When Maria Kartasheva and her husband realized that the political situation in Russia had become unsafe for them, they decided to move to Canada.

But when Maria applied for citizenship in their new home, the Canadian government learned of her persecution in Russia: Maria had been charged by a court in Moscow for spreading fake news about the Russian army because she posted on social media about the Bucha massacre. Her application for Canadian citizenship was subsequently rejected.

Maria told Blue Marble that it was the kind of treatment she expected from Russia but not from Canada. “I felt so betrayed,” she said.

So she went public. Soon the media was covering her story and people were writing in support of her citizenship. Facing pressure, Canada granted her citizenship in a private ceremony.

Maria went on to petition the Canadian government to implement a series of laws that would prevent others from going through what she had. Now, as a director of the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance, she helps represent other Russian citizens living in Canada.

Climate activist Umesh Balal Magar’s hometown is in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal.

“We are facing the huge water crisis in the rural areas,” he told Blue Marble.

“Those impact especially the Indigenous community. And inside the Indigenous, also there are people with disabilities, and we are the most vulnerable people.”

Early warning systems for environmental catastrophes such as floods are not disabled-friendly, he said.

A deaf person cannot hear a warning siren, and a blind person cannot read an emergency text alert.

Due to the current state of Nepal’s infrastructure, people cannot always move wheelchairs easily.

“The problem is, these are also not mentioned in the policy, these are not also mentioned in the rescue plan,” he said. “I just think, how can I advocate for the climate change and disability?” Umesh has taken his call for disability rights in the climate movement from Nepal to international platforms, and it's making a difference.

“As a global community, we had said we’d like to eliminate malaria by 2030,” said Krystal Birungi, a field entomology coordinator for Target Malaria Uganda.

But we are currently off-target from that goal. Insecticide and drug resistance are two large reasons why, since they enable malaria-carrying mosquitoes to adapt to current prevention efforts.

Birungi and her team at Target Malaria are working on creating genetic technology to eradicate the disease.

Because malaria is spread by female mosquitoes, the team is using what is called a gene drive to alter their genetics. This means that, when eggs are laid, they’re mostly male rather than female. The genes will pass down from generation to generation, increasing the ratio of male mosquitoes to female ones. They also use this technology to pass along female infertility as a genetic trait, in order to create self-sustaining controls on malaria-carrying mosquito populations.

While many may feel removed from the realities of malaria, Birungi emphasizes that it is a large issue in Africa. Many families there fear the death of their children and family members by the disease — especially in households without the means to afford insecticides or mosquito nets for protection.

Defeating malaria is going to require a global effort, Birungi believes. “Let’s not wait until we have a million more deaths. Because that is what it is — like, for as long as we don’t eliminate it, it’s lives,” she said.

Yakir Renbaum grew up in a settlement outside of Jerusalem and learned that going beyond the fences of the settlement was considered dangerous.

His curiosity about what was happening on the other side, and his interest in Palestinian perspectives, led him to start learning Arabic at the age of 17.

During his trips into Jerusalem, Renbaum would use the minimal Arabic he knew to ask questions to Palestinians he came across. He hoped to understand their perspective, culture, and more. He went on to study literary Arabic and Middle Eastern history in school, which led him to become appreciative of the culture he was learning about.

Renbaum wanted to use his knowledge to enact change in the dynamic between Jews and Arabs in the region.

Today, Renbaum no longer lives in a settlement. He works for Hand in Hand, a network of bilingual schools in Israel, where Jewish and Palestinian children are able to learn side by side under the tutelage of both Jewish and Palestinian teachers.

“If we can raise all the kids in Israel and Palestine in this way, we would have different adults,” Renbaum said. “Breaking the barrier using language, showing that we can actually live here together.”

Tharma Pillai co-founded Undi18 in 2016 to advocate that Malaysia lower its voting age from 21 to 18. At the time, Malaysia was one of nine countries that prohibited anyone under the age of 21 from voting in an election.

In 2019, the bill passed. But a year later, an ultra-conservative government took power and used a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown as an opportunity to shut down Malaysia’s parliament and pause the work of Pillai and his colleagues.

Still, they persisted and rallied in the streets for the cause — and their efforts were not in vain. In 2021, the Undi18 Bill passed, and 5.8 million new voters joined Malaysia’s electoral roll.

“All of this from a simple idea by two college kids,” Pillai said.

Sami al-Gada and Hassan Tibwa were students at the International University of Africa when the war in Sudan broke out. Neither thought the war would last longer than a few days. They were wrong.

Soon, the pair of friends realized the place they called home was forever changed. They began to assist people stuck in downtown Khartoum who were trying to escape the violence. It wasn’t a move they planned, but they knew they couldn’t sit by.

What started as helping one person turned into helping dozens evacuate before it was time for the students to leave the country themselves. “We are hoping one day to get back to life,” Tibwa said.

“No one deserves to die at sea. No one deserves to die at external borders, seeking a safe and more humane life,” Leona Blankenstein, 30, told Blue Marble.

Blankenstein is the tactical coordinator of Sea Watch International, an organization dedicated to search and rescue in the Central Mediterranean Sea that “was founded in 2014 by volunteers who could just no longer stand witnessing people dying.”

Blankenstein and her team search for boats in distress, following a route that she said consists mainly of people trying to reach Europe from Libya or Tunisia.

Aziz Abu Sarah grew up in East Jerusalem. When he was 9 years old, his older brother was arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks  and died shortly after his release from internal injuries sustained during his time in prison.

“For eight years, my life was focused on revenge,” Aziz told Blue Marble. But when he was 18, he decided to study Hebrew.

“I realized that the students in that class didn’t know any Palestinian before, didn’t know my story, and I didn’t know theirs,” he said.

“Suddenly, we had this conversation where we were able to learn about each other and understand each other and realize this binary division of ‘us versus them,’ Israelis versus Palestinians, is not really accurate.” Today he runs a travel company with Scott Cooper, a Jewish American who he says became his best friend. Together they tell the story of the region from both perspectives. “Our staff are Israelis and Palestinians who work together every day, and they are not allowing even these moments to divide us.”

Activist Vivian Silver dedicated her life to building a path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. On Oct. 7, she was killed in the Hamas attacks.

Yonatan Zeigen told Blue Marble that his mother’s funeral was a gathering of Jews and Arabs who wanted to commemorate her and celebrate her life but “also come together and be hopeful with this notion that we want to continue in this path of peace.”

“Being a peace activist is not something to save you from being killed in war. It’s something to prevent a war from happening,” he said. “And to create reality where war is not an option.” He said his mother’s death made him understand that he “can't lead a life that is detached from trying to make change.”

How do Americans really feel about #climate change? Recent data shows that half of #Americans see climate change as a critical threat to the vital interests of the United States in the next 10 years. But that same data shows there's a big difference in the partisan breakdown of those numbers.