Mission:

helping to restore the balance of people and planet
by spreading the good news about what people are doing

Purpose and Need 

Our purpose is to encourage the gathering and dissemination of good news about what people are doing for the Earth (see definition below.)  This will help to compensate for all the bad news about the Earth’s present and possible future conditions that is too often the focus of the mainstream media.

Our primary purpose is to request and publish information from other people, rather than carry out research ourselves, although we may also do so.

Definition of Good News for the Earth

  • All actions that serve to restore the ecological balance of our planet.  For example, these would include the actions of individuals, groups, corporations, tribes and governments in areas such as trash collection, recycling, renewable energy, organic farming, pollution prevention, environmental protection and restoration, spiritual ceremonies for the Earth, and environmental education.
  • The existence of any person or group who is devoted to fostering these kinds of actions. 

Goals and how to achieve them 

  1. 1.     Involve People from as many different cultures worldwide as possible

—  Send Friend requests from our Facebook page

—  to people we know

—  to people we meet on other Facebook pages, especially environmental ones.

—  Everyone on Facebook can search for us and send us Friend requests 

  1. 2.     Gather information about good news for the Earth on as wide a variety of subjects as possible.

—  Request Friends to post good news for the Earth on the Wall of our Facebook page.

— Specify that we are requesting only good news for the Earth, as defined above, and not news of problems, requests to sign petitions, or other kinds action alerts.

—  Information on our Wall will consist primarily of posts from Friends, although we will also post there.

—  Encourage a wide variety of news to be gathered.

—  Specify that information about personal actions is welcome, in addition to links to info from other sources

—  Encourage people to become “correspondents” focusing on a particular subject area and/or geographical area.

— Seeing what is posted there, anyone on Facebook can add more info by commenting.

  1. 3.     Display information

—  Information is posted to the Wall of our Facebook page, which is visible to everyone on Facebook.

— Information is displayed in the order that it is posted, not in categories of subject or geography. 

  1. 4.     Encourage discussion of information

— Facebook pages allow for comments in two forms:

  • clicking on the “Like” option
  • writing statements in the “Comment” box

— This encourges discussion, by giving others the option of commenting in return, or sending a message or a friend request to those who comment.

— Anyone on Facebook can comment. 

  1. 5.     Spread information and discussions on Facebook

—  send out more Friend requests, and ask our Friends to do so as well.

  1. 6.     Spread information and discussions beyond Facebook

—  Develop a blog on the website, GoodNewsfortheEarth.org

—  Produce syndicated columns in blog and print media, such as appeared in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Econews, an environmental journal published by the Northcoast Environmental Center, Arcata, California.  www.yournec.org 

  1. 7.     Encourage application of the information gathered

—  Categorize info in the following ways, based on info from our correspondents.

  • subject areas worldwide
  • subject areas in particular locations
  • all subjects in a given location

—  Displaying these categories on our website will help to:

  • Make it easier for people to learn from and apply the information gathered.
  • Clarify in what subject areas and/or places our wiki news process could be expanded, by ourselves or by others. 
  1. 8.     Encourage other similar Wiki News Services to be established world wide, according to the following steps:
  • Establishing correspondents for specific subject areas and/or geographical locations.  (#2 above).
  • Development of categories of different focus areas for display on our website (#7 above).
  • Networking with our correspondents and others about developing new, more specialized wiki news services dealing with good news for the Earth.
  • Linking from our Facebook page and website to the other wiki news services

Expected Results 

Inspiration + Information = Empowerment 

Increased inspiration will increase individual happiness, participation, and effectiveness.

  • Good news will nurture hope and inspire more people to undertake similar actions.  “If they can do it there, then we can do it here.”
  • Greater participation will strengthen the power of the movement.
  • The increased information from greater participation will make the movement more efficient and effective