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

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  • Bright Lights and Dark Nights: The Challenge Facing Sea Turtles in the City

    Sea turtle preservation efforts along the Florida coast seek to replace artificial bright lights, which are a deadly hazard that can lead sea turtles astray. Activists launched change.org petitions that successfully pressured two beach towns to correct public lights along the beach and require turtle-friendly lighting in new buildings. Volunteer groups patrol beach front areas to find and report those in violation of the ordinances, who can face a fine. A $10 million settlement from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion helps fund a grant that provides lights and fixtures to about 200 properties.

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  • Could carbon-removal tech make travel more sustainable?

    Climeworks, a Swiss start-up, is using technology to suck carbon out of the air and turning it into stone, essentially cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere permanently. Their plant in Iceland is able to turn 50 tonnes of carbon to stone per year. While that amount of carbon won’t solve the climate crisis, they are expanding their work to other countries and are launching a personal carbon removal subscription service as a way for the travel industry to help offset the carbon that they emit each year.

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  • How Lightfoot and housing activists reached an uneasy détente in the battle for Woodlawn's future

    After tense negotiations and protests, the Coalition for a CBA (Community Benefits Agreement) and the mayor of Chicago agreed to an ordinance guaranteeing a percentage of affordable housing for tenants making below 50% of median income. The coalition expects gentrification to accelerate due to the nearby $500 million Obama Presidential Center, making housing unaffordable for current residents. In addition to negotiations, the coalition organized a blockade of the mayor’s office and set up a “tent city” to emphasize their message. Not all residents want the ordinance and neither side got everything they want.

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  • Citrus for Sourdough, Eggs for Yeast

    Food bartering helps families during times of food insecurity, which is often exacerbated by crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Families with lower incomes have bartered for food for a long time but the pandemic has brought diversity to the families exchanging food with friends and neighbors. Food bartering is part of the cultural fabric of different groups, such as the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which hosts workshops on cultivating gardens. Food bartering is an inclusive and community-building practice but when bartering is the only way to get food, the communal reliance can be an emotional drain.

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  • 30 Years Later: How The ADA Changed Life For People With Disabilities

    The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) mandated public places, businesses, facilities, and schools make accommodations for people with disabilities, including ramps, accessible entrances and bathrooms, and designated parking spaces. The ADA also makes discrimination against people with disabilities illegal, establishes a nationwide communication system for people with speech or hearing impairments, and encourages community-based services over institutionalization. While accessibility and discrimination can still be problems, the ADA has allowed people with disabilities to live independently.

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  • Amid biting drought, sisters in Zambia fend off hunger with organic farming

    In Zambia, where severe drought due to climate change has negatively affected agriculture, the Daughters of the Redeemer are practicing organic farming to feed hundreds of children and families whose basic needs are not being met. This group of religious sisters do not rely on rainfall to farm; they installed a drip irrigation system that has allowed them to grow crops like cabbage, maize, tomatoes, and beans. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sisters provided training to local villages about organic farming, and this has allowed families to support themselves during the crisis.

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  • Could leaving 'room for the river' help protect communities from floods?

    While many communities in the Midwest use dams and levees to control the Mississippi River, some are trying new approaches to flood control as climate change threatens to increase rainfall and the severity of storms in the region. Some cities are turning to the Dutch solution of leaving “room for the river” to allow the body of water to flow naturally and design public spaces to handle inundation. While this technique doesn’t always work during major flooding events, traditional flood control strategies can be more harmful and actually worsen flooding.

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  • Going ‘Deep Green,' Office Buildings Give Back to the Planet

    More and more commercial real estate projects are popping up around the United States that are focused on “deep green” building. This movement suggests that it’s not enough to just make a building out of renewable materials, but they can also be self-sustaining. For example, the Watershed, an office building in Seattle, has a slanted roof that collects rainwater that is then used in toilets. These types of projects can be more complicated and expensive to build, but developers can save money in the long run with the improvements.

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  • Will Your Next Salmon Come from a Massive Land Tank in Florida?

    A Norwegian firm has built a land-based fish farm – which is "a supersized aquatic version of greenhouse agriculture that aims to solve a host of environmental problems plaguing conventional salmon farms in coastal waters" – near the tip of the Florida peninsula. Although it's yet to be seen if demand will be to the scale necessary to deem the endeavor financially viable, in Denmark where this concept was initially piloted, more than 25 generations of salmon have already been harvested.

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  • Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need

    Finland, the only EU country with declining homelessness, uses a “Housing First” program to provide homes for people living on the streets with no preconditions. Nonprofits manage long-term housing and, once in homes, individuals receive a rental agreement and pay rent and expenses. Social workers provide services from offices in residential buildings and the state helps financially. The program provided 4,600 homes in the past decade and costs less than accepting the status quo of homelessness. About 20% drop out and around 1,900 people still live on the streets, but emergency shelters can accommodate them.

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