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.
These small Scottish islands are mastering green hydrogen power
The Orkney Islands are a small collection of about 70 rainy landmasses in northern Scotland. Although not well known, these tiny islands have silently been mastering the creation of green hydrogen power, an energy source with zero carbon emissions that, unfortunately, isn’t always eco-friendly to Read More...
Volunteers release more than 10,000 baby turtles into sea off Bali
With sea turtle populations having seen a decline in recent years, conservation groups are stepping up their game to bring sea turtle numbers back up. This past week, conservation groups carried crates each full of dozens of tiny turtles to Gianyar beach on the Indonesian island of Bali, and Read More...
Indigenous communities are using drones to protect Amazon’s iconic jaguar
For many indigenous communities in the Amazon, the jaguar represents a culturally revered animal that, like many other species in the lush Brazilian rainforest, is key to maintaining a thriving ecosystem in the area. In recent years, however, increasing loss of habitat and a surge in illegal Read More...
Scientists 3D-printed terracotta tiles to restore degraded coral reefs
Like in many other parts of the world, coral presence in Hong Kong has suffered a significant decline in recent years, due to many pressing challenges, including rising ocean temperatures, overfishing, and pollution. This is troubling since coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable Read More...
Graduate students design little robot that cleans up oil spills
A decade after a BP drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, sending an estimated 168 million gallons of oil gushing into the water over the course of months, local wildlife is still struggling to recover. Many of the people who worked to clean up the spill are still experiencing health Read More...
New laws will see Germany dim lights at night to save insects
For years, the population of insects in Germany and their diversity has declined greatly. Recognizing the vital importance of insects to the country’s ecosystem, Germany’s environment ministry has drawn up a number of new measures to protect insects, ranging from partially outlawing spotlights Read More...
It’s official: New Guinea has the highest plant diversity of any island
Scientists have explored and studied much of our terrestrial world, but there is one place that remains quite the hidden gem: New Guinea. The “paradise island” has some of the best-preserved ecosystems on the planet, including coastal mangroves, huge expanses of untouched tropical rainforest Read More...
England's first wild beavers for 400 years to keep living on River Otter
Back in February, we wrote about a group of beavers that escaped captivity back in 2013 and were found years later living along a river in Devon, England. Those beavers were originally set to be exterminated, but thanks to the popular outcry, the government agreed to a scientific trial to measure Read More...
The Optimist View: Climate Anxiety Webinar, background and resources
“You can’t really get to the solution, the focus, until you acknowledge people’s anxieties and their ambivalence.” -Dr. Renée Lertzman In January of this year, The Optimist Daily, along with our publishing partner The World Business Academy, got the chance to apply for a grant from Read More...
Vertical farms can grow fresh veggies using 90% less water
Out of the fraction of habitable land that exists in our world about 50 percent of it is used for farming. Not only is this stretch of land massive, but agriculture also uses 70 percent of our freshwater supply. Considering how resource intensive classic agriculture is to our society, one might ask Read More...