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.
Across central Appalachia, once-thriving mining communities have been ravaged by the collapse of the coal industry and the flight of jobs from the region. For a region that remains rich in natural resources, Appalachia’s local governments continue to struggle to fund basic services such as Read More...
Australia’s world-leading Indigenous land management and carbon farming programs are spreading internationally, with a formal agreement signed to help build a similar program in Canada. A chance meeting between Rowen Foley from the Aboriginal Carbon Fund and a Candian carbon credit businessman at Read More...
Being in nature brings calmness and peace. Watching nature films or pictures is not the same but it helps to relax too. Here’s a shirt video of a jumping humpback whale. An astonishing sight and a great opportunity to take a short break from your busy Read More...
When it comes to global warming and the regeneration of land, trees have enormous value. Yet, short-term challenges force many people in the developing world to cut down trees. Would it work to pay landowners to leave their land alone? Critics have argued that such a policy would simply make the Read More...
Overnight, Tesla made some changes to their available options, making some options standard, and notably eliminating one thing: leather seats. As of now, Tesla only sells vegan seats. While this lack of leather is not made explicit on the Tesla configuration page, any mention of leather Read More...
We are living in the Age of Plastic. In 2015, the world's industries created 448 million tons of it -- twice as much as it did in 1998. -- and the rate of production is only accelerating. However, our recycling efforts have not matched pace. In fact, according to the EPA, barely 14 percent of Read More...
Carbon sequestration, or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it long-term, could help us fight climate change. It’s a complex chemical reaction, but a team of six scientists led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) just made a breakthrough in speeding up a slow Read More...
Scientists at Caltech and USC have discovered a way to speed up the slow part of the chemical reaction that ultimately helps the earth to safely lock away, or sequester, carbon dioxide into the ocean. Simply adding a common enzyme to the mix, the researchers have found, can make that rate-limiting Read More...
A bitter stand-off between a local community and miners has emerged after a significant seam of gold was found on protected conservation land in New Zealand’s North Island. Last week New Talisman Gold Mines reported they had found a large vein of gold in the Karangahake Gorge in the North Read More...
To reduce the air pollution that has become a plague in many cities in India, the Indian Railways has introduced their first train outfitted with rooftop solar panels. The solar panels will completely power fans, lighting, and display systems in the coaches. In the past, a diesel-fueled generator Read More...