Why Are We So Bad at Reporting Good News? | Angus Hervey | TED

78,893 views ・ 2023-06-23

TED


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00:13
Hello and welcome to this special report
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where we take a look at the big events
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that have shaped our world in the last 12 months.
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I'm Angus Hervey, and this is the news.
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We begin our broadcast with a story
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that has dominated headlines this past year,
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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The war has inflicted a terrible human toll,
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plunging millions into an unrelenting conflict,
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dramatically upending international politics
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and sparking turmoil in energy markets around the world.
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Perhaps the only thing scarier than a war like this
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is the prospect of our planet being ruined by climate change.
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However, on that front, the news has been somewhat better.
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Specifically as a result of this crisis,
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the global fight against climate change has accelerated.
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In response to Putin's attempt to use gas and oil as weapons,
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Europe has doubled down on green energy.
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Last year, for the first time ever,
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wind and solar overtook gas, nuclear or coal
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as the continent's largest source of electricity.
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And analysts say that as a result of the war,
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Europe's timeline for ditching fossil fuels
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has accelerated by up to a decade.
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Staying with the climate,
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in the United States,
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a new law has committed hundreds of billions of dollars of investment
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into renewables and electric vehicles,
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putting the country on track to getting 80 percent of its electricity
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from carbon-free sources by the end of this decade.
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And in the race to build more clean energy,
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China is way ahead of both Europe and the United States.
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The country is now installing enough solar panels every day
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to cover an area the size of New York's Central Park.
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At the current rate,
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China will reach its climate targets years ahead of schedule.
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The energy revolution has arrived.
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Global fossil fuel emissions are now predicted to peak
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within less than two years,
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and the International Energy Agency says that wind, water and sunshine
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will become the planet's largest sources of electricity by 2025.
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To global health.
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Where many countries are still struggling in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,
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less widely reported is the news
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that last year, eight countries eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease.
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Top of that list, Togo,
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which became the first country to eliminate four of those diseases,
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including trachoma, the world's most common infectious cause of blindness.
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Go, Togo.
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(Laughter)
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Today, almost 600 million fewer people
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require treatment for these diseases than in 2010.
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It's thanks to the work of tens of thousands of uncelebrated heroes
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of public health.
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It means that in just over a decade,
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a significant portion of humanity has been liberated
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from a devastating burden of suffering
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and from death.
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There's also hope on the horizon in the fight against malaria.
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Last year, a new vaccine designed by the University of Oxford
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was shown to be safe and incredibly effective.
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Four days ago,
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Ghana became the first country to license that vaccine for distribution.
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Nigeria followed that up eight hours ago.
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Both countries are now going to vaccinate children under the age of three.
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This is a world-changing treatment.
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It offers us genuine hope that we may finally be able to eradicate
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one of humanity's biggest killers,
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a scourge that has plagued our species for thousands of years.
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(Applause)
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Imagine if this was the news.
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(Laughter)
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That along with all of the usual death and disaster and division,
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we also got to hear these, the stories of hope and healing.
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But not just another dog on a surfboard.
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The thing is, this is the news.
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These stories, they're happening.
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It's just that we don't hear as much about them.
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But when you find them,
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the world can suddenly feel like a very different place.
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Let's turn now to some environmental news
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where pollution and degradation
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continue to push Earth's ecosystems past their breaking point.
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However, in the last year, humanity has begun to respond.
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Four months ago, the countries of the United Nations came together
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to agree on a global pact to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030.
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And just weeks ago, after nearly two decades of negotiations,
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they agreed on the first-ever legal framework for regulation on
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and protection of life on the high seas.
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(Applause)
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The tides are beginning to turn.
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Here’s conference president Rena Lee
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announcing what Greenpeace has called
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the greatest conservation victory of all time.
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(Video) Ladies and gentlemen ...
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The ship has reached the shore.
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(Cheers and applause)
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AH: More good news for the environment.
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Since the beginning of last year,
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we've seen the expansion of protected waters around the Galapagos,
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the creation of an enormous marine sanctuary west of Australia,
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and a provisional agreement between Canada's government
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and First Nations
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to create the Tang.ɢwan–ḥačxwiqak–Tsig̱is Marine Protected Area
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that will be Canada’s largest MPA.
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That is just off the coast of West Vancouver.
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That's less than 150 kilometers from where we all are right now.
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Last year, Argentina created a national park
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around one of its biggest saltwater lakes and wetlands.
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Earlier this year, Ecuador created one of the largest reserves in the Amazon,
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in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet.
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And last month,
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the largest river restoration project in United States history
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kicked off on the Klamath River, led by the Yurok people of California.
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(Applause)
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None of it is enough yet.
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But these are big victories.
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They show us that destruction is not inevitable
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and that nature will recover if we can just give it the opportunity.
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This report just in now from our political and social affairs editor.
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Last year saw some significant setbacks for human rights,
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most notably in the United States,
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where for many, it feels like intolerance and polarization are on the rise.
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Globally, however, it's a very different story.
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Since the beginning of 2022,
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countries have abolished the death penalty,
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six countries have ended child marriage,
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four countries have banned conversion therapy,
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four countries have legalized homosexuality,
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and 11 countries have actually strengthened reproductive rights.
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(Applause)
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That includes India,
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which passed a law guaranteeing access to safe abortion for every single woman.
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(Cheers and applause)
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And Spain, which also protected transgender rights
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and became the first country in Europe to provide paid menstrual leave.
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(Applause)
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Oh, and sorry, I forgot to mention,
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Slovenia, Cuba and Mexico all passed legislation on same-sex marriage
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and adoption.
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Three times --
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three times as many countries now grant those rights
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to all of their citizens
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compared to a decade ago.
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(Applause)
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The fight for equality continues.
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But progress is happening even if we don't hear much about it.
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In the last year,
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humanity has moved closer to a world where everyone is free to choose
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and free to love.
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On that note, let's cross now to some more economic news.
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Many will have missed last year's report from the United Nations
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that India lifted 415 million people out of poverty
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between 2006 and 2021.
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Despite some of that progress being set back by the pandemic,
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that still means that on average, every day for the last 16 years,
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a soccer stadium full of people escaped poverty,
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the worst kinds of deprivation.
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That is one of the greatest news stories of all time.
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(Applause)
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Let's cross now to our correspondent in the field, Angus Hervey,
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to get some more of these and some other stories from around the world.
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Angus, over to you.
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(Laughter)
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Thank you very much, Angus.
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Well, I'm here in Brazil
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where the new Ministry of Indigenous people
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is bringing much needed food, hope, relief and aid
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to the country's indigenous communities.
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They've already deployed the military
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to remove tens of thousands of illegal miners
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and restore justice.
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Zimbabwe. I'm here with the Akashinga,
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an all-female army of wildlife rangers there.
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These women, many of them, are survivors of domestic violence,
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but they have become formidable warriors after years in the field --
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Their military trainers say they're more hardcore
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than a lot of the world's special forces.
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And they're really changing the face of conservation here
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and the other four countries where they're operating.
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They have hundreds of their members out there now.
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They're uplifting their communities,
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bringing down poaching rates dramatically
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and contributing to a huge rebound in wild animal populations.
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(Applause)
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And finally in Bangladesh,
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where thousands of newly-trained midwives are bringing hope
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and healing to those who need it the most.
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Since 2012, they've helped bring down the child mortality rate here
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by almost 50 percent.
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It is a powerful testament to the work of midwives everywhere
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and a reminder of just what can be achieved
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through education and a commitment to improving the lives of others.
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Angus, back to you now in the studio.
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(Applause)
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Thanks very much, Angus.
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That was Angus Hervey there reporting on everything from everywhere all at once.
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(Laughter)
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Let's turn now to science and technology
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and what many say is not just the biggest news story of the year,
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but perhaps the most important technological breakthrough
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of our lifetimes.
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ChatGPT has taken the world by storm --
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(Laughter)
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becoming the quickest technology uptake in human history.
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The power of artificial intelligence is incredible,
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but there are also very real reasons to be concerned about its effect
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on systems of power and its impact on jobs and society.
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As we wrestle with these dilemmas, though,
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let us not forget that in the last 12 months,
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humanity has repeatedly shown our resilience, inventiveness,
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our capacity for expanding our knowledge
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and ability ... to rise to meet our greatest challenges.
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Nine months ago,
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we received the first images from the golden honeycombed
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18 beryllium mirrors of the James Webb Telescope,
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unlocking new secrets from the furthest reaches of the cosmos.
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Seven months ago, we smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid
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and altered its orbit,
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confirming a newfound ability to create planetary defense systems
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against earthbound objects.
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Four months ago,
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we used freaking laser beams
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(Laughter)
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to recreate the conditions inside of a star,
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achieving more energy out of a nuclear fusion reaction than we put in.
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It's a milestone in our quest to provide clean, limitless and affordable energy.
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And then, just days later,
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scientists in London announced that they had used
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a new form of CRISPR called base-editing
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to hot-wire immune cells and clear the body
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of a 13-year-old girl named Alyssa from an incurable form of leukemia.
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(Applause)
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It's an incredible medical breakthrough.
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The first use of a revolutionary new type of treatment
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that may go on to save millions of lives in the future.
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So why is it then that outside medical and scientific circles,
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almost nobody has heard that story?
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Why are we so familiar with all of the stories
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that make us feel scared or sad or angry,
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but so many of these stories come to us as a surprise?
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Why are we so good at reporting bad news
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but so bad at reporting good news?
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That question is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about.
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I'm the editor of the Future Crunch newsletter.
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We share stories of progress
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and what I've learned after eight years of doing this work
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is that progress is never a straight line.
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Far too many still suffer in poverty, from disease
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and are trapped by conflict.
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The struggle for equality and the fight for justice
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continues in so many places in the world.
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We still have so much work to do, to get done.
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We know that geopolitical tensions are rising.
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Climate change is genuinely scary
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and we are still destroying too many parts of our planet.
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But when we only tell the stories of doom,
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we fail to see the stories
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of possibility.
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The hundreds of examples of progress in human rights,
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rising living standards, public health victories,
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clean energy breakthroughs,
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technological magic, ecological restoration
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and the countless extraordinary acts of kindness
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that take place on this planet every day.
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I believe that if we want to change the story of the human race
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in the 21st century,
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we have to start changing the stories that we tell ourselves.
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And we have to remember that hope isn't a noun.
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It's a verb.
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It's not something that we have or something that we're given.
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It's something that we do.
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Millions of people around the world chose to hope in the last 12 months
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and then rolled up their sleeves to get it done.
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Perhaps it's time for the rest of us to do the same.
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I’m Angus Hervey,
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and let's make this the news.
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(Applause)
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