Good News
The UK is halfway to getting to zero-carbon by 2050 thanks to a record-breaking 11% drop in emissions in 2020. The country is also taking the global lead on per capita emissions, registering two-thirds less than the US and 40% less than China. Even accounting for the export of a large chunk of those emissions, this is pretty incredible considering it's where the industrial revolution began in the first place. Yale 360
In Latin America and the Caribbean, new cases of rabies have been reduced by 95% in humans and 98% in dogs since the 1980s. It's thanks to a long-term, regionally coordinated strategy that's included mass dog vaccination, timely access to PEP, and epidemiological surveillance backed by lab support and health education. Emerging Infectious Diseases
The African Development Bank has invested $6.3 billion into water supply and sanitation services across the continent in the last decade. As a result, an estimated 30 million people in urban areas and nearly 55 million people in rural areas have gained access to improved water and sanitation during that time period. AFDB
Michigan is now offering free college tuition to people over the age of 25 without a degree. An estimated 4.1 million residents are eligible for the program. The US state is also offering Futures for Frontliners, a free college education program for frontline workers who have provided essential services during the pandemic, and which already has 85,000 people enrolled. Detroit News
Data assembled from 25 of the biggest cities in the United States has shown that there was a significant drop in crime rates in 2020, with a 19% reduction in property and violent crimes and a staggering 65% drop in drug crimes. Researchers say that because many crimes depend on opportunity, fewer people on the streets meant less misconduct. Wired
Paris will spend the next ten years transforming the Champs-Élysées into a green space for pedestrians after a community-based proposal was greenlit by the government. Under the new plans, vehicle traffic will be reduced by half, while pedestrians will be able to enjoy wider sidewalks and more greenery in what the architects call 'planted 'living rooms.' CNN
In a historic win for environmental activists, fracking in the Delaware River Basin has been permanently banned to protect wildlife and the drinking water supply for 17 million people. The river basin, which spans New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, is a critical habitat for countless species, including native trout, American eels, and bald eagles and the ban has been heralded an important step in the country’s transition toward a more sustainable future. NRDC
A species of wild gazelle, once thought to be extinct, is thriving in the mountains of the Turkish-Syrian border thanks to the efforts of one Turkish scientist. After spotting his first mountain gazelle in 1998, Professor Yasar Ergun worked with local communities to set up a breeding sanctuary to protect the gazelles from hunting. The population has increased by 865 in the past 9 years. NYT
70 years after been declared extinct, cheetahs are returning to India. The world-first relocation program from Africa, which has been in the works since 2009, has finally been given the green light after the Kuno National Park met official requirements. The homecoming of the cheetah, the only mammal hunted to extinction in modern India, aims to amend the past by “restoring lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.” Indian Express
A group of farmers in the Sierra Madre, the longest mountain range in the Philippines, have banded together to successfully reforest over 229 hectares of land. The farmers played a crucial role in planting and maintaining the seedlings, often under arduous conditions. Their hard work paid off, with survival rates of 85% across the sites. “If it’s a greening program, if it’s a 'bringing back your forests' program, it’s not just planting. It has to take into consideration maintenance and nurturing.”
Indistinguishable from magic
File in between the entries for Harry Potter and HP Lovecraft. An online genealogy company is now offering an AI-powered service to re-animate old photos, bringing deceased loved ones back to life for a few seconds. The program uses pre-recorded driver videos of facial movements and applies them to the photo, creating an uncannily realistic effect. The Verge
You know in the movies when they go "Computer, enhance" and we're all sitting there thinking "that's ridiculous you can't do that." Well that's not true any more. Adobe has just released a new feature called Enhance Super Resolution that allows you to essentially select any part of a pixelated, low-res image and blow it up into super fine detail. Welcome to the future.
Suez Canal traffic jams getting you down? Check this out. Norway is starting construction on the world's first ship tunnel, designed to bypass the treacherous Stadhavet Sea. This thing is going to be an engineering marvel: 1.6 km long, and 40 metres wide, burrowing through an entire mountain. The NCA says the finished structure will be akin to "a large and long mountain hall." CNN
More construction news from Norway, where they've just finished building the world's largest freestanding timber skyscraper. Named Mjøstårnet, it's an 18-floor around 85 meters high and not only is it way more sustainable than its concrete and steel counterparts - it's beautiful. Honestly, go check out some of these pictures and get your architectural kicks in. Arch Daily
One of the secret weapons for New Zealand's winning America's Cup team was an AI bot that learned how to sail the boat in a computer program and then started racing the sailors. This is a great story about what's possible when you combine two really powerful technology trends - simulation and machine learning - with human skill and ingenuity. Freethink
Speaking of the America's Cup, we had to share this. Tane's dad, Roger, was out on a dinghy with a few friends in the Auckland harbour earlier this year, and saw Te Rehutai practicing in the distance. Naturally, they sailed over to watch, and were rewarded with this. Youtube
Information superhighway
Iris Schneider says ambivalence is underrated, and that what most people think of as a ‘wishy-washy’ emotion is in fact a sign of first-rate intelligence. If you're the kind of person that feels guilty for not being able to get off the fence, you may want to reconsider; your ambivalence reflects a more nuanced view of things that’s more in tune with the complexity and multifaceted nature of reality. Psyche
The surprisingly entertaining backstory of how Geoff Hinton, the godfather of deep learning, auctioned off his breakthrough on artificial intelligence to a consortium of tech companies in Nevada in 2012. File under 'eccentric professor toils in obscurity for years and then sells his unloved ideas for tens of millions of dollars." Wired
As global pressure to decarbonize ramps up, we're finally starting to see some decent analysis of the emergent field of green geopolitics. This excellent essay, from Cambridge's Helen Thompson, makes the obvious yet underappreciated point that a radical reduction of fossil fuels represents not just an energy and economic revolution, but also a geopolitical one. Engelsberg
Regular readers will know how excited we are about Xenobots, real, living lifeforms designed by code. This beautifully written article digs further into what happens when the formerly ironclad distinctions between life and technology become hopelessly fluid; when "synthetic organisms are released from the prison of simulation and given form, like pint-sized Pinocchios, in the flesh-and-blood world." Pioneer Works
Dolly Parton is having a moment in the United States, having ascended to the rarest of celebrity positions: national treasure. Tressie McMillan Cottom tries to understand why, and concludes that it's because she's one of the few living people that can survive projections of America’s soul without buckling beneath its contradictions. More Dolly than you ever knew you needed. Essaying
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading. Hope you're doing alright out there, and remember, in the words of the Queen herself, don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
We'll see you in a week, at which point there's a very good chance we'll have welcomed another new, tiny human to Planet Earth.
Much love,
FC HQ
