Why you should be reading positive news.
Something that really struck me reading David Attenborough’s “A Life on our Planet” was the thoughtful way it was structured. The first half of the book was really quite devastating. Attenborough describes the ways that we have destroyed the world and the fairly terrifying direction in which the planet is moving—the climate catastrophe towards which we are hurtling.
Reading this first half of the book feels like a punch to the gut. It is incredibly informative, unbelievably important, and crucial to learn about. But it left me feeling hopeless and despondent.
I almost stopped reading at this point, but thank goodness I didn’t. Cue the second half of the book. In this section, Attenborough describes numerous initiatives and strategies that are taking place around the world which have proven remarkably effective at solving climate-related issues.
One such solution he gives is marine protected areas. In Palau, a western Pacific island nation, the fishing stocks were massively depleted from fishing—a huge issue not only from an environmental perspective but also because the country relies heavily on fishing for food and tourism. The government established a number of no-fishing zones and restricted fishing in other areas. The results were stunning; the fish populations in the no-fishing zones recovered so successfully that they spilled over into the fishing areas and have resulted in increased catches for fishing communities, and the islands reefs have now recovered. Costa Rica provides another wonderful example of successful environmental intervention. Just like so many other countries in the world, it suffered massive deforestation during the 20th century. In the early 1900s, three quarters of the country was covered with forests, but by the 1980s, that number had reduced to one quarter. The government got involved and gave landowners grants to replant native trees. Today, forests make up over half of Costa Rica’s landmass. A third example comes from Morocco. At the turn of the millennium, the vast majority of the country’s energy came from imported oil and gas. Today, Morocco has the world’s largest solar farm and 40% of its energy needs come from renewable sources within the country. It is expected to become an energy exporter by 2050.
Reading about these solutions and the people who are championing them felt like a balm after the wound of the first half of the book. It was so uplifting to know that while the situation is truly dire, there are still small ways in which we are improving it.
This got me thinking about the balance between having a realistic and informed understanding of the state of the world, and still maintaining hope for the future. Just about all the news that we consume is pretty awful and that is surely because there is no shortage of awful things happening in the world. But there are good things happening too, and about these we don’t hear very much.
A potential criticism of any advocation for more of a focus on positive news is that it will distract from the problems that desperately need our attention and action. If we all walk around with rose-tinted glasses then no one will take up arms to defend our planet’s future or the life situation of those living on it. This, I think, is a valid criticism. Any focus on progress and positive change must be balanced against a realistic and clear-headed understanding of the situation on the ground.
However, focusing on some of the positive initiatives that are successfully making change is not merely beneficial because it will make us “feel better” in some delusional naive sense. After finishing the first half of “Life on our Planet”, I was just about ready to give up. It was hard not to fall into a defeatist mental spiral to the tune of “What’s the point if we’re all just doomed anyway?”. After the second half, I felt revitalised. I wanted to join all those incredible people Attenborough had described making a real impact. I no longer felt that it was futile folly to even try.
What would it be like if we really believed that a better world, a healthier planet, a happier population were possible and envisioned what this world would look like? If we employed, what is sometimes called “utopian thinking”? Would we become complacent and ignore the current ills, living with a delusional eternally optimistic perspective? It’s possible. But I think it is more likely that we would be spurred to act, inspired by the idea that things could actually be different, motivated to make that imagined utopia into a reality. A thriving planet, restored ecosystems, peaceful coexistence between humanity and the earth that sustains and homes us.
So, against this background, I will be writing about positive developments in the climate space, and little wins that deserve our celebration. My focus will be primarily on Africa. Our continent is almost always portrayed as a place of despair, poverty, and hopelessness in Western media. While these things of course do exist, this limited narrative ignores the impressive innovation and pioneering vision of so many projects and initiatives happening all around us. Excluding these from the narrative breeds a pessimism and quietism that is counterproductive and unhelpful. Why even try if it’s all hopeless anyway?
Part of what I love so much about writing for Zero Carbon Charge is that I get to be part of a team that really embodies the positivity and optimism that the world sorely lacks. Many people are skeptical about the feasibility of EVs making a concrete change or about the likelihood that an EV revolution will actually take place. Living in South Africa where EVs are not yet the norm, it is easy to hold that opinion.
I moved to London earlier this year and was well and truly cured of that skepticism. It was incredible to see how the city has embraced electric transport and how hard they are working to move the transport system into a green future. All of the city’s double-decker buses are hybrid and all of the single-decker buses are zero emission. By 2037 at the latest, every single one of the city’s 9200 buses will be zero emission. The city has spent 300 million pounds to retrofit thousands of buses and have moved the greenest buses to the routes through the most heavily polluted areas. A large proportion of the taxis and private hire cars in the city are electric and drivers with green cars are rewarded with various incentives. There is a charging station just around the corner from where I live and it gives me such a smile every time I walk past and see one of those iconic London taxis charging there on the street. The city has also invested 18 million pounds (a staggering R426 000 000) into an initiative that will make it easier to own an EV. This includes installing thousands of EV charging points across London. It is impossible to deny that EVs are the future. Of course, we are nowhere near this level of progress in South Africa, but the change is coming.
I will end this off with a message to you, reader. If you have been feeling discouraged or disheartened about the state of the planet, as so many of us do, take heart in the fact that all is not lost. All around the world, there are remarkable people and remarkable projects working to create a future that is green and sustainable. Seek good news to balance out the bad. I promise it’s there if you look for it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Josie is a writer and researcher who wants to do her bit to make the world a little greener. She is currently doing her PhD in Philosophy at King’s College London where she is researching ethical questions surrounding AI.
