10 World Changing Events That Happened In 2017

10 World Changing Events Happened In 2017
10 North Korean Escalation
North Korea being kind of crazy isn’t exactly a new development.
Just in 2016 the country’s leadership has claimed have cured AIDS, ended cancer, and
invented a hangover-free alcohol. All of which has presumably kept them too busy to feed
their people or power their homes.
But in 2017 there were several world-changing firsts in the ongoing feud between North Korea
and the US.
For the first time, Kim Jong Un has missiles capable of reaching California. If launched
at LA, they could potentially kill over 200,000 people.
Not only that, but North Korea’s posturing also reached new levels, with the country
firing a rocket over Japan and outlining a specific plan of attack they could use against
the US territory of Guam.
This greater aggression, coupled with a President willing to fire back rhetorically, has risen
tensions in the region to an all time high.
North Korea’s propaganda may still be as outlandish as ever. But with the tiny dictatorship
more of a legitimate threat than ever before, the situation in North Korea will be very
different coming into 2018.
9 Mugabe Deposed
If nothing else had happened in 2017, the deposition of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe would
be enough to call the year world-changing.
Over the course of his 37-year reign Mugabe took a democracy with unbelievable mineral
wealth, and turned it into a dictatorship where a million Zimbabwean dollars would barely
cover your weekly shop.
And until November 2017, it looked as if the 93-year-old’s reign would continue until
his death.
However, he crossed too many allies after he made his hated, money-draining wife the
next in line for succession. While 96% of Zimbabweans subsist on less than a dollar
a day, Grace Mugabe was going on $100,000 shopping sprees in Paris and getting in fights
with models.
The military decided they’d had enough, and moved in to collect Mugabe’s quote unquote
“resignation”.
Although there’s no guarantee that Mugabe’s successor Emmerson Mnangagwa will be any better,
the removal of the tyrant at least re-kindles the hope of establishing the democracy that
the African nation has been denied for so long.
8 Immortal Mice
Of all the things on this list, it’s hard to think of anything more world changing than
the ability to live forever. And although we’re not there yet, scientists did make
a major breakthrough this year in the fight against aging.
In March 2017, researchers at the did something unprecedented. By injecting a compound known
as NMN into mice, they successfully managed to reverse the physical damage done to DNA
by aging. In other words, they de-aged the mice’s bodies.
The obvious implication here is that, if the effect could be replicated in humans, these
scientists may have found a way to greatly prolong youth and perhaps even end death by
old age.
The excited researchers wanted to start human trials within 6 months of the mice study.
And although they missed that deadline, NMN will likely be tested on humans in the very
near future.
7 Catalonia Freedom
On October 1st 2017, the Spanish region of Catalonia held a referendum on whether or
not it should become an autonomous nation.
Home to 16% of the Spanish population but over a quarter of its wealth, losing Catalonia
would be devastating split would be devastating for Spain. But many Catalans believe that
they would do better without the rest of the country holding them back.
The 2017 referendum wasn’t the first independence vote held in recent years. An unsuccessful
one held in 2014 garnered 81% support for autonomy before being dismissed by the Spanish
government.
But this new referendum was declared illegal by the national government, with a semi-militarized
police force being sent in to stop Catalonians voting. Violence ensued with the police firing
rubber bullets at voters, and beating them with truncheons. Despite this, 43% of Catalonians
still voted, with 90% backing independence.
This is where things get different. Catalonia's local government, led by Catalonian President
Carles Puigdemont [Car-les P-weed-dg-mon], used the result to declare independence from
Spain. The national government responded by suspending the region’s parliament and arresting
Puigdemont and other independence leaders on charges of sedition and rebellion.
Exactly what will happen to Catalonia is still unclear. But 2017’s referendum and the subsequent
unrest and police intervention make it unlikely that the status quo can be maintained. On
the one hand, the Spanish government may try to win over independence leaders with more
local autonomy, or even a real, binding referendum. On the other they may resort to using more
and more force to try and quell dissent in the contentious region.
Either way, the situation of Catalonia will definitely change. And soon.
6 SpaceX
As fans of sci-fi will know, Han Solo doesn’t buy a new every time he needs to go on a smuggling
run. But every time we want to pop into space, we have to junk the rocket we did it in and
build a new one from scratch.
Or at least, that was the case until 2017. In March of this year, SpaceX managed to launch
one of its used Falcon 9 rockets back into space. That marked the first time a spaceship
has ever been reused.
The ability to recycle rockets for repeated use is a huge step forward. Apart from the
technology itself being impressive, not having to build a brand new vehicle saved SpaceX
$18 million.
Making that kind of saving per launch should keep further space exploration viable for
private groups like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. And the more groups that can afford to keep
travelling space, the more we’ll be able to learn about our universe.
5 Brexit Effects
Along with the election of Trump, Brexit was one of the most unexpected political results
of 2016.
But, apart from that 17 and a half million people wanted Britain to leave the EU, the
referendum didn’t really tell us very much. It wasn’t until 2017 that the world started
to see the first signs of how the decision will change Britain and Europe forever.
First of all we learned that, if the UK wants to continue to remain on good trading terms
with the EU, it will have to pay a $68 billion “divorce bill” before leaving. To put
that in perspective, $68 billion is more than the UK government’s annual spend on defense
or transport.
We also know that in the year since the referendum, the pound has weakened against the dollar
and the euro. This weak pound has cost the average Brit $544 last year.
But perhaps most significantly, the number of EU citizens applying to work as nurses
for the National Health Service has plummeted from 1,304 to just 46. That could cause an
understaffing crisis in the very near future.
There’s still plenty more to be settled surrounding Britain’s decision to leave.
But 2017 showed Brexit is already shaping Britain and Europe in world changing ways.
4 Editing Embryos
In August 2017, scientists did something extraordinary. For the first time, American researchers used
the powerful gene editing tool CRISPR to alter the DNA of a viable human embryo.
Scientists from the Salk Institute were able to go into the embryo, which carried a mutated
gene that causes heart disease, and delete the deadly DNA segment. Essentially, they
were able to pre-emptively cure the disease before the patient was even born. Editing
out this gene could save thousands of lives a year.
The researchers believe this cutting edge science isn’t limited to curing heart disease,
but could help prevent patients being born with a predisposition towards cystic fibrosis
or breast cancer.
Similar, smaller scale, studies have taken place before in China. But never before on
an embryo that was viable to become a person. The larger scale and international embrace
of this gene editing experiment means that we could be on the brink of a truly remarkable,
disease-beating breakthrough.
With Australian researchers trying to cure death (albeit in mice) and CRISPR showing
it has the capability to remove dangerous genes, this year has certainly been a landmark
one for science. And as if that wasn’t enough, physicists in Massachusetts have invented
a wine bottle that is guaranteed not to spill while pouring. What a year.
3 Facing the bill
When you think of KFC you probably think of Colonel Sanders, or heart-stopping lumps of
fried chicken. You probably don’t associate the chain with ground-breaking technological
innovations. Well, unless you count the Double Down.
But in China, a KFC-owned shop is playing host to an exciting new technology: facial
payment software.
Using devices supplied by Ant Financial, Chinese chicken connoisseurs are being asked to authenticate
their purchase with a smile. Facing into the self-service machines, customers place their
order and then have their faces scanned. If their face matches their Ant Financial ID,
then the payment goes through without the need for a card or PIN.
While the whole “Smile To Pay” thing seems like a gimmick, there are signs that facial
recognition could be the future of tech security. The iPhone X has a Face ID function. And in
the UK, police took the controversial step of using new facial recognition device during
2017’s Remembrance Sunday. The idea was to scan for for stalkers and other security
threats. However, the move worried numerous privacy groups worried the police would store
the faces of innocent spectators.
Needing someone’s face to authorize a payment is, obviously, a pretty good barrier against
fraud. And if someone does successfully use your account for their own means, it’s way,
way easier to track them down if they have to show you their face.
2 Hollywood Scandal
From Louis CK to George Takei, the list of major Hollywood figures being accused of sexual
harassment seems to be growing all the time.
In some cases, like Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, the scandal has already been enough
to essentially end their career. Weinstein has been fired from the production company
he helped found and Spacey has even been retroactively cut out of All The Money In The World, a movie
he’d already finished shooting.
On top of that, huge on screen stars like Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman, and Ben
Affleck have all had accusations levied against them. While many of the stories are still
just allegations, and may turn out to be unfounded, the ongoing fiasco looks like it could be
the catalyst needed to finally change what is clearly a pervasive culture of sexual harassment
at the heart of Hollywood.
Prominent celebrities like Natalie Portman are coming forward with their stories, and
the industry has already proven itself willing to pull films and risk short-term monetary
gain to fix the problem. Perhaps this ongoing horror story of abuse is the price we have
to pay to change Hollywood.
1 President Trump
Whatever you think of President Donald Trump, his first year in office has undeniably changed
the world in a number of ways.
Even just in being inaugurated, as he was back in January, Trump made history by becoming
the first President to have never held a prior political or military office. And the changes
don’t stop there.
Within days of taking office, Trump signed an executive order taking America out of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. The free trade deal between 12 nations has been planned since
2008, so moving away from it could signifies a major shift towards a more protectionist
policy.
Then in April, Trump chose the conservative Neil Gorsuch to fill the spare Supreme Court
Justice seat, and encouraged his party to lower the threshold required to elect a justice.
That means that in the future it will be easier than ever for an administration to put new
judges in place.
And in June, Trump announced America would be leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, allowing
America free reign to pollute at a higher rate. The move also leaves America and Nicaragua
as the only two countries in the world not signed up to the deal.
There may be another three years of Trump’s first term to go. But in just one year, King
Combover has definitely changed the world. Was it for better or worse? Let us know in
the comments below.
So, that was 10 World Changing Events That Happened In 2017. Which moment do you think
had the biggest impact? Did we leave any globe-defining events off the list? Let us know in the comments
below.
And if you want to look forward to the future, check out 10 NEW Countries That Could Exist
In Ten Years, playing now.
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10 World Changing Events That Happened In 2017

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