Don’t forget, good things are happening everyday

It’s really hard to be a human with critical thinking skills and a conscience at the moment.

We are simultaneously experiencing environmental and social collapse all over the world - it is not a far-off possibility anymore - the collapse is now.

But that doesn’t mean people aren’t fighting it and doing great things everyday.

These stories are often lost in the milieu of contemporary news reporting which prioritises negative news stories - which we have plenty of at the moment.

We’ve compiled some positive developments here that we think are worth knowing about and have given us some hope for the future.

Renewable Energy Gains

Certainly one of the most positive areas for climate-related news and developments is on the global uptake of renewable energy.

Governments and corporations have begun to back renewable energy all over the globe as it becomes more economically appealing for them - which entails its own problems, of course.

In any case, the growth of renewable energy - and the associated decline of fossil fuels - is evidently necessary to halt global warming and it is happening now.

Significant gains on renewable energy are being made across the European continent, as one of the early adopters of renewables.

In Germany last year, solar and wind officially took over fossil fuels as the leading sources of electricity generation in the country.

In the UK, sales of electric vehicles overtook those of petrol cars and the price of electricity backed by renewable energy continues to drop below fossil fuels.

But far more important are the renewable energy gains being made in the world’s most populous countries - China and India.

For the first time in five decades, both countries recorded a drop in coal-fired electricity generation due to the uptake of renewables.

In Asia as a whole, solar has already overtaken gas as a source of electricity generation, largely driven by China, India and Pakistan.

And while it may only be a target for now, China has nearly tripled its planned output of renewables capacity by 2030 - because it met the previous 2030 target in 2024.

Environmental Protection

Unfortunately, as the focus on renewables has rapidly increased, the responses to environmental degradation have lagged.

Some governments however are taking the initiative to prevent further destruction.

Two pieces of legislation by the European Union will soon come into force or be adopted by member states (European countries).

The EU has legislated a “Right to Repair” which aims to reduce the wastage of consumer products like mobile phones and washing machines by forcing manufacturers into offering restoral services.

The rule forces manufacturers to repair these goods even after warranty has expired, encouraging consumers to avoid buying new products at higher costs.

In the EU alone, the early disposal of goods produces 35 million tonnes of waste each year as well as the 261 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions.

The EU also has recently amended previous rules on the sale of products involved in deforestation on the continent.

The sale of all goods related to deforestation - including “cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber, and some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tyres, or furniture,” must be “deforestation free”.

In other words, anyone who sells these goods must be able to prove they aren’t from producers who contribute to deforestation.

You might have already heard of these developments in Colombia from last year, but they are worth repeating, given the country’s genuine world-leading ecological agenda.

The Colombian government last year took the huge step of banning all new resource extraction from the areas of the Amazon that fall within its borders.

The country also created 2.7 million acres of protected land in the Amazon for the uncontacted indigenous peoples living in the area to protect them from the growing presence of mining groups and organised crime.

Social Movements

Despite the real threat of violence under the current administration, protest movements in the United States continue to make significant wins.

The opposition to data centres has the potential to be a major juncture in the political environment of the country, bringing together a broad coalition of indigenous peoples and environmentalists along with born and bred Republicans and die hard MAGA supporters.

According to Data Center Watch, the scale of the successful opposition to data centres is staggering (data on Q1 of 2026 only):

• Data center projects worth approximately $130 billion were blocked or delayed - similar figures to the entirety of 2025;

• 14 statewide date centre moratorium bills were introduced across the country, with NY governor implementing a one-year ban while Maine’s governor vetoed a bill passed by the Legislature;

• Grassroots opposition groups have more than doubled since the end 2025, now spanning nearly every state.

There are many great individual stories across the US about how protestors have managed to block data centre construction - including in California, Indiana and Virginia.

And, after significant protests and online campaigns, work on the new border wall in Texas’ Big Bend National Park has been halted - at least for now.

Big Bend protects thousands of species of iconic flora and fauna, holds some of the best preserved fossilised records in the world as well as having stunning scenery akin to the grand canyon - and it sees only 1% of all illegal border crossings.

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It’s hard to be positive right now and that’s perfectly okay.

It would be undeniably strange to feel like everything is going well in the world at the moment.

But we hope some of these stories provide a bit of hope and remind us that good things are happening all the time, despite the bad.