Anna May Wong to become the first Asian American to be on U.S. currency
Dubbed Hollywood’s first Asian American movie star, Wong championed the need for more representation and less stereotypical roles for Asian Americans on screen.
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.
The State of Mexico legalizes marriage equality
In a 50 to 16 vote, the largest state in Mexico has legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the 29th of 32 Mexican states to do so.
World’s biggest reinsurer will no longer offer insurance or investment for new oil and gas developments
The German reinsurance group Munich Re will no longer invest in or insure the planning, financing, construction or operation of new oil and gasfields, new oil-fired power plants or developments in “midstream” oil infrastructure, beginning in April 2023.
California legalizes composting human bodies
California has just become the fifth state in the US to legalize the composting of human bodies, a planet-friendly alternative to the toxic process of cremation.
World-first stem cell therapy trial treats spina bifida before birth
Spina bifida causes nerve damage that accumulates in the womb, and until now, medicine could only respond after that damage was done. A clinical trial at UC Davis Health is changing that window, applying a stem cell patch directly to a fetus’s spine during pregnancy to support repair before birth. The first baby treated was expected to arrive with leg paralysis — instead, she was kicking and wiggling her toes. If results hold across all 35 enrolled patients, this could establish a genuinely new standard of care for a condition that currently offers families very little hope.
Renewable energy meets all of Greece’s electricity needs for the first time ever
For at least five hours on Friday, renewables accounted for 100 per cent of Greece’s power generation, reaching a record high of 3,106 megawatt hours.
President Biden pardons all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana
More than 6,000 people with prior federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana — and thousands of others convicted under Washington, D.C., law — could benefit.
New Delaware law ends many fines and fees that criminalize poverty
HB 244 bans courts from charging interest or imposing fees for late payments, failing to pay, or paying in installments, among several other changes meant to reduce abusive fines and fees.
Australia to set aside at least 30% of its land mass to protect endangered species
Australia wildlife conservation just got a major boost: the federal government has pledged A$224.5 million to protect threatened native plants and animals, with conservation areas set to grow by 50 million hectares over the next decade. The 10-year plan zeroes in on 110 priority species and 20 special places, from koalas to swift parrots, with a formal review due in 2027. It’s a meaningful answer to a hard truth — Australia has lost more mammal species than any other continent, and the 2019-2020 bushfires alone killed or displaced an estimated three billion animals. The 30% land protection goal also puts Australia in step with a global movement to halt biodiversity loss, offering a hopeful template for countries wrestling with how to live alongside the rest of life on Earth.
China turns on the world’s largest and most efficient compressed air energy storage plant
Clean energy storage just took a major leap forward, and it happened without a single fossil fuel involved. China’s new compressed air facility in Zhangjiakou runs entirely on thermodynamic processes, storing up to 400 MWh and operating at 70.4% efficiency — well above the 40–52% typical of existing systems. That’s enough to supply more than 132 GWh to the local grid annually, while avoiding roughly 109,000 tons of CO₂ each year. Proving that utility-scale, non-lithium storage can work commercially gives the global clean energy transition a powerful new tool to build on.