The power of a regular dose of good news to stop us feeling overwhelmed
Just as I was having one of those black days when my eco-anxiety was taking hold and I was feeling overwhelmed by the violence, misery and sadness of our world – I guess we all have those days sometimes, don’t we? – along came a dose of good news with the latest edition of the Resurgence and Ecologist magazine to which I subscribe.
Reading it always gives me a huge lift and makes me see that there are so many selfless and kind people around the world and that so much good stuff is happening which very rarely gets a look-in in mainstream media[i].
For starters, there’s ‘Re-Wilding’
In the UK an increasing number of people see themselves as ‘guardians’ of land rather than ‘owners’. They are choosing to live in harmony with the natural world by ‘rewilding’ their local landscape. The list is long and includes Cornish gardeners, smallholders and farmers, a group in Bodmin which has created a 500-acre wildlife corridor along the Dewey River Valley and a Scottish charity which is trying to raise a huge sum to buy a former shooting estate to transform it into a nature reserve.
As part of the re-wilding feature our very own campaign to encourage wildlife-friendly front gardens makes the headlines – ‘A Paving Slab Too Far’!
More cycle lanes in our cities
And then there is the good news of people in cities worldwide taking to two wheels instead of four.
Cycling and walking, which increased massively during the pandemic, is set to continue into the future with cities making provision for alternatives to cars. Berlin built 14 miles of cycle lanes virtually overnight and the Mayor of Paris announced 650kmk of pop-up cycleways.
And more…
But, there’s so much more … the Universities divesting from fossil fuels, those who are travelling close to home instead of flying off to foreign places, the ‘Peaceful Schools’ programme where children in school are taught conflict resolution.
Other uplifting treasure troves
Another dose of good news with a treasure trove of uplifting stories is Positive News which regularly features projects, businesses and people worldwide who are working hard to move us to a better, more sustainable future.
Even Gardeners’ World magazine helps me to feel better about the world with its advice on organic gardening and how we can all help the natural world to flourish.gardeners world
E-mails regularly drop into my in-box from Action for Happiness which is dedicated to creating a kinder and more caring society and every morning I get news from Greenhouse which updates me on good stuff aimed at bringing about the change we need.
In keeping with the current trend of ‘social prescribing’[ii] a subscription to a good news magazine would be just what the doctor ordered for those of us suffering eco-anxiety!
[i] I remind myself that as long ago as 2011 a spokesman for the British Medical Association said: “Human beings live their lives burdened by fear of what the future might hold.” AND “The sadness is that leading politicians seem to be developing a pattern of using fear as a political tool.”
[ii] Public Health England: “Social prescribing, sometimes referred to as community referral, is a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services.”
[Editor’s note: GP surgeries across the UK are now introducing Link Workers to support social prescribing. Healthy Life Essex has long been an advocate for social prescribing. This was our response in 2018 to the announcement of a £20bn windfall for the NHS]
Image credits:
Good news photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash
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