Good News
Shell has joined BP in saying the world has reached peak oil. Europe's biggest oil producer quietly admitted in a recent statement that its total oil production peaked in 2019 and will now drop by 1 or 2 percent annually. It's the clearest signal yet from a major oil company that we've reached the beginning of the end of the fossil fuels era. NYT
Meanwhile... here's last Sunday's front page of the Houston Chronicle (this is the city that's been ground zero for Big Oil for decades). Change happens slowly, and then it happens, very, very quickly.
A long-standing tradition of slavery has been officially banned in Southern India. The custom, known as bitti chakri, has forced lower-caste groups into unpaid labour in upper-caste homes for centuries. It’s a big win for anti-slavery advocates, who have been campaigning on this issue for years. They’re not finished either, vowing to lobby government until they see real change inside communities and not just on paper. Reuters
More help, less handcuffs. The US city of Denver is reporting early success with a program that replaces armed police officers with healthcare workers for non-violent incidents. Since June 2020, a mental health clinician and a paramedic have responded to 748 calls without the need for police intervention or any arrests. Organisers are now working with other cities to export the model. Denverite
Some great news from our own backyard. A bill banning LGBTQI+ conversion therapy has passed Victoria's Upper House. That means it is now illegal to try to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity in our state. Following similar reforms around conversion therapy in Queensland and the ACT, it's another important step in the fight for tolerance and equality in Australia. ABC
It’s been two years since Canada legalized recreational cannabis, and one of the many positive benefits has been a drastic decrease in opioid prescriptions. A recent study compared prescriptions before and after legalization and found that average doses per person have fallen to less than 20% of their former levels. Imagine how powerful this is going to be when the US finally gets its act into gear? High Times
Amidst the flurry of executive orders signed by the Biden administration in the past few weeks, you might have missed this one. He's committed to an ambitious conservation goal, backed by science, to protect 30% of US land and coastal seas by 2030. With only 12% of land currently conserved, that will require protecting an area twice the state of Texas to reach the 30/30 target. Nat Geo
Europe is tackling its waste problem by legislating people’s right to repair the things they’ve bought. France is leading the charge, with a ‘repair index’, that will now appear on the labels of white goods and gadgets, graded on the ease of disassembly and spare parts. According to advocates, the movement has as much to do with altering mindsets as fixing gadgets. “Our philosophy is that something doesn’t belong to you if you can’t open it.” Next City
Mozambique has passed a powerful new fisheries law that extends protected status to dolphins, whale sharks, and manta rays, and makes it easier for communities living along the 2,700 km coastline to lead management initiatives. It comes off the back of news that the country’s largest marine conservation area cut illegal fishing by nearly half in 2020 compared with 2019. Mongabay
400 years after being wiped out by hunters, the UK's crane population has passed a crucial milestone on its road to recovery. 23 chicks were born last year, pushing the national population past 200. The birds returned to Norfolk in the 1970s under their own steam and are now in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Somerset thanks to the restoration of wetland habitats. “The return of cranes to the British landscape shows just how resilient nature can be when given the chance.” Guardian
Indistinguishable from magic
German engineers have developed a hydrogen paste that remains inert up to 250°C, and carries ten times the energy of a similar weight in lithium batteries. When you need to release the energy, the paste is injected into a chamber where it reacts with water to release hydrogen, which feeds a fuel cell. A 'paste-powered' vehicle would have a range comparable to or greater than one running on petrol. New Atlas
After 40 years of effort, researchers have finally succeeded in switching off KRAS-G12C, one of the most common cancer-causing genetic mutations in the human body. The finding promises to improve treatment for thousands of patients with lung and colorectal cancer, and may point the way to a new generation of drugs for other cancers, like pancreatic cancer, that still resist treatment. NYT
Body hackers have come up with an implantable device called a Brain E-Tattoo, a small patch that sits just above the ear and reads brainwaves. It's a 4 channel, micro EEG with graphene electrodes that transmits all data to the cloud, where AI performs continuous analysis, analyzing changes in the brain to indicate everything from impending epileptic seizures to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Digital Trends
Straight up sci-fi. Say hello to sound-beaming, a new technology from an Israeli company that generates a personal, 3D cone of sound that feels like it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them. No headphones required, which means it’s still possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly. Office workers can take calls without interrupting colleagues, gamers can play without disturbing their partner on the couch next to them. WRAL
Another Israeli company, just produced the world's first slaughter-free ribeye steak using 3D bioprinting. The four primary cells that make up meat — muscle tissue, fat, blood and support cells — create the 'ink' used to print the steak, and are then incubated on a plant-based matrix, creating a system similar to an animal’s vascular system, which allows cells to mature and nutrients to move across thicker tissue, resulting in the texture and qualities of a real steak. NY Post
In the most complete model of tectonic plate movements ever made, scientists have condensed a billion years of movement into a 40-second video clip showing that the Earth's surface is far from fixed. It's worth remembering that the theory of plate tectonics was only proved about 50 years ago. Until very recently, we had absolutely no idea that this phenomenon existed. Science Alert
Information superhighway
Techno-sociologist Genevieve Bell argues that if we want to tell new stories of technology and of the future, then it's time to move on from the machines of loving grace, and start focusing on the systems in which they reside. Includes a nice potted history of the idea of cybernetics (a moment in time when "the future of computing was clearly visible") and a long overdue nod to the technological prowess of indigenous cultures. Griffith Review
There's something going on with the world's brown bears, and a lot of it is really encouraging. Populations are on the rise, they're cross-breeding with polar bears to form new species, their diets are changing, and many are returning to their old habitats in North America and Europe. We didn't know any of this, it feels like a tiny but important piece of the Anthropocene puzzle. Hakai
Michael Lind slices and dices his way through the question of class in America and comes up with an interesting proposition - that for the first time ever, there is now a truly national ruling class in the United States, with new rules of admission and exclusion. Not sure we agree with the claim that woke speech functions as its primary signaling device, but everything else feels pretty bang on. Tablet
Lists, lists, lists! We've got three great ones for you. The first is Annalee Newitz's suggestions of podcasts for science geeks, the second is Noah Smith's top 30 recommendations for good sci-fi books, and the third is Postlight's roundup of 'pleasant internet things.' We're gutted we didn't crack the nod for that last one - not nearly nice enough, apparently.
In 2018, Polish madman Andrzej Bargiel skiied down K2, the scariest mountain in the world. Now there's a 12 minute mini-doco from Red Bull showing it in exquisite, 180 bpm, hyperventilating detail. Not sure how we missed this at the time, because it's absolutely insane, ranking up there with Alex Honnold's ascent of El Capitan as one of the most dangerous things ever done on a mountain. Youtube
Give a damn
Our newest charity partners are the Thin Green Line, an amazing organization that supports wildlife rangers and their communities. One of their many initiatives is something called the Ranger Box, which equips a 10-person anti-poaching patrol team in Africa or Asia with the basic equipment they need to operate effectively – uniforms, boots, communications equipment and shelter. These people are on the frontlines of conservation, putting their lives at risk on behalf of the living planet. They need the right tools for the job.
That's where you come in. Thanks to your generosity, we're sending the Thin Green Line A$6,000, to purchase six Ranger boxes. Over the next few months, ranger teams from around the world will start receiving the boxes, which are stocked with locally bought supplies to make sure the money is spent within local economies. We'll let you know once they start arriving, and pass on a few pictures of the teams with their new equipment.
A huge thanks to all of you, our paying subscribers, for making this possible.
Humankind
Meet Heba Rashed, the 40 year old founder of the Mersal Foundation. It's the first charity in Egypt to tackle discrimination in the country’s public healthcare system, by providing health services to underprivileged and marginalized people who would otherwise slip through the cracks.
For fifteen years Heba worked as a commercial linguist and project manager while volunteering at a local charity on the side. Disturbed by the gaps in public healthcare, Heba left the corporate world in 2015 to launch a non-governmental health care program with the help of two friends. Starting with a single donation of $1,300, Heba challenged the existing bureaucracy by using social media to source donations. Within five years her grassroots project has transformed into a foundation of 200 employees, five independent clinics, a medical hostel and a free cancer treatment centre.
When Egypt’s public health system struggled to cope with the COVID pandemic last year, Heba rallied her troops and quickly raised funds for sanitization products and medical supplies, as well as launching a 24 hour hotline that handled 60 to 70 coronavirus emergencies per day. With so many people unable to afford hospitalization, the Mersal Foundation became a lifeline for families, paying for beds in private hospitals and providing oxygen tanks to people in need.
Heba made BBC’s list of '100 Women of 2020' and true to her foundation’s slogan of “opening a new door of hope” she is determined to grow her network of doctors and hospitals and inspire a new culture of inclusive healthcare beyond Egypt and throughout the Arab world.
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading.
Something to think about before the next time we see you. If it's human nature to continue doing the same stupid things we've done in the past - waging war on ourselves and each other, abusing people because of what they believe, how they look, and who they love, or burning through nature's abundance without any regard for the future, then we are in big, big trouble.
But if it's human systems that do this - our institutions, processes, laws and rules, both explicit and implicit - well then we've got a chance. Modern civilization has never actually tried to exist sustainably on this planet, or to build societies that are truly inclusive, but the momentum for both of those changes is now building. Not everywhere of course, but in enough places that it's definitely not going away, and may eventually become irresistible.
The future is going to be more terrible and wonderful than any of us can possibly imagine. We don’t know what's going to happen, and that uncertainty inspires dread, but it also allows for the possibility of hope. Not for the imagined comforts of the past, which only worked for a few, but for the possibility of human flourishing for everyone, and space for nature to regenerate, even in unimaginable circumstances.
There are still plenty of reasons to hope.
We'll see you next week.
Much love,
FC HQ
