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
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Things Are Good: Millennials Don’t Want to Work for Jerks
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why Mining Matters and Why You Should Care
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Detroit’s Farms May Save the City
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Busting Urban Planning Myths
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: An Ad Campaign That Sells More Than a Product
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 […]
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Continue readingThings Are Good: Read This Book: The Optimistic Environmentalist
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,
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Rise of Urban Agriculture
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Louder is a New Website Designed to Increase Your Media Impact
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Get to Know the World, and Stay Informed
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 —
Continue readingThings Are Good: BBC Drastically Improves Science Coverage and Debate
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Better Take On The Current Generational Divide
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Turkish Hotel Wins Hospitality Innovation Award for Accommodating Protestors
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Age of Exploration Isn’t Over
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Save the Environment, Live in a City
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cameras Capture How Safely Cyclists Cruise
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Skateboarders Help Transform Urban Environments
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Good Designs to Protect Against Flooding
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why Drivers Don’t Understand Cyclists
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
Continue readingThings Are Good: In the Future Cities will be Sharing Centres
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.
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