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:
Small steps toward solutions …
- More companies, like Marriott Hotels and Starbucks, have decided to eliminate the regular use of plastic straws in their businesses.
- Seven fast food chains have agreed to remove “no-poach” clauses, which prohibit workers from taking jobs at a different store for the same franchise. Such clauses have been criticized for contributing to wage stagnation and lower pay for restaurant employees.
- A new study measuring the impact of blighted lots vs. green spaces on residents in Philadelphia showed that “depression among residents who lived near the newly green lots decreased by more than 68 percent.”
- There’s a lot that cities can do to help stay cooler during heat waves, including plant more trees, create ventilation corridors, and paint roofs white.
- The government of India has removed a 12% “luxury” tax on sanitary napkins, a move that affects more than 355 million menstruating women.
- A new report shows that “scientific procedures involving animals are at their lowest level since 2010” in Great Britain. “The latest figures represent a 7% drop in the number of such experimental procedures compared with 2016, and a 17% drop compared with 10 years ago.”
Regarding separated immigrant families …
- In the last couple weeks, US federal judges have temporarily halted deportation of separated families; have rejected a request to allow long-term detention of immigrant children; and have declared that the forced separation of two immigrant children from their parents is unconstitutional.
Problems that need solutions …
- A new report reveals that the meat and dairy industries will soon be the “world’s biggest contributers to climate change,” surpassing fossil fuels.
- An Oxford Internet Institute study discovered that 30 of 48 countries examined showed “evidence of political parties using computational propaganda during elections or referenda …. to poison the information environment, promote skepticism and distrust, polarize voting constituencies, and undermine the integrity of democratic processes.”
- Some scientists, economists, and government officials are warning that heat waves and global climate change are devastating the livelihoods and health of many and may make some areas uninhabitable.
- A California Department of Justice (US) report on California shows that “hate crimes against Latinos have increased by more than 50 percent since 2016.” Another report notes that hate crimes in the 10 largest cities in the US are increasing; and a report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations indicates that there is a “surge in reports of Islamophobic incidents” in the US.
- False rumors circulating on WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, have led to mobs killing more than two dozen people in India in the last few months.
- Scientists emphasize that Earth Overshoot Day, which “marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate,” has moved to August 1, the “earliest date ever recorded.”
- China’s government has discovered that hundreds of thousands of vaccines provided to Chinese children “have been found to be faulty,” including rabies, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines.
In the category of Seriously?! …
- Under pressure from the dairy industry, the US FDA is planning to forbid nondairy beverage products. like those made with soy and almonds, from using the word “milk.”
- The US Department of the Interior has proposed major changes to the Endangered Species Act, effectively gutting significant protections and putting many species at risk of extinction.
- The US White House Council of Economic Advisors has “declared the War on Poverty ‘largely over and a success.’” Federal spending on children has decreased, while about 20 percent of all children in the US are still living below the federal poverty limit.
Regarding the health of people and the planet …
- A new study notes that air pollution in some US national parks is as bad as it is in some of the largest cities in the US, and that those levels of ozone can be detrimental to both health and park attendance.
- A US GAO report has found that, in 2017, fewer than half of US school districts had tested their drinking water for lead levels.
- A Drexel University study has discovered that, between 2000 and 2016, lobbyists in the electric utility, fossil fuel, and transportation industries spent more than $2 billion trying to influence climate change legislation. The study noted that “lobbying by corporate sectors involved in the production or use of fossil fuels overshadowed that of environmental organizations and the renewable energy sector by a ratio of approximately 10 to 1.”
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 7-25-18: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.