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Positive news from 2023
- ssgodderidge 3y ago> First fossil fuel-free flight I wish there was a way to find positive stories like this without having to wade through the increasingly negative swamp that is news today.
- scns 3y agohttps://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ I can recommend installing the App.
- ssgodderidge 3y agoSeems interesting! I wonder how they source their articles. I chuckled to myself about the article on frogs with fangs [1]. I like the focus on discovery of a new species, but not exactly thrilled about fanged frogs’ existence. 1: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-species-of-fanged-frog-hunts-crabs-even-though-its-no-bigger-than-a-quarter/ https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-species-of-fanged-frog-h...
- nyokodo 3y ago> not exactly thrilled about fanged frogs Well, we had wisened up to them appearing as bats so…
- sschueller 3y agoI don't, I don't want to be caged in a bubble of happy in ignorance while the world burns. I want to know just how corrupt, vial and inhumane people can be so I can do everything in my power to not be that way and do what I can to improve this world how ever minute that may be.
- ssgodderidge 3y agoI agree on not staying in a “bubble of happy ignorance.” I didn’t mean to say “this is the only way I want my news.” Instead, I would like an occasional, easy-to-consume method to get stories like this
- apsec112 3y agoEveryone already knows that a lot of the world sucks. The important question is how to make it better, but reading bad news stories won't help answer that.
- alex_smart 3y agoOr you could just tend your own garden. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide
- mossyfog 3y agoThe reality is no matter read we the news or not, there will be misery in the world. But also there will be things worth celebrating. And a healthy society celebrates good news. On the contrast, a globalized out of touch society obsesses over what they can't change, while people that need help are under their nose..
- kentosi-dw 3y agoYes, but on the other hand seeing an article about how "European rivers (were) restored" also let us know that the charities we donate to actually do make a significant impact.
- ponector 3y agoYou already know how corrupt people are. Why to read the news? You are already doing what you can to improve the world. How reading news will help? Would you do more than you can?
- jebarker 3y agoDoes continual exposure to bad things people do really help in your admirable desire to improve the world? I'd think that reading a couple of history books would suffice and then just getting on with making the world better.
- burkaman 3y agoYou can try this newsletter: https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews/ https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews/. It didn't have that particular story, but there are a lot of climate-related headlines.
- godelski 3y agoI stopped checking the news every day. Usually once every few weeks. You might think that this would lead to me being less informed about the world but I actually don't feel that way, even as my intake is still decreasing. Anything big will be highly visible and you'll see on many platforms (arguably this is news, but you all know what I mean) and people will be talking about it. I'll then look it up and read about it to get some information but don't let my life revolve around things I can't change or influence. Generally I feel a lot less stressed and happier. Around elections I read up a bit more to catch up but that's about it. There's just so much going on all the time that there's always going to be things to report but the difference is if that information can help me in any way or if that information is actionable. By getting the news late you'll also get it once there's a bit more clarity around the thing, often helping you actually understanding it. Certainly there are downsides too, but for me this has been beneficial. I just don't need my news to be scary TikTok (which I also refuse to use) and having my attention running on high at all times. It's too much for me to handle. YMMV
- manu3000 3y agohttps://www.positive.news/ https://www.positive.news/
- ssgodderidge 3y agoLooks like they have a related post about positive news stories from 2023: https://www.positive.news/society/what-went-right-in-2023-the-top-25-good-news-stories-of-the-year/ https://www.positive.news/society/what-went-right-in-2023-th...
- loeg 3y agoNote that this flight was using carbon-based fuel that emits CO2 and other biproducts, it was just synthetic fuel instead of being pumped out the ground. I think it's mostly a marketing puff piece for the aerospace industry.
- ryan-duve 3y agoI used to follow Tank's Good News[1] each week for this type of thing, but it seems it stopped being updated. I am hoping the owner eventually brings it back one day. [1] https://tanksgoodnews.com/ https://tanksgoodnews.com/
- graypegg 3y agoI think that’s the hardest part of running a news site with a permanently positive bent: if you stop or even slow down, you leave a really deep emotional impact. I totally respect the idea, but I would have so much trouble with that pressure.
- _hzw 3y agoAs the saying goes, "no news is good news".
- 082349872349872 3y agoOnce upon a time, if the BBC didn't have anything else to report, they'd play music for the rest of the news time slot.
- stephendause 3y agoI subscribe to Reasons to be Cheerful [1]. I like it alright. 1. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/ https://reasonstobecheerful.world/
- IndySun 3y agoGapminder's 'best of 2023', though always very welcome, features several plusses regarding EV batteries. I expect an alternative to personal EVs, group EVs (automated), will be upon by this time next, making the lesser green elements of batteries even greener.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoElectric bikes are extremely popular.
- IndySun 3y agoAre electric bikes fully legal where you are? Limited tryout areas are dotted around my country. Expect fatal and semi-fatal incidents to follow exponentially; before helmets, fines, and licences catch up.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vladvasiliu 3y agoWhat do you mean by "fully"? Here in France, you may ride an electric assistance bike that cuts off at 25 kmph as if it were a normal bike. No license, helmet, or insurance required. You may also ride on bike paths. Just like a regular old-fashioned bike. For bikes with assistance above that, you need a license, the "light motorcycle" or whatever it's called. Also, insurance, helmet, and gloves, just for any "real" motorbike. These things cost as much as a full-on motorcycle, so I don't know who buys them. Anyway, I haven't heard of any increase in injuries or fatalities related to the uptake of electrical bikes that doesn't seem linked to the overall increase in cycling since covid.
- IndySun 3y agoIn England, quite rightly, there are trial areas, to begin with. Cautious is the approach, until it makes safety sense. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users#trial-areas https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-us...
- aftbit 3y agoFocusing on the good is an important step towards better mental health. That said, good and bad are in the eye of the beholder. For example, Iran and Saudi Arabia restoring ties is likely very bad news for Israel.
- nyokodo 3y ago> Iran and Saudi Arabia restoring ties is likely very bad news for Israel While geopolitics creates the strangest bedfellows, this is probably an attempt to play China off against the USA/Japan as well as shake a few geopolitical trees. I doubt some handshakes are going to resolve centuries of mutual hatred and Sunni/Shia supremacy between Saudi and Iran. Saudi has mountains of cash but needs a security guarantor. The USA has played that role for some decades but is losing interest so Saudi is maneuvering to regain American interest or gain another guarantor. They may be betting that diplomatic excursions with Iran ostensibly brokered by China will lead to the USA or Japan stepping in to prevent China gaining greater influence in the region, and if not maybe China would work out for them.
- adra 3y agoHey, look at it this way, the Yemen civil war is still ongoing, and if they are it's likely because Iran and Saudi Arabia are still funding it, which would conflate to eat least a cold war between the sides even if there's some surface level of democracy forming.
- sgt101 3y agoI thought that Saudi Arabia and Israel were on the verge of a rapprochement before October 7th? The offer on the table was F35's and access to the Tempest program in the UK in exchange for normalization. This would have put the Saudis right on top vs. Iran.
- Miner49er 3y agoVery true, countries signing up to end coal use is bad news for a coal miner.
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- infotainment 3y agoReally great to see progress on a malaria vaccine. Will be interesting to see if malaria can be eradicated in the coming decades.
- paulpauper 3y ago12. New anti-obesity drugs are effective this is the big one that affects many people, about half the population. We need answers more than ever. Obesity out control. Nothing seems to work, but these drugs offer a glimmer of hope, but I don't think they will solve the obesity epidemic completely.
- talldatethrow 3y agoI post here every now and then about how effective a vegetable juice diet for 90 days is. Most people respond with hate and general info about how unhealthy it is supposedly. At this point I have helped 4 adults (3 being 60+ yrs old) and myself try the diet. Even my own father. Most can't do all 90 days for whatever reason. Every single person that has tried it for 30 days has lost about 25 lbs. The ones that tried it for 60 days lost 35-40 lbs. Two of the seniors had blood tests done before and after the juice diet, both showed improved markers on EVERY single thing tracked, including blood sugar and A1C levels, even though they basically lived off the sugar in vegetables for 60 days. Every single person agrees that vegetable juice plus meat would be the ideal diet for them long term after trying it. Even with all that said, new people that year it says it doesn't sound healthy. If you told them your diet is 2-3 lbs of salad plus meat a day, they'd say ya that sounds healthy. If you tell them, hey, have 10 lbs of salad a day for 90 days, they'd say that sounds healthy but sounds too hard to eat that much. If you tell them, sure, why don't you juice it instead and make a gallon of juice, they'll say that doesn't sound healthy. I think weight loss is very simple. It's just not easy. And it's not easy to decide to try. I begged my dad for 3 years to try 90 days of juice, after I tried. Finally he tries it, and is now a believer. My mom though, seeing his great blood test results, and seeing him lose 35 lbs and feel great, still isn't convinced she could give up pastries and bread and just live off salad (juice) for 90 days. Heck, people will try hormone altering drugs before they try celary, carrot, beet, cucumber juice.
- malfist 3y agoFor every complex problem, there is a simple, easy and wrong answer. Crash diets like this don't work. Sure you may lose pounds the week or two that you try it. But what happens in 6 months? A year? Highly unlikely to keep those pounds off.
- password54321 3y agoWhen you start treating "first person with ethnic background X in space" as "good news", that's how you arrive at lots of effort, time and money being spent on pursuing objectives that have zero value.
- andsoitis 3y ago> When you start treating "first person with ethnic background X in space" as "good news", that's how you arrive at lots of effort, time and money being spent on pursuing objectives that have zero value. Reducing barriers so that anyone can pursue their dreams seems like a worthwhile and humanistic goal. I do, however, question the use of the label "ethnic background" because everyone is of some ethnic group.
- CapitalistCartr 3y ago"I do, however, question the use of the label "ethnic background" because everyone is of some ethnic group." That's why he wrote "ethnic background X". The X is a relevant part of the quote.
- password54321 3y ago>Reducing barriers so that anyone can pursue their dreams seems like a worthwhile and humanistic goal. Sure, and what you treat as a positive reward signal towards this goal is important. If you treat having 10% more of X in field Y, as a positive, then why not 20% or better yet 50%? It leads to artificial results.
- yes_man 3y agoImagine being born as a little girl in a country where women haven’t had equal rights to men. Now if you see a woman from your country doing something huge (like go to space), it raises the bar or what you believe you can become. Not zero value
- password54321 3y agoYour inspiration should simply be anyone. We are all just human. Why is it more inspiring if they look more like you?
- gcgbcfy 3y agoDiseases caused by poverty eliminated by science is not really good news.
- chrisweekly 3y agoStrong disagree, because "Diseases caused by poverty" is a GIVEN. In that context, "...eliminated by science" is unambiguously good news.
- ponector 3y agoNot good? What is good thing: eliminate disease or keep it to spread?
- adra 3y agoI'm just putting words into ancestors post, but my guess is that it's disingenuous to congratulate yourself for solving a man made problem. Poverty doesn't have to be a given unless you ascribe to specific world views. You could solve a disease caused by poverty, or you know.. solve poverty so that the need to cure this disease is zero.
- fasterik 3y agoPoverty isn't a man made problem. It's the default state of nature, which was true for most humans in the history of our species. We can't solve it overnight. It takes decades of gradually increasing a society's wealth from subsistence farming to full industrialization. It's definitely possible to do it more quickly than we did in the Western world (~200 years), as evidenced by the progress that China and India have made toward eliminating extreme poverty in the last 20 years. But it's naive to think that we can just snap our fingers and solve poverty for the rest of the world. In the mean time, it totally makes sense to try and alleviate the suffering of people in poverty in whatever ways we can.
- manicennui 3y ago"First African country with shared parental leave" Based on the linked article, South Africa was already ahead of the US.
- jldugger 3y agoI enjoy the idea but the implementation feels lacking: about half of these are statistics, which is on brand for gapminder, but using comparisons from several years past instead of 2022. Which makes it a bit less "news of 2023" and more "news of sometime in the past decade." Not sure if they're framing it this way to exaggerate the improvement or because the data reported on isn't collected annually.
- DrRobinson 3y agoIt's news _from_ 2023, not news about things that happened only in 2023. Things might have improved starting years ago but the research to show it wasn't finished until this year, so it's also about celebrating seeing progress and improvements. Limiting the list to things improving only since 2022 seems unnecessarily restrictive and we'd miss a lot of positive and interesting news.
- manicennui 3y ago"Historic deal to protect vital water source in US" This is referring to the Colorado River, and it is WAY too little, and far too late. Real changes won't be made until the situation is dire.
- oezi 3y agoA good list of things which shows that people strive to do better and that we all can work together for a better future. Renewables investments exceeding fossil ones by 1.80 USD for every fossil dollar and many countries seeing strong renewable energy growth are my highlights from the list. That world happiness is back to more than pre-pandemic levels was also a big surprise to me.
- jm20 3y agoYeah I’m skeptical of the happiness metric. Most people living their day to day lives would say things still feel a lot more “negative” than pre-pandemic
- oezi 3y agoReading the linked Guardian article, apparently happiness is still depressed in Western countries but the advances to reduce human misery across the globe is compensating this.
- alexmolas 3y agoThe other day I was discussing with a coworker about the impact of technology in our lives. He defended that tech has a net negative impact overall and that we should reduce the speed at which we develop tech, while I was defending the opposite. News like these prove my point. The problems of the world will be solved with better technologies and more investment on research.
- 63 3y agoYou may be working with different definitions of "technology." Certainly there are fields which are primarily negative and should slow down, just not all of them because "technology" is an infinitely broad term.
- ponector 3y agoHow technology can stop the war? Or stop people from abusing each other? Or decrease tensions between religion groups?
- alexmolas 3y agoI'm going to give some speculative answers which may sound like science fiction. Take them with a grain of salt. > How technology can stop the war? Better technology can help countries to be more productive and less dependent on other countries. This would reduce tensions between countries and consequently reduce armed conflicts. > Or decrease tensions between religion groups? Tension between groups can be reduced by making people more aware about how people in the other group are really. For example, a Christian can change his mind about Muslims after spending time talking with a Muslim. With technology you can help people in different groups to understand better people in the other group. Of course these are speculative answers, and technology has been proven to be highly unpredictable (people predicting that in 2020 there would be flying cars) so I know my predictions are probably false. But they are useful to understand how technology can help. On the other hand, history shows us that technology has helped consistently the (read the article posted here for an extensive list of example).
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- mlinksva 3y ago2023, no mention of AI (which I consider hugely positive; AI that is, not lack of mention). Still, I appreciate the creativity. It's a great list, some stuff I didn't know about. #96 (Azerbaijan/Armenia relations breakthrough) seems like really squinting to see a glass half full considering all of 2023. Here's to more in 2024, including breakthroughs in seemingly intractable and stupid conflicts!
- tarruda 3y ago> which I consider hugely positive; AI that is, Why do you think AI is hugely positive? Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I see no good outcomes from the excessive automation that will result from advances in AI. It can make the world better to the very few that are in a position to leverage it, but will result in jobs disappearing for most of humanity.
- mlinksva 3y agoWe are incredibly wealthy by historical standards (see also Gapminder's long term trends linked from the OP https://www.gapminder.org/facts/improvements/ https://www.gapminder.org/facts/improvements/) because all of the jobs of yore have disappeared, many times over, from "excessive" automation and other productivty increases. More please!
- lovecg 3y agoOff the top of my head, protein folding and drug discovery have a huge potential to be extremely positive.
- roenxi 3y agoThe point of life is not to have a job. Although exactly what the point is after that is a religious question and hotly contested. Although uncomfortable in the short term, there is simply no point people doing work that could be profitably automated. There is great benefit to be had from abundance. So far pretty much all the economic upside has gone to the masses. The wealthy have much higher nominal wealth and no way to use it for themselves that hasn't existed in all of history. In fact, the lack of modern pyramids like what was built in Egypt suggests they're using resources even more consistently for the common good instead of monumental waste (heh).
- fgsfds028374 3y ago[dead]
- tomjen3 3y agoReading through this it seems like a fucking joke: we have an amazing breakthrough in cancer rates not seen in 20 years (35% down). We should have it down to basically zero by now. This so many resources poured into it. The same with all the better malaria treatment - great but shouldn't we have fixed this problem by now? 2023 could have been a great year with advances in AI solving protein folding, but it turned out to be the same usual shit: dictators who get other people to kill so they can get rich.
- realusername 3y ago> We should have it down to basically zero by now. This so many resources poured into it. That's explained by cancers being a family of decease and not a single decease. So it's always going to be a moving target.
- tomjen3 3y agoSure, but this is targeting a specific type of cancer, not cancer in general. Or do you mean that breast cancer is also a family of disease?
- roenxi 3y agoPeople have to die of something. Just make sure you don't expect all-cause death rate to drop to 0. Bodies decay.
- fasterik 3y ago>We should have it down to basically zero by now. How can you claim to know a priori how many resources need to be thrown at a problem to solve it? Cancer is one of the most complex diseases in existence. Eliminating it requires sci-fi levels of technology in areas like molecular biology, gene editing, immunology, and pharmacology. I would say we have made a remarkable amount of progress given that we didn't know what DNA was 70 years ago. We already know how to eliminate malaria, which we have successfully done in many developed countries. The underlying problem is poverty and lack of infrastructure in developing countries, which isn't trivial to solve either. Perfectionism is the wrong attitude to take here. All progress happens through incremental improvement.
- stackedinserter 3y agoThat list should be titled "100 things that sound great when read by a UN bureaucrat in front of other UN bureaucrats but don't affect your life in any meaningful way".
- malfist 3y agoWhat does the United Nations have anything to do with this article?
- tuukkah 3y agoDon't miss the 31 global improvement trends either: https://www.gapminder.org/facts/improvements/ https://www.gapminder.org/facts/improvements/
- next_xibalba 3y ago> 52. Paid menstrual leave introduced in Spain This seems crazy. Were this to be enacted in the US, I would expect businesses to find legal loopholes in order to not hire women.
- nullandvoid 3y agoComing from a brit - it seems crazy Spain wasn't already doing this!
- TheFuzzball 3y agoWhat're you on about? Spain is the only European country that currently provides Menstrual leave.
- next_xibalba 3y agoYou may have misread this. It is not maternity leave, it is menstrual leave.
- nullandvoid 3y agoI did indeed - thanks for correcting!