A Dose of Climate Optimism

A long weekend and four feel-good climate stories to keep you optimistic. Here’s your weekly dose of Climate Optimism.

Catching the green wave in Chile ^[1]Earth.org (2022)

Gabriel Boric, Chile’s new president, is putting climate change at the top of his green agenda. This includes setting ambitious climate goals to achieve net-zero emissions, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, overhauling water management and creating a development model that will see less reliance on exporting natural resources. Watch this space.

Climate victory gardens are here to stay ^[2]The Optimist Daily (2022)

Many of us flexed our green fingers throughout the pandemic – and it looks as though growing your own is here to stay. In the US approximately 15,000 “climate victory gardens” have popped up with more people growing their own food to fight climate change and to offset rising food costs. All this, as well as enjoying the many benefits of time outdoors. Food gardens happen in rainforest too, read here about the food gardens of the Gadaisu village in Papua New Guinea.

An underwater alternative to palm oil ^[3]GreenQueen (2022)

Scientists in Singapore may have found a solution to rainforest-destroying palm oil in the form of microalgae oil. The algae are sustainable, regenerative and abundant. It also has far less impact on the environment than palm oil and has great health benefits, it’s shown to lower cholesterol levels and contain fewer saturated fatty acids.

The biggest solar farm in Europe supplies 75,000 households ^[4]euronews.green (2022)

The two-sided solar farm opened in Greece this month, making use of all that sunshine. Not only this, there’s been a push by the country’s prime minister to speed up permits for renewable energy projects.

Read more about these feel-good climate stories below.