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 …
- Research shows that anti-poverty programs that help families in need can “boost students’ test scores, make them more likely to finish high school, and raise their chances of enrolling in college.”
- California has become the first US state to require “publicly traded companies to include women on their boards of directors.”
- An investigation looks at the impact industrial agriculture and lax regulations have had on clean water in Iowa (US) and how “an unlikely coalition is calling for stricter controls to clean up the drinking water sources for millions of the state’s residents.”
- As part of a national human rights campaign to address a broken bail system, more than 500 women and teenagers will be bailed out of New York jails.
- After facing criticism, Amazon.com has announced that it will increase minimum wage for its US employees to $15 per hour. The pay increase will begin November 1 and will affect about 250,000 Amazon and Whole Foods employees and 100,000 Amazon seasonal workers.
In the courts …
- The India Supreme Court has struck down an adultery law that “treats a husband as the master.” The Chief Justice called the law “arbitrary, and it offends the dignity of a woman.”
We can do better …
- In a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration has noted that, on its current course, the planet will warm by seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. Scientists call such a rise “catastrophic.”
- A new study shows that up to half of the world’s orcas could wiped out in a few decades, due in large part to poisoning by PCBs, which were supposed to be banned worldwide in 2001. But the new study shows that polychlorinated biphenyls are concentrating in the whales’ blubber.
- Reports show that female pigs who are raised in factory farm conditions to be “breeding” pigs are dying at an increasing rate, with the “mortality rate” rising from 5.8% to 10.2% from 2013-2016. These pigs are forced to have about 23 piglets a year.
- A new report highlights that about 39% of people in the US (about 124 million) live within three miles of a chemical facility, and most of those people “are Black and Latinx lower-income earning families.”
Did you know?…
- A University of Southern Florida study has discovered that media coverage of cycling deaths “reflect[s] an assumption that responsibility for safety lies on the bicyclist.” Researchers say this tendency for media and public officials to blame cyclists is a widespread problem.
- Why is mass transit doing well in so many other countries but struggling in the US?
- A recent study has found that the number of US children eating fast food has increased, with an increase from 79% in 2010 to 91% in 2016 of parents responding affirmatively that they had bought food for their children at a fast food restaurant in the previous week.
- A Pew Research Center poll has found that 59% of US teens “have been bullied or harassed online.” The survey also shows that young people think that politicians, social media sites, and teachers aren’t doing a good job in “addressing online harassment.”
- A recent study notes that only 24 US states require some sort of sex education in public schools, and only eight states require mentioning consent or sexual assault.
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: 15 Recent News Stories Worth Knowing for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.