Reasons to be Cheerful

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 .

At the end of 2020, Dr. Jean-Luc Bernard, a family doctor who had been caring for the community in Ajain, France, for over 40 years, finally hung up his stethoscope and retired. It was not easy to convince a new general practitioner to settle down in the town of 1,000... The post Traveling Doctors Are Filling the Gaps in Rural France appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox. A.J. Johnson’s oldest son was born in 2019, the year before residents of his home state of Washington could receive benefits... The post More American Dads Are Taking Parental Leave appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

On a humid summer afternoon, Gagan Das mixes groundnut and mustard meal in water in a large drum. On either side of him, large ponds reflect the sun. Mango trees laden with fruit, palms heavy with their payload of yellow dates and shady neem trees line the embankments. It is... The post These Wetlands Treat the Wastewater of a Megacity 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. Hearing things What does New York City sound like if you really, really listen? For a New York Times story story shared... The post What We’re Reading: New York City’s Summer of Soundwalking appeared first on…

This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. If you line up to get coffee at one of Aarhus University’s many cafeterias, you won’t see a stack of disposable cups as you do at most cafes. Instead, if you want your flat white to go, you’ll be... The post Can This City Banish Single-Use Coffee Cups? 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 at the... The post The Spark: How Neighbors Are Banding Together to Go Greener appeared first on Reasons to be C…

Robert Lindemann is a 32-year-old accountant from Germany. He’s also had a heart transplant, a life-changing experience shared by just a few hundred people each year in his country.  But at the Transplant Games, he doesn’t stand out — and that’s something of a relief. “It sounds a bit weird... The post The ‘Transplant Games’ Are About More Than Medals 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. Crossing to safety Habitat loss is a major problem for wildlife. But so is habitat fragmentation, caused by highways and other infrastructure.... The post What We’re Reading: Building a Massive Wildlife Corri…

This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. Since most homicides in the U.S. are committed with guns, gun violence and the nation’s homicide rate are closely related. That means the country’s historic drop in homicides... The post America’s Second ‘Great Crime Decline’ Could Already Be Here appeared fir…

One day in late June, a forest patrol deep in the jungles of Central India came across a distressing sight. Twelve spotted deer and two sambar deer lay dead around a poisoned pond. This was among the biggest cases of suspected mass poisoning of wild herbivores ever reported in the... The post Meet India’s Four-Legged Wildlife Detectives appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

Up until a few years ago, Jodi Whitt’s trips to the Shawnee County jail in Topeka, Kansas, began with an arrest and an anxious wait in a bare intake cell for up to 72 hours. Her incarcerations lasted 30 days or so, until an abrupt release without resources or support... The post ‘They Take Your Brokenness and Put It Together’ appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

A guy goes into a bar, and leaves with one less kidney. That’s a joke Mark Scotch tells about his life. It’s only a slight exaggeration: A chance encounter in 2020 did lead to him donating a kidney — although not quite in the way he expected. Scotch, then 64,... The post The ‘Domino Chains’ Transforming Kidney Donation 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. Homeward bound As the U.S. population ages, some Americans are looking beyond the basic idea of “aging in place.” Many homes are... The post What We’re Reading: Helping Older Americans ‘Age in Community’ appe…

Only knee-deep in parts yet relatively wide, the Bièvre gently flows with transparent waters that shimmer in the afternoon sun. A shoal of fish lazily linger beside a large stone in one section. Further along, birds and butterflies weave between the long grasses lining the banks. From here, the waterway... The post Unearthing Paris’ Mythical Second River appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .

This article was originally published by the Daily Yonder, which is dedicated to uplifting the stories of rural people.  Holly Warren was recently leafing through one of her old medical school textbooks, trying to recall how much instruction she’d received in addiction medicine — trying to recall, “Did we even talk about this? Was... The post When It Comes to Addiction Treatment, ‘Any Door Should…

Two cubes of pale wood sit on either side of a small, accessible lounge. Inside each, a bed folds down from the wall, a desk swings out and shelves hold books, plants and family photos. But nobody lives here — at least, not yet. What I and dozens of other... The post What It Means to Shape Your Own Space After Prison appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .