Environment
Need some good news about the environment? The Optimist Daily is your go-to herald of positive environmental news, highlighting eco-friendly solutions and scientific progress around climate action, circularity, conservation, and more. Learn about everything eco in our Environment section.
Giant sequoia clones from 3,000-year-old trees are taking root in Detroit
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In California's Sierra Nevada, giant sequoias have stood for millennia. The largest trees top 300 feet, live past 3,000 years, and are among the biggest living things on Earth by mass. Now, clones of specific ancient trees are being planted in Read More...
What governments and households are being asked to do in the oil crisis
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The International Energy Agency has already done something it has never done before: ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history. Now it is turning to the demand side... and asking a lot of people to make some small changes Read More...
Urban coyotes are denning next door: here's what to know
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Somewhere near you, a coyote may be nursing a litter of pups right now. She chose her den carefully: tucked under a fallen tree trunk, wedged inside an old burrow, or backed into a pile of abandoned concrete. One priority guided the choice: keeping you from Read More...
Hummingbird migration 2026: when they’ll reach your garden and how to get ready
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Right now, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, a hummingbird that weighs less than a nickel is crossing open water alone. No flock, no rest stops, no backup plan. Just a bird the size of your thumb, running on fat reserves it spent weeks building before it Read More...
How robots and drones are cleaning the ocean floor across Europe
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most ocean cleanup efforts work on the same assumption: the problem floats. Skim the surface, collect the plastic, done. The trouble is that most marine litter doesn't float. It sinks to the seabed, where it sits undisturbed and largely out of reach of the Read More...
The DNA database built to protect lions just helped convict the people who killed one
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When conservation biologists fitted a male lion with a radio collar near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, they were studying his movements. They drew blood, logged his health information, and stored his DNA profile in a database. They had no way of knowing Read More...
Scotland legalizes water cremation, giving families a greener third option
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A quick note: this article walks through how water cremation works, including some detail about the process. If you'd prefer to jump straight to the environmental and policy context, feel free to scroll to the subheadings. Scotland is making history in Read More...
How paying people to protect a rainforest is rewriting colonial history on a tiny African island
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For centuries, the tiny West African island of Príncipe was a place where nature was exploited and people were brought in chains to work it. Today, the descendants of those laborers are being paid to protect it. The Faya Foundation, funded by South Read More...
China’s Great Green Wall turns Taklamakan desert into a growing carbon sink
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For decades, the Taklamakan Desert was described in stark terms: a “biological void,” a vast expanse of shifting sand where little could survive. Slightly larger than the state of Montana and ringed by mountains that block most incoming moisture, it Read More...
Panama’s golden frogs return to the wild after 17-year battle with deadly fungus
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For the first time in nearly two decades, Panama’s forest streams are once again home to flashes of bright yellow. The Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) is being reintroduced to the wild 17 years after a fungal epidemic wiped it out in its native Read More...