Why 2023 was better than you think

Hey Citizens of the World,

2023 - it’s been a big year! We celebrated our 10th anniversary and shared some intelligent optimism through 50+ presentations and workshops in four different countries and every state in Australia.

We ticked a few stages off our FC Bucket List this year. Some of our highlights were TED, SXSW Sydney, Forbes Growth Forum and the Nelson Mandela Youth Leadership Summit at Parliament House in Melbourne.

We also created two podcasts and launched our new topic Full Stack Human - a software update for your mind to help you navigate a tidal wave of exponentially growing technology to help you thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Thanks to our paid newsletter subscribers we donated $50,000 to small charities who are making a real difference. This year we helped a teacher set up a school for nomad children in Chad, purchased food fortifying machines in Kenya and brought a drone and trackers for turtle conservation in Costa Rica.

The best antidote to despair is action, so if you’re feeling stuck and dismayed after the global events of this year, here’s a holiday gift from our team to help lighten the family dinner conversations throughout the festive season.

66 reasons to feel better about 2023!

Here are 9 of our favorites to get you started.

1. Did you know that 2023 was the best year ever for public health, clean energy and conservation?

We know that sounds implausible given the horrifying events of the past twelve months, but the reason for this is that global media spent the whole year reporting on all the things humanity got wrong. This list will show you everything we got right. We’ve been doing this annual roundup for a while, and this is our biggest and best version yet. Here are our favourite six stories to get you started:

2. More countries eliminated a disease than in any other year in history

Egypt became the first country to eliminate hepatitis C, (which is crazy given that it used to have the highest burden in the world), the Maldives became the first country to eliminate leprosy, Bangladesh became the first country to eliminate black fever (and also eliminated elephantiasis), Niger became the first African country to eliminate river blindness, Benin, Mali and Iraq eliminated trachoma, Timor-Leste, Bhutan, and North Korea eliminated rubella, Ghana eliminated sleeping sickness, and Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Belize eliminated malaria. Almost none of these achievements were reported by the world's media outlets.

3. We made inroads in the fight against cancer

European cancer mortality for 2023 was estimated to be 6.5% lower for men and 3.7% lower for women than in 2018, the United States reported cancer death rates have fallen by a third in the last three decades, Australia reported significant reductions in skin cancer in under 40s, there were major breakthroughs in treatments for colon, skin, bladder and cervical cancer, and Pfizer announced it would offer all patented cancer drugs at cost to 1.2 billion people in low-income countries.

4. Millions escaped destitution

This year, Bangladesh reported that it has lifted almost ten million people out of poverty since 2016, Cambodia said it has halved its number of poor from 5.6 million to 2.8 million since 2015, the number of people living in poverty in Mexico has declined by 8.9 million since 2020, Uganda revealed that over 1.5 million people have joined the middle class since 2017, and Togo expanded its social safety net this year to provide cash transfers to all 1.8 million of its extreme poor.

5. The greatest year ever for clean energy

Thanks to the staggering uptake of wind and solar, energy researchers had to tear up all their old forecasts, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), which announced in October that global fossil fuel use may peak this year, two years earlier than predicted just 12 months ago. More than 120 countries, including the world's two largest carbon emitters, China and the United States, also agreed to aim to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030 - a target that if met, would keep the world on track for 1.5°C.

6. The greatest conservation victory of all time

In March, 193 countries reached a landmark deal to protect the world's oceans, in what Greenpeace called "the greatest conservation victory of all time." The UN High Seas Treaty is the first international agreement on ocean protection since 1982, providing for the common governance of half the Earth’s surface, and paves the way for conservation on the high seas, with the aim of protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030. Only about 1% of the high seas is currently protected.

7. There's less plastic than we think in the oceans

In August, Dutch researchers released a report that looked at over 20,000 measurements worldwide, and found the extent of plastic soup in the world's oceans is closer to 3.2 million tons, far smaller than the commonly accepted estimates of 50-300 million tons. The following month, Japanese scientists discovered a plastic-eating bacteria that could help solve global waste, and the EU announced further plans to crack down on microplastics with the aim of cutting plastic pellet pollution by 74% by the end of the decade. 

8. One of the largest ever declines in deforestation

In 2023 deforestation across the nine Amazonian countries was 55.8% lower than last year, in a major turnaround for a region that's vital to curbing climate change. Brazil's deforestation rate fell by over 50%, the largest single year decline since records began, and over a million hectares of forest were protected across South America, including the Cuchilla del San Juan Reserve, linking together two of the world’s greatest biodiversity hotspots, and the Camino del Jaguar Reserve, part of a global biodiversity hotspot that extends from Panama to northern Peru.

9. The outlook for shipping and steel improved

Last year saw a record share of 59% of new ships ordered capable of using clean fuels, this year the global shipping industry agreed to cut total annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 70% by 2040 and in October, the world's biggest shipping company, Maersk, unveiled its first container ship powered by green methanol. Meanwhile, massive investments into steel decarbonization were announced in Sweden, Australia, the United States, and Japan, 43% of planned steelmaking capacity globally is now slated to use electric-arc furnaces, and the UK, India, Canada, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and UAE established the Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative which requires governments to commit to procure low-emission steel, cement and concrete.

To access all 66 stories, click here. We encourage you to take your time to read the full list. There’s a lot to digest and like Christmas lunch, the best approach is to pace yourself!

A limited time offer for group subscriptions

This holiday season, why not give your team a year of Future Crunch? We're offering a discounted rate on all institutional subscriptions before the beginning of 2024. If you sign up for five people or more, we'll give you 33% off, and if you sign up for 20 or more, you'll get 50% off. It's a great way to spark conversations in the hallway, keep up to date with what's happening on the cutting edge of science and technology, and of course, give everyone a weekly hit of intelligent optimism.

Oh, and because it's got pretty pictures of forests and one third goes to charity, you might be able to get away with sticking it in the ESG budget.

Interested? Send us an email at [email protected]

Take a look at our latest donation:

Costa Rican Alliance for Sea Turtle Conservation and Science

Costa Rica
November 2023
$6,000

Meet our new charity partner, the Costa Rican Alliance for Sea Turtle Conservation and Science, a small nonprofit studying and protecting sea turtles in Costa Rica. They collect data on sea turtle activities, conduct nightly patrols to prevent poaching, engage in environmental outreach, and carry out capacity-building activities for local communities. Their co-founder, Christine Figgener, was a recent guest on our podcast.

We're sending them $6,000 to spend on a drone and two satellite transmitters. This will allow them to run aerial surveys over suspected sea turtle hotspots and follow individual turtles on their journeys via GPS. They're hoping to identify important sea turtle habitat and migration corridors, with the goal of advocating for further protections.

Some summer listening

Exciting news! Following the success of our first season of Conscious Capital on Disrupt Radio this year, some of our favourite interviews are now available through our podcast. From talking science and innovation with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki to technology and modern slavery with the cofounder of Fair Supply, Kim Randle - these conversations highlight that there are better ways of doing business in the 21st century.

And, because we don’t do anything things by halves, we’re also back with a second season of Hope Is A Verb. In this new chapter of stories, you’ll hear from the people who are mending our planet and tending to some of our biggest global problems like climate change, food scarcity and prejudice. If you’re looking for a good way to spend half an hour, new episodes will be released every Friday during the festive season!

And something to leave you laughing

There is a lot of innovation theatre out there. Here’s one of our favourites.

That’s a wrap on 2023

It’s been a big year all round. But with big years come bigger, brighter, bolder ideas - we can’t wait to share all the cool things we’ve got planned for 2024.

Last but not least, thank you so much for all your support. We wouldn’t exist without you and we’ve loved meeting and reconnecting with so many of you in person.

We’re taking time over the summer to rest and recharge but will be back in your inbox in February next year. However, if you’re one of those people who likes to dive into new year plans early, email us your event questions and dates to [email protected] and we’ll get back to you.

Enjoy the holidays in your favourite ways, and hopefully we’re leaving you with 99 reasons to be excited about 2024.

Take care, and don’t forget to drive the festive season like you stole it!

Tané, Sarah and the rest of the Future Crunch team