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ACCORDING TO LIZ - In a year that has been truly overwhelming in its horrors and death, in its corruption and deliberate cruelty, in its catastrophe and dysfunction, why would anyone choose to look back?
Because it is in our past that we can find the lessons from which to build a better future.
If we ignore 2023, will it make 2024 any better?
Not so much bad as sad are always the deaths – of those we individually loved, and of those who were part of our lives through what they did in theirs to earn our respect: Norman Lear, Rosalynn Carter, Harry Belafonte, Sandra Day O’Connor, Yacouba Sawadogo (go ahead and look him up), Tina Turner, Dianne Feinstein.
And even those who many despised: Henry Kissinger.
He, too, is woven into the tapestry of modern American history, and the perception of where and why he went wrong can help improve decision-making going forward.
What is truly bad is the continued American government support for the Israeli genocide and obliteration of Gaza with a side of West Bank murders and home destruction.
The partisan squabbling and denial of global warming and capitalistic abuse as the world continues to warm, and the sense that the economy is imploding for everyone but the ultra-wealthy.
The power of Wall Street and the fossil fuel conglomerates continued to win. The Supreme Court continues to eviscerate our rights. But there is a sea-change in the forces opposing them.
Despite the suppression of the media through buyouts and closures, voices and the written word continue to spread the news. New bonds are being forged and people continue to stand up to power.
Then there is the good, the plethora of positive stories too often buried in the graphic visuals coming out of Gaza, out of the Trump trials, out of the Supreme Court... and the media’s incessant obsession with the ugly underside of life.
In January American Cancer Society reported that the US cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991. And Pfizer announced it would offer all patented cancer drugs at cost to 1.2 billion people in low-income countries.
New drugs have been developed to fight obesity and its concurrent morbidities which is hugely important here where 70% of Americans are overweight.
And although the U.S. still faces an unsettling number of childbirth-related deaths given its developed nation status, large parts of Africa and Asia reported significant declines.
The war against AIDS, once a scourge sweeping the world, is finally being won thanks in no small part by the actions of George W. Bush.
And while the United States may have spawned the anti-vaxxer movement, it more than made up for that in its lifesaving programs for childhood immunizations, here and around the world.
John Ivanowski of Missouri had a successful kidney transplant in February. So what’s the story? His daughter Delayne conspired to be his donor after his repeated objections to her risking her own health. Then the video of her admitting to her father that she was his anonymous donor went viral on TikTok. Something Delayne hopes will increase awareness of the need for all types of organ donations.
A UNESCO event in New York in March focused on national policies that were leveraging digital education and technical skills for girls and women. Empowering the distaff half of the human race has a wide array of benefits: lifting families out of poverty, improving local and national economies, and giving people the intellectual tools to engage with their leaders and fight for improvements… and for peace.
The Los Angeles Public Library is far more than repositories of books throughout the city where the homeless can congregate. Its programs proactively help students succeed, assist adults pursuing high school diplomas, direct new (and not-so-new) immigrants on their path to citizenship, and provide potential-expanding resources granting all Angelenos the gift of lifelong learning. And, yes, it also addresses the challenges of its unhoused patrons.
April was the tenth anniversary of the world’s deadliest garment factory disaster in Bangladesh when the Rana Plaza tragedy killed over 1,100 people and injured 2,500 more. In the years since, new labor laws have transformed conditions in the clothing industry.
April also marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. While some insects and animals continue in decline, a number of species have started a comeback including Monarch butterflies and sea otters here and, elsewhere, Blue whales, Galápagos giant tortoises, Black rhinos, and Mountain gorillas.
In May news broke that the re-greening of Toronto’s Don River is nearing completion. In 1969, environmental organizations declared the river dead.
Surmounting that verdict, the industrial effluvia that caused its surface to periodically catch fire, prior decades of dumping, and a slew of river-related infections including cholera and malaria, volunteers and conservationists labored for years, and the city eventually invested more than $1 billion Canadian to clean the waterway and rejuvenate riparian ecosystems to support wildlife and a peaceful place in the heart of the city for both residents and visitors.
Also in May, Ecuador completed the largest debt-for-nature conversion ever – a complex deal worth well over $1 billion that both reduces its debt burden and funds conservation activities for two decades in Galápagos marine reserves, areas that are being acutely impacted by the warming of the Pacific Ocean.
In other regreening news, New York’s Harlem River shoreline has been metamorphosized into a verdant wetland, São Paulo is planting 1.5 million seedlings a year in underprivileged areas, and Medellín's interconnected green spaces approach has lowered the city’s temperatures almost 4° while increasing residents’ health and quality of life.
At the beginning of June, as part of an effort to protect public health and sacred cultural resources, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland implemented a 20-year ban on new oil and gas development on federal lands within 10 miles of New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Park.
The UN High Seas Treaty, aka the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, was adopted in June and hailed by Greenpeace as “the greatest conservation victory of all time.” It provides for common governance of our oceans, paving the way for dramatically improving their conservation. With only about 1% of our ocean waters currently protected, it aims to increase that to at least 30% by 2030.
A viral YouTube post in July finally shamed Johnson & Johnson into allowing distribution of a low-cost generic version of its TB drug Bedaquiline in countries where the pharmaceutical giant had been manipulating patent protections to keep prices unaffordable to those who most needed the life-saving drug.
And, after waves of negative publicity, insulin manufacturers lowered their prices.
In August, the conservative government of Mike DeWine held the first statewide special election in Ohio since 1926 in an effort to require a 60% majority for passing constitutional amendments in a sneaky attempt to tank a November ballot issue to enshrine abortion access.
It failed as part of a wave of Americans fighting back against states’ attempts to weaponize the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, many successfully (Ohio’s Issue 1 passed in November); and the war isn’t over.
Women’s rights have been on the front burner globally, with many countries enshrining access to contraception and abortion, protections against violence and discrimination, and stronger prohibitions against sexual abuse, child marriages and sex trafficking.
September saw the final demolition of the smallest of four dams on the Klamath River as part of the world's largest dam removal project. Deconstruction of three additional dams will be completed by the end of 2024. Years of advocating by local tribes and conservationists is the culmination of a major effort to restore the health of the river and its wildlife, including the salmon that are culturally and spiritually important to Native American tribes.
Plastic bans are now in place in 127 countries, but 79 percent of all plastic ever produced is now in landfills or polluting the environment, 5 trillion pieces in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone. Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, extracted 40,000 pounds of trash from the GPGP in September, its greatest haul ever… putting it on track to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
The World Health Organization pressed forward on reducing global suicide rates using data-driven successes that have driven down such deaths by a third over the past thirty years. Notable results came from banning and significantly restricting access to pesticides that are the method of choice in poorer nations: in the year legislation was implemented, Sri Lanka’s suicide rate dropped 70%; for Bangladesh, it was 65%.
The International Energy Agency announced in October that global fossil fuel use may peak this year, and that the world's solar capacity has doubled in the past 18 months, making it the fastest-growing energy technology in history.
Carbon emissions from China, the world's biggest fossil fuel polluter, are predicted to start falling next year and, despite vociferous opposition and strong-arming techniques brought by the multinational fossil fuel fossil corporations, the Inflation Reduction Act is slowly pushing a green energy revolution in the United States.
Energy concerns after the Russian invasion of Ukraine have prodded Europe into accelerating its own green transition; and renewable energy from all sources has exponentially increased in both developed and developing nations.
At the end of October, Bhutan became the first country to declare its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated, the ultimate success of a humane dog management program.
The same day heralded the United Auto Workers win over Ford, Stellantis and General Motors.
In November, a next-generation geothermal plant went online, sending carbon-free electricity to the grid in Nevada, proving that the earth’s heat could become a commercially viable and significant source of carbon-free power.
The United Nations moved forward on developing a fairer and more inclusive international tax policy system, one that could drastically change how global tax rules are set.
Increased public pressure, enhanced by demands from students and beneficiaries, pension plans and banks are slowly but surely moving away from serving the needs of the fossil fuel sector.
Reuters reported that deforestation declined dramatically across the Amazon basin.
In December, electric vehicle website Electrek reported that the NIO ET7 drove 1,044 kilometers, about 650 miles, on a single charge. Electric vehicle production and infrastructure is progressing, albeit unevenly, exceeding even best case scenarios.
A few weeks earlier, Swedish manufacturer Northvolt announced a breakthrough in sodium-ion batteries, using a type of oxidized iron salts instead of lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt. This would make their batteries more sustainable and reduce both cost and the fire danger associated with traditional lithium batteries.
Also this month, CRISPR was approved by regulators for the treatment of sickle cell disease in the United States; Great Britain had authorized its use a month earlier.
After European regulators ended exceptions for bee-killing pesticides at the beginning of the year, New York became the first state to do so when Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Birds and Bees Protection Act into law last week. It bans neonicotinoid pesticides, protects the state’s “kids, environment and essential pollinators, birds, and other wildlife... and underscores our commitment to fostering a thriving ecosystem while we prioritize sustainable farming and agricultural practices.”
The year ended on a high note for the LGBTQ community with Pope Francis allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples. Although limited in scope, one Vatican observer described this as “the most concrete pastoral shift on the church’s stance toward gay couples in the church’s 2,000 year history.”
A wonderful culmination to cap increased tolerance, recognition and enshrining of rights for all people in countries around the globe.
Finally, what didn’t happen…
Our vaunted economists predicted with 100% certainty in 2022 that the United States was going to enter a recession within the year. Instead the economy continues to grow, and unemployment is at its lowest since the World War II. American GDP is outpacing those of other developed countries, wages are growing and inflation is falling.
Let’s ring in the New Year by celebrating the positive in hope of attracting more of the same. By committing to make 2024 a kinder, better year.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
