It’s important to remind ourselves now and then of progress being made, species being saved and other good environmental news stories that are often overshadowed by, well, not-so-good news. It doesn’t deny the reality or enormity of what the world is facing, but it can lift our spirits, motivate us to keep going and inspire optimism.
Now for the (good) news:
1. The spectacular Kimberley coastline of north-west Australia was saved from the controversial $A45 billion LNG development at James Price Point near Broome when Woodside Petroleum abandoned its plans for a 30-square-kilometre gas refinery in April, on economic grounds. It would have been the largest LNG precinct in Australia and the second largest in the world, in the middle of a humpback whale migration route, among other problems.
In related news, four major oil companies – Shell, Total, Statoil and Conoco-Phillips – have stopped or paused drilling projects in the Arctic because of global pressure.
2. The two most populous countries in the world are acting on climate change. India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh announced in April that it will double its renewable energy capacity by 2017. It is also introducing vehicle efficiency standards and mandating five-per-cent-ethanol motor fuel.
Meanwhile China, which produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country and whose coal consumption rivals the rest of the world combined, plans to introduce a tax on carbon emissions by 2015.
3. A new national park has been declared in the Congo, Africa, after the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society discovered a population of critically endangered western lowland gorillas there. Ntokou-Pikounda National Park covers 4572 square kilometres and will protect about 15,000 gorillas, 8,000 elephants and 950 chimpanzees.
Did you know? There are more than 100,000 protected areas worldwide, making up about 12 per cent of the earth’s land, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Of those protected areas, there are more than 3,000 terrestrial national parks (and 590 marine national parks).
4. As on land, so at sea: In November 2012, the Australian government created the world’s largest network of marine reserves, which gives Australia the third largest marine jurisdiction on Earth.
5. Renewable energy is getting cheaper. Solar electricity is now cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels in 105 countries. In Australia, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported earlier this year that electricity from unsubsidised renewable energy (particularly from new wind farms) is now cheaper than electricity from new-build coal-fired power stations, making the latter increasingly unfeasible.
6. According to the UN Environment Programme, wind farms set new records in 2012 with 10 per cent more installations worldwide than in 2011; the UNEP expects global capacity to double by 2017.
And renewable energy in general is more widespread than ever before, particularly in Europe. Denmark now produces 44 per cent of its electricity from wind farms and biomass and is aiming for 50 per cent by 2020 and 100 per cent of its electricity and heating by 2035. Portugal generates about half of its electricity from renewable sources. Scotland has set a target of 100 per cent of its electricity from renewables, mostly wind farms, by 2020. And the winner is: Iceland, where 100 per cent of its electricity comes from renewable sources (geothermal and hydro power).
7. Sharks are gaining more protection worldwide (more than 73 million sharks are killed worldwide every year, mainly for their fins, according to WWF). Shark-finning is already banned in US and EU waters, but in December 2012 the Cook Islands established a shark sanctuary the size of Australia; and France, not to be outdone, created the world’s largest shark sanctuary, a 4.7-million-square-kilometre patch of ocean in French Polynesia.
8. In July 2012, Amazon deforestation was at a record low for the fourth year in a row. Unfortunately, in February this year, deforestation was on the rise again, because of changes to the government’s environmental protection laws. But there is hope.
Paragominas, the Amazon’s first “green city”, is pioneering measures to combat illegal logging, such as sustainable development and enforcement (it has the Amazon’s only environmental police force). And more than 800,000 Brazilians have supported a citizen-led Zero Deforestation Law. (Greenpeace is campaigning for zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2015 and worldwide by 2020.)
9. A win for environmental journalism: InsideClimate News, a New York-based website dedicated to reporting on climate change and other environmental issues, won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its coverage of the largest (and possibly most unpublicised) onshore oil spill in US history, the 2010 “Dilbit disaster” in Michigan, and the ecological hazards of diluted bitumen, which is used in Canada’s oil sand fields.
10. And finally, up in the sky: The ozone hole is shrinking and expected to reach pre-1980 levels by 2070, thanks to what former UN secretary-general Kofi Anan called “perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date” – the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Signed by all 197 UN member nations in 1987, it set legally binding standards to cut ozone-depleting pollution (primarily man-made chlorofluorocarbons that break down ozone). So far, so good. It’s a reminder of what humankind can do when we cooperate. Now that’s good news.
Written by Louise Southerden, an award-winning travel writer, author and eco-blogger based in Sydney, Australia. Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and read more of her work at No Impact Girl.
