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.
Old battlefields find new life as parks and conservation areas
Across the United States, areas that were previously bloody battlefields are being turned into memorials and parks to recognize the violence that took place there and to offer a new purpose of life and recreation for these places. There are 25 national battlefield and military parks in America Read More...
These speedy robots are helping America tackle the recycling crisis
Since humans aren’t the best at sorting out all the different types of waste we produce, recycling centers around the country are adopting robots that use artificial intelligence to do the sorting job better. In Florida, for example, a sprawling recycling factory has 14 different robots that Read More...
There is a giant alternative climate conference taking place in the Amazon
Major organizations such as the UN may have lofty ambitions to change the world, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily successful in representing the desires of the people when implementing action. Many people outside these transnational organizations believe not enough is being done to Read More...
What Finland’s amazing new library can teach us about valuing public amenities
In a country that boasts one of the world’s highest literacy rates, the arrival of the new central library in the capital of Finland last year was a kind of moon-landing-like moment of national bonding. The €98 million facilities, whose opening in December 2018 marked the centenary of Finnish Read More...
Prada just signed a loan with interest rates tied to sustainable action
For the first time ever, a luxury brand has signed a loan that is linked to sustainability goals. That brand is Prada, and it has signed a £42.9 million loan with the banking group, Crédit Agricole, with repayment terms conditional on meeting key targets around the sustainability of its products Read More...
Scientists have photographed a mouse deer for the first time in nearly 30 years
In a testament to the Earth’s ability to continually surprise us, scientists in Vietnam have successfully photographed a species not seen for nearly 30 years. That species is known as the mouse deer, a rabbit-sized animal that despite the name, is neither mouse nor deer. Instead, its the Read More...
How “Climate Strike” became Collins dictionary’s word of the year
It’s funny how quickly the English language adopts new words and phrases that were on nobody’s tongues last year. A good example of this phenomenon is the phrase “Climate strike”, which was featured on plenty of news headlines this year and rapidly became something we hear on a daily Read More...
Studies suggest humor is effective for engaging the public about climate change
Although the climate crisis is certainly a dark issue to communicate to people, three studies this year have come to the conclusion that using humor may be the most effective way to engage the public about the crisis. In March 2017, the American Psychological Association published a Read More...
We cannot overestimate how important fungi is for storing carbon in soil
Humans have long relied on fungi for sustenance and, er, inspiration. With that said, scientists are only just discovering how incredibly important fungi are for the Earth’s ability to store carbon. Human activity, especially large-scale agriculture, has severely affected a delicate and Read More...
Oslo wants to become the world’s first zero-emission port. Here’s how
Cargo shipping is a massive contributor to emissions, and shipping technology has not quite reached the level where we can suddenly swap fossil fuel-burning engines for electric ones. This makes decarbonizing a port a difficult process, which is something many cities are trying to do one step at a Read More...