If the house is on fire, who has the 'flying water tankers'?
If Greta Thunberg is right, and the house is on fire, then who are the people with the fire extinguishers? Or as Donald Trump might say, the “flying water tankers”.
The Upside team met a few this week. And though the fire is pretty serious, and the extinguishers rather slight, they serve two broad purposes: to show what individuals can actually do, and encourage others to follow suit.
First, there was John Cherry with a new/old method of farming that spares both soil and insects. Dozens of you wrote in about this piece. You can read a selection of the responses below.
Second, there was Dan Harris and his cute method of saving bees via the adroit deployment of something that looks rather like a credit card. Harris is crowdfunding his invention to save bees in bother.
Next: Arnoud van Druten. His company is building the world’s largest archipelago of islands made up of suntracking solar panels (they turn towards the sun, like a flower).
Then there is an entire country – Kenya – which is rapidly ramping up geothermal power operations in order to go beyond fossil fuels. Jonathan Watts, our global environment editor, found out more, with the help of a few giraffes.
Lucky numbers
There seems to be a lot of strong jobs data around at the moment. It does not reflect the quality of the work on offer, of course, but it does seem that EU employment rates are at a record high.
Malaria is a stubborn disease, but becoming less deadly by the year, according to the admirable Max Roser at Our World in Data. The death toll has almost halved in the past 15 years.
Meanwhile, Britain enjoyed its longest spell ever without coal power – getting through almost the entire Easter weekend without so much as even looking at a piece of charcoal, according to PositiveNews.
Oh yes, and New York features more than any other place name in 1960s pop, according to this analysis. Guess which city came second?
What we liked
The Atlantic, a fine publication in our view, is joining the solutions journalism beat with this project. Worth a read.
Also, this excellent piece by a young journalist, Lauren Geall, investigating the pros and cons of “good news”.
What we heard
Dr Jamie Wilson, via email
Matthew Watkinson, via email – and he even sent a picture.
Lawrence Clarke, via email.
Tessa Newman, via email. Well, how about this piece?
Irene Lopez de Vallejo, by email. If you like Irene’s venture, please vote for her prototype in a funding competition here.
Where was the Upside?
In Ghana, where a fleet of drones took to the skies to deliver vaccines and other medicines to remote areas.
Also in a lab in California where scientists have, for the first time, been able to turn brain activity into speech, holding out the promise of restoring the gift to people who have lost their voice.
Thanks for reading. Tell a friend about us. Get in touch with your best ideas, so we can then pretend they are ours. Write to theupside@theguardian.com.