Environment

These feats of conservation and sustainability hold countless examples of people following their passions for protecting our planet. Let your curiosity guide you as you explore fascinating corners of our environments and discoveries that are moving us toward a greener future.

Image: Glass Half Full co-founders Fran and Max posing in front of blue barrels filled with wine bottles that will be crushed back into sand.

The Company Crushing Your Wine Bottles to Save Louisiana’s Coastline

Step one: get the glass. Step two: smash the glass. Step three: sort the glass. Step four: save the planet. An idea that began in a college dorm room with a bottle of wine has grown into a massive startup that is saving us from the world's sand shortage and saving Louisiana's shrinking coast. Here's how Glass Half Full is doing it.

Image: Two whales swimming in the ocean, one under the surface and the other breached and spraying whale snot into the air.

How Whale Snot is Saving an Ocean Near You!

Whale biologists at the Ocean Alliance are pioneering a new, non-invasive way to study whales using drones that allows scientists to observe whales like never before. These insights are giving us a glimpse into the lives of the largest creatures to ever live, and helping us understand how to better protect the oceans that they call home and we depend on.

5 min read

Adventure to the Island that Came Back from Extinction

Can we really save an entire ecosystem when it is nearly hunted to extinction? We can! Let's adventure to an island of survival where life is once again finding a way.

Image: The couple who went a full year without buying groceries

No Groceries For a Year: One Couple’s Homegrown Journey

Could you go an entire year without going to the grocery store? Would you know the first thing about when to plant your tomatoes? What about raising your own livestock? Or foraging in your backyard? For most of us, living off the land would feel like a near impossibility, but for one Canadian couple, their inexperience became a source of inspiration. Their goal: go an entire year without buying anything from the grocery store.

Image: Coffee in a mug from the zero waste cafe, the foam swirled to look like a smiling face.

Zero Waste Cafes Offer the Pick-Me-Up We Need Right Now

Can’t survive without your morning coffee? From farm to cup, here are companies that are filtering the waste out of our coffee obsession, and making it easy to enjoy some java without hurting the environment.

Image: A young girl cupping a flower in her hands. The flower sits among many other kinds of plants, displaying the biodiversity in her backyard.

Weeds are a Good Thing! Why the Biodiversity in Your Backyard Matters

It's difficult to fully comprehend the stunning complexity and diversity of life on our planet, and even more difficult to understand how deeply that complexity and diversity matters. Ready for a deep dive into why biodiversity matters? Read on to see how you can help the planet by starting in your own backyard!

Image: A man snorkeling above a coral reef in one of the oceans, reaching for the camera.

What if We Saw the Oceans as Climate Innovators Instead of Climate Victims?

What if we stopped looking at the ocean as a victim of climate change, and instead realize that it holds dozens of ready-made climate solutions? The ocean is full of untapped potential to help us solve the climate crisis, we just have to reframe our thinking. Here's how.

Image: Three polar bears standing in the snow

Exploring Remarkably Resilient Polar Bears

Very special polar bears are living in southeastern Greenland on freshwater fjords without access to the sea. As polar bears typically hunt in sea waters, this has astonished scientists, giving them hope that polar bears may be able to adapt to diminishing sea ice.

Image: Three bins in a row, a green bin labeled compost, a red bin labeled waste, and a yellow bin labeled recycle

Want to Reduce your Waste? Here’s a Guide to Get You Started

If you’ve ever stood in front of an array of waste bins at the airport holding your empty coffee cup wondering “Is this garbage? Is this recycling? What do I do with this stuff?” and you desperately wanted to do the right thing but didn’t know what to do, this is the article for you. We’re going to break down what’s waste, what’s not, and what we can do to make waste a thing of the past.

5 min read

A Leopard Seal Tried to Feed this Photographer a Penguin: Capturing a Moment of Kindness from an Apex Predator

Ever see a breathtaking photo from the natural world and wonder how they got that image? Often the backstories are even better than the photograph! Listen to the remarkable tales from a Nat Geo photographer and you will be transformed.

Image: A person barbecuing in their backyard using fruit pulp logs.

Leftovers to Logs: Fruit Pulp Could Be the Fuel of the Future

There is a secret second life hiding out within almost every substance on earth, but today we’re zeroing in on an innovative way that one Argentinian couple is transforming fruit pulp. Want to know what they’re turning it into? We’ll give you a hint... it can warm your belly, your home, and your soul.

Image: FABSCRAP Volunteers holding some of their fabric that will be mended, repurposed, or recycled

21 Billion Pounds of Clothes Go to Landfills Every Year… Now FABSCRAP is On the Case!

We’ve mastered how to make the most of food scraps, but what about textile scraps? Let’s meet the female CEO of FABSCRAP, the company transforming textile waste from the apparel design process into a catalyst for a community of changemakers.

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