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.

A heat pump unit on a home exterior, representing U.S. heat pump sales growth supported by the Kigali Amendment

Heat pumps outsell gas furnaces in the U.S. for the second year running

By / / Good News For Humankind

Heat pump sales have now surpassed gas furnace shipments in the United States for two consecutive years, with more than 4 million units sold in 2023 alone — a milestone that is beginning to look like a permanent market shift. Driven by federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act and additional state-level rebates, Americans are increasingly choosing electric heating over fossil fuels. This matters because home heating accounts for roughly 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and unlike gas furnaces, heat pumps grow cleaner automatically as the electrical grid adds more renewable energy. The two-year streak signals that economics, policy, and technology have aligned in ways that rarely reverse.

Karla Sofia Gascón at 2024 Cannes Film Festival, for article on trans actor Oscar nomination

Karla Sofía Gascón just became the first out trans actor to score an Oscar nomination

By / / Good News For Humankind

Karla Sofía Gascón just became the first openly transgender person ever nominated for an acting Oscar, earning a best actress nod for her leading role in Emilia Pérez. The French-Spanish musical swept up 13 nominations in total, falling just one shy of the all-time record. Gascón, who transitioned in 2018, plays a cartel boss building a new life after her own transition — a role she fought for and says she could only have brought this depth to later in life. Her nomination won’t fix Hollywood’s long gap in trans representation overnight, but it cracks open a door that was firmly shut, signaling to studios and audiences alike that trans stories told with authenticity belong at the center of the screen.

Solar farm in the desert, for article on Abu Dhabi largest solar plant

Abu Dhabi to build world’s largest solar energy project

By / / Good News For Humankind

Abu Dhabi’s new solar plant will run 24 hours a day, delivering up to 1 gigawatt of steady baseload power even after sundown — something no solar facility has done before at this scale. The secret is a massive 19-gigawatt-hour battery system that soaks up sunshine during the day and releases it through the night and on cloudy days. Once it comes online in 2027, the $6 billion project is expected to power roughly 750,000 homes and dwarf the current record holder, a 3.5-gigawatt plant in China. The bigger story is what it proves: solar can behave like a reliable, always-on power station, reshaping how grid operators everywhere think about renewable energy.

Rainforest canopy, for article on tropical forest reserve

The Democratic Republic of Congo to create the Earth’s largest protected tropical forest reserve

By / / Good News For Humankind

The Democratic Republic of Congo just passed legislation protecting 540,000 square kilometers of tropical forest — an area the size of France, and now the largest protected tropical forest reserve on Earth. At its heart is the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, which aims to create 500,000 jobs by linking renewable energy hubs, sustainable farming, and the communities that depend on the forest. The model is already working at smaller scale inside Virunga National Park, where a similar partnership has generated over 21,000 jobs in five years — 11% of them held by people who left armed militias. It’s a rare plan that treats conservation, poverty, and peace as the same problem, offering a blueprint the world badly needs.

Solar farm from above, for article on India solar capacity additions, for article on India solar capacity

India adds record 24.5 GW of solar in 2024

By / / Good News For Humankind

India’s solar boom hit a new high in 2024, with 24.5 gigawatts of new capacity added in a single year — more than double the year before. A big part of that growth came from rooftops: 700,000 households installed panels in just 10 months, helped along by a new government subsidy aimed at lower-income families. Off-grid solar nearly tripled, bringing electricity to rural communities the main grid has long struggled to reach. India’s total renewable capacity now sits above 209 gigawatts, nearly rivaling Germany’s entire power system. What makes this milestone resonate beyond India is the pairing of massive utility-scale projects with solar that actually reaches ordinary homes — a model the rest of the world’s clean energy transition could learn from.

Crane bird in the snow, for article on Siberian crane recovery

Critically endangered Siberian crane populations have increased by nearly 50% over last decade

By / / Good News For Humankind

Siberian crane numbers in the eastern flyway have nearly doubled over the past decade, climbing to an estimated 7,000 birds today. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a Critically Endangered species whose other migratory populations have already vanished. The recovery comes from patient, cross-border work between conservationists in Russia and China to protect the wetland stopovers these cranes rely on, including Lake Poyang, which hosts nearly the entire wintering population. Local partnerships, school programs, and careful habitat management all played a role. It’s a hopeful reminder that saving a long-distance migratory bird means protecting the whole chain of places it touches — a lesson that resonates far beyond one species, for flyways and ecosystems everywhere.

Landfill. A lot of plastic garbage. Environmental problems., for article on plastic waste ban, for article on plastic bag bans

Thailand bans imports of plastic waste to curb toxic pollution

By / / Good News For Humankind

Thailand’s plastic waste ban took effect in January 2025, closing the door on a trade that brought more than 1.1 million tonnes of foreign plastic scrap into the country between 2018 and 2021. Much of that waste was never recycled — factories often burned it instead, sending toxic fumes into nearby communities and contributing to risks of stroke, heart attack, and dementia. The ban is the hard-won result of years of organizing by Thai activists who documented the harm and refused to let it continue. With global treaty talks still stalled by oil-producing nations, Thailand’s move offers a hopeful blueprint: when communities push and governments listen, the tide on plastic pollution can begin to turn.

New York, for article on NYC offshore wind farm

New York City to get a $3 billion, 80,000-acre offshore wind farm

By / / Good News For Humankind

Offshore wind is coming to New York City for the first time, with Empire Wind 1 set to power roughly half a million residents by 2027. Developed by Equinor and backed by a $3 billion financing package, the 810 MW project will be the first to plug directly into the city’s grid — covering about 6% of NYC’s electricity needs. Construction will run through a redeveloped South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, creating more than 1,000 union jobs along the waterfront. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a working proof of concept: the largest U.S. city now has a real, physical link to clean ocean wind, and a template other coastal cities can follow.

Indonesian children smiling, for article on Indonesia free meals program

Indonesia launches free meals program to feed millions of children and pregnant women

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indonesia’s free meal program kicked off in January 2025 by serving rice, vegetables, tempeh, chicken, and oranges to 740 students at a single primary school outside Jakarta — the opening day of an effort that aims to feed nearly 90 million people by 2029. The program targets a stunting crisis affecting more than one in five Indonesian children under five, extending meals to pregnant women because healthy development begins in the womb. Nearly 2,000 local cooperatives will supply the food, channeling income to rice growers, fisherfolk, and livestock producers along the way. It’s a generational bet that nourishing kids today builds the human foundation any country needs to thrive tomorrow.

Facility releasing air pollution|google, for article on China sulphur dioxide reduction

China has reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by more than two-thirds in the last 15 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

China’s sulphur dioxide emissions fell by 70 percent between 2006 and 2017, even as the country’s economy roughly tripled in size over the same stretch. That kind of decoupling — slashing a major industrial pollutant while growing fast — is something climate scientists have long argued was possible but rarely seen at this scale. The shift came from real policy muscle: stricter enforcement, legal accountability for local officials, and a massive pivot to clean energy, with China funding nearly half of global renewable investment in 2017 alone. Coal still looms large and the work is far from done, but this milestone is tangible proof that entrenched pollution problems can move, and quickly, when commitment meets follow-through.