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.
How to build a city that doesn’t flood? Turn it into a sponge
Urban floods make the news with alarming regularity. Just in the past few months, Hurricane Harvey submerged Houston, and the seasonal monsoon crippled cities in South Read More...
13 scientists saving our soils
Soil performs a variety of vital functions, including supporting plant and animal life and filtering contaminants from water and the Read More...
UN signals 'end' of throwaway plastic
The end of the era of throwaway plastic has been signalled by UN environment ministers meeting in Kenya. They signed off a document stating that the flow of plastic into the ocean must be Read More...
Healthy diet, healthy planet: How good eating habits benefit the environment
Scientists say that food production including growing crops, raising livestock, fishing and transporting all that food to our plates is responsible for 20 to 30 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. But altering our diets could change that. A new study found that if citizens in 28 Read More...
Climate change is a surprisingly straightforward problem to solve
The average global temperature today is about 1°C higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s. That may not sound like much, but scientists agree that just one more 1°C, and our planet will pass a tipping point Read More...
Behold the world’s first zero-emissions fossil-fuel power plant
From the top of the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge, more than 50 meters (160 ft) above Buffalo Bayou, in every direction you look, you can see huge oil tankers, massive piles of coal, and uncountable smokestacks. This small corner Read More...
This simple strategy could help mitigate massive amounts of carbon
When we think of solutions that may help save the world from climate change, we tend to think of the technologies such as solar panels and carbon capture systems. The truth, however, is that there are other ways that are much simpler to cut down on carbon emissions. One way, a researcher found, is Read More...
Bill McKibben: Winning slowly is the same as losing
If we don't win very quickly on climate change, then we will never win. That's the core truth about global Read More...
'One garbage truck of textiles is thrown away every second'
In a new report, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation exposed the scale of waste within the fashion industry, which creates 1.2bn tons of greenhouse gas emission each year—larger than that of international flights and shipping combined. The fashion industry is incredibly wasteful, but thanks to the Read More...
SkyCool’s panels can cast heat into space
In the small rear suite of a light industrial building near the San Francisco airport, Eli Goldstein looks over a set of silver panels tilted on metal racking. The panels look like simple mirrors, but Read More...