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.
Judge restores drilling ban in Arctic
Recent decisions to reverse bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, were received by a US District Court Judge with ‘not so fast’. Last Friday, Judge Sharon Gleason decided to throw out the recent executive order that overturned Read More...
The EU has banned one of agriculture’s most-used pesticides to save the bees
Although you may not be a big fan of bugs, it’s bad news for everyone that insect populations are rapidly dwindling around the world. Insects are the foundation of nature’s ecosystems, and without them, we would run the risk of a ‘catastrophic collapse’ of those ecosystems. Still, if we Read More...
New scheme pays Greek fishermen to clean up plastic debris from the sea
Bans on single-use plastics will surely prove to be important for protecting our oceans from further pollution, but the reality is there’s still a huge need to remove the plastic that currently sits in our waterways if we want to save oceans from further damage. This means everyone will have to Read More...
How a climate change activist became Slovakia’s first female president
As an anti-corruption lawyer and climate activist, Zuzana Caputova already had an impressive record in Slovakia. But now she has reached the peak of Slovakian politics after becoming the first woman to be elected president in the nation’s history. For the past year, Caputova has been the most Read More...
Self-care products are hurting the environment. Here are better alternatives
Toilet paper, tampons, cotton swabs, and baby wipes are all personal care staples that, perhaps surprisingly, come with hefty environmental costs. From upstream problems, like logging crucial boreal forests for wood pulp that becomes toilet paper, to post-use issues like the centuries it can take a Read More...
New York to introduce second statewide ban on bags, after California
State action on plastic bags is picking up pace in the US. After California gave plastic bags the boot, New York is set to impose the second statewide ban on most types of single-use plastic bags from retail sales, changing a way of life for millions of New Yorkers as lawmakers seek to curb Read More...
European parliament just voted to ban single-use plastics by 2021
While members of the UN Senate voted to reject the first draft of the Green New Deal this week, members of European Parliament did the world a favor by voting to ban an array of single-use plastics as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans. The ban Read More...
The largest seaplane airline is converting all its planes to electric
After all the negative news surrounding the airline industry lately, here’s some positive news: Harbour Airlines, the largest seaplane airline in North America, has announced that it will convert all of its seaplanes into electric aircraft. The airline will start by electrifying six passenger Read More...
Former poachers help scientists restore the snow leopard population in Siberia
In some parts of Siberia, snow leopards have been nearly wiped out due to poachers hunting the animals for their distinctive spotted coats. But in Russia’s Altai Mountains the snow leopard population is on the rise thanks to former poachers who are now helping scientists to preserve them. In Read More...
Instead of plastic, this supermarket is wrapping produce in banana leaves
While most supermarkets are taking their sweet time to find good alternatives to plastic packaging, a supermarket in Thailand has come up with a surprisingly simple way to reduce plastic packaging by wrapping its produce in banana leaves. The use of banana leaves instead of plastic for packaging Read More...