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.
London’s iconic red buses to run on biofuel made from waste coffee grounds
Coffee powers more than just people, it’s also starting to power public transportation in London. Using a technique that extracts oil from waste coffee grounds, a technology firm has been able to create a biofuel that will be used to help power some of London’s famous busses starting this week. Read More...
Reduce, reuse, reboot: why electronic recycling must up its game
Tech powers many things, including cognitive dissonance. A few years ago I was travelling through Agbogbloshie, the commercial district in Accra, known as a graveyard for electronic waste, a hotspot for digital Read More...
How your investments impact climate change
How do people lower their carbon footprint? They may buy an electric vehicle or put solar panels on their roofs. They may eat less beef or eat no meat at all. Maybe they reuse their plastic bags each time they go to the supermarket. Everything helps, but there’s one thing that really has a big Read More...
How dirt can clean the air
Soil management doesn't sound snazzy, but scientists say it offers huge potential for keeping carbon emissions in the ground—and out of the atmosphere. A paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports estimates that improved Read More...
Report: A switch to organic farming could cut greenhouse gas emissions
A recently published study found converting land from conventional agriculture to organic production could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the run-off of excess nitrogen from fertilizers, and cut pesticide use. The report also revealed that converting large amounts of currently conventionally Read More...
UK and Canada lead alliance against coal
The UK and Canada have launched a global alliance of 20 countries committed to phasing out coal for energy production. Members including France, Finland and Mexico, say they will end the use of coal before Read More...
Floating cities, no longer science fiction, begin to take shape
Earlier this year, the government of French Polynesia agreed to let the Seasteading Institute begin testing in its waters. Construction could begin soon, and the first floating buildings — the nucleus of a city — might be inhabitable in just a few Read More...
Blue Planet 2 team pick up every piece of litter they come across in the ocean
Blue Planet II has wowed viewers with some of the most beautiful, intriguing, and occasionally terrifying glimpses into the depths of the ocean. There was the vicious Bobbit worm, around a meter-long; a predator who hides beneath the sand, quietly stalking fish until coming close enough to devour Read More...
This “climate beneficial” wool hat comes from carbon-positive sheep
At the southern end of the Surprise Valley on the border of California and Nevada, Bare Ranch looks essentially like it did in the early 1900s: sheep and cattle grazing on broad fields under a backdrop of mountains. But because of some subtle Read More...
Conservationists use decoy eggs to stop poachers of endangered sea turtles
The eggs of the endangered sea turtle are considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac, making them an expensive commodity on the black market. To catch poachers who steal sea turtle eggs, a conservation nonprofit is planting GPS-implanted eggs along with real eggs. That way, when poachers take eggs Read More...