For the past six years two Australian researchers — Tane Hunter, a cancer scientist, and Angus Hervey, a political economist — have been collecting stories of human progress under the name Future Crunch. Even in these strangest of times they have found hundreds of good news stories from around the globe. Here are the best of them — from the past year when we have really needed some good news — with thanks to the world’s media outlets.
JANUARY
Peru has begun reforesting the area around Machu Picchu, with plans to plant a million trees on the site in the next five years.
Overfishing has been reversed for half the world’s catch, and where fisheries are being managed, stocks are above target levels or rebuilding, according to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
FEBRUARY
Between 1990 and 2017, the age-adjusted global death rate for cancer fell by 15%, mostly as a result of the worldwide decline in smoking.
Blue whale populations are bouncing back. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have recorded “unprecedented” numbers in the waters around South Georgia.
MARCH
Global carbon-dioxide emissions from the power sector fell by 2% in 2019, the biggest fall since 1990 or earlier.
A report by Unesco shows that since 2000 the world has reached gender parity (equal numbers of boys and girls) for primary and secondary education, as well as youth literacy. Only adult literacy remains.
APRIL
Saudi Arabia has abolished the practice of flogging convicts and outlawed the death sentence for minors.
After disappearing in England in the early 20th century, white-tailed eagles are back, thanks to a pioneering rewilding project.
Thanks to conservation efforts, the number of black rhinos in Africa increased from an estimated 4,845 in 2012 to 5,630 in 2018.
MAY
A decade ago more than 40% of the UK’s electricity came from coal. Now we have clocked up our first coal-free month since the advent of the power grid in 1882.
Saudi Arabia has abolished the practice of flogging convicts and outlawed the death sentence for minors.
Sudan’s new government has outlawed the practice of female genital mutilation.
JUNE
The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared that the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record is over after nearly two years.
China has removed dogs from the list of animals that can be treated as livestock. Animal rights groups say it in effect ends the sale of live dogs for food and fur.
JULY
Parents in OECD countries spend twice as much time with their children as they did 50 years ago — except in France.
Britain’s woodlands cover as much of the country as they did during the Middle Ages, thanks to forestry and rewilding projects.
AUGUST
Africa is officially free from wild polio. Twenty-five years ago it paralyzed more than 75,000 children across the continent. Since then, billions of oral vaccines have been provided, preventing 1.8 million cases. There have been 177 cases of vaccine-derived polio in Africa in the past year.
Parents in OECD countries spend twice as much time with their children as they did 50 years ago — except in France.
The Kenya Wildlife Service says its elephant population has more than doubled from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,000 today. The number of elephants poached is down significantly from previous years — just seven in 2020 compared with 34 in 2019 and 80 in 2018. Meanwhile, 140 baby elephants have been born in the Amboseli National Park since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Conservationists are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the reintroduction of red kites to Britain. In the 1980s they were persecuted to near extinction. Following one of the most successful rewilding programs in history, there are an estimated 10,000 birds across the country.
SEPTEMBER
In the first half of 2020, renewables (solar, wind, hydro and biomass) didn’t just generate more power on the European grid — they beat all fossil fuels put together.
Global inequality has decreased over the past 20 years. During the 2000s and 2010s, the global Gini coefficient dropped by 15 points and the earnings share of the world’s poorer half doubled.
OCTOBER
Since Donald Trump took office, the clean energy sector in America has employed nearly three times as many people as the fossil fuels industry, and between 2016 and 2019 renewables added more than double the jobs that fossil fuels did.
Renewables (solar, wind, hydro and biomass) didn’t just generate more power on the European grid — they beat all fossil fuels put together.
Unesco says that since 1995 the proportion of girls receiving primary and secondary education has increased from 73% to 89%. That’s an extra 180 million girls in school compared with a generation ago (and three times more women enrolled in universities).
In 2019, the number of people without access to electricity dropped from 860 million to 770 million. Africa has made particularly good progress: the number of people gaining access to electricity doubled from nine million a year between 2000 and 2013 to 20 million a year between 2014 and 2019.
An analysis from the International Rescue Committee reveals a 110% increase in women serving in national parliaments over the past 25 years, and a 49% rise in women in ministerial positions.
NOVEMBER
The biggest threat to children around the world is pneumonia. In 2011 the disease claimed the lives of 1.3 million children before their fifth birthday, 18% of all child deaths around the world. In 2019 that number dropped to 672,000, a fall of almost 50% in less than a decade.
The WHO says that malaria deaths fell to the lowest level yet recorded. The mortality rate has dropped by almost 60% in the past two decades, from 24.7 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 10.1 per 100,000 in 2019. The result is that 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria deaths have been averted globally in the period between 2000 and 2019.
The 2020 Global Terrorism Index is reporting that deaths from terrorism have fallen for the fifth consecutive year: 103 countries have improved — the highest number of countries to record a year-on-year improvement since the inception of the index.
A study has shown that air quality in Europe has improved dramatically in the past decade. Around 60,000 fewer people died prematurely because of fine particulate matter pollution in 2018 than in 2009. For nitrogen dioxide, the reduction is even greater: premature deaths have declined by about 54%.
The 2020 Global Terrorism Index is reporting that deaths from terrorism have fallen for the fifth consecutive year.
The Falkland Islands have been cleared of all land mines, nearly 40 years after the end of the war between Britain and Argentina. Tens of thousands of mines and bombs have been removed since 2009 as part of a UK-funded program, a task carried out by specialist de-miners, many from Zimbabwe.
There has been a breakthrough in the fight against Aids. A new antiretroviral administered as an injection six times a year is 89% more effective at preventing HIV in women than standard drugs taken as a daily pill. “This is a major, major advance,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases doctor. “I don’t think we can overemphasize its importance.”
The United Arab Emirates has overhauled some of its strictest Islamic laws to bolster women’s rights. The changes include the criminalization of honor killings, and tougher penalties for sexual harassment. Unmarried couples will be allowed to live together, and suicide and attempted suicide will be decriminalized.
DECEMBER
In 2019 more than one in five children under five had stunted growth through malnourishment. Between 2000 and 2019 stunting prevalence globally declined from 32.4% to 21.3%, and the number of children affected fell from 199 million to 144 million.
A universal flu vaccine has passed the first stage of human trials, a crucial step toward pandemic-proofing the planet. The vaccine, designed to work against influenza even if the virus mutates, was found to create a “broad, strong, durable and functional immune response”. If successful, it could replace the annual flu jab and protect against dangerous strains that have yet to appear.
Angus Hervey and Tane Hunter are the co-founders of Future Crunch