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A Building Material That Consumes CO2 Has Finally Come to the US

Peter Yeung

November 10, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Belgium

A building material made of hemp fibers, water, and clay or lime is a sustainable alternative to other options like concrete. Dubbed hempcrete, the product has many benefits including a very low carbon footprint, active sequestration of carbon dioxide, and using a sustainable, fast-growing crop as its base.

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Cars Are Vanishing from Paris

Peter Yeung

September 23, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Paris

Cars are Europe’s second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the leading killer of children. In recent years, Paris has implemented an array of measures to prioritize pedestrians, cyclists, and transit while reducing car use. As a result, car use has dropped about 45% since 1990, the use of public transit has risen by 30% and the share of cyclists has increased tenfold.

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Japan's 'Zero Waste' Village Is a Model for Small-Town Sustainability

Peter Yeung

September 16, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Japan, Kamikatsu

Residents of Kamikatsu, Japan, deposit, and sort 45 different categories of waste into designated bins to be recycled at the Zero Waste Center. The center is a part of the town’s effort to meet its Zero Waste declaration and reuse or recycle everything produced there.

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Incarcerated People Are Saving a Disappearing Plant

Peter Yeung

September 08, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Boise, Idaho

Sagebrush in Prisons Project allows incarcerated people to restore sagebrush, a threatened plant that plays a crucial role in U.S. ecosystems. The program provides opportunities for incarcerated adults to cultivate team building and horticulture skills, hone an interest in ecology, and improve employability outside of the prison system.

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How Liberia's frontline health workers are protecting us all

Peter Yeung

September 06, 2022 |

BBC |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Liberia

Liberia's community health worker program taps residents of rural areas to receive training in disease surveillance and basic health care, creating a network of on-the-ground professionals to report potential outbreaks before they begin to spread. The program has contributed to more rapid treatment of malaria cases, with 71 percent of cases treated within 24 hours in 2021, and has significantly increased the number of rural residents with access to care.

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‘It's a beautiful thing': how one Paris district rediscovered conviviality

Peter Yeung

July 14, 2022 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Paris

The République des Hyper Voisins, or the Republic of Super Neighbors, is an experiment organized by residents of Paris's 14th arrondissement to encourage community engagement, combat social isolation, and improve how the neighborhood functions. The group has organized mutual aid efforts, installed compost collection points, facilitated the launch of a new health clinic, and given residents opportunities to weigh in on local development projects.

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Europe's Noise Capital Tries to Turn Down the Volume

Peter Yeung

April 27, 2022 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Paris

In February, municipal authorities in Paris began installing sound radar devices in the city as part of a slew of measures taken since 2015 to address noise pollution, an issue which is being considered more seriously as a public health risk. Holistic measures like installing sound-barriers, low-noise asphalt, vehicle-restrictions, and housing regulations have already reduced the average noise level by two decibels and brought down the number of people living in noisy environments.

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Meet the 'Cultural Mediators' Who Help Refugees in Germany

Peter Yeung

March 11, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany, Hamburg

To help migrants in Germany acclimate and find stability in a new culture, Wohnbrücke Hamburg trains volunteers to act as mediators between landlords and refugees in search of housing. Between 2015 and 2021, the organization helped more than 3,000 refugees move out of camps and into homes, while roughly 1,000 volunteers have been trained to guide refugees through the housing process and offer social and cultural support.

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The ‘timber detectives' on the front lines of illegal wood trade

Peter Yeung

March 09, 2022 |

National Geographic |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany, Hamburg

At the Thünen Institute in Germany, a team of 15 people are working to identify culprits of the world’s third largest criminal sector: the illegal wood trade. Since 2013, they have been analyzing and identifying the origin of wood products to determine if they were made from endangered or protected tree species. In 2021, they analyzed about 10,000 samples and are working with organizations and authorities around the world to prevent illegal logging.

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In Sierra Leone's swamps, female farmers make profits and peace

Peter Yeung

February 12, 2022 |

Al Jazeera |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Sierra Leone, Matagelema

With support and training from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund's World Food Program, an association of roughly 150 women in Matagelema, Sierra Leone have begun irrigating and farming inland valley swamps there for the first time. They are among more than 4,000 farmers now cultivating in the country's swamps, which provide a higher crop yield than upland farming and are located farther from conflict zones with the region's rutile miners.

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