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.
Hurrah! The Mexican wolf has been removed from extinct species list
Conservation efforts to protect the lobo mexicano in Mexico and the United States are paying off. The Mexican wolf, which has been on the extinct species list for years, has been taken off the list thanks to conservation and breeding efforts that began in the late 1970s when former wolf trapper Roy Read More...
Only 12% of the banana plant is used. This process turns the rest into bioplastic
The growing of bananas is a particularly wasteful form of agriculture, with only 12 percent of the plant actually being used. The pseudostem makes up much of the rest, and while it can be composted or used in the production of textiles, it's usually just thrown away. In order to bring new value Read More...
Why the MTA flooded its own subway entrance in Brooklyn
A flooded subway entrance stopped Brooklyn commuters in their tracks. For four hours on Wednesday, the staircase leading down to Broadway Station in Williamsburg was blocked off and completely submerged. The sight was even stranger since it hadn’t rained in New York City that day. It turns Read More...
South Korea will close coal plants this winter to combat air pollution
Last March, the government of South Korea declared air pollution to be a “social disaster.” This winter, they are taking steps to mitigate dangerous air quality. The country’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced it will shut down up to a quarter of the country’s coal-fired Read More...
Paris is showing everyone how to stand up against e-commerce giant Amazon
It seems e-commerce giant Amazon always gets its way, earning billions off its polluting delivery service while never paying a cent for the emissions its responsible for. In fact, the $793 billion company hasn’t even paid federal taxes for the last two years. That’s why it’s incredibly Read More...
This community of women in Kenya have restored a dying coral reef
Three years ago, the coral reef along the Kenyan coastline was almost totally destroyed in some areas. Rising surface sea temperatures had triggered devastating bleaching episodes for the fourth time in less than two decades, and with the whitening of coral came a dwindling of marine life. Read More...
New footage shows the biggest gathering of sea turtles ever recorded
As if there were “bumper cars” driving around on the surface of the sea, hundreds of thousands of female sea turtles were filmed as they gathered off the coast of Costa Rica before reaching the shore to lay their eggs. While sea turtles do this every year at Costa Rica’s Ostional National Read More...
Vendors turn streets into community spaces, so why are cities cracking down?
Earlier this month, a woman from Ecuador was handcuffed by police for selling churros in a New York City subway station. Officers confiscated her pushcart—her livelihood—and all its contents. She did not have a permit. But the city has not raised the number of permits since 1983, meaning $200 Read More...
Student activists disrupted Harvard-Yale football game to protest fossil fuels
When spectators storm the field at a sporting event, it’s usually a silly plea for attention. But this weekend the sporting world saw something entirely different when over 200 students and alumni disrupted the annual football game between Harvard and Yale to demand both schools to divest from Read More...
To plant 90,000 trees in Los Angeles, the city is giving free trees to residents
Want a free tree for your yard or neighborhood? Well, if you live in Los Angeles, you’re in luck. Under the city’s Green New Deal, LA will give out up to seven free yard and/or street trees to qualifying residents in a bid to plant 90,000 trees in the city over the next two years. Neighbors Read More...