Words by Gavin Haines September 20, 2024 Conservation Environment Health Lifestyle Society Share: The ‘best’ 15-minute cities were revealed, there was hope for coral reefs, and psychedelics appeared to relieve ‘existential distress’, plus more good news This week’s good news roundup Zurich ‘best’ example of a 15-minute city Zurich – Switzerland’s sleek financial capital – has been hailed the world’s best example of a 15-mintute city. According to a new study , 99.2% of its residents live within a 15-minute walk of key amenities, including schools, hospitals, parks, and shops.
Milan, Copenhagen, Dublin, and Turin were the only other cities where more than 95% of residents could make the same claim. The 15-minute city concept – having daily amenities within easy walking or cycling distance – has grown in popularity in recent years amid a rise in home working and active travel. Among the cities to have embraced the idea is Paris, which is now crisscrossed with cycle lanes.
It was the highest-ranking large city in the study. The study – published in the journal Nature Cities – was conducted by Sony Computer Science Laboratories, which assessed some 10,000 cities. An accompanying map was published to show how close places are to becoming 15-minute cities.
In the case of San Antonio, US, not very: just 3% of residents live within a 15-minute walk of key amenities. It’s not the first time that Zurich (main picture) has appeared at the business end of a table this year. Perhaps uncoincidentally, it ranked third in an index of the world’s most liveable cities .
Image: Eddie Junior ‘IVF corals’ survived marine heatwave Scientists are pleasantly surprised after lab-grown corals were found to have survived a marine heatwave in the Caribbean. As temperatures rose last summer, conservationists noticed that the corals – bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted on reefs by hand – appeared to be surviving the heat, while old corals bleached. This week, research confirmed their findings.
In a study involving 771 IVF corals, 90% were found to be in good health following the heatwave, compared to 25% of non-IVF corals. It’s the first scientific evidence showing IVF corals to be more resistant to heat than regular corals. “These results provide a lot of encouragement and confirm that restoration using [IVF corals] can play an important role in orchestrating coral persistence into our warmer future,” said Dr Margaret Miller, research director at SECORE, which planted the corals.
“Nonetheless, truly securing the future of coral reefs is absolutely dependent on humankind’s success in controlling global warming .” SECORE collects coral spawn from wild corals, fertilises the eggs and sperm in the lab, then grows the young corals in enclosures before outplanting them onto reefs. It’s done this at 15 sites in the Caribbean, with more planned.
Image: Valerie Chamberland Electric cars overtook their petrol rivals in Norway In the global race to phase out smut-belching combustion engines, Norway is miles ahead. Data released this week shows that, for the first time, electric cars outnumber their petrol equivalents in Norway. No other country can make such a claim.
“This is historic, a milestone few saw coming 10 years ago,” said Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of the Norwegian road federation (OFV). According to OFV data, of the 2.8m cars registered in Norway, 754,303 are electric vehicles (EVs), compared to 753,905 that run on petrol.
Diesel models are most numerous, with nearly 1m on the roads, but OFV said that sales are falling rapidly. Norway – a major oil producer – has the world’s most ambitious target for phasing out gas guzzlers: by 2025, all new cars sold must have no tailpipe emissions. However, while Norway races towards an electric future, EV sales in the rest of Europe are stalling, new data shows .
Image: Zaptec Deloitte introduced equal parental leave In a win for equality, the accounting giant Deloitte is to introduce equal parental leave for UK employees. From 2025, fathers working at the firm will get 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave after the birth of their child, the same as new mothers. The policy, Deloitte said, was introduced to help fathers spend more time with their children and to boost the number of women in its ranks.
“We know that equalising paid parenting leave for all parents is an important step in improving gender equality and in giving families the opportunity to share responsibility right from the early days of parenthood,” said Jackie Henry, a managing partner at the firm. Henry called on other employers to offer equal parental leave. Some already do, John Lewis, Goldman Sachs and Vodafone among them.
Image: Kelly Sikkema This week’s good news roundup Uplift your inbox with our weekly newsletter. Positive News editors select the week’s top stories of progress, bringing you the essential briefing about what's going right. Sign up UK court blocked plans for a new coal mine Plans to open the UK’s first deep coal mine in more than 30 years have been quashed by the country’s high court.
Planning permission for the mine near Whitehaven in Cumbria was granted by the previous government, prompting campaign groups to take legal action. They argued that the emissions from burning the extracted coal were not accounted for when the mine was given the green light. This week, the high court agreed.
Friends of the Earth, one of the plaintiffs, said the decision was a “massive victory” for the climate. The case follows a landmark climate ruling by the UK’s supreme court , which said that the ecological impact of emissions from burning extracted fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for such projects – not just the emissions produced during extraction. Following that ruling, the UK government said last month that it would not defend legal challenges brought against two proposed oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
The high court’s decision came as the UK government announced it was appointing a new climate envoy after the previous government abolished the post. Image: Friends of the Earth Scans captured changes in brain during pregnancy For the first time, researchers have captured the sweeping changes that take place in the brain during pregnancy, paving the way for a better understanding of a mother’s mind during this transformative period. Scientists took 26 MRI scans of a healthy 38-year-old woman before, during and after pregnancy.
Scans revealed a significant decrease in grey matter (the wrinkly outer part of the brain) during pregnancy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, stressed scientists, who likened it to changes seen to the brain during puberty. An increase in white matter – generally responsible for facilitating communication between brain regions – was also observed. The research was carried out by scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, US.
Further scans are being done on other pregnant women to gain potential insights into conditions such as postnatal depression. Prof Emily Jacobs, who led the research, said the work was “an opportunity to tackle some of the most pressing and least understood problems in women’s health”. Image: Anna Shvets Dozens of schools went phone-free in England One of England’s largest academy trusts has announced the phasing out smartphones from its schools.
Ormiston Academies Trust teaches 35,000 children across 42 schools and is rolling out the smartphone ban following a successful trial. “One of our schools has operated like this for a number of years and the approach is really successful and popular with both parents and students,” the trust said in a statement. It added: “Learning, behaviour and wellbeing are top priorities in our schools, but all can be impacted negatively by smartphones.
We want to reduce the risks associated with smartphones in our schools and give young people the freedom to learn, play and socialise without the distraction and social pressures that phones and social media can bring.” The pushback against smartphones in school is gaining momentum amid research linking them with mental health issues in young children. France is trialling a phone ban at 200 secondary schools, while the Netherlands outlawed the devices at schools in January.
Image: Hamxx005 Vintage clobber conquered London Fashion Week Preloved clothes are officially in vogue following a star turn for vintage garms at London Fashion Week. In one show organised by Oxfam, celebrities strutted down the catwalk in preloved clothes styled by the pioneer of thrifting, stylist Bay Garnett. Actor Kola Bokinni (pictured) and DJ Vick Hope were among those taking part in the Style for Change show.
It coincided with new research revealing that 65% of people in the UK own secondhand clothing. “It definitely feels like there is a real shift happening, where people are finally seeing how fabulous secondhand shopping is, particularly preloved clothing,” said Hope. “The beauty of shopping in places like Oxfam is that you never know what you might find and it’ll be completely unique; as well as being new to you, these clothes have stories to tell, and more life to live and be loved.
” Read more: The style guru taking charity shop fashion to the next level Image: Chris Yates/Oxfam New trial could save thousands from prostate cancer Thousands of men in the UK are set to take part in a major screening trial aimed at revolutionising the treatment of prostate cancer. The £42m research programme – TRANSFORM – seeks to find the best way to screen men for prostate cancer. There’s currently no screening programme for the disease, despite it killing 12,000 men each year in the UK alone.
Participants will be recruited over the coming months for the trial, which is set to begin in early 2025. “[Prostate cancer] is the most common cancer that doesn’t have a national screening programme,” said Dr Matthew Hobbs, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, a charity. “It’s about time that changed.
” Image: Tima Miroshnichenko Psychedelics help the dying accept their fate - study The writer Aldous Huxley’s request for LSD on his deathbed appears to have been vindicated by new research which suggests psychedelics help the dying accept their fate. An analysis of studies looking at the use of psychedelics in palliative care revealed that psilocybin, LSD and MDMA appeared to reduce anxiety, stress and “existential distress” in patients. “Overall, the drugs caused few and mild to moderate side effects, which subsided when the drug effects wore off or during the days after,” said lead author Christopher Boehlke of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
However, Boehlke admitted that the evidence for their effectiveness is limited and that more research is required. The analysis comes amid a growing body of evidence that shows psychedelics could provide effective treatment for anxiety, addiction, and other mental health conditions, when combined with talking therapy. Read more: Treating depression with psychedelics Image: Katrin Bolovtsova Main image: Rudy Balasko/iStock Get your weekly fix of good news delivered to your inbox every Saturday, by signing up to the Positive News email newsletter .
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