The Canadian government has decided to end the use of coal for electricity by the year 2030. To make up the lost production the provinces which still use coal will have to replace their power plants with sustainable alternatives. This makes a lot of sense since using coal for electricity
Continue readingAuthor: Adam Clare
Things Are Good: We Need the Humanities More Than Ever
Over the last decade or so there has been a big push in North America to get students in to STEM education. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are important to study, but they need to be studied alongside the humanities. The push for STEM is a result of the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Celebrating Resiliency
The Rockefeller Foundation has produced a new documentary celebrating areas humans live in that are designed to be resilient to climate change. By building our cities and countries around the concept of resiliency we can better prepare for what’s ahead when it comes to unpredictable and extreme weather. It’s design
Continue readingThings Are Good: Caring People Have More Sex
It turns out that nice guys do get the girl (but not these nice guys), and nice girls too! Altruism has been linked to more sexual partners and better relationships. There is a growing body of research that connects people who are emphatic are good partners to have in life.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Capturing Animals in 3D for the Future
We are witnessing one of the largest extinction events in history because people deny that climate change is happening. Regardless of the deniers and the death of entire species we can do something that will help the future of humanity: getting as much information about those species as we can
Continue readingThings Are Good: Easily Browse Online Anonymously
In a world where our digital lives are tracked by democratic governments (Canada and the UK amongst them) we need to ensure that we can have private conversations online. Over at Digg they have collected a very easy to follow setup to get your protecting your privacy online in only
Continue readingThings Are Good: Taiwan is About to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
Taiwan might be the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The country is working on legislation that will permit people who love each other and are of the same sex to marry, which is a great thing to see! Let’s hope that other places in the region follow suit
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bike Lanes Save Lives of Non-Cyclists
Cities can improve the health and well being of everyone by simply adding bike lanes. That’s right, drivers not only benefit from faster traffic flow they also benefit from increased health when cities install bike lanes. As Bloomberg reports, cities around the world are catching on and adding bike lanes
Continue readingThings Are Good: Slavoj Zizeck on the Ethics of Consumption
Slavoj Zizeck is a modern thinker that has done a great job of critiquing the overarching assumptions in our society when it comes to power dynamics and the insidiousness of neoliberalism. In the video above his views on capitalistic consumption are summed up rather nicely. It’s worth the ten minute
Continue readingThings Are Good: Simplify Your Wardrobe by Wearing the Same Thing
Staying on trend in the world of fashion is hard! It’s hard on individuals and fashion is really hard on the environment. So make things easier on you and the planet by wearing the same thing everyday. By wearing the same style, not necessarily the same article of clothing, you
Continue readingThings Are Good: Little Towns Doing Good Things About Climate Change
Even the tiniest of towns can do good things for the environment and contribute to global efforts to fighting climate change. We usually cover big cities and their efforts of improving their relationship with the natural environment, so it’s worth looking at the other end of the scale. We’ve
Continue readingThings Are Good: A New Look at an Old Place Wins Prestigious Japanese Award
Hajime Narukawa has won the Good Design Award for a making a map. It might seem trite to some of you but a map has the power to change the way we think about the world. Sadly the most popular map printed today uses the Mercator projection which was originally
Continue readingThings Are Good: Global Carbon Output Decreases
In order to avert catastrophic climate change we need to dramatically cut global carbon output. That’s what the Paris Agreement is all about and it comes in to force in just three more days. The really good news is not just that we have decreased carbon output it’s also that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Watch Before the Flood Right Now
When I started this website about good news I never thought I would be mentioning Leonardo DiCaprio, but here we are. The award winning actor teamed up with Fisher Stevens to create a really good documentary about the state of climate change. The documentary weaves together the historical context we
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why North American Cities are Different Than European
We often look at urban design on Things Are Good so it’s worth thinking about how we got here. The decisions made centuries ago impact how our cities operate and how we as people integrate ourselves into the built environment. This video explores how and why cities in Europe look
Continue readingThings Are Good: You Can Now Eat Climate Data
Ice cream is delicious and now you can eat a brand new flavour of it made of climate data. Well, it’s more like existing flavours put together to symbolize data about our climate and how it’s changing. Jonathon Keats is the brain behind the project and he’s mixing the ice
Continue readingThings Are Good: We Can Use Nanotechnology to Scrub CO2
Scientists working with nanotechnology to try and create methanol from CO2 accidentally discovered that they made ethanol. Happy accidents are always welcomed – particularly when it can help the environment in multiple ways. The electrochemical process uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas,
Continue readingThings Are Good: If You’re a Nice Person You Likely Have More Fun Than Others
Some people think that the way to get ahead in life is to be a pushy jerk, and those people are wrong. What you should be is nice. Yup, that’s all it takes. Don’t be like that stereotypical Gordon Gecko wannabe, instead just be. There is now more research that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Buying Recycled Products is Good for Everything
Reduce, reuse, and recycle is a mantra heard time and time again. Yet, not everyone follows it (remember that they are in that order for a reason: reduce what you consume in the first place, then reuse what you can, and recycle the rest). It can be easy though. When
Continue readingThings Are Good: Effective Nonviolent Resistance Against Tyranny
Using violence to fight violence isn’t the best approach, instead nonviolent resistance can be used effectively (and less ironically). In this TED talk Jamila Raqib explores what are the best forms of resistance to oppressive entities through nonviolence and how to think about nonviolent resistance. She uses her life experience
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