Newspapers, including ours, are often full to the brim of dour news about terrible events that happen on the daily all around us. This article’s aim is to lift your spirits in a world of negativity, and to bring to your attention all the weird and wonderful things that are happening around the globe as we speak!

Climate Change

A report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a US non-profit organization, suggests that we have reached the peak of fossil fuel demand for electricity. It states that we have reached a plateau, and that the dependence upon these non-renewable sources will only decline from here on out. It also states that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has really sped up the transition to green and that it is “a historic turning point towards a cleaner future.”

Medicine

There is hope that a debilitating disease, Guinea Worm, could become the first to be eradicated without a vaccine or medicine. Only 13 cases were reported worldwide in 2022, the lowest yet. This follows four decades of trying to fight the disease by attempting to improve the quality of drinking water.

River Pollution

A startup in the Netherlands, led by sailors and surfers, has found a way to stop trash in rivers using… wait for it… bubbles! The idea is to place perforated tubes on the beds of rivers to create a wall of bubbles that pushes waste to the banks to be collected. This has been proven to catch particles as small as 1mm, as well as over 85% of waste before it manages to reach the sea. It has already been used on multiple rivers like the Oude Rijn, and will be applied in other areas of Europe soon.

Ocean Pollution

The co-founder of Airbnb donated about $25 million to support The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit from the Netherlands that helps with cleaning up plastic pollution. So far it has removed almost 200 000 kilograms of plastic that would have otherwise remained in the water for decades. Their aim is to remove plastic by creating systems that could actually work on a larger scale— and their new project cleans over 10 times faster than their last one. The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove 90% of all floating plastic in the oceans. If you want to learn more or donate, here is their website: https://theoceancleanup.com/. 

Prosthetics

Three high school students in Tennessee helped their 15-year-old classmate, Sergio Peralta, do something he had only ever dared to dream of: catch a baseball. Sergio was born with an underdeveloped hand, which caused him many insecurities growing up. As soon as the engineering teacher found out, he offered his aid and three of his students jumped at the opportunity to help. They used online models of prosthetic hands to design and then assemble what would soon become the end of Sergio’s greatest source of self-doubt with a 3D printer.

Say cheese!

One of the nine motion-activated cameras in Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks caught not one, not two, but over 400 images of a resident black bear during the night. These cameras are usually used to learn more about animal behaviour in the wild whilst minimizing the amount of staff needed to observe the species. However, the bear had other plans – plans involving an impromptu photoshoot. It took 400 selfies in only 10 minutes!