We want to wish all of the Enchanted Nature community a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2024!!!

Like you, we at Enchanted Nature work to be eternal optimists and are constantly on the search for encouraging and beneficial developments in the world. One such find was most encouraging.

It isn’t often that environmental terms become buzzwords, but recently

the phrase ‘Nature Positive’ is showing up everywhere!

So much so, that the Australian government will host the first ‘Nature Positive Summit’ in October 2024.

According to Reuters, “After years of equivocation, world leaders came together last December to adopt a new Global Biodiversity Framework that committed the world to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.”

Let us have faith that this endeavor will be more successful than it’s predecessors!

Reports of abuses to the ‘carbon neutral’ and 'net zero’ initiatives abound!

Certain corporations have manipulated these programs to get away with

flawed accounting and overall failure in emissions reduction.

May this initiative be successful!!!

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Briefly, here are some highlights from other positive developments of 2023:

• Scientists have developed the whitest paint color ever created! It reflects 98.1% of sunlight and actually cools reflective surfaces. This has the potential to help offset the urban heat island effects by painting roofs and buildings this reflective white color.

• Slowly but surely and in spite of the plastic industry lobbyists, many states have banned disposable plastic bags. To date, ten states and 5 territories have complete bans on the use of disposable plastic bags. Many other states and localities are in the process of enacting ordinances by either imposing a fee or banning them outright.

• France, leading the way, has officially started its ban on single use plastic, prohibiting the single- use of plastic boxes and cutlery. This follows last years ban prohibiting plastic packaging for 30 types of fruits and vegetables.

• Around the globe plastic manufacturers are being sued for polluting. Lawsuits are surging and this last year has seen a snowballing of court rulings in favor of environmentalists.

• The U.S. green energy transition has received the $369 Bn from the Inflation Reduction Act to promote actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support clean energy, and encourage electrification.

• In 2023 energy from wind and solar grew faster than the world's power demand. Emissions from the power sector were predicted to edge downwards for the first time ever! This is a crutial tipping point for climate change.

• The largest dam in America was demolished in November allowing for the free flowing river to restore and heal the ecosystem. The removal of the Klamath dam is the first of three to be removed in the largest dam removal project in American history.

• After decades of negotiations, countries have agreed to a treaty to protect the world’s oceans. The High Seas Treaty provides a framework to set up marine protected areas.

• The EU has promised to become forest friendly. It is stopping imports of commodities linked to deforestation. Importers of products such as soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee and rubber must be able to prove that they do not come from recently deforested land or have not contributed to forest degradation.

• Deforestation in the Amazon has dropped sharply after Brazil’s government pledged to stop deforestation by 2030. Steps were taken to monitor the forest for criminal activity such as illegal logging bringing about the decrease in deforestation.

• The final agreement at the COP28, agreed to by almost 200 countries, for the first time included a goal to move away from fossil fuels.

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There are many more good news items from 2023 but the space here is limited.

The point is...for the first time ever it seems as though the climate issue and nature are being given their due recognition.

May it be on time so that future generations need not suffer the consequences of greed over that of a healthy planet!

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Having given up making new year’s resolutions long ago, this year we have decided to make one:

We are determined to focus on the positive changes that are taking place for the planet and

assist those changes in any way we can find to do so.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!