The Life News Australia. Nov 16, 2022

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Vol. 5, Issue 86. Nov 16, 2022.

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Small Businesses have a big role fighting climate change

Courtesy:BBC

Washington DC Nikhil Arora has been putting in a lot of effort over the past two years to reduce the carbon footprint of his organic gardening business. He has taken small steps, like switching away from plastic packaging, to make Back to the Roots the most environmentally friendly business it has ever been.

Despite having only 21 employees and a location in California, the company anticipates generating approximately $100 million (£84 million) in sales this year. The actions it has taken, according to Mr. Arora, are essential to the fight against climate change.

"The US economy's lifeblood are small businesses. "I think we will also power most of the change," asserts Mr. Arora, co-founder of the company that began selling organic gardening kits more than a decade ago. "We power most of the jobs, most of the growth, and I think we will also power most of the change."

The public has put a lot of pressure on corporations like Walmart and Amazon to set sustainability goals.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit organization that manages the global emissions disclosure system, has discovered, however, that a company's supply chain generates 11 times more emissions than the company itself.

It found that supply chains generate 25 times more emissions than the company itself in sectors like retail.

Michael Vandenbergh, director of Vanderbilt University's Climate Change Research Network and law professor, asserts, "You can't solve the climate problem without addressing small businesses." They account for a significant portion of the carbon emissions generated by big companies' supply chains; consequently, small businesses must be addressed in order to effect meaningful change.

Nearly half of American workers are employed by small businesses, which account for 99 percent of all businesses in the US.

Editorial

Teachers experienced more pandemic anxiety than healthcare workers, study says According to new research, teachers in the United States experienced more anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic than healthcare, office, and other workers.

Teachers in the United States were 40% more likely than healthcare workers to report experiencing anxiety symptoms, according to the study, which was published on Monday in Educational Researcher. Researchers were surprised to find that the same elementary, middle, and high school teachers were 20% more likely to report stress than office workers and 30% more likely to report anxiety than workers in other occupations like the military, farming, and the legal profession.

Joseph Kush, an assistant professor of graduate psychology at James Madison University, stated, "We would have guessed healthcare workers battling COVID-19 on the front lines during a public health crisis would display the most anxiety." He was speaking about healthcare workers.

The researchers made use of data from the U.S. COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey that were gathered between March 28, 2021, and September 8, 2020. During the pandemic, 3 million employed workers, including 130,000 teachers, were asked to rate their mental health in a large national online survey.

Sixty percent of teachers who worked remotely during the pandemic were more likely than their colleagues in the classroom to report experiencing feelings of isolation, according to the study. Anxiety among female teachers was 70% higher than that of male teachers.

Depression and feelings of isolation were less common among healthcare workers.

Kush stated, "Teacher well-being was a major concern for school leaders even before the pandemic." Our findings demonstrate how stressful the pandemic has been for educators, particularly those who work remotely and are female."

"We might expect particularly high levels of stress due to uncertainty over how schools were planning to provide instruction, abrupt changes to lesson plans and teaching methods for remote-learning environments, and the rapid adoption of new technologies," stated Kush.

"Although our study did not examine the reasons behind teachers' anxiety levels," While a number of studies have shown that schoolchildren's anxiety increased during the pandemic, few have focused on teachers. These results, according to the researchers, demonstrate the need for programs that support educators' mental health.

According to Kush, "Teachers' well-being ultimately impacts their ability to teach effectively." Student learning outcomes and teacher retention both improve when teachers are supported. Their well-being is crucial to the success of learning environments, so decisions must be made with their input."