Review of 2023 (part 1)

The environment made headlines globally throughout 2023. The Arctic Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard introduced new measures to regulate the emissions from transport in the region. The new measures aim to reduce carbon footprint and make tourism in the region more eco-friendly.

Børre Haugli: "The tourist industry themself in Svalbard want to have sustainable industry and they develop themself into more sustainable activities."

Women and their place in history were also points of discussion. An artist in Italy restored an outstanding oil painting named 'Allegory of Inclination'. The Baroque style painting was made for an exhibition by woman painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who was a well-respected and highly paid female artist. This was a rare occurrence at the time.

Linda Falcone: "She had to know how to market herself, and that's what she's actually doing with the painting because not only is she tributing Michelangelo but she's saying, 'I as a woman have the inclination to paint'."

Meanwhile in politics Jacinda Ardern shocked the world when she announced her resignation as prime minister of New Zealand. Ardern became the youngest female PM in 2017 at age 37 and the second woman to give birth while in office. However, she stated that she 'had nothing left in the tank' and resigned.

Lia Correa: "I think she'll leave behind a really good legacy, cause like, she's a woman prime minister who kicked ass. She was awesome. She did everything she could during the pandemic. Kept a lot of people safe. Yeah, I think she's gonna have a great legacy."

In Gabon, wildlife conservationists were being aided by smart cameras to protect animals from illegal hunting.

Thijs Suijten: "And this minicomputer downloads the images from the camera and then uses artificial intelligence to automatically classify whether there is an animal, an elephant or human on the photo."

The climate crisis pushed people to value the power of protest. On Earth Day 2023, large crowds gathered in London to demand greater and more urgent political action. Climate activists joined Extinction Rebellion in London for a four day protest in front of the Houses of Parliament to encourage politicians to make greener policies.

However, there were also crowds of celebration in London's streets. Britain crowned King Charles III, which was the first coronation in 70 years.

In Mexico, French and Mexican scientists were looking into 'zoonoses' - diseases which are transmitted from animals to humans. The main aim is to work out how to avoid the problem of zoonoses, to prevent another pandemic like Covid.

While space and music are two unusual partners, they were brought together in 'Cosmic Cycles', a symphony about space. The US National Philharmonic Orchestra and NASA joined forces combining images of space captured by the James Webb space telescope and classical music composed by Henry Dehlinger.

Henry Dehlinger: "I think the music written for a lot of those space movies, space films are, is, is fantastic. But what we're seeing tonight at this premiere is not science fiction. It's the actual science. It's the real deal. We're actually looking at the Sun. We're actually looking at the solar system. We're actually looking at the origins of the universe."

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