host: wewelcome to "glglobal 3" this week's s program highlighs the sunnier side of fefe. it's's life-affifirming and encouraging. we set out to reveal the many positive d developments on our planet and sw that over r the years, human progress has actually made plenty of things a lot better.. not t everyone's convinced of thatat, however. a 2016 study asked people from 17 different countries whether they thought the world was getting better or worse.

just 11% believed things were improving. 30% thought things had more or less stayed the same. but the overwhelming majority, 58%, were of the opinion things were getting worse. reporter: this dramatic scene is one of a selection of photos taken by photographers in 2018 for the world press photo exhibition at the willy brandt haus in berlin. but which impression is it that we take home with us? one with positive foundations,, providing us with inspiration, joy, and amusement? or do negative stories overshadow our view of the world? one that can be so cruel, unjust, so traumatizing and terrifying. the world in oxford is a more rarefied one. the english university town has a special appeal for those with open minds.

its venerable halls of learning have seen no shortage of unconventional thinkers, people who like to see things along alternative lines. hannah ritchie from scotland is no exception. she has a take on life that is fairly uncustomary. hannah: the world is not always a good place, but it's much, much better ththan it was in te past. and i think it's really important that we acknowledge this and understand this to make sure progress continues. reporter: the post-doctoral researcher on global development is a champion of presenting the world as it is, including the good sides. she and her colleagues at the university's martin school research unit compile figures and graphics for a database that emphasizes positive trends. it's featured on their website, our world in data. life expectancy, for example, has risen significantly across the world, from a global average of 46 in 1950 to over 70 now.

and the proportion of children dying before the age of five has steadily declined. in many countries, chihild mortality is now close to zero. the researchers also have encouraging news on the global poverty front. ovover the last 30 years the number of people belowow the absolute poverty level, those with an income of less than $1.90 per day, has fallen by two thirds. hannah: the reason we need to understand these positive developments is because if you come with the belief that the world is continually getting worse and that none of the interventions that we had have actually worked, then you become really cynical about the world. and then i think you get into a position where you either feel like you can change nothing and give up, or you reach and grab for really quite extreme solutions. reporter: scientists have been literally been taking to the stage to publicize their encouraging findings. hans rosling, a swedish doctor

who died twowo years ago, wasa star on the internatational conference circuit. his lilighteni andnd enentertaining t ted talks havan viviewed by millllions online.e. hans: and d many in the e rich ununtries ey t think"oh, w we can never evernd e extme enentertaining t ted talks havan viviewed by poverty."s online.e. of couourse they thihink so. bebecause they d don't even kw what has happened. we havtoto be more sysystematc when w we fight devavastatin ignorancnce. hannahah: and then i i discovd the work of f hans roslingng, really realized all of the conceptions i'd had about how the worlrld was changiging were rereally wrong.. i had spent all these years in education, i i kept up to dade with the daily news, and i just had no idea. reporter: so why does news tend to be dominated by misery and suffering, while positive stories barely have an impact? media critic peter littger says the imbalance in coverage is no accident. peter: negative stories are just part o of the media product meu that we are served. reporter: and that menu, littger says, is determineby intenen cocompetition inin the media w. whetether print, o online, or td

radio, the desire to court exaggeration and sensationalism, in the process turning human hardship into a spectator sport. and that is precisely what readaders and viewewers want, s littger.r. peter: people are limited in their process of selection, limited to things that deviate from what they themselves see as normal. it might be unpleasant to accept, but we tend to define our own happiness via the misfortune of others. meaning, "i'm not affecteded." that's why we need negativive ns stories. hannah: the really transformative changes don't happen as single events that you can repoport on a dailily bas. things h happen every single d, the same thing every singlgle d, which yoyou may think are rerey incremental, but over decades it's really transformative changes. and no one is reporting on it.

reporter: so how does the prevalent pessimism affect those who are promoting a more balanced view? far om being dappointed bitter, hannahah ritchie and hr team are happypy to see even modest progress, including at grade-school level. hannah: we see students drawing little maps and coloring them in based on a variety of parameters, whether it's of co2, or poverty. so they are really learning about the world and learning about it at this large-scale, which for us is just the best thing to see. reporter: and what better place for hannah's team to celebrate the human story than the gloucester green market. a buffet of global culinary delights, just around the corner from her office -- a microcosm of the modern world. and hehere, it is without douba positive world.

host: our "global ideas" series regularly features people strivingng to change t thingsr the beerer. for instance, by helping to prprotect turere andur clilima. this weeeek we go to s southern kenya, a vasast area home e ta wide variety o of flora and fau, particularly in the amboseli national park, the region's main tourist attraction. it's also home to the maasas, a peopople that traditionally practitice strict gegender ro. but as o our rorter r beina thomomdiscovered, here, too, thin a are chaing.g. reporter: early morning in southern kenya, near the tanzanian border. puririty: my name e is puriy lakara. am olgulului community ranger. . wewe usually go o to the morninr early t the morng t to do

aexercises, to prepare ourselves for thnonormal patrorol. to make sure thahat are boeses e readady to work anand no lonongr asleep. reporter: she works in a large area of maasai community land, the olgulului-olarashi group ranch. it almost surrounds the amboseli national park at the foot of mount kilimamanjaro. pupurity lakara a is one of et young womemen who have recenty cocompletetheieir trning a as mount kirangers.aro. he rananger is patrickck papati. together they planheheir dailyme dangngous. patrick: we rk i in a ry, veve harsh terrain. the bush iththick. so buffafalos, manofof them ae ou somemetimes elephahants, when y, elelephants are e there, snakee there. but that comes with the training, anand the precauauti, anand how would you react, h w

would u be aware of your environmt,t, as yogo o outnd wowork. repoporter: team l lioness, ase eight are known, is one t the fit alall-fele ranangeunits inin kekenya, and thehe very first e repup o of maasai womomen., ase aditionanay, maasai women are consideded weak d dodo n pursue aoccucupaon oututde of the faly. coununitie are s swly being obrvquesoned andoosened.maaiai thgroup islanning patrol the aresurroundg the fo ngerer cps on the maasai commit. in allllthere are 70 ranrs he. ririty: realllly like our job as ranangers, beususe we want o ithat w we can createte a condue aenvironmnment to both,h, and ad interaction between the wilda. thth move back and forth between nanationalarksks ithe weststndo.

the east of the country, and traverse maasasai lands alonone way. thehere are no fefences bag their papath. pupurity lakara a and the re f her r team travel ng d distancs on foot. between 20 a and 40 kilomemetea daday. ththsame as the male rangers. among g their most i important dutiess tatalkinto peoeoplwho live here. the maasairere semi-madidic encoter wiwild animals a along e grndnd witthway.r ocks and sometitimes lions kikill catt, elephants s rampage in v villa. ththe rangers need to hearar at prproblems and b be informed i f poachehers are in the area. they chart a animals' movevemt patterns and register r their s coordinates. rangers are on patrol ven days a week. pit's a way for these womenen o break k out of stricict traditl gender roles. but job is far f from easy.

puty: : sotimes its diicult, bause anils like bubualos and elephantsrere ver harsand they can kilyoyou.sy. we are even scarebecause we are veryucuch concned d of o lifefe. we want t to live longng so the can prprotect them.. so while we are walklking in te busheses we are veryry keen bee you knknow buffalos cacan hidn smalall bushes, soso you mightt be arere, but en y youeach thehe bush it can kill you. reportrter: once a m month, puy lara v visither fafami in their village for a week's eaeak. her daughter lives here, andss loed a aftery the e exnded fafaly. her female relatives make js siting the national parks ararby. for maasacontntroversial.nd bit is also a an important t soe

of income. it allowedururity lara's's mothther to pay heher childres school f fees. purityty: i told my y father ay motherer that you hahave educd here without any work, so why f you want me e to come d d just s you don't wawant me to go o and workrk? release e me to become a range. ve e theyllowowed mthat..u t t repoporter: and wiwith her regr incomeme, she can susupport her fafamily. ththat has earnened her reececn ththe community.y. parkrkesian: havining seen puy and ththe other girlrls in the rangnger unit, andnd seeing tm working,g, we are convnvincede made the right decision. any other girl who wl l be accepteded into a rangnger unitl

also have e our acceptananc. reporter: : purity lakarara ia pipioneer, a womoman of coura. d that will one day benefit heher dauger a as ll. the job created a strong bond between the female rangers. it took a while to c convince e village e elders to gigive them pepeission to do the work. the precect was itiated by the ngo o internationanal fund for animal welelfare. james: thiis a comnity thatis , so the girirl child, womomen dt have a lot o of say in a l lof issueses. so we have been empowering them, not just tjoin the rger force, but also in termsms of ucation anand scholarshihips. , , we want to s see, in gener, women playing a gger role in coerervati mattete here.

report: the won rangerlive tents f now, buproper housg is bei planned theypend thr weeks tether at a a stretch. that createses a sense off community.y. purity: : we discusseded, haveu been injurured, have youou been ared, are you readtoto continue w with this worork? then when we m mt together w e encoururage ourselveves, let'st try it, itit's all aboutut the. so, when w we come togetethere talk about small things keke that andnd even the inteteracn between us a and men. we talk abouout it, and wewe ae ourselelves. reporter: is k kind of femalae emempowerment anand self-d-determinationon is someg nenein their society, but it aparars to bcatctchingn. announuncer: repression and discriminanation are part t ofe for many womomen around ththe ww

men, you'll find stori about ose taking atand, and iniring otherso do the se.the ww dw wen gives voice to the women of our world. host: have you ever seen a whale in the wild? whale-watching excursions provide an opportunity to get up close to these gentle giants. whales can be spotted in deep waters around the globe, from the west coast of north america, across the seas to south africa, europe, japan, through to australia, and new zealand. and something sensational is happening, too. humpback whales are once again being sighted in several places. in the 1970's, widespread commercial whaling nearly caused their extinction. then in the 1980's, whaling was largely banned. and now humpback whales are returning to areas where they hadn't been seen for decades.

reporter: whale-watchers off-shore near new york. >> welcome aboard the american princess. this is the only vessel out from new york city that has that fabulous mission of photographing and recording the humpback whales that have established a feeding ground in new york city. reporter: every summer the humpback whales migrate here in search of food, and are now believed to have strayed as far as the busy shipping lanes of new york harbor. celia ackerman works for the gotham whales conservation group, and is out here almost every day on the look-out for humpbacks. celia: the humpback whales have recovered significantly since the heyday of commercial whaling, because of that protection, and our waters now are also cleaner than they've been in decades. >> two whales right next to each other, starboard side, right-hand side. reporter: then we see the first

two whales spouting. a sign that they're on the hunt. the whale-watchers are then also treated to a pod of young dolphins. a key prey for both dolphins and humpback whales is menhaden. it's an oily forage fish that is in rich supply in these waters. what looks like rain hitting the water is actually a dense school of fish. the menhaden often cluster in such concentrations that they can be easily spotted fr the air off the coast of long island. the fish feed off algae an planktonon that have absororbed carbon dioxide. as such, menhaden are both invaluable filter-fifish for te ocean and a vitatal part of te marine food ain. celia: they not only supply food for whales and dolphins, but also for other species of fish like striped bass, blue fish,

shark, sea-birds. they're what's known as a keystone species. reporter: menhaden are an easy catch for r whaleses, but alsor commerercial fishing fleetets. their catches reached a level where there were not enough fish left for the whales and dolphins. the introduction o of fishing quotas i in 2013 saw stocks recover, and the whales return. further south in reedville, virginia, menhaden provide the main source of income. the omega protein corporation is the last company on the east coast of the u.s. to catch menhaden on an industrial scale. but not for the dinner table. their omega-3-rich flesh is turned into fish-oil or fish-meal. monty: these fish here appear to be probably three to four years old, based on the size. but representatives from the noaa, the fisheries' agency, actually will come here and take a sampling and they will actually determine the exact age of those fish.

and based on where we catch them, which is in our captain's logs, they will help track that species, the biomass of menhaden. reporter: the menhaden are a big deal in rereedville. untitil recently there were no official limits on catches of the fish. their r stocks seemd inexhaustible, except they weren't. overfishing brought memenhaden close to extinction in the 1960's, by w which pointnt the whalales had alreaeady left. omega protein insists there is no danger of that happening again, thanks to the q quota. monty: there's no overfishingg going on. and the fact is that the fishery only takes about 6% to 8% of the biomass every year. 6% to 8%. the other 94% to 96%6% of that biomass is left out there to serve its ecological purpose. reporter: no menhaden, no humpback whales -- a simple enough equation. but the figures cited by the fishing industry are disputed by

scientists, who are opposed to any increase in the permitted fishing quotas. other animals such as the sea-hawk also feed on thee menhaden.. it's a pivotal element of the entire ecosystem. we join researcher ellen pikitch from long island's stony brook university for a trip on her research ship. they're studying the biodiversity here in shinnacock bay, whichch serves as a kind f nursery for a range of atlantic fish, including menhaden. using bait made of mussel flesh, they set up an underwater camera and trap on the bottom of the bay, always at the same spot. a few hours later, the scientists will retrieve the latest findings for their long-term study. ellen: the concept that we need to take into account, not only the amount of fish available to fish, but the amount of fish available to eat by whales, by striped bass, by tunas, by

sharks -- that concept has been heard loud and clear. reporter: the team records and measures everything picked up by the trap, from baby blowfish to shrimp. all links in the chain of the ecosystem which the whales depend on for food. ellen: we see large schools right off of the coast of new york city. you know, it's incredible. this is something that during my lifetime i've not been able to see before. so, it's just incredible to be able to see it now. reporter: her excitement is shared by tourists who go on the four-hour-long whale watching tours. >> when you think new york, you don't think whales. you think cabs and crowds. but it's nice to know that there's wildlife right off the beach. >> they're here, we love it. it's cool. >> we're native new yorkers, so we're skeptical about everything. so when they said there were whales out here, we had to see it to believe it. because we go back to the days when there was no life out here.

reporter: the gotham wales activists advocate for the whales and against higher fishing ququotas. will there be enough menhaden for all parties in the long term? celia: there can be enough for both if it's done properly. reporter: and that's something the conservationists want to ensure, in the hope that migrating humpback whales will keep on retuturning to feed on fish in the waters off new york city. host: and now we're off to northern europe, where we've been invited into a home in iceland.

sophphia: hi, my name e is sop, and i am f from hverageroi. erageroi i is a small village in the southern part iceceland. i wawant to wewelcome you inty home. so this is our living room. and here we stay most of the time. our house is built on a hot area. we never have to warm it up, n t in the winter time, because it's alwaways hot. comfortatable. thisis is also my favorite thig here. it's from my mother. i grew up with this. and the flowers. this, for example, is a gift from a very good friend. and i really love these things. also these chairs, they are there since i remember, since was i was a little girl. also this chair here, it's very old.

i think it is around 250 years old and it comes originally from denmark, some danish people in the old days. this is my favorite thing here, my blüthner. it's an old grand piano since 1884. i sometimes play it. i could maybe try. ♪ this is our kitchen here. and we have very f fresh wate, enough of warm water. it's so clear, you just drink it. it's very clear, very good cold water.

nam. so, i have a lot of african things, for example, here in the window. well, this is my husband. this is my husband, he is watching the weather news. my husband's name e is danny. ok, hi, danny. it's me and my husbandnd, our mothers, o our children, he hs four and i have four, and grandchildren. i hope you enjoyed visiting me and mymy husband here in hverageroi, and i hope you will come here to visit iceland, our beautiful country. see you here. bye- bye. host: that's all this time. did you enjoy our look at the brighter side of life? drop us a line to

global3000@dw.com . and don't forget, we're on facebook, dw women. see you next week. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," the most basic human need is also its most precious commodity. in california's central valley, home to 19% of the food prodtition ththe orld,d,any liveitithoutleanan dnkingg watewwhileat t thedge ofof moroc's ahara reon, rvesting water fm m fog s the potentiatoto deey imimpa a ctuture. [cama focucuring clicking] [shutt clicking]