Dec.29

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This Week in Freudenfreude: Good News from Around the Earth

For the last freudenfreude of the year, we thought we'd do a rundown of some of the good news that 2023 brought, around the globe. And so:

1. Pandemic I: COVID-19 is still with us, but the worst is in the rearview mirror. There are both vaccines and medications that are generally effective, the World Health Organization has declared it is no longer a global emergency, and the Global Happiness Index is back to where it was before the pandemic hit.
   
   
2. Pandemic II: Medicines that treat those individuals affected with AIDS, and that block transmission to new carriers, raise the very real possibility that the disease will be effectively eradicated by 2030.
   
   
3. Begone!: Individual countries have also had success with vanquishing epidemic diseases. Bangladesh became the first country to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, Iraq became the seventeenth to eliminate trachoma, and Belize has banished malaria from its borders.
   
   
4. Golden Age of Medicine: In addition to the above advances, 2023 saw the introduction of promising new cancer treatments based on mRNA, dramatic progress toward cracking the code on Alzheimer's Disease, the promulgation of a new cost-effective malaria vaccine, the release of the first RSV vaccine, the creation of two new treatments for sickle cell disease, and the development of a new pill that targets postpartum depression.
   
   
5. Fossil Fuels: Nearly 200 nations signed an agreement at COP28 to "transition away from fossil fuels." It's not the end for fossil-fuel-based energy, obviously, but it's a big first step. Also on that front, global carbon emissions and emissions from China both dropped for the first time ever, thanks primarily to increased adoption of wind, solar and hydroelectric power. Worldwide, for every $1 invested in fossil fuel extraction in 2023, $1.80 was invested in renewables. This year also saw the launch of the world's largest solar farm (in the United Arab Emirates) and the world's largest wind farm (in the United Kingdom).
   
   
6. 1.21 Gigawatts: Scientists are also getting closer to making nuclear fusion a reality, potentially unlocking a major source of power that is much more eco-friendly than fission-based energy.
   
   
7. Electric Vehicles: Industrialized countries around the world saw record sales of electric vehicles. In the U.S., EVs now account for 8% of all new vehicle purchases.
   
   
8. Gay Pride, Worldwide: Five nations began allowing same-sex partnerships in 2023: South Korea, Peru, Estonia, Latvia and Nepal.
   
   
9. Wage Gap: Women workers in the U.S. still earn less than men, but the aggregate gap is as narrow as it has ever been, with the ratio for full-time workers now standing at 84 cents (women) for every dollar (men).
   
   
10. Votes for Women: The final holdout in the world, Vatican City, granted suffrage to women in 2023. Women now have the legal right to vote everywhere, even if their rights are not always observed (ahem, Afghanistan).

We narrowed it down to 10, to make things manageable, but this is not an exhaustive accounting by any means. The world is getting better, in many ways, even if most of the stuff we hear about is how it's getting worse.

Have a good weekend, all! (Z)