Reasons to be Cheerful

In Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Ram Bibi, a 30-year-old mother now pregnant with her sixth child, counts herself as one of the lucky ones. She gets regular prenatal checkups at the Qari Safed family health house not far from her home. Here, midwife Marzia screens her for anemia, provides... The post How Afghan Women Are Rebuilding Reproductive Health Care appeared first on Reasons to…

César Maquieira has always loved the sea. Born and raised in the northwest of Spain, much of which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, he would for years regularly go fishing and on boat trips, and he dabbled in scuba diving. There was something about the great expanse of azure... The post With Adapted Sailing, the Sea Is for Everyone appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

This week in our New York City office, we found ourselves talking about what we remembered from 25 years ago: the darkness, the sadness — and the ways people cared for one another. Our managing director, Rebecca Faulkner, is an award-winning poet and proud transplant to New York. We asked... The post ‘We Held Each Other Up’ appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

On Doug Tallamy’s 10-acre property in rural Pennsylvania, the evidence arrives on wings. Wood thrushes now nest in shrubs that were once cut for hay. Luna moths — emerald-green giants that had become increasingly rare — have reached record numbers. Tallamy recounts enthusiastically that he has documented more than 1,380... The post The ‘National Park’ That Stretches From Coast to Coast appeared f…

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Safe scrolling In December, Australia became the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from holding social media accounts... The post What We’re Reading: What If You Could Opt Out of Algorithms?…

Over the last 20 years, Oregon’s wilderness has suffered big time. Salmon have disappeared, wildfires have scoured the hills and drought has parched once-fertile soils. Years of small fixes — a little forest thinning here, a little fish-ladder installation there — have helped, but not nearly enough to keep up... The post Beavers Are Having a Moment appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerful’s weekly newsletter here and you’ll get The Spark in your inbox... The post The Spark: Your Laundromat Could Be a Library appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

Sunday Abiodun can often tell an animal is nearby before he sees it — from a broken twig or the way birds suddenly stop singing. For 15 years, he used those instincts to hunt wildlife to feed his family or to sell as bushmeat. Now he uses those same instincts... The post Former Poachers Are Protecting One of Nigeria’s Last Rainforests appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Call and response In Baltimore, when someone calls 911 about a mental health crisis, mobile crisis teams have long been able to... The post What We’re Reading: In Baltimore, 911 Now Has More Ways to Help appe…

This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. In Los Angeles, in Mumbai, in Kuala Lumpur and in several other cities around the planet, autonomous plastic-eating robots are taking over the waterways. They are, in one form or other, chomping up and extracting masses of the... The post Could Plastic-Eating Robots Clean Up Our Oceans? appeared first on Reaso…

This article was originally published by Shelterforce, an independent newsroom reporting on affordable housing. When it came time for college student Eric Gil to choose a career, the Dominican Republic native opted for one of America’s fastest-growing professions: early childhood education. As the eldest of three brothers, Gil already knew how to help... The post One Way to Keep Childcare Afforda…

“In Galicia, we have lots of rain and strong sun, so vegetation grows quickly and it’s hard to control,” shouts José Taboada, as we hurtle up a steep, rocky path in his rickety Land Rover. “In summer, when it dries, fires can start very easily.” Here, in Spain’s northwest, wildfires... The post The Goat-Cow Is Spain’s Wildfire-Fighting Secret Weapon appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

It is dawn in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Most of the tourists waiting to start their safari have come to see a tiger. Instead, another sight catches their attention: women in khaki uniforms climbing aboard the jeeps. “Everyone still stares when they see women... The post Want to See a Tiger? Let These Women Be Your Guides appeared first on Reasons to …

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Rolling vistas Utah’s Zion National Park has long been a pioneer in visitor transportation: To reduce traffic, a shuttle system began operating... The post What We’re Reading: A Wheelchair Rugged Enough for N…

It’s a sight that stops Florida boaters and beachgoers in their tracks: a thick green sludge coating the water, smelling of rotten eggs and dead fish.  Ashley Smyth, a coastal biogeochemist at the University of Florida, likens the color and consistency to guacamole. “I used to say pea soup, but... The post Could Shellfish Farming Fix Florida’s Algal Bloom Problem? appeared first on Reasons to be …

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Visitors to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, captivated by gliding birds overhead and golden hills across the Bay waters, could be forgiven for failing to notice that the preserve is also home to the Bay’s... The post Horizontal Levees Are Spreading Across the Bay Area appeared first on Reasons to be …

In the town of Gateshead in North East England, coal mining runs thick in the blood. Up to the final coup de grâce delivered by Margaret Thatcher’s coal purge in the 1980s, Gateshead had been tapping its dark subterranean seams as far back as 1344, when packhorses conveyed “sea coal”... The post Transforming Britain’s Old Coalfields Into Clean Energy Sources appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerf…

There are all kinds of enormous, impressive and, frankly, noisy machines at work across the 20,000 square meters of industrial warehouses at the headquarters of Fagor Arrasate, a manufacturing company in Spain’s northern Basque Country. Here, a team of engineers is constructing machines that can put together household appliances like... The post The Spanish Town Doing Capitalism Better appeared f…

Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. On track Do you really need to fly from Paris to Bordeaux? Not when there’s a train that can get you there... The post What We’re Reading: Should Short Flights Be Banned? appeared first on Reasons to be Cheer…

When she was 21, Gabriela Nathania H dove underwater with a cohort of four strangers off the coast of Gili Air. The tiny island is one of three that make up the Gili Islands, an archipelago that divers the world over admire for their incredible marine biodiversity.  But on that... The post The “Sisterhood” Protecting Indonesia’s Coral Reefs appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .