This is the members only edition of Future Crunch, a weekly roundup of good news, mind-blowing 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
The pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in Africa has been way too slow, but that's about to change, after the African Union announced it has pooled enough money with the Caribbean to secure 400 million doses of the J&J vaccine - enough to immunize a third of the continent by the end of this year. World Bank
Under India's flagship Jal Jeevan Mission, millions of people have gained access to clean water in the last two years. About 11.2 million, or 38% of all households in disease-vulnerable regions now have access to clean water, up from 2.9% in 2019, and another 11.8 million, 35% of the total, now have running tap water, up from 7.9% in 2019. HT
A massive collaborative effort by religious groups in America is providing newly arrived Afghani refugees with food, clothing, legal assistance and housing. “It’s incredible. It’s an interfaith effort that involved Catholic, Lutheran, Muslim, Jews, Episcopalians ... Hindus ... as well as nonfaith communities who just believe that maybe it’s not a matter of faith, but a matter of who we are as a nation.”AP
A big step forward for LGBTQIA+ rights in Israel after the government lifted restrictions on blood donations by gay men. It follows the United Kingdom and the United States, who have both eased similar restrictions over the past year. AP
For the first time ever, half of lawmakers in Mexico’s lower house of Congress are female, and women are set to lead nearly a quarter of the country's states after recent midterm elections. This follows an ambitious reform passed in 2019 for “gender parity in everything." MS
Mexico’s Supreme Court has made it legal for all citizens to choose what happens to their bodies, in a landmark decision to decriminalize abortion. It's a major human rights victory in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations, and a sign of changing attitudes across Latin America, following a similar move by Argentina earlier this year. BBC
“Today is a watershed in the history of the rights of women and pregnant people, and above all, the most vulnerable."
~ Chief Justice Arturo
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
A massive moment for the climate divestment movement, after Harvard, the richest university on earth, announced that it no longer has any direct investments in fossil fuel companies, and that its indirect investments through private equity funds would be allowed to lapse. Congratulations to the activists who fought for this for so many years.
Greece has historically been one of the most coal-reliant economies in Europe - in 2015, half of all energy was produced from lignite, the dirtiest form of coal. In a shift that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, lignite's share is now down to around 10%, and the country is on track to close its last coal plant by 2025. Money talks. SP Global
Officially, India has the second scariest coal pipeline on the planet: 33 GW under construction and 29 GW in pre-construction. In reality, most of that is a mirage. The plants under construction are destined to be stranded assets, there has been no movement in the 29 GW of pre-construction capacity, and no new coal-fired power plants announced at all in the last 12 months. IEEFA
Solar installations are booming in France. In 2021 the country has installed more solar than in any other year in history - and that's just from the first six months of the year. Although solar is still only 3.1% of total electricity consumption, this represents a new kind of growth the country has not experienced before. PV
New York's new governor, Kathy Hochul, just signed a bill into law that will require all passenger vehicles sold in the state to be emissions-free by 2035. The law makes New York the second state after California to announce a phase out date for greenhouse gas emissions in cars and light trucks. The Hill
Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer by volume, and the last big remaining holdout on EVs, is finally coming to the party. It just announced plans to spend $13.5 billion to develop batteries and an accompanying supply system, and will release 70 electric cars globally by 2025, including 15 fully-electric vehicles. Verge
That party is getting bigger all the time. Hyundai just announced it will not sell any more more combustion vehicles in Europe after 2035, and in the rest of the world after 2040. their CEO, Jaehoon Chang, is the latest in a long line of industrialists to suddenly develop a conscience. “Climate change is an undeniable challenge that requires the greatest and most urgent attention of all.” Electrive
The only home we've ever known *
A rare bit of good news from our own backyard - Western Australia has become the first Australian state to end native forest logging, with a ban effective from the start of 2024. The government will invest $350m to expand softwood timber plantations and $50m to support affected workers and communities. Guardian
A rewilding project in England that reclaimed 128,000 acres of industrial wasteland three decades ago has blossomed from a single tree into what's now known as the National Forest. The forest has created 5,000 new jobs and there are plans to create a new 25-acre wood to remember those who've died during the COVID-19 pandemic. Euro News
The population of four endangered tuna species - Atlantic bluefin, Southern bluefin, Albacore and Yellowfin - are all showing signs of recovery thanks to the enforcement of fishing quotas over the past decade. While all those populations are still critically endangered, it shows that regulation and enforcement is capable of turning the tide. Nat Geo
In a remarkable feat of eco-engineering, oysters are saving Kutubdia Island in Bangladesh from fast-rising seas. Marine scientists have worked with island locals for nine years to create oyster-encrusted reefs that buffer the coastline from waves and support marine life, pi0neering a new model that may transform coastline management around the world. BBC
Until ten or fifteen years ago, the vast majority of table eggs were produced in cage systems. Today, that's no longer the case. Thanks to animal activists and shifting consumer tastes, cage-free eggs now represent the majority of eggs produced in the UK, the EU and Australia. The Poultry Site
Indistinguishable from magic
The world's largest direct carbon capture plant just got switched on in Iceland. It's not even close to commercially viable, but that's not the point. Instead, consider that we have reached the point in the human story where we are building machines that suck in air, separate out CO2, and inject it deep into basaltic rock, where it crystallizes into a mineral, permanently storing it away. Extraordinary. Bloomberg
Researchers from Lithuania have developed a deep learning algorithm that can analyse brain scans and predict the possible onset of Alzheimer's with an accuracy of over 99%. The system can split scans according to severity, making it particularly useful in picking out signs of mild cognitive impairment, the intermediate step between normal ageing and Alzheimer's. KTU
Five days ago, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field ever created on Earth. The magnet is seen as the greatest technological hurdle to making fusion possible; its successful operation is a major milestone in the quest to build a device that can confine a plasma that produces more energy than it consumes. MIT
In the 1980s, scientists from California discovered a new genus of bacteria in the oceans of Bahama named Salinispora. After decades of experimentation, one of the bacteria's active compounds has led to a new drug that's now in the final months of phase 3 trials, and proving incredibly effective in curing glioblastoma, the most lethal of brain cancers. Smithsonian
A few years ago, filmmaker Steven Van Vuuren created a movie from the 7.5 million photographs taken by Cassini, as it flew between the rings of Saturn. We're so used to seeing this stuff in CGI that it's hard to fathom this is actual footage from a robot we sent into space. A timely reminder of the magic, and the wonder, that humans are capable of. Streamable
The information superhighway is still out there
One of our best finds of the last year has been the Librarian Shipwreck blog, which has been churning out some unforgettable long form essays. Their latest, on technological lessons from COVID-19, is characteristically excellent. "The pandemic made it clear how reliant we are on our digital technologies, and yet, powerfully suggests there are still some parts of life that can’t be lived digitally."
Nicholas P Money, a professor of biology, makes the case for fungal intelligence. A new body of research is showing that the fungi operate as individuals, engage in decision-making, are capable of learning, and possess short-term memory. That means we probably need to reconsider 'consciousness' across a spectrum that spans the entire natural world. Psyche
Have you heard of Dead Internet Theory yet? It's the idea that the internet ended in 2016 or early 2017, and is now empty of people, as well as entirely sterile. Almost all the content you see online is apparently now created using AI. This is a great conspiracy theory, because unlike others which are boring, stupid, or hateful, it actually kinda has a point. Atlantic
Vice just did a big feature on solarpunk, naturally, we're including it. Lots of real world examples, which is a welcome change, plus this fun little snippet. "In popular culture, a proto Solarpunk appeared in the Talking Heads’ 1988 hit Nothing But Flowers, on which David Byrne croons, 'This was a Pizza Hut / Now it’s all covered with daisies.'
Trivia nerd gold on the peculiar happenstances behind the European book form: snail-dye trading Phoenicians spread the alphabet, cheese leads to vellum and hard covers, cotton underwear leads to mass paper use, and spectacles are what created the book industry. Read and be amazed at the possibilities of the 240 character medium.
Humankind
The true power of Afghanistan
Meet Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the 31-year-old education activist and founder of Afghanistan’s only girl’s boarding school, who evacuated 250 students, staff, and family members to Rwanda, days after the Taliban seized power. Relocating an entire school community to another country is an extraordinary feat, but for Shabana there was no greater risk than a lack of education, not even terrorism.
Born in Kabul and raised in family where “education was prized, and daughters were treasured,” Shabana was six when the Taliban came to power and made it illegal for girls to attend school. Despite the risk, her parents enrolled Shabana in a network of secret classrooms to continue her education. For five years, she dressed as a boy and wrapped her textbooks in grocery bags to attend classes in tiny living rooms crammed with girls and teachers who willingly risked their lives for each lesson.
Shabana was often overwhelmed by her fear of the Taliban and begged her parents to stop sending her to class. It was her father who inspired her to keep fighting, telling her, “You can lose everything you own in your life. Your money can be stolen. But the one thing that will always remain with you is what is in here,” as he pointed to his head. After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Shabana got a scholarship to travel to America to finish high school and attend university.
In early 2008, inspired by the opportunities her education afforded her, Shabana founded the School of Leadership in Afghanistan, SOLA, which means ‘peace’ in the local Pashto language. What began as a programme to help other Afghan girls find scholarships in America evolved into a school for Afghanistan’s future changemakers, arming girls with 'critical thinking, a sense of purpose, and respect for self and others.'
SOLA opened its doors in 2016 to four Afghan girls in a rented house in Kabul. By 2021 the school had almost 100 students, grades 6-11, and a new campus was in the works when the country fell under Taliban rule once again. Although the school has been forced to relocate to Rwanda, Shabana’s heart remains in Afghanistan, determined to help the millions of girls left behind.
"As the world focuses on the dramatic -those Afghans who are managing to get out - the fire in me to invest in the education of Afghan girls who have no way out grows brighter, stronger, and louder."
We're all done, thanks for reading!
Charity partner coming next week, sorry for the slight delay - we're just working out a few of the final details before pressing go.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team
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