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The floating scarecrow saving seabirds from fishing nets
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A bird-shaped kite and a floating scarecrow with spinning eyes reduced seabird deaths in Cornish fishing nets by up to 71 percent in a two-year trial. The devices cost relatively little, don't require significant changes to how fishers work, and are already Read More...
London's Oxford Street gets fully pedestrianized this month: here's what that means
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Oxford Street, one of the busiest shopping streets in the world, goes traffic-free on October 26. London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the closure of the stretch from Orchard Street to Great Portland Street, nearly a kilometer (just under half a mile) through Read More...
How Argentina's battery-powered Tren Solar is recharging an ancient Andean route
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There are places where the land itself seems to generate energy. The Quebrada de Humahuaca in Jujuy province, in Argentina's far northwest, is one of them. At altitude, in clear desert air, the valley gets solar radiation that would be hard to match anywhere Read More...
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library doubles its London reach even after her death
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 on a premise that hasn't changed since: send a free book to every registered child under five, once a month, for the first years of their life. No application, no means test, no reading assessment Read More...
Colorado's largest wildlife overpass cut I-25 collisions by 91 percent
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Nine months in, North America's largest wildlife overpass has cut vehicle collisions on a stretch of Interstate 25 in Colorado by 91 percent. Before it opened, that corridor was averaging roughly one deer hit per day during peak migration. The crossing, a Read More...
Athens' former airport is becoming Europe's largest coastal urban park
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Two million square meters of former airport land in the southern suburbs of Athens are being converted into The Ellinikon Park. The park is designed to actively lower surrounding air temperatures, process 100 percent of its own rainfall on site, and keep more Read More...
Ethiopia's Green Legacy Initiative is turning citizens into foresters
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For most of the past century, Ethiopia was losing its forests. From the turn of the millennium to 2025, the country shed 560,000 hectares, about 2,160 square miles, of tree cover to agriculture, logging, and charcoal fuel. Then the government launched the Read More...
From 2.6% to 97%: how South Korea eliminated food waste and what NYC can learn
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In Yeouido, Seoul, Seunghwan Hong spends less than a minute dropping off his food scraps. He taps a card, the lid opens, and the bin logs the weight. Whatever he throws in, he pays for. South Korea's food waste recycling rate was 2.6 percent in 1996. In Read More...
How Reefvive is rebuilding coral reefs from discarded oyster shells
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most artificial reef structures are built from concrete. Concrete is smooth, and smooth surfaces give young coral little to grip. A team of students at National Taiwan Normal University built their version from something else entirely: ground oyster shells Read More...
Mexico's desert ecosystem is healing months after bison reintroduction
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The 200-year absence of bison from Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert left a gap that most people stopped noticing. Grass accumulated unchecked, soil compacted, fire risk crept upward. Wildlife that depended on the cascade effects of bison grazing gradually Read More...