Giving Compass' Take:

• YES! Magazine reports and highlights on 17 inspirational and so-called impossible stories of success ranging from poverty and women’s rights to public health and the environment. 

• These stories are highly inspirational and prove that our world is making progress, how can we all help continue positive impact?

• Here's an article on how to capture hope in philanthropy and social causes. 

It takes discipline in the current media environment to find good news. But in the midst of government shutdowns, injustice at the border, and continuing climate chaos, quite a few victories for goodness and progress occurred. Here are 17 of them:

  1. The hole in the ozone layer could be fully closed over the Arctic by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2060, according to the United Nations. Ozone is a naturally occurring gas that, when in the stratosphere, provides the Earth with a layer of protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Prior to 1979, no hole was observed in this protective blanket; while some of the compounds that destroy ozone occur in nature, human beings have manufactured and overused many others. We seem to be reversing that trend.2. Niger reported that, in the last three decades, it has seen the growth of 200 million trees, setting the record for the largest positive impact on the environment in African history. These trees, most of them gaos, have grown naturally over 5 million hectares (about 20,000 square miles) of farmland, and farmers are nurturing them.

Read the full article about these 17 "impossible" success stories by Megan Wildhood at YES! Magazine