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 NY Times: Los Angeles is experimenting with “play streets” that allow children and community members – especially in low-income areas and those without parks – to “reclaim streets for civic life, kibitzing and play.”
- Via The Conversation: A researcher self-reports on how much money trees in megacities help save, calculating the cost savings related to how trees in cities affect air pollution, water, CO2 sequestration, and more. Researchers noted that for every dollar invested in planting, “cities see an average of US$2.25 return on their investment each year.”
- Via StreetsBlog USA: A five-year study published in the British Medical Journal notes that people who bike were 41% less likely to die than people who drive or take transit, highlighting a positive correlation between biking to work and better physical health.
- Via NPR: The Arizona legislature has passed a budget that includes a 20% pay raise by 2020 for Arizona teachers. Teachers in Arizona have been on a walkout, and are happy about the raise. However, since many of their demands have not been met, they plan to continue lobbying for additional changes.
- Via Scientific American: Menu label requirements that were created as part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will go into effect May 14, 2018. The rule requires restaurants and other food entities (such as convenience stores and movie theaters) with at least 20 stores, to post calorie counts. The law is intended to help people eat healthier.
- Via The Oregonian: The Animal Legal Defense Fund has filed a suit on behalf of a horse named Justice, seeking $100,000 in damages on his behalf, for negligence and suffering that left him 300 pounds underweight, covered in lice and a skin infection, and having damaged genitals from severe frostbite.
- Via EcoWatch: Hawaii has become the first US state to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is “a highly toxic neurotoxin that causes significant damage to brain development in children.” The ban starts in January 2019, and all exemptions will end after 2022.
- Via NPR: A survey by health insurance company Cigna found that nearly 50% of 20,000 US adults surveyed reported “that they feel alone or left out always or sometimes.” The survey found that most people in the US scored as “lonely” on the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and that younger people felt lonelier than older generations.
- Via Charlotte Observer: A study lead by scientists at Duke University shows that animals such as sharks, alligators, coyotes, otters, and bears are returning to habitats and places that they occupied before humans drove them out.
- Via Poynter: A “high level expert group” set up by the EU’s European Commission has released a report detailing recommended policy initiatives related to “fake news and online disinformation.” The report offers several recommendations, including increased media literacy, more action and responsibility by tech platforms, and strengthened fact-checking and online accountability.
- Via Military Times: The Pentagon has found that water in or near 126 military installations contains “potentially harmful levels of perfluorinated compounds, which have been linked to cancers and developmental delays for fetuses and infants.”
- Via The Atlantic: A study published in Nature Climate Change has discovered that the world’s 8,236 marine protected areas are “intensely vulnerable to climate change.” Researchers found that “most tropical MPAs will exceed their ‘community thermal-safety margin’—a scientific term for the amount of heat that makes an entire ecosystem unsustainable—just three decades from now.”
And add this resource to your solutionary toolkit:
- Our friends at Rethinking Schools have released their new book, Teaching for Black Lives, which includes essays, lesson plans, and more to address racial injustices and promote racial equity.
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 5-9-18: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.