US to fully rejoin UNESCO after 13-year absence as voting member

The United States will rejoin UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, in July, the agency announced on Monday, after years of turbulent relations that culminated in 2017 with a full withdrawal by the U.S. government. The move, which comes over a decade after the United States had cut off key funding to the agency, will give its budget a much-needed boost.

“This is a strong act of confidence, in UNESCO and in multilateralism,” Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s director-general, said in a statement after announcing the U.S. decision to a meeting of representatives of the agency’s 193 members at its headquarters in Paris.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/world/europe/us-china-unesco.html

US dragging feet on binding treaty to curb global plastics use

The conclusion of the second session in the international effort to arrive at a global plastics treaty offered some grounds for guarded optimism — and provided some disappointments. In a major step forward, the five-day May-June session in Paris of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) ended with an agreement to write a “zero draft,” a first version of an enforceable accord on the global plastics pollution crisis, with that landmark document to be ready for review and discussion at the next meeting, slated for Nov. 13-17 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Of 169 states sending delegates to Paris, 135 agreed that binding international law regulating plastics is needed — but it will take future sessions to write those laws and come up with enforcement mechanisms and develop resources.

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/un-paris-meeting-presses-ahead-with-binding-plastics-treaty-u-s-resists/

Centennial of first-ever proposal for designated wilderness celebrated in New Mexico

A hundred years ago this month, the forester Aldo Leopold proposed to the Forest Service that the federal government create the first ever wilderness area in the Gila National Forest, in New Mexico. Nearly 900 square miles of land at the center of the forest were designated wilderness in 1924. This month, National Geographic magazine's cover story is about the history and future of the area and its inhabitants. Photographer Katie Orlinsky spoke with KUNM about her time there, beginning with her first impressions.

https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2023-06-09/national-geographic-visits-the-gila-wilderness-as-it-nears-its-centenary