News

8 positive things that happened this month that you might have missed.

If you&#39;re reading this, I want to start off by congratulating you for making it through August! You have survived (and hopefully thrived) through yet another month of existence, and hoo boy, it gets rough out there. So, before reading any further, go ahead and pour yourself a glass of water and take a deep breath, you&#39;re doing a good job.You don&#39;t have to look far to find news stories that make your soul want to crumple up into a tiny charcoal ash, soon to disintegrate into a flame of despair. There are a lot of cruel people in power, and global issues like climate change and the growing wealth gap can easily foster a feeling of helplessness about the state of the world. Given the nature of the 24/7 news cycle, it&#39;s super easy to get buried in terrifying stories you don&#39;t have the capacity to fully emotionally process.However, for every seemingly dire problem, there is a group of people working hard to find solutions. Positive news stories rarely get as much play as negative headlines, partially because building is more incremental than destroying, but also, one of the purposes of the news is to warn people of danger.Because of the widespread accumulation of doom and gloom, I think it&#39;s crucial to signal boost all the ways people are resisting complacency and imagining a future where we adapt and survive. So, here are a few good news stories that happened in August alone.1. Ethiopia broke a world record by planting 350 million trees in 12 hours.Ethiopia planted 353 million trees in 12 hours for a reforestation campaign pic.twitter.com/nbofIh8lIz&mdash; Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) August 25, 2019 At the beginning of 2019 the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the 'Green Legacy' reforestation campaign to tackle climate change. As part of this campaign, Ahmed invited millions of people to join forces to plant 200 million trees in a single day.#GreenLegacy is a vision for the next generation. It is creating a blueprint for them and showing them the way. #GreenEthiopia #HealthyEthiopia 🇪🇹 pic.twitter.com/TFudQhiAKc&mdash; Amir Aman, MD (@amirabiy) July 29, 2019 At the end of the 12 hour challenge, Ahmed shared that the goal was not only met, but far exceeded - with a total of 353,633,660 tree seedlings planted. Back in 2017, India set the previous record when volunteers planted 66 trees million in 12 hours.This record breaking challenge is just the beginning, the 'Green Legacy' campaign has goals set in place to plant 4.7 billion trees by October 2019.353,633,660 Tree Seedlings Planted in 12 Hours. This is in #Ethiopians Regional Shares of Trees Planted today.#PMOEthiopia #GreenLegacyEthiopia pic.twitter.com/2BkTDtYedC&mdash; Dr.-Ing. Getahun Mekuria (@DrGetahun) July 29, 2019 While this news story technically happened at the end of July, it&#39;s far too wonderful to not include. If you want to find out more about how to get involved in tree planting or reforestation in your community, The Nature Conservancy is a great resource.2. A teen registered people to vote while they waited in line at Popeyes.         View this post on Instagram           Today we were registering individuals to vote while they were waiting in line to try the @popeyeslouisianakitchen chicken sandwich. Make sure you’re registered to vote!✊🏾🙌🏾 @sneed4schoolboard A post shared by  David Ledbetter (@davledb) on Aug 24, 2019 at 2:38pm PDTIn case you&#39;ve missed the food boat, there is a new fried chicken sandwich at Popeyes and it has created such a buzz people have formed lines in order to get a taste of the prized goodness. In the ultimate multi-tasking move, 17-year-old David Ledbetter decided to hand out sample ballots and voter registration forms to people waiting in line at Popeyes.I have a new hero, and his name is David Ledbetter.This 17 year-old took advantage of the Popeye&#39;s chicken sandwich hype and registered new voters as they waited on line.Organize. REGISTER. Vote.https://t.co/jhlVeipUha&mdash; TrumpsTaxes (@TrumpsTaxes) August 26, 2019 The North Carolina teen registered 16 people on Saturday August 24th alone, and his desire to get more young people involved politically is only growing.'I believe that it is our duty to vote as American citizens and it would be wrong not to exercise our political voice. I like engaging with the community and I have aspirations with helping people and making society a better as a whole,' Ledbetter told CNN.If you want to check your voter status or learn more about registering other voters, you can check out Rock the Vote or USAGov.3. Costa Rica doubled its forest coverage in 30 years.🌳This is how Costa Rica almost doubled the size of it’s rainforests in a generation. Good governance works. That gives some hope these days. Just some... 🌱 #rainforest #AmazonFires #forests #environment #nature #AmazonRainforest #biodiversity pic.twitter.com/QBzrE1jCji&mdash; Alexander Verbeek 🌍 (@Alex_Verbeek) August 27, 2019 Back in 1983, Costa Rica&#39;s previously lush rainforest and indigenous woodland coverage was down to 26 percent, a dramatic drop from the 75 percent coverage in the 1940s. When the rapid and unchecked presence of loggers desecrated the land in a few decades, the government intervened with a new set of sustainable policies.While the Amazon burns because of greed, Costa Rica&#39;s experience offers hope: Rampant logging cut the country&#39;s forest cover from 72% in 1950 to 26% in 1983. It&#39;s back up to 52% today. Key is its 23-year old program of payment for environmental services, promoting #conservation pic.twitter.com/2KfedmYOz2&mdash; Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) August 23, 2019 After placing restrictions on logging permits, paying landowners to conserve their own lots, and garnering international investment in the eco-system, Costa Rica has doubled its forest coverage since the 1980s - with the current forest coverage at 52 percent. Hopefully, this will set a huge example globally.4. The eco-friendly search browser Ecosia increased downloads by over 1,000%.Installs increased by over 1000% this week. To our new users, welcome to the community! In the wake of the Amazon fires, we&#39;re planting an additional two million trees in Brazil. We promise we won&#39;t let you down. pic.twitter.com/i8B8E7xvHp&mdash; Ecosia (@Ecosia) August 29, 2019 Launched in 2009 after the climate talks in Copenhagen, Ecosia is a tree-planting search engine that donates 80% of its ad revenue to reforestation projects across the world.Wow, @Ecosia is #1 in France 🇫🇷, surpassing WhatsApp and Instagram in downloads!!! Germany next please! pic.twitter.com/93qMc3fpDw&mdash; Tim Schumacher (@TimSchu) August 29, 2019 When you download the search engine (for your mobile or as a browser extension) you can watch the number of trees tick up as searches across the world rack up reforestation funds. For the sake of transparency, Ecosia publishes their financial reports on their website (if you want to cross-reference and do the math for yourself), and all searches are encrypted. While the reforestation projects themselves are financed through ad revenue, none of the user searches are sold to third-party advertisers.5 reasons to use Ecosia instead of Google #maketheswitch pic.twitter.com/OcoXfnMkWr&mdash; Ecosia (@Ecosia) May 8, 2019 Ecosia&#39;s user base massively multiplied this month in the wake of the Amazon forest fires.5. Paris announced the opening of the world&#39;s largest rooftop urban farm.Wow!Next Year Paris 🇫🇷 will open the world’s largest urban roof top farm. The size of two fotball pitches. Paris is fast becoming a front runner in urban farming and greening! 👍 pic.twitter.com/BBsebJXdlu&mdash; Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) August 28, 2019 Back in 2015, the French government passed a law requiring all new commercial roofs to be covered with either solar panels or vegetation. One of the most ambitious results of this legislation was just announced this month - the world&#39;s largest rooftop urban garden.Paris is opening the world&#39;s largest urban rooftop farm https://t.co/3iLgYaYOkp #agriculture #farming pic.twitter.com/C0TnrYzCaQ&mdash; World Economic Forum (@wef) August 28, 2019 The garden is set to officially open in early 2020, will span 150,700 square feet (multiple football fields), and is already projected to produce enough food to feed thousands of people. Agripolis, the urban farming company behind the ambitious endeavor, predicts to produce around 2,200 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies during the seasonal peak.https://twitter.com/AlexandraRoyEnv/status/1166424376574709760?s=20The farm will use an aeroponic vertical farming technique to cut out pesticides and minimize water usage, the team of 20 farm employees will host farming classes, create subscription boxes for locals, provide food for local shelters, and give restaurants local options.6. Stacey Abrams launched a voter protection initiative. I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD&mdash; Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019 This month Stacey Abrams officially launched the Fair Fight initiative to fight voter suppression in the 2020 elections. When the Georgia Democrat lost the 2018 Governor&#39;s race to Brian Kemp by an avoidably slim margin, she pledged to make the political process more accessible for voters everywhere.Voter suppression begins w registration, but also affects if you can CAST your vote or if your vote gets COUNTED. While the targets may be partisan &amp; its intended victims are the marginalized, breaking the machinery of democracy always causes collateral damage. @fairfightaction https://t.co/WY6aYJOOwz&mdash; Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 28, 2019 While voter suppression is a huge issue across the united states, Abrams and her supporters were quick to point out the deeply insidious nature of voter suppression in Georgia. The 'exact match' policy immediately freezes voter registrations that don&#39;t perfectly match the state&rsquo;s Department of Driver Services database or Social Security Administration. Due to clerical errors, this means a lot of people are blocked from voting.In October 2018, The Associated Press post reported 53,000 voter registries placed on hold by Kemp&#39;s office, 70 percent of which were African American voters.Statement from my spokesman: pic.twitter.com/0smIAb5ptA&mdash; Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 28, 2019 Now, in order to prevent more unfair elections, Abrams&#39; Fair Fight campaign is educating voters on their rights, registering people (and double checking their registration status), and meeting with party leaders to directly address voter suppression.'The goal is to ensure there is infrastructure in every single one of those states. Where voter protection processes aren&rsquo;t something that wait until September of 2020 but they stay in place for the duration of 2020. The goal is going to be for us to have meaningful effects on ensuring that voters know their rights, they have access to ballots, that they will be able to effectively counter what Republicans will be doing,' Abrams told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.7. Gavin Grimm won the transgender discrimination case against the Gloucester County school board.Gavin Grimm wins #transgender-discrimination case against Gloucester County school board in Virginia. https://t.co/pudXLdMGtT via @WTKR3 #LGBT&mdash; David Crary (@CraryAP) August 9, 2019 After years of fighting, 20-year-old Gavin Grimm won his discrimination case against the Gloucester County school board, at least, for now.Back in 2014, a national conversation started when the Gloucester County school board declared that Grimm and other trans students could only use a unisex bathroom. In order to fight for the rights of himself and other trans students, Grimm filed a court case against the school in 2015.The case was slated to reach to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2017, but was sent back to the district court after Trump reversed Obama&#39;s Title IX guidance allowing trans students to use the bathroom matching their gender.This past month, the court ruled that the school board&rsquo;s policies violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees equal protection and due process under the law.WE WON! The district court in @GavinGrimmVA &#39;s case just issued a final judgment in his favor on all his claims. pic.twitter.com/EHv9F86pzT&mdash; Josh Block (@JoshABlock) August 9, 2019 However, it was just announced that the school board is appealing the case despite the loss, so Grimm may have a hearing in front of the Supreme Court after all.The school board has announced an appeal, showing that despite having another loss under their belt, their priority lies with discriminating against trans students. That&#39;s no surprise to us and we won&#39;t quit fighting until the end. Thanks to everyone for your continued support!!&mdash; Gavin Grimm (@GavinGrimmVA) August 19, 2019 Given this hugely historic win for the visibility of trans rights, Grimm and his supporters feel confident about the next step, even if he&#39;s forced to take the case up once again.8. Teen activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York for the UN Climate Summit.Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has a message for President Trump: &quot;Listen to the science. And he obviously doesn&#39;t do that.&quot; https://t.co/UA0mLhmYnv pic.twitter.com/M5663wUFrQ&mdash; CNN (@CNN) August 30, 2019 The 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and her crew arrived safely in New York two weeks after setting sail from England on an emissions free yacht. Thunberg will stay in the U.S. until the United Nations global warming conference next month.I’m far from New York, but I’m happy to know that young people came to the UN once again to express their commitment in the fight against climate change. I encourage them to keep pushing for stronger #ClimateAction. https://t.co/6TuzXLHQiA&mdash; António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 30, 2019 In the meantime, she&#39;s already inspired hundreds of young people to sit outside the UN headquarters in New York to demand widespread policy change during a #FridaysForFuture gathering.“We are unstoppable, a better world is possible!” On this #FridaysForFuture, young people, including @GretaThunberg, came together to lift up their voices for climate justice in front of the @UN in New York City. 📣 It’s time to act now 📣 pic.twitter.com/8cQZbJ3sbP&mdash; UN Women (@UN_Women) August 30, 2019 Thunberg has helped organize a global climate strike for September 20th, at which point thousands, hopefully millions will take to the streets to demand accountability from our leadership. Days later, the teen activist will give a speech at the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23rd.GRETA CROSSES THE ATLANTIC: 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives in New York after sailing across the Atlantic on a 15-day voyage in a zero-carbon racing yacht. The Swedish teen will speak at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept 23. https://t.co/hToDcJUxez&mdash; NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 28, 2019 If you&#39;ve read this far, I hope you feel a bit more hopeful about the state of the world and your ability to contribute to it. If not, at least it&#39;s Friday?!