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.
Meet the African women fighting against poachers in Zimbabwe
The members of Africa’s anti-poaching frontline are not your typical game rangers. They’re abused and disadvantaged mothers and daughters that are being honed into a squad of sharpshooters to save wildlife in the Zambezi valley. This project may sound extreme, but it’s working to empower Read More...
How the aviation industry is lowering its carbon footprint
Imagine how much cleaner the air would be if 3 million cars were taken off the roads in your city. A hint: Banning just half of Beijing’s 3.3 million cars before the 2008 Olympics cleared its skyline within a few Read More...
Billionaire Peter Thiel helped fund plans to build the world's first floating city
Nearly a decade ago, billionaire Peter Thiel cofounded a nonprofit called Seasteading Institute, and contributed seed funding toward what could become the world's first floating city. By 2020, the Institute aims to build a dozen floating Read More...
The World Bank will stop financing oil and gas exploration in 2019
The World Bank has announced its plan to discontinue its financing of upstream oil and gas projects in 2019. The bank, which provides loans to developing countries to foster economic growth, stated it will no longer offer financial support for oil and gas exploration, citing a need to change in Read More...
Play a game: Can you get carbon emissions under control?
Who said understanding climate change has to be boring? We’ve created a game that could make it fun. Here are the rules: It’s clear we need to rapidly reduce greenhouse-gas Read More...
No fuel, no problem: This eco-cruise ship runs on solar and wind
A conventional cruise ship can burn hundreds of tons of heavy fuel oil a day and emit as much particulate matter as a million cars. That’s why a Japanese NGO is teaming up with Finnish designers to build an “Ecoship” fueled by a much cleaner combination of solar panel, wind power and liquid Read More...
Six ways we can adapt to climate change
As our climate changes, human creativity has been turning to solutions to problems ranging from restoring water supplies to rebuilding failing ecosystems. In interviews, six scientists discussed their efforts to slow or even reverse changes brought by warming. Their comments have been edited and Read More...
UK to bring back beavers in first government flood reduction scheme of its kind
A valley in the Forest of Dean will echo to the sound of herbivorous munching next spring when a family of beavers are released into a fenced enclosure to stop a village from flooding, in the first ever such scheme funded by the Read More...
These electric busses could start cleaning up national park travel
Under the Donald Trump administration, the national parks and monuments in the United States have entered into an era of unprecedented threat. Earlier in December, the President moved to slash the size of two national monuments in Utah by a Read More...
Meat tax would serve health and beat climate change
The global livestock industry causes 15 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions and meat consumption is rising around the world, but dangerous climate change cannot be avoided unless this is radically curbed. Many people already eat far too much meat, seriously damaging their health and Read More...