End of a decade: good initiatives that got lost in the noise of bad news

TeamTrees: YouTubers, Silicon Valley, and fans help MrBeast raise $20 million for tree charity
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/19/21026379/mrbeast-team-trees-youtube-charity-20-million-elon-musk-jack-dorsey-pewdiepie
April 2019: We got the first-ever photo of a black hole.
August 2017: We experienced a total solar eclipse. Next one happening in 2024
The 2010s also saw the CRISPR–Cas9 technique harnessed in the cause of genome editing.
The collision of two black holes helped confirm the existence of gravitational waves, a century after they were predicted in Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
China’s development of quantum information technologies is just one indication of the nation’s remarkable rise as a research superpower. Chinese scientists have used quantum methods to secure long-distance data transmission, for example by pioneering the use of quantum teleportation to send information across the world securely by satellite, and by installing an inter-city fiber-optic network that constitutes the first stages of a quantum internet.
July–August 2014: Everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge. Raising a total of $115 million for ALS awareness and research — and even leading to the discovery of a new ALS gene.
April 2010: The first iPad came out.