Photo: Bernd Dittrich/Unsplash (CC0)
In today’s edition: the UN has overwhelmingly voted to adopt a resolution arguing that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, Hungary’s new government puts forward a constitutional amendment to limit prime ministers to a maximum of eight years in office, and a US-wide movement is raising the number of rural college students attending university.
The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it. Secretary general, António Guterres said the general assembly vote underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.
Source: The Guardian
Hungary’s new government, led by Péter Magyar, has put forward a constitutional amendment that would limit prime ministers to a maximum of eight years in office, in effect barring Viktor Orbán from returning to the role. During Magyar’s campaign, he described term limits as part of a wider push to restore the country’s democratic checks and balances.
Source: The Guardian
The World Health Organization has officially validated the trachoma elimination status of the North African country, coming after decades of sustained national effort. In the early to mid-20th century, trachoma was endemic in Tunisia, affecting at least half of the population, especially in its southern regions.
Source: WHO
Potassium bromate is an oxidising agent and suspected carcinogen already banned in much of the world, but is still widely used in the bromated flour common in New York’s iconic pizzerias and bagel shops. A proposed ban may soon force thousands of restaurants across the city into a healthier transition.
Source: AP News
Because three-quarters of new apartment buildings are heated electrically, they’re often described as “an almost automatic form of building decarbonisation.” US politicians across the spectrum want more housing: green multi-family housing units might be a bipartisan way to do that.
Source: Grist
Encouraging rural high school graduates to enroll at some of the US’s most selective colleges is the next step in a campaign that started three years ago with a push to get them simply to apply. Called the STARS College Network, the movement aims to raise the low numbers of this demographic delaying or not attending university.
Source: Hechinger Report
Strengthening soils and building community is a central part of the regenerative farming movement: a grassroots campaign to reduce soil erosion and water pollution often caused by traditional agriculture. Importantly, it’s led by the people actually working on farms rather than top-down academics or government officials.
Source: Wisconsin Watch
The creation of a coral-rich marine “highway” for a wide variety of different species will protect the natural inhabitants of the waters while also supporting the country’s fisheries. At roughly 200,000 km² of Pacific Ocean waters, the marine protected area is part of the new Melanesian Ocean Corridor of Reserves.
Source: National Geographic
Walbunja divers once threatened with jail over cultural fishing practices are now being trained as professional sea urchin divers under an Aboriginal-led marine restoration initiative on New South Wales’ south coast. The scheme supports the development of Indigenous-branded sea urchin products and turn discarded shells into organic fertiliser.
Source: ABC
The camelids were moved from Patagonia in southern Argentina as part of a project to restore the Dry Chaco ecosystem and make the landscape less vulnerable to runaway fires. In the Dry Chaco, they used to live in open grasslands dotted with small patches of forest and savanna-like areas, long before fences and highways carved up the region.
Source: Ecoticias
