7 Wins for the Planet in 2024

Well, planet Earth in 2024 saw heat waves, wildfires, sea rise, massive hurricanes, newly endangered species, and recently its most massive glacier set sail for deadlier warmer waters. But the BBC takes a look at some of the wins for the third rock from the sun. A look at the seven points of bright light for tree-huggers:

• The US got windy and China got sunny: American wind energy hit a record in April and beat out that derived from coal. China, meanwhile, is on pace to supply half the world's renewable energy by 2030. Somewhat cynically, the BBC notes that much of this change was driven by bottom lines and not altruism, with renewable energy often coming in as the cheapest solution.

• Deforestation in the Amazon dropped: While an area the size of Delaware was stripped of trees, that number was down 30% in 12 months for a nine-year low.
• Biodiversity conservation is having an effect: From the Saiga Antelope in Kazakhstan to initiatives all over the world, these measures managed to slow or reverse the loss of biodiversity two out of three times.
• The work of the Yurok: This indigenous tribe's efforts saw the return of salmon to the Klamath River in Oregon, following the dismantling of four dams, for the first time in a century. The tribe is also working to reintroduce the critically endangered California condor, and saw its wild flock increase to 18. They're also getting some ancestral land back that they'll be running with the National Park Service.

• The UK ditched coal: The nation's last coal-fired power plant closed its doors in September and as the BBC puts it, "stopped belching out fumes." The Brits are looking to eventually turn the plant into an industrial battery storage site, which has been done at other sites to the tune of enough power for 250,000 homes.
• Not just corporations are people: Personhood status was granted to mountains in New Zealand, part of the ocean off Brazil, and, by Pacific Indigenous leaders, to whales and dolphins as "legal persons." The gist is that the land, sea, and animals covered are considered to have a legal right to exist, though critics think that's legally shaky.
• A new marine protected area: The Azores announced protections for some 30%, or 111,000 square miles around the archipelago. In half, that means no fishing or taking away natural resources; the other half is "highly protected."

(More conservation stories.)