💡 Premium Supporter recap + fact-based optimistic news
🧒 Child poverty decreases. 🚨 American cities report sharp decline in violent crime. 🚰 Nearly one billion people have gained access to clean water.
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🚰 How one billion people are forgotten
This week we wrote about how almost one billion people have gained access to clean water since 2015.
One billion! In just nine years! What incredible progress!
Guess what the angle is in other news outlets?
Yep, that two billion people still lack access to clean water. Here’s what a typical headline looks like.
Swedish public radio also reports with the same angle. Nowhere in the short text description does it say that the problem has gotten smaller.
If you listen to the segment, it’s actually very easy to get the impression that the problem has grown worse. Right at the beginning the reporter says that “the situation has worsened.” Only at the end does he mention that “some progress has been made,” but quickly adds that climate change “has worsened the situation.” Finally, the piece concludes that we cannot continue as we are today.
Not only do bad news stories dominate the flow, but positive developments are also twisted into bad ones.
The media should listen to Hans Rosling. He argued that we must be able to hold two thoughts in our head at the same time: Something can be bad, and at the same time getting better.
As many media outlets now report, people get a false impression of reality. One that simply isn’t true. If we are to follow Rosling’s advice, the news should instead have been this:
- One billion more people now have access to clean water.
- But two billion still do not.
- The pace of improvement must increase if we are to reach the goal of clean water for everyone by 2030.
That way we can both celebrate the enormous progress being made and examine what works and how we can do more of it.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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👨🔬 The world’s greatest lifesavers
Here are the people who have the most human lives on their conscience.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
💰 Poverty has decreased by 13 million people in Mexico
The share of the population living in poverty has dropped from 41.9 percent to 29.6 percent.
🧒 Child poverty decreases in EU
Housing situation for children has improved and differences between EU countries are decreasing.
🚰 Nearly one billion people have gained access to clean water in the past nine years
Access to clean drinking water at home has increased from 3.8 to 5.5 billion people over 22 years and by 961 million in the past nine years.
🚨 American cities report sharp decline in violent crime
Over 400 American cities report a 34 percent decrease in murders since the peak in September 2021.
📡 Longest ultra-secure quantum communication link between continents
Researchers established a 12,900-kilometer quantum communication link between Beijing and Stellenbosch University via satellite, which uses the laws of physics to make eavesdropping impossible.
⚕️ AI develops two new antibiotics against drug-resistant gonorrhoea and MRSA
AI analyzed 36 million chemical structures and created molecules atom by atom and killed the superbugs in laboratory tests and animal trials.
🎙️ AI talk or master class?
I'm giving a lot of talks and master classes on AI in several different countries. Happy to come to your organization.
Learn more at mathiassundin.org.
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