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 researchers are turning McDonald’s used frying oil into 3D-printing resin
Used cooking oils are a major global environmental problem, with commercial and household waste causing serious environmental issues, including clogged sewage lines caused by the build-up of fats. While there are commercial uses for waste cooking oil, there’s a lack of ways to recycle it into a Read More...
Sigh of relief: rare fluorescent pink slugs survived the Australian bushfires
At the top of Mount Kaputar in New South Wales, Australia, lives an incredible species of slug that glows a fluorescent pink color. These slugs only exist on that single mountaintop, which is why conservationists had every right to worry about their survival when the Australian bushfires burned Read More...
Now this is how to make eco-friendly prefab homes without cookie cutter approach
Prefab houses aren’t exactly a thrilling proposition to architects, but with urbanization in full swing, there is a great need for nice, quickly-constructed prefab houses. The good thing is that the architects behind these houses are finding ways to build prefab homes that produce clean energy, Read More...
The ban of private cars on San Francisco’s busiest street is now underway
Just a couple months ago we wrote about San Francisco’s grand plan to ban cars from Market Street—the notoriously congested spine of the city. But the thing about plans is that it’s always a question as to whether or not they’ll actually come to fruition. The good news is that San Read More...
How planting trees saved an entire district of West Bengal
Twenty years ago, the Purulia district of West Bengal was facing a crisis. Water shortages, heat waves, erosion, lack of firewood, and biodiversity loss plagued the area until the 30,000 residents decided to invest in a permanent solution: the Green Mountain. The district transformed a barren Read More...
This new process turns all kinds of waste into valuable graphene
In a classic case of ‘two birds, one stone’, scientists at Rice University have come up with a clever solution for food waste and plastic waste. The solution comes in the form of a new process that can turn bulk quantities of carbon-based materials such as food waste into flash graphene—a Read More...
Madagascar to plant 60 million trees in less than four months
Madagascar, the oldest island in the world and the fourth-largest, is home to an astounding range of plant and animal life, most of which are found nowhere else on earth. Over the last two decades, however, the country has lost nearly one-fifth of its tree cover, which serves as the primary Read More...
Effective urban planning doesn’t just boost efficiency. It also saves lives
Good public transportation and infrastructure design can help cities run more smoothly and reduce emissions and traffic. Now, research has shown that effective urban planning can actually reduce transit injuries as well. Researchers compared maps of almost 1,700 cities across the world with Read More...
Will crickets be a main feature on menus in 2050?
By 2050 there will be an estimated 10 billion humans living on this planet. Beyond that being a lot of mouths to feed, those folks will be, on average, wealthier than today's population, with a taste for the foods found in regions like the US and Western Europe. But we simply don't have the Read More...
How New Jersey is taking extra steps to consider the climate in building plans
This week, New Jersey announced it will become the first state to require potential building projects to pass a climate change impact evaluation before being approved. As a part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s commitment to achieve 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050, building projects Read More...