daily basis are watchers and it's not hard to see why given we are the industry that brought you if it bleeds it leads is a news station mantra as the old saying goes if you want to be depressed turn on your news but not that today no this week we decided we'd bring you an april fools day show that will only focus on the most positive uplifting in the important news of the day that doesn't showcase the worst of us only the best of us. so let's start the show off with something truly great the great green wall of africa yes well u.s. president donald trump has been busy building or trying to build walls of barbed wire and hate metal in order to protect our southern border from poor people that don't look like farmers environmentalist and scientists working in more than twenty african nations have been building a wall of trees indigenous land use techniques environmental pretty good environmental protection to help combat the desertification of africa originally

started back in two thousand and seven with just eleven countries involved the ambitious project stretches across roughly six thousand miles eight thousand kilometers of drain that at the southern at the southern edge of the sahara desert in a region known as the. back by a qadri of conservation groups and governments around the world if the wall is completed it would be three times the size of the great barrier reef. with fifteen percent of the wall completed just ten years and the project there is still yes a long way to go but supporters are determined this grand green dream will work because unlike walls made of stone and concrete this wall is made with love and life which is the only walls truly worth building when you're watching the hawks. it's. like you know that i got. this.

while they were watching the hawks i am. and i'm happy. this is the kind of well i love to see yes says although a fun show to. have measurable things to talk about i'm really excited about that. and i think this is one of the coolest things that we've seen as far as ecology and a whole continent involving numerous countries coming together to do that so the original plan is that this plan was to plan this great wall of trees that was going to be ten miles wide and ultimately forty three hundred fifty miles long and what it does sort of bisects about a dozen countries but it runs about senegal in the west and then just to djibouti in the east but the biggest problem with growing something of this size and this

scope is desertification so where places were. places where things could be. it's much harder. no one's going to cultivate. things like that but plans change and they realized it's not just about the individual trees it's about how to. bring in. one story about an australian visitor you could change the land up a little bit like this and then that would have. been carried on like. two decades in. the lead environmental special global environment. it is not necessarily a physical rather a mosaic of land use practices that ultimately will meet the expectations of it has been transformed into this kind of metaphorical thing they're changing the land for

the better in order to create. a metaphor. and so that's where that's interesting so it's the african union and the united nations. organization refer to this as sort of africa flagship initiative. certification and look at that as these things are. learning how to row in these areas where they haven't. because what they've talked about such an issue is twelve million acres of degraded. projects in nigeria about thirty million acres of drought resistant trees were planted across. and a whopping thirty seven million acres of land stored in ethiopia and for those of us who are in our age group. we remember what ethiopia was

there was drought there was famine. here we are to a point where they're bringing that back they're bringing not just bring them food as it was through our generation for so long but we've gotten past the we can just bring them food to making it able to grow food and being able to be a food bowl for everyone not just themselves well and that's the thing is like you can't just rely on philanthropy all the time you can't just rely you know i think we've become i think the upper one percent of this world kind of feels like well if i just give enough money and thrown of money at a problem that fixes it doesn't there's much more beyond that and you know there's a there's a hundred different things that this kind of idea of this wall improves but i do here's a couple of them that they list on their website that goes along with what the u.n. want to list in terms of like how they want to change and better make the environment i think is by like twenty thirty twenty fifty. one of them was the you know the growing improved water security and the know it's also improvement for women too because now when you have these trees growing you have these new

practices being built being done there women girls don't have to spend hours a day fetching water because the trees will naturally kind of keep the water in the region. growing fertile land that's obviously one of you know land as one of you mentioned humanity's most precious resource there's this project does that it also creates jobs it creates green jobs giving incomes to families across the sol i mean that's a huge thing right there when you're building and creating jobs off this that's monstrously important you know and then finally one of the ones that jumped out at me it's also starting to it's creating sustainable consumption patterns and basically right. there can grow enough to be there so you don't have to rely so much on imports act you know and imports of food and things like that exactly the kind of all it truly is i wish we were building that kind of a wall on the southern border.

living through tornadoes earthquakes tsunamis and other natural disasters can be incredibly devastating nature a few. even in today's age of technology and human ingenuity is still unmatched even viro and standards of destruction while witnessing nature's wrath in the moment is truly frightening oftentimes the aftermath of such an event can be just a scary in face of the loss of infrastructure and life and it's those nervous moments in which goodness most often shines through and march the state of nebraska here in the united states had a bomb dropped on it in the form of a bomb cyclon the cause more than one billion dollars in damages to states from the to the state from a very rapid rainfall and heavy snow melt this included over four hundred million in the last crops for a state known for its farm and livestock dependence but thankfully nebraska has friends willing to help friends troxel lost a lot of hay farmers from my home state of wisconsin drove to point to all the way to farmers in pennsylvania were seen driving caravans across america's highways and

byways delivering food supplies and lots and lots of hay to nebraskans to help them in the time of need kevin and kendra schmidt organized a supply trip to nebraska from stratfor wisconsin after a trip they told the media quote we started off with only two trucks and trailers and at the end of the day we ended up with a truck full of hay personal goods and feed for farmers it feels good to help somebody that is that most definitely does to those farmers we salute wow that's a really neat story i think this is something that it sounds sort of cheesy being that i'm from wisconsin but it's true if you grew up there and you know this about the midwest and you know this there's just something very cultural that when things happen we don't think twice about you know when something happens you say what do you need we're going to go find out if we have it or someone else says it will bring in we sort of don't wait especially in terms of farmers and we don't wait for

these things to happen it's a community effort nobody's competing with each other and this sort of capitalist world. you know agribusiness beyond that there are these people who've got their livelihood and everybody works together and what you see here is literally people are taking their own trucks their own things and saying look i have a little extra why don't we. and i think this is one of those things that really is what we do need to see more of i think the media doesn't show this stuff but i know it happens all the time and that's one of the stories about these is that this happens all the time this is what we do when one community needs something. or. other and i often wonder why the media is so. negative. things like. you know they kind of leave it up to local media every now and again but they don't they don't feel good they're only allowed to go there. but the local

but we're never going to care about basil which is one of the reasons i like doing these shows like this i mean when you look at the damage that the brass were talking point three billion. that includes you're saying that's four hundred forty nine million in damages to roads levees infrastructure for four million crop losses four hundred million at a loss what these people are doing i mean just. lost one hundred percent of their hey hey one of them my mom and dad had a horse farm going to high school one of the base crops running a farm or an industry dealing with animals farming you need. a new. goes i'm. animal treatment whatever you can say and whether it's. one of these cattle are there for. these kinds of things literally animals starve and one of the worst things you talk to any real farmer not

a corporate you talk to any real farmer. seeing their animals stars no matter what those animals are going to be used for at the end is heartbreaking and that's not what they want to do and so this is the kind of thing that this is food for those animals you know it's not you know it's not just about your pork chops and your cheeseburgers you know they're saving their lives also i'd like it's pointed out that tyrrell really doesn't like cows of course you go to their little. system but he still believes that they have to say. you know look i mean i love saying this because you know you mentioned it earlier to farmers know farmers there they know that they're all you know their lives are dependent made sure and when nature turns around and bites you like it has been through quite a change they're going to be there for support they're going to say hey you know what we have to bring it to nebraska that's what twenty six thirty hours they had

to leave their homes to go boo this incredible story that a lot of people do you would see because they were they caught it like a facebook viral video shows up it just happened that you know somebody somebody was driving and saw and that's the only reason i saw it and because there isn't anything aside from a few local news reports they don't have a just yeah i mean we try to even things out on here certain days can be worse than others but to me and most times why wasn't even the need of these farmers i brassica should have been brought out but that's the thing it's not just about your fun whether graphics and will or will not whether cause a huge huge issue for my commute to work but really understand how it affects everybody and i understand i think this is another one of those things that you can understand where your food comes from if you understand how things work you know to back up what you were saying. loretta meyers a lycoming county pennsylvania one of the farmers bringing food there from

pennsylvania she actually said if it's not. what they want to bring down with them if it's not monetary it's cleaning supplies if it's not cleaning supplies it could be food supplies we're getting a little bit of everything from a little bit of everybody we are farmers farmers help farmers everyone should be taking that lee yeah we are a community and the community of support one of those things cold war before one of the volunteers who made the trip to nebraska said we had some flooding issues here in wisconsin but it wasn't as bad as what we saw in nebraska was ten times worse than we got on that's the other thing you can have your bad like yeah you have flooding these things can affect you but when you look and say look i made it through this you have it harder i can help you you know it's a simple idea of paying it forward that's pay it forward let's help each other of the most important thing to good to see good examples all right as we go to break we're going to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook twitter and you tube and see our poll shows that are. coming up the wall is pretty

good. literacy an. extraordinary news that in new york the state government is actually fighting back against plastic trash to actually pass something it's incredible all right stay tuned to watch the hawks. breaks it. security. mandatory. actions. so that every individual when they

become eighteen. thousand dollars and their. college if they want to. that's a that is a that is an extra malady of this economy that's being recycled repurposed regenerated into the ecosystem an economy that is like more mimics of nature. seems to do crack when i was a little kid my dad he was like oh. so you know like what i mean when i was a baby but i had a show. there's always been single mothers in african-american communities ever since slavery. i think it's more of these teenagers having kids. you can expect a fourteen or fifteen year old first daughter to order for him to be a father and he's a check out. the last place in.

my car and breaking down i was unable to get to work on time so they let me go with my paycheck that i bring home i have nearly enough to pay my car insurance. literacy the ability to read and write is one of the most important life skills needed to thrive in today's modern world according to you know the united nations education scientific and cultural organization people with poor literacy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed they make thirty to forty percent less than there are literate coworkers and across the world sixty sixty to eighty percent of those

in prison have below average literacy skills. as of twenty eight hundred nearly seven hundred fifty million people across the globe still don't have the ability to read and write on the flipside for the first time in human history literacy is no longer in the confines of the rich and powerful but accessible to the masses from ebooks to the good old fashioned library card never before have books and the skills to read them but easier to get once i am gone according to the organization for economic cooperation and development it was found that today a mere seventeen percent of the world's population is a literate while back in eighteen twenty only twelve percent of the population were literate as they could read and write one of the most compelling and successful ways people globally have increased literacy within their families is through the shared experience of reading so hawk watchers let's celebrate this upward trend in literacy and discover some of the additional ways individuals and groups are sharing the gift of literacy. that's incredible that from the eighteen hundreds to

yesterday that's incredible news i'm so happy about that i've also heartbroken that there's seventy percent or about any of the seven hundred seven hundred twenty million four hundred twenty million. and even two three years ago they were estimating was that eight hundred million so we've got now about fifty million and over the last couple of years part of that like when you look at the numbers of you say like generation to generation we've been getting more and more literate it really is a power struggle because when you talk about twenty school all of the books we didn't have libraries it wasn't until really carnegie started coming in building these public libraries that you'll see across small towns and really building a structure and have a university is where they were public people there weren't library circle to go to so what books you had is what books you had and if you couldn't read them you couldn't read them because they weren't schools either a school system and part of that is why there was that was a twelve percent and it's literally everyone right at the top because education

literacy access to books those were things that were only allowed to the very elite to the very rich to the very powerful and keeping those away from people was how you kept people working and lousy jobs that were dangerous it's knowledge is power you want to maintain power and that's the thing it's like i'm really excited to see these numbers and it's put is part of a good show that the and that's why it's so important we have to protect that that's why it's so important that we have people out there protecting the information and keeping information to the public and not just hoard it at the top . and one of those people is. lovely and always wonderful dolly parton little did you know so earlier this year her literacy program which is called imagination library they donated it's one hundred nothing on the book so the library of congress so she started this charity back in one thousand nine hundred six as a tribute to her father is a very hard working did a lot if you know anything about her back story. he never learned to read or write

he didn't get to go to school couldn't because at where it was and what she said it's so important to me because if you can teach children to read they could dream and if you can dream you can be a success and i'm kind of and you can see that in the numbers and there are so obviously if not reading and not being able to read and write puts you in this in this case and being able to is this gift and one of the things that she said that's why it's so important in julie is because you would like i mean we both know what we couldn't do the job that we do if we couldn't read or sleep you can't do anything you can't drive a car if you can't read read signs it's also a medical issue there are health issues if you can't read a label on a medicine if you can't read instructions if you can't communicate it's it's a problem with language and reading is the most powerful tools human beings need to truly change in their lives in the make their lives better you know best of so important and when you see i mean the fact that you even have you wouldn't have any

quality of literacy in gender oh yeah is that the same to me too yeah so you've got in the seventy's only around sixty percent of women globally were literate so around the time of the letter of m i was born only sixty percent of women were literate twenty sixteen that number had gone up to eighty three per grade a very percent literacy until you look as the literacy rates for men are still at around ninety percent across the board and only one in four countries have literacy rates for women above ninety percent and this is this is part of it goes back to whether it's teaching a girl to read or making getting water from your village close are these fundamental famous make a huge impact and literally make everything better and lower crime i mean like what else do you need to know everything is good it really looks good good for themselves cleaning your clothes. there's a little program called it's a bit of

a. or that some organizations have actually tar i did up by those areas where families as you said as important can read together a lot less of the laundry literacy coalition i love this they created lot of laundry and literacy kids consisting of items such as a sofa for parents told to sit together a colorful alphabet rug an open facing bookshelf an assortment of children's books and a set of four colorful puppet animals please let's get that in the water rescues anyone who's ever been in a laundromat can be one of most depressing places in the world new people can sit while their clothes are getting washed and read and learn with their kids so important please keep literacy strong that's how we how we have power in this world where. oh and i don't have a lot of good because they're based on the planet of york city and they move to help the big apple's infrastructure and environment the new york state legislature just agreed to and passed a new budget deal that includes a ban get this on single use plastic bags and the new tax on traffic congestion artie's america hurt the america's true chavez has more. after weeks of

negotiations the new york state legislature and governor cuomo signed off on a one hundred seventy five billion dollar budget that includes a ban on single use plastic bags a manhattan mansion tax and a groundbreaking plan to charge anybody driving into manhattan honk if you hate taxes now drivers who cross into manhattan below sixty first street will be hit with the nation's first congestion pricing fees starting at the end of two thousand and twenty eight the drivers will be charged for electronic readers that are automatically assessing tolls affecting the estimated seven hundred thirty one thousand drivers who travel into manhattan daily wow i didn't know that that will be interesting at the through hopefully it allows less congestion then because it gets pretty intense at all times. while similar initiatives have been adopted in other cities including london stockholm and singapore new york lawmakers say the plan must not enough money to support fifteen billion dollars in capital

improvement. over the next five years the city's m.t.a. will create a review board tasked with determining total amount depending on the time of day along with exemptions the funds will be dedicated to upgrading the city's transit system as you know the subways. and the bridges and roads and everything and i'm sure upstate too so i think infrastructure is very important. the new provision also includes the ban of single use plastic bags that are found at grocery stores which often make their way into waterways and oceans displace trickle over i mean even the it wasn't that way i know i sound old but when i was young there was not plastic in the ocean and now it's gotten out of hand new york will join california and hawaii as the only states in the country with such legislation the ban which is expected to go into effect march two thousand and twenty will apply to most single use plastic bags provided by supermarkets and other stores i do think that is a good thing we see too much plastic on the streets and i think it could help the

environment and it could help the price or amount of plastic that we waste everything on the provision allows individual counties to opt into a five cent fee for paperless bags with two cents going to local governments and three cents going to the states environmental protection fund yes good save the turtles susi susie save the turtles so this video and it was like like a body of water covered in trash like literally the entire service company tries to it's disgusting please stop littering save the turtles the budget also includes two other dedicated revenue sources for the subways a mansion tax on manhattan homes that sell for twenty five million dollars or higher and a tax on internet retail sales other agreements in the budget include the closure of prisons eliminating cash bail for misdemeanor or nonviolent a rise and also a permanent annual two percent cap on local property taxes reporter going to york

tonight each of us are today. by now most of us have forgotten about the christmas or you will trees we decorated with such great care just a few short months ago but for the wildlife the by you national wildlife refuge in louisiana your all quality decoration is their new lease on life a march twenty eighth the u.s. fish and wildlife service conducted its annual christmas tree drop in which they haue one copter drop nearly eight thousand new used christmas trees into by huge savage marshes the trees will act as natural breakwaters that will slow down wave and wave and water movement they trap silt and encourage the growth of marsh gases why is this so important well for one the wetlands act as protection from floods that threaten cities like new orleans during storms by functioning as natural sponges they create new marsh habitats by building structures that can support native marsh crashes it traps and hold settlements creates more land and a more stable environment for animals and it even serves as valuable training as

you can see for the louisiana army national guard harris of the new orleans office of resilience and stability sustainability for using somewhat over holiday cheer to buy a savage the second largest urban wildlife refuge in the us good all right that is our house to show for you to barely remember everyone in this world we are now told that we are loved enough so i tell you all i love you i am tired rovers are not out for a keep on watching all those hawks out there have a great day but. what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy the uncertainty shouldn't let it be an arms race is also a scary dramatic development that only engages i don't see how that strategy will be successful very ridiculous daryn time to do. sit down and talk.

i've been saying the numbers mean something they've mastered us with over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crime families each day. eighty five percent of global wealth you longs to be ultra rich eight point six percent global market thirty percent some with four hundred to five hundred three per

second per second and fifth one rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers over. the only number you need to remember in one one business showed you know bored to miss this one and only boom but. something seemed wrong but all in all just don't call. me lol yet to stamp out this day to come out ahead and gains from it because the trail. when something find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground.

but jihad is fired to returning to your opposing as a refugee is reportedly issued with a prepaid debit card one of sixty four thousand handed out by the e.u. to new comers. backlash over its attempts to relax a ban on arms sales to saudi arabia and over british special forces reportedly fighting on the same side as child soldiers in yemen. and with the deadline for leaving the just ten days away the british parliament rejects all tabled options to resolve the braggs making the prospect of crashing out with a deal more likely. the prime minister's deal that is dead.