Mammal populations in Europe see dramatic increase over last 50 years
Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows that many are now flourishing again.
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.
World’s first university dedicated entirely to climate change opens in Wales
Black Mountains College in Wales is currently recruiting students for its BA in Sustainable Futures due to launch in September 2023.
Top British universities offer Afghan women free courses until Taliban lift learning ban
Afghan girls and women with internet access will be able to study more than 1,200 courses from 20 top British institutions at no cost to themselves.
U.S. Postal Service to only buy EVs by 2026
With $3 billion in funds from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, USPS plans to spend around $9.6 billion in upgrading its fleet and building charging stations, starting immediately with a purchase of 66,000 EVs.
U.S. to eliminate exorbitant cost of prison phone calls
A new U.S. law that will allow the FCC to regulate prison phone calls needs only President Biden’s signature to put an end to a largely unknown, yet famously predatory, prison practice.
In a world first, Japenese scientists use artificial DNA to kill cancer cells
Artificial DNA that turns cancer’s own biology against itself marks a genuine conceptual leap in oncology. Japanese researchers at the University of Tokyo engineered synthetic molecules that lie dormant until they detect a chemical cancer cells overproduce — then restructure themselves into a signal the immune system reads as a threat, destroying the tumor from within. Early tests spanned multiple cancer types, suggesting broad potential. This kind of precision — working with the body’s existing defenses rather than overwhelming them — is exactly the direction cancer medicine has been reaching toward, and this research moves that goal meaningfully closer.
France bans short-haul domestic flights to curb carbon emissions
The European Commission has approved the move which will abolish flights between cities that are linked by a train journey of less than 2.5 hours.
Denmark reverses the direction of an oil rig for bulk carbon storage
Denmark is moving forward with an initiative that will take huge quantities of captured carbon out to an oil rig in the North Sea, and pump it down to sequester it in the sandstone formations that once held oil and gas.
University of Houston researchers create “game-changer” vaccine for deadly street drug
In a study published in Pharmaceutics, scientists tested their vaccine on 60 rats. The immunized animals could produce antibodies that stop the deadly drug’s effects.
3M to end ‘forever chemicals’ output at cost of up to $2.3 bn
3M, one of the world’s largest makers of PFAS, will halt all production of these “forever chemicals” by the end of 2025, walking away from a business that brought in roughly $1.3 billion a year. The company expects to absorb up to $2.3 billion in pre-tax charges to exit — a sign it sees long-term liability as the bigger risk than lost revenue. The move follows mounting pressure from regulators, lawsuits, and a coalition of fund managers overseeing $8 trillion in assets who urged dozens of companies to phase PFAS out. Compounds linked to cancer, thyroid disruption, and developmental harm have turned up in drinking water and food supplies worldwide, and 3M’s deadline signals that the era of treating them as ordinary industrial inputs is drawing to a close.