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.
Satellites are helping scientists prevent disasters cause by land subsidence
Land subsidence is the shifting and sinking of the ground, and it can be disastrous for low lying countries. It’s usually caused by several factors, including erosion, earthquakes, mining, and even rapid urbanization. Because of the risks that subsidence poses to urban areas and agriculture, it Read More...
Why living near public amenities such as parks can change your life
As our political discourse generates derision and dissension, our time in the virtual world crowds out our time in the actual one, and trust in our institutions and each other has plummeted, local places such as markets, libraries, and coffee shops can help. A new study shows that living near Read More...
This program will make these five American cities bike-friendly by 2020
When it comes to quick, efficient, inexpensive, and relatively enjoyable ways for cities to lower their carbon emissions, it’s hard to beat bike lanes and good public transit. Well-designed, safe cycling infrastructure encourages more people to ride bikes that emit no carbon and take up a lot Read More...
The Guardian is officially changing the way it writes about the environment
Global warming and climate change—these are just some of the everyday terms we use to describe the environmental crisis that our planet is facing. But do these terms actually depict the reality of what is taking place? Are we not downplaying the issue with these soft-spoken terms? This is a Read More...
For the first time in years, cubs have been born in India’s “Tiger state”
The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was once known as the “Tiger state”, but sadly it has lost its reputation over the years due to dwindling numbers of the big cat. The main problem is that poaching is still rampant in the region, and Tigers haven’t been birthing new cubs. Now, for the Read More...
How to use moral clarity to counter defeatism around the climate crisis
There’s a reason why the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has successfully goaded powerful politicians into long-overdue climate action in just six months. Thunberg, who is on the autism spectrum, has become a moral authority. Again and again, she’s clearly Read More...
Researchers have developed the first visual model of the ‘wood wide web’
The first global map of the complex web of roots, bacteria and fungi beneath the ground known as the “wood wide web” has been built by researchers amid fears it is under threat by climate change. Using data from 1.2 million forest tree plots in more than 70 countries, scientists from Read More...
Meet the 96-year-old who saved his village in Taiwan with a paintbrush
If you heard that the town where you have lived your entire life was going to be demolished, what would you do? For Huang Yung-fu, a former soldier from Taiwan, the answer was pick up a brush and paint. For the past 10 years, Yung-fu has been waking up at 4:00 in the morning and decorating the Read More...
City buses are electrifying faster than any other conventional vehicle
Although it looks as if the era of fossil-fuel powered cars has peaked, it will still be a number of years until these cars are off our roadways completely, with 2050 being estimated as the year electric cars take over for good. But there’s one type of conventional vehicle that is phasing out Read More...
‘Supercorals’ offer glimmer of hope for one of world’s most biodiverse ecosystem
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have caused an increase in the global surface temperature of approximately 1°C since pre-industrial times, making ocean water warmer and more acidic. This has led to unprecedented mass coral bleaching events which – combined with growing local pressures – Read More...