Last month a Nasa data scientist, Peter Kalmus, chained himself to the entrance doors of the JP Morgan Chase building in Los Angeles. A video of a short speech he gave about global heating before he was arrested was shared multiple times on social media. In the clip, voice faltering, he told the public: Im here because scientists are not being listened to we are going to lose everything and we are not joking. He spoke to the Observer in a personal capacity.

What drove you to nonviolent protest?Its this mounting feeling that I need to do more. I have a sense of desperation, because of the wide gulf between what the science says society needs to do and how it feels like everything is heading in the opposite direction. World leaders and people not understanding that were in an emergency.

Then the question comes to me, if Im sitting with the science every day, and I want to protect my kids and young people and non-humans, what do I do? Ive been on this 16-year journey trying to answer that question, and civil disobedience seemed like something good to try. Im ashamed to say that it took me this long.

Do you think more scientists should be talking directly to the public about how they feel?Oh, absolutely. Because were not just brains in a vat, were humans. The reason oceanologists, ecologists and climate scientists are studying these living systems is because they deeply love them and care about them. Uniformly, across the board, theyre all seeing these massive declines and theyre seeing these systems dying in front of their eyes. I know theyre feeling strong emotions.

Civil disobedience has been far more effective at communicating urgency than anything else Ive tried.

Last week the UK Met Office said there was a 50% chance that in one of the next five years, 1.5C of warming will be breached. The aviation industry was found to have met only one of 50 climate targets. And a Guardian investigative report revealed that fossil fuel companies are planning huge carbon bomb projects that will drive climate catastrophe. Thats a pretty standard week in the global heating news cycleThis has been just ramping up and ramping up over the years. Its only going to get more intense as we go forward. Thats why I feel this desperation to end the fossil fuel industry as quickly as possible. Ending the fossil fuel industry is the main thing we need to do to take the pressure off the Earth system and to at least start to stabilise at where were at. Then, these news stories will likely start to stabilise as well. But yeah, its getting more intense, isnt it? Thats where were at now. Thats a normal week for 2022. What is 2024 going to be like? Whats 2025 going to be like?

The mean temperature on the planet keeps going up with every tonne of fossil fuel we burn. At some point youre going to surpass all of these different milestones. Its no secret that the fossil fuel industry has been planning to make as much profit as they can from extracting and selling fossil fuel, no matter what happens to the planet, to us, and to future generations. I dont think we should just talk about future generations any more, because people are dying right now, all around the world. Thats going to happen more as we approach deadly human heat thresholds in certain regions that the human body cant actually live through. Its diabolical that these industrialists wish to take short-term profits at the expense of literally everything.

Are the agreements and pledges made at Cop meetings sufficient or effective? Last week the Guardian ran a story revealing how few of the pledges have been acted onThe esteemed climate scientist Michael Mann, right after Cop26, wrote an op-ed where he proclaimed victory. He said Cop26 was not a failure. I wrote an op-ed the next day saying that it was absolutely a failure, and that its very dangerous not to recognise it as a failure, because that, again, decreases the urgency of dealing with the problem. If we consider that as not a failure, what happened at Cop26, then the public can sort of have this feeling that the people in charge are doing what they need to do, which is absolutely not the case. Theyre not doing what they need to do.

The fossil fuel industry has deeply penetrated politics and even the Cop process itself. It will do everything it can to throw a monkey wrench in the works and to delay action. Its up to the leaders of the world to stand up to that and to say: A livable planet is more important than your profits. We are not going to allow this process of delay to continue. What worries me is that, in this critical year between Cop26 and Cop27, every signal that were getting from world leaders is that fossil fuels will continue to expand.

President Biden is begging Opec to expand production. Hes opening new lands for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and public lands of the US. Right now, what Im seeing from world leaders, including Biden, is that theyre using the bully pulpit of their position to urge the expansion of fossil fuels. Theyve completely stopped talking about taking climate action.

The effects of the Ukraine war on energy prices offer a golden opportunity for massive investment in renewable energy and phasing out fossil fuels. But the political class doesnt see it that wayThe leaders of the world are squandering a historic opportunity to make that transition to renewables. Instead, theyre using it as an opportunity to expand the fossil fuel industry, and the fossil fuel CEOs are rubbing their hands in glee at whats happening right now. They cant believe their good fortune that Putin invaded Ukraine.

Can you explain the stranglehold that the fossil fuel industry has over the American political system? Sometimes, as an outsider, you see the wildfires on the west coast, you see that Florida is sinking, and it doesnt make senseTheres this kind of equilibrium of corruption that has developed. They know which politicians campaigns to support for maximum return on their investment. For them, its a tiny investment. Then, somehow theyve also managed to capture the media. They certainly have the Fox News network on their side, but somehow, even the non-conservative side hasnt been reporting the story as it should, that this is an emergency for the planet. The public dont sense any urgency from the media. Therefore, the politicians that are taking these campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry are not being held to account.

It runs deeper doesnt it? The right to drive wherever and whenever is part of the American dream, any politician who challenges that gets massive pushback. The price of gas or petrol is an emotive issue.Three-quarters of global heating is caused by burning fossil fuels. Everything else we talk about planting trees, carbon captures, carbon offsets is just rearranging deckchairs.

The thing weve got to do to avoid hitting the iceberg is to end the fossil fuel industry as quickly as we can. The problem with not protecting the interest of the working class as we make this transition is that they would effectively rise up against any climate policies that made their lives unlivable because of high energy costs. We saw that happen a few years ago with the gilets jaunes [yellow vests] in France.

The only way we can get the working class on board is if the transition away from fossil fuels is effectively subsidised by the ultra rich, which means there does need to be a redistribution of wealth.

You are talking about systematic change leading to a new economic system. When people hear that, they hear degrowth. They feel its going to impact their standard of living.People need to understand that all degrowth really is, is a switch in the goal of the economic system. We need to change the goal of the system from the accumulation of capital to the flourishing of all people, not just people in the global north, also people in the global south, and the flourishing of all life on this planet, because our economic system is embedded in the biosphere. If we take down the biosphere, we lose everything, and we dont have an economic system any more. Thats why we desperately need to change the goal of the system to the flourishing of everyone and all life on the planet.

But many individuals like driving, flying and eating beef. They feel the climate movement wants to take away things they enjoyThey do. Theres different kinds of pleasure in life, right? Like getting deeply involved in your community, or feeling like youre involved in something deeply meaningful, like humanity getting on a better course and the future being better for your children.

I would argue that, through my experience, those kinds of pleasures are actually more sustaining. Theyre deeply satisfying. Theyre less superficial. But yeah, I know that its a hard sell. It almost takes a spiritual practice to be able to kind of come out of the addictions of modern life, which are very enticing.

That was the reason that I wrote my book [about reducing his carbon footprint by 90%], because I wanted to get the message out that theres actually a lot of pleasure in making these kinds of changes. I didnt know whether it would resonate with people or not. It turned out to resonate with a much smaller fraction of people than I expected.

Is there anyone in American politics that you look to, or a generation of younger representatives who might be able to articulate and sell this kind of vision?Not really, no, its pretty bleak. Bernie Sanders, hes not young, but he was the closest one that I ever saw to articulating this vision. Just understanding that were at risk of losing everything. He would say things like: I know my climate plan is expensive, but whats the alternative?

We have to do whatever it takes to save this planet. Because if we degrade the life support systems of this planet, we effectively lose everything. Were going down this very dangerous slide and we dont know exactly how far down it takes before we lose X, or before we lose Y, or before this system on the planet breaks down. But we know that the further down we slide, the more were going to start going past those sort of collapse points. Bernie Sanders got that. Ive never seen anything that Joe Biden has said or done to convince me that he understands that. I dont think he understands what grave danger were all in.

Why dont you run for office, Peter?Then, Id have to stop being a scientist. There was a new poll where only 42% of Americans thought that climate change was a very serious problem less than half of Americans. Thats a huge problem for electoral politics.

42% thats almost a half-full glass. Only a few more percent, youre in business.I will say that whichever elected leader makes climate action their top priority and stops the degradation of Earth, they will be remembered by history as one of the most visionary leaders of all time. Nothing could be more clear to me than that.

I do think theres a way to sell this kind of stuff Im saying to the American people. Because the jobs that will be created are a tremendous economic opportunity.

Theres an incredible amount of stuff that we need to build, at least initially. We have to build alternative infrastructure, so that we can feed ourselves, and we can clothe ourselves, and we can transport ourselves without fossil fuels.

Do you feel your own mental health is suffering, because youre so fluent in the data and the politics of global heating?Im constantly fending off this sort of ocean of climate anxiety thats in my brain. When that ocean rises to a high enough level, I cant really function any more. I get stressed. I am not very fun to be around. My ability to write degrades hugely. The strongest practice I have to keep that ocean of anxiety at bay is a meditation practice, called Vipassana.

It takes two hours a day to do this practice. It takes a 10-day silent retreat once a year to kind of build up the batteries. But if Im doing it, then I have zero climate anxiety. Im fully aware of the emergency, but it unlocks my ability to be able to do everything I can, to work as hard as I can to sound the alarm, basically.

I used to take vacations in the High Sierra, to kind of recharge through nature, but it doesnt work any more. Because last summer we took a five-day backpacking trip up there with my younger son and my partner, the three of us. It was too depressing to me, because in the two years that Id walked on that trail, the John Muir trail, the tree mortality was just outrageous. There were so many dead trees all along the path. Streams and ponds that had once been flowing at that time of year, two years earlier, were bone dry, because of the drought. I cant go. Its just too painful for me now. When Im in the mountains, Im constantly feeling climate grief. Thats not a way for me to deal with my climate anxiety any more, unfortunately.

Do you understand why some younger people are deciding not to have children, because of the climate crisis?If I were in their place, I would also choose not to have children. Its a hard thing to say. Its so heartbreaking to have this sense that the future is getting worse, and that its going to be worse for your kids. Now it feels like its getting worse at a very fast rate. One thing I desperately want before I die is to have a feeling that the future is going to be better.

That weve switched this corner and weve started to change the system towards flourishing for all, and weve come out of this madness of billionaires, and fossil fuel, and money in politics. Thats what I want to feel. Ill feel grief from maybe the loss of the Amazon rainforest, and the loss of most of the worlds coral reefs, but mixed with that grief, I long for a feeling of solidarity. I long to feel a faith in humanity once again, because right now Im not so sure. Theres some tremendous people out there, but it feels like, as a species, were just on autopilot and were not making the right decisions. I long to feel that were doing things better.

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Peter Kalmus: As a species, were on autopilot, not making the right decisions - The Guardian

//= do_shortcode('[in-content-square]')?> Bangor Universitys Prince Madoc ship. The university will deploy radar technology along the Welsh coastline. Picture by Reading Tom (CC BY 2.0).

Welsh Universities will share a 500k fund aimed at ensuring that Wales will become an international leader in the field of data science and artificial intelligence.

Bangor, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Cardiff universities will use the Welsh Government Wales Data Nation Accelerator fund to develop 22 projects with a focus on developing the economy, sustainability and improving quality of life.

Among the projects, Bangor University will support the environment by developing software tools to deploy radar technology along the Welsh coastline.

This will provide marine renewable developers, ports and local authorities with valuable, real-time information about the waves and currents in our coastal waters. This research will help find better sites for renewable energy and improve safety.

Professor Matthias Eberl in the School of Medicine at Cardiff University will use AI to help prevent sepsis in abdominal surgery patients, while Aberystwyth University are supporting the agricultural sector by using AI to quickly identify parasites common in grazing livestock in Wales.

Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles said that Wales was home to fantastic higher education research.

It is great to see our universities working together to make sure Wales is on the forefront of developments in data science and artificial intelligence, he said.

I am pleased that this funding has helped support projects with the power to improve peoples lives here in Wales and further afield.

WDNA is an example of how a strong higher education sector can support all aspects of our lives and make sure were prepared for the future.

High-quality

Minister for Economy, Vaughan Gething said that research, science, and technology had never been more important in terms of supporting solution-focussed projects and outcomes to tackle the major global problems.

I am confident this new funding will support our universities, working with industry partners, to use the very latest technological innovation in data science and artificial intelligence to do just that, he said.

In doing so, they will help boost the Welsh economy by helping to create the industries of the future, which will generate the new high-quality jobs we want to see across Wales.

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

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500k shared between big data and AI projects at Welsh universities - Nation.Cymru

Organizations are at a crossroads. The demand for data science talent has surged in recent years alongside widespread artificial intelligence and machine learning adoption, technology advancements, and businesses seeking to scale with data. As the race for innovation shows no signs of stopping, filling these open positions requires organizations to go beyond salary and traditional workplace benefits to attractand retaindata science and software engineering talent. By rethinking their approaches to recruiting, hiring, and managing employees, organizations can better identify the intangible aspects of holding a job, like culture and workplace autonomy, that employees have come to value.

Here are three ways organizations can attract data science and software engineering candidates today:

Amid the Great Resignation and Great Reshuffle, millions of Americans have quit their jobs to find professional opportunities that better align with a diverse list of desired optionsone of which is growth opportunity. Understanding how they can grow in their roles has always been important to employees who want clarity regarding their career trajectories. This requires a commitment from employers to support their employees professional development and provide transparency around their potential growth paths within the company.

Leaders should create clear career mapping tracks for individual contributors and managers, allowing each to see the steps necessary to reach their goals. If career trajectories are communicated from the start, organizations will be enabled to welcome the best data and software practitioners worldwide while embracing a culture of trust and transparency.

Encourage data scientists and engineers to join community forums and attend industry events for deeper professional development opportunities. Opportunities like these allow companies to promote individual growth and network with potential candidates within the community.

Salary and insurance offerings are two of the most basic employee benefits companies default to. While these are essential elements for attracting and retaining talent, organizations should think outside of the box for other creative perks desired by todays candidates.

Increasingly, organizations that prioritize employees' mental, physical, and emotional well-being are at a competitive advantage over others. For example, with burnout becoming a common concern among industries, companies should consider company-wide designated days off to relax and recharge. Work perks like quarterly wellness stipends, no-meeting days, or subscriptions to companies like Talkspace or Calm all show employees how much the organization cares for them. Its also important to provide the time and space for employees to do work they are most passionate about. Organizations should consider having consistent hackathon days or Open-Source Fridays, where data scientists and engineers can contribute to open-source projects they care about.

Even when it comes to more traditional aspects of compensation, like salary, strive to be open to innovation and in tune with the needs of today's professionals. Offer salary transparency for each employee, with benchmarks in the industry for their title, where they live, and how their salary compares to other jobs with the same title. Structure salary increases based on the industry benchmarks of a specific role within a particular job market, and then share those benchmarks for transparency.

As the last two years have shown, we need to be ready to continually refine workplace cultures and employee experiences in response to a changing world. To that end, it's also important to stay responsive to employee feedback and suggestions as change is navigated together.

The best data scientists follow what their data tells them -- if there is no open dialogue between employees and senior company leaders, organizations ignore a crucial source of data in the decision-making surrounding company culture. Some organizations may succeed by introducing senior leadership office hours, anonymous monthly "Ask Me Anything" sessions, bi-annual employee engagement surveys, and recurring pulse surveys.

These efforts ensure organizations do not remain stagnant and distant from what matters most to employees, but rather take an empathetic and responsive approach to meet the needs of their people.

With an abundance of open positions and a seemingly limited number of candidates, employees needs should be at the forefront of attracting and retaining the best talent possible.

As data scientists search for personally and professionally fulfilling roles, it's essential for organizations to be explicit in how they prioritize employee growth, the benefits offered beyond traditional mainstays, and how company culture is nurtured.

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Attract Data Science Talent with These 3 Tips - InformationWeek

From COVID-19 vaccines to the agriculture industry, from mental health wellness to the city of Chicagos Year of Healing, equity is a term at the forefront on many societal fronts. And for the past two years, the University of Chicago Data Science Institute (DSI) has been focusing on internet equity in a hope to better understand how to fix the digital divide laid bare in state communities during this pandemic.

Researchers from the universitys Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and the Department of Computer Science have been collaborating for the past two years gathering newer, focused internet data on Chicagos 77 neighborhoods under the Internet Equity Initiative. At Mondays Data Science Institute summit on UChicagos campus, Nick Feamster, faculty director of research at the Data Science Institute, and Nicole Marwell, associate professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice both principal investigators of the initiative revealed a 32-point difference between the most connected neighborhoods in the Loop and Near North Side (where more than 94% of households are connected to the internet) compared with Far South Side neighborhoods of Burnside and West Englewood, where fewer than 62% of households are connected.

Weve known for a while that federal data on this basically collects paper forms from internet service providers at a pretty coarse granularity, like a census tract level and if one home gets covered, theyre like, OK, its fine, Feamster said. I knew that was suspect, but it hit home for me when I moved to Hyde Park almost three years ago. If you look at that map, Hyde Park purportedly gets gigabit internet access and has multiple ISPs serving it. But I had a heck of a time signing up for service on my block. That lit a fire for me. I was like, Wow, if its this bad in Hyde Park, in the city of Chicago, its got to be even worse elsewhere where were not even looking.

Nicole Marwell, left, and Nick Feamster speak at the inaugural Data Science Institute Summit at the University of Chicago on May 9, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

The disparities in connectivity between neighborhoods can be seen in DSIs data portal, which combines public and private data from 20 cities in the nation, including Chicago. UChicago undergraduate students analyzed pre-pandemic information from the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Federal Communications Commission and the portal for a more localized look of internet connectivity in Chicago. From July through August 2021, researchers measured internet performance in a house in Hyde Park and one in South Shore both households were paying for gigabit internet service from Xfinity (Comcast). The Hyde Park household experienced higher-quality internet than the South Shore household. Portal data also revealed connectivity strongly correlates with income, unemployment and race/ethnicity.

Per the portal data, in portions of Roseland, broadband access is as low as 49%; in an area of Chicago Heights, its less than that, and in an area in East Garfield Park, connectivity is lower than 46%. The Loop, Lincoln Park and Beverly neighborhoods show over 90% connectivity. The results emphasize the need for continued, targeted intervention to improve connectivity in sections of the city, and the reason for DSIs ongoing study. With the $65 billion in federal funding that was authorized in 2021 under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help expand broadband, Feamster and Marwell hope the initiatives work helps Illinois secure its fair share of moneys under the act and aids stakeholders interested in working on solutions to decrease the digital divide.

The initiative is working with local community organizations and residents to help in this effort by collecting different measurements of internet performance in households across Chicago. Volunteers from across Chicago have installed small devices on their routers, which allows researchers to measure internet performance as data travels to and from the household. Researchers are continuing to recruit volunteers to conduct comparisons between neighborhoods. Feamster said the institutes team welcomes many manners of involvement from community residents from slicing and dicing the data, but also to think about solutions.

The point of collecting the data is to understand the nature of the problem, which can then inform the folks who are working to actually develop solutions to the problem, Marwell said. And those can be a lot of different folks: ISPs, utility companies, it could be community groups that are putting together public Wi-Fi, it could be landlords who are trying to add Wi-Fi into their building services, rather than having people connect to an internet service provider on their own.

Marwell said connectivity is more than just an affordability issue. The initiative study is really driving at the quality and reality of peoples lived internet experience on the ground something more than the one-time captured data of internet speed tests. By measuring more of the lived experience in continuous real time , researchers can measure over time whether something big is going on in a certain neighborhood or whether an area is just having a bad day or hour.

It may seem like internet is one solution fits all, but the more we learn about the nature of the problem, we see that what the building is made out of makes a difference, what the trees and other topography are like makes a difference, Marwell said. Whats possible within the sort of managerial orientation of a multiunit building makes a difference, what community institutions might be available to site an antenna for community Wi-Fi all those things are part of this process. We cant really be thinking about solving the internet problem just as give everybody a subsidy to buy their own service.

I think to the extent that these efforts are successful at achieving the goal of greater connectivity, thats going to be really important proof of concept for continuing to roll money in subsequent years through subsequent infrastructure investments at both the federal and the state level, to continue the work and try and reach everybody, Marwell said.

drockett@chicagotribune.com

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University of Chicago's Data Science Institute comes forward with years of research on internet equity; the reality isn't good for those living on...

Pure Storage Inc. and Snowflake Inc. said today theyre working together to enable joint customers to take data thats stored on-premises and analyze it in the cloud.

Under the new initiative, companies that use Pure Storages arrays to store sensitive, on-premises data within their own corporate data centers will soon be able to connect those assets to the Snowflake Data Cloud.

Its a partnership that promises some interesting benefits for companies. Snowflake Data Cloud is a cloud-native data warehouse that enterprises can use to share data securely across their entire organization. They can unify datasets from various different cloud services and software applications and make them accessible to any user. The advantage is that this combined data can be used for analytics, data science, application development and more.

Snowflake Data Cloud provides other advantages too, as any information stored within it can be augmented with third-party data from providers such as FactSet Research Systems Inc., Safegraph Inc., Zillow Inc. and Weather Source LLC.

The implication is that the cloud is far better suited for many kinds of data analysis, explaining why Pure Storage is looking to partner with Snowflake. Pure is a leading provider of high-performance, all-flash storage arrays used by organizations to host critical data that must be constantly analyzed. However, it understands that its customers may need to analyze this information at greater scale.

Once todays partnership comes to fruition, Snowflake customers will be able to add data from Pure Storages FlashBlade object storage to the Snowflake Data Cloud, where it can be analyzed while still adhering to regulatory rules that require sensitive information to be stored locally.

The partnership is very similar to the deal between Snowflake and Dell Technologies Inc. that was announced last week at Dell Technologies World. That initiative was billed as a first of its kind for the industry, but if Dell is indeed the first to get to market, it wont be the last.

Wikibon analyst Dave Vellante said he believes Snowflake will make many more deals of this type in order to get its teeth into the vast amount of data that lives on on-premises servers. In an analysis on SiliconANGLE, he explained that cloud-native independent service providers such as Snowflake are realizing that, despite their cloud-only dogma, they have to grit their teeth and deal with on-premises data or risk being shut out of evolving data architectures.

Software companies want to partner will leading hardware platforms and vice versa, Vellante said. Hybrid dynamics are forming.

Snowflake said partnering with Pure Storage will give enterprises better control over their data and accelerated time to outcomes, eliminating the time and resources they spend on migrating data to the cloud beforehand so it can be analyzed there. Other benefits include reduced cloud costs, Snowflake said, as companies will be able to analyze data directly on FlashBlade object storage, thus removing the need to create separate copies of that data anywhere else. Furthermore, Snowflake said, it will make it easier for Pure Storages customers to share data.

Pure Storage Chief Technology Officer Rob Lee said his company is working with Snowflake to build a modern platform for hybrid cloud data analytics. Were excited to continue delivering on our vision of simplifying how organizations interact with and extract the most value out of their data, he added.

Pure Storage said its first joint offering with Snowflake will be available in public preview in the second half of the year, a similar time frame to that offered by Dell.

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Pure Storage and Snowflake team up to offer rapid data analytics in the cloud - SiliconANGLE News