Searching For Solutions


Women wash clothes in temple waters near Agra, India.


A follow-up to Vanishing Homelands, Searching for Solutions documents the efforts of scientists, social innovators, agriculturalists, inventors, traditional and grassroots leaders, and other visionaries who are working on ways to sustain responsible growth and development while preserving diverse environments and cultures.

Reported from Latin America, India, and the Middle East, and broadcast on National Public Radio and Public Radio International, 1994-1995.

 

Stories  
Food for a Billion Indians (18:23) | Sandy Tolan
It's growing increasingly difficult for food production to keep pace with population growth. In India, failure could spell disaster.
      
Family Planning in India (14:44) | Cecilia Vaisman and Nancy Postero
With funding from USAID, Indian health officials have launched a massive new family planning effort in Uttar Pradesh, India's most densely populated state.
      
Brazils Birth Control Crusader (8:18) | Nancy Postero and Cecilia Vaisman
In northwestern Brazil, a controversial doctor is on a mission to lower birth rates.
      
Womens Empowerment in India (9:22) | Cecilia Vaisman and Nancy Postero
In northwestern Brazil, a controversial doctor is on a mission to lower birth rates.
      
India Food and Global Trade (18:23) | Sandy Tolan
In northwestern Brazil, a controversial doctor is on a mission to lower birth rates.
      
Brazil Sterilization (8:18) | Cecilia Vaisman and Nancy Postero
In northwestern Brazil, a controversial doctor is on a mission to lower birth rates.
      
Norplant (10:51) | Nancy Postero and Cecilia Vaisman
In India and Brazil, population control advocates have come into headlong conflict with feminists over the contraceptive drug Norplant, considered by some to be among the most effective birth control methods available.
      
Miracle Farmer (9:40) | Sandy Tolan
In India, where signs of faith are everywhere, a deeply spiritual farmer has found a way to grow abundant supplies of rice without the use of harmful chemicals.
      
Mining History for its Lessons (16:19) | Sandy Tolan
Have human beings always had the potential to destroy their own society, or is this a more recent, industrial phenomenon? Can anything be learned from the environmental missteps of our ancestors?
      
Visions of a Sustainable World (14:16) | Cecilia Vaisman
City officials from throughout Latin America come to Curitiba, Brazil, to learn about low-cost, environmentally sound planning from urban planner Jaime Lerner.
      
Solar Energy and Middle East Peace (12:07) | Sandy Tolan and Alan Weisman
Developing solar energy is part of the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement, but the modest plans may be overwhelmed by market forces.
      
Can Hydrogen Fuel the United States? (12:37) | Alan Weisman
Although scientists and engineers have shown that hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is a clean substitute for fossil fuels, politicians and big business may never be ready to switch.
      
Gaviotas (15:27) | Alan Weisman
This piece formed the basis of the book Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World.
A group of Colombian visionaries has created a sustainable community in one of their country's most inhospitable and dangerous places.
      
The Great Hydrogen Car Race (22:27) | Chris Brookes and Alan Weisman
While German automakers race to produce the world's first pollution-free, hydrogen-powered car, the world's largest consumer market for automobiles, the US remains stuck in a Faustian bargain with fossil fuels.
      
The State of Solar Energy (16:52) | Alan Weisman and Sandy Tolan
In Israel, where developing alternative energy was always seen as a matter of survival, solar technology is pointing away out of dependence on fossil fuels.
      

Back to Top