The news travelled around the world at lightning speed.
As Hannah Chinn reported in The Guardian in the U.K., “It was an executive order that made waves in environmental circles: after only a week in office, President Joe Biden pledged to preserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.”
What does this goal mean? Currently only 12% of U.S. lands are permanently protected.
To reach it, the U.S. will have to protect and conserve and additional 400 million acres of land and waterways over the next 9 years.
The goal has bipartisan support in Congress and, as Hannah notes, “It aligns with science-based global preservation targets to reach an eventual target of 50% by 2050.”
To find out which areas are already ear-marked for this transition, click here.
Hint: one of them, part of 80,000 acres, is pictured above.
Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images