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.
What's the annual value of trees? $500 million per megacity, study says
In the megacities that are home to nearly 10 percent of the world's 7.5 billion people, trees provide each city with more than $500 million each year in services that make urban environments cleaner, more affordable and more pleasant places to Read More...
A sustainable concrete jungle: The road to a zero-carbon cement industry
What’s the most widely used material in the world apart from water? You may not guess it: cement. Cement is a problem because it accounts for 5 percent of the world’s industrial and energy greenhouse emissions. A new report outlines several ways to reduce the footprint of the cement industry by Read More...
Scientists invented edible coffee creamer capsules to stop plastic pollution
Tiny, to-go coffee creamer cups do make our morning routine more convenient. But they also add to the rampant throwaway plastic problem in the U.S., which amounts to about 33.6 million tons of plastic waste every year. Now, scientists are trying to offset some of the damage with a new invention: Read More...
Soil education: There's an app for that
The new free Starting with Soil app offers a "playful, visually rich way" of helping kids (and adults) learn about healthy soil, which is a crucial part of our food Read More...
Moss may prove cheap city pollution monitor, study finds
Delicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used to measure the impact of atmospheric change and could prove a low-cost way to monitor urban pollution, according to Japanese scientists. Moss, a “bioindicator”, Read More...
The Netherlands opens the world’s biggest parking garage… for bikes
Parking garages are everywhere around the globe and they host… cars. But in The Netherlands, there are many more bikes than cars. So, it may not be a surprise that the country is opening the world’s largest parking garage… for bikes. The three-storey parking garage under the train station of Read More...
How carbon farming could halt climate change
Soil holds more carbon than the atmosphere and all vegetation combined. But who’s going to convince more farmers to farm with carbon levels in mind? We can’t say we weren’t Read More...
New refrigerator camera takes aim at food waste
We know food waste is an issue, but often it’s all too easy to forget about that bag of lettuce in the back of your refrigerator until it rots. It turns out 40 percent of the salad British families buy each year ends up in the trash – but a new Read More...
Millennials turn reusable water bottles into the next status symbol
In case you haven't noticed yet: The reusable water bottle is the next status symbol. Showing up with your own water bottle is an instant way to signpost that you’re environmentally conscious and that you are making your contribution to the insane plastic pollution that threatens the Read More...
Cleaning up space debris
It’s time to start actively removing space debris from orbit or risk disaster, says the European Space Read More...