In today’s edition of Squirrel News, we’re talking about ways to make children from low-income families experience nature, strategies to fight Big Tech’s exploitation, and renewable energy beating coal in US energy production.
More and more children grow up in cities without much contact with trees, hills, meadows, and animals. For kids from low-income families, it can be even more difficult to spend time outside their towns. Non-profit Yoots connects them with the outside natural world.
Apps and social media companies have been linked to genocide, political repression, and even teen depression. Transnational digital rights advocacy is pointing the way to a more just digital future.
Renewable energy is set to beat coal in US energy production
A subclause of the Inflation Reduction Act has helped renewable energy production ramp up to such a degree that it’s producing more energy then traditional fossil fuels.
Study finds that immigrant labor has netted the city an additional $8 billion
The El Paso economic impact study has found that over a five-year period, immigrants or individuals born to non-American parents have been a net positive for the region’s economy.
New technology is helping to make African water systems more resilient to drought. Remote sensors allow maintenance teams to understand when and where issues might arise, letting them conduct preventative repairs.
New app crowdsources animal data to help conservationists
The Protected Areas Management (PAM) app tags the location and elevation of inputs from users photografing or documenting animals in Papua New Guinea. The data is then used by conservationists to keep track of endangered fauna.
The conventional approach to housing people is the staircase model — first show you can stop your substance abuse or treat your mental health issues, then you’ll get an apartment. Housing First is the reverse: a subsidized apartment comes without conditions, plus voluntary support services.
WA farmers use community pizza parties to help with mental health
Farming can be stressful, isolated work. And because of stigma and their remote geography, farmers tend not to talk to counselors. In Washington state, pizza parties fostering fellowship are part of a larger suicide prevention program for farmers.
Reforestation programme overcomes political uncertainty and economic woes
Nonprofits and communities in Haiti are working together to reforest land with native plants. Using a public-private land approach, the nonprofits bought land around, and in, Grand Bois National Park to create a private reserve and avoid potential bureaucratic complications.
