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Things Are Good: Coal Museum Powered by Solar Panels

Apr

11

2017

If the end of coal wasn’t obviously upon us, it is now. The Kentucky Coal Museum has switched to solar power for energy and cost savings. Yes, in what might be a wonderful display of irony, the museum centred on celebrating the region’s coal culture has switched to a green energy source. “It’s a little ...

Things Are Good: Millennials Don’t Want to Work for Jerks

Apr

10

2017

Generational distinctions are mostly meaningless, although sometime there is a glimpse into cultural trends based on age. One generational difference that is a good one to see (among many) is that “millennials” don’t want to work for jerks. Workplaces used to worship the leaders who pushed people around and were overly assertive; today the standard ...

Things Are Good: Why Mining Matters and Why You Should Care

Mar

7

2017

Despite our technological advances modern civilization relies on mineral resources just as much (if not more) than we did in the past. Our computers need rare earth material to work and other products need metals like aluminum. Recycling isn’t perfect and isn’t plentiful around the world. All of these factors contribute to our need for ...

Things Are Good: Detroit’s Farms May Save the City

Feb

8

2017

Detroit is a city that has been witnessing a lot of change thanks to poor urban planning and bad economics. The past decade has been very rough for the people of Detroit and they are turning to old, but innovative, ways to revive the city. We have seen artists move to Detroit and even some ...

Things Are Good: Busting Urban Planning Myths

Jan

11

2017

There’s a lot of misconceptions about how to make cities a better place to live that need to be cleared up. A popular belief is that adding more lanes for cars will help curb traffic jams – when the opposite it true. Some backwards-looking individuals think that adding bike lanes is bad for business when ...

Things Are Good: An Ad Campaign That Sells More Than a Product

Sep

8

2016

It can be hard navigating the world as a person with a disability, be it mental or physical, and it can be even harder to make friends. Unfortunately there is a lot of social stigma around people who look different, fortunately in the UK a company launched an ad campaign to sell chocolate and social ...

Things Are Good: Read This Book: The Optimistic Environmentalist

Aug

12

2015

The Optimistic Environmentalist is a new book by environmental lawyer Dr. David R. Boyd. Much like this website, the book is also about taking a positive look on the otherwise endless onslaught of bad news we get in the mainstream media. David has worked in environmental law for many years, and he’s the first the ...

Things Are Good: The Rise of Urban Agriculture

Oct

22

2014

Industrial agriculture is not kind to the environment and has been attributed to deforestation of the rainforest to the massive bee die-off. Yet, we find ourselves attached to this 20th century model of centralized production. Lucky for civilization, this is changing! Small scale urban agriculture is getting large enough as an industry to compete with ...

Things Are Good: Louder is a New Website Designed to Increase Your Media Impact

Oct

21

2014

Louder is a new site that aims to bring important news that is usually ignored to the forefront. The site does this in two ways which revolves around Twitter: organic stories can get attention or organizations can sponsor some of the content they want to spread. This could get more attention for fringe candidates in ...

Things Are Good: Get to Know the World, and Stay Informed

Oct

15

2014

How much do you know about the world? Hans Rosling, with his famous charts of global population, health and income data (and an extra-extra-long pointer), demonstrates that you have a high statistical chance of being quite wrong about what you think you know. Play along with his audience quiz — then, from Hans’ son Ola, ...

Things Are Good: BBC Drastically Improves Science Coverage and Debate

Jul

9

2014

The BBC is finally doing something that all media organizations should do – don’t let crazy people derail important debates. For this entire millennium mass media organizations have invited reality-denying people to debates on issues like climate change. This causes the issue to not actually be talked about. No more will climate change deniers and ...

Things Are Good: A Better Take On The Current Generational Divide

Jun

19

2014

It’s not rare to read in old media that young people these days are worthless, listless, clods. That viewpoint is beyond ridiculous, in recent months there has been a backlash to this attitude from millennials. Instead of being lazy and not doing anything about it – they are now quick to point out the young ...

Things Are Good: A Turkish Hotel Wins Hospitality Innovation Award for Accommodating Protestors

Oct

16

2013

During the Taksim Square protests in Turkey earlier this year, Divan Hotels’ flagship property in Istanbul opened their doors to the protestors. Not a bad place to get support after suffering police brutality and tear gassing. The hotel is adjacent to Gezi Park’s Taksim Square, the site of protests last May and June. During some ...

Things Are Good: The Age of Exploration Isn’t Over

Sep

12

2013

Humans haven’t been on the Moon for over 30 years and as a result it’s easy to think that the “space age” is over and our exploration of the universe is over. I frequent space forums and this attitude is always present, and as a result of all this negative thinking one person decided to ...

Things Are Good: Save the Environment, Live in a City

May

28

2013

The IEEE Spectrum recently interview William Meyer who is the author of the book The Environmental Advantages of Cities: Countering Commonsense Antiurbanism. The book’s central thesis is that we need to change the discourse around cities from a negative one to a more positive conversation about the efficiencies of cities compared to lower density areas. ...

Things Are Good: Cameras Capture How Safely Cyclists Cruise

May

2

2013

It’s clear that car drivers don’t comprehend cyclists, and often I hear drivers complain that bicyclists aren’t safe and tend to be “dangerous” on the road. It turns out that cyclists are safer than cars, cause way fewer collisions, and are amazingly great at avoiding a collision. To reach this conclusion that bicyclists are safe ...

Things Are Good: Skateboarders Help Transform Urban Environments

Feb

19

2013

Skateboarding culture is often (wrongly) lumped together with criminal behaviour amongst youth. To those that still think that way, you should check out a study in the most recent Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. By looking at what young skateboarders would do in the city of Chicago the researchers found out ...

Things Are Good: Good Designs to Protect Against Flooding

Nov

2

2012

The damage of Hurricane Sandy is still being fully realized and we won’t know the full cost of the damage for a little while. What we can do for know is to look into ways to lessen the damage the next time an anthropogenically influenced storm hits the city. The Atlantic has put together some ...

Things Are Good: Why Drivers Don’t Understand Cyclists

Sep

26

2012

As an average cyclist I often find it confusing when drivers get their hate on for sustainable transit. Anyone who knows anything about the environment or living in an urban centre would acknowledge that bicycle infrastructure is important and creates a more vibrant city than car-dominated streets. Yet, car drivers still demand more space and ...

Things Are Good: In the Future Cities will be Sharing Centres

Sep

6

2012

Urban centres are already more efficient than their surrounding suburbs and this looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future. Due to the close proximity of people in cities it allows for local sharing projects that can greatly reduce waste awhile increasing access to things we think we need. How can cities help save ...

Things Are Good: A Fine Example of Culture Jamming

Jul

17

2012

The Yes Men are at it again and this time with Greenpeace to show how efficient Shell is….at killing all of us. They created a website called Arctic Ready that looks like Shell is looking for crowd sourced advertising content, and of course, people around the net have submitted some pretty great messages. Here at ...

Things Are Good: Farming Could Save Detroit

Jul

9

2012

Detroit has been hit hard by the ongoing economic claptrap that’s plaguing the global economy; the once-thriving oil-driven economy of the city is not fairing well. The city of Detroit is now looking to environmentally friendly sources of renewing their economy: farming. Housing in Detroit is so cheap that it actually makes sense to tear ...

Things Are Good: WikiLeaks Releases Syria Files

Jul

5

2012

WikiLeaks continues to bring the world information that would otherwise be hidden from the masses, this time it’s millions of emails and documents from Syria. The Syria Files have been given to some media organizations to filter through (much like the last large release of documents from WikiLeaks). This new release should shed light on ...

Things Are Good: Oil is Too Expensive for Wasteful Use

May

30

2012

Looks like those “crazy environmentalists” were right all along: the cost of oil has gotten so high that companies are looking for alternatives. When it comes to companies that rely on petroleum-based products they’ve noticed that their profits are dwindling because the cost of oil has gone up, so the bioplastics industry is now on ...

Things Are Good: Bus 52: Travelling Good News

Mar

28

2012

Bus 52 is a bout telling people the good news that’s out there across the USA. They are trying to give hope to the youth of today by celebrating how people can make a large difference in their community by focusing on doing good work. Bus 52 is made up of five young people who ...