The week's good news: March 12, 2020

1. Largest-ever effort to save carbon-reducing seagrass underway in Wales

Because it can absorb carbon dioxide up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, seagrass has been dubbed the "wonder plant," able to help fight climate change. "It is incredibly productive and just sucks carbon into the sediments, traps particles that are locked there for millennia," Dr. Richard Unsworth of Swansea University told BBC News. Seagrass is found in shallow waters, is a habitat for fish, and protects from coastal erosion. Due to population growth in coastal areas, it's estimated that up to 92 percent of the U.K.'s seagrass has vanished over the last century. That's why Unsworth is undertaking Britain's largest effort to save the plant. By November, one million seeds will be planted into a seabed off Pembrokeshire in Wales. This will create a 215,280 square foot meadow, which should attract young fish and "start to kick into action a recovery for our seas around the U.K.," Unsworth said.

BBC News

2. Man returns abandoned family portraits to their rightful owners

All he was supposed to do was go into an abandoned photo studio and measure the space, but after architect Brian Bononi entered the room and saw stacks of family portraits set to be tossed in the trash, he couldn't walk away. "I knew that those photos meant a lot to the people who were in them and that they'd be gone forever if I didn't do something," Bononi told The Washington Post. The Portrait Innovations studio in Kansas City, Missouri, abruptly closed after the nationwide chain went bankrupt, blindsiding customers. Bononi decided he would bring the portraits to his house, and with his family's help, started calling people whose names and numbers were written on the backs of the images. So far, Bononi has been able to reach 63 customers by phone, and is still trying to find the owners of unmarked portraits through social media.

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The Washington Post

3. World's 1st 3D-printed community under construction in Mexico

Soon, 50 families in the Mexican state of Tabasco will have their own homes, customized to fit their needs through 3D-printing technology. The San Francisco-based nonprofit New Story is dedicated to ending homelessness around the world and making housing affordable. The group has teamed up with Icon, a construction technology company in Austin, to build 50 3D-printed houses in a rural part of Tabasco in what will be the world's first entirely 3D-printed neighborhood. Each structure will be 500 square feet, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. They will also be able to withstand earthquakes. Icon founder and CEO Jason Ballard said 3D printing cuts in half the time and cost associated with traditional construction, and is better for the environment.

The Washington Post

4. California program lets students learn about clean water by raising trout

Over eight weeks, third grade students at Glen View Elementary School watched as their classroom's rainbow trout eggs hatched and grew into juvenile fish, learning about everything from ecosystems to water quality along the way. Glen View is in Escondido, California, where the school district has partnered with the Escondido Creek Conservancy to offer Trout in the Classroom. Through this program, students raise trout for release in a local lake, benefiting both the students and the environment. "We all need clean water," Escondido Creek Conservancy Education Director Simon Breen told NBC San Diego. "We all need clean air and we're never going to get there if the next generation doesn't understand the steps that they can take." Last week, the class took a field trip to San Diego's Lake Miramar, where the kids bid farewell to the fish as they were gently placed into the water.

NBC San Diego

5. New York City volunteers make sure the homeless don't feel left out during holidays

Carrying backpacks filled with food and toiletries, the volunteers with Together Helping Others take to the streets of New York City once every two weeks, bringing vital necessities to those who need them the most. Husbands Jeffrey Newman and Jayson Conner started this nonprofit in 2018, and over the last two years, have handed out more than 3,500 backpacks to homeless individuals through their Backpacks for the Street program. Conner was once homeless, and remembers feeling invisible. That's why volunteers not only distribute backpacks, coats, gloves, and sleeping bags, but also holiday treats. On Valentine's Day, for example, they passed out extra bags with candy, hand warmers, and cards, since "so many feel they get left out of holidays," Newman told CBS New York. "We wanted to bring compassion and dignity and humanity to this. We'll sit there and listen and get to know them. It's about treating each other like human beings."

CBS New York