Queens is now home to the biggest curbside composting initiative in the nation. Its residents can put food, food-soiled paper, and yard waste into bins provided by the New York City Department of Sanitation. The new program marks the first time NYC has provided free composting to an entire borough, and it’s good news for a city that is trying to reduce emissions.

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Mar Menor, a protected saltwater lagoon in the southeast of Spain, is now entitled to “exist as an ecosystem and evolve naturally,” according to a government bulletin published earlier this month. The rights extend to “all the natural characteristics of the water, the communities of organisms, the soil,” and any terrestrial or aquatic “subsystems” that make up Mar Menor.

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In a far-reaching decision, a United Nation committee recently ruled that Australia violated the human rights of Torres Strait Islanders, a group of Indigenous peoples living off the country’s northern coast, by failing to “implement adequate adaptation measures” to protect the Islanders’ “home, private life, and family” from the ravages of climate change.

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What happens when the water runs out?

Introducing