The Optimist Today
Technology is helping bridge the divide between young Israelis and Palestinians
In the fractured lands of Israel and Palestine, many young people from opposite sides never have the chance to meet each other. That’s problematic, especially for the goal of bridging divides and bringing peace between the two communities. As a way to bring both sides together, a group of Read More...
Maine just ditched Columbus Day and replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day
There has been a growing movement to change the name of Columbus Day, which has been a federal holiday since 1934. Some activists say that celebrating it ignores the atrocities committed by Christopher Columbus and other European explorers against the indigenous people they encountered. A troubling Read More...
New Unilever brand donates all proceeds to give the homeless access to showers
While we usually think of food and shelter as being the main challenges homeless people face, Unilever is bringing awareness to the importance of cleanliness for all people with the announcement of a new brand called The Right To Shower, which believes, as its name implies, every human deserves Read More...
World's largest medical drone delivery network is off and running in Ghana
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 2 billion people around the world have no timely access to basic medicines, such as life-saving vaccines, leading to a staggering number of preventable deaths each year. In an attempt to tackle this global health challenge, Zipline, a Read More...
Los Angeles just announced its own Green New Deal
Los Angeles has big plans to clean up its smoggy, traffic-filled image. This week, while Congress is only discussing the Green New Deal, Los Angeles is announcing a version of their own—an ambitious plan to transform itself in order to tackle climate change. Under the plan, LA plans to run on 55 Read More...
World’s first ‘biosolar leaf’ to tackle pollution on London campus
Reducing the amount of heat-trapping emissions we are putting into the atmosphere is imperative in order to reverse climate change. But scientists and campaigners have warned repeatedly that governments are dangerously falling behind in meeting the rate of carbon emission reductions needed to Read More...
You have to see these photos of ancient trees bathing in starlight
In one giant sequoia’s lifetime multiple generations of humans will be born and die. These enormous trees, native to California, can live for thousands of years. Though that time frame is considerable, writes photographer Beth Moon in her book, Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees, “compared to the Read More...
Scientists develop self-charging pacemaker that uses heartbeats to power itself
Pacemakers have a problem – and that’s not something you want to hear about a medical device which literally helps a person’s heart beat at a normal pace. The problem, simply put, is that they are powered by bulky batteries, which have to be surgically replaced at regular intervals due to Read More...
Surprisingly enough, central banks are leading calls for climate action
As groups of Extinction Rebellion protestors glued themselves to public transit and closed down large swathes of central London last week in a series of demonstrations that continued Thursday, a very different group was gathering just a couple hours’ train journey away in Paris. They, too, Read More...
A South Korea school is enrolling illiterate grandmas to save it from closing
South Korea’s birthrate has been plummeting in recent decades, falling to less than one child per woman last year, one of the lowest in the world. The hardest hit areas are rural counties, where babies have become an increasingly rare sight as young couples migrate en masse to big cities for Read More...