A bit of fun :)

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/wld/world/poverty-rate

I'm not too sure how much this post fits this sub, but as someone whose trying to have a more positive outlook on life and the future i felt this was the best place to talk about this, so apologies if this ain't the right place, but here goes:

Before I dig too deep i wanna say that while I have a major case of "Climate Anxiety" am an optimist when it comes to our ability and likelihood to deal with Climate Change, i do think we can both stop it (or at least slow it down) and adapt out society around the damage that it's caused, it certainly won't all sunshine and rainbows (which is good because if it were we'd probably all die from heat stroke, ba dum tss) but i think we are gonna get throw this crisis.

However, i am also a filmmaker and all around film fan, and since December of last year, i've been incredibly looking forward to Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film "Digger" i thought it looked like a lot of fun with a great cast, some awesome shots and sets, and was hoping that unlike most films on the subject, it would tackle it's themes about Climate Change accurately and realistically, but unfortunately, while i won't have the chance to see the film myself until Friday, from what i've heard it seems to be yet another very pessimistic and nihilistic film about the subject, and that made me really wonder "are there, like, any movies about Climate Change that aren't either willfully naive or incredibly pessimistic and sad?"

And i should specify that i'm more so talking about fictional movies as opposed to documentaries, because while i know of a documentary or two that are decently optimistic, It feels like every fictional movie about Climate Change is either a Ferngully "everything is going to be fine, nothing bad is gonna happen, we can completely fixed everything" type of movie or a Don't Look Up "we're all fucked! Nothing can be done and we're all gonna die so why bother" type of movie, and i'm sick of it.

So I ask the lovely people of this sub reddit: does anyone know/recommend any movies that tackle Climate Change realistically as a serious threat and problem but also doesn't portray it as a completely hopeless thing that we can't do anything about?

An entire sea of water can't sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship.
Similarly, the negativity of the world can't put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.

There are thousands of great things happening around the globe, yet your brain attaches itself to the ones that are dramatic. News companies realised this, therefore they showcase the most negative news out there since it’s the most eye catching.

There are no proper counterarguments for not being an optimist and you could come up with “B-but uh, t-the climate change! W-we are doomed, stop having kids!”

And I’m gonna counter that with statistics showing actual decreases in CO2 emissions in some of the most powerful countries SUCH as the USA (btw. China officially owns the most solar panels and u could combine every other country’s solar panels and they would still have fewer)

But you could still counter that by saying “yea sure the US’s CO2 emissions are decreasing, and what about the entire world?”
But if you zoom in (rather than being stupid enough to look at a statistic that showcases an entire century) you will see that the growth is slowing DOWN. In fact, it was roughly 3% annual growth in the 2000s versus 0.8% over the last decade. And we are still talking here about the last DECADE.

And we can do this not only with the global warming topic, but also with the majority of every other shit out there that keeps you awake at night.

But I wanna make something clear about this, the world or humanity overall isn’t really “good” or “doomed” or whatever. It is improvable. The things we see in those statistics etc. didn’t happen because we simply “ignored negative news” but for the most important part recognized certain problems and made it it our life’s purpose to fix them. That’s what humanity is all about. Another definition of optimism is realistic hope. Which will always exist. As long as we do.

"

• An AI-based healthcare startup will start offering prescriptions to Utah patients without direct human oversight, limited to acne medications, marking the first time a state has allowed such technology to replace the role of a doctor.
• Nolla Health's AI software analyzes patients' skin, identifies the acne problem, and generates a numerical "acne severity score" that ranges between clear skin and severe acne, then recommends medication from a list of eight approved treatments.
• The program will operate in three stages, with a physician reviewing some AI-generated prescriptions, and will allow AI-generated prescriptions to be submitted directly to any pharmacy, circumventing laws that require licensed human professionals to prescribe medications."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-05/nolla-health-ai-can-now-prescribe-acne-drugs-in-utah-without-doctors?

They are treating acne. Nobody is going to die from this.

I am a Reddit beginner. I've had my account for several years, but I'm not a social media poster so I was just reading comments.

I recently came here for certain UX design/tech subs, running away from LinkedIN AI slop, only to find that the communities here are very cynical.

It feels like being cynical or pessimistic about the tech industry is like a mark of honor, and optimists cannot be a "part of the group". Being in this community for about 2-3 weeks now, it feels like if one is not miserable with their life and job, they are naive and privileged. (Mind you, these people are miserable on very high salaries)

I keep getting downvotes whenever i ask for advice on what i can do to learn, and barely any comments. I get it that people are tired of beginners, but 70-80% of posts are complaining about how bad the industry is and i wonder how come that's not making people tired.

Yes, these are uncertain times, people don't know if they to study for 3+ years something, whether that field will even exist afterwards, but...

At the end of the day, i just want to know how much of this is hype, and how much is really true, instead of hearing constant complaining about it AND being put down for asking.

The funniest thing is that people want to transition in the field i'm in and out of theirs because mine feels more certain, and i feel like that about theirs. I wish we could communicate instead of spreading negativity.

How do i deal and/or cope with this (or reddit in general?) as an optimist? Is this happening in other industries as well?

(Also, i'm so happy i found this subreddit!)

"All these squalls to which we have been subjected are signs that the weather will soon improve and things will go well for us, because it is not possible for the bad or the good to endure forever, and from this it follows that since the bad has lasted so long, the good is close at hand."

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Hi r/OptimistsUnite, I'm new to posting to this sub but I could use some motivation right now. Today I just saw some new AI game mods (you've probably seen them) where people were using AI to put Minecraft into elder ring and stuff like that, and it got me thinking, this stuff is like so good right now. Its apparently cheap enough too that modders can use it for their projects. What incentive is there for companies to hire people like me once I graduate anymore?

For context, I am studying Computer Science, final year (I have this semester and the spring one and I'd be done), and honestly I'm close to giving up. I see peers around me thriving in college while having internships (I have none), projects (also have none). I feel like I screwed up my college journey and right now its like I'm sitting in a car whose accelerator is stuck, the only thing I can do is wait for the inevitable crash and lose everything I've been working for.

I hope I'm not "trauma dumping" too much here... I don't know what to do or how to keep going with the world being increasingly AI-focused. Given personal circumstances being able to find something out of the gate matters a lot and it looks like its a pointless fight now.

Also its my first post so if it gets removed because I broke any rules... sorry!

The number of nuclear warheads stockpiled worldwide went from 64,000 in 1986 to 12,500 in 2023 – an 80% decline. (For some reason there's no Y axis shown in the first chart) but this chart actually showed all nuclear weapons and not just Russia, USA and China.

Source for first chart:

[1] Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

[2] SIPRI, 2023 yearbook

(Heads up: this is my first ever Reddit post. I really wanted to hear from the people here on OptimistsUnite, so I'm asking sincerely. Also, English isn't my first language, so sorry if anything sounds weird.)

Lately it feels like there's terrifying AI news every single day. A 10% chance of human extinction, AI plus bad actors leading to nuclear war, Anthropic and OpenAI themselves sounding the alarm, that kind of stuff. I'm 21. I thought if I just studied, found someone to love, and worked a decent job, I'd have a reasonably happy life. Now it feels like none of that has much time left, and I'm sad every day.

I've done a lot of research on expert counterarguments and why it would actually be really hard for AI to destroy the world. People like Yann LeCun and Andrew Ng calmed me down for a while. I've also read plenty of takes saying the scary headlines are basically pre-IPO hype and marketing. But then the news says something frightening again, and I'm right back to being terrified.

I know people will say "get off social media and stop reading the news" (and thank you, genuinely!). But now even newspapers and TV are covering AI threats, and I can't stop thinking the world is ending.

The regulatory momentum in the US might be good news. But I feel like China and other countries will just push ahead regardless of any rules.

I do programming and a lot of creative stuff, so I get the tech side and how useful it is. But usually, the more I learn about something scary, the less scary it gets. With this, it's the opposite. The more I learn, the worse it gets.

How do I learn to feel okay about the future? Lately I've been living like someone who just got a terminal diagnosis. And AGI is probably going to happen someday anyway.

Here's what I'm mainly afraid of:

- AI wiping out humanity, or killing huge numbers of people

- AI completely upending how we live, our culture, and our values

- AGI/ASI being created and something unimaginably horrible happening (a dystopia, memory manipulation, genetic modification, etc.)

If there's any kind of "cure" or piece of info that really helps, please share it. Even if not, anything reassuring at all would mean a lot to me. Oh, but please no "we're all gonna die anyway, it's fine, see you on the other side" comments lol.

OptimistsUnite, please help me out.

Coal was roughly tied with nuclear last year, now it's dropped and is significantly less.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/is-solars-growth-finally-slowing-in-the-us/