Good Things Happening!
If you watch the news every night you could start to think the world is a terrible place. We at kind nice happy don’t think that. We think the world is amazing and we think the thing that makes it so amazing is the people. We want to celebrate the good things going on in the world. Here is a short list of some great things that are happening in our world right now.
Yes we have seen a surge, but Covid numbers as a whole are trending down and things seem to be opening up in a lot of countries. As the number of vaccinated people continues to rise the number of infected people continues to decline. The variants are a concern and some countries are seeing increased numbers, but as a whole worldwide numbers appear to be declining. I think everybody will be happy when things get back to normal.
More people are working from home and loving it. With the pandemic more people worked from home. Office managers have realized that it was not the end of the world and that they do not need all the expensive office space. For the employee it means more “me time.” The people who commute an hour a day each way to work are saving 40 hours a month in commute time! That is a full 40 hour work week of more free time every month. Most people are spending this time with their loved ones!
More people are eating healthy. Organic fruits and vegetables are being eaten at an unprecedented rate. More people report eating whole food plant based diets. Nearly one in four people report eating less red meat. Most people are steering clear of processed foods (anything in a box) and buying more fruits and vegetables. I think we can all agree that this is better for your health.
People are drinking fewer sugary drinks. Both adults and children have reported that their consumption of sugary drinks had gone down substantially. They reported that they are drinking fewer soda’s, energy drinks, sports drinks, coffee and tea (both of which are usually not associated with sugary drinks). More people are saying that their drink of choice is water. This is good news for obesity rates as well as diabetes and other diseases associated with weight gain and a bad diet.
Electric Cars- The number of electric cars being purchased is going up. In 2020 3 million electric cars were sold. I think at this point everyone is concerned about the environment and the more electric cars on the road the less internal combustion engines will be polluting the air. The number of electric cars being sold keeps increasing. It seems that most of the major manufacturers are converting to electric vehicles. General Motors says it will sell only electric cars by 2035. Ford says that vehicles sold in Europe will be electric by 2035, VW says 70% of its vehicles being sold will be electric by 2030. Hyundai Motor Group will slash the number of combustion engine models in its line-up to free up resources to invest in electric vehicles. More electric cars means cleaner air. That is something we can all be happy about.
A conservation group in California is planting 30,000 milkweed plants to hopefully give monarch butterflies a new place to breed. An annual count had butterfly numbers as low as 2000 butterflies. The plants are considered critical because the butterflies lay their eggs on them and their caterpillars eat the plant as well. Scientists have said that much of their habitat has been destroyed as housing has expanded. People do care.
Australia’s forests that were destroyed by fire last year(they started in 2019!) are starting to recover. 17 million acres burned after a prolonged drought. 26 people lost their lives and scientists estimated that over half a billion animals lost their lives and over 2000 homes were destroyed. After the devastating fire new growth has begun to appear. There is new growth coming from many of the existing trees as well as new growth from the forest floor. It has been described as a miracle and shows the power of nature. Great news coming from all that devastation.
Planting Trees. Did you know that over 100 countries have planted trees around the world to help combat global warming. China and India have planted over 2 billion trees in the last year alone 20 other countries have planted over 100 Million trees. The US has planted over 350 million trees. Many believe planting trees is the best way to combat global warming not to mention how beautiful forests are. It also creates habitat for wild animals.
NASA named it’s Washington DC Headquarters after Mary W. Jackson. It’s first black engineer. Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
We made the oceans cleaner. 14 Countries that have 40% of the coastline have banded together to create the world’s largest ocean sustainability initiative. They are focusing on cleaning up plastic and restoring fish populations. The UN recently announced that the amount of large fish in the formerly-overfished Mediterranean and Black Sea has doubled in the last two years.
Everyday there is someone new taking charge of their own life. They are deciding to stop living their life for someone else and they are going after their dreams. Maybe right in your town someone is auditioning for their first part in a community theatre play because they always wanted to be an actor. Maybe right on your street someone is writing their first novel. Someone is online right now deciding to go back to school. I personally think these small achievements are one of the most beautiful things going on in the world. So go get out there. Take that class. Go after that job you want. Take that chance. Live your life. Live your dream. You deserve it.
