Good News Headlines 11/13/2023
Port of Portland – released
Portland’s New Airport Built With Local Tribal Timber Is Inherently Fire Resistant And Less Carbon-Intensive
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
Oregon is famous for forests, and so it makes sense that the new “Port of Portland” airport terminal is going to be built almost entirely of state-of-the-art timber. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) also known as “mass-timber” is taking the construction world by storm with its incredible durability, robust fire resistance, low carbon footprint, and beautiful aesthetic. In Europe, CLT has been used to build skyscrapers, aka “plyscrapers.” But CLT is not plywood, and is instead made of long boards pressed together cross-ways with glue and high temperatures, making it strong but also flexible. In Portland’s new terminal, a giant roof for the atrium is being built with CLT made from Douglas fir, hemlock, and southern yellow pine sourced entirely from Oregon landowners or Tribal nations.
A Place To Find Peace In Troubling Times
by James Sullivan, Boston Globe
The Peace Memorial Park, established here on Main Street in 1994, stands right next to the town’s war memorial. The Memory Statue dedicated in 1924 — a compassionate female figure cradling a soldier’s helmet in honor of the town’s war veterans — is 70 years older than the Peace Park. The two memorials might seem at odds with each other. But Lewis Randa, founder of the Peace Abbey, the organization behind the park, has come to believe the two belong together. “To get the full picture, we need to honor those who sacrificed their lives in war,” he said on a balmy October afternoon, a few weeks after the latest conflict began with the Hamas attack on Israel. “It’s two sides of the same coin.”
‘We Give Them Hope And Happiness For A While’: Breakdancers Perform For Children In War-Torn Gaza
by Kaamil Ahmed, The Guardian
As a crowd gathers round them in the playground of a UN school in Gaza, the Camp Breakerz Crew jump into a medley of flips and twists. The excited audience, some watching from balconies above, is made up of hundreds of Palestinian children, all sheltering in the school in Nuseirat refugee camp. Camp Breakerz, a group of dancers who have lived through several wars in Gaza, have spent the past few weeks entertaining the children who have been displaced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. “I feel happy that we make the children forget about the attacks for a while. I feel happy when I see some smiles on their faces,” says Ahmed Alghariz, the co-founder of Camp Breakerz, which has been at the forefront of Gaza’s hip-hop scene since 2004.
Ocean Lover Saves 1,000 Seals Off Britain–And Even Built Them A Hospital
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
In the beautiful, blustery seaside city of Cornwall, a woman runs a hospital for injured seals amid volunteer work rescuing all kinds of sea life, and was recently awarded the Animal Action Award for her heroic work. Lizzi Larbalestier is a volunteer for British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) who spent nine months caring for injured seals after she turned her Airbnb into a makeshift animal hospital. After determining it simply wasn’t enough, she, her husband, and other volunteers have built a fully functioning seal hospital from the ground up in Cornwall. The new facility has ten pens, while the couple’s home facility had just six. Now in their third birthing season of operation, Larbalestier is expecting around 100 seals to come for rehabilitation each year.
Live Better, Live Longer: The Retirement Home That’s More Like An Alpine Spa
by Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian
If you hadn’t walked in from a stretch of bustling city life, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in an Alpine spa hotel. Water runs along a channel beside a lush bed of ferns in a sunny courtyard, before tinkling into a shallow pool beneath the dappled shade of mature ginkgo trees. On timber-lined walkways that wrap this tranquil space, some residents sit on benches outside their flats while others tend to herbs in the rooftop garden. “People are so often pushed to the margins in later life,” says Martyn Craddock, chief executive of United St Saviour’s, the charity behind this handsome new block of social housing for over-65s. “We are here to provide an option for people who want to live independently in the centre of the city – and have fun in their later years.”
