Good News Wrap Up for 2019

• 🐝 Sea turtles are making a huge comeback with their populations increasing by 980%, thanks to the Endangered Species Act

• 🌍 Sweden has rolled out a great initiative where blood donors get a text message whenever their blood saves a life

• 🐝 Finnish scientists have developed the world’s first vaccine to help fight off ‘bee apocalypse’

• 🍃 South Korea was able to recycle 95% of food waste (compared to 2% previously!)

• 🌍 In Nigeria, the Recycle Pay Project allows parents to cover their kid’s tuition fees by collecting and bringing plastic waste to recyclers

• 🍃 Peru commits to ending deforestation from palm oil manufacturers by 2021. This is a momentous win for wildlife and sustainable agriculture

• 🐝 Humpback whales have come back from the brink of extinction, with their numbers increasing from only a few hundred, to 25,000!

• 🌍 In a breakthrough that could save thousands of lives, scientists convert all blood types to the universal type 0 that is safe for all patients to receive

• 🍃 Scientists found an edible mushroom that eats plastic, and it could clean our landfills

• 🍃 The UK reduces its carbon emissions for the 6th year in a row. The last time emissions were this low was 1888

• 🐝 The Netherlands becomes the first country without stray dogs

• 🌍 For the first time ever, mathematics’ most prestigious prize has been awarded to a woman, Karen Uhlenbeck.

• 🍃 You can now pay for metro tickets in Rome with plastic bottles. So far more than 350,000 bottles have been recycled!

• 🐝 Canada makes it illegal to use whales/dolphins/proposes for entertainment

• 🌍 AfDB’s Solar Project in Africa aims to connect 90 million people to electricity for the first time, lifting them out of energy poverty

• 🍃 Rice farmers around the world have replaced harmful pesticides with ducks! (they feed on insects and weeds)

• 🐝 Seven eggs from the world’s lat two remaining Northern White Rhinos have been successfully fertilised-this may save the species!

• 🍃 Amazon tribe wins legal battle against oil companies, preventing drilling in the Amazon Rainforest

• 🐝 The Netherlands have built 5 artificial islands to preserve wildlife. In the first 2 years 30,000 birds and 127 kinds of plants have been reintroduced

• 🍃 A man in India planted a tree every day for 35 years, which has grown into a forest larger than Central Park

• 🐝 In London a seven-mile “bee corridor” of vibrant wildflowers is being planted to encourage the insect’s population

• 🍃 Renewable energy sources now account for around a third of all global power capacity

• 🌍 An HIV positive man in London has become the second person ever to be cleared of the virus after a stem cell transplant

• 🍃 Norway decides NOT to drill for oil in the Lofoten Islands to protect its ecosystem

• 🍃 Thailand supermarket says no to plastic packaging and wraps produce in banana leaves instead!

• 🌍 South Korea is organising daytime disco parties for people over 65 in an effort to tackle loneliness and dementia

• 🐝 California now limits pet store sales of cats, dogs and rabbits to rescue or shelter animals only.

• 🍃 Holland covers hundreds of bus stops with plants - “Green Roofs” - where bees can take refuge!

• 🌍 Iceland becomes the first country in the world to legally enforce equal pay for women and men

• 🐝 San Francisco’s Cuddle Club unites senior people and senior dogs who need companionship, exercise and affection

• 🍃 A robot called LarvalBot is delivering coral babies to the Great Barrier Reef to help restore coral reefs after suffering bleaching and environmental impacts

• 🍃 A village in India celebrates their daughters by planting 111 trees every time a girl is born. So far they have planted more than 350,000 trees!

• 🐝 A German circus uses hologram animals instead of real animals, in an attempt to end animal cruelty

• 🌍 Sweden premieres the world’s first mental health ambulance after it was revealed more than 1,500 people die annually by suicide

• 🌍 A record- breaking 4,855 people waited for hours in the rain to get tested for a steam cell test to help save a 5-year-old boy fighting a rare cancer. They found a match! 

• 🐝 A near-total ban has been approved meaning that baby African elephants will no longer be taken from the wild and sold to zoos and circuses

•  🌍 Taiwan’s parliament passes historic same-sex marriage law, making it the first place in Asia to do so.

• 🐝 The Galapagos Iguana makes return to the island almost 200 years after Charles Darwin first recorded them there

✨