- May 28, 2022

OGN Saturday

Updated: Jun 13, 2022

To help ensure it's a sunny Saturday, here is today's global round up of positive news nuggets.

Philanthropy

The charity Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has accelerated into the fast lane toward transforming youth mentorship in the U.S. with a $122 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. It will use the record-breaking gift to further its mission to ensure every young person has access to powerful one-on-one mentoring relationships that empower them for success in school, career, and life. Ms. Scott has given away $8 billion in the past two years to hundreds of charities, since her divorce left her with 4% of Amazon’s shares - including, recently donating $436 million to Habitat for Humanity.

Amazon Rainforest

An important part of the growing movement for the rights of nature is empowering indigenous peoples to steward their lands. Indigenous forests sequester twice as much carbon as those on private or public lands, and these often have the highest levels of biodiversity. Despite Brazilian president Jai Bolsonaro's efforts to the contrary, the trend now includes 130 Brazilian mining companies (accounting for 85 percent of the country’s legally produced ore) that have withdrawn requests to extract minerals from Indigenous lands in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest.

Largest Urban Garden

Elsewhere in Brazil, people in Rio de Janeiro are digging deep to create the world’s largest urban garden. As well as feeding low-income families, the project brings many other benefits. The Manguinhos garden stretches the length of four football pitches, but the mayor of Rio has announced that the city would soon be home to the largest urban garden in the world spanning 11 hectares of land (27 acres) that currently lies idle – the equivalent of 15 football pitches. The municipality says the project will be completed by 2024 and bring food security to 50,000 local families.

Imparadise: to make supremely happy, transport with delight or joy.

Return to Nature

When President Gerald Ford signed a bill creating Cuyahoga National Recreation Area in Ohio in 1974, the boundaries of the site deliberately included a well-known local garbage dump. When the National Park Service discovered it was a nearly-unmanageable chemical wasteland where even the water and soil were flammable, a decades-long cleanup effort converted it, at the polluters’ expense no less, into a vibrant marsh ecosystem with some of the highest biodiversity in the region. Where once there was a toxic wasteland, now lies tranquil forested ponds full of fish, insects, and amphibians.

Sh*t Powered Car

A team of engineers in France smashed the record for farthest distance traveled in a hydrogen-powered car, showing the promise of hydrogen fuel technology. The modified Renault Zoe electric car traveled more than 2,000 km (1,242 miles) over three days on a single tank of biomethanol. The G-H3 biofuel is created through 'biomass methanation', which turns plant residue and manure into fuel, creating electricity for a car's battery. G-H3 contains no fossil fuels at all.

EU Solar Mandate

A new European Union initiative will make it mandatory to install solar panels on new public and commercial buildings, as well as new residential buildings by 2029. It’s part of the EU’s goal to get to net zero, reduce reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2030, and rebuild its solar manufacturing industry.

COP27

Financial assistance for developing countries must be at the top of the agenda for UN climate talks this year, the host country, Egypt, has made clear, as governments will be required to follow through on promises made at the Cop26 summit last year. Egypt will host Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November.

Quote of the Day

"Short-term thinking is the greatest enemy of good government."

Anthony Albanese, the new prime minister of Australia

On this Day

28 May 1961: Dedicated to informing public opinion about human rights and to securing the release of political prisoners, Amnesty International was founded in London.