The Grumpy Optimists - what's next?

Why The Grumpy Optimists stopped and what's next for this blog.

Hello reader,

I started The Grumpy Optimists in 2020 to rewrite the climate change narrative, shifting from relentless negativity to stories of optimism and progress (with a tad of grumpiness allowed). What began as a blog, it morphed into a newsletter sharing positive climate news on a weekly and then bi-weekly basis, giving you a dose of “we can fix this” on a Monday morning.

I’ve created 139 newsletters, shared well over 1,000 positive stories and grown a community of over 6,000 Grumpy Optimists across email and LinkedIn. That’s a mind-blowing achievement - one I’m incredibly proud of.

In the time of starting this blog I’ve also grown Zevero. My solution to fixing the climate crisis. Since 2021 Zevero has been acquired, I’ve remained a co-founder, we’ve raised $7m and grown our team to nearly 50 phenomenal humans across the world.

I’m pretty proud of the work I’ve achieved and the impact I’ve had so far. However, this blog went from being a labour of love to a real labour of dread. As my workload has picked up with Zevero, my time to enjoy writing about positive news stories diminished. Quite frankly, towards the end of 2024, I was relieved that I ‘gave up’ on writing this blog.

Taking a break was necessary, and honestly, it felt great. But I miss writing. I miss sharing stories that inspire hope and action. So, I’m figuring out how to bring The Grumpy Optimists back in a way that works for me while keeping what you’ve come to love about it.

I’ll be back in the next week or two with more updates. In the meantime, thank you for sticking around—you’re part of something special. For more regular updates, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn.

Love,

George 💚