{"id":177832,"date":"2021-01-25T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=177832"},"modified":"2021-01-24T07:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T07:39:22","slug":"what-went-right-this-week-us-climate-action-plus-more-positive-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/what-went-right-this-week-us-climate-action-plus-more-positive-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What Went Right This Week: US Climate Action, Plus More Positive News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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21 Jan 2021 – US president Joe Biden signed executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis, the Dominican Republic approved a bill to end child marriage and jaguars roamed Argentina\u2019s wetlands for the first time in 70 years, plus more positive news.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Biden signed a wave of climate orders <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The US president Joe Biden used his first day in office to sign executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis. At the stroke of a pen, Biden began the process of bringing the US back into the Paris agreement. He also halted oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness and revoked a permit issued by his predecessor for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline is a defeat for big oil and a huge win for the health and safety of Americans and our planet,\u201d said Marcie Keever, legal director at Friends of the Earth.<\/p>\n

As the world\u2019s second largest emitter, the US rejoining Paris is a major victory for climate action \u2013 but signing a document is the easy part. \u201cBiden must go far beyond just rejoining the Paris agreement,\u201d said Janet Redman of Greenpeace USA. \u201cHe must listen and work cooperatively with developing countries in addressing the challenges they face in implementing more climate action in the face of the pandemic and growing indebtedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Away from the climate, Biden also signed an order repealing the ban on travellers from several Muslim majority countries from entering the US. The so-called \u201cMuslim ban\u201d was introduced by Donald Trump in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dominican Republic approved bill to end child marriage <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That child marriage was legal in the Dominican Republic until this week may surprise Positive News readers. Indeed, the Caribbean nation has the highest rate of child marriage in Latin America \u2013 but not, perhaps, for much longer.This week the country\u2019s president Luis Abinader approved a bill that eliminates all legal grounds for child marriage and safeguards the rights of children, particularly girls.The International Justice Ministry, an NGO, said the new law stipulates that \u201cpeople under 18 years old will not be able to marry under any circumstances\u201d. Previously, children could be forced into marriage as long as there was parental consent and permission from a judge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jaguars returned to Argentina\u2019s Iber\u00e1 Wetlands<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There was more positive news for the rewilding movement this week as pictures emerged of jaguars prowling Argentina\u2019s Iber\u00e1 Wetlands for the first time in 70 years.The big cats were driven out of the swampy region in north-east Argentina by hunters. But now they have returned after conservationists released a mother and her two cubs as part of an ongoing reintroduction programme.\u201cWe are not only restoring a population where the species became extinct, but also we are learning how to reproduce and prepare jaguars to be reintroduced in the wild,\u201d Agust\u00edn Paviolo, of the National Research Council of Argentina, told Mongabay<\/a>. \u201cWe expect that this experience could serve to lead the way of jaguar recovery in many regions of America.\u201d
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Free broadband offered to disadvantaged families in UK<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thousands of families in the UK with no internet connection are to get free broadband until the end of the summer, thanks to a partnership between Hyperoptic<\/a>, an internet provider, and 37 local authorities, including Leeds Council, Newcastle Council and City of London.<\/p>\n

The connectivity drive comes as millions of children across the UK adapt to home learning due to school closures. Telecoms regulator Ofcom estimates that 880,000 pupils lack broadband access at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child deserves to be able to virtually learn and harness the opportunities that are enabled by connectivity,\u201d said Hyperoptic\u2019s Liam McAvoy, announcing the initiative. The free broadband offer follows a campaign, launched last week, to get unused laptops to disadvantaged children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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France got its first Michelin-starred vegan restaurant <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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France \u2013 the home of foie gras, coq au vin, and by no means traditionally a bastion of plant-based dining \u2013 made culinary history this week. A Michelin star was awarded to a vegan restaurant there for the first time.<\/p>\n

Restaurant ONA<\/a>, which stands for Origine Non Animale (\u201canimal-free origin\u201d), was launched in Ares, near Bordeaux, in 2016 following a crowdfunding campaign and a loan from a green bank.<\/p>\n

Chef Claire Vall\u00e9e, who runs the establishment, was also awarded a green star, which Michelin introduced last year to acknowledge restaurants that set the bar for ethical practices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A car battery that charges in five minutes became reality <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was considered an impossibility, but a car battery that can be fully charged in just five minutes has rolled off a production line in China for the first time, defying naysayers.The pioneering power cell was designed by StoreDot<\/a>, an Israeli lithium-ion battery company, which claims its technology is \u201ccommercially ready\u201d.The breakthrough could help electric vehicles assert their dominance over smut-belching petrol and diesel cars. That would be positive news for the climate as road transport accounts for around 15 per cent of global CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fossil hunter Mary Anning to get a statue<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mary Anning, a fossil hunter and palaeontologist who has been all but forgotten by history, is to be commemorated by a statue. It follows a crowdfunding campaign established by a teenage girl who hails from the same town.<\/p>\n

Evie Swire, 13, of Lyme Regis, Dorset, was disappointed to learn that in spite of Anning\u2019s contribution to palaeontology, there was no statue to celebrate her. Anning was born into a poor family and although she made many significant finds along the Dorset coast, they were credited to the male collectors who bought her fossils.<\/p>\n

Keen to raise awareness about Anning, Swire launched a crowdfunder<\/a> and raised \u00a370,000 to commission a sculptor. A statue of Anning will now be erected in Lyme Regis on 21 May 2022, the 223rd anniversary of her birth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lynx consultation to launch in Scotland <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Scottish citizens are to be consulted on proposals to reintroduce the lynx to the country. It\u2019s a contentious subject, with farmers objecting on grounds that the cats could kill livestock, while conservationist argue that the missing lynx would restore balance to ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The big cats are believed to have been wiped out in the UK some 500 years ago. Although the animals have been reintroduced to France, Germany and Switzerland, a proposal to bring them back to the UK was blocked by the government in 2018.<\/p>\n

To gauge attitudes towards the cats in Scotland three charities \u2013 Trees for Life, Vincent Wildlife Trust and Scotland: The Big Picture \u2013 will open a dialogue with people who live and work in the countryside. It is hoped the consultation will identify concerns people have and result in the animals being reintroduced in a way that people feel comfortable with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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UK government set target for green new homes <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The UK government this week published new energy efficiency standards, which all new-build houses will be expected to meet.<\/p>\n

The Future Homes Standard<\/a> expects developers to ditch gas boilers in new homes from 2025, as part of a drive to reduce emissions from heating. The government wants all new builds to be carbon-neutral by 2050.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s response to the Future Homes Standard consultation is welcome news,\u201d said Nigel Banks of Ilke Homes. \u201cHowever, the timetable for implementation is too slow meaning over a million new homes built between now and 2026 will need to be retrofitted in the 2030s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original – positive.news<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 Jan 2021 – US president Joe Biden signed executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis, the Dominican Republic approved a bill to end child marriage and jaguars roamed Argentina\u2019s wetlands for the first time in 70 years, plus more positive news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":177833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2206,945],"class_list":["post-177832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tms-peace-journalism","tag-positive-news","tag-transcend-media-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}