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 are 16 recent news stories worth knowing about:
Small steps toward solutions …
- A US real estate company has developed a program that connects people who are homeless with properties that need property managers or other staff. The success rate of this pilot program is high thus far.
- The Los Angeles City Council has voted for a ban on the sale of animal fur, directing the City Attorney to “formulate a policy that would render fur sales illegal.” The ban would take effect in two years.
- Researchers are developing methods that create a genetic map of African elephants, which can then be used to analyze confiscated tusks to determine where animals were living when they were murdered. Being able to narrow the geography will allow law enforcement to “target areas most susceptible to poaching.”
- Natural Resources Wales, which oversees the “natural resources” of that country, has decided it will not renew leases to shoot pheasants on public lands, starting in March 2019, and that it will no longer support “the breeding of pheasants on government-owned estates.”
- California has become the first US state to ban “sit-down restaurants from serving customers plastic straws, starting in 2019,” … unless they ask for them. The ban doesn’t apply to “to-go cups and takeaway drinks.”
In the courts …
- A US federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management to “adhere to its prior policy of robust public approval” on whether and how to grant oil and gas leases within the habitat of the greater sage grouse, which is considered endangered by “a variety of state-sponsored and independent wildlife organizations.”
- A US District Court judge has restored federal protections for about 700 “Yellowstone” grizzly bears who live in and around that national park. This ruling effectively cancels plans in Wyoming and Idaho to hunt the bears.
We can do better …
- A new statistical analysis of endangered birds worldwide revealed eight new birds added to the list of those who are confirmed or “highly likely” extinct. Those extinct include Spix’s macaws, who were featured in the children’s animated film Rio. One of the biggest contributing factors to these extintions is human-caused deforestation.
- An investigation has found that a farm in Brazil that is holds a C.A.F.E. Practices certification, which is “owned by Starbucks in partnership with SCS Global Services,” had workers living in “conditions analogous to slavery.”
- A new report from Greenpeace has revealed that 12 of the world’s largest brands are still sourcing their palm oil from “at least 20 palm oil groups that actively cleared rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.”
- A new proposed rule by the Trump administration would seek to deny residency or visas to legal immigrants if they or members of their family “benefit from aid programs, such as Medicaid Part D … SNAP … and Section 8 housing vouchers.” The proposed rule will have a public comment period.
- In a new survey of 160,000 US students, a third reported that “they experienced bullying during the 2017-18 school year,” an increase from a quarter of students reporting being bullied in recent years.
Did you know?…
- A new nationally representative poll of 1,000 students, ages 10-19, reveals that “traditional ideas about boys still run strong” in the US – such as valuing strength and toughness and not showing emotions — and while some girls feel more empowered, they also say that what they look like matters most and that sexism is still a problem.
- After 50 girls and young women, ages 10 months to early twenties, were hospitalized after being subjected to female genital mutilation in Burkina Faso, police have so far arrested at least 28 people for being involved.
- As wildfires continue to escalate in the US west, people who are wealthy are using private firefighting crews paid for by their insurance companies to protect their homes and property.
- In the most recent Social Progress Index, in which 146 countries are rated on measurements in categories such as “basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity,” the US is the only wealthy nation that has declined in score, due to “declining health standards, access to knowledge, personal safety, inclusiveness, and personal rights.”
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 9-26-18: 16 Recent News Stories Worth Knowing for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.
