Boston University to Divest from Fossil Fuel Industry

Good News Notes: “Boston University will divest from fossil fuels, starting immediately, President Robert A. Brown announced on Thursday, a decision reached amid increasing proof that burning fossil fuels is accelerating the harmful effects of climate change—and after nearly a decade of campus activism and protests. “This has been a long journey within the BU…

Rogue Valley nonprofit to get $2.2 million grant to train addiction counselors

Good News Notes: “A Southern Oregon nonprofit organization that provides services to those struggling with addiction will receive a $2.2 million grant over the next four years to create a program that will train future counselors in behavioral health and addiction treatment. The executive director of OnTrack Rogue Valley, Sommer Wolcott said the organization will use the federal funding to…

Iowa nonprofit works to address need for early education

Good News Notes: “An education nonprofit organization wants to support Iowa 4-year-olds. The goal at Waterford Upstart is to help families recognize the need for early education. The program delivers personalized, online instruction 15 minutes a day, five days a week. A family coach guides families so they can continue engaging their children offline, too….

Jane Fonda pays for Boise students to study climate change

Good News Notes: “Earlier this summer, Shiva Rajbhandari got an unknown call from Georgia. It’s not a call he’d normally pick up, he said, figuring it was spam. But this time he answered. On the other end, Rajbhandari said, a woman introduced herself: “Hi, this is Jane Fonda,” she said. Several weeks earlier, Rajbhandari, a…

Local seniors fill backpacks for children facing food insecurity

Good News Notes: “Some older residents in Louisville helped the city’s younger ones Friday. Seniors from the Dominion Senior Living of Louisville celebrated World Senior Citizen’s Day, which is Aug. 21, by packing about 100 backpacks with cereal, meals, masks and more. It marked a year-long partnership between Dominion Senior Living and Blessings in a…

Increasing Farm Productivity in Zimbabwe

Good News Notes: “Kwite village, in the Matabeleland South province of Zimbabwe, is right in the middle of the country’s cattle belt. Most rural farmers in this area own a few head of cattle as well as grow crops. The cattle are like walking banks for small-scale cattle farmers, and losing one means losing a large portion…

Can Plant-Covered Buildings Cool Things Down?

Good News Notes: “You don’t realize how small you are until you find yourself walking on a sidewalk in the middle of a city surrounded by hundreds, thousands, and often millions of people, and it’s hard to conceptually fathom the amount of people living, breathing, and working in that city, isn’t it? But everything you…

Trellyffaint: Proof unearthed of Neolithic dairy farming in Pembrokeshire

Good News Notes: “Shards of decorated pottery taken from the Trellyffaint Neolithic monument near Newport, Pembrokeshire, were found to contain dairy fat residue. The residue could only originate from milk-based substances such as butter, cheese, or more probably yoghurt. George Nash, of the Welsh Rock Art Organisation, said it was the earliest proof of dairy…

Digitisation Boosts Mechanised Farming Among Kenyan Farmers

Good News Notes: “When 33-year-old Kimani Mwaniki, an Irish potato farmer in Elburgon, Nakuru County in Kenya’s Rift Valley, heard about a farmer’s virtual school, he didn’t hesitate to enrol. He was keen to learn how the programme will enable him to get higher crop yields for his market in the capital city Nairobi and…