Sustainable Urban Development
With cities expected to host about 70 percent of the world's population, sustainable urban development is key to making communities worldwide more resilient against the growing threat of climate change. Find out about the latest urban practices from across the world aiming to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive in these good-news stories from The Optimist Daily.
As Iceland’s whaling industry decreases, its whale-watching increases
It’s nice when the economically responsible thing to do is also the right thing to do. Iceland announced in February its intentions to end whaling by 2024 because demand for whale meat has decreased significantly. “There is little proof that there is any economic advantage to this Read More...
How do solar panels break? And how do we fix them?
At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, teams of scientists and researchers spend large parts of their day jumping on, twisting, smashing, and generally coming up with various ways of breaking solar panels. It’s not malice, it’s not incompetence. It's not Read More...
Why we need more rooftop gardens in a changing climate
As you may know from personal experience, summers tend to be much hotter in the city than in the countryside. This phenomenon is called the “urban heat island” effect. This difference in temperature happens in large part because urbanized areas have a greater concentration of buildings and Read More...
Banana paper saves potatoes by blocking worm communication
The potato cyst nematode is a pathogenic worm and something of a global menace. When these little critters come across potato farms they infest the crops, drastically reducing yield and size. Some areas of Africa see a 60 percent decline in potato yield after infestation, negatively affecting Read More...
Quantum charging could cut EV charging from hours to minutes
Current owners of electric vehicles can cruise along knowing that they’re not adding any CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. While they can ride guilt-free, these joy rides can still be inconvenienced by the headache of having to wait around half an hour at a high-powered public charger, or even Read More...
Oregon wastewater facility makes its own power with human waste
Two weeks ago, we wrote a piece on upcycling your “business,” going into the green uses some companies found for human waste. Innovation and recycling mean looking everywhere possible for solutions, and The Optimist Daily loves writing about the ones that are found… even if they come out of Read More...
More trees may save gray foxes from coyotes
The Optimist Daily has recently written a great deal on the need to coexist with animals, respecting animal agency and the potential to reach a new symbiosis with our furry neighbors on the planet. This brings into our consideration how to adapt our own human environments to better suit the habits Read More...
Nature’s shopping list: a beginner’s guide to foraging
Two years ago, The Optimist Daily published a small piece on the advantages of foraging. This means walking past the grocery store to the park or a riparian area to search for, identify, and collect your own food resources. The practice has become more popular in recent years, especially during the Read More...
The James Dyson Award: a call to young inventors
The Optimist Daily has written about many winners of the James Dyson Award. This is an international design award that celebrates, encourages, and inspires the next generation of design engineers. It is open to current and recent design engineering students and is run by the James Dyson Foundation, Read More...
How biochar can mitigate carbon from farmlands to urban centers
Biochar has long been hailed in the environmental community as a potent solution for mitigating certain aspects of climate change, from fixing soil erosion to upping water absorption and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. Now, there is a growing list of industries that might improve their Read More...