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.
Litterati wants to make picking up litter fun
The idea is simple and it may just work. Whenever you see a piece of litter, take a picture with your phone, identify and geotag it before you dispose of it. While building a huge trash data bank, picking up litter becomes fun. So far, Litterati has cataloged over 750,000 pieces of litter from 114 Read More...
While saving the ozone layer we have been curtailing climate change as well
In 1989, many nations signed a treaty aimed at halting the expansion of a massive hole in Earth’s ozone layer. Nearly thirty years later, the Montreal Protocol has done just that. But, according to a new study, it has also done something its architects never intended. It has become one of Read More...
Trees are aware of their neighbors and give them room
I could write about trees until I was green in the gills; and I do. And it's probable that every time I write about them, I slip into anthropomorphising them. Maybe they don't walk around and fly to the moon, but they are truly remarkable organisms with gifts and talents all their own. They are Read More...
Downtown parking solution: free bus passes
Columbus, Ohio is trying to solve a parking problem in its downtown area with an innovative solution. Instead of building 4,000 new parking spaces, property owners in the city plan to offer free bus passes to more than 40,000 people who work in the Read More...
India defies somber climate projections and has begun leaving the coal age
In climate projections India, already the third-largest carbon emitter in the world, is going to deploy coal-fired power plants on a massive scale as the country needs more electricity to feed a fast growing economy. However, the reality on the ground is different. In the last two years, coal Read More...
‘Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of world's biodiversity’
Today is the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, numbering an estimated 370 million in 90 countries and speaking roughly 7,000 languages. To mark it, the Guardian interviews Kankanaey Igorot woman Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about the UN’s Read More...
EU court asked to speed up case against Poland over logging in ancient forest
The European Union's executive arm has asked the European Court of Justice to speed up a case against Poland over logging in its ancient forest, which has continued despite an order by the bloc's top court to stop immediately, an official said. The Court told Poland 10 days ago to halt the Read More...
Maybe we should not fight forest fires and let nature take its course
Biologists insist that wildfires have a necessary place in the evolution of nature. They argue that the century-old practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity and are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of Read More...
Katerra makes buildings with sustainable wood that are earth quake resistant
Building with sustainable wood is becoming more and more popular and technology is making it stronger than ever. It is also very efficient as components and parts can easily be assembled on site. See here how one of the pioneers of wood construction, Katerra, is shaking up the building industry Read More...
This is why the fish want electric boats
Researchers have found that noise pollution from sonar—sound wave—navigation systems may be disrupting whales’ vital abilities to hear and migrate. Now a new report shows that noise from motorboats changes the behavior of fish. These reports illustrate how the marine environment would benefit Read More...