The Happy Hub Draft

NEED A BIT OF
Well, here’s some good news stories from around the world that will help to brighten your day.
We've rounded up the most heartwarming and inspirational good news stories from across the globe.
NETHERLANDS
Airport pigs help keep the skies safe:
They didn’t get badges or uniforms, but they did receive a generous
meal allowance. Near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, 20
pigs joined a six-week pilot program designed to reduce the
number of goose strikes at the busy international hub. The pigs
were allowed to settle in a two-hectare sugar-beet field between
two of the airport’s runways. The hope was they’d eat up any
plant life that appeals to geese and, by their presence, would
intimidate other birds in the area, too.
Collisions between birds and aircraft are a nagging problem in
aviation—in 2020, there were 150 avian strikes at Schiphol—
and these incidents can have serious consequences. Fortunately,
the pig patrol appears to have been a success: no bird strikes
were recorded during their stay. The airport is currently assessing
whether to make the pigs a permanent feature of its overall
safety program. —By Flannery Dean
PHILIPPINES
The nurses who saved 35 newborns from
a fire:
Last May, during a fire at the Philippine
General Hospital in Manila, two nurses
made sure no one was left behind
in their fourth floor neonatal intensive
care unit. Kathrina Bianca Macababbad
was bathing one of the unit’s babies
just after midnight when she heard that
a fire had broken out on the floor below.
As the flames raged, she and fellow
nurse Jomar Mallari made multiple
trips in and out of the building with
their charges. The biggest challenge was
rescuing premature babies who were
intubated and dependent on ventilators
to breathe. Holding the babies in one
arm while manually ventilating them
with the other hand, the nurses managed
to get all 35 of their tiny patients
to safety. —By Flannery Dean
CANADA
The businessman who donated an island:
There are few things rarer than pristine wilderness. This is true in Canada, which
according to Global Forest Watch ranks third in the world for forest cover loss. It’s
what makes the recent donation of a forested island within a freshwater glacial lake
in Quebec so worthy of celebration.
Last fall, Montreal businessman Andrew Howick donated 26 hectares—the equivalent
of 24 soccer fields—of richly forested Molson Island to the Nature Conservancy
of Canada. He first began buying up parts of the island in the 1990s as a way of protecting
aquatic birds and rare, diverse plant life. The donation of the island—made
possible by tax incentives for such land donations—means it will escape development
and thrive for decades to come. —By Flannery Dean
WHAT’S
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GOOD
NEWS
STORY?
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news in your
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