Tigers doubling, mangroves multiplying, climate writers booming, Teslas tanking and more
Despite federal ban, climate change writing is more popular than ever.
I’m starting off with Hopeful Headlines this week. They show that it often takes decades for conservation efforts to bear fruit, so perseverance and patience are key. These stories also reaffirm for me that there are always more good people than bad and more innovators than doomers. Go humanity! The second half of this post is devoted to a little media analysis. Thanks for reading.
Hopeful Headlines
From Euronews: India doubles tiger population in a decade: Can other countries learn from its conservation efforts?
In the early 2000s, experts were warning that tigers could soon go extinct. But over the last 25 years, India's national animal has seen a remarkable recovery.
The number of tigers grew from an estimated 1,706 in 2010 to around 3,682 in 2022, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, making India home to roughly 75 per cent of the global tiger population.
This story reminded me of the classic “Dersu the Trapper,” a nonfiction story with a “man versus nature” theme. It features a tiger as a main character who drives the plot in an incredibly suspenseful way. I highly recommend it!
From Scotland’s The National: Mull woodland 'doubles in 30 years' after being left to regenerate.
Tireragan’s woodlands have grown from 56 hectares to 93 hectares over the last three decades, thanks to natural regeneration following the removal of sheep and deer from the area.
Along with the regeneration of the woodland, camera traps have recorded pine marten for the first time in the area along with breeding white-tailed eagles, golden eagles, and hen harriers.
This is a pine marten! Check out those claws! Thank you, Substack stock images.
From Earth.com: Sea turtles show signs of recovery, but conservation issues remain
The resurgence of sea turtle populations is closely tied to specific conservation strategies. For instance, reducing artificial lighting on beaches has helped prevent hatchlings from becoming disoriented. … “When harmful human activities are curtailed, species can recover and thrive,” noted Dr. Jeffrey Seminoff, an expert at the NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Science Center.
From Mongabay: Ogoni women restore mangroves and livelihoods in oil-rich Niger Delta
The women have planted 2.6 million mangrove trees since 2018, drawing attention from a government agency that hired them to share their knowledge and plant mangroves for its oil spill rehabilitation project.
From The Guardian: Thousands of trees planted in Devon to start creation of Celtic rainforest
These rainforests used to cover large parts of Britain, especially its western regions, acting as vital carbon stores by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as being abundant in wildlife, but after many centuries of destruction they now amount to just 1% of the country’s land area.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting: Siletz Tribe gets $1.56 million to reintroduce sea otters to coastal waters
“They figure prominently in our stories as a relative and a near neighbor,” Kentta told KLCC. “They bring wealth and good times, and abundance.”
Sea otters also serve an important role as a keystone species in the environment, by eating invasive crustaceans like green crabs, and by restoring and maintaining kelp forests.
There’s never a bad time to publish a sea otter photo:
From The Guardian: Hope for Britain’s loneliest bat after second species member discovered
A second greater mouse-eared bat – the largest British bat species, the size of a small rabbit, with a wingspan stretching in flight to nearly half a metre – has also been found at Dover Castle.
From Bird Guides: A butterfly returns to England after 50-year absence. The chequered skipper went extinct due to forest management practices. Conservationists worked with land managers to recreate habitat, then reintroduced 128 butterflies that were imported from Belgium. More than 350 chequered skippers were counted last year and their range is expanding.
From The Hill: Court restores protections for critically endangered whales off New England
The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association challenged the National Marine Fishers Service (NMFS) rule, finalized in 2024, which closed a 200-square-mile stretch of federal water between February and April. The severely endangered right whale, hunted nearly to extinction during the age of whaling, frequents the area during that period. Ship strikes and entanglement in lobstering gear are a major threat to the whales, believed to have a remaining population of fewer than 400.
I’ve written about endangered North Atlantic right whales here. Maine lobster is listed as “don’t buy” under Seafood Watch’s guidelines.
From The Nevada Independent: ‘A keystone species’: How Nevada is fighting bighorn sheep population decline
In Nevada, “aggressive” restoration efforts were launched in the 1950s by state and nonprofit organizations … with efforts ramping up even more by the end of the century. Highly sensitive to environmental changes, bighorns are considered indicator species that convey the health of their surrounding ecosystems — a thriving sheep population indicates a healthy ecosystem.
Those efforts have reintroduced bighorn in 60 of Nevada’s more than 300 mountain ranges, and the state’s sheep population now hovers around 8,500.
Climate authors boom as climate censorship takes hold. Coincidence?
Last week, the Trump administration ordered several federal agencies to scrub all references to climate change from their communications, including websites and videos. A U.S. Forest Service YouTube video that I included in a recent story about urban forests helping cities adapt to climate change has been marked “private.” I’ve left the dark spot in the story to commemorate the censorship.
The ban made a few headlines and might have boosted the words “climate change” across news algorithms.
Meanwhile, here on Substack, several authors who write about climate change have experienced explosive growth in readership in the span of a couple of weeks, including
, , and . Nice!Tesla sales tank as world sours on Musk
Across the world, from Australia to Europe to California, consumers have lost their appetites for Tesla. It warms my heart in a twisted way. As an observer of headlines, I enjoyed the powerful verbs used in these: slump, plunge, plummet, decline, and crater. I’m happy to add the alliterative “tank”!
It’s worth remembering that Teslas aren’t the only electric cars available. Personally, my next electric-wheeled purchase may be an e-bike.
Canada says ‘No, thank-you,’ as well
Ontario’s leader appears to have backed out of canceling a $100 million Starlink contract in response to Trump’s tariff theatrics, but Canadians are increasingly concerned Musk will interfere in their elections as well.
It might be worth investigating what connections your state or country has with this man and start getting in touch with lawmakers about any contracts with his companies.
How are you doing?
As for me, I’ve saved my fifteenth tree since the New Year in my ivy cutting spree, this one an old oak:
About Earth Hope:
Earth Hope is a solutions-based journalism project that highlights environmental success stories from around the globe, because hope is the foundation of progress. I’m Amanda Royal, a former newspaper reporter and current eco-news junkie. Read more about this project and what inspired it.
Visit earthhope.substack.com for more stories. For the best photo viewing experience, click the main headline above to view using a desktop browser.
Love reading good news about martens. They are so mysterious and elusive. I wrote a poem about American martens in my second book A Lexicon of Love. The poem is called “Montage of Marten.” They have rather mysteriously been repopulating the northern Wisconsin apostle islands and it is very encouraging to hear about, and an example where citizen science and social media is helping to track them!
So fantastic to hear all this good news. The tigers!!! I don't want to live in a world that can't sustain tigers.