7 years ago

150

Chris Hadfield’s twitter account:
https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

1. FARC rebels and the Colombian government have committed to lasting peace, ending a war that ended in the death and displacement of over 7 million people.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38153932
2. Sri Lanka has become Malaria free, you know the mosquito borne disease that is one of the most deadly killers on the planet. This took 5 years of working to exile the disease from their borders.
http://www.searo.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2016/1631/en/
3. Thanks to an aggressive breeding program in China, the Giant Panda has been removed of the endangered species list.
http://www.nbcnews.com/…/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-endange…
4. For the first time in 100 years, Tiger numbers have actually increased with a current rate of doubling by 2022.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/…/160410-tiger-numbers-…/
5. Homeless US veteran numbers have dropped by 50% in the past decade and nearly 20% in 2016 alone.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/veteran-homelessness-droppe…/
6. A major public health shift has happened in Malawi, since the program began in 2004, 260,000 lives have been saved with the reduction of HIV rates by 67%.
http://www.aljazeera.com/…/malawi-reduced-hivaids-infection…
7. India shattered the world record for most amount of trees planted in a day. 50 million trees were planted by 800,000 volunteers.
http://www.forbes.com/…/india-bet-6-billion-carbon-storag…/…
8. The ocean cleanup prototype developed by Boyan Slat is starting this year. This project aims to clean up 40% of ocean-borne plastics.
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
9. Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves, developed over a century ago has been proven correct marking a major scientific milestone.
https://www.nasa.gov/…/nsf-s-ligo-has-detected-gravitation…/
10. At it’s lowest point in 25 years, world hunger along with poverty is dropping worldwide.
http://www.nytimes.com/…/is-the-era-of-great-famines-over.h…
11. The solar impulse 2 was the first solar airplane to fly across the Pacific Ocean. This opens the doors to a world of possibilities.
http://www.cnn.com/…/trav…/solar-impulse-2-plane-california/
12. For 299 days Costa Rica ran entirely on 100% renewable energy. They will likely be the first country completely off fossil fuels.
http://thecostaricanews.com/costa-rica-used-100-renewable-…/
13. The manatee, a once endangered animal has seen their numbers grow. Back in the 1970s only a few hundred could be spotted off the coast of Florida, today over 6000 have been counted.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ex…/manatees-threatened/
14. Charitable donations have dramatically increased, 2016 was the most charitable year in American history and China’s contributions have gone up 10x since a decade ago.
https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-2016/
15. Canadian researchers developed an Ebola vaccine with 100% efficacy. This was desperately needed in many African countries like Sierra Leone.
http://www.newsweek.com/ebola-vaccine-small-pox-outbreak-va…
16. 85% of the world’s largest temperate rainforest in British Columbia, Canada where protected making this a landmark environmental agreement.
http://www.reuters.com/…/us-canada-environment-rainforest-i…
17. In 2016, 40 new marine sanctuaries across 20 different countries were established, protecting an area larger than the United States.
http://www.reuters.com/…/us-environment-oceans-pledges-idUS…
18. After landing a rocket upright, SpaceX made history as the first company to be able to reuse rockets. This discovery will make space exploration significantly cheaper opening a new era of discovery of the unknown.
https://www.wired.com/…/spacex-just-landed-rocket-ground-f…/
19. To further combat and eradicate poverty and disease in African, the Gates Foundation announced another 5 billion dollars in aid.
http://www.africanews.com/…/bill-gates-to-invest-5-billion…/
20. Israel, one of the driest countries on the planet produces 55% of its domestic water by desalinating ocean water from the Mediterranean.
https://ensia.com/features/water-desalination-middle-east/