What exactly can individuals and tiny communities do that will make any difference in the face of vast forces of globalisation?

It’s a question that readers have been asking the Guardian’s Upside team since we launched our project. So this week we sought out stories of people who faced up to the threats on their doorstep, took action and turned the tide.

In 2014 the Sicilian town of Sutera was literally dying out: its graveyards were full and its young people had left to look for work, leaving behind a few hundred elderly residents. So at the height of Europe’s refugee crisis, Sutera (from the ancient Greek soter, meaning “salvation”) opened its doors to dozens of asylum seekers. Lorenzo Tondo visited the reborn town to find out what happened next.

In another rural setting – Oxfordshire in England – locals worried about encroaching development banded together to secure the population of a very different species: birds. Kate Lyons discovered that a bit of diligence and a good pair of binoculars can work wonders when it comes to defending your own surroundings. And about time too: a slew of recent reports have emphasised just how critical the world’s biodiversity situation has become.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The town of Sutera in Sicily, which has become a symbol of integration. Photograph: Francesco Bellina/Cesura/Francesco Bellina / Cesura

In one of London’s more down-at-heel suburbs, the threat is more financial than ecological. So campaigners have taken over a former bank and are printing their own “money” to raise not just awareness, but cash to write off local debt. Anna Leach found out how.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hitting the right notes Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

But perhaps the greatest existential threat of all comes from climate change, and this week Damian Carrington reported on the latest frontline in the battle for future of the planet: climate lawsuits against governments and companies. Legal cases big and small are on the rise around the world as groups and individuals seek to “litigate to mitigate” the damage done to our environment, as attitudes slowly shift in their favour.

What we liked:

This piece in the Atlantic on the “third education revolution” and efforts to provide lifelong learning opportunities in disrupted economies, where regular retraining is expected to become the norm. National Geographic’s reckoning with its past attitudes to race and non-white, non-American culture. And this report on a trial in Ottawa to tackle its problem with homeless alcoholics by giving them housing and (some) alcohol.



What we heard:

My own parents were migrant workers from Ireland in the early 20th century. There are so many places in Shetland where refugee families would rejuvenate dwindling communities. Some of the schools have been closed because of falling numbers and we have no GP resident on our island any more. We need plumbers, electricians and builders and young families with life and vitality and talents. Anne Dobbing, writing by email about the housing of refugees in Sutera

Where was the upside?

This weekend, it is all around the world, where Earth Hour gives people a chance to send a signal that they care about ongoing environmental degradation and want action to be taken. If you want to get involved, turn off your lights for an hour on 24 March at 8:30pm your time.

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If there is a story, innovation or everyday hero you think we should report on, write to us at theupside@theguardian.com