Fantastic news...for the future, and yes, there are some optimistic things to look forward to. While the Covid-19 pandemic has been tragically horrible, and its not over, there are some bright spots down the road as far as vaccines and (hopefully) the control or eradication of it. During this same timeframe, due to human beings isolating at home, the animal kingdom has become "braver" in traveling around, entering areas they haven't been seen for years, or multiple decades in some cases. Point being, with all the damage human beings have done to their habitat, it proves they could replenish, if given the chance. And they deserve that chance as...its their planet too.
And for the same reasons, water systems, streams and rivers showed an amazing recovery where as pollution was very quickly minimized or lessened due to less human traffic, fish and related water life returned to some areas, including the canals of Venus.
In new technology that is way beyond my knowledge level, a new iron-based catalyst converts carbon dioxide into jet fuel, meaning we can perhaps soon have planes flying where they are partially fueled on existing pollution. Between that, putting solar panels on cars and planes, electric cars like Tesla, plus a myriad of other eco-friendly technology, we could cut a huge chunk of air pollution out of our world.
Regarding "land based" trash, some very bright people in India have figured out how to create construction building bricks, out of recycled plastic. This will obviously not only reduce the amount of plastic scattered on our lovely planet, but can be an affordable building material for impoverished people all over the world.
Looking at the 4 examples above, plus a plethora of others all over the news, there are many reasons to be optimistic about how we can, and should, and will, finally break out of the fossil fuel and send-everything-to-the-landfill mentality and habits of the last 100 years. :)
When you're going in....go all the way in. :)
I'd like to hope that we can...maybe, move beyond...whatever the hell the last 4 years was. :)