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 —
After her late husband told her women shouldn’t vote, an 81-year-old Georgia widow just voted for the first time ever
Betty Cartledge turned 82 yesterday, but cause for celebration came a few days earlier in the week, when the then-81-year-old voted in her first election.
Cartledge told a local news crew that she had never voted before, despite having the right to for her whole life, because her late husband “didn’t think she should.”
After he passed away in 2023, she realized that it wasn’t too late to exercise her right to vote. So, arm in arm with her niece, she entered the early voting location in Georgia to see the inside of a voting booth for the first time ever.
Why is this good news? While women in the U.S. have now had the right to vote for more than a century, “heads of households” (and even politicians) who believe women should not vote have suppressed a subset of women from exercising their rights.
Still, women are a force in elections, registering and voting at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980.
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When he learned 75% of produce was crawling with pesticides, a teen invented a handheld AI chemical scanner for in-store use
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New data shows a significant increase in the number of fathers taking parental leave in the Netherlands
In the second year of its new parental leave program, there was a 20% increase in the number of people applying for parental leave in the Netherlands. Around 170,000 applications were received from August 2023 to August 2024 — compared to 140,000 the year prior.
Notably, around 40% of the applications came from fathers — a significant increase from the 33% of applications the previous year. This shows that while parental leave is still more often requested by mothers — that gap is closing.
On average, parents took 8.2 of the 9 weeks of paid parental leave available to them. That time is in addition to the 16 weeks of maternity leave available to new mothers, six weeks of partner leave available within the first six months of birth, and 17 weeks of unpaid parental leave available until their child turns eight.
Studies show immediate and long-term benefits to both children and parents when parental leave policies are in place — and they are taken advantage of.
After a 100-year effort, Egypt has been officially declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization
In an achievement hailed as “truly historic” by the WHO, Egypt has joined 44 countries and one territory to officially be declared malaria-free.
Authorities in Egypt launched their first efforts to eradicate malaria around 100 years ago. And while this certification is an incredible achievement, the country will continue its work to maintain that status.
A country is certified as malaria-free when its transmission chain is interrupted for at least three consecutive years.
Why is this good news? Malaria still kills at least 600,000 people every year — nearly all of them in Africa, and it’s been a consistent presence in Egypt since ancient times.
Thanks to global progress in treating and preventing the deadly disease, more and more countries are achieving malaria-free status — equating to thousands of lives saved every year.
A North Carolina state senate candidate is running a race she’s guaranteed to lose to raise awareness about gerrymandering
Kate Barr, who is running for state senate in North Carolina’s 37th District, says she was “gerrymandered out of a chance” — so she’s running her campaign on the promise that she won’t win.
Gerrymandering is the practice of dividing or arranging a territorial unit into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage in elections — and North Carolina is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country.
In 2022, the state’s Supreme Court even ruled that the state constitution allows partisan gerrymandering.
While Barr is a Democrat, and gerrymandering itself is inherently partisan, her campaign isn’t intended to sway people any one way, but rather to shed light on the democratic process and the need to protect free and fair elections.
New York just hit its distributed solar energy production goal — one year ahead of schedule
One year ahead of its goal, New York just reached 6 gigawatts of distributed solar installed across the state — enough to power over one million homes.
Initially slated for 2025, the milestone was laid out in the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which aims to generate 70% of the state’s electricity from renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2040.
The state now sets its course toward reaching its next goal: 10 GW by 2030. And with another 3.4 GW of solar projects already underway, it’s confident it can achieve that goal too.
Why is this good news? The science is clear: while it’s not too late to solve the climate crisis, we have very little time to massively reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Rapid, exponential growth in the renewable energy sector is helping — and New York proves we can meet and exceed the goals we’ve set to limit warming.
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Portugal is now home to the largest Marine Protected Area network in Europe
In an effort to help achieve the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, Portugal just became home to the largest Marine Protected Area network in Europe — located in the Azores archipelago.
Home to deep-sea corals, whales, dolphins, sharks, and more, the Azores’ critical underwater ecosystems will now be protected from damaging activities like fishing.
The addition of the MPAs means 15% of the archipelago’s waters are fully protected, and 15% are highly protected — 287,000 square kilometers in total.
Why is this good news? The historic “30 by 30” agreement is critical for protecting marine ecosystems and local economies — but currently, just 8% of the ocean is protected in some way. MPAs have also been proven to be good for underwater habitats, help with carbon sequestration, boost fish stocks, preserve tourist attractions, and more. This is a major step in the right direction.
Adding two words to the phrase ‘What do you do?’ can humanize the way we approach work — rather than reinforce hustle culture
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New data shows global electricity generation from solar will quadruple by 2030 — and push coal power into decline
New data from the International Energy Agency shows solar will overtake nuclear, wind, hydro, gas, and coal to be the world’s largest source of electricity by 2033.
This, along with the rapid expansion of clean, efficient electricity will push fossil fuels into decline, with the data indicating that energy-related CO2 emissions will peak in 2025.
Notably, it also found that electric vehicles are now expected to displace 6 million barrels of oil per day — up from 4 billion barrels as projected in last year’s data.
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South Carolina is building its first-ever monument to an African American
During the Civil War, Robert Smalls famously donned Confederate clothes in order to steal a slaveholder’s ship and sail his family and a dozen others to freedom.
But South Carolina is honoring him with the state’s first-ever monument to an African American for another reason — Smalls helped rewrite the state’s constitution to give Black men equality post-Civil War.
The idea to honor Smalls with a monument has been in the works for years, until this year, when a proposal was unanimously passed in both the state House and Senate.
Why is this good news? As one representative acknowledged, the state has “a lot of good and bad history” but Smalls’ story represents “good history.” Memorializing the stories of people who helped fight for justice, equality, and human rights is what we ought to be dedicating our monuments to.
Monarch butterflies could be wiped out by 2090 — a group of scientists are moving a forest to save them
Rising temperatures, droughts, and disease are threatening a 56,259-hectare safe haven for millions (maybe billions) of monarch butterflies.
By 2090, the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve’s — located northwest of Mexico City — habitats are expected to deteriorate, and with them, the monarchs. So scientists have been working for years to create a new home for them.
On the slopes of the dormant Nevado de Toluca volcano, about 80 miles away from the current biosphere, scientists are making that new home — and helping the oyamel fir forests the monarchs love migrate there, too.
They’re using a technique called “assisted migration” to situate the forest at a higher elevation to protect the species they house — and have new proof that it’s working.
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More good news of the week —
Scientists invented a new “bioplastic” that degrades in water faster than paper to replace Styrofoam and single-use plastics. Following years of testing, the plastic-like polymer derived from wood pulp has been found to be the fastest-degrading bioplastic material tested in seawater.
Medical schools in Europe launched a network to train future doctors on the risks of climate change. The group of 25 schools in 12 countries aims to prepare 10,000 students in the next three years to recognize and manage climate-related health problems like those linked to extreme heat and air pollution.
Researchers created a device that can detect a heart attack in minutes, not hours. The quicker a heart attack is diagnosed, the quicker blood flow is returned to the heart, and the less damage is done, which improves patient outcomes.
Experts found that simple attachments to HVAC systems could divert 300 metric tons of CO2 emissions. The wind energy coming off of the systems’ outdoor fans has been wasted potential — but now scientists have figured out a way to harness it.
A zoo in Poland is celebrating the birth of four critically endangered Sumatran tigers. The tigers’ numbers have dwindled to around 400 in the wild, and the zoo waited to announce the cubs’ arrival until they were sure they would survive.
Medicaid will now cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans in four states. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the two-year pilot program that applies at Indian Health Service facilities, tribal facilities, and urban Indian organizations.
Voters in Brazil elected a record number of Indigenous people in its latest municipal elections. Earlier this month, 256 Indigenous people were elected mayors, vice mayors, and city councilors, the most in the country’s history and an 8% increase over 2020.
A breakthrough treatment for Type 2 diabetes eliminated the need for insulin in 86% of patients. The treatment, which combines combining ReCET and semaglutide, was safe and well-tolerated and will be tested in further trials to confirm the results.
Innovative conservation efforts are protecting mountain gorillas in Rwanda while uplifting local communities. By the 1980s, mountain gorillas in Rwanda were on the brink of extinction due to poaching and habitat loss — today, there are more than 600 mountain gorillas in the country thanks to the conservation efforts.
In a carbon capture breakthrough, Berkeley researchers used a turmeric-like powder to “clean the air entirely” of CO2. The IPCC has determined that carbon capture is vital to limit global warming, and while we’re making progress, current technologies are limited.
A group of former prisoners are making sure those leaving prisons have the support they need to reenter the community. Most reentry programs aren’t informed by previously incarcerated people’s perspectives and experiences, so they often miss the mark.
A U.S. federal court blocked the construction of a proposed 32-mile natural gas pipeline through Middle Tennessee. Two of the three-member judge panel ruled there was a risk of “irreparable harm” if the construction began, and a lawsuit filed challenging the environmental impacts of the project will continue.
Renewable energy capacity in India just hit a major milestone — accounting for 46% of the country’s total power. After years of effort to build solar parks, wind farms, and hydroelectric projects, the country’s total renewable energy capacity now exceeds 200 gigawatts.
Engineers just unveiled a new AI model that could help predict and control the spread of future pandemics. While disease outbreaks are inevitable, new techniques, tools, and resources like this can help prevent large pandemics like COVID-19 in the future.
Canada’s parliament passed a bill that would cover the cost of contraception and diabetes drugs. With an estimated one in five Canadians struggling to pay for subscriptions, the new bill would help people “make choices about contraception based on what’s best for their lives, not their wallets.”
