In October 2018, we started a little email service, sending our weekly roundup of optimistic news to a few hundred early adopters.
Now, on its second birthday, the Upside has blossomed into an irrepressible toddler, full of mischief and energy, and utterly spoiled by the attention of tens of thousands of readers every week.
To mark the occasion, consider this a birthday party, a celebration of Upside news with the weekly list, some lovely messages from readers and a birthday bonus: our top 10 Upsiders of all time.
No need to bring gifts, though you can of course show your appreciation for our journalism in the usual fashion with literally whatever you can afford.
In return, we can offer you:
• The wurst is over: Germany’s growing veggie tendency. Three-minute read
• Think like a Norwegian. Five-minute read
• A new scheme to help find Delhi’s missing children. Two-minute read
• Magnetic soap: new ways to clean up an oil spill. Three-minute read
• The bugs that can recycle plastic. Two-minute read
• A pledge to halt the destruction of the planet. Two-minute read
And here’s our all-time Upside top 10, in no particular order
Did we overlook your favourite? Let us know.
• How to save a town centre. Four-minute read
• The 10 best words in the world. Three-minute read
• Why is Finland so great? Four-minute read
• How to live well to 100. Two minutes to read, 100 years to master
• The kindest thing I ever saw. Five-minute read
• The milk they charge more for. Three-minute read
• Why are there so few prisoners in the Netherlands? Four-minute read
• How to vanquish an illness in the world’s poorest country. Five-minute read
• The cafe that says ‘fix it -don’t throw it away’. Three-minute read
• Greening the desert, one tree at a time. Three-minute read
What we liked
This latest piece from the We Are Not Divided series is timely: why incivility lowers a politician’s popularity.
Also, Tel Aviv’s plans to build a road that would recharge the batteries of vehicles driving on it seem far fetched … but also pretty far developed.
What we heard
Anticipating our birthday celebrations, last week we quite brazenly fished for compliments, asking readers whether our slate of articles had any effect on mood. Thanks for all your responses. They made our weekend. Here are a few:
Nina Loretz in Basel, Switzerland, enjoyed a little respite:
Reading the upside always makes me feel better. Just knowing that there
are positive things in the world and that not everything is absolutely
f*** up is just wonderful. I especially like positive news from
countries and world regions that usually feature negatively (conflicts,
poverty, etc.) in our news. For example the Jerusalema dance challenge,
or how civil society in Beirut has done incredible things to help their
city recover after the explosion. While these positive news don’t erase
the negative, it’s just nice to see that not all is bleak.
Samantha Sokolis, wrote in from lockdown in Melbourne, Australia:
Thank you for the positive stories, particularly the dogs detecting coronavirus, proving once again that dogs are four-legged earth angels. Anyone with a pet probably appreciates their dogs now more than ever. I hope the research in Australia has similar success.
Like many of you, Pamela Butler from Derbyshire, UK, has been dancing:
That was great. Just spent a happy 15 mins jigging up and down to the dancers. I fancy putting it up on the TV and trying the dancing myself (but later). I also cheered up with the public interest journalism feature. Our local newspaper is so thin now, it’s hardly worth buying, the only substitute is the local Facebook pages.
Ugh – what a horrible thought.
Robbie Hosegood got in touch from Vancouver:
I used to ignore feel-good articles in papers as being like a sweet treat I didn’t really need, as perhaps even misleading for not being about the serious things happening in the world. Now all that has changed thanks very much to you Guardian people. I spend all week fretting about the terrible direction the world is heading, so the Upside email has become the highlight of my week, and I breathe a sigh of relief! I only hope that others read and follow up on the many wonderful projects and ideas you present.
Quite separately, Dominic Partridge got in touch from Granada, Spain, about an old favourite – the sailing cargo ships:
Hi. I recently read your “Winds of change, the sailing ships cleaning up sea transport.” World News. The Guardian 23/10/19. Very interesting, but not the complete story. There is a sailing ship that has been carrying cargo for more than fifteen years in the Pacific, supplying remote atolls and islands.
SV Kwai has a turnover of over $1m a year, carrying general cargo, everything from flour, rice and staples to solar cells, building supplies and bicycles to Pacific islanders that rarely see a supply ship and have no supermarkets.
SV Kwai returns to Honolulu, Hawaii, with island exports, crewed by the islanders themselves.
These last two years she has fitted in several charters to a US NGO called Ocean Voyages Institute. Their goal is to clean up the oceans of ghost fishing nets and equipment. Kwai has sailed on several voyages into the Pacific Gyre, north-east of the Hawaiian Islands, scouring the seas for ghost nets.
She is an anachronism, that works and makes a thriving living in this age of powered ships.
Where was the Upside?
In the US, which is enjoying the annual celebration that is fat bear week.
