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.
The European carbon market is cutting emissions across all industries
Thirteen years after Europe’s carbon market was invented, it looks as if it’s finally starting to do what it was meant to do: reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. Even though European Union policymakers are continuously increasing the cost of pollution, industry giants are not complaining because Read More...
Scientists believe they found a way to stop hurricanes in their tracks
There have been at least a dozen devastating hurricanes that have wreaked havoc in the last decade – but there may be hope on the horizon for a solution. These Norwegian scientists believe that they may be able to use existing technologies to stop hurricanes in their Read More...
A promise is a promise: Starbucks to finally make a fully compostable cup
A decade ago, Starbucks pledged it would introduce 100 percent recyclable coffee cups. Now the coffee giant is finally going to deliver on its promise and develop a ‘fully recyclable and compostable cup’ after a coalition of environmental organizations pressured the company to honor its Read More...
Israeli firm says it can turn garbage into plastic gold
Hawks, vultures and storks circle overhead as Christopher Sveen points at the heap of refuse rotting in the desert heat. "This is the mine of the future," he beams. Sveen is chief operations officer at UBQ, an Israeli company that has patented a process to convert household trash from landfills Read More...
Scientists believe this microbe could eat up the world’s plastic problem
The preferred solution to pollution requires acting at the source to prevent the contaminants from entering the environment in the first place. But as it is clear there is already a big mess to clean up, and as we probably won't stop using plastics today, it seems worth looking at progress in Read More...
Could this be the solution to plastic packaging?
Wrapping something as perishable as food in something as indestructible as plastic makes no sense at all. Changing the way we package our food is a dire need, but fortunately, one company has already come up with a solution. By utilizing plant materials, the company has created a packaging that is Read More...
Using tree bonds to preserve urban forests
The City Tree bench (see above) is a great innovation. But it can’t fully replace real trees. There is, for instance, growing research that urban trees and green spaces in cities provide physical, mental and social health benefits. Here’s an innovative way to protect trees in urban Read More...
This bench cleans as much polluted air as 275 trees
Polluted air is the cause of one in seven deaths worldwide. And the air pollution in cities is the worst. Trees help. But you need a lot of trees to clean the air in congested cities. That’s where City Tree comes in. This mix of a bench and a hedge cleans as much air as 275 trees in one percent Read More...
This hospital for seals and sea lions will warm your heart
The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, CA, takes in injured and malnourished pinnipeds and nurses them back to Read More...
African leaders are pressing Europe to follow China’s lead by ending ivory trade
The next target in the struggle to stamp out ivory trade and its debilitating effect on elephant populations across Africa is the European Union (EU). A petition signed by 32 African leaders has called on the EU—the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory—to close its thriving market. Read More...