Facing floods: What the world can learn from Bangladesh's climate solutions

After years of drought and land-clearing that left Niger with few trees left, the country now boasts about 200 million trees, which have mostly been reestablished naturally. While the effects of climate change could threaten the future of these trees, this method has also increased crop yields in villages. This model of letting trees grow back with little human influence could be implemented in other countries.

Vaan Island, off the coast of Indian in the Gulf of Mannar, is rapidly sinking. But scientists are working to prevent that erosion by replanting seagrass, which is an important plant in a marine ecosystem. Despite fishermen pulling up the seagrass with their nets, so far, nine acres of seagrass have been rehabilitated in the area.

City Plants, an organization in Los Angeles, is partnering with other nonprofits, government agencies, scientists, and residents to create a more equitable urban forest throughout the city. By working together and using technology, they have planted more than 65,000 trees to combat climate change, systemic racism, and high temperatures that affect all Angelenos.

Women in villages throughout India and Bangladesh are “silent climate warriors” who plant mangrove trees as a way to mitigate the effects of rising waters. While it’s not always easy to convince their family members that they should do this, they have been able to grow an additional 2,000 acres of mangroves that can reduce the speed of waves and capture carbon dioxide. They also earn income, about $430 a year, for growing and planting saplings.

As a warming planet continues to affect bee colonies, a bee farmer in Canada is experimenting with different ways to help the bees survive. By using a polystyrene cover, she was able to drop the average temperature in the hive by 3.8 degrees Celsius. While this type of insulation won’t be able to completely protect the colonies, it’s a simple solution that can help them get through extreme temperatures.

By planting cattails and tule reeds in a California Delta farmland, scientists hope to change the area into a marsh with peat that can store carbon dioxide. This would also support levees from failing and prevent salty ocean water from ruining crops and threatening drinking water. Managing this kind of landscape can be expensive, and farmers are not always on board with converting their land, but this pilot project has already doled out 52,000 tons of carbon credit making it the first wetland project in the United States to do so.

As governments and residents wrestle with drought and dwindling water supplies, atmospheric water generation systems are popping up throughout the United States as a way to convert air into water. One product, called WeDew, collects water droplets that are formed when warm air meets a cool surface. That water can be used to water plants or create safe drinking water. These air-to-water generators are being used in places from California to Uganda.

A startup is making buildings more eco-friendly by converting their energy needs from oil and gas to electric heat pumps. BlocPower is a Black-owned clean tech startup that provides a no money down lease option, making it financially accessible.

BlocPower is retrofitting old city buildings and making them environmentally friendly. The startup offers leasing options, making it financially accessible.

The Apollonia, a sail freight ship, carries a variety of cargoes on the Hudson River to waterfront markets and places where individual customers can pick up pre-ordered goods without burning fossil fuels. Much of the transportation involves transporting goods from local farms to local small businesses, all aimed at building a zero-carbon economy. The Appolonia uses fuel less than 5% of the time, consuming less than 20 gallons of fuel to move over 2619.99 ton-miles of major cargoes.