Although 2023 was a very complicated year with a couple of active wars (Israel and Ukraine), diseases, economic problems, and high levels of violence in certain countries, 10 news stories gave us hope that we can have a great future.
1.- The Climate Summit Reaches a Historic Agreement to End Fossil Fuels
In December 2023, the Dubai Climate Summit (COP28) reached a historic agreement to start a transition away from fossil fuels after two weeks of intense negotiations in which nearly 200 countries discussed how to confront collectively the climate crisis. The countries represented at COP28 adopted the famous ‘Global Balance’, an agreement with which they aspire to strengthen their climate action to contain the increase in temperature and to ensure that it does not exceed one and a half degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.
This agreement, approved by consensus in plenary, calls on countries to begin a transition away from fossil fuels, “in an orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, to achieve the goal of zero emissions.” net in 2050, according to science.”
2.- The First Truck That Runs on Solar Energy
Swedish manufacturer Scania has developed a transport trailer equipped with solar panels that could decarbonize existing trucks. Transportation in Europe accounts for about 25 percent of that continent’s carbon emissions, and much of it is blamed on heavy transportation.
What Scania, in collaboration with the University of Uppsala, has developed is a truck covered with solar panels. The advantage is that it can be connected to a hybrid tractor and act as an additional battery. It can store about 200 kilowatt-hours of energy, about three times more than the tractor.
3.- A Rare Sumatran Rhinoceros Was Born in Indonesia
This event was very significant in 2023 as the Sumatran rhinoceros is a critically endangered species. Therefore, each new birth is crucial for the conservation of the species. Indonesia has been working on conservation programs to protect this unique species and its habitat. The animal weighed 25 kilograms. Sumatran rhinos are the smallest of all rhinos. Successful births are cause for celebration, as there are only around 40 of these animals left in the world, on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
4.- Mexican Athletes in the Pan American Games
The Mexican delegation that competed in the 2023 Pan American Games that were held in Santiago, achieved the best participation in its history in the continental competition, registering 52 gold medals, 38 silver, and 52 bronze. Third place in the medal table only behind the United States and Brazil. The news gives great hope to Mexico for the biggest sporting event of 2024: the Paris Olympic Games.
5.- Holograms Replace Live Animals in a Circus
Germany’s Roncalli circus replaced live animals with holograms. The public was able to see clowns, acrobats, and magicians, but the big change came with the spectacular images that replaced the animals.
6.- Wind Turbine Generates Enough Energy to Supply a Record Number of Homes
In September 2023, the world’s largest wind turbine broke the record for power generation in a single day. Off the coast of Fujian Province, China, the gigantic Goldwind GWH252-16MW, which has a diameter of 252 meters, generated 384.1 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 24 hours.
7.- The Vatican Authorizes Blessings for Homosexual Couples
The Vatican accepted the possibility of blessing homosexual couples or “in an irregular situation” without equating them to marriage, according to a document published this year by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the text, the prefect of the congregation, the Argentine cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, responded that “one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples, without officially validating their ‘status’ or altering in “in no way the perennial teaching of the Church on Marriage.”
This possibility for homosexual couples, which follows the will of Pope Francis, represents a change in position compared to the one that the Congregation published in March 2021, then led by the Spanish Luis Ladaria Ferrer, which said that the Catholic Church could not impart his blessing to same-sex unions.
The blessing of homosexual or “irregular” couples, that is, those who are not canonically married by the Church, may be preceded by a “brief prayer” in which the priest can ask for those blessed “peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual help.”
8.- Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Has Decreased
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% between August 2022 and July 2023, with 9,001 square kilometers, the lowest result since 2019, as reported by the Brazilian government based on its satellite monitoring system. Logging was reduced by 42% in the period from January to July 2023, which coincides with the first seven months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, compared to the same period last year, when Jair Bolsonaro was still governing.
During Bolsonaro’s mandate (2019-2022), characterized by a more lax application of environmental laws and budget cuts in oversight bodies, more than 10,000 square kilometers were deforested each year, with 13,000 between 2020 and 2021 alone. , the worst figure since 2006.
9.- Paraplegic Man Manages to Walk Thanks to Artificial Intelligence
In a historic event for medicine and technology, a team of Swiss and French scientists achieved a huge breakthrough in neuronal surgery. Through an article in the prestigious magazine Nature, it was announced that a paraplegic man was able to walk again through the first man-machine connection (interface) trained with artificial intelligence.
The first patient to test the impressive technology was a 40-year-old Dutchman named Gert-Jan Oskam, who lost the use of his legs in a bicycle accident 12 years ago. The man walked in front of journalists at the Vaud University Hospital Center (CHUV) in Lausanne.
10.- Mrbeast and Water Wells in Africa
In November 2023, through a video on his social networks, the great influencer MrBeast announced the construction of 100 drinking water wells in Africa with a historic impact to improve the lives of half a million people. Not even the UN has achieved this in history! The new wells will provide drinking water for 500,000 people in Cameroon, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, while a fundraising campaign to support local water aid organizations has raised more than $400,000.
Jimmy Donaldson’s (aka MrBeast) video also showed him donating essential supplies to several schools in Kenya; for example, new furniture, computers, soccer balls, computers, whiteboards, and projectors. Additionally, MrBeast built a bridge over a river to safely connect a village to local schools and the hospital by donating bicycles to a village in Zimbabwe to help children get to school. “I know I’m going to be canceled for uploading a video helping people. To be 100% clear, I don’t care.”
Jimmy Donaldson is the most popular content creator on YouTube with 207 million subscribers. He has become known for his philanthropy, posting videos in which he sponsored cataract surgeries for more than a thousand blind people and purchased prosthetics for more than 2,000 amputees. These videos have helped him build a company that is currently worth more than a billion dollars and have given him enough recognition that Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in 2023.
This story was written in Spanish by Miguel Fernandez in Cultura Colectiva News.
