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.
Thunberg says COVID-19 demonstrates power of large-scale collective action
COVID-19 has quickly shut down global schools, travel, and production. Its effect on society is nearly unprecedented. Climate activist Greta Thunberg remarks that while the global event is catastrophic, it does demonstrate the human ability to act fast in the face of a crisis Thunberg, who Read More...
Self-isolation has been a surprising boost for citizen science
The Rainfall Rescue Project was launched in the UK just last week to help scientists understand past rainfall variations—and a big part of doing that requires digitizing old written records. In what can be considered a little silver lining of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists have been amazed Read More...
Fabric is freshwater-intensive. These students have a saltwater alternative
Producing fabrics often relies heavily on scarce freshwater. In fact, just one kilogram of cotton requires as much as 20,000 liters of freshwater to be made. To tackle the overconsumption of freshwater by the fashion industry, students from the Royal College of Art have created an alternative Read More...
Algae-based alternatives to plastic are becoming hard to ignore
Biobased materials, particularly in the thorny realm of bioplastics, are a polarizing subject. But for as many systemic kinks that their management lays bare, the slew of potential long-term benefits to swapping out petroleum-based products for plant-based alternatives is hard to ignore. While Read More...
New bacteria discovered in landfills feasts on hard-to-recycle plastic
Nowadays, green-minded scientists and innovators are fighting an ongoing battle against the global plastic pollution problem, looking for new ways to reduce the unsurmountable build-up of waste that ends up in landfills or destroying ecosystems. One of the most compelling recent discoveries Read More...
Wales will ban single-use plastics starting next year
Amidst the maelstrom of news these past weeks, a few positive stories have slipped under the radar. One such story comes to us from Wales, where the Welsh government unveiled plans to ban single-use plastics in 2021. Under the plans, straws, cotton buds, stirrers, balloon sticks, plates and Read More...
Agrivoltaics: The mission to combine agriculture with solar farming
Are fields of open, often fertile land better used for producing renewable energy or food? The United States already hosts more than 2 million solar installations, and photovoltaic capacity is projected to more than double over the next five years. Meanwhile, our growing global population means Read More...
The case for building things out of actual living materials
If we want to build a sustainable future, we may have to revisit what it is we’re actually building things out of. And though the science around the idea is just beginning to emerge, one prime candidate may be using actual living materials like fungus. Or concrete churned out by tiny microbial Read More...
The southern jet stream is moving back to normal thanks to global efforts
Have you ever heard of the southern jet stream? It’s a powerful wind that shapes weather patterns and ocean currents in the southern hemisphere, particularly in the summer. Up until about 2000, it had been shifting from its usual course and moving southwards towards the Antarctic at a rate of one Read More...
This alternative meat is created from microbes found in Yellowstone
In Yellowstone National Park’s geothermal hot springs, temperatures can reach 456 degrees Fahrenheit, but this doesn’t prevent unique microbes from living in their depths. Nature’s Fynd is using these resilient microbes to create the new wave of alternative protein to be used in the growing Read More...