Featured Homepage Items

Teen Rescues Bumblebee And Now it Won’t Leave Her Side –Even Sleeping in a Jar by Her Bed

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A teenager who rescued a bumblebee says it’s now a loyal pet, following her everywhere, and even sleeping in a jar by her bed.

Lacey Shillinglaw with Betty the bumblebee.

By Good News Network – Aug 22, 2021

It all started two weeks ago when Lacey Shillinglaw, 13, spotted the large bumblebee lying in the road while walking her dog. She scooped up the bee and noticed it had a crumpled wing.

She tried to put it in a safer spot, on some flowers in a nearby park, but it refused to stay put, buzzing back over to Lacey and crawling all over her, and after an hour she gave up and headed home with the creature perched on her shoulder.

Despite repeated attempts to leave the insect outside, the buzzy friend has refused to leave Lacey’s side. Now recovered and named Betty, it follows her to the shops and even stayed with Lacey during games at the bowling alley with 14 friends.

What does self-reliance really mean?

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

Amazing stories from India’s villages

Photo:  “Residents of Kunariya village in Kutch taking part in a local governance exercise.” Kunariya Panchayat.

by for www.LocalFutures.org

Not so long ago, Dalit women farmers in Telangana used to face hunger and deprivation. Today, they have contributed foodgrains for pandemic relief. Farmers on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border have been sending organic produce to Bengaluru even during the lockdown. And Adivasi villages in central India are using community funds to take care of migrant workers who have returned home.

These inspiring stories show the potential of empowered rural communities to cope with crisis. And they expose the tragedy of a path of ‘development’ and governance that has not recognized or, worse, taken away the extraordinary agency of ordinary villagers to manage their lives.

Costa Rica Set to Become World’s First Plastic-Free, Fossil-Fuel-Free Country

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Costa Rica pledges to eliminate all single-use plastics and fossil fuels by 2021

Author: for www.ReturnToNow.net

Costa Rica is positioning itself to be the first country in the world to be totally free of single-use plastics and fossil fuels by 2021.

At his inauguration earlier this year, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada announced his initiative to ban fossil fuels and become the world’s first decarbonized society:

“Decarbonization is the great task of our generation and Costa Rica must be one of the first countries in the world to accomplish it, if not the first.”

While it may sound like a pipe dream, the country is already almost there.

Almost 99% of Costa Rica’s energy already comes renewable sources, such as rivers, volcanoes, geothermal, wind and solar power.

750 Million GMO Mosquitoes to be Released in Florida and Texas

By in Animal Rights, Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

Jurassic Park-like killer mosquitoes to be released in Florida this summer, and Texas next year

www.ReturnToNow.net

State regulators in Florida and Texas recently approved a biotech company’s plan to release nearly a billion genetically modified mosquitoes.

These GMO super bugs will be deployed on marsh ecosystems where plenty of natural mosquitoes already exist.

The goal is to depopulate Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are responsible for spreading viruses that trigger yellow fever, dengue fever, and Zika fever.

The genetically modified male mosquitoes will pass on a special protein to their female offspring that will kill them.

British-based Oxitec claims that by reducing mosquito populations, they’ll also reduce the transmission of “disease-causing” viruses.

However, with zero reported cases of Zika in Florida this year and in 2019, and only 1 locally reported case of dengue, some are question whether such drastic measures are necessary.

Backyard Chicken Ownership is Booming Thanks to Corona

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

Wait-lists at hatcheries grow as Americans return to the tradition of raising their own eggs and chicken meat

www.ReturnToNow.net

There’s been a sharp rise in backyard chicken ownership, and rentals, in the wake of CoVid-19.

Hatcheries can’t keep up with orders for chickens and baby chicks, as people scramble for a more secure source of food.

“We are swamped with orders,” owner of Cackle Hatchery in Missouri Nancy Smith told NPR. “We can’t answer all the phone calls, and we are booked out several weeks on most breeds.”

“We’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve been here since 1964. Everyone is very anxious, and in some cases very impatient.”

Tiny Forests are Sprouting Up All Over Europe, Inspired by Japan, to Restore Biodiversity

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

Europeans are rapidly reforesting cities with tiny, dense patches of native forest with a Japanese method that makes them grow 10 times faster than normal

www.ReturnToNow.net

Japan’s most famous botanist Akira Miyawaki has inspired a fast-growing tiny forest revolution in Asia and now in Europe.

The goal is to restore a patchwork of native forests throughout urban areas, where they have almost entirely disappeared.

You’ve heard of ‘food deserts‘ in densely populated cities… hand in hand with this problem are ‘forest deserts.’

The vast sprawl of human development around the globe has disconnected wildlife from their natural habitats and hunting and grazing ranges so much that an alarming number of species is going extinct.

Wild Bison Are Returning to England’s Forests for the First Time in 6,000 Years

By in Animal Rights, Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

European bison in Germany – Michael Gäbler, CC license

ByAndy Corbley for GoodNewsNetwork.org

A relative of the iconic beast that roams the American Great Plains is going to be released in an ancient forest in Kent, England—where they haven’t resided for 6,000 years.

But the four animals won’t be arriving by way of South Dakota or Wyoming because Europe has their own subspecies—the European wood bison.

The project is slated to begin in Spring of 2022, when a single male Bison bonasus and three females arriving from Poland and the Netherlands will be allowed to roam and reproduce naturally in the remaining wilds of Britain—and it is hoped that their presence will ignite a chain reaction throughout the forest.

Bison have the power to change a forest in dramatic ways; ways that humans don’t have the time or manpower for, and they are being considered as a possible solution to species loss in Great Britain.

‘The Game Is Up’: Report Says Asset Sales and Debt-Driven Dividends Show Fossil Fuel Industry Cannot Be Saved

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

“To continue to throw money at an industry that is not only causing environmental destruction but also facing economic decline is as imprudent as it is indefensible.”

Extinction Rebellion protestors stage a demonstration outside the Bank of England in London on July 2, 2020. (Photo: Ilyas Tayfun Salci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams

Recent efforts by oil and gas giants to project an outward appearance of financial stability amid the Covid-19 pandemic by selling off assets or accumulating debt to continue paying out steady shareholder dividends represent strong evidence that the fossil fuel industry has reached its “endgame” and should not be bailed out with taxpayer dollars.

That’s according to a new report released Thursday by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a policy research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Hair From Ghostly Bears Reveals New Genetic Secrets

By in Animal Rights, Featured Homepage Items

First Nations peoples along British Columbia’s Central Coast led research to help preserve the area’s white-furred Spirit bears.

white spirit bears next to waterfall
A white-furred Spirit bear in territory of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation. Photo Credit:  Philip Charles

Lesley Evans Ogden for The New York Times

Douglas Neasloss was skeptical that Spirit bears existed. A member of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in Canada, he had heard the stories of white-furred bears that roamed British Columbia’s rainforest. But Mr. Neasloss, a former tour leader and cultural interpreter, had never seen one until 2005, when he experienced “one of the most magical moments” of his guiding career. During a hike, he caught sight of a cinnamon-tinged white bear as it walked out ahead of him, then lay down 50 feet away to munch on a freshly caught salmon.

After his first Spirit bear encounter, Mr. Neasloss asked community elders why these bears weren’t widely discussed. During the fur trade of the 1800s, he learned, existence of the ghostly bears was kept secret to keep them safe. Today, they are the official mammal of British Columbia, and known also as the Kermode bear.

In Blow to Trump and Win for Bears, Federal Appeals Court Upholds Endangered Species Protections for Yellowstone Grizzlies

By in Animal Rights, Featured Homepage Items

“This decision solidifies the belief of numerous wildlife advocates and native tribes that protecting grizzly bears should be based upon science and the law and not the whims of special interest groups.”

A mother and baby grizzly bear spotted in Yellowstone National Park. (Photo: I-Ting Chiang/CC BY-NC 2.0)

Andrea Germanos, staff writer for CommonDreams.org

Conservation and tribal groups scored a legal victory Wednesday after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to remove endangered species protections for Yellowstone-region grizzly bears.

The ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upholds a Montana district court’s decision, means grizzlies in the national park and surrounding area won’t be subjected to trophy hunting.

Spreading rock dust on fields could remove vast amounts of CO2 from air

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

It may be best near-term way to remove CO2, say scientists, but cutting fossil fuel use remains critical

Crushed basalt is applied to an arable field in Norfolk as part of the research programme of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation. Photograph: Dr Dimitar Epihov

Damian Carrington, Environment editor, The Guardian

Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique.

The chemical reactions that degrade the rock particles lock the greenhouse gas into carbonates within months, and some scientists say this approach may be the best near-term way of removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

More Than 220 Sheep Saved From Australian Bushfires After Heroic Pup Herds Them to Safety

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collie

By McKinley Corbley – Jan 13, 2020 for www.GoodNewsNetwork.org

This courageous pup is being credited for saving an entire flock of sheep from impending bushfires in Australia earlier this month.

On New Year’s Eve, Stephen Hill saw the wildfires approaching his sister’s farm in Corryong, Australia sometime around 4:15AM.

Hill and his 6-year-old pup Patsy then rushed over to the farm, hopped onto a 4-wheeler, and rode out to where the sheep were wandering the fields.

World’s Last Known ‘Dinosaur Trees’ Saved From Australian Bushfires Thanks to Determined Firefighters

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items, Uncategorized

Wollemi

By McKinley Corbley – Jan 16, 2020 for www.GoodNewsNetwork.org

Conservationists are celebrating the success of a mission to save the world’s last remaining “dinosaur trees” from the Australian bushfires.

The ancient Wollemi Pine was thought to be extinct until a small grouping of the prehistoric trees was discovered in the mountains roughly 124 miles northwest (200 kilometers) of Sydney back in 1996.

New Zealand Now Recognizes ALL Animals As Sentient Beings!

By in Animal Rights, Featured Homepage Items

owl

Published on www.TrueActivist.com by Sophie McAdam

New Zealand has just set a great example to the world by recognizing what animal lovers have known forever- that our furry friends are as sentient as we are, and (obviously, dur) they have feelings just like we do.

It’s a theme we have covered time and again here at True Activist, but this landmark ruling by NZ is the first time this shift in perception and policy has been extended to all animals, not just chimpanzees, orangutans, or dolphins.

Glastonbury is made an Earth Protector town

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World Earth Day

The Glastonbury News by Sarah Marks

Following a unanimous vote at the September meeting of the town council, Glastonbury has become the second town council in the world to be in an Earth Protector town.

It is now part of the programme which will be completed next year on World Earth Day, producing a framework which will then be rolled out globally. Stroud was the first Earth Protector town in the world.

8 Year-Old Mexican Girl Invents A Solar Water Heater & Wins Nuclear Science Prize

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items Tags: ,

mexican_inventor_girl

Published on Collective Evolution. By

Innovation comes from all ages, and this is further seen in the story of Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz, an eight-year-old girl from Chiapas, Mexico who invented an entirely solar-powered device for heating water. The impact her invention could have on others around the world is immense, and this has inspired the UNAM’s (National Autonomous University of Mexico) Institute of Nuclear Sciences to award her.

To those in developed countries, her invention may not seem all that revolutionary as access to warm or hot water is commonplace, but for those in many other areas of the world, including her town in Mexico, this would be a luxury.

Ethiopia Plants 350 Million Trees in 12 Hours, Smashing World Record

By in Environmental Justice, Featured Homepage Items

ethiopia

From ReturnToNow.net by 

In a race to reforest the desert, Ethiopia just planted 5 times as many trees as India did when it broke the world record two years ago.In an effort to reverse deforestation and desertification (caused primarily by agriculture) African and Asian countries are rapidly planting billions of trees.

In 2017, India broke the Guinness World Record by planting 66 million trees in 12 hours.

Now, Ethiopia has beat that record 5-fold, planting 350 million trees in 12 hours.

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