Good News Tuesday for August 30, 2022: Tasmanian Rainforest Victory, Erasing US Student Loan Debt, The World’s Largest Community Garden, and a Cat Wakes Up Woman Having a Heart Attack

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Environmental Activists Halt Work on Toxic Waste Dump

A Federal court justice upheld environmentalist’s objections to a toxic waste dump in the Tasmanian rainforest “on the grounds that the endangered Tasmanian masked owl was not properly considered.” A new assessment will have to take place. Here’s more from EuroNews.Green.

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Erasing US Student Loan Debt for Lower Income Households

US President Biden is eliminating $10,000 in federal student loan debt for citizens with incomes below $125,000 a year, or households that earn less than $250,000. Here are details from AP.

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Rio de Janeiro is Creating the World’s Largest Community Garden

The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is growing what is likely to become the world’s largest community garden. Created in 2006, the project currently has 56 active neighborhood gardens with about 50,000 families involved. When completed, the urban garden will connect several neighborhoods with a green strip of land and be as large as 15 soccer fields. Mayor Eduardo Paes made it a goal of his administration to have the garden fully operational by 2024. You can read all about it here in Bloomberg.

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Cat Wakes Up Woman who was Having a Heart Attack

Sam says Billy is more her mom’s cat, but Billy woke her up by jumping on Sam’s chest and wouldn’t leave her alone. It turns out, Sam was having a heart attack and credits Billy for saving her life. Read more from the Good News Network. Plus, here’s a video of Sam and Billy:

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Good News Tuesday for October 12, 2021: Australia Gives Back Rainforest, Equal Property Rights, US Monument Protection Restored, and a Sheep Rescue

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Australia Returns Large Rainforest to Aboriginal Owners

Daintree National Park, over 600 square-miles of rainforest, was returned to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people who lived there for generations and are one of the world’s oldest living cultures. Click here for details, hopes, and beautiful photos.

Victory for Equal Property Rights in South Africa

The South African parliment recenlty passed a bill which reverses discrimination against black women seeking equal access to matrimonial property. Apartheid-era law giving the husband total property rights for black couples married before 1988 was declared unconstitutional in April. Read about the four women whose cases led to the bill and its significance in the Good News Network.

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US Monument Protection Restored

In the US, the Biden administration has restored protection for The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments as well as a marine conservation area off the New England coast. Here’s more from PBS News.

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Sheep Rescue Video

I detest barbed wire, and I’m still a little concerned for this sheep, but I keep watching this happy ending video over and over again. Maybe it’s the pleasant scenery… at the end of the video.

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Good News Tuesday for Dec. 8, 2020: Vaccines in the UK, Paris Climate Agreement, Saving Rainforests, Reducing Restaurant Trash, and Elephant Companionship

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Vaccines Against COVID 19 Begin in the UK

The United Kingdom starts it’s first wave of COVID 19 vaccines today with people over 80 and front-line health care workers. Here’s more from Good Morning America.

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Major US Businesses Support Rejoining Paris Agreement

Amazon, General Motors, and Walmart were among the 42 companies that signed a letter stating they “view climate action as a business imperative,” and urging President-elect Joe Biden and lawmakers to re-enter the US into the Paris Climate Agreement. Here’s more from Good Morning America

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Indigenous Leader Recognized for Work to Save Rainforests

Nemonte Nenquimo won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as “The Green Nobel,” for her work in saving 500,000 acres in Ecuador’s rainforests from oil companies. Her leadership set a legal precedent for indigenous rights. Read more from the Good News Network.

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Restaurant Close to Zero Waste (Seven Months Trash Free)

I’m proud of my hometown restaurant, Sealevel City Vegan Diner for their commitment to reducing waste and recycling. They reopened with new owners right before the pandemic hit, but have stayed open doing lots of curbside take out. This article in Port City Daily reports Sealevel hadn’t emptied a trash bin in seven months.

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Lonely Elephant Rescued

Kaavan, a 36 year old Asian elephant spent years in a Islamabad “zoo,” where he “suffered from a lack of exercise as well as cracked and malformed nails due to living in an inappropriate structure.” After Kaavan’s partner died in 2012, he became known as the “world’s loneliest elephant.” Singer, Cher has been part of a social media campaign to save him. Kaavan has been transported to the Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary where he is slowly being introduced to new friends. You can read more about Kaavan in this article from CNN

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Good News Tuesday for Oct. 27, 2020: Teen’s Research to Fight Covid 19, Conservation Progress, Drones in the Rainforest, and a Teacher Saves Grandma

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Middle School Student Wins 25,000 for Research to Help Fight Covid-19

Anika Chebrolu, a 14-year-old from Texas, won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge, which has been described as “the nation’s premier middle school science competition.”  In her research, “….which included analyzing close to 700 million compounds,” Anika discovered a molecule that can bind to the spike protein of COVID-19. You can read more in this article from Good Morning America.

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Conservation Efforts Have Made a Difference

Up to 48 species would have become extinct without reintroduction programs, zoo-based conservation, and legal protections enacted since 1993 when the UN Convention on Biological Diversity came into force. Here’s more from The Guardian

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Drones Help Indigenous People Spot Illegal Logging in the Amazon Rainforest

With help from the World Wildlife Fund, indigenous Andean tribes are starting to use drones to help protect wildlife and collect evidence on illegal logging in the rainforest. This article from the Good News Network includes an informative video.

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Teacher Saves Grandma

On September 22, first grade teacher Julia Koch was teaching her virtual class when she got a call from grandparent Cynthia Phillips about technical difficulties. Ms. Koch noticed Ms. Phillips was having trouble speaking and knew something was wrong. It turns out Ms. Phillips was having a stroke. You can read about how Ms. Koch got help for her student’s grandmother and also sign up for CNN’s Good Stuff here.

Plus, here’s a video!

Thank you to all the teachers on the front lines, virtually and in person!

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Good News Tuesday: A Victory in the Rainforest, Decrease in US Incarcerations of African Americans, Captain Tom Update, and Art is her Superpower

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

 

Indigenous Rainforest People Win Long Court Battle Against Illegal Loggers

It started in 1980 when mature cedar and mahogany trees were cut down illegally in the Kampa do Rio Amônia Indigenous Reserve of the Amazon. After a decades long court battle, the Ashaninka people of Brazil were given a public apology and awarded three million dollars in compensation. The settlement will be paid over five years and will be used mostly for reforestation projects.

“The case will define hundreds of thousands of cases on massive environmental crimes in Brazil.”   ___Antonio Rodrigo, Attorney for the Ashaninka people

For details, visit this article from The Good News Network

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Decrease in Rate of US Imprisonment of African Americans

One of the challenges of doing “Good News Tuesday” is finding a story of interest but with my own, “Yes, buts….” attached to it.  My “Yes, buts,” to this story are that African Americans in the US are still imprisoned at clearly disproportionate rates and that African Americans are still in danger as evidenced by continued wrongful deaths. Law enforcement officers still need  more training in sensitivity, compassion, and strategic alternatives to firing a weapon or use of unnecessary force. My country still has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

I decided to include this report in GNT because it was surprising to me that the imprisonment rate of African Americans in the US has fallen by a third since 2006. One reason given is that overall, violent crime in the US has decreased. (You couldn’t tell this just by watching your average news show.)

The report from the Pew Research Center provides graphs showing the decrease in overall US crime and the declines in imprisonment rates of African Americans and Hispanics, though they explain, “The increase in Hispanic prisoners…. was slower than the increase in the overall Hispanic population in the U.S., which is why the Hispanic imprisonment rate decreased.” The statistics do not include inmates held in local jails and those sentenced to less than a year. I still think these trends are worth considering as we search for ways to do better.  

Here’s the link to the report. 

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Captain Tom Update

Captain Thomas Moore who raised over $40 million for health care in England has been given the honorary promotion of colonel. Furthermore, Queen Elizabeth has approved his knighthood. In this article from ABC News, he wonders if the Queen will give him a hand up from kneeling when knighted.

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Art is Her Superpower

Ten-year-old Chelsea Phaire has given away over 1000 boxes of art supplies to kids in shelters, foster care, and those dealing with trauma. For her last birthday, she asked for art supplies to donate and sent these out in her first 40 boxes. Her charity started after a beloved teacher was killed by gun violence and art went from being Chelsea’s hobby to becoming her therapy. You can read more about Chelsea’s Charity in this CNN article, and please watch her short video!

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Good News Tuesday: Immunotherapy, Rainforest Helpers, and Gifts from a Retired Teacher

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Immunotherapy Treatment Eliminated All Tumors in Woman with Advanced Breast Cancer.

A new immunotherapy approach removed all the tumors in a woman with advanced metastatic breast cancer. The research done by the National Cancer Institute was published in Nature Medicine and involves the enhancement of naturally occurring tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.  Here’s the story from Forbes.

Hope for the Rainforest

The news about the fires in the Amazon rainforest is far from good, but there are helpers. The article below headlines the Group of Seven countries vowing to help Brazil fight the fires. The article also mentions investigations into how the fires got started and strong voices of the people of South America demanding more protection for the lungs of the planet. This does not mean everything is going to be okay. Our planet is screaming for help. I’m thankful that some people are starting to take this seriously, and I hold up these stories in hopes of giving them, the helpers, power.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/08/25/g7-leaders-vow-to-help-brazil-fight-fires-repair-damage/23801225/

Leonardo DiCaprio is contributing five million dollars to the Amazon Forest Fund, an emergency response created by Earth Alliance. Here’s more from the Good News Network.

This article gives suggestions about what we can all do to help including reducing our consumption of paper, wood, beef, soybeans, and palm oil.

Finally, here’s the story of chief Ajareaty Waiapi, and her mission to save Brazil’s forests.

Please join me in praying for whatever is needed to stop the fires in Brazil and for the healing of our precious planet.

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He Remembered His Teacher

Chris is a 30 year old man with special needs and operates cognitively on a 6th grade level. He was wandering the streets when police stopped him. When they asked him who they could call to help him, Chris could only remember the name of his middle school teacher, Miss Gerard, who ended up taking him. Michell Gerard plans to become Chris’s guardian. She discovered he had never had a birthday party. Watch what happened!

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Good news is out there!

Feel free to share your good news in the comments or write your own Good News Tuesday post and link it back here.

Good News Tuesday: Forgiveness, Free Dad Hugs, and Rain Forests

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Finding the Father Who Abandoned Her Twenty Years Earlier

“I asked the Lord for strength to help me know how to talk to her.” The only thing I wanted to ask her: Forgive me. ”  Ileana’s father,  Ernesto Quintanilla

Ileana’s mother was 16 when she gave birth to her daughter. Her father left when she was a baby, and Ileana was raised by her loving maternal grandparents.  She asked them and her mother about her father, but didn’t learn much more than his name. As an adult, she had a passion for children. Ileana volunteered for the non-profit Food for the Hungry and then became a staff member traveling to rural communities in her country of Nicaragua. One day, she met a boy with the same last name as hers. She asked him his father’s first name. It was the same name as her father’s, Ernesto.

The story below brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. I hope you will read the article and watch the video included in this link:

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/fathers-day-miracle-reunites-woman-and-dad/

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Free Dad Hugs at the Pride Parade

This one made me cry too. Scott “Howie” Dittman shares about the responses he got to his offer of free dad hugs at the Pittsburgh Pride Parade.

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Costa Rica Has Doubled its Tropical Rain Forests

Setting an example for the rest of the world, Costa Rica had doubled its tropical rain forests in just a few decades.  In the last half of the 20th century the country’s forests were cleared indiscriminately.  But Costa Rica has reversed this destruction by focusing on tourism and creating programs to protect its rich ecosystems. You can read more about how Costa Rica takes care of its forests in this article from World Economic Forum.

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