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.
Renewables key in race against climate change clock
Any plausible game plan for capping the rise of Earth's surface temperature depends on replacing fossil fuels with energy sources that generate little or no carbon pollution. That means renewables, especially solar and wind, both of which face fewer constraints to growth than more established clean Read More...
California universities launch experiment to go carbon-neutral 'at scale'
What does it look like when a university decides to walk the walk as well as talk the talk on climate change? The University of California system – which encompasses 10 university campuses and two national scientific research laboratories – is about to find out. Two years ago, Janet Napolitano, Read More...
New legal move to prevent Japan from whale hunting in Antarctic
Environmental campaigners in Australia have mounted a fresh attempt to prevent Japan from killing hundreds of whales in the Antarctic this winter, as officials in Tokyo indicated they would ignore an international ban on the country’s “scientific” expeditions imposed last year. Read More...
Norway gets greener with hybrid-ship plans
Norway is on a roll lately. Last week, the Scandinavian country announced it would ban cars entirely from the city center of Oslo, and now it's announcing plans to build a fleet of plug-in hybrid ships to service its marine industries. Marine shipping is a major global pollutant. In fact, one large Read More...
New York City is now home to 1 million new trees
New York City has just finished planting 1 million new trees within an eight-year time frame. The MillionTreesNYC campaign was launched eight years ago by former Mayor Bloomberg and Bette Midler. The singer and actress runs the nonprofit New York Restoration Project, which helps revitalize Read More...
The world's first commercial carbon capture plant will turn pollution into cash
If we can efficiently capture CO2 from the air, that would solve a lot of problems. By next summer, the world's first commercial plant that captures carbon dioxide directly from air will begin operation in Switzerland. A handful of other startups are working on similar technology, but Climeworks AG Read More...
3D printed coral reefs in Monaco help preserve and save marine biodiversity
In sad yet un-surprising news earlier this month, scientists confirmed that the third-ever global bleaching of coral reefs is under way, and that it could be the biggest coral die-off in history. Those beautiful, multicolor calcium carbonate structures that line our ocean floors don’t just Read More...
Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe reached the lowest levels on record
The European Union is on track towards overachieving its 2020 target for reducing greenhouse emissions by 20%, according to a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Emissions in Europe decreased by 23% between 1990 and 2014 and reached the lowest levels on record. Projections Read More...
The benefit of more electronics recycling? 10 billion dollars
We've probably all gone through our share of electronics. It's easy to overlook an important step when buying a new phone or tablet: disposing of the old piece. Recycling our electronics is one of the big challenges today. Some computer hardware companies did already find creative ways to reuse Read More...
Oslo city center will be car-free within four years
In September, Paris envisioned life without cars for a day as people walked and biked freely on the streets under clear blue skies. But Oslo is raising the bar with its plans to ban cars from the city center within four years. The move would rid private vehicles in an effort to reduce traffic and Read More...