🧒🏿 40% of the reduction in child mortality is thanks to vaccines
Vaccines have prevented 154 million deaths since 1974, of which 146 million were children. Thus, vaccines account for 40 percent of the reduction in child mortality.
🏭 Record reduction in emissions within the EU emissions trading system
Emissions under the EU emissions trading system (ETS) decreased by 15.5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. ETS emissions are now about 47 percent lower than 2005 levels, well on the way to the 2030 target of a 62 percent reduction.
💡 Warp News #231
📉 Lowest UK emissions since 1879. 📱 Simplified view of dopamine and social media. 👴🏿 Life expectancy is increasing globally, but most notably in Eastern Africa. 📉 Decrease in youth suicide in Europe.
🧬 OpenCRISPR-1: The world's first AI-generated and open gene editor
The OpenCRISPR initiative aims to democratize gene technology and accelerate the development of customized genetic treatments. By making this technology available, Profluent hopes to increase access and reduce the costs of gene editing treatments.
💡 24 fact-based optimistic news from April
❌ Slovakia closes its last coal-fired power plant – six years ahead of schedule. 🏢 Thousands of deaths avoided in Taiwan earthquake. 🛫 Successful demo flight with the first private supersonic aircraft since Concorde. 🦾 Chatbot convinced conspiracy theorists.
📱 Simplified view of dopamine and social media
Dopamine is often misunderstood and inaccurately described as solely addictive and harmful. Research shows that dopamine has a complex role in the brain, involving learning and reward signals, but is not directly equivalent to pleasure or addiction.
📉 Decrease in youth suicide in Europe
A number of European countries have shown a decline in youth suicide since the year 2000. Long-term preventive efforts may have contributed to this positive development.
📉 UK greenhouse gas emissions are at their lowest level since 1879
The country has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 53 percent since 1990, while its gross national product has increased by 82 percent. Coal usage fell to the lowest level since the 1730s.
🧠 BrainLM uses the same principles as ChatGPT to interpret brain activity, offering faster analyses
Instead of learning from text and images, BrainLM is trained to interpret functional images from the brain. This facilitates comprehensive studies in neuroscience and improves understanding of human cognition.
👴🏿 Life expectancy is increasing globally, but most notably in Eastern Africa
The global average life expectancy increased by 6.2 years between 1990 and 2021, primarily due to decreased deaths from intestinal infections. Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa saw the largest increase, with 10.7 years.
💡 Warp News #230
🌎 Global Overshoot Day occurs later this year. 🤑 Gen Z is richer than previous generations at the same age. 🚅 Europe's longest test track for Hyperloop opens in the Netherlands.
🚁 Dragonfly to explore the fascinating landscape of the moon Titan
NASA's Dragonfly aims to explore Saturn's moon Titan with a unique helicopter that will fly and take samples. Titan is the only known celestial body in the solar system, besides Earth, that has liquid on its surface and a dynamic weather system.
🖥️ Should Sweden invest in models or increase the use of AI? – report from the second meeting of the AI Commission
The AI Commission's second meeting was held in Gothenburg. There, as you know, people take the tram. Besides that, we discussed whether Sweden should invest in AI models or increase the use of AI, or perhaps both?
🤑 Gen Z is richer than previous generations at the same age
Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, has significantly higher incomes and greater financial stability compared to millennials and baby boomers at the same age.
🌎 Global Overshoot Day occurs later this year
According to the Global Footprint Network, ecological "overshoot" occurs when human demand exceeds the regenerative capacity of natural ecosystems. The later in the year this day occurs, the better. (But the model also has clear flaws.)
📚 Top Reads
We're honored to present these top reads from world-class writers, who contribute to Warp News because they believe in our mission of spreading fact-based optimism all over the world.
🆙 Warp Levels - an idea to level up humanity
Humanity is doing the high jump without a bar. We have no goal. With Warp Levels, we determine what the next level for humanity should contain, so we can level up and make progress faster.
📚 Kevin Kelly: Focus on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems
We talk about some of the 450 advice in his new book, but also about his new project: Protopia - the hundred-year desirable future. And Kevin Kelly give advice for how Warp News should grow faster: "Wrap it around people and their dreams."
💡 A new mindset for humanity can impact billions of people now and in the future
If we succeed in giving humanity more optimism about the future, it will not only affect those living now but also all generations and billions of people who will live in the future.
💰 Wall Street legend: “Pessimists sound smart – optimists make money”
Jim O'Shaughnessy is a legendary investor on Wall Street. He shares what he thinks is the biggest opportunity for the future and explains how the world is going through a great reshuffle.
🔋 Northvolt and the benefit of understanding the future
The story of Peter Carlsson and Northvolt teaches us two lessons: You need to understand the future to see all the possibilities, and you must be a fact-based optimist to grab them.
💡 David Deutsch: Optimism, Pessimism and Cynicism
With so much progress in the world, how can pessimism still be widespread? It is because of cynicism, denying that “so-called-progress” is progress, argues David Deutsch, professor at Oxford University and one of the world's leading intellectuals on optimism.
