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
COVID vaccines prevented 19.8 million deaths during their first year of rollout, according to a new study in The Lancet. The research covered 185 countries and is the first major analysis since the first jab was administered in December 2020. India averted the most deaths at 4.2 million, followed by the US at 1.9 million and Brazil at just over a million.
Global efforts to fight malaria have yielded impressive results. An estimated 10.6 million malaria deaths and 1.7 billion cases were averted between 2000 to 2020. Twenty-six countries reported fewer than 100 cases in 2020, up from just six in 2000. Since 2015, nine countries have been certified as malaria-free. WHO
At the front of the pack is India, where malaria cases have fallen by an astonishing 86% since 2015 thanks to an increase in government resources and the tireless efforts of NGOs. Meanwhile trials of a new malaria vaccine in Burkina Faso have delivered 77% efficacy, exceeding the WHO target of 75%. At least 200 million doses will now be rolled out across another four African countries.
With a fair wind, the 2030s could see the reduction of malaria from a major killer … to a more localised minor cause of mortality.
Adrian Hill, Director of the Jenner Institute
The WHO says there has also been substantial progress in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). 46 countries have now eliminated at least one NTD and between 2015 and 2019, more than a billion people were treated every year for one or more NTDs. In the period between 2010 to 2020, the number of people requiring an NTD intervention was reduced by 600 million.
California has become the first state to provide undocumented residents over the age of 55 with state-subsidized food benefits. The assistance will feed around 75,000 people by 2025 and the pressure is now on to extend the benefits to younger people who are struggling with high rates of food insecurity. Fresno Bee
California has also become the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants, regardless of legal status. The Medi-Cal coverage will protect around 700,000 undocumented Californians aged between 26-49 and could lead to the largest drop in the rate of uninsured Californians in a decade. Daily Kos
California is building a more universal, efficient, and equitable health care system for all who call California home. Health care is a human right, and our health system is stronger when everyone is included.
Jose Torres, Policy, and Legislative Advocate at Health Access California
In a landmark deal for gender equality, the EU has agreed to mandatory quotas to ensure women occupy at least 40% of seats on corporate boards by mid-2026. The directive applies to companies with at least 250 employees and fines may be issued for failure to comply. Euro News
Paid leave for parents is steadily improving. In the last decade 38 countries have increased the duration of their paid maternity leave, and 22 now guarantee at least 14 weeks. Reforms on leave for fathers have likewise gained popularity, with 37 countries introducing paid paternity leave since 2011. World Bank
Surgical abortions are no longer the norm in the United States. The majority (54%) are now done via medication - approved for up to ten weeks by the FDA, and often mailed to patients after an online or telehealth consultation. Politicians might want to police control over women’s bodies, but science and medicine have other ideas. Guttmacher Institute
Since 1980 at least 59 countries have expanded abortion access, and only 11 countries have restricted it. The US is now in some pretty illustrious company (see below). Elsewhere, progress continues. Israel just removed its requirement that women appear in front of a committee in order to receive an abortion, and Germany is moving to decriminalize a women's right to choose.
The only home we've ever known
Argentina has pioneered a private to public rewilding model that has successfully restored over 800,000 hectares of damaged land and reintroduced multiple species. Since the 1990s the Tompkins Conservation foundation has been buying private land to restore ecosystems and then donating the protected areas back to federal and local governments. Guardian
54,000 acres of private ranch land in New Mexico will be added to the existing 4,000-acre Marquez Wildlife Management Area, making it the largest state-owned recreational property in the state. The land contains important cultural sites for tribal communities and critical habitat for black bears, migratory birds, and cougars. ABQ Journal
The American government has entered a historic agreement with five Native American tribes to co-manage Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. The agreement comes after decades of lobbying and marks the first time in the history of federal land management that the government will treat tribes as equals and experts. Outside Online
In one of the largest transfers made to First Nations people in the US, the state of New York has returned 1,000 acres of forest to Onondaga Nation. The transfer is the first time land has been returned to a New York tribe and is part of the decades-long clean-up of Onondaga Lake. Syracuse
Launched at last year’s G7 Leaders’ Summit, the Blue Planet Fund is already helping developing countries and coastal communities adapt to climate change. The £500 million fund has backed a wave of new projects aimed at bolstering the economies of small islands and developing nations as well as protecting ocean and coastline biodiversity. Industry Update
And in other good news - the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States just launched the world’s first global alliance to combat illegal, unregulated, and unregistered fishing, which threaten marine ecosystems, coastal communities, and global fish stocks. Global Fishing Watch
Landmark legislation in California will reduce single-use plastic by 25% over the next ten years. The ambitious law requires at least 30% of plastic items sold or bought in California are recyclable by 2028 and economic responsibility falls to producers. It’s the first state in the US to approve such sweeping restrictions. Guardian
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
In 1990, China generated less than 1/600th of the renewable power of the United States. Fast forward to 2021, and it's rocketed past both the US and Europe, adding almost 290 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity generation in a single year. Japan and India aren't far behind now either, generating a combined 302 terawatt-hours. Bloomberg
The total capacity of proposed renewable generation and storage projects in Australia has reached 150GW. Not all of this will be built - but most of it will, as the country's energy market operator is now saying that the switch to a renewables-based grid is 'complex, rapid and irreversible.'
Meanwhile, in Europe, "a long but good day for climate action" after environment ministers from 27 states struck a deal to approve a raft of measures to combat climate change in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It's particularly good news in the transport sector. DW
Germany's return to coal after Russia cut its gas flow by 40% is only temporary. Analysts don't consider it to be a serious setback to the country's upcoming clean energy transition efforts - and the government still remains committed to an 80% renewable energy mix by 2030. Ekonomi
"The site is charged with controlling the flow of electricity to 18 million people in eastern and northern Germany. Today the screens show 28% of that flow coming from wind farms and 24% from solar panels. A decade ago the custodians of the grids which keep the rich world’s lights on would have told you this was impossible." Economist
Sompo, one of the top three Japanese non-life insurers, has become the first Asian insurer to rule out insurance and investment in companies involved in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sompo has also committed to rule out underwriting and investment in coal companies without transition plans by 2025. Insure our Future
The Catholic Theological Society of America, the world's largest organization of theologians, just announced it's divesting its financial funds from fossil fuels, a move great in moral weight and one backers hope is rich with potential to inspire similar actions at its members' institutions. NCR
In the United States, heavy duty transportation, one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize, suddenly looks like it's going to makes the transition towards zero emission vehicles in years, not decades. In the next few months, the country's fleet of HD ZEVs will increase 45 fold.
And finally...
"By 2040, every new passenger car sold in the world will be electric."
Who said it? You guessed it, renowned environmentalist, Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil. CNBC
Indistinguishable from magic
Slowly but surely the proportion of the global ocean floor that's been properly mapped is rising. It's now up to just under a quarter of the total area under water - at 23.4%. Around 10 million km2 of new depth data has been added in the past year. That's an area broadly equivalent to the land surface of Europe. BBC
The world's largest battery maker has unveiled its highly anticipated Qilin Battery (named after a legendary creature in Chinese mythology) with an energy density of 255 Wh/kg, allowing for 80% charge in 10 minutes, and easily achieving a range of 1,000 km. The battery will start mass production in 2023. The Driven
Samsung has started mass producing 3 nanometre chips in South Korea, the first manufacturer to reach this milestone. The new chips allow a 16% decrease in surface area, 23% higher performance and 45% lower power consumption compared with 5-nm chips. A little perspective: one nanometer is about the width of two silicon atoms. Verge
Also - the world's first computer chip that transmits data via sound waves rather than electrons.
Chinese researchers have successfully implanted a sensor into a goat's brain through a vein, without any invasive surgery. “This approach is completely a new way of capturing brain electrical signals." Elsewhere, the country's space program has a new brain-computer interface that's 99% accurate, technology they hope will allow astronauts to control robotic equipment with brainwaves. SCMP
Welcome to a brave new world of epigenetic editing. Geneticists in Chicago have managed to eliminate the suppression of a gene called Arc that modulates brain plasticity in the amygdalas of rodents. This is very new - and pretty extraordinary. The lead researcher described it as a 'factory reset' for the brain. Wired
The information superhighway
In February this year, a ship set out from Mauritius into the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. Its mission? To deliver a group of visitors to the Chagos archipelago, under their own flag, for the first time since the British government forcibly cleared the islands of their 2,000 inhabitants in 1966. This is the story of their homecoming. Atlantic
Have you ever heard about the Caminho de Peabiru? It's a a 4,000 kilometre, 10,000 year old network of pathways connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, made over millennia by South America's indigenous people. "In broad terms, we can say that the path followed the movement of the setting and rising sun." BBC
It's time to start thinking differently about plants. Our biological classifications, far from being scientific, are still strongly influenced by theology and dominated by two ideas: the supremacy of the human race and the world as a place humans must bend to their will. The ranking system that puts humankind at the top, animals in the middle, and plants way down at the bottom is outdated. Nautilus
We'll read anything smart about the singular phenomenon that is Steph Curry - especially in the wake of his elusive NBA Finals MVP honor. Extra bonus points here though for a history scholar who manages to map the NBA against Marxist dialectics while still delivering an emotionally honest depiction of sports fandom. N+1
Happy 25th anniversary to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever. First devised in the 1970s by a world-famous astronomer and a former creative director at NASA, it was a 'lightning-in-a-bottle project', the kind of thing big movie studios barely made before and will probably never make again: intellectually challenging, emotionally messy, and heavy with metaphor. Vulture
We used to do that. We used to make movies that were resonant and were entertaining.
Humankind
The right to choose
Meet Merle Hoffman, a 76 year old healthcare pioneer in New York and founder of Choices Women’s Medical Centre, one of the first abortion clinics in the country. For over half a century, she has led a global crusade to establish women’s healthcare and fight for their reproductive rights.
Merle was born in Philadelphia and raised in New York City as an only child, with ambitions of becoming a concert pianist. After studying in Paris, she returned to New York disillusioned by the hermetic life of a classical musician and settled on graduate school in psychology. Merle worked three jobs to support herself, one of which was in the office of a progressive doctor, who, when abortion was legalised in New York in 1970, opened a clinic in Flushing and asked her to run it.
The opportunity was not an obvious career choice, but it was the clinic’s first patient who ignited Merle’s calling. “Her name was Helen, and she was from New Jersey. She was white, Catholic, married with three children and just couldn’t afford another.” Merle held Helen’s hand during the abortion and stayed with her in the recovery room, where it dawned on her how much these women needed emotional support in addition to the physical procedure. With no existing protocols for counselling post-abortion, Merle set out to create her own.
In 1971, Merle founded the Flushing Women’s Medical Centre, one of the first health facilities in the country to specialise in abortion services and support. Leaving no detail of the patient experience to chance, Merle reimagined every touch point from recovery counselling to how the receptionist answered the phone. As the clinic slowly expanded its operations, Merle expanded her mission.
In the early seventies, there was no such thing as ‘women’s health’. Although women were the instigators of doctor’s appointments and check-ups for their family there was no discipline around the reality of women’s cycles. In response to standard medical practices of the day, Merle developed a philosophy of ‘patient power’ to ensure women became informed consumers of healthcare through education and acess to correct, unbiased information.
In 1975, Merle initiated New York’s first Women’s Health Forum and in the following decades transformed her small medical centre into CHOICES, one of America’s largest and most comprehensive women's medical facilities, offering full reproductive health from obstetrics and gynaecology to primary care.
Over her 50 year mission Merle has revolutionised the rights of breast cancer patients and established CHOICES East, the first feminist outpatient medical centre in Russia. Her activism was sparked the moment she held the hand of that first patient, and continues to be fuelled by each and every woman she serves.
“I am certain all the women who have had abortions over the centuries were not lost souls; and that the war to stop abortions will not end in my lifetime. I continue my work with a deep knowledge that I have been given the gift to be part of this great struggle for women’s freedom.”
That's all for this week, thanks for reading! We'll see you next week.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the team
