- Oct 25, 2022

Just Good News Tuesday

Global round up of good news nuggets to help brighten the day.

Poverty Progress

According to a new report from the United Nations, the number of people in India considered poor fell by a whopping 415 million between 2005 and 2020. This precipitous drop – likely a result of concerted investments in sanitation, nutrition, education, electricity, and more – means that now only 16 percent of Indians are experiencing poverty compared to over 50 percent in 2005.

Charging Up

Germany is to massively expand the country's charging network for electric cars, spending 6.3 billion euros ($6.17 billion) over the next three years as it expects more and more drivers to turn away from combustion cars to more climate-friendly vehicles. The German government's goal is to have 1 million publicly accessible charging points in the country by 2030.

Two Wheels

The UK’s love affair with cycling has stepped up a gear, according to new figures. Analysis of transport data by The Times revealed that cycling levels over the summer were 54 percent higher than pre-pandemic – and 11 percent higher than the summer of 2020, when people were told to avoid public transport.

Curbside Compost

Composting programs have had mixed success in New York City, home to more than 8 million. But a new composting program in Queens, which launched earlier this month, opens a fresh chapter in NYC’s quest to create a curbside composting program. It marks the first time the city has provided free composting to an entire borough, and it’s good news for a city that is trying to reduce emissions. Queens’ 2.2 million residents can now put food, food-soiled paper, and yard waste - categories that account for about a third of the waste they typically send to landfills - into bins provided by the Department of Sanitation. The curbside composting initiative is the largest in the nation.

Trash: Sweden Sends Only 1 Percent to Landfills. As the world seeks out ways to shrink its open mountains of garbage, Sweden, a country that dumps less than one percent of its waste to landfills, offers an alternate path. Read on...

Amazing Trees #2

Yemen's Dragonblood tree earned its fearsome name due to its crimson red sap, which is used as a dye and was used as a violin varnish, an alchemical ingredient, and a folk remedy for various ailments.

Fossil Finance

Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it will stop funding new oil and gas projects – the first major UK bank to do so. In its updated policy, Lloyds said: “We will not provide financing to new clients in the oil and gas sector unless it is for viable projects into renewable energies and transition technologies, and clients have credible transition plans.”

Thanksgiving Prank

Last year, a mother fooled her family into thinking she’d forgotten to put the turkey in the oven for Thanksgiving – until she cut into the “raw meat” revealing it was a cake. Fernanda Pacheco, 50, brought out the hyper-realistic cake and proceeded to cut into what they her family thought was a raw turkey. It’s not the first time Fernanda has tricked her offspring. Previously she pranked her teenage daughter into thinking she’d got her a Big Mac from McDonalds when it was actually a chocolate fudge cake.