All Points of Progress
- The values that led humanity forward this year
Responsibility, equality, dignity, ingenuity, cooperation – five values that drove progress around the world in 2022.
- Bubbles that fight trash, and a penguin chick surprise
Progress roundup: Dutch engineers create a simple solution to corral trash on waterways; conservationists create hope for Africa’s endangered penguin.
- It spins, it floats: Solar power generated on water and for garment trade
Progress roundup: Photovoltaics are being sited on waterways around the world. And in India, solar power is increasing efficiency and raising pay.
- Growth in clean water for people – and lettuce farmed at school
Progress roundup: Drinking water and hydroponics are growing around the world. And in Bangladesh and New Zealand, species protection is paying off.
- From zero waste to LGBTQ rights: How cooperation got the job done
Progress roundup: State-by-state votes secure same-sex marriage rights for all of Mexico. And a small Japanese city cooperatively works toward zero waste.
- Old ways, new gains: US apprenticeships expand, ancient Dutch crop revives
Progress roundup: Tradition improves U.S. job training, and bringing back buckwheat as a Dutch crop pays off in biodiversity – and old-fashioned pancakes.
- From Greece to Bangladesh, individual acts, big impact for land and water
Progress roundup: Care for the environment doesn’t always require the newest technology. Citizens in Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Greece are making strides.
- Lifesaving changes: From demining Angola to calming traffic in Japan
Progress roundup: Big problems can require multipronged solutions. In Japan, better train service and tiny cars helped bring down traffic fatalities.
- Fueling up: Free school meals in US and geothermal power in Kenya
Progress roundup: Governments fuel the dignity of people with wider labor protections, free lunch in more U.S. schools, and the lowering of poverty in China.
- Better laws, less punishment, more freedom – from Cuba to Oklahoma
Progress roundup: Fewer Oklahomans are in prison, Cubans vote for same-sex marriage, and marine life gains protections in the Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka.
- From beach to desert, efforts that add up
Progress roundup: New laws plus volunteers are cleaning up Australia’s beaches. And in the Western U.S., incarcerated people are helping save a habitat.
- What’s positive about ‘zero,’ and a shield that’s invisible
Progress roundup: Daunting goals that are being achieved include eliminating traffic deaths in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the healing of the ozone layer.
- New views: What makes a top US college, and the significance of Timbuktu
Progress roundup: Colleges that help students gain economic mobility, the digitized history of centuries of Timbuktu scholarship, and sex selection for boys falls in India.
- A boost to wildlife in Bolivia and to child welfare in Nigeria
Progress roundup: From Nigeria’s drop in child marriage to wildlife populating a dangerous Bolivian road; also notes from California, Nepal, Belgium.
- New diversity in gaming – and in Oxford dictionaries
Progress roundup: a wave energy first in Australia, a new Oxford Dictionary of Black English, and the female soccer stars of a new video game.
- Dignity in a home address, and the right to a healthy environment
Progress roundup: The dignity of slum residents in India receiving home addresses, final exoneration in Salem witch trials, environment as a human right, and more.
- Tiger births and Benin Bronzes: Restorations of nature and art
In our progress roundup, a return to the old, plus new ways of making food and fuel: more tigers in Nepal, the Smithsonian on returning artifacts, world’s largest vertical farm, and more.
- History uncovered: Fossils older than dinosaurs, and a religious refuge
Progress roundup: Discoveries in both Brazil and Turkey were so vast that paleontologists and archaeologists have a wealth of opportunities to learn.
- Bouncing back: Cheese in Bosnia, trees around the world
Progress roundup: Bosnian cheesemakers revive their craft after the war, 36 countries count gains in tree coverage, plus briefs from Kenya, India, and the U.S.
- What a view: More starlit skies and a mapped ocean floor
Progress roundup: Cooperation across groups achieves goals such as understanding the geography of the seafloor and eliminating light pollution.