Earth Optimism is a movement promoting a positive outlook towards problems related to environmental or climate issues. Earth Optimism provides an alternative narrative to mainstream environmental news by highlighting the potential for humans to positively impact the environment by making small changes at individual and community levels. It focuses on positive technological advances and ecological success stories to illustrate the potential for hope in the face of environmental challenges.
Due to occurrences such as habitat loss, the increasing number of endangered species and the rapid escalation of climate change, there tends to be a negative outlook towards the impacts of human on the Earth. The Earth Optimism approach seeks to minimize defeatist mindsets concerning the environment and has become an increasingly popular strategy that many individuals employ in order to slow and reverse negative anthropogenic impacts on the Earth.
Overview
In 2017 Nancy Knowlton founded the Earth Optimism movement in an attempt to highlight the success of large- and small-scale actions taken to better the Earth. The Earth Optimism Summit is a result of the promotion of Earth Optimism and has taken place annually since 2017. The Earth Optimism movement encourages environmentally beneficial actions by giving people a reason to hope for positive environmental developments. Through examples of success stories, the movement aims to convince people that positive environmental progress is attainable. The goal of Earth Optimism is to promote people to be supportive and enthusiastic towards environmental restoration and climate change relief programs.
Agencies, organizations, and individuals advancing Earth Optimism
The mission of the Smithsonian Conservation Commons is to apply "the Smithsonian's cultural and scientific expertise to achieve outcomes truly consequential to sustaining Earth's biodiversity and ecosystems". The mechanism of the Smithsonian CC's success is this organization's ability to create and engage an interdisciplinary network of experts that are mobilized to take action and affect change in everyday environmental problems. The Smithsonian Conservation Commons focuses on four major areas of sustainability: Earth Optimism, a movement to change the conservation conversation, finding opportunity in environmental problems; Movement of Life, a field that researches and communicates wide-scale movements of species and ecosystems; Sustainable Food systems, an area focusing on real-life practices that cultivate sustainable and accessible food options while preserving natural resources; and Working Land and Sea Scapes, which focuses on researching and implementing sustainable practices in cultivated lands, both terrestrial and aquatic.
The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) is a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally focused biodiversity conservation organisations based in and around Cambridge, UK. Together, the CCI partners represent an unparalleled source of knowledge and experience about biodiversity conservation, with projects in over 180 countries and over 250 years of combined experience. Cambridge, UK, is the hub of the largest cluster of conservation organisations in the world. CCI is located in a Conservation Campus in the David Attenborough Building – where leaders in academia, business, government and non-governmental organisations can interact and work together.
Influential individuals
Nancy Knowlton: Dr. Nancy Knowlton is the Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian as well as a coral reef biologist and author, credited with notable works such as her book Citizens of the Sea. In Citizens of the Sea, Knowlton discusses the Census of Marine Life, which was a global effort to explain the biodiversity present in the world's oceans. In 2014 she took part in launching #OceanOptimism, a facet of Earth Optimism on social media in order to encourage positive efforts towards marine conservation. The success of #OceanOptimism lead to Knowlton becoming Co-chair for the Smithsonian Conservation Commons' Earth Optimism summit in 2017.