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.
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...
The Optimist View: Best of 2020
"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else." - Fred Rogers While 2020 has felt like a long, strange “fever dream”, to quote one of our staff members, there were lots of positive solutions to be found. Whether it was advances in medicine, Read More...
This fashion brand wants you to send your old undies back for recycling
As circularity is slowly but steadily making its way into the fashion industry, a handful of companies, such as Levi’s and Patagonia, are nudging consumers to return their old products so they can be refurbished and resold. The thing is, the secondhand market isn’t an option for certain pieces Read More...
Researchers create first-ever aerial map of Hawaii’s coral reefs
Earlier this month, we wrote a piece about Hawaii’s Hanauma Bay and how its incredible coral reefs are teeming with life thanks to the lockdown. Today, we bring your more good news from Hawaii as a team of scientists have created the first-ever aerial map of the island's precious coral reefs. Read More...
Algae-based feed could make farmed fish more sustainable and nutritious
Aquaculture, otherwise known as fish farming, is the fastest growing food sector, but while it’s more sustainable than beef farming, the industry could make key changes that would make it far more environmentally-friendly. Changing what farmed fish are fed is a crucial first step. Most Read More...
Every time a girl is born in this Indian village, 111 trees are planted
When the former leader of the small village of Piplantri in Rajasthan, India, lost his daughter when she was very young, he wanted to come up with something that would cherish the life of each girl child to be born. That’s when he thought up the idea of creating an initiative in which 111 trees Read More...