2023 has been pretty brutal, so the bar isn’t all that high for 2024 to be better, but still lets take a moment to all collectively hope that it will be.
With two wars raging, environmental problems, an economy that is freaking many people out, and the ever present concerns surrounding China, is it any wonder that people are unsure of what the future holds? The good news is that there are several organizations out there trying to fix things.
Every community has some sort of food assistance campaign now, as well as homeless outreach. Most colleges have programs set up to assist their students in a similar way. Neighborhood clean ups are ongoing throughout the year in most cities, and several beach, lake, and park cleanups are scheduled throughout the year now.
We still have the larger concerns of course, like crazy weather threats, rolling blackouts, major storms, and wildfires, but there are groups like Esri working on that too. Over the summer the Esri User Conference in San Diego covered a myriad of ways government and local groups were getting together to better coordinate evacuation and rescue efforts, plus cleanup and rebuilding; and it all starts with a central hub to find needed information in real time, which Esri is helping to build.
Many other such efforts are underway world wide, so there is hope that 2024 will be better for us all. Happy New Year everyone!
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