The Ragged Optimist 19

A long intro this week. Then ten good things.

“Optimism is radical,” I wrote a while ago, “If we’re going to change the world, the first thing we have to be able to do is imagine a better world. Hope lets that imagining happen. And optimism is the foundation of hope - we can only hope if we have optimism. Hope is the state, being optimistic is the act. We choose to be optimistic.”

I have a flipchart in my studio - I list everything I’m applying for, each commission or piece of work I’ve been asked to pitch for or funding application. I cross them through when I don’t get them (mostly) or add a figure next to them if I do. Pitching and proposing work is always an act of optimism, keeping them in plain sight doubly so.

Writing this weekly newsletter, never really knowing whether anybody reads it, is another act of optimism.

But whether you read it or not, what this newsletter has done, is change the way I look at the world. I’m looking for the hopeful, the joyous, and the optimistic things now. I’m seeing the climate crisis differently - I’m looking at evidence of repair and renewal, over and again and happening everywhere. I’m finding story after story about medical magic, too - we might not cure every serious disease, but we can manage them. While I still worry about my housing problems, the lack of work, the everyday stuff - I’m less afraid of the future than I was. I’m more optimistic.

It is only optimism, and the glimpse of hope each optimistic act brings, that keeps me going in what’s been the hardest year since I’ve been in business.

Watching Kamala campaign in the US, burning through the darkness and desperation of a failing businessman’s dystopian vision, is bringing me more hope. "Let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities. We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in history of the world, and … we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism..." (Kamala Harris, August 2024).

She has a point. Let’s all be guided by optimism.

1. More than 500,000 plug-in solar systems have been installed in Germany, most of them on balconies, with 220,000 installed in the first half of 2024 alone.

2. Bioreform manufacture 100% eco-friendly, biodegradable & compostable bags which completely biodegrade in less than 180 days. They were founded after a successful pitch at Edventure Incubation Foundation, which is India’s first student-focused startup incubator. We saw a couple of weeks ago that the number of plastic bags on UK beaches had massively reduced - is it possible that within a few years, we’ll see them gone altogether?

3. Scottish girl bands were either ignored or not taken seriously by a London-centric music industry and media. So they faded into obscurity at home, too. New film Since Yesterday collects their stories - it's accompanied by a project to create a digital archive of artwork, flyers, and ephemera as well.

4. The Woodland Trust have selected an all-oak lineup for the Tree of the Year competition. The youngest tree is a mere twig at 150 years old - the oldest is 1200 years. They're just incredible things, and have barely any protection in law. Sign the petition for more protection for ancient trees here.

   

   Not a tree of the year, but some of my favourites - Pines Gardens, St Margaret’s Bay, Kent.

5. It's taken 121 years for a postcard to arrive, but it got there.

6. Poole Farm’s pair of Eurasian beavers are successfully reducing the risk of flooding in Plymouth. During peak flows, the creatures’ effective damming, coupled with man-made leaky dams built by staff and volunteers, has reduced the flow of water in the Bircham Valley by 23 per cent.

7. Water voles - a species that has declined by 90% in the past 30 years - have made their home in a park in York.

8. 73% of Londoners want to repair items rather than replace them if the process was more straightforward, and nearly the same amount of people would like to learn repair skills to save money. Fixing Factories have already engaged nearly 1000 people in community repair sessions. A new £1million grant will expand the Fixing Factory network across London over the next three years, with new sites in Acton, Haringey and either Hackney or Islington.

9. During EURO 2024, over 35,000 people attending football matches have learned and practised CPR skills at fan zones across the ten host cities. The teams have also received training at their base camps, and the initiative has been extended to match officials, staff and volunteers working at the tournament.

10. A single hectare of seagrass meadow can support 80,000 fish and 100 million small invertebrates. And it can absorb and store vast amounts of carbon - up to 35x more efficiently than tropical rainforests. Despite only covering 0.2% of the seabed, they store 10% of the Ocean’s carbon. The Blue Meadows project is identifying seagrass in the UK, making sure meadows are marked with buoys to help protect them, and restoring lost landscapes. 

    

    Grass by the sea, not seagrass. Llŷn Peninsula.