Positive Environmental News Stories
The Real Transformation Wave
(to jump to News Items
and skip introduction, click here)
How many people really see this wave beginning? It's nearly invisible. They must feel so alone in their striving to make a difference. I worked hard these past months to find it, to get beyond doomsday news, to news of possibilities. ... The least I can do is share this list with others.
-- character Tia in Chapter 3 of Legacy
Welcome to the portal for Positive Environmental News.
Positive news about our environment, and about society's transition toward a greener, more integral, more sustainable existence on the planet, appears regularly in both mainstream and green press. Unfortunately, it is often buried amid noise and distractions.
Our media - even much of our Green media - is full of doomsday, iconoclast and sensationalist news stories. You must sift through carefully to read the 'good news,' and by that time, you could get to feeling pretty disheartened. Thus I constructed this website and accompanying blog to showcase the good news. I hope to lighten your day, to boost your hopes and to show you that the Transformation Wave of cultural change is indeed alive, it has begun, and it is picking up speed.
The Transformation Wave is both top-down (Big Business and politics), and grassroots (you and me, and our local communities). It is both international, and right around your local streetcorner. It depicts progress in all aspects of society - transportation, housing, food & agriculture, economics & politics, health & spirit (all of the petals of David Holmgren's Permaculture Flower).
(to jump to News Items
and skip introduction, click here)
About the Frequency of posting
As we take it upon ourselves to redirect society toward Sustainability, we are creating a change in paradigm. Essential to this paradigm change is a change in the way we view time. Our contemporary media has trained us that 'news' is a 24/7 365 activity, with dozens of new happenings each minute. We have instant feeds for our news, and thus we have cultivated a myth that Something Important is happening (didn't Winnie the Pooh say that?).
I think of a tender seedling in my garden. Even in the prime of spring, as that fast-growing seedling pushes its way up toward sunlight, its growth cannot be seen by the human eye. It is still growing, but you'll only see its progress if you return in a day, two days, a week.
Similarly the Transformation Wave.
For 'Positive Environmental News,' I cull the stories carefully before I link to them. I wish to highlight stories which truly reflect our movement in the direction of Sustainability, or at least represent a solid leap out of Outrageously Unsustainable into the Transition era (see my continuum of sustainability). Thus I do not add to my Positive Environmental News on an hourly or daily basis. This is not CNN. (it's not ENN either!) Check back weekly, or try the RSS feed to receive automatic notice of updates.
Viewing the Glass as Half-full
I view myself as a cultivated optimist. I don't for a moment think that there's no bad stuff happening out there. But I firmly believe that if we hear only the bad, day in and day out, we lose our motivation; it becomes very hard to continue on.
One could view the environmenal glass as half-empty, give it up as hopeless, and not lift a finger to action. Or, we can view the glass as half-full, the task as just begun, and realize that every positive action we set in motion today benefits ten-fold, a hundred-fold, a thousand-fold in the time of our grandchildren.
Come join us.
The Good Stuff
If you wish to view exclusively Positive Environmental News, click here. Here you will find nothing but the good news, the progress reports, the baby steps, as we begin to Transition society as a whole toward a wiser way of living in harmony with this small planet we call home.
'The Transformation Wave' blog is the full extent of my musings, on Sustainability, society's journey, Positive Environmental News, What Can I Do?, transitioning an urban lifestyle toward Sustainability, my organic edible landscaping garden, urban Permaculture, childrearing toward Sustainability, and other topics.
What Can I Do? category contains action items, lifestyle tips, and commentary about making environmental and social change more than just a good idea ... bringing Sustainablity to life.
Transforming a Life category consists of 'field notes' from the midst of Los Angeles as I strive to live more Sustainably while raising a family within the heart of the city.
The book Legacy: A Story of Hope for a Time of Environmental Crisis brings all these positive environmental ideas and solutions alive in an inspiring tale of grassroots heroes.
For Positive Environmental News stories, click here.
Photo credits: Calendula by Melanie Tsoi, Perth, Australia
