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In the headlines...

🇫🇷 France became the first European Union country to ban children under 15 from accessing social media accounts, with plans to implement it before school starts in the fall.

🎷 Jazz legend Plas Johnson, known for his saxophone solo on “The Pink Panther Theme,” passed away at age 94.

Environment

An annual summer trash pick-up race for off-roaders has cleared 5 million pounds of garbage from public lands

Every summer since 2014, DIY off-roaders have gathered on national forest lands near Madras, Oregon for a race like no other. In the Gambler 500, competitors speed around public lands, seeing who can pick up and haul the most trash possible.

The only requirement is that “Gamblers” drive cars that cost less than $500 each, and each one is a spectacle in and of itself. Although many are technically street legal, they are also heavily modified, painted, or “souped up” with pirate flags and metal dragons breathing real fire.

Since the event first began, the Gamblers have gathered over 5 million pounds of garbage. One participant said, “We are a disorganized group of people who like to drive bad cars, go camping, and pick up trash on public lands.”

Even better: The “do-good” element of Gambletown doesn’t end after one weekend. Founder Tate Morgan created an app called Sons of Smokey — a play on “Sons of Anarchy” and the beloved forest mascot Smokey the Bear — for public land-goers to mark large items of trash they see while out on hikes or camping trips.

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You may also like: Nonprofit hosts 'ghost trap' rodeo: A fishing tournament for cleaning abandoned fishing gear out of the water​

More Good News

​A critically endangered western lowland gorilla received a first-of-its-kind mastoidectomy to treat an infection that had spread into his skull. The surgery was performed by a team of wildlife health experts from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and surgeons from UC San Diego Health.

​Kids across Pittsburgh are planting trees around their schools, parks, streets, and playgrounds. The One Tree Per Child Program was first started in Australia by the late singer Olivia Newton-John in 2015.

​Volunteers are harvesting seagrass seeds to boost underwater meadows in the south of England. Just like trees and plants, seagrass can absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide — but the same area of seagrass can absorb 35 times the amount a tropical rainforest can.

​Pennsylvania launched a new task force to build highway crossings to protect both wildlife and drivers. The state already has 35 wildlife crossings, and the new group will create a statewide plan to identify priority wildlife corridors and guide infrastructure improvements.

​A renowned Disney animator launched an interactive ASL learning app and vowed to keep it free forever. Josh Staub worked on projects like “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Frozen,” and created the ASL app as a labor of love alongside Deaf animators, engineers, and other collaborators.

​An international study found that zoo elephant survival has substantially improved over six decades. In the most recent decades, their survival now exceeds or matches that of the wild and semi-wild elephant populations included in the analysis.

Technology

Kangaroos cause 90% of wildlife crashes in Australia. This new car feature emits a sound only they can hear

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People doing good

A visual artist’s latest work protests offshore drilling on the same Greek isle that inspired ‘The Odyssey’

According to legend, Homer’s Ogygia, the island of the nymph Calypso, is based on Othonoi, a real island on Greece’s westernmost point. The isle is surrounded by the Ionian Sea, also an iconic setting in Homer’s epic.

Today, as Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” reaches international acclaim, the same shores that inspired it are being studied for potential oil drilling by companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil.

In protest and to raise awareness about the devastating impacts of offshore drilling, visual artist The Krank created a large-scale public artwork installation called “The Hunt” about six miles from the proposed drilling site. The piece was inspired by cave drawings and designed to cause no harm to the local environment.

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More Good bits

☕ A Portland cafe has given 10,000 free coffees to neighbors.

🍐 Rainwater harvesting is bearing fruit — literally.

☀️ Solar energy is saving people millions of dollars.

🐋 A surprising place to find climate hope? Whale poop.

🐈 Xzibit the rapper shares pet advice as “Thunder Cat” turns 20.

🪓 3 women set world records at the Lumberjack World Championships.

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