New York mulled criminal charges for oil execs, Egypt beat malaria, and urban greening was shown to save lives, plus more good news
This week’s good news roundup

Big oil has long known that its products would wreak climate chaos, but kept drilling anyway while suppressing climate science. Such behaviour amounts to reckless endangerment, US lawyers argued this week, in a prosecution memorandum that makes a case for criminal charges to be brought against big oil executives in New York state.
The state has been battered by hurricanes and flooding in recent decades – weather events that are becoming more common and severe due to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, climate scientists say.
Elected officials are among those supporting the memorandum, published by advocacy group Public Citizen. It comes amid growing evidence that big oil knew about the climate dangers of their products but promoted them anyway while suppressing science. “This conduct was not just amoral,” the memo says. “It was criminal.”
New York State senator Kristen Gonzalez, who supports such litigation, said: “Big oil must be held accountable for their actions, and justice must be won for those who’ve suffered the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters.”
The American Petroleum Institute, which represents US oil firms, was contacted for comment.
Image: Pat Whelen

Egypt has been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), becoming the 44th country to stamp out the disease.
“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilisation itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Egypt’s achievement follows a nearly 100-year effort by the country to defeat the disease. Malaria diagnosis and treatment are provided free to everyone. Health workers have also been trained to detect malaria at borders.
Egypt’s good news came as the WHO announced that Vietnam has eliminated trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness. India and Pakistan were both declared free of the disease earlier this month.
Image: Alex Azabache

Norway has become the latest European country to move to protect children from social media, amid claims from the country’s prime minister that the platforms make users “single-minded and pacified”.
The Nordic nation is set to introduce a strict minimum age limit for social media of 15. Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, admitted that it would be an “uphill battle” enforcing the rules. More than half the country’s nine-year-olds are reported to use social media, despite the current minimum age limit of 13.
The government has pledged to introduce more safeguards, including an age verification barrier. “Children must be protected from harmful content on social media,” Støre told VG, a local newspaper.
Last week, the UK government introduced a draft bill aimed at protecting young people from social media. The Dutch and French governments, meanwhile, have banned smartphones in school. Ireland is expected to do the same.
Image: Andrea Piacquadio

Planting trees in our cities saves lives. That’s according to new research linking urban green spaces with lower rates of heat-related deaths.
The news will hardly surprise the Colombian city Medellin (pictured), where a network of green corridors reduced average temperatures by 2C, data shows.
Keeping cities cool is a key public health challenge as the world warms. Green spaces are one solution, according to the new study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which reached its conclusion after reviewing existing studies.
“Areas with more green space have lower rates of heat-related morbidity and mortality compared with areas with less green space,” researchers wrote in the journal BMJ Open. “Moreover, urban greenery can also have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing, which can also contribute to reducing the negative health effects of high temperatures.”
Related: The city where ‘the future has already arrived’
Image: Mike Swigunski

Psychedelics have emerged as a potentially promising new treatment for depression, with researchers noting how they can help ‘reset’ the brain when combined with talking therapy.
Now, scientists are to investigate whether hallucinogens could also help people to recover from opioid addiction. Imperial College London is set to launch a landmark trial that will see recovering opioid addicts receive psilocybin – the active compound in magic mushrooms – along with psychological support.
Opioid addiction is a major public health challenge. Of the 600,000 drug deaths recorded worldwide in 2019, around 80% were related to opioids.
“We know that up to 90% of people relapse back to opioid use within 12 months of finishing detox, so finding new and effective treatments is essential,” said Imperial’s Dr David Erritzoe. “If this trial is successful, it offers hope for a new type of treatment that could make a significant difference to this group of people.”
Imperial’s trial is one of several drug research projects to be awarded £7m of government funding this week. Another uses virtual reality to identify cocaine users’ trigger points – a first step towards helping them overcome them.
Image: Marek Piwnicki

One of the UK’s fastest growing waste streams will cease to exist from June 2025, the government confirmed this week, as it made good on the previous government’s plan to ban disposable vapes.
Single use vapes contain small batteries, precious metals and plastics, and have become a defining symbol of our throwaway culture. Some 5m are binned each week in the UK, according to Greenpeace.
But not for much longer after the government said that they would be outlawed next June in England. Wales and Scotland confirmed they will do the same, while Northern Ireland is expected to follow suit. Some critics question why the ban can’t come in sooner, though environmental groups generally praised the move.
“Over 40 tonnes of lithium was thrown out with disposable vapes in the UK in 2022 – that’s enough to make batteries for 5,000 electric cars,” said Greenpeace, which welcomed the ban. “For a green transition, we need to get the most use out of scarce minerals like lithium.”
Image: Peter van Niuewehuizen

More than 600m drinks containers have been returned in Ireland since a bottle deposit scheme launched in February, data shows.
The initiative was introduced by the Irish government to help the country meet the EU’s target of recycling 90% of beverage containers by 2029. Reverse vending machines have been installed across Ireland, offering people €0.15 (12p) per can and €0.25 (£0.21) per plastic bottle. Similar schemes exist elsewhere in Europe. The UK plans to introduce its own version in 2026.
With a return rate of around 100m a month, the Irish scheme will need to ramp up fast to tackle the reported 1.7bn cans and bottles that are thrown out in Ireland each month. Still, Re-turn, which runs the scheme, said the early figures are encouraging.
“It is performing beyond our expectations,” said CEO Ciaran Foley. “It has been particularly gratifying to see how it has taken off at a grassroots level among community and charity organisations utilising the scheme for fundraising.”
Image: Engin Akyurt

The UK government has appointed its first special representative for nature.
Ruth Davis, who previously worked at Greenpeace, advised the UK government when it hosted Cop26 and was instrumental in drawing up a global pledge on deforestation – one of the summit’s key outcomes.
She will now lead the UK government’s response to the biodiversity crisis, and is in Colombia for the start of talks that will determine how the world counters the alarming decline in wildlife.
“The government has recognised that the nature crisis is of equal gravity to the climate crisis; and that we cannot tackle one without addressing the other,” said Davis.
Davis’s appointment follows that of Rachel Kyte, who was hired in September as the UK government’s climate envoy – a role axed by the previous government.
Image: Sagar Kulkarni

Chinook salmon have been spotted in Oregon’s Klamath Basin for the first time in more than a century following the removal of four hydroelectric dams.
It’s a major win for conservationists and tribal communities who had long pushed to restore the natural flow of the Klamath River. A $500m (£385m) project to remove the dams was completed over the summer.
“This is what our members worked for and believed in for so many decades,” said Roberta Frost, secretary of the Klamath Tribal Council. “I want to honour that work and thank them for their persistence in the face of what felt like an unmovable obstacle. The salmon are like our tribal people. They know where home is and returned as soon as they were able.”
Debbie Colbert, director of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, added: “This is an exciting and historic development in the Klamath Basin that demonstrates the resiliency of salmon.”
Image: Dan Cook

We can restart our computers with a simple ctrl-alt-delete, but how easy is it to do a full reset on a river?
A year on from the completion of one such project in Somerset, England, scientists say they’ve proven it can be done – and with impressive, lasting results.
“[Our] novel technique has real potential for transforming our riverscapes,” said Richard Mason from Umeå University, Sweden, who worked on the project. “What we learn from our detailed monitoring at this site will help river restoration techniques globally.”
Read the full story here.
Image: James Beck/National Trust Images
Main image: FilippoBacci
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