Good News Headlines 8/17/2026
Image courtesy Ana Norman Bermudez for Mongabay
‘This Is What’s Working’: Indigenous Leaders On Environment Solutions In Their Communities
by Latoya Abulu, Mongabay
Eriberto throws his head back with a laugh and shakes it as he tills his plot of land in the Peruvian Amazon, near the Cordillera Azul National Park in central Peru. “That does not work here,” he says with a chuckle, responding to a question about why he doesn’t call his diverse forest garden “agroforestry”. In the past, government officials promoted planting coffee or cacao in agroforestry systems near his community. But Eriberto Guerra and other Indigenous farmers in the town of Lamas say it hasn’t been effective enough and some have rejected the sustainable farming label.
Cherokee Nation Bans Hyperscale Data Centers On Tribal Lands
by Chez Oxendine, Tribal Business News
The Cherokee Nation has become the latest tribal nation to ban hyperscale data center development on tribal lands, issuing the prohibition last Wednesday after receiving a report from the principal chief’s data center task force. The task force report found broad citizen opposition to hyperscale facilities and detailed concerns about energy use, water consumption, air quality, noise, light pollution and cultural resource protection. Of 1,593 citizens who responded to the task force survey, 64% opposed hyperscale data center construction within the reservation.
170,000 Borrowers Get Student Loan Debt Wiped Out Completely In Historic Settlement
by J.R. Duren, The Independent
More than 170,000 borrowers will see $11 billion in student loan balances disappear after a key federal court ruling in what has become the largest settlement against the U.S. government in the nation’s history. The ruling stems from the 2019 Sweet vs. McMahon settlement against the government based on the borrower defense rule, a federal regulation that allows student loan borrowers to apply for loan forgiveness if they believe they were defrauded or misled about the education they paid for. Eileen Connor, president of Project on Predatory Student Lending hailed the court victory as a team effort.
Brown Student Spends Summer Helping Teens Find Their Voice In English
by Daniel Samadani, Good News Network
For a group of teenagers learning English in Providence, Rhode Island, summer school this year looked a little different. There were vocabulary games and journal entries, but also trips into the community where students could put their new language skills to work—whether speaking with a cashier at a local market or learning how to describe their experience on a résumé. Teaching the 4-week class was Brown University student Justin Dunn, who spent the summer leading intermediate English courses for teens at the city’s public library.
Wildlife In The Eastern US Are Making A Comeback
by Rhett Ayers Butler, Mongabay
The best-known wildlife recoveries in the U.S. are often associated with the West. Yet some important gains have occurred east of the Mississippi. Andrew Moore’s new book, Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness, examines the decline and partial return of animals that once occupied the region in abundance. Before European settlement and large-scale land conversion, eastern habitats supported bison, elk, moose, woodland caribou, cranes, black bears, passenger pigeons, and Carolina parakeets. Many disappeared as forests were cleared, wetlands drained, and wildlife hunted.
