Let’s start the New Year off with some good news!
Civilian Conservation Corps Makes a Return: The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is one of our favorite conservation and economic development success stories. The CCC was part of FDR’s New Deal, it provided jobs for the conservation and development of natural resources in lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. If you’ve ever been in Shenandoah National Park or driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can thank the CCC.
Hawaii is using pandemic assistance funds to bring this program back! Hawaii has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and this program is paying displaced workers and recent graduates a minimum of $15 an hour and in turn providing ecological and economic benefits. Workers are clearing invasive species and being trained for jobs in the emerging green economy. This program is in danger of losing funding, hopefully this program can continue to be a leading example of a sustainable future. Read the entire story here!
Rockefeller Foundation Ditches Oil: In the early 1900s, Standard Oil controlled over 90% of all petroleum products in the US. This stranglehold on oil profits, enabled John D. Rockefeller to create the Rockefeller Foundation. This $5 billion philanthropic fund that has been built on oil announced that they will divest from fossil fuels. This is another strong signal to the fossil fuel industry that their dominance is coming to an end. Major banks have already made similar announcements, this is another positive step forward to a renewable future. Rajiv Shah, the Rockefeller Foundation president stated, “Burning fossil fuels is not necessary to sustain our economy and economic growth over the long run — and it’s detrimental to our climate future”. Our response to that is- YES. This announcement was only a couple weeks after New York State’s $226 billion pension fund will divest from fossil fuels. Read about this exciting development here!
Wild Iris Rescue in Louisiana: During the last three years, a dedicated group, the Louisiana Conservation Initiative, has planted over 20,000 Louisiana Irises and will plant another 8,500 this winter. Historically these irises were considered a nuisance, but habitat loss, natural disaster, and climate change has caused an entire generation in Louisiana to never see the wild iris bloom. Without these dedicated individuals completing difficult manual labor in Louisiana swamps, this native plant would be lost. Read the inspiring Louisiana Conservation Initiative here!
Biodiversity Good News: We all know that the actions of humans are having a negative impact on species around the world, and global biodiversity has suffered. At the end of last year, scientists released information about several new species. In a remote section of the Andes, scientists found 20 previously unknown species! The slideshow in this article is highly recommended, you can thank us later!
2021 Virginia General Assembly: On January 13 the 2021 Virginia General Assembly will convene. This year is a short session, meaning it will only be 45 days and elected officials will have to work quickly to hear every bill. There are a few bills we’ll be tracking this year. Two of the bills are from last year- banning intentional balloon releases, and banning expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers. As we do every year, we will be tracking all litter, plastic, solid waste, and recycling bills at the General Assembly at litterfreeva.org. You can get more information about Virginia’s litter issues, follow along with our legislation tracker and sign up for our newsletter that we send out about once a week during the General Assembly. We’ll let you know how bills are progressing and the steps you can take to become an active member of the democratic process!
