Rachel, I agree. The escalation of the environmental crisis is overwhelming. The grief cannot be ignored or turned away from. However… the aim of compiling this list was not to suggest that things are okay. It was to showcase what is possible, in the hope that those stories can show us the way. Snow leopards, for example, didn’t magically increase in population. That victory was the result of tireless, thankless work for decades by conservationists. How did they do it? What obstacles did they overcome? Can that serve as a model to other conservationists?

We cannot build a life sustaining global economy that works for everyone by only telling ourselves the stories of collapse. We need other stories to show us the way. That’s what this list is for. It’s not a comprehensive snapshot of the world. It’s an unbalanced selection that’s designed to bring back balance, and provide inspiration.