Great Environmental News for Australia!

We are the World Blogfest #WATWB

Welcome to the March installment of the good news blogfest featuring feel-good stories from around the world. As you know if you follow my blog, I usually share good news about the environment, whether that’s here in my neck of the woods or in the marshes of the deep South or the Arctic Circle or, like this month, in Australia.

On the last Friday of every month, bloggers from all over the world gather online to share good news to combat all the bad news we see in the media every day. You can read some of the stories by visiting Facebook, Twitter, or any of the host pages. This month the hosts are Sylvia McGrath, Eric Lahti, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Shilpa Garg, and Belinda Witzenhausen.

‘Biodegradable’ Plastic Being Phased Out in Australia

The story I have chosen to share this month is about plastics in Australia and what the government is doing to help alleviate the crisis of too much plastic clogging the nation’s waterways, soils, and landscapes.

This month Australia began implementing its National Plastics Ban. The initiative includes banning plastics on beaches, phasing in microplastic filters in washing machines, ending polystyrene packaging for takeout foods, and the phasing out of a certain type of so-called ‘biodegradable’ plastic.

Just because a plastic is labeled ‘biodegradable’ doesn’t mean it’s any less harmful to the environment than non-biodegradable plastics. There are few regulations governing the use of the word ‘biodegradable,’ so there are plenty of times when products are labeled as such when they, in fact, can live on in the environment for centuries.

The article explains it much better than I do. Click here to read it for yourself.

If you’re a blogger and you’d like to participate in the blogfest, click this link to sign up and spread the joy!

Good News for Amazon (the Rainforest, that is)

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday in February, so you know what that means…

It’s almost March. 🙂

But it also means that it’s time for the worldwide monthly deluge of good news stories that bloggers have found to counteract the bad news we see in the media all day, every day. As always, the story I have chosen to share is about the environment. It’s a story from back in December of 2020, but it’s not one I was aware of, so I thought I’d shine my little light on it for others who may not have known about it, either.

Court Sides with Indigenous People

Back in 2018, the Minister of Hydrocarbons in Ecuador announced the auction of sixteen oil contracts located on lands owned by indigenous peoples. One indigenous woman, a 33-year-old mom, was able to bridge the gap between indigenous societies and the West and managed to fight against the oil companies by enhancing economic opportunities for people and by targeting donors worldwide with a digital fundraising campaign.

In 2019, this woman was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian government—and she won. The appeals court upheld the lower court’s ruling in favor of the indigenous peoples. I hope you’ll take a minute to read the whole story here.

Join Us!

Your cohosts for this month are Eric Lahti,  Sylvia McGrath, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Shilpa Garg, and Susan Scott. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to participate? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

Until next time,

Amy

Harbor Porpoises are Back!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

Welcome to the first 2021 installment of We Are the World Blogfest!

On the last Friday of every month, bloggers from all over the world gather online to post hopeful, inspirational, and heartwarming stories to counter all the bad news we come across every day on our computers, televisions, radios, and in print.

As you may know if you’ve been following my blog for a while, I try to post #WATWB stories that spell good news for the environment. And the stories I choose to share in 2021 will be no different.

Good News for the Environment

The story I’m sharing this month comes, as it often does, from the Good News Network. You can click on this link to be redirected to the story, but here’s the gist of it:

A gillnet is a fishing net that works by snaring fish gills on small fibers attached to the net. While such nets work well for fish, they also trap sharks, otters, seabirds…and harbor porpoises.

California communities began banning gillnets in 1987 and now the state is seeing a remarkable rebound in the number of harbor porpoises in its waters.

Click here to read the whole story.

Join Us!

Your cohosts for this month are Sylvia McGrath, Simon Falk, Shilpa Garg, Mary Giese, and Belinda Witzenhausen. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to participate? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

Until next time,

Amy

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday in June, and time for some good news to take you into July (JULY?!?!) with a smile. The post I’ve chosen to share this month (with thanks to Carol Thompson, who shared it with me first) is especially good news for the children in the state where I live, New Jersey.

Governor Phil Murphy’s wife announced this month that New Jersey will be the first state in the US to incorporate climate change education in public schools for kids in Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a worldwide blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

Your cohosts for this month are Sylvia McGrath, Susan Scott, Shilpa Garg, Damyanti Biswas, and Belinda Witzenhausen. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday in April, and time for some good news to take you into May with a smile. The post I’ve chosen to share this month is actually a compilation of stories that signal good news for the environment. You have probably noticed that as the global pandemic has raged, it has slowed down almost everything, including our use of fossil fuels and human activity in general. We know that this can’t last forever, nor do we want it to, but this break in the action has been good for the earth.

I hope you’ll check out the post, which shares news from the mass birth of endangered sea turtles to thought-to-be-extinct leopards in Taiwan. Not all the news in the post is good—there is a link to an article about closing oil refineries, which, though good for the environment, will cost jobs. But the overall tone of the post is one of hope and lessons learned.

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a worldwide blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

Your cohosts for this month are Eric Lahti, Susan Scott, Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas, and Inderpreet Kaur Uppal. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest

I know, it’s the first week in April and the #WATWB boat sailed last Friday. But better late than never, right?

This week I’m sharing another post filled with good news for the environment. lt’s the story of a man in Senegal who has spent the past ten years reforesting a mangrove swamp with the help of the Senegalese local coastal populations. They’ve managed to plant 152 MILLION mangrove trees to help reverse the devastation caused by clear-cutting practices of the late twentieth century. You can read the full story here.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month (ahem…) a number of bloggers participate in a worldwide blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

Your cohosts for this month are Shilpa Garg, Sylvia McGrath, Dan Antion, and Damyanti Biswas. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday of the month–time again for some good news to take you into September with a smile.

The story I’ve chosen for this month is about female inmates inside Oregon’s Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and the conservation program they host to care for the endangered Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly. As you’ll read in the story, they care for the larvae and release the butterflies into the wild: good for the butterflies, good for the women. It’s a win-win!

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a worldwide blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

Your cohosts for this month are Susan Scott, Peter Nena, Shilpa Garg, Mary J. Giese, and Damyanti Biswas. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday of the month–time again for some good news to take you into June with a smile.

The story I’ve chosen for this month is another one about plastic pollution and what one innovative company is doing about it. In short, the company is taking plastics and converting them into fuels and commercial-grade waxes. And here’s the best part: the technology employed by the company could also be used to produce “feedstocks” needed for additional plastic production. What this means: good news! This could be the beginning of the world’s first circular economy for plastics.

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

These are the cohosts for this month: Shilpa Garg, Dan Antion, Mary Giese, Simon Falk, and Damyanti Biswas. 

 

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday of the month–time again for some good news to take you into May with a smile.

The story I’ve chosen for this month is about pollinators. As you’ll read in the story, pollinators are responsible for one-third of all the food humans eat. And if you’ve been following the news in recent years, you’ll know there has been a huge die-off of bee colonies. Now backyard gardeners, among others, are banding together to create pollinator-friendly gardens and their ranks are growing by leaps and bounds. I am taking this article to heart and my family will be joining the one million-plus people helping pollinators to do their job.

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

These are the cohosts for this month: Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Uppal, Peter Nena, Lizbeth Hartz, and Eric Lahti.

 

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!

We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB

It’s the last Friday of the month–time again for some good news to take you into March with a smile.

The story I’ve chosen for this month is about a brewery that has come up with a solution for cutting down on plastics in our oceans while doing good for the animals who make the ocean their home.

Click here to read the story.

Here’s how #WATWB works: On the last Friday of each month a number of bloggers participate in a blog hop in which each blogger highlights a story that spreads good news, happiness, and hope.

These are the cohosts for this month: Inderpreet Uppal, Shilpa Garg, Sylvia Stein, Peter Nena, and Belinda Witzenhausen.

 

Want to join? Click this link to sign up and help spread some happiness!