Agriculture serves a wide range of purposes, and new requirements and objectives continue to be added. Besides food and fiber production, we expect modern agricultural systems to conserve soils …

South Africa is a commodity-based economy, with the mining sector not only a cornerstone of the economy but the very foundation on which the nation was built. Directly and indirectly, mining …

The sight of brown water running down farmland during heavy rains immediately brings to mind the question: how much soil is being lost through erosion? What is less obvious is that the top layer …

Climate change, water scarcity, and the limited availability of arable land while demand is on the continuous rise, make it clear that we need alternatives to conventional farming. With the …

Most farmers in Western Rajasthan, India face an uncertain, impoverished future. The region is affected by frequent droughts, over-exploitation of groundwater, deteriorating soil and water …

Healthy landscapes and water systems are essential if we are to secure the livelihoods and well-being of future generations and our environment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) …

For many children escaping the Syrian war, the trauma of violence and loss lingers long after the journey away from home. In Sultanbeyli, a suburb of Istanbul with a burgeoning refugee …

This inaugural issue of Solutions marks the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue across our global society. To help build a shared vision of where our society wants to …

Our urge to create graffiti has probably been around since the beginning of humankind. Certainly in Portugal, it has been around for tens of thousands of years. At the Prehistoric Rock Art Sites …

The most effective solutions meet threats head-on with positive and highly innovative thinking. This is certainly the approach behind ecological artist Aviva Rahmani’s new activist art …

“We’re not that kind of Muslim!” ends the opening credits to Aasif Mandvi’s Halal in the Family, a new web series battling anti-Muslim prejudice in the United States. The …

The late Judith Scott was born with Down syndrome, went deaf as a child, and never learned how to speak. For over three decades she languished in a Dickensian institution until her twin sister, …

Wild populations of the world’s five rhino species have been in steady retreat for centuries in the face of expanding human populations that encroach upon their habitat and hunt them for …

Landmines are an old weapon that were used heavily in WWII and continue to pose a threat today in many developing countries. In Cambodia, landmines have claimed more than 64,000 casualties since …

The earth’s biodiversity is undergoing what some biologists are calling the sixth great mass extinction since life began. Unlike the others, this one is manmade. Given the inexorable rise of the …

In 2010 the United States government supported a proposal by Monaco that would have imposed a ban on the international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade …

Editor’s Note: see Acknowledgements for a full list of authors. In the Gascony region of Southwest France, famously home to the Bordeaux grape, farmland biodiversity may be higher than …

I was new to nature conservation when I became Cape Flats Nature’s first project manager in late 2002 and was introduced to the ecosystems formally known as the Cape lowlands: once an unbroken …

For the past century, most societies have adopted a narrow definition of economic growth as the route to development. Growth has become an end in itself, as a result of which, the true meaning of …

In a time when the “American Dream” tells us that bigger is better, people are downsizing their space to make more room in their lives. Tiny Houses are small homes, often built by …

Each year, billions of dollars in energy infrastructure are damaged or destroyed as a result of natural disasters, causing significant social and economic disruptions. Climate change and …

A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something . . . . [it] must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a …

What do you consider a design issue? Beauty? Form? Material? How about reducing disease, saving chimpanzees, or helping to prevent crime? While not yet the conventional attitude, a new field …

Perhaps one of the most well-known voices for the Left, Canadian Naomi Klein is an activist and author of several nonfiction works critical of consumerism and corporate activity, including the …

Mining companies drive economic growth and progress, but can contribute significantly to environmental degradation if their operations are not carefully managed.6–8 The industry itself cannot …

Healthy landscapes and water systems are essential if we are to secure the livelihoods and well-being of future generations and our environment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) …

An overfishing and overconsumption crisis has resulted in global declines of marine fish stocks. So while global population is increasing, the ability of our oceans to support that population …

Uganda’s next generation of female doctors, lawyers, accountants, and human rights professionals may have gotten their start through sandal design.   Women in Uganda face an uphill …

An estimated 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter our oceans each year—that’s 13,000 metric tons per day. As plastics don’t biodegrade, this mass of artificial junk is …

Polystrene has been a dominant player in the packaging industry since its early days of being manufactured in Germany by I.G. Farben—just think of all the Styrofoam found in product packaging in …

Reviewing Land Restoration: Reclaiming Landscapes for a Sustainable Future, edited by Ilan Chabay, Martin Frick, and Jennifer Helgeson, Academic Press, 2016   “Everything we have ever …

Professor David Thomas is a renowned drylands scientist with a background in geomorphology and extensive field experience in arid and semi-arid regions. He has authored over 80 …

“Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” –Niels Bohr, Danish philosopher and Nobel-Prize-winning …

It is impossible to discuss future food security without discussing climate change, a global problem that threatens the foundations on which our modern agricultural systems are built—stable …

Women are stepping up to the plate in the fight against climate change.   Earlier this year, the UN appointed six women to hold the highest positions in its efforts to fight climate change. …

The notion of planetary boundaries attempts to define a safe operating space within which humanity can flourish. The boundaries relate to climate change, change in biosphere integrity (i.e. …

Why are some policies enacted quickly, while others are delayed or never enacted at all? One might argue that if the aggregate benefits of a policy exceed aggregate costs, the policy will be put …

As readers of Solutions, we are well aware of the large social, economic, and environmental challenges that face us. Einstein told us we will need to use new ways of thinking to solve these …

For more than 20 years, Iraqi-born Zainab Salbi founded and ran Women for Women International, a DC-based, global women’s rights organization. In 2008, she published a best-selling memoir, …

Six years ago, a small team of academics and journalists launched the first issue of Solutions. The global economy was on a roller coaster, the Arab Spring uprisings were about to start, creating …

This inaugural issue of Solutions marks the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue across our global society. To help build a shared vision of where our society wants to …

The newly minted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were released with much fanfare at the United Nations at the end of September. Among its many aims, the 17 goals seek to improve the …

The Guardian recently announced that it will devote an entire section to positive news stories to offer a glimpse at the lives and works of people offering solutions to many of the world’s …

For more than 15 years, Monika Agarwal has been working with the pastoralists of India, including EDA Rural Systems Consultancy, MARAG (an Indian NGO), the World Alliance for Mobile Indigenous …

Although Mozambique has a fairly strong national legislation that protects the land-use rights of rural populations, the law is used poorly—privileging leases to agro-investors at the expense of …

We are educating students to engage with a future that will be very different to the era in which most universities were established. Global change is accelerating in every sphere of society. As …

Before “social-ecological systems” and “sustainability science,” there was human ecology analyzing human–environmental interactions and seeking sustainable solutions to …

The public spotlight on the killings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in the United States has shifted the issue of police brutality against black …

In January of this year, a collection of 1,128 Turkish citizens, 90 of whom were members of Turkish universities, unitarily stood in protest to the Turkish government through a petition entitled, …

Men raised in the West who have travelled to ISIS-controlled territories in order to fight have received their share of media coverage, especially following the release of ISIS video tapes …

Even nearly 15 years after the fall of the Taliban, issues of safety, a lack of female teachers, and cultural pressures combine to prevent girls from getting an education.   “The …

Oumo, from sub-Saharan Africa, was forced to trade sex twice for a fake passport and passage to Turkey on her way to Greece. Noor, a pregnant mother of two, was freezing and in severe pain as she …

In 1998, Srđa Popović helped to found the Serbian nonviolent resistance group, Otpor! Two years later, this nonviolent movement helped to remove Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević from power. In …

When watching a film or imagining a future life similar to something seen in a movie like The Terminator or I, Robot, we seldom feel that the concept of facing killer robots is an actual threat …

A massive campaign to vaccinate wild horses in the American West has gained momentum, with over three-dozen advocacy groups signing on.   Over 36 wild horse advocacy groups are demanding …

Guido Schmidt-Traub works on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change. He is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and member of the Future Earth …

As the American biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson said, “the worst part of ongoing planetary despoliation is biodiversity loss.”1 The term biodiversity refers to the variety of …

As the United States National Parks Service marks its centennial anniversary, a global group of artists have lent their creative minds to the celebration. In 2014, the Creative Action Network …

Why are some policies enacted quickly, while others are delayed or never enacted at all? One might argue that if the aggregate benefits of a policy exceed aggregate costs, the policy will be put …

Wild populations of the world’s five rhino species have been in steady retreat for centuries in the face of expanding human populations that encroach upon their habitat and hunt them for …

Mining companies drive economic growth and progress, but can contribute significantly to environmental degradation if their operations are not carefully managed.6–8 The industry itself cannot …

South Africa is a commodity-based economy, with the mining sector not only a cornerstone of the economy but the very foundation on which the nation was built. Directly and indirectly, mining …

Land degradation is an underestimated global concern with far-reaching implications affecting the ability of land to provide food and incomes. Globally, a large portion of the vulnerable human …

Healthy landscapes and water systems are essential if we are to secure the livelihoods and well-being of future generations and our environment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) …

Land use and cover changes are highly influenced by the food demands of increasing populations the world over. The continual conversion of land for agricultural use has destroyed or degraded many …

Professor David Thomas is a renowned drylands scientist with a background in geomorphology and extensive field experience in arid and semi-arid regions. He has authored over 80 …

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.1 They are the multiple commodities that are supplied by ecosystems and constitute the …

South Africa is a commodity-based economy, with the mining sector not only a cornerstone of the economy but the very foundation on which the nation was built. Directly and indirectly, mining …

The sight of brown water running down farmland during heavy rains immediately brings to mind the question: how much soil is being lost through erosion? What is less obvious is that the top layer …

Climate change, water scarcity, and the limited availability of arable land while demand is on the continuous rise, make it clear that we need alternatives to conventional farming. With the …

Healthy landscapes and water systems are essential if we are to secure the livelihoods and well-being of future generations and our environment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) …

Land use and cover changes are highly influenced by the food demands of increasing populations the world over. The continual conversion of land for agricultural use has destroyed or degraded many …

Mining companies drive economic growth and progress, but can contribute significantly to environmental degradation if their operations are not carefully managed.6–8 The industry itself cannot …

Land use and cover changes are highly influenced by the food demands of increasing populations the world over. The continual conversion of land for agricultural use has destroyed or degraded many …

I am at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, looking for my flight to appear on the departures timetable. There it is—Bishkek—the capital of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, where I am about to start my new …

“Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” –Niels Bohr, Danish philosopher and Nobel-Prize-winning …

On a dock that leads from the pine-bordered shoreline of Flathead Lake, I lean over, and look into the clear green water as hundreds of native Northern pike minnow swim through the gaps in the …

The Great Barrier Reef is arguably Australia’s most famous natural icon. Yet, the ecological health of the reef has declined over the last 150 years following intense development.1 In …

In January of this year, a collection of 1,128 Turkish citizens, 90 of whom were members of Turkish universities, unitarily stood in protest to the Turkish government through a petition entitled, …

Uganda’s next generation of female doctors, lawyers, accountants, and human rights professionals may have gotten their start through sandal design.   Women in Uganda face an uphill …

We are educating students to engage with a future that will be very different to the era in which most universities were established. Global change is accelerating in every sphere of society. As …

Throughout history, progress in human societies has come about thanks to an improved understanding of the world around us, which, in turn, has enabled us to identify new ways to draw advantage. …

Guido Schmidt-Traub works on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change. He is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and member of the Future Earth …

Before “social-ecological systems” and “sustainability science,” there was human ecology analyzing human–environmental interactions and seeking sustainable solutions to …

Of the 355 million menstruating women in India, only 12 percent of them use sanitary napkins, according to a study done by A.C. Nielsen. The vast majority simply cannot afford them, and so they …

Reviewing Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik …

To most in the social enterprise field, the Middle East is not known for social innovation. The region is consistently labeled as slow, stagnant, and inflexible—not exactly qualities that foster …

This inaugural issue of Solutions marks the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue across our global society. To help build a shared vision of where our society wants to …

After her commencement remarks at the University for International Leadership and Conflict Resolution (UILCR) in Spring 2043, several of the graduates wrote Ms. Rodrigues to ask her to elaborate …

Pakistan is one of the bottom 10 countries with regards to the participation of women in the workforce, according to World Bank Statistics. A similar situation exists in almost all countries that …

Without action, rapid global environmental change in the 21st century risks undermining, and even reversing, the gains in public health and human development made in the 20th century.1 The world …

Of all the global challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, two seem likely to overshadow the rest: persistent, widespread energy poverty (and associated lost economic opportunities), and …

The global scientific community first began to consider, in earnest, the Earth’s capacity to sustain humanity in the classic 1972 study Limits to Growth.1 The primitive model put forward by …

Denmark’s energy revolution began with the shock of the 1970s oil crises, where prices quadrupled in a few days, and the country got the wake-up call it needed to start turning around its …

Increasingly, Americans are waking up and realizing that climate change is a huge problem and that it is not going away. However, it is so big that many people think that there is not much that …

While climate systems are incredibly complex, the causes of contemporary climate change and many of the potential impacts are now well understood. The atmospheric concentrations of several …

Agriculture serves a wide range of purposes, and new requirements and objectives continue to be added. Besides food and fiber production, we expect modern agricultural systems to conserve soils …

Mining companies drive economic growth and progress, but can contribute significantly to environmental degradation if their operations are not carefully managed.6–8 The industry itself cannot …

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.1 They are the multiple commodities that are supplied by ecosystems and constitute the …

South Africa is a commodity-based economy, with the mining sector not only a cornerstone of the economy but the very foundation on which the nation was built. Directly and indirectly, mining …

Land degradation is an underestimated global concern with far-reaching implications affecting the ability of land to provide food and incomes. Globally, a large portion of the vulnerable human …

Climate change, water scarcity, and the limited availability of arable land while demand is on the continuous rise, make it clear that we need alternatives to conventional farming. With the …

China is waking up to the environmental challenge its rapid growth is creating. Development has come at the expense of our natural capital, an unsustainable relationship that’s now threatening to …

A quiet but radical transformation is changing student loan systems. Traditionally, loans made to borrowers deemed dependable are paid back at a set, prearranged time and amount. However, in …

Those familiar with the debate in the developed world about the virtues of private versus public education will not be surprised to find the same arguments raging when it comes to providing …

In state courts across the United States, corporate special interests are spending money to elect judges who interpret the law in a manner that benefits corporations, rather than citizens seeking …

When a natural disaster strikes in the West, farmers can turn to their insurance companies for aid. In the developing world, where the dangers are often more acute, and risk of failure grim, …

For most of the two hundred thousand years or so of human existence, we used but a small fraction of the earth’s freshwater resources. It has been only a few thousand years since humans first …

Wildfires have always been part of living in the American West, but today they are bigger, burn longer, cause more damage, and kill more people than ever before. Much of this drama plays out on …

One of Australia’s greatest challenges is the persistent socioeconomic disadvantage faced by Aboriginal (Indigenous) people. This is particularly acute in the more remote regions of northern …

An overfishing and overconsumption crisis has resulted in global declines of marine fish stocks. So while global population is increasing, the ability of our oceans to support that population …

Imagine a fish farmer in a developing country, with poor literacy and minimal capital, having to comply with international sustainability standards in order to sell their fish. Then, imagine they …

The Great Barrier Reef is arguably Australia’s most famous natural icon. Yet, the ecological health of the reef has declined over the last 150 years following intense development.1 In …

Oceans cover almost three-quarters of the planet, hold 97 percent of its water, produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, and absorb the most carbon. We evolved from the oceans and …

It is the summer of 2002 in the Southern Ocean. The seas are rough and a ship is hauling in a longline that was set at a depth of more than a thousand meters. The catch is illegally caught …

In 2008, Greenpeace USA launched the Carting Away the Oceans campaign to highlight the U.S. seafood industry’s leaders and laggards in sustainability. The campaign appraises seafood retailers …

Let’s plan for a short trip back in time, shall we? Jump in your favorite time machine, check the gauges and spin the dial. Destination: the Mediterranean basin in the Stone Age, the …

What follows is a hypothetical executive summary from an imagined Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on the state of the world’s food systems, written from the perspective of the …

Inuit, the Indigenous People inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the Russian Far East, have adapted to living in the harsh Arctic conditions for thousands of years. In …

Traditional qayaqs are making a resurgence in the Inuvialuit community of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, Canada, due to an interest in returning to traditional harvest methods. For Inuit, …

It is impossible to discuss future food security without discussing climate change, a global problem that threatens the foundations on which our modern agricultural systems are built—stable …

Think about the food in your fridge. It is very likely that most of it has come in nonbiodegradable packaging and from far distances. It is also likely that at least one-third of this food will …

As the American biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson said, “the worst part of ongoing planetary despoliation is biodiversity loss.”1 The term biodiversity refers to the variety of …

Amazon deforestation is a consequence of global demand for food.1 Forests get cleared mostly to graze livestock, but some get cleared to grow soybeans, as soy is a more profitable crop. Brazilian …

After Decades of Failure… During the second half of the twentieth century, the deforestation of the tropics became a global concern. Young people everywhere learned at an early age that “saving …

Until 2007, forests were the orphan of climate change concerns. They had been largely left out of the Clean Development Mechanism, a carbon-offsets program that emerged from the 1997 Kyoto …

The temperate rainforests that hug the coasts of Oregon and Washington are some of the most productive forests in the world.1 Temperate rainforests sequester more carbon per hectare than any …

The oil bubbling beneath the 4,000-square-mile Yasuni National Park along the eastern border of Ecuador has long been a source of tension between environmentalists and those eager for economic …

An overfishing and overconsumption crisis has resulted in global declines of marine fish stocks. So while global population is increasing, the ability of our oceans to support that population …

We are educating students to engage with a future that will be very different to the era in which most universities were established. Global change is accelerating in every sphere of society. As …

Guido Schmidt-Traub works on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change. He is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and member of the Future Earth …

Men raised in the West who have travelled to ISIS-controlled territories in order to fight have received their share of media coverage, especially following the release of ISIS video tapes …

During a visit to Kenya in the summer of 2015, President Barack Obama gave a rousing speech to a crowd of Kenyan youth at a soccer stadium in Nairobi, citing the advancement of women’s …

The UN 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an unprecedented step forward.1 Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which they replace, they apply to all countries …

I am at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, looking for my flight to appear on the departures timetable. There it is—Bishkek—the capital of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, where I am about to start my new …

Millions of women in developing nations still lack basic human rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and access to capital. And, while first world countries talk about the …

The Women’s Equality Party (WE Party) came to life in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2015, and has not looked back since. The party, with its self-explanatory name, is saying, …

Women are stepping up to the plate in the fight against climate change.   Earlier this year, the UN appointed six women to hold the highest positions in its efforts to fight climate change. …

The notion of planetary boundaries attempts to define a safe operating space within which humanity can flourish. The boundaries relate to climate change, change in biosphere integrity (i.e. …

By 2030, it is estimated that 65 percent of the global population will live in cities.1 In the longer term, the world’s population is projected to be 10 billion by 2050 with most of the …

Sport is, for the most part, an enjoyable experience drawing billions of people to games, events, televisions, bars, and other venues to watch athletes, from children to highly talented …

What follows is a hypothetical executive summary from an imagined Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on the state of the world’s food systems, written from the perspective of the …

Without action, rapid global environmental change in the 21st century risks undermining, and even reversing, the gains in public health and human development made in the 20th century.1 The world …

Guido Schmidt-Traub works on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change. He is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and member of the Future Earth …

During a visit to Kenya in the summer of 2015, President Barack Obama gave a rousing speech to a crowd of Kenyan youth at a soccer stadium in Nairobi, citing the advancement of women’s …

Trading jokes with his housemates as the sun sets over downtown Rosario, Argentina, nursing student Miguel Suarez drags a hose across the courtyard of the Medical Student House to water a leafy …

As the Baby Boomers reach and move beyond traditional retirement ages, they are increasingly concerned about issues of aging. Although there are major social policy and political issues involved …

Let’s plan for a short trip back in time, shall we? Jump in your favorite time machine, check the gauges and spin the dial. Destination: the Mediterranean basin in the Stone Age, the …

Women do not get a lot of airtime in history textbooks, but there is a new effort to change that. The founder of Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkeesian, announced that her website has launched a …

Environmental history is the study of how humans have shaped environments in the past, as well as how environments and environmental changes have shaped us, and how people have regulated their …

As the United States National Parks Service marks its centennial anniversary, a global group of artists have lent their creative minds to the celebration. In 2014, the Creative Action Network …

During a visit to Kenya in the summer of 2015, President Barack Obama gave a rousing speech to a crowd of Kenyan youth at a soccer stadium in Nairobi, citing the advancement of women’s …

Trading jokes with his housemates as the sun sets over downtown Rosario, Argentina, nursing student Miguel Suarez drags a hose across the courtyard of the Medical Student House to water a leafy …

In January of this year, a collection of 1,128 Turkish citizens, 90 of whom were members of Turkish universities, unitarily stood in protest to the Turkish government through a petition entitled, …

We are educating students to engage with a future that will be very different to the era in which most universities were established. Global change is accelerating in every sphere of society. As …

The public spotlight on the killings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in the United States has shifted the issue of police brutality against black …

According to the UN Population Fund, Egypt is ranked the second worst country in the world for sexual harassment, after Afghanistan. A study by UN Women found that 99.3 percent of Egyptian girls …

In the center of Berlin, just beyond the trendy Kreuzberg neighborhood, is one of the city’s most beloved public spaces, the Tempelhof Airport. After closing in 2008, the airfield and large …

Even nearly 15 years after the fall of the Taliban, issues of safety, a lack of female teachers, and cultural pressures combine to prevent girls from getting an education.   “The …

Inuit, the Indigenous People inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the Russian Far East, have adapted to living in the harsh Arctic conditions for thousands of years. In …

Traditional qayaqs are making a resurgence in the Inuvialuit community of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, Canada, due to an interest in returning to traditional harvest methods. For Inuit, …

The battle for humanity and against neoliberalism was and is ours, And also that of many others from below. Against death––We demand life. Subcomandante Galeano/Marcos   One of the biggest …

Much has changed over the past half century across the socio-cultural, ecologic-economic, and political landscapes of the northern quarter of Australia. At the start of the millennium, the vast, …

2010 was a rough year on the Mongolian steppe for the country’s herders. That year, an extremely cold winter struck, known locally as a dzud, wiping out 9 million animals, or 20 percent of the …

One of Australia’s greatest challenges is the persistent socioeconomic disadvantage faced by Aboriginal (Indigenous) people. This is particularly acute in the more remote regions of northern …

In 1949, conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote that no important change in our ethical appreciation of nature could ever be accomplished “without an internal change in our intellectual …

This December, Saudi Arabia will have its third round of elections in the history of its Kingdom and the first where women will be allowed to participate. Hundreds of thousands of Saudis are …

On June 18, 2015 Pope Francis released Laudato Si, the first encyclical in the history of the Catholic Church on ecology. An encyclical is the highest-level teaching document in Catholicism. …

Honduras is a very small, but highly biodiverse Latin American nation whose natural resources are worth preserving. Almost half of the country’s surface is still covered by forests and a …

This spring, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new environmental agenda. He unveiled his plan not at City Hall, or from the iconic greens of Central Park, but from Hunt’s Point …

“A woman over 65 is less likely to be cited as an expert in the media as a boy in the 13 to 18 age group.” Lauren Bohn is the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted (FPI). A …

“I will soon go berry-picking and I will take my language with me.” So I was told some years ago by Marta Kongaraeva, one of the last fluent speakers of a language of a unique group …

When Jessie Little Doe Baird began the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, there was only one other example of reviving an extinct language: ancient Hebrew. But where Israel made restoring the …

I am honored today, October 24, 2030, to be chosen as storyteller by the Smithsonian Institution’s Council of American Peoples at the opening of the Geno Baroni Center for Democracy, a …

Civil society organizations (CSOs) are groups such as developmental and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community groups, women’s organizations, faith-based organizations, …

What do the wormwood moonshiner beetle, the black scabbardfish and the elegant earthstar all have in common? Other than their fairy-tale names, these three species, along with another 97, have …

At one of Raziq Fahim’s first Youth Forums in Baluchistan, Pakistan, a young man sat in the audience, planning to detonate a suicide bomb. But as he engaged in the conversation that was taking …

An estimated 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter our oceans each year—that’s 13,000 metric tons per day. As plastics don’t biodegrade, this mass of artificial junk is …

Many natural resource management and biodiversity conservation problems are so-called wicked problems.1 Such problems involve multiple stakeholders with differing objectives and for whom the …

The Great Barrier Reef is arguably Australia’s most famous natural icon. Yet, the ecological health of the reef has declined over the last 150 years following intense development.1 In …

The secret is out: New York City has been quietly dumping its retired and decrepit subway cars into the ocean for years. But before you accuse the city of gross environmental crimes and …

Oceans cover almost three-quarters of the planet, hold 97 percent of its water, produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, and absorb the most carbon. We evolved from the oceans and …

Good news from off the coast of California in the United States: once ravaged by whaling, the California blue whale population has rebounded to 97 percent of historic levels. Researchers from the …

In January of this year, a collection of 1,128 Turkish citizens, 90 of whom were members of Turkish universities, unitarily stood in protest to the Turkish government through a petition entitled, …

This inaugural issue of Solutions marks the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue across our global society. To help build a shared vision of where our society wants to …

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) atrocities against women have provoked worldwide outrage, generating increased support for U.S. action in the region and hundreds of airstrikes …

Communities, countries, and the planet as a whole need to articulate shared goals, and create ways to track progress in meeting them. This is the essence of the Sustainable Development Goals …

A surprise awaits the visitor to the isolated rural hamlet of Naw Abad Qalah Hajeri in northern Afghanistan near Mazar City. Here, in a country where women are often veiled and rarely seen in …

We act as we do because we can get away with it: future generations do not vote, they have no political or financial power; they cannot challenge our decisions. But the results of the present …

Trading jokes with his housemates as the sun sets over downtown Rosario, Argentina, nursing student Miguel Suarez drags a hose across the courtyard of the Medical Student House to water a leafy …

Most women who give birth in the United States do so surrounded by a variety of health professionals, including doctors or midwives, nurses and doulas. The combined expertise in the room ensures …

No challenge facing humanity is broader in scope and importance than achieving a sustainable future. Every dimension of our lives is affected, and every discipline and sector of society must be …

Americans face a unique challenge in solving the climate crisis. Unlike other Western countries and Japan, where population is projected to be relatively constant, the U.S. population is set to …

The Guttmacher Institute provides estimates, covering various years in the last decade, of the proportions of all pregnancies that women report as unintended in many developing and developed …

Those who ponder humanity’s future in the twenty-first century generally take at face value demographic projections suggesting that the world population will reach something like 9 billion around …

Although Mozambique has a fairly strong national legislation that protects the land-use rights of rural populations, the law is used poorly—privileging leases to agro-investors at the expense of …

The many times I arrived at Bole airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, there was always a sign that said “Welcome Home.” Its meaning never registered until an official from the Ministry …

Honduras is a very small, but highly biodiverse Latin American nation whose natural resources are worth preserving. Almost half of the country’s surface is still covered by forests and a …

Until 2007, forests were the orphan of climate change concerns. They had been largely left out of the Clean Development Mechanism, a carbon-offsets program that emerged from the 1997 Kyoto …

In the summer of 2009, we were treated to a bicoastal spectacle of conflicts over water in the western and southeastern United States. Farmers in California were on television, complaining about …

Two decades of research into the management of what economists call common-pool resources suggests that, under the right conditions, local communities can manage shared resources sustainably and …

The Guardian recently announced that it will devote an entire section to positive news stories to offer a glimpse at the lives and works of people offering solutions to many of the world’s …

Without action, rapid global environmental change in the 21st century risks undermining, and even reversing, the gains in public health and human development made in the 20th century.1 The world …

Why are some policies enacted quickly, while others are delayed or never enacted at all? One might argue that if the aggregate benefits of a policy exceed aggregate costs, the policy will be put …

As the Baby Boomers reach and move beyond traditional retirement ages, they are increasingly concerned about issues of aging. Although there are major social policy and political issues involved …

YOZGAT, TURKEY – One of the last things that Arzu Boztas’s husband said to her before he shot her was, “I won’t kill you. I’ll just make you crawl.” He then shot his …

This inaugural issue of Solutions marks the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful dialogue across our global society. To help build a shared vision of where our society wants to …

For many children escaping the Syrian war, the trauma of violence and loss lingers long after the journey away from home. In Sultanbeyli, a suburb of Istanbul with a burgeoning refugee …

In the center of Berlin, just beyond the trendy Kreuzberg neighborhood, is one of the city’s most beloved public spaces, the Tempelhof Airport. After closing in 2008, the airfield and large …

Oumo, from sub-Saharan Africa, was forced to trade sex twice for a fake passport and passage to Turkey on her way to Greece. Noor, a pregnant mother of two, was freezing and in severe pain as she …

In 2000 an Afghan family paid a trafficker to take them over the border into Pakistan and then on to Denmark or Sweden. But when the trafficker arrived, there was only one spot in the van. The …

In the Sudan, decades of war and unrest, intensified by the most recent conflict in Darfur, have created the world’s largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Homes for …

For more than 20 years, Iraqi-born Zainab Salbi founded and ran Women for Women International, a DC-based, global women’s rights organization. In 2008, she published a best-selling memoir, …

In 1949, conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote that no important change in our ethical appreciation of nature could ever be accomplished “without an internal change in our intellectual …

The amount of space afforded to women in Islam has long been a topic of debate. Traditionally, men lead prayers at home and outside. Men raise the call to prayer, preach during sermons, and take …

Iraq has a long history of contributing to scientific discovery, however as religious leaders increasingly take control of the war-torn nation, that tradition is under threat. Once a hub for …

“We’re not that kind of Muslim!” ends the opening credits to Aasif Mandvi’s Halal in the Family, a new web series battling anti-Muslim prejudice in the United States. The …

On June 18, 2015 Pope Francis released Laudato Si, the first encyclical in the history of the Catholic Church on ecology. An encyclical is the highest-level teaching document in Catholicism. …

When Superstorm Sandy came ashore in 2012, thousands of New Yorkers were plunged into what seemed like an earlier century. No lights. No heat. No refrigeration. No elevators. On the upper floors …

Every year, we lose an area of land roughly the size of Honduras to desertification, and 24 billion tons of fertile soil to erosion. This threatens the livelihoods of 1.5 billion people, and is …

Wildfires have always been part of living in the American West, but today they are bigger, burn longer, cause more damage, and kill more people than ever before. Much of this drama plays out on …

By the year 2050, close to seven billion people will be living in urbanized areas worldwide, which is almost double the number of urban inhabitants of today. Provision of adequate infrastructure …

The Comtat Vénaissin plain is a small area in Southern France with such a specific economy and strong internal organization that it can be considered as a separate socio-environmental unit, even …

As terrorist attacks and natural disasters become more frequent and costly, the U.S. Office of the President is initiating a national push to create a more resilient society1-3 that can recover …

The United Nations (UN) has said that the World Food Program faces today its worst challenge since WWII, with five top-level humanitarian crises to attempt to address. Jim Morris served as …

Food security is a top priority for the United States and countries around the world. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food security as “…access by all people at all times to enough …

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) atrocities against women have provoked worldwide outrage, generating increased support for U.S. action in the region and hundreds of airstrikes …

Maude Barlow, the author of Blue Planet, is the chair of the board of Food and Water Watch, founder of the Blue Planet Project, a much honored and tireless human rights activist, and a recipient …

For 25 years, Tim Phillips has worked to promote peace and reconciliation in Central America and Northern Ireland, among many other regions and countries, and helped the new leaders of …

As terrorist attacks and natural disasters become more frequent and costly, the U.S. Office of the President is initiating a national push to create a more resilient society1-3 that can recover …

Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology who has taught at Swarthmore College for nearly 45 years, is the author of numerous books synthesizing research in the social sciences, including …

For the past century, most societies have adopted a narrow definition of economic growth as the route to development. Growth has become an end in itself, as a result of which, the true meaning of …

For non-profit organizations focused on advancing their causes, communicating their work to the public may not be a priority. A media organization led by the granddaughter of French marine …

“I will soon go berry-picking and I will take my language with me.” So I was told some years ago by Marta Kongaraeva, one of the last fluent speakers of a language of a unique group …

The fight against the Keystone XL pipeline has been one of the most publicized environmental controversies in the United States over the past decade. The proposed pipeline would bring oil derived …

Since the Industrial Revolution, two main motivations have driven the movement for work-time reduction. Free time away from the job improves individual well-being, while reducing work hours can …

Reviewing Land Restoration: Reclaiming Landscapes for a Sustainable Future, edited by Ilan Chabay, Martin Frick, and Jennifer Helgeson, Academic Press, 2016   “Everything we have ever …

As the American biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson said, “the worst part of ongoing planetary despoliation is biodiversity loss.”1 The term biodiversity refers to the variety of …

California’s hydraulic infrastructure has vaulted the state’s development forward, creating a thriving agricultural economy and supporting a population that now exceeds 38 million. …

Associate Guest Editor for the Resilience Issue Resilience Practice ably picks up where Resilience Thinking (2010) left off. The book lays out examples of how people around the globe have put …

Robert Goodland was the first ecologist hired by the World Bank and worked hard for 30 years to improve that institution’s environmental and human rights practices. He was the first winner of the …

During a month-long stay in the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was surprised to hear a teenage boy tell me, “Someday I, too, will create my own nature …

Agriculture serves a wide range of purposes, and new requirements and objectives continue to be added. Besides food and fiber production, we expect modern agricultural systems to conserve soils …

Mining companies drive economic growth and progress, but can contribute significantly to environmental degradation if their operations are not carefully managed.6–8 The industry itself cannot …

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.1 They are the multiple commodities that are supplied by ecosystems and constitute the …

South Africa is a commodity-based economy, with the mining sector not only a cornerstone of the economy but the very foundation on which the nation was built. Directly and indirectly, mining …

Land degradation is an underestimated global concern with far-reaching implications affecting the ability of land to provide food and incomes. Globally, a large portion of the vulnerable human …

The sight of brown water running down farmland during heavy rains immediately brings to mind the question: how much soil is being lost through erosion? What is less obvious is that the top layer …

In 2014 global economic output grew by three percent, while global carbon dioxide emissions remained constant. For 2015, a fall in emissions is expected, with the global economy again growing at …

Agriculture is the backbone of the African economy. According to the World Bank,1 two out of every three Africans are employed in the agriculture sector, producing about a third of the …

How can we better comprehend and respond to sustainability challenges in the water domain? Operational water analysts around the world face this question every day. In Sweden, a key …

Of all the global challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, two seem likely to overshadow the rest: persistent, widespread energy poverty (and associated lost economic opportunities), and …

Of the 355 million menstruating women in India, only 12 percent of them use sanitary napkins, according to a study done by A.C. Nielsen. The vast majority simply cannot afford them, and so they …

According to the UN Population Fund, Egypt is ranked the second worst country in the world for sexual harassment, after Afghanistan. A study by UN Women found that 99.3 percent of Egyptian girls …

Increasingly, Americans are waking up and realizing that climate change is a huge problem and that it is not going away. However, it is so big that many people think that there is not much that …

Residents of Los Angeles’ low-income neighborhoods will soon be the drivers of California’s clean energy movement with the introduction of an electric car-sharing project. The pilot …

After her commencement remarks at the University for International Leadership and Conflict Resolution (UILCR) in Spring 2043, several of the graduates wrote Ms. Rodrigues to ask her to elaborate …

In September 2010 I joined a team of latter-day explorers in the Netherlands on a quest to discover what American communities can learn from the Dutch about transforming bicycling in the United …

The modern economy experiences two types of cyclical debt cycles: the short-term business cycle that produces the familiar oscillation between expansion and recession, bull and bear; and the …

Suppose we could move gloriously and quietly along in our own comfortable car compartment some 20 feet high between the trees, yet with no engine running, no fossil fuel use, no greenhouse gas …

There is a growing consensus that many urban challenges can be addressed through policies and programs linked to urban systems of food provisioning. Considering cities are increasingly stepping …

By 2030, it is estimated that 65 percent of the global population will live in cities.1 In the longer term, the world’s population is projected to be 10 billion by 2050 with most of the …

Without action, rapid global environmental change in the 21st century risks undermining, and even reversing, the gains in public health and human development made in the 20th century.1 The world …

When Superstorm Sandy came ashore in 2012, thousands of New Yorkers were plunged into what seemed like an earlier century. No lights. No heat. No refrigeration. No elevators. On the upper floors …

This spring, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new environmental agenda. He unveiled his plan not at City Hall, or from the iconic greens of Central Park, but from Hunt’s Point …

By the year 2050, close to seven billion people will be living in urbanized areas worldwide, which is almost double the number of urban inhabitants of today. Provision of adequate infrastructure …

The public spotlight on the killings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in the United States has shifted the issue of police brutality against black …

The July 20th shooting spree in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater left 12 dead, and more than 57 wounded. This tragedy is another reminder that American lives are at risk because of the failure …

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defines ecosystem services as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.1 They are the multiple commodities that are supplied by ecosystems and constitute the …

Professor David Thomas is a renowned drylands scientist with a background in geomorphology and extensive field experience in arid and semi-arid regions. He has authored over 80 …

How can we better comprehend and respond to sustainability challenges in the water domain? Operational water analysts around the world face this question every day. In Sweden, a key …

India has the world’s second largest population, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down. The massive population combined with agricultural demands for water is putting a serious …

Less than three percent of the planet’s available water is suitable for most human uses.1 This fraction could, nonetheless, meet global demand. The problem is its uneven distribution and …

California’s hydraulic infrastructure has vaulted the state’s development forward, creating a thriving agricultural economy and supporting a population that now exceeds 38 million. …

Millions of women in developing nations still lack basic human rights, including freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and access to capital. And, while first world countries talk about the …

The Women’s Equality Party (WE Party) came to life in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2015, and has not looked back since. The party, with its self-explanatory name, is saying, …

Women do not get a lot of airtime in history textbooks, but there is a new effort to change that. The founder of Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkeesian, announced that her website has launched a …

Uganda’s next generation of female doctors, lawyers, accountants, and human rights professionals may have gotten their start through sandal design.   Women in Uganda face an uphill …

Women are stepping up to the plate in the fight against climate change.   Earlier this year, the UN appointed six women to hold the highest positions in its efforts to fight climate change. …

Agriculture is the backbone of the African economy. According to the World Bank,1 two out of every three Africans are employed in the agriculture sector, producing about a third of the …

For many children escaping the Syrian war, the trauma of violence and loss lingers long after the journey away from home. In Sultanbeyli, a suburb of Istanbul with a burgeoning refugee …

Agriculture is the backbone of the African economy. According to the World Bank,1 two out of every three Africans are employed in the agriculture sector, producing about a third of the …

We are educating students to engage with a future that will be very different to the era in which most universities were established. Global change is accelerating in every sphere of society. As …

Even nearly 15 years after the fall of the Taliban, issues of safety, a lack of female teachers, and cultural pressures combine to prevent girls from getting an education.   “The …

The following is the first of an occasional series of pieces on educational transformation. This one examines the work of Dr. Drew Epstein, who is a Professor of Social Psychology and Utopian …

On July 2, 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted the first substantive child marriage-focused resolution calling for a strengthening of efforts to prevent and eliminate child, …