Good News Worth Celebrating
- Editor OGN Daily
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Quick summary of all the top good news stories from last week.
In a week when Gavi said that its vaccines have prevented over 18.8 million deaths, and, for the first time in six years, California has finally activated its gigantic glory hole (please, there's no innuendo here) indicating that some of the state's reservoir water levels are finally recovering, two food waste initiates have also been reported: Researchers prove that sad signs featuring single bananas can inspire customers to rescue overlooked produce and promote sustainability; and towns in France have been giving away thousands of free chickens, providing residents with a plentiful supply of free eggs and diverting food waste from landfill as chickens are fed kitchen scraps which would otherwise be thrown away. Meanwhile, in other news...
Indigenous Peoples
Isolated Peoples: First-of-its-kind territory in Colombia will protect Indigenous Peoples in Isolation. The “Territoriality of the Indigenous Peoples in Isolation between the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers” will span 4,220 square miles (1,092,850 hectares) of remote Amazonian forests that are also home to over 600 Amazonian species, reports the Andes Amazon Fund.
Wrongdoing Undone: Illinois has returned nearly 1,500 acres of stolen land to the state’s first federally recognized tribe. Correcting a “historic injustice,” the land once belonged to Chief Shab-eh-nay of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation but was seized 175 years ago and sold by the U.S. when the chief was visiting relatives.
Nature & Conservation
Conservation Works: A new study finds that global conservation efforts are reliably bringing species back from the brink, reports Phys.org. A major review of over 67,000 animal species by the University of Cambridge has found that targeted conservation measures like habitat protection, captive breeding and reintroductions are successfully restoring populations of endangered animals. "It's so hard for a species to improve its conservation status, but with the right effort, we can turn things around."
Record Numbers: Hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes are once again flocking to central Nebraska during their annual migration and biologists are celebrating that their latest weekly aerial crane survey counted roughly 736,000 sandhill cranes between the towns of Chapman and Overton, Nebraska, which are roughly 80 miles apart. That’s an all-time, record-high number of cranes counted in the region at once - and it’s probably an underestimate.
Nature on Curriculum: After years of persuasion by environmentalists and nature lovers, the UK government has announced plans for a new qualification. The new exam will be taken by students at the end of their secondary school years in tests called GCSEs, when children are aged around 12 years old.
Salmon Numbers Soar: A record-breaking spawning season for Central California Coast coho salmon as the endangered salmon returned to Mendocino Coast rivers and streams in the highest numbers since monitoring began 16 years ago, with an estimated population of over 15,000 adults. "A lot of people think it’s too late - it’s too hard to bring back endangered species. This is a prime example of why it’s not too late or too hard."
Delhi's New Lungs: New Delhi, India’s capital, struggles with extremely poor air quality and heat waves. In response, since 2004, the city has created seven large “biodiversity parks” on previously degraded land - spanning 2,026 acres - offering a hopeful example of urban ecological restoration.
"Like Finding Gold": A small, quail-like bird species called the plains-wanderer hasn’t been seen in West Melbourne, Australia for decades, but an AI-powered tool has found the bird by identifying its soft, low “ooming” call. While the bird technically still hasn’t been “seen,” one expert said this discovery was “like finding gold.” That’s because the plains-wanderer is a “flagship” species, indicating healthy grasslands and playing a crucial role in insect control and seed dispersal.
Wildlife Crossing: The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing - the largest wildlife crossing of its kind in the world - has reached a new milestone, as workers laid the first layers of soil on the historic California overpass this week. It's designed to help bobcats, mountain lions, deer and other creatures safely traverse the busy, 10-lane road. “I believe these crossings go beyond mere conservation, toward a kind of environmental rejuvenation that is long overdue.”
Climate & Renewable Energy
Significant Advance: A new facility in Illinois converts harmful landfill gas into renewable natural gas.
Good Progress: New Zealand's grid has reached 88 percent renewable electricity, driven entirely by economics, without government incentives. Planned projects are expected to double annual output capability and will be enough to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040, says CleanTechnica.
Starline: Plans to link Europe by a huge new "seamless" high-speed rail network (using existing infrastructure) could cut short haul flights by 80 percent.
Parisians Say Oui: Cars are set to be banned on hundreds more roads in the French capital after a referendum voted to turn them into green pedestrian zones. Around 220 streets in Paris are already car-free. Now, 500 more will now be closed to cars, which also means the removal of some 10,000 parking spots in the city.
Aptera: Solar EV hits Route 66 for 300 mile 'proving' road trip. The company says it's already racked up 48,000 vehicle reservations, with the Launch Edition coming in at US$40,000 apiece when production starts later this year.
Good Climate Stats: The 2025 Global Energy Review report from the IEA reveals that:
Renewables accounted for 93 percent of new power capacity and reached 46 percent of global generating capacity last year;
Emissions in advanced economies emissions fell to 50-year lows;
Oil fell below 30 percent of total energy for the first time since the 1970s - an unprecedented shift;
Perhaps most importantly - economic growth has now decoupled from emissions in the three biggest economies in the world - the United States, Europe, and China.
Gig Breaks Record: A concert by UK band Massive Attack has made history - not for the music, but for its environmental footprint - slashing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 98 percent compared to similar shows.
And Finally...
Longest Senate Speech: Senator Cory Booker, spent 25 hours on the Senate floor last week, railing against the Trump administration, surpassing Strom Thurmond for the longest Senate speech on record, in an act of astonishing stamina that he framed as a call to action. Mr. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and one-time presidential candidate, began his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday, vowing to speak as long as he was “physically able,” all the while assailing President Trump’s cuts to government agencies and crackdown on immigration, says the New York Times. He ended his speech at 8:05 p.m. the following evening, 46 minutes after eclipsing Mr. Thurmond’s 24-hour 18-minute filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957.
That's it, you are up to date.
Today's Articles
Dream Purchase: Woman in Pennsylvania has bought what is believed to be a rare Renoir charcoal drawing for just $12, but is likely to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Expand Your Horizon: Add some cultural variety into your TV viewing and discover for free what people in far-flung countries are watching with tv.garden.
Future Circular Collider: Bigger and faster - CERN's Large Hadron Collider’s successor to extend fundamental physics research.
Audrey Hepburn: A dozen insightful and uplifting quotations from the British movie star who made it big in Hollywood.