Good News! 7 Positive Environmental Stories from October 2021

One Tree Planted is proud to announce that we will be working with Coldplay to plant one tree for every ticket sold around the band’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour through a global reforestation agreement to create positive environmental impact. The tour is set to kick off in Costa Rica in March of 2022.In 2019, Coldplay announced that they would pause touring until concerts could be “environmentally beneficial” and have taken this time to develop the best possible strategy to minimize the carbon footprint of touring. Now, with the announcement of their upcoming world tour, along with a new album, Music Of The Spheres, the band is also unveiling a new focus on sustainability.

The UN's recent IPCC report, confirmed that “it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.” Not only does this report support this, but also 99.9% of reports on climate. But we already knew that, right? To address climate change, consensus is needed from governments around the world about both the severity of the issue and its root causes. This frank opening to the report indicates that consensus is coming, which is a huge step for climate science and policy going forward.

Established by the United Nations in 1995, COP stands for Conference of the Parties. Parties are the signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — a 1994 treaty with 197 Parties (196 countries and the EU). This year's conference, called COP26, will be the 26th COP and will be hosted by the UK. It will take place in Glasgow from October 31st-November 12th and will welcome up to 25,000 attendees ranging from world leaders to protesters, businesses and nonprofits like One Tree Planted. 

Shelley's eagle owls are the largest owls that live in Africa's rainforests, however they have been in hiding and unseen for some time .In fact, there have been no confirmed photographs of the species taken in the wild since scientists first catalogued its existence 150 years ago. This month scientists snapped a photo of the elusive bird! 

On October 8th, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva passed a resolution recognizing access to a healthy and sustainable environment as a universal right! According to David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment, “Professionally that was probably the most thrilling experience that I ever have had or that I ever will have. It was a massive team victory. It took literally millions of people, and years and years of work to achieve this resolution”. It's hard to believe that something like this must be declared as a human right however in doing so creates hope that there will be a greater shift in protecting the environment. 

The 7th annual Mangrove Photography Awards attracted a record number of submissions from 65 countries. Because of the wide-range of participants around the world, the contest revealed the diverse and incredible beauty that mangroves exude. Mangroves play a vital role in our tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Found where the ocean meets land, they protect our coastlines and keep our beaches beautiful.