A baby is delivered via cesarean section at the Butaro Hospital in northern Rwanda. The facility is designed so that natural wind flows ventilate surgical suites, eliminating the need to burn fossil fuels to mechanically ventilate them. William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption
Freelance miners dig for raw jade at a company site in Hpakant, Myanmar, in 2018. Hkun Lat hide caption
Rattan Lal, an Indian-born scientist, has devoted his career to finding ways to capture carbon from the air and store it in soil. Ken Chamberlain/OSU/CFAES hide caption
Homes destroyed by Cyclone Idai litter the riverbanks of Buzi district, Mozambique. Weather forecasters there say they do not have all the resources they need to cope with more extreme weather affecting the country as a result of climate change. Nichole Sobecki/VII for NPR hide caption
Stacy Jupiter, a newly named MacArthur Fellow, poses with a puppet used in a show she staged for kids about how to protect fish. Jupiter is a marine scientist who works on ocean issues in Fiji. Rebecca Weeks hide caption
The river that once snaked through the village is now a large trash heap. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption
This tree-planting photo was submitted with an application for a gun license in Ferozepur, a city in India's Punjab state. Courtesy of the Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepur District hide caption
Around the globe, people are searching for ways to reduce plastic waste. Above: Dampalit, a fishing community in Manila Bay, can't keep up with a constant influx of trash. Jes Aznar for NPR hide caption
A new study points to the connections between climate change, lack of proper nutrition and obesity. Rick Elkins, Josh Sommers, Chris Minihane/Getty Images hide caption
Teenage sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen of Bali have received many honors for their efforts to ban plastic bags. Above: They accept the 2017 "Award for Our Earth" from Germany's Bambi Awards. Alexander Koerner/Getty Images hide caption
Villagers in Canchayllo stand by a reconstructed canal. Carlos Díaz Huerta (Tres Mitades)/UNDP hide caption
Some images from Goats and Soda's top stories of 2018. From left: changing the way we sit to fix back pain; is sleeping with your baby dangerous?; men walk near the site where the body of an 8-year-old girl, who was raped and murdered, was found. From left: Lily Padula for NPR; Fabio Consoli for NPR; Channi Anand/AP hide caption
A landscape undergoing a reforestation project is seen in Gongxian County in Sichuan, China. Eye Ubiquitous/UIG via Getty Images hide caption
NPR producer Furkan Latif Khan doesn't like to leave her home in New Delhi without her breathing mask — although one doctor told her it might not help all that much. Furkan Latif Khan hide caption
Screenshot from BBC's "Fighting fire with goats" BBC/Screenshot by NPR hide caption
A little girl fills two jerrycans with water in the Korangi slum in Karachi. Fetching water is a duty that often falls on very young children. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption
The Sahara desert creeps up on a palm field. Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Chris Junior Anaekwe, right, with three volunteers. They picked up trash in their city of Onitsha, Nigeria, for World Environment Day on June 5. Chris Junior Anaekwe hide caption
The people of Rwanda are required to take part in the national cleanup day, Umuganda, on the last Saturday of every month. (Above) Getting grass under control in Kigali, the capital city. Forster/ullstein bild via Getty Images hide caption
Tens of thousands of people live in villages on the edge of the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor rainforest in Madagascar. A government policy now bans cutting down trees to get more land for farming. Mahesh Poudyal hide caption
A worker sorts plastic bottles at a recycling center in China. Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption
Baobab trees along a dirt road called the Avenue of the Baobabs in Morondava, Madagascar. Panoramic Images/Getty Images hide caption