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.
A restaurant in Bermuda is using menu in order to save local reefs
While spending money on travel and experience instead of buying physical things has been shown to promote happiness, the impact it has on the environment is undeniable. As we start taking a harder look at our collective travel habits, hotel brands have begun examining their own practices, with some Read More...
How green urban planning can help protect the public from poor mental health
There is no single solution to the worldwide epidemic of poor mental health; addressing its root causes—like poverty-triggered stress and social isolation—and choosing effective treatment for sufferers remains paramount. One way to potentially partly buffer against the effects of poor mental Read More...
Private trash haulers have stopped shipping waste to poor countries
In May, when nearly all the world’s nations signed an agreement to limit the amount of unrecyclable plastic waste shipped to developing countries, the U.S. refused to sign. But after months of global outcry over the United States’ role in the plastic pollution crisis, companies that collect Read More...
Colorful Chicago building proves affordable housing and beauty can go together
Affordable housing, beautiful aesthetics, and sustainability are three things that rarely unite under one building, but in Chicago, architects have managed to bring all three together in harmony. Created by John Ronan Architects, the colorful building contains a public library at ground level and Read More...
A former landfill in Maryland becomes the perfect site for a community solar farm
Solar power is an effective way of producing clean, renewable, energy, but finding the space for large solar farms, especially in populated areas, can be a challenge. Fortunately for the residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, they already had a large area of land unsuitable for Read More...
You may soon be driving on roads made of recycled plastic
Although plastic can take up to 1,000 years to degrade making it a severe threat to our ecosystems, plastic's resilient nature makes it perfect for repurposing it into roadways. That's why the City of Los Angeles and Technisoil are collaborating to recycle plastic into material to pave roads in the Read More...
French startup can recycle any old plastic and turn it into virgin plastic again
The problem with traditional recycling is that you degrade the material each time you do it. That’s why a France-based startup called Carbios is taking an entirely new approach. Using a bioreactor, the startup is taking pulverized PET plastic waste—the kind of plastic found in drink bottles Read More...
3D-printed coral offer new hope for endangered reefs
In the wake of the global climate crisis and the acidification of oceans due to rising temperatures, coral reefs around the world and their ecologically diverse inhabitants have been drastically affected. Particularly, fish living among or in close relation to coral reefs who often use the reefs to Read More...
In America’s biggest cities, cemeteries have become havens for animal life
Don’t be mistaken: while the cemetery may not be sprawling with human life, it’s most certainly a hotspot for plant and animal life—especially in urban areas. Perhaps the best example of this comes from the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, one of the most densely populated places Read More...
These California trees hold the key to climate resilience
When California's historic five-year drought finally relented a few years ago, the tally of dead trees in the Sierra Nevada was higher than almost anyone expected: 129 million. Most are still standing, the dry patches dotting the mountainsides. But some trees did survive the test of heat and Read More...