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Sorrow and Relief in Minneapolis</strong> - After Derek Chauvin was convicted of George Floyd’s murder, people hugged and wept. But it was not a joyful scene; it was something else. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-sorrow-and-relief-in-minneapolis">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Significance of the Derek Chauvin Verdict</strong> - The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb discusses the trial’s outcome. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-significance-of-the-derek-chauvin-verdict">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Doctor’s Dark Year</strong> - In the heart of the pandemic, a trauma surgeon travels to the edge and back. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/a-doctors-dark-year">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Forgotten History of the Purging of Chinese from America</strong> - The surge in violence against Asian-Americans is a reminder that America’s present reality reflects its exclusionary past. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-forgotten-history-of-the-purging-of-chinese-from-america">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How 1.5 Degrees Became the Key to Climate Progress</strong> - The number has dramatically reorganized global thinking around the climate. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/how-15-degrees-became-the-key-to-climate-progress">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>How to walk away from an awkward conversation</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qplJoXosXHFCSAMLZk6b0uY8Pu8=/0x0:452x339/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69168329/gettyimages_1163623465_170667a.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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gremlin/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A psychologist explains why we want conversations to end sooner but usually get stuck.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5OdtSJ">
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Have you ever been stuck in an awkward conversation?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z66fr8">
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Of course you have. Who hasn’t bumped into that weirdo at the party who can’t stop talking? Or the chatty “gym guy” who can’t seem to understand that wearing headphones means “leave me alone”? Or the coworker who has to complain about something new every morning in the elevator?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="teSk14">
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Here’s the good news: The pandemic is almost over. We’re all going to be re-released into the social wilderness. The bad news is that you won’t be able to avoid thorny encounters anymore.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1KYXZ">
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And if there’s a universal form of anxiety, it’s the feeling you get when you desperately want an interaction to end but can’t make it happen. The strange thing is it’s totally unnecessary: If we weren’t so desperate to avoid awkwardness, we could walk away or simply tell people what we want. But most of us don’t.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UnamIK">
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A <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/10/e2011809118">study</a> by a group of psychologists published in March throws some light on these dynamics. The researchers monitored more than 900 conversations and asked participants to report how they felt about the interaction, when they wanted it to end, and when they thought the <em>other</em> person wanted it to end. The findings won’t surprise you: Conversations “almost never ended when both conversants wanted them to” and “rarely ended when even one conversant wanted them to.” It turns out that, on average, conversations lasted about twice as long as people desired.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tVRtml">
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And that’s true not just of random conversations, like those at the gym, but also of interactions with friends, family, and loved ones. Roughly two-thirds of people said they wanted those conversations to end sooner.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vbUhLW">
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I reached out to Adam Mastroianni, a doctoral student at Harvard and the study’s lead researcher, to talk about why our conversations last too long, how we can end them sooner, and why we should be less pessimistic about our interactions — and perhaps lean into the awkwardness.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yP5lYt">
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A transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
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</p>
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<h4 id="Pcrtsb">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="POPptF">
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Why do most of our conversations last longer than we want them to?
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</p>
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<h4 id="MFMkTU">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TMQ5tc">
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Actually, the question of whether they last longer or shorter than we want them to is pretty complicated. The paper is about how conversations last a different amount of time than we want them to, which is both longer and shorter. I can walk you through the levels, and you can stop me whenever you get bored.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DYsOwT">
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Cool?
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</p>
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<h4 id="06q8pK">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xFv8ZM">
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Cool.
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</p>
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<h4 id="kYGw7r">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zsXoAD">
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So when you just ask people, “Was there a point at which you felt ready for that conversation to end?” About 70 percent say “yes.” And for the vast majority of those people, they wanted it to end way earlier. So if you just look at that number, it looks like most people want their conversations to end before they do.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="149DGI">
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Then there’s a minority of people, roughly 30 percent, who wanted the conversation to keep going, and they wanted it to keep going by about as much as the other people wanted it to end sooner. You could look at that and think they cancel each other out, and therefore conversations don’t really end sooner or later than people want them to.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F0G6cL">
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But if you dig a little deeper, you see that these numbers mean something different. If I say I wanted to go five minutes earlier, I’m totally sure about that. But when someone says they wanted to go 20 minutes longer, that’s a prediction. Maybe they would, or maybe they’d change their mind after a few minutes. So we can’t really weigh these numbers against each other.
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</p>
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<h4 id="dR8nLa">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kzJNwk">
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I’m starting to get bored …
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</p>
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<h4 id="ao7CaP">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFPI4Q">
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Yes, most people wish conversations ended sooner.
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</p>
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<h4 id="BjfVBY">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zwE2bD">
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Is this true not just of conversations with random people but also [of conversations] with friends, family, and loved ones? Do those tend to last longer than we want them to?
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</p>
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<h4 id="kVb2GT">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l0lZHM">
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Yeah, this was true of every kind of conversation that we studied. In one of our studies, we brought people into the lab who were meeting each other for the first time, and they talked as long as they wanted to. In our other study, we surveyed people about the last conversation that they had. If you think back to the last conversation you had, it’s probably with someone that you know really well and talk to all the time, especially in times like these. And we got the same results in both studies. Very few people say the conversation ended when they wanted it to, and they didn’t think it ended when the other person wanted it to either.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="16OAPP">
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<q>“Who wants to cut off grandma in the middle of her story? I don’t. Sometimes it’s good for us to just sit there and listen.”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<h4 id="rpTLZO">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K5Fi0q">
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Confusion is unavoidable, but the one thing we can always do is communicate our preferences to the person we’re talking to. Why don’t we do it?
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</p>
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<h4 id="3l4Dw8">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2yDA3">
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Imagine what would happen if you did. If you said, “I want to go,” you could offend me because I wanted to keep going. And now all of a sudden you’re saying that you’re done. If you said, “I want to keep going,” now you might trap me because I wanted to stop. And so instead of taking that risk and offending people one way or the other, we both hide our desires, so maybe nobody gets what they want but we also don’t offend anybody. And so we both leave dissatisfied, but we also leave as friends. This might be one of the prices that we pay for living in a decent society — we don’t all get exactly what we want all the time.
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</p>
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<h4 id="eLAJdU">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="94wl0L">
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So you’re saying the price of a decent society is a veneer of bullshit?
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</p>
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<h4 id="WvZuTW">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UhyJoc">
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I mean, you could call it bullshit or you could call it politeness.
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</p>
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<h4 id="ecqSTi">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GYCXOF">
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Did you find that most people were afraid to offend the other person? Is that the main concern?
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</p>
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<h4 id="XXrbHz">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pLhV8">
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We’re afraid of offending people but also trapping them. If I was talking to you, and you had a little billboard that flipped up on your forehead when you wanted to go, I’d want to go too. I don’t want to talk to somebody who doesn’t want to talk to me. If I knew you wanted to continue, maybe I also would want to continue.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vIeMPk">
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One of the reasons why conversations don’t end when people want them to is that we want different things. And part of the reason we want different things is because we don’t know what the other person wants. And this is a unique situation in which what I want is dependent, at least in part, on what you want.
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</p>
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<h4 id="BLCIV3">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fnnc1N">
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Those things — honesty and politeness — are really in conflict, aren’t they?
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</p>
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<h4 id="2OuK4c">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QVHto4">
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Yeah, you can think of politeness as a series of rules. And the whole reason you have rules is because this isn’t what you would do if you did exactly what you want. We don’t need a rule that says you should continue to breathe, or that you should eat a bunch of ice cream. These are things that people would do whether you told them to or not. But we do need rules to govern people’s behavior around things that they might not do automatically.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAirDK">
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What we think of as politeness is typically something that we think we do with strangers. But we don’t really think of it as politeness with people we know; we just think of it as kindness. But it’s the same thing: It’s a series of rules that govern your behavior toward another person. If I didn’t want to be kind to my partner or to my mother or to my friends, I would just walk away exactly when I wanted to. But because I care about them, and I don’t want to hurt their feelings and they don’t want to hurt mine, we’re willing to all stick around maybe a little longer than we would otherwise.
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</p>
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<h4 id="1bIxO6">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUnLOe">
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The shitty thing is that we all kind of know when someone has checked out of a conversation. You can see it in their face [and] in their eyes, and yet most of the time we keep on chatting. No one’s willing to acknowledge what both people already know. Are we just stuck with what game theorists call a “coordination problem”?
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</p>
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<h4 id="MkZi79">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KXjhf3">
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There’s actually two problems at play here that create this coordination problem. One is that we might think we know when the other person wants to leave, but when you notice that someone is shifting around, maybe breaking eye contact, looking a little glazed over, maybe that was the first moment they felt ready to leave, or maybe they felt ready to leave 10 minutes ago and you didn’t notice it then, or they didn’t signal it to you then. When we ask people to guess when the other people wanted to leave, they were off by about 60 percent of the length of their conversations. They had no idea when that person wanted to go. So that’s the first problem.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RM5Voh">
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The other problem is that even when we’re pretty sure of what the other person wants, you can’t just end a conversation at any time. You can think of a conversation like driving down the highway. You can’t just exit at any point, or else you’re going to end up in a ditch or in a storefront or running into a tree. I can’t just interrupt a story. There are all these rules that make it pretty clear to both of us when we’re allowed to get out. And those exits have some distance between them.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="EjsL5r">
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<q>“It’s definitely better to leave people wanting more than it is to leave people wanting less”</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<h4 id="9Yqqfe">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zRr2pl">
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I’ve had a couple periods in my life where I really tried to be authentic in my personal interactions, and I learned pretty quickly that people don’t like that. We’re so used to playing this choreographed social game, and radical honesty blows the whole thing up …
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</p>
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<h4 id="SZwqGY">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rdIgUV">
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But what is your authentic self? Is it the thing that wants what it wants in the very moment that it wants it? Or is it the part of you that also cares about what the other person thinks? Is your authentic self the one that wants to rip a big fart the second you feel a rumbling in your tummy? Or is it the part that goes, “I don’t want to make other people feel embarrassed or have to smell the noxious fumes coming out of my ass.” Both of those could be some part of your authentic self, and maybe your authentic self is whatever emerges from the conflict between those desires.
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</p>
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<h4 id="VEiBDs">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q6wIP0">
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||
Yeah, I don’t think my authentic self has ever wanted to drop farts on interlocutors, but I did find that if you <em>really</em> listen to people, if you give them your total attention, it can create some awkwardness because it’s not normal. But let me ask you this: Do you think the social benefits of playing the politeness game outweigh the potential benefits of a more honest game?
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</p>
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<h4 id="U3PZxi">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PwwXxy">
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||
I don’t know for sure, and I’d love to know better. All of our studies were on Americans, and you and I are both pretty familiar with the rules that govern conversations in America. They’re not universal rules. In other cultures, the rules are much stricter, and so people might get stuck a lot more often than they do here. In other places, the rules are a lot more loose, and you can just say something like, “I’m done. Goodbye.” And what we don’t yet know is whether people actually enjoy conversations more when they tilt more toward the strict or more toward the loose.
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</p>
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<h4 id="B9zGFE">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wJg1GA">
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||
If it’s true that most conversations last longer than both people want them to, wouldn’t someone be relieved if you’re actually willing to own that and be the one to pull the rip cord? Are we just overthinking this?
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</p>
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<h4 id="ONPrep">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NtoGjG">
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Maybe. We do know that the people who are left wanting more, that 30 percent, enjoy the conversation just as much as people who say it ended exactly [when] they wanted it to end. There’s not many of those people, but those two points are pretty much the same. So it’s definitely better to leave people wanting more than it is to leave people wanting less.
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</p>
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<h4 id="rqqC5o">
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Sean Illing
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rGpZb8">
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What’s your best advice to people who want to get better at ending conversations without also being assholes?
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</p>
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<h4 id="TilIQ8">
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Adam Mastroianni
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fe2b6t">
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||
The big tip is that it’s almost always better to go too short than too long. If you’re feeling unsure about whether the other person wants to go but think that you do, that’s a pretty appropriate time to go. Especially if you could always talk to that person again. But the trick is that one of the reasons why conversations are so fraught is that it feels like the very fact of our parting is evidence that something has gone wrong, because if I liked you and you liked me and we were having a nice time, why don’t we keep going? You don’t stop eating ice cream when the ice cream tastes really good. You stop when you’re sick.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uZfYLy">
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I think the best way to end a conversation is to address that problem head-on, to signal to the other person that nothing has gone wrong here — it’s just that sometimes, two people have to stop talking to each other, and this is one of those times. And this is why a main way people end their conversations is by signaling that they have to. You say, “I’d love to keep talking, but I gotta do X.” But another way to do it without lying is just to say, “I had a nice time talking to you, looking forward to doing it again.”
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||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="JddzzU">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nVdi4P">
|
||
What do you do when you collide with that person — and we all know this person — who just refuses to notice your signals?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="qrQ0By">
|
||
Adam Mastroianni
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8B1lnV">
|
||
One of these people sort of inspired the paper. There was a person in our department who will remain nameless and, in fact, isn’t even there anymore. But you knew that if you were walking by this person you should be on the other side of the room or on the phone, because otherwise you’d be talking to them for an hour. How do you get out of a conversation with such a person? Maybe tell them about this study and they’ll get the hint. But otherwise, the nuclear option — besides walking away — is literally to say, “This has been really nice. I have to go.” If they don’t get it at that point, there’s no hope. You should probably walk away.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="HaRPNA">
|
||
<q>“You can think of a conversation like driving down the highway. You can’t just exit at any point, or else you’re going to end up in a ditch.”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h4 id="WIddc4">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtLDCK">
|
||
Most people are probably more comfortable being honest with friends and family, but do you think we should try to take the same approach to ending conversations with everyone?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="V4Hd7r">
|
||
Adam Mastroianni
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6EnU6L">
|
||
That’s a good question. I think people might feel more comfortable with their families and friends, but the stakes are higher. If we’re chatting because we’re both waiting for a bus, I don’t want to hurt you because you’re another person, but I’m not as worried about what you think about me. But if you’re my partner or my mom, I am more worried. You mean a lot to me, and I don’t want to hurt you. So the relationship means more, and it’s hard to take the same strategy. I mean, who wants to cut off grandma in the middle of her story? I don’t. Sometimes it’s good for us to just sit there and listen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="uD4keY">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6hLLQ">
|
||
I also think most of us are too pessimistic about our interactions. Sometimes conversations die not because we run out of stuff to say but because we’re in our damn heads too much. We’re not present, and that inattentiveness kills momentum.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="Nqxmlw">
|
||
Adam Mastroianni
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TVleS6">
|
||
That’s totally true. We can see this in our studies. This is a unique domain in which people are more pessimistic than they should be. Usually people are more optimistic than they should be. “I think I might win the lottery,” or “I definitely won’t break my leg,” that’s something that happens to other people. But when it comes to social interactions, people say things like, “Oh, I’m worse than other people at remembering names,” or in our studies, “I think other people liked me less than I liked them.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uDlPmr">
|
||
Worrying is a huge dead weight on conversations. The best thing we can probably do is relax and just let the conversation run its course. All of these people that we’re trying to get out of conversations with, maybe they’re the ones having the most fun, and we should be doing what they’re doing instead of giving ourselves over to our neurotic thoughts and trying to escape.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="iVBePS">
|
||
Sean Illing
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f8fJ8v">
|
||
Conversations will always be fraught with uncertainty because we can never know what someone else is thinking. But the anxiety we feel is a choice and a consequence of worrying too much. I’m going to try and do less of that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="Ewhebn">
|
||
Adam Mastroianni
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GXUrgw">
|
||
Maybe the best way to think about ending conversations is what happens when you start having thoughts about leaving. Ask yourself: “Is this an anxious thought? Am I running because I’m afraid that I’m being judged? Or do I really need to get back to work (or whatever)”? If it’s the latter, if it’s real, then yeah, that’s a good time to leave. But if it’s fear, then maybe that’s the time to stick it out.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>10 things we learned about Earth since the last Earth Day</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="The Bay Bridge across San Francisco Bay at twilight, with the sky orange with smoke." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yedFQjfR2uEDF-rvbhzHvlMSaPI=/200x0:1800x1200/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69164004/GettyImages_1271601362.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
On September 9, 2020, smoke from wildfires burning across California blew over San Francisco, turning the sky blood orange. | Gabrielle Lurie/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The secret to wombat poop, how skies turn orange, and what a cold ocean blob could mean for the climate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZCZvYQ">
|
||
<em>This story is part of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth"><strong>Down to Earth</strong></a><em>, a new Vox reporting initiative on the science, politics, and economics of the biodiversity crisis.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n2R2Uv">
|
||
This time last April, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the world was coming to grips with the isolation of quarantine and the economic and travel slowdowns that defined the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even now, with the rollout of vaccines, the virus continues to affect our daily lives. And the toll keeps growing: 3 million dead and more than 140 million cases worldwide.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rqYPBB">
|
||
If anything, the worst public health crisis in a century has brought our understanding of our planet, and our place in the fragile yet resilient web of life throughout it, into stark relief.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EcTyuh">
|
||
Amid so much grief and loss and uncertainty, the biodiversity crisis paced ahead over the past year, becoming a much bigger theme <a href="https://www.vox.com/22369705/biden-conservation-biodiversity-collapse-30-by-30">on the world stage</a>. The climate crisis worsened, too. Wildfires blazed. Ecosystems became even more fouled up than they already were. A <a href="https://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2021">tree-heavy Google Doodle</a> marking the occasion of Earth Day this year drives it all home.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dqhsan">
|
||
At the same time, the marked reduction in human activity spurred by the pandemic — what some experts have dubbed <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41559-020-1237-z&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the “Anthropause”</a> — has afforded scientists and researchers opportunities to observe the natural world like never before. Coinciding with these unique observational windows has been an increase in attention on Indigenous knowledge and land stewardship as a way forward in combating ecological catastrophe.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hfBQRn">
|
||
In true Vox tradition, here are the 10 most concerning, intriguing, and — dare we say — hopeful things we learned about our planet <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/22/21226521/earth-day-2020-climate-action-coronavirus-google-doodle">since the last Earth Day</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="qPxTXy">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h3 id="A7hjH3">
|
||
<ol type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">We saw just how quickly ocean noise pollution can drop, and how much that can help marine life
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3oR34q">
|
||
For a moment last spring, things got very quiet in the oceans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u8oCRO">
|
||
The drop in human activity that came with the pandemic resulted in drastic and voluntary sound reductions that ran the underwater gamut: from a drop in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-few-fixes-could-cut-noise-pollution-that-hurts-ocean-animals/">shipping noise, the predominant source of man-made ocean noise pollution</a>, to decreases in recreation and tourism. All of it suddenly ceased.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VWVQR7">
|
||
In Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, the foraging grounds of humpback whales, the loudest underwater sounds last May were less than half as loud as those in May 2018, according to <a href="https://www.birds.cornell.edu/ccb/the-effects-of-an-unexpected-pause-for-marine-soundscapes-in-alaska/">a Cornell University analysis</a>. A May 2020 <a href="https://asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/10.0001271?journalCode=jas&">paper</a> in the <em>Journal of the Acoustical Society of America</em> found that underwater noise off the Vancouver coast was half as loud in April as the loudest sounds recorded in the months preceding the shipping traffic slowdown.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JMDxok">
|
||
Chronic underwater ocean noise had been rising over the past few decades, to the detriment of marine life that have evolved to use sound to navigate their world. “There is clear evidence that noise compromises hearing ability and induces physiological and behavioral changes in marine animals,” <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6529/eaba4658">reads</a> an assessment of marine noise pollution research published in the journal <em>Science </em>in February.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A humpback whale." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/F-txvhfUgvVafmxWZcmz5Ad8R2Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457897/GettyImages_630600260.jpg"/> <cite>Richard Shucksmith/Barcroft Im/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A humpback whale seen near Shetland Islands, Scotland, December 2016.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0VAeet">
|
||
The majority of ocean noise pollution is a byproduct of economic activity. But compared with massively complex issues like climate change, noise is relatively easy to turn down, at least a little. Silencing it at its source has an immediate positive impact: Famously, researchers studying right whales on the East Coast measured a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2011.2429">drop in the animals’ stress hormones</a> in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, after shipping traffic abruptly dropped. Even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/science/ocean-marine-noise-pollution.html">tiny fish larvae</a> are better able to locate the coral reefs where they were born, which themselves emit sound, when the oceans get quiet.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dKwFzS">
|
||
Man-made ocean noise has since ramped back up and is now stabilized near pre-pandemic levels. But it fell silent for long enough last March, April, and May that a global team of scientists is actively scrubbing through audio recordings gathered by around 230 non-military hydrophones — underwater microphones — that monitor ocean noise around the world. They aim to study the <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/tca-yot040521.php">“year of the quiet ocean”</a> in the context of ocean sounds before, during, and after the pandemic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="uuWelT">
|
||
<ol start="2" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">A new study found that the Amazon is likely warming — not cooling — the planet
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BxnCIc">
|
||
The world’s largest and most species-rich tropical forest, the Amazon, is home to billions of trees that not only provide refuge to a diverse assemblage of<strong> </strong>organisms but also store and absorb a huge amount of carbon dioxide.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GvjB3t">
|
||
That’s what makes the conclusion of a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2021.618401/full">study</a> published this spring so alarming: Due to human activity, the Amazon is likely contributing to — <em>not</em> offsetting, as one might expect— global warming. “The current net biogeochemical effect of the Amazon Basin is most likely to warm the atmosphere,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XA3fxMpi_AGeWWgU7Gw6e5NDaL8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457521/GettyImages_1227862129.jpg"/> <cite>Tarso Sarraf/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A deforested region of the Amazon in the municipality of Melgaco, Para State, Brazil on July 30, 2020.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tffwpp">
|
||
While the Amazon is still absorbing loads of CO2, human activities in the basin, such as deforestation, are driving up emissions of CO2 and other more potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide across the basin.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="750KLE">
|
||
Deforestation, for one, deals a double punch: It both releases gases into the atmosphere and removes CO2-absorbing trees from the equation. That equation now sees the Amazon generating more greenhouse gases than it emits, the study suggests. (It’s worth noting, though, this is all <em>really </em>complicated. For more, check out <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fenvironment%2Farticle%2Famazon-rainforest-now-appears-to-be-contributing-to-climate-change%3Floggedin%3Dtrue&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Craig Welch’s story</a> in National Geographic or read the full study <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2021.618401/full">here</a>.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="v8mraF">
|
||
<ol start="3" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">We discovered a bunch of new species
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="myuTPd">
|
||
While humans have made a mark on all corners of Earth, we’ve only discovered a small fraction of the species that occupy it. In fact, that fraction <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=138446">could be smaller than 1 percent</a>. And remarkably, not all of those species are tiny microbes and insects. They’re also fish, lizards, bats, and even whales. That’s right: Even giant mammals can elude scientists.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X5ufaZ">
|
||
In January, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/28/961765657/scientists-identify-new-whale-species-in-the-gulf">said they discovered</a> a new species of baleen whale in the Gulf of Mexico. (You can find the paper describing the discovery <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mms.12776">here</a>.) Other teams of scientists are also on the trail of what could be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/americas/new-whale-species-mexico-scli-intl-scn/index.html">yet another new whale species</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A thumbnail-sized chameleon resting on top of a finger." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I5I1nsY6T6XNKTijFiX0jpWQf4g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22458706/AP_21036556172671.jpg"/> <cite>AP/Frank Glaw</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
<em>Brookesia nana</em>, a recently discovered species of chameleon native to northern Madagascar.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FJTvI8">
|
||
Last year, researchers documented scores of new plants and animals, from geckos and sea slugs to flowering plants and sand dollars, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22202733/2020-new-species">Vox’s Brian Resnick reported</a>. Our favorite? <em>Brookesia nana, </em>a <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fanimals%2Farticle%2Ftiny-chameleon-smallest-reptile-discovered-madagascar&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">thumbnail-sized chameleon</a> native to northern Madagascar. It may be the smallest reptile on Earth; it’s certainly the cutest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="u3Hx0r">
|
||
<ol start="4" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">We got a much clearer picture of just how much wildlife we’re losing
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XX6yXI">
|
||
The numbers aren’t good.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtNdP2">
|
||
In September, the World Wildlife Fund published a <a href="https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-us/">report</a> showing that the global populations of several major animal groups, including mammals and birds, have declined by almost 70 percent in the last 50 years due to human activity.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MnZc10">
|
||
A <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41586-020-03173-9&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">separate report</a>, published in <em>Nature</em> this year, found that populations of ocean sharks and rays have plummeted by more than 70 percent in roughly the same period. And one-third of freshwater fish have been <a href="https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/world_s_forgotten_fishes__final_april9_.pdf">found to be at risk of extinction</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Two gray reef sharks swim over a coral reef." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JXjEWEl5lVdpY5tVy9vqMD63bdU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457527/GettyImages_1297381926.jpg"/> <cite>Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Two gray reef sharks swim over a coral reef in Gambier Archipelago, French Polynesia, on February 19, 2018.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4rdrQN">
|
||
A number of species were also declared extinct over the last year. Those include the smooth handfish, a bottom-dweller that rests atop human-like appendages on the seafloor. It was the <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fanimals%2Farticle%2Fsmooth-handfish-extinct-other-handfishes-threatened%3Floggedin%3Dtrue&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">first marine fish species</a> to be declared extinct in modern history. (Environmental journalist John Platt has a <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-weve-lost-the-species-declared-extinct-in-2020/">list of recent extinctions</a> in 2020 at Scientific American<em>.</em>)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Vyw1Hi">
|
||
<ol start="5" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Protecting plants and animals hinges on a thriving ecotourism industry
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HNQaDe">
|
||
In the early days of the pandemic, the popular “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavirus-meme-nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus">Nature is healing</a>” meme overshadowed a darker reality in many parts of the world: As travel ground to a halt, so did revenue from wildlife tourism, putting some wildlife conservation efforts at risk.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xT8p9Q">
|
||
The fallout was most severe in Africa. According to a <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/world-commission-protected-areas/202103/covid-19-fallout-undermining-nature-conservation-efforts-iucn-publication">new collection of research</a> from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a government and civil society group, more than half of the continent’s protected areas had to pause or limit field patrols and other operations to stop poachers in the wake of the pandemic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dpGaI9">
|
||
“Parks have emptied out to a large extent and there’s no money coming in,” Nigel Dudley, a co-author of one of the IUCN papers, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-global-environment-conservation/wildlife-protections-especially-in-africa-cut-sharply-during-pandemic-iucn-conservation-group-idUSKBN2B31D8">told Reuters</a> last month.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A mountain gorilla surrounded by trees." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/w9YERz_CNJ15ZfcsAL3gQDI_QrM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457514/GettyImages_578019682.jpg"/> <cite>Roger de la Harpe/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A mountain gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uWEwRh">
|
||
Some communities are deeply reliant on wildlife tourism. Late last year, Vox’s Brian Resnick <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/12/17/22175998/covid-19-gorillas-conservation-veterinarian-uganda">spoke to</a> veterinarian Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, who is working to keep coronavirus-susceptible gorillas alive in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZPBAHe">
|
||
When tourism dropped, “everybody was struggling,” she said. “The local economy suffered and poaching went up.” (You can read more of Resnick’s conversation with her <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/12/17/22175998/covid-19-gorillas-conservation-veterinarian-uganda">here</a>.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="rqkOpj">
|
||
<ol start="6" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Researchers uncovered more proof that a key system of ocean currents is weakening
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VWmnTL">
|
||
Graphics that show changes in ocean temperature over time generally reveal one trend: The ocean is heating up. But there’s one critical exception. Just below Greenland lies a large patch of water that’s cooling off. And that patch has scientists concerned that we could be nearing a tipping point for the climate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8vBFw0">
|
||
The cold patch, scientists say, signals that a network of currents that bring warm water to the North Atlantic — known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC — is slowing down, and the melting of ice on Greenland is likely a culprit. <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41561-021-00699-z.epdf%3Fsharing_token%3D1_usSu89iBCo86iwrUiJPtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0P93m6r2g6HCxEqjXwwP2zvNWm69miAlh1y_Z4SKXkP2M5VvYQVkypuGVZWOGxA53Mw1qcUsfExgUey7B1AxALivVhR85gLVTz36jSRziHWEFrI3KHKUIcssf9ph7yOHjz-e89ZfDCRwVI9gUZadzV9LB-hsVBxKbe9bFRG2Ucbgs3TC1Lb8bkXH4umPp391rc%253D%26tracking_referrer%3Dwww.nytimes.com&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22392485%2Fearth-day-climate-change-environment-year-review" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">One paper</a>, published in the journal <em>Nature</em> in March, suggests that the current AMOC slowdown is “unprecedented in over a thousand years.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="NASA Goddard" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EulCc3PsW9Wf_mdomTC_I8mAX_E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457501/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001761_large.jpeg"/> <cite>NASA Goddard</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Ocean surface currents between June 2005 and December 2007.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vnmekg">
|
||
The AMOC shapes weather across multiple continents, so any major slowdown will carry major consequences that could include faster sea-level rise in some regions, stronger hurricanes, and other changes in weather, to say nothing of the impacts to marine ecosystems.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQMhYb">
|
||
But to be clear, the science on this is new and complex. For a great run-down, check out this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/02/climate/atlantic-ocean-climate-change.html">recent visual feature</a> in the New York Times.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="PvbqCg">
|
||
<ol start="7" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs gave rise to the Amazon rainforest
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SReHHw">
|
||
The massive asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago may be best known for driving non-avian dinosaurs to extinction, but it also transformed entire ecosystems.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WX7SeW">
|
||
It may have even given rise to the Amazon rainforest, according to a study <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6537/63">published in <em>Science</em></a><em> </em>earlier this month. The finding is based on an analysis of about 50,000 fossil pollen records and 6,000 fossil leaf records in Colombia from before and after the asteroid crashed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qvU2kV">
|
||
The data reveals two vastly different forests. Before the event, the forests were stocked with conifers and ferns, and the trees were spread out, with plenty of room for light to stream through the canopy. After the asteroid event, however, flowering plants started to dominate the landscape and the canopy became much more tightly packed, resembling the forest we know today.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A part of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1wmgjOKzQDABpDrF_nwZZ90NNpo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457548/GettyImages_1068311482.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The Amazon rainforest in Belém, Brazil.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x4YLAi">
|
||
“If you returned to the day before the meteorite fall, the forest would have an open canopy with a lot of ferns, many conifers, and dinosaurs,” study co-author Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2273596-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs-gave-birth-to-the-amazon-rainforest/">told New Scientist</a>. “The forest we have today is the product of one event 66 million years ago.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZLFcDF">
|
||
The idea here is that the asteroid impact somehow triggered a series of events that led to the modern Amazon rainforest. What were those events? One theory the researchers offer is that, before the asteroid, herbivorous dinosaurs prevented the forest from becoming dense by eating and trampling plants.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="3dCJGv">
|
||
<ol start="8" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">A review of more than 300 studies showed that the rate of deforestation is lower on Indigenous lands
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bOeFjs">
|
||
The global<strong> </strong>conservation movement is pushing forward <a href="https://www.vox.com/22369705/biden-conservation-biodiversity-collapse-30-by-30">a plan to conserve 30 percent of the Earth by 2030</a> — an initiative known as 30 by 30 — and increasingly calling for Indigenous communities to be central to that effort.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iUwtAv">
|
||
These groups have historically been uprooted from land in the name of wildlife conservation. There is also greater evidence that forests fare better when they are governed by Indigenous and tribal territories.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Women combing through leaves of the xate plant." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tDd88Zb02UYNalMTHC2YizwudwM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457840/GettyImages_1176120331.jpg"/> <cite>Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
In Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, members of the local community harvest and sell palm fronds of the xate plant, which are used in flower arrangements.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qS52Te">
|
||
A recent <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1391139/icode/">UN review</a> of more than 300 studies found that forests within tribal territories in Latin America and the Caribbean have significantly lower rates of deforestation where land rights are formally recognized.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="29PVmw">
|
||
“In just about every country in the region Indigenous and tribal territories have lower deforestation rates than other forest areas,” wrote the authors of the report, which was published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. “Many Indigenous territories prevent deforestation as effectively as non-Indigenous protected areas, and some even more effectively.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="WcDQ8O">
|
||
<ol start="9" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Wildfire smoke can turn the sky an apocalyptic orange
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dtpFYr">
|
||
If there was one day in 2020 that defined the climate emergency, it could have been September 9, when the sky above San Francisco turned completely orange.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EJtzWi__JywJk3qOoV7v_DQ_6NM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457448/GettyImages_1271593615.jpg"/> <cite>Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Smoke from wildfires turned the sky above San Francisco orange on September 9, 2020.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wQCWwW">
|
||
Strong winds had carried smoke from fires burning across California to the atmosphere above the city. Particles of soot absorbed or reflected blue light from the sun, letting only orange-ish light through. (<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/those-orange-western-skies-and-the-science-of-light/">Wired</a> has the details.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1D0WNY">
|
||
But what made the image go viral wasn’t so much the science but what it symbolized: a growing climate catastrophe.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n4GjzV">
|
||
Climate change <a href="https://www.vox.com/21430638/california-wildfires-2020-orange-sky-august-complex">is making wildfires more frequent and severe</a>, and 2020 provided more devastating evidence. Last year was California’s <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/">worst wildfire season on record</a>. By the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4 million acres — an astonishing 4 percent of California’s total land, according to the state.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="nT6T1U">
|
||
<ol start="10" type="1">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Scientists finally solved the mystery of why wombats poop cubes
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oB8d98">
|
||
Sure, it may not have kept <em>you</em> up at night, but the mystery of the bare-nosed wombat’s poop puzzled scientists for decades. Why do these adorable, chunky marsupials, native to Australia and Tasmania, leave behind feces with six sides?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5JTTwo">
|
||
Thanks to a new <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sm/d0sm01230k#!divAbstract">study</a> — published in the journal <em>Soft Matter — </em>we now have the answer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Cube-shaped poop from wombats in Australia." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Cu8k0OA8p1UlcI1lK_H8UlxEH2A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22457560/GettyImages_1144305964.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Cube-shaped wombat poop in Kosciuszko National Park in Australia.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6A4i63">
|
||
Building on research published a few years earlier, a team of scientists found that wombat intestines have regions of varying thickness and elasticity that contract at different speeds: The stiffer regions contract relatively quickly, while softer sections squeeze more slowly, together forming a cube-like shape.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWkwqd">
|
||
But there’s still a bit of mystery left: Why<em> </em>is their poop shaped like this? The jury’s still out, but some researchers believe it’s because wombats climb up on rocks and logs, and the cube-like shape prevents the feces from rolling away. This is key for wombats because they use piles of feces to communicate with other wombats.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KgDal0">
|
||
What a difference a year makes, truly.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="qCMRBj"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fLjPrM">
|
||
<em>This April, Vox’s podcasts are teaming up to cover some of the most important issues</em><em><strong> </strong></em><em>threatening life on Earth. Check out the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/8/22360525/climate-change-clean-energy-earth-day-podcasts"><em>full list of episodes</em></a><em> in the series. </em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<li><strong>This climate policy expert is taking over Jeff Bezos’s $10 billion Earth Fund</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Andrew Steer presenting at the World Resources Institute in 2017." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zeen4VCqrm4cF81Y2k5fnTHuiR4=/432x0:3888x2592/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69168274/31412766534_9ab1d1e89c_o.0.jpeg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has selected Andrew Steer, the former head of the World Resources Institute, to lead his $10 billion climate change philanthropy. | World Resources Institute
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A conversation with Andrew Steer about the US Earth Day climate summit, and how he wants to spend Bezos’s money.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZqT72">
|
||
It’s a momentous week for action on climate change. On Thursday, the White House is convening 40 world leaders for an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/19/22386142/earth-day-biden-china-united-states-climate-summit-india-brazil-russia-paris-agreement">Earth Day summit</a> where the United States is expected to announce new commitments to curb its greenhouse gas emissions. According to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/04/20/biden-climate-change/">Washington Post</a>, the US is considering doubling its previous target, cutting emissions 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. In doing so, the US — the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter — would end up committing to the largest cuts in emissions in the world.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RoWhnq">
|
||
Many other countries are also not sitting idle. Major economies like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/5/4/18528526/climate-change-uk-net-zero-law">United Kingdom</a>, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22169776/eu-emissions-target-cut-un-paris-agreement">European Union</a>, and even <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/15/21516537/climate-change-china-xi-jinping-coal-carbon-neutral">China</a> have their sights set on zeroing out their greenhouse gas emissions entirely. Others plan to ramp up their ambitions from the tepid goals set in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The accord aims to limit warming this century to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, with a more ambitious target of 1.5°C.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vyDCyF">
|
||
It’s been a struggle to get to this point, with decades of stops and false starts just to get countries to agree to limit climate change at all, not to mention the last four years of US backpedaling under Donald Trump. Now, scientists say the world has less than a decade to get on course for meeting the 1.5°C goal. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are poised to rise again this year as economies rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="5PjzVA">
|
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<div>
|
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|
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</div>
|
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</aside>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XDvrVy">
|
||
<a href="https://www.wri.org/profile/andrew-steer">Andrew Steer</a> is a leading authority on international climate change policy and has been closely involved in the ebbs and flows of global action for more than a decade. He worked as a special envoy for climate change at the World Bank between 2010 and 2012. And until recently, he led the <a href="https://www.wri.org/">World Resources Institute</a> (WRI), one of the premier think tanks on climate change and other environmental issues. WRI’s work has been indispensable for my own reporting, from their policy papers on energy to their visualizations to their briefings walking reporters through the intricacies of international climate negotiations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ShpE67">
|
||
Steer was recently poached by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to lead the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22321861/jeff-bezos-climate-earth-fund-andrew-steel-amazon">Bezos Earth Fund</a>, one of the world’s largest climate philanthropies, pledging to spend $10 billion by 2030 to address climate change.
|
||
</p>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMNDOAeHAK6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Jeff Bezos (<span class="citation" data-cites="jeffbezos">@jeffbezos</span>)</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJuRDG">
|
||
I talked to Steer recently about how we arrived at this moment, why he still believes in the more aggressive targets for limiting warming, and what we can expect from international climate negotiations. I also asked him what areas should be priorities for investment and his ambitions for his new job.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BGVUgP">
|
||
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="FPv3P3">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mX73Xi">
|
||
During your time at WRI, there were a lot of shifts in momentum around climate action. To your mind, what has been the most significant shift over the past decade and how meaningful do you think that’s been?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="htSGTf">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="slu85s">
|
||
When I joined WRI in 2012, we were still in a situation where quite frankly there wasn’t a global strategy for addressing climate change at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VHjiek">
|
||
The Paris deal was remarkable in that it was really a new type of international agreement. It wasn’t the kind of textbook agreement that the 2009 <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/past-conferences/copenhagen-climate-change-conference-december-2009/copenhagen-climate-change-conference-december-2009">Copenhagen climate conference</a> had tried to deliver. It was something actually much more modern, much more creative, much more risky, based upon the notion that it was too early to get countries to make concrete commitments. The hypotheses that it was based on turned out to be remarkably accurate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RZvDle">
|
||
The hypothesis was that the first time around when you asked countries to make commitments, they’re not going to be very impressive and they are certainly not going to add up to a solution. Then the hypothesis was that over the next five years, for a whole range of reasons, you would start getting ambitions rising. The assumption was that there would be technological change, that costs would come down, that the politics might change for the better, that citizens might come forward and demand change.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5iU3jG">
|
||
Quite honestly, most of us that were there in Paris would not have imagined that today 59 countries would have committed to move to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, or that 1,500 major global corporations would commit to net-zero and to science-based targets.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6spdmV">
|
||
So in a way, the Paris agreement, easy although it is to criticize for being voluntary, actually turns out to have been very smart. Having said that, we’re absolutely not where we need to be, and committing to net-zero by 2050 doesn’t mean that you will have clear five- and 10-year paths.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="C90D17">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pK2JFc">
|
||
President Biden is convening world leaders partially as a trust-building exercise after the US rejoined the Paris Agreement on January 20, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22241348/president-biden-climate-change-paris-agreement-executive-order-keystone-pipeline">his first day in office</a>. What kind of diplomacy does the US need to be doing right now and what are the ingredients of a good climate commitment from the US? What about other countries?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="nC8Nbl">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SnPPPp">
|
||
It seems to us that the Biden administration is doing remarkable outreach with remarkable energy. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and his team are doing an enormous number of high-level calls and some pretty exciting potential partnerships. These partnerships relate to technology, they relate to trade, they relate to finance, and they relate to voluntary carbon markets.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zVXEZ2">
|
||
In terms of the US’s own nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, it has to be ambitious, and this is not easy. We in the United States, we’re starting behind the curve. We’ve got some catching up to do, and so we have to be thinking of something like a 50 percent reduction during this decade and over the baseline of 2005 levels of emissions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uF6fyB">
|
||
We need to see not only China come up with an NDC that brings forward the country’s peak of emissions from 2030, but we need to see sort of the advanced countries — Japan, Canada — to come forward. And then we need the middle-income countries. Indonesia is doing actually quite well in many areas, but we’re concerned that its NDC might not be as ambitious as it could be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fLYG7G">
|
||
As we look around the world at the so far $16 trillion that have been allocated to the post-Covid-19 stimulus packages to bring back the world economy, it’s not yet an encouraging story on a greener future, but it can still be. It’s not too late.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="HBjdf9">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RGF35s">
|
||
Are there any areas that stand out to your mind that should be priorities for investment, where we can see some of the most bang for our buck?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="8kIsjb">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O5hBpG">
|
||
We no longer have the luxury of leaving what seems to be expensive on the table. We no longer have the luxury of saying we can’t afford to tackle the so-called hard-to-abate sectors — steel, cement, ocean shipping, airlines — because we need to do that in order to solve the problem. That doesn’t mean that this decade they are going to see massive declines in their carbon emissions, but it does mean that we need to invest in research so we bring those cost curves down.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CpHi5f">
|
||
So the question you asked, which is where should you put the money, now is a much richer and deeper question.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7UrnqG">
|
||
Probably the biggest single area of untapped gain relates to what are called <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/6/20883736/climate-change-nature-solutions-ecosystem-restoration">nature-based solutions</a> and which is recognizing the power of nature to be the greatest carbon capture and storage in the world. There’s a hundred million hectares of land in Africa that could be restored by bringing carbon down to the Earth in the form of trees and bushes and soils and crops in a way that would be massively attractive economically and massively attractive environmentally. And so too in this country. There are huge opportunities for these nature-based solutions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="zrn6LG">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jD0awD">
|
||
Is the 1.5°C target under the Paris Agreement still worthwhile or should we focus on the easier target of limiting warming below 2°C? Is 1.5°C even realistic at this point given that emissions are still going in the wrong direction?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="8JXTcG">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ypjCE">
|
||
It’s not only realistic, it’s essential: We have to stick to 1.5. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of climate researchers convened by the United Nations, came out with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report">its 2018 report</a> and said actually the idea of 2°C of warming is too risky for the future of the world, we have to aim for 1.5°C, a lot of people said, “Wow, this is dangerous.” Why? Because political leaders and corporations will run for the hills saying “It’s too difficult now.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FDaRsA">
|
||
The amazing thing is that the degree of energy and leadership that was brought to climate change accelerated a lot after that goal to go to 1.5. One of the most interesting things to try to understand is why did that happen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iG8qr4">
|
||
I think it happened for two reasons. One was a psychological reason, that real leaders actually want to be part of history. They actually find this exciting, especially in the private sector. So you now have probably 100 corporate CEOs that signed up to programs like the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/projects/alliance-of-ceo-climate-leaders">climate commitment that the World Economic Forum</a> does. <a href="https://www.theclimatepledge.com/">The Climate Pledge</a> has a whole lot, and so does <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/">Science-based Targets</a>. When we set up Science-based Targets, we never would have dreamt that 1,500 major corporations would sign up to them, all voluntarily, and most of them are now signed up to the 1.5°C target.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MDWTjZ">
|
||
And I think the second reason is a recognition that if you don’t engage now there are going to be truly disruptive changes. There’s nothing incremental about it anymore. You don’t want to be part of yesterday’s game and so you join in with more enthusiasm. Now obviously, most still do not, so don’t get me wrong, but there are now a growing number of commitments that we almost have enough to create this tipping point. The reason that we should have more hope now of the 1.5°C than we had before is because of the notion that we need disruptive change.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kdM9t7">
|
||
There’s something called path dependency. Path dependency is when you’re on a path and you know it’s not the best path, but there’s no way of getting back to the other one. For example, the United States loses <a href="https://inrix.com/press-releases/2019-traffic-scorecard-us/">billions of hours a year in traffic</a>. That costs the United States billions of dollars in economic losses. Everybody knows it makes no sense at this stage of civilization to be sitting billions of hours in a traffic jam, but we don’t have a way of redesigning our cities comfortably enough.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SzEniO">
|
||
The only way is through real disruption, and so I think what we’ve had in the last few years is a recognition that actually there are some disruptive jumps possible. That’s what’s exciting people right now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="Ix6EWj">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vdnui6">
|
||
What do you see as the role of philanthropies like the one you’re going to lead?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="Ebbbws">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cVlYWj">
|
||
Philanthropy has an amazing role. Philanthropy can be flexible, it can be quick, it can be nimble, it can take risks, and we need all of those things. But it also needs to be analytically sound. It needs to be rigorous in its accountability and it needs to be transparent. That’s what the best philanthropies are. For me, it’s a huge privilege to join the Bezos Earth Fund.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="RhhvsW">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<h4 id="sWA8jL">
|
||
Umair Irfan
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Us05mC">
|
||
Is there anything you can tell me about your ambitions or agenda for your new post at the Bezos Earth Fund?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h4 id="HnlQth">
|
||
Andrew Steer
|
||
</h4>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OH7Ne6">
|
||
Jeff Bezos decided he wanted to put $10 billion of his own wealth to be part of this incredibly exciting and transformative decade. We will certainly be focusing on the kind of system changes that are required and we will be analyzing where it is that we can play the most helpful role, by injecting the right kind of funding, the right kind of time, in the right kind of way, to the right kind of players so that we can accelerate the path towards that positive tipping point after which change becomes unstoppable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WZI7fd">
|
||
We’re going to think about it very much from a human lens as well. We need to take issues of environmental justice into account. The poor and people of color have suffered a great deal from climate change, both in this country and even more internationally. We need to make that an important theme of this as well.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o4wxcA">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yRZIOg">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Indian Premier League 2021 | Du Plessis makes my job easier, says Ruturaj Gaikwad</strong> - The opening duo notched up dazzling half-centuries while stitching a 115-run partnership to give CSK the best possible start.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 situation in Dhoni’s family under control, says CSK coach Stephen Fleming</strong> - The former India skipper’s parents were admitted to the hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>KKR skipper Morgan fined ₹12 lakh for maintaining slow over-rate</strong> - As per the IPL guidelines, the captain of the erring team is docked ₹12 lakh on the first instance of slow over-rate.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fleming credits shift in attitude to CSK’s IPL turnaround</strong> - “Winning three out of four probably exceeded the expectations,” says Fleming.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Athlete protests remain banned at Tokyo Olympics, says IOC</strong> - That means raising a fist on the podium or taking a knee would still risk punishment at the Tokyo Games this year.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nashik hospital tragedy | Bombay HC seeks report from Maharashtra govt</strong> - A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni directed Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to file an affidavit by May 4, explaining how the incident had occurred</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>West Bengal Assembly polls | Calcutta High Court flags EC’s implementation of Covid norms</strong> - Issuance of circulars and holding meeting on Covids safety are not enough, the Court says.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reconsider policy of not vaccinating at home: Bombay HC to Centre</strong> - The court said some middle way must be found.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Maharashtra orders inquiry against Param Bir Singh over graft charges</strong> - As per the orders, Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey has been asked to probe the allegations against Param Bir Singh, they said.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rowdy sheeter found murdered</strong> - A rowdy-sheeter was murdered by miscreants at Kancharapalem here on Thursday. He was identified as G. Sreenu (38), a resident of Kobbarithota area.So</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Malta Golden passports: ‘Loopholes’ found in citizenship scheme</strong> - Investors rented empty properties to fulfil the one-year residence requirement, leaked files show.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sarah Halimi: French woman’s sister seeks trial in Israel over killing</strong> - Sarah Halimi was killed in an anti-Semitic attack, but her killer cannot stand trial in France.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>European Super League: Project is ‘on standby’, says Real Madrid president Florentino Perez</strong> - The European Super League is on “standby” despite nine of the 12 founding teams withdrawing, says Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alexei Navalny: Thousands across Russia defy ban on protests</strong> - Arrests are made as protesters demand the release of the opposition leader, who is on hunger strike.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Germany Covid: MPs back new lockdown law as protest is broken up</strong> - The controversial lockdown law enables the government to enforce an “emergency brake” nationally.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Contractor that ruined 15M doses of J&J vaccine hiked price of another by 800%</strong> - FDA releases damning inspection report as lawmakers question ties to Trump admin. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1759296">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mini-PC review: The Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U-powered Minisforum UM250</strong> - Ryzen 5, 16GiB RAM, 256GB SSD, dual Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, and more for under $500. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1759082">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Garmin’s 2 new smartwatches want to make the casual athlete more advanced</strong> - The Venu 2 and 2S polish up Garmin’s smartwatch UI and introduce new tracking features for the company. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1759233">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the updates that didn’t make it in Apple’s livestream yesterday</strong> - The true Apple TV 4K refresh rate, new accessories, new configurations, and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1758825">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump EPA sidelined its own scientists when rewriting fuel economy rules</strong> - EPA tossed its pollution models, allowing another agency to make its own instead. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1759134">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi in New York and laid down on the back seat.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He made no attempt to start the cab.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The woman glared back at him and said, “What’s wrong with you, honey? Haven’t you ever seen a naked woman before?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The old Jewish driver answered, “Let me tell you sumsing, lady I vasn’t staring at you like you tink; det vould not be proper vair I come from.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The drunk woman giggled and responded, “Well, if you’re not staring at my boobs or ass, Sweetie, what are you doing then?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He paused a moment, then told her…”Vell, M’am, I am looking and I am looking, and I am tinking to myself, ‘Vair in DA hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay for dis ride?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nothinlefttochoose"> /u/nothinlefttochoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvv4wo/a_clearly_inebriated_woman_stark_naked_jumped/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvv4wo/a_clearly_inebriated_woman_stark_naked_jumped/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A Boob, a Vagina and an Asshole are debating</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Boob: I give milk to new born babies and I’m attractive to the
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
opposite sex, that’s why I am the greatest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Vagina: That’s nothing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I give birth to babies, and can accommodate the opposite sex.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
That’s why I’m the greatest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
. .
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Why are you scrolling down? It’s your turn to speak.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kingheet"> /u/kingheet </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvh6ts/a_boob_a_vagina_and_an_asshole_are_debating/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvh6ts/a_boob_a_vagina_and_an_asshole_are_debating/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>On the first day of my flying lessons, I looked down nervously and asked my copilot, “What are all these buttons for?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He said, “Those are to keep your shirt closed.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvt5uv/on_the_first_day_of_my_flying_lessons_i_looked/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvt5uv/on_the_first_day_of_my_flying_lessons_i_looked/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A doctor is eating a late lunch at his favorite Chinese restaurant when he hears the dreaded words:</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Is there a doctor in the building?!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He strides to the back where he sees the manager and a patron who looks pale and shaky.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“We’ve just had two people come down with some kind of sickness,” the manager says, “the lady here, and another gentleman in the bathroom.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“How do you feel?” asks the doctor.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Nauseous,” says the guest, “I just threw up my whole meal and I still feel sick and lightheaded.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“What did you eat?” says the doctor, suspecting a case of fast-acting food poisoning.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“The chicken lo mein, number 9, and some dumplings.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
At this point the other guest emerges from the bathroom.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“What did you eat today?” asks the doctor.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“I had egg rolls and chicken lo mein,” he says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
As a third patron hurries toward the bathroom, the doctor tells the other two to have a seat, and urgently asks exactly how many people ordered the chicken lo mein. The manager counts up the orders.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Seven.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The sick patrons are starting to look worryingly unwell. Fearing they may have contracted some deadly, unknown disease, the doctor instructs the manager to call an ambulance, and get the rest of the patrons out, so he can spread the sick customers out and attend to them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“We can’t kick everybody out!” protests the manager. “We need the money. We were closed all last year for Covid and this restaurant is heavily in debt.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Seeing that he won’t get far with this approach, the doctor racks his brain for where he can put seven people until paramedics arrive. He remembers that the rest of the building is occupied by a hotel. He rushes out the door, into the hotel to the front desk to ask if they can spare a room.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“We have a conference room on the first floor, but it’s booked at 4pm, so I can’t let you use it.” The clerk at the front desk is uncooperative.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The manager comes up behind him and tells him that an ambulance is on its way, and that five of the people who ate the lo mein are showing symptoms; two seem perfectly fine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Please,” the doctor begs, “I need a place to put a bunch of sick people from the restaurant next door before the ambulances arrive.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“When do you need it?” the desk clerk asks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Now, I need it now!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“And for how long?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Two hours at most.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Why do you need it again?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Exasperated, the doctor starts over. "Now listen carefully, because I’m not going to repeat myself again.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I need the room from 1 to 3 for five sick, seven ate 9!"
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CorneliusCandleberry"> /u/CorneliusCandleberry </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvgzfu/a_doctor_is_eating_a_late_lunch_at_his_favorite/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvgzfu/a_doctor_is_eating_a_late_lunch_at_his_favorite/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>So Tod goes to a new truckers joint…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He sits down and the waiter approaches him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Do you want to hear the daily specials sir? He asks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“No thank you”, says Todd, “let me smell your hand and I’ll tell you want I’d like today”.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So the waiter reluctantly proceeds to offer his hand to be smelled by this weird customer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Todd says, I’ll have the fried chicken with spicy paprika mashed potatoes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The waiter is impressed, he thinks to himself: how does this guys know that’s on the menu!
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Todd has his lunch, pays the check and leaves.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Next day, Todd walks in again, and again he asks to smell the same waiter’s hand.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
This day, he says, I’ll have the catfish with a side of salad.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Again, the waiter is dumbfounded by this guy’s sense of smell. Todd gets his lunch, eats it, pays the bill and leaves.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The next day, surely Todd walks in, but this time the waiter has something planned.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The waiter goes to the kitchen and says to the kitchen lady, “ok Mary, come here” he proceeds to put his hand under her skirt (you know where) and goes to attend Todd.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Would you like to hear today’s specials? says the Waiter
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
No, thank you, let me smell your hand and I’ll tell you what I’ll have.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So the waiter offers his hand with a smirk in his face, Todd smells it and exclaims:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“I didn’t know Mary worked here!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
(hope it translates well)
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PixelPete2"> /u/PixelPete2 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvol51/so_tod_goes_to_a_new_truckers_joint/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mvol51/so_tod_goes_to_a_new_truckers_joint/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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