This is the members only edition of Future Crunch, a weekly roundup of good news, mindblowing science, and the best bits of the internet (not necessarily in that order). One third of your subscription fee goes to charity.
Good news you probably didn't hear about
Vaccine distribution is finally picking up speed outside rich countries. COVAX, the global vaccine sharing initiative, delivered a record-breaking 309 million doses of covid vaccine across 70 low and middle income countries last month. As of 30th December 2021, the UN-backed scheme had delivered roughly 910 million doses around the world. WaPo
“Our projections show that supply should be sufficient to vaccinate the entire global adult population and to give boosters to high-risk populations, by the first quarter of 2022.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO
In a rare display of unity, the world’s superpowers have agreed a nuclear war must never be fought. Leaders from China, UK, US, Russia, and France just released a joint statement pledging to ‘reduce strategic risks' and work together to create an atmosphere of security. SMH
UNICEF has updated data on global child mortality trends, and it's really good news. Thus far, the pandemic has not resulted in the feared reversal - rather, child mortality actually decreased in 2020, to 37 deaths per 1,000 live births. The longer term trends are even more encouraging, with the under five mortality rate falling by more than half since 2000.
Tanzania has lifted a 20-year ban preventing adolescent mothers from attending school. The ban was rooted in policy from the 1960s that included a mandatory pregnancy test and potential arrest if pregnant. Under the new law, young mothers will be allowed to resume their formal education after giving birth. Citizen
Canada and France have just outlawed conversion therapy, passing comprehensive legislation within days of each other. Brazil, Ecuador, Malta, Albania, and Germany have already fully or partially banned the practice and another 11 countries, including New Zealand, Mexico, Spain, and Britain are currently working towards reform.
Further victories for human rights around the globe. A Taiwanese court made a landmark ruling allowing a man to legally adopt his husband’s non-biological child, Israel has lifted its surrogacy ban, allowing single men and same-sex couples to pursue surrogacy, and new legislation in the Faroe Islands has granted equal parental rights for same-sex couples.
The only home we've ever known
Ten countries in the western Indian ocean are joining forces to create a network of marine conservation areas dubbed the ‘Great Blue Wall’. The first stage of the project will be in the Pemba Channel off the coast of Tanzania, and focus on restoring coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. Mongabay
An international group of researchers has compiled the first database of marine conservation efforts in China, and the results have surprised everyone. The country has 326 protected areas covering almost 13% of its territorial waters — and the researchers still aren't sure they've found all of them. Hakai
France has started 2022 on the front foot, with a ban on plastic packaging for 30 fruits and vegetables coming into effect on the 1st January. An estimated 37% of fresh produce was sold in plastic packaging in France last year and the new measures should eliminate over a billion pieces of packaging per year. Guardian
Policy changes in the UK mean that farmers will now receive taxpayers’ cash to rewild their land. Previously, farmers were given grants based on how much land they farmed, but will now be paid for environmental improvements instead. Rewilding is having a big of a moment in the UK; the Independent has a great list of some of the projects already underway.
A historic win for animal rights in Italy, with new legislation banning fur farming across the country. The amendment includes an immediate ban on the breeding of mink, foxes, raccoon dogs and chinchillas and the closure of 10 remaining mink farms by June 30, 2022. Italy is the 16th European country to outlaw the practice. Ecowatch
In thirty years of the animal rights battle this is our best victory. Finally, a parliamentary vote sanctions the end of unspeakable suffering inflicted on animals only in the name of profit and vanity.”
Michela Vittoria Brambilla, President of the Parliamentary Intergroup for Animal Rights Italy
New data from wildlife surveys shows Mexico’s endangered jaguar population increased by 20% between 2010 and 2018, giving conservationists confirmation that their strategies are working. Protection measures have included the creation of wildlife corridors and incentive programs with local communities.
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
Another carmarker is going all-electric. Chrysler says it will stop producing combustion engine powered vehicles by 2028. Also, Hyundai quietly announced at the end of last year that it's closing its combustion engine development division at its R&D centre. “Now, it is inevitable to convert into electrification.”
The Czech Republic has brought forward its coal phase out date to 2033, five years ahead of its original target, and South Korea has permanently shut its two oldest coal-fired power plants, and plans to retire another 24 by 2034. Expect these dates to come forward over the next few years as the economic burden of expensive coal really starts to bite.
In 2016, as part of the Paris Agreement, India committed to achieving 40% of its electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030, a target climate activists lamented was not nearly ambitious enough. They'll be pleased then, that India has officially achieved that target nine years ahead of schedule. Economic Times
We're suckers for a good demolition video, and this one is the perfect combination of spectacle and symbolism. Scotland has officially ended its coal-powered history by demolishing the huge chimney at Longannet in Fife. Built in 1970, it was part of what used to be the largest coal plant in Europe, and the largest freestanding structure in Scotland. BBC
Good news from China. A new regulation has been issued by the SASAC (a ministerial-level organization directly underneath the all-powerful State Council), stating that all of China's state-owned enterprises need to achieve a 50% share of renewables in installed power capacity by 2025. In case it's not apparent, this is a really big deal.
Staying with China, new data shows the country's EV market continues to go gangbusters. Sales, which skyrocked by 154% last year to 3.3 million, are forecast to almost double again this year. The best-selling vehicle in the country? A $4,500, tiny, no-frills, three-door vehicle about the same size as a Smart car, called the Yuling Mini.
A Swiss company is planning on building a floating array of 33 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 15 MW, off the coast of Italy, Apparently it's not even a headline anymore that someone wants to float Eiffel Tower-sized turbines in the Ionian Sea, we're all just like, "yep, heard about that last year." Offshore Wind
We've been around long enough to remember the outrage in the early 2010s about Queensland's Galilee coal basin, a dozen coal-mining projects that would have almost single handedly blown out the global carbon budget. Quietly and largely unannounced the projects – and their associated jobs claims – have fallen away. So far, one has made it out the gate, and even that's looking shaky.
Texas is still the US state that most people associate most closely with the fossil fuels industry (a century's worth of fortunes, won and and lost, tends to have that effect). You might be surprised to hear that nearly 40% of the Lone Star state's power was carbon free in 2021. Just gonna go and leave this one here...
Indistinguishable from magic
Forget everything you learned at school about lightning. Scientists in the Netherlands have for the first time, revealed lightning being born inside a thundercloud. Using radio telescopes, they achieved a frame rate 200 times faster than previous efforts, successfully unveiling the mysterious process by which bolts arise, grow and propagate to the ground. Quanta
Paleontologists in the UK have made an astonishing fossil find: an almost completely intact, gigantic prehistoric 'sea dragon'. The 10 metre long ichthyosaur is the largest skeleton ever found in Britain, and you should really check out these pictures. Imagine this thing versus Jaws? BBC
After several tense days, the largest and most sophisticated space telescope of all time is now complete. The last of its hexagonal mirror segments just locked into position, creating one 6.5-metre-wide, gold-coated cosmic eye. The move caps two weeks of flawless engineering manoeuvres - the most complex astronomical deployment ever attempted in space. Nature
The Webb deployments have been perfect. We are now all part of history as we watch this magnificent machine getting ready to explore the Universe.
Seven months after its last fusion record, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has smashed it once again. Their 'artificial Sun' tokomak has maintained a roiling loop of plasma superheated to 120 million degrees °C Celsius (216 million degrees °F) for a gobsmacking 1,056 seconds. This is a significant advance in the pursuit of fusion energy. Science Alert
Doctors in Maryland have transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into the chest of a man from Maryland in a last-ditch effort to save his life. The first-of-its-kind surgery is being hailed as a major step forward in the decades long effort to successfully transplant animal organs into humans. Guardian
Off the beaten track on the information highway
Dan Wang's annual letter is something of an institution at Future Crunch, we link to it every year. Ben Thompson, from Stratechery, calls him “one of the deepest thinkers and most careful observers of the world that I know.” You can see why. Unparalleled, insider analysis of China, combined with critiques of Italian opera, amazing book recommendations, and a cycling travelogue.
Bathsheba Demuth, a historian from New England, journeys to the Bering Sea to understand gray whales, and their relationship with the Chukchi and Yupik people who still hunt them. A beautiful piece of writing about a way of life we had no idea existed. When she returns home to tell her story, listeners are shocked. "Don’t confuse the distance civilisation keeps from death with the end of dying." Granta (non paywall version here).
Noah Smith is simultaneously one of the most prolific and most insightful economists on the internet. We don't know how, but his posts are consistently excellent. Here he is in conversation with Tyler Cowen (who should need no introduction), and we also recommend his interview with Patrick Collison, from Stripe. Two goldmines of fresh thinking. Highly recommended.
If you were born before 1990 then Jason Guriel's lament about modern day media's tyranny of choice might strike a chord. "Owning physical media forced you to reckon with it, to appreciate it. We steeped ourselves in stuff, and the stuff would start to sink in. Art has always required second—and third and fourth—chances to saturate the mind." Yale Review
The Economist has a great interactive article about the work of Zimbabwean archaeologist Shadreck Chirikure, and how his research is forcing the world to reimagine the story of ancient African civilisations. News organisations tend to use this format as a bit of a gimmick, but it works perfectly here, with the visuals really bringing the story to life.
Humankind
‘First Aid’ for mental health in Bangladesh
Meet Fairooz Faizah Beether, a young woman in Bangladesh who has transformed her battle with depression into a movement that is challenging deep rooted stigmas around mental health and giving thousands of young people access to help whenever they need.
Born and raised in Khulna, Fairooz was only 13 years old when her father was murdered. As an only child, she carried the trauma alone and her mother, recognising her daughter’s depression, got Fairooz the help she needed. Although ‘talk therapy’ was regarded as taboo in her country, the experience ignited a deep calling to raise awareness and help others who were struggling.
While studying at her local university, Fairooz was part of a group assignment that asked students to identify a social problem and design a solution. To tackle the issue of mental health, Fairooz and her peers created a simple online form to connect anonymous visitors with mental health counsellors, but struggled to find enough qualified professionals. Inspired by a term in psychology known as ‘para counsellors’, the team changed their strategy to a ‘first aid service' for mental health by empowering people to provide emergency mental support to others.
In 2018, Fairooz launched the Moner School: a youth-led mental health platform, providing education, para counselling workshops and a 24/7 online first-aid service, as well as contact with mental health professionals. To increase awareness, Fairooz has openly shared her struggles with depression and despite being initially shamed, the stigma in Bangladesh is beginning to fade. In 2021, the Moner School organised the country's biggest mental health workshop reaching 11,000 youth across Bangladesh.
Fairooz is now turning her focus to giving primary school children the same tools that helped her overcome tragedy in her early life. "We believe the experiences of early childhood can leave a more significant impact later in life. We want to reach every single school in Bangladesh to train them for mental health, body shaming, and bullying.
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading! Great to be back with you all, and happy new year. A special hello to all our new subscribers, it's great to have you on board.
We hope you and your loved ones are safe and well, and that you managed to get some kind of respite from the madness out there over the festive season.
We'll see you next week.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC crew
