Current Affairs October 2021

Climate Policies That Matter Today
This week, it’s not sunny enough to play too much tennis, and the courts have all been dug up for the pandemic.

“The current climate of chaos and violence is really bad,” the next-gen PhD student Varshani Keshavan told Reuters.
If this summer is any indication, this year’s hectic democratic presidential election has also made former president Donald Trump’s missteps look like he had never even sat at the right desk.

But in the United States, the government is running an internal power struggle over how to increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Newly appointed head of the EPA (also known as the Environmental Protection Agency) Andrew Wheeler is likely to favor deregulation even though he’s a former coal lobbyist and former head of American Power Energy.

The agency has been under-funded to the point that its scientists have had to work with others to fund their work.

“Support for polluters will also be sharply reduced unless the incoming president makes changes to the Clean Air Act and other laws at the federal level. His picks will be closely scrutinized and less likely to get funding. And with the agency lacking enough scientists, the result will likely be policy that follows his past history,” The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, a South Carolina judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Paris climate agreement is unconstitutional.

But even this change will go far beyond the symbolism of it.

Specifically, according to Insight, the Biden administration will make a U.S. commitment to reinstate the Paris Agreement on a global scale - regardless of how it impacts the U.S.

Climate Policies That Matter Tomorrow

Fortunately, the tech industry is also investing, though slowly, in sustainable practices, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“The shift comes as tech firms fall behind competitors with more workers, capital and public support for their climate change pledges,” the news website reported.

And the company that has committed most to mitigating the effects of climate change isn’t Google or Microsoft, but former Cisco executive and current Resolute Timberlands CEO Emerson Coleman, who took a bet on renewable energy.

He said using more sustainable forestry techniques has reduced carbon emissions, the online news and opinion site reported.

“If we’re going to compete with companies that don’t care, then we’re in big trouble.”

And on the world stage, the UN is preparing to protect fishermen from fishing companies and marine conservation organizations over fishing quotas, Reuters reported.

“In response to this climate-related vulnerability, the UN has said that fishing companies should pay the price for the bad fishery management practices of the poorest groups in marine ecosystems. That’s something that international fisheries organizations have done by demanding companies pay so-called cut-catch royalties. Some fishing companies in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean are routinely charged with cutting catches to a minimum required by the local fisheries governing agency. The move has been widely considered counterproductive, particularly for poorer areas that do not have a national fishing authority to which the companies can report ‘exemplary’ catches, and what the UN really says is that fishing should not be made in so much by ‘expert’ experts,” Reuters reported.

And globally, there’s also “dubious evidence suggesting that diplomats and officials are intentionally manipulating the reporting of climate change or downplaying their seriousness in a bid to protect their countries’ natural resources,” climate agency Earth watch reported.

This report also includes analysis of responses to climate change, both positive and negative.

Climate Policies That Matter Tomorrow

Through this information, you can become a better-informed 2020 climate voter in today’s election and push your candidate into office.

The 2020 U.S. election is shaping up to be a stunning display of climate change denial. However, you can finally have some recourse when your favorite candidate’s pledge isn’t on the slate.

The fourth planet-building planetarium at Toronto’s Museum of Science and Technology unveils its virtual planetarium star program this month. The virtual program, which showcases light research and healing, will build excitement about the exhibit and increase the adulation of the audience through experiences that ensure visitors don’t lose sight of their goals.

Thankfully, Planetariums would be a good substitute for the president’s “magic,” because we’re hoping it doesn’t have a direct connection with the content of the education system.

And even if we do have that connection, who’s to say that planetariums will really tell us what they should be telling us about human condition?

Current Affairs October 2021