Ethiopia moves to become Africa’s clean energy hub with $40 billion investment
Ethiopia unveiled a $40bn roadmap to build 71 power projects over the next ten years. Of those projects, 16 are hydro-power, 24 wind, 17 steam, and 14 are solar.
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.
France makes birth control free for everyone under 25
The free contraceptives offered include the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches, and other methods composed of steroid hormones. Doctor’s visits for birth control prescriptions will also be free.
Harvard University to end investment in fossil fuels
President Bacow said the school’s endowment had no direct investments in fossil fuel exploration or development companies as of June and will not make such investments in the future.
Amazon to cover 100% of college tuition for U.S. hourly employees
Amazon will offer to pay 100% of college tuition for its 750,000 U.S. hourly employees. The e-commerce giant is following the lead of other large U.S. companies that are dangling similar perk in a tight job market.
mRNA cancer therapy now in human trials after shrinking mouse tumors
BioNTech, the German company that developed Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine, is now testing whether mRNAs can treat cancer in humans. The treatment has already completely shrunk tumors in mice.
World’s largest direct air capture plant starts absorbing CO2 in Iceland
Climework’s latest facility, dubbed Orca, is designed to suck CO2 out of the air and store it away permanently underground as rocks. It will likely harvest roughly 4,000 tons of CO2 from the air every year.
U.S. federal judge throws out Trump-era rule facilitating development of streams, marshes, and wetlands
District Judge Rosemary Marquez’s decision applies nationwide, according to the Washington Post, and will protect drinking water and wildlife habitat for millions of Americans and billions of animals.
Mexico’s top court decriminalizes abortion in ‘watershed moment’
The decision in the world’s second-biggest Roman Catholic country means that courts can no longer prosecute abortion cases, and follows the historic legalization of the right in Argentina earlier this year.
Australia’s northern hairy-nosed wombats are back from the brink of extinction
The population of Australia’s largest wombat species dipped to as low as 35 in the 1980s. Since then, with the help of predator fencing, habitat management, and more, the population has grown to more than 300.
Mexico is first country in North America and 41st in the world to ban animal cosmetic testing
The new law also forbids the manufacture, marketing, and import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals in other countries.