“Scientists have long been puzzled by a so-called ‘warming hole’ over parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the unmistakable broader warming trend.
A major reason for this anomaly, the new study finds, is the vast reforestation of much of the eastern US.”
From The Guardian.
“Around the world, mangrove forests have undergone a decades-long decline that is just now slowing to a halt.
In Pakistan, by contrast, mangroves expanded nearly threefold between 1986 and 2020, according to a 2022 analysis of satellite data.”
From Mongabay.
“You might be surprised to discover…that many of the world’s woodlands are in a surprisingly good condition. The destruction of tropical forests gets so much (justified) attention that we’re at risk of missing how much progress we’re making in cooler climates.”
From Bloomberg.
“Brazil’s seaside city of Rio de Janeiro, famed for its crowded beaches and lush surrounding hills, is sending drones buzzing into the air to disperse seeds, part of a high-tech push that seeks to speed up local reforestation efforts.
The green initiative, a partnership between Rio’s city hall and startup Morfo, launched last Friday and is being used to seed local native species in hard-to-reach areas that would be more difficult using traditional methods.”
From Reuters.
Reading the news can leave you depressed and misinformed. It’s partisan, shallow, and, above all, hopelessly negative. As Steven Pinker from Harvard University quipped, “The news is a nonrandom sample of the worst events happening on the planet on a given day.”
So, why does Human Progress feature so many news items? And why did I compile them in this giant list? Here are a few reasons:
Below is a nonrandom sample (n = ~1000) of positive news we collected this year, separated by topic area. Please scroll, skim, and click. Or—to be even more enlightened—read this blog post and then look through our collection of long-term trends and datasets.
