Hi Beth, Perhaps the challenge of finding such a list rests on interpretation. Many thinkers see good news everywhere, especially with environmental trends. Folks like Bjorn Lomborg, Johan Norberg, Ronald Bailey, Deirdre McCloskey, and Anders Bolling are always presenting ‘facts’ that demonstrate environmental improvement. Their work is controversial but persuasive to many. It is part of a broader orientation that tends to be optimistic about humanity’s fate, seeing ‘progress’ everywhere. I would put people like Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, and the infamous Juliann Simon in this category. The New York Times Book Review recently had a piece on Pinker and Rosling https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/02/07/pinker-rosling-progress-accentuate-positive/.
Aside from thinkers, there are a number of outfits that present ‘good’ environmental news, such as https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/category/news/environment/, although I am unsure if they track broad trends. All the best, Paul Paul Wapner Professor, Global Environmental Politics School of International Service American University pwap...@american.edu<mailto:pwap...@american.edu> -- From: Gepers <gep-ed@googlegroups.com> on behalf of "william.hipw...@gmail.com" <william.hipw...@gmail.com> Reply-To: "william.hipw...@gmail.com" <william.hipw...@gmail.com> Date: Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 3:14 PM To: Beth DeSombre <edeso...@wellesley.edu>, Gepers <gep-ed@googlegroups.com> Subject: RE: [gep-ed] Good environmental trends Hi Beth, I have seen, at some point in the past ten years, some sort of good news list. I cannot remember the source though I suspect it came over the Canadian Association of Geographers discussion list (you could post a query here: cagl...@lists.uvic.ca<mailto:cagl...@lists.uvic.ca> . However, like one of your suggestions (better access to clean water), I remember finding at the time that the list only hailed purely anthropocentric improvements. As far as the state of the non-human world is concerned, I have the overwhelming sense that things are, across the board, going from bad to worse. I’d be happy to be proven wrong and look forward to your sharing your findings. Cheers, Bill From: gep-ed@googlegroups.com <gep-ed@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Beth DeSombre Sent: April 6, 2019 11:31 AM To: GEP-Ed List <gep-ed@googlegroups.com> Subject: [gep-ed] Good environmental trends Hi folks: This seems like a no brainer, but I'm having a surprisingly difficult time gathering a list of positive environmental trends (worldwide and over history). Things that have -- because of human intervention -- unquestionably improved, with some specific details to hang on them. Things like improved access to clean water, better air quality (of various types) in many parts of the world, etc. I'd like to not reinvent the wheel -- I could easily come up with a list of things I think are better now environmentally than 50 (or 25) years ago and go fetch the details of each, but I'm certain that one or more sources has already outlined them, with specifics attached. Can someone point me towards such lists/overviews/compilations? (Happy to share suggestions with the group afterwards). Thanks, Beth -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gep-ed+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:gep-ed+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_d_optout&d=DwMFaQ&c=U0G0XJAMhEk_X0GAGzCL7Q&r=BOzhaYdtrFx6b4S5xQEOnb05jR0rDHGlFyLMspvfa48&m=4WAElHRedlbXlxltWAHLZWS2iW0rH7h_NbEDzZYWf-A&s=IX0wyV-Ki-AxccsE91l2fc_ZnHCezrPrIyptx2uY9_Q&e=>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gep-ed+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:gep-ed+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_d_optout&d=DwMFaQ&c=U0G0XJAMhEk_X0GAGzCL7Q&r=BOzhaYdtrFx6b4S5xQEOnb05jR0rDHGlFyLMspvfa48&m=4WAElHRedlbXlxltWAHLZWS2iW0rH7h_NbEDzZYWf-A&s=IX0wyV-Ki-AxccsE91l2fc_ZnHCezrPrIyptx2uY9_Q&e=>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gep-ed+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
