207: Universal Acts of Kindness

Good news you probably didn't hear about

Respiratory diseases are the third-biggest cause of death worldwide, after heart disease and cancer. So it's good news that a new study in The Lancet shows that globally, the age-standardised death rate due to chronic respiratory diseases fell by 41.7% between 1990 to 2019, and prevalence fell by 16.9% during the same period. Although the pandemic has set back some of this progress, it's still an extraordinary achievement.

Have you ever heard of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India? We hadn't either, and were pretty impressed to discover that since being started by Dr Gullapalli Rao in 1987, it's served 16 million people free of cost, in over 12,000 villages across India, and trained almost 60,000 healthcare professionals. Siasat

Cigarette smoking in the United States dropped to another all-time low last year, with the percentage of adult smokers falling to 11%, down from around 12.5% in 2020 and 2021. A bit of historical context: in the 1960s, 42% of US adults were smokers. AP

Last week, Nebraska protected the right to abortion in a solidly Republican state, five female state senators in South Carolina defeated a similarly restrictive piece of legislation, and Minnesota passed three bills in a single day that preserve reproductive freedom, ban conversion therapy, and make the state a refuge for transgender people.

Abortion laws, each and every one of them, have been about control. It’s always about control, plain and simple. And in the Senate, the males all have control. We, the women, have not asked for... nor do we want your protection. We don’t need it. There is not a single thing I can do when women such as me are insulted except make sure that you get an earful.
South Carolina Republican Senator, Sandy Senn

China’s once-smog-choked skies are steadily improving, according to measurements taken by NASA. The speed at which China has done this is unprecedented, with average exposure to fine particulate matter falling by almost half since 2013, mostly as a result of stricter controls on industrial emissions. Nature

Bangladesh's clothing industry has been completely transformed thanks to labour laws passed after the Rana Plaza tragedy ten years ago. Over 80% of factories are now compliant with international safety standards. “It has undoubtedly saved thousands of lives, through ensuring repairs and renovations at more than 1,600 factories that employ two and a half million garment workers.” Al Jazeera

Yes, everything in France is awful, apart from the fact that it has one of the lowest levels of inequality in the world, devotes a higher percentage of GDP to redistributing market inequalities than any of its wealthy peers, is near the top for average life expectancy, its workers retire earlier than anyone else in Europe (with the lowest rate of poverty), and unemployment is at its lowest in a generation.

An estimated 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, according to a new report by UNICEF. That's a shocking statistic, but things are getting better. Today, one in five young women aged 20 to 24 years were married as children, versus nearly one in four a decade ago. Progress has been particularly strong in India, the country with the most child brides in the world.

Good news for the American economy. Immigration is back after a multi-year period of decline due to Trump-era policies and the pandemic. Over the past two and a half years, immigration into the US labour market has increased by four million workers. More than 900,000 immigrants became citizens last year, the third-highest on record and the most in any year since 2008. FT

The Australian Institute of Criminology says Australia’s murder rate has fallen by 55% since the early 1990s, despite a small blip during COVID. Overall crime rates are declining too: physical assaults are down by 39% compared to 2009, face-to-face threatened assaults are down 44%, and robberies are down 50%. The Conversation

The World Bank just completed a huge, six-year education project in rural Argentina, enrolling a million students and building or refurbishing 183 rural schools. The result? Primary-education repeat rates decreased by almost 50%, transition rates to high school increased from 74% to 80%, and high school completion rates increased from 63.3% to 74.1%.

A new international study looking at human behaviour in multiple cultures has shown that small acts of kindness are frequent and universal. People make small requests for help from others every few minutes, and these are granted seven times more often than declined, and six times more often than they are ignored. Science Daily

When we zoom in on the micro level of social interaction, cultural difference mostly goes away, and our species' tendency to give help when needed becomes universally visible.
Giovanni Rossi, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UCLA

Remember last week's story about the decriminalization of homosexuality in the Cook Islands? Well, here are the people who made it happen.

The only home we've ever known

Environmental groups in Canada are celebrating after forcing Chevron to relinquish 19 offshore exploration permits granted 50 years ago within one of the country's most diverse marine ecosystems. The victory protects globally-unique glass sponge reefs and critical seabird habitats. Eco Justice

Bolivia has created a new 43,868-hectare conservation area called the Mayaya de Teoponte in La Paz, connecting Indigenous territories to the north and a conservation area in the southeast. Most of it has been designated as integrated, meaning conservation and sustainable development must go hand-in-hand in its future management.

The British government just announced new funding for over 80 conservation projects around the world. The projects, ranging from snow leopard conservation in Kyrgyzstan to beekeeping in Ghana and watershed protection in Bolivia, are aimed at boosting international biodiversity, supporting the communities that live alongside nature, and tackling the illegal wildlife trade.

The winners of this year's Goldman Prize (the 'Green Nobel') were recently announced, and if you're looking for some inspiration, then you should really spend a few minutes exploring the stories of these six incredible eco-warriors.

• Alessandra Munduruku, who saved indigenous lands in the Amazon from mining
• Chilekwa Mumba, who successfully sued the owners of a copper mine in Zambia
• Delima Silalahi, who reclaimed swathes of Indonesia from a paper company
• Zafer Kizilkaya, who expanded Turkey’s marine protected areas
• Tero Mustonen, who pioneered peatland restoration in Finland
• Diane Wilson, who held a plastics company to account for dumping in Texas

Brazil's Lula has delivered on one of his campaign promises by officially recognizing six Indigenous reservations last week. One of those territories is the land that Goldman Prize winner Alessandra Munduruku and her community have been working to get formally recognized for decades. Amazon Watch

In what scientists are calling the largest-ever wildlife reintroduction, over 5,000 Polynesian tree snails have been reintroduced in Tahiti over the last month. The species is endemic to the island but was eaten to extinction by invasive snails. With its predators under control, the snail is now being reintroduced as part of a joint effort by international zoos. Smithsonian

Some great local US conservation victories sent in to us from readers. Amber Benbow shared that the Board of Soil and Water Resources in Minnesota has protected 7,000 acres and over 80 km of the Mississippi's headwaters since 2016, and Elizabeth Dunham says local groups in Michigan have managed to stop a military lease on 162,000 acres of state forest near an important watershed.  

In the late 1980s, fishers across Japan started planting trees in coastal watersheds in order to protect their fishing grounds, an act simultaneously rooted in tradition and informed by new science.  It worked–these 'fish forests' have contributed to a notable increase in the populations of vulnerable coastal fish species. Mongabay

A bill in New Zealand that was passed in 2021 to ban the export of live animals overseas went into effect last week. On April 30th, the last live animal export by sea departed from New Plymouth, in a move that will prevent the suffering of millions. World Animal News

A plastic bag ban in Philadelphia that went into effect on 1st July 2021 has prevented 200 million plastic bags from being used, the equivalent to filling City Hall every eight months. 'The ban had a huge, very positive impact. Municipalities all over Pennsylvania are now following Philadelphia and implementing their own plastic bag bans.' Inquirer

One of Canada’s most prominent conservation groups has reached a deal to buy Batchawana Island, the largest privately-owned island on Lake Superior. The  2,100-hectare island is home to several significant animal and tree species. 'We can say they get to stay that way forever.' Global News

Happy 50th anniversary to one of the great conservation success stories of the 20th century, Project Puffin. In 1973, biologist Steve Kress and the Audubon Society began the world’s first restoration of a seabird to an island where humans had killed it off. Today, there are more than 1,300 breeding pairs. Down East

Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it

If you're looking for an idea of where things are heading in energy, then this report from the Rocky Mountain Institute will help–only five charts, and not too many numbers. 'By the end of the decade the clean tap will be on full and the dirty tap will be drying up. Heat pumps, EVs, solar, and wind will all be near the top of their sales S-curves.'

More than 550 GW of offshore wind capacity was added to the global pipeline in 2022, bringing the cumulative total to 1,250 GW. That's more than all of China's combined coal capacity (the largest source of carbon pollution in the world). It means the financing is locked in now–the next trick is to get it all built. Renew.Biz

Which clean energy sector will take the next big bite out of global energy demand after power and transportation? Michael Liebreich (who generally gets these things right) says it's heat pumps–the closest thing we have to a silver bullet in the fight against emissions, and the next half-trillion-dollar investment opportunity. BNEF

In our research notes this week, we had this one labelled as 'China turns on stuff in the desert.' Specifically, it just switched on its first mega-solar project on the edge of the Gobi, connected via its first ultra-high-voltage line, and capable of powering 1.5 million households. A further 100 GW of solar and wind is planned for arid areas in 19 provinces. IE

Lazard recently unveiled its annual report, widely regarded as the industry standard for the average cost of energy technologies around the world. While most of the attention has been focused on the continually decreasing costs of wind, solar and storage, many will have missed the amazing news that geothermal is now cheaper than new coal, and competitive with gas.

The first three months of 2023 were absolutely brutal for coal in the United States. Electricity generation from burning black rocks was down more than 25% compared to the same period last year. This record low pushed coal’s market share below 17%, versus more than 22% during the first three months of 2022. IEEFA

Earlier this week, New York passed its budget, forming a blueprint for state-level clean energy transitions around the United States. Highlights include a ban on new fossil gas in homes and buildings from 2026 and a phaseout of fossil gas for the country's largest state-owned utility by 2030. Here's the whole thing–it's one of the most progressive state budgets in US history.

The Dutch government says it will spend €28 billion by 2030 to meet its climate goals. A range of measures has been announced to drastically reduce carbon emissions, ranging from building large offshore solar farms to raising taxes for polluting industries. 'The Netherlands has for years missed its climate goals. Now it's time for a great leap forward.' Euro News

Canada just gave its answer to the Inflation Reduction Act–a 30% tax write-off for any renewable technologies deployed before 2034, positioning Canada as the second-most attractive place in the world for renewables developers (behind only yes, the United States). Did somebody just say 'industrial policy?' Rystad

We generally avoid reporting on battery breakthroughs–so many fail to make the leap to commercial viability–but this is different, because it comes from the world’s largest battery manufacturer. CATL just announced a new battery with a density of 500 Wh/kg, almost double that of Tesla’s cells. It goes into mass production later this year. Gamechanger. The Driven

Electric flight starts to get interesting once you hit 400Wh/kg

Chief Twit

Speaking of batteries, anyone else think it's newsworthy that we are now getting announcements about the construction of batteries big enough to power entire cities? Oregon’s largest electric utility recently announced a pair of new projects big enough to power all of the homes it serves in Portland. Politico

It looks like the company that transformed the global automotive industry with the invention of lean manufacturing has finally given in. Toyota has a new CEO, and in his first appearance to the press, he announced they will release 10 new electric models by 2026 and aim to sell 1.5 million EVs a year. 'We must first do what we can and start by electrifying.' Bloomberg

People are still underestimating the growth of electric vehicles in China. Plug-ins hit 34% market share in March and are on track to hit 40% by the middle of this year. A reminder that in 2020, their market share was 5%. Nobody in the world predicted the transition would happen this quickly. Clean Technica

Things are about to get even crazier with the introduction of China's first real electric car for the people (take that, Volkswagen). We're covering this for the second week in a row because we think it's such big news. 'When BYD unwrapped its Seagull battery electric city car in Shanghai last week, it may have marked an inflection point in the EV revolution.' Clean Technica

Indistinguishable from magic

Do yourself a favour and watch this animation by NASA about the size of black holes, which we promise will break your brain a little bit. In just over 90 seconds, you'll get a tour of ten black holes of increasing size, ranging from the one at the centre of the Milky Way to TON618 (which is now seared into our memories forever). IE

British scientists have built a system able to transport information from one quantum chip to another with a reliability of 99.999993%. It's a key step towards building a useful quantum computer, demonstrating enough stability and speed to connect thumbnail-sized chips together in order to get a result the size of a dinner plate. BBC

In a ravine in Chile about 800 km south of Santiago, a giant cypress tree known as the Alerce Milenario or Gran Abuelo (great-grandfather) is in the process of being recognized as the oldest living thing on Planet Earth. It's believed to be more than 5,000 years old, seeded around the time that human beings were inventing writing. Science Alert

Here's one for both the solarpunk and robotics nerds. A startup in California just unveiled RPD 35, a huge autonomous construction robot that accelerates an important part of building a utility-scale solar farm: installing solar piles. A two-person crew working with this robot can install up to 300 piles per day, 3-5 times faster than what is currently possible. Built Robotics

You can't move around these days without bumping into people claiming to be experts in Large Language Models, the technology behind ChatGPT. We're here to help. Please feel free to ignore all those new LinkedIn influencers now, because this is the best explanation you're going to get, from Cal Newport (the slow work guy). New Yorker

The first babies conceived with a sperm-injecting robot have been born. For traditional IVF, trained embryologists delicately handle sperm and eggs using ultra-thin hollow needles under a microscope. However, a startup, Overture Life, says that it has now managed to automate this process, and that two baby girls have been born after robot fertilization. MIT Tech Review

For the first time, scientists have observed a surge of energetic activity in the brains of dying patients, a discovery that reveals that our brains can be active even as our hearts stop beating. It's a biological paradox that challenges current understandings of near-death consciousness, which until now was widely believed to be non-functioning. Vice

Three big cultured food stories this week. At MIT, scientists say they've made a big breakthrough in creating lab-grown fat, in Israel regulators just gave their first approval for a company making non-animal milk, and in a world-first, another company has created a grouper fillet from cells grown in a lab and then 3D printed into a natural, fishy, shape.

The information highway is still super

There's a really famous mountain biking trail in Moab, Utah, called the Whole Enchilada, that plunges about 2,400 metres over 43 km amongst red-rock canyons near the Colorado River. Thousands of people attempt it every year, but nobody has ever gone up it, or for that matter, even considered it. Until now. Here's the story of that ride, arguably the greatest-ever feat of uphill mountain biking–and here's the documentary.

War reporter Tim Mak has been in Ukraine since the first shots were fired, covering the conflict for NPR. He was recently laid off, but instead of heading home, has decided to stay and start a newsletter called the Counteroffensive. His plan is to do war correspondence in its historic form, writing letters back home. 'I want to write deeply reported human interest stories that humanize events that people do turn away quite easily from.' Slate

A wonderful essay from science journalist and musician Claire Evans on the difference between growth and scale. Nature shows us the way. Growth is a process of entanglement and mutual transformation; nothing living expands without changing in some way. By contrast, what the business world calls scalability is the capacity to expand without change, like a fractal (or a fast food franchise). We cannot recommend this enough. Grow

Speaking of dichotomies... writer Sophie Haigney says creating them is her favourite game. Her new favourite is: thunder or lightning? (and that's just the start). 'We are always being asked, often appropriately, to recognize nuance, to see that people have many different sides and qualities. Okay, fine, obviously. But sometimes I just want to know something solid about the way certain people are in the world, even if it is essentially meaningless, like whether someone is wood or glass.' Paris Review

Humankind

Hiking in Heels

Meet Pattie Gonia, a 31-year-old environmentalist drag queen from Nebraska who wants to build a more inclusive climate movement and reclaim the outdoors for everyone.

When she’s not serving up Mother-Nature vibes in her signature stiletto boots, Pattie is known as Wyn Wiley, an outdoors enthusiast and photographer who grew up performing Cats in his grandma’s cornfields. By middle school, Wyn’s relationship with the outdoors changed, as Boy Scout survival challenges and races to the peak forced him to turn down the volume on his outdoor musicals and the person he was longing to be.

Although Wyn’s sexuality was generally accepted by family and friends, it always felt conditional. When photos from his first drag performance got back to his local community, he was cancelled by clients and friends. His high-heeled boots were pushed to the back of his closet, where they remained until 2018, when he was preparing for a backpacking trip in Colorado and thought, 'What if I just pack these boots into this backpack?'

Pattie was born on a mountain summit during that hike. Wyn pulled on the boots and, strutting around the wilderness, reconnected to the joy of his early cornfield performances. He captured the moment with photos and videos, which he posted to Instagram when he got home. He woke up the next day to 11 million views.

After years of running to metropolitan environments for safety, Wyn knew his mission was to honour drag’s original roots of social justice and inspire the queer community to reclaim the outdoors.

Today Pattie has more than 520,000 followers on Instagram and uses her platform to challenge conventions of what a climate activist and outdoorsperson looks like. She has co-founded The Outdoorist Oath, a non-profit that connects marginalized groups, such as BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people, back to nature through hikes and outdoor gatherings and has created a job board to help queer people secure safe work in the outdoors industry and climate movement.

'Everyone has a pair of boots to put on, no matter what they are. And everyone has a beautiful life to live if they can be their truest selves.'

That's it for this week, please join us next week for our 100th (and final) Humankind story, it's a good one. We'll see you then.

Much love,

Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team