E.U. extends carbon market to shipping and road transportation industries
Polluters will have to pay for all greenhouse gases they pollute — CO2, methane and nitrous oxide — when sailing within the EU and 50% of voyages outside of the bloc.
Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)
This archive spans the years 2017 through 2025, a period marked by rapid advances in clean energy, medicine, technology, and social equity. It collects documented breakthroughs, policy wins, and scientific achievements from the present era. If you want evidence that progress is real and ongoing, this is where to look.
New biodegradable, plant-based, spray-on coating offers alternative to plastic food wrap and containers
The coating can be rinsed off with water and degrades in soil within three days, according to the study from Rutgers University.
Canada bans manufacture and import of single-use plastics
The ban includes checkout bags, cutlery, straws and food-service ware made from or containing plastics that are hard to recycle, and will come into effect by the end of 2022.
Many U.S. states now allow mental health absences for students
At least nine states now allow students to take mental health days. Other states using less expensive solutions like in-class mediation, mindfulness exercises, and social-emotional training.
Colombia elects first Black woman vice president, Francia Marquez
Francia Márquez became Colombia’s first Black woman vice president on June 19, 2022, winning alongside Gustavo Petro with just over half the national vote. A former housekeeper and single mother from Cauca, one of Colombia’s poorest provinces, she rose to office through years of grassroots organizing against illegal gold mining — work that earned her the Goldman Environmental Prize and, along the way, death threats she refused to back down from. Now leading a new equality ministry, she’s focused on women’s rights, rural health care, and education for communities long shut out. Her election doesn’t undo generations of exclusion, but it changes what’s imaginable — for Afro-Colombian girls, for environmental defenders, and for movements everywhere insisting the overlooked belong at the table.
U.S. FDA approves first alopecia drug that restores hair growth in many patients
Alopecia areata has affected roughly 7 million Americans without a single FDA-approved systemic treatment — until now. Baricitinib works by blocking the inflammatory signals that cause the immune system to attack hair follicles, giving them a chance to recover. In clinical trials, one in three patients with severe cases regrew enough hair to cover at least 80% of their scalp. Approval also unlocks insurance coverage, turning a once-inaccessible therapy into a realistic option. This breakthrough shows how a single curious clinician, one patient, and a decade of persistence can rewrite what medicine believes is possible.
Seattle offers utility pole EV chargers to city residents
Residents who live within city limits can request to have a public electric vehicle charging station installed in front of their home or residential property. Installations are expected to begin early next year.
Korean scientists develop “nanomachines” that can penetrate and kill cancer cells
This new method directly kills cancer cells via mechanical movements without anticancer medication, in contrast to the capsule-type nanocarriers that deliver therapeutic drugs.
Western Australia to retire all government-owned coal-fired power stations by 2030
They will then invest an estimated $3.8 billion by 2030 into a generation of renewables and storage, mostly wind and batteries, to ensure Western Australia has affordable and reliable power into the future.
China builds world-first full-function space solar verification tower
Space solar power just cleared a milestone that researchers once thought was still years away. China’s test tower at Xidian University is the first facility anywhere to run the complete chain — concentrating sunlight, converting it to electricity, and beaming that power wirelessly to a ground receiver — all in one integrated system, completed roughly three years ahead of schedule. It’s a research milestone, not a power plant, but proving the full system works in one place gives scientists a permanent platform to push the technology forward.