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.
What the rest of the world can learn from the flying cows of Switzerland
Even today, in the face of imminent climate change, we continue to function as though there’s more atmosphere somewhere, ready to whisk off our waste to someplace else. It is time, though, to think of the world as a closed system in which we operate with the full understanding of how one thing Read More...
One day without plastic. Can you do it?
Like it or not, plastic is everywhere. We sit on it, store our food in it, drink from it, text with it, type with it, wear it, and carry our groceries home from the store in it. Yet we know that plastic is harsh on the environment in its production and even harsher when it winds up in our Read More...
Ocean wind farms are becoming artificial reefs
Offshore wind proponents are touting new undersea footage that suggests a vibrant marine habitat is growing around the nation's first offshore wind farm — a five-turbine operation off Rhode Island's Read More...
Waste doesn’t have to be wasted: Creative ways of recycling trash
Not only is the waste we produce rapidly increasing, but we are also running out of ways to dispose of it. In January this year, China said it would no longer process the millions of tons of “foreign garbage” shipped to it each year by the West. Fortunately, there are already organizations who Read More...
The world is finally coming to its senses and planting trees again
In the new ecological age, we have learned that trees have far more value than providing timber: they keep soils moist, prevent floods and provide shelter, store carbon, beautify landscapes, protect water sources, increase biodiversity, improve conservation and induce wellbeing. We now know that we Read More...
This Harvard psychologist is proving that the world is better than ever before
The world is doomed. That’s the perspective you would have if you watched and believed everything you saw on the television. But this perspective omits all the progress we’ve been making in the world. In fact, if you look at the data, you can see that the present age is the safest we’ve ever Read More...
Singapore skyscraper will burst at the seams with greenery
Italy's Carlo Ratti Associates (CRA) and Danish firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have collaborated on an interesting new skyscraper currently under construction in Singapore. Rising to 280 m (918 ft) the building will be jam-packed with greenery, and feature trees jutting out of its Read More...
The Queen of England has forbidden plastic straws and bottles on royal estates
No one can withstand the charming voice of David Attenborough. Not even the Queen of England. After watching the filmmaker’s latest documentary, the Queen issued a ban on all plastic straws and bottles from the royal estates across England, including the public cafes at Buckingham Palace. The Read More...
Why climate change may not be leading us to a doomsday scenario
Study after study has gone on to show that climate change will have cataclysmic effects on the world if we don’t change our ways fast. This outlook seems pretty grim, but it may not seem all bad news. In a provocative new analysis, researchers contend that the current goal of reducing coal, oil Read More...
Madagascar has a hi-tech waterless toilet that charges your phone
Traditional flush toilets aren’t an option in many parts of the world, but neither is leaving people with unsafe and unhygenic choices. Now, one company is piloting a new loo that’s waterless, off-grid and able to charge your Read More...