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.
Researchers celebrate sudden uptick in Antarctic blue whale sightings
South Georgia, a sub-Antarctic island, was at the epicenter for whale hunting in the early 20th century. The territory's boats with their steam-powered harpoons caused populations of the Antarctic blue whale to drop so badly that there had only been a few isolated sightings of the whale around the Read More...
Optimist View: Getting Busy on Operation Waterway Cleanup
By: Amelia Buckley “If you want to do something, do it as soon as possible.” -Boyan Slat In the age of the internet, we at The Optimist Daily hope that stories of gratitude and positivity go viral alongside cute videos of baby animals and awkward memes. This week we are diving deeper into a Read More...
What cities can learn from Spokane’s approach to homelessness
The common approach cities take to deal with homelessness is tough enforcement: ticketing people for panhandling or sleeping in doorways or busing them to shelters, sometimes in other cities. But as Spokane has found it first-hand, this approach just doesn’t work. That’s why Washington’s Read More...
Public vehicles in New York are doubling as air pollution monitors
New York City operates over 30,000 city-owned vehicles, the largest municipal fleet in the country. Police cars, fire engines, and public buses drive up and down the city streets performing their public services duties. But what if while completing their routine routes, doing their regular jobs, Read More...
New York is bringing down the hammer on plastic bottles
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order banning the sale of single-use plastic beverage bottles on city-owned and -leased properties — which means the bottles could vanish from an area nearly equivalent to a quarter of the city. The move also bars city Read More...
Even Cadillac is unveiling an all-electric car
For generations, Cadillac has been a symbol of luxury in the automobile industry. Now, luxury is going green with the unveiling of its first all-electric vehicle. The electric crossover will debut at the National Auto Dealer Association in April. The vehicle runs using Cadillac’s BEV3 platform Read More...
Buddhist temple in Thailand is turning plastic waste into robes for monks
Thailand is among the top plastic polluters in the world, but seeking to change that, a Buddhist temple in the south of Bangkok is recycling thousands of plastic bottles and turning them into sacred orange robes for the monks. Over the last two years, monks at the recycling temple of Wat Chak Read More...
This Chicago artist is bringing music education back to public schools
When governments make budget cuts, all too often it is schools and their creative programs that pay the price. Such is the case in Chicago, where many elementary schools are without any music programs, which is a crying shame considering music education has been found to benefit a child’s memory, Read More...
Green policies, citizen science, and reversing the trend of wildlife losses
Amid big declines in wildlife, action can still help to reverse the trend for some species. This is the conclusion from a new analysis out of the UK which shows that freshwater insects, mosses and lichens are bucking the trend of wildlife losses in the country and have expanded their ranges since Read More...
Belgian waffles of the future will come with a side of insect butter
Belgians are waffle experts. In fact, they take their waffles so seriously that when it came to potentially replacing butter toppings with a product made from insect fat, researchers decide to tackle studying the transition. Researchers from Ghent University created three waffle varieties: one Read More...