Aletta Brady defines themself as a “queer, nonbinary, bisexual organizer, futurist, writer and narrative activist” living in Minnesota, according to their website. Brady has been involved in climate activism for years. As a teenager, Brady “helped pass legislation through the Sierra Club to reduce school bus idling and retrofit over 3,000 school buses,” according to Art Sphere Inc.
The school year is coming to an end, and for many, this represents both the end and the beginning of new phases of life. These transitional moments are marked by traditions, some that date back to the early days of the College and some that are brand new. Dr. Emily DeMartino, a family nurse practitioner at Mount Holyoke College Health Services, has urged graduating students to form a new tradition themselves by visiting Health Services for a pap smear before leaving campus.
A newly-developed contraceptive targeted toward cisgender men has a 99 percent success rate in preventing pregnancy in mice, according to an article published by The New York Times on March 25, 2022. A report published by HealthDay found that past studies of cis male contraceptives have focused on targeting testosterone levels, whereas the current contraceptive in development works to reduce the functioning of a protein called retinoic acid receptor alpha, which affects sperm formation, embryonic development and cell growth. Researchers explained that this change in direction was due to the adverse side effects that often occur as a result of hormonal-based medication, such as weight gain, depression and high levels of cholesterol. Researchers also noted that the mice regained the ability to reproduce four to six weeks after halting regular pill consumption.
Anuna de Wever Van der Heyden is a 20-year-old climate activist based in Belgium. De Wever began their activism in December 2018 after Belgium decided to not “sign a new declaration on addressing climate change at the COP24 summit,” according to Vogue. De Wever was looking for organizing strategies and a way to respond to Belgium’s inaction when they found fellow climate activist Greta Thunberg’s approach. Two weeks after COP24, de Wever staged “their first protest in the same mold … on the streets of Brussels,” as reported by Vogue.
At the beginning of the 2021 fall semester, Dining Services announced an upcoming partnership with USEFULL, a company run by a Mount Holyoke alumna, Alison Rogers ’12. USEFULL works to reduce waste and positively impact consumption patterns by providing a sustainable, reusable alternative to single-use takeout products. USEFULL claims that switching to their reusable containers can save colleges an estimated 50 - 84 percent on the cost of single-use to-go packaging
Sônia Guajajara is a 48-year-old Indigenous activist, environmentalist and politician from Brazil.
Guajajara is known as the coordinator for Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil or the Association for Indigenous People of Brazil, according to Believe Earth. Guajajara also participates in larger world forums like the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Climate Negotiations to share experiences of Indigenous people in Brazil to a global audience, according to Indigenous Rights International. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Guajajara pointed to how climate change and the destruction of resources like the Amazon rainforest have begun “threatening our way of life” and culture.
Medicated abortions now account for over half of all abortions in the United States, according to a Feb. 24 policy analysis by the Guttmacher Institute. Preliminary findings indicate that the combination of the pills mifepristone and misoprostol, which work together to induce an abortion, accounted for 54 percent of abortions in the United States in 2020, a significant jump from 39 percent in 2017. Although data collection for 2022 has not been completed, usage is predicted to remain above the 50 percent mark. Various factors contribute to the increase of use, including the COVID-19 pandemic which encouraged remote access to healthcare and increased access to medication instead of in-clinic abortions.
In June 1981, a “virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection,” later identified as human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, was first reported in the United States, according to the HIV.gov website. It has been about 40 years since the first cases of HIV were reported. UNAIDS estimated that in 2020, there were approximately 37.7 million people around the world with HIV and around 680,000 acquired immune deficiency syndrome-related deaths. There is currently no cure for HIV, but advancements in medical science have made it so that people living with HIV can control the impact of the disease on their body as well as its transmission rates.
