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Resource-rich countries find it pays to pay landholders to protect their land

Dimitri Selibas

May 11, 2023 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Guatemala

Guatemala’s reforestation programs pay farmers to keep their lands forested instead of clearing them for farming. The annual $380 payment each participant receives for 5 to 10 years comes from the general taxes collected by the government.

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A solar solution to the West's changing climate?

Jane Palmer

March 17, 2023 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Longmont, Colorado

A farming practice that involves installing solar panels over crops, called agrivoltaics, allows farmers in drought-stricken regions to keep crops from sun overexposure, keep water in the soil for longer, and cool the panels with the moisture released from the plants all at once.

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Green space in cities can bring considerable health benefits for communities, but access is unequal

Ambika Chawla

March 19, 2021 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Platte Farm Open Space used to be a garbage dumping ground in Denver, but it’s now an urban green space thanks to the efforts from community members, organizations, and the government. This community-led project was able to secure funding to replace the contaminated land with fresh soil that now attracts animals and includes walking paths and a playground for children. This project offers lessons on how to build a green space in a diverse neighborhood and the health benefits that come from such an initiative.

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Large food companies are looking to lock carbon in soil as a way to meet ambitious emissions goals

Meg Wilcox

February 09, 2021 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fairfield, Maine

Stonyfield, an organic dairy company, is working with six of its suppliers to pilot how farms can measure the amount of carbon it’s trapping in soil through regenerative farming practices as a way for the company to achieve its goals to cut carbon emissions. The OpenTEAM initiative is working to demonstrate how a dairy farm could improve its soil health to reach carbon net zero and, eventually, have food companies pay its farmers to adopt the new practices.

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Can global innovation competitions help unearth the next sustainability solution?

Fanni Daniella Szakal

January 28, 2021 |

Ensia |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

Initiatives set up by NGOs and private-public partnerships aim to make innovation possible around the world and support sustainability entrepreneurs in countries that often don’t have access to those opportunities. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology set up the ClimateLaunchpad competition to provide entrepreneurship coaching and training to clean-tech finalists and the Uplink global platform from the World Economic Forum brings innovators and investors together to support sustainability ideas.

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Fragile cities are being inundated with people fleeing the impacts of climate change. How can they cope?

Ambika Chawla

December 30, 2020 |

Ensia |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Somalia

Durable Solutions Initiative (DSI) aims to create long-term solutions to help internally displaced people in under-resourced urban areas, many of whom fled climate-related disasters. DSI relies on ideas from the displaced communities about how to move towards self-reliance. In Somalia, the participatory and locally-created approach led to Midnimo I, a donor-funded initiative that created short-term jobs, built or upgraded community-prioritized infrastructure projects like schools and hospitals, and improved relations between authorities and displaced communities, benefiting nearly 350,000 people directly.

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There are worse viruses than Covid-19 out there. How do we avoid the next big one?

Debora MacKenzie

December 08, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: China

Public health experts are strategizing for how to combat the next pandemic by learning from what failed to prevent the most recent coronavirus pandemic. From increasing surveillance of viruses to using diagnostic technologies to "screen for novel infections more systematically," there are a series of protocols that countries failed to utilize that can be enacted now as a preventative measure.

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How effective are China's attempts to reduce the risk of wildlife spreading disease to humans?

Michael Standaert

November 05, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: China, Shebu, Guangdong

In order to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, and to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, China introduced temporary regulations banning commercial breeding of wildlife for meat consumption. These have hit farmers hard, with at least 20,000 farming operations shutting down by the end of February. With the bans on their way to fully becoming a law, local governments are trying to provide training and loans to help farmers transition to new products, but some claim the process is slow and doesn’t go far enough to prevent the breeding of the banned creatures for fur farming and traditional medicine.

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Of hemp's many uses, one of the most promising could be in construction

Nate Berg

October 06, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom

Hempcrete is made from the dried core of hemp stalks and a lime-based binder and can be cast into blocks and panels just like concrete. But unlike concrete, which emits CO2, hempcrete actually absorbs it while also reducing construction waste. Though not strong enough to be load bearing, it has outperformed other materials in terms of insulation, and is therefore an ecofriendly option for covering walls. Reducing the need for air conditioners in warm climates limits CO2 emissions even more. Hempcrete has been used to build new structures and retrofit existing ones in Europe and Australia.

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Creative programs help dairy farmers transition to plant-based milks

Jodi Helmer

August 28, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Hoosick, New York

Some food producers are helping dairy farmers transition away from animal agriculture and into growing crops for plant milk. For example, Hälsa Foods, makers of plant-based milk products, contracted with an organic farm in New York State where he grows 20 acres of oats for them. While plant milks have their own environmental impacts, these partnerships can offer farmers a guaranteed market for their new crops.

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