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.
Be bored, then get going
“Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination.” — Arthur Schopenhauer Congratulations, graduating classes of 2022! Being young, with a freshly minted degree, you probably feel invincible, like you can do anything. There’s a lightness and exuberance in your step, and you are full Read More...
Wild Motherhood: Meet some of the coolest mothers in the animal kingdom
Happy Mother’s Day 2022! They care for us, teach us, and shape our relationship with each other and with the world. For better or worse, each of us owes a lot of who we are to our moms! And as much as we all love to celebrate motherhood on this holiday, there is one mother that is ever-present Read More...
Tel Aviv is becoming an e-scooter city
No two cities are the same, and each one has its own particular changes to make to achieve its climate goals. New York is making plans to become “spongier” to handle excess water. Panama City, Florida is transforming into a tree city, planting over 100,000 new trees, and Tel Aviv, Israel aims Read More...
How Paris is quieting its noise pollution
Those of us that live in a city love it for the layers and layers of life, light, and vibrancy that come from a busy and populous environment. While it is an exciting and bustling place to live, we can also pay a price living in a city when, say, we’re just trying to go to sleep. Noise Read More...
Endangered red wolf pups are born in the wild for the first time in years
The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina happily welcomed the birth of a litter of wild red wolf pups, an indication that there is still hope for the endangered species. Though US landscapes were once teeming with red wolves, the species suffered, as so many others have, Read More...
Insects and lab-grown meat could reduce environmental impact by 80 percent
We at The Optimist Daily have written a lot before about the environmental benefits of lab-grown meat and insects as an alternative protein source, and the body of research for this cultural and scientific protein shift keeps growing. A new study published in Nature Food found that replacing Read More...
MIT team creates high-quality, paper-thin loudspeaker
We live in a time when concepts are turned on their heads. We’re starting to pull carbon out of the atmosphere, instead of emitting it. We’re adapting our cities to wildlife, instead of trying to kick animals out. And we’re making technology more efficient by making it smaller, instead of the Read More...
Whales' "grumbles" give a glimpse into their lives
The sea is still largely unexplored and not understood, with a recent study revealing that two-thirds of seafloor life is waiting to be discovered. Even the species that are well studied are still shrouded in mystery and there is lots of work to be done in understanding sea life biology, migration Read More...
5 cities celebrating the earth by “plogging”
If case you haven’t heard, “plogging” combines physical exercise and cleaning up your town and environment. It started in Sweden — “plogging” being a portmanteau of the Swedish phrase “plocka upp,” meaning to “pick up,” and jogging — and the craze has caught on around the Read More...
The EU is going on a cleanse with the world’s biggest chemical ban
From what we now know, the fact that something is convenient doesn’t at all mean it’s safe. Chemical pollution from everyday products is considered responsible for a host of problems from the endangerment of marine life to declining human fertility rates and many other health Read More...