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If human beings could mimic the way plants make their own fuel, it's not a stretch to say that Earth's energy needs could be solved. The way leafs convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into life-sustaining chemical energy is a resourceful process, and scientists are attempting to do the same thing Read More...
From The Intelligent Optimist Summer 2016 In what could be a growing movement, courts in the United States and the Netherlands are siding with environmental activists who argue that governments that promote fossil fuel use and development are violating environmental laws and constitutional rights, Read More...
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Summer 2016 A new “stone” paper devised in Taiwan uses calcium carbonate instead of wood pulp. It could save the forests, but is the world ready for the ultimate paper-vs.-plastic question? By Karin Klein The first thing I notice about my new notebook is Read More...
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 Air pollution is responsible for roughly 7 million deaths worldwide every year. Air-borne pollutants also cause heart disease, stroke, skin diseases, reduced fertility and miscarriage, and cancer. There’s a solution: Plants that clean the Read More...
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 Air pollution is responsible for roughly 7 million deaths worldwide every year. Air-borne pollutants also cause heart disease, stroke, skin diseases, reduced fertility and miscarriage, and cancer. There’s a solution: Plants that clean the Read More...
Filtering mass-amounts of water can be an energy-intensive process, but that could soon change thanks to a team of researchers. Using carbon dioxide resumes, the researchers developed a new process that requires one thousand times less energy to remove suspended particles and bacteria from water. Read More...
From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Forget the airpocalypse—the skies are getting cleaner. Hopeful signs from Mexico City, no longer the world’s dirtiest. On a cool Saturday morning, I check the air quality report on Twitter before putting on my running shoes. “Good,” the tweet says—as Read More...
The solution to our overburdened, outdated power grid? One word: microgrids—localized power networks that are cheaper, cleaner and more reliable. What’s not to like? By Greg Nichols From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 In late 2000 and early 2001, rolling blackouts swept across California. Read More...
At the end of this month the Swiss company Climeworks will open the first commercial plant that sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and feeds it to vegetables in a neighboring greenhouse. It will be the first business to sell carbon dioxide drawn right out of its surroundings, using a technology Read More...
Russian scientists Sergey Zimov and Nikita Zimov believe they can slow the thawing of the Siberian permafrost, that contains vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, by bringing back grazing animals to a swath of land called Pleistocene Park. “When animals trample down the snow, they Read More...