ARTS RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

Canada faces great challenges in fulfilling its commitments in the Paris climate treaty, according to UBC political science professor Kathryn Harrison.

“We have an extremely greenhouse-gas intensive economy,” Harrison told News 1130. “If we’re going to phase out our reliance on fossil fuels over say five decades, we’re one of the countries in the world that has the farthest to go.”

In an article for Quartz, UBC PhD student Ashley Whillans described an experiment she performed to find out if spending money on other people could lower blood pressure.

“Among participants who were previously diagnosed with high blood pressure…spending money on others significantly reduced their blood pressure over the course of the study,” Whillans wrote. “Critically, the magnitude of these effects was comparable to the benefits of interventions such as anti-hypertensive medication and exercise.”

Guaranteed annual income schemes as currently proposed in countries like Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland would be impractical and expensive, said UBC economics professor Kevin Milligan in a Globe and Mail op-ed.

Rather than a universal basic income, Milligan said Canada could “provide a modest, targeted transfer that is means-tested through a gradual phase-out as income rises. This way, those who find work don’t immediately lose all their benefits, and so we can balance the desire to help with efficient work incentives. We also can target the benefits where they will do the most good, instead of including high earners in the plan.”

Maclean’s invited well-known Canadians to share forecasts and hopes for 2016.

UBC creative writing professor Maureen Medved’s contribution: “As humans with the capacity for rational thought, we have a moral obligation to wake ourselves up and to attend to the condition of all peoples and other life forms with compassion, humility, understanding and responsibility.”

UBC psychologist Stanley Coren is quoted in a Washington Post article (which also ran on MSN) on the meaning of different types of dog bark.

Coren has compiled a barking glossary, which includes barks that indicate loneliness, barks that call attention to something specific, and barks that invite play.

A Maclean’s article on the most important factors affecting Canada’s economy includes comments from UBC economist Kevin Milligan.

Milligan observed that government is playing a reduced role in the economy has shrunk, saying “the fact is that government’s share of economic output has shrunk over the last 20 years.”

Maclean’s ran a story on how contemporary Chinese artists are using humour and mockery to express ideas that would otherwise never have a voice.

The article quotes Gu Xiong, an artist who fled to Canada after the Tiananmen Square crackdown and is now a professor at UBC.

Gu was quoted as saying: “Since about 2005, things have been much looser, which gives a sense of possibility within Chinese society.”

UBC economist Kevin Milligan, who was a member of the Liberal economic advisory team, is quoted in a Globe and Mail analysis of the federal tax plan and revised deficit projections.

“These new estimates by Finance, to my eye, look quite cautious and [are] building in enough room for a potential positive upside,” Milligan said. “They may be making a judgment that it’s better to take a small political hit now and look good three years from now, [rather] than the alternative.”

Issues around climate justice should be explored and resolved in order to reach a successful agreement on climate change, wrote UBC sociology professor David Tindall in an op-ed for the Vancouver Sun.

Tindall said climate justice involves addressing income, age and gender inequality issues as well as North-South and Aboriginal vs. non-Aboriginal conflicts.

“At COP21 in Paris, resolving climate justice is not just a moral-philosophical parlour game,” said Tindall. “It is central to whether or not an effective agreement emerges.”

UBC economist and tax expert Kevin Milligan was quoted in a Globe and Mail article on the cost of the government’s proposed tax changes.

Milligan, a member of the Liberal economic advisory team, has said in the past that the party’s $2.8-billion projected revenue from tax hikes was a reasonable estimate if backed by “strong administrative efforts and an effective tax-expenditure review.”

UBC global politics professor Michael Byers joined CCTV America’s The Heat to talk about competing interests in the Arctic. According to Byers, the region is the most expensive place in the world to operate and that explains why Russia, the United States and Canada are willing to cooperate there.

“They cannot afford to have conflict in the Arctic, especially not Russia, with its economy in such serious trouble,” Byers said. He believes that “Russia is playing by the rules” in the Arctic.