Diets make a difference in your individual health and our total global health. If we all eat healthier then the planet’s health will also improve, and the best way to do this is by eating foods with low green house gas (GHG) emissions. It turns out the best way to
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Things Are Good: Keeping Cool While the Planet Warms
Air conditioning demand is expected to triple by 2030 which means that the energy demand from cooling is to rise sharply. As the planet warms the need for air conditioners for survival will (ironically and understandably) increase globally. Obviously we need to switch to 100% renewable energy as quickly as
Continue readingThings Are Good: Swearing is F*^%ing Good
Before you judge someone for cursing think about why they’re cursing and listen. Researchers have found out that swearing can be a good thing for people in rather surprising ways. I’m sure you’ve yelled a curse word after hurting yourself, and that act actually increases your pain tolerance in the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Modifying Crops to Survive the Climate Crisis
Presently crop failures are increasing around the world and this will only get worse unless we act. Large teams of scientists researching crops are examining ways to help them survive our warming planet. They’re looking at less commonly known plants which can survive in harsh climates to help modify our
Continue readingThings Are Good: Giving Money Directly to the Poor can Help Entire Communities
Aid to poorer nations isn’t always a direct transfer of wealth, it can be training or other social support. Indeed, it’s often argued that giving money directly can increase corruption and that the recipients don’t have the knowledge to know how to use money. This attitude of (some) charities is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Motivational Interviewing can Help the Environment
Enviromentum wants to change the discussion around the climate crisis to be more positive. They do this through the practice of motivational interviewing which engages the interviewee in a meaningful way to them. The idea is to maintain a conversation that’s positive while also getting people to realize how they
Continue readingThings Are Good: Drivers Don’t Obey the Law as well as Bicyclists
Cyclists have somehow got a bad reputation of being lawless street users over the last century. This reputation is poorly earned since the rebels of the road aren’t on two wheels: they are on four. Car drivers are the worst road users (and the most lethal). The good news here
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Tale of Protestors Dressed as Handmaids
Ontarios’s very unpopular Conservative party is trying its best to not conserve women’s rights and this is obviously causing issues. The majority of people in the province don’t want women to lose legal protections – particularly when it come to health care. The anti-women political drive is being led by
Continue readingThings Are Good: Birch Bark Coffee Provides Drinkable Water
Coffee production takes a lot of water and produces a wonderful bean filtered drink at the end. In Canada many aboriginal communities are suffering from a lack of potable water let alone good coffee. The plight of these communities enrages Canadians since one of the wealthiest nations in the world
Continue readingThings Are Good: Intensify the Suburbs to Save Ontario
The government of Ontario hates the environment so much that they are removing simple environmental protections and firing people who care about the environment. Thankfully some of those who are losing their jobs just published a fantastic report before they are forced out. The report points out we know the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Congestion Pricing Gaining Popularity
Nobody likes sitting idle in traffic yet we keep building roads and supporting the automobile as a transit solution. To alleviate pressure from commuters driving into the city (who are likely not carpooling) cities turn to congestion charging on autos. It’s a simple concept to at least match the cost
Continue readingThings Are Good: Good Web Designers Care about Accessibility
Web design gets overlooked by users even though its impact on them is large. Bad design can lead to misunderstandings and to people accidentally buying something that they didn’t want to. In all likelihood you have had suffered from poorly designed websites. If you’re a person with any sort of
Continue readingThings Are Good: The History of the Carbon Cycle Sits in Ancient Wetlands
Scientists have unearthed and pieced together evidence on more than 1,000 ancient wetland sites from across the globe, that are presently covered by fields, forests and lakes. Although vanished from the Earth’s surface, these buried sites could explain some of the differences between global carbon cycle models and real-life observations.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Desalination Plants can Turn Their Waste into Solutions
We all need water to live and we’re using our fresh water reserves faster than they can be replenished. South Africa knows this all too well, which is why there is an increased interest in desalination. Currently turning seawater into drinkable water is expensive and produces a lot of waste
Continue readingThings Are Good: Economists: Let’s all Work Less
We all work too much. Indeed, millennials are the hardest working generation due to structural effects of poor policy from preceding generations (like the 2008 crash and encouraging rent seeking behaviour). Both the boomers and Gen X earned more for their work than millennials, so what’s the point of current
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canada’s Supreme Court Rules Companies Have to Pay for Environmental Damage
It might seem obvious that companies should pay for damaging property, but that wasn’t the case for years. Up to now companies in Canada were able to extract resources from land (poisoning entire ecosystems) and leave the cleanup costs to be covered by the government. Privatize the profits and socialize
Continue readingThings Are Good: Living a Zero-Waste Life is Getting Easier
Zero waste living seems like an impossibility given the amount of packaging everything is put in. Ordering a small item can lead to 10x the packaging of the item itself. The use of packaging seem so out of control that we can’t avoid it. We can. Back in 2010 a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Thinking of Your Partner can Reduce Stress
We all have moments of high stress in our lives, how we deal with the stress is up to us. One technique that could work for you is to think of your romantic partner. A recent study has shown that in a stressful situation people who were with, or thinking
Continue readingThings Are Good: Deny Climate Deniers Political Opportunity
Should we mock and deride people who lie about climate change? Yes, according to a recent op-ed in the Washington Post. At the very least it’s time to stop listening to people who deny reality. The rationale for denying deniers is that they are legitimate threats to our wellbeing. It’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Wrap Experiences Instead of Objects
Finding the perfect physical gift for someone can be hard so don’t do it. Instead you can gift someone an experience through UnWrapIt. A friend of mine (clearly I’m biased) created the company to make it easier to gift experiences to one another. The goal is to reduce the amount
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