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.
2021 C.E.
Africa to get its first, exclusively LGBTQ cruise in 2022
Organized by AfriGay Travel, the three-night cruise will launch on March 11, 2022. It will set sail from Durban in South Africa and travel to Portuguese Island in neighboring Mozambique.
64% say climate change is an emergency in world’s largest-ever climate poll
The UN Development Program and the University of Oxford surveyed 1.2 million people across 50 countries through ads distributed in mobile gaming apps. Only 10% think world leaders are doing enough to address climate change.
China passes landmark law protecting the Yangtze River
With 96 separate provisions for the river system spread across nine chapters of legislation, it is the largest environmental protection bill the rivers of China have ever seen, and will enter into force on March 1.
Washington is the first U.S. state to hold a climate assembly
Eighty members of the public have been selected through a lottery to join the country’s first climate assembly in Washington. The assembly is constituted to deliberate on environmental issues.
President Biden overturns the ban on transgender military personnel
“President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” the White House said in an emailed statement.
Renewables surpassed fossil fuels in Europe for the first time in 2020
A new report found that renewables delivered 38% of electricity in Europe last year while fossil fuels delivered 37%. Solar and wind power have nearly doubled since 2015.
German scientists make paralyzed mice walk again
German researchers have enabled mice paralyzed after spinal cord injuries to walk again, re-establishing a neural link hitherto considered irreparable in mammals.
Tribe in Panama wins landmark case granting them 400,000 acres of ancestral forests
The Naso tribe will share management responsibilities of 400,000 acres of land within La Amistad National Park and Palo Seco Nature Reserve after the court granted them authority to create a comarca: a semi-autonomous tribal kingship, in the two parks.
China adds record-breaking 72 GW of wind power in 2020
China’s 2020 wind power additions more than doubled the previous record set in 2019. For further perspective, only 60 GW of wind power was added globally in 2019.