Global Good News Round Up
- Editor OGN Daily
- Jul 6
- 6 min read
Quick summary of all the world's top good news stories from last week.
Innovation
Graphene Chips: With everyone worried about the energy requirements for AI, it's good to know that the solution has already been figured out. And it should save us from the perceived need to ramp up fossil fuel production because the new chips can "cut electricity use for computing by 90 percent".
Remarkable Results: James Dyson's farm grows millions of strawberries on Ferris wheels with incredibly tasty yields.
'Sweating' Paint: Researchers in Singapore have developed a white paint that can 'sweat', significantly reducing the need for air conditioning - particularly in humid countries.
Beneath The Canopy: Pioneering satellite reveals rainforests' hidden worlds and is starting to measure how much carbon they absorb and lock up - even in Earth's remotest, densest and darkest tropical forests.
Health & Wellbeing
Good News For Kids: Gavi has secured $9 billion to immunise 500 million children, despite attempted sabotage by the United States, reports Reuters. RFK Jr announced that the US was pulling out on the eve of the summit, but Europe, the UK and the Gates Foundation bridged the gap.
“Pharaoh’s Curse”: Toxic fungus, first discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb, has been modified and harnessed to treat leukemia. Scientists say that the the compound showed “promising” cancer-killing properties that rivalled FDA-approved drugs, opening new frontiers for fungal medicines. “Nature has given us this incredible pharmacy.”
Youthful Looks: Japanese researchers have established that a pathway exists through which humble vitamin C can actually regenerate skin cells. As we age, our skin naturally becomes thinner and more fragile due to a decline in cell production but researchers found that vitamin C works throughout our life to counteract this ageing process - suggesting that vitamin C may help prevent age-related skin thinning and support healthier, stronger skin.
46: The number of countries free of malaria, now that Suriname has been certified. It's the first country in the Amazon region to eliminate the disease.
92: The percentage of the world’s population now with access to electricity.
Wildlife & Conservation
America’s Amazon: Nearly 8,000 acres of forest in Alabama’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta, one of the most biodiverse places in North America, is now protected after the land was at risk of becoming the site of a wood pellet mill. This is great news for the delta - 'America’s Amazon', as the area is sometimes called - because it's not only incredibly biodiverse, the hardwood trees and surrounding ecosystem stores an incredible amount of carbon - and that needs to be protected.
Record Numbers: Biologists in Texas have documented 383 Kemp’s ridley turtle nests - breaking the previous record of 353 set in 2017. Nesting season is still underway, so that number could end up being even higher.
Rarely Spotted: Conservationists are feeling hopeful about the fate of the critically endangered leopard population in Bangladesh thanks to a recent camera trap spotting. “As an extremely rare and secretive species, the latest sighting is very significant. It highlights the importance of the remaining natural forest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a reserve of wildlife habitat.” Conservationists plan “to protect these magnificent creatures and ensure a future where leopards and people coexist.”
Conservation Win: In a major win for global bird conservation, three chicks from one of the rarest bird species in the world - the blue-eyed ground dove - hatched in Brazil. “This is science-based conservation at its best. It’s about combining field knowledge, genetics, animal care and international cooperation to give this species a future.”
Mutually Beneficial: An ambitious re-wilding plan is aiming to turn Europe’s peatlands into conflict buffers and climate shields. Inspired by Ukraine’s flooding of the Irpin Valley, which stalled Russia’s 2022 assault on Kyiv, scientists and strategists are proposing a massive network of restored wetlands along eastern European borders. The plan would create peatland-based 'area-denial zones' from Finland to Romania, combining military deterrence with re-wilding goals.
Recycling
Recycling Success: New study shows how Norway achieves almost 100 percent plastic bottle recycling. After all, would you rather have a guaranteed 10 cents in your pocket or a chance at winning $1,000?
Pills From Plastic: Bacteria can turn plastic bottles into paracetamol in 24 hours. Scientists in Edinburgh hacked E. coli to pull off a chemical flip (called a Lossen rearrangement) that converts plastic leftovers into paracetamol. The biochemistry mashup flips the painkiller’s supply chain from oil to waste plastic, creating the potential for “trash-to-tablet” factories that both slash emissions and hoover up litter.
Climate & Clean Energy
Climate Budget Boost: Nearly 200 countries have agreed to raise the U.N.’s climate budget by 10 percent for the next two years. However, guess what? Trump has quit the U.N. Paris climate agreement and halted international climate funding. Happily, however, Bloomberg Philanthropies has pledged to cover the U.S. contribution.
92: The percentage of new energy capacity built worldwide in 2024 that was clean. Solar energy remained the driving force behind this expansion, responsible for 42 percent of the total global renewable power capacity mix. Including nuclear, around 40 percent of the world’s electricity now comes from carbon-free sources.
UK on Track: Reaching net zero emissions by 2050 just might be within grasp in the UK, ‘provided the government stays the course’. The government’s advisory panel revealed in its annual progress report that emissions in 2024 dropped to just under 50 percent of 1990 levels. It means the nation is on track to meet the interim target of a 68 percent cut by 2030.
Airloom: A rather counter-intuitive clean energy project backed by Bill Gates has broken ground in Wyoming, where a wind turbine that turns convention on its head will get a chance to prove its remarkable claim: wind power (using a "carousel-style configuration") at one third of the cost of traditional wind turbine towers.
Taking a Stand: A leading UN expert is calling for criminal penalties against those peddling disinformation about the climate and a total ban on fossil fuel industry lobbying and advertising, as part of a radical shake-up to safeguard human rights and curtail global warming. Elisa Morgera, presented her new report - The Imperative of Defossilizing our Economies - to the general assembly in Geneva last week.
Astonishing Progress: In a major milestone for the clean energy transition, China just surpassed 1 TW of solar capacity - almost as much as the rest of the world combined. To put that into perspective, the US currently has a total of around 250 GW of solar capacity, and the European Union has roughly 330 GW.
70: The impressive percentage of all new passenger vehicles sold in Nepal are now electric. The small Himalayan nation, only half of whose population had access to electricity two decades ago, is now rapidly electrifying its economy.
Climate Cash: A plan from the Inter-American Development Bank could unlock billions of dollars in private investment for renewable energy in developing countries. Under the proposal, public development funds would buy up private green-energy loans in poorer countries - currently off-limits to many mainstream investors due to rules about creditworthiness - and securitize them for institutional funds. The plan's architect, Avinash Persaud, said it could transform climate finance, kick-starting a virtuous cycle of investment ahead of November's COP30 summit.
And Finally...
Need to Solve a Problem? You might want to sleep on it - for about 20 minutes. New research suggests that taking a quick, deep nap may help lead to a “eureka” moment. Researchers do not fully understand the neural processes at play - that is, how and why a short nap seems to help people solve problems. But they suspect that, after napping, the brain is “more plastic and receptive to new ideas.” Some artists and innovators appear to have intuitively understood that taking a short nap could help boost their creativity. Whenever Thomas Edison got stuck, he reportedly liked to take a quick snooze while holding steel balls in his hands, so that if he fell into a deep sleep, the noise of the balls clattering to the floor would wake him up. Salvador Dalí employed a similar napping technique while holding a heavy key. Worth a try next time you are flummoxed by something?
That's it. You're up to date. But you may like to peruse last week's three most read articles (that were not included in the global good news round up, above) and / or enjoy last week's most popular video (below)...
