Good News Worth Celebrating

Editor OGN Daily
May 11
4 min read

Quick summary of the top good news stories from last week.

Nature & Conservation

'Greatest Message': Sir David Attenborough's new film - Ocean - was released last week. "After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea."

Ecocide Law: The global movement to enshrine the crime of ecocide in law has scored an important victory. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe endorsed a Convention which, if adopted and ratified by member states, would become “the first legally-binding international treaty to criminalise severe and large-scale environmental destruction”.

Brazilian Amazon: The Brazilian Supreme Court has directed the government to seize private lands where forests have been illegally razed. By one estimate, more than half of the forest lost in the Brazilian Amazon has been on private lands. The ruling also calls for halting the process known as regularization, by which land grabbers are granted title to stolen lands, even when they have illegally destroyed forest on those lands.

Rewilding Illinois: Rewilding could be codified into state law this summer. This would empower the state’s Department of Natural Resources to harness rewilding as a “conservation strategy", including restoring land to its “natural state” and reintroducing apex predators and keystone species. In a vacuum of federal leadership, it would allow the state to push ahead with rewilding policies regardless.

Health & Wellbeing

Dopaminergic Pathways: A new study from Boston's Northeastern University has found that "magic mushrooms" could be an effective treatment for concussions because of their brain-healing properties. The researchers said that the hyperconnected dopaminergic pathways could indicate neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to reorganize itself in response to injury.

Earth Prize: Young innovators from Slovakia and Czechia have been named the global winners of The Earth Prize 2025 – the world’s largest environmental competition for 13 to 19-year-olds. Tomáš Čermák and Anna Podmanická developed PURA, an innovative water purification system tackling one of the planet’s most urgent but often overlooked challenges: antibiotic pollution.

Poverty Plummets: A new report from The World Bank confirms India’s stunning success in poverty reduction: Extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15 per day) fell from 16.2 percent in 2011-12 to 2.3 percent in 2022-23. In more tangible terms, that’s 171 million people lifted from the worst forms of deprivation.

Shooting Blanks: A new nonhormonal male contraceptive called Adam could soon be on the market as a reversible alternative to vasectomies. The water-soluble hydrogel is implanted in sperm ducts and prevents sperm from mixing with semen but is designed to break down in the body after a set period, restoring fertility.

Let There Be Light: The Tanzanian government has set an ambitious goal of universal electricity access by 2030, and its progress, from a mere 14 percent national coverage in 2011 to 46 percent in 2022, is one of the fastest expansion rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. A key driver has been its rural electrification program, which has connected nearly eight million people, over 1,600 healthcare facilities, about 6,500 educational institutions, and more than 16,000 businesses to the grid.

Climate & Sustainability

United We Stand: A survey across 125 countries revealed that 89 percent of people want stronger climate action from their governments. Many wrongly believe they are in the minority, and the 89% Project, a global journalism initiative, aims to spotlight this overwhelming support and help trigger a social tipping point.

Beating Heart: World’s biggest fusion reactor is finally complete. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is nearly 40 years in the making, and its most complex component is now ready for assembly.

Captains of Industry: Despite the rallying cry of “drill baby, drill” from certain world leaders, captains of industry overwhelmingly believe that the future is renewables not fossil fuels. That’s according to a global poll of 1,500 business leaders in 15 countries, which found that 97 percent support the clean energy transition.

Clean Maritime Transport: Built in Australia, the world's largest fully electric ship is also the biggest EV ever built.

Seawater Solution? A pilot project in the UK is capturing carbon from seawater to help combat climate change. Some scientists believe that a better alternative to capturing carbon from the air would be to capture carbon from seawater, because the ocean is the planet’s largest carbon sink, absorbing 25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

'Shark Skin' For Jets: It’s a clear example of biomimicry, where designs from nature are used to solve human problems. This time to improve aerodynamics in order to reduce fuel consumption.

Slashing Emissions: Novelis, the world’s largest aluminum recycling company, has successfully tested hydrogen fuel to power its recycling furnace - replacing natural gas with hydrogen. This switch could cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent compared to using natural gas. Industry experts estimate that aluminum production accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon emissions.

Unused Space: Switzerland is turning train tracks into solar power plants.

And Finally...

Taking a Stand: A longtime Washington Post editorial cartoonist who quit in protest after editors cut her sketch criticizing the paper’s owner just won a Pulitzer Prize. Ann Telnaes won for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions” for her cartoon depicting a group of media executives bowing before then President-elect Trump, offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.