The world’s largest database of good news and social change milestones from throughout human history
We are building the world’s largest database of social change milestones, from the first fire to today’s good news. Change is not only possible, it has happened consistently throughout human history. Filter by era, country, topic, actor, source, and more.
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Era
- Tomorrow (2025 C.E. - ???)
- Today (2017 C.E. - 2024 C.E.)
- Post-modernity (1945 - 2016 C.E.)
- Modernity (1500 - 1945 C.E.)
- Post-classical (500 - 1500 C.E.)
- Civilization (3000 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.)
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2024 C.E. February 27E.U. Parliament votes to criminalize most serious cases of ecosystem destruction
The European Union has become the first international body to criminalize the most serious cases of environmental damage that are “comparable to ecocide.” Ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, will now be punished with tougher penalties and prison sentences. Member countries will have two years to put the updated directive into national law.
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2024 C.E. February 27E.U. passes landmark law to restore 20% of Europe’s degraded land and sea by 2030
The European Parliament has approved the Nature Restoration Law – setting a target for the E.U. to restore at least 20% of its land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. With over 80% of European habitats in poor shape, the E.U. Nature Restoration Law aims to restore degraded ecosystems in all Member States, help achieve the E.U.’s climate and biodiversity objectives and enhance food security.
-
2024 C.E. February 26Scientists invent ultrathin, wireless, light-operated pacemaker that cuts invasive surgery
Scientists at the University of Chicago have developed a new pacemaker that’s thinner than a human hair, wireless, and operated entirely by light from an optic fiber. The non-invasive device could help regulate heart activity or even stimulate neurons in a set pattern to treat symptoms of conditions like Parkinson’s.
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2024 C.E. February 26Bangladesh bans capture and exploitation of wild asian elephants
In a “landmark” ruling, Bangladesh’s High Court has suspended all licenses for the adoption of critically endangered wild elephants, meaning they can no longer be legally taken into captivity or exploited. The ban to protect the approximately 200 wild elephants remaining in Bangladesh was welcomed by animal rights groups. Nearly half the elephants are living in captivity.
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2024 C.E. February 2579% of Crohn’s disease patients in remission after early intervention
Led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, a clinical trial examined the effectiveness of giving the immunotherapy drug infliximab earlier, as soon as possible after diagnosis. They employed what’s called a ‘top-down’ strategy, meaning the drug was given straight after diagnosis regardless of the patient’s symptom severity. They found that this early intervention significantly reduces complications of this often debilitating disease, including the need for surgery by a factor of 10.
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2024 C.E. February 24President Biden brokers $1 billion deal with Oregon, Washington, 4 Columbia River tribes to revive Northwest salmon population
The plan brokered by the Biden administration pauses long-running litigation over federal dam operations and represents the most significant step yet toward eventually taking the four Snake River dams down. The plan will strengthen tribal clean energy projects and provide other benefits for tribes and other communities that depend on the Columbia Basin for agriculture, energy, recreation and transportation, the White House said.
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2024 C.E. February 2396% of all new power capacity in the U.S. in 2024 will be carbon-free
In 2024, the U.S. power industry is choosing clean energy for almost all its new capacity additions. The latest federal forecast for power plant additions from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows solar sweeping with 58% of all new utility-scale generating capacity this year. In an upset, battery storage will provide the second-most new capacity, with 23%. Wind delivers a modest 13%, while the long-delayed final nuclear reactor at Vogtle in Georgia will add 2% of new capacity.
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2024 C.E. February 22U.K. quits treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over climate policies
The U.K. will quit the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT) after efforts to align it with net zero emissions plans failed. The treaty allows fossil fuel investors to sue states for lost profit expectations in an opaque corporate arbitration system set up to protect fossil fuel investors in the former Soviet economies in the 1990s.
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2024 C.E. February 22U.S. federal district court orders removal of Washington State’s Electron Dam
A federal district court recently ruled that a large portion of Electron Dam must be removed from the Puyallup River in Washington because the dam harms fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. Electron Dam has been harming Chinook salmon, steelhead, and trout for nearly 100 years.
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2024 C.E. February 21Biden administration to forgive $1.2 billion in student debt for over 150,000 borrowers
The Biden administration will forgive another $1.2 billion in student debt for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled its new repayment program, called the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. The relief will go to borrowers who have been in repayment for a decade or longer, and originally took out $12,000 or less. Biden has now canceled debt for almost 3.9 million borrowers, totaling $138 billion in relief.
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2024 C.E. February 27E.U. Parliament votes to criminalize most serious cases of ecosystem destruction
The European Union has become the first international body to criminalize the most serious cases of environmental damage that are “comparable to ecocide.” Ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, will now be punished with tougher penalties and prison sentences. Member countries will have two years to put the updated directive into national law.
-
2024 C.E. February 27E.U. passes landmark law to restore 20% of Europe’s degraded land and sea by 2030
The European Parliament has approved the Nature Restoration Law – setting a target for the E.U. to restore at least 20% of its land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. With over 80% of European habitats in poor shape, the E.U. Nature Restoration Law aims to restore degraded ecosystems in all Member States, help achieve the E.U.’s climate and biodiversity objectives and enhance food security.
-
2024 C.E. February 26Scientists invent ultrathin, wireless, light-operated pacemaker that cuts invasive surgery
Scientists at the University of Chicago have developed a new pacemaker that’s thinner than a human hair, wireless, and operated entirely by light from an optic fiber. The non-invasive device could help regulate heart activity or even stimulate neurons in a set pattern to treat symptoms of conditions like Parkinson’s.
-
2024 C.E. February 26Bangladesh bans capture and exploitation of wild asian elephants
In a “landmark” ruling, Bangladesh’s High Court has suspended all licenses for the adoption of critically endangered wild elephants, meaning they can no longer be legally taken into captivity or exploited. The ban to protect the approximately 200 wild elephants remaining in Bangladesh was welcomed by animal rights groups. Nearly half the elephants are living in captivity.
-
2024 C.E. February 2579% of Crohn’s disease patients in remission after early intervention
Led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, a clinical trial examined the effectiveness of giving the immunotherapy drug infliximab earlier, as soon as possible after diagnosis. They employed what’s called a ‘top-down’ strategy, meaning the drug was given straight after diagnosis regardless of the patient’s symptom severity. They found that this early intervention significantly reduces complications of this often debilitating disease, including the need for surgery by a factor of 10.
-
2024 C.E. February 24President Biden brokers $1 billion deal with Oregon, Washington, 4 Columbia River tribes to revive Northwest salmon population
The plan brokered by the Biden administration pauses long-running litigation over federal dam operations and represents the most significant step yet toward eventually taking the four Snake River dams down. The plan will strengthen tribal clean energy projects and provide other benefits for tribes and other communities that depend on the Columbia Basin for agriculture, energy, recreation and transportation, the White House said.
-
2024 C.E. February 2396% of all new power capacity in the U.S. in 2024 will be carbon-free
In 2024, the U.S. power industry is choosing clean energy for almost all its new capacity additions. The latest federal forecast for power plant additions from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows solar sweeping with 58% of all new utility-scale generating capacity this year. In an upset, battery storage will provide the second-most new capacity, with 23%. Wind delivers a modest 13%, while the long-delayed final nuclear reactor at Vogtle in Georgia will add 2% of new capacity.
-
2024 C.E. February 22U.K. quits treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over climate policies
The U.K. will quit the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT) after efforts to align it with net zero emissions plans failed. The treaty allows fossil fuel investors to sue states for lost profit expectations in an opaque corporate arbitration system set up to protect fossil fuel investors in the former Soviet economies in the 1990s.
-
2024 C.E. February 22U.S. federal district court orders removal of Washington State’s Electron Dam
A federal district court recently ruled that a large portion of Electron Dam must be removed from the Puyallup River in Washington because the dam harms fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. Electron Dam has been harming Chinook salmon, steelhead, and trout for nearly 100 years.
-
2024 C.E. February 21Biden administration to forgive $1.2 billion in student debt for over 150,000 borrowers
The Biden administration will forgive another $1.2 billion in student debt for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled its new repayment program, called the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. The relief will go to borrowers who have been in repayment for a decade or longer, and originally took out $12,000 or less. Biden has now canceled debt for almost 3.9 million borrowers, totaling $138 billion in relief.