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.
Amsterdam is eliminating thousands of parking spaces—and people love it
Taking away thousands of parking spaces each year in a major city in America would be an unimaginable prospect. In Amsterdam, it’s becoming the norm. Earlier this year, local leaders announced plans to scale back parking in Amsterdam’s core by about 1,500 spaces per year. The Dutch capital Read More...
Baltimore is leading the nation when it comes urban forests
Few amenities better reveal the overall vigor of a city than its canopy: the mix of trees that line streets, envelop parks, and shade homes. A good canopy can reduce the urban heat island, and instill true health and wellness to a community. Yet despite those benefits, America’s metropolitan Read More...
Vermont passes bill restricting the use of pollinator-killing pesticides
Pesticides are one of the main reasons why bee populations have plummeted at an incredible rate in the past couple of years. In Vermont, for example, beekeepers reported losing an average of 57 percent of their hives from 2017 to 2018, and that’s even higher than the national average of 40 Read More...
Here’s why you should use cold water in your cleaning machines
At some point in your life, you were probably told that hot water cleans better than cold water when you’re using the dishwasher or washing machine. We’re here to tell you that’s not the case. According to a senior scientist for sustainability at Seventh Generation (a cleaning company), Read More...
IKEA launches new collection made of leftover rice straw to reduce smog in India
Once the rice is harvested in India, the straw is commonly burnt by small-scale rural farmers to make way for the new crop. This smoke contributes to the smog peaks that cause numerous health problems for the population of northern India, where nine out of 10 of the world's most polluted cities are Read More...
Chile just made a pledge to eradicate coal by 2040
Although Chile represents a mere 0.25% of global emissions, the country is one of the 10 most vulnerable nations to climate change. It doesn’t help that Chile’s economy is heavily dependent on coal. But now with the annual UN climate talks coming to Chile this December, the South American Read More...
Actor Robert Downey Jr. wants to solve the climate crisis with nanotech
Celebrity activism often has a pejorative connotation, but it is actually one of the most effective ways to draw attention to social problems and, in some cases, to even raise efforts to solve them. Take, for instance, actor Robert Downey Jr of ‘Iron Man’ who has recently announced the Read More...
Costa Rica has doubled its forest cover in the past 30 years
Long committed to the environment, Costa Rica has often been praised for its successful efforts in sustainability, biodiversity, and other protections. More recently, the nation has made headlines by pledging to go entirely fossil-free by 2050. In an interview with The New York Times, the Read More...
Wrangler has come up with a way to make blue jeans that isn’t super wasteful
Think about classic blue jeans. The rich color comes from indigo, and it’s so ubiquitous both in fashion and in the American cultural imagination that it’s easy to imagine denim cloth as a naturally occurring phenomenon. It’s not. To get that blue-jeans hue, the yarn that’s eventually Read More...
This brand is making biodegradable comforters from eucalyptus fibers
You probably don’t think a lot about bed-linen waste, but according to a recent survey, it accounts for 10-million tons of the textile waste that ends up in US landfills. The good news is New York homeware brand Buffy has launched a comforter that uses natural eucalyptus pulp for its case, Read More...