Day by day the Good Good Good workforce collects one of the best excellent news on the earth and shares it with our neighborhood. Listed here are the highlights for this week!
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The Greatest Optimistic Information We’re Celebrating This Week —
Ending the nation’s 140-year reliance on coal, the final coal plant within the UK is ready to shut right this moment
After receiving its ultimate supply of coal earlier this summer time, the final coal energy plant within the UK is scheduled to shut its doorways right this moment – making it the primary G7 nation to take away coal from its grid fully.
The closure of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar energy station marks the tip of a 142-year historical past of coal within the nation – with its first coal-fired energy plant opening in 1882. The UK’s transition away from the soiled gasoline supply has been fast due to the expansion of renewables in addition to pure gasoline.
The positioning shall be remodeled right into a zero-carbon know-how and power hub as soon as it’s decommissioned. It’s a significant step because the UK authorities ends coal technology by 2024.
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Extra good local weather information:
A brand new report discovered that the World Fund partnership has saved 65 million lives since 2002
After a “important yr” of progress within the battle in opposition to AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, newly launched knowledge discovered that the World Fund partnership has saved 65 million lives and diminished the mixed loss of life price by 61% since 2002.
In 2023 alone, 25 million individuals had been on antiretroviral remedy for HIV, 7.1 million individuals had been handled for TB, and 227 million mosquito nets had been distributed globally.
In international locations the place the World Fund works, AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 73% since 2002 and new infections have diminished by 61%. On the finish of final yr, 84% of individuals residing with HIV knew their standing. There’s additionally notably been a diminished HIV incidence in women and younger ladies.
Final yr, extra individuals with TB had been discovered and handled than ever earlier than. And the World Fund dramatically improved entry to life-saving instruments to stop and deal with malaria.
Within the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a nationwide helpline is offering free catastrophe disaster counseling to these in want
As communities throughout Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee reel from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, federal businesses, assist organizations, and on a regular basis volunteers have stepped as much as assist present pressing reduction.
However with unfathomable loss — together with a rising loss of life toll — rebuilding additionally contains confronting the toll these disasters tackle survivors’ psychological well being.
It’s why the Substance Abuse & Psychological Well being Companies Administration created the Catastrophe Misery Helpline — the primary nationwide hotline devoted to offering free catastrophe disaster counseling 24/7 in additional than 100 languages.
Why is that this excellent news? As SAMHSA explains, it’s regular for individuals to expertise emotions like “overwhelming nervousness, fixed worrying, hassle sleeping, and different depression-like signs” earlier than, throughout, and after hurricanes. And other people ought to by no means be left to navigate these emotions on their very own.
From his early local weather motion to near-eradication of Guinea worm illness, Jimmy Carter has had a exceptional influence on the world
At present is President Jimmy Carter’s a hundredth birthday. Carter is likely one of the most exceptional and impactful leaders of the final 50 years of American historical past — each out and in of workplace.
Whereas his time within the White Home was short-lived, he made an influence along with his early adoption of local weather motion and profound give attention to human rights in overseas coverage. Carter was additionally the one trendy U.S. president who didn’t wage battle.
After dropping re-election, Carter graciously accepted defeat and rapidly started working establishing The Carter Middle, a nonprofit group with the mission to wage peace, battle illness, and construct hope.
Maybe most notably, below his watch, Guinea worm illness has dropped from 3.5 million annual circumstances to solely 15 whole circumstances in 2021 — and we’ve seen important progress within the battle in opposition to different doubtlessly eradicable illnesses like mumps, rubella, lymphatic filariasis, poliomyelitis, and cysticercosis.
Colorado is launching a first-of-its-kind methane monitoring program at its 80 landfills
As a part of a large-scale initiative to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions, Colorado is implementing cutting-edge applied sciences to watch methane emissions at its 80 landfills throughout the state.
With the assistance of a $129 million grant, this system is the primary of its type and will assist set a brand new customary for different states.
The state has already been utilizing the applied sciences — which embrace drones, plane, and satellites — to assist it spot leaks in oil and gasoline infrastructure, too.
Why is that this excellent news? Methane traps 80 instances extra warmth than carbon dioxide over 20 years — and landfills are the third-largest supply of methane. Whereas there are caps on emissions from landfills, it’s largely primarily based on an honor system — an evaluation discovered that 90% of landfills throughout eight states had a minimum of one violation of these caps.
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Volunteer pilots with the Port Metropolis Aviators Flying Membership are gathering and flying provides to Hurricane Helene victims
After listening to about the devastating influence Hurricane Helene had in western North Carolina, an area group of pilots got here collectively to assist.
Volunteers with the Port Metropolis Aviators Flying Membership set as much as settle for donations beginning at 9:30 within the morning and inside an hour, automobiles had been lined as much as drop off important objects like meals, water, and pet provides.
They acquired ten instances greater than they had been anticipating after which flew them to Asheville over a number of journeys. With extra provides persevering with to be donated, the pilots deliberate to maintain making journeys.
Realizing that so many roads are impassable, the pilots knew they’d a novel alternative to convey much-needed provides into the world by air — and took swift motion to make it occur.
After over a decade of labor, a mission to guard each a New York Metropolis shoreline and marine life is now full
In response to Hurricane-turned-Superstorm Sandy that made landfall in New Jersey in 2012, neighboring New York started working on a local weather resiliency mission to guard each its shoreline and marine ecosystems.
Now formally full after a decade of labor, the Residing Breakwaters will defend the Staten Island shoreline, properties, and companies from future excessive climate occasions.
Eight partially submerged buildings will break up storm waves, lower erosion, and function important habitats for marine life. It’s additionally a part of the state’s bigger local weather resiliency efforts.
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Extra good local weather change mitigation and resiliency information:
After Helene left manatees stranded, rescue crews rapidly jumped in to save lots of them
When Hurricane Helene tore by the southeast, it left a 500-mile path of devastation in its wake — together with from a 15-foot storm surge in Florida.
That impacted the state’s beloved “sea cows,” leaving numerous manatees stranded all through the state in metropolis streets, fields, and ponds.
Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee instantly jumped into motion to save lots of them. In a single occasion, rescuers lifted a 1,000-pound manatee off the MacDill Air Power Base in Tampa.
Manatees are listed as a threatened species in Florida. And whereas it might take months — or years — to revive the waterways that manatees name house again to what they as soon as had been earlier than Helene, the short work from these rescue groups helps to first preserve them alive.
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A brand new California regulation stops public libraries from banning books primarily based on their “views, concepts, or opinions”
Amidst an enhance in e book bans across the nation, California is setting a brand new customary at its public libraries.
Beneath the newly signed regulation, libraries should guarantee “various factors of view” of their e book assortment and embrace a “vary of social, political, aesthetic, ethical, and different concepts and experiences.”
By regulation, libraries can’t exclude or restrict entry to supplies primarily based on “the race, nationality, gender identification, sexual orientation, faith, incapacity, political affiliation, or every other attribute… or the socioeconomic standing” of a topic, writer, supply or perceived or meant viewers.
Why is that this excellent news? From July 2021 to the tip of the 2023 college yr, PEN America recorded practically 10,000 cases of e book bans throughout the U.S. — 37% straight addressed problems with race and racism, whereas 36% included LGBTQ+ characters or themes. Guide bans erase historical past and silence these most underrepresented in literature.
Heidi Klum is supporting the return of UNICEF’s “Trick-or-Deal with for UNICEF” program in its seventy fifth yr
Heidi Klum is well-known for her blowout Halloween events, which she has hosted since 2000. The “Queen of Halloween” has a brand new trigger she’s championing this yr, and it is available in a “little orange field.”
The field is a 75-year-old custom for UNICEF, which inspires individuals to “Trick-or-Deal with for UNICEF,” going door-to-door soliciting donations with the group’s signature orange assortment bins.
Klum has lengthy been an envoy for the group and in addition acted as spokesperson for the Trick-or-Deal with for UNICEF program in 2011.
And with Klum’s assist, the group hopes to construct on the annual marketing campaign’s practically $200 million fundraising whole as “the longest operating youth engagement marketing campaign in the US.”
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Extra excellent news of the week —
For the fourth yr in a row, a resort close to Yosemite gave free spa therapies to volunteers who gather trash within the park. Final yr, the Rush Creek Lodge & Spa noticed 55 volunteers who collected 899 kilos of trash in Groveland, a city near the northwest entrance of Yosemite.
The U.S. authorities is giving West Coast states $100 million to create a zero-emission truck fueling community. Oregon, Washington, and California are aiming to construct a minimum of 34 medium and heavy-duty electrical automobile charging stations and 5 hydrogen fueling stations primarily alongside 1,400 miles of I-5.
London Marathon runners raised a world report £73.5 million for charity at this yr’s race. They surpassed the earlier world report of £66.4 million set in 2019 and introduced the cumulative whole raised to greater than £1.3 billion because the first occasion in 1981.
Enhancing air high quality, slicing emissions, and decreasing street casualties, metropolis facilities are utilizing cargo bikes as an alternative of vans to move items. At present, 90% of all items in London are transported by street, changing them with cargo bikes would take away 30,000 metric tons of carbon emissions yearly.
To guard beachgoers and assist conservation efforts, scientists are utilizing drones to trace and research white sharks. Their purpose is to develop forecasting instruments that may assist predict what instances of yr, what instances of day, or what ocean circumstances are more likely to be kind of sharky.
After clearing round 30,000 checks, Washington state’s crime lab says its rape equipment backlog is “basically eradicated.” One survivor mentioned the second is significant, and that getting kits examined and circumstances prosecuted makes your entire neighborhood safer.
To honor Jimmy Carter’s a hundredth birthday, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are constructing 30 new properties this week. The Carters have labored with the group for 40 years, constructing properties across the nation yearly.
With poaching down 86%, an Indian state’s one-horned rhino inhabitants has grown from 600 to three,000 since 2016. Assam attributes its success to varied conservation initiatives — however regardless of this progress, the rhinos nonetheless stay weak as a result of poaching and habitat loss.
For the primary time in historical past, a girl’s diabetes was reversed utilizing a stem cell transplant. A 25-year-old girl in China with sort 1 diabetes began producing her personal insulin lower than three months after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells.
Consultants say the provision of lethal fentanyl is drying up in lots of components of the U.S. and deadly overdoses are dropping. There was a sudden nationwide decline in fentanyl-related deaths final yr, dropping by 10% — and it’s falling even quicker in locations like Ohio, by round one-third thus far this yr.
Amtrak prepare choices will now present up when clients use Google to seek for flights. It’s a part of a brand new integration to assist extra sustainable journey and can pull up-to-date Amtrak knowledge so individuals can simply evaluate departure instances, journey lengths, and fares.
Serving to counter an increase in diabetes, researchers developed a “more healthy” rice with a decrease glycaemic index and extra protein. Analysis exhibits a hyperlink between substantial consumption of rice and non-communicable illnesses corresponding to sort 2 diabetes and coronary heart illness, and this new grain “might have a big effect in Asia and Africa.”
The World Well being Group simply confirmed the elimination of trachoma as a public well being downside in Pakistan. Trachoma is a illness brought on by an infection by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium and can lead to irreversible blindness if left untreated.
The Sports activities Bra and an LA ladies’s soccer membership simply partnered to create a streaming channel designed for sports activities bars. The app will broadcast United Metropolis FC Girls’s video games reside and be examined at Sports activities Bra places in Spring 2025 and is designed to maximise the sports activities bar viewing expertise.
Scientists are utilizing tiny “backpacks” on turtle hatchlings to look at their actions between hatching and rising above the sand. Their findings have necessary implications for conserving a declining turtle inhabitants globally.
