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.
Norway kickstarts one of the world’s largest carbon storage projects
With the world’s largest fleet of electric vehicles per capita, Norway may appear as a global leader in sustainability, but the country still remains one of the world’s biggest producers of oil and gas. Seeking to ramp up its efforts in the fight against climate change, the Nordic country has Read More...
How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
While artificial intelligence (AI) is nowhere near ready to tackle the complicated task of designing an actual city, it can assist city planners, especially when it comes to the quantitative aspects of urban planning. In order to improve the urban planning abilities of AI, programmers are turning Read More...
New Jersey to pass nation’s most comprehensive single use plastics ban
New Jersey has been at the forefront of progressive action recently with a new bill that protects poor communities from pollution and a law that helps undocumented workers find jobs. Now, the state is on the verge of passing the country’s most progressive single-use plastic ban that would outlaw Read More...
General Mills to become carbon neutral by 2030 by cutting food waste
Major food company General Mills announced this week that it plans to reduce emissions by 30 percent over the next decade and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. A big part of meeting this goal will be reducing food waste by at least 50 percent. In the past year, four percent of the company’s Read More...
New study reveals birds sang different during lockdown
Did you feel like birds were singing differently during the coronavirus lockdown? If you did, you were probably right. Thanks to a long-running study of the songs of white-crowned sparrows living in and around the San Francisco Bay area, scientists were able to compare effects before and during Read More...
China pledges to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060
The UN climate summit, Cop26, has been delayed until November 2021 due to the pandemic, but many participating countries aren’t waiting until next year to quantify their emissions reductions commitments. After the EU pledged to cut emissions by 55 percent by 2030, China made an unexpected Read More...
This fashion award encourages emerging fashion designers to go circular
Fashion awards are typically established with the purpose of showcasing new styles to the world and celebrating designers with the most outstanding contributions to the industry during the year. The Redress Design Award takes it a step further by aiming to shine a spotlight on the importance and Read More...
Silver linings: The pandemic has led to a bike boom in American cities
Part of being an Optimist is finding the silver lining in any situation, no matter how dire it may be. In the case of Covid-19, one of the positive trends to emerge from the pandemic is a surge of cycling within American cities. According to new data from Strava, the fitness tracking app used by Read More...
These biodegradable straws are made out of methane by bacteria
Greenhouse gas emissions and marine plastic pollution are two of the most pressing environmental challenges the world faces at the moment. A California-based startup aims to tackle both issues simultaneously. Biotech company Newlight, has figured out a way to use a certain strain of microbes to Read More...
Data centers drain water supplies. Microsoft is investing big to fix this
Data centers are infamously energy-intensive, but what people aren’t always aware of is that they also require huge amounts of water to keep servers cool. And to make matters worse, data centers are often situated in desert-like places where water is already scarce. Part of the reason companies Read More...