Malaria Vaccines, Plastic Houses and Breast Cancer

Checkout these 10 feel-good stories to start your week of the right way!

Author

Isak Hodges
July 10, 2023

Morning Morning!

Happy Monday to everyone!

I hope you had a stellar weekend, and didn't have as hard of a time waking up and getting out of bed as I did. (I got new blackout blinds, and let me tell you...)

Anyway, here's your Monday dose of good news, to kick off the week with a smile, and motivation to go out there and kill it!

Because I know you will!

Today we've got everything from malaria vaccines to plastic houses!

Enjoy!

Plastic Houses 🏠

Up first, we have another success story for building recycled housing in Africa. I know I have included a few stories similar in the past, but I want to highlight the amazing efforts being taken to develop the housing market in these countries in a sustainable and reusable way!

Kubik raises $3.34M to build sustainable homes from recycled plastic waste

With only 4% of Africa’s plastic waste recycled, and efforts to reduce plastic waste in the continent seeming like a distant dream, this Ethiopian cleantech startup is on a mission to change that by converting plastic waste into affordable, environmentally-friendly construction materials.

techcabal.com/2023/06/22/ethiopian-startup-kubik-raises-3-34m-to-build-sustainable-homes-from-recycled-plastic-waste

Choo Choo, but make it eco-friendly.... 🚂

Here's one for my Canadian friends! Experience Canada's first hydrogen-powered train, running from Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul. I'd like to think the train guy on TikTok would enjoy this kinda stuff!

www.cbc.ca/news/science/hydrogen-train-quebec-city-1.6888891

That's a lot of panels 😎

Here is yet another China Megaproject. China always seems to be able to build these incredible structures out of thin air. Take the Three Gorges Damn, which supplies a huge amount of power to the country. I remember seeing whole buildings appear in a matter of months when living there!

China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time

Beijing bolstering position as global renewables leader with solar capacity more than rest of world combined

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/china-wind-solar-power-global-renewable-energy-leader

In other China news 🇨🇳🇺🇸

I know I usually avoid normal news articles and only focus on fun positive things, but I thought this would be good to include. Treasury Secretary Yellen from the US visited China, and it sounds like the trip was productive, and will hopefully support rebuilding and growing economic ties between the two nations.

Yellen Trip Aids Fragile Effort by U.S., China to Keep Talking

Entrenched tensions will test Washington and Beijing’s resolve to move ahead.

www.wsj.com/articles/yellen-trip-aids-fragile-effort-by-u-s-china-to-keep-talking-9b78ea55

Sending artefacts 🏴‍☠️

In efforts to rebuild relations, and reconcile colonial pasts, the Netherlands is returning a large number of treasures (artefacts) to Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The nation has previously stolen many of these from Asian countries during their colonial parade.

Netherlands to return treasures to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

The Indonesian and Sri Lankan artefacts include jewels looted from a palace by Dutch soldiers.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66125072

Cancer on the takedown ⬇️

Recent numbers have shown a massive reduction in the fatality rate of breast cancer around the world. The cancerous tumour had a 15% mortality rate in the 90s but has drastically gone down to about 5% in current times. The remaining 5% is largely attributed to inaccessible medical procedures in underdeveloped countries.

Risk of dying from breast cancer has dropped dramatically in last two decades

Most women diagnosed early with breast cancer now go on to survive the disease long-term

www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/risk-of-dying-from-breast-cancer-has-dropped-dramatically-in-last-two-decades

Coral Reefs are kinda savage 🪸

Many of my articles have included something about coral reefs, and I just can't keep the excitement away. A massive data set collection shows that reefs are adjusting to survive climate change, an indication of their ever-present resilience to human impact.

Largest-ever data set collection shows how coral reefs can survive climate change

Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago, the Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. Its goal was to research the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic inventory conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70 scientists from eight countries took around 58,000 samples from the hundred coral reefs studied.

phys.org/news/2023-06-largest-ever-coral-reefs-survive-climate.html

Solar panels are great, or not? ☀️

Solar panels have been a fantastic contribution to the world's energy network, adding massive amounts of renewable energy. The only issue is, they're a pain to recycle when their lifespan is over. Not only that, they have a lot of toxic chemicals in them. This new research shows positive improvements in fixing this problem!

Scientists found a solution to recycle solar panels in your kitchen

Research suggests microwave technology could make it easier to take solar panels apart

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/07/05/solar-panel-recycling-microwave-technology

No more plastic bags 🛒🛍️

New Zealand has officially become the first country to ban all plastic bags at grocery stores. Many local municipalities and cities have done the same, but New Zealand is the only country so far to do it on a federal level. We need more of this!!!!!

New Zealand becomes first country to ban single-use produce bags at grocery stores

The nation has banned the bags that typically hold vegetables and fruit. Recyclable, biodegradable or plant-based plastic bag are also included in the ban.

www.npr.org/2023/07/03/1185758479/new-zealand-single-use-plastic-produce-bag-ban-grocery-stores

Vaccines for everyone! 💉

18 Million doses of a brand new malaria vaccine have been to African countries. The continent still suffers heavily from malaria deaths and has been searching for an effective way of stopping this. Hopefully, this vaccine will change that.

18 million doses of first-ever malaria vaccine allocated to 12 African

www.who.int/news/item/05-07-2023-18-million-doses-of-first-ever-malaria-vaccine-allocated-to-12-african-countries-for-2023-2025--gavi--who-and-unicef

and that's it, folks!

I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did.

Sorry for posting it a bit later than usual. I'm trying a bunch of different things to see how I can grow my audience and spread the good news to more people and more inboxes. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them below, or shoot me an email!

And as always, I want to wrap up by saying, have a wonderful rest of your week!

Bye Bye 👋👋

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