Good Governance
What does good governance look like? In this good news section, we share international examples of good governance, from efforts directed at the protection of civil rights to initiatives aimed at the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment.
Florida rejects plan to drill oil well in ecologically sensitive Everglades
From rising sea levels to more frequent and powerful hurricanes, Florida is highly threatened by climate change. That’s why it makes a lot of sense that state environmental regulators have recently rejected a plan to drill for oil in the Everglades. The Florida Department of Environmental Read More...
It is now illegal for employers in this country to contact workers after hours
Implementing employment policies that encourage a healthier work-life balance for employees can go a long way in benefiting both staff and employers. With that in mind, Portugal’s government has recently approved a set of new labor laws that protect employees’ working conditions. One of the Read More...
New Navy ship named after gay rights leader Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office, but before he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978, he was forced out of the Navy for his sexual orientation. Milk served in the Navy for four years, but was forced to resign because he was gay. Read More...
5 Optimistic predictions about the COP26 climate conference
The stakes (and tensions) are high this week as the COP26 climate summit kicks off in Glasgow. Big issues, like renewable energy and biodiversity, are being discussed on a global scale, and while there are huge issues to tackle, there are also reasons to be optimistic. Just the fact that world Read More...
Jersey City program expands access to local vertical farms
Vertical farms have been praised for their adaptability in dense spaces as well as low resource use. Another advantage is that they offer locally-grown produce to consumers that live miles away from traditional farmlands. In Jersey City, an innovative scheme is combining these different benefits of Read More...
New Zealand swears in first Indigenous Māori Governor-general
Last week, Dame Cindy Kiro was formally sworn in as New Zealand’s first Indigenous Māori woman to be named Governor-general. The Māori peoples account for around 17 percent of New Zealand’s population but are still socially and economically disadvantaged. They continue to be Read More...
Éléonore Laloux changes lives as first French public official with Down syndrome
In Arras, France, a city council member is making history as the city’s public official in charge of inclusion and happiness. Éléonore Laloux is the first and only person with Down syndrome to be elected to public office in the country. Laloux was recently awarded membership in the National Read More...
Nobel prize awarded for work demonstrating benefits of raising minimum wage
US-based economist David Card is one of this year’s recipients of the Nobel prize for economics, awarded for his work which helps answer one of the field’s most contested ideas surrounding minimum wage. Card is Canadian born but based at the University of California, Berkeley. So what Read More...
Cal State Los Angeles prison education program celebrates first graduates
Pitzer was the first college in the US to establish a bachelor’s degree program for incarcerated individuals, but while Pitzer allows students to participate in classes virtually from prison, Cal State Los Angeles' Prison B.A. Graduation Initiative is California’s first in-person bachelor’s Read More...
UN votes to make a clean and healthy environment a human right
The U.N. Human Rights Council has finally recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental human right, adding it to others─like food, shelter, and freedom from slavery─laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution was first discussed in the Read More...