Every morning the Above the Fold newsletter from Environmental Health News pops up in my inbox. It’s nearly always a bleak way to start the day.

Last week I read about two oil spills; a CDC report on higher cancer risk for children living near busy roads; a melting Greenland; the potential for a blood disorder side effect from the West Virginia chemical spill; contaminated groundwater; ocean “junk;” and phthalates and its threat to male fertility, among others.

This week kicked off with the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: the impacts of climate change are likely to be “severe, pervasive and irreversible.”

Bleak, to say the least.

Along with the news, I routinely receive solicitations from a multitude of environmental advocacy and research organizations—often also reporting the worst.

But recently one of these organizations broke through the clouds to remind its readers (i.e. potential donors) that it’s not all bad. The environmental movement has had some critical successes over the years.

It’s silly, perhaps, but reading about a tangible victory can be a moment not unlike that first day the temperature finally breaks 40 after a very long winter.

So in the spirit of spring’s rebirth and hope springing eternal, I am sharing five stories that can go in the plus column for environmentalists. The first is a big one, but the other four are smaller, quieter initiatives to remind us that a little innovation, collaboration and grassroots momentum can make a measurable impact.

1- Remember acid rain and that hole in the ozone layer?

Thirty years ago it was acid rain—the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides byproducts from fossil fuel combustion, particularly from coal-fired power plants—and the chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) threat to the ozone layer.

Acid rain was wiping out animal and plant life in ecosystems throughout the eastern United States.

And the ozone layer, that critical shield protecting the Earth’s flora and fauna (including us) from ultraviolet radiation, was being destroyed in the name of big hair.

These hazards to public health and the environment have not been eliminated, but their damaging effects have been dramatically curbed.

In the case of acid rain, a cap-and-trade plan included in the 1990 Clean Air Act required companies to cut their overall sulfur emissions by half.

Since enacted, sulfur emissions have fallen faster than expected and at a fourth of the projected cost, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. The Economist calls it “market-based greenery” and likely one of the greatest “green” success stories of the decade.

The EPA reports a greater than 99 percent compliance with its Acid Rain Program and vast improvements to human health and the environment.

The fight for the ozone layer started with citizen activism and a spray can boycott in the United States, Canada and Europe. Political action soon followed with the Montreal Protocol treaty of 1987 in which 24 countries initially agreed to cut in half the use of chemicals damaging the ozone layer within 12 years.

By 2006, the number of participants had grown to 191 and they had reduced their consumption of ozone-depleting substances by an average of roughly 95 percent. Consequently, the presence of ozone-depleting gases in the atmosphere is declining.

Incidentally, the Montreal Protocol has also served to protect the climate (arguably more so than the Kyoto Protocol), as these same chemicals contribute to rising temperatures.

2- From tires to the surface beneath our feet

What do you do with 10 million tossed tires a year? An innovative initiative, launched in 1999 in Los Angeles County, gives a second life to many of those rubber tires by turning them into pathways, playground surfaces and flooring tiles.

They are also being used for road surfaces. Since the late 1970s, California’s Department of Transportation has been using rubber tires otherwise doomed for the landfill for street repaving projects.

3- Compost isn’t just for the garden

Texas doesn’t have to be synonymous with “drill, baby, drill.” Here is a 2003 story about the state’s Department of Transportation and its solution to roadside erosion.

Working with the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, the DOT explored using compost to stem surface runoff and soil loss along its highways. The project was an instant success. The enriched soil supports vegetation growth and demonstrates an ability to absorb water, protecting the highways from erosion. It has also saved the state money by reducing construction costs and the need for erosion maintenance.

4- If you’re going to San Francisco…

More than fifty years ago, San Francisco Bay was marked by widespread pollution and garbage dumps, and the destruction of surrounding wetlands. And then three women joined together to fight back against a proposal to greatly narrow the bay, leaving little more than a shipping channel. Their efforts led to the creation of the Save San Francisco Bay Association, and ultimately helped turned the tide on its decline.

Among its achievements, the grassroots movement successfully lobbied for the passage of the McAteer-Petris Act, which called for a moratorium on filling in the bay and created the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

The San Francisco Bay of today includes hundreds of miles of trails accessible to the public and shoreline parks where garbage dumps used to be.

But an environmentalist’s work is never done, and the Save the Bay movement continues its efforts to protect this “natural treasure.”

5- For the fish: the Veazie Dam be damned

And finally, here in the great state of Maine, a successful example of a public-private collaboration to restore sea-run fisheries and save an endangered river, while still maintaining the generation of hydropower.

The Penobscot River Restoration Project, one of the nation’s largest such efforts, took a significant step last summer toward opening up 1,000 miles of habitat for several fish species with the removal of Veazie Dam.

When the project is completed, endangered shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic salmon, threatened Atlantic sturgeon, striped bass, tomcod and rainbow smelt, among other species, will be able to swim freely to and from the ocean for the first time since the early 1800s.

Project partners include the Penobscot Indian Nation, conservation groups, state and federal agencies and hydropower companies.

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There are plenty of other stories out there (here and here, if you are looking for more). There are also countless more battles to be fought. But as we take on the, perhaps graver, environmental challenges of the 21st century, it is critical to remind ourselves of past victories and the change that can be sparked by the passion of just a few.

It is inspiration to do better and the antidote to thinking, what difference can I make?

-Jesse Nankin