Good News: Fighting FIres, Grocery Store health check, A Breath of Fresh Air and Preserving Cultural Music

Fighting fires in Borneo's forests 

Wildfires are common on the island of Borneo, due to its dry climate and deforestation. The fires destroy the island’s tropical forests and carbon-rich peatlands, home to the world’s largest orangutan population.

The Power of Mama, the first women-only firefighting team in this Indonesia-governed region of Borneo, are not only protecting Borneo’s landscape and wildlife but also advancing gender equality by breaking into the traditionally male-dominated field of firefighting. The project is spearheaded by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia and supported by Yayasan International Animal Rescue Indonesia.

Wearing orange vests and helmets, the volunteer firefighters ride motorbikes across the island, aided by drones that survey the forests from above to locate active blazes. Beyond extinguishing flames, they also champion sustainable farming practices within remote communities on the island, such as crop rotation and composting.

Kylie Bullo, project manager for the Orangutan Project, an organization that helps fund the initiative, says the volunteers have felt a sense of appreciation from the community. “It’s giving them a real sense of value,” Bullo says. “They now have a voice.”

Grocery Store Health Check

In an effort to prove that potentially lifesaving health checks don’t have to mean doctors’ appointments, researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom created shopping carts that can screen for those at risk of stroke.

The carts, modified with electrocardiogram technology, were tested as part of a study on 2,155 willing participants. After holding the cart’s handle for 60 seconds, red lights flashed to indicate an irregular cardiac rhythm called atrial fibrillation. Over the course of the study, a cardiologist diagnosed 39 participants with atrial fibrillation. These individuals were previously unaware they had the condition, allowing them to receive preventative treatment.

The researchers are working on improving the device’s accuracy and developing a sensor that reduces the user’s holding time from 60 to 30 seconds, in line with European Society of Cardiology Guidelines.

A Breath of Fresh Air

New Delhi-based husband-and-wife team and architects Amit and Britta Knobel Gupta have designed air-filtration towers that clean a staggering 6,00,000 cubic metres of air daily—the equivalent of 273 hot-air balloons.

The two 5.5-metre concrete towers—currently installed at a public park in New Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital—contain five air-filtration ‘cubes’ that draw in air and harmful pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, dust and fine debris. The towers can improve air quality in a 200- to 500-metre radius when indoors, or within 100 to 350 metres outdoors.

The architects are hoping for additional installations in neighbourhoods, parks and other public spaces in the city. And their use could expand beyond India: An American construction company is considering ordering about 40 of them to improve air quality at work sites.

Preserving Cultural Music

When Palestinian-born actor and filmmaker Mo’min Swaitat returned to his home city of Jenin, in the West Bank, in February 2020, he made a surprise discovery inside a shut-down music shop: thousands of hours of abandoned music recordings that once animated Palestinian life in the 1980s.

Wanting to preserve this treasure, Swaitat brought the tapes back to London, where he had lived since 2011. With support from the U.K.-based Jerwood Arts, which funds early-career artists, Swaitat founded the Majazz Project, an archive of digitized music, including synth, funk and disco.

His efforts have grown into a record label, radio show and online community. A documentary about the project is set to be released this year.

Francisco Núñez plants a tree at a restoration site in the Yaque del Norte watershed, Dominican Republic. courtesy of The Nature Conservancy

Restoring Caribbean Watersheds

After decades of deforestation, the Dominican Republic’s watersheds are under strain. These areas drain into the rivers and lakes that provide water to more than 60 per cent of the country. Along with a lack of water-storage infrastructure and low rainfall, this has led to drought.

Santo Domingo–based Francisco Núñez has made it his mission to restore these watersheds. He is leading reforestation efforts through the Nature Conservancy, an international non-profit, as the director of their Central Caribbean Program. How do trees help? They support the retention of water in the ground, which then gets filtered into the watersheds.

The group hires local farmers and cattle ranchers to plant trees. As of mid-2023, Núñez estimates that over 3,000 hectares had been reforested. (The goal is to plant 10,000 hectares over the next 10 to 15 years.) The project also teaches the farmers about sustainable practices that reduce tree-clearing.

After an especially severe drought in April 2023, the Dominican Republic’s government signed an agreement with the World Bank to curb deforestation. Núñez says he hopes to see similar agreements worldwide. “It’s time to restore and give nature what we have taken from it.”

Paris Olympics Go Green

More than 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted as a result of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—and had spectators been allowed to attend, there would have been another 1,29,000 tonnes due to air travel. In an effort to reduce this carbon footprint, organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics are aiming to put on the greenest Games yet.

According to Euro News, some 11,000 seats for different venues will be made from plastic waste gathered from recycling bins, as well as through collection campaigns held in schools in Paris. The Games will also use biofuel instead of oil to light stadiums, event furniture will be recycled and donated, and vegetarian meal options will be provided.

Photography By Refugee Kids

Originally from a town on the Syrian border with Turkey, photographer Serbest Salih told Buzzfeed News that he left for Turkey after an ISIS attack. Once there, he knew he wanted to help those who, like him, had been forced to flee their homes.

Working with Sirkhane Social Circus School, Salih created Sirkhane Darkroom to give refugee and local children all over Turkey a chance to express themselves through photography. Despite their circumstances, Salih says the kids often choose to photograph moments of joy in their lives, such as playing games with friends. Some of the images were published in a book, I Saw the Air Fly, in 2021. Most recently, the non-profit raised more than $30,000 [Rs 24,93,522] to purchase new cameras and other equipment. 

Helpful Vending Machines

innovation Japanese government officials are hoping future efforts to keep people safe during natural disasters will be easier, thanks to the installation of vending machines that will dispense free food and drinks during a major typhoon or earthquake. Two such machines have been installed near designated evacuation shelters in Ako, a city on Japan’s western coast that seismologists predict may experience a powerful earthquake in the future.

Built by the Tokyo-based Earth Corporation, the machines—which are fully functional—each contain around 300 drinks and 150 food items and supplements. Their contents will automatically become free under a heavy rain warning or evacuation order, or during a strong earthquake. Considering Japan is located in the world’s most seismically active region, the goal is to install more of them across the country.