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.
This new app could save whales in Puget Sound from boat strikes
Unfortunately, there’s one thing in the sea that’s bigger than whales: boats. And every once a while, a boat strikes a whale, causing serious injury or even death. To stop such tragedies from happening any longer, Washington State Ferries implemented a whale report alert system (WRAS) app that Read More...
Dove and Vaseline producer Unilever announces plans to reduce plastic use by 2025
Even if you haven’t heard of Unilever, chances are you still have used some of their products. The British-Dutch conglomerate is massive, with companies such as Ben & Jerry’s, Vaseline, and Dove under its belt. Considering its giant size, it was encouraging to hear that Unilever has Read More...
Meet Holly, the glorious winner of this year’s Fat Bear Week
Last week we couldn’t resist publishing a story on Fat Bear Week: an entire week dedicated to the brown bears of Katmai National Park who have stuffed themselves as much as possible in preparation for the winter hibernation. To celebrate the amazing sight of giant, chubby bears roaming the Read More...
Public buses are finally on schedule in New York, thanks to traffic restrictions
These are good days for public buses in New York City. After years and years of crawling behind the traffic and yellow cabs, busses are actually running ahead of schedule. Why? Because the city’s Department of Transportation has been restricting the number of vehicles that can travel on Read More...
Paris just opened a cemetery dedicated to green burials
In a 2017 study, the City of Paris discovered something rather shocking about traditional burial practices: the average burial generates, on average, 833 kilograms (or almost 1 ton) of carbon dioxide, which is nearly the equivalent of a round-trip flight between Paris and New York. Part of those Read More...
Turns out painting the streets white doesn’t make cities cooler
At The Optimist Daily, we’re here to bring you solutions. It’s what we do. But when we offer solutions and they don’t pan out like expected, we recognize the importance of relaying that information. The following is one of those cases. Many cities in warmer climates have been painting Read More...
How land protection can actually promote employment—especially in rural areas
There’s a debate about whether or not land conservation can also help local economies. On the one hand, some worry that land protection inhibits economic growth by restricting local resource use or building opportunities. On the other hand, there are those who say land protection can support Read More...
MIT scientists have figured out how to make cement without emissions
The production of cement currently accounts for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to calls for architects to stop using it. That’s a hard sell, considering cement is such useful material. Fortunately, researchers at MIT have demonstrated an experimental way of Read More...
Apple partners with Conservation International to restore degraded grasslands in Africa
Despite growing interest in the potential of forests and other ecosystems to help address global warming, conservation organizations are still struggling to find the money to fund these natural solutions to climate change. In a bid to ease these efforts, Apple has recently partnered up with Read More...
Kickstarter campaign repurposes plastic to spruce up chain link fences
Sead Pods is a new startup with a green vision for the chain-link fences of the world. What Sead (which stands for sustainable ecology adaptive design) has created is a hangable container made out of recycled plastic that is large enough to house one plant. When hung on fences, these pods give old Read More...