Every day the Good Good Good team collects the best good news in the world and shares it with our community. Here are the highlights for this week!
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The Best Positive News We’re Celebrating This Week —
A military widow, mom, and author turned her old pickup truck into a traveling banned book store
In addition to being a military widow, mother, and southerner, Karie Fugett is also the author of the memoir “Alive Day,” about her experience as a military spouse. Familiar with the inner workings of the military, she’s now fighting what she calls a “war on knowledge” in taking shape in her home state of Alabama.
Earlier this year, a state board voted to defund a local library under a new book ban law after parents criticized the library for carrying “sexually explicit books” that depict LGBTQ+ stories. Similar efforts are happening in states like Florida.
Knowing first hand the impact this kind of censorship can have, she wanted to help, so she’s converting a rusty 1940 Ford pickup truck into a traveling banned bookstore called “The Banned Wagon.”
Why is this good news? The Banned Wagon will help put banned and challenged books “back into the hands of the people who need them the most.” That includes LGBTQ+ youth, and other marginalized communities — but also to help anyone and everyone access books that challenge their worldview.
From an expert: How to avoid disturbing content on social media and protect your peace
Global solar panel installations surged by 64% in the first six months of 2025
In the first half of this year, the world added 380 gigawatts of new solar capacity, a 64% increase over the same time period last year. In 2024, it took until September to surpass 350 GW of new capacity — this year, that milestone was achieved back in June.
This continued rapid expansion of solar has made it the fastest-growing source of new electricity generation, with global solar output rising by 28% in 2024 compared to 2023.
And China is still leading the charge, installing more than twice as much solar as the rest of the world combined in the first six months of the year. Competing against itself, its installations more than doubled compared to the first six months of 2024.
California’s first solar panel-covered canal is now fully online and providing clean energy
A 1.6-megawatt solar power project just came online in California’s Central Valley. It’s not on a rooftop or massive field — these solar panels stretch across canals and generate clean electricity in a remote area where cotton, tomatoes, and hundreds of other crops grow.
Called Project Nexus, it’s the second canal-based solar project operating in the U.S. — the first started producing power in October 2024 for the Pima and Maricopa tribes near Phoenix, Arizona — and one of just a handful in the world.
A 20-foot-wide stretch of Project Nexus was finished in March, and a 110-foot-wide portion completed at the end of August. Researches will continue to monitor the project’s performance, while a separate initiative is working to fast-track more projects like it.
Why is this good news? This unique solar project has a multitude of benefits, with research showing that placing the panels above water both helps keep panels cool, which improvies their efficiency and electricity output, and prevents water loss from evaporation, especially in drought-prone areas.
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Mexican entrepreneurs create vegan leather out of prickly pear cactus, helping save 1 billion animals a year
A Florida woman is single-handedly saving tortoises from getting hit by drivers at a state park
One of the Florida’s most-visited parks, Honeymoon Island State Park is also a critical habitat for the state’s gopher turtle population.
When park volunteers told Maggie Serus that they were seeing a rise in tortoise road kills at the park — coinciding with a statewide population decline in recent decades, due in large part to cars — she wanted to help.
So, the retired special education teacher started spending her days near the park entrance holding a sign that reads “Drive slow, look below,” encouraging drivers to ease up on the gas pedal. And her efforts have been paying off, with none killed during the first two weeks of her outreach.
Arizona State University received its largest-ever grant to launch a new school dedicated to preparing the next generation of conservation leaders
At Climate Week in New York City this week, Arizona State University announced its brand new school dedicated to preparing the next generation of conservation leaders — thanks to the university’s largest-ever philanthropic investment.
Rob Walton, a philanthropist, conservationist, and the former chairman of Walmart, made a historic $115 million investment to establish the School of Conservation Futures, which will be named after him.
The school will be “laser-focused” on conservation, because “protecting the planet’s future is protecting our future.”
What’s the nuance? Walton is the eldest son of the founder of Walmart, which, as the largest retailer in the world, is not known for being particularly environmentally friendly.
But investments like this are critical in developing the people and solutions we’ll need in the future to manage the planet’s resources wisely. Do we wish the damage wasn’t being done in the first place? Definitely. Do the solutions we need require the best minds and a lot of money? Also definitely.
This college student was tired of seeing red Solo cups litter her campus — she invented a way to turn them into sweaters
A new report found that 80 million more children are now supported by national school meal programs worldwide
According to a new report from the United Nations, nearly 80 million more children are now receiving school meals through government-led programs than in 2020. That’s a 20% increase, bringing the global total to at least 466 million children.
Notably, low-income countries saw even larger progress, increasing the number of children receiving school meals by 60% in the last two years alone. This is led by Africa, which is feeding another 20 million children in countries like Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
This progress is backed by global funding for school meals that’s more than doubled from $43 billion in 2020 to $84 billion in 2024 — 99% of that coming from national budgets.
Why is this good news? Governments can do a lot of good for their citizens. These meal programs not only support the health, education, and overall well-being of children but also benefit small farmers, boost local employment, encourage planet-friendly diets, and reduce carbon emissions.
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New survey finds Narcan vending machines really work: ‘They’re saving people from dying’
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Dozens of Atlanta residents worked together to build a $10K bike lane in their community
In 2020, city officials in Atlanta launched a program to support and empower neighborhood groups who were leading and funding alternative street design and safety changes through lower-cost, temporary interventions.
Taking just a year from concept to execution, 36 volunteers just completed the 20th project under the initiative. Supported by $10,000 total in donations from 42 community members, they converted street parking into a pop-up, protected bike lane to connect a local high school and elementary school.
Ultimately, projects like this also advance longer-term goals of the city regarding street safety and designing public spaces for the best use of those who use them. This one made the road safer for students to bike to school.
Global land use for agriculture peaked in the early 2000s and has been falling ever since, replaced by nature
During the 20th century, the world lost vast areas of natural forest and grassland due to humans’ growing demand to use that land for agriculture. And while today around half the world’s land is farmed, the amount actually peaked in the early 2000s and has been falling ever since.
The abandoned farmland is being replaced with grasslands, trees, and bush, and seeing the wild animals it was once home to returning to the area. Europe and North America are leading the way in reforestation efforts.
The trend is due to a number of factors, like more efficient farming and productive land, replacing land-hungry crops with ones that use much less, or none at all.
Why is this good news? Land use and farm-stage emissions account for more than 80% of the carbon footprint for most foods. Reforesting these carbon-intensive lands into areas filled with trees, bush, and grasses that capture and store carbon is a huge part of combating the climate crisis — and even improving human health.
At this café run entirely by deaf baristas, you must order in sign language. (Don't worry; they’ll teach you)
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A Colorado city gave $500 a month to 200 low-income households — it helped them afford basic needs, education, and more
For two years, the city of Boulder, Colorado gave $500 monthly payments to 200 low-income households starting in 2023 using $3 million from its American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The pilot project results have been released, and say participants reported more easily paying for basic needs, being able to receive more education or training, and having stronger mental and physical health.
The program had no restrictions on how participants could use the money, but a number of participants shared how they used the money: to get braces for their daughter, to grow healthier food, to pay for unexpected vet bills, and even to buy a guitar to pursue a passion for music.
Notably, the report also showed that participants still found costs like childcare and health insurance too high for the added funds to help cover.
More good news of the week —
Las Vegas Aces’ star A’ja Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to be named MVP four times. Wilson averaged 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game while leading the Aces to the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with a 30-14 record.
After decades of decline, a critically endangered shark called the “labrador of the sea” is rebounding in Australia. Modern shark conservation can largely be traced back to Australia’s grey nurse shark. In 1984, the gentle giant became the first protected shark in history when the government of New South Wales declared it a protected species.
A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress in an effort to reinstate the dedicated LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline. In July, the Trump administration terminated the 988 hotline’s LGBTQ+ services, which connected young people in crisis with counselors trained in supporting LGBTQ+ youth, who are at a higher risk of mental health crisis and suicide.
An anonymous donor paid off all lunch debt for students across an entire Ohio school district. With a bill that totaled over $3,500, the donation covered the costs at every building, stretching from elementary through high school.
Scientists developed a new, clear coating that can invisibly turn any standard window into a solar panel. The “colorless and unidirectional diffractive-type solar concentrator” coating directs some sunlight photons to the sides of the window panel, where mounted photovoltaic cells convert them to electricity, while other light passes through.
To improve security and study conditions, Sweden is implementing a nationwide mobile phone ban in schools. Earlier this year, Denmark also said it would ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs on the recommendation of a government commission that also found children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.
Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 have a feature that can perform live translations. When the user turns the feature on, the AirPods will listen to people around you speaking a different language, and a synthesized voice will translate the phrases they’re saying as they come in.
Pakistan rolled out a nationwide HPV vaccination campaign to millions of girls in the country. The country aims to vaccinate more than 13 million girls aged nine to 14 in an initiative aimed at protecting them from cervical cancer, a disease with often few symptoms that kills more than 3,000 women in Pakistan each year.
The U.S. Forest Service will now provide wildfire fighters with N95 respirators as part of standard equipment. The decision reverses a decades-long police that banned the use of respirators to reduce exposure to toxins and carcinogens, with only bandanas approved for use as facial coverings.
The Gates Foundation pledged $912 million to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and urged governments to take stronger action, too. Global development assistance fell by 21% between 2024 and 2025 and is now at a 15-year low, and if that trajectory remains the same, Gates said that the progress that cut child mortality in half since 2000, saving 5 million lives a year, could be in jeopardy.
Researchers were able to embed digital fingerprints into 3D-printed parts, which could help make ghost guns more traceable. The fingerprinting process adds a permanent marker to the object, which can be deciphered later to determine any data factors that were put in during the printing process, such as the owner of the printer that was used.
A California city adopted an ordinance banning retail sales of nearly all live animals. West Hollywood has banned retail sales of dogs and cats since 2010, but has now extended it to amphibians, arachnids, birds, fish, hermit crabs, mammals like rodents and rabbits, and reptiles.
🇫🇷 In France, farmers are reducing pollution and saving energy by using powder made from algae grown on wastewater instead of conventional fertilizer. The results are encouraging: when mixed with mineral fertilizers, the bio-based product can reduce their use by up to 25% without sacrificing crop yields.
🇨🇳 In China, doctors just performed the world’s first 5G remote robotic urological surgery at an extreme altitude. The operation connected two hospitals thousands of kilometres apart, and despite the distance, they worked together in real time to carry out the groundbreaking procedure.
🇧🇷 In Brazil, a retired mechanic created a homemade solar heater made from plastic bottles that has changed thousands of lives. Beyond economic savings, the project helped create a recycling culture in a region where there was hardly any selective garbage collection — one city even adopted periodic collection programs thanks to the popularity of this system.
🇵🇭 In the Philippines, a new national protected area will protect some of the world’s most climate-resilient coral reefs. The country designated more than 200 square miles of its coastal waters in the new Panaon Island Protected Seascape, which hosts vibrantly colored and dense coral reefs teeming with schools of juvenile fish, sea turtles, sea anemones and other marine life.
🇦🇺 In Australia, the government vowed to cut its emissions by 62 to 70% by 2035, following the advice of the Climate Change Authority. The country’s emissions have already fallen by about 27% since the baseline year of 2005, and the government previously projected emissions to fall by 51% by 2035.
A Virginia woman who won the lottery immediately donated the entire $150K prize to charity. Carrie Edwards made three $50K donations to charities that support dementia research and education, farm and food justice, and active-duty military members and their families.
California lawmakers passed a bill to become the first U.S. state to ban ultra-processed foods from school meals. The legislation must still be signed by the governor, but is also believed to be the first law in the world defining UPFs, industrially formulated products that are often high in fats, starches, sugars, and additives that make up 73% of the U.S. food supply.
A study found that well-preserved areas of the Amazon rainforest on Indigenous land can protect people from diseases. Indigenous people have long believed that every time the Amazon is cut, burned, or destroyed, it makes people sick, and now, new scientific evidence supports it, showing that disease incidence was lower in areas where the forest was set aside for and maintained by Indigenous people.
Portland, Oregon rolled out a $100 million tree planting and tree care expansion program with a nonprofit. The initiative aims to plant a total of at least 15,000 trees over the next three years, more than doubling the city’s annual plantings, which currently stand at about 3,500 per year.
The Sandy Hook Promise tip line stopped a potential school shooting at a Bay Area high school. Sandy Hook Promise was co-founded by a parent of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, and a student used the anonymous tip line it established to report a concerning post they saw online.
A researcher created a hydrogel shampoo that could prevent hair loss from chemotherapy affordably and painlessly. (May require login) The gel is applied to the scalp before treatment and washed out afterwards, and it works by constricting the blood vessels in the scalp, limiting blood flow to reduce the volume of cancer-killing drugs that reach hair follicles.
A massive, volunteer-run operation has saved 250 million pounds of food from the landfill. In the United States, as much as 40% of the food we produce goes to waste — contributing substantially to greenhouse gas emissions along the way — while one in seven people goes hungry, and Food Rescue Hero is helping bridge that gap.
Researchers in Germany developed a mushroom-based insulation that absorbs carbon and resists mold. Traditional insulation materials often consist of synthetic or mineral materials produced with high energy-intensive consumption and a poor environmental balance, so this offers a more environmentally-friendly, compostable alternative.
