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.
Norway spurs $400 million rainforest fund
Norway on Thursday said it will raise $400 million to encourage Brazil's farmers to stop destroying the rainforests, launching a fund also backed by food giants Unilever and Nestle. Announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the plan is a major effort to reform harmful small-scale Read More...
Everything you ever wanted to know about plastic-free diapers
At the beginning, using reusable cloth diapers can be a bit of a puzzle to figure out, but worry not! We’ve cracked the code and its actually pretty easy once you get the ball rolling. This blog post runs through the most important things you need to know about reusable cloth diapers. We Read More...
Another European city has announced plans to ban cars from its center
With smog levels on the rise in Madrid, the mayor of the Spanish capital is making plans to ban cars from its busiest street—Gran Via, a congested road that slices through the city center. Madrid has already pedestrianized a few smaller streets, but this is the first major way where cars will be Read More...
Unilever to make packaging all of its products fully recyclable by 2025
Consumer goods giant Unilever has pledged to ensure that all of the plastic packaging from its products will be “fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025”. Unilever, which owns brands such as Dove, Ben & Jerry’s and Marmite, has already committed to reducing the weight of the Read More...
World’s largest CO2 sink stores 27,000 grams of carbon per square meter
Natural areas that capture and store carbon on Earth are becoming an increasingly precious resource, and researchers may have found the mother of all of these in an unlikely place – a small bay in Denmark they claim holds a world-record amount of Read More...
Geothermal cooling, cycle paths and jobs: what does it take to get six green stars?
With murder rates double, and robbery rates three times, the state average, the Sydney suburb of Blacktown is not an obvious choice as a world leader of sustainable living. But, in 2016, a new master-planned estate in the suburb became the first residential community in New South Wales to be Read More...
Prince Charles pens Ladybird book on climate change
Prince Charles, a vocal critic of climate change sceptics, has penned a Ladybird book on the subject after lamenting with experts the lack of a basic guide to the subject. The prince has joined forces with two leading environmental campaigners to produce The Ladybird Book on Climate Change, the Read More...
How cattle can save the world
In Nouakchott, a town on the edge of the Sahara in the North African country of Mauritania, lives a woman named Nancy Abeiderrahmane. In 1989 she founded an organization called Tvivski (PDF) (spring in Arabic) to connects local milk producers in Mauritania with the consumers. Abeiderrahmane created Read More...
Oil and gas leases canceled on Blackfeet sacred land in Montana
Wednesday morning, as John Murray drove north from his home on the Badger-Two Medicine River to his job as the historic preservation officer for the Blackfeet Tribe, the mountains glowed red. His wife, who drove with him, commented on their beauty. Murray, 69, noted with deep satisfaction that for Read More...
World's largest peatland with vast carbon-storage capacity found in Congo
Peatland its extremely beneficial for the environment, locking in carbon emissions that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. Now scientists in the central Congo basin have discovered the world’s largest tropic peatland, a massive swamp larger than the size of England. The swamps could Read More...