Another year nearly over and the world didn’t come to an end. You were just getting your news from the wrong sources.
50 positive news stories from around the world in 2018
For the past year, much of the global media has been focused on a lot of bad news. But there were other things happening out there too. Good news stories that you may have missed. Here are 50 positive news stories from around the world in 2018.
5 Big wins for conservation
1. Following China’s ban on ivory last year (90% of Chinese support it), ivory demand has dropped by almost half, and poaching rates are falling in places like Kenya.
2. The United Nations said that the ozone hole would be fully healed over the Arctic and the northern hemisphere by the 2030s, and in the rest of the world by 2060.
3. The population of wild tigers in Nepal was found to have nearly doubled in the last nine years thanks to efforts by conservationists and increased funding for protected areas.
4. In 2018, after more than ten years of debate, 140 nations agreed to begin negotiations on a historic “Paris Agreement for the Ocean,” the first-ever international treaty to stop overfishing and protect life in the high seas.
5. In the forests of central Africa, the population of mountain gorillas, one of the world’s most endangered species, was reported to have increased by 25% since 2010, to over 1,000 individuals.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium.com/Future-Crunch
5 Milestones for global health
6. Since 2010, global HIV/AIDS infection rates have fallen by 16% in adults and by 35% for children. Most countries are now on track to eliminate infections by 2030.
7. The WHO revealed that teenage drinking has declined across Europe, the continent with the highest rates of drinking in the world. The country with the largest decline? Britain.
8. India registered a 22% decline in maternal deaths since 2013. That means on average, 30 more new mothers are now being saved every day compared to five years ago.
9. South Africa, home to the world’s largest population of people living with HIV, shocked health officials by revealing a 44% decline in new infections since 2012.
10. Russians are drinking and smoking less than at any point since the fall of the Soviet Union, with tobacco use down by 20% since 2009, and alcohol consumption down by 20% since 2012.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium.com/Future-Crunch
5 wins for kindness and tolerance
11. India’s highest court struck down a century-old prohibition on homosexual sex, calling the Victorian-era law “irrational, indefensible, and manifestly arbitrary.”
12. Pakistan’s parliament passed a landmark law guaranteeing basic rights for transgender citizens and outlawing all forms of discrimination by employers.
13. New research revealed that in the last two decades, female genital mutilation has fallen from 57.7% to 14.1% in north Africa, from 73.6% to 25.4% in west Africa, and from 71.4% to 8% in east Africa.
14. In a major milestone for human rights in the Middle East, a Lebanese court issued a new judgement holding that homosexuality is not a crime.
15. Nepal became the 54th country in the world, and the first country in South Asia, to pass a law banning corporal punishment for children.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium/Future-Crunch
5 examples of improved living standards
16. Quietly and without fanfare, humanity crossed a truly amazing threshold this year. For the first time since agriculture-based civilisation began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. — Brookings
17. The International Energy said that in the last year, 120 million people gained access to electricity. That means that for the first time since electrical service was started (1882), less than a billion of the world’s population are left in darkness.
18. The Economist revealed that global suicide rates have dropped by 38% since 1994, saving four million lives, four times the number killed in combat during the same time.
19. The UNDP released a new report showing that 271 million people in India have moved out of poverty since 2005, nearly halving the country’s poverty rate in one decade. India also continued the largest sanitation building spree of all time. More than 80 million toilets are estimated to have been built since 2014.
20. And a new global youth survey showed that young people in all countries are more optimistic than adults. Nine in 10 teenagers in Kenya, Mexico, China, Nigeria and India reported feeling positive about their future.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source : Medium.com/Future-Crunch
Ten clean energy transition highlights
21. The world passed 1,000 GW of cumulative installed wind and solar power this year. 10 years ago, there was less than 8 GW of solar.
22. Solar and wind continued their precipitous cost declines. In the second half of 2018 alone, the mean cost for solar fell by 14% and the wind benchmark by 6%. In many parts of the world it’s now cheaper to build new clean energy than it is to keep dirty energy running.— say Bloomberg
23. Some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, representing more than $3 trillion in assets, and Black Rock, the world’s biggest fund manager, with assets worth $5.1 trillion, said they would only invest in companies that factor climate risks into their strategies.
24. Allianz, the world’s biggest insurance company by assets, said it would cease insuring coal-fired power plants and coal mines, and Maersk, the world’s largest maritime shipping company, said it would begin ditching fossil fuels, and will eliminate all carbon emissions by the year 2050.
25. Repsol became the first major fossil fuels producer to say it would no longer be seeking new growth for oil and gas.
26. California unveiled the most ambitious climate target of all time, with a commitment to making the world’s fifth biggest economy carbon neutral by 2045.
27. China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, revised its renewable energy target upwards, committing to 35% clean energy by 2030.
28. India increased its already massive 2022 clean energy target by 28%. It plans to add 150 GW of wind and solar in the next four years.
29. Ireland became the world’s first country to divest from fossil fuels, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament.
30. Spain committed to shutting down most of its coalmines by the end of the year, after the government agreed to early retirement for miners, re-skilling and environmental restoration.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium/Future-Crunch
War, crime and violence continue their trend of long term decline
31. The Journal Peace Research said that global deaths from state based conflicts have declined for the third year in a row, and are now 32% lower than their peak in 2014.
32. Following the collapse of ISIS, civilian deaths in Iraq decreased dramatically. 80% fewer Iraqis were killed in the first five months of 2018 compared to last year.
33. Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace treaty, signalling the end of a 20 year war, and reuniting thousands of families.
34. Malaysia abolished the death penalty for all crimes and halted all pending executions, a move hailed by human rights groups in Asia as a major victory.
35. Crime and murder rates declined in the United States’ 30 largest cities, with the murder rate for 2018 projected to be 7.6% lower than 2017.
36. Crime falls when you take in millions of refugees too. The number of reported crimes in Germany has fallen by 10%, to the lowest level in 30 years.
37. Youth crime in the Australian state of New South Wales has plummeted in the last 20 years. Vehicle theft is down by 59%, property theft by 59%, and drunk-driving by 49%.
38. In the last generation, arrests of Californian teenagers have fallen by 80%, murder arrests by 85%, gun killings by 75%, imprisonments by 88%, teen births by 75%, school dropouts by half, and college enrolments are up by 45%.
39. According to new data from the Department of Justice, the proportion of people being sent to prison in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.
40. Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2012. Murders have decreased by half since then, more than any other nation.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium.com/Future-Crunch
An economy that won’t cost us the Earth
41. Less meat. A new report revealed that, thanks to shifting tastes amongst those born after 1980, 70% of the world’s population is reducing meat consumption or leaving meat off the table altogether.
42. Denmark became the latest country to announce a ban on internal combustion engines. There are now 16 countries with bans that come into effect before 2040 — including China and India, the two biggest car markets in the world.
43. In 2018, the world surpassed the 4 million mark for electric vehicles. In the world’s biggest car market, China, electric cars reached 5% of sales; China’s internal combustion car market is flat, with all growth now being absorbed by EVs.
44. Four years ago, China declared a war on pollution. It’s working. Cities have, on average, cut concentrations of fine particulates in the air by 32%.
45. Thanks to tightening restrictions, the United Kingdom reported a 12% drop in vehicle emissions since 2012, as well as significant overall drop in air pollutants.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium/Future-Crunch
…and finally a turning point in the worldwide effort to reduce plastic waste
45. 250 of the world’s major brands, including Coca Cola, Kellogs and Nestle, agreed to make sure that 100% of their plastic packaging will be reused, recycled or composted by 2025. — BBC
46. The European Parliament passed a full ban on single-use plastics, estimated to make up over 70% of marine litter. It will come into effect in 2021.
47. As of the end of 2018, at least 32 countries around the world now have plastic bag bans in place — and nearly half are in Africa.
48. China said it had seen a 66% reduction in plastic bag usage since the rollout of its 2008 ban, and that it has avoided the use of an estimated 40 billion bags.
49. Four years after imposing a 5p levy, the United Kingdom said it had used 9 billion fewer plastic bags, and the number being found on the seabed has plummeted.
50. There is now a giant 600 metre long boom in the Pacific that uses oceanic forces to clean up plastic, and you can track its progress here. Despite a few early setbacks, the team behind it thinks they can clean up half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the next seven years.
(Highlighted text links to sources)
Source: Medium.com/Future-Crunch
A call to action!
All this good news is not a signal for us to sit back and relax — it’s a call to action! Now is the time to build momentum; as individuals, as families, as communities, and as nations. Let’s build upon the progress with action of our own. Be inspired! #saveourplanet
Check out BrightVibes’ other articles on our Sustainable Planet
A variety of uplifting and positive news stories concerning technologies and initiatives to sustain our planet into the future.