environment
South Africa’s largest city is running out of water
In 2017, Cape Town nearly became the world’s first major city to essentially run out of municipal water. Although this was eventually avoided, water woes continue to plague South Africa and have been worsened by climate change. Now, the main economic hub, Johannesburg, is facing its own crisis, with outages becoming part of daily life.
In rural Japan, a closed school becomes a new kind of community hub
Japan’s rural population has been in decline for decades. That’s caused many towns to close schools for lack of students. But residents in the village of Takigahara transformed a former nursery school into a different kind of community gathering place.
A look at the impact of pollution on rivers and efforts to keep them clean
The organizers of the Olympic Games in Paris spent $1.5 billion to clean up the River Seine. The World’s host, Carolyn Beeler, speaks with naturalist and author Sy Montgomery about other efforts to keep rivers clean around the planet.
Japan’s oldest village tries to attract new, younger residents
Nearly one-third of Japan’s population is over 65, making it the oldest country in the world. Small rural towns nationwide are seeing these demographic changes most acutely as younger residents leave for larger cities. Nowhere is this more evident than in the village of Nanmoku, where officials are using the allure of cheap property to bring a newer, younger generation of residents to town.
Mexico City’s bike culture is thriving
Mexico City is the biggest city in North America, and like most big cities, it has a lot of cars and traffic. Yet, over the past 30 years, it’s gone from being considered the most polluted city in the world to ranking 999th among global cities for air pollution. A small part of that has been taming traffic and the development of a robust bicycling culture. John Burnett reports from Mexico City.