Friday good news open thread

Well, we've been through the wringer for the past two weeks, so I think it's time to start our self-care early.

Good News Network is a website I would often highlight at TPV when I felt we needed a break from the insanity. I'm pleased to announce that we'll continue that tradition here.

So, without further ado, time to get into our feels!

Coldplay to put off touring new album until they can make their shows more sustainable

Earlier this week, English rock band Coldplay announced that they will be not being touring their music until they could find a way to make their shows more sustainable.

Frontman Chris Martin told BBC in an interview that the band hoped to delay touring their new album for the next one or two years—at least until they could play their concerts without distributing single-use plastics or using excessive airplane fuel for international transportation

“Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour like that environmentally. We would be disappointed if it’s not carbon neutral,” Martin told the news outlet. “The hardest thing is the flying side of things. But, for example, our dream is to have a show with no single use plastic, to have it largely solar powered.

Now, I know, Coldplay. Ew, sappy Gen-X band. But: A) I like them, so screw you, and B) Celebrities are often excoriated for talking about climate change and then jetting off in private planes which put a few more acres of rain forest out of commission. Chris Martin et al are putting off a very lucrative pay day and putting their money where their principles are. Good on them!

7-Year-Old Gathers 70K Signatures On Her Petition to Make Crayola’s Coloring Pens Recyclable

A 7-year-old eco-warrior has gathered almost 70,000 signatures on her petition to force Crayola to make their coloring pens recyclable.

Jessie Stephenson’s passion for art means she goes through a lot of felt-tip pens, but she was upset to learn that they could not be recycled—so she then started the petition asking Crayola UK to give its British customers a recycling scheme.

“I really love using Crayola pens but I don’t want to use them now that I know the impact on the environment,” reads the petition. “I care about the environment because we live here and if we wreck it, we won’t get a second chance.”

Crayola has a recycling scheme in America, but it has yet to have one in the UK. Since the petition has racked up thousands of signatures, Jessie’s mom Charlotte Stephenson said: “We never expected it go quite so crazy [but] Jessie is super keen on the climate change debate.”

Continuing with our environmental theme, this darling girl is not waiting for corporations to do the right thing, but is taking action to bring a scheme which exists here in the US to the UK. Individual actions matter. Don't think anything you do is too small. A pebble starts an avalanche.

New Zealand Passes Historic Carbon Neutrality Legislation in Near-Unanimous Vote

The government of New Zealand has just enshrined their commitments to the Paris Agreement by approving a new piece of legislation which will require the nation to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

In a historic show of bipartisan agreement, the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill was passed last week in a 119-1 vote.

The legislation will now provide a framework for the nation’s citizens and governments to fight—and adapt—to the effects of the climate crisis during the coming decades. It reportedly also makes New Zealand one of the few countries in the world to approve legislation solidifying their commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Yes, you detect a theme to today's good news.

The world stood with New Zealand after the Christchurch terrorist attack. The Kiwis reacted to that horror by banning all assault weapons, an act which gave Wayne LaPierre explosive diarrhea. Now New Zealand is again doing something which seems to escape the abilities of the world's last empire.

While we are in a holding pattern awaiting a decision on what kind of society we'll choose to be, other countries are acting in Herculean ways to save this Spaceship Earth. They are the leaders who will be looked towards in the future, while America comes in late to the movement.

That's all for now, folks. Do take a look at the website, and others like it. We hairless apes can do more than rape and pillage. We can sing like the gods when we put our minds to it.

Happy Friday, everyone.