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 supermarket in Norway solves the battery recycling challenge
You know you need to recycle batteries. You put them aside. And then…? It’s not easy to do the right thing when it comes to recycling batteries as there often are no easy places to go to. A supermarket in Norway is changing that. The store has introduced a battery recycling vending machine that Read More...
This device generates clean air and electricity from air pollution
Researchers in Belgium have developed a process that purifies air, and at the same time, generates power. The device must only be exposed to light in order to function. The device is similar to an electrolyser that can extract hydrogen from water. The researchers have discovered that polluted air Read More...
Vertical ocean farming could restore marine ecosystems
The premise on which it’s based is simple, too: the oceans are the planet’s life support system because they regulate its climate and provide half of the oxygen we breathe. Its fish provide a staple diet for 50 per cent of the people on the planet. Its water, thanks to Read More...
How to fix climate change: put cities, not countries, in charge
Climate change is the most urgent challenge facing humankind. Other issues make headlines: terrorism kills; inequality affects everyday life for billions around the globe. But climate is paramount, because in sustainability human survival itself is at stake. Why then have the nations governing the Read More...
Possibility: Iran goes green
From The Intelligent Optimist Summer 2016 On most mornings, the majestic snowcapped Alborz Mountains that envelope Tehran are obscured by a curtain of smog. Many of the bustling city’s 14 million residents have become accus-tomed to seeing the mulberry trees bloom and the winter’s first Read More...
Handiwork of the heart
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 On a mission to save orangutans, Willie Smits rebuilt a devastated rainforest where no rain fell, no birds sang, and the people spent a quarter of their resources just to get enough water to survive. By Rosamund Stone Zander Rosamund Zander, Read More...
Ode to Zuzana Caputova, Pezinok, Slovakia
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 Environmental advocate Rarely are the actions of one individual felt by an entire country, but Zuzana Caputova’s fight for environmental safety in her hometown in Slovakia went even further—it became a victory for the population of the entire Read More...
Ode to the American Buffalo
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 The Return of the Bison By Ivar Laanen After a long absence from American lands, descendants of a bison herd sent to Canada more than a century ago have been relocated to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, in Montana. The animals, also known as Read More...
Nature is the best business consultant
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 Nature provides the principles for sustainable business, but a fear-and-greed-driven mindset obstructs us from running business naturally. Why the “whole brain state” is essential to sustainability. By Rob Williams Photography: Bruce Read More...
Rock, paper, progress
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 A new “stone” paper devised in Taiwan uses calcium carbonate instead of wood pulp. It could save the forests, but is the world ready for the ultimate paper-vs.-plastic question? By Karin Klein The first thing I notice about my new notebook is Read More...