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.
Four predictions that will make you more optimistic about the future of the fashion industry
We at the Optimist Daily are big advocates of fashion products that challenge or ameliorate the industry’s large and wasteful ecological footprint. While it’s true that the fashion industry is responsible for 8% of all global climate impacts, companies such as Patagonia are raising awareness Read More...
Tiny Pacific island nation bans harmful toxins in sunscreens
For some time already, scientific evidence has shown that the chemicals found in most sunscreens are toxic to corals, even in extremely tiny doses. Particularly, the ingredients have a negative impact on the juvenile development of most coral and many fish and algae species. Instead of waiting Read More...
This coating allows seeds to sprout in soil that would typically be too salty
Too much salt isn’t only bad for our bodies, it’s bad for our crops, which don’t grow well in highly saline soil. As climate change, poor water quality, and the misuse of agrochemicals degrades our land, the world’s soil is becoming saltier, threatening the global food system. The good Read More...
A farm in New York has been powering itself using food scraps and cow manure
On a farm in upstate New York, a cheese brand is turning millions of pounds of food scraps into electricity needed to power its on-site businesses. Founded by eight families, each with their own dairy farms, Craigs Creamery doesn't just produce various types of cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss and Read More...
London to start heating homes using ‘waste heat’ from the city’s underground
If you frequently commute via the metro, you’ve probably noticed the hot gusts of air that tend to blow out of train tunnels. In London, a new project seeks to harness the heat from the underground metro in order to heat homes in the north of the city during the colder months of the year. The Read More...
This brilliant system turns food waste into natural pigments for paints and dyes
Many of the artificial pigments that are used to color clothing or to produce paints can be toxic. That’s why a graduate of the Imperial College London has designed a system called Kaiku that turns plants into powdered paint pigments that can replace artificial pigments. Using vaporization Read More...
Instead of corrosive salt, researchers are using grape skins to de-ice roads
Sodium chloride (aka salt) is an important ingredient for helping get around in the winter. Spread on roads, it lowers the freezing point of ice, making it melt faster and making roads safer. The problem with using salt on roads But all that salt can also be harmful—not only is it corrosive Read More...
A brewery in Brooklyn is making beer using leftover bagels to reduce food waste
No matter how hard Black Seed Bagels in Brooklyn tried to avoid overproducing bagels, the business always had leftover bagels at the end of the day. In an attempt to make use out of the leftover bagels and reduce food waste, the business came up with the idea of turning the leftover bagels into Read More...
This startup is using dehydration to turn food waste into healthy snacks
A San Francisco-based startup by the name of Treasure8 might have found the key to solving the problem with food waste—at least partially. What Treasure8 has developed is a drying machine that can fully dehydrate fruits, vegetables, and fungi without stripping them of their nutrients in around in Read More...
This code for heavy machinery makes it impossible to cut down protected trees
It can be extremely difficult for law enforcement to ensure the protection of large swaths of the forest from loggers. In a new, unique approach to protecting trees, developers are creating code that could be added to heavy machinery in order to prevent deforestation in areas that struggle with Read More...