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.
U.S. cities, companies move forward on climate commitments
In case you missed it, the Trump Administration last week announced that the U.S. would leave the Paris Agreement reached during COP21 in late 2015. And if you’ve really been asleep, then you have missed all the outrage expressed by world governments, NGOs and environmental leaders. The reality, Read More...
The conversation between plants and soil
To a child, soil is just dirt – a home for worms. To a gardener, soil is a collection of organic matter and nutrients. But to plants, soil is a hotbed of chemical activity. And plants don't just observe, they actively participate in this activity. Plants release chemicals into the soil, Read More...
This is why the environment needs the support of blockchain technology
The blockchain technology that underpins the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is completely secure. No central authority controls the blockchain, and every transaction made is logged in a transparent matter. Considering that many modes of governance work in secrecy and are prone to corruption, the Read More...
Beyond organic: How regenerative farming can save us from global catastrophe
A growing corps of organic, climate, environmental, social justice and peace activists are promoting a new world-changing paradigm that can potentially save us from global catastrophe. The name of this new paradigm and movement is regenerative agriculture, or more precisely regenerative food, Read More...
Algae based omega-3 supplements are healthy for people and for the environment
Omega-3 supplements have been proven to support heart and brain health and to reduce inflammation. That’s why millions of people take these fish oil pills on a daily basis. The unhealthy side-effect is devastating overfishing of fish species like menhaden, which are crucial to the aquatic Read More...
Trump's Paris pullout is more damaging to the US than the climate
Will Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement tip the world into fiery catastrophe? The extraordinary unity of the rest of the world’s nations in tackling global warming, allied with the booming green economy, driven by plummeting renewable energy costs, Read More...
Made from polluting algae: These shoes clean lakes
If you buy these shoes, you are helping clean up a poisoned Chinese lake. The shoes are made from algae that started polluting the lake a decade ago depriving two million people of safe drinking water. Now the algae is harvested from the lake and turned into a flexible, rubbery material that is Read More...
Whisky company is bringing oysters back to the Scottish Highlands
The next time you have a whisky you may contribute to restoring oyster stocks in Scotland. Oysters were abundant in the northeast of Scotland 10,000 years ago. But overfishing almost wiped out the oysters in the late 19th century. This month a project led by the Glenmorangie Distillery, a Read More...
Put your coffee in your tank: Turning coffee grounds into biofuel
Coffee is one of the most wasteful consumer products. Few people realize that harvesting, processing, roasting and brewing coffee discards an estimated 99.7 percent of the biomass, only 0.2 percent is used to make you enjoy your cup of coffee. Millions of tons of agricultural waste are left to rot, Read More...
This machine sucks CO2 out of the air to save us from climate change
Sitting on top of a waste incineration facility near Zurich, a new carbon capture plant is now sucking CO2 out of the air to sell to its first customer. The plant, which opened on May 31, is the first commercial enterprise of its kind. By midcentury, the startup behind it–Climeworks–believes we Read More...