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.
Give a damn
We recently discovered an wonderful little charity in Nigeria called Safe Child Africa. They provide refuge for children in the Niger Delta accused of witchcraft; children who would otherwise have nowhere else to go. Their Emergency Accommodation Centre provides a place for children to stay for seven nights, while alternative secure care or longer term foster care is sought.
We're sending them $5,000, which they're going to spend on kitchen equipment, computers, bedding and clothing, and other supplies. These people are doing amazing work, and hopefully this donation will make their lives, and the lives of the kids they're helping, a little easier. Thank you so much to all of our members for making this possible, and for your generosity and continued support. We'll keep you updated with some photos of the supplies as they come in.
Also, in October 2020 you helped us buy a drone for the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous People (Jupaú) in the Amazon. Since then it's become a crucial tool in their protection of the forest. Sundance Festival recently screened a documentary called The Territory, which follows Bitaté, a young leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau who uses technology to protect his culture and territory. During the first part of the film you can see Bitaté using the drone donated by Future Crunch to monitor invasions and deforestation, and later on, teaching his people how to fly it.
We thought you all should know - seeing as you're the reason they've got the drone :)
Good news you probably didn't hear about
New research has shown that nearly 5.4 million cancer deaths have been avoided in the EU between 1989 and 2022. Since 2017 alone, the cancer death rate has fallen by 6% in men and 4% in women, and in 2022 it's estimated there will be 369,000 fewer deaths compared to the peak back in 1988. Medical.net
Jimmy Carter's dream of making Guinea Worm the third ever disease to be fully eradicated is within reach. Only 14 cases were recorded in 2021. Decades of health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa have dramatically decreased the disease, which, 35 years ago was infecting 3.5 million people. Al Jazeera
Adam Weiss, Director of The Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program
Papua New has abolished the death penalty because "it’s not an effective deterrent to serious crime.” The country abolished capital punishment in 1970 but reintroduced it in 1991. Amnesty says 144 countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, and last year saw the lowest number of executions globally in more than a decade. SBS
Did you know that over 75% of India's adult population has now received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine? In just over a year, 714 million people have been fully vaccinated, at an average rate of almost 18.6 million a day. This is easily the most successful vaccination campaign by any country in human history. Economic Times
The successful phase-out of leaded gasoline and leaded paint and pipes has significantly reduced rates of lead poisoning around the world. In 1978, the average concentration in American children was almost five times the levels today. OurWorldinData
Divorce is getting less nasty in wealthy countries. Legal reform and access to mediation have made the process cheaper, faster, and less traumatic for children, and cultural shifts have helped too - with more mothers in the workforce and fathers actively involved in child-raising, shared custody agreements are on the rise. Economist
In his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis has appealed to parents to "never condemn your children" with different sexual orientations. Meanwhile in France, legislation banning conversion therapy has been passed 142-0 by the National Assembly, as the country marks 40 years since decriminalizing homosexuality. It’s a long road, but nice to be reminded sometimes about how far we’ve come.
The only home we've ever known *
After more than 150 years, the legal ivory trade in Hong Kong has come to an end. Landmark legislation has banned the sale of ivory products. The new rules ban the 'import, re-export, and commercial possession of elephant ivory' but exclude antique pieces dated before 1925. Wild Aid
Dolce & Gabbana has banned fur and angora from all future collections. It's a huge win for campaigners who fought for this for decades. The announcement follows other luxury brands like Moncler, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga who have also recently gone fur free. Vogue Business
Julie Massa, Fur Campaigner, In Defense of Animals
A big win for mangrove conservation in Mumbai, with 53% of mangrove cover legally declared a forest by the end of 2021, a 30% increase from the beginning of the year. Mangroves play an important role in mitigating the impact of climate change, and a further 3,000 ha will be protected in 2022. Hindustan Times
After decades of conservation efforts, the Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California, have been successfully restored. The islands are now home to a healthy population of bald eagles and other formerly threatened species including the island fox, peregrine falcons and the island scrub jay are thriving. The islands also now host the largest seal and sea lion rookery in the world. HCN
Conservation efforts on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula are working. In the 1990s, populations of pumas, tapirs, and peccaries fell to almost zero, but protected reserves gave many species a chance to recover completely. Conservationists are now focused on creating and protecting wildlife corridors, for jaguars and other roving species to roam and grow. Mongabay
Speaking of wildlife corridors, they're gaining momentum around the world. Wildlife bridges and crossing structures are allowing animals to safely cross highways, reducing the risk of vehicle collisions. Banff National Park in Canada boasts the most wildlife crossings in the world, with 38 underpasses and 6 overpasses. Now Toronto
A record 247,000 Western Monarch butterflies overwintered in California last year, a dramatic increase from just 2,000 in 2020. The boom has been linked to an increase in native plants and reduced pesticide use. Efforts to protect the butterfly’s habitat are also underway with transportation and energy companies agreeing to 'rights-of-way' corridors and wintering sites across the US. Mongabay
Also.... enough with all the drawings of dead butterflies!
New Zealand’s fur seal population has bounced back from near extinction, with 200,000 seals now thriving along the coastline. The victory has led conservationists to an unexpected problem, as they now face questions around how to manage the interactions between the seals and their human neighbours. Guardian
As we enter the Year of the Tiger, the WWF has released a report showing the century-long trend of wild tiger decline has finally been reversed. Highlights from the report include the creation of the world’s largest tiger protected area in China, a national park in Russia, and the transformation of a transboundary corridor between India and Nepal from 115 hectares to 3,800 hectares of forest, encompassing over 6,000 community members and stewards of the land. WWF
Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President, WWF-US
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
China is reforming its national electricity market, with new regulations that will force all of the country's coal-fired generation to compete with renewables by 2025. This comes on top of news that non-fossil fuel energy sources such as wind, nuclear, solar and hydro are on track to make up more than half of China's total power generation capacity by the end of 2022. Reuters
A federal judge just invalidated the biggest offshore oil and gas lease sale in US history - 80 million acres of drilling leases issued by the Biden administration — stating that it acted “arbitrarily and capriciously”. Instead of updating an environmental study performed during the Trump administration, the Biden administration simply repurposed the study without any changes. Reuters
White flag time at Southern Company's Georgia Power, one of the United States' biggest utilities, and once one of the most adamant coal-burning utilities/lobbying forces. It plans to close its entire coal fleet by 2028, replacing it with renewables and fossil gas. The Hill
Fossil-free steel is coming sooner than anyone thought. Sweden’s SSAB, a pioneer in making steel from hydrogen, is bringing forward the closure of its coal-fired furnaces from 2045 to 2030. This will eliminate eight million tonnes of carbon a year, reducing Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10%, Finland’s by 7%, and with the European carbon price at around €90 a ton, looks like a clever financial decision too.
Eastern Pacific, one of the largest privately-owned ship management companies in the world, has just announced it will no longer carry coal. "This is intended to be a message to the maritime industry that decarbonisation isn’t exclusive to how we move ships - what we move also matters." Marine Log
The electric equivalents of the Ford F150, the Honda CRV, Lexus RX and the Toyota Corolla - some of the most popular cars in the United States - are now officially cheaper to own than their petrol-powered counterparts. Turns out not filling your car up with dinosaur juice all the time saves a whole lot of money. FastCo
The world spent $755 billion on low carbon solutions last year, up from 27% in 2020, and 14% of all venture capital now goes into climate tech, 2.5x pre-pandemic investment levels. While it's exciting to see the money finally pouring in, we’ve still got a way to go - McKinsey estimates it's going to take $9 trillion a year to get to net zero by 2050, or 12 times as much as the world is spending today.
We're still in the early days of the energy transition...
Indistinguishable from magic
Thirty years ago, astronomers confirmed the existence of planets outside our solar system. Since then, like transistors in a circuit, the number of known exoplanets has doubled roughly every two years, and in a few months we're going to gain the ability to see whether they have life-indicating elements such as water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, or methane. Buckle up. The Ringer
OK we did not know this. The human brain, rather than analysing the world as a series of snapshots, perceives any given moment as the average of what we saw in the past 15 seconds. That means that, in effect, your brain is a like a time machine, living 'in the past' to allow it perceive a stable environment and handle everyday life. Whoa. The Conversation
Human clinical trials have started for an HIV vaccine based on the same mRNA technology found in COVID-19 vaccines. Researchers will monitor 56 adults for six months in the Phase 1 trial, typically the first step in a long road to study the safety and efficacy of a vaccine. This is a big moment for mRNA technology, and may just turn out to be the most positive legacy of the pandemic. WaPo
British scientists have created a machine learning algorithm that can identify someone's 12 month risk of heart attack from routine eye scans, with an accuracy of 70%-80%. The use of deep learning could revolutionise the way patients are screened for signs of heart disease, offering a second referral mechanism for cardiovascular examination. University of Leeds
In a significant advance for regenerative medicine, scientists have found a way to harness the cells of adult African clawed frogs to regrow an imperfect but functional limbs. The hope now is to recreate the same results in mice, and eventually, some form of regeneration in human patients to restore tissues or organs. NYT
A robot at John Hopkins has performed keyhole surgery on a pig without the guiding hand of a human, a significant step towards fully automated surgery. The robot excelled at suturing two ends of intestine (one of the most intricate and delicate tasks in abdominal surgery) producing "significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure." Gizmodo
Information superhighway
In honour of the passing of Buddhist monk, peace activist, poet and teacher, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Emergence Magazine has compiled his Ten Love Letters to the Earth. Try read some of these out loud - they have the most amazing, meditative quality, and the messages are simple, but profound. “Understanding is love’s other name.”
Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks was probably the most impactful book we read last year, so you can imagine how pleased we were when we heard he was being interviewed by Krista Tippet. This conversation takes a little while to get going but once it does there's so much great stuff in there. On Being
UX designer Tom Whitwell puts together a great annual list called "52 things I learned" and it's always filled with the most satisfying kind of eclectica. Even better, Jason Kottke, one of the internet's best hunter gatherers, decided to do his own version for 2021 and it's just as good.
If like us, you're emerging blinking into the light after two years of limited socialising, your listening skills could probably do with some brushing up. This is a really great guide, complete with the author's own illustrations. Repeat after us: stop trying to be right, stop hogging the conversation, avoid one-upmanship, ask questions, and embrace reciprocity. Medium
This might just be the most perfect ten minutes of ski film ever created. Putting every single one of his skills to the ultimate test, the insane, flawless collection of lines puts Markus Eder up there amongst the best all-around skiers to ever grace this planet. It's a display of visual excellence, versatility, and mind-blowing trickery, and you should definitely watch it right now.
Humankind
The Plastic Man of Senegal
Meet Modou Fall, a 48 year old former soldier turned environmentalist from Dakar, Senegal, who has dedicated the past 15 years of his life fighting the war on waste. Known as 'plastic man’, thanks to his homemade suit constructed out of plastic bags and cups, Modou is on a mission to repurpose old tyres and use them to plant trees across his country.
In 1998, Modou was stationed in rural eastern Senegal as an army officer, when he noticed herds of cows were getting sick after consuming fragments of plastic bags. It was a lightbulb moment: he had witnessed firsthand the impact of waste on the environment. Modou left the military and set up a t-shirt stall in Dakar’s busy Sandaga market. Shocked by the amount of packaging, he tried to persuade fellow shopkeepers to dispose of their waste properly, but no one listened. Fed up with waiting, Modou spent 13 days cleaning up the market himself. and then decided to broaden his mission.
In 2006 he used his lifesavings of $500 to start his foundation Clean Senegal. Dressed in his ‘plastic man’ costume, Modou approached shoppers at markets, offering to trade their plastic bags for paper ones. When they agreed, he’d tie their plastic bags to his costume, adding to its colour and craziness and he soon became a regular presence at protests and events.
In 2020 Modou launched a new project: Million Trees, Million Tyres. Throughout Senegal, old tyres lie strewn across roads and beaches with few prospects for reuse. After watching a YouTube video, Modou taught himself how to transform tyres into planters, and set himself a mission to plant one tree for every home across the country. Today, Modou’s army of volunteers provide thousands of seeds and tyres a year, and local lime, mango and moringa trees are already providing shade and nutrition across Dakar. With lockdowns easing, Modou’s planting mission is ramping up again, with local schools and authorities jumping on board.
“If you have the means to build a mosque, you do that. If you don’t, fine. If you have the means to build a hospital for people to treat themselves at, you do that. If you don’t have the means, fine. But one thing everyone can do is to plant a tree.”
Thanks for reading, and thank you again to everyone for making that donation to Safe Child Africa possible. It's going to make a real difference.
We'll see you next week.
With love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team
