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.
Sand coated in soybean oil is a green substitute for plastic mulch
Mulch is used to help the soil retain its moisture. We tend to think of mulch as something organic made from materials such as bark chips or dead leaves, but the reality is mulch can take the form of plastic. In fact, many farmers use a plastic form of mulch to keep the soil moist. This involves Read More...
Tartu transformed its main street into a pedestrian paradise
From Oakland and Seattle to Bogota and York, cities around the world have been showcasing the community-building benefits that come with removing cars from the streets. In another display of car-free living, the Estonian city of Tartu transformed its main street into a pedestrian-friendly paradise Read More...
Yes! Fat Bear Week is back again
2019 marked the first time The Optimist Daily became familiar with the furry phenomenon that is Fat Bear Week. If you aren’t familiar with Fat Bear Week, let us enlighten you: it’s a whole week dedicated to the brown bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska, who have been eating nonstop before Read More...
A step-by-step guide for repotting your houseplants
During the lockdown, you took the opportunity to spruce up your living space with a new houseplant. You tended to it, gave it care, and over time it’s grown quite big. But there comes a point when your plant becomes too big for its own pot, and if you leave it in there too long, it will suffer. Read More...
This project in South Africa is seeing cheetah populations recover
While cheetah populations have been struggling worldwide for decades, there is one country that is seeing significant cheetah population growth: South Africa. The country is home to around 1,300 of the world's roughly 7,100 remaining cheetahs and is witnessing population growth thanks largely to Read More...
Cactus leather boxing gloves pack a sustainable punch
From shoes to wallets, we’ve seen plant-based leather make its way into all kinds of products over the years. But today we bring you something we’ve certainly never seen before: Boxing gloves made from cactus leather. Typically, boxing gloves are made from cowhide or other animal-based leather. Read More...
65 country leaders pledge to reverse destruction of nature
Leaders from 65 countries recently came together to make a renewed commitment to putting nature on the path to recovery. As reported in Deutsche Welle, the commitments include eliminating plastic leakage to the oceans by 2050 and incentivizing banks and businesses to value the natural Read More...
Park in Copenhagen is designed to stop rainwater from flooding the streets
Following a devastating dose of heavy rain in 2011 that cost Copenhagen $1 billion in damage, the Danish capital decided to begin investing in hundreds of climate-resilient projects that could mitigate the city’s vulnerability to flooding as a result of extreme rainstorms — which are only Read More...
Meat-loving Germany is quickly becoming vegetarian
Germany is famous for its schnitzels, sausage, and currywurst, so it may come as surprise to you that Germans are rapidly cutting down on their meat consumption. But that's exactly what's happening, according to teams of researchers from Berlin, Bath, and Franche-Comté in eastern France. The Read More...
New super-enzyme eats plastic six times faster than previous one
Certain types of bacteria naturally break down plastic. Harnessing the power of these special bacteria, scientists have created a “super enzyme” that can degrade plastic bottles. And it’s doing it at a rate six times faster than previously projected. The enzyme was created by connecting Read More...