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.
After some decent downtime, and an unexpected outbreak of actual writing, normal service has resumed. Here's a reminder for our regular subscribers (and a primer for the new ones, hello!) that this is an 'anti-newspaper.' The first three sections contain news about human progress, the clean energy transition, and environmental restoration. As we said in our recent article, they're not intended to balance an imaginary scale, but rather to prove that death, doom and destruction aren't the only news stories out there - even if they are the only ones that make money.
The next section, named after Arthur C. Clarke's timeless koan, is where we get to geek out in public and share our excitement about the extraordinary leaps being made every day by scientists and engineers around the world. So often, the equivalent section in most publications is a poorly disguised advertisement for gadgets nobody needs, or unearned publicity for Silicon Valley tech bros who certainly don't need any more encouragement. Expect plenty of machine-learning, robotics, 3D-printing, physics, space stuff, genetics and biotech, without the hype.
In our opinion section we curate what we think is the best of the internet. Turns out that if you switch off social media, there's still an information superhighway out there, buried beneath the noise, and it's still awesome. A generation ago only an elite few got to hear what the world's smartest people were thinking; today those ideas are just a click away, and accessible to everyone. Not everything we choose here is rainbows and puppies - we prefer our opinions with a bit of bite, and make an effort to showcase ideas we don't always agree with. We think that's a much better way to make sense of the world.
The last section is arguably our favourite, and was inspired by the title and concept of Rutger Brennan's excellent book. Each week, we profile an ordinary human being you've probably never heard of, doing extraordinary things for people and the planet. Famous people, it seems, are famous for all the wrong reasons and this is our tiny way of trying to fix that. Celebrities blessed with good bone structure and great hair don't represent the best of humanity - the people in this section do.
So that's it! We know these newsletters are long and dense, so please always feel free leave them unopened in your inbox, skip sections and ignore absolutely everything we're saying, without a shred of guilt. The pace of modern life is insane and attention is a finite resource. We're so grateful to have you along for the ride, and if you ever want to say hi or tell us why we're wrong, just hit reply. We'll always respond.
Good news you probably didn't hear about
A new approach to combating malaria has managed to reduce deaths and illness in children by 70%. The trial, conducted in 6,000 children in Burkina Faso and Mali over 17 months, combined a new malaria vaccine with anti-malarial drugs given at a time of year when children are most vulnerable. BBC
48 million people in West Africa were vaccinated against yellow fever in 2020, a significant increase compared to 2019. This was despite a 6-month interruption due to the pandemic - a remarkable achievement made possible by thousands of healthcare workers who figured out a way to make the rollout safe. WHO
In the past two decades, almost every country in sub-Saharan Africa has made gains in female literacy. In 2000, the proportion of women who could read and write was around 46%; today, it's close to 60%. Even more encouragingly, the literacy rate for young women (15-24 yo) has soared to 72%, and is now just below their male peers. Borgen
Incarceration rates in the United States fell to a 24 year low in 2019 - and then plummeted again by 14% in 2020, to 1.8 million people. There are now half a million fewer people in prison in America compared to 13 years ago, thanks to largely unheralded changes in criminal laws, sentencing patterns and a decline in violent crimes. Vera
A state court in North Carolina has ruled that people who were previously incarcerated now have the right to vote. The decision, which takes immediate effect, stands to impact upwards of 55,000 people previously denied access to the franchise. Law & Crime
Earlier this year, we reported some good news on SDG7: over a billion people have gained access to electricity in the past decade. According to Bloomberg, while some of that was achieved by new power lines, a lot was also achieved by installing small solar systems designed to power villages, farms or single homes. To date, more than 180 million off-grid solar systems have been sold worldwide, and 420 million people now get their electricity from those systems.
There's been a welcome win for democracy in Zambia, with voters peacefully electing a new president for the third time in the country’s history. Despite fears of political unrest, opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema won in a landslide against President Edgar Lungu. All Africa
The US government authorized the PAWS ACT (Puppies Assisting Wounded Service members for Veterans Therapy) authorizing service dogs for veterans with PTSD. The dogs will learn how to shield a veteran from an overwhelming crowd or wake them up if they're having a nightmare. At the end of the program, the veteran trainers will be able adopt their canine pupils. NPR
Switzerland has pledged $12 billion over the next three years to reduce global poverty and increase peacekeeping measures. The ambitious plan will target the refugee crisis and work to stabilise conflict zones where people are forced to flee. Borgen
Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city has created a large network of “green corridors” across the city to offset rising temperatures. The shady walkways and bike lanes have reduced average temperatures in parts of the city by 2°C since they were built in 2018. Price tag? Just $16.3-million. Japan Times
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
Installations of renewable energy projects in the United States hit a new high in the first six months of 2021. Just over 9.9 GW of onshore and offshore wind, battery storage, and utility-scale solar capacity was added in the first half of the year, a 17% increase over the same period in 2020. Power Mag
The combined output of solar exceeded coal for the first time in Australia last weekend. It's an impressive milestone, especially considering that both the country's prime minister and its energy minister are actively working against a clean energy transition. Renew Economy
Norway's sovereign wealth fund - the largest in the world, with over $1.3 trillion in assets, including 1.4% of the world's stocks and shares - just added a new set of environmental criteria to its investment standards, putting serious pressure on natural resource extraction companies, including several of Russia’s energy giants. Barent Observer
The world's largest shipping company, Maersk, just spent $1.4 billion (yes, that's 'billion') on eight new vessels that will be able to run on carbon-neutral fuel. That price tag is 10-15% more expensive than usual, suggesting the company is serious about its carbon neutrality efforts. Long way to go still, but this is an encouraging signal. Reuters
A joint project by Swedish steel company SSAB, state-owned utility Vattenfall, and mining company LKAB just delivered the world’s first batch of fossil-free steel. The economics don't work yet for this yet, but it's an important milestone on their way to the goal of commercial production in 2026. Forbes
Global EV sales are cranking. Around 2.65 million new cars were bought during the first half of 2021, an increase of 168% over 2020. This hyper-growth needs to be seen relative to a low base from the pandemic, but it's still super impressive. 6.3% of all cars sold globally so far this year have been battery or hybrid vehicles.
The only home we've ever known *
The US EPA has finally banned the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on food crops. This was supposed to happen in 2016, but Trump's EPA reversed the decision in one of its many acts of environmental and public health vandalism. It's a long overdue victory, coming after 14 years of pressure from environmental and labour groups. Conversation
Another Trump era ruling has been reversed, which allowed sand mining on beaches protected by the Coastal Barrier Resources Act. It's a crucial environmental victory that will keep pristine, undeveloped beaches intact, where they provide a home for coastal birds and a buffer against storm surges and rising seas. Audabon
Third time's the charm. A federal judge has thrown out Trump administration approvals, granted in late 2020, for a large planned oil project on Alaska’s North Slope, saying the process was flawed and didn’t include mitigation measures for wildlife. Guardian
Little by little, India is restoring its mangroves. After a century of losses, between 1987 and 2019, the country increased net mangrove cover by 93,000 ha, a rise of about 25%. It's one of the largest and most successful mangrove restoration efforts of all time. World Bank
One year after the Great American Outdoors Act was signed, more than $285 million in projects are underway across the national forest system in 40 states, with another 1,000 improvement projects — including campgrounds, trails and visitor centers — in the pipeline. Roll Call
Beijing, once known as one of the world's most polluted cities, recorded just ten days of heavy air pollution last year, a drop of nearly 80% since 2015. On good days, residents now speak of 'Beijing blue.' Last month, the city, which is home to 21 million people, recorded its best monthly air quality since records began. CNN
Kenya's Wildlife Service says that for the first time in 21 years, not a single rhinoceros was poached in the country’s national parks in 2020. The agency credits a new strategy that focuses on providing rangers with housing, equipment and support to be able to respond around the clock. VOA
Chinese officials have announced that they no longer consider giant pandas an endangered species. There are now 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild, thanks to a series of conservation initiatives in recent years. Those initiatives have also benefited other species: Siberian tigers, Asian elephants, and crested ibises are all seeing population increases too. NPR
The number of beavers in Scotland has more than doubled in the last three years. There are now over 1,000 wild animals in lakes and rivers across Scotland's southern Highlands. Hunted to extinction 400 years ago in the UK, they're now back thanks to illegal re-wilding efforts by environmental activists. BBC
Indistinguishable from magic
Two 3D-printed components have just been installed in a nuclear plant in Alabama. They're called channel fasteners, and they help circulate coolant in the reactor. Why does this matter? Because it means 3D-printed parts are now considered reliable enough for the ultimate 'cannot fail' system. ZME Science
Not strictly science, but too good to leave out. A group of hackers called the Belarus Cyber Partisans (yes!) have hit back at Belarus's surveillance state, successfully hacking almost every part of the repressive Lukashenko regime, and exposing evidence of crimes by police, cover-ups of COVID-19 mortality rates, and illegal orders to violently crack down on peaceful protests. MIT Tech Review
A biologist and an engineer have built a super-high resolution camera, powered by neural networks, that can diagnose multiple diseases in grape crops. The results are astounding - experiments that used to take an entire lab six months now take just one day. "It has revolutionized our science.” Cornell
Russian researchers have come up with an inexpensive way of visualizing blood flow in the brain. The method, which integrates optical microscopy and image processing, is so precise it can track the motion of a single cell blood cell — without the use of toxic dyeing agents or expensive genetic engineering. Eureka
Speaking of the brain - one of the biggest issues for brain surgeons is that the brain's blood vessels are too small for steerable catheters. To be useful, devices need to be less than a millimeter in diameter, and about 160 cm long, and physics has made that impossible, until now. Inspired by the design of insect legs and flagella, a team from California has come up with a device that allows them to steer the catheter in any direction. "This will make a significant difference in the way aneurysm surgery is conducted.' Medgadget
More biomimicry. South Korean engineers have built a robot chameleon that changes colours as it crawls, which doesn't sound that impressive - until you learn the skin is covered in 'thermochromic liquid crystals' connected to 'silver nanowires' that input data from sensors on the belly. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature. TechXplore
Information superhighway
There are a few people on the internet whose work we will always link to when they publish something new (Dan Wang and Laurie Penny come to mind). Debbie Chachra is on that list too - her latest effort is called "Care at Scale" and takes on the concept of human infrastructure. Nobody does this kind of thing better. Save it for when you've got a fresh brain and plenty of time.
Irish academic and journalist John Naughton sends out a daily email best described as 'bits and bobs from the internet' and it's one of the best things in our inbox right now. Each edition includes a musical alternative to the morning’s radio news, a suggested long read, and invariably, some nugget of wisdom. Memex 1.1
This profile of Leila Strickland and Michelle Egger, the co-founders of lab-grown breast milk startup BIOMILQ, is fantastic. Everything you need to know about the miracle of human breastmilk, how close we are to recreating it, and all of the benefits, and cultural challenges, that such a breakthrough will bring. Grow
Charlie Warzel says it's time to stop scrolling for more COVID news. We're all feeling anxious and powerless, and so it's natural to search for more information, but the reality is nobody can give us certainty right now. We already know what the right thing to do is - scrolling is just our way of looking for excuses.
Kelsey Piper makes a pretty convincing case here against Jason Hickel and the rest of the de-growth gang. "What accounts for its seemingly growing popularity? This was a question that puzzled me until I heard the same answer from one degrowth advocate and one opponent: that it’s not, really, exactly about climate." Vox
Just about the most unlikely collaboration we can think of, but somehow it works. Trip hop legends Massive Attack, soulful Atlanta post-punkers Algiers, and um, former Executive Secretary of the UNFCC, Christina Figueres. Pair this with a bit of Kim Stanley Robinson in the FT. Youtube
Humankind
The Saint of Staten Island
Meet Elissa Montanti, a 68 year old woman from Staten Island, New York, who has dedicated the past two decades of her life to helping children injured in war and disaster zones around the world access life-changing medical treatment in America.
Elissa’s mission began in 1997. Following the tragic deaths of her mother, childhood sweetheart and grandmother in quick succession, Elissa suffered paralysing anxiety. When a friend asked her to help with a fundraiser for children in Bosnia, Elissa decided it was time to reconnect with the world and began collecting toys and school supplies. Not one to do things by halves, Elissa scheduled a meeting with Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations to find out how she could do more. This meeting changed the course of her life
When the ambassador shared a letter from a young Bosnian boy named Kenan, begging for help to replace the three lost limbs he’d lost to a landmine, Elissa knew she’d found her purpose. "In that moment, something changed. I left the United Nations and started making phone calls. In 24 hours, I had an airline, hospital and prosthetic company set up to help him." Within two months, Kenan and his mother landed in New York for surgery and prosthetics, and lived with Elissa in her one-bedroom condo while he recovered.
After this experience, Elissa flew to Bosnia to find other children to help. “I fell in love with the kids. The anxiety wasn't gone, but my desire to help them was much greater." With an uncanny skill for rallying support, Elissa returned home and launched the Global Medical Relief Fund from her walk-in closet. Over the past 20 years, she’s helped more than 400 children from 50 countries travel to America for medical care. She's created an expansive network of charitable doctors and volunteers and founded the ‘Dare to Dream House’, a residence for children and their guardians to live during treatment.
Today, against all odds, including a global pandemic, Elissa continues to give young amputees, burn survivors and victims of war and violent crimes, hope for a future that they would otherwise not have access to.
The impact of the medical treatment is monumental. We're empowering them because we're giving them back what they lost. We're giving them a chance to stand on their own, walk, write, go to school and to contribute to society.
That's it for this edition, nice to be back! We'll see you next week.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team
