So many of us who want to do good in the world come from a paradigm of excess positivity. We go, go, go. We keep saying “yes” even when we don’t have the time, energy, or genuine desire to do so. We make ourselves unwell trying to do good in the world.
The world achieves the universal phase-out of all F-gases, potent climate pollutants. This monumental effort, driven by the Montreal Protocol, averts up to 0.5°C of warming, creates a cleaner, safer, and economically beneficial global infrastructure, and confirms humanity’s ability to solve major environmental challenges.
Though much of the global population had already transitioned to electric vehicles, all the world’s governments now formally ban manufacturers from selling cars that run on fossil fuels, creating a historic milestone in the fight against climate change.
It may not be as big and shiny as your friends and colleagues. It may not garner the acclaim as others. It may not be sexy. But you have something important to create and contribute. You are creative, in your own unique and much-needed way.
We are most able to make significant changes to our habits when we do so in relationship with others. Our new habits have a better chance of sticking when we allow others to witness, encourage, and celebrate us, and hold us accountable when we need it.
Between the 1970s and 2020s, global meat production more than tripled, making it one of the most significant contributors to the climate crisis. However, in this imagined milestone, conscious consumers worldwide mindful of the environmental, health, and animal rights implications of their eating habits finally succeed in reversing this centuries-long trend.
We often even perceive the world as getting worse even when it is actually demonstrably improving.
No creation is ever pure emergence or pure design. Acts of genius require both fertile ground and someone planting and tending to a seed.
Malaria has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity for millennia and mostly kills babies and infants. However, through the widespread dissemination of a vaccine developed in the 2020s and other mechanisms, global efforts to eradicate perhaps the deadliest disease known to humanity finally find resounding success. In the 20th century alone, malaria claimed between 150 million and 300 million lives, accounting for 2-5% of all deaths globally. By the halfway point of the 21st century, these deaths had been effectively eliminated.
We simply cannot do it all. We cannot do everything we’d like to do without burning ourselves out. So we must choose to let many things go to more fully choose our highest vision of who we are and what we are here to offer.
