Author: Camellia Moors ’22
Happy first post-classes Good News Friday! We hope you’ve had the chance to destress a bit before the semester fully wraps up. In the spirit of motivating you through the end of the semester, here is some more positive environmental news! Today, we’re covering India’s solar power expansion, Colombia’s efforts to confront environmental crimes, and McDonald’s Canada’s project to reduce single-use plastic waste.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledges to increase solar power: India’s leader recently pledged that his country would move away from its current dependence on coal to instead produce more energy via solar power and other renewables than its entire grid produces now by 2030. This comes after he made a pledge at the recent COP26 conference that India would aim to achieve net zero by 2070. As one of the largest energy consumers in the world, the majority of India’s electricity is sourced from coal, meaning this new goal could have a profound global impact on international efforts to fight climate change.
2. Colombian police will expand investigations of environmental crimes: Earlier this week, Colombia’s government announced that its national police would be deploying 100 criminal intelligence and investigation officers to target environmental crimes. These crimes include things like illegal mining, animal trafficking, and the targeting of environmental activists. As Colombia faces increasing environmental degradation, this new effort might provide some hope for the success of environmental initiatives there.
3. McDonald’s Canada aims to cut single-use plastics: By the end of this month, “McDonald’s Canada… will introduce wooden cutlery, wooden stir sticks, and paper straws at more than 1,400 of its restaurants across [Canada],” which will eliminate 840 tons of plastic waste. This could serve as a model for the almost 13,700 McDonald’s across the United States and nearly 40,000 McDonald’s restaurants around the world
That’s all for now! Check back next week for more positive environmental news, and until then, feel free to get in touch if you have environmental news to share and best of luck with the end of the semester!