Not the Plainest Meaning: The Statute of Limitations in Washington State’s Public Records Act

This note regards the Public Records Act (PRA) in Washington. The PRA, similar to records request acts in other states, affords citizens the right to request a copy of government documents. Once a request for documents is made, the PRA gives individuals the right to seek judicial review if the government has given an inadequate response to the request. However, the time frame within which it is allowed to seek such judicial review is unknown. When the government responds by sending documents in a number of installments, the statute of limitations under the PRA is one year. Washington State’s Annotated Code includes a “catch all” statute of limitations for actions not addressed elsewhere. The question still remains about what statute of limitations period applies when an agency produces all requested documents in one installment. The note argues the PRA’s statute of limitations should extend and apply to situations where the government produces documents in a single installment

Governing Complexity: Design Principles for the Governance of Complex Global Catastrophic Risks

Why are existing global governance structures “not fit for purpose” when it comes to addressing complex global catastrophic risks (CGCRs) such as climate breakdown, ecosystem collapse, or parasitic artificial general intelligence? This article argues that a deeper appreciation of these risks as complex—as opposed to complicated—is vital to an effective global governance response. It joins other IR scholarship seeking to invigorate a rigorous research agenda on complex system dynamics within world politics, highlighting the value of complexity theory, not simply as a contextual descriptor, but as a conceptual toolkit to inform CGCR governance research and action. Taking seriously the implications of “restricted complexity,” it interrogates why the legacy governing toolkit—the assumptions, heuristics, models, and practices conventionally employed to solve international collective action problems—are unlikely to suffice. It further draws laterally upon design science to offer a novel design model for governing complex systems, with broad application across global policy domains. A case study of the COVID-19 pandemic response illustrates the importance of supplementing inherited “complicated” governance system design and practices with design principles explicitly oriented to working with complexity, rather than against it. We contend that IR scholars and practitioners must update old ways of thinking in light of a complexification of the discipline. Such a shift involves both revisiting the design logics underlying how we build global governance structures, as well as pursuing a generative research agenda more capable of responding adequately to instability, surprise, and extraordinary change

Complexity Theory and Education in Times of Insoluble Problems

COVID-19 has demonstrated the threats that systemic disruptions pose in our interconnected world. This paper explores the proposition that complexity or systems education is now vital to achieving greater levels of collective and personal resilience in the face of rapid non-linear change and potential catastrophic risks

Somewhere over the rainbow ? advantages and pitfalls of colourful visualizations in geosciences

International audienceComputer-generated visualizations of geoscientific data, such as those from climate models are in high demand for a wide variety of usages; these include, among others, scientific publications, reports and graphical aides for the general public's improved understanding of complex developments. The paper will focus on the effects of colours in two-dimensional displays. Practical examples are given from which it becomes clear that considerable confusion or even damage can arise from an uninformed use of colour mapping and if results become, e.g., published in an unchecked manner by the media

Metabolic dysfunction in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is a segmental premature aging disease causing patient death by early teenage years from cardiovascular dysfunction. Although HGPS does not totally recapitulate normal aging, it does harbor many similarities to the normal aging process, with patients also developing cardiovascular disease, alopecia, bone and joint abnormalities, and adipose changes. It is unsurprising, then, that as physicians and scientists have searched for treatments for HGPS, they have targeted many pathways known to be involved in normal aging, including inflammation, DNA damage, epigenetic changes, and stem cell exhaustion. Although less studied at a mechanistic level, severe metabolic problems are observed in HGPS patients. Interestingly, new research in animal models of HGPS has demonstrated impressive lifespan improvements secondary to metabolic interventions. As such, further understanding metabolism, its contribution to HGPS, and its therapeutic potential has far-reaching ramifications for this disease still lacking a robust treatment strategy

Transmission risk of COVID-19 in high school and college water polo

BACKGROUND: Concerns that athletes may be at a higher risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission has led to reduced participation in sports during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess COVID-19 incidence and transmission during the spring 2021 high school and college water polo seasons across the United States. METHODS: This prospective observational study enrolled 1825 water polo athletes from 54 high schools and 36 colleges. Surveys were sent to coaches throughout the season, and survey data were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: We identified 17 COVID-19 cases among 1223 high school water polo athletes (1.4%) and 66 cases among 602 college athletes (11.0%). Of these cases, contact tracing suggested that three were water polo-associated in high school, and none were water polo-associated in college. Quarantine data suggest low transmission during water polo play as only three out of 232 (1.3%) high school athletes quarantined for a water polo-related exposure developed COVID-19. In college, none of the 54 athletes quarantined for exposure with an infected opponent contracted COVID-19. However, in both high school and college, despite the physical condition of water polo athletes, both high school (47%) and college athletes (21%) had prolonged return to play after contracting COVID-19, indicating the danger of COVID-19, even to athletes. CONCLUSIONS: While COVID-19 spread can occur during water polo play, few instances of spread occurred during the spring 2021 season, and transmission rates appear similar to those in other settings, such as school environments

Explaining transformative change in EU climate policy: multilevel problems, policies, and politics

The EU's ambition to lead in global climate governance has shaped its engagement with the UNFCCC regime and informed a vast body of regulatory instruments. However, EU climate policy outcomes have not always matched aspirations. We explore how UNFCCC-EU institutional interactions have shaped EU climate policy outcomes by combining a multilevel governance perspective with scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to explain when, why, and how motivated policy entrepreneurs are most likely to secure transformative policy change. We contrast the successful policy transformation of the European Green Deal with the experience of policy stagnation in the aftermath of the economic crisis, shedding light on the interaction between problems, policies, and politics across levels. We find that while the international level is significant in opening up windows of opportunity from above, the presence below of an authoritative and motivated policy entrepreneur within the political stream is a crucial additive to securing transformative policy change

Mapping Global Climate Change Governance

Climate change is one of the most daunting global policy challenges facing the international community in the 21st century. This mapping paper takes stock of the current state of the global climate change regime, illuminating scope for policymaking and mobilizing collective action through networked governance at all scales, from the sub-national to the highest global level of political assembly. It provides an unusually comprehensive snapshot of policymaking within the regime created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), bolstered by the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as novel insight into how other formal and informal intergovernmental organizations relate to this regime, including a sophisticated EU policymaking and delivery apparatus, already dedicated to tackling climate change at the regional level. It further locates a highly diverse and numerous non-state actor constituency, from market actors to NGOs to city governors, all of whom have a crucial role to play. Page 4 from 7 Keywords: global governance, climate change, global public policy, global public goods, multi-level governance, policy transfer, implementation, Paris Agreemen