💡 Premium Supporter recap + fact-based optimistic news
🐝 Bee colonies are increasing significantly. ⚕️ Egypt has eradicated malaria. 🔋 The U.S. has installed batteries equivalent to 20 nuclear power plants. 🚭 Youth smoking at lowest level in 25 years.
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🤝 Progress is many small steps
The bad news is often dramatic and immediate. A plane crash, an invasion. Even the slower negative news can be dramatic, like starving children.
That's why we notice the bad news so much more (and because news media are terrible at reporting on the good things that happen.)
Progress isn't as dramatic and often plays out over several years. Progress is many small steps in the right direction. That's why we barely notice it. But that's also its strength. Despite a troubled world, millions of people continue to take these small steps every day. Together, it becomes a formidable force.
So I just want to take this opportunity to highlight three such things, which have required millions of small steps in the right direction:
- Egypt has eradicated malaria – after a hundred years of work (the infection has been present in the country since at least Tutankhamun's time.)
- Inflation is nearly conquered – globally, inflation is now approaching reasonable levels.
- Extreme poverty has returned to pre-pandemic levels – it took a pandemic to break the trend of declining poverty, but as soon as the pandemic calmed down, the trend resumed. This shows the primal force of many small steps of progress.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
🚭 Youth smoking at lowest level in 25 years
Only 8 percent of American teenagers use tobacco products, the lowest figure since 1999. E-cigarettes are the most used tobacco product with 5.9 percent of youth users.
✌️ Global fight against inflation nearing victory, according to IMF
IMF predicts global inflation will drop from 6.7 percent in 2023 to 4.3 percent in 2025. The inflation reduction has been achieved without a global recession, and the US economy continues to grow by 2.8 percent in 2024.
🔋 The U.S. has installed batteries equivalent to 20 nuclear power plants in four years
The US has installed batteries with a capacity of over 20 gigawatts to the power grid, of which 5 gigawatts were added during the first seven months of this year. The batteries have already proven effective in preventing power outages in states like California during intense heat waves.
⚡ New drilling technology from the oil industry provides fossil-free electricity around the clock
The cost of drilling geothermal wells has decreased by 80%. Cold water is pumped down four kilometers into the ground through a hockey stick-shaped borehole and heated to steam by the heat down there. The steam returns through a parallel borehole and drives turbines that produce electricity.
🐝 The number of bee colonies in the world is increasing significantly
Globally, the number of bee colonies has increased by 47 percent since 1990, from 69.2 million to 101.6 million colonies in 2021. There was initially a decrease during the 90s, but in the 2000s it has turned upward
⚕️ Egypt has eradicated malaria
The World Health Organization, WHO, has certified Egypt as malaria-free after nearly a hundred years of work against the disease. The disease has been present in the country for over 4000 years. Egypt is one of 44 countries that WHO has certified as malaria-free.
🎙️ AI talk or master class?
I'm giving a lot of talks and master classes on AI in several different countries. Happy to come to your organization.
Learn more at mathiassundin.org.
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