Town to place statue of Henrietta Lacks, unsung source of medical advances, where Lee once stood

A life-size bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells were taken without her consent and were used for research that ushered medical discoveries and treatments, will be erected in her hometown, Roanoke, Va., next year in a plaza previously named after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Roanoke Hidden Histories, an organization dedicated to acknowledging Black history in the community’s public spaces, raised more than $183,000 for the project.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/us/henrietta-lacks-statue-roanoke-virginia.html

Arches, Glacier, Rocky Mountain NPs to keep reservation systems for peak periods in 2023

Arches, Glacier, and Rocky Mountain national parks on Friday announced that reservation systems to enter their parks would return in 2023 to manage crowds during the busiest months of the year.

"Previous use of the reservation system has eased congestion impacts and improved the visitor experience in the park," Rocky Mountain spokesperson Kyle Patterson said in a release that announced reservations would be required from May 26-October 22 at peak hours.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2022/12/reservation-systems-returning-arches-glacier-and-rocky-mountain-national-parks-2023

Convention on Biological Diversity COP ends with sweeping deal on 30x30

MONTREAL, Quebec — Roughly 190 countries early on Monday approved a sweeping United Nations agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 and to take a slew of other measures against biodiversity loss, a mounting under-the-radar crisis that, if left unchecked, jeopardizes the planet’s food and water supplies as well as the existence of untold species around the world.

The agreement comes as biodiversity is declining worldwide at rates never seen before in human history. Researchers have projected that a million plants and animals are at risk of extinction, many within decades. While many scientists and activists had pushed for even stronger measures, the deal, which includes verification mechanisms that previous agreements had lacked, clearly signals increasing momentum around the issue.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/climate/biodiversity-cop15-montreal-30x30.html