#TurnTheTide: The Good News About The Climate Crisis

If it bleeds it leads. 

So goes the old news adage. And right now the leading stories are about the impending destruction and death of our planet. 

Every day, there is another report warning that we are hurtling ever faster towards totally melted ice-caps, or there is a story about yet another climate-related natural disaster. Another coastal town at risk due to rising sea levels, another village devastated by a freak weather incident, another image of a sad and starving polar bear watching his habitat melting. There is no longer a single day when we don’t hear about another horrific situation caused by climate change. It’s awful, it’s upsetting, and, to be quite honest, it’s bloody terrifying — but it’s also exhausting. 

As a team who are actively combating climate change, we UrbanVolters are more than aware of the seriousness of the situation. There’s no denying that it’s the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced. The stakes couldn’t be any higher: it really is a matter of life or death. Ignorance of the severity of the climate crisis would not be bliss, it would be plain stupidity.

But there’s a problem with the sheer volume of bad news stories surrounding climate change. All the doom and gloom in the media is breeding a sense of hopelessness. People have become so habituated to the shock and horror of the climate crisis that they have become almost numb to it. Climate crisis fatigue is setting in. 

Well, guess what? It’s not totally hopeless – a lot of people are already doing something about climate change. The only negative is that their good actions are going largely unreported. In every country on the planet, there are stories about people taking action: from your stylish friend who ditched fast fashion in favour of thrift shopping, to the Irish student who has invented a method of removing micro-plastics from water, to family run butchers who no longer give customers plastic bags but encourage them to bring their own containers. Through methods big and small, they are making a huge difference. 

But in mainstream media, these success stories are overshadowed by darker stories. You know what they say: bad news sells. On the UrbanVolt social media platforms, we must admit that we too have often been guilty of spreading these bad news stories.

Now it’s time to change the conversation. Today, we are launching a Good News campaign across every UrbanVolt social media channel to remind everyone that people and businesses are taking positive action and that together we can #TurnTheTide against climate change. We will be sharing positive news stories about climate change every day, and shining a spotlight on individuals and companies who are making a difference. 

By doing this we want to spread hope, not fear and despair. At UrbanVolt we want to drive action by sharing positive and motivating stories. Our goal is to inspire individuals, communities, businesses and larger corporations to join the fight against the climate crisis. We believe that by highlighting the little changes that everyone is making, we can inspire hope that together we can turn this tide. And by telling these positive stories, we hope to shake others out of their stupor of helplessness, and encourage them to take their own actions to make a difference. 

For this to work, we need your help. We want to hear about the changes that you’ve made to play your part, and the people and companies that inspire you. No matter how big or small, let us know. We want to highlight each and every little step which is contributing to a giant leap forward. 

Whether that’s an individual who has committed to upcycling rather than purchasing new goods, or someone who putting beehives in their back garden, or a business who has eliminated plastic from their supply chain, we want to hear those stories. 

Join the conversation by using #TurnTheTide, and help us to inspire action.