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.
Australia drops Tasmanian wilderness logging campaign
The Australian and Tasmanian authorities are abandoning their bid to have logging permitted in the Tasmanian Wilderness, a World Heritage site. The decision comes after a report by the UN cultural agency Unesco said the area "should be off-limits to commercial logging in its entirety". Read More...
Remote reefs thrive despite climate change
Remote coral reefs continue to thrive despite warming oceans. That’s the outcome of a decade-long study of remote islands in the Central Pacific. The report from University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography provides reason for optimism by highlighting the potential Read More...
”Doubling global renewables by 2030 could save $4.2 trillion”
Doubling the share of clean energy in the global energy mix would create more jobs, save millions of lives, limit global warming and save $4.2 trillion a year, say researchers of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Renewable sources, such as wind and solar, accounted for around 18 percent Read More...
VW in talks with U.S. over fund to pay for pollution
Volkswagen AG is in talks with U.S. authorities to establish a national remediation fund and a separate one for California as punishment for pollution from its cars after the automaker cheated on diesel-emissions tests, said people familiar with the matter. One fund would be administered by the Read More...
London unveils first electric double-decker bus
Transport for London has unveiled the world's first fully electric double-decker bus, just a month before it is due to hit the capital's roads. The new bus, which was built by Chinese manufacturers BYD and comes with a £350,000 price tag, was debuted this week by Matthew Pencharz, deputy mayor for Read More...
California's blueprint to fix global warming
Jennifer Gill got pregnant with her first child when she was in eighth grade. She didn't finish high school, but she got her GED during a stint in prison for forgery. For most of her working life she was a waitress in and around the town of Oildale, a suburb of Bakersfield in the southern tip of Read More...
The economy is growing, but carbon emissions aren’t. That’s a really big deal
While the world economy grew 3.1 percent last year, greenhouse gas emissions remained flat, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). That’s encouraging news. Especially, since it is the second year in a row that we witness the same phenomenon. Last year the IEA reported that in 2014, Read More...
Obama spares the Atlantic Coast from offshore drilling
In a surprise decision, the Obama administration has withdrawn its plan to permit oil and gas drilling off the southeast Atlantic coast. The Interior Department cited the military’s reservations about drilling near some of its largest installations, plummeting oil prices, and widespread local Read More...
Pigeons with backpacks have started monitoring air pollution in London
A team of sensor-equipped pigeons has taken to the skies over London in order to monitor the capital's notoriously high pollution levels. Pigeon Air Patrol, as the project is known, was created by Plume Labs, a startup currently crowdfunding the Plume sensor, a personal air quality Read More...
Return of the Bicycle Kingdom? How pavement cycling is transforming Taipei
A swarm of scooters forms at the head of a queue of traffic waiting for the lights to change. Visors down, engines revving, they jockey for position ahead of the cars, trucks and buses on a specially marked patch of tarmac reserved for cyclists in many parts of the world. The buzz rises to a Read More...