Human Progress

Human Progress

Humankind is experiencing dramatic improvements in well-being. HumanProgress.org will show you the evidence.

HumanProgress.org bridges the gap between mistaken perceptions and reality.

Empirical evidence from around the world shows dramatic improvements in human well-being. Yet the speed and extent of human progress is often underestimated, unacknowledged, or even disregarded. HumanProgress.org aims to become a valuable resource for the public, students, journalists and researchers. It allows users to compare many indicators of human well-being; to calculate absolute and relative changes over selected periods of time; to export the underlying data; and to create and export graphics.


This information comes from the website of Human Progress.


 

99 Good News Stories From 2020 You Probably Didn’t Hear About

99 Good News Stories From 2020 You Probably Didn’t Hear About

There’s been so much loss, grief and heartbreak in 2020 that it feels almost wrong to be compiling our traditional annual list of good news. Things can and do fall apart, and this year it felt like they really did. Amazing as it may seem however, there were also big wins for conservation, living standards, peace, safety and human rights, clean energy, and yes, even global health. The reason you didn’t hear about them is because good news doesn’t sell advertisements or generate clicks, and that was more true in 2020 than ever before.

Some examples:

Conservation
16. Attitudes in China towards the eating of wild animals changed drastically in 2020. Up to 90% of the public now supports strict bans on the trade and consumption of wildlife, and more than 15,000 people were prosecuted for wildlife crimes this year, a 66% increase from 2019. China also removed dogs from the list of animals that can be treated as livestock, signalling the beginning of the end of the sale of live dogs for food and fur across the country.

Global Health
35. The WHO revealed that malaria deaths have reached the lowest level ever recorded, a drop of almost 60% in the last two decades. Take a moment to let this sink in: between 2000 and 2019, 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria deaths were averted globally.

Peace, Safety & Human Rights
44. A new report by the Global Peace Index showed that since 2007, the majority of the world’s countries – 113 countries – have reduced their armed forces, 100 have reduced military expenditure and both imports and exports of weapons have reached their lowest levels since 2009.

Living Standards
74. The IEA’s annual report contained a hidden nugget of very, very good news this year. The number of people without access to electricity dropped from 860 million to 770 million, a new record low. Africa has made particularly good progress; the number of people gaining access to electricity doubled from 9 million a year in 2013, to 20 million a year by 2019.

Clean Energy
82. 2020 saw an unprecedented acceleration in national climate pledges. South Korea became the first Asian country to set a 2050 net zero emissions goal, followed by Japan, and then most importantly, China, which committed to net zero by 2060 – perhaps the single most important development in climate policy since the Paris Agreement.


Read the article at Future Crunch:
https://futurecrun.ch/99-good-news-2020

World’s Best News writes about solutions and progress in global development

World’s Best News writes about solutions and progress in global development

World’s Best News is an independent news organization for constructive journalism and campaigns. We report on progress and sustainable solutions to challenges in global development.

Our work is based on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which address some of the world’s biggest challenges, such as extreme poverty, global inequality, and climate change.

World’s Best News’s mission is to help people achieve a more nuanced view of the world. We believe that nuances and knowledge create hope – and that hope brings motivation for action. We want to make the Global Goals known by as many people as possible. When people know the goals, they are able to hold our political leaders accountable and make sure they deliver results. When more people know about the progress and solutions the world already has available, the more people may help these solutions to be implemented.

We launched in Denmark in 2010 and we are now an international network with sister organizations in Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and with more to come.


This information comes from the website of World’s Best News.


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