Celebrating the start of the weekend with an eclectic bundle of upbeat news nuggets.
Congratulations to Nepal
The Terai Arc Landscape initiative, Nepal’s pioneering ecosystem restoration project, has led the restoration 257 square miles of forest and nearly tripled the population of the endangered Bengal tiger. It's just been honoured as a UN World Restoration Flagship, one of the seven best examples of ecosystem restoration around the world.
Full Recovery
Twenty years ago, officials closed around 4,600 square miles of ocean waters off Southern California due to overfishing. Since then, nearly all species have achieved full recovery. "If you leave Mother Nature alone, things can come back and can be more resilient than even we expect."
Quadruplet Leaplings
Britain’s only leap year quadruplets are celebrating their ‘third’ birthday this week - 12 years after birth. Reuben, Samuel, Zachary, and Joshua Robbins were all born within six minutes of each other on 29 February 2012. They celebrate their birthdays on March 1 each year, but every four years they get to mark the real day, being that it disappears from the calendar for three.
Health Accomplishments
The WHO's South-East Asia region, home to two billion people, has a new report out, highlighting an extraordinary list of accomplishments from the last decade. Between 2014 and 2023, the region eliminated neonatal tetanus and saw the highest reduction in maternal mortality in the world, as well as the fastest decline in tobacco use. Two countries eliminated malaria, two eliminated trachoma, three eliminated rubella and measles, four eliminated lymphatic filariasis, four achieved hepatitis B control, and the Maldives and Bangladesh became the first countries in the world to eliminate leprosy and visceral leishmaniasis, respectively.
Sign of Hope
The birth of a monkey at a zoo has been hailed as a "sign of hope" for its endangered species. The baby Francois' langur was born on 17 February at Whipsnade Zoo in England. Zookeeper Amanda Robinson said the newborn was a "ray of sunshine" amid decreasing numbers of the primates in the wild. "It's believed the babies are born with bright orange locks so that parents can easily spot the youngster when they're being cared for by the troop," she said. "Over time this hair will fade to black." Native to China and northern Vietnam, Francois' langurs are listed as endangered - which makes the birth internationally important.
Cleaning Dublin's Air
This year, Dublin will become the latest European capital to bar through-traffic from its city centre. In a bid to clear the roads and clean the air at its core, Ireland’s largest city is beginning a process of replanning central streets so that private cars and commercial trucks will be allowed access only if their final destination is downtown. By displacing vehicles merely passing through on their way to somewhere else, the plan promises to both ease current traffic congestion and allow for the creation of new pedestrian streets and plazas that will make Dublin’s heart an altogether more pleasant place to linger. The plan sets a goal of a 60 percent traffic reduction in the urban centre.
Electric Coach
Compared to planes or cars, coach travel is already a pretty green way of getting around. But soon in England and Wales coach travel is going to get even greener, as one long-distance operator is launching what it says is the countries’ first 100 percent electric coach route - between London, Bristol and Newport, commencing 21 March. Flixbus says the buses are zero-emission and that they’ll save 352kg of carbon emissions per day compared to diesel-fuelled equivalent coaches. Each eco-friendly coach will have 46 seats with USB charging points and free wi-fi, plus a WC. Ticket prices start from just £2.99 ($3.75), and you can book on the Flixbus website here.
“I have a simple philosophy: Fill what is empty. Empty what is full. Scratch where it itches.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth
On This Day
2 March 1965: The Sound of Music, a film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play, premiered; the movie, which was based on the real-life story of the Trapp family of Austria, was a commercial success and won an Oscar for best picture.
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