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.
This project is helping women support their families while curbing deforestation in Zambia
What’s driving deforestation in Zambia is the same thing that is creating one of the country’s biggest health hazards: charcoal. So to help address both issues in one go, a group of volunteers is empowering women in Zambia with clean wood chip stoves which they can sell in their local Read More...
New cargo ships combine the old with the new for carbon-free shipping
You know what was best about old-school cargo ships? With their masts and sails, they were the original carbon-neutral ships. Now we’re seeing a resurgence of these classics as cargo ships are combining centuries old technology like masts with modern inventions like solar panels and battery Read More...
This startup has the first viable replacement for palm oil, and its made of carbon dioxide
The world’s growing demand for palm oil, which is used in nearly half of all packaged food in supermarkets, has led to the destruction of critical rainforest lands that have been replaced by plantations. In fact, Indonesia’s burning rainforests released more climate pollution, day by day, than Read More...
Every U.S government agency must now document how their actions will affect the climate
The Obama administration has finalized a new six-year process of shaping how each of the government’s agencies will factor climate change into their decisions. In this latest climate change policy, the Council on Environmental Quality will ask agencies to not only include climate change in their Read More...
'No one leaves anymore'. How Ethiopia's restored drylands offer hope
Kahsay Gebretsadik was arrested at 5am in Saudi Arabia. As an illegal immigrant with no papers he knew this was the end of his stay. After 15 days in prison, police placed him on a plane to Addis Ababa, one of 160,000 Ethiopian migrants expelled from Saudi Arabia in recent years. A perilous trek Read More...
Sri Lanka success whets international appetite for mangrove conservation
Sri Lanka's pioneering nationwide program to save its damaged mangrove forests is bearing fruit a year on, prompting the U.S. conservation group backing it to look for another island country to launch a similar effort. Duane Silverstein, executive director at California-based Seacology, a Read More...
An exclusive look at Airbnb's first foray into urban planning
Two years ago, the founders of Airbnb were asking themselves what the company could become, now that its vision of becoming the world's largest home-share community had come true beyond their wildest expectations. That’s when they happened across a list of the top 10 tech companies of the 1990s. Read More...
The Clean Power Plan is already working for the northeast
When the EPA released the Clean Power Plan last year, a lot of people freaked out. In fact, more than half of U.S. states joined a lawsuit challenging the plan, which seeks to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector. Opponents have argued that the plan is draconian, heavy-handed Read More...
The creative ways companies offset their climate emissions
Leading corporations around the world are offsetting their carbon emissions in creative ways. Cosmetics giant L’Oreal is distributing cleaner-burning stoves to women in Burkina Faso who boil the shea nuts used in its cosmetics products. Delta Airlines addresses some of its unavoidable emissions Read More...
This new six-pack ring is biodegradable and edible
Plastic pollutes the oceans and is detrimental to marine life. But a Florida brewing company is now introducing biodegradable six-pack rings for their beer made from grain left over from its brewing process. The grain-based rings are edible—so rather than choking on plastic, marine life can Read More...