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.
As arable land disappears, here come the vertical farmers
As cities expand, eating up swathes of countryside in the process, agricultural pioneers are finding new ways to grow the fresh produce we need, in containers, empty buildings and any other spare space they can find to create new vertical farms. "We are just trying to imitate nature. It's not as Read More...
A huge carbon capture scheme is reviving hope for “clean coal”
The plant will harvest 90 percent of the carbon dioxide it produces. by Jamie Condliffe October 5, 2016 When it reopens later this year, the W.A. Parish Generating Station in Texas will be the largest coal power plant in the world with a retrofitted carbon-capture system. But the scheme is perhaps Read More...
To effectively combat climate change, involve women
Africa, Climate Change, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Gender, Global, Headlines, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Climate Change | Opinion Esther Ngumbi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Auburn University in Alabama. She serves as a 2015 Read More...
Switching to low-carbon technology provides economic opportunities for cities
The transition to renewable energy is good for the economy. In a study that examined cities spread over 89 nations, researchers found that making the shift to low-carbon technologies offers many cities with “significant economic opportunities”. In fact, the report found more than 1,000 economic Read More...
First steps of The Ocean Cleanup Plan are under way
Before cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can commence, researchers are flying over it at low-altitudes to get an account of just how much debris actually lies in the patch. What they have found so far is that it might just be worse than we originally thought, underlining the urgency needed Read More...
Paris climate agreement takes effect after EU approval
The landmark Paris climate change pact will enter into force around the world after European Union lawmakers endorsed the agreement. So far 62 nations had ratified the deal. However, they only represented 52 percent of global carbon emissions. The EU ratification pushed the Paris agreement past the Read More...
When it comes to the environment, it is in giving that countries will receive
St. Francis depicted in Giotto's 13th-Century painting Predica agli uccelli. Credits: christusrex.org. Even the most optimistic among us would not dispute that our world is currently in a desperate state. From climate change to armed conflict, from pollution to widespread inequality, humanity Read More...
The solar-powered mobile “Desertscraper” restores healthy vegetation in deserts
Desertification is a problem in many parts of the world as a result of rising populations and intensive agriculture. Each year, 12 million hectares of land are lost. Enter the Desertscraper. The Desertscraper is a design for a solar-powered mobile skyscraper that restores healthy vegetation in Read More...
New US Department of Energy charts show that we can win the climate change fight
This is the third day in a row that The Optimist Daily is reporting about the very rapid breakthroughs in the fields of renewable energy. The U.S. Department of Energy has just published this chart. In the past seven years, the costs of different clean energy technologies fell between 41 and 94 Read More...
Reykjavík: the geothermal city that aims to go carbon neutral
Reykjavík used to be marketed as a place of ‘pure energy’, run on geothermal power – and now Iceland’s capital is trying to become the world’s first carbon neutral city. Last month, Iceland became the one of the first countries to ratify the Paris climate deal with a unilateral Read More...