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This thread is for discussing ways the world is getting better. You can interpret this however you like, but if you'd like some pointers: last time we had some Our World In Data-sourced "mortality rates in under 5s have fallen by X%" facts, some recent announcements from the news, and much more.  I’d also love to see examples of ways the EA community is making the world better. To anyone that needs to hear it — it’s not bragging, it’s sharing useful and motivating information.  

Last time we ran this banner, there wasn’t a discussion thread. This meant there was no room for caveats or pushback (horror!). This time, I’d love to see discussions springing out of the comments people make on the banner. However, be aware that these comments will be about things that people find motivating/ exciting, so consider that when you are adding context/ pushing back. 

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2024 might have been a global breakout year for geothermal energy. Next generation technologies make it possible to drill for heat in places where this was previously impossible.

Our World In Data has amazing daily data insights. This one from a couple of days ago is astonishing to me. https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/in-the-last-30-years-almost-everybody-in-bangladesh-gained-access-to-electricity 
 

This is actually crazy and encouraging in Uganda where this feels a long way off, amazing to see!

OWID says that ~45% of the population in Uganda has access to electricity, and that it more than doubled in the past 10 years. Does this match your experience?

Yep that matches perfectly. Much of that though will be  very very tiny solar lamp only though. 98 percent in Bangladesh is completely insane and super cool.

In the past 30 years, HIV has gone from being a lethal disease to an increasingly treatable chronic illness.

The number of nuclear warheads has decreased 82.2 % (= 1 - 12.5*10^3/(70.4*10^3)) in the last 37 years, from 1986 to 2023.

"Why I'm long-term bullish on the Middle East" by Noah Smith has some great good news stories

- Wars in the Middle East are becoming less violent (contrary to many media narratives)
- The Middle East is building a ton of desalination plants to provide fresh drinking water
- Investment in solar energy is booming

"In other words, with solar power rising and oil becoming less important, and with its demographics in a favorable position, the Middle East is primed for an economic and political reinvention."

Games have gotten cheaper over time. Real prices for console video games declined approximately 40% between 1990 and now.

The mean annual deaths per capita from natural disasters from 2010 to 2019 was 2.42 % (= 0.64*10^-5/(26.5*10^-5)) of that from 1920 to 1929.

The age-standardised disease burden per capita from non-optimal temperature has decreased 41.8 % (= 1 - 0.00475/0.00816) in the last 31 years, from 1990 to 2021.

The cost of transfer fees for remittances (specifically money sent back by migrants to their home country) has fallen from around 8% on average in 2011 to around 6% on average today. That means billions more for people on low incomes around the world. Pretty cool. 
A line graph titled "Sending money to the Global South has become cheaper" illustrates the average fees for remittances sent by migrants to various regions from 2011 to 2020. The graph features three colored lines representing Africa (blue), South America (purple), and Asia (orange). 

The y-axis represents the average fee percentage, ranging from 2% to 8%, with horizontal dotted lines indicating 3%, 4%, 6%, and 8% fee levels. The x-axis shows the years from 2011 to 2020. 

The overall trend shows a decline in sending costs over the past decade, yet all regions still exceed the target of a 3% fee set by the United Nations for 2030. The data source is noted as the World Bank (2024).

Global production of primary crop commodities reached 9.6 billion tonnes in 2022, increasing by 56 percent since 2000 and just 0.7 percent since 2021. (FAOSTAT)

We are growing more, and better, and now that we have CRISPR in plant selection, my guess is that we are going to start producing much more nutritious and tasty vegetables without sacrificing the yield rates.

Gapminder has a list of 100 positive news during 2023: https://www.gapminder.org/news/100-positive-news-from-2023/

Five new Effective Giving Initiatives have been created in 2024, augmenting the outreach of effective giving accross countries and linguistic communities, some of them already meeting a fruitful giving season!

Dual-AI bed nets prevented 13 million malaria cases in pilot program in 17 countries. 

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/17/malaria-prevention-next-generation-insectidal-nets-saved-lives/

It's great to see a bunch of OWID charts here. For those interested, Nick Kristof does an article reflecting on the year gone by nearly every year. Here is his most recent one!

I really liked the way he ended the article:

I’m a backpacker, and sometimes, on a steep slog uphill through pelting rain or snow, it’s good to rest against a tree for a moment and try to remember that hiking is fun — to recharge myself for the next push uphill. That’s likewise the usefulness of a periodic reminder that the arc of human progress is still evident in metrics that matter most, such as the risk of a child dying, and that we truly can get over the next damn hill.

Thanks for this initiative, Toby!

EAs continue to approach new causes (to us) with beginners mind, and I'm continually motivated by it. Some examples:
- ARMoR's great work on anti-microbial resistance.
- This group of volunteers approaching screwworms from an animal welfare point of view.
-  (the last example in the three has now slipped my mind; this list is incomplete, you can help by expanding it)
These ideas are new, and they could always fail, or encounter some roadblock which causes those involved to switch to other paths to impact. But I love that EA continues to inspire people to look at the world's problems afresh, and find new ways to solve them. Keep going!

Even though the Trump presidency denies the consensus on and importance of climate change, there could still be ways to make progress: https://effectiveenvironmentalism.substack.com/p/can-we-make-climate-progress-under 

The internet has massively increased access to art.

Thirty years ago (and prior), if you wanted to hear a song you could hope that it would play on the radio, or you could look for it in your local record store (who may not have it) and buy the record, cassette or CD.  

Now, anyone with an internet connection can listen to any song ever recorded, at any time, at virtually no cost.

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