This video is part of our Kite & Key Shorts series—easy to understand...but hard to forget.
2021 was such a turbulent year; there’s a chance you overlooked a few pieces of really good news.
The first ever malaria vaccine1 was approved in October — a major step towards beating a disease that kills half a million people annually.2 The vaccine could prevent 5.3 million cases of malaria and save 24,000 children under five each year.3
There was good news on the high seas as well.
A non-profit called The Ocean Cleanup pioneered a new way to remove plastic waste from the ocean. Using a giant net, they swept more than 20,000 pounds of plastic from the Pacific. With this method, they aim to remove 90% of the ocean’s floating plastic by 2040.4
Speaking of water, scientists at the University of Texas at Austin developed a tablet that can purify a liter of water in an hour.5 The “hydrogel tablets” are 99.999% effective at killing bacteria … and could change the lives of the 2.2 billion people worldwide without access to clean drinking water.6
So, maybe 2021 was better than you think.
It definitely beat 2020.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- The first ever malaria vaccine could prevent 5.3 million cases of malaria and save 24,000 children under five each year.
- A new garbage collection device removed 20,000 pounds of plastic from the Pacific Ocean.
- Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin developed a tablet that can purify a liter of water in an hour.
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