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.
Full cycle: Turning plastic bottles and bags into fuel again
Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Worldwide about 100 million tons is produced each year, and it ends up in landfills that pollute the environment or in oceans where it kills fish. Now scientists have come up with a new way to turn plastic waste into liquid fuel. It uses less energy than Read More...
Breathless in Paris as clean-air battle mounts in French capital
Paris will no longer take your breath away. Its monuments, avenues and restaurants might, of course, but Mayor Anne Hidalgo is pledging its pollution won’t. The city, host to the COP21 United Nations climate conference last year, will ensure the French capital’s air is cleaner and that Read More...
Saiga antelope numbers rise after mass die-off
Last year, catastrophe hit saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan. About 200,000 of these critically endangered antelopes died in Betpak-Dala in May, deeply worrying conservationists. The deaths, scientists eventually found, were most likely caused by bacterial infection. But there may be hope for these Read More...
Free growing wealth: A tree contributes $111 to the public good each year
What’s the value of a tree that keeps growing year after year? Researchers have tried to calculate exactly that. Working with a dataset of about 900,000 trees that line public streets in California, the scientists sought to place a dollar value on the services those trees perform, which Read More...
Study: Wood mulch reduces greenhouse gases while improving soil and combating pests
New research shows that using wood mulch has a notable effect in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to a new study studies vineyards and orchards utilizing wood mulch have cut their nitrous oxide emissions by over 25 percent. These same mulched areas also report a drop in soil nitrates Read More...
Black gold from the Amazon: fighting climate change while improving soil
“Terra preta” or “black soil” is very fertile, dark and manmade soil found in the Amazon. It’s the result of an indigenous farmers’ practice 3000 years ago, they would bury charcoal in the ground to boost the otherwise relatively infertile Amazonian soil. The charcoal allows the soil to Read More...
The eco guide to cargo ships
A seafaring adage goes: “If the winds are shifting, adjust your sails.” But even with the disturbing winds of climate change, the shipping industry, with its combustion of fossil fuels (accounting for 2.4% of global emissions), remains outside binding emissions-reduction agreements. There have Read More...
Coalition will protect reef with $1bn fund, says Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull has promised that a re-elected Coalition government will protect the Great Barrier Reef by tackling its two biggest challenges – climate change and water quality. The prime minister will pledge to set up a new $1bn reef fund with $1bn - taken from the Clean Energy Finance Read More...
Invest in soil to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Let’s talk dirt. We need a new conversation on soils, the foundation of our agricultural heritage. This discussion should include their current condition, their historic role and their promise to ensure the survival of humans and the planet. Since the dawn of crop cultivation, we have used Read More...
Water conservation in California has saved energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions, study finds
As debate continues in San Diego County and around the state over how aggressively to conserve water amid a historic drought, a new study finds that reductions in urban water use have saved significant amounts of electricity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis, published by UC Davis, Read More...