March’s Environmental Achievements
With the month of March speeding by, here are some environmental successes that occurred throughout the world that you might have missed.
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France Cutting Down on Fast Fashion
France’s parliament approved a “kill bill” in mid-March that aims to prohibit fast fashion merchandise from sites like Temu and Shein. The bill is meant to fight the fast fashion environmental impact by banning advertising of these companies and increasing the price per article of clothing by up to 10 euros. Fast fashion is low quality clothing that follows quick trends, allows people to buy for cheap; however, despite the low monetary costs of the clothing it has big negative impacts on the textile workers and the environment.
New York City Creating Green-Collar Jobs
Mayor Eric Adams announced the Green Economy Action Plans he will set in place, which is the first-of-its-kind and aims to grow the city's economy through an environmental lens. The plan will invest money into jobs to contrast the cities substantial climate change. The program will train New Yorkers to benefit and excel in the over 400,000 green collar jobs that will be available by the year 2040.
United States Private Jet Tax
President Joe Biden proposed a major increase in taxes on fuel for private jets. The 400% increase on the tax is meant to limit the large amount of carbon emissions that these jets produce. Biden’s administration justified the jump in tax by insisting it is fair since passengers on airlines pay taxes on every individual ticket.
The European Union Rehabilitation Law
Europe passed a law that is supposed to restore around 20% of its land and sea by the year 2030 and all of its ecosystems by 2050. Currently, 81% of the EU’s ecosystems are in poor or damaged conditions from human interference with the environment and this law hopes to combat their past negative impacts.
Endangered Panda Population Doubled
Since the 1980s, China has successfully doubled their panda population going from 1,100 to about 1,900. Chinese wildlife protection installed a number of protection strategies such as digital monitoring systems, far-infrared cameras and AI identification to monitor the species.
African Tree Planting Project Shows Rapid Growth
This Project persuades farmers to plant biodiverse gardens to expand tree covers and protect the soil. Since the project started in 2015, it has contributed to tens of millions of trees being planted in nine different countries. In the past ten years the project has restored an area seven times the size of Manhattan.
Coral Reef Man-Made Relied System
Scientists discovered that coral reefs have quick regenerative abilities, and with some assistance can become fully restored in four years. The Mars Coral Reef Restoration Program is one of the biggest coral reef projects that has successfully restored reefs in two Indonesian islands. The method entails “reel stars,” which are metal frames filled with sand and provide a home for coral taken from healthy reefs and can eventually help fully restore the damaged reef.
