EVERY year feels like a new beginning, but, as we explore in this issue, many events set for 2023 feel like opportunities for humanity to choose a more hopeful future.
Even the first day of the year will see a key turning point, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva taking office as president of Brazil. He replaces Jair Bolsonaro, who, for the past four years, has overseen destruction of the Amazon rainforest at a pace not seen in decades. Lula has promised to halt and reverse this devastation, and political leaders elsewhere increasingly understand the need to preserve trees (see “2023 could mark a turning point for the Amazon rainforest”). We will all benefit from a protected Amazon.
Advertisement
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the European Union will also make a global impact. The bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which will be debated and drafted throughout 2023, is the world’s first attempt to create broad standards for the use of AI (see “EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act will lead the world on regulating AI”). While these would only legally apply in its 27 member states, the EU has a track record of inspiring global tech regulations, as giant firms like Meta find it easier to apply a one-size-fits-all model to their customers.
Even our diets are set to shift in 2023. The poultry industry is wrestling with the impacts of the avian flu crisis, which has effectively made it impossible to produce free-range eggs or chickens in many places (see “Bird flu vaccination may be the only way to have free-range chickens”). The role the industry plays in causing or exacerbating avian pandemics that threaten birds shouldn’t be ignored either. At the same time, the first commercial factory for turning energy directly into food is due to launch in Finland, in a move that could massively cut the environmental impact of farming, if scaled up (see “A factory will soon start making green food from air and electricity”). Whether consumers will accept the transition from traditional food production to high-tech methods in an effort to save Earth remains to be seen.
All of that is without mentioning the new spacecraft set to visit moons, both ours (see “SpaceX, Blue Origin and ULA plan to launch huge new rockets in 2023”) and Jupiter’s (see “Spacecraft are heading to a metal asteroid and Jupiter’s moons in 2023”), continued research into covid-19 vaccines (see “Why we probably won’t get new covid-19 vaccines in 2023”) and even efforts to understand the very nature of consciousness (see “Will 2023 be the year we finally understand consciousness?”). Yes, there will always be doom and gloom in the world, but there is a lot to look forward to this year.
