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Good news you probably didn't hear about
Three more African countries, Benin, Uganda, and Rwanda, have successfully eliminated trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) another big milestone for a global public health campaign that began in 2001. Togo and Côte d’Ivoire were the first countries to eliminate the disease in 2020. WHO
In the past three decades, suicides involving guns have steadily fallen around the world. Data from 204 countries shows that between 1990 and 2019, the global rate of firearm suicide decreased by an average of 2% per year. The reason? Stricter gun controls. Only one country is an outlier. New Scientist
India's Supreme Court has ruled that the country's police should neither interfere nor take criminal action against consenting sex workers. It's a major win for the country's human rights campaigners, who have long argued that sex workers should be entitled to dignity and equal protection under the law. India Today
The global impact of terrorism continues to decline. In 2021, deaths fell to 7,142, despite the overall number of attacks increasing, highlighting that terrorism is becoming less lethal. Mozambique had the largest drop, with deaths falling by 82%. Attacks the West also declined significantly, dropping by 68% in 2021. GTI
A landmark win for LGBTQI+ rights in Europe with the Church of Scotland allowing clergy to conduct same-sex marriages in church, with the first ceremonies expected later this y ear. Last year, the Methodist Church became the first major religious denomination in the UK to permit same-sex marriages. BBC
Childcare in the US state of New Mexico is now free for those on low-incomes, with the government covering costs to help people get back to work after COVID. The initiative is funded by taxes on oil and gas and is the first in the country to cover a broad range of incomes, with families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level eligible. WaPo
A major breakthrough in humanity's efforts to improve food security, with China's development of a salt-tolerant rice variety dubbed as 'seawater rice.' The rice can be cultivated in salty soils near the sea, and by the end of this year, almost 70,000 hectares in seven provinces will be under cultivation. Global Times
The only home we've ever known
In the last five years, a restoration project in Brazil has recovered 5,000 ha of forest cover in a watershed serving São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with plans to reforest another 1.5 million ha by 2030. The program was inspired by a smaller conservation project in Extrema, which has planted more than 2 million native trees since 2005. Mongabay
Some of the world’s biggest mining companies, including Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Vale, have withdrawn requests to extract minerals on Indigenous lands in the Amazon, despite efforts by Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil’s Constitution states mining can only take place on Indigenous lands with consent. AP
Here’s a twist … London’s new Elizabeth underground line will benefit birds as well as commuters. A sanctuary has been created out of the 3.5 million tonnes of earth dug up during construction. The Jubilee Marsh spans over 160 ha and tens of thousands of migratory birds have already taken up residence including avocets, spoonbills, black-tailed godwits, and little egrets. Guardian
Europe removed a record-breaking 239 dams in 2021. With wind and solar outcompeting hydroelectricity, more dams are likely to be made redundant, and a key element of the European Union Biodiversity Strategy is to restore at least 25,000km of rivers to a free-flowing state by 2030. Dam Removal EU
“Dam removal is the most efficient tool to restore free-flowing rivers full of fish. This tool should be implemented everywhere in Europe, starting with the old and obsolete barriers that are out of use or have no economic function anymore.
Herman Wanningen, Director of the World Fish Migration Foundation
America’s waning appetite for meat has resulted in a 35% decrease in greenhouse emissions. New research has found daily beef consumption plummeted by an average 40% per person between 2003 and 2018, and there’s also been steady shift away from dairy, eggs, chicken, and pork. Anthropocene
26 years after San Francisco pioneered city-wide composting, it’s now collecting over 500 tonnes of compost from green bins every day, diverting 80% of the city’s waste from landfill and turning it into high-quality compost in 60 days. Inspired by the city’s success, California will enact state-wide composting to reduce landfilling of compostable materials by 75% by 2025. RTBC
Europe’s conservation projects are paying off, with a dramatic increase in mammal populations facing extinction 50 years ago. Compared to 1960, there are 30 times the number of bison, twice as many bears, three times more elk and five times the population of deer. The most remarkable recovery however, is beaver populations, which have increased by an estimated 140-fold. OWD
The most magnificent green buildings around the world. Some proper eye candy here - including this incredible winery in Georgia. Euronews
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
Major fossil fuel exit by BBRI, the largest public company in Indonesia, which serves 43% of the population. The bank's CEO has announced it will stop financing 'harmful' energy commodities such as coal and oil. "If the world wants to live another 1,000 years, it has to take 100 years of medicine." Bisnis
China tripled investments into solar power in the first four months of this year, putting the nation on track to install record amounts of new clean energy in 2022. Investment in solar was $4.3 billion from January through April, about 204% higher than in the same period a year earlier. Bloomberg
California's Senate just passed the California Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, which would require CalPERS and CalSTRS, the two largest public pension funds in the US, to divest from fossil fuels. “This is a great step in the right direction. State pension funds should be invested in the future of the state, not in a dark and deadly fossil fuel past." Fossil Free California
One of the most undertold stories in all of energy is how Kenya is rapidly decarbonizing thanks to geothermal. The country just hit a new peak for electricity demand - and the largest share, around 40%, came from geothermal power plants. The next biggest power source? Hydropower. Kengen
Officials from the G7 wealthy nations just announced they will aim for 'predominantly decarbonized power sectors by 2035.' That's a big step up, especially for Japan. 12 months ago, the same meeting ended with the aim of 'overwhelmingly decarbonized power sectors by the 2030s'. DW
The Netherlands will ban gas boilers and make hybrid heat pumps the standard for heating homes from 2026. The government has increased the subsidy for the purchase of heat pumps to an average of 30% from this year. The United Kingdom is also planning to ban gas boilers in new homes after 2025. Energy Live News
Volvo will be the world's first truck maker to use fossil-free steel. The steel is produced by the Swedish steel company SSAB using hydrogen, and will initially be used in the trucks' frame rails and vehicle backbones where other components are mounted. Production will begin in the third quarter of 2022. Greenbiz
In China, the world's biggest car market, EV sales are rocketing. In the first four months of 2022, the number of plugin vehicles more than doubled from a year earlier to 1.49 million. Clean energy vehicles accounted for 23% of China's passenger car market, whole overall vehicle sales fell 12%, reflecting a steep decline in demand for gasoline cars. Reuters
In the United States, the world's second largest car market, an electric car is now cheaper on a monthly basis than a comparable gasoline car in almost every state (once financing, taxes, maintenance and fuel costs are included). Bloomberg
Indistinguishable from magic
Researchers have unearthed astonishing new evidence about ancient settlements in the Amazon. Using remote-sensing technology, they found that 1,500 years ago Amazonians lived in densely populated urban centres, featuring tall earthen pyramids encircled by kilometres of elevated roadways. “This is the first clear evidence that there were urban societies in this part of the Amazon Basin.”
A 750 gross-ton commercial cargo ship has successfully completed a two day, 790 kilometre voyage in Tokyo Bay, piloted entirely by AI. The software performed 107 collision avoidance maneuvers without human intervention, and allowed the ship to avoid between 400-500 other vessels during its outbound trip alone. Electrek
The 50,000 photovoltaic panels topping Google's new 100,000 m² office in California are made from printable, flexible 'dragonscale solar skin' with a textured glass coating that traps additional light, generating roughly 40% percent of the building’s energy needs. Straight up sci-fi, check out these photos. Gizmodo
Scientists have managed to fortify tomatoes with vitamin D using genetic editing. The fruit already contains a vitamin D precursor known as 7-DHC; the scientists turned off an enzyme that converts it to other molecules, allowing far more 7-DHC to accumulate without affecting growth, development or yield. New Atlas
In the world of IVF, genetic tests can now assess whether one embryo is more likely than another to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or schizophrenia. The ethical implications are profound - the $14 billion IVF industry brings over 500,000 babies into the world each year. Humanity is now one step closer to the control of its own evolution. Bloomberg
A genetically modified cancer-killing virus has been administered to human patients for the first time. Known as Vaxinia, the virus has been designed to enter cells and duplicate itself, releasing thousands of new particles that act as antigens, stimulating the immune system to attack nearby cancer cells. Science Alert
There's more than one way to get into space. A startup from California just slung a three metre long rocket into the sky at over 1,600 km/h using a rotating arm. Seriously. It's aiming for orbital flight by 2025. Space.com
Off the beaten track on the information superhighway
Lauren Silverman has written a really amazing essay here weaving together human relationships... and fish. Exquisite handling of an extended metaphor, with some cool animal science thrown in. If you've ever been in love with someone from somewhere else (another country, another culture) then this one's for you. Human Parts
Everyone thinks the 21st century will belong to Asia, but they're looking in the wrong place. The real economic revolution is the inevitable growth of an overlooked continent. Africa’s integration into trade and global communications has only just begun, and by the middle of the century, it will have the largest population of people of prime working age in the world. Foreign Policy
Chris Arnarde says you should always walk in new cities. "You can’t zoom past anything. You can’t fast forward to the interesting parts. It is being forced to watch the whole movie, and more often then not, realizing the best parts are largely unseen by tourists." Walking the World
On why the planet is the prime political entity of our time. Not Bucky's 'Spaceship Earth' or Sagan's 'lonely speck', but the planet that's emerged from the realisation that anthropogenic impacts are not isolated to particular areas, but integrated parts of a complex web of intersecting processes that unfold over vastly disparate timescales and across different geographies. Aeon
We've always suspected there's something scary about TikTok - that there's some kind of qualitative difference that makes it worse than any social media that's come before. But perhaps that's just because, as Douglas Adams famously said, "anything that's invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things.” Scott Galloway certainly seems to be suffering from the same problem.
Humankind
The quiet revolution
Meet Benjamin Olorunfemi, a 49 year old former security expert turned public healthcare warrior in Oyo, Nigeria, who is on a mission to expand health literacy and raise awareness around hypertension, the 'silent killer' that threatens the lives of over 66 million Nigerians.
Benjamin studied banking and finance and was working as a security expert for a private firm in July 2016, when he suddenly developed strong headaches, body weakness and a rocketing heartrate. He tried self-medicating, but his condition worsened. Thanks to the timely intervention of work colleagues, Benjamin was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with Stage 3 Hypertension. He got lucky: the disease, when left unchecked, often kills people in their prime.
While recovering, Benjamin was unable to shake one question: “Why did I not know about this?” Scrolling through online articles and medical journals he discovered that millions of Nigerians were living with hypertension, either unaware of the serious implications or unable to access proper treatment. Realising that early detection and intervention were key to saving lives, Benjamin made it his mission to fill the gap in the healthcare system.
In 2017 he founded the non-profit Rays of Hope Support Initiative (ROHSI) to raise awareness about hypertension and other non-communicable diseases like diabetes. He launched with a Facebook post asking for volunteers and received responses from a pharmacist and three medical doctors who are now part of his 19-person team. In August 2017 ROHSI held its first community outreach program and over the past four years, the organisation has educated over 10,000 people, across six communities, including free screenings, health advice and medication for 3,000 people.
Benjamin hopes to eventually build a medical centre that will allow people to access free healthcare services and is passionate about creating a more proactive approach to health, especially within rural communities.
"People's attitude towards their health is poor in our part of the world. Unless people are very sick, they don't care about going for medical check-ups. But we all know there are significant health and economic gains attached to early detection and good control of ailments like hypertension rather than treating the complications.”
Thank for reading and hope you're doing okay out there. There's a lot of bad news in the headlines right now, and like New York, it's probably bringing you down. Remember though, the news doesn't tell you what's happening in the world, it tells you what's rare. There's always more good than bad, even if it doesn't feel like it - and so many people working to make things better. Keep that in mind during your next doomscroll.
We'll see you next week.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the team
