The Worthwhile Recordsdata You Might presumably well furthermore Salvage Uncared for | Angus Hervey | TED

The world feels scary right now. The planet heats. The clock ticks. The red lines climb. Death stalks the fields of Ukraineand the streets of Gaza. Famine looms in Sudan. And in the Middle East, the drums of warsound louder by the day. Habitats shrink, democracy's flame sputters,.

Authoritarianism and intolerancerear their ugly heads. Millions flee disaster and persecution. The debts mount. International cooperation falters. Everywhere we look,there are reports of decline. Are we headed for disaster? Well, your answer to that question probably depends on whereyou've been getting your news, because here are some other storiesfrom the last 12 months.

Some other reports of decline that you may not have heard about. Last year, extreme poverty declinedto its lowest level in human history, an estimated 8.4 percent. Deforestation across the entireAmazon basin declined by 55 percent and violent crime in the United Statesdeclined to its lowest level since the 1960s. In the last 12 months,.

A record number of countrieshave eliminated a disease, including, for the first time ever, Hepatitis C by Egypt and black fever by Bangladesh. And global AIDS deaths have declinedto their lowest level since the 1990s, down by more than two thirdssince their peak. When I was in high school, that was the world'sdeadliest infectious disease. And now we have the power to end it.

So maybe you've been feeling despairover climate change or the fear of fascism risinglike Dracula from the coffin, of resource overshoots and political decay. But last year, carbon emissions in advanced economiesdeclined back to the same level as 50 years ago. Cancer death rates in Americaand Europe declined again. And air pollution is now falling in 21of the world's 25 biggest cities. Alongside those declines,.

Other things have been on the rise. There are 50 millionmore girls in school today than there were just under a decade ago. (Cheers and applause) And last year, 418 millionof the world's children got fed at school. That is almost one in five. This year, it's going to be even more. Since we were last all gathered here, millions of people have gainedaccess to water.

Tens of millions of peoplehave gained access to electricity. Estonia and Greece have legalizedsame-sex marriage. It looks like Thailand and Japanare going to be the next two on that list. And at least ten countriesin the last 12 months have passed laws expandingthe rights of women, including France, which recently became the first country to enshrine reproductive rightsinto its constitution. (Applause).

In 2023, we installedso much wind and solar that it changed the trajectoryof our climate future, with China’s carbon emissions nowpredicted to start falling as early as this year. In 2024, we are going to install enoughglobal solar manufacturing capacity to reach our net-zero targetsby the end of this decade. A car powered by electrons was the world's best-sellingvehicle last year,.

And batteries are nowthe fastest-growing technology since human beings made aircraftin World War II. We have crossed the threshold. There is too much momentum now to stop the transitionto clean energy from happening. I have two little girls, Lola and Cleo. Lola is four years old, Cleo turned three the other day. And the International Energy Agencysays that based on current trends,.

By the time my girls are my age, the world's electricityand transportation systems are on track to be almostentirely fossil-fuel-free. (Applause) We are not doomed. Did you know that 2023was arguably the greatest year ever for conservation? We protected huge tractsof land in Alaska, the Amazon, southern Africa,and the entire Tibetan Plateau,.

Which is an area largerthan all of Western Europe. We created new marine protected areasoff the coasts of Mexico, Chile, Panama, Dominica, South Georgia,Spain, Ireland, the Congo, Australia, Papua New Guinea,New Caledonia. In the last 12 months, there have been hundreds of storiesof cities being regreened, of farmland being rewilded, of rivers being cleaned up,islands being restored. And the populations of everysingle one of these species.

Is now either recovering or on the rise. (Applause) Look, I know that a lotof stuff is going wrong. You know that a lotof stuff is going wrong. This is not some weird attemptto cancel or balance out the bad news. But here's an idea. If we want more peopleto devote themselves to the task of making progress, then maybe we shouldbe telling more people.

That it's possible to make progress. (Applause) If you're halfway up the mountain, you don't just stare at the top and say,”Oh my gosh, it looks so steep.” You look back and you remind yourselveshow far we've already come. In the last 12 months,despite all of the challenges, we have climbed a little further. So don't bet against humanity. In Nevada, they're usinggeothermal techniques.

To tap into the cleanenergy of our planet. On the border of Belgium and France, they're using bacteriato break down plastic. In Shenzhen, they're deliveringblood via drones. And in space, new satellites meanpolluters no longer have anywhere to hide. We are launching 5,000-ton starships. We are making seven-billion-kilometer round trips to collect stardust from asteroids. We can perform miracles,.

Enabling paralyzed people to walkby reading their brainwaves and sending the signals to their spine. We've mapped a quarterof the entire ocean floor, and NVIDIA’s new Blackwell chiphas as many transistors in it as there are starsin the entire Milky Way. In the last year, we startedusing CRISPR, genetic editing, to treat diseases like beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. And we created the largest-everatlas of human brain cells.

We are using artificial intelligence to identify new drugs to combatantibiotic-resistant bacteria, something that killsover a million people every year. Two years ago, I almost lost my lifeto a bacterial infection. I got lucky. In the future, many more peoplewill be able to say the same. I mean, we just usedartificial intelligence to decipher the contents,the charred remains.

Of the 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls. And, I don't know, maybe this is allboring to some of you, but to me, it reallyis indistinguishable from magic. Our scientific instrumentsare sensitive enough now to see plants speaking to each other. And to detect the gravitational waves from the collisionsof supermassive black holes. All of a sudden, we know that we are hummingin tune with the entire universe,.

That each of us contains the signatureof everything that has ever been. Progress is possible. Not all declines spell destruction. Not all rising levels result in loss. And sometimes there really arenew things under the sun. These are the storiesof the brave and the brilliant, and they also deserve our attention. (Applause)

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