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Medicine Earth

'Did Anything Good Happen in 2024? Actually, Yes!' (yahoo.com) 44

Posted by EditorDavid from the happy-old-year dept.
The Washington Post shares some good news from 2024: Researchers were able to detect a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons — harmful gases that deplete the ozone layer — for the first time, almost 30 years after countries first agreed to phase out the chemicals.

A new satellite launched in March to track and publicly reveal the biggest methane polluters in the oil and gas industry — an important step in tackling the greenhouse gas that accounts for almost a third of global warming. The NASA/Carbon Mapper satellite, which measures CO2 and methane emissions, also launched, providing detailed images from individual oil and gas facilities across the world.

Back on Earth, the world's largest plant for pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened in Iceland. Norway became the first country to have more electric than gas-powered vehicles, while one Japanese island began using a new generation of batteries to help stockpile massive amounts of clean electricity.

There were also small but important victories for animal conservation. The Iberian lynx, a European wildcat once on the brink of extinction, is no longer classed as an "endangered" species — in what experts have hailed as the "greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation...."

Despite a large number of powerful tornadoes to hit the United States in early 2024, the death tolls were fortunately not as high as meteorologists feared, in part due to improved forecasting technology.
The article also notes America's Food and Drug Administration approved a new therapy which uses a patients' own cells to attack skin cancer for adults for whom surgery isn't an option. "Experts said the decision could open the door to similar treatments for far more common cancers."

And one more inspiring story from 2024: 105-year-old Virginia Hislop, of Yakima, Washington received her master's degree from Stanford University...

'Did Anything Good Happen in 2024? Actually, Yes!' More | Reply

'Did Anything Good Happen in 2024? Actually, Yes!'

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  • "the ozone-depleting potential of HCFCs in the atmosphere has fallen by about three-quarters of a percentage point"

    Erm, tiny yay?

    And:
    "HCFCs were a flawed substitute for CFCs, they have now been replaced by a new class of refrigerants - hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) - that are considered climate “super pollutants.” Although the Montreal Protocol was amended in 2016 to call for a reduction in use of HFCs, they are often used in air conditioners, refrigerators and insulation."

    Even less yay.

  • Almost all environmental stories, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Sunday December 29, 2024 @02:11PM (#65047997)

    Certainly there are other topics worthy of consideration.

    • Certainly there are other topics worthy of consideration.

      And many were mentioned in TFA but not TFS. Blame the Slashdot editor(s) for the oversight.

      • Yup, the environmental news is only one of many story mentions in the article. Silly editors!

        The sleeping sickness victory in Chad is quite something.

    • Certainly there are other topics worthy of consideration.

      Of course there are, but in a year of bad environmental stories why not focus on good ones as well? If you have other good things to share, submit the story to Slashdot. We could do with some positive news and we all look forward to your own personal pet topic to be on the front page.

      Here you go, don't even need to scroll up: https://slashdot.org/submissio... [slashdot.org]

  • Netanyahu's not doing great either health-wise, and it would be great if they could shake that turd from their shoe after almost 20 years.
  • We are on the doorstep of AGI - some say it is already reached with o3. History will show that was the most significant thing of not just the year but perhaps all human history. I bet people in the Renaissance did not know they were living in a special time either.
    • 20..when?..what?..where?.. do you mean that $100bn annual revenue "AGI", or something else?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Misagon ( 1135 )

      We've heard the same thing about fusion power for decades.

      But while fusion power would be a boon for humanity, what would AGI solve, exactly?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by dddux ( 3656447 )

        AGI could greatly help with stabilising that fusion reactor you mentioned. ;) AI is a great tool that is going to help us a lot, but just s any other tool, it could ne used for malicious purposes... this is what all of us is worried about.

        • just s any other tool, it could ne used for malicious purposes... this is what all of us is worried about.

          That isn't the only worry or even the most important one. What would motivate AI to be malicious? Its mathematical code like all computer programs. Rather than malice, the really big worry is unintended consequences. That the outcomes are not predictable. Its catastrophic consequences that lack the need for any malice that is scary.

    • We are on the doorstep of AGI

      We are not. History will show 2024 is the year AI was presented as a chatbot capable of only producing random text that while grammatically correct was not factually correct and in many cases unable to even to get basic math right - something computers should excel at (except those with Intel inside).

      We aren't on the doorstep of AGI. Heck we're not even in the zipcode. AGI is a country in Europe we read about in vacation blogs while we stare longingly at the lack of annual leave and the low value of our ban

  • There may be a chance for forward political change, regulatory change, social discussion change now that boomers will all have all hit 60 by Dec 31, 2024 and have largely exited corporations, politics, news media, bureaucracy, academic research institutions, nonprofit advocacy agencies, and NGOs.

    The last decade has been an overhang of late career population

    - Resistant to any change
    - Preventing forward progress and stifling debate via drowning out anything except well worn 'approved' discussion points on the

    • ...now that boomers will all have all hit 60 by Dec 31, 2024...

      And what makes you think that all, or even most of us boomers will be taking early retirement at 60? Most of us who haven't retired yet are planning to do so at 65, and I'd bet that some of us aren't interested in retiring at all.
      And, from what I can see, that laundry list of complaints of yours boils down to one thing: not doing things the way you want us to.
    • Washington DC doesn't appear to have gotten the memo. It's still pretty full of old white guys (of which I am a member). Boomers aren't going to stop voting, so until the younger generation comes up with any good alternatives willing to run, it's going to continue to be more of the same. And I've got news for you, being a politician isn't as easy as one thinks, it takes an awfully thick skin. Those easily offended need not apply.

      You can try and blame the boomers, but from the millennials on down, they

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by will4 ( 7250692 )

        > Preventing forward progress and stifling debate via drowning out anything except well worn 'approved' discussion points on the right, left and center

        The number of publicly quoted 'experts', politicians, 'media leaders', 'reliable sources' which came of age in the 1960s and 1970s is declining rapidly along with their ability to propagate well worn 'approved' discussion points hammered out and tested over the last 40 years.

        It's leading to a reasoned reevaluation and civil discussion of current and futur

  • Who cares.

    Progress watching how we poison our only possible home doesn't feel especially momentous.

    Announcing a poor solution (to a problem everyone will ignore) that should have been laughed at is instead being commercially tested is not a big deal to me. It'll die quickly enough and people will have numbers to point at when saying "nope".

    Couldn't care less about a random animal that is almost gone. Record it's genes as best we can, and archive it. Someday maybe they can think what to do with that infor

  • That tracks a fucking banger. Best song of 24.
  • The article seems to forget that the presidential election is always the best thing that happens to us every 4 years. Regardless which party wins, the victory always indicates that it's what most Americans want.

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