There’s a sense of exhaustion from a year filled with news — good and bad. Despite all the negative events that happened in 2023, there are reasons to feel hopeful for 2024.
First, let’s get the bad news out of the way:
Gun violence eroded civic life in America, with over 560 mass shootings in the U.S. just this year.
Hate crime went up in most big cities. (However, FBI statistics show that crime in the United States has actually decreased significantly over the past year — violent crime dropped 8 percent, while property crime fell 6.3 percent.)
Major wars invaded our sense of global calm this year, from Ukraine to Gaza.
Drones and rocket attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels tried to intimidate American troops in the region, firing multiple times in less than a month. Most of these attacks were disrupted by the U.S. military or failed to reach their targets, but they’ve made shipping in the Red Sea dangerous.
So, where do we look for some upbeat projections for the new year?
Health, science, and technology offer some hope.
The field of genetics took a positive leap forward in 2023 with gene-editing therapy Crispr leading to a treatment for sickle cell disease.
The discovery of a new human gene cluster sequence also has implications for cancer treatment.
And according to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 2023 brought relief and new hope for many sufferers of chronic pain, a prostate cancer treatment for men, better cancer screening for dense breasts, advances in continuous glucose monitors for people with diabetes, and a better way to bust blood clots.
Space continues to provide an arena for breakthroughs. Astronomers this year discovered a disc around a young star in what is known as the “Large Magellanic Cloud,” the first such glimpse of a star outside the Milky Way galaxy — about 160,000 light years away.
Why should you care? The discovery helps scientists gain a better understanding of planets so that in case Earth turns out to be problematic, we have options.
This year, scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced they had carried out the first nuclear fusion experiment releasing more energy and opening the way for replacing fossils fuels with a more climate-friendly energy source. That bodes well for addressing climate change next year.
And despite the dire warnings of climate change, with 2024 predicted to the warmest year for Planet Earth on record, there was some positive progress to report.
The Carnegie Endowment for International sees answers to climate change coming, “like the rapid spread of electric vehicles and solar panels and the recent decline in Amazon Rainforest deforestation.”
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Another hopeful development is that artificial intelligence has already begun to unlock huge datasets, enabling scientists to make headway on new drugs, gene therapies and disease prevention.
“AI is accelerating research on complex neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease,” according to Steven Finkbeiner at Gladstone Institutes.
Advancements in robotics are helping with prosthetics and neural control for amputees, paving the way for more bionic arms and legs that return mobility to millions of people.
We still have many challenges for the year ahead, particularly with a presidential election at home marked by political polarization. Former President Donald Trump continues to permeate the news cycle despite gag orders and mounting legal charges, giving Joe Biden “a run for his money” and furthering the congressional dysfunction that makes compromise in America very difficult.
Still, there is reason to be hopeful. We human beings are resourceful and resilient. With faith and optimism, we should enter the new year with the spirit of resolving old problems — not creating new ones.
Let’s not give up in democracy. It still beats authoritarianism. As Winston Churchill once said, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
So be of good cheer. Happy holidays, and have a happy new year.
Tara D. Sonenshine is the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice in public diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.