Good News

Our top 5 good news stories of 2020

Because we could all use a little more cheer.

We can all agree that 2020 was a challenging year.


Good news feels hard to come by lately. And when you work in environmental news, it can seem even more rare.

Yet, the year was not without progress (yes, seriously!). Check out five good news stories from our newsroom that you may have missed below.

1. A Northeast US climate initiative has had a major side benefit—healthier children

Researchers estimate a climate effort in the Northeast U.S. helped the region reduce toxic air pollution and avoid hundreds of asthma and autism cases, preterm births, and low birth weights.

2. Roadmap points Europe toward safer, sustainable chemicals

EU Commission releases ambitious strategy for getting hormone-disrupting chemicals out of food, products, and packaging.

3. Solar power on the rise at US schools

Report finds an 81% increase in K-12 schools using solar power over the last 5 years.

4. Pittsburgh’s Black farmers work to grow a new future

A small group of new farmers have seeded a movement to change the local food industry.

5. Derrick Z. Jackson: A Rhode Island city gets serious about climate justice

In its climate action plan, Providence, Rhode Island, is giving frontline residents' health equal billing with carbon reduction. Other cities should pay attention.


Banner photo: Ebony Lunsford-Evans, owner of FarmerGirlEB in Pittsburgh, helps a customer. (Credit: Brian Cook)

An illustration showing a row of voting boxes with blue and red lids

Climate change is getting worse in Nevada. Why did Democrats stop talking about it?

Voters tend to worry about global warming while worrying more about other issues; Democrats have noticed and changed how they discuss the environment.

The Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan

Carbon capture proposals draw mixed responses from environmental groups in Michigan House committee

As Michigan continues to examine its options for meeting its 100% clean energy goal, members of the state House gathered to consider a slate of bills to give the state authority over efforts to capture and store carbon emissions.
A view of a lake surrounded by ice and snow with mountains in the background

4 million lakes in ‘Lost Lakes’ map offer clues to Arctic permafrost

Researchers have created an interactive map called Lost Lakes that allows people to monitor changes in around 4 million Arctic lakes in near real time.

Two workers in blue jumpsuits and white hard hats looking at industrial equipment

Offshore wind job training built for a boom is facing down a bust

Workforce programs try to ride out the legal, administrative and economic headwinds of the Trump administration.

A view of the United Nations building in New York City

United Nations chief says power has polarized the world

Will the world continue on its path to fragmentation or cooperate to tackle the existential threats from climate crisis, runaway artificial intelligence and intensifying inequalities?

An Asian farmer with a hat on watering their crops

Climate change has created a meta-crisis in food security, energy, and the economy, says Greek expert

Emmanuella Doussis is the UNESCO Chair on Climate Diplomacy and Professor of International Institutions at the University of Athens.
Several Somalian women carry bags of food at an African refugee camp

Climate change is fuelling African conflict – governments are developing a shared response

African countries are now crafting the first continent-wide framework to tackle how climate disasters can worsen hunger, displacement, and conflict.

From our Newsroom
Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

One facility has emitted cancer-causing chemicals into waterways at levels up to 520% higher than legal limits.

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

"The reality is, we are not exposed to one chemical at a time.”

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro speaks with the state flag and American flag behind him.

Two years into his term, has Gov. Shapiro kept his promises to regulate Pennsylvania’s fracking industry?

A new report assesses the administration’s progress and makes new recommendations

silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

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