Good news, everyone! No, really…

December 18, 2019 3:01 PM

If we want to change the story of the human race in the 21st century, we have to change the stories we tell ourselves: 99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn't Hear about in 2019. (Good news previously)
posted by Johnny Wallflower (15 comments total)

Mod note: Gentle mod note to acknowledge that bad news also certainly exists but hey maybe let's not go out of our way to prove it in here this time.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:25 PM on December 18, 2019 [42 favorites]

thank you
posted by charismatic megafauna at 3:29 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thank you for sharing this! I've experienced some of those points firsthand and am grateful that things seem to be getting better <3
posted by starscream at 3:58 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thank you!

And thank you, cortex!
posted by General Malaise at 4:02 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Appreciated
posted by Wretch729 at 5:04 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Lots of good news in there about whales and porpoises but I won't link to the specific bullet points because ^{[cetacean needed]}.
posted by ambrosen at 5:08 PM on December 18, 2019 [51 favorites]

I enjoyed that. Maybe I'll go read it again right now.
posted by COD at 5:30 PM on December 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

[cetacean needed]

Pun is Flagged as fintastic.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 5:44 PM on December 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

It's good to know that even if we humans drive ourselves to extinction, there will be other species taking our place that are NOT cockroaches. The possibility that eventually giant pandas or siberian tigers may outnumber homosapiens is good news to my ears.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:07 PM on December 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

Agreed. The planet won't die, it'll just support different lifeforms—ones with common sense, maybe.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:49 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Awww what do you have against cockroaches? I bet they'd be real friendly when they become sentient.
posted by Grither at 5:09 AM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is great, but one sentence leaps out at me:

41. The second biggest story was in Save the Children’s 2019 Global Childhood Report showing that in the last 20 years, children's lives have improved in 173 out of 176 countries. Compared to 2000, today there are:

- 4.4 million fewer child deaths per year
- 49 million fewer stunted children
- 130 million more children in school
- 94 million fewer child labourers
- 11 million fewer girls forced into marriage or married early
- 3 million fewer teen births per year
- 12,000 fewer child homicides per year

Naturally this was front page news everywhere.

Is that some shade being thrown at the end?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:18 AM on December 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

There's a lot of that coyly scattered through the article, but frankly I completely understand why major news organizations might not want EXTRA EXTRA NEPAL NOW SHITTING INDOORS screaming from the front page

that goes in the Business section
posted by phooky at 7:08 AM on December 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Fully recommend the Future Crunch newsletter too!
posted by ellieBOA at 7:08 AM on December 19, 2019

[cetacean needed]

Whales, Ranked.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:57 AM on December 19, 2019 [4 favorites]