Good news for humankind!

From the week of July 3 – July 9 2023 C.E.

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#1

Brazil’s Amazon deforestation drops 34% under Lula

From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometres, down from 4,000 sq km during the same period last year under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

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#2

41 countries implement mental health and resiliency training for healthcare workers

Project HOPE has created and implemented a training program on mental health and resiliency that has reached over 100,000 healthcare workers since the start of the pandemic.

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#3

Arizona governor greenlights over-the-counter birth control

Arizonans 18 and older will soon be able to go to their local pharmacy and purchase oral contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription.

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#4

U.K. to pardon women convicted of homosexuality

The British Home Office is expanding a program that pardons people convicted of any offense related to homosexuality. Previously, the program was only available to men, but it is now open to women.

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#5

Twelve African countries will receive 18 million doses of the first-ever malaria vaccine

The first doses are expected to arrive during the last quarter of the year, with rollout set to start in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda by early 2024.

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#6

Kenya is launching Africa’s biggest school meals program

Under the new scheme, 250,000 children living in the country’s capital Nairobi will receive a hot meal every day.

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#7

Scientists create novel edible, biodegradable food packaging to replace plastic

The developers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong believe the new bacterial-cellulose-based material can offer a sustainable, easily available and non-toxic solution to plastics in food packaging.

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#8

U.K. achieves huge gains in 5-year survival rates of early breast cancer

A new U.K. study has found that, compared to 20 years ago, women diagnosed today with early invasive breast cancer and initially treated with surgery are 66% less likely to die from the disease.

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#9

U.N. agencies head up new $115 million push for healthier oceans

The Clean and Healthy Oceans strategy from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization aims to curb land-based pollution of our oceans through policy and regulatory innovation, infrastructure investments, and nature-based solutions.

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#10

Combo therapy trial achieves 94% remission rate for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

The trial was so successful the U.S.’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) ordered it be halted early so that the FDA could expedite approval of the therapy to treat stage 3 and 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma.

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Remember

Brazil creates Jaú National Park, one of the largest forest reserves in South America (1980 C.E.)

The massive reserve, covering more than 5 million acres of rainforest, is a central piece of Brazil’s Amazon conservation efforts and has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Imagine

Brazil achieves five consecutive years of net reforestation of Amazon rainforest (2032 C.E. ???)

Through a prolonged internal commitment and support from other nations and civil society, Brazil begins restoring the Amazon to its former glory, bolstering a critical global carbon sink.

Earth.fm

Earth.fm is a non-profit working to build a collection of immersive natural soundscapes that doubles as a fundraising platform for local charities that support the restoration of our natural world.

The Path of Purpose

For a while now, I’ve been writing something called Change 101. At first, this was meant as an online course or curriculum. But in the past few months, as I’ve focused more on building my coaching practice, it’s transformed more into a blog: weekly reflections on purpose, leadership, personal growth, and social change. Before, there was a strong sense of sequencing and progression. Now, it’s more whatever is most alive or relevant for me that week.

As of today, I’m changing the name of this series from Change 101 to The Path of Purpose.

Practically, the “101” part doesn’t really make as much sense when it’s not positioned as a course or curriculum. These pieces don’t really feel like lessons so much as they are me working out the philosophy and frameworks underpinning my coaching and my own personal orientation to life and the world. In hindsight, calling it a curriculum and putting a “101” on it was maybe just an elaborate way to avoid admitting I have a blog (which feels a little cringey to me).

But beyond that, lately I’m noticing I’m also just less interested in “change” as the goal to aspire to and orient around. So many of us feel we need to get to that next chapter in our careers or higher version of ourselves. I’ve lived in that space for much of my life, always striving for the next thing, always trying to change myself. I don’t really want to orient myself and my clients that way anymore.

What’s more interesting for me now is: What’s beautiful, wise, and good about where and who we are right now? What’s the journey we can be on that is more meaningful and alive than any arrival ever could be? What are the questions for which every day of our lives can be an answer?

For me, that’s The Path of Purpose. Hope you enjoy.

Peter Schulte

Purpose & Leadership Coach

Founder & Executive Director, Spark of Genius

Bellingham, WA USA / Lummi & Nooksack lands

he/they

More of Peter’s story