Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 198 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

What happens when you put toddlers in a forest to climb trees and use knives?

Jack Graham

January 02, 2018 |

Apolitical |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Denmark

In Denmark, one in ten preschools are held outdoors. First started in the 1950s, "forest kindergartens" improve students' concentration, social skills, and creativity, according to advocates. Skeptics have voiced safety concerns and worries that such an approach doesn't prepare students for today's tech-centric world.

Read More
Go to Original Story
A Museum Designed for City Life Debuts

Amanda Arnold

December 15, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

MICRO, a new New York City-based non-profit, has developed niche-emphasizing, science-focused “museums” around the city. Through these installations, MICRO brings art and environmental knowledge to people outside of a formal museum setting as well as shining a light on often overlooked topics. In order to bring niche-emphasizing, science-focused museums into being, a non-profit named MICRO has begun creating small exhibitions in public places for New York City residents to discover.

Read More
Go to Original Story
The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps.

Christophe Haubursin Roman Mars Kurt Kohlstedt

November 09, 2017 |

Vox |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Missoula, Montana

In 1989, when Japan’s bullet train debuted, it reached nearly 170 miles per hour, but was also exceptionally loud as it left any tunnel. To remedy this, engineers and designers turned to nature – mimicking different bird features in their redesign of the train. Known as biomimicry, the practice of looking at nature’s forms, processes, and ecosystems and incorporating them into human-made designs has gained in popularity in the last three decades.

Read More
Go to Original Story
First Nations Fight to Protect the Rare Spirit Bear from Hunters

Krista Langlois

October 26, 2017 |

National Geographic |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, British Columbia

In British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais First Nations have been striving for decades to save the spirit bear, also known as Kemode bears, from trophy hunters. Since 1999, the indigenous community has started an ecotourism industry that benefits the tribe and wildlife, have worked with Canadian government to preserve 85% of the rainforest, and have most recently been advocating to ban trophy hunting across the rainforest.

Read More
Go to Original Story
In Woodlawn, a Ground-Up Approach to a Healthier, Safer Community

Brandis Friedman

October 11, 2017 |

WTTW-PBS |

Broadcast TV News |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Urban areas that have more trees tend to have lower crime rates, attracting more investment and have higher income levels. They also make neighborhoods nicer places to live so that’s why Blacks in Green, a community group in Chicago, is focused on building more gardens, planting orchards and trees with the help of the Morton Arboretum, which works with community groups around the city. Blacks in Green has combined the initiative with efforts to provide more jobs for the community’s young people as well.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Conservation Meets Corrections

Katie Jewett

July 26, 2017 |

bioGraphic |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Evergreen, Washington

There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. According to rainforest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, that's a lot of brainpower and potential sitting unused. It was this thought that inspired the start of the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). As a collaboration between the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College, SPP aims to bring science and education within the walls of confinement – all while promoting the conservation of both plant and animal species.

Read More
Go to Original Story
NYC's 'Green City Force'

Thomas Shomaker

June 28, 2017 |

NationSwell |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Green City Force has expanded to many of New York City's public housing projects with a two-pronged approach. Not only does this program help develop professional skills of and job opportunities for young adult residents with high school diplomas, but also simultaneously promotes environmentally sustainable living.

Read More
Go to Original Story
How Vienna Conquered Its Own Filth

Feargus O'Sullivan

June 27, 2017 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Austria, Vienna

With the staggering amounts of garbage produced by modern lifestyles, waste disposal is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge for communities around the world. Vienna has tackled the trouble of trash with an innovative system, channeling the heat from incineration to warm homes and provide hot water, recovering reusable items from the waste stream and selling them in a special shop, and proactively educating the populace about how to reduce waste.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Meet the woman behind Colorado's highest trails

Sarah Gilman

June 26, 2017 |

High Country News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

Colorado is home to 54 fourteeners – mountains that rise to 14,000 feet high or higher and serve as popular routes for many avid hikers despite not having designed trails. To keep hikers safe while also preserving plant life on these mountains, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, which is made of a group of statewide outdoor nonprofits, has been rerouting and restoring the trail system.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Burning to save Australia's Western Desert

Rachael Hocking

June 14, 2017 |

Al Jazeera |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Australia

After once again being granted rights to their native land, the Martu people are bringing back the bioregenerative technique of small-scale land burning. In the past century, wildfires have ravaged the areas these people call home and has lead to the loss of over 18 species of animal. They hope that imparting this traditional method of ecological maintenance will decrease the number of wildfires and in many cases, the resulting extinction of other animal species.

Read More
Go to Original Story