Topic: Culture & Society

According to a recent poll, U.S. consumers have greater faith in activists and retail grocers than the government or food companies when it comes to providing information about food choices."

U.S. consumers have greater faith in activists and retail grocers than either government or food companies when it comes to providing information about food choices. That's according to a new GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media survey commissioned by Morgan&Myers, a communications firm specializing in food and agriculture.

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As our world slips deeper and deeper into decadence, it becomes essential that we renew life with a newfound sense of spirit.

We live in a world which can best be described as a dystopia. The nation states of the world have devolved to an extent that social mobility in many regions of the planet is non-existent. The disparity between the “haves” and “have nots” grows globally at a steady and insidious pace.

Although it's long been thought that the ancient Mayans had a tax and tribute system, new evidence suggests that they enjoyed a robust market economy.

Coaxing answers from 1500-year-old clues hidden in soil clumps, a team of archaeologists and environmental scientists identified a marketplace in an ancient Maya city, calling into question archaeologists’ widely held belief that people of the era relied on rulers to tax and re-distribute goods, rather than trading them with one another.

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Then-BYU graduate student Chris Jensen samples soil at an ancient Maya site in Mexico
that he and his collaborators demonstrated was once a marketplace.

"They Never Surrendered: The Lakota Sioux Band that Stayed in Canada" by Ron Papandrea is a page-turning exploration of the Lakota Sioux.

They Never Surrendered: The Lakota Sioux Band that Stayed in Canada by Ron Papandrea is a mesmerizing historical book that follows the lives of the Lakota Sioux after their astonishing victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Society’s attitudes toward drugs and its ways of regulating them are often “inconsistent,” “incoherent” and ultimately unjust, according to "Drugs and Justice," a new book by a team of University of Utah scholars.

Society’s attitudes toward different drugs and its ways of regulating them are often “inconsistent,” “incoherent” and ultimately unjust, says a new book by a team of University of Utah scholars.

In a recent research project, participants were more critical of couples when the female partner was dominating. When the roles were switched, even though having the exact same conversation, participants reported that they liked the couple.

Silence may be more golden for women, suggests a new study at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, which found that couples were judged to be less likeable when the woman was more verbally assertive.

The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) says warming seas, over-fishing and pollution are among profound concerns that must be better measured to help society respond in a well-informed, timely and cost-effective way.

Speedy diagnosis of the temper and vital signs of the oceans matters increasingly to the well being of humanity, says a distinguished partnership of international scientists urging support to complete a world marine monitoring system within 10 years.

Understanding the history of how humans have interacted with the rest of nature can help clarify the options for managing our increasingly interconnected global system.

A better more sustainable and desirable future requires humans to learn from past interactions with the environment. Multidirectional connections have been created throughout time from human reactions to change. For example, extreme drought triggered both social collapse and revolutionary systems of water management through irrigation. An article in the current issue of AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment studied the historical significance of human interaction with nature.

The Kyoto Protocol might have been flawed, writers say, but it was a good beginning. What is needed now is for us to roll-up our sleeves and get to work fixing this problem.

A new study shows that long-term climate change may ultimately lead to wars and population decline. The study, published November 19 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), revealed that as temperatures decreased centuries ago during a period called the Little Ice Age, the number of wars increased, famine occurred and the population declined.

Climate change may be one of the most significant threats facing humankind. A new study shows that long-term climate change may ultimately lead to wars and population decline.

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A new study in PNAS shows that reduced agricultural productivity caused by climate change triggers wars
and population decline.