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.
Researchers rediscover tiny Tasmanian crayfish thought to be extinct
Tasmania is a biodiversity hotspot that is home to many species of wildlife, but there’s one particular species that researchers hadn’t spotted in decades: the short-tailed rain crayfish. Crayfish expert Alastair Richardson first encountered the short-tailed rain crayfish in the 1970s while Read More...
Empty retail space could be the solution to California’s housing crisis
According to the California Housing Partnership, the golden state needs at least 1.3 million affordable housing units to truly begin to address the mounting housing crisis. Many lawmakers and activists see California’s underused big box stores and strip malls as a solution to this problem and Read More...
US to rejoin Paris climate accord
In a victory for climate activists and environmental action, the United States has committed to rejoining the 2015 Paris climate accord. Although this is the easiest step in a long road of climate action ahead, the re-entry demonstrates to the US and the world that climate change is once again a Read More...
Sweden to become home to the world’s first zero-emissions city zone
While Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg has been a leader in research and technologies combatting climate change, the city plans to take it a step further with a new ambitious initiative. Through its Green City Zone initiative, the Scandinavian city is expected to become home to the Read More...
Volunteers just cleaned up over 9,000 lbs of trash from the Tennessee River
It’s beautiful to see what happens when people come together and take responsibility for cleaning their local area. Recently, volunteers in Tennessee used a 25-foot aluminum workboat to traverse the Tennessee River and clean thousands of pounds of waste from the shorelines. The river, a Read More...
French central bank to drop coal and limit oil and gas in portfolio
The French central bank is looking towards a greener future with the announcement that it will divest from coal and limit gas and oil investments in its portfolio by 2024. The Bank of France, which manages 22 billion euros, will no longer invest in companies that generate more than 2 percent Read More...
US court strikes down coal-friendly climate rule just before inauguration
In 2019, the administration of the (now former) President of the United States attempted to relax restrictions on power plant greenhouse emissions. In a move that could only harm the environment, the administration’s EPA lawyers filed a lawsuit that argued that the federal government does not Read More...
This app lets you cut your emissions by funding climate-positive projects
With all the unavoidable necessities of modern life and their associated environmental impacts, living a truly sustainable lifestyle may seem like an impossible undertaking. A newly launched startup would beg to differ. Enter Treepoints, a new app that gives users reward points for offsetting Read More...
How sustainable agriculture is taking coal’s place in Appalachia
The collapse of the coal industry may be good news for the environment, but for towns in the Appalachian mountains that have long relied on coal, it’s been disastrous for the economy and eliminated thousands of jobs. The good news is that we’ve seen a number of green-minded initiatives spring Read More...
No more range anxiety: new EV battery fully charges in 5 minutes
If we want to tackle the climate crisis, then we have to adopt electric vehicles in mass. One major barrier that stands in the way of mass adoption is range anxiety: the fear that you will either run out of charge and get stuck on the highway or you’ll end up sitting at a charging station for two Read More...