Australian wildfires threaten Sydney water supplies
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australian authorities said on Friday they are focussed on protecting water plants, pumping stations, pipes and other infrastructure from intense bushfires surrounding Sydney, the country’s largest city. Firefighters battling the blazes for weeks received a reprieve of slightly cooler, damper conditions over Christmas, but the respite is not expected to last long. Dick […]
From medicine to recycling, six African start-ups doing business for good in 2019
Dakar, SenegalThomson Reuters Foundation As Africa tunes into the burgeoning movement of business for good, young people across the continent are finding innovative solutions to problems from illiteracy to pollution. There are no figures for how many social enterprises have been started across the continent, but the sector is growing with the emergence of tech […]
Tears flow as politicians fail to dispel “climate darkness”
Madrid, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Standing before a captive audience at this month’s climate change conference in Madrid after entertaining them with a dance in her traditional Pacific island costume, 21-year-old Tabita Kaitamakin Awira Awerika’s smile turned to angry tears. The student from Kiribati spoke of her anguish at the threat to her low-lying atoll nation […]
Tea, buses and elections: Seven uses of facial recognition that sparked debate in 2019
Tbilisi, GeorgiaThomson Reuters Foundation From identifying voters in Afghanistan to speeding up service for tea lovers in India, the use of facial recognition surged in 2019 with expectations that it will become even more widespread next year, fuelling concerns over misuse. There has been growing global debate over the technology, with supporters saying it can […]
YEAR IN REVIEW: 12 STORIES THAT HELPED SHAPE SIGHT’S 2019
Sight editor DAVID ADAMS selects 12 key stories that helped shape Sight’s 2019…
ESSAY: STATISTIC OF THE DECADE – THE MASSIVE DEFORESTATION OF THE AMAZON
In an article first published on The Conversation, LIBERTY VITTERT, professor of the practice of data science at Washington University in St Louis and a judge for the Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Decade, looks at a stat which “captures the zeitgeist” of the past decade…
Burkina Faso attacks a reminder that conflict and violence a “daily reality” for many, says WCC head
Simultaneous attacks on a military base and town in Burkina Faso in which at least 35 civilians died along with seven soldiers are a reminder that “conflict and violence remain the daily reality for many communities”, according to Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Almost all of the civilians killed […]