Latest Attraction at French Theme Park: Crows That Pick Up Trash

Training inmates to raise service dogs can benefit everyone involved. Inmates gain skills and a sense of purpose, and the dogs go on to help wounded veterans and first responders. “I’ve been here for years,” says a security guard at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility where Puppies Behind Bars started. “And let me tell you, this is like no other program. It really works.”

A wastewater infrastructure crisis in the southern United States is much like those found in far less-developed countries. Now researchers and nonprofits are looking to successes in Africa, in an effort to eradicate obscure diseases and improve quality of life.

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where more bears and more people are increasingly occupying the same general space, the Montana Bear Education Working Group is prepared. By holding workshops and events to teach locals how to interact with bears, carry bear spray, and adopt habits to minimize potential conflict, the group reached over 20,000 people last year and continues to educate more people.

In the wake of more than 100 forest fires in Maule, Chile, hundreds of burned acres of forest are being replanted by three Border Collies named Das, Olivia, and Summer and an organization called Pewos. The dogs bound through miles of terrain with special backpacks that release native seeds to regrow the area. So far the dogs have worked in 15 forests in the region and plants are starting to come back.

Martin Agee, an accomplished violinist who has performed at Lincoln Center and on Broadway, volunteers for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and got an idea when he saw how reading to dogs could calm them down. He put his skills to use and began playing violin for the dogs, who instantly relax and respond to his performance.

Package-free shopping encourages more sustainable consumption. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cleenland offers package-free household products, including shampoo and cleaners. Customers use their own containers and pay by weight. Asking consumers to pay more attention helps reduce waste generated by packaging and contributes to municipal zero waste strategies.

An initiative on the Moscow metro system has posters on the train featuring cats and dogs that are looking for a home. Known as the “Tails and Paws” train, these animals come from 13 animal shelters in the city and riders can use their phone to scan the poster to learn more about the animals up for adoption. “It’s about forming a new culture of responsible attitude to animals,” says one of the workers at a shelter.

In 2020, a devastating explosion in Beirut that came from a warehouse released 800,000 and one million tons of construction and demolition waste and 20,000 tons of shattered glass into the city. The waste was being thrown into landfills. However, landfills are notoriously bad for the environment. Out of that rubble an idea was created; disposing waste sustainably. Rubble Mountains was created specifically to do this. They've been able to restore four quarries, use materials to create public amenities, and diverting up to 50 tons of demolition waste from landfills.

When organic materials like wood chips and manure are heated in the absence of oxygen they create a black powdery substance called biochar. This material prevents the release of carbon into the atmosphere from the natural decaying process. And it has other beneficial uses like improving soil fertility, too.

Communities across New Hampshire are implementing “pay as you throw” trash-collection systems to reduce the garbage sent to landfills and increase the use of alternative options like recycling. The programs use several different methods like special bags, stickers, or punch cards, but all require some form of payment per collected trash bag.