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.
You have to see Lake Berryessa’s ‘glory hole’ in action
When the water of Lake Berryessa, the largest lake in California’s Napa County, is low, a strange concrete tower rises up above the lake’s surface. It’s just about the only abnormal thing you’ll see there on any given day. But when the water is high, it turns into an enormous, mesmerizing Read More...
New Zealand’s second largest national park just got a whole lot bigger
Not too long ago, an area of unspoiled land near Kahurangi National Park in New Zealand was at the center of a major environmental row as developers sought to take over the land. Now that land has received special protection and will become the largest addition to a national park in New Zealand’s Read More...
A boom of wildflowers has taken over a desert in California
California’s Anza-Borrego desert is experiencing a once-a-decade “super boom” of wildflowers for the second time in two years. After weeks of heavy rain and warm temperatures, the state park to the east of San Diego is now covered in swathes of purple, yellow and orange flowers including Read More...
Europe’s biggest dairy company pledge to make operations carbon-neutral by 2050
To make dairy products, you need cows. And with cows come direct emissions of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Yes, the dairy industry is a dirty one environmentally speaking, but moves are being made to clean it up. Recently, the largest farming co-operative in Europe, Arla, has Read More...
New council to help hyperloop and self-driving car projects cut though red tape
While transportation projects such as hyper loops and self-driving cars could hold the key to more efficient means of transportation, bureaucratic structures can hinder progress and slow the development of these projects. For that reason, the Secretary of Transportation has announced a council Read More...
This new internet sensation is motivating people to clean up their communities
While viral challenges that set off in the online world can range from fun to extremely dangerous, some of them can actually be quite inspiring and wholesome. Take the #trashtag challenge, for example, which is inspiring hundreds of people to go out and clean up litter-soaked places like beaches, Read More...
Company comes up with 100% compostable water bottle
Many companies are looking for better ways to package our must-have water, but these alternatives often include metal, plastic or glass that needs to be separated eventually at the recycling stage. That’s why a company by the name of Cove has created a water bottle that sidesteps the recycling Read More...
How outdoor recreation is giving historic mining towns new life after coal
The reason so many people in America champion coal as a necessary source of energy has nothing to do with its effect on the environment. Rather, it’s because coal mining employs so many people in the US, or at least, it used to. But with coal quickly falling out of favor, many coal miners are Read More...
Breathing life back into the New York Harbor with one billion oysters
Once one of the most productive ecosystems in the world and home to a copious amount of oysters, the New York Harbor is now all but bereft of the amazing biodiversity it hosted 200 years ago. The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) wants to change that by reintroducing life into the degraded ecosystem Read More...
This autonomous robot can collect up to 132 pounds of floating debris at a time
It’s estimated that at least 8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in our oceans each year, and more than 5 trillion pieces of microplastics are currently contaminating the marine ecosystems. Governments around the world have started to curb plastic production with new initiatives and Read More...