What better way to conclude the week than with an upbeat bundle of good news nuggets?
Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous peoples in Colombia’s Amazon are closer to self-governance after a court ordered the registration of 14 Indigenous Territorial Entity applications. Their creation will allow communities to self-govern and ensure the protection of up to 10 million hectares of native forest. The first three ITEs are expected to be formalised by early 2023. "The Amazon exists as it is because of Indigenous peoples, and their knowledge. They are not part of the solution just because they have forests. They are part of the solution because they know how the Amazon has to be governed, understood and managed," argued Juan Carlos Preciado, Legal Counsel, Gaia Amazonas.
Common Sense
In an effort to cut energy use, France is to fine shopkeepers who leave their doors open if they have the air-conditioning or heating on. Store owners leaving their doors open while running air conditioning is leading to “20 percent more consumption, and it’s absurd”, France’s minister for ecological transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, says. The minister is also going to instigate a rule that bans illuminated signs between 1am and 6am.
Chinampas
Disruptions to food supply chains in Mexico City during the pandemic resulted in a revival of Aztec-era island farms known as 'chinampas.' The shallow lake farms produce beans, corn, squashes, and greens, and when lockdowns stopped produce flows to the city, customers reconnected with local chinamperos, rebooting a 1,300 year-old agricultural legacy, reports National Geographic.
Drug Donation
Pfizer is extending its donation of the antibiotic Zithromax for trachoma until 2030. This is really good news says the World Health Organisation, as Pfizer's 23-year commitment has played a crucial role in the prevention of the world's most common eye disease, with a 91 percent decrease in cases in the past decade.
Minerva
Noun: a woman of great wisdom. Minerva is a lovely word to describe a beautiful woman who is wise beyond her years.
Eco Restoration Zone
Parklife has trumped division with the news that a binational river park will be built on land once earmarked for part of Trump's US-Mexico border wall. The border town of Laredo in Texas had been resigned to the construction of a concrete and steel wall which threatened to separate the city and its people from the Rio Grande river – but building contracts have been cancelled following a spirited campaign by the No Border Wall Coalition. Instead Laredo officials are working with colleagues over the border in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on a shared vision (pictured) to create an ecological restoration zone between the two cities.
Fossil Divestment
The AFT is the second largest teacher's union in the US, with 1.7 million members, whose combined pensions are worth $5.8 trillion, as large as the federal budget. $255 billion used to be invested in fossil fuel corporations, until this week. Two weeks ago, 35 faith institutions in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, the UK and the US announced they were divesting from fossil fuels. That was quickly followed by the news that the 1.7 million United Presbyterians had voted to divest from the five big oil companies.
Quote of the Day
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." Calvin Coolidge
On this Day
29 July 1981: Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married in St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
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Mood Booster
Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, gets dressed. With the help of her handmaids, she puts on traditional clothes worn by royalty during the reign of Henry VIII. Re-enacted by the National Museums Liverpool.