Every day the Good Good Good team collects the best good news in the world and shares it with our community. Here are the highlights for this week!
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The Best Positive News We’re Celebrating This Week —
A group of doctors just became the first in the world to cure blindness in four children with a rare genetic condition
Using a pioneering gene therapy, doctors in London have officially become the first in the world to cure blindness in children born with a rare genetic condition that causes vision loss. Those impacted are legally blind from birth.
Doctors injected healthy copies of the impacted gene into the eyes of four children between the ages of one and two during a one-hour surgery. They can now see shapes, find toys, recognize their parents’ faces, and even read and write.
One patient was from the U.S. and while his parents said it may not be the last treatment he needs in his life, the improvements so far are helping him know, see, and understand the world better.
Why is this good news? The outcomes, seen five years after the surgeries were performed, were “hugely impressive” and demonstrate the first effective treatment for “the most severe form of childhood blindness” — opening the door to treatment for young children at early stages of the disease.
An innovative machine recycles rubble into LEGO-like bricks to build homes for displaced Ukrainians
Global sales of combustion engine cars have already peaked — and electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly
In order to decarbonize the road transportation sector, the world must transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles and other forms of low-carbon transportation.
Based on data from the International Energy Agency, this transition is well underway: in fact, global sales of combustion engine vehicles peaked in 2018 and are now falling as electric vehicle sales grow rapidly.
While decarbonization must also involve adding more public transportation, trains, and other alternatives to personal vehicles, electric cars are also an essential part. And while more carbon is emitted in manufacturing electric vehicles, that “carbon debt” pays off quickly once they’re in use.
Canada is officially set to build the largest solar farm in North America
Medicine Hat, Alberta has more days of sunlight than any other city in Canada, making it the prime candidate for North America’s future largest urban solar park.
Once fully built out, the Saamis project would not only be able to meet the peak load demand for both industrial and commercial buildings in the city — it could also supply demand for its 65,000 residents.
Poetically, the 325-megawatt project will be situated on an old industrial site in “Gas City” — as Medicine Hat, Alberta is known due to the area’s extensive fossil gas reserves.
Even better: The project will be built on a 1,600-acre plot of land that had been contaminated by a solid waste byproduct of nitrogen production, so the land had very “limited development potential” — now, instead of sitting there useless, it will help bring clean energy to the community (which has environmental and health benefits of its own).
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Intentionally designed for community-building, a first-of-its-kind 3D-printed neighborhood will give 100 homes to people facing chronic homelessness
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Despite recent tragic, high-profile disasters, air traffic accidents have been declining globally
Between the collision of an airplane and helicopter in Washington, D.C. and an airplane overturning at a Toronto airport, recent high-profile tragedies involving aircraft have led to a decline in consumer confidence in flying.
However, a recent analysis of both U.S. and worldwide data found that there’s been a downward trend in air accidents over the past two decades.
In the U.S., there’s been a decline in air accidents from 2005 to 2024, despite the overall number of flights significantly increasing. In January 2025, there were 52 accidents, lower than 58 in January 2024, and 70 in January 2023.
The downward trend holds globally, too.
A historic ocean liner just began its final voyage before it becomes the world’s largest artificial reef
On its maiden voyage in 1952, the 1,000-foot SS United States shattered the transatlantic speed record, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in three days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes — beating the previous record for an ocean liner by 10 hours. It still holds that record.
Now, it’s begun its final voyage: the aging ocean liner is being towed from south Philadelphia to Alabama for prep work before officials sink it off the Florida Gulf Coast where it will become the world’s largest artificial reef.
Officials in Okaloosa County will add the iconic ship to the county’s more than 500 artificial reefs, generating tourism money, and supporting local marine ecosystems.
Why is this good news? Coral reefs support vibrant marine ecosystems, stimulate tourism and fishing industries, and protect shorelines from storms and erosion — but reefs around the world have been impacted by pollution, overfishing, and climate change. Artificial reefs like these can help restore those ecosystems, providing benefits for those of us on land, too.
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To identify people most in need of help, Los Angeles is using a new predictive AI model to help get homeless people off the streets
New energy storage capacity in China grew by 130% in 2024 alone
By the end of 2024, China announced that the country’s new energy storage capacity had reached 73.76 gigawatts/168 gigawatt-hours — a 130% increase over 2023.
In 2024 alone, the country added 42.37 GW/101.13 GWh of new storage capacity and had an average discharge duration of 2.3 hours, up from 2.1 hours in 2023.
China also saw breakthroughs in energy storage technology in 2024 with the integration of several non-lithium storage projects, like a compressed air energy storage facility, sodium-ion battery installations, and more.
A team of scientists found that Northeastern U.S. salt marshes store 10 million cars’ worth of carbon
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently debuted a new, highly accurate method to quantify carbon capture in salt marshes.
They found that the salt marshes in the Northeast store approximately 10 million cars’ worth of carbon emissions in their top meter of soil — and add around 15,000 cars’ worth every year.
That’s because as waves, storms, and tides come and go, new layers of carbon-trapping sediment are continually stored in the thick salt marsh grasses. Additionally, as glaciers continue to melt, the marshes grow vertically to keep up with rising sea levels and store even more carbon.
What’s the nuance: The team also warned that the amount of carbon salt marshes store could also have the reverse impact if they’re disturbed or their natural processes altered — leading them to release those greenhouse gases and further exacerbate climate change. All the more reason to ensure these natural environments are protected.
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A historic Los Angeles hostel got a stunning, modern makeover and now provides housing for 40 students facing homelessness
A UK man has planted more than a thousand trees in his community to restore green space in a ‘tree desert’
With less than 3% tree coverage, the Grimsby suburb of East Marsh is one of the UK’s “tree deserts.” It’s also where Billy Dasein was born and grew up.
Now an adult, Dasein is bringing his childhood dream of a tree-lined street to life with a community-benefit society called East Marsh United — and one of its highest priorities is trees because of their incredible health and community benefits.
Over the past two years, EMU has worked with members of the community and charities to plant 30 trees in the local park, 96 trees at local schools, and thousands of saplings in woodland and hedgerows.
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Over 1,000 musicians released a ‘silent album’ to protest a proposed UK copyright law letting AI use their work
A new, proposed copyright law in the United Kingdom could make it easier for artificial intelligence companies to use the work of musicians to train their models without the artists’ permission — unless they proactively opt out.
To protest this proposed law, more than one thousand musicians — including Annie Lennox and Imogen Heap — released a “silent album” titled “Is This What We Want?” on Spotify.
The 12-track album features ambient sounds of empty studios and performance spaces to symbolize “the impact we expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods.” All proceeds from streams will benefit a UK charity that supports working and retired musicians.
What’s the nuance? While some artists are excited about the potential of AI (in addition to use cases in health care, climate action, protecting wildlife, and more), critics note that most of the AI models “creating art” were actually “trained on copyrighted work without a license.”
And while the new copyright law would allow artists to opt out — that’s a “huge burden” for artists to protect their intellectual property, and doesn’t protect artists the way many think.
A grassroots movement led by women in Uganda is training the next generation of climate leaders
Girls for Climate Action is a grassroots movement in Uganda that’s training young women in the country to become experts and leaders in climate resilience and environmental protection.
Led by women in Uganda, the movement has trained more than 300 young women in parts of the country hit hardest by the climate crisis.
In addition to teaching them practical climate resiliency skills, like making a stove from natural materials, they’re ensuring women have a seat at the climate policy-making table because “they’re the ones using the energy,” knowing every step of the journey to collect firewood, make food, and more.
→ Watch more (video)
More good news of the week —
France’s parliament voted to limit the sale and production of items made using dangerous and toxic “forever chemicals.” Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are human-made chemicals used since the late 1940s to mass produce the non-stick, waterproof, and stain-resistant treatments that coat everything from frying pans to umbrellas, carpets, dental floss, and ski wax.
An early warning system for climate “tipping points” was just given £81 million in kickstart funding. The ambitious UK project will combine fleets of drones, cosmic ray detection, and the patterns of plankton blooms with artificial intelligence and the most detailed computer models to date to detect critical tipping points.
A rare fish species thought to be extinct for 85 tears was just rediscovered in India. The last sighting of the Chel snakehead was recorded from specimens collected between 1918 and 1933 in the Himalayan region of India, leading scientists to believe the species had died out.
Thousands of people in Nigeria are suing Shell and its subsidiary over its role in oil spills that have harmed their communities. The UN reports at least 1.5 million tons of crude oil have been spilled in more than 7,000 incidents in the Niger Delta region since 1958.
In a proposed law designed to restore trust in politics, lawmakers in Wales who deliberately lie could be forced from office. Putting the country at the forefront of an issue seen globally, the changes proposed by the Welsh Parliament standards committee would make candidates in elections liable to criminal prosecution for making false statements to win votes.
After a refugee center opened, the more than 1,000 refugees who passed through helped revive a “dying” village in Spain. Of the more than 1,000 people who have passed through the refugee center since it opened in 2021, around 100 decided to stay in the village permanently once their requests for residency were granted, including 25 children.
After a federal judge blocked the ban, two hospitals in Colorado resumed providing gender-affirming care for youth. After weeks of trying to find new places to receive care, the hospitals’ announcement brought relief to families, who “should have the right to access expert medical care to support their child’s well-being, including gender-diverse youth.”
The U.S. is on a fast track toward a clean energy transition as renewables continue to fall in price, especially solar. Though adoption was bolstered by Inflation Reduction Act credits, even the unsubsidized cost of solar power still dropped almost 85 percent between 2010 and 2023 — and even if those credits are repealed or shortened it’s “here to stay.”
Scientists in Hawaii are training “hungry” marine fungi to quickly eat ocean plastics. Plastic is the biggest ocean pollutant and plastic surfaces are the fastest growing habitat in this environment, and researchers have discovered a species of fungi around the island of O’ahu that eats polyurethane plastic.
An award-winning conservationist is building canopy bridges across highways in the Brazilian Amazon to protect endangered primates. Working with local partners including Indigenous people who hold important knowledge about the wildlife in their territory, the Reconecta Project has built more than 30 canopy crossings on a major highway.
In a “tipping point” for the movement, all 50 U.S. states have now introduced some form of right to repair legislation. Wisconsin just became the final state to introduce a “right to repair” bill, while laws have been passed in six states and another 20 states are formally considering bills in the current legislative session — and the movement is gaining ground globally.
New EU rules will force companies to cover the cost of collecting, sorting, and recycling food and textile waste. For fashion in particular, new extended producer responsibility rules mean textile producers and fashion brands will have to pay a fee to help fund waste collection, sorting, and recycling, based on how circular and sustainable their products are.
Following the recommendation of a “wellbeing commission,” the Danish government is banning phones in schools. Set up in 2023 to investigate growing dissatisfaction among young people, the Danish wellbeing commission made 35 recommendations aimed at achieving a better balance between digital and analog life among young people.
Results from a small clinical trial are showing promise for a personalized mRNA vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer. Right now, fewer than 13% of people live more than five years after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis — in this trial, half of the participants mounted a lasting immune response against their cancer cells.
A first-of-its-kind heart-shaped bouy is converting wave motion into clean electricity. Wave energy has the potential to generate an estimated 29,500 TWh per year, which is nearly ten times Europe’s total annual electricity consumption, and more than all of the global annual electricity generated in 2018.
