Each week find a round-up of selected resources, news stories, and commentary related to humane living, global ethical issues, and positive solutions.
Here’s some news to know for this week:
- Via National Geographic: Photos of the 27 US national monuments that could lose their protected status under new orders by the Trump administration.
- Via NY Times: An in-depth exploration of how the Mortgage Interest Deduction benefits wealthy and middle-class homeowners and harms renters and people who are poor.
- Via Radio New Zealand: France has banned keeping whales, dolphins, and porpoises in captivity, as well as breeding dolphins and orcas. It has also established regulations designed to improve conditions for marine mammals remaining in captivity.
- Via Mother Jones: A New study reveals that people who were “fat shamed” as kids are twice as likely to be obese when they’re adults. “They were also likely to eat in response to emotional stress and report negative body self-image.”
- Via Gallup: A new Gallup poll shows “record liberal views on most moral issues,” with 10 of 19 issues showing the most “permissive” views to date.
- Via NY Times: A federal judge has ruled that the cash bail system used by Harris County, Texas, violates the Constitution and discriminates against the poor.
- Via NY Times: The US Senate recently voted to “uphold an Obama-era climate change regulation to control the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land.”
- Via EcoWatch: The US Interior Department is planning to approve permits to initiate seismic surveys in the Atlantic Ocean to search for oil and gas deposits. These surveys are extremely loud, causing harm to marine animals. Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to try to stop the surveys.
- Via BBC: Recent research reveals that a remote uninhabited island in the South Pacific, Henderson Island, “is littered with the highest density of plastic waste anywhere in the world.”
And add these resources to your humane education/solutionary toolkit:
- Sightline Institute offers a useful guide for considering criteria for voting systems (e.g., plurality, instant runoff voting) for elections and then analyzes sample voting systems under those criteria.
- The 5 Gyres and other organizations released a Plastics BAN (Better Alternatives Now) List, which highlights the plastic products that create the most waste, their impacts, and better alternatives.
- Human Rights Watch has published a report that outlines the response (and ratings) of apparel companies asked to sign a “supply chain transparency” pledge, beginning with publishing contact and other important information about factories they use.
The post What’s New Wednesday 5-17-17: News & Resources for Educators & Solutionaries appeared first on Institute for Humane Education.
