Climate Action
What is Climate Action? Climate Action is humanity's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our planet's resilience against climate change. From adaptation to mitigation, at The Optimist Daily you will learn about the most recent positive news stories and solutions targeting climate change and other environmental issues.
Ways to curb your fast fashion habit
Haven’t you heard? Sustainability is in style, while exploitative and wasteful consumerism is out. So why is it so difficult for the fashion industry to catch up with the trends? In the past, many of us would go clothes shopping to buy cheap garments with short lifespans that we end up Read More...
German farm demonstrates dual benefits of agrivoltaic systems
Agrivoltaic systems make for the perfect symbiotic relationships on farms. They combine solar panels and farming to provide localized renewable energy while helping shade crops to reduce water usage. The plants also work to cool the solar panels for increased productivity. At one farm in Germany, Read More...
This concept puts the urban garden at the heart of city design
Earlier this year, we shared the exciting news about the Parisian plan to turn the iconic Champs-Élysées avenue into a public garden. With the same goal of greening up the French capital, a new urban design proposal, created by architecture firm Rescubika, showcases how the future of Paris’ Read More...
Simple parking policy incentivizes employees to take greener routes to work
A key goal of public transportation is to reduce the number of cars on the road and therefore improve air quality and reduce emissions, especially in urban areas, but a small detail in the US federal tax code is actually working against this goal. The federal tax code has an exemption for Read More...
Clare Celeste's vibrant art is a reminder of how precious nature is
Many of us are already aware that we are facing a human-induced climate crisis that puts our world in a precarious position. However, presenting the problem with dry facts, pages of research, and endless spreadsheets and charts fails to stir our souls into action. That’s where art comes into Read More...
This hotline makes it easy for anyone to demand climate action
Activists will encourage you over and over again to call your representatives to spur action on a specific issue, but if you’re not familiar with the process, you might be asking yourself: How exactly do I call my representatives? Fortunately, a new project now makes it easier than ever to demand Read More...
Former steel mill will get new life as a producer of wind turbines
Before it closed in 2012, Sparrows Point in Maryland was home to the largest steel mill in the world, supplying key components for shipbuilding and large infrastructure projects in the US, such as the girders of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, the site of the former mill will now be given a new lease Read More...
Poland's AirBubble playground keeps air pure with algae
Poland is one of Europe’s most polluted countries, in a world where, according to the WHO, 93 percent of children breathe in polluted air while they play. To protect Poland’s children from air pollution, an innovative park, called the AirBubble, was erected in central Warsaw, next to Read More...
This company plants a tree for every train ticket they sell
Rail travel is making a comeback as a greener way to travel and now, the UK train ticketing service Trainhugger is making rail travel more eco-friendly by pledging to plant a tree in the UK for every trip booked through their website or app. For the passenger, there is no difference in cost when Read More...
Food transport to become much greener thanks to solar-powered reefers
Transporting food to your local supermarket typically requires refrigerated trailers (also known as reefers). These are usually cooled by diesel fuel, with an idling diesel tractor burning about a gallon of fuel per hour and releasing about 22.4 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a Read More...