Quick summary of the top good news stories of last week.
In a week when Cristiano Ronaldo hit one billion total followers across his various social media accounts - making him the first person to reach that mind-boggling figure - and NASA demonstrated its talents at spelling your name (any name) with its satellite imagery, here's what else has been going on...
Waves Have Legal Rights: A city in Brazil has granted legal rights to the waves at the mouth of the Dolce River, the first instance in which a government has conferred rights upon part of the ocean.
Returning The Favour: In 1939, Gus and Emma Thompson, a Black couple, rented and then sold a house to the Dongs, a Chinese American family, at a time when others wouldn’t. Over eight decades later, the Dong family is selling the house in Coronado, California, and donating $5 million to the Black Resource Center at San Diego State University in honor of the Thompsons.
By The Numbers
75: The percentage of Portugal’s electricity that came from renewable energy (hydropower, wind, solar, and biomass) in the first eight months of 2024.
20: This fall, Massachusetts will become the 20th state to offer tuition-free community college regardless of age, income, or GPA. Tennessee was the first to pioneer this approach in 2017.
9.4: The percentage of primary energy generated in Chile from solar in 2023 - more than any other country in the world, says Our World in Data. For electricity alone, it produced 20 percent of the total.
75: The age at which Twiggy says she is hanging up her miniskirts.
750: Australia, a “megadiverse” nation, officially recognized 750 new species of plants, animals, and other organisms. The seemingly massive number of new additions represents just a sliver of the continent’s wildlife tapestry - with experts saying that up to 70 percent of the native species are likely yet to be described.
Kids’ Colds: Saltwater nose drops can reduce the length of a child's cold by two days, a new study demonstrates.
Screen-Free School: Lately, there’s been a growing movement to get phones out of classrooms, but one Finnish town is taking this screen-free push a step further. After a decade of using laptops and digital devices in schools, educators are going back to the basics of good ol’ pen and paper. “Young people are using phones and digital devices so much these days that we didn’t want school to be one of the places where children are only staring at screens.”
Peru Land Titles: In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This is not only a remarkable land rights victory for the region, but it also marks a significant step towards addressing climate change, reclaiming Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and rights, and defending territories against external threats.
New USPS EVs: The U.S. Postal Service has debuted its much-anticipated electric vehicles in Athens, Georgia. The new vehicles will replace 30-year-old mail trucks that have a reputation for being noisy, smelly, and gas-guzzling, getting just 9 mpg. The new vehicles will be rolled out across the fleet over the next few years.
Solar Glass: Researchers have found a way to directly charge a battery from a smartphone screen. Developed by a research team affiliated with South Korea's UNIST, the method can directly supply energy from glass of buildings, cars, and mobile devices through transparent solar cells.
Two World-Firsts For EVs: They are starting to overtake gas-powered cars in a surprising place: Ethiopia. That's largely because the national government has taken the bold step of banning the import of all gas-powered passenger vehicles - becoming the first nation in the world to do so. Meanwhile, in a major milestone, electric cars now outnumber gas-powered cars in Norway for the first time. Norway will stop selling new gas- and diesel-powered cars next year.
US Climate Mayors: As a part of the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, nearly 350 Climate Mayors announced a commitment to electrify at least 50 percent of municipal fleets by 2030 while increasing EV chargers by at least five-fold, with at least 40 percent of the charging infrastructure benefitting disadvantaged communities.
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