Each week find a round-up of selected resources, news stories, and commentary related to humane living, global ethical issues, and positive solutions.
Here’s some news to know for this week:
- Via NY Times: Judge blocks US policy barring military service by transgender troops
A federal judge has blocked a Trump administration policy banning all transgender people from military service. The judge said she found that the policy was based on “disapproval of transgender people generally” and that it was likely unconstitutional. - Via LA Times: Survey of teachers reflects more anxious, contentious students in “Trump era”
A UCLA survey of about 1,500 public school teachers around the US reveals that more than half of students seem to be feeling “high levels of stress/anxiety” than last year and more than 60% of students have more contentious relationships with their fellow students than in the previous year. - Via Washington Post: Report shows impacts of climate change on public health are “unequivocal and potentially irreversible”
A major report published in the Lancet, involving 63 researchers from two dozen institutions worldwide, has found that the world is not responding well to climate change. Researchers looked at 40 indicators of human health, “including migration, nutrition and air pollution” and found that most indicators “are headed in the wrong direction.” - Via The Guardian: Teenage girls in India have taken over running their village
A “young girls” club in the village of Thennamadevi have taken over their village. They are working to address problems such as alcoholism, trafficking, and broken street lights, as well as ways to improve opportunities and help the village, such as mobile clinics, a library, and better transport. - Via CNN: Week-long sex trafficking sting across US frees 84 children
The FBI led a cooperative operation with 55 FBI field offices, 78 task forces, and several international partners to rescue trafficked minors and arrest traffickers in the US. Operation Cross Country XI allowed authorities to rescue 84 children, including a 5-year-old and a 3-month-old who had been sold as sex slaves; the FBI arrested 120 traffickers. - Via NY Times: Nicaragua joins Paris Climate Accord, leaving only Syria and the US
Nicaragua has decided to join the Paris Climate agreement, leaving Syria as the only country to not sign and the US as the only country pledging to leave. Nicaragua initially didn’t sign because it believed the deal was “insufficiently ambitious.” - Via BBC: UN report shows alarming gap between carbon emissions and reduction goals
In its annual Emissions Gap Report, the UN Environment program has emphasized that current pledges to reduce carbon emissions are insufficient to keep below a 2 degree Celsius rise in global temperature. Current greenhouse gas emissions are set to exceed the Paris climate agreement plans by about 30 percent, which could mean at least a 3 degree Celsius rise by the end of the century. - Via Bloomberg: Report shows CO2 levels have hit record high
The World Meteorological Organization’s new report indicates that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are the highest they’ve been in 800,000 years, due to human-caused activity and a strong El Niño event. Concentrations have reached 403.3 parts per million, warning of “severe ecological and economic disruptions.” - Via NY Times: Study indicates body cameras have little effect on police violence, behavior
A study conducted in Washington DC over 18 months found that “officers equipped with cameras used force and prompted civilian complaints at about the same rate as those who did not have them.” - Via Think Progress: Media appropriates important study about racism and focuses on the lens of white people
A recent study, which was designed to “illustrate black Americans’ personal experiences of racism and discrimination,” made headlines for the few pieces of data related to how more than half of white people in the US “believe that they or people like them suffer from racial discrimination.” Researchers will be releasing subsequent reports about the responses from other demographic groups.
And add this resource to your humane education/solutionary toolkit:
Need to show your school community the power of connecting kids with nature? Use the Children & Nature Network Research Library to find curated, peer-reviewed scientific articles on topics such as the connection between nature and academic performance and the health benefits of nature.
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The post What’s New Wednesday 11-1-17: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.