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 to solutions …
- Increasing numbers of people in Malaysia are participating in a #StudentNotSpouse campaign, calling for an end to child marriage in that country.
- New Zealand has passed a law that allows victims of domestic violence 10 days of paid leave to “allow them to leave their partners, find new homes and protect themselves and their children.”
- Several countries and companies are taking steps to reduce the use of cocoa “linked to deforestation and child labour.” Ghana, for example, has announced a plan to end deforestation related to cocoa production; the Ivory Coast is planning a reforestation strategy; and the EU is assessing its options.
- One of the United Kingdom’s largest tour operators has announced that, starting next year, it will no longer sell tickets to “animal attractions that include killer whales.”
We need to protect our health …
- The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued guidelines calling for families to “limit the use of plastic food containers, cut down on processed meat during pregnancy and consume more whole fruits and vegetables rather than processed food.” The Academy has growing concerns about nitrates and nitrites, phthalates, bisphenols, perchlorates, and perfluoroalkyl chemicals.
- A team of researchers that tested air samples from 19 cities around the world “discovered airborne concentrations of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in each of the cities at varying levels, produced by concentrated animal feeding operations, hospitals, wastewater treatment plants, and other sources.” Infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria “pose a significant public health risk.”
About our environment …
- According to the most recent report from Global Witness, more than 200 environmental activists were murdered around the world in 2017, a record number. Activists in 22 countries opposing (often illegal) industries such as palm oil, coffee, cattle ranching, mining, and timber were murdered, with most of the murders happening in Brazil, Colombia, and the Philippines.
- Researchers have discovered that only 13.2% of the world’s oceans “could be classed as wilderness – most in international waters, away from human populations.” These scientists also noted that many of these “wilderness” areas are being negatively affected by human-caused impacts, such as climate change, fishing, and pollution.
- A new report by Public Citizen has documented that news outlets are failing to mention the link between climate change and extreme weather, which is “contributing to climate-related complacency.”
- Climate scientists have discovered that “humans are pushing seasonal temperatures out of balance,” in effect shifting the earth’s seasons.
Animals need our protection …
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued 38 permits in the last two years to allow trophy hunters to “bring back lion trophy parts from Zimbabwe and Zambia.”
- The extremely rare vaquita porpoises could go extinct this year. “Fishing cartels” illegally poach the endangered totoaba fishes, and vaquitas are a victim of being bycatch. An international trade court judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily ban “all seafood harvested with gill nets in Mexico’s northern Gulf of California” to try to help protect vaquitas.
Unintended consequences …
- New research shows that “transportation network companies” (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft are actually increasing the amount of car traffic on streets in the US, rather than reducing it. The research also discovered that about 60 percent of TNC trips “either replace transit, biking, and walking, or would not have been made without the availability of TNCs.”
The post What’s New Wednesday 8-1-18: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.