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.
How Phoenix is feeding the hungry and saving local businesses
Like most cities around the world, Phoenix, Arizona had its restaurant and hospitality industries ravaged by the pandemic. When the city received its federal CARES Act relief, it decided to allocate $951,000 towards an ambitious goal: saving the city’s farms and restaurants and providing food to Read More...
These American cities will pay you $10,000 to move there
Working from home became the norm for millions of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing any time soon. For many remote workers, that means it no longer matters whether or not they live in close proximity to your job. If that’s the case for Read More...
Synthetic palm oil could significantly reduce deforestation
Palm oil is a common ingredient in far more packaged foods than you may think. Globally, 82 million US tons of palm oil are consumed annually. Unfortunately, it’s also responsible for some of the most destructive deforestation in rainforests around the world. The biotech industry thinks it may Read More...
Architecture firm reimagines the mall as a green community space
While commercial centers such as shopping malls don’t necessarily evoke a community feel, a Thai architecture firm seeks to flip the script by reimagining the typical Southeast Asian mega-malls as green community hubs. The design firm, called Architectkidd, has recently completed the first of Read More...
Bay Area service delivers groceries without a trace of plastic
Here at The Optimist Daily, we are big supporters of the zero-waste movement and we’re always happy to share with you the initiatives that are driving it. One of the latest that we’ve come across is Bay Area startup Zero Grocery. If you order groceries on their platform, they come in reusable Read More...
2020: Scientists discover world’s ugliest orchid and other plant species
While orchids are known as some of the most beautiful flowers in the world, scientists have discovered a new species of orchid that does not live up to its family’s reputation. In fact, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (RGB Kew) are calling it the “ugliest in the world.” Read More...
Study: How has the pandemic changed our relationship with nature?
During the pandemic, we have seen a resurgence of animal populations and cleaner air and water, but we have also witnessed a fundamental shift in many people’s personal relationship with nature. When the great outdoors is one of the few places you can safely have recreation, we gain a newfound Read More...
This autonomous tractor has no tailpipe emissions
A traditional diesel-powered tractor will produce approximately 14-times more emissions than an ordinary car. This fact alone makes it clear that the farming industry needs a clean alternative to the conventional tractors of today. Enter Monarch Tractor, a California-based firm that has created an Read More...
Salmon spawn in the upper Columbia River for the first time in 80 years
For several decades, Native American tribe leaders and scientists have dreamt of seeing the return of salmon in the Columbia River system. Now that dream has come true after biologists counted 36 redds (a nest in which female salmon lay their eggs) along the Sanpoil River, a tributary of the Read More...
Eco-friendly, lab-grown milk to hit store shelves by end of next year
Recently we wrote about Impossible Food’s new ambitious venture to move beyond plant-based meat and create a vegan milk alternative that tastes and looks like the real thing. Another Israeli startup has the same mission but is working to achieve it in a slightly different manner — using a Read More...