Would you click if I said the world was ending?
Chicago’s solar energy shift, why bad news sells, and how to green your online feed
NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS
Negative news gets more clicks and shares than positive news stories. Most of our news organizations are for profit, and most people sharing information online want the clicks and shares: so that means most of us are incentivized to prioritize negative news.
This has been true long before the birth of the Internet. Back in the 1890s, Hearst came up with the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads,” after observing that gruesome stories were the ones that captured people’s attention and sold newspapers. A study published in Nature Human Behavior confirms this is still true today. “We found that negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates),” the study’s authors wrote. Another study found that the “proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust and sadness” in the U.S. increased overall between 2000 and 2019. This article on how negativity drives our news consumption patterns is worth a full read.
A constant stream of bad news, particularly about an existential threat such as climate change, can make us worried: but if we don’t know what to do, more and more people simply give up. Yet another recent study finds that, while doom and gloom messaging is good at motivating people to share stories about climate change on social media, it was “the absolute worst for motivating action and among the worst for changing climate change beliefs or support for climate change policies.”
The social science is clear: focusing solely on doomerism isn’t an effective way to catalyze action. We don’t want to be Pollyannas, but we need a healthy dose of hope to motivate action. That’s exactly why, every week, I always share good news and not so good news. We need to know why climate change matters—and we also need to know what we can do and what others are already doing to tackle it!
GOOD NEWS
In Chicago, every single municipal building—including two international airports and 98 fire stations—is now powered by renewable energy. Chicago has more than 400 municipal buildings, and it takes some 700,000 megawatt hours of electricity to power them every year.
The solar energy comes from the Double Black Diamond Solar project, currently the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi River. The city will purchase around half the farm’s total output, and Chicago has set the goal of all energy powering the city to come from renewable sources by 2035.
The really good news is Chicago is not alone. As of five years ago, more than 600 cities around the world had 100% renewable targets and a number of cities had already achieved them: including Vancouver, Canada; Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Sydney in Australia; and many cities and towns in Europe. At least 700 other U.S. municipalities have inked similar bulk purchasing agreements to Chicago since 2015, and Houston, Texas even has a larger renewable energy deal than Chicago.
“Cities and other local governments don’t appreciate their ability to shape markets,” said Matthew Popkin from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on the energy transition. “Chicago is demonstrating how cities can lead by example, implement ambitious goals amidst evolving state and federal policy changes, and leverage their purchasing power to support a more equitable renewable energy future.” Chicago’s plan is particularly notable, he told NPR, because it brought new solar to the grid rather than simply buying existing renewable energy.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Margaret Renkl is a wonderful author, especially if you enjoy nature writing. This month, she shared a great New Years tip I want to pass along. Balance the negativity in the news by intentionally adding positive, sustainability-focused content to your news and social media feeds. “The first way to fight back on behalf of the earth is to become informed. And the second way is to spread the word,” she writes. This is simple—but powerful!
Look for people and organizations to follow online that give you ideas, inspiration and knowledge you can share with others. As Renkl suggests, be sure to follow the excellent climate coverage at news sites including The Washington Post and their Climate Coach newsletter, The Guardian, Canary Media, MongaBay, and Grist. Grist is the very first climate news site I ever followed!
Don’t stop there. On social media, you can give all the former guest editors of this newsletter a follow, if you haven’t already. There’s my colleague Dr. Vikram Baliga, better known as “The Plant Prof“ on Instagram. (His edition is here.) Then there’s Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, author, and self-described policy nerd. (Her edition is here.) Isaias Hernandez is a climate educator and storyteller. (His edition is here). You should also follow Christiana Figueres on Instagram and revisit her edition here. You can find climate economist Gernot Wagner on Bluesky. (His edition is here).
Two of my other favorite Instagram follows are climate strategist Mary Anne Hitt and my friend Anna Jane Joyner, who is working tirelessly to bring climate change narratives into Hollywood storylines. And on Bluesky, I host nearly two dozen starter packs of climate people who work on everything from mental health to sports, as well as curating a feed of nearly 4,500 scientists who study climate-related topics.
There are also a whole host of delightful, surprising, and informative climate change newsletters out there, including Heated by Emily Akin, Possibilities by Yessenia Funes, Thin Ink (on the intersection of food and climate), Cropped by Carbon Brief, Volts by David Roberts,
Willow has a wonderful edition to start out the New Year, writing, “The more time you spend educating yourself on climate change the more you understand two things: Things are really bad, and we already have the solutions to adapt before things get worse. The world does not have to look like this. We are being held hostage by the fossil fuel industry and its chokehold on our politics and our planet. We need a green transition now.”
Looking for more climate content? Check out my recommendation edition from last year on books, podcasts, and even more accounts to follow. On my website, I keep my FAQ page updated with climate organizations I recommend. I also love sharing content I find inspiring on my many social media platforms – you can find and follow me here.
Thurs Jan 23 at 12:00pm ET - Science for a Better Future with The Nature Conservancy - free online webinar
Wed Jan 29 at 6:30pm ET - Envisioning a Livable Future with Nancy Tuchman, Benjamin Sovacool, and John Carroll University - in person at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, and free online, but registration is required.
I really needed this today. Thank you 🙏
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the Christian Science Monitor as a climate change news source. They have had strong, plentiful reporting since the early 1990’s when The NY Times and other mainstream news organizations were barely covering the climate crisis and they have included the positive actions as well as the difficult reporting on how we are, overall, failing to do what is needed.