Most frightening and/or depressing stories:

• The Fourth National Climate Assessment produced by the U.S. government is not an uplifting publication. In addition to the impacts of droughts, storms, and fires, it casts some doubt on the long-term security of the food supply.
• An article in Nature was also not uplifting, arguing that climate change is happening faster than expected due to a combination of manmade and natural trends.
• Air pollution is taking an average of two years of people’s lives worldwide, although progress is being made in some of the worst cases which tend to skew the average.

Most hopeful stories:

• There is a strong link between Alzheimer’s disease and insulin resistance, suggesting that the average individual has some ability to avoid the disease. There is also a promising new treatment involving ultrasound.
• The UK is making manufacturers directly responsible for the cost of packaging waste.
• The U.S. “war on drugs” became a little more rational and a little less violent in 2018.

Most interesting stories, that were not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps were a mixture of both:

• The Solarpunk genre takes a somewhat optimistic view of technology and climate change adaptation.
• Rich people are starting to think they may be able to cheat death.
• New Zealand is trying to use gene drives to completely wipe out rats in short order. Google is trying to do something similar with mosquitoes, only for the entire earth.