Margaret Renkl, NYT
NASHVILLE — I’ve been keeping a collection of links to good news about the environment as a hedge against despair when so much of the news from nature is devastating. Rolling
pandemics. The near annihilation of
birds and
insects. Even the end of
sharks. In short, a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals,”
according to a recent report in Frontiers in Conservation Science.
It’s so bad that I’ve begun to mutter darkly about the end of humanity. So bad that sometimes I wonder if the end of humanity would be such a bad thing. Once we’re out of the way, the earth might have a chance to recover before everything is gone.
Y’all know it is bad when pondering the death of humanity cheers up a person who is really hoping to have grandchildren someday.
In honor of the spring solstice, which falls this coming weekend and brings with it the return of longer days, I offer some news that might bring you, too, a glimmer of light in all this darkness. I share these stories with the usual caveat attached to any kind of climate optimism: Hope is not a license to relax. Hope is only a reminder not to give up. As bad as things are, it is far too early to give up... (
continues)
