All Points of Progress

Activists have found the “secret sauce” to help cut down on the number of young smokers: They’re passing Tobacco 21 laws across the nation, but instead of working at the national level, they’re focusing on small towns and cities.

With many hands on the task, the International Coastal Cleanup shows how communities working together can highlight a problem and help solve it. Legislation is starting to have an impact, too.   

For a cash-strapped generation that also cares about sustainability issues, taboos are disappearing around previously owned items. Online retailers and peer-to-peer marketplace apps are helping to drive a burgeoning market expected to double in size by 2022.

Across the United States, some cities are building parks above the roadways in an effort to reconnect communities, often low-income neighborhoods, that had been splintered decades ago when new freeways were rammed through in the name of progress.

In the nearly 25 years following its genocide, the East African nation has emerged as a leader in the Green Revolution that is lifting millions of people out of poverty by providing farmers with resources and training and allowing women to inherit land.

As international whaling ramped up around the turn of the 20th century so did efforts by governments, activists, and the public to stop the practice. By 2016, more than half of the species' 14 population segments were no longer considered endangered.

Finland ranked No. 1 in the 2018 World Happiness Report for its citizens' healthy work-life balance and trust in its national systems. Increasingly, in almost every facet of society – from policymakers to businesses to schools – more people are looking to well-being as an indicator of progress.

The lack of access to menstrual products for female inmates is being addressed across more US states. It's been a largely overlooked issue, advocates say, despite the fact that women are the fastest growing demographic of the prison population.

California led the way by being the first state to provide paid family leave for workers to care for sick family members or to bond with a new child. In January, the state expanded its benefits. The idea is gaining ground in the United States, showing a shift toward more compassionate workplace practices. 

When the United Nations was created in 1945, only eight countries had abolished capital punishment. Today, that number stands at more than 100. In nearly another 40 countries where the death penalty is still legal, the practice has been reduced.

At a time when half a million people in America are homeless, an Albuquerque homeless work program has sparked more than 20 similar initiatives across the country.

Before the United States' decision to ban the tiny plastic exfoliants found in cosmetics and face washes, an estimated 3 trillion microbeads found their way into American waterways and other habitats each year. Britain, Canada, and New Zealand have since passed similar bans.

Changes in legislation, leadership, media portrayals of people with disabilities, and jobs growth were key to an employment spike for America's largest minority group.

Conservationists hope that the iconic birds can encourage a rare, ecologically-friendly approach to coastal development in a time of mounting human and environmental pressure on coastlines around the world.

US cities situated next to large bodies of water, including Boston, Houston, and Milwaukee, are making plans to build water-absorbent green spaces that also serve as recreational spots – instead of installing more industrial concrete walls – to stem rising floodwaters. 

A recent RAND Corp. study found the Los Angeles county initiative, Housing For Health, which integrates permanent housing with health care for homeless people, has saved tax-payer dollars and caused participants' inpatient days to plummet.

Thanks to increased awareness of past cultural injustices and renewed respect for national sovereignty, many nations housing stolen art and other items are giving them back.

Along with China's ban last year, the Hong Kong government's decision to outlaw the sale of ivory has conservationists hopeful it will bring down the rate at which elephants are being poached in Africa. 

In one of the largest-scale initiatives to combat the 'nature deficit,' Colorado is investing millions of dollars to connect low-income and minority children to nature.