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.
The Optimist View: Honoring the Animals
"It's not whether animals will survive, it's whether man has the will to save them." - Anthony D. Williams BY Amelia Buckley [caption id="attachment_1405688" align="alignleft" width="225"] Ram in Glacier National Park[/caption] Coming around a bend along a trail in Glacier National Park, I Read More...
Former steel mill will get new life as a producer of wind turbines
Before it closed in 2012, Sparrows Point in Maryland was home to the largest steel mill in the world, supplying key components for shipbuilding and large infrastructure projects in the US, such as the girders of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, the site of the former mill will now be given a new lease Read More...
Beyond recycling: plastic can be eaten!
Single use plastic waste is one of the largest problems facing humanity. According to Greenpeace, over 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste have been created and discarded, with only 9 percent of that number being recycled. This isn’t necessarily due to a lack of effort; plastics like polyethylene Read More...
This river revitalization plan prioritizes underprivileged communities in LA
Urban green spaces have historically been more accessible to privileged communities within cities. However, there has been a surge in awareness and activism that calls cities to address the inequity in access to these spaces, as clean air and access to nature is a human right, not only to be Read More...
Poland's AirBubble playground keeps air pure with algae
Poland is one of Europe’s most polluted countries, in a world where, according to the WHO, 93 percent of children breathe in polluted air while they play. To protect Poland’s children from air pollution, an innovative park, called the AirBubble, was erected in central Warsaw, next to Read More...
Microbe-based protein could make livestock feed much more sustainable
As an extremely resource-intensive process, producing livestock feed has a huge environmental impact — putting a strain on our water reserves, using a massive amount of land, and, of course, releasing pollutants into the environment. A new study, however, shows that farming protein from microbes Read More...
Study: Giraffes are far more socially complex than previously thought
Until ten years ago, researchers didn’t think that giraffes had much of a social structure at all, but more contemporary research indicates that these long-necked mammals are more social than we give them credit for. Adding to this, a new study from the University of Bristol indicates that Read More...
This company plants a tree for every train ticket they sell
Rail travel is making a comeback as a greener way to travel and now, the UK train ticketing service Trainhugger is making rail travel more eco-friendly by pledging to plant a tree in the UK for every trip booked through their website or app. For the passenger, there is no difference in cost when Read More...
This radio station plays ethereal ambient music made by trees
Silent tree activity, like photosynthesis and the absorption and evaporation of water, produces a small voltage in the leaves. In a bid to encourage people to think more carefully about their local tree canopy, sound designer and musician Skooby Laposky has found a way to convert that tree activity Read More...
Food transport to become much greener thanks to solar-powered reefers
Transporting food to your local supermarket typically requires refrigerated trailers (also known as reefers). These are usually cooled by diesel fuel, with an idling diesel tractor burning about a gallon of fuel per hour and releasing about 22.4 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a Read More...