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.
New York City is getting ready to ban new glass skyscrapers
The glass skyscraper was once a symbol of America’s mighty economic power. Perhaps it still is, but to many people nowadays, the glass skyscraper is the epitome of unsustainable architecture. Glass skyscrapers are incredibly inefficient because of all the heat that escapes through the windows, Read More...
A Brazilian couple brought an entire rainforest back to life in 20 years
In the early 1990s, Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado was stationed in East Africa where he was covering the horrific accounts of the Rwanda genocide. Following this traumatizing project, Salgado decided to find solace in the lap of a lush and lively rainforest that surrounded Read More...
Scientists have finally come up with a refrigerator that doesn’t pollute
While your refrigerator is busy cooling your foods, it’s also heating up the atmosphere. That’s because most conventional refrigeration devices rely on compression of gases to produce their cooling effect. It works, but gas refrigerators are energy-hungry, and the hydrofluorocarbons they use Read More...
Paul Hawken has 100 solutions to climate change, complete with models
We need solutions to climate change and world renowned author Paul Hawken as some. A total of 100, in fact. Hawken is a legend in environmental circles. Since the early 1980s, he has been starting green businesses, writing books on ecological commerce (President Bill Clinton called Read More...
Extinction Rebellion’s climate action message is going mainstream
We’re only four months into the year, but 2019 will always be known as the year that environmental activists stopped playing nicely and started demanding action. Civil disobedience entered the headlines when students around the world began ditching class on Fridays to urge politicians to act, and Read More...
The Kerala state in India just conducted a plastic-free election season
Elections are typically bad news for the environment. Think about it. Political parties stick plastic posters everywhere, hand out flyers, put up banners, give out keychains, and give out a whole bunch of other useless trinkets that eventually wind up in the trash. Wary of the environmental toll Read More...
This new type of plastic could be the answer to the recycling problem
It would be ideal if the reality of recycling plastic matched the recycling symbol we are all familiar with. But the thing is that plastic frequently uses a wide variety of chemicals which make them tough to transform into a desirable end product – that’s one of the reasons why only 10 percent Read More...
The world’s biggest shipping company is testing greener fuels
Shipping accounts for 90 percent of the transported goods around the world and 3 percent of total global CO2 emissions. That number is set to rise to 15 percent by 2050 if left unchecked. The good news is that number is not being left unchecked by the world’s largest shipping company: Maersk. The Read More...
How a drone rediscovered a rare Hawaiian flower thought to be extinct
There are many benefits to living on a sheer cliff face, if you’re a very rare Hawaiian plant. Hungry goats can’t get to you. Neither can oblivious people, who are known to crush priceless plants underfoot. Nor can botanists, even though they just want to save the plants. That’s Read More...
Before electric planes become the norm, we need airlines to make use of biofuels
Electric planes are expected to play a massive role in reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation industry in the future, but unfortunately, there’s still a long road ahead before commercial electric planes become the industry standard. In the meantime, we need to look at other ways of Read More...