Yes, following the news can be a scary experience these days. But at the same time, there are many developments towards a more sustainable, greener future that are often overlooked. That’s not a problem, because we’ve put together some of them here to give you hope and encouragement. This is: Sylvester’s good news of the month!
Eight countries are fully renewable

Professor Mark Jacobsen from Stanford University has discovered that eight countries can now generate their electricity using only renewable energy. They cover all their energy consumption with solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy and no longer rely on fossil fuels to power their electricity systems.
In case you’re curious, the eight countries are: Albania, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iceland, Nepal, Paraguay and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They all use more than 99.7 percent renewable energy – the minimum level to be considered fully renewable. And there are even more countries that are well on the way to achieving this: Norway is at 98.4%, and other European countries such as Portugal and Germany are able to run entirely on renewable energy from time to time. So you see: the green future is coming!
denmark wants to plant 1 billion trees

The Danish government has agreed on a plan to literally make its country greener. By planting one billion trees over the next 20 years, the kingdom aims to transform 10% of agricultural land into forests and natural habitats.
The Danish government wants to buy a total of 250,000 hectares of land from Danish farmers to plant trees on. The aim of this programme is not only to create more nature, but also to drastically reduce the use of fertilizers on Danish soils – a major problem for the Baltic Sea, as high levels of fertilizer in the sea lead to a massive growth of plankton, “darker” water and thus to the extinction of many species.
This reduces biodiversity in the sea. But Denmark tackling the problem within the next decades gives us hope the tide can be turned on this topic.
27 new species discovered in peru

Just how little we know about the fascinating natural world on this planet becomes clear when you read the report on an expedition to the Peruvian rainforest: No fewer than 27 completely new species were discovered by scientists who spent six weeks in the Alto Mayo protected area. These include a swimming mouse, a salamander that climbs trees and a blobhead fish. In addition, ten new species of butterfly were discovered in Peru.
When we look at the pictures of these animals, we ask ourselves: how can you not be completely fascinated by the beauty of nature and work to protect as much of it as possible?
