Thanks to what seemed like an endless stream of celebrity deaths and political upheavals, some of us can’t wait for 2016 to come to an end.
A recent survey found that three in 10 Canadians thought that 2016 was worse than other years. The last 12 months haven’t snuffed out all optimism, however, as the same poll found a majority of Canadians think things will be better in 2017.
Among those wearing rose-coloured glasses is Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.
Hadfield took to Twitter on New Year’s Eve to remind us that, for all the celebrity deaths and partisan bickering, plenty of good things happened over the last 365 days.
“With celebrity death and elections taking the media by the nose, it’s easy to forget that this year saw a great many positives,” Hadfield tweeted.
He went on to list more than 40 “good news” stories from 2016. Among them, the recent peace agreement between FARC rebels and the Colombian government, the development of an Ebola vaccine by Canadian researchers and the eradication of measles from the Americas. Hadfield also points out that world hunger “has reached its lowest point in 25 years.”
Leave it to Hadfield, a man who spent time staring down at the earth from the ISS, to give us a sense of the bigger picture.
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