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Checking and setting goals with Melinda French Gates

The world needs to step up progress on development goals, says Melinda French Gates, co-chair and co-founder of the Gates Foundation.
French Gates, co-chair of the Gates foundation, says that world needs to do more to progress toward lofty sustainable development goals.
John Moore/Getty Images

What happens when we run out of sand?

May 2, 2022
We’re depleting the natural resource at an alarming rate, which means higher costs for building, the environment and mining communities.
Excessive mining is driving up the cost of sand, but it's also devastating the environment and mining communities. Above, a sand mining site along the Gambian coast in 2021.
John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

Does owning a home turn us into worse people?

Aug 6, 2021
Vox's Jerusalem Demsas explains how homeownership can drive people to oppose policies that are beneficial for the entire neighborhood.
The housing affordability crisis used to be confined to people with lower incomes, says Jerusalem Demsas. "Now housing unaffordability has gone through the roof," she says.
David McNew via Getty Images

After natural disasters, this small Texas city is putting the brakes temporarily on development

Oct 2, 2018
Wildfires scarred Bastrop, Texas and other central areas of the state in 2011.
A sign for prayer is taped to the base of the fireman's statue in front of the Bastrop Volunteer Fire Department September 7, 2011 in historic downtown Bastrop, Texas.
Erich Schlegel/Getty Images

A look at a tax credit that saves historic buildings and revitalizes them

Feb 14, 2018
A tax credit that has helped to revitalize historic buildings across the U.S. was almost eliminated during the recent tax overhaul. But advocates for the tax credit pointed out that every congressional district has at least one historic tax credit project. Nationwide, more than 1,000 projects took advantage of this credit in 2017.
A construction site for Google's expansion in Seattle's South Lake Union. The neighborhood is home to Amazon's first headquarters and other major tech companies.
Anna Boiko-Weyrauch/ for Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

How do you retrofit an old industrial waterfront? Cleveland is finding out

Jun 16, 2017
It's a work in progress that could take decades to finish.
Cleveland activist Dick Clough shows off the city’s downtown waterfront.
Matt Richmond/ideastream

Fishermen in Mexican town protest development of new resort

Jul 29, 2016
The resort has permits to build more than 4,000 new homes.
Fishermen from the Punta Lobos fishing cooperative filet their morning catch on the beach.
Nina Feldman

World Economic Forum looks to tech for African growth

May 11, 2016
Experts gather in Rwanda's capital to discuss how tech can spur Africa's economy.
Digital tech is spurring development in sub-Saharan Africa, but there could also be some drawbacks.
SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images