Each week find a round-up of selected news and resources related to global ethical issues and positive solutions that you can use in your solutionary teaching/work.
Here’s some recent news worth knowing:
- Via The Guardian: Iceland has announced that, after a two-year pause, it plans to kill 191 endangered fin whales this summer. “An apparent loosening of Japanese regulations on Icelandic exports had made the resumption of the hunting commercially viable again,” according to Iceland’s only fin whaling company.
- Via Mother Jones: When a fracking company met resistance from parents who didn’t want oil and gas wells near their school (where students are mostly white), the company chose a different site: close to a school where a majority of students are of color and low-income.
- Via Greater Good: A study published in Psychological Science revealed that “when cities had lower pollution levels, they also reported fewer murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts. In more polluted years, those numbers were up.” Researchers also noted that air pollution may actually cause “ethical lapses.”
- Via CNN: The latest State of Global Air Report has discovered that more than 95% of humans are “breathing unhealthy air”; that the poorest nations are most affected; and that air pollution contributes to strokes, heart attacks, lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and other health challenges, causing an estimated 6.1 million deaths for humans in 2016.
- Via NY Times: The US Supreme Court has struck down part of a law that allowed the government to deport some legal immigrants who have committed “serious” crimes, noting that the law is “unconstitutionally vague.”
- Via Washington Post: After decades on the US endangered species list, the lesser long-nosed bat has been removed. This bat is the first to be removed from the list. Some of the solutions to helping the bats have been to gate off the entrances to mines where the bats roost and to convince tequila producers to set aside certain amounts of their agave crop, which is the bats’ main food source.
- Via Science: The Trump administration has initiated plans to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling would happen on the 1.6 million acre coastal plain, which provides critical habitat for species like caribou and polar bears. The first step is an environmental impact statement.
- Via Journal-Sentinel Online: Recently the Milwaukee Fire Department assessed its pilot Community Paramedic Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program. The program was established to serve those community members with chronic health issues who most frequently call 911. Trained paramedics visit participants, helping assess their health and connecting them with medical and other services they need. In 2017, calls to 911 from this targeted group fell by 62 percent.
- Via The Atlantic: A statue of J. Marion Sims, the “father of modern gynecology,” was recently removed from New York City’s Central Park (the statue will be moved to his grave). Sims practiced the surgical techniques for which he is famous on enslaved women, without their consent, and without anesthesia.
- Via Reuters: Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, has announced that it would “mostly stop funding new coal power plants, oil sands and arctic drilling.” The bank will make an exception for coal-fired plants Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
- Via Washington Post: A new report reveals that the average person in the US wastes about 25% of the food they buy from groceries and restaurants, which has a significant negative environmental impact.
- Via CityLab: The new County Health Rankings Report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation notes that low birth weight is “an important signifier of long-lasting health discrepancies,” and that Black Americans and Native Americans have a much higher rate of babies born with low birth weight than do other ethnic groups.
- Via Pacific Standard: New Jersey has passed a law banning offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in state waters. The new law also prohibits New Jersey’s EPA from “issuing any permits and approvals for the development of any facility, or related infrastructure, associated with offshore drilling in State waters or outside State waters.” New Jersey controls waters along its 130-mile coastline up to three miles beyond the shore.
- Via EcoWatch: The USDA’s Wildlife Services reports that in 2017 it killed more than 2.3 million animals, more than 1.3 million of which were native wild animals. This federal wildlife-killing program, which targets wolves, cougars, birds, and other animals, exists primarily to benefit the agriculture industry.
- Via The Guardian: A new global study, The State of the World’s Birds, which is a five-year study of global bird populations, has discovered that “one in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction.” According to the study, “agricultural expansion and intensification” are the primary drivers, affecting 74% of the 1,469 species at risk of extinction.
And add these resources to your solutionary toolkit:
- Poynter has great tips to “avoid falling for the next viral fad study,” which can help students hone their critical thinking skills about health studies.
- This week is World Week for Animals in Laboratories. Faunalytics has a terrific “fundamentals” overview about animals in research labs.
Be sure to forward this to at least ONE person who would benefit from these resources.
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The post What’s New Wednesday 4-25-18: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.