Delhi just banned plastic.
The ban includes cutlery, cups and bags and was instated after illegal plastic burning was reported at three different local dumps. Burning plastic directly impacts air quality, and Delhi has some of the worst of it in the world. India has 13 cities on the World Health Organization’s top 20 most polluted list. The country as a whole is one of the world’s biggest polluters — after China and the U.S. [Global Citizen]
The Philippines just canceled a ton of mining contracts.
The country’s environment minister has pulled out of a third of undeveloped mining projects, on the basis that they would threaten water quality. She’s also ordered the closure of 23 of the Philipines’ 41 currently operating mines. [Reuters]
Landslides may be the way animals have been traveling to remote islands for thousands of years.
A recent study of weevils in the Canary Islands has concluded that animals are capable of traveling on large rafts of earth and vegetation, which break away during massive landslides. This study may explain why land species, like tortoises, have made it all the way to remote islands like the Galápagos. [BBC]
Trump’s Ban was ruled unconstitutional by yet another judge.
This time in Virginia by Judge Leonie Brinkema. Judge Brinkema ruled that the Ban violates the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from creating laws that favor one religion over another. [BBC] 