Author: Grace Liu ‘23
Today we’re wrapping up another week of positive environmental news. As you get adjusted to your new semester schedules, we hope that you can take a moment to appreciate all the good things happening in the sustainability sphere.
- Biden’s Oil-lease moratorium helps create jobs: On January 27th, President Biden issued an executive order prohibiting new oil or gas leases on public lands. Despite conservative concern that Biden’s energy policies will hurt the economy, the President claims the clean energy sector could provide ten million new jobs—the same as the number of employees in the oil and gas industry. This development may also be a win for environmental justice. While most of the profits of the fossil fuel industry go to executives, Biden plans to distribute 40% of the government’s investment in clean energy to disadvantaged communities.
- Indian farmers overcome water scarcity: In India, the water-climate crisis threatens economic development, agricultural production, and the livelihoods of citizens, with numerous cities facing the devastating possibility of “Day Zero.” The water shortage has been especially devastating to Indian farmers, as 90% of the country’s freshwater is used for agriculture. As with most environmental disasters, low-income populations are disproportionately affected. However, in Latur, one of the larger districts in the Marathawada, farmers have been able to recover from the water crisis using an innovative strategy. A group of villagers removed over 900,000 cubic meters of silt from the river, helping increase the rate of groundwater recharge. The silt was then used in the fields in combination with sharecropping to increase yields.
- Scientists discover new population of blue whales: Blue whales are the largest mammal on Earth, but also in danger of extinction. Scientists were therefore surprised and excited to discover a new population of whales by overhearing a unique mating song. The song is one of only a dozen or so other blue whale songs ever recorded and brings hope for the continued recovery of the species.
Thank you for reading! We hope that these updates made your day a little better and that you have a wonderful start to the semester. Please feel free to get in touch if you want to share some Good News with us!