Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. The price we pay “A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet.” So reads an open letter, released to coincide with this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos and reported on in this Guardian article shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley, in which nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from around the world call on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich and address the dangerous realities of widening inequality. The movement to address extreme wealth has been gaining momentum in recent years, fuelled by organizations such as the Patriotic Millionaires group, which has prominent chapters in the U.S. and U.K., and Resource Generation. Tess says: The collective wealth of billionaires last year surged by $2.5 trillion — enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over, according to Oxfam International. If numbers like billion and trillion feel too abstract, check out What Does One Billion Dollars Look Like, an interactive created by William Mahoney Luckman of the CUNY Graduate Center that uses data visualization to help us understand what huge masses of capital look like, and how that translates into power. Fragile conservation If you’ve not come across the term “involuntary parks” before, this Mongabay article, shared by Executive Editor Will Doig, does a great job of capturing their paradoxes. On the one hand, these areas, which have been made largely untenable for human habitation due to everything from conflict to environmental contamination, “have often unintentionally benefited nature, with flora and fauna sometimes thriving in the absence of people,” writes Mongabay. Examples include the Chornobyl exclusion zone, which became home to large mammals like wolves following the nuclear power plant accident in the 1980s, and the southern Kuril Islands, a now-sparsely populated disputed territory between Russia and Japan. However, in many cases, the future of conservation in these areas is uncertain: Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including Chernobyl, is under attack from Russia; attempts at resolving tensions over the Kurils have failed; and ironically conservationists worry that an end to disputes between North and South Korea could bring about the demise of the wildlife that now resides in the demilitarized zone between the two countries. “In a 2014 paper, [David] Havlick expresses hope that conservation areas with complex land-use histories can be restored and managed to illuminate both their social and ecological past,” writes Mongabay. “’This,’ he writes, ‘may provide opportunities to reflect on the complexity of ongoing human relationships with the natural world.'” Will says: This story reminds me of how, years ago, near my parents’ house in New Hampshire, the state bought out a neighborhood by eminent domain with the intention of putting in a highway. For reasons unknown, the highway never got built. The area remains a ghost town to this day, but it’s not uninhabited: Soon after the homes were abandoned, wildlife moved in, turning it into an unofficial refuge for black bears, deer, bobcats and coyotes. What else we’re reading Looming Water Supply ‘Bankruptcy’ Puts Billions at Risk, UN Report Warns — shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley from Reuters  High Seas Treaty Enters Into Force After Decades of Negotiations — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from Oceanographic U.K. Homes to Get £15bn ($20.1bn) for Solar and Green Tech to Cut Energy Bills — shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley from BBC News Homeless Shelters for Seniors Pop Up, Catering to Older Adults’ Medical Needs — shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley from KFF Health News  Adopting Low-Cost ‘Healthy’ Diets Could Cut Food Emissions By One-Third — shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley from Carbon Brief California Exceeds Clean Car Goal Despite Declining Federal Support — shared by Interim Editorial Director Tess Riley from Los Angeles Times In other news… This week, we want to welcome Steven Davis, Reasons to be Cheerful’s new (well, newly returned) Audience Engagement Editor. Steven is the voice behind our social media channels and the person who makes sure our newsletters land safely in your inbox. If you’re not signed up to them already, here’s how to do so: weekly newsletter sign-up is here Facebook sign-up is here Instagram sign-up is here Bluesky sign-up is here The post What We’re Reading: ‘Tax Us More’ Say The Super-Rich appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.