The Guardian's climate reporters have highlighted one idea for positive change from their journalism, offering a chronicle of global transformation amid the climate crisis. The initiatives range from simple fixes for wind turbines to protect bats, to recycling plastic in Nepal for home insulation.
While news often focuses on devastation such as wildfires, floods and tipping points, the environment team has been covering the steady pulse of what humanity is doing in response to the climate crisis. From housing developments with no cars to buildings made of hemp, people across the planet are changing their neighbourhoods, cities and the world.
The Alternatives column
In 2023, the Guardian decided to ignore the usual rules about what constitutes "news" and started writing about these brilliant initiatives anyway, knowing readers would like to hear about them. This gave birth to the Alternatives, a weekly news column covering these different projects.
Among the discoveries: Norway has heat pumps in two-thirds of its homes, China's sponge cities are targeting 70% rainwater reuse, and Paris is building a gigantic cooling machine using river water. The series has become a vast chronicle of transformations taking place everywhere, far faster than sometimes realised.
Reporters' positive ideas
As part of the Guardian's annual climate support campaign, environment reporters around the world shared one big idea from their journalism that has helped drive or inspire positive change for the planet.
Petra Stock, climate and environment reporter for Guardian Australia, highlighted an approach involving raising the "cut in" speed at which wind turbines start spinning. This simple fix has the potential to save tens of thousands of native bats every year, with minimal impact on energy output, demonstrating there doesn't need to be a trade-off between clean energy and safeguarding biodiversity.
Ajit Niranjan, European environment correspondent, reported on Germany's hospitals winning over patients as they change menus to enable healthier diets with more plants and less meat, showing how individual green choices have a powerful ripple effect in a country not known for plant-based food.
Fiona Harvey, environment editor, interviewed Mariana Mazzucato, one of the world's leading economic and social thinkers, about her ideas of re-basing politics on the global common good. Mazzucato shows that the world can be changed for the better, including fixing the climate crisis, and believes the joy brought to daily lives – like carnivals and communal eating – can be just as powerful.
From Everest to Oregon
Damian Carrington, environment editor, reported in 2020 that microplastic pollution had been discovered at the top of Mount Everest, showing humanity's litter had polluted the entire planet. This inspired a young researcher to set up an award-winning project that is now recycling plastic in Nepal into much-needed insulation for homes and stopping waste contaminating the high mountain nation.
Jonathan Watts, global environment writer, covered a new report by Thomas Piketty and co at the World Inequality Lab, which shows a just and equitable world is possible. He also highlighted how new energy is bringing a new world order, with China dominating the energy transition with astonishing results.
Gabrielle Canon, senior climate reporter for Guardian USA, reported on a barley farm in the US Pacific Northwest that had been quietly leeching pollutants into the nearby watershed. When Karl Wenner acquired the land in 2021, he restored a wetland on just 28 of the farm's 162 hectares, creating a sanctuary for migrating and native birds, endangered native fish, and plants that quickly soaked up the phosphorus, stopping run-off. The transformation was beneficial to the environment and a boon to business, showcasing a symbiotic solution to one of the world's most pressing environmental problems.
This year's Guardian climate support campaign highlights the unrivalled coverage of the climate emergency, including reporting on ideas and initiatives that can help tackle it. On Tuesday 20 October, Damian Carrington and a panel of experts—including Professor Andy Haines, Katie White MP, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh, Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman—will host a hopeful and solutions-focused evening.
