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.
‘Cool’ pavement reflects heat and reduces air pollution in hot cities
During the summer months, the streets of sprawling urban areas radiate heat, warming up nearby buildings and increasing air pollution. To cool down the asphalt, Los Angeles is starting to pave the streets with a reflective street surface. Officials say the “cool”, light-grey pavement can Read More...
How to start thinking like a permaculturist for a thriving garden year-long
Read any manual, permaculture included, and there will be a slew of jargon through which we must sort. Subject specialists tend to speak in a language very difficult for others to understand, not necessarily because they are trying to exclude novices but perhaps because the topic and its vocabulary Read More...
Pineapple dresses and mushroom shirts: Unusual materials to replace cotton
Fabrics such as cotton come at a dear cost to the environment, but what other materials can we possibly use instead? A look at a recent fashion competition for low-impact innovations indicates that the materials of the future may come from things like agricultural waste, pineapple leaves, or even Read More...
Three Australian companies tackling our plastic addiction
There’s no escaping plastic in modern life. In Australia, more than 1.5m tonnes of the crude oil derivative is consumed each year, not including plastics imported in finished products or their packaging. And most of this ends up on a centuries-long path to degradation in landfill or the Read More...
These corals thrive in warm water and could beat climate change
Reports about dying coral reefs because of global warming come in regularly. However, there are coral reefs that can survive warmer waters and that can even thrive despite the rising heat. A coral common in the Red Sea can thrive even at temperatures 2°C higher than the present maximum in the Read More...
Billionaire gives away his fortune to fight plastic pollution in the oceans
A Norwegian business man who made a fortune as a “ruthless corporate raider” has decided to give the lion share of his his estimated $2.7 billion fortune towards building a 596-foot marine research vessel that's also designed to scoop up a major oceanic threat, plastic pollution. The project is Read More...
Aquaculture gains sustainability credibility
The discussion over the opening of federally-owned public lands to more commercial purposes, or even selling some of them off entirely, is a hot topic this year. But what about areas of the oceans and seas that are also managed by the U.S. government? Recent federal agency decisions on future Read More...
Fighting urban air pollution in cities with low hedges instead of taller trees
The harmful impact of urban air pollution could be combated by strategically placing low hedges along roads in a built-up environment of cities instead of taller trees, a new study has found. The study, just published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, points out that low hedges reduce the Read More...
South Korea’s new president fulfills promise, shuts down 10 coal-power plants
On his fifth day in office South Korea’s newly elected president, Moon Jae-in fulfilled an election promise and announced that the country will temporarily shutter 10 coal power plants now and will shut them down completely within his five-year term. The South Korean capital, Seoul, is among Read More...
Forgotten trees: Survey finds enough new forests to cover 50 percent of the U.S.
It appears we have missed a few trees. A new survey of the world’s dryland habitats has found a massive amount of previously unreported forests. The newly discovered forests cover an area equivalent to about 50 percent of the size of the U.S. The discovery is good news for reversing global Read More...