All Points of Progress
- Taking better care of people: Silver Alerts, non-English driver’s tests
In our progress roundup, Arizona includes intellectual disabilities in its Silver Alerts, and Namibia recognizes native tongues in its driver’s test.
- Environmental justice at work: From New Jersey water to Indonesian air
In our progress roundup, Newark replaces its lead pipes and an Indonesian court grants villagers the right to speak up against a factory spewing waste.
- Might without size: Island nations cooperate to control fishing rights
In our progress briefs, eight small countries are together selling fishing rights to foreign fleets, improving their own economies and sustainability.
- Repairing the past: From African American cemeteries to Iraqi art
To honor earlier cultures, communities are protecting more African American burial sites. Two U.S. art collections have returned antiquities to Iraq.
- Power tools: From traffic lights for walkers, to zippers for the impaired
Our roundup includes a streetlight that gives pedestrians more control over traffic, and fashion designs that enable those with mobility issues.
- From Costa Rica to Iraq, keeping culture and history intact
Our progress roundup highlights a Brooklyn museum’s return of artifacts to Costa Rica, and an effort from academia to help Iraq preserve its history.
- More inclusive courts, from Canada to Colombia
In our progress roundup, Canada appoints a nonwhite justice, and Colombia’s Constitutional Court translates from Spanish to 26 Indigenous languages.
- Bridges from old wind turbines, better A/C from nonstick coatings
In our progress roundup, engineers address environmental concerns mere decades old: air conditioning’s climate impact and aging wind turbine blades.
- More than memories: Digital archives are preserving refugee cultures
Our progress briefs highlight the fostering and preservation of marginalized cultures, from Indigenous Australians to refugees who’ve lost homelands.
- Protecting fur and fins: Bans on fashion in Israel and fishing in Jamaica
Our progress roundup: Israel is first country to ban fashion furs, and a Jamaica fish sanctuary where conservationist-fisher cooperation is key.
- Righting wrongs for marginalized people, from Colorado to Kenya
Progress briefs: compassion for the marginalized, from once-incarcerated people in Colorado to LGBTQ Kenyans allying with conservative faith leaders.
- For a warming world, solar-powered schools and city ‘heat officers’
Progress roundup: Women rise to jobs of first-ever “chief heat officer” in Miami-Dade, top civilian in the U.S. Army, and head of Paris’ Louvre.
- From coffee to vultures, preserving forgotten species
Science progress briefs: A heat-hardy coffee is rediscovered, Galápagos gets funding infusion, physicists achieve the highest intensity laser ever.
- Everything in its place: From stolen art to endangered monkeys
Progress roundup: A powerful database is enabling the return of looted antiquities, and Germany is first to plan repatriation of its Benin Bronzes.
- Counting bees, growing trees: How people’s efforts build back environments
Progress roundup: People-approved conservation shifts grazing land to native crops in Ecuador. In the Netherlands, bee populations are stabilizing.
- Fewer fights: Well-managed resources help keep conflict at bay
From rebounding wolves to a study on land management and armed conflicts, our global briefs show the benefits of planning for both people and nature.
- Useful waste: New bioplastics from wood, and banana plant rugs
Our roundup includes a bioplastic breakthrough and the greenhouse gas trappers who are seeking out freon from old fridges.
- Help for birds to bees, from 3D-printed beaks to bug superhighways
In our progress roundup, volunteers and scientists are facilitating animal life, from protecting turtle nests to creating 3D-printed bird beaks.
- Humans cleaning up: From outer space junk to village ponds
In this roundup, both high- and low-tech solutions have the potential to correct environmental damage – for small communities and in outer space.
- From American bald eagles to sustainable palm oil, progress takes flight
This week, environmental progress includes palm oil companies reducing their impact, and anti-food-waste efforts in Italy helping to feed the hungry.