All Points of Progress
- Progress WatchGlobal river cleanups grow
How communities from Portland, Ore., to Paris are cleaning and playing in their waterways.
- Progress WatchUS starts to nip vaping in the bud
New York becomes the most recent of 11 states to enact a ban in efforts to dissuade the popularity of vaping among American youth.
- Progress WatchFaux fur makes inroads in high fashion
As more consumers turn away from animal fur for luxurious feeling synthetic materials, high-end fashion houses are making a commitment to the prevention of animal cruelty in fashion.
- Progress WatchCities eye zero-emission futures
Oxford leads world cities with its plans to ban gas and diesel cars.
- Progress WatchWorld bites into food waste issue
Worldwide, actors across the food chain are working at the problem.
- Progress WatchA steady forward march for captive elephants
As public awareness of the plight of zoo elephants grows, policies are shifting, although not always as fast as advocates would like.
- Race and the beauty counter: What a greater selection of hues says about culture
Black women are increasingly able to influence the cosmetics market through their purchases. And it’s sending a deeper cultural message than just creating a fresh face.
- Progress WatchChild labor plunges: Millions more children get a childhood
Roughly 100 million fewer children are having to work or are trapped in slavery or sexual trafficking, according to a progress report. But serious concerns remain about a slowdown in the rate at which children are being extracted from dangerous work conditions.
- Progress WatchUS poverty rate points downward
The national poverty rate declined to 12.7 percent in 2016. Increases of minimum wages at the state and local levels have had a direct effect on poverty rates across the United States.
- Progress WatchConservation success: Buoyed hopes for sea turtles
After half a century of conservation efforts, scientists are seeing long-term growth in some populations of the globe’s seven species of sea turtles.
- Using outer space to help cool buildings on Earth
Using a phenomenon known as radiative sky cooling, a team of Stanford researchers has developed rooftop panels that could be used to passively cool buildings.
- Land-mine casualties show signs of global decline
Two decades after a landmark treaty, and despite an overall increase due largely to Syria’s civil war, the majority of affected countries recorded fewer deaths linked to land mines and cluster munitions.
- Progress WatchUS homelessness is on the decline
As a result of bipartisan, "teams effort" across a number of US cities the numbers of homeless veterans declined 50 percent over the past decade, the sharpest fall among homeless populations.
- After years of stagnation, low-income jobs join the recovery
Analysis of 2016 employment data indicates the largest income bump is for workers earning roughly $30,000 in a majority of states.
- A disrupter at UN: Can new chief shake up bureaucracy to speed progress?
Secretary-General António Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, says the world has made progress – on hunger, poverty, education – but he's impatient for more. His approach: We can do better.
- US teen tobacco use declines
Public health advocates are encouraged by the recent figures, but say there is more work to be done.
- Millions of pigs will soon live better lives in China
A 2016 survey by the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare found that two thirds of Chinese shoppers would pay more for pork that had been treated well.
- Growing acceptance of interracial marriage in US
In 2017, 39 percent of Americans said interracial marriage was a good thing for society, up from 24 percent in 2010.
- Boston's bid for zero waste: when less really is more
Mayor Marty Walsh's push to eliminate the Boston's net trash output is a key component of the city's goal to become carbon neutral by 2050.
- Is there a doctor in the kitchen? How culinary medicine reenvisions food.
Hospitals in the US are setting up food banks, and medical schools are putting cooking classes on the curriculum – part of a shift in focus away from simply treating disease toward caring for the whole person.