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.
How plants fight back against predators
Plants don't have the luxury of being able to run, swim, or fly away when confronted with a predator. Instead, they've developed a repertoire of defense mechanisms for warding off threats while staying rooted to the Read More...
Los Angeles is painting streets white to reduce urban warming
Global warming is worsening heat waves that torture cities. In Louisville, Kentucky, the government is looking into large scale tree planting as a way to cut down on heat buildup. In the meantime, Los Angeles is using another tool against urban warming. The city is painting some of its streets Read More...
Brazil to revise Amazon mining decree after criticism
Responding to overwhelming criticism from politicians and activists Brazil government ministers told journalists the government would revise a decree that opened up a vast mineral reserve in the Amazon rainforest to mining. Mining and Energy Read More...
The outsized role of soil microbes for carbon sequestration
Many complexities of the carbon sequestration process remain poorly understood, despite years of research and the significant impact of this process on global climate. Now, three scientists have proposed a new approach to better understand the Read More...
You can now go to jail in Kenya when you carry a plastic bag
Kenya is aggressively battling plastic pollution with a ban on plastic bags that went into effect this week. The country has joined a list of a dozen African countries where it is now illegal to use, manufacture, or import plastic bags in Kenya. Offenders will be fined as much as $38,000, or serve Read More...
Bee inspired: why Oslo has put ecological riches at the heart of the city
On a sloping meadow near the centre of Oslo, red-tailed bumblebees gather pollen from hairy violets, spiders spin webs between maiden’s tears while hoverflies buzz between yellow daisies and white yarrow. Such a bucolic scene might normally be Read More...
Trash to treasure: The benefits of waste-to-energy technologies
Organic waste such as yard trimmings, paper, wood and food produces millions of tons of methane emissions at landfills every year in the U.S., but it could produce renewable natural gas and liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel, according to a study led by Uisung Lee of the Department of Read More...
Activists plan to plant 10bn trees to offset CO2 released by Trump policies
Activists want to plant a “Trump Forest” of 10 billion trees between now and December 24th with the last one being a Christmas tree planted in front of the White House. They are asking people to donate trees to make up for the 650 million tons of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere by Read More...
Regeneration: Discarded orange peels brought back a rainforest in Costa Rica
With a little help forests will regenerate themselves. We have reported about that before. Now, researchers in Costa Rica have discovered that a barren, deforested area transformed in a lush forest 16 years after 1,000 truckloads of orange peels were unloaded onto the land. The area that was Read More...
UK wants to try fracking but may be 55 million years too late
Many argue that fracking to harvest shale gas creates environmental nightmares. We may not even need it as renewable energy has become competitive with fossil fuels. The UK is late entering the fracking game. Very late, according to a British geologist who argues that the island of Britain was Read More...