Welcome...

• After an Idaho teacher was ordered to remove “Everyone is welcome here” signs from her classroom, the community rallied in support of her message — and made sure it was heard far and wide.
• Even more folks have rallied in support, too: A small business in Boise has sold 15,000 shirts depicting the same message, and teachers are wearing them in solidarity (Threads).

Environment & animals

In an ‘unprecedented’ discovery, researchers found a thriving, never-before-seen ecosystem under an Antarctic ice shelf

In January, an iceberg the size of Chicago broke away from an ice shelf attached to the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet — researchers nearby seized the opportunity to explore the ecosystem below that it left behind.

In addition to sea spiders, ice fish, and octopuses, the scientists discovered corals and sponges, whose size indicated that the ecosystem had been thriving for decades, if not hundreds of years.

With plans to return for further study, the initial expedition is providing insights into how ecosystems thrive beneath ice sheets, since deep-sea ecosystems typically rely on nutrients raining down from the surface.

What’s the nuance? While icebergs breaking off from ice sheets is normal, climate change is unnaturally accelerating the process and causing the ice sheet to shrink faster over the past few decades. Ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet “is a major contributor to sea level rise worldwide.”

→ Read more

More Good News

​A landmark ruling from an international human rights court protected Indigenous people from Ecuador’s powerful oil industry. Impacting at least three groups of Indigenous people, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Ecuadorian government to protect the groups from oil operations and to leave oil in the ground underneath their lands.

​The world’s largest women’s prison launched an independent newspaper written by and for inmates. The Central California Women’s Facility is home to more than 2,000 women, nonbinary, and transgender people, and The Paper Trail is amplifying their voices.

​A first-of-its-kind volunteer fire brigade is helping protect LA residents from wildfires. Serving as a bridge between professional firefighters and the community, the Community Brigade is trained in basic techniques but primarily works to aid with evacuations and fire prevention through home inspections.

​To help protect shrinking coastal wetlands, a new conservation effort is preserving two salt marshes in Nova Scotia. The salt marshes provide essential habitat for migratory birds and act as natural protection against storm surges and sea-level rise — and are more critical than ever since the province has lost 60% of the wetlands to development.

Environment

The trees in Los Angeles are “kicking ass” — absorbing more carbon dioxide than expected

Using sensors set up across central Los Angeles, researchers found that over the course of a year, trees absorbed up to 60% of carbon dioxide on average during the day, and that’s much more than expected.

The area they studied wasn’t “all that green” either, showing how even what might be considered a minimal addition of trees can make a big difference in air quality, which has been shown to have other important health benefits for the planet and people.

The researchers are hoping their study could be used to help L.A. and other cities in their approach to urban tree planting.

→ Read more​

More Good bits

🗞️ As reliable information gets harder to come by (and to fund), one publication is dropping its paywall on some important reporting.

(Pssst ... our good news web articles aren’t paywalled either, thanks to support from advertisers and paid Good Good Good subscribers!)

🏀 A UConn star made sure her classmates could be in the stands for March Madness. (Instagram)

🌵 The cutest, prickliest rescue you’ll see all day.

🐈 Scientists are asking the question on all our minds: why do cats act like that?​

⛪️ A Cleveland church is taking its neighborly mission seriously.​

What’s good?

Okay but seriously, salt marshes: incredible ecosystems that don’t get enough credit — 75% of marine animals in the U.S. depend on them, and they literally save us billions of dollars.

Which good news story was most interesting to you today?

Reply and let me know if you gained new respect for salt marshes, too :)

— Megan