POSITIVE CORNER #26: Interim Review
Updated: Sep 4
The POSITIVE CORNER has completed its first half-year. Reason enough to look back and summarise the posts so far:
Good news is good news: Despite all the challenges facing the global community, it is important not to lose sight of the many positive developments in the world. There is much to report that can inspire and motivate people. None of it must be taken for granted. The Positive Corner is a contribution to what we believe is a necessary, more balanced view of the world and the path towards a humane and sustainable future.
Let's start with a look at the BIG PICTURE – the development of key indicators for the ‘state’ of our world over a longer period of time! This is a remarkable example of the work done by the experts at Our World in Data. The world has made extraordinary progress over the last 100 years. This should inspire us to continue in this direction.
In a recent post of WEF (World Economic Forum), UNSW professor Elizabeth Thurbon argues the reason for East Asia, especially China, Korea and Japan, moving forward rather fast and easy with the transition into renewable energies as compared to many western countries, lies in a different approach to policy making.
Did you know of Europeade? Since more than 60 years it is a 5 day celebration of 5,000 people involved in folk dance and music from 30+ countries in Europe meeting in another city every year. How better could you bring to life the idea of "thinking universality - living diversity"?
For a long time, it was taken for granted that a nation's economic development and prosperity were inextricably linked to an increase in climate-damaging emissions. The simple formula seemed to be: growth = emissions. Fortunately for us, there is an increasing number of countries which have overcome this coupling.
The case of Bhutan: What we choose to measure shapes what leaders optimize for. If governments, organizations, and even teams only track financial indicators, they will naturally prioritize short-term efficiency and output. If they also measure trust, participation, health, and meaning, they create space for the kind of wealth that people really relate to and for sustainable motivation and productivity.
More people than ever are held by an invisible safety net of social protection. When we invest in each other’s security, we are not only preventing people from falling; we are quietly building a more self-reliant, dignified global community.
In 2024, current records show that 8.6 per cent of ocean and coastal areas globally were within documented protected and conserved areas. Over the past two years the world has protected about 5 million square kilometres of ocean, an area bigger than the European Union.
“Renewables overtake fossil fuels as global energy source in 2025”, “The global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since the 1990s”, “Oil spills from tankers have fallen by more than 90% since the 1970s”, “Deforestation is no longer inevitable” are but four of a curated list of a dozen of current, positive news. Please help yourself.
While the massive distribution of certain technologies throughout the process of global industrialization (e.g. car mobility and energy supply based on fossil fuels) has led to mankind facing severe future challenges, smart and joint application of new technologies might as well be part of the remedy.
The recovery of the ozone layer is more than just a footnote in the natural sciences – it is a real-time lesson in politics. At a time when environmental and climate policy is often perceived as slow, contentious and ineffective, the ozone hole provides a counterexample illustrating the positive power of international co-operation.
At a time when more than 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, a youth-led innovation shows how creativity, science and compassion can turn an everyday local problem into a practical step towards global environmental justice. The 'Earth Prize' is the world’s largest environmental competition and ‘ideas incubator’ for young people to tackle global challenges.
Joining forces, interrelating expertise and using innovative tech approaches for the common good are an important part of the roadmap to preserve our natural environment as is does not know national borders. SeaClear 2.0 is a role-model for the potential we hold for co-operation across borders - physical and mental.
The current increases in fossil fuel prices are but one indicator of the crisis our respective energy supply systems are suffering from. However, there are strong indications this crisis has become a strong force in changing directions towards a more sustainable path.
The featured research findings are no reason to slacken our commitment to preserving the natural foundations of life worldwide. But they do give rise to the hope that nature will unleash unforeseen power for us all if we let it.
How can we make the right decisions to solve global problems when even highly educated people often get their assessments of the situation very far and systematically wrong? Long term studies show the extent of our systematic misconceptions about the state of the world and the urgent need to spread the right knowledge as a prerequisite for a joint sustainable future.
Two independent research teams attribute their unexpectedly positive findings in the recovery of mangroves and whale populations largely to the effect of corresponding national and international protective regulations, which are now showing results. No reason to rest on our laurels but excellent examples of the insight and cooperation capabilities of people and countries worldwide.
The research findings support the view that the willingness to cooperate, as a human need, is by no means the exception, but the rule worldwide. Where we still assess other people’s willingness to cooperate far too pessimistically, there lies enormous potential to significantly build on the existing successes of global cooperation for the benefit of the international community!
POSITIVE CORNER #18: How are 50,000 adolescents doing after letting go of their smartphones for 3 weeks?
Where the previous POSITIVE CORNER post #17 addressed the globally underestimated willingness of adults to cooperate, this study supports the assumption of a similarly positive attitude among adolescents. The concerted effort yielded important results for the mental health of young people and improved their appreciation of direct social contact as well as their appropriate use of social media.
Looking at the Human Rights Index reveals that people worldwide not only live under better conditions but have actively sought to improve these conditions through their institutions.
The ω-dimension of leadership is not primarily focused on efficiency, growth, or technological progress, but rather on the ability to ensure and further develop humane conditions everywhere.
National and international institutions and leaders are demonstrating that they can lift billions of people out of “energetic darkness”. This requires far-sighted and attentive leadership that leaves no one behind, targeted support for weaker countries by stronger ones, and effective instruments.
A powerful example of leadership that integrates all positive human and societal forces within a country, leading not only to a high degree of energy self-sufficiency there, but above all to a sustainable improvement in the way people in that country live and work together.
The featured research shows it's not enough to emphasize the importance of diversity. In the ω-dimension of leadership it is equally important to make universal human values concretely visible and tangible. Here, diversity ceases to be a complex challenge for people and institutions. It turns into a diversity of expressions of universal humanity.
Growth becomes sustainable when it follows a natural course and remains responsible for people and the environment. The understanding of sustainable growth is one of the central leadership challenges of our time.
The example of the vastly growing global willingness to unpaid blood donation shows that humanity is not a scarce resource. The leadership challenge lies in making it a sustainable reality.
In an interconnected world, local decisions which are consistently guided by a sense of human responsibility can have far-reaching and unexpectedly positive consequences on a global scale. The example of the unexpected re-greening of the Sahel region provides additional motivation to act in the ω-dimension of leadership.
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