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Record cold temperatures are once again expected to hit a swath of the country this weekendeven plunging Florida into its coldest stretch of the last 15 years, potentially bringing snow to areas of the state that haven’t seen it in four decades. This arctic blast is actually a sign of climate change, and how more extreme weather happens in an increasingly warming world, despite erroneous claims by the president and others. Theres a difference between weather and climate Ahead of the winter storm that brought intense snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to about two-thirds of the United States earlier this month, President Trump took to Truth Social to repeat a common piece of climate misinformation. Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 states. Rarely seen anything like it before, he wrote. Could the Environmental Insurrectionals please explain WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING??? Trump repeated this sentiment in a recent speech. But his comments reveal a deep misunderstanding about climate change. There is a difference between weather and climate. Weather is short, variable, and has to do with the current conditions in any place at a specific time. Climate, on the other hand, has to do with long-term trends and patterns. As climate change worsens and the planet warms, it leads to trends of hotter and hotter years. But it also exacerbates weather extremes. Climate change also specifically destabilizes the polar vortex, which then brings arctic air and freezing temperatures further south than usual. What is the polar vortex? Swirling around the Arctic above the North Pole is the polar vortex, a large mass of cold, fast winds. Typically, the polar vortex is pretty fixed in terms of its shape and reach: it sits as a band above the top of the planet, like a hat made of cold, low-pressure air. The Arctic is the fastest warming region of the planet, and as it warms, it throws the polar vortex out of whack. [Graphic: AFP/Getty Images] Underneath the polar vortex is the polar jet stream, a river of air that sits closer to the Earths surface and affects our winter weather. As climate change disrupts and destabilizes the polar vortex, it causes it to wobble and distort out of shape. That in turn affects the polar jet stream. Instead of blowing its cold winds straight across the Earth, the jet stream turns wavy, curving up and down and bringing storms and frigid Arctic air further south than usual. Thats what is expected to bring dangerously cold temperatures to much of the country this weekend. Overall, our winters are still getting warmer. On average, 210 locations around the U.S. now experience six more extremely warm days than they did in the 1970s. A warmer atmosphere also holds more precipitation, which can even mean more snow. And generally, climate change fuels all sorts of extremesfrom more intense hurricanes to hotter heat waves to, yes, more severe winter storms.
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The feeling of languishing is likely relatable for many workerseven if they dont quite have that exact language for it. And new research shows its not many workers who feel this way. Its most. What gets a little confused in people’s minds is that they assume languishing is almost like distress and mental illness, says Oscar Ybarra, business professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. But it’s more like: I’m just kind of stuck. I’m not really engaged. I don’t know where I’m going. Ybarra wanted to capture the malaise that employees often experience in the workplace, which doesnt always rise to the level of mental illness. When he first polled workers in 2024, Ybarra learned that a majority of them identified as languishing at work, rather than flourishing. In a new survey conducted in partnership with YouGov, workers seem to be doing even worse: About 61% of the 2,000 respondents said they were languishing, compared to 57% the year prior. Nearly 18% of them claimed to be languishing severely. The study found that there is little variation along demographic lines, and the experience of languishing tends to be correlated with high rates of burnout. I feel very conflicted about that, Ybarra says of the uptick in languishing. As a researcher, you always want some consistencybut that consistency suggests there’s a lot of people who are just not doing super well at work. Beyond just documenting the phenomenon of languishing at work, Ybarra hopes to offer some potential relief for organizations and employees. The spectrum of languishing to flourishing is a useful framing because it broadens how psychologists tend to think of well being, according to Ybarra. Especially when you apply it to the work settingwhich is something that hasn’t been doneit really provides a lot of targets for potential intervention, he adds. There are certain common elements across workplaces with flourishing employees: Many of them report a high degree of autonomy alongside strong support from colleagues and managers. The study characterizes this as an “empowered squad, and found that 68% of employees in those workplaces were flourishing; a muted squad in which employees have high levels of support, but less autonomy, yielded a lower rate of flourishing employees at 42%. (Ybarra points out, however, that there is such a thing as too much autonomysomeone who works entirely remotely and very independently might actually feel isolated.) On the whole, the surveys findings indicate that work environment seems to inform an employees experience more than demographic background. Companies that boast a strong sense of ethics and hold people accountable for their behavior also had a higher share of flourishing employees. But there are steps individual employees can take to thrive more at work, even if their workplace lacks structural support. Flourishing workers rely on a number of strategies for emotional regulation, which Ybarra describes as the three Rs: reframe, reach out, and reset. Reframing is a common technique in psychotherapy, in which you might try to find the positive in a difficult situation or remind yourself that it wont last. Reaching out can involve connecting with family or friends or even consulting your colleaguesthough Ybarra notes that seeking this kind of support is not the same as venting frustrations, which is a little less healthy. Resetting really depends on what works best for you, whether thats physical exercise or meditation, or something else altogether. What previous research has shown is that the more of these [strategies] you have in your toolkit, the better, Ybarra says. It gives you more things to choose from. As workers are up against a tough job market and growing pressure from their employers to adopt AInot to mention the political unrest in our midstany strategies to protect their peace may come in handy. The conditions can be so overwhelming that you could have the perfect toolkit in your head for thinking differently about things, but its just working against too much, Ybarra says. There will always be stress and difficulties at workbut when we have those supports in place, individuals may be better able to use [them] to some good effect.
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E-Commerce
What many applicants may not realize is that, nowadays, the first hurdle in applying for a job is dealing with AI. Candidates now often must clear an artificial intelligence system that screens their résumés that quietly determines who advances, and whose application is filed away in a drawer or spam folder, never to see the light of day. Now, a new lawsuit filed on Tuesday is the first in the U.S. to accuse an AI hiring company of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Eightfold AI, a venture capital-backed artificial intelligence hiring platform, is being sued by two workers in California for allegedly compiling reports used to screen job applicants without their knowledge, consent, or any opportunity to correct errors. Ive applied to hundreds of jobs, but it feels like an unseen force is stopping me from being fairly considered, said Erin Kistler, one of the plaintiffs, in a press release. Both plaintiffs applied to roles at several companies that use Eightfold AI, including PayPal and Microsoft, according to the complaint. Out of the thousands of jobs she has sought in the past year, only 0.3% of her applications have progressed to a follow-up or interview, Kistler told the New York Times. Its disheartening, and I know Im not alone in feeling this way. Eightfold AIs algorithm trawls career sites, job boards, and résumé databases to create a data set of 1 million job titles, 1 million skills, and the profiles of more than 1 billion people working in every job, profession, industry, and geography, according to their websitemuch of it inaccurate, incomplete, or drawn from unknown third-party sources, the complaint alleges. Using an AI model trained on that data, plaintiffs say, Eightfold AI scores job applications on a scale of one to five, based on their skills, experience, and the hiring managers goals. These AI-generated evaluations function as consumer reports under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and California law, the lawsuit alleges. Unlike credit reports (a type of consumer report which the FCRA regulates to ensure accuracy and fairness), applicants are given no feedback on their scores or how the rating was generated, rarely aware that an algorithm evaluated them at all. If the tool is making mistakes, candidates have no ability to correct them. This creates a black box situation where we can see what goes into an AI system, and what comes out. But the reasoning in between remains hidden or incomprehensible to humans or the employers relying on the scoring when considering potential hires. This opacity is troubling at a time when more companies are relying on AI for hiring and candidate screening. A spokesperson for Eightfold AI told Fast Company that this characterization about our products is factually incorrect. Eightfold offers technology that enterprises use to manage their talent processes and engage with candidates. Eightfold does not lurk or scrape personal web history, social media or the like to build secret dossiers. Eightfolds platform operates on data that is submitted by candidates to our customers or provided by our customers. They continued: We use information such as skills, experience and education that applicants choose to submit to our customers and data authorized by our customers under contract. They also pointed to their blueprint to learn more about their specific data practices. The plaintiffs, meanwhile, are not demanding the elimination of AI from hiring. Instead, they are asking for AI companies to be held to the same standards as others. Just because this company is using some fancy-sounding AI technology and is backed by venture capital doesnt put it above the law, David Seligman, Executive Director of Towards Justice, said in the press release. This isnt the wild west. Still, as AI becomes more pervasive in hiring, legal conflicts like this may just become more and more common.
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