As an active member and a contributor to Current Green, I see everyday just how vibrant our community members are with postings on everything green ranging from climate change and carbon sequestration to sustainable agriculture and organic farming. While these articles and submissions are AWESOME, I often feel overwhelmed with all the “bad news” of how we are destroying our earth, or how hard it is to keep the green movement, well, moving. And while the “bad news” is pertinent, relevant, and necessary information to keep our movement going, it sometimes seems like a bucket load of beat downs.
So, in light of all our activist struggles against big oil, climate change, environmental policy, etc, I thought I would start a new segment about all the good green news out there. Good green news exists and many of our community members are keeping us up to date with all the cool green things that are going on out there. Following is some stuff that I found on Current Green and I’d love some feedback – if you find other stories, or you’ve posted something you think is great green news, let us know and leave a comment.
An issue and story that I had been following for a long time was about the town of Bundanoon in Australia. If you remember, they have become the first municipality to place a ban on bottled water. During a time where we hear over and over again just how bad bottled water is for the environment (because it is), it’s great to see a city take progressive action. It’s also sets a president for other cities all over the world to follow suit.
Now, my friends have always pinned me down as “anti-car” – and I almost take a lot of pride in that statement. Cars have overtaken San Francisco (where I live), seem to always get the right-of-way, and are not good for our environment. So, another story I find fascination is about the release of the Audi e-tron – Audi’s first hybrid electric car. I love seeing automotive companies of all walks of life, luxury, or otherwise, innovating and moving forward into the future. It not only get us moving on controlling CO2 emissions, but also might help the automotive industry.
An obsession that I am not afraid to admit, is my obsession/fascination iPhone 
- yes, I am a self professed iPhone/Apple/Mac everything-aholic. I’m always searching around Current Green to see what people are talking about when it comes to Apple products and I found this one about solar powerd skins that I thought was really intriguing and I cannot wait to pick one up. You can now charge your iPhone with sun power! And what I find the coolest is that it actually stores the energy. I can now charge my phone on the windowsill while I sit at my computer. Amazing!
I see posts every week about new species on the brink of extinction, or new species added to a population watch list and it got me wondering about what is out there 
that is good news for our planets many species. While it is an issue that should be on any activists mind, how about the opposite of extinction: discovery. I like this post about a new lizard species found in India. The reason I like stories about new species being discovered is because it reminds us all that we need to preserve our landscapes from human intrusion (like deforestation) because there is always a possibility that something exists that we don’t even know about.
And finally, a project that is near and dear to
my heart: California High Speed Rail. Now, when I say “near and dear to my heart,” it doesn’t mean that I sit on a board or have any input to the actual project, but ever since I was a little kid I have LOVED trains. I remember heading to Tilden Park in Oakland to ride the miniature steam engine trains with my father, dressing up in my conductors outfit and wearing my father out with the ten times in-a-row trips. I still love trains, and besides how totally awesome the trains look, and personal narrative and reminiscence aside, this is great news for all Californians and an awesome next step in actually getting that first shovel to hit the ground and get this project moving (which is rumored to start as early as October 2010). It also reminds me of that awesome interview Leah did with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom a few months back:
My favorite part is when Mayor Newsom says, “if we want to get people serious about the environment, then we need to get them out of their cars.” Wells said Mayor.
Some other cool things to check out: What Big Business is doing in Washington to help push a climate bill (for you Political Junkies), A Malawaian teenager brings energy to his village by building a windmill (Community member Progresshiv said it best, “Positive change through optimism and ingenuity”), 70,000 trees were planted last year by Tree Nation, and rooftop gardens are multiplying at a speedy rate in New York City (I love urban farming!). Thanks for all the community members who have posted such great stories -keep ‘em coming!
Evan Young is currently working on his M.A. in Environmental Communication at San Francisco State University and recently joined Current Green as an intern. You can email him with any comments or questions at eyoung@current.com and can find him doing updates on Facebook, Twitter and the Current Green Blog often.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
To much bad environmental news is demoralizing! Thanks for profiling some positive steps.