Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • How Bangladesh is beating the odds on climate disaster deaths

    In 1970 Cyclone Bhola hit Bangladesh. It killed up to 500,000 people. Since then, the country has revamped its emergency disaster preparedness through a multipronged process, reducing its cyclone-related deaths by 100 fold. Now, the country collects weather data from more than 50 weather stations. The data is sent to mitigation committees which dispense the info to people through various methods: radio, text messages, and even doorknocking. The country also has a volunteer program with 76,000 volunteers and increased the number of multi-purpose shelters from 44 in 1970 to 512 in 1991.

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  • How a Mayor Helps Keep Abuja Clean

    Volunteers are cleaning up Abuja while advocating for the government to fulfill its sanitation responsibilities. A radio personality galvanized volunteers through a call to action that it became clear that trash is blocking drainage, contributing to flash floods and affecting the quality of life for residents of the city.

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  • 'It seemed like our lives didn't matter'

    The murder of Ahmaud Arbery sparked nationwide rage, but the people most affected by local racism felt it most keenly. A Better Glynn formed to seek reforms in Glynn County law enforcement after years of status-quo racism and resistance to change. The group worked with an existing group of Black pastors and other leaders and found success in the firing of the police chief, his replacement by the county's first Black chief, the district attorney's reelection defeat, and the beginnings of police reforms.

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  • Why you don't hear about the ozone layer anymore

    In 1987 ozone levels above Antartica had dropped by fifty percent. Scientists convened to discover the cause and found it was being depleted due to a chemical called chloroflourinecarbons commonly found in aerosol cans. In order to tackle the problem, scientists and leaders created public conferences to inform the public. The conferences created public pressure on world leaders to act and eventually led to the "Montreal Protocol," which called for the phasing out of CFC's. By 1989 consumption of CFC's plummeted. The ozone started healing and by 2065 is expected to completely recover.

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  • Areas hard hit by B.C. drought now the target of bottled water corporations

    The Merville Water Guardians, the Canadian Freshwater Alliance, and K’ómoks First Nation successfully prevented rezoning that would allow water to be drawn from shared aquifers, bottled, and sold for private profits. Protests at District board meetings, letter writing campaigns, petitions, and door-to-door campaigning led the District board to vote against the rezoning and sign an historic agreement to collaboratively manage and conserve water with the K’ómoks First Nation.

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  • Slow But Steady Progress: Inside Nigeria's Effort To End Open Defecation

    In 2012, the federal government and the United Nations created the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigeria (RUSHPIN). Through this partnership, they were able to engage community leaders, get them to mobilize, and organize community meetings. Six years later hundreds of communities gained an "Open Defecation Free" status, going from 47 million to 38.4 million people who engage in open defecation.

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  • Can 'the people' solve climate change? France decided to find out.

    In order to cut carbon emissions in France, President Emmanuel Macron created an assembly of 150 randomly selected citizens. The citizens "convention on climate" met and deliberated for months before releasing 149 proposals on how the government should address climate change. Although only 10 made it into law without being altered, and 36 others were included form, the final legislation was one of the most comprehensive passed in the history of the country. The recommendations also garnered conversations and inspired the creation of other assemblies.

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  • When the Ice Stops Singing

    Snowchange is a co-operative formed by a network of villages across Finland. The co-op formed after fishermen found all the fish in the river dead due to pollution. They decided to take action. They began "rewilding," a process of restoring ecosystems to the point that they can take care of themselves. They did this by buying peat production sites and rewilding them to wetlands. A decade ago there was merely three to four bird species in the first rewilding site the co-op bought, now there's close to 200.

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  • Creating a safer 6th Street: How another U.S. city transformed its entertainment district

    Arlington police and its entertainment-district bars and restaurants addressed rising violence and other crime by collaborating to prevent crime rather than banking on police alone to solve it through more arrests. Where bar and restaurant owners in the past feared getting in trouble if they told police about incidents at their venues, the Arlington Restaurant Initiative opened communication and training of employees. Crime in the district declined by two-thirds in the first four years. Austin faces similar challenges and could learn from Arlington's example.

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  • From Heaps of Garbage, Lagos Improves on Waste Disposal, Sanitation

    The Cleaner Lagos project works to clean up the state, aiming toward maintaining a clean and healthy environment at all times. From waste management services to incentivized waste sorting and stricter regulations, the project has helped to reduce the spread of diseases caused by poor sanitation across the state.

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