Positive News Tuesday
- Editor OGN Daily
- May 6
- 4 min read
A smorgasbord of tasty news nuggets to perk up the day.
Global Winners
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. 18-year-old Tomáš Čermák and 19-year-old Anna Podmanická developed PURA, an innovative water purification system tackling one of the planet’s most urgent but often overlooked challenges: antibiotic pollution. With antibiotic resistance projected to cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050, solutions like PURA are timely and critical. The duo’s system uses a unique combination of light and cold plasma to remove harmful pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from water - a fresh, science-based approach to a fast-growing global issue.
Getting Ready
Workers have attached a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, ahead of the election process for the next pope. The chimney, which is attached to the chapel before a new pope is elected, will signal to the public the election of Pope Francis' successor. With the death of Pope Francis last month, cardinals, senior members of the Catholic Church, will gather tomorrow for what's known as a "conclave" to determine the next pope and head of the some 1.4 billion Catholics around the world. There are currently 135 cardinal electors, and to join the conclave, cardinals must be under 80 years old.
Playdate
A playdate between the world’s tallest and smallest living dogs went the way of most dog park encounters despite their size difference - lots of tail wagging, sniffing and scampering. Reginald, a 7-year-old Great Dane from Idaho, and Pearl, a chihuahua from Florida, are both certified winners in their respective height titles by Guinness World Records. The fact that Reginald is the size of a small horse and Pearl is as small as an apple didn’t stop them from getting along famously. Pearl, a 4-year-old who stands at 3.59 inches (9.14 cm), whilst Reginald - who also goes by Reggie - measures in at a whopping 3-foot-3 (1 m). Guinness arranged the meet up at Reggie's home in Idaho Falls.
New Linear Park?
The Long Island Rail Road’s Rockaway Beach Branch once offered a 30-minute trip from Manhattan to New York City’s ocean beaches. The line was abandoned in 1962. Now, Friends of the QueensWay, a nonprofit, hopes to turn the abandoned train line into a linear park similar to the High Line in Manhattan. The group has received $154 million in grants from the city and the federal government, enough to complete the first mile and a half of park construction, reports the New York Times. If the Rockaway Beach Branch becomes a park it will be thanks in part to the success of the High Line, another once-abandoned train line that opened as a park starting in 2009 and now attracts tourists from around the world.
Slashing Emissions
A major breakthrough in hydrogen powered aluminum recycling could help reduce the carbon footprint of everyday items like soda cans and car parts. Novelis, the world’s largest aluminum recycling company, has successfully tested hydrogen fuel to power its recycling furnace in the UK. The company’s plant replaced natural gas with hydrogen in its melting furnace. 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. The test wasn’t just a small experiment. Workers melted several hundred tons of aluminum scrap during the trial, turning it into sheet metal that will be used to make new products. The success of the hydrogen powered aluminum recycling test marks a significant step toward cleaner manufacturing processes.
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. Not only that, 77 percent of those surveyed regarded renewables as a key to economic growth, while 75 percent saw clean energy as instrumental in job creation.
"We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love." Tennessee Williams
On This Day
6 May 2004: The final episode of the television sitcom Friends aired and was watched by more than 52 million viewers - becoming the fourth most-watched final episode of any television series in history. Top three M*A*S*H, Cheers and Seinfeld drew just over 105, 80 and 76 million viewers respectively.
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