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.
Reduction is no longer enough: Welcome to the new age of carbon removal
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions isn’t enough. The stark report in early October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, exhorting companies and countries to move quickly to throttle global warming, is fueling heightened interest in high-tech and low-tech solutions for sucking the Read More...
Residents of this Indonesian city can trade plastic bottles for bus tickets
Istanbul isn't the only city where recycling can be rewarded with a reduction in transportation costs. In Indonesia, the city of Surabaya allows residents to get free bus rides in exchange for used plastic bottles and cups. Under the new recycling initiative, a two-hour bus ticket costs up to five Read More...
Startup accelerator to fund ambitious efforts to rid our atmosphere of CO2
To prevent accelerated climate change and the catastrophic consequences that are bound to follow it, new efforts must come about to capture the already existing CO2 in the atmosphere. Y Combinator, a leadership development company, wants to bring businesses into play to take much wilder approaches Read More...
How blockchain could help to protect the world’s forests
Deforestation is responsible for an estimated 15 percent of global emissions every year. Since Europe and North America deforested much of their forested land long ago, most of this deforestation is occurring in the tropics, an area that also happens to be home to a staggering 50 bazillion Read More...
How a regenerative revolution could reverse climate change
Earlier this month the world’s leading climate scientists released the most urgent warning on climate change to date. It describes the implications of our current warming trajectory, including dire food shortages, large-scale human migration and crises ranging from a mass die-off of coral reefs Read More...
The Boring Company’s first tunnel beneath LA will open to the public in December
The Los Angeles public will get their first ride on Elon Musk’s underground public transportation system quicker than expected. In December, the two-mile test tunnel built beneath SpaceX’s headquarters will offer free rides on autonomously driven electric platforms called “skates.” The Read More...
Recycling bottles in the UK can help drivers pay for parking costs
It’s difficult to regard the process of recycling as inconvenient when it can pay for your parking. That’s how a parking service provider in the UK is encouraging people to recycle plastic bottles. Every 0.5l bottle that is recycled takes 20p off motorists’ car parking vouchers. This may seem Read More...
Tougher emissions rules helped cut US air pollution deaths in half
There's little doubt that air quality has generally improved in the US in recent decades, but quantifying that improvement has been difficult. However, a recently published University of North Carolina study might have produced a more tangible Read More...
This soda company is going out to sea to clean up plastic waste
Sodastream has always stood out as a company. Not only does their own product avoid or reduce the use of single-use plastics, but they’ve publicly shamed the competition for their waste. Now the company has taken another step in this direction, sailing out into the open ocean to collect trash Read More...
This study proves why building a hyperloop in America’s heartland is a good idea
Building a hyperloop route from Kansas City to St. Louis would be well worth the effort, according to a new study. Researchers examined the engineering, viability and economic challenges of a proposed line running parallel to the I-70, and they found that it would not only cut the journey between Read More...