China cut its carbon emissions by 5 percent in the first half of 2014 – the largest drop in years, said the country’s premier, Li Keqiang. (Xinhua)
Scientists Confirm Victory in Ozone Layer Recovery
“It’s a victory for diplomacy and for science,” and for the fact that all the nations in the world worked together, said the Nobel Prize chemist who first forecasted the coming ozone depletion in 1974.
A United Nations scientific panel confirmed that our protective ozone layer is healing itself since countries signed on to a treaty in the late 1980s that phased out man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which caused the problem.
From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes, according to NASA scientist Paul A. Newman, who co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released by the United Nations.
UN leaders called the effort to get rid of ozone-destroying substances “one of the great success stories of international collective action,” and are hoping that the world can similarly unite in the fight to lessen climate change.
197 nations signed the ozone treaty agreements, making the Montreal Protocols the first to be unanimously adopted by all members of the United Nations.
(READ the AP story from the Dallas Morning News)
Animation / image by UNEP
Abandoned Baby With No Legs Becomes Power Gymnast, Discovers Miracle Sister, too
Jennifer Bricker was given up at birth after she was born without legs. Fortunately, a pair of loving parents adopted her and taught her there were no limits to what she could achieve.
What the little girl wanted more than anything was to become a gymnast, like her hero, Olympic Gold Medalist Dominique Moceanu. Bricker pursued sports — even baseball and basketball — with unending passion and fearlessness, and eventually became a champion in Illinois power gymnastics.
Already this story is a sensation, but what happens next is nothing short of an incredible miracle.
Bricker discovered her long lost big sister is none other than Dominique Moceanu.
(WATCH the 2012 story from ABC News’s 20/20) – Story tip from Sally Meek
Photo from Jen’s Facebook Page
Sea Lion Steals Huge Catch Out of Fisherman’s Hands
This theft, however heartbreaking for the fisherman, is our Good Laugh for the week.
Locals in Los Cabos call this sea lion Pancho. It snapped up a huge fish right out of a man’s hand while he posed for pictures.
The YouTube video, now 10 months old, describes it as happening while a crew was filming a show called Chef On The Water for the Mexico Travel Channel. WATCH below…
Long Lost Dr. Seuss Stories Published
Theodor Geisel — better known as Dr. Seuss — has been charming generations of children and adults since the 1950s. And though Seuss died in 1991, a new collection of his lesser-known work from the 1950s and 60s, called Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, came out in stores yesterday.
“The four stories in this book came from columns that appeared in Redbook magazine in the 1950s,” Cathy Goldsmith, an associate publishing director at Random House told NPR. “Dr. Seuss actually wrote a piece once a month for Redbook.”
(READ – or Listen – to the story at NPR News)
– Story tip from Mike McGinley
Boy in China Will Walk Again With 3D-Printed Vertebra
A boy with a tumor on his spine, who could only muster the strength to stand for a few minutes at a time, has been given a new lease on life thanks to a 3D-printed bone for his neck.
In August, surgeons in China successfully implanted an artificial 3D-printed vertebra made of titanium powder into a 12-year-old bone cancer patient. The five-hour surgery at Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing, was a world first.
After spending the previous two months confined to a hospital bed, the boy named Minghao is recovering well.
(READ more from the Business Insider – WATCH video from China TV)
Photo: Liu Zhongjun, director of orthopaedics at Peking University Third Hospital, holding a 3D-printed vertebra – Story tip: Julia Frerichs, LMT
Sports Celebrity Snaps Photo of Random Kindness by Indiana Cop
NBA basketball player Roy Hibbert witnessed an act of kindness by an Indiana police officer and shared a photo of the event on Instagram.
“Just seen an Indy police officer pull over,” Hibbert described on his Instagram account. “Go into his trunk n give a homeless guy a pair of shiny boots.”
The Indiana Pacers star also created his own good news story last week when he donated $1 million to his alma mater Georgetown University to fund the John Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center, according to the Washington Post.
– Story tip from Tonya Brown Wright
University of California Signs Major Solar Deal
The University of California announced yesterday that it will make the largest solar energy purchase by any U.S. higher education institution to fulfill 60% of the energy needs on five campuses and three medical centers.
UC signed two Power Purchase Agreements with Frontier Renewables to secure the renewables energy for a 25 year period. The agreements will help the University meet its goal to make UC the first research university to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 for all UC’s 10 campuses and five medical centers.
The projects will use two solar fields in Fresno County, with a combined capacity of 80 megawatts (MW). Construction on the solar fields — which have undergone a full environmental review and been approved by Fresno County — is expected to end in late 2016 for UC Irvine and its medical center, UC Merced, UC San Diego and its medical center, UC San Francisco and its medical center, and UC Santa Cruz.
The project also allows Frontier Renewables to consider education partnerships with UC researchers and students, such as research access to solar fields, the creation of a field station on the project site, internships, technology testing and curriculum development, according to UC News.
Bill Murray Drives Taxi So Cabbie Can Practice Saxophone
Here is another reason to love the hilarious mind of Bill Murray.
He was attending the Toronto International Film Festival September 5, on the date officially named Billy Murray Day, which featured screenings of old films like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day and the premiere of his latest movie St. Vincent.
“I said, ‘When do you practice?’ He said, ‘I drive 14 hours a day.’”
When the driver told him the sax was in the trunk, Murray told the cabbie, “Pull over and get in the back, I know how to drive a car.’ ”
“Not only did he play all the way to Sausalito, which is a long way, we stopped and got barbecue. And it made for a beautiful night!”
(READ the story, w/ photo, from Page Six)
Story tip from Mike McGinley
Nonprofit Pub in Portland: “Have A Pint, Change The World”
The Oregon Public House began as a dream to bring the individual charitable experience into the social space of a community. They wanted to transform the solitary act of quietly donating to a good cause and give it some bravado — and some beer.
It serves as a “community center for change” with 100% of all profits going to a variety of charities on the menu — just pick your favorite.
The video below was created by Stillmotion’s 4-day Filmmaking intensive, EVO 11, and helps promote nonprofits.
Story tip from Amy Martin
Photo of the Day – Kid Gets Bored With President Obama
In June, a little boy visiting the White House with his parents had no interest in chatting with the President of the United State.
Here in the Oval Office he made his boredom known by face-planting into the sofa.
The moment was caught by White House photographer, Lawrence Jackson.
Cat He Rescued From Shelter Returns the Favor Saving Man From Terrible Fire
Craig Jeeves of Melbourne, Australia rescued a cat two years ago from an animal shelter and this week, she returned the favor and saved his life.
Jeeves, 49, was awakened by the tabby in the middle of the night. Sally jumped on his face, screeching, as a fire raced through his home. He said, otherwise, he would have probably stayed asleep and not made it out alive.
(WATCH the video below from IB Times UK) – Story tip from Cathy Fries
Good News in History, September 9
On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley appeared nationwide on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing Don’t Be Cruel and Love Me Tender. Sullivan, the most popular TV variety host of the day, had relented after previously vowing never to allow the performer on his show. (1956)
How Many 10-Year-olds Raise $250,000 for Cancer? The Youngest Car Racer in History, That’s Who.
Timmy Tyrrell celebrated his 10th birthday today, and he’s not counting how many gifts he received for himself but counting the money he’s raised for families dealing with pediatric cancer — over a quarter million dollars since he was six years old.
For three years this extraordinary boy from Virginia has planned an annual charity kickball tournament in September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. His latest event, a tournament in Manassas on Sunday collected donations of $29,000 and his friend, NASCAR king Jeff Gordon, is matching that, dollar for dollar.
His father, Timmy Tyrrell, Sr., who holds car racing records himself and owns an auto repair shop and used car showroom in Manassas, delights in his son’s charity work.
“My wife Tina spends all her time helping him enact new ideas about how to help people,” he said. “Like the tsunami in Asia: Even after I suggested there was nothing we could do, he insisted that we had to help.”
At six years-old, Mini’s story as reported by NBC Nightly News so impressed Jeff Gordon that, not only did the NASCAR driver donate to Mini’s charity events, and take him into the pits to inspect race cars close-up, the charismatic kid was hired to work with the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.
“He’s not only inspiring adults. He’s also inspiring young kids,” said his mom.
He won $70 at the race track in a kids event and she asked him, ‘What are you going to do with it.’
“Duh, mom… I’m going to give it to the kids with cancer.”
Another little boy, a regular on the racing circuit heard him, went home, and brought back $50 the next week, saying, “I want to donate this to your charity.”
The quarter million dollars has been raised through a conglomeration of events, from the car racing to lemonade stands, from 5K walks to the kick ball tournaments that support the Kick It campaign. Gordon introduced Mini to the Kick It campaign, founded by a 10-year old Ohio boy during his second battle with cancer, which has raised more than $2.5 million through community Kick Ball events nationwide.
“Never in our wildest imagination, could we have predicted what Mini would accomplish in just three years,” said his proud mom, Tina.
As a racer, Mini is the youngest winner in Arena Car Race History, at 8, and the youngest driver, at 9, to compete in a Late Model Stock Car race, in Virginia earlier this year.
This self-possessed young man who has given speeches, talked to car clubs, and lately is persuading his local government to adopt gold ribbons for Children’s Cancer Month says he doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up — even though he has become a celebrity on the racing circuit as the youngest driver, at nine, to ever place in a late model stock car race.
He either wants to be a trash man, recycling valuable metals and materials, or a doctor so he can help more people. You can join him on Facebook at MinisMission.
Dog in a Bath Shows Us How to Relax (Video)
Brian Jarvis sent in this adorable video of a man scrubbing his dog in a tub.
The golden retriever should be the poster boy of how to relax in a tub!
Dog Rescued After 10 Days on High Sea Cliff Ledge (Video)
Funded by charitable donations, the lifeboat crews and lifeguards of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have saved at least 140,000 lives at sea since 1824.
A week ago, an RNLI crew spotted a sheep on some of England’s highest sea cliffs. Just as they were wondering how it got there, a dog’s head popped up.
A springer spaniel had been stranded for days 30 feet above the water on a rocky cliff just below Foreland Light House in North Devon. The dog ‘Sprigg’ who had been missing more than a week was stuck on such a narrow ledge, he could turn around.
He had been the subject of a major search by his owners, Mark and Susie Sanders, from Wheddon Cross, near Minehead. They and their family had organized search parties and scoured the area around Foreland Point after the dog disappeared during a walk there. They had plastered the area with posters appealing for any sightings while local fishing boats and an animal ambulance team from North Devon had checked along the shoreline.
“I just could not believe it when we had a call to say the lifeboat crew had spotted him and rescued him,” said Mrs Sanders. “It’s amazing: the best news ever. Bless them.”
(WATCH the video below from RNLI)
Photo credit: RNLI
U.S. to Allow Pharmacies to Take Back Unused Prescription Drugs
Until now, U.S. laws have required patients or relatives of loved ones who had leftover prescription drugs in the home to dispose of them in the toilet or trash — the toilet being a terrible method because of our water supply and watershed pollution concerns.
Now, a new Drug Enforcement Agency regulation will allow pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and other authorized collectors to serve as authorized drop-off sites for unused prescription drugs, reports KTVU.
Under the new policy, long-term care facilities will also be able to collect controlled substances turned in by residents of those facilities.
Prescription drug users will also have permission to directly mail in their unused medications to authorized collectors.
(READ the story from KTVU)
Photo by Charles Williams, CC license
Young Siblings 8 and 10 Help Save Man Who Crashed into Creek
“Keila and Aidan Avila’s desire to pedal just a little bit faster than their father and cousin may have saved a cyclist’s life Friday at Salem Creek,” reports a North Carolina newspaper.
Had the kids not been racing ahead of their father and cousin, they would not have seen a young man of 20 vault through the air, and crash down a steep embankment into Salem Creek, out of sight from the path.
The man may not have been discovered.
(READ the story, with photo, from the Winston-Salem Journal)
Photo by Ian Sane (CC license) – Story tip from Kelly Harrington
After 10 Years in Tiny Cage, Fed Junk Food, Monkey Tastes Freedom
Because of lax exotic animal–protection laws, Maggie the macaque became a pet monkey for a family who wasn’t equipped to care for her. So for 10 years, Maggie was confined to a cramped cage and fed french fries and other junk food. After the initial thrill wore off, they tried to find other living arrangements for Maggie, without success. Finally, when the Indiana woman’s homeowners insurance company threatened to cancel her policy, she became desperate to place Maggie in a better home.
Maggie has made huge progress and was sent to her permanent home at the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation sanctuary in Kendalia, Texas. Once she becomes better acclimated, she’ll be introduced to the other residents there—and for the first time since she was torn away from her mother’s side more than a decade ago, she’ll get to meet other monkeys face to face. She’ll enjoy fresh and healthy food, climb trees, swim in a pool, interact with her new friends, and finally get to be a monkey.
(READ more at the PETA blog)
Photos by PETA.org