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.
Volunteer scuba divers recover 25,000 pounds of trash from Lake Tahoe
While few other lakes in the United States can compete with Lake Tahoe’s clear waters, the country’s second deepest lake does have a trash problem. To address this, California nonprofit Clean Up the Lake has recently organized a team of scuba divers to remove debris from the lake’s whole Read More...
Orbex rocket prototype makes debut at Scottish Highlands spaceport
While humans are naturally earthbound creatures, we need space travel. Our society, as it is, needs the myriad functions and services our satellites provide, and so far, there’s only one way to get them up there. To that end, space scientists and engineers are constantly innovating ways to make Read More...
How do massive flocks of starlings fly in perfect unison?
Have you ever watched a flock of birds fly, turn, and dive in what seems like perfect unison? You might look at this and assume that a lead bird is determining the directions of the flock, or that they are collectively responding to small changes in the wind. All of those are good guesses, but Read More...
Regulators propose long-overdue changes to Community Reinvestment Act
Technology and commerce, unfortunately, always seem to move too fast for the law to keep up. Social media had already become a staple of modern culture before its functions and money-making operations could be evaluated by elected representatives. The same thing happened with the Community Read More...
Every United Airlines flight out of Amsterdam will use sustainable aviation fuel
A little more than two percent of human-caused, global carbon dioxide emissions come from the aviation industry. Like most other modes of transportation, airlines will have to adapt to the emissions-free future, and infrastructure is developing to accommodate the change. European biorefineries are Read More...
World Food Prize goes to scientist tacking climate change head on
The World Food Prize is a coveted award recognizing people who have increased the quantity, quality, and availability of food for the world. This year's winner is a scientist and former farmer Cynthia Rosenzweig, who plans to donate all her $250,000 winnings to research on climate change and Read More...
Eight reusable essentials for your kitchen
Most of us recycle, and many of us compost our food waste, but there are still so many single-use products we feel we can’t avoid using and then chucking in the garbage once we’re done. We want to live sustainably, and the kitchen is a great place to do this, yet our trash cans still fill up Read More...
How e-bikes are transforming New York City
New transportation technologies literally transform cities. Beyond the obvious construction of subways, the innovation of the automobile gave rise to the prevalence of suburbs, industrial areas outside of cities, and the remodeling of American streets. We might soon see a similar change in Read More...
Europe’s largest floating solar park to open in Portugal this summer
Last month we wrote about Greece unveiling Europe’s largest double-sided solar farm. Now another European country is about to claim a significant achievement in the race towards renewables: building the continent’s largest floating solar park. The solar park will be located in Portugal’s Read More...
How native stingless bees help maintain the rainforest and local communities
Our appreciation for pollinators has grown exponentially as we learn more about our environments and the importance of even the smallest creatures in the grander scheme of things. However, we still have much to discover about the different species and the specific roles they play. For biologist, Read More...