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  • Land-conflict mediation in the Great Lakes region

    In the Great Lakes region of Africa, land disputes can escalate to violence. Subsistence agriculture is the dominant source of income, making land precious, and as populations increase and refugees return home, property rights are not always clear. Search for Common Ground is reducing violence by training mediators to find peaceful ways of resolving these high-stakes conflicts.

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  • Thailand's Disease Detectives

    "Poor man Instagram" is how vets at Chiang Mai University describe their system of pandemic preparedness and emergency prevention. Recruiting community members throughout the region to be disease detectives, the scientists train these volunteers to use a mobile app that allows them to document dead animals that may have been sick with an illness that could pose a threat to humans. When scientists are alerted of cases, they are then able to investigate and intervene if the situation merits danger.

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  • At the UN, a New Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Is Adopted by 122 Nations

    On July 7, 122 United Nations member countries approved a new treaty prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons. The legally binding agreement emphasizes humanitarian concerns, including the disproportionate impact of weapons testing and deployment on indigenous people as well as on women, young children, and reproductive systems. All nine states holding nuclear weapons boycotted negotiations.

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  • Stopping Pandemics Before They Start

    With climate change, population pressures and mobilization epidemics will occur more frequently, and past ones have proven to be disastrous and expensive. The Center for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is focused on developing vaccines to viruses such as Ebola, as well as creating a fast approval path for future vaccines and helping increase global preparedness for future epidemics.

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  • America's ring of fire

    After a wildfire in 2010 burned 15,000 acres outside Flagstaff, triggering evacuations and a fatal landslide, voters approved a $10 million bond issue to transform the local fire department and fire-prevention practices. Part 4 of a package of stories on rampant homebuilding in wildfire-prone forests (starts at 35:25) tells how firefighters spend most of their time cutting trees to thin the forest to mimic its pre-settlement form, when periodic fires were a normal and small-scale threat. Suppressing all fires, letting forests thicken, and building homes in them calls for a new prevention ethos.

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  • The Dutch Have Solutions to Rising Seas. The World Is Watching.

    Rotterdam is increasingly threatened by climate change and the rising water levels that accompany it. Yet instead of building barriers, city officials are choosing to work with the water to help it flow through the city, via the nationwide 'Room for the River' project. This innovation, among others, such as the construction of parking lots that double as emergency reservoirs, embodies Rotterdam’s larger commitment to connect “water management with social welfare and neighborhood improvements.”

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  • Burning to save Australia's Western Desert

    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.

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  • After the Nepal Earthquake, Weaving Brings Wealth

    After Nepal's 2015 earthquake, many village women were left in financial devastation and struggled to support their families. The earthquake destroyed up to 90% of small enterprises and markets, so the United Nations Development Programme trained women how to weave. As a mode of recovery, the weaving industry has helped rebuild the economic and social structures through the Panchakanya group.

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  • Rats are the world's best land mine hunters

    In countries like Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique, rats are saving lives by detecting untriggered land mines. An international nonprofit, Apopo, provides funding a training and works with local organizations to operate at the local level. The rats are light enough that they don’t trigger the explosives and can cover up to 2,000 square feet in just 20 minutes – something that would take a human up to four days to complete.

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  • Could we better handle catastrophes if we knew they were coming?

    Experts warn us about disasters. Climate change, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the rise of ISIS were all predicted ahead of time. Listening to these warnings requires pushing past the desire to shut down when contemplating big catastrophes, looking critically at available data, and being willing to entertain the possibility that an event can happen that has never happened before.

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