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.
Sustainability is unhelpful: we need to think about regeneration
For 25 years, sustainable development has been held up as the solution to the world's problems. But instead we have had ever more pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change. The concept of sustainability has been abused like few other terms in history. It is time to think not just about Read More...
Amazon deforestation: Norway threatens to cut $1bn aid to Brazil
Norway has told Brazil that it needs to reverse the rising deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, if the country doesn’t want to lose one billion-dollar in Norwegian financial assistance. The leaders of the two nations meet in Oslo this week. The oil-rich Scandinavian nation has provided $1.1bn Read More...
Sweden uses revolutionary cement technology to get to zero emissions
Sweden has committed to reaching net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2045. Today, only 5 percent of the electricity Swedes consume comes from burning fossil fuels. Still, the country has big challenges to overcome to meet the ambitious goal. Here’s one innovative solution Sweden is Read More...
Wind turbines are hardly the bird slayers they’re made out to be
Do wind turbines kill birds and bats? Yes. Is it as bad as people make it out to be? Not at all. Those who oppose wind farms often claim wind turbine blades kill large numbers of birds, but according to three new studies, this is certainly not the case. One study found that there are between 0.3 Read More...
Nature is more valuable than you thought. Here are four reasons why
From the cloud forests of Costa Rica to the deserts of Southern Africa, the great outdoors inspires awe and offers us valuable perspective from our day-to-day grind. Nature also provides us with basic services - fresh water, clean air, nutritious food and shelter. But it doesn’t stop there. Read More...
Sweden commits to becoming carbon neutral by 2045 with new law
Sweden has committed to cutting its net carbon emissions to zero by 2045, becoming the first country to significantly upgrade its carbon ambitions since the Paris accord in 2015. The law was drawn up by a cross-party committee and passed with an overwhelming majority in parliament by 254 votes to Read More...
This company is transforming food scraps into a big business
A major food processor in the Bronx has gone from producing 150,000 pounds of waste per week down to none. Baldor food company no longer trucks anything to the dump. Vegetable leftovers are bagged and offered to chefs for use in stocks or sauces. Fruit odds and ends are sold to juiceries, which use Read More...
Probiotics could improve survival rates in honeybees exposed to pesticide
Honeybee populations responsible for pollinating a third of the global food crop could be protected from massive die-offs known as colony collapse disorder by easily administered probiotics, according to Canadian researchers. The scientists examined how the probiotic lactobaccili might Read More...
To curb climate change, we need to protect and expand US forests
Forests have been removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing carbon for more than 300 million years. When we cut down or burn trees and disturb forest soils, we release that stored carbon to the atmosphere. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, one-third of all carbon dioxide Read More...
Sweden passes climate law to become carbon neutral by 2045
Sweden has committed to becoming a net-zero carbon emitter by 2045, under a law passed in parliament on Thursday. Lawmakers voted 254 to 41 in favour of the proposal, which was developed by a committee involving seven out of eight parliamentary parties. Only the far right Swedish Democrats did Read More...