
In 2020, people have been seeking out 'good news' more than ever before.
In a year of collective grief, trauma and sacrifice, with our daily news headlines and social media feeds dominated by negativity, it's easy to see why.
We need good news.
A look at Google Trends really shows just how much. I looked at data over a number of timeframes, but the below graph from the past five years of Google searches for 'good news' across the world is just so telling.
Image: Google Trends.
That first major spike? That was from the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, when the world was celebrating the end of what was widely considered to be a bad year (oh, if only we knew) and entered a new one... to catastrophic bushfires, threats of WWIII, floods, earthquakes and eruptions.
The second big surge on the graph covers the entirety of March and April - and I don't need to remind you of what was going on back then.
From there on, the search term has maintained levels higher than at any other point since November 2015.
So... let's give the people what they need.
Because good things did happen in 2020 (and many of them, naturally, are animal related). Here are 60 examples you may have missed as proof.
1. In January, Angel the cat's family were forced to flee without her when their property in the Bega Valley caught alight. Somehow, she survived seven days in the middle of the firestorm, before making it back to her owners – singed but okay.