Good News Headlines 10/2/2023
The listed buildings Saloonen and Vinboden are leased to the University Center in Svalbard (UNIS) for research and teaching purposes. Photo: Eva Therese Jenssen/Sysselmesteren på Svalbard.
Norway Rewilds Arctic Coal Mining Town In Largest Operation Of Its Kind, Gives New Hunting Ground For Polar Bears
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
On the arctic island of Svalbard, the Norwegian government has just completed the largest re-wilding project in its history. Polar bears, reindeer, Arctic fox, and many sea birds are now moving back into the Sveagruva mining town, where the depths of the island were plumbed for coal for 100 years. Sveagruva was an industrial community nestled in a remote fjord, which before its closure had its own power station, wharf, water supply, and everything else that was necessary to house up to 300 workers and run mining operations on a large scale.
A New Climate Change Report Offers Something Unique: Hope
by Jeff Brady, NPR
Countries are setting records in deploying climate-friendly technologies, such as solar power and electric vehicles, according to a new International Energy Agency report. The agency, which represents countries that make up more than 80% of global energy consumption, projects demand for coal, oil and natural gas will peak before 2030. While greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, the IEA finds that there’s still a path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Juilliard’s MFA Acting Program Will Become Tuition Free In 2024
by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill
Juilliard Drama Department’s Master of Fine Arts in Acting will become tuition free for all students beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year. All accepted students will have their tuition fully covered via scholarships for the entirety of their study. The initiative has been funded from a matching challenge grant from producer and Juilliard trustee Stephanie P. McClelland and her husband Carter McClelland. The matching challenge was met thanks to a major gift from producer John Gore along with donations from the Jacques and Margot W. Kohn foundation and several estates.
NFL Running Back Makes 218 Single Parents New Homeowners With Collaborative Charity
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
A former NFL great surprised a single mother and her daughter with a brand new home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but it was just one of 217 other such blessings that Warrick Dunn has managed to fund. The collaborative effort by Warrick Dunn Charities, Habitat for Humanity, and Catholic High School where Dunn himself graduated, saw the house built, furnished, and stocked with food. “Dominique and Miracle, single mother, first-time homeowner, I think it’s important to help change the community and the environment, create stability for a family that could potentially have good long-term positive impacts,” Dunn said.
‘We Are Just Getting Started’: The Plastic-Eating Bacteria That Could Change The World
by Stephen Buranyi, The Guardian
In 2001, a group of Japanese scientists made a startling discovery at a rubbish dump. In trenches packed with dirt and waste, they found a slimy film of bacteria that had been happily chewing through plastic bottles, toys and other bric-a-brac. As they broke down the trash, the bacteria harvested the carbon in the plastic for energy, which they used to grow, move and divide into even more plastic-hungry bacteria. Even if not in quite the hand-to-mouth-to-stomach way we normally understand it, the bacteria were eating the plastic. The scientists were led by Kohei Oda, a professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.
