Arizona Gives Day generates over $6 million for state’s nonprofits

Good News Notes: “Arizona Gives Day 2022 raised more than$6 million for 900-plus nonprofits statewide. Additionally, more than 36,000 volunteer hours were pledged by folks who want to give some of their time to help state charities. “Given the nature of the economy, the global unrest and the fact that we were just climbing out of…

New Zealand Embraces Electric Cars EVs, Hydrogen to Cut Emissions, Fossil Fuels

Good News Notes: “New Zealand will accelerate its adoption of electric vehicles and investigate hydrogen as an alternative energy source as it seeks to phase out fossil fuels and play its role in mitigating global warming. Announcing its first emissions reduction plan Monday in Wellington, the government said it will initially allocate NZ$2.9 billion ($1.8…

California runs on 100% clean energy for the first time, with solar dominating

Good News Notes: “For the first time ever, California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, was powered by 100% clean energy on Saturday, April 30. That milestone was driven largely by solar power. California’s 100% clean energy milestone Energy demand statewide reached 18,672 megawatts at 2:45 pm, with 37,172 MW available. (Excess is exported to neighboring states.) 101% of…

Germany Targets 100% Renewable Power Generation By 2035

Good News Notes: “Germany will target to have all its electricity provided by renewable energy sources by 2035, according to a new draft policy that speeds up the timeline for ending fossil fuel-powered generation before 2040. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, said in a major shift of energy policy this weekend that it would…

Trash for rice: Bali recycling scheme gives families pandemic lifeline

Good News Notes: “For Balinese souvenir shop owner I Kadek Rai Nama Rupat, the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic have been a fight for survival. The pandemic has prevented the foreign tourists that usually throng businesses like his on the Indonesian resort island from coming and rising food prices have compounded the economic…

University of Toronto endowment to eliminate fossil-fuel investments

Good News Notes: “The University of Toronto will eliminate fossil-fuel companies from its endowment fund, beginning immediately, according to a news release issued Wednesday. The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp., the investment manager of the C$4 billion ($3.2 billion) endowment fund, said in the release it will divest all direct investments in fossil-fuel firms…

Ingredient upcycling – finding the value in unused food

Good News Notes:  “The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) assessment of global food losses and waste estimated that each year, one-third of all food produced in the world for human consumption never reached the consumer’s table. This not only means a missed opportunity for the economy and food security, but also a waste of…

Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Inspired By Plastic-Bag-Eating Goats

Good News Notes: “For Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, her great awakening to plastic pollution started with goats. She was working for a local environmental nongovernmental organization in her native Malawi with a program that gave goats to rural farmers. The farmers would use the goats’ dung to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer. The problem? The thin plastic…

A look inside Harry Chapin Food Bank as food insecurity continues

Good News Notes: “Cameras were allowed inside of Harry Chapin Food Bank for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Visitors have been banned from going inside for quite some time yet the volunteers never left. That’s because the need for food never stopped. Juanita Alicea is one of those volunteers. “People that…

‘Food security is security’: Brazil’s urban farm success story

Good News Notes: “Every week, Ezequiel Dias, an urban farmer, knocks on the doors of his community’s red-brick, makeshift houses with a delivery of fresh sweet potatoes, pumpkins, onions, cabbage and herbs. He checks to see if the families require additional help. Some need facemasks, others need soap. But few are hungry. Many of his…