People Fixing the World

A simple system for saving food and empowering women on the show today. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of food go to waste every year, much of it before it is even sold. This waste is bad for the planet, but also for farmers and consumers. A company in India has found an solution. They collect imperfect produce that would otherwise have been left by farmers to rot and use specially designed solar...

Floating solar panels and a see-through pyramid are the solutions this week. The sun is the ultimate source of energy for life on earth. Harnessing that energy in new ways is a key part of the fight against climate change. This week, we meet two people who had solar power eureka moments and are doing just that. One designed a see-through pyramid that produces hot water for low-income countries. Th...

CubeSats are small but mighty. They started as an educational toy in 1999, but now help people tackle issues from deforestation in Brazil to modern slavery in Greece. Cheap to make and launch, these tiny satellites’ biggest role is in remotely scanning the Earth. Thousands are whizzing over our heads right now tracking a huge range of stuff - including herds of elephants, coral reefs and volcanic...

Everything you need on your doorstep: a radical plan to improve our cities. Imagine if everything you needed - your work, leisure and essential services - was just a 15-minute walk or cycle from where you live. With no need to drive, there’d be less time sitting in traffic jams, the air would be less polluted and maybe we would all be a bit less stressed. That’s the vision that many cities around...

Climate change is set to alter our planet and human beings need to change the way we live and work. But how do we know exactly what changes to make? New technology could help us make informed choices - from sensors counting pollinating insects in fields, to power sockets that tell us how green our energy is, to apps that enable communities to discuss change in their local area. These ideas are par...

Sixteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions could be saved by using biochar, a simple fertilising technique adopted by tribes in the Amazon thousands of years ago. If produced on an industrial scale, scientists say biochar could be as powerful as renewable energy in the fight against climate change. Picture Credit: Carbofex and Puro.earth

Fake medicines are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide each year. But inventors around the world are coming up with ways to spot the fakes. In Nigeria, pharmacists are using a pocket-sized nanoscanner and mobile app to analyse light shone through a pill, powder or liquid. A Ghanaian entrepreneur has developed a way to verify a barcode or a series of numbers on a box of medici...

Signs that connect to a mobile phone app, which then reads the information out loud, are appearing in some cities. The technology is designed to help blind and visually impaired people find their way around more easily. People Fixing the World puts the system to the test to see how well it works and finds out what else they’re being used for. There’s also a clever solution to single-use plastics f...

Apart of Me is a computer game that has been designed to help young people process grief. It’s part of a movement that’s bringing together psychology and gaming. Whilst many parents worry about the distraction of games consoles and smart phones, some psychologists believe they can be used as a force for good. We meet the therapist who sets their clients computer games as homework and see how one s...

Police forces in the US are turning to futuristic technology to tackle a rise in violent crime and murder across the country. In one area of California, they are even using robots to patrol the streets. There, the police are claiming it's led to a reduction in crime and an increase in arrests. In New York they even experimented with a robot police dog, but with mixed results. This and other cuttin...

Irrigation pipes have been designed to double as mid-air walkways to help slow lorises cross open farmland in Indonesia; and a footbridge has been built for a rare breed of monkey in Brazil - the golden lion tamarin. These are just two examples of new infrastructure designed to help wild animals cope with human obstacles. Picture credit: Little Fireface Project Produced and presented by Daniel Gor...

Women in a village in Northern Nigeria have come up with an emergency transport scheme that is saving lives. They decided to act when they saw mums-to-be and their unborn babies dying in childbirth because they couldn’t get to hospital in time. Their solution also inspired the state government to help thousands of other women. Produced and presented by Bara’atu Ibrahim (Repeat)

What would happen if the government of a country decided to try to find everyone who was homeless and living on the streets and offer them a place to live? That is exactly what happened in England as the coronavirus pandemic hit. The government says 90% of rough sleepers were offered rooms in hotels that sat empty because of the lockdown. Simon Maybin spent the past year and a half following the l...

At the human library you borrow a person you wouldn’t usually meet for a half-hour frank conversation. The volunteers have various book titles from polyamorous to former prisoner. The aim of these face-to-face chats is to break down our assumptions and prejudices. We explore whether simple discussions can make a difference. Produced and presented by Claire Bates. Picture: Ronni Abergel, Human Libr...

Two sources of greenhouse gas could be lurking in your kitchen: rice and fridges. We meet a biologist breeding climate-friendly rice, and a team of detectives whose job is to stop fearsomely potent fridge gases escaping into the atmosphere. Produced and presented by Jo Mathys and Tom Heap.

Wood is strong enough to build skyscrapers, and bamboo - the fastest growing plant in the world - can also be used for building. Both suck up large amounts of greenhouse gas. We find out what would happen if we used these materials instead of concrete in construction. Produced and presented by Jo Mathys and Tom Heap. Picture: Moelven

Seaweed - we have been using it for centuries in food and toiletries. It can help to keep toothpaste and ice cream soft, as well as being a tasty snack. It is a billion-dollar industry. But in some parts of the world, supply of the crop has decreased dramatically due to climate change. Now people in Zanzibar are fighting back. They are learning new methods of farming seaweed in deeper, cooler wate...

People in Kenya have been paid to catch swarms of locusts eating farmers’ crops. The insects are full of protein and the captured ones are ground up and put into animal feed. The BBC’s Nick Holland and Claire Bates find out what tricks these 'locust hunters' use to catch the critters and what difference the cull makes. They also hear about a way of capturing tiny micro-plastic particles that come...

The LGBT community in Mombasa, Kenya has suffered from violent mob attacks in recent years - often fuelled by influential preachers spreading messages of hate. But one group decided to tackle this in a remarkable way: they have directly engaged with faith leaders. In carefully controlled meetings the pastors and imams get to know LGBT people and have their misconceptions challenged. This has led t...

Sleek blue machines have been popping up in convenience stores across Nairobi over the past two years. These “Koko points” look like cash machines but instead of giving out money they dispense bioethanol, a fuel made from plants which can be used in cooking stoves. At the moment 80% of Kenyans use wood or charcoal as their main cooking fuel – but these materials have a devastating impact on the en...

Recent years have seen remarkable successes against some of the most unpleasant illnesses on the planet. While much of the world’s focus has been on the fight against Covid-19, the battle against other diseases rages on. From the battle against hepatitis C in Egypt, to the war against metre-long parasitic worms, to the near elimination of sleeping sickness in the Ivory Coast, we hear the good news...

Dutch friends Evelien and Roel are part of a group sharing their social networks and local knowledge with Laila, a Syrian refugee, and her family. They’re taking part in a pilot project in the Netherlands called Samen Hier, which matches locals and newcomers. The idea is to help people who live nearby get to know one another and encourage integration. Produced and presented by Claire Bates Picture...

A large study published in June showed how a peculiar intervention could help prevent the spread of dengue fever. Instead of vaccinating people, the World Mosquito Program has found a way to breed mosquitoes carrying bacteria that prevent them catching the disease in the first place. The organisation releases millions of these designer mosquitos into a city with the aim of displacing the wild popu...

Former criminals are being employed to run part of the probation system in one of America’s deeply troubled, gang-ridden communities. It’s a bold new approach to crime prevention, and it seems to be working - young lives are being transformed and reconviction rates are dropping. Produced and presented by Jo Mathys

Scientists have hatched an incredible plan to save the northern white rhino from extinction. The team is using IVF techniques to produce a calf because the only two females left alive are infertile. Nick Holland reports on how close they are to succeeding and of their hopes to eventually release a whole herd back into the wild. Produced and presented by Nick Holland