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Graphic Truth
The measures come amid growing scrutiny of the harmful effects of smartphone use in general – and social media in particular – on teen mental health. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in May called for cigarette-style health warnings on social media. A recent bestseller traces the rise of the current “Anxious generation” to the emergence of smartphones in the early 2010s. And as any schoolteacher can tell you, smartphones are generally not great for the classroom learning experience.
But on the other side of it, parents have raised safety concerns. Cellphones are often the only way for caregivers to locate or contact children during emergencies. As the number of US school shootings has soared over the past 10 years, some parents are particularly reluctant to cut that tie – especially during school hours. Alongside these worries, many parents and lawmakers simply think the decision should be left to local school boards rather than faraway state legislators.
Here is a look at the current state of cellphone bans in the US and Canada. By the way, where do you stand on this issue? Let us know here, along with your name and location, and we may publish your response in an upcoming edition of GZERO North.
Data center construction was already on the rise, but thanks to the tech world’s new crush on artificial intelligence, there’s been an acceleration worldwide.
Data centers are the digital infrastructure that most of the world has come to depend on – so much so that they now account for over 1% of the world’s electricity use. Governments, businesses, and everyday folks have come to rely on these facilities for data storage, management, security, and so much more.
But everything comes at a cost. And for data centers, it’s the climate. Data centers require a constant and immense inflow of energy to support operations. Their high energy consumption has been linked to increases in greenhouse gas emissions, water usage (for cooling purposes), and exacerbating the energy crisis.
Companies like Microsoft and Google – front-runners in the AI race – have had to step back on energy pledges set before the AI boom and have been redirecting resources into the construction of new data centers to stay competitive. Microsoft, for example, seeks to double its number of data centers (and its carbon footprint).
Double-edged sword. Revolutionary advancements in technology and AI can be attributed to the growing number of data centers, but so can worsening climate conditions.
Women in wealthy countries are increasingly waiting to have children. What gives? Well, a complex array of factors are fueling this trend, but financial concerns appear to be a central cause.
A recent poll in Canada, for example, found that 55% of Canadians between the ages of 18 to 34 pointed to the housing crisis as affecting their decision and timing about when to start a family.
In the US, child care costs are a growing concern across the country. Meanwhile, the US remains on a short list of countries that do not guarantee paid parental leave. Have economic conditions made it more difficult to have children? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Write to us here.
The Euro Cup kicked off on June 14 and is now down to the final eight, with the beautiful game having seen its fair share of victories and upsets in recent weeks. At the same time, battles have been waged on the political stage, with the far right surging first in European Parliament elections and then in the first round in France this past weekend.
All this talk of soccer and politics made us wonder … how well would these countries compete if the matches were decided based on national leader approval ratings?
Soccer powerhouses England and France are favored to dominate the Euros. But their leaders, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom suffer from low approval ratings (and are watching their electorates head to the polls this weekend), wouldn’t generate the same optimism on the pitch.
What happens when we swap national sides for leaders – is your favorite team still in with a chance?
They made their bed – and were forced to lie in it.
At the start of the pandemic, G7 countries were plagued by a huge uptick in hospital admissions – and the shocking reality that hospital beds had been on a 50-year decline. Four years later, these countries have still not reversed the downward spiral.
In the US, over the last five decades, care has shifted away from inpatient hospital settings and to outpatient services to cut costs. The decrease has also been intentional. In 1974, the government began an initiative to directly cut the number of hospital beds, believing in a rule calledRoemer's Law, which said that “a hospital bed built would be a hospital bed filled,” thus driving up costs.
However, the US’s free-market healthcare system still provides more hospital beds per capita than the government-dominated system in Canada. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Ontario has just one intensive-care bed for every 800 residents, giving it no surge capacity. Michael Decter, the former chair of the Health Council of Canada told theCBC that because Canada’s system is public, “we tend to ration everything.”
Across the G7, governments have reduced hospital capacity to cut costs and because advances in medical care have decreased the amount of time patients spend in hospitals. However, older people – who are more likely to spend time in hospital – are also taking up an increasing share of G7 populations. The result is higher wait times, lower surge capacity, and worsening patient care.
The world’s nuclear powers increased their spending on these apocalyptic weapons by a record 13% between 2022 and 2023, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Cumulatively, they spent a cool $91.4 billion on building, maintaining, and researching nuclear weapons.
Well over half of that spending came from the United States, to the tune of $51 billion. The next highest spenders were China and Russia, with comparatively frugal expenditures of $11 billion and $8 billion, respectively. The increases were not driven by building new weapons — arsenal levels remained fairly stable, according to a different study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute — but instead by developing new technology to target and launch the weapons.
The US and UK, which saw the largest increases in nuclear spending, are developing new rockets and submarines that they hope will help deter attacks. The US, UK, Russia, China, France, India, and North Korea are also reportedly developing so-called hypersonic missiles, which can travel over five times the speed of sound to avoid interception.
That amount of spending comes to $2,898 every second — roughly what the average global household makes in three months. As if spending vast amounts on weapons that could effectively end the world in about two hours wasn't tragic enough, in countries like North Korea and Pakistan, endemic poverty and economic stagnation mean every dollar spent on nukes is one less spent on food, fuel, and medicine.
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day the last Black slaves in America were emancipated after the end of the Civil War. In the century and a half since, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and other forms of overt discrimination against Blacks have all contributed to a persistent wealth gap between Black and non-Black Americans. Here, we take a look at a few indicators that illustrate the divide.
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Graphic Truth: The state of cellphone bans in schools
Graphic Truth: AI fuels data center race
Graphic Truth: Motherhood can wait
Graphic Truth: 2024 Euro Cup of Approval
Graphic Truth: Hospital bed decline
Graphic Truth: Big bombs get big budgets in 2023
The Graphic Truth: America's racial wealth gap
