September 14 2023: Humans are transforming Earth as we know it, how a 19th-century law is impacting access to abortion pills and new findings on decarceration. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Humans are rapidly transforming the world. Conditions on the planet remained relatively unchanged for 10,000 years until the industrial revolution. Since then, we have surpassed six out of nine so-called planetary boundaries, according to a new report. These boundaries would keep key aspects of the natural world--from pollution and emissions to land use and ocean acidification--close to conditions under which humans have thrived. The boundaries: Carbon dioxide levels are included in the framework, of course, but so are biodiversity loss (extinction rates are currently 100 times the baseline rate), chemical pollution, changes in the use of land and fresh water, and runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus from modern agriculture. Read the full explanation of all nine boundaries here.
What the experts say: "It's pretty alarming: We're living on a planet unlike anything any humans have seen before," says Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a nonprofit organization that develops roadmaps for climate solutions. "Moving from planetary boundaries to planetary solutions is what I'd find a really exciting next step," he says. | | | Excess nitrogen and phosphorus washing into lakes and other bodies of water from fertilized land can cause dense green algae blooms that are harmful to aquatic species. Credit: Olena Lialina/Getty Images | | | A high-stakes case involving access to the abortion pill mifepristone has been wending its way through the courts this year. It's moved from a Texas district court to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court and back to the Fifth Circuit. Both the district and appeals court rulings cited a 19th-century law known as the Comstock Act of 1873, which made it illegal to send "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials by mail. The complainants say that sending mifepristone in the mail following a virtual visit with a doctor violates the Act.
The backstory: Anthony Comstock was a moral crusader in New York during the mid-19th century. He was bent on eradicating "obscenity" and used powerful connections for their influence and funding to target anyone sending content through the mail that included nudity, or any information or material related to reproductive health, abortion or sex education.
What the experts say: "The Comstock Act was actually a First Amendment exemption law," says Annalee Newitz, a science writer and author. "It was a law about what could be said and what could be passed through the mail." Although the Supreme Court greatly weakened the law in the 1960s, it has quietly remained on the books until the mifepristone lawsuit revived it. | | | • How did hurricane Lee get so big? Several factors are at play, including the direction of the storm's movement and a phenomenon called the eye wall replacement cycle. | 3 min read | | | • Some technological advances in smart cars have made driving safer, but others veer toward tech excess that can actually harm drivers. | 7 min read | | | • To stem COVID outbreaks, California released thousands of individuals incarcerated in its jails and prisons. Some critics anticipated that crime rates would rise as a result, write Charis E. Kubrin and Bradley J. Bartos. Kubrin is professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Bartos is assistant professor at the University of Arizona. But the data have revealed otherwise, they say: "The relationship between decarceration and crime appears weak and inconsistent—not significantly connected as many claimed." | 4 min read | | | Algal blooms (which result from excess nutrients washing into waterways from farmland) are having a profound impact on the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S. Watch this powerful video on how the 4,500-square-mile body of water is under threat from pollution and climate change--and what's being done to save it. | Reach out any time with your thoughts or feedback. I love hearing from you! newsletters@sciam.com. Same time tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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