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.
Coffee waste speeds up forest recovery on degraded land
From boosting local job opportunities to improving biodiversity and capturing carbon, restoring deforested land can hold a variety of benefits for both local communities and the environment. And in the tropics, these benefits could be boosted with the help of coffee waste — at least that’s what Read More...
How Cool Food nudges consumers to eat more sustainable meals
Back in 2019, Genentech, a biotechnology company in South San Francisco, partnered with Cool Food, a World Resources Institute (WRI) initiative, to see if they could cut the emissions by nudging employees towards purchasing more sustainable meals. At Genentech’s enormous headquarters, where Read More...
Kelp could replace corn and soy as a biofuel base
We’ve written about kelp as a tool for capturing carbon emissions, but it turns out these giant underwater forests could provide a solution for many of our environmental crises. Researchers from the University of Southern California have found that kelp could serve as a fast-growing and efficient Read More...
Choose eco-friendly burial garments for a sustainably stylish departure
Here at The Optimist Daily, we have written about how we can honor our sustainable values, even after death, by opting for decomposable coffins or choosing to have our bodies broken down into organic compost. After speaking with someone who had attended a funeral where the deceased was laid in a Read More...
How to stop a lake from exploding? Turn it into a power source
In most lakes, convection helps mix cool water from the depths with warm water at the surface, but in Lake Kivu, this is not the case. The lake, which lies on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is being slowly pulled apart by tectonic forces. This volcanic activity feeds Read More...
Three proposed solutions for California’s purple sea urchin crisis
If you dive under the waters of the Pacfic Ocean along the California coast, you’ll see the seafloor coated in small, spiny, purple creatures. These sea urchins are eating up local kelp forests at alarming rates, leaving behind a “purple carpet” wasteland in their wake. West coast divers are Read More...
Scientists turn old tires into graphene for more sustainable concrete
Concrete is one of the most widely used materials in the world and is responsible for as much as nine percent of total carbon emissions. Scientists at Rice University have figured out a way to reduce that impact by converting waste from rubber tires into graphene that can, in turn, be mixed with Read More...
Improving school lunches in a post-pandemic world
There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to rearrange how we structure our daily routines whether at work, school, or play. Some of these changes have been for the better and we hope are here to stay. For instance, the health crisis forced us to rethink how to feed students once Read More...
Yurok Tribe to lead the reintroduction of condor in northern California
For the first time in 100 years, the endangered California condor is expected to once again soar the skies of the Pacific Northwest. The ambitious reintroduction effort will be led by the Yurok Tribe, whose ancestral land includes parts of Redwood National Park that were once home to the Read More...
See the National Mall cherry blossom bloom for yourself with BloomCam
Washington, DC is home to many famous sights, but perhaps the most widely anticipated local event is the annual cherry blossom bloom which greets springtime in the city with gorgeously delicate pink blossoms. Now, you can see the blooms for yourself from anywhere in the world with Read More...