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It's official: plain packaging makes cigarettes less appealing
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UPFRONT
Bankrupt Detroit reborn THE Motor City has finally stalled. Could an ambitious, green scheme to repurpose Detroit’s crumbling infrastructure restart the city’s engines? It’s a big ask. After years of socioeconomic decline since its auto industry collapsed, Detroit declared bankruptcy last week, becoming the largest US city ever to do so. The plan, and it’s a long-term one, is called the Detroit Future City framework, announced by a study group in January. Its aim is to regenerate the city over the next two decades by downsizing the infrastructure to suit today’s 700,000 residents. In the 1950s, the city housed 2 million. There are some unusual proposals: repurposing the city’s 5200 hectares of abandoned space as ecological sanctuaries and
urban farms. Another idea is to build “blue” infrastructure – converting streets into conduits for collecting rainwater and act as a sewer system. The city’s $18 billion debts shouldn’t slow these plans too much, says urban law specialist John Mogk of Wayne State University in Detroit, as some of the debt will likely be written off. The bigger challenge, he says, will be to regenerate blighted areas. Detroit is effectively two cities. The small downtown area is fairly well off, with an array of tech startups. The remainder of the city has high rates of crime and poverty and is less likely to benefit. “The core is acting as a hospital and curing the patient,” Mogk says. “The rest of the city is operating as a hospice – they’re essentially trying to ease the pain.”
–Location regeneration?–
CIA to fix warming? JASON BOURNE would be out of his depth: the CIA is showing an interest in geoengineering. Last week, a panel of experts convened by the US National Academy of Sciences met for the first time, in Washington DC. Their aim was to launch a study, partly funded by the CIA, that will consider the risks and benefits of engineering solutions to dangerous climate change, involving sequestering carbon dioxide or reflecting solar radiation back into space. “Conspiracy theorists, rejoice!” noted US news magazine Mother Jones, invoking memories of the Vietnam war when the US military seeded clouds in an
“The intelligence agency sees climate change as a potential threat to geopolitical stability” attempt to turn the Vietcong’s supply lines into a quagmire. In fact, the CIA’s main interest in geoengineering doesn’t lie in any offensive use. Rather, it sees 6 | NewScientist | 27 July 2013
climate change as a potential threat to geopolitical stability, and so wants a thorough analysis of the mitigation options. “On a subject like climate change, the agency works with scientists to better understand the phenomenon and its implications on national security,” says Ned Price, a CIA spokesman. Given the agency’s interest, the study may consider the impact of nations starting geoengineering projects unilaterally, benefiting themselves but posing problems for others. “An important issue to address is the question of rogue actors,” says panel member Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University in California. But the main focus of the report, due in 2014, will be an assessment of the feasibility of ideas such as scattering sulphate aerosols high into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s energy, or storing carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. The panel will also consider their risks, which in the latter case could include accelerating ocean acidification.
Dirty, pretty things WE ARE easily seduced, it seems. Plain packages do make cigarettes less appealing. That is the conclusion from interviews with 536 smokers in Victoria, Australia – where plain packaging was introduced last December. However, the UK government recently dropped plans for plain packaging, citing lack of evidence. “The government wanted to wait for evidence to emerge from Australia before acting – well here
it is,” says Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Health. Compared with smokers using brand packs, those buying plain packs were more likely to judge their cigarettes to be poorer quality than a year earlier, and find them less satisfying. They were also more likely to have thought about quitting at least once a day more often than brand smokers (BMJ Open, doi.org/m9k). A spokesperson for the UK government said that despite the findings, it would await further data from Australia.
Blocked jet stream behind heat AFTER the cold, the heat. High pressure from Siberia last spring brought record cold temperatures to the UK. Now, more high pressure, this time from the tropical Atlantic, is behind the heatwave that caused grassfires in south-east England. These high-pressure zones block the jet stream, which usually brings the country’s changeable weather. “Blocking highs” are an increasing part of North American weather, too. It is too soon to tell whether the
events are part of a trend. Jennifer Francis at Rutgers University, New Jersey, reported last year that the jet stream, driven by the temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, appears to have slowed and is meandering more, perhaps because of the warming Arctic. This creates perfect conditions for blocking highs, she says. But climate models tell a different story. Most predict a decrease in blocking highs, at least over Europe.
UPFRONT
Bankrupt Detroit reborn THE Motor City has finally stalled. Could an ambitious, green scheme to repurpose Detroit’s crumbling infrastructure restart the city’s engines? It’s a big ask. After years of socioeconomic decline since its auto industry collapsed, Detroit declared bankruptcy last week, becoming the largest US city ever to do so. The plan, and it’s a long-term one, is called the Detroit Future City framework, announced by a study group in January. Its aim is to regenerate the city over the next two decades by downsizing the infrastructure to suit today’s 700,000 residents. In the 1950s, the city housed 2 million. There are some unusual proposals: repurposing the city’s 5200 hectares of abandoned space as ecological sanctuaries and
urban farms. Another idea is to build “blue” infrastructure – converting streets into conduits for collecting rainwater and act as a sewer system. The city’s $18 billion debts shouldn’t slow these plans too much, says urban law specialist John Mogk of Wayne State University in Detroit, as some of the debt will likely be written off. The bigger challenge, he says, will be to regenerate blighted areas. Detroit is effectively two cities. The small downtown area is fairly well off, with an array of tech startups. The remainder of the city has high rates of crime and poverty and is less likely to benefit. “The core is acting as a hospital and curing the patient,” Mogk says. “The rest of the city is operating as a hospice – they’re essentially trying to ease the pain.”
–Location regeneration?–
CIA to fix warming? JASON BOURNE would be out of his depth: the CIA is showing an interest in geoengineering. Last week, a panel of experts convened by the US National Academy of Sciences met for the first time, in Washington DC. Their aim was to launch a study, partly funded by the CIA, that will consider the risks and benefits of engineering solutions to dangerous climate change, involving sequestering carbon dioxide or reflecting solar radiation back into space. “Conspiracy theorists, rejoice!” noted US news magazine Mother Jones, invoking memories of the Vietnam war when the US military seeded clouds in an
“The intelligence agency sees climate change as a potential threat to geopolitical stability” attempt to turn the Vietcong’s supply lines into a quagmire. In fact, the CIA’s main interest in geoengineering doesn’t lie in any offensive use. Rather, it sees 6 | NewScientist | 27 July 2013
climate change as a potential threat to geopolitical stability, and so wants a thorough analysis of the mitigation options. “On a subject like climate change, the agency works with scientists to better understand the phenomenon and its implications on national security,” says Ned Price, a CIA spokesman. Given the agency’s interest, the study may consider the impact of nations starting geoengineering projects unilaterally, benefiting themselves but posing problems for others. “An important issue to address is the question of rogue actors,” says panel member Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University in California. But the main focus of the report, due in 2014, will be an assessment of the feasibility of ideas such as scattering sulphate aerosols high into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s energy, or storing carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. The panel will also consider their risks, which in the latter case could include accelerating ocean acidification.
Dirty, pretty things WE ARE easily seduced, it seems. Plain packages do make cigarettes less appealing. That is the conclusion from interviews with 536 smokers in Victoria, Australia – where plain packaging was introduced last December. However, the UK government recently dropped plans for plain packaging, citing lack of evidence. “The government wanted to wait for evidence to emerge from Australia before acting – well here
it is,” says Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Health. Compared with smokers using brand packs, those buying plain packs were more likely to judge their cigarettes to be poorer quality than a year earlier, and find them less satisfying. They were also more likely to have thought about quitting at least once a day more often than brand smokers (BMJ Open, doi.org/m9k). A spokesperson for the UK government said that despite the findings, it would await further data from Australia.
Blocked jet stream behind heat AFTER the cold, the heat. High pressure from Siberia last spring brought record cold temperatures to the UK. Now, more high pressure, this time from the tropical Atlantic, is behind the heatwave that caused grassfires in south-east England. These high-pressure zones block the jet stream, which usually brings the country’s changeable weather. “Blocking highs” are an increasing part of North American weather, too. It is too soon to tell whether the
events are part of a trend. Jennifer Francis at Rutgers University, New Jersey, reported last year that the jet stream, driven by the temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, appears to have slowed and is meandering more, perhaps because of the warming Arctic. This creates perfect conditions for blocking highs, she says. But climate models tell a different story. Most predict a decrease in blocking highs, at least over Europe.