Today’s Solutions: January 13, 2025

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.

view of little baby's bare feet

Attention eco-minded parents! These baby shoes are 100% dissolvable

As many parents will tell you, when you have a baby, it can be difficult to be sustainable every step of the way, especially since babies outgrow their clothing so quickly.  Well, eco-friendly children’s shoe brand Woolybubs has come up with an ingenious solution to shrink the environmental Read More...

Panama City, Florida

ReTreePC: Reinvigorating the community and the canopy in Panama City

At The Optimist Daily, as you’ve probably guessed, we love solutions for urban green spaces. We’ve written quite a bit about these, with their ability to offset carbon emissions, help grow food, and help animals and humans cohabitate. We can’t get enough of it! Another aspect of urban green Read More...

Female Eastern Bluebird with Nesting Material on Flowering Eastern Redbud Branch

Want more nesting birds in your garden during spring? Follow these 5 tips

The warmth of spring and summer, also brings along with it the company of local and migrating birds. To simultaneously maximize your chances of viewing these beautiful creatures while supporting them and your garden’s ecosystem during this period, here's five gardening tips to follow. Ensure Read More...

Food Forests

Food forests and regenerative agriculture

Feeding an urban population in ever-growing cities around the world is a big challenge. The growth of these concrete jungles can lead to food deserts: areas of urban land that have insufficient access to grocery stores. Supermarkets in some urban areas can’t meet the needs of a growing Read More...

New York City water

New York City makes plans to become “spongier”

Cities evolve. They expand to accommodate growing populations. They alter their infrastructure for new technologies, such as automobiles and trolleys. Today, we even see cities like London, Paris, and Berlin moving traffic away from their city centers, and some are making changes to become sponge Read More...

Notre Dame floor

Treasures discovered beneath Notre Dame during reconstruction

The 2019 Notre Dame fire was felt by many around the world. The medieval cathedral was an iconic Parisian landmark that visitors came from many countries to see, and its loss was taken to heart by the French people. President Emmanuel Macron pledged to return Notre Dame to the world and have it Read More...

Broken plastic electric kettle with crack on the side

Self-repairing plastic soon to become reality thanks to Japanese scientists

The future of better plastics is here! A team of researchers in Japan has developed a type of plastic that can repair itself. It could be used in smartphones, cars, and many other applications, reducing the amount of plastic that ends up discarded and polluting the environment. Repairing Read More...

California Freeways

California unveils strategy to take gas-powered cars off the road

California is well-known for frustrating traffic gridlock and making green leaps forward. With growing wildfires, Californians know too well the importance of switching to renewable energy and electrical cars, and it’s with this in mind that the state’s taken on its newest Read More...

Honey and wooden dipper isolated on white background.

Honey: the sweet solution for brain-like computers

It turns out that honey is much more than just a tasty addition to your tea. Engineers from Washington State University have reimagined the use of the sticky substance in brain-like neuromorphic computers. These systems are designed to mimic the human brain, where biological structures are replaced Read More...

3D knitted crop cover protects plants from a wide range of insects

This innovative mesh fabric protects crops from even the tiniest insects

Farmers who don’t use insecticides sometimes opt for mesh fabric instead to protect their crops from annoying pests. To make sure that enough sunlight and water reach the crops, the farmers often use meshes with relatively large holes that smaller insects can slip through to get to crops. Thanks Read More...