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
Ebola has been defeated. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese doctor who first discovered the virus 40 years ago, says that the fight is now over, thanks to vaccines and effective clinical treatments. "For 40 years I have been a witness and a player in the fight against this terrifying and deadly disease and I can say today: it is defeated, it is preventable and curable." France24
A new study has revealed a surprising decline in teenage drinking around the world, especially in northern European and English-speaking countries. The trend started in the early 2000s and has continued steadily over the past two decades. Addiction
A big win for the LGBTQ community in Greece, after the country banned conversion therapy, adding itself to an ever-growing list of countries that have outlawed the practice. Meanwhile Canada has finally lifted its restrictions on gay men donating blood.
The US government has launched a $45 billion initiative to provide affordable, reliable high-speed internet to all Americans by the end of this decade. The program aims to eliminate the digital divide, focusing on the inclusion of communities of colour, rural communities, and older Americans. Department of Commerce
New South Wales has become the final state in Australia to introduce assisted dying laws. The legislation, which comes 20 years after the issue was first debated in state parliament, allows it for terminally ill people with a prognosis of six months, or 12 months for people with a neurodegenerative condition. SMH
A watershed moment for Moroccan labour rights, with the government extending paid paternity leave from 3 to 15 days. The new measure is part of a 'social pact to improve working conditions for Morocco’s working class which includes an increase to the minimum wage and family allowances. Morocco World News
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 16 million people have been enfranchised into the Brazilian financial system. An astounding 85% of Brazilians now have access to financial services, marking one of the highest increases in the banked population in decades. WEF
Good news you probably did hear about
Sorry, we just couldn't resist.
The only home we've ever known *
Last month, the Global Environment Facility announced a record round of new funding of $5.25 billion, covering the next four years. This represents a 30% increase over the previous funding period for one of the world’s largest and most influential environmental grantmakers.
A new 'super reserve' in the UK will knit together six protected sites spanning 15,000 acres of wetland in Somerset. The project is designed to boost populations of the avocet, marsh harrier, skylark, and hairy dragonfly. The announcement coincides with the 70th anniversary of England’s first six national reserves, which have since increased in number to 219.
California has a new park for the first time in 13 years. Once used as dairy pastures and almond orchards, Dos Rios Ranch is a 2,100-acre riverfront property and will provide restored habitats for endangered animals like the sandhill crane, riparian brush rabbit and Chinook salmon. It's California's 280th state park. SF Gate
If this isn’t a story of hope, we don’t know what is. A 45-acre junkyard of rusting cars and thousands of barrels of toxic chemicals has been added to Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Over the past 16 years, the site has been transformed into a wetland teeming with birds and plants thanks to one of the National Park Service's most extensive and expensive rehabilitation projects. Nat Geo
If someone is interested in habitat restoration, there’s no better place. This was a toxic wasteland only a few decades ago. To find this diversity of species there today is remarkable.”
Chris Davis, Ecologist for Cuyahoga Valley National Park
A big milestone for the greater one-horned rhino, with the population in Assam, India reaching 4,014, an increase of 274 since last count thanks to a baby boom during the pandemic! This is an incredible recovery for a species that once numbered fewer than 100 individuals. Rhinos.org
Meanwhile, conservationists in South Africa have translocated four young black rhinos to the Bonamanzi Game Reserve to help preserve population genetics. Black rhino populations fell to just 2,400 in the early 90s due to poaching but protection measures have helped boost populations to around 5,600 today. Mongabay
12 years of conservation efforts in Bangladesh have helped halt the decline in vulture populations. Populations fell by 95% last decade and the red-headed species was declared locally extinct. However since 2015 numbers have remained stable thanks to a ban on harmful veterinary drugs and the creation of “vulture safe zones” across the country. Mongabay
The vulture has also inspired a communally managed forest project, Nuevo Bécal, Mexico. Encouraged by the positive results of a king vulture sanctuary established in 2012, the Ejidatarios people have conserved a further 2,284 ha of their territory, making it the largest voluntary conservation project in Mexico. Mongabay
The largest private conservation project in Canada has just been unveiled - 1,450 km2 of boreal forest in northern Ontario. The protected land is more than twice the size of Toronto, and home to more than 100 lakes and 1,300 kilometres of rivers, streams, and shorelines, including habitat vital to freshwater quality and native fish species. Weather Network
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
The IEA says renewables’ growth so far this year has been much faster than expected. China is leading the way as usual, but expansion is also accelerating in Europe, India and Latin America: global new solar capacity is currently on track to smash all records in 2022.
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium just announced a plan to install a monstrous 150GW of offshore wind in the North Sea by 2050 - half of all the offshore wind necessary to get the EU to net zero. To put that in perspective, total installed capacity worldwide at the moment is 25GW. Wild. Business Green
Renewables aren't immune to supply chain gyrations, but compared to fossil fuels, there's just no comparison. Even before the war in Ukraine, coal and gas in the EU was a lot more expensive than solar, but now it's getting ridiculous. Transition Zero
No surprise then, that Europe is putting its shoulder hard to the wheel. The European Commission just unveiled a €300 billion plan to become independent of Russian energy imports by 2030. It includes a provision to make solar panels mandatory on all buildings. "We must now reduce as rapidly as possible our reliance on Russia in energy. We can." Independent
Vietnam is planning an aggressive switch from coal, to wind and solar to decarbonize its power sector and meet rising demand. Its new national power plan says no new coal-fired power plants will be built from now on, and aims instead for a 50.7% share of the generation stack for wind and solar by 2045. IHS Markit
Texas burns more coal than any other state in the United States. However, no other state has as much renewable energy either, and there's now enough wind and solar in the pipeline to almost completely replace all of the state’s coal generation. The big bottleneck isn't projects any more, it's transmission lines. PV Magazine
A new analysis of trucking in California and New York has shown that 65% of medium-duty trucks and 49% of heavy-duty trucks are driving short enough routes that they could be replaced with electric models that are on the market right now. RMI
Electric vehicles of all types are already displacing about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day worldwide. Most of that is from electric two and three-wheelers and electric buses in China. Thanks to all those batteries, 3.4% of global transport oil demand is now gone. Bloomberg
Indistinguishable from magic
Australian researchers have identified a biochemical marker that could help identify newborn babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome. This is a pretty big deal - the researchers found that babies who died of SIDS had lower levels of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase that plays a major role in the brain's arousal pathway. Low levels would reduce a sleeping infant's ability to wake up or respond to its environment.
At the same time, it's not a smoking gun. This is just one biomarker, the sample size in the study was small, and we're still a long way from being able to carry out risk assessments or treatments. However, it does move us closer to that goal - and is a powerful new piece of evidence suggesting SIDS is caused by biology, and not parental neglect. For parents who have suffered the worst kind of tragedy, that may offer some relief. Reuters
Off the coast of Liguria, Italy, over 100 types of herbs, vegetables, and flowers are growing at the bottom of the ocean. The project is known as Nemo's Garden, the world's first—and only—underwater greenhouse. Plants produced inside its six biospheres are reportedly richer in nutritional content than those grown using traditional methods. IE
Chinese engineers are using artificial intelligence to effectively turn a dam project on the Tibetan Plateau into the world’s largest 3D printer. The 180 metre high Yangqu hydropower plant will be built slice by slice, using unmanned excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers in an additive manufacturing process controlled by software. SCMP
Texan scientists have used a machine learning algorithm to create a modified enzyme that can break down plastics in days. Trained on 19,000 protein structures, the new enzyme is multiple times more effective than its counterparts, and can break down 51 types of PET across a range of temperature and pH conditions. Vice
A Californian biotech startup has inserted genes from pumpkin and green algae into poplar trees, enabling them to grow 53% percent more quickly than their non-edited equivalents. The goal is to engineer trees that draw down carbon more efficiently, in an effort to combat climate change. Wired
Kendrick Lamar taking deepfakes to a whole new level, courtesy of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Brilliant.
Information superhighway
"She was known, back then, as Susan Thunder. For someone in the business of deception, she stood out: she was unusually tall, wide-hipped, with a mane of light blonde hair and a wardrobe of jackets embroidered with band logos, spoils from an adolescence spent as an infamous rock groupie. Her backstage conquests had given her a taste for quaaludes and pharmaceutical-grade cocaine; they’d also given her the ability to sneak in anywhere." Go on, you know you want to read the rest.
Venkatesh Rao makes a simple, yet profound point. Despite our habits of speech, there's actually no such thing as being individually good or bad in a crisis. Humans either deal with crises in effective groups, or not at all. How you respond comes down to who you surround yourself with (it also helps if you can appreciate small moments of the sublime). Ribbon Farm
Two opposite ends of the scale here. In the first, a journalist from Harpers goes in search of Bitcoin truths, and ends with the taste of ash in his mouth. Should be deeply satisfying for all the crypto sceptics out there. The second is an excellent slide deck from a16z on the current state of Web3. Wondering what the difference is between Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains? This one's for you.
If you're starting to get a little tired of the word 'trauma' in popular discourse don't worry, you're not alone. There's no avoiding it these days, and despite the best of intentions, it's become a stand-in for authenticity. At the risk of sounding a little old-fashioned, maybe it's time for a little more stiff upper lip, and a little less vulnerability? Real Life
Our friends at Today Do This just published the their annual list of ways people can turn their despair at the headlines into positive change. Each week, they respond to one news story with one simple action people can take to make a difference. In the past year they've covered everything from food waste to climate change, disasters to discrimination, and cancer to mental health.
And finally... a love letter to the incredible fig. Nautilus
Humankind
The Barefoot Architect
Meet 80 year old Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect, turned humanitarian, who has created the world's largest zero-carbon shelter programme, building over 45,000 homes for the survivors of natural disasters using natural materials like mud, lime and bamboo.
As the daughter of a senior bureaucrat, Yasmeen was “born into a world of open doors.” She studied architecture in the United Kingdom, before returning home in 1963 to qualify as Pakistan’s first female architect. At the age of 23 she opened her practice, and designed some of the country's landmark commercial buildings. After an illustrious 35 year career as a 'starchitect', Yasmeen retired from practice in 2000.
Her retirement, however, didn’t last long.
In 2005, one of the most destructive earthquakes on record ravaged the region of Kashmir, killing more than 80,000 and leaving 3.5 million people homeless. Desperate to help, Yasmeen worked with volunteers to help people rebuild their homes with whatever materials were at hand. In the absence of sufficient aid money, she developed a blueprint for shelters that could be easily built using traditional mud construction.
For the past 17 years, subsequent earthquakes, floods and conflicts have kept Yasmeen on her toes, developing new techniques to create low cost, zero carbon and zero waste shelters. Her work has expanded beyond disaster reconstruction into the creation of the 'barefoot social architecture movement' which involves training villagers from impoverished communities to make building materials, like bamboo panels, glazed tiles, and mud bricks that they can then sell. 80% of the communities Yasmeen has worked with have been raised above the poverty line.
Yasmmen is passionate about using design as tool for empowerment. One innovation has been chullahstoves, smokeless earthen ovens that cost about $5 and makes cooking safer for women, while the raised-up platform of the stoves bestows them a new sense of dignity. Yasmeen sees her work as a collaboration: providing communities with an interactive blueprint to help them rebuild not only their homes and livelihoods, but their sense of ownership and pride.
“We often misunderstand what kind of help is needed. The aid mindset is to think of everyone as helpless victims, but if you give people something they can do themselves, it really helps recovery. If people have helped to make something it is much more valued than something that is simply given.”
Thanks for reading, it's been a wonderful weekend down under.
We'll see you next week.
Gus, Amy and the rest of the team
