News headlines are filled with stories of polar ice caps melting, pollution choking cities and countless microplastics in everything we own and eat. While it is important to stay informed about environmental problems, it is just as important to acknowledge what is going well.
To flip the script, let’s look at some happy news in the world of the environment.
Trees are cool(ing)!
It’s widely known that trees remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it, reducing overall pollutant levels in the atmosphere. However, scientists have recently discovered that forests regulate climates in other ways. Thicker, more substantial forests can cool surrounding areas and reduce the overall atmospheric temperature by absorbing solar radiation as well as through the process of evapotranspiration, in which trees transfer water from the ground and release it as water vapor.
Trees are obviously important for reducing carbon dioxide levels, but they also keep us cool in other ways amid rising temperatures, which is yet another reason why we should protect forests.
Youth are the environmental future
Across the world, young people are driving advancements in sustainable technology. In the Czech Republic, 19-year-old Tomáš Čermák and 20-year-old Anna Podmanická designed a purification system called “PURA” that cleans dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria from water supplies.
In Nigeria and Uganda, two winning projects in the 2025 Global Integrated Flood and Drought Management Youth-Led Projects Competition are working to improve water access and fight water hazards. GreenQuest is a Nigerian youth-led climate adaptation initiative that uses games to inform communities about preparing for floods. In Uganda, a youth initiative called SV4CASH is working to improve flood infrastructure in rural areas by working with communities to design early warning systems.
Young people are the future of environmentalism. It is important to recognize and share the successes of youth fighting for a better climate future because these may inspire others to do the same.
