Reintroducing lost species into nature-depleted Britain involves navigating a patchwork of laws that can take years. It’s time that we don’t have, say a growing movement of guerrilla rewilders, who are secretly breeding butterflies, birds and beavers, and illegally releasing them across the country. Are they halting the tide of extinction, or doing more harm than good?

Other features include: The new golden age of medicine • Buildings that heal • The mighty power of beans • Saving Britain’s rarest native tree • A Finnish approach to mental healthcare • The fixing factory run by refugees • Rebuilding after an ‘honour’ killing • Charlotte Church’s life lessons

Published in October 2023

The post Positive News #115, Oct-Dec 2023 appeared first on Positive News.

The news is full of the catastrophic scenarios that could face humanity. Where are the heartening visions of the future that we’re all longing for? And how can we get there if we don’t even dare to imagine it? We bring you the news from 2050 where everything has turned out just fine – from a stable climate to AI tamed and incredible species comebacks. Because imagining the future we want is vital if we’re to make it happen.

Other features include: Britain’s first heat pump village • The motherhood metamorphosis • Life-affirming summer reads • Slow, green travel with kids • Zimbabwe’s park bench therapists • Life after county lines • The former armed robber training city kids in trail running • Sir Tim Smit’s life lessons

Published in July 2023

The post Positive News #114, Jul-Sep 2023 appeared first on Positive News.

From journalist and Positive News partnerships editor Sarah LaBrecque, National Trust’s Positively Green is an informative and captivating guide to sustainable living. With chapters on energy, fashion, food and more, you’ll discover what works, what’s worth doing, and what’s not.

Positively Green provides advice on how to reduce your environmental impact, while easing climate anxiety and boosting mental wellbeing. From changing how you clean your home to putting food impacts into perspective, this book is the perfect resource for those wanting to limit their effect on the environment and reduce climate-based worries.

Chapters include: A Green Home, Energy, Food and Drink, Fashion, Technology, Transport and Travel, and Nature. As well as useful tips and links for further information, the book features ‘Positivity Pauses’ – inspiring vignettes that pull in wisdom from leading thinkers, academics and writers about how to face the climate crisis with optimistic realism.

The post Positively Green, by Sarah LaBrecque appeared first on Positive News.

She first spoke out about the climate crisis when few other chart-topping artists would. So how did Ellie Goulding move from ‘apocalypse fatigue’ to climate optimist? She opens up about her anxiety disorder, the ‘box of tricks’ she uses to control it, and how she puts hope into practice.

Other features include: The clitoris activists • Communal living – is it really the good life? • The burger chain that panicked about the planet • Life after human trafficking • Rewilding the sea • Mikaela Loach’s life lessons • The good bookshop boom • Bolivia’s Indigenous rainforest restaurant

Published in April 2023

The post Positive News #113, Apr-Jun 2023 appeared first on Positive News.

Hip-hop is undergoing a revolution. At last, this notoriously homophobic genre with a hypermasculine image cultivated by music industry middlemen to shift records, has opened the doors for a new generation of LGBTQ+ rappers.

Other features include: The lonely bloke’s guide to friendship • Restoring Britain’s lost rainforests • Jack Monroe on eating well in a cost of living crisis • Love around the world • Seven ways to find joy in winter • Deborah Meadon’s life lessons • The doctors transforming how we understand health

Published in January 2023

The post Positive News #112, Jan-Mar 2023 appeared first on Positive News.

Mark Rylance is acclaimed as the best stage actor of his generation – and he’s as committed to social justice as he is to Shakespeare. But, as he opens up about trauma, addiction and grief – processed through a transformative decade of therapy – what interests him most in life now, he tells Positive News, is “more acceptance of the darkness”

Other features include: The cities solving homelessness • Indigenous leaders winning victories for the planet • Britain’s first wealth redistribution advisory firm • Michelin-starred chefs on their love of microwave cooking • Lily Cole’s life lessons • The power of breathwork

Published in October 2022

The post Positive News #111, Oct-Dec 2022 appeared first on Positive News.

Across Britain, people are coming together to salvage leftover produce that would otherwise be left to perish after harvest. Tackling both food poverty and farm waste, it’s a timely response to the cost of living crisis – and an active call for a better food system

Other features include: Getting disadvantaged young people top City jobs • Urban cowboys tackling gun crime • Gentle activism • The 100-ft Cornish sailing boat helping people to heal from mental illness • Cleaning up fashion with cutting-edge green textiles • Miriam Margolyes’ life lessons • Overcoming childhood trauma to not only survive but thrive • The menopause revolution • Life after wrongful conviction • Saving rainforests with artificial intelligence

Published in July 2022

The post Positive News #110, Jul-Sep 2022 appeared first on Positive News.

Big brands moving out, pandemic closures and online shopping have hit high streets hard. But they’re not dead, just in flux. We uncover the ways that retail centres are being reimagined to better serve their communities, and the climate.

Other features include: How to become news-resilient • Beyond donations: other ways to help Ukraine • Quitting high-carbon careers to work for the planet • The world’s largest urban garden • Prescribing comedy lessons to trauma survivors • Community-owned power • Planting orchards in prisons • Making steel sustainable • The magic in noticing small things • Ethical flowers

Published in April 2022

The post Positive News #109, Apr-Jun 2022 appeared first on Positive News.

For decades, there has been a lack of male voices speaking up about violence against women. This is starting to shift. Whether campaigning for legal change or dismantling the culture that allows gender-based violence to proliferate, we meet five men who are taking action.

Other features include: How risky playgrounds teach resilience • The hairdresser to the homeless • Pollution solution pioneers • Celebrating male baldness • Bringing music to people’s doorsteps • The joy of maps • Charting the world’s fungal networks • What we wish we’d learned in school • Slow homeware • The bicycles that grow on trees

Published in January 2022

The post Positive News #108, Jan-Mar 2022 appeared first on Positive News.

From Loyle Carner, the rapper who also teaches teens with ADHD how to cook, to the cookery school that’s normalising tasty vegan food, we lift the lid on the cookery projects putting social impact on the menu.

Other features include: Empty prisons being put to good use • Entrepreneur refugees • Inspiring alternatives to commercial billboards • Teaching kindness in schools • Illustrations about gratitude • Floristry as a tool for social good • The renewables race: where are we? • The joy of spending time with strangers

Published in October 2021

The post Positive News #107, Oct-Dec 2021 appeared first on Positive News.