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.
This 18-mile stretch of Georgia highway is a living laboratory for clean energy
It’s not often that captains of industry have epiphanies about climate change. So it was remarkable when, after reading The Ecology of Commerce in 1994, carpet manufacturer Ray Anderson set out to clean up his petroleum-intensive operation and succeeded in cutting net carbon emissions by more Read More...
Levi’s is using lasers to make more sustainable jeans
At Levi’s, a brand that talks about trying to be as sustainable and humane to workers as possible, the ugly reality of what it takes to make jean—especially when you are selling $4.6 billion worth of them a year—isn’t something that is brushed under the table. That’s why Levi’s has Read More...
They're here to fix climate change! They’re college Republicans
Consider the life of a current college sophomore, a 20-year-old. She was born in 1998, at the time the warmest year ever measured, when a monster El Niño pattern spawned floods and droughts around the world. Seven years later, as she started first grade, Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans, Read More...
This all-natural insulator is fire-resistant and biodegradable
A Chilean company has created a 100 percent natural form of insulation that not only keeps homes warm, but also makes them more fire-resistant. Compared to common fiberglass insulation, which burns within 15 seconds of being exposed to flames, this natural insulation takes a full hour before it Read More...
Reforesting US topsoils stores massive amounts of carbon,
Forests across the United States—and especially forest soils—store massive amounts of carbon, offsetting about 10 percent of the country's annual greenhouse gas emissions and helping to mitigate climate Read More...
Forget about recycling, we need to start re-using
With China banning all types of recyclable containers, it’s time for us to take a new path in the use of containers. In fact the word recycle could be replaced with the word reuse and to take our possible change of thinking further, let’s add the word zero to waste so we always refer to zero Read More...
Britain and Europe must ban palm oil in biofuel to save forests, EU parliament told
If Britain and other European nations are to fulfil forest protection goals, they must ban the use of palm oil for biofuel and tighten oversight of supply chains, a delegation of forest peoples told parliamentarians this week. The call for urgent, concrete action comes amid an increasingly heated Read More...
According to big data, the urban farming revolution is getting started
Using Google’s Earth Engine software, as well as population, meteorological, and other data sets, researchers determined that urban agriculture could produce as much as 180 million metric tons of food a year if fully implemented in cities around the world. This is about 10 percent of the global Read More...
Scientists are finally realizing how important giant bats are for the durian
Depending on who you ask, the durian is either the best or worst food on the planet. Recently, researchers found out that this strange piece of fruit, which is a delicacy in Malaysia, relies on healthy populations of flying fox for survival. As it turns out, the flying fox is the unlikely Read More...
Adding crushed rocks to croplands helps capture CO2 and boost food security
A new study has found that farming crops with crushed rocks could capture CO2 and give increased protection from pests. The scientists also found that crushed silicate rocks help to restore soil structure and fertility. As we look for new solutions to help reduce emissions and improve food Read More...