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The world is hooked on meat -- and to feed the surging demand, 50 BILLION animals are suffering in the most gruesome factory farms every year. They're pumped with powerful antibiotics just to keep them alive -- but that creates a paradise for pathogens to mutate, multiply, and jump to humans. Without change, a vicious new pandemic is certain… killing up to 10 million people a year by 2050! SIGN THE PETITION

Belief in conspiracy theories is far more widespread than the stereotypes that dominate pop culture. Recently, QAnon, Covid-19 and 5G theories have gained traction and criticism while less controversial conspiracies like the faked moon landing have persisted for decades. We all share hardwired evolutionary traits that make us vulnerable to them, from the way we assign truth to new information to our tendency to find patterns in unrelated phenomena. But if we're all potentially susceptible to conspiracy theories, how can we manage these cognitive shortcuts? Watch

Lawrence O’Donnell says the real crisis at the southern border is the Republican Party’s opposition to the humane treatment of immigrants. YouTube

Plastic is in everything, from the clothes we wear to the water we drink. John Oliver explains how plastics are harming the planet, why recycling isn’t the solution you think it is, and why fixing the problem will be up to not just consumers, but corporations and policymakers. Watch

From 20-22 January 2021, York University´s UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability and York International in partnership with the International Association of Universities, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and Okayama University held a virtual conference to reimagine internationalization in higher education in an era of uncertainty. Sustainability - Inclusivity - Innovation as the three main themes for a post-pandemic world were at the centre of discussion to bring together scholars, international mobility professionals and practitioners and internationalization policy makers with sustainability and global citizenship experts to discuss the evolving status of international mobility in higher education in Canada and globally. In a time of unprecedented COVID-19 disruption, the event was a timely opportunity with more than 500 participants from 60+ countries in attendance and actively engaged to critically reflect and to collectively build a future vision of sustainable internationalization with a focus on inclusive mobility. The conference participants, comprised of students, youth, lecturers, researchers, policy makers, practitioners and other officials from higher education and participants from government and non-government institutions, private sector, international organizations and global networks, adopted the the 2021 Toronto Declaration on the Future of Sustainable and Inclusive Internationalization in Higher Education. We welcome additional individual and institutional signatories to show our joint commitment to actively contribute to the future of internationalization in higher education in a responsible and inclusive way. If you missed the event or would like to watch the sessions again, the recordings are now available on our post-conference website. A conference publication is expected later in 2021.

With great sadness we learnt about the passing of Mary Catherine Bateson — scholar, writer, and woman of extraordinary insight and vision. In the early years of the Global Citizenship Alliance, we were blessed by having her join us as a faculty for some of our seminars thanks to the good offices of Bill Reckmeyer and Peter Rose, two of our long-term supporters who knew Mary Catherine as an esteemed colleague. For her, there was an additional lure to follow our invitation to Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria, where the seminars took place since this was a location close to her heart. In 1947, when she was seven years old, her mother Margaret Mead took her along to Salzburg for the first summer school of what was then called "The Salzburg Seminar in American Civilization" chaired by Mead, together with a number of young professors from Harvard University. The summer school lasted for six weeks and the mystique of this special place left an indelible impression on young and uniquely inquisitive Mary Catherine. Sixty years later, we had the pleasure of inviting her back to this place for the first time and to hearing her thoughts as she was walking down memory lane. In the years following her initial encounter with our program, she returned to Salzburg a few more times whenever her busy schedule allowed her to do so, imparting wisdom and inspiration in ways that captured the minds and spirits of everyone who listened to her. She relished in particular the informal conversations with our diverse groups of students which may have seemed to her as an example of the wholesome communities that she set out to describe in her final book entitled "Love Across Differences" which will be published posthumously. We are mourning the loss and are grateful for the gift of Mary Catherine Bateson's association with the Global Citizenship Alliance. (See also the obituary in the NYTimes of January 14th, 2021)

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Named after a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader, the bridge was the site of a brutal attack on protesters marching for Black voting rights in 1965, an event later known as Bloody Sunday. The New York Times Photographs and Text by Richard Frishman Published Nov. 30, 2020 Updated Dec. 1, 2020 At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions in place worldwide, we launched a series — The World Through a Lens — in which photojournalists help transport you, virtually, to compelling new places. This week, Richard Frishman shares a collection of powerful images taken throughout the United States.  

Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi. What are they sharing with one another? NYT - THE DAILY podcast

For our Global Societies project, reporters around the world will be writing about societal problems, sustainability and development in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The series will include features, analyses, photo essays, videos and podcasts looking behind the curtain of globalization. The project is generously funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Global Societies - DER SPIEGEL

U.S. “leadership” is a favorite trope of the foreign policy establishment. It’s outdated and dangerous. NYT Opinion