July 11, 2024: We're covering an alarming cancer forecast, gas industry gaslighting and how "philosophical zombies" can aid in solving the mystery of consciousness. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Cancer Gaining on Younger Adults | Rates of leading cancers are projected to rise among the U.S. demographic group known as Generation X—people born between 1965 and 1980, a new study concludes. The startling result is so pronounced that Gen X is expected to have a higher cancer rate than their parents and grandparents, reports Scientific American editor Lauren J. Young. The finding held for numerous cancers, including colon, rectal, thyroid, ovarian, prostate and kidney.
How they did it: Researchers examined data collected between 1992 and 2018 on 3.8 million people in the U.S. with invasive cancer—cancer that has spread beyond its original site. The team was particularly interested in patterns among birth cohorts such as Gen X, Baby Boomers, the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation.
What the experts say: "It's very clear to us that cancer is evolving from a disease which has traditionally been considered a disease of aging to one which affects, really, all age groups," says gastroenterologist Andrew Chan. | | | Gaslighting by the Gas Industry | Climate change and its life-threatening impacts are issues that scientists and other communicators have been telling U.S. and other leaders about for more than half a century, as science historian Naomi Oreskes notes in a recent essay. So why did it take so long for the U.S. to take action? It has been easy to dismiss, overlook or forget what's behind this crisis, because its primary industrial driver, the fossil-fuel industry, has actively sowed doubt and reversed the arrow to blame global warming on consumers, she writes.
Why this matters: Just five months ago, a magazine interview with the CEO of ExxonMobil came out in which he blamed consumer attitudes for delayed climate action, due to our purported opposition to taking on the financial burden of carbon reduction. "This is flat-out false," Oreskes points out. A number of polls and studies have found the opposite—the majority of consumers want climate action even if it affects their wallets. Nearly 70% of respondents to an international survey this year stated they would agree to giving at least 1 percent of their income to mitigate climate change.
What the experts say: "The industry that gave us gas for lighting is gaslighting us," Oreskes concludes. | | | Night sky. Baac3nes/Getty Images | | | • The mystery of consciousness, as in the sum of one's experiences ranging from, say, musical earworms to a love of baseball, has long flummoxed philosophers. A thought experiment based on the idea of a "philosophical zombie" can be helpful in sorting out the problem, writes philosopher Philip Goff. For example, "you stick a knife in such a zombie, and it screams and runs away. But it doesn't actually feel pain," Goff states. If humans were just mechanistic processors, we would all be zombies. But we aren't. So Goff asks philosophers and readers to think about the "extra ingredient" that confers experience as well as its coherent, rational pairing with our behaviors. Goff writes that he favors a focus on "teleological laws that work from future to present, ensuring that what happens in the present is dependent on the need to get closer to some future goal, such as the goal of harmonious alignment of consciousness and behavior." | 5 min read | | | A longtime, powerful friend of the fossil-fuel industry died earlier this week—snowball-tossing Sen. Jim Inhofe. His—ahem—loss does not necessarily weaken the forces that undermine vital climate action. But tides are turning, as evidenced by the Inflation Reduction Act, which the U.S. Department of Energy calls the "single largest investment in climate and energy in American history," per Naomi Oreskes. "It's expected to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by around 40 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels," she points out. For more concrete inspiration for a better climate future, check out this story about researchers devising ways for Phoenix and its residents to predict heat extremes and arrive at "resilient solutions" that could work in the Southwest and throughout the sunbelt. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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