Scotland’s NHS buys more than 189 million single-use plastic cups

On almost any given Saturday, just as the sun peeks over the horizon deep in southern Thailand, entrepreneur Nattapong Nithi-Uthai can be found at perhaps the best spot in town to watch the Pattani river slowly flow into the Gulf of Siam.
It has the makings of a beautiful spot, but Nithi-Uthai isn’t there to take in the view. He and some dedicated friends go to pick up trash, endless loads of it heaped on the banks. The group first selected this site in 2016 for its natural beauty and immediately set out to remove a mound of garbage dumped there by local restaurants.
“We actually took three months to get rid of that. It was full of maggots and everything. It was real trash, not ocean trash. You cry because it’s too much,” Nithi-Uthai told the Globe. “The point when you clean maggots out of a mountain of trash, something happens inside of you.”
Read the full article at: southeastasiaglobe.com

Everyone in the world could have access to clean, affordable energy within the next nine years if countries modestly increase investments, according to new reports released today, in advance of a major ministerial meeting on 21-25 June where countries and businesses will begin to announce energy plans for the decade. Annual investments of around $35 billion could bring electricity access for 759 million people who currently lack it, and $25 billion a year can help 2.6 billion people gain access to clean cooking between now and 2030. The required investment represents only a small fraction of the multi-trillion-dollar global energy investment needed overall, but would bring huge benefits to one-third of the world’s population.