Is there any good news about climate change?

Yes there is a lot of bad news around the climate crisis. But let's talk about the victories, and why there is no argument for despair.

REFERENCES

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Some stock footage courtesy of Getty.
Edited by Luke Negus.

In this climate change video essay I talk about the good news about climate change, and how we are facing up to the climate crisis. Our action on climate so far is not enough, but that is no reason to ignore the progress made on climate to date. If you like videos from Just Have A Think or Our World In Data or Climate Town you'll enjoy this short video essay about climate optimism.

Huge thanks to my supporters on Patreon:
Whitefang, Cemre D., David Mann, Jilbin George, Ben Thayer, Eric A Gentzler, Glen Monks, Daniel Chen, Gary Stark, Martina Alini, Cifer, dryfrog, Marcus Bosshard, Dan Sherman, bitreign33 , Thusto.

Jeffry, Marius Kießling, Jon Arlov, Pawel Piwek, Matze, Artem Plotnikov, Paul H and Linda L, Peter Reid, Andy Hartley.

Denis Kovachev, Michael Thomas, Victor Gordan, Josh Müller, Joona Mäkinen, Tanner , Dominik Rihak, Nico Casal, Laura Glismann, Mark Harper, Ryan, Inten, John, James Haigh, Rick Kenny, Bailey Cook, Sergio Diaz, Command Chat, Aisolon, Christopher Mullin, I'm stuck in a PhD and I blame Simon., Philip Sullivan, Joseph , Ben Smith, Nicklas Kulp, Thomas Newman, Anže Cesar, Josef Probst, Kevin B, Phineas, Ishaan Shah, Katie Roberts, AngryPanda, Circuitrinos, Mark Richardson, Brian Moss, Hampus Sandell, Thomas Miller, Jens , Knut Nesheim, Issy Merritt, Dajeni, AYS , Adam Fairris, Kim Parnset, Crisan Talpes, Ted CLAY, Mike Cairns, Seb Stott, Duncan Robertson, xawt, Diederik Jekel, Fuzzy Leapfrog, Jan-Willem Goedmakers, Samat Galimov, Ashley Hauck, Nico, Thibault , GGH, FireFerretDann, Ciotka Cierpienia, Sam, szigyi, Marcin Wrochna, Alexander Johnston, Tom Painter, Sergiu Coroi, Phil Saici, Tom Marsh, Ashley Steel, Simone, Tomás Garnier Artiñano, Steffan , Oriol Muñoz Princep, Adam Gillard, Christopher Hall, Miguel Cabrera Brufau, Sylvus , Florian Thie, James Gurney, Andy Giesen, Vernon Swanepoel, Robin Anne McDuff, Jean-Marc Giffin, Felix Winkler, CC, Quinn Sinclair, Ivari Tölp, Thomas Charbonnel, Sekhalis, Mark Moore, Philipp Legner, Zoey O'Neill, Justin Warren, Heijde, streetlights, Gabriele Siino, David Mccann, Leonard Neamtu, James Leadbetter, Rapssack, ST0RMW1NG, Matthew Powell, Adrian Sand, Haris Karimjee, Alex, The Cairene on Caffeine, Cody VanZandt, Casandra “Kalamity Kas” Toledo, Igor Francetic, Daniel Irwin, Sean Richards, Michael B., Rafaela Corrêa Pereira, Colin J. Brown, Lachlan Woods, Dan Hanvey, Andrea De Mezzo, Real Engineering.

[alex]

"Despair only limits future action"
Finally someone said it!

[thondr]

I'm completely amazed that in 5 years, renewables will account for 42% of global electricity generation. Holy shit!

[freedomfighter]

Someone actually talking about how far we have gone instead of how far we have left to go is really refreshing.
So is someone actually seeing how far we have gone, most people seem to think everything in the world is bad and getting worse despite that not at all being the case, we are far better off than ever before and things are getting better.

[All-zecl]

hearing positive things about climate change only motivates me further to do good for our planet. Constantly being bombarded by negativity can ruin any motivation I've built, because it all sounds pointless. But thank you for this video, this puts climate change into a new perspective that is honestly very helpful.

[jms]

Spooky how in this video you anticipated and answered my questions like four times: "doesn't the West just outsource its emissions to China?", "aren't China's emissions just going up?", "what about the non-electricity sectors?", and "who else can I watch about this?". Pretty damn masterful, actually.

[thomasmarais]

When I hear good news, I don't think "sick, i dont have to do anything", i hear "these are rookie numbers soldier we gotta get even lower"

[Vrya]

Even though global warming can’t be blamed on individual consumption, there’s still some good news on the individual consumerist behaviours; trends on social media are moving towards anti-consumption behaviour. Boycotts, abstaining from Black Friday, and de-influencing (showing you why you don’t need certain products) are gaining popularity. I hope for a future of social media content flexing the creator’s ability to give old items a new life, by way of cleaning, repairing, sewing, furniture restauration, etc.

[rebeccaraeder]

At 4:22 my heart stopped. I paused the video, took my glasses off, and I immediately started to sob for about 3 minutes straight.
I can't begin to tell you what it means to me seeing this. I have extreme depression and anxiety stemming from hopelessness surrounding climate change. I've had apocalyptic dreams for years. This is a drop in the bucket of change that is needed yes but my God I can't begin to tell you what this is doing to me. I'm trying to type through tears. Just thank you. I've become so cynical, I was so skeptical... I can't believe I clicked this on a whim.

[numma]

I wish people would talk more about restoring the damaged land that is not used for anything now but was once forest. If we reforest all the degraded land in the world the problem would be so significantly less of an issue.

[snowybutt]

Judging from the first 50 seconds: You struck gold with this format.

[Xylophytae]

My weather app (im danish) is constantly bombarding me with "terrifying records" every day and its frankly only making me apathetic towards doing anything because a bombardment of "bad news" just comes across as "give up already"

[alik]

I think this video genuinely made me feel... lighter. i've been watching and experiencing so much depressing stuff and i didn't realize how much that's impacted my general mood and mental strain until i watched this. thank you.

[olookslike]

It's important to talk about the good along with the bad cause if we just focused on the bad, people would give up and just let all this happen. Hope is a powerful weapon against such a crisis.

[AnarchistArtificer]

This video made me realise that I have been using "the climate crisis" as a shorthand for "the various ways that humans are messing up the planet". Decarbonification is essential for planetary wellbeing, but so is biodiversity, soil health, water availability. Thanks for making me think about both the progress we've made, and the areas in which measuring progress is trickier.

[nico-i]

This is the first time since a long time that I actually felt hopeful and not powerless in regards to the climate crisis. Thank you for making this <3

[oleonard]

THE problem is the energy usage keeps going up. So we aren't actually lowering. The fossil fuel use, we are just using all the alternative energy on top of the fossil fuels

[shashooitznc]

Anecdotally I can tell that there has almost been a revolution in the way people in my close environment treat this topic. From "how cute is it that you care so much about trees" people have started to share my anger at government inaction as well as give up meat and fast fashion in their lives.

[osh_williams]

The optimistic perspective in this video is so cathartic. Thank you.

[sleeptalkenthusiast]

“the average person today is wealthier than the average person is 10 years ago” *uses GDP chart*

[therandomman]

"The average person today is richer than the average person 10 years ago" very specific wording. That's around the time of the stock market crash. The average person's wealth is decreasing dramatically.