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.
To save the environment, scientists are turning carbon dioxide into stone
A group of scientists in Iceland are injecting carbon dioxide and water into basalt though a process called the "CarbFix Process." The scientists behind the project say this method of carbon capture could help with reducing the effects of CO2 emissions. Video courtesy of Reuters. Follow TI: On Read More...
Taste for mushrooms helps Tanzanian farmers protect forest
Magdalena Gwasuma ducks carefully into a small, dark cage at the back of her house, where rows of fresh oyster mushrooms sit on wooden shelves. “I didn’t know anything about growing mushrooms at home - we used to get them from the forest,” the 60-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Read More...
New Zealand: People use crowdfunding to buy back and protect the commons
Crowdfunding makes it possible for large groups of people who contribute a little money to accomplish big things. In many places in the world, beautiful parts of nature are privately owned by wealthy people. Crowdfunding can bring such places back to the public. An inspiring example just happened Read More...
Eating meat is worse for the planet than driving your car
Many people feel guilty about driving their cars or about flying to distant places. It is true that cars and planes substantially contribute to global warming. However, traveling also makes a great contribution to more social cohesion and better understanding in the world. But you can travel Read More...
… And better plastics design would help a lot
If plastics were better designed, they could be better recycled. That would prevent plastics entering the oceans and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the message of a group of scientists. A simple example: Clear plastic bottles have a recycling value five times higher than those that Read More...
Modeling predicts which counties could store more carbon in soil by growing bioenergy crops
To help stakeholders in government and business make smart decisions about the best types of land and local climates for planting bioenergy crops, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory are using computational modeling to predict which counties could see Read More...
France vows to outlaw Monsanto's glyphosate by 2018
Bad news and good news at the same time. First the European Union failed to come to a final agreement and decided to extend the license for the use of the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, for 18 months. But then Segolene Royal, the French Minister for Ecology, Read More...
India ahead of schedule in fight against global warming
Here’s another example that global warming solutions are emerging everywhere. India, the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, has said that it expects to meet its carbon reduction goals earlier than expected. India’s outgoing climate chief said the country could meet its 2030 Read More...
The port that fuels L.A.'s economy and fouls its air gets a pollution-reduction team
Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday announced the appointment of an advisory panel tasked with reducing air pollution from the Port of Los Angeles by expanding the use of zero-emissions technology. The 10-member Sustainable Freight Advisory Board, made up of representatives from Read More...
Reforestation could help mitigate global warming
Planting new forests could contribute more to the mitigation of climate change than previously thought, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Land use changes strongly affect the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the land. Read More...