Geographical Magazine February 2024 Back Issue

It’s something we spend a great deal of time thinking about, here at Geographical: how to tell the world’s stories at a time of increased conflict and increasing temperatures without being unremittingly gloomy. Many of the stories that come our way today are undoubtedly difficult, and they often cover vital topics that we don’t want to ignore. But to focus on these to the exclusion of all good news is to ignore the fact that humans can, and are, making extraordinary progress in some important areas.
It’s something that’s demonstrated this month by Bryony Cottam in
her piece on disaster preparedness (page 35). With climate change in full swing, the world is experiencing more extreme-weather events, but in some countries, including Bangladesh – a nation at the forefront of climate change – deaths from such events are falling dramatically. A range of fairly simple measures, including direct community involvement, is ensuring that although cyclones will still come, people don’t need to lose their lives. While it’s important not to be complacent, the lessons from these successful schemes can and should be easily replicated.
Our cover story this month (page 50) also reveals the ways in which a simple and cheap intervention can dramatically improve millions of lives. As Tommy Trenchard reports, a treatment for the common condition clubfoot is gaining traction in countries such as Zimbabwe, replacing traditional practices that do little to solve the problem and eliminating the need for prohibitively costly surgery.