Today’s Solutions: January 11, 2025

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.

Man trimming trees in the woods

These are just some of the new job opportunities in a zero-emissions world

There is tremendous economic potential in the transition to a renewable energy future, but detailed descriptions of what these green jobs will look like aren’t always available. We’ve talked about the job potential for renovating old oil and gas fields, but today we share a guide from Grist on Read More...

Sunlight through a forest of trees.

Solutions Thinking and Climate Change

Open Minds and Optimism: Keys to Solving the Climate Crisis In February 2022, the world’s leading climate scientists released the most urgent warning on climate change to date. The report, released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), describes the implications of our Read More...

Study: This is how many human

Study: This is how many human lives can be saved with climate action

With the climate crises we’re already experiencing, it’s no secret that we need climate action immediately to prevent the loss of life due to climate disasters. Now, thanks to a recent study, we have a good idea of how many lives will be saved if we cease emitting carbon into our atmosphere at Read More...

Hand fan covering the sun to cool down and give yourself air in heat alerts. Heat wave heatstroke concept.

Biden administration launches heat.gov to help us deal with extreme heat

It’s no secret that this summer season has been a scorcher, what with the increasing heatwaves in the US and raging wildfires across Europe. The rising temperatures have been and will continue to cause thousands of deaths from hyperthermia, drought, and crop failures.  Extreme heat is an Read More...

Honeycomb and bee or Apis florea on moringa tree and blur green leaves background.

Love bees but need to relocate a hive? Here’s how to do it sustainably

If you are a longtime reader of The Optimist Daily, you’ll know that our team loves bees (and other pollinators). We've published many stories on why bees are critical to our world’s ecosystem and to our species' survival, as well as articles that highlight amazing people and initiatives that Read More...

Pair of common vampire bats.

What vampire bats teach us about friendship

There are still biological and behavioral mysteries to social bonding that experts are trying to figure out. With so many factors at play it can be hard to put a fine point on why we do some things and not others to get close to one another. Sometimes, it pays to look at other examples of mammalian Read More...

Gabon's coastal waters at sunset

This African country is a guide towards protecting the oceans the right way

In 2010, the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) has set a target that 10 percent of coastal and marine areas across the world should fall under protection by 2020. Two years after the deadline, that target still hasn’t been met today. As safeguarding our oceans’ wellbeing is becoming an Read More...

Kangaroo family, mother and baby in bag at Lucky Bay in the Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance, Western Australia.

This is how Australia reduced plastic litter on its beaches by 30 percent

When it comes to reporting about plastic waste on beaches, the news is rarely good. But one report paints a more positive picture of the state of the issue in Australia. According to the study, plastic litter on Australian beaches has actually decreased by 30 percent in recent years. The research Read More...

Capuchin monkeys Panama

Panama enacts landmark legislation giving Nature rights

Panama is among the 25 most megadiverse countries in the world. It is home to big cats like jaguars and ocelots, 6 distinct monkey species like capuchins, myriad marine and bird life, and many kinds of sloth like the pygmy sloth, who is endangered. Its mystifying array of creatures shoulders Panama Read More...

Rainforest

5 ways to save rainforests and the world every day

“At first, I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity.”  - Chico Mendes, Brazilian environmentalist July 28 is World Nature Conservation Day.  In honor of this, we're happy to offer Read More...