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.
Turkey postpones music festival to protect endangered sea turtles
A Turkish pop music festival, which was planned to take place at the beginning of June on one of Turkey’s southern beaches, has been delayed due to concerns about the spawning period of the endangered Caretta, also known as the loggerhead sea turtle. The announcement of the festival on social Read More...
Atlanta will soon be home to the nation’s largest public food forest
In Seattle, an “edible urban forest” exists where people are allowed to walk in and pluck fruits and veggies for free. The idea behind Seattle’s Beacon Food Forest is to boost public health by regenerating public land into an edible forest ecosystem where people who suffer from food Read More...
How Chernobyl went from nuclear disaster zone to wildlife haven
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is looking more and more like a blessing in disguise. Why? Because the massive disaster zone is teeming with rare and endangered wildlife now that humans have been gone for more than 30 years. In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine released Read More...
Philippines approve bill requiring students to plant 10 trees before graduating
As an archipelago in the Western Pacific with a high vulnerability to extreme weather and sea level rise, the Philippines is among the top countries in the world that are most affected by climate change. However, the Southeast Asian country has also demonstrated some of the most ambitious actions Read More...
NYC sees hundreds of whales make a comeback to the city’s surrounding waters
Over the last couple of decades, due to high levels of pollution and overfishing, the waters surrounding New York City have become bereft of some of their original marine inhabitants, such as the humpback whale. But it appears that New York City is once again able to see whales from its shores, as Read More...
Researchers have photographed a giant albino panda for the first time
The photo you see above is not of a plump polar bear that has wondered way too far from its home. No, the image you see is of an all-white, albino giant panda—believed to be the first of his (or her) kind known to human researchers. The image, taken by the reserve's motion-activated cameras in Read More...
Florida just appointed its first chief science officer to tackle climate crisis
The former governor of Florida, Rick Scott, was widely seen as a disaster for the environment, slashing $700m from the water management budget, rolling back crucial water quality safeguards and pursuing pro-industry policies that critics said turned a blind eye to pollution and polluters. On Read More...
Green parties are the big winners of the European Parliament elections
For the past several months, we’ve seen waves of protesters young and old take to the streets of Europe to urge politicians to act on the climate crisis. With the European Green parties posting their best-ever results in the European Parliament elections, it seems the protests were simply a Read More...
The case for investing in direct air capture technology is clearer than ever
Carbon capture technology has long been hailed as one of the best tools we have for combatting climate change, but without a tangible product to sell, the economics of carbon-removing projects has been fuzzy and unappealing for investors. These days, however, the economic and political pieces Read More...
Here’s what our neighborhoods can learn from the Netherlands
Oftentimes when you walk down the streets of suburbs in America, you have the feeling that something is missing: people! While there’s plenty of space for kids to play and parents to chat with neighbors, the reality is that most people tend to spend their time in their own private spaces. Read More...