I will periodically present recent news that is inspirational, showcases the pinnacles of human achievement, or demonstrates our amazing ability to continuously innovate and find solutions for the myriad challenges of life on Earth.
The news media overwhelmingly focuses on negativity, not because it is an accurate representation of reality, but because that is what gets clicks (before clicks existed, the newspapermen used to say “if it bleeds, it leads”). If we choose to consume this negativity we will become negative people who suffer from mental illness. Consuming negative media, leads to negative thoughts and negative intentions, which leads to negative words and actions, which leads to more suffering.
Conversely, if we choose to consume positive news, we will be happier, more well-adjusted, and more skillful professionally and in our relationships with other.
While we want to be cognizant that there is certainly suffering all around us, this should motivate us to use our collective genius to find solutions. As a species we have been doing exactly this and the pace has accelerated in recent decades. By almost any objective standard, life for the median person on Earth has never been better than it is now.
We should all appreciate that we are living in a Golden Age.
Content That is Guaranteed to Give You Good Feels
Folks reacting to seeing clearly or seeing color for the first time never gets old, whether it’s babies, teenagers, regular dads or anyone else:
Colorblind People See Color For The FIRST Time | Tiktok Compilation I EMOTIONAL 😢 – YouTube
Children are often wonderfully idealistic and compassionate. This 12 year old girl donated her $475 in birthday cash to the homeless man who found and returned her grandmother’s wallet. And, then she set up a crowdfunding site to raise another $32k to help him and other homeless people. Empathy and compassion are wonderful and universal human emotions.
California girl raises $32G for homeless man who found, returned her grandmother’s wallet | Fox News
Advice you can Use to Reduce Your Suffering Immediately
Coping with pain: counting down from 100 by 7s was the best strategy of several in this study.
To keep pain in check, count down – LMU Munich (uni-muenchen.de)
Another coping mechanism that some scientific studies suggest help relieve physical or emotional pain is to perform altruistic acts.
Altruistic behaviors relieve physical pain | PNAS
We are Solving the Climate Change Challenge – No Big Deal, Just Humans Being Awesome, Not that this is Generating any Headlines in the Negative News Media
Humans are successfully coming together to avert the slow-moving disaster of climate change.
IPCC baseline scenarios have over-projected CO2 emissions and economic growth (iop.org)
CO2 emissions from fossil fuels may have peaked in 2019
CO2 Emissions from Fossil Fuels May Have… | The Breakthrough Institute
Norway becomes the first country in the world to sell more entirely electric vehicles than internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicles.
BP (formerly known as British Petroleum) in their 2020 long term energy outlook estimates that 2019 will be the all-time peak for oil consumption and that oil demand is now in terminal decline:
bp Energy Outlook 2020 | News and insights | Home
And, We’re Doing it While Providing Electricity to More People than Ever
More people than ever had access to electricity in 2019. Although some of that progress was reversed in 2020 because of the pandemic, we are on a path for universal access by 2030.
Access to electricity – SDG7: Data and Projections – Analysis – IEA
Other Environmental News
One of the major issues plaguing wind energy is that it kills migratory flocks of birds. New study finds that painting the turbine blades can cut the number of birds killed by about 70%.
Black turbine blade ‘can cut bird deaths’ – BBC News
Single-use plastic straws and shopping bags have been banned in China. This ban has also spurred massive innovation to try to reduce the production cost of recyclable plastics.
Plastic straws vanish from China as ban kicks in – CGTN
Mexico City has done the same, banning single-use plastics:
Mexico City begins 2021 with ban on single-use plastics | News | DW | 02.01.2021
Coronavirus – We’re Solving this Challenge in about a Year After the Experts said it is Impossible to Have a Vaccine Ready in Less Than 3 Years
Track how fast the vaccine is being distributed and people are being inoculated in your state.
Inspiration to Help Motivate You
Becoming an astronaut is one of the most difficult and amazing accomplishments possible. I don’t want to minimize what any other astronaut has achieved – I salute them all for their talent and hard work. I’m sure there are many movie-worthy stories among them. This astronaut never gave up on his dream, overcame incredibly long odds, and will have his life story turned into a movie.
California farmworker turned astronaut, Jose Hernandez, urges kids not to give up – ABC7 Los Angeles
Other Random Good News
A new 3,700 mile bike trail is being built that will traverse the entire United States from coast to coast.
BBC – Travel – A new way to travel across the US
The amazing story of a grassroots activist in Sierra Leone, where almost 90% of women experience female genital mutilation as part of a traditional coming-of-age ceremony. She is making real progress in convincing tribal elders to do away with the harmful and traumatizing practice, while retaining the positive cultural aspects of the tradition.
Female genital mutilation: The woman fighting Sierra Leone′s ritual | Africa | DW | 03.01.2021
The museum where racist and oppressive statues go to die:
The Museum Where Racist and Oppressive Statues Go to Die – Atlas Obscura
This may seem like a relatively minor invention, but it demonstrates the power of communication technology today. An elite athlete with Parkinson’s successfully crowd-sourced a solution to a frustrating everyday problem for people with the disease: how to remove a single pill from a pill bottle while your hands are shaking. Multiply this story by about a million to get a sense of the breakneck speed of innovation today.
This Pakistani immigrant to the USA continues to add tremendous value to his community. This Arkansas-based doctor not only cured cancer patients with treatments our ancestors could only dream of, but in a single act of charity, also eased tremendous financial stress for many of the families he treated. Over Christmas, he decided to cancel over half a million dollars of past-due bills he had outstanding from patients.
Shut this year, cancer clinic forgives debts (arkansasonline.com)