A Little Good News

Good News for Our Planet

Dear Partners in Green,

When it comes to the state of our natural world—global warming, air pollution, waste built up, ozone layer degradation, species extinction—it appears there is little good news, little cause for celebration.

But still, there are a few bright lights on the environmental front, and I think in this month of December, the end of the year, it is good to focus on them. From small scale to grand scale, it is heartening to see that people throughout the world are taking our climate crisis seriously, and this may just give us hope and inspire us to keep up the fight for our dear Earth.

Some Good News

• First, there are fewer climate deniers. According to a study by a coalition of environmental groups and researchers, this year the percentage of climate deniers in the United States has ebbed to the lowest level.
• The United Nations is pledging to develop multi-stakeholder partnerships with 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24—some 16 percent of the global population— as meaningful stakeholders in our shared environmental future. Young people are showing up and turning up the pressure as never before to respond to the climate emergency.
• There are more international agreements. Nations have disputed the best ways to combat climate change for more than three decades. Such debates have led to several key accords, including the Montreal Protocol, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
• A landmark decision was made to establish a loss-and-damage fund that would mainly compensate developing countries most affected by the climate crisis. The cost to developing countries could reach 160–340 billion dollars by 2030, and much more if climate change accelerates.

Good News on a Smaller Scale

• 2023 is on track to be the year of one of the largest pink salmon runs in Puget Sound in the past decade.
• Restoration contractors in California and Oregon will plant nearly 19 billion native seeds as part of efforts to restore land along the Klamath River.
• Farmers in Pakistan are experimenting with creating a “baby glacier.”
• A Texas Girl Scout troop is tackling water conservation by conducting many of its troop activities underwater.
• Outside Boston, a vacant lot has been transformed into a quarter-acre “food forest,” with hopes of developing 30 more by 2030.
• In Wyoming, a forest project added a medicinal garden with more than 100 plants that have spiritual, medicinal, and nutritional significance to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, helping to preserve traditional knowledge as well as plant varieties.
• A volunteer group called the Garbage Humans of ATX gathers regularly to keep parks clean in Austin, Texas.
• Cape Cod women known as the Old Ladies Against Under Water Garbage dive into local ponds to remove hundreds of pieces of trash—from beer cans to dog toys—in just 90 minutes.
• A school district in Alaska switched its calendar to allow students to participate in seasonal harvests, helping pass along traditional knowledge of land stewardship to the next generation.

This is all good news, and we can all participate in some way in the creation of more good news. I hope this list will serve as an inspiration. As one of my elementary school teachers used to say, “Put on your thinking cap.”

If you have ideas, let me know, and I will include them in the next Seedling.

Now, from Anne Murray, first performed in 1982!

Thank you for being on this journey.

Wishing peace and health to you and your loved ones.

Till next time,
Beth