Sharing this here as I feel it’s relevant to the GE campaign.
The evidence suggests that in about three weeks, we’re going to give a landslide to the party promising the most radical green policies in this country’s history. Environmentalism is just about to win the argument in Britain, as long as we vote for it on the 4th of July. Don’t give in to cynicism and despair!
There’s not enough evidence for that statement imo. We see a drop in emissions here because we see a drop in emissions in general. This is however not strictly scalable and might bottom out at a certain point, at which point GDP growth will again cause emissions to rise.
Not a good thing (and also hypothetical), considering that we should be carbon neutral within the decade.
I’m rather pessimistic and want much more action to be taken, instead of spreading toxic positivity that causes people to slack off or shift blame.
No one is pushing toxic positivity. Positivity becomes toxic when it’s based on suppressing feelings. Instead of accepting and working through negative or challenging emotions, toxically positive behavior simply pushes them away. I’m not advocating for the latter or suggesting we ignore the many problems the world is facing, only that in doing so we don’t also ignore the tangible positives to.
I’m sorry that the information I provided doesn’t meet your requirements. Personally I believe that optimism and hope is important, and that we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of good - any progress is better than none at all.
Suggesting something isn’t good because it may or may not change in the future is a very negative way of looking at things. Remember, pessimism isn’t realism: https://medium.com/the-ascent/the-magic-that-happens-when-we-stop-equating-pessimism-with-realism-9480a5481540
There’s also research that demonstrates that positivity increases motivation: https://www.positive.news/society/media/positive-news-stories-bring-people-together-study-finds/
And that people are more likely to engage with positive content, and that it provides purpose and direction: https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/rn3012085
Indeed we see this mentioned in the article linked in the header:
If positivity doesn’t feel right for you, or doesn’t feel right in this specific situation, that’s okay. Sometimes we use worry and other negative outcomes to help us. Just remember to look after your mental health. There’s a lot of negative news out there at the moment and constant doomscrolling is bad for you: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/cravings/202208/are-you-negative-news-junkie
Maybe take the time to remind yourself of what is going right in the world:
https://www.positive.news/ https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/