Global Us: What connects us all

The air in Nairobi is heavily polluted by emissions from cars, buses and mopeds. The first solar-powered trucks and jeeps with electric motors have now started appearing in the city. While the energy is cheap, the vehicles themselves are not.

Aastha Panday is 17 and lives in Kathmandu. She says she has a much better life than her grandparents. She wants to become a dentist so that she can provide rural communities of Nepal with better healthcare.

Twenty years ago, Vimlendu Jha set up the environmental organization Swechha. It collects garbage from the streets of Delhi. Now its for-profit arm is upcycling some kinds of waste. The proceeds help fund other environmental projects.

The Montero family from Colombia prepares this week's Global Snack. They run a food stand that sells arepa con huevo, a fried corncake stuffed with egg.

Hunting and illegal trading pose a threat to hawksbill sea turtles on the Solomon Islands. Local women are working together to protect the turtles’ breeding grounds in the country’s first-ever national park.

In this edition of Global Teen we meet Jessica Achieng from Nairobi, Kenya. She enjoys going to school and hopes to become a musician.

A meter below sea level, the German island of Pellworm is surrounded by towering dikes designed to keep storm surges out. But will they be enough to protect the green island from climate-induced rising waters?

As sea levels rise, the rich ecosystem of the Wadden Sea in the North Sea is at risk of disappearing. It will take concerted efforts to protect the habitat that is home to thousands of birds, animals and plants.

Costa Rica is home to an astonishing number butterfly species. Local farmers breed some species for sale to botanic gardens and butterfly sanctuaries worldwide. The work provides a good income and helps protect biodiversity.

The new Social Justice/Work Places series takes a look at the world of work in Asia and Europe. In India, women are still underrepresented in the labor force. In Iceland, more than 70 percent of women are employed.