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.
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...
Possibility: Windmills under the sea
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 There’s enough wave energy in the oceans to power the world, and scientists and businesses are finally close to harnessing it. For decades wave energy has lagged behind wind energy and solar because harnessing it is more complex. But for Jim Read More...
Nature's air filter
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 Air pollution is responsible for roughly 7 million deaths worldwide every year. Air-borne pollutants also cause heart disease, stroke, skin diseases, reduced fertility and miscarriage, and cancer. There’s a solution: Plants that clean the Read More...
Nature's air filter
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 Air pollution is responsible for roughly 7 million deaths worldwide every year. Air-borne pollutants also cause heart disease, stroke, skin diseases, reduced fertility and miscarriage, and cancer. There’s a solution: Plants that clean the Read More...
This eco-guide will help make your laundry cleaner and greener
The issue with modern fashion is that garments often use synthetic microfibers that end up polluting sewage systems when washed. Ultimately, these fibers end up in fish that we consume. One study found that a day’s worth of laundry in a city the size of Berlin releases the equivalent of 540,000 Read More...
Could eating insects help save the planet?
Eating insects may not be very appetizing, but scientists are hoping that will change in the future after new research revealed that replacing half the meat eaten worldwide with insects could cut greenhouse gas emissions by one-third. Take a look here at the radical new solution that could Read More...