
Latest Stories
Happier Employees, Higher Profits: Covid’s Surprising Lesson for Restaurants
As the pandemic pummeled the industry, some restauranteurs bucked trends by paying their employees even more. Now it’s paying off.
Women-Only Rangers Are Changing the Way Zimbabwe Fights Poachers
The unit focuses on community engagement and job creation. Its tactics are working.
The Little-Known Tool Protecting California Towns from Polluters
Most Californians have never heard of the CalEnviroScreen — even those whose communities it has shielded from ecological disaster.
Water-Guzzling Yards Are Getting a Celebrity Makeover
A new reality series is using the HGTV method to tackle Florida’s water supply issues.
India’s ‘Open Prisons’ Are a Marvel of Trust-Based Incarceration
For 12 hours a day, prisoners can let themselves out to work or visit family. In virtually every case, they come back.
New Mexico Offers Free Child Care to Pretty Much Everyone
The Land of Enchantment just launched the closest thing the U.S. has to universal child care.
Featured Collections
Editors’ Picks
Cleaning Up Rivers Is Saving the Oceans
When an architecture student’s dazzling ocean cleanup concept fizzled, she started thinking smaller — and tackled the problem at the source.
How Cap-and-Trade Keeps People in Their Homes
California’s program to lower carbon emissions has a surprising side benefit: preventing displacement.
Inside the Movement to Clean Up the World’s Most Toxic Sites
A sprawling initiative identifies pollution hotspots so the communities affected by them can act.
Most Popular
Does This Water Have Legal Rights?
Threatened by development, five bodies of water are suing the State of Florida, making the unprecedented argument that nature has legal rights, too.
Nuclear Crocodiles Invade Florida — in a Good Way
A nuclear power plant that became a thriving habitat for endangered crocs shows how conservation can work even in the most human-altered environments.
India’s ‘Open Prisons’ Are a Marvel of Trust-Based Incarceration
For 12 hours a day, prisoners can let themselves out to work or visit family. In virtually every case, they come back.
Crushed by negative news?
Sign up for the Reasons to be Cheerful newsletter.