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.
Telecommuting can slash emissions. Should it be required?
Working from home has become the norm in the San Francisco Bay Area, leading to a sizable drop in greenhouse gas emissions. Because of this, the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission has voted to move forward with a proposal to require people at large, office-based companies to work Read More...
Maryland becomes first state to implement a foam container ban
We recently wrote about New Jersey’s progressive single-use plastic ban. Now, Maryland is achieving its own waste-reduction goals by becoming the first state in the country to implement a ban on foam food containers. Passed in 2019, but implemented last week, the law prohibits restaurants, Read More...
This air purifier filters the air in your home in an eco-conscious way
Most air purifiers improve the air quality in your home by removing dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria, using filters made from a combination of glass fibers and plastic. At the end of their lives, typically six to eight months, the nonrecyclable filters are tossed, eventually ending up in a Read More...
Ordering to-go creates a lot of waste. Dispatch Goods has a solution
The pandemic has fueled a rise in takeout orders from restaurants. Ordering to-go is a great way to safely support your favorite local businesses during shutdowns, but the rise in single-use takeout containers is increasing pollution across the globe. A new startup, Dispatch Goods, aims to loop Read More...
New cement-free sewerage concrete prevents fatbergs and corrosion
The cement used to construct concrete sewerage systems around the world does a mighty job of helping wash away our waste but does have its shortcomings. Scientists in Australia have developed a new cement-free solution they say is better equipped to handle the corrosive nature of these Read More...
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...