Pete Buttigieg becomes America’s first out Cabinet member
Buttigieg was confirmed as the Secretary of Transportation by a bipartisan vote.
2021 C.E.
Austin redirects police funding to buy transitional housing for homeless
The Austin City Council voted unanimously to purchase the Texas Bungalow Hotel & Suites for $6.7 million. The hotel is slated to become transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Dutch court orders Shell Oil to pay for harm done to Nigerian farmers
Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities.
Three major banks will no longer finance oil trade in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador
The decision from Credit Suisse, ING, and BNP Paribas is seen as a major victory for environmental and Indigenous rights activists, Reuters reported.
Finnish hockey club aims to become world’s first carbon-neutral team
Lahti Pelicans, a Finnish ice hockey club, is championing for a carbon-free world. In celebration of Lahti’s crowning as the 2021 European Green Capital, the Pelicans set a goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral hockey club in the world.
President Biden orders end to fossil fuel subsidies
The executive order “directs federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as consistent with applicable law and identify new opportunities to spur innovation, commercialization, and deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure.”
U.S. federal government to discontinue use of private prisons
A new executive order calls on the Department of Justice to not renew contracts with privately operated criminal detention centers. There are currently more than 14,000 incarcerated individuals housed in privately-operated facilities in the US.
Sweden to build reindeer bridges so the animals can safely cross highways
Work will begin this year on the first of the Swedish renoducts over the E4 motorway north of the city of Umeå, Vetenskapsradion reported.
GM commits to ending sales of gas-powered cars by 2035
GM’s CEO Mary Barra specifically announced that the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Illinois becomes first U.S. state to end cash bail system
In a huge win for racial justice, the state of Illinois is on the verge of becoming the first state to end wealth-based pre-trial detention.