Plus, fancy machines (and ghosts in machines), a cure for joyless urgency, and good news on women's rights in Somalia, drug legalization in Thailand, a clean energy transition in Spain, and waterway protections in the US.
Good news you probably didn't hear about
India and China are hitting new records on daily vaccinations. On Monday, India administered over 10 million doses in a single day, and then followed up on Tuesday with over 12 million. Meanwhile, China is averaging 20 million people per day - a rate that would vaccinate the entire population of the UK in little more than six days.
A collective housing project in Thailand is empowering underprivileged communities by forming co-operatives to negotiate land deals. More than 130,000 households have benefited, and funding for another 1.2 million houses has been made available, including free units for single mums and the elderly. Reuters
Following the legalisation of the drug “Kratom” in Thailand, over 10,000 offenders have been released from prison and their criminal records wiped clean. Kratom leaves contain Mitragynine, a substance that reduces pain and chronic symptoms of diabetes and high blood pressure. Pattaya Mail
China just banned written exams for six- and seven-year-olds, as part of sweeping education reforms aimed at relieving pressure in its hyper-competitive school system. Education officials are saying that pressure on pupils from a young age "harms their mental and physical health." China banned written homework for first- and second-graders earlier this year. France24
A major human rights victory in Somalia’s Puntland region, after the government approved a bill to outlaw female genital mutilation in a country where most girls are still forced to undergo the practice. The bill includes harsh penalties for hospitals, midwives, and traditional circumcisers who perform the barbaric practice. Reuters
The only home we've ever known
The world is officially rid of leaded petrol, after a refinery in Algeria used up the last stockpile in July. Most developed countries banned it in the 80s and 90s, but it took a 20 year campaign by the UN to get rid of it in Africa and the Middle East. It’s estimated elimination will prevent more than 1.2 million deaths annually. Quartz
A federal judge in Arizona has reintroduced protections for waterways and wetlands across the US, reversing the Trump Administration’s rollback of pollution controls. The move, spurred on by local tribes and environmental groups, will ensure clean drinking water for millions of Americans and safe habitat for thousands of wildlife species. WaPo
Africa’s largest tropical rainforest, Salonga National Park, has been removed from UNESCO’s list of threatened sites, following 20 years of sustained conservation work and anti-poaching measures. The park plays an important role in climate regulation and is also home to many vulnerable or endangered species, including bonobo monkeys, the bush elephant, and the Congo peacock. Newsweek
England has announced plans to ban single-use plastic cutlery, plates and polystyrene cups as part of the 'war on plastic,' joining Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the EU, who have all announced similar plans. Legislation is currently working its way through parliament, and is expected to come into force in 2023. BBC
Lake trout are reproducing again in Lake Erie, where native fish have long been considered extinct. Biologists and researchers have worked tirelessly over six decades to improve water quality and habitat in the area - this is a well-deserved reward for their efforts. Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has taken the snail darter off the endangered list. Originally declared endangered in 1975 because of dam construction, the small fish is no longer at risk after being transplanted to other rivers, where numbers are increasing. This too, is the culmination of decades of unsung work by conservation heroes. WaPo
It's cheaper to save the world than it is to ruin it
Three years ago, Spain's government signed an agreement with trade unions and energy companies to shut down its entire coal industry and begin a just transition. The last coal mine is now due to close in December, and coal consumption will end completely by 2030. "We expect that the next year is going to be greener, but it's always greener than we expect. This is exponential."ABC
Denmark and Costa Rica are creating an alliance of nations committed to ending both the consumption and production of gas and oil. It's modeled on the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which was formed in 2017 and now boasts 41 members. "This would mark a significant shift in global geopolitics on fossil fuels." Gizmodo
In 2019, the UK became the first country in the world to set a net zero emissions target. Three years later, over 70% of world emissions are now covered by net-zero legislation, have net-zero emissions legislation under discussion, or occur where net-zero is the policy position of the government. Things change slowly... then they change very fast. BNEF
Ali Allawi, the deputy prime minister and finance minister of Iraq, has made an unprecedented call to fellow oil producers to move away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy, ahead of a key OPEC meeting. "Renewable energy offers the ability to build a cleaner and more efficient electricity sector." Guardian
Vietnam's gotten the memo. Last year, rooftop solar went from 378 MW to 9.8 GW. The country now boasts the highest installed capacity of solar in Southeast Asia. In the last few months Vietnam has also scrapped plans for 9.5 GW of coal-fired power. None of this is an accident. It's due to well designed feed-in-tariffs, tax incentives and waivers of land leases. VN Express
The Australian government may be in complete denial about climate change, but investors aren't. Total assets under management by ethical investment funds in Australia leapt by 30% last year, and now account for 40 cents of every professionally managed dollar. Meanwhile, half of the top 100 listed companies have committed to net zero targets, up from a fifth a year ago. Reuters
The US Department of Energy just released three reports showing record growth in land-based wind (thanks in part to bigger turbines), a significant expansion of the pipeline for offshore wind, and faster than expected cost declines — laying the groundwork for a ramping up of decarbonization efforts. Clean Technica
Indistinguishable from magic
It's one of nature's most perfect shapes: large enough to incubate an embryo, small enough to exit the body, asymmetrical enough to not roll away, and strong enough to bear weight. Now, for the first time ever, a team of scientists from the UK and Ukraine have discovered a universal mathematical formula for.... The Egg.
...which would make it, surely (no idea how they missed this): the universal eggquation.
Did you know that Logan, a suburb in Brisbane, Australia, is the drone delivery capital of the world? Residents can order coffee, groceries, fast food and clothes. “Our drones fly at 110 km/h which means we deliver items in just a few minutes. In the last eight months, we’ve completed 50,000 deliveries." Brisbane Times
Scientists in Japan have created bio-printed wagyu beef. They extracted two types of cells from cows’ cheeks - satellite cells, to form the muscle, and adipose stem cells, to create the marbling. The final product is inedible, but the researchers think they'll have a version ready for the dinner table by the end of this year. Vice
Synthetic biologists in Missouri in the United States have created microbes that produce a protein called titin, one of the three major protein components of human muscle tissue. The proteins are then spun into fibers, producing a material that's tougher than Kevlar, used in bulletproof vests. Sci Tech
Introducing extreme ultraviolet lithography, a chip-making technique that fires lasers at tiny bits of tin 50,000 times a second to generate intense bursts of light, which pinball off mirrors to etch features a few dozen atoms wide onto silicon. Each machine costs $150 million, is the size of a bus, contains 100,000 parts and 2 km of cabling. Clever monkeys. Wired
Speaking of fancy machines, one of the most important scientific instruments ever made (and one of the most delayed) is finally ready for space. NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is currently being prepped for travel through the Panama Canal to French Guiana, where it will launch on an ESA Ariane 5 rocket. Fingers crossed! Can you tell we're excited yet? New Yorker
Information superhighway
We read a lot of articles about Afghanistan this week. This is our pick of the bunch, from historian Timothy Nunan. "The graveyard of empires narrative obscures as much as it illuminates. As a tour of the country's history shows, Afghanistan has long served as a mirror of the international community as it actually exists."
Meghan O’Gieblyn on her robot dog, and whether technology has a soul (this is so good). We understand our humanity through the process of differentiation, which is why we spent so long denying that animals can 'think'. We're doing the same with robots now, but as they get smarter and more intuitive, we're going to realize humans aren't so special, after all. Paris Review
Bill McKibben, arguably one of the most influential and important climate activists alive, just ditched his column at the New Yorker and has gone all in on a Substack newsletter. We've subscribed and you probably should too. Nobody else does good writing and serious, high-impact activism better. The Crucial Years
High culture - classical music, ballet, opera, the paintings you find in the Louvre - has long been seen in the West as an edifying influence. In this essay, Adam Kirsch argues that's all in the past now. Today, most people don't think about it at all, and that means it's time for high culture to stop regarding itself as mainstream, and start acting more rebellious. New Criterion
Oliver Burkeman's new book, Four Thousand Hours, is excellent and we cannot recommend it enough. The best way to describe it is as a time-unmanagement book, a pushback against the “joyless urgency” of our age. If a thing’s worth doing, it takes as long as it takes. This isn't time management, it's a life philosophy.
Humankind
The Accidental Conservationist
Meet Bala Amarasekaran, an accountant turned conservationist in Sierra Leone who founded the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary as part of his life’s work to protect the endangered Western Chimpanzee.
Conservation was never part of Bala’s plan. Born in Sri Lanka, he immigrated to Sierra Leone as a teenager, where he worked as an accountant for 15 years. Shortly after his wedding in 1985, Bala and his wife Sharmila were travelling through a rural village outside Freetown when they spotted a baby chimpanzee tied to a tree. Realising the young chimp needed medical help, Bala paid the owner $20 and without any wildlife experience, took the chimp home and nursed him back to health. One chimp soon led to another six as Bala and Sharmila became aware of other mistreated chimps around Freetown.
Unable to return captive chimps to the wild, Bala needed a permanent solution for his growing primate tribe and contacted Jane Goodall for help. While the logical answer was to relocate the chimps to a sanctuary in Zambia, Bala knew the issue needed to be resolved locally as Sierra Leone had the third largest population of chimps West Africa. With a little nudge from Goodall, Bala envisioned a “halfway house” for orphaned chimps within a safe yet semi-wild environment. In November 1995, on 100 acres of pristine forest outside Freetown, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary opened its doors.
Over the past three decades, Tacugama has survived many challenges, including a civil war, and flourished into a dynamic force in global conservation. From education programs to field research and eco-tourism, the sanctuary continues to rehabilitate malnourished and abandoned primates with over 100 chimpanzees now calling Tacugama home.
When he’s not on site, Bala works with local communities and governments to strengthen wildlife policy and was instrumental in promoting the chimpanzee as the official animal of Sierra Leone, a move that will ensure the long-term survival of chimps and their forest habitat. Driven by passion and accountability, it’s hard to believe Bala’s conservation mission began almost by accident.
If they looked for someone with the right capacity to run a chimp sanctuary, I would be in the back of the line. But if you look for someone who’s prepared to stay for the long haul and try to do something, then probably I would be at the front of the line.
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading. We'll see you next week. Hang in there, we know the news feels particularly bad right now.
Much love,
Gus, Amy and the rest of the FC team
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