Getty and City of Los Angeles announce new project to identify and protect African American historic places
As of now, just over three percent of the city’s 1,200 designated local landmarks are linked to African American heritage.
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 York doctors complete first-ever successful trachea transplant
A 56-year-old woman from the Bronx, New York, named Sonia Sein is the recipient. She ended up in the hospital six years ago after a particularly nasty asthma attack.
In 24 years, California has cut toxic air pollution by 78%, resulting in 82% fewer attributable deaths
Scientists at UC Berkeley are hailing the state’s diesel engine standards and other measures imposed over a number of years, even in the face of loosened environmental regulations in recent years.
U.K. launches world’s largest ocean monitoring system
The U.K. government, under the Blue Belt program, has announced its plan to install underwater camera rigs for monitoring ocean wildlife across over 4 million square kilometers of ocean space.
New renewable energy added in 2020 smashes records
IRENA’s annual Renewable Capacity Statistics 2021 shows that global renewable energy capacity grew by more than 260 GW last year, beating the previous record set in 2019 by nearly 50%.
Spain set to pilot four-day work week program
The €50m project provides funding to incentivize companies to try out the new schedule. Officials estimate that they will have the funding to sponsor 200 companies, impacting 3,000 to 6,000 employees.
Virginia bans the gay/trans panic legal defense
It’s the 12th state to ban defendants from arguing they “panicked” when they found out their victim was LGBTQ.
The Netherlands to install a million EV chargers by 2030
By building the infrastructure, the Dutch government will make the transition to electric vehicles as seamless and painless as possible.
Indonesian campaigners triumph against a coal mine in top court
Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal from a coal company after it and the ministry of energy and mines lost a lawsuit filed by the Indonesian NGO Walhi three years earlier.
South Korea unveils $43 billion plan for world’s largest offshore wind farm
Offshore wind is about to get a new heavyweight: South Korea is investing $43 billion to build what would become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, planted in the shallow, breezy waters of the country’s Southwest Sea. The plan is remarkable not just for its scale but for how it came together. Local fishing leaders representing around 200 vessels — many initially opposed — signed on after winning compensation and equity stakes in the project itself. One cooperative leader who fought the plan now calls it something to work with, not against. For a mountainous country with little room for sprawling land-based renewables, this is a real path to displacing coal — and a template other coastal nations chasing net-zero will be watching closely.