This week, let us be your algorithm! 

While keeping up with the news is important (and often hard to avoid), we usually only end up hearing about the bad things going on in the world, and less about the inspiring and hopeful stories that happen around us every day.

So coming to you hot off the press this week, we’re bringing you 5 stories and projects that sparked joy, curiosity, or awe for us recently.

A big comeback story for mangrove forests

We’re starting with a nature and climate story! 

If you are familiar with mangrove forests, you know how important they are to humans, animals, and the ecosystem.

They protect millions of people from storms, absorb tons of CO2, and are vital nurseries for fish.

However, they have been disappearing at an alarming rate since the 1980s. That is, until recently!

According to a new research study, starting around the year 2010, the mangrove population has shifted from a net loss to a net gain, meaning that their expansion has now outpaced their destruction from cyclones, erosion, and human activity.

This is because mangroves are both expanding into new habitats, and they are also regenerating in former habitats!

This is a very unique story about species resilience, and it’s giving ecologists a new perspective on ecosystem recovery.

Researchers bust the biggest myth about aging

Next, we want to share a new study that just dropped this month out of Yale University.

This research is challenging one of the biggest myths we have about aging: that getting older means constant decline.

The research team followed 11,000 older Americans for over a decade and discovered that nearly half of adults age 65 and older experienced measurable improvements in cognitive function, physical function, or both.

What’s more, researchers found that people with more positive attitudes about getting older were significantly more likely to show these gains.

In the words of Becca R. Levy, lead author of the study and professor at the Yale School of Public Health:

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities…

What we found instead is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

The authors hope the results will help shift public perceptions about aging and reduce the belief that continuous decline is inevitable.

While aging itself is inevitable, there is a huge amount of evidence that individual trajectories can vary, and can even be modified by our own beliefs.

Pretty cool!

Turns out, punk rock is good for the world

Next, we want to tell you about a fun community event that’s been going on for the past 20 years in Seattle, Washington — home of a few members of the focused space team! 

It’s called the Punk Rock Flea Market, and it pops up all over the city in abandoned locations including a former post office, a downtown drugstore, and other buildings slated for demolition and redevelopment. There are a lot of those in Seattle right now.

(You’ve kind of got to experience it to feel the magic, but if you can’t hop on a plane to Seattle anytime soon, check out their Instagram account here).

It still costs just $1 to get in (even after 20 years), and manifests as part art gallery, part yard sale, and part vintage boutique, overflowing with benefits for the community. 

It’s a place for local artists to find an audience for their work, and it also operates as a non-profit. They donate their proceeds to Seattle’s Low Income Housing Institute and includes as employees former unhoused people.

Turns out, punks are good for the world, and the Punk Rock Flea Market is proof. 

A brand new kind of library

Our next bit of good news is one of the coolest things we’ve heard of in a while: a nature library.

The first of its kind, the Anythink Nature Library in Colorado, which opens in August, will offer books to check out just like a regular library — but it will also allow visitors to borrow outdoor gear and scientific equipment! 

Imagine going into a library and checking out a butterfly catching kit, a paddleboard, or camping gear.

The library is located on 140 acres of land called the Aylor Open Space, and has walking trails that are accessible from the library. It will also have an indoor bouldering area for kids to practice rock climbing!

We’d heard about the concept of Tool Libraries before, where you can check out a power drill or a saw, but never a nature library!

How cool.

The ozone layer is healing!

If you were an 80s or 90s baby, you might remember how much scientists talked about the potentially dangerous, growing holes in the ozone layer. 

In case you don’t remember from that far back, ozone is a layer of gas in the atmosphere that acts as a natural "sunscreen"  for our planet, absorbing roughly 97% of the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Without it, we’d be kinda cooked.

The ozone layer naturally breaks down and regenerates. In the 20th century, human-made chemicals overwhelmed this balance, leading to massive depletion. 

But here’s some good news: it turns out that Earth's ozone layer is actively recovering, with the Antarctic ozone hole projected to fully heal to 1980 levels by around 2066! 🤯

This global restoration is primarily driven by the phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the most successful environmental treaty in history.

We love some good climate news.

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We hope you found something new and inspiring from this week's crop of good news!

If you ever have any positive news to share with us that you'd like us to feature, please get in touch at hello@focused.space.

P.S. If you aren't a member of Focused Space, but could use help accomplishing your goals, busting through procrastination, or getting motivated… you are welcome to join us at one of our live guided work sessions, or morning planning sessions!

Take care,

— Alexis and the focused space team