Today’s Solutions: March 28, 2024

Global Development

In an increasingly globalized world, international development efforts aim to improve living conditions, equity, and human rights around the world. Our global development section tracks this globalization and reports on specific equitable and sustainable development initiatives.

The case for eliminating jaywa

The case for eliminating jaywalking laws

Most of us have probably looked both ways quickly before darting across the street outside of a sidewalk. Whether traffic was light or the crosswalk was simply too far away, jaywalking is a fairly common offense, but data from the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) shows that Black Read More...

Ice stupas: How an artificial

Ice stupas: How an artificial glacier is addressing India’s water crisis

Ice stupas were invented in 2013 by Indian engineer Sonam Wangchuk. They are essentially artificial glaciers that take wastewater flowing in the summer months and pump it uphill to be stored as ice during the winter and released once again when spring arrives. For water-scarce regions, they provide Read More...

Renewables provide more than j

Renewables provide more than just energy to Native American communities

Lack of resources and unclear regulatory oversight has slowed electrification on Native American Reservations, but some organizations believe the transition for renewable energy offers an opportunity to bring reliable, green, independent energy resources to reservations. Among these groups are Read More...

Swiss voters approve legalizat

Swiss voters approve legalization of same-sex marriage

Switzerland is celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage this week after a referendum resoundingly approved the measure. In a vote held on Sunday, 64.1 percent of Swiss voters confirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. Swiss lawmakers voted to expand the Read More...

How portable solar-powered bat

How portable solar-powered batteries can help expand access to clean energy

Reliable access to electricity is a luxury in Lagos, Nigeria, where the power can go out multiple times a day, rendering many inhabitants dependent on expensive, noisy, and polluting diesel generators. A corner shop in the Nigerian city, however, offers a solution to this problem in the form of a Read More...

This technique measures drinki

This technique measures drinking water quality using a smartphone camera

While the provision of safe drinking water in impoverished countries is of vital importance, people often lack the facilities necessary to test the water for pollutants. To help solve that problem, a team of scientists has developed a system that uses a smartphone camera to check up on tiny aquatic Read More...

4 Key strategies to employ in

4 Key strategies to employ in the upcoming UN climate summits

Two important climate summits are coming up as we near the end of 2021. The first, on September 24, will be the first in 40 years to focus specifically on energy. The second, the COP26, will run the first two weeks of November and aims to mobilize countries to step up their climate commitments as Read More...

Evangelical Lutheran church in

Evangelical Lutheran church installs first openly transgender bishop

The Evangelical Lutheran church accepted seven LGBTQ pastors in 2010 after the ordination of pastors in same-sex relationships was allowed. Now, Rev. Megan Rohrer, one of these seven, has been installed as the first openly transgender bishop during a service at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco last Read More...

The Optimist View: The Green D

The Optimist View: The Green Divide

"Neither cities nor places in them are unordered, unplanned; the question is only whose order, whose planning, for what purpose?” - Peter Marcuse BY Amelia Buckley If you stand outside in the heat of summer, you’ll notice that things are considerably less comfortable on concrete or Read More...

Solar domes could help provide

Solar domes could help provide a solution to the global water crisis

We have previously written about the problem of water scarcity and some of the emerging solutions aimed at solving it. Today, we’d like to share with you yet another innovative technology that works to solve the global water crisis. The novel technology, developed by London-based Solar Water Read More...