Want more articles like this one?
You're in luck! We've got a weekly newsletter that's filled with goodness!

Wrap up each week on a positive note with our Today in Goodness newsletter featuring our top content from the week, goodness on the horizon, and good news from around the world. 

Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Wrap up each week on a positive note with our Today in Goodness newsletter featuring our top content from the week, goodness on the horizon, and good news from around the world. 

Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
View Collection
Image: Beautiful circle of swirling colors

Saving Rivers by Turning Toxins Into Art!

How can art help the environment recover from disaster?

We have all heard of the power that art can help to heal people, but can it also work to heal ecosystems? Maybe we underestimate how powerful creativity can be when it is combined with science and a mission.

Image: Beautiful circle of swirling colors
Chroma S4 Chimaera Courtesy of: John Sabraw (Copyright John Sabraw)

Rivers and streams across the world face massive amounts of pollution from mining, industry, and improperly treated sewage. Though they are the veins and arteries that carry life-giving water, they are constantly under threat.

In America’s abandoned centers of industry, long deserted mines are leaching toxins into rivers and streams. As they enter the waterways they turn them violent shades of yellow, orange, and red, betraying their contamination.

In a seemingly unlikely collaboration, two professors at Ohio University, Guy Riefler and John Sabraw, are teaming up to combat river pollution and educate people about its impacts. Riefler is a civil engineer and Sabraw is an artist, and their work is just one of the many incredible examples of what can happen when science and art collide!

Here’s Great Big Story with more.

Via: Great Big Story 1

If you’re after more like that, go check out Great Big Story on YouTube. A dive into their content will leave you optimistic and full of new knowledge.

Painting with Toxic Sludge to Change Hearts, Minds, and Rivers.

We need more innovation like this that looks past traditional academic boundaries and sees the potential in the places in between!

Though I love and adore science and art equally, I had never thought of the observation that Sabraw shared,

“Scientist and artists share two critical aspects: curiosity and failure…

The artist, like the scientist, has a crucial role to perform in our society: to see things differently, to act on this vision, and to report on successes and failures to the public.”

What a true statement.

We so often think of science as the antithesis of art, when in actuality they are compliments to one another, each sharing fundamental values.

This remarkable collaboration perfectly illustrates the monumental potential for innovation that is waiting out there as we choose to see the world in terms of its connections and not its differences.

Though we may not all be artists or scientists, the same is true for us as well. When we make an effort to see connection around us and refuse to be defined by one label of interest or identity we are afforded a view of our world filled with potential.

Stay beautiful & keep laughing!

-Liesl

Don’t miss out on a single article!

Enjoy unlimited access to over 500 articles & podcast that give you a positive perspective on the state of the world and show you practical ways you can help.

Sign up now!

Notes:

  1. “Turning Toxins Into Art | ‘That’s Amazing'” YouTube. Great Big Story, 22 Dec. 2016. Web. 02 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJv6WtfxLUk>.
Image: Liesl Ulrich-Verderber

Liesl Ulrich-Verderber

CEO

Since 2015, Liesl has been a writer, editor, and is now the CEO at the Goodness Exchange. She is a life-long camera-toting traveler, a global story seeker, and an aspiring—but more often root-tripping—outdoor enthusiast. She can be found on Instagram @Liesl.UV

Join for as little as $5 per month

As a Member, you get instant access to unlimited good news, fresh ideas, and positive perspectives. Don't miss out on full access to articles, podcasts, videos, and curated playlists of our content, as well as our weekly newsletter, and access to our mobile app!

Become a Member

Follow Us

Positive news for curious people.

There is a wave of goodness and progress well underway, all around the world.