Many people are feeling worn out, down, and stressed after living through a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. People in nations which reacted swiftly and took scientific approaches to containing the spread are doing better, but those of us in areas with poor leadership (I’m in “Conservative” Ontario) the pandemic
Continue readingAuthor: Adam Clare
Things Are Good: Your Carbon Footprint is Fine, it’s the Wealthy that Need to Change
There’s no doubt that we can all reduce our carbon footprint, but there’s one segment of the population who drastically need to cut their carbon output: the rich. Recent headlines have made it clear that the poor are impact most by climate issues, while the rich can afford solutions the
Continue readingThings Are Good: BIKEPOC Wants You on a Bicycle
Bicycles are the best form of urban transportation and more people should be out there riding on two wheels. In Toronto, like many North American cities, cyclists in the city are predominately white males (for a variety of reasons). With people stuck at home due to the pandemic there has
Continue readingThings Are Good: You Don’t Have to Love Your Job
Too many people are told to follow their passion and find their dream job above all else. This is bad advice. Instead, go get a job that you can do, pays you well, and is filled with respect. There is no reason to be a sycophant at work. Sarah Jaffe
Continue readingThings Are Good: France Banning Short Flights to Reduce Carbon Output
Flying isn’t so popular right now due to the pandemic and many airlines are financially hurting, and in France they are helping the Air France. Due to ineffectiveness in the private company the French government stepped in and doubled it’s stake with one key condition: the airline eliminates some of
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Net-Zero Economy will Save $30 Trillion a Year
Economist argue that efficiency produces profits, which is why we see mass layoffs and (bizarrely) large payouts for executives. 20th century economists ignored a lot of opportunities for more efficient operations because the costs weren’t put on corporations themselves. The costs of running the business were covered by the governments.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Want to be Successful? Spend Time with Your Friends
Are you worried you aren’t successful? Don’t be! The greatest success one can have is found in their social network, and size doesn’t matter. According to a 75-year long study done by Harvard the path to success is spending time with friends. Take a moment out of your day today
Continue readingThings Are Good: People Share What They Changed Their Attitude to Unions
In America anti-union sentiment is strong due to the marketing efforts of large business owners that don’t like paying workers. Amazon’s anti-union efforts are a great example of this. In recent years the pro-union movement has been growing and the recent push by Amazon workers to get respect is an
Continue readingThings Are Good: Let’s Live in Mushrooms – It’ll be Fungi
Our current selection of building materials tend to be carbon intensive and can have long lasting unhealthy impacts on humans. This issue (and others) have led some to look into alternative forms of building which are healthier and sturdier than what we currently use. There have been attempts at this
Continue readingThings Are Good: Stop Mowing Your Lawn to Save the Planet and Your Time
Lawns are unnatural and require a lot of maintenance, so why do we have them? As a non-lawn person I just don’t get the appeal of a lawn when there are so many better alternatives which require less work to maintain. It turns out I’m not the only one baffled
Continue readingThings Are Good: UN: After the Pandemic Sustainable Cities will Succeed
Like the rest of the world, the United Nations is looking forward to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and they’re projecting what our future may hold. The UN sees a consistent theme of ecological thinking as a way for cities to succeed in all the sustainable development goals. Most
Continue readingThings Are Good: Carbon Pricing in Canada is Constitutional
A few years ago the federal government in Canada started charging for carbon wastage by people and companies. The 2018 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was passed to ensure that every province in Canada is doing the bare minimum to avoid catastrophic climate change. This led Conservative leaders of a
Continue readingThings Are Good: How PayUp Got Fashion Companies to Payout $22 Billion
Capitalism works when companies pay for good and services, when companies make deals and don’t pay for what they ordered then things fall apart. This is exactly what happened last year in the fashion industry, and it was the workers who suffered the most. The owners of companies like JCPenney,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Happy International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
The old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is really all about having a healthy diet to stay healthy, and this is the year to increase your apple consumption. 2021 is International Year of Fruits and Vegetables as celebrated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Turning Sewage into Something Useful
Today is World Water Day and what better way to celebrate than by talking about sewage? The Stockholm Environment Institute, an international non-profit research and policy organization, released a report on how we can better handle human waste. When it comes to basic sanitation there is plenty of good news
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ethical Fashion: Wear it and Make it Last
Fast fashion was once known for its fast profits, now it has the earned reputation of being fast in environmental and human destruction. With almost the entire fashion industry geared towards constant consumption, what’s an ethically minded person to do? Thankfully Orsola de Castro has some advice for us. She’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Basic Income Program In California Improved Lives and Livelihoods
Universal basic income (UBI) is a simple idea: give people a small amount of money so they can at least survive. This isn’t a radical idea yet it keeps getting blocked by governments who despise….government. The argument for UBI keeps growing as more and more studies point out that it
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Dirtiest way to Store Carbon is the Best
One of the best carbon storage systems we can put into action to slow down climate change is right under our fight: dirt. Yes, the quality of dirt is on a spectrum between inert clumps and soil rich with with life. When it comes to using dirt to store carbon
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cities can Easily Reducing Salt Wasted on Roads
Transportation systems that put cars front and centre cause a lot of damage, we know this. But aspects of our cultural approach to getting around like, the reliance on road salt, are easily ignored. Every winter in North America we dump an unfathomable amount of salt on our roads which
Continue readingThings Are Good: Yaupon, a North American Tea gets Revived
There’s nothing quite like a good cup of tea. Thanks to the efforts of tea fans in North America we all may soon have another tea option available to us. The only known native caffeine producing plant, yaupon, is a holly bush indigenous to the south east of the USA.
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