Jun 25, 2022

Saturday's Positive News

Updated: Jul 4, 2022

Uplifting bundle of positive news nuggets to get the weekend off to a bright start.

Buffett’s Billions

Warren Buffett may be planning to donate billions of dollars to a little-known charity that supports abortion rights. Bloomberg puts Buffett’s current net worth at $94 billion and he has pledged to give away 99 per cent of it. $56 billion of that is pledged to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and nearly $20 billion to four Buffett family foundations, but another $18.7 billion is uncommitted. Large sums could end up with the pro-choice Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which the WSJ reports is hiring staff and making plans to receive “a massive influx of money”. This looks even more likely now that the US Supreme Court has struck down Roe v Wade.

Oh Buoy!

A daredevil dad is taking to the water in his three foot (1m) long boat for the first time, which he hopes to sail 1,900 miles across the Atlantic next summer. 48-year-old Andrew Bedwell just made the maiden voyage in his tiny self-built fibreglass vessel off England's north west coast. During his trip out, the experienced mariner gave the “thumbs up” from his cramped cockpit, which is just big enough to accommodate his 6ft tall frame. “This is like being stuck in a wheelie bin, on a rollercoaster for 90 days – and that’s what it could be in the worst-case scenario.” Unsurprisingly, his wife thinks he's a bit "crackers".

Vietnam's Transition

Vietnam, a country of almost 100 million people, is undergoing one of the biggest and fastest energy transitions in the world. In the four years to 2021, the share of solar increased from zero to nearly 11 percent, making it the world's 10th largest solar power producer, reports Petrotimes.

Eco-Friendly Bottle

Beer giant Carlsberg is set to conduct its biggest trial of its fibre beer bottle across Europe. The completely recyclable bottle is made with a wood-based fibre shell and contains a lining made of a plant-based Polyethylene Furanoate (PEF) polymer. News of the wood-based bottle was unveiled in 2019 and Carlsberg has been working with partners on the design since 2015.

Selcouth

Rare and strange, but marvellous. Selcouth is used to describe something rare, but beautiful.

Incredible Journey

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 began the greatest journey of any human-made object in history by traversing the solar system and reaching interstellar space, visiting all of the outer planets along the way (other than Pluto). NASA has now decided to progressively power down their systems to extend the probes’ life, with a soft deadline for cutoff at 2030. That's roughly 53 years of operation in space! Considering that this 2030 soft deadline is more than 13 times the original mission life of just four years, this is quite an achievement, even if it must eventually come to an end.

Court Ruling

There's been a big environmental win in California with the enforced ending of state-run pesticide programs on public, agricultural, wild lands, and private properties.

End of Greenwashing

The European Union has reached a deal on corporate sustainability reporting requirements for large companies from 2024 - which must be externally audited. Regulators have grown more worried about companies engaging in greenwashing, or making exaggerated climate-friendly claims to attract investor cash, says Reuters. “From now on, having a clean human rights record will be just as important as having a clean balance sheet,” said Pascal Durand, who led negotiations for parliament.

Quote of the Day

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." Dale Carnegie

On this Day

25 June 1678: An esteemed musician and philosopher of her time, Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Padua, becoming the first woman to receive an academic degree and a PhD degree from a university.