What went right this week: the good news that matters

Ordinary people who took extraordinary actions to protect the planet from mining giants, plastic companies and energy firms are among the winners of this year’s Goldman environmental prize, dubbed the ‘Green Nobel prize’.  

This year’s recipients included Batmunkh Luvsandash (main picture), who was instrumental in creating a vast protected area in Mongolia’s Dornogovi province. It now forms an important bulwark against Mongolia’s mining boom.

Also honoured were Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika (pictured), who campaigned to protect the Vjosa River in Albania from a dam development. The waterway was subsequently designated a national park, as previously reported in ‘what went right’. 

The other winners were: Laurene Allen, who got a toxin-leeching plastic plant closed down in New England, US; Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, who won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect Peru’s Marañón River; Semia Gharbi, who challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia; and Carlos Mallo Molina, who helped halt construction of a port that threatened a marine protected area in the Canary Islands. 

“In these difficult times for environmental activists, these seven individuals serve as powerful reminders of what is possible through determination, resilience and hope,” said Jennifer Goldman Wallis, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. 

Image: Goldman Environmental prize

Online platforms operating in the UK will have to abide by new rules aimed at making the internet safer for children, it was announced this week.  

Under a new code, published by the media regulator Ofcom, sites hosting pornography or other content deemed harmful to children, must have effective age checks in place from July. Sites will also have to implement more effective moderation systems so that quick action is taken on harmful content. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 10% of global revenue for online platforms. 

“These changes are a reset for children online,” said Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive. “They will mean safer social media feeds with less harmful and dangerous content, protections from being contacted by strangers and effective age checks on adult content.”

However, Ian Russell, chairman of the Molly Rose Foundation – a campaign organisation named after his daughter, who ended her life in 2017 after accessing harmful online content – said the “overly cautious” new rules lacked ambition and needed to be strengthened. 

Image: Annie Spratt 

The game is up for greenwashing polluters – a tool tracking emissions in near real-time released its latest data this week as it ushers in a new age of climate transparency.

Climate TRACE uses satellites, sensors and artificial intelligence to track the emissions of countries and sectors, as well as more than 600m individual sources, including power plants, factories and farms.

Releasing its data on the last Thursday of every month – albeit with a 60-day lag – Climate TRACE marks a revolution in emissions reporting, which has hitherto relied on slow-to-publish self-reported pledges from governments and industries.

Former US vice president and Climate TRACE co-founder Al Gore said: “With the help of breakthroughs in AI, Climate TRACE is filling an information void that has previously hindered local leaders from taking effective action to combat the global climate crisis and environmental injustice.”

According to Climate TRACE’s latest figures, global greenhouse gas emissions for February totalled 5.04bn tonnes of CO2e – a tiny decrease of 0.47% compared to February 2024.

Image: Matthias Heyde

Climate action. Most people support it, yet politicians are dragging their feet and much of the mainstream media is failing to hold them accountable. Can a new campaign tip the balance? 

Launched to coincide with Earth Day on Tuesday, the 89% Project is a yearlong journalism initiative aimed at breaking the so-called “spiral of silence” surrounding climate action, which campaigners say is exacerbated by media neglect. 

The initiative’s name is a reference to research, published last year, showing that 89% of people want stronger climate action from their governments. The study was based on a survey of 129,000 people across 125 countries. 

The 89% Project is a coalition of willing news organisations, editors and journalists committed to boosting coverage of the kind of climate solutions that Positive News regularly reports on. The Guardian and Agence France-Presse are among those to have signed up, with many media outlets agreeing to share their climate content for free.

Image: Markus Spiske

Keeping surfaces free from bacteria is an ongoing challenge in hospitals, but a new superbug-killing paint is poised to make the job easier. 

Scientists at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy, England, trialled the paint-on resin, which incorporates chlorhexidine, a disinfectant used to treat mouth infections and for pre-surgical cleaning. It was found to be effective at eliminating bacteria and viruses, including difficult to kill species such as MRSA, flu and Covid-19.

Dr Felicity de Cogan, who led the research, said the paint had “excellent efficacy”. “It also doesn’t spread into the environment or leach from the surface when touched,” she added. 

The paint can be applied to a range of plastic and hard non-porous surfaces to provide an antimicrobial coating, researchers said. Their findings were published in Nature.

Image: Martha Dominguez de Gouveia

Is this the beginning of the end for dental fillings? Scientists are optimistic after they had a “breakthrough” in the quest to grow teeth in a lab – an advancement that opens up the possibility of one day growing replacements for damaged gnashers.

Researchers at King’s College London have been experimenting with lab-grown teeth for decades. But this week, they revealed that they had finally mimicked the environment needed to grow teeth in a lab. 

The advancement is thanks to a novel material – developed in collaboration with Imperial College, London – which enables cells to communicate and effectively tell each other to turn into a tooth. The next step is getting the teeth from the lab and into people’s mouths.

Dr Ana Angelova Volponi, a researcher at King’s, said: “As the field progresses, the integration of such innovative techniques holds the potential to revolutionise dental care, offering sustainable and effective solutions for tooth repair and regeneration.”

Image: Dam Dam

There’s been a dramatic reduction in respiratory illnesses and sick leave in London since the city’s pioneering clean air zone came into force, new research has found. 

The introduction of the low-emissions zone (Lez) in 2008 and the ultra-low-emissions zone (Ulez) in 2019 led to dramatic falls in pollution, studies have shown. 

Now research by the University of Bath, England, has put an economic value on the policies. It noted an 18.5% reduction in sick leave since the introduction of the Lez, along with a 10.2% decrease in respiratory issues. It put the cost savings for the health service at upwards of £37m a year.  

“These policies are not just environmental wins, they’re also reducing labour market absenteeism and improving Londoners’ life satisfaction,” said the University of Bath’s Prof Eleonora Fichera. “Clean air makes for healthier, happier, more productive communities.”

Image: Ferdinand Stohr

The first clinical trial to test whether adults allergic to peanuts can be desensitised has shown “great success”, with two-thirds of the cohort now consuming the equivalent of five peanuts without reacting.

For the trial – the first of its kind focused exclusively on adults – 21 participants were given tiny amounts of peanut flour to eat, equivalent of 0.5% of a peanut. Their dosage increased gradually and when they could tolerate 50-100mg of peanut protein they were switched to eating whole peanuts. By the end of the study, 67% were able to eat the equivalent of five peanuts without reacting.

“Living with peanut allergy is a huge burden due to the need for constant vigilance and the risk of accidental exposures,” said lead author Hannah Hunter. “Many participants who completed the trial told us that the treatment had been lifechanging and they were no longer living in fear.”

Larger trials are planned. 

Image: Shattha Pilabut

A map marking places around the British Isles that have inspired well-known musicians was published this week to mark Earth Day. 

From Scotland’s Shetland Isles to Ireland’s River Liffey, the map highlights the importance of the natural world in the creative process, and seeks to remind people of nature’s power to inspire.   

Dry Cleaning, The Libertines and Guy Garvey of the band Elbow were among the artists who contributed. Garvey (pictured) said that spotting gannets and puffins in the Shetland Isles as a child had influenced his music.

“It was summer, and the memory of the endless day and those fabulous creatures connected me to the world in a really meaningful way,” he said. “To think that this life is going on all the time is a wonderful feeling. And I love birds. Which is why they are on every Elbow record in some way or another.” 

Image: Music Declares Emergency

Many people walk around oblivious to the nature around them, but a new app aims to change that. 

Encounter is a free guided nature journal that helps people tune in to nature and record their experiences. It was launched by the novelist Melissa Harrison (pictured), who told Positive News that she has seen “a huge shift in public attitudes towards nature in the last decade”.

“[If we tune in to it], the natural world will begin to loom larger and become ever more detailed, and we know from the research that that connection will nourish you as you go through life,” she told Positive News for our latest ‘Life lessons’ feature.

Read the full interview here.

Image: Richard Allenby-Pratt
Main image: Goldman Environmental Prize