Upbeat News Tuesday

Editor OGN Daily
Oct 7
4 min read

Some tasty bite-sized chunks of upbeat news to get the day off to a positive start.

Wild horses in Wyoming — Court enforces habitat protection

Wild Horse Victory

Wild horse protection groups have scored a significant legal victory after a federal appeals court blocked a government plan that would have eliminated two entire wild horse herds in southwest Wyoming. The decision prevents the Bureau of Land Management from removing thousands of horses from over 2 million acres of public land and represents a major win for wild horse habitat protection. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the Bureau of Land Management violated federal law when it decided to permanently eliminate the wild horse herds, finding that the agency failed to consider whether its management decision would help achieve a “thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands.”

Sarah Cook on her bike in Carlisle earlier this month — Still going after 7 years on the road

Life Begins at 60

When the urge became impossible to ignore, Sarah Cook bought a touring bike and an “all-singing, all-dancing four-season tent”, and packed her belongings into 68-litre bike bags. She was 60, and, having rented out her flat in Cumbria, England, set off alone to pedal the Pacific west coast of the US. As she cycled away from Vancouver airport, “I was like ‘See you in six months!’,” Cook says. “Not having the weight of bricks and mortar and possessions was so liberating.” By the time she arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, 111 days later, she knew, “this is how I want to live my life.” Now 67, she has been itinerant ever since, and has cycled 24,000 miles. She has no plans to stop. "I have two mantras. One: it’ll work out. The other: just do the next thing."

the release of a juvenile Atlantic sturgeon in Sweden’s Göta River — Credit: Jon A Juarez | Rewilding Europe

Rewilding Europe Award

The German Society for Nature Photography has announced the winner of this year’s Rewilding Europe Award, as part of the prestigious European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The stunning winning entry - captured by Spanish photographer Jon A. Juárez and titled Comeback of the Atlantic Sturgeon - depicts the release of a juvenile Atlantic sturgeon in Sweden’s Göta River in 2024, as part of a first batch of 100 fish. This pioneering rewilding initiative offers new hope for the recovery of the species in Europe.

Coolest Neighbourhood

What makes a place cool in 2025? Time Out, which recently published its list of the world’s coolest neighbourhoods, defined the hippest spots as “places that represent the soul of our cities, while maintaining their own unique local character that draws people in to live, work, and play.” With this in mind, the outlet tapped its global network of writers and editors for nominations and then ranked each neighborhood based on culture, community, livability, nightlife, food and drink, street life, and “sense of nowness.” Topping the list is Jimbocho in Tokyo, renowned for its cozy coffeehouses, curry restaurants, music clubs, and 130 secondhand bookstores. See the full list of neighbourhoods, spanning six continents.

Rippling Wave

Astronomers have spotted a vast wave rolling through the outer disk of our galaxy. It stretches over tens of thousands of light-years and appears to ripple away from the center, like circles spreading from a stone tossed into a pond. The discovery comes from fresh analyses of data gathered by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, led by a team including Eloisa Poggio at Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica. The research adds a new layer to the Milky Way’s already complex dance of rotation, warp, and wobble. Gaia’s precision - three spatial dimensions plus three components of stellar motion - allows scientists to build top-down and edge-on maps of the galaxy in unprecedented detail.

Cool Idea

China is preparing to submerge a capsule of servers off the coast of Shanghai in mid-October - a first. The company behind the idea wants to curb the huge energy costs of traditional data centers. AI has created an urgent need for more efficient infrastructure as land-bound data centers use energy-heavy cooling systems. By contrast, ocean currents can naturally regulate the temperature of submerged servers. Interesting Engineering reports that the company claims that “underwater facilities can save around 90 percent of energy consumption for cooling.” Microsoft trialed a similar idea off Scotland in 2018 but never went commercial. In China, the project is part of a government push to cut the carbon footprint of data facilities.

Chevron Loses Lawsuit

In good news for everyone who thinks it's appropriate to hold oil companies to account for environmental damage, Chevron has been ordered to pay $744.6 million in damages (with interest, the total owed is $1.1 billion) after a Louisiana jury found the oil giant responsible for decades of environmental damage to the state’s fragile coastal wetlands. The case, brought by Plaquemines Parish in southeast Louisiana, is the first of many pending lawsuits targeting oil companies for contributing to land loss in the state. Legal experts and environmental groups say the verdict could influence dozens of similar lawsuits pending.

“The world is a museum of passion projects.” John Collison