Next generation ice core technology reveals true minimum natural levels of lead (Pb) in the atmosphere: insights from the Black Death

Current policies to reduce lead pollution in the air are based on the assumption that pre-industrial levels of lead in the air were negligible, safe or non-existent. This trans-disciplinary article shows that this is not the case, using ‘next-generation’ laser technology in climate science, in combination with detailed historical and archaeological records in as many as 7 languages, from all over Europe. We show that lead levels in the air have been elevated for the past 2000 years, except for a single 4-year period. This 4-year period corresponds with the largest known pandemic ever to ravage western Europe (the Black Death), resulting in a 40-50% reduction in population. This unprecedented historic population collapse was accompanied by dramatic economic collapse that halted lead mining and smelting, and related emissions in the air. This trans-disciplinary study is a collaboration led by Harvard University and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, and researchers from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and the University of Nottingham (UK). It uses next-generation technology and expertise in history, climate science, archaeology and toxicology, brought to bear in a highly detailed contribution to planetary health, with crucial implications for public health and environmental policy, and the history of human exposure to lead

Networking expertise: Discursive coalitions and collaborative networks of experts in a public creationism controversy in the UK

Experts do play a particular role in public socio-scientific debates, even more so if they form heterogeneous coalition with other actors and experts. A case study about a public science education controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution/creationism in the UK press is used to investigate in detail how connections and coalitions between experts and other actors involved in the controversy emerged and played out. The research focuses on the question of what role collaborative and other networks of experts played in terms of influence, visibility, credibility, consensus and weight of argument. Issues that are considered in the research are the status of the members of the coalitions forming during the debate and how it is displayed in media representations and letters and petitions, and also how these networks and coalitions of experts perform in relation to each other

Social networks and the transnational reach of the corporate class in the early-twentieth century.

NoThis paper explores the character, density and likely importance of connections between directors of a sample of 12 early-twentieth century British multinational companies. Drawing on the notion of `gentlemanly capitalism¿, a reconstruction of multiple and interlocking directorships for 1899¿1900 and 1929¿1930 indicates that a complex network existed that comprised links, respectively, to 255 and 497 companies. We explore the social, cultural and political characteristics of the directors of our sample and argue that the ways in which members of this group interacted with each other would have influenced business attitudes, facilitated transfers of knowledge and promoted interdependencies, thereby shaping commercial behaviour. We argue that the directors of early multinationals formed the kind of definable `power geometries¿ within the wider corporate elite that have been identified amongst today's business elites. Our results indicate that a distinct and increasingly dynamic multinational corporate community existed in the early 1900s, which was in many respects like its modern counterparts. A key finding is that the complexity of dyadic connections between directors and their personal networks of contacts increased markedly between 1899¿1900 and 1929¿1930

Rural settlement schemes in the South West of Western Australia and Roraima State, Brazil: Unsustainable rural systems?

In the years after the First World War, the British and Western Australian governments cooperated in a Group Settlement Scheme. Its aim was to bring groups of settlers from various locations in the United Kingdom to remote forested parts of the South West of Western Australia, and to supply them with tools, building materials and livestock with which they were to clear land and establish small farms. Successful settlers would then be granted ownership of the land that they had developed. The scheme met with limited success for a range of reasons including the challenging nature of the terrain and the vegetation, the unfamiliarity of the settlers with both farming and the local environment and the decline in economic opportunities resulting from the onset of the Great Depression. While many, if not most, settlers abandoned their farms within a relatively short period of time, some did develop successful dairy farms which have now been passed through several generations of family farmers for almost a century. Furthermore, many of the lots that were abandoned by the original Group Settlers during the depression have been reoccupied and redeveloped in recent decades as the scenic South West region has become a high amenity rural area characterised by growth in viticulture, tourism, retirement migration, hobby farming and telecommuting. This paper uses archival material to document the challenges and shortcomings of the original settlement scheme and will outline the subsequent development of some of the Group Settlement localities over the intervening decades. This experience is compared with the Nova Amazonia project, a modern day rural settlement scheme in a remote part of Brazil where the settlers have experienced challenges and difficulties comparable to those of the Group Settlers on an Australian frontier in the 1920s