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.
To get rid of nuclear waste, researchers are turning it into glass
Nuclear waste is one of the major environmental headaches of our time. Even if every reactor on Earth were to suddenly shut down, there would still be millions of gallons of waste left over. One way the world can get rid of low-level nuclear waste is by turning it into glass. There are a number of Read More...
Why Louisiana wants to restore its coastline by diverting the Mississippi River
Over the past 100 years, Louisiana has lost more than 2,000 square miles of coastline due to climate change. State officials have attempted various solutions to reclaim the land, including levees, barrier islands, and artificial marshes. Now they want to divert part of the Mississippi River to Read More...
New labelling helps UK shoppers avoid plastic packaging
A new plastic-free “trust mark” is being introduced today, allowing shoppers to see at a glance whether products use plastic in their packaging. The label will be prominently displayed on food and drink products, making it easier for consumers to choose greener Read More...
Report: Using our resources more carefully would drastically reduce emissions
Resource inefficiency is a major source of emissions, and one that has been largely overlooked in the response to climate change. Climate policies have focused mostly on the emissions from products being used—for example, measures to reduce pollution from vehicles or heating buildings. However, a Read More...
The first carbon-free aluminum production method may be available by 2024
In a bid to clean up the way aluminum is produced, Apple is investing heavily into a company that has created the world’s first zero-carbon aluminum smelting technology. Aluminum has been produced through the same energy-intensive, greenhouse gas-releasing way for the past 130 years, but that Read More...
Forests are growing again where human well-being is increasing, finds new study
Countries with high levels of human well-being are more likely to show increasing forest growth. That’s the finding of a new study by a group of Finnish scientists, published in PLOS ONE. Their work shows that countries exhibiting annual increases in the amount of trees typically score highly on Read More...
A serious plan to reduce global warming: Resurrecting the mammoth
After decades of research, a pair of Russian scientists has demonstrated that if the diverse species of herbivores that once populated the subpolar region of the Arctic are brought back, permafrost melting can be prevented. Some perspective on the scope and implication of this proposal: If it Read More...
Are cotton totes better for the Earth than plastic bags?
A year or so ago, I decided to start using less plastic. I bought an insulated water bottle for my morning coffee, as well as bee’s wax wraps to replace cellophane, and I largely stopped putting my groceries in plastic bags. Instead, I switched to cotton tote Read More...
Study: Beaver dams reduce river pollution
New research shows that beavers remove lots of pollutants from creeks when building their dams. In a new study, scientists found that a single family of beavers remove high levels of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus from water that flowed through a 2.5 hectare enclosure in the UK. The sediment Read More...
Seaweed could be an alternative to plastic packaging for food and beverages
Indonesia is the world’s second-worst offender in terms of dumping plastic into the sea. 90 percent of the country's plastic ends up in the ocean. And 70 percent of that waste comes from food and beverage packaging. To put an end to this incredibly wasteful use of plastic, one Indonesia-based Read More...