GOOD NEWS!

I have good news! We don't hear that very often regarding the damage being done to the planet. But I have some things to share that are good news for our Earth, in the hopes that if you are feeling despair, this may give you a reason to keep reaching for more ways to limit the harm we do. YES! With so much devastation happening to our home right now, it is sometimes hard to not get overwhelmed and feel like there is no point in trying to help. But there IS light that appears.

A big one came when the current administration in the U.S. put a stop to ALL new drilling for oil in the Arctic. WHEW! It is temporary, while they review possible effects of allowing drilling in seas that freeze over, but if enough people are willing to work to get off oil it could become a permanent thing to leave the Arctic alone! I read an article the other day about a recent survey after the Gulf oil spill that revealed 27 THOUSAND abandoned wells just in the Gulf!!!!! Hard to wrap my mind around that. That is our oil addiction speaking, and it's time to change what we are saying. We need to start saying we don't want more wells dug, and we say it with our actions. Words mean nothing if we keep our oil "lifestyles" going full blast. So let's CHANGE what we are saying, by the way we live, and keep the Arctic free of drills!

Another big one came from the International Whaling Commission when they decided to uphold the ban on commercial whaling. Even though whaling still goes on illegally, if the ban was lifted the numbers of endangered whales being killed would have been berserk. The Commission had been lobbied so heavily by those wanting to kill more whales that they were actually considering lifting the ban. WOW. I am soooooooooo grateful they chose to continue to protect these magnificent creatures, some of which we have brought to the brink of extinction already. Keep on protecting what is left!

On a smaller scale, but still significant, the retail giant Costco now has recycled paper products!!!! YAHOOO! Now people who shop there don't have to destroy trees when they buy toilet paper or paper towels in those enormous packages. Anyone who shops there knows things in Costco are hilariously HUGE, so each package makes a big difference. They still have paper products that DO destroy trees there, but at least people who shop there now have a choice. I know people who buy all their bulk items there and would never go to a health food store for toilet paper, so this may have a large effect when you multiply it by the millions of people who shop only there. More choices to save trees!

Another grocery store chain called Big Save is local here on Kauai, but has many outlets serving a lot more people than the health food stores, and they now have biodegradable grocery bags at the checkout! So even if you don't bring your own bag at least you are not walking out with a plastic bag that is toxic to the Earth. In all the times I have shopped there I have NEVER been in a line where anyone else has brought a bag with them, so again this is no small thing when you multiply that by the hundreds of bags going out of those stores every single day. Less poisonous plastic in the world!

Those of you who have read my other posts know that even though these are small islands there is NO island-wide household recycling program here. Incredible. On Oahu they outgrew the landfills and are now shipping garbage to California!!!! (Sorry California.) That seemed a better solution than starting an island-wide household recycling program???? Really? Here on Kauai there are a few depots where you can drop certain items off to be recycled, but they are few and far between, and those who care enough have to store their items somewhere until they can make a trip to the depot. The nearest one to me is 16 miles away! So this is not something people can do daily, and most don't bother to sort and store things, so it all goes in the landfills. So where is the good news in this? Well just this past summer there was a program implemented here on Kauai to put recycle bins next to most public trash bins, so people now have a choice to conveniently recycle when they are in public places! YAY! (I don't know if they have done this on the other islands as well.) But guess what? There is a beach bin between where I live and town that I stop at regularly to remove the stuff that can be recycled, and I thought my job just got easier because it would all be in the recycle bin now. WRONG. (Sigh.) There is trash in the recycle bin every time, and cans and bottles in the trash bin every time. How can this be? People now have a REALLY easy choice to make with no inconvenience, and still don't choose to help. This is amazing to me. But at least you now can recycle in public places, and hopefully more and more people will choose to care, especially when it has been made so easy.

In facing all the damage being done to the planet, I believe we need to notice and applaud the shifts that take place that are helping this precious Earth. These are the things that need to be increased. Let's pay attention to them and give thanks for them, because we need the caring to expand! I'd love to hear what good news for the planet you have witnessed lately, and I invite you to leave a comment below.

Thanks for listening and thanks for caring.