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2022 was just another gyear—there was death,
and there was destruction, and there was disease,

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and there were wildfires, and hurricanes,
and earthquakes, and drought, and poverty,

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and pollution, and war, and terrorism, and
habitat destruction, and rising temperatures,

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and human rights violations, and dysfunctional
political systems, and widening wealth inequality,

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and worrisome leaps forward in AI, and steps
towards the precipice of nuclear armageddon,

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and an ever-present inclination that the present
degree of chaos truly is unprecedented.\h

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These issues matter, but they’re not the
only things that matter.

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Through it all, the world got better.

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Whether it balanced out to a net improvement
is perhaps up for debate, but the fact that

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things did get better is not.

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We are leaving 2022 without problems with
which we entered 2022.

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This matters—the world of the future is
defined by the actions of today, so just as

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much as we fight against and lament the issues
of today, we should celebrate the successes

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that compound into a ceaseless inclined march
of human progress.

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So, that’s what we’ll do.

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For our final video of 2022, we’ll cover
22 problems solved this year.

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Some mean little in the grand scheme, others
could define society within a few more trips

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around the sun.

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Some were celebrated by few, others consumed
our media for days.

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And some might not be accepted by all, but
none portray a meaningfully contested position

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as a solution—rather, in the fine scrub
of it, they portray the democratic system

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as a potential process through which problems
can and do get solved.

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Like all else, solutions should be celebrated
when and where they happen.\h

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So, to start our story of 22 problems the
world solved in 2022, let’s start beyond

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it, in the cosmic.

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In a perfect world, we’d solve potential

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problems before they materialized; we’d
be proactive.

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While this isn’t a perfect world and we
generally aren’t proactive, we, or more

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accurately, NASA did solve one potentially
enormous problem well ahead of time with its

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Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.

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This September, after ten months since launch,
the test culminated in a 1,300 pound or 600

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kilogram spacecraft roughly the size of a
refrigerator smashing head-on into an asteroid

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called Dimorphos.

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Now, Dimorphos wasn’t actually headed toward
Earth, it was just orbiting around another

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larger asteroid, Didymos, some seven to 10
million miles away.

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Instead, this was a test to see if ramming
into an asteroid would knock it off its course—a

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concern of existential proportion in the event
that one b-lines toward us in the near future.

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Fortunately, the test was a success beyond
expectations.

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After the collision, Dimorphos was pushed
about 500 feet closer to Didymos, shortening

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its orbit by 32 minutes which, for NASA employees
expecting a change in course around 10 to

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20 minutes, was a major proof of concept and
a first success for their planetary defense

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strategy.\h

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In existential news of the terrestrial variety,
the United States agreed to join the Kigali

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Amendment this year as part of the federal
government’s efforts to phase out the most

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problematic carbon substances.

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This amendment follows the 1987 Montreal Protocol,
a climate treaty that phased out 100 types

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of ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons,
or CFCs, which started destroying Earth’s

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ozone layer.

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The problem was, manufacturers replaced CFCs
with hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which aren’t

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great either.

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While the ozone hole did get smaller, HFCs
have a far worse greenhouse effect than CO2.

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Whereas carbon dioxide has a warming potential
of 1 based on its ability to trap heat, and

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methane has a warming potential of 34, HFCs
have warming potentials ranging from 1,370

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to 4,180, which makes them way worse for climate
change.

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So, the Kigali Amendment expands on those
original ozone depleters to phase out 100%

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of HFCs, which means manufacturers in the
US and most of the rest of the world won’t

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be able to use these compounds at all by 2050.

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While HFCs are out as of this year, comeback
stories are in.

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In an age of massive biodiversity loss, it
turns out that some animal species are making

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dramatic recoveries.

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Across Europe, over fifty species are returning
in record numbers after reintroduction to

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expanded habitats across the continent—for
example, the European Bison has made a spectacular

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comeback despite having been thought to be
extinct in the 1920s.

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Since 1971, their populations alone have increased
by 399 percent, with reintroductions in Belarus,

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Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia,
Ukraine, and now, the United Kingdom.

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The first baby European bison born in the
UK in thousands of years was introduced this

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summer in Kent, where it can help reduce flood
risk and restore a diverse ecosystem, which

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can help slow the effects of climate change.

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And while this news doesn’t cancel out the
global mass extinction event currently underway,

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it presents a road map to getting back to
biodiverse and resilient ecosystems.

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Turns out, when humans step back and give
animals just a bit of breathing room, they

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can return from the brink and even thrive.\h

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Another scientific advancement that helps
life thrive is the vaccine.

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In 2021, the first ever vaccine was approved
by the World Health Organization to prevent

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malaria.

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This year, researchers doubled down on the
progress with a huge breakthrough.

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Malaria is a mosquito-transmitted disease
that kills more than a half million people

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each year, making it the sixth leading cause
of death in low-income countries, mostly found

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in Africa.

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Nearly 80% of these deaths are children.

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It’s an exceptionally large problem for
Africans especially, not only in lives lost,

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but also in terms of economic impact due to
healthcare costs, absenteeism from work and

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school, reduced tourism, and lost workforce.

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The good news is that increasingly, there’s
a solution: This new vaccine attacks the parasite

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early in its infection by intercepting before
entry into the liver, using a combination

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of proteins from both malaria parasites and
the hepatitis B virus.

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That’s the key here: By using more of the
malaria protein, a University of Oxford team

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came up with a second vaccine that’s even
more effective in clinical trials than the

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version released in 2021.

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Both still await the results of a larger trial,
but an Indian vaccine manufacturer is prepared

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to make more than 100 million doses once it’s
officially approved.

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Either way, the fact that there are now potential
options to fight malaria before its destructive

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symptoms start is truly a medical miracle
that will save millions of lives.\h

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From one vector borne disease to another,
there likely will soon also be a Lyme disease

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vaccine.

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But this is less a medical miracle and more
a “what took so long?”

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story.

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Right at the intersection of climate change,
mistrust of experts, and for-profit medicine

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sits Lyme disease.

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Because temperatures continue to rise, more
of the US and Europe is hospitable for lyme-touting

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ticks, and because of vaccine hesitancy in
the 1990s, your dog can get a protective shot

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but you can’t.

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Due to these factors, Lyme disease has doubled
in the US since 1991 and it’s become the

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most common vector borne disease in the US.

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Relief, though, may be in sight, as a vaccine
entered final clinical trials this year.

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VLA15, as the medicine is called, has been
administered to 6,000 participants in the

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US and Europe.

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Perhaps though, VLA15 is more notable for
what it isn’t—Lymerix—which was once

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a publicly available Lyme vaccine.

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Lymerix had its problems: it required three
doses, was only available to people older

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than 15, and wasn’t exactly cheap.

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Now the makers of VLA15 are working hard to
avoid these shortcomings.

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But what led to Lymerix being pulled from
the market is ultimately something drug makers

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can’t control—snowballing vaccine hesitancy.

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In the end, it was unsubstantiated, but hypothetically
possible claims that Lymerix could cause autoimmune

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diseases that ended Lymerix in the late 90s.

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Since then, the disease has spread across
the US and hesitancy over vaccines has dug

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deeper than ever, so quite a lot rides on
this trial and the public’s response to

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it.\h\h\h\h

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An expectation-laden trial of the sports world
ended this year with a landmark labor agreement

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more than six years in the making.

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In 2016, the US Women’s National Soccer
Team sued the US Soccer Federation for gender

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discrimination.

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Although their case was thrown out by a federal
court in 2020, the dispute stretched on—until

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their counterparts on the US Men’s National
Soccer Team helped broker a payment deal this

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year, a first-of-its-kind strategy among the
three organizations that sets the bar for

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international athletics.

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While the men’s side gets paid more per
win due to FIFA’s pay structure, the women’s

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side consistently performs better—having
won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and Olympic

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medals in 2016 and 2020—meaning they’re
more likely to get the grand prize for winning

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the cup.

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So, they’ve decided to pool their winnings
and split them equally, which means all players

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will benefit from either team’s advancement
in tournaments.

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This solution demonstrates how sports teams
can challenge sports leagues’ inequities

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and help their teams level up—both on and
off the field.

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Another measure that’s driving equity comes
on a plate.

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When Covid hit, the federal government passed
an emergency act that provided free school-based

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breakfast and lunch for almost all students
in America.

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This was a way to make sure kids were eating,
even when their families weren’t doing well

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financially—and getting full, nutritious
meals, besides being a basic necessity, is

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linked to better grades and fewer absences.

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So when congressional Republicans blocked
a measure to keep the free-meal waivers in

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place, California, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Nevada, and Connecticut took it upon themselves

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to continue the program.

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Colorado also just approved a ballot measure
that makes free school lunch available to

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all, and at least five other states have introduced
universal meals legislation.

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The idea is that by offering free meals, it
destigmatizes the practice for those who depend

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on it, and includes students who may not necessarily
qualify for free or reduced lunch, but still

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need it.

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Roughly one in six children aren’t getting
enough to eat nationally, and getting to the

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point where it’s a federally funded program
for all students may be an uphill climb.

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But in the states where it’s implemented—like
California where nearly 6 million students

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benefit from the program—it’s working.

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Like a lot of social issues, it has to start
somewhere.\h

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A development we all may well benefit from
in the near future started somewhere in Europe

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this year.

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That’s because the European Parliament voted
almost unanimously to adopt a universal charging

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port standard by 2024, agreeing upon USB-C
for portable devices.

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The initial announcement obviously made the
world’s number one tech company, Apple,

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a bit ruffled, because it runs its iPhones
on the proprietary Lightning cable, maintaining

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a corporate strategy that all things begin
and end under it.

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But, they capitulated this time, and all iPhones
will now make the transition to the USB-C

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design, more commonly found on Android devices.

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Upon making the announcement, Apple’s Greg
Joswiak said the switch would affect 1 billion

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people worldwide.

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Not only does it streamline tech for the users,
but it’ll speed things up as the USB-C cable

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transmits data quicker than Apple’s Lightning
cable.

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Additionally, standardizing ports will save
$338 million in e-waste per year, according

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to one European report.

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So, really, this is just good news for anyone
with a phone.\h

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And in good news for anyone with a car, electric
vehicle markets around the world have surpassed

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the so-called tipping point for electric vehicle
adoption, with the United States hitting the

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threshold this year.

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According to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory
pioneered by communication theorist EM Rogers,

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the rate at which a new product becomes popular
after entering the market looks like this:

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an S-curve.

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Sales initially comprise only a small share
of people, known as the innovators and early

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adopters, and the innovation might still fizzle
out.

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But once it reaches this critical inflection
point, it is considered validated as an innovation,

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starts to enter the mainstream, and growth
picks up rapidly.

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For EVs, the inflection point is generally
accepted as 5 percent of total vehicle sales,

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so after countries hit this mark, there’s
a corresponding surge in popularity, which

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means the US could soon see EV adoption spread
even faster—especially considering the expanded

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EV tax credits authorized in the recent Inflation
Reduction Act.

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With the addition of the US, 19 countries
now have EV industries that comprise five

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percent or more of total vehicle purchases,
also including the United Kingdom, Norway,

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South Korea, and Germany.

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In South Korea, EV sales have already increased
to 21 percent of the market, while in Norway,

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they comprise over 83 percent.\h

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No one knows exactly how many orphaned oil
and gas wells dot the US, they just know there

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are a lot—perhaps as many as 3 million—and
that they’re leaking methane, and a lot

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of it.

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Abandoned and incorrectly capped wells are
bad for water quality through what they spew

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locally, and are devastating for the climate
through the highly variable, sometimes extreme

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amount of greenhouse gasses they release into
the atmosphere.

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The good news is that they were considered
in the infrastructure bill.

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The legislation earmarked $4.7 billion for
identifying and capping these wells which

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is the largest sum ever committed to legacy
polluters.

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In August, the project officially began when
the Department of the Interior released $560

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million to 24 states to begin capping high-priority
wells on private and public lands.

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Each state is approaching the project slightly
differently.

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Some, like Ohio and New Mexico, are prioritizing
work in disadvantaged communities.

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Others, like Arizona and Montana, are working
to ensure that small businesses are awarded

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contracts to do the work.

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Regardless of approach, the process of identifying,
measuring, and eventually filling the wells

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with concrete is labor intensive and expensive
to the point that Pennsylvania prices the

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capping of a single well at $33,000.

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But as an upside, this serves as an example
as to how job creation can be built around

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curbing emissions.

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Another win for human health this year recognized
the benefits of broadening access to nature

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for mental well-being.

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Spending at least two hours in nature per
week is linked to reduced blood pressure and

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stress levels, as well as lowered anxiety
and depression, according to studies published

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in Nature and the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

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And now, doctors in Canada can prescribe nature
to their patients through the PaRX program,

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which covers the cost of a park pass for patients
who could benefit from more time spent in

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nature.

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Originally piloted in British Columbia by
Dr Melissa Lem, Canada has now broadened the

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program to include every province because
of its success, as it can ease symptoms of

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health conditions ranging from ADHD, to heart
disease, to diabetes.

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Canadians can now visit any of Canada’s
80 national parks for free if their doctor

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prescribes it—and other governments, like
the Weld County Health Department in Colorado,

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have followed suit to help more people access
the healing power of nature.

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Mental health has also been top of mind at
the Pentagon.

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Suicide is an intensely difficult problem
to solve.

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As Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth
rightly put it, “one suicide is one too

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many.”

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But the daunting challenge of eliminating
suicide in the armed forces hasn’t stopped

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military leaders from trying.

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In the second half of 2021, after an increase
in suicides in 2020 compared to the year prior,

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the Army implemented a new suicide prevention
policy for the fiscal year of 2022.

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Mandatory wellness checks, suicide prevention
teaching and training, new handbooks for senior

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commanders on mental health, and integrated
prevention efforts aimed to create positive

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climates were some of the main tenets established
in the comprehensive overhaul.

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While these practices in name border on military
jargon, it’s clear that the increased focus

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is working, as active duty Army suicides dropped
21%, along with declines in family member

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and civilian staff suicides, through the first
three quarters of 2022.

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The effort goes beyond the Army, too, as the
Department of Defense has worked hard to counter

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dated assumptions concerning mental wellness
and has begun the process of hiring an additional

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2,000 mental health personnel while continuing
to develop strategies that destigmatize searching

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out help.\h\h

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Remember MRNA vaccine technology, the innovation
that was successfully implemented for the

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first time in Covid-19 immunizations?

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Thanks to that, it’s now being tested to
protect against HIV too.

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Unlike traditional vaccines, which inject
a weakened virus into our bodies to trigger

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an immune response, Messenger RNA is genetic
material that tells our bodies how to make

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proteins.

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Researchers had been experimenting with it
for years, but they went into overdrive to

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specifically create MRNA that teaches spike
proteins how to ward off Covid.

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Now, the National Institutes of Health is
running a series of trials to see if this

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same idea can be applied to HIV, a virus that
has defied successful vaccines since the 1980s

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when it emerged, and has since killed more
than 40 million people.

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If successful in this stage, the vaccine would
then go on to efficacy trials, and cautiously

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optimistic scientists said there could be
a promising inoculation within a couple of

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years.\h

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The pandemic caused art museum attendance
and budgets to plummet, and one way institutions

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combatted this was to sell art from their
collections, aka deaccessioning it, to raise

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funds to pay for things like salaries and
maintenance.

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The issue was that this practice was previously
banned by the Association of Art Museum Directors,

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who argued that pieces should be kept in public
collections, worried that museums would sell

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off their most valuable pieces for the most
profitable return.

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The board temporarily allowed it for two years
during Covid, but like a lot of pandemic pivots,

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this one is sticking around.

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Recently, the same group voted to let museums
sell their works to finance caring for their

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collections, with some serious guardrails,
including the restriction that funds cannot

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pay for salaries, but have to directly go
to the works themselves, such as buying acid-free

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paper, frames, and storage material.

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In the long run, however, it keeps museums
open, and that’s probably the biggest win

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for everyone.

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More efficient running was also the story
for the world’s fleet of motorized two-wheelers

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in 2022.

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More specifically, it was a great year for
the Taiwanese battery company, Gogoro.

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Gogoro builds swappable batteries and charging
stations for electric motorbikes across Taiwan

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and in August they announced a major milestone:
they had reached 500,000 subscribers to their

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swappable battery network.

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In September, they announced that their operation,
which had already spread across all of Taiwan

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with 2,200 swap stations, was expanding into
Israel and Singapore.

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While the conversation around EVs often revolves
around cars, the arrival and expansion of

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swappable batteries and electric motorized
two-wheelers is critically important in places

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like Southeast Asia where around 80% of households
own motorized bikes.

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Not only are these bikes incredibly numerous,
they’re notoriously dirty.

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The average two-stroke engine rickshaw emits
the same amount of soot as ten Jeeps, making

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a transition to electric all the more exciting.

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Already, Gogoro by itself accounts for 25%
of the new two-wheelers sold in Taiwan while

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a host of other Asian manufactures, like Honda,
are looking to crack into the market.

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00:18:13,929 --> 00:18:18,340
Though swappable batteries are yet to prove
viable in cars, Gogoro’s subscription service

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00:18:18,340 --> 00:18:23,670
provides users an important alternative to
power transportation.

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00:18:23,670 --> 00:18:27,220
Major technology developments haven’t been
confined to roadways, either.

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00:18:27,220 --> 00:18:31,990
Ethereum is one of the most important open-source
blockchains in the world, and its native currency,

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00:18:31,990 --> 00:18:36,400
Ether, has the second largest market capitalization
of any cryptocurrency.

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00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:41,110
In other words, Ethereum's massive, so when
it completely flipped its validation model

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00:18:41,110 --> 00:18:43,440
in September, it was a big deal.

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00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,640
Prior to the flip, Ethereum, like nearly all
other blockchains, used the Proof of Work

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model, where miners and their powerful computers
verify transactions and create blocks.

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But this year Ethereum flipped to what is
called the Proof of Stake model, which opens

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00:18:56,090 --> 00:19:00,309
up the process of transaction verification
and block-making to any potential validator

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00:19:00,309 --> 00:19:02,840
willing to stake their own Ether as insurance.

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00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,539
Now, the very reason crypto mining exists
is to ensure transactional security and accuracy,

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00:19:07,539 --> 00:19:09,419
and that’s where the stake comes in.

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00:19:09,419 --> 00:19:14,260
Should a transaction be incorrectly verified,
then the penalty is taken out of the stake.

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00:19:14,260 --> 00:19:17,880
Like all things crypto and blockchain, the
mechanics of this flip are complicated, but

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00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:22,370
this is a world-altering change, as Proof
of Stake opens the door for further decentralization,

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00:19:22,370 --> 00:19:28,650
and most importantly, it slashes energy consumption
by a shocking 99.95%.

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00:19:28,650 --> 00:19:32,580
The transition’s already proved nothing
short of revolutionary, as Ethereum’s co-founder

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00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:37,510
has stated that the merge has lowered the
world’s energy consumption by 0.2%—an

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00:19:37,510 --> 00:19:43,760
incredible accomplishment that benefits everyone,
regardless of their thoughts on crypto.

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00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:47,669
Security for a different sort of product,
this time baseball memorabilia, is probably

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00:19:47,669 --> 00:19:50,320
an issue that you didn’t know was an issue.

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00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:55,169
Collecting things from baseball games—bats,
balls, bases—is quite popular, and lucrative,

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00:19:55,169 --> 00:19:58,530
in the industry, especially when they’re
used to set a record, like Aaron Judge’s

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00:19:58,530 --> 00:20:01,559
historic 62nd home run of the season this
fall.

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00:20:01,559 --> 00:20:05,620
Forgeries used to run rampant, with some estimates
indicating that three-quarters of autographs

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00:20:05,620 --> 00:20:07,820
were fake in the 1990s.

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00:20:07,820 --> 00:20:12,560
The MLB and FBI set out to solve this problem,
increasingly adding levels of authentication

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00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:16,390
and protection, and 2022 was a year for the
ultimate in standard-setting.

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00:20:16,390 --> 00:20:21,740
Once an item is played, so to speak, an authenticator
stands as a witness and an official signator.

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00:20:21,740 --> 00:20:26,830
The item, let’s say Judge’s 62nd home
run ball, is then authenticated with an official

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MLB hologram, one that previously included
a serial number.

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00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:35,250
Now, that special hologram is a security lockbox,
with a two-letter prefix, a serial number,

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00:20:35,250 --> 00:20:39,390
a QR code, and a validation code all affixed
to a tamper-proof hologram.

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00:20:39,390 --> 00:20:43,250
That’s all traceable back to its origins
in a standard database, which includes some

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00:20:43,250 --> 00:20:45,799
6 million authenticated items to date.

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This is useful for everything from small nonprofit
auctions to headline-making ones, such as

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00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:55,450
for Judge’s ball which is reportedly up
for more than $3 million.

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00:20:55,450 --> 00:20:59,559
In ecologically useful news, this year marked
the end of a 20-year-long battle to demolish

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00:20:59,559 --> 00:21:03,770
four dams on the Lower Klamath river in southern
Oregon and northern California that will be

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00:21:03,770 --> 00:21:06,980
the biggest river restoration project in US
history.

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00:21:06,980 --> 00:21:11,680
On November 17th, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission authorized the demolition of these

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00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:16,170
dams, which have cut off salmon from their
annual patterns of migration for over a century.

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With over 400 miles, or 640 kilometers, of
salmon spawning habitat gone, large populations

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have simply vanished—all because of these
dams' damn presence.

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Salmon are a keystone species, and without
healthy numbers of them swimming upstream,

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00:21:29,090 --> 00:21:32,620
spawning in the upper basin, and later, dying
there, the river’s sediment became trapped

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00:21:32,620 --> 00:21:36,990
behind dams and without the same levels of
ecologically valuable fatty acids left behind

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00:21:36,990 --> 00:21:38,370
by dead salmon.

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00:21:38,370 --> 00:21:41,930
This imbalance created a rapid outgrowth of
algae throughout the Klamath River, including

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00:21:41,930 --> 00:21:46,850
Certanova Shasta, a strain that killed off
70% of juvenile salmon in 2020.

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00:21:46,850 --> 00:21:51,290
And although these dams did provide hydroelectric
power, they are no longer necessary for energy

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00:21:51,290 --> 00:21:56,190
generation with new local wind power installations
that have more than met the region’s electric

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00:21:56,190 --> 00:21:57,190
needs.

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So, here’s to hoping that 2023 will be the
year of the Klamath River salmon finally returning

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home.

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00:22:03,030 --> 00:22:06,550
Information flows freely on the internet,
and one of the unmanaged wormholes on the

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00:22:06,550 --> 00:22:11,460
web is deep fakes—digitally altered photos
and videos of real people that are manipulated,

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00:22:11,460 --> 00:22:13,169
typically to spread false information.

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00:22:13,169 --> 00:22:17,059
Now, Intel announced they’ve developed a
solution called FakeCatcher, which they claim

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00:22:17,059 --> 00:22:21,179
can detect artificial videos with up to 96%
accuracy in real-time.

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00:22:21,179 --> 00:22:25,220
The company’s software scans the pixels
in a video for slight changes in facial blood

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00:22:25,220 --> 00:22:28,750
flow, detecting what’s real about a video
instead of other technologies that require

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00:22:28,750 --> 00:22:32,820
raw data be uploaded and then scanned for
inconsistencies that could be flagged as fake,

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00:22:32,820 --> 00:22:35,330
a cumbersome and hours-long process.

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00:22:35,330 --> 00:22:39,159
The program is hosted on a server and runs
through a web-based platform meaning it can

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00:22:39,159 --> 00:22:43,150
easily be used by social media sites and news
organizations—two of the biggest opportunity

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00:22:43,150 --> 00:22:48,750
markets for technology like this, where lookalike
videos run rampant.\h

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00:22:48,750 --> 00:22:53,890
Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances,
or PFAS, are complex human-made chemicals.

356
00:22:53,890 --> 00:22:58,220
They are both scary and hard to pronounce
so they’re more commonly called forever

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00:22:58,220 --> 00:22:59,220
chemicals.

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00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:02,880
These unnatural creations just don’t go
away on their own—rather than degrade or

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00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:07,260
dissipate, they stick around in our environment,
in our water systems, and in our bodies pretty

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00:23:07,260 --> 00:23:08,700
much forever.

361
00:23:08,700 --> 00:23:12,860
Originating in the 1930s and 40s, and made
infamous by Dupont’s Teflon plant poisoning

362
00:23:12,860 --> 00:23:16,470
the town of Parkersburg, West Virginia for
much of the second half of the century, PFAS

363
00:23:16,470 --> 00:23:21,260
have proved both extremely helpful for non-stick
cooking, fire suppression, and countless manufacturing

364
00:23:21,260 --> 00:23:25,920
processes, while also extremely damaging to
human health, leading to cancer, reproductive

365
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:27,299
problems, and endocrine disruption.

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00:23:27,299 --> 00:23:31,610
So we’ve kept using them, kept getting sick
from them, but haven’t found a way to get

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00:23:31,610 --> 00:23:32,610
rid of them.

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00:23:32,610 --> 00:23:36,760
That was until this year when the long process
of developing a cost-effective solution for

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00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,590
breaking these chemical compounds down was
published in the journal Science.

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00:23:40,590 --> 00:23:45,530
It turns out the solution’s, well, a solution,
as Scientist Brittney Trang found that mixing

371
00:23:45,530 --> 00:23:50,360
PFAs with the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide,
or DMSO, the chemical sodium hydroxide, and

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00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:55,539
water, then bringing the mix to a boil, broke
the dangerous compounds into harmless fragments.

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00:23:55,539 --> 00:23:59,080
One application of this would be to treat
drinking water, helping more than 2,000 American

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00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:03,159
cities with PFA levels above the Environmental
Protection Agency limit, according to one

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00:24:03,159 --> 00:24:04,910
environmental advocacy group.

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00:24:04,910 --> 00:24:08,559
While remarkably simple, the development is
critically important in the fight to break

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00:24:08,559 --> 00:24:13,700
these PFAS down, as tens of thousands of tons
of these chemicals are released into the environment

378
00:24:13,700 --> 00:24:14,919
every single year.\h

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00:24:14,919 --> 00:24:19,800
\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h
The United States abolished slavery in 1865.

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00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,120
Well, it abolished most slavery.

381
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:28,520
For over 160 years, there’s existed a single
glaring exception in the 13th Amendment—that

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00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:33,460
slavery was unconstitutional except as a punishment
for crime—something that prisons have relied

383
00:24:33,460 --> 00:24:35,260
on ever since.

384
00:24:35,260 --> 00:24:39,570
This year, four states—Alabama, Oregon,
Tennessee, and Vermont—closed this loophole

385
00:24:39,570 --> 00:24:43,340
to involuntary servitude with ballot measures
that repealed the exception.

386
00:24:43,340 --> 00:24:47,740
In doing so, they joined, Nebraska, Colorado,
Utah, and Rhode Island in entirely nixing

387
00:24:47,740 --> 00:24:50,510
any form of slavery from their state constitutions.

388
00:24:50,510 --> 00:24:55,029
The issue also appeared on ballots in Louisiana
during this year’s midterms, where it failed.

389
00:24:55,029 --> 00:24:58,870
This failure, however, is less an indictment
of the state, and more so a recognition of

390
00:24:58,870 --> 00:25:01,160
the importance of the exact language used.

391
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,390
In Louisiana, some early proponents of the
amendment actually decided to push against

392
00:25:05,390 --> 00:25:08,970
the bill as the wording had the potential
to expand the use of involuntary labor in

393
00:25:08,970 --> 00:25:12,549
the state, while rank-and-file voters simply
couldn’t parse what the amendment’s wording

394
00:25:12,549 --> 00:25:14,250
would actually change.

395
00:25:14,250 --> 00:25:19,159
Across the board, prison labor creates $2
billion a year in goods and provides $9 billion

396
00:25:19,159 --> 00:25:23,470
worth of facilities maintenance, while prison
laborers, some 800,000 in number, make on

397
00:25:23,470 --> 00:25:27,289
average less than a dollar an hour, and some
don’t make any money at all.

398
00:25:27,289 --> 00:25:31,800
While banning slavery ends involuntary labor,
prison labor still figures to be important

399
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,710
for upkeep of facilities and a major cog in
what keeps prisons running.

400
00:25:35,710 --> 00:25:40,370
Now, though, at very least it is explicitly
a matter of choice for prisoners to partake

401
00:25:40,370 --> 00:25:43,160
in seven states.\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\h

402
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,510
The final breakthrough of 2022 could, when
looked back on in the future, carry with it

403
00:25:47,510 --> 00:25:52,450
perhaps the most profound implications of
them all, as this December, the US announced

404
00:25:52,450 --> 00:25:56,870
the biggest step toward virtually limitless,
green energy to date.

405
00:25:56,870 --> 00:26:00,690
The announcement came out of a much anticipated
Department of Energy press conference while

406
00:26:00,690 --> 00:26:03,960
the breakthrough itself came in the form of
nuclear fusion.

407
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:09,020
Today, all nuclear power plants rely on fission—the
splitting of atoms—to create energy, while

408
00:26:09,020 --> 00:26:13,440
fusion—the smashing together of atoms—has
remained the unrealized, theoretically possible,

409
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,399
but brutally difficult to actualize alternative.

410
00:26:16,399 --> 00:26:19,270
Unlike fission, fusion doesn’t create nuclear
waste.

411
00:26:19,270 --> 00:26:22,480
Also unlike fission, we haven’t figured
out how to effectively harness fusion.

412
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:23,690
But we’re getting closer.

413
00:26:23,690 --> 00:26:28,930
For the first time ever, an American lab produced
more energy through fusion than was used to

414
00:26:28,930 --> 00:26:30,380
create the reaction.

415
00:26:30,380 --> 00:26:34,020
Firing hydrogen-rich pellets into a series
of high powered lasers, scientists at the

416
00:26:34,020 --> 00:26:37,799
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were
able to create explosions that gave off energy

417
00:26:37,799 --> 00:26:43,380
in the form of heat for a fraction of a second—enough
energy to boil roughly 10 kettles of water.

418
00:26:43,380 --> 00:26:47,880
For a project that has cost somewhere near
$3.5 billion, 10 kettles of water doesn’t

419
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:52,899
seem like much, but proving that ignition
is possible is a critical step going forward.

420
00:26:52,899 --> 00:26:56,270
Next up is finding a way to maintain these
reactions for longer than a fraction of a

421
00:26:56,270 --> 00:27:00,130
second, and while the development timeline
is still likely too long for fission to prove

422
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a viable solution to the climate crisis, this
represents an incredible milestone towards

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00:27:04,419 --> 00:27:09,360
a future of low-cost, pollution-free energy
abundance as yet confined to only the most

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00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:11,080
imaginative science fiction.\h

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00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:17,029
I had a minor, ultimately meaningless personal
problem that I figured out a few years ago,

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00:27:17,029 --> 00:27:20,170
so I want to talk to you about what I found
as a solution.

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00:27:20,170 --> 00:27:25,500
You see, I really enjoy the fun, calming process
of putting on some music, maybe lighting a

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00:27:25,500 --> 00:27:28,000
candle, and just making a home-cooked meal.

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00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,940
The problem was, by the time I stopped by
the grocery store, unloaded the car, gathered

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00:27:31,940 --> 00:27:35,620
all the ingredients, prepped, cooked, and
cleaned, it was almost time to go to sleep

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00:27:35,620 --> 00:27:37,700
and my evening was basically gone.

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00:27:37,700 --> 00:27:41,950
The only alternatives were to pay a huge amount
for some lukewarm delivery food, or to microwave

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00:27:41,950 --> 00:27:46,649
some frozen food that really wasn’t good
or healthy—until I found Hello Fresh.

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00:27:46,649 --> 00:27:50,559
This is all true, I started my subscription
in 2020 just by researching what the best

435
00:27:50,559 --> 00:27:54,000
meal subscription box was, these are all the
recipe cards that I’ve accumulated to prove

436
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,750
it, and it was only a year and a half later
that they came along and started sponsoring

437
00:27:57,750 --> 00:27:58,750
my channels.

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00:27:58,750 --> 00:28:03,120
So, if you have the same problem of not having
the time to but enjoying making home-cooked

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00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:08,250
meals, then this is the solution that I actually
found and kept using myself, before I had

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00:28:08,250 --> 00:28:10,240
any financial incentive to do so.

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00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,490
Beyond the time-saving factor, research on
HelloFresh has found that, on average, it

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00:28:14,490 --> 00:28:19,510
works out to 25% cheaper and less caloric
than takeout, and slightly cheaper than grocery

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00:28:19,510 --> 00:28:20,510
shopping.

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00:28:20,510 --> 00:28:23,870
But the most important thing is that it’s
just easier—everything comes in the exact

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00:28:23,870 --> 00:28:27,470
quantities you need, with some ingredients
already prepared, so you skip to the nice

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00:28:27,470 --> 00:28:29,580
part of cooking, not the measuring and mixing.

447
00:28:29,580 --> 00:28:33,909
And the food’s actually good, and usually
more varied than cooking with grocery ingredients,

448
00:28:33,909 --> 00:28:36,559
since you get to pick one of dozens of meals
each week.

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00:28:36,559 --> 00:28:40,300
So, if you want to solve this problem in your
life, click the button on-screen or go to

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00:28:40,300 --> 00:28:45,620
HelloFresh.com and use code Wendover21 for
21 free meals plus free shipping.