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.
Why the Green New Deal can help to fix economic inequality in America
The much-hyped Green New Deal, which laid out the broad strokes of a U.S. transition to green energy by 2030, failed in Congress. But its champions haven’t given up. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and other like-minded legislators are working on a series of smaller bills Read More...
Every city and town should have a tool library
The tool library: it’s a brilliant concept that embodies the true meaning of the shared economy. At its core, a tool library is a place where civilians can rent or borrow community-owned tools such as hammers and drills instead of having to buy separate tools themselves. Having a tool library in Read More...
This Swiss entrepreneur just donated $1 billion towards conservation efforts
Billionaires around the world sit atop mass amounts of money that could go a long way towards solving the world’s climate issues. Take Jeff Bezos, for example. If the head of Amazon donated just one percent of his total wealth towards climate solutions, which would amount to around $1.5 billion, Read More...
Could used coffee grounds hold the key to replacing palm oil?
If you look at the list of ingredients on the labels of your household products, chances are most of them have palm oil included on the list. The problem with palm oil is that it leads to mass deforestation in Southeast Asia, devastating areas that once teemed with life. In search of a solution, a Read More...
Shipwrecks in the Atlantic are providing critical habitats for sand tiger sharks
Off the shores of North Carolina is a coastal region known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” In this area, hundreds of shipwrecks are lying in tatters on the ocean floor. Lately, scientists have started to notice that female tiger sharks have developed an affinity to these shipwrecks off the Read More...
Ma Jun is not your everyday environmental activist
There all kinds of ways to do environmental activism. One way, as we pointed out in yesterday’s Optimist Daily, is to take to the streets and be civilly disobedient in the name of climate action. Another more subtle way is to be like Chinese environmentalist Ma Jun. At the age of 50, Ma has Read More...
You have to see these images of Holland’s hypnotic tulip fields from high above
The Spring season is the time of the year where nature’s bright colors return after a long winter, and nowhere is that truer than in the Netherlands. Springtime in the Netherlands is synonymous with tulip season when fields of the famous Dutch bulb spring to life in vast arrays of dizzying color. Read More...
New York City is getting ready to ban new glass skyscrapers
The glass skyscraper was once a symbol of America’s mighty economic power. Perhaps it still is, but to many people nowadays, the glass skyscraper is the epitome of unsustainable architecture. Glass skyscrapers are incredibly inefficient because of all the heat that escapes through the windows, Read More...
A Brazilian couple brought an entire rainforest back to life in 20 years
In the early 1990s, Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado was stationed in East Africa where he was covering the horrific accounts of the Rwanda genocide. Following this traumatizing project, Salgado decided to find solace in the lap of a lush and lively rainforest that surrounded Read More...
Scientists have finally come up with a refrigerator that doesn’t pollute
While your refrigerator is busy cooling your foods, it’s also heating up the atmosphere. That’s because most conventional refrigeration devices rely on compression of gases to produce their cooling effect. It works, but gas refrigerators are energy-hungry, and the hydrofluorocarbons they use Read More...