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.
Clean-up days work, just ask the Balkans
It’s a wonderful thing when one of the most fashionable events a country has each year is the annual clean up day. Perhaps this sounds a bit utopian, but in the Balkans, countries that had once been divided by war are now uniting in the fight against trash. One example of this involves the border Read More...
Welsh charity donates funds to protect a large swath of the Amazon rainforest
The Size of Wales charity has raised enough donations to protect an area of the Amazon rainforest the size of, you guessed it, Wales. Together with the charity’s work in Guyana, some two million hectares of rainforest will be spared from loggers and protected by locals backed with Welsh funding. Read More...
China turns to free markets to tame fossil-fuel pollution
There are at least three good reasons why China is likely to succeed in starting the world’s biggest carbon-trading market when its efforts to limit pollution kick in next year. The government wants to put a cost on emissions of toxic smog to control pollution in industrial cities, starting Read More...
Sharing Kenya’s wilderness with underprivileged city children uplifts, inspires everyone
The children experienced a real safari, in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. They camped for the first time in their lives, and they met wild wild animals in the wilderness. But it was also a first for my team of staff, interns and volunteers who put on an ambitious three-day program – something we Read More...
Recycling: Fungi extract cobalt and lithium from waste batteries
Batteries in smartphones, cars and tablets can be recharged, but they don't last forever. Ultimately, old batteries end up in landfills or incinerators where they harm the environment. And valuable materials remain locked inside. Now, a team of researchers has succeeded in turning to naturally Read More...
Food packaging that is edible and prevents spoilage
Most foods found in our supermarkets are wrapped in plastic packaging that can only be used once before being tossed. This type of packaging creates a lot of waste, and it’s not very good at preventing food from spoiling. That’s why scientists have created a viable alternative to plastic Read More...
English village becomes climate leader by quietly cleaning up its own patch
“We said, ‘This is not about you tonight, this is about us, and you can listen to what we’ve got to say for a change,’” said Kate Harrison, a resident and early member of the group. No politician has been allowed to address the group since. The village has kept the effort separate from Read More...
How farms can heal forests
Let’s admit it, guys: Trees are pretty awesome. They’re nature’s air conditioners, they’re hella pretty to look at, and they’re really efficient carbon sinks. And, it turns out, when they come together to form a forest, trees gain the superpower of living pretty much Read More...
Engineers in Iceland come up with solid way to get rid of CO2 pollution
High up in Iceland’s western volcanic zone, engineers are sequestering carbon dioxide pollution by turning it into rock. Known as the CarbFix project, the engineers dissolve CO2 in water and send it deep beneath the ground where it reacts with basalt rock to become calcite. The engineers claim 95 Read More...
Apple says all 14 final assembly sites in China now zero-waste
Apple has announced that all 14 of its final assembly plants in China are now zero-waste compliant, meaning that none of the waste is sent to landfill. Waste products are instead recycled, re-used, composted or burned to generate energy. Typically, paper and cardboard are sent to paper mills for Read More...