Africa’s Great Green Wall effort gets $14 billion cash injection
The Great Green Wall project seeks to restore a massive strip of desert stretching 5,000 miles from the Atlantic to the Red Sea by planting trees and grasslands.
2021 C.E.
The United States’ first out trans state senator is sworn in to office
Sarah McBride is now the highest-ranking transgender elected official in U.S. history.
Experimental Alzheimer’s drug delivers promising Phase 2 trial results
According to the new data from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, the antibody donanemab slowed cognitive decline by 32% compared to a placebo.
50 countries pledge to conserve 30% of land and water
The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People is a coalition of more than 50 countries that was formed in 2011 to encourage internal action on the climate crisis prior to the Paris Agreement.
AI-powered recycling robots now deployed in three continents and 20 states
AMP Robotics’s AI-powered recycling robot that can sort through recyclables twice as fast as its human counterparts has gone global.
U.S. government lifts ban on federal student aid for incarcerated individuals
The lifted ban is part of the $1.4 trillion government pandemic stimulus package for 2021 and reflects a long push for prison reform which encourages rehabilitation and lowered incarceration rates.
Record number of people sign up for Veganuary challenge
The annual challenge Veganuary announced Tuesday that it had received more than half a million sign-ups and counting, the most in a single year since it first launched in 2014.
Nevada retroactively recognizes same-sex marriages
The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that the state must honor marriages of same-sex couples performed before the state legalized marriage equality in 2014.
Chinese fast food chain swaps all chicken eggs with plant-based versions
The chain, which has about 500 locations in China, is the first major fast-food company to outright replace items made with animal products with a plant-based version.
Indian startup turns polluted air into climate-friendly tiles
Each new sustainable building tile contains at least 70 percent waste material and is the equivalent of cleaning 30,000 liters of air, the company website said.