Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Breaking news: UN group is meeting to end plastic pollution

Darcy Hitchcock

Horrified by the prevalence of plastic pollution, the United Nations Environment Program has been working on a roadmap and legally binding treaty to end it. The negotiators’ second meeting starts May 29, 2023 in Paris. If nothing is done, production of plastic could triple by 2060.

UNEP’s report aims to offer a roadmap to governments and businesses to dramatically cut levels of plastic pollution. It focuses on three main strategies: reuse, recycling and alternative materials.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/16/world/plastic-pollution-unep-climate-intl/index.html

While the language of the treaty is not yet finalized, it’s likely that the provisions will include:

  • Eliminating single use plastics
  • Adding deposits on plastic bottles, giving them value, making it more likely that they’ll be recycled
  • Creating new materials, like truly biodegradable materials
  • Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies that help make plastic cheap

They are expressly focusing on creating a Circular Economy.

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♫ Ebony and Ivory ♫ (Redux)

Filosofa's Word

Tonight is one of those nights when the only thing that’s going to do for me is some Stevie Wonder.  Yes, I know I just played this one last June, but folks … I want you to listen, really listen to the words and tell me we couldn’t use a whole lot more of this today!  Now, I just love seeing Stevie, and throwing in Paul McCartney is an added bonus, but when I listened to this one tonight, it brought me to tears — literally.  We have lawmakers being threatened with violence, a 12-year-old child shot and killed a man with an AR-15, an 18-year-old went on a neighborhood shooting rampage and killed three, injured nine more, members of Congress are playing Russian roulette with our lives, and states are robbing women of their rights while robbing children of an education.  And that’s only some of what weighs heavily…

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Good People Doing Good Things — Youth

Filosofa's Word

I had several ‘good people’ on my radar for today’s post, but what I didn’t have was the energy to pull them all together in a new post!  Some days are like that, y’know?  This post is one that I did five years ago, in 2018, and I think these young people are well worth seeing again, not to mention that many of you weren’t even aware of Filosofa’s Word in 2018, so probably missed this one the first time ’round! 


jordan-jenningsRemember when you were ten years old?  Nah, me neither.  But I do know this much … at age ten, I likely did not know what an architect was. Ten-year-old Jordan Jennings, of Huntsville, Alabama, has two passions and architecture is one of them.  The other one is helping people.  And Jordan has combined his two passions into something that will blow your mind!

Jordan designs emergency shelter and…

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