Mexico Unanimously Passes New Climate & Energy Law
Following a vote in its Senate, Mexico is poised to become just the second country in the world to enshrine long-term climate targets into national legislation. The margin of the vote was huge – 78-0 – indicating that all political parties have found common ground on this issue. The bill enshrines a number of measures in law, including: 30% reduction in emission growth measured against a “business as usual” pathway by 2020, and 50% by 2050, 35% of energy to come from renewable sources by 2024, obligation for government agencies to use renewables, establishment of a national mechanism for reporting on emissions in various sectors
Eating an elephant
In prehistoric times, hunting animals implied a risk and required a considerable amount of energy. Therefore, when the people of the Middle Palaeolithic (between 127,000 and 40,000 years ago) had an elephant in the larder, they did not leave a scrap.
Humans that populated the Madrid region 84,000 years ago fed themselves on these prosbocideans’ meat and they consumed their bone marrow, according to this new study. Until now, the scientific community doubted that consuming elephant meat was a common practice in that era due to the lack of direct evidence on the bones. It is still to be determined whether they are from the Mammuthus species of the Palaleoloxodon subspecies.
Animal fat was highly valued by hunters and gatherers that had a diet rich in meat and low in carbohydrates. When there was little meat, other resources such as bone marrow became a source of lipids. According to the study, this practice was not very common due to the difficulty of extracting the marrow from the bones.
Sweden is banning BPA
On April 13, the government of Sweden announced the decision to ban the use of (BPA) in packaging for food intended for children under 3 years of age. For a while, there’s been a voluntary phase-out of BPA in Sweden, but these new laws will make sure the change becomes permanent. Government officials say that this new chemical ban will mostly, at this point, affect lids of baby food bottles but the new mandate also gives the Swedish Chemicals Agency a 3-month deadline to decide if BPA should also be banned from certain types of thermal paper, including receipts and tickets, and to determine how BPA is being used in drinking-water pipes, toys and children’s goods.