Have you heard of NASA’s 46 citizen science games that let anyone search for evidence of aliens in the universe, make a real backyard radio telescope to study Jupiter, or see which plants can grow in space to feed astronauts?

Apparently NASA scientists have been enlisting the help of regular people for decades to conduct cutting-edge science and make discoveries together, defining citizen science as a “form of open collaboration” for individuals and organizations to voluntarily participate in the scientific process (although a more modern name is community science since you don’t need any citizenship and can be anywhere in the world and any age to participate).

But beyond the incredible space games like discovering new comets close to the sun or how clouds work on mars, there are also projects all over Earth from tracking wildlife spotted on trail cameras in Wisconsin, to reporting landslides for emergency response to save lives, and comparing changes in Arctic freshwater ice.

Some have specific needs too: if you live near mountains you can help report if it’s raining or snowing when weather stations fall short, and they even have live events where professionals present their projects and invite us regular folks to participate.

The goal is to bring together scientists and the public to discover interesting things, and I think this is the perfect example of how humanity can put aside differences and work together on building a better future.

So go play one of these and let me know what you think.

What else is going right in the world

🧑‍🌾 A 76-year-old man named John Massey raised $675,000+ for charity by teaching himself how to garden, then building such an impressive one that people came from all over to come visit. Over 20,000 flowers, trees, and shrubs are now managed by 70 employees, and it’s open to the public every weekend with the small entry fee going to a rotating charity. I had the pleasure of speaking with John last year and wanted to share his inspiring story again!

💉 A new experimental cancer vaccine has early signs of working after a trial with over a thousand people, specifically an mRNA based treatment to help prevent melanoma from returning to patients that previously had it but got it removed through surgery, and more testing is needed but experts say it looks promising. (Joe McFadden|BBC)

🏥 A hospital just focused on saving seahorses that get caught in fishing nets has been rescuing the magical creatures since 2019. Seahorses are amongst the only species where the male gets pregnant and gives birth, after an elaborate courtship dance that ends with the female depositing eggs into a pouch on the male’s tail, where hundreds of babies emerge a few weeks later. Due to rising ocean temperatures and poaching for traditional but unproven medicine, there’s been a substantial decrease in their populations. Yet 8,000+ have been rescued and returned to the sea thanks to the marine biologists working in Italy’s Seamaster Seahorse Rescue Center.

🎓 Seattle will give free meals for all public students starting this fall thanks to a unanimous vote to take leftover money from an affordable housing complex that was cheaper than expected, and channel it into the program to make sure no students go hungry (Ryan Nguyen|Seattle Times)

🏆 The winner of the Invertebrate of the Year is… the leaf sheep! This mesmerizing animal is a tiny marine slug that photosynthesizes like a plant. If you ask me, it was a well-deserved win. (Patrick Barkham|The Guardian)

😮‍💨 A study found that London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which blocks heavily polluting vehicles from the area, has led to children’s lungs growing bigger and stronger, restoring capacity in those that were previously stunted from pollution, in another example of how effective policies like this can be on our health (Damien Gayle|The Guardian)

Our community took action

🌱 medeajade from our community bought a bunch of native plants to turn their front lawn into a little prairie.

Lightning round

🛠️ Right to repair laws continue to spring up around the US.

⚡️ A fully electric plane flew for nearly half an hour on $5 of electricity, hinting at the future of aviation.

🤝 Australia returned more Land Back to native ancestral owners.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

This week I learned about Ugly Potato Day which just gave out the largest fruit and vegetable donation of all time.

The idea came from Tyler Heppel, who realized most people don’t want oddly shaped or blemished produce, so even though they taste just as good as their beautiful counterparts, they often go to waste, ending up in the landfill and emitting heat-trapping methane into the atmosphere.

So in 2022, Tyler sent an open invite for anybody to come to his family farm and pick up the ugly produce for free.

Just 12 people showed up that first year, which did reduce some waste, but he knew it could be much bigger… So he kept growing it until this year’s event which had more than 30,000 people participate just outside of Vancouver, Canada.

25 farms, the majority local to the area, donated funky-looking carrots, apples, cabbages, potatoes and more ugly yet perfectly good fruits and veggies to combat food waste, help the local community get fresh quality foods for free, and foster a relationship between farmers and their neighbors.

Guinness World Records even showed up, weighing all of it and officially deeming it the largest fresh fruit and vegetable donation in 24 hours ever at 543,000 pounds.

Would you choose an ugly fruit or vegetable next time you shop?

What Else is Going Right in the World

🗳️ Voting opened up for the Invertebrate of the Year 2026, a fun contest to bring more awareness to these creatures that are often overlooked. Last year’s champion was a waterbear or tardigrade measuring less than 1 millimeter long, and almost miraculously can survive unbelievably extreme environments. But vote for this year’s winner quickly, since it ends on August 16th!

🏷️ AI-generated content is now legally required to be labelled in the European Union, in an effort to reduce the massive amount of deceptive and manipulative content being put on the internet. Companies face fines up to 3% of annual revenue or €15 million if they don’t follow the rules and properly disclose content made with AI.

🧑‍🚒 74 brave firefighters from Australia and New Zealand are true heroes by coming to the US to help fight wildfires, spending five weeks away from home to share their skills and knowledge in fire suppression. It’s desperately needed: the US is at its worst level of wildfire preparedness, as the people in charge are failing us while fighters are spread thin and resources are becoming too strained. Thank you to these brave folks for their camaraderie and help, and let’s also make sure our elected officials prioritize policies to limit climate-fueled fires. (Watch my recap video made in partnership with Climate Power)

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 41,000 people joined a Facebook group in Pennsylvania to take down a data center. Started by a woman named Karen Feridun in January, the massive group is now working together to call and message their representatives, support moratoriums, and discuss strategies to protect the community.

🔭 Out of this world: the James Webb Space Telescope revealed dust and water surviving on a star near the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, a very extreme environment. “Even under the harsh conditions… stars of this kind can indeed produce dust and other materials, which will help create future generations of stars and planets.” Take a look at this stunning picture above and remember how vast, mysterious, and incredible the universe is!

📲 New Jersey is tackling social media addiction in kids via a new law that will kick off next year with many regulations. Some of note include: restricting the use of children’s data, limit discovery of children’s accounts, banning platform notifications between 8am and 4pm on school days, and more efforts to regulate the social media industry which has largely had free reign.

Our Community

👚 Darcey reached out to let me know that before Adam Root created his washing machine microplastic filter (that was covered in last week’s newsletter), Mojca Zupan invented one called PlanetCare. This similarly attaches to existing machines to prevent tiny plastic fibers from entering waterways, but impressively, they collect and recycle the caught fibers too!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

This week I learned about a guy who’s catching microplastics from our clothes before they enter the water.

His name is Adam Root, and he was a mechanical engineer until he went scuba diving one day which awakened him to our massive ocean pollution problem and all the beauty worth saving down there.

So he quit his job to figure out a way to help, using a £250 (or $335) investment to make a filter by hand while tinkering with an old washing machine in his garage, aiming to stop the 35% of ocean microplastics that come from textiles.

Since the majority of our clothes are made from fossil fuel-based plastics called polyester, nylon, and acrylic that are grated as washing machines spin, tiny plastic fibers get sent to our waterways, drinking water, and food.

So after plenty of experimenting and spraying water all over the place, Adam created a filter that can go in home washers, textile factories, and wastewater treatment plants to capture 97% of those microfibers. It uses a very fine mesh that rinses itself after each wash to clear the surface and store whatever is caught.

The idea seems to be working, ending up as a finalist for the Earthshot Prize, and now teaming up with big names like Bosch to make more of these filters. Yet not all microfibers come from washing, so fully addressing plastic pollution means moving away from synthetics into natural fibers, adopting the global plastics treaty, and consuming less.

What do you think about filters like these?

(Matter Industries Website | Matter Instagram | Earthshot Prize | The Guardian coverage | Bosch Consumer Product Site | Plastic Leakage study)

What else is going right in the world

31 marvelous new species

31 new species were discovered in the largest yet least explored habitat on Earth, but only because of incredible new tech.

The international team of explorers spent two weeks off the coast of Brazil in the ocean’s midwater, which is sandwiched in between the dark ocean floor and the upper layer lit by the sun. But since it takes decades for scientists to identify and describe a species, they brought advanced technologies onto the ship including non-invasive lasers to scan and create a 3D images, cameras to capture tiny details, gravity machines that imitate endless water columns, and an open-source microscope that captures internal cellular structures, all to describe the species without having to collect them.

They even sequenced genomes onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) research vessel to identify new species pretty much right away, finding a crustacean called an ampiphod, a mesmerizing and speedy gossamer worm, nine jellyfish, seven jellyfish-related siphonophores, seven glittering comb jellies, four tadpole-like larvaceans, and two giant rhizarians which are single-celled organisms so big we can see them with the naked eye.

Imagine what would happen if our smartest people focused more on technology like this to better understand and respect the planet… perhaps the solarpunk future of marine biology uncovers ocean life without negatively impacting it, so we can all learn, appreciate, and take care of it?

Finally, an AI slop button

A “seems like AI slop” button was added to LinkedIn, letting users report low-quality content generated by AI. They’ve become the first major player to take this action in an effort to reduce the amount of AI spam posts on the platform, hopefully inspiring other platforms to follow their lead and prioritize human-made content. (Hari Srinivasan|LinkedIn)

New record-breaking sun pics just dropped

The highest resolution images ever taken of the sun’s surface were captured by a telescope in Hawaii in pictures that are equivalent to seeing ants crawling along the ground from 100 miles away. Aside from being stunning, they show dynamic whirlpools of plasma swirling around in a major breakthrough for solar physics and understanding the universe. (Lee Billings|Scientific American)

Data center backlash gains ground

The data center backlash has been so strong that Texas has paused approvals until an audit can be completed to see how they’ll impact the state’s power grid, signaling that communities voicing their opposition are breaking through when demanding that people be put ahead of profit. (Shelby Webb|E&E)

Our community took action

Tiffany from our community helped feed a family in need for two weeks, buying and delivering staple items to help their neighbors out.

Lightning round

🗽 NYC is adding 50,000 affordable homes.

⚡️ 54.1% of Spain’s power generation came from renewables last month, a new record.

🍍 This jet fuel is made from… fruit? (if paywalled)

👀 Welcome to the future, where we have self-healing contact lenses.

🏞️ South Sudan gets the latest UNESCO World Heritage Site.

🐟 Meet the record holder of the most aquatic animal tattoos on a female body (106).

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Have you heard about the new proposal to build 600 miles of protected bike lanes across New York City?*

Back in 2023 this was first proposed but it never gained traction and faded away… until it was reintroduced this year! If enough of us get on board, we can make sure the bill actually passes this time.

There’s already a legal requirement to build 50 miles around the city, but they fall short every time, so this new bill backed by nine Council Members so far will require 100 miles to be built every year for the next six years, which could bring some overdue accountability to make sure it actually happens.

The near future can have connected lanes throughout the whole city, separated from the road with a physical barrier to let riders get anywhere quickly, easily, and safely without obstacles… and even if you don’t bike, it will also reduce traffic and clean up the air for everybody!

So I officially partnered with change.org to make a petition to show our elected officials how many of us want this to pass and actually be enforced.

If enough of us demand this Bill gets consideration, it will be debated in city council, hopefully pass by the end of the year, and once we make it successful, it can be recreated in any other city around the world too.

So please take a few seconds to add your name to the petition, share with a friend or two, and let’s make the world more bikeable.

Sign the petition! 🚴

*This is a partnership with change.org. They asked me if I have a cause I’d like to make a petition for, and after researching existing legislation, I chose this bike lane bill to try and push forward. Together, we can help turn this into a future good news story!

Recap: 10 underrated stories of progress from July

10: New York City announced a new rule making subscriptions cancellable in just 1 click.

9: The EU made it illegal for companies to destroy unsold clothes so they have to reuse and repair instead.

8: Switzerland’s test adding solar panels to train tracks was so successful it’s becoming permanent and coming to Italy, South Korea, and France next.

7: 136 acres of land was returned to Indigenous nations along California’s Mendocino coast.

6: New York became the first state to pause all new hyperscale data centers for the next year as guidelines are created to protect communities.

5: Kelsey Pfendler became the fastest woman to row 2,400 miles unassisted from California to Hawaii while raising money for the Whale Foundation.

4: 1,000 farmers in Zimbabwe created a community seed bank to safeguard local crops.

3: After the US government shut down a website hosting free NOAA research on climate, fired scientists recreated it and continue to vet and update the info.

2: Many new species were discovered including the eyeless Demon Cavefish found in a single cave in Alabama, a mesmerizing frog from Costa Rica, and a partially parasitic flower.

1: Our community took action by: handing out 290 boxes of food at a pantry, turned old shirts into tote bags by hand, made a huge “BE KIND” mural with students, and much more!

August is right around the corner... What are you planning to do?

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Have you heard of the guy who relocated 6 million bees by hand to save their lives?

When Clarence Chua was a child, his father decided to suit up to try and relocate a nest from their home.

It became a core memory for Clarence, so in 2020 when a swarm moved into his garden shed in Singapore but no one could come, he taught himself how to move it through online videos.

After a dozen stings he was successful, but then he learned that 30% of our food crops like fruits, vegetables, and nuts are pollinated by bees, as well as 70% of lowland rainforest.

He knew that most people just sprayed and exterminated nests, so he started heading to homes, mailboxes, and even the engine of an airplane to instead suck up and carry them to safety.

And he’s now humanely relocating 100 nests a year without harming the bees by moving the full nest intact with the babies, queen, and workers.

Even though it’s not easy or very profitable dealing with these wild animals, he continues to care for them through a nature center and farmstay, and despite being stung thousands of times, his heroics deserve a shoutout as he puts his safety on the line to protect the lives of little these insects that won’t even know what he’s done for them.

Yet for all that bees do for us, maybe we should give back a little more like Clarence.

Would you hire someone to safely relocate bees instead of exterminating them?

What else is going right in the world

Dressing up like bears to save a cub

Last year, an abandoned black bear cub was found with mama bear nowhere to be seen, so the San Diego Humane Society started caring for him. To prevent him from bonding with humans, they dressed up in heartwarmingly hilarious bear costumes as they nursed him back to health and returned him to the wild. This is one of my favorite stories, so I think it’s worth telling again! (Rebecca Cohen|NBC)

Three new species were discovered

The Demon cavefish, which was named after the demogorgon and is pale with no eyes, appears to be one of the rarest fish in the world. It’s found only in a a single cave in Alabama, and has no reaction to light, so researchers think it lived deep down beyond human reach until last year when it was first spotted.

While the Orange-Lipped ‘Likweli’ Monkey was originally photographed in 2008 but it was blurry and cut off, so it was forgotten. Yet when another researcher got a better photo 10 years later, they went out to find and study more in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They learned it has a spiky black coat, orange-cream skin around its mouth, and apparently makes a sound like a pig snorting.

And this vibrant stream-breeding frog from Costa Rica was found during research and fieldwork. Scientists learned it has a sister species, but stands out with its coloration and croak described as “a broad acoustic repertoire”. Honestly, this one is a work of art, with some incredible photos taken for the published study.

Quick bites

🌳 Amazon deforestation continues to drop, hitting a 10-year low.

🌞 Africa has installed and connected more solar to the grid in the first half of 2026 than the full year of 2025.

🍱 School meals in the Philippines are now free for all kindergarteners and 1st graders.

🐧 The first baby puffin seen in decades was spotted in Southern England.

🚄 New heat-resistant trains are coming to Europe.

Our community actions

📖 4.5 hours after sending this email, at 11:30AM ET, I’ll be live-streaming a book club on my Instagram! We’ll be discussing Sea Change with the author (Amanda, the Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund) and main character (Buddy the fisherman). This will be my first time trying out this book club format, so please join us and bring your questions. If it goes well, maybe I’ll host more in the future :)

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Have you heard of the new 3D printing material that’s made out of yeast instead of plastic?

The story goes that a professor named Malgorzata Zboinska had a fascination with combining architecture and living materials, so she led a team of researchers from Chalmers to see if they could turn leftover industrial waste into new materials.

Since typical construction uses a massive amount of resources and energy, they worked on a more circular approach to architecture and after a lot of hard work, they created a jelly-like hydrogel that can be 3D printed. Uniquely, it was made of baker’s yeast, wood fibers, algae, plant-based glycerol, and water.

It works by heating the yeast to deactivate it, then mixing the ingredients together, 3D printing at room temperature, leaving it to try, and turning the beautiful bio-based result into almost any shape needed for screens, wall panels, partitions, or potentially a replacement for synthetic textiles.

But this Engineered Living Material stands out even more since it can be rescued from other industries like brewing or agriculture, it can biodegrade after usage to be more circular, and it might be the first step towards developing more complex substances that are self-healing or purify the air.

Further research and testing has to assess strength, safety, and performance, but maybe this is the future of 3D printed architecture?

What else is going right in the world:

An all-female music festival for a good cause

Olivia Rodrigo is putting on an all-female music festival to raise money for organizations that advocate for women and girls. It’s called Daisy Chain Fields with a mission to inspire meaningful change, drive progress, and uplift nonprofits.

I partnered with Climate Power to break down why this is awesome, but also how we can go even further and take urgent action to protect live events like these that are becoming less reliable due to an unpredictable and dangerous climate. Watch the video if you’re interested!

Click to cancel law

New York City announced a new “click to cancel” rule on all subscriptions, making them the first US city to legally require all of your subscriptions be as easy to cancel as they were to sign up. This will save residents hundreds of millions of dollars in junk fees starting on October 1st, and will end predatory subscription traps. (NYC press release)

136 acres of Indigenous LandBack

The return of 136 acres of land back to Indigenous nations along California’s Mendocino coast took place, marking the first time land managed by the Department of Transportation was returned to its ancestral owners. The Tribes will now manage and protect the sacred site, permanently. (Alex Wigglesworth|LA Times)

NY pauses data centers

New York became the first state to pause all new hyperscale data centers for at least the next year. The pause is called a moratorium which has now stopped any new state permits, in an effort to allow enough time to develop a robust framework that protects prices, the environment, and communities. (NY State Release)

Our community took action

🥗 dearykoos volunteered at a food bank and handed out 290 boxes of fresh food!

📖 I’m hosting a book club next Friday at 11:30am ET! It will be on Instagram live together with the Environmental Defense Fund, focusing on the book Sea Change, and the author and main character will join us. If you want to join…

• Get the book on: Torrey House Press

• Get the audio book on: Spotify, Kobo, or Apple

• Mark your calendars and see you next Friday at 11:30 am Eastern Time on Instagram :)

+ Bonus stories!

• Is your city on the list of the most livable cities in the world?

• Apparently scientists made a solar reactor that consumes plastic bottles and burps out clean hydrogen.

• International Skinny Dip Day is not only hilarious, but also raised thousands of dollars for the Fistula Foundation charity.

Have a win or good story to share? Let us know in a comment! And I’ll see you next week for much more.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Her name is Kelsey Pfendler and her final time was beyond impressive as she became just the 3rd woman to ever complete this journey.

On May 21st, she loaded into a 21-foot rowboat named Lily and set off to beat the previous woman’s record of 86 days and the man’s record of 52 days.

And she documented how she pulled it off: filtering seawater, doing laundry, making food, meeting new friends and lots and lots of rowing (of course).

Despite being a professional rafting guide since 18 and guiding tours through the Grand Canyon, the journey was grueling as she battled currents and winds, blistered hands, lack of sleep, and she even had her 32nd birthday along the way.

Yet in the end she became the first woman to succeed, plus the youngest and fastest person to complete the route without assistance at a final time of just under 43 days and 18 hours.

She did it as a fundraiser for the Whale Foundation which gives free mental and physical support to the river guiding community, raising $200,000 for her journey and at least another $30K directly to the organization.

So the next time someone says your idea is impossible, think of Kelsey and say, “watch me”.

What else is going right in the world:

A game that leads to real-world discoveries

There’s a game that lets anyone at home discover actual planets, uncover long lost history, or find threatened frogs in real life…

The story goes that in 2007, scientists trying to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies were faced with a monstrous amount of data, so they invited the general public to help them out.

Half a million people heeded the call and started visually inspecting galaxies through the internet to determine if they were ellipticals, spirals, or mergers. In two years they racked up more than 50 million classifications of 900,000 galaxies, and the creators called the project Galaxy Zoo.

But after finding the results from the public to be consistent with professional astronomers, and having enough people to minimize inaccuracies or individual bias, they realized this strategy could help other areas of science too.

So they launched many more projects and expanded into gravity, wildlife, handwritten manuscripts, climate patterns, and hundreds more, helping unlock new knowledge and even guide policies.

Today it’s called the Zooniverse, where 3 million registered volunteers have made over 1 billion classifications through exciting games, letting anyone participate in science without needing a PhD, yet also helping scientists complete research that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

So you now have a fantastic excuse to take a break and play some games for a while!

Three new flower discoveries

The first is hemiparasitic (which means it photosynthesizes on its own but needs a host plant for water and minerals), and it was found in California by chance when researchers were looking at community scientist photos uploaded to iNaturalist and realized it had enough unique characteristics to be designated as a new species.

The second is a whimsical orchid found in the Philippines with less than 10 mature specimens ever being documented, with such a cool shape and pattern that it almost looks like it wants to have a conversation when it’s facing forward.

And the third is a passiflora that looks like a firework. It was found in the mountain forests of Peru, literally looks like it explodes open, and a woman named Sara Terreros made a beautiful illustration of it for the paper that deserves a big shout out.

What else is out there, waiting to be found?

Our community took action

👧 Mi Pc is starting a local union to fight child poverty, expanding on a national union, and launching this September.

🖼️ Eric Hyde Miller helped create a giant BE KIND art mural made up of student art.

🦋 EmilyLovesStories created a “pollinator pocket” in their garden that they’re calling a polly pocket.

What about you?

+ Bonus stories!

🔋 Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, is finally starting to clean up its act with a $2.5 billion electrification shift, which includes future bans of many fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

🪼 An invertebrate called a sea squirt found in Antarctica might hold the key to treating melanoma. (Yes, I realize this was a ridiculous sentence to write). It’s toxins have been shown to kill melanoma cells in mice, and researchers are optimistic as it didn’t kill the treated mice.

🛤️ Switzerland continues to prove that adding solar panels the the empty spaces in between train tracks is a genius way to generate clean power, using the land that’s already just sitting there and doing nothing most of the time for something good.

Thanks for reading! This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1.5 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

If you can’t seem to remember anything good thing that’s happened so far, let me remind you of just a few things from each month:

January

• The High Seas Treaty that was signed by 145 countries to protect ocean biodiversity in international waters finally entered into force, meaning it became legally binding.

• Stingless bees became the first insects to get the legal right to exist, thrive, and be represented in court in regions of Peru.

• The rare Siamese crocodile had successful community-based conservation in Laos that released hundreds back into the wild.

February

• The EU made it illegal to burn or destroy unsold clothes in an effort to make companies rethink business models.

• England started covering travel costs for children getting treated for cancer so families can focus on treatment instead of burdensome logistics.

• Vienna turned at least 350 parking spots into public green spaces.

March

• California started returning 7.5 million acres of water and land back to Indigenous Tribes.

• A basic income program for 2,000 artists became permanent in Ireland.

• Another Alaskan oil and gas lease sale failed when no company placed bids.

April

• The Artemis II mission sent four astronauts further into space than anyone’s gone before

• Maryland became the first state to ban dynamic surveillance pricing on groceries which changes based on your personal data.

• Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City announced they’re making buses free for all 10 million residents.

May

• Hawaii ruled corporations are not people and can’t spend unlimited money in elections.

• France made high-quality three-course school meals just €1 for all students.

• Thousands of new species were discovered in the deep sea including a toxic ribbon worm that could help treat Alzheimer’s and Schizophrenia.

June

• New York City started free childcare applications for 2 year olds across the city.

• New data showed that solar in the US generated more electricity than coal over a full month for the first time.

• A flooding London tube station was fixed by re-releasing native beavers into a nearby park that they naturally dammed up.

Members from our Community

• Turned old fencing into backyard birdhouses

• Repaired clothes for those in need

• Made a free seed board

• Turned trash into art

And took thousands of other actions all over the world!

If you want to consume more good news stories, then you’re in the right place. Here are three more ways to keep the good news coming:

1. Share The Hopemakers with someone you love to give them a little boost, so we can elevate underrated stories of progress to even more readers.

2. Comment your plans for the second half of the year on this post.

3. Upgrade your subscription to a paid tier if you haven’t already. All supporter contributions go towards finding, reporting, and spreading stories that make the world a better place.

See you in the second half of 2026 for so much more :)

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

When I heard about a type of vending machine in The Bronx unlike any I’d seen before, I starting digging into some research to see what the weirdest, coolest, most unique, and most impactful vending machines in the city were.

And after finding six viable contenders for the best vending machine in NYC, I ran all around the city to test them out and see which deserves 1st place.

This turned into our latest community mission!

For those of you that don’t know: I put all of the funds raised your by paid memberships to this newsletter into a pool. I then search for an everyday hero, make a creative video showcasing their work, volunteer to help them out, and donate some of this pool to help their project. So all of this was possible because of your support!

Enjoy the latest episode to see where this vending machine journey took me:

Community Mission #4 Impact Report

Here’s the full break down of where your funds went, and the impact they had.

Read more

And this week I learned that a lake in Europe is suing the company that polluted it and if they win, your local nature might be able to follow their lead.

Back in 2022, a lagoon in Spain called the Mar Menor was legally granted the right to “exist as an ecosystem and evolve naturally”, with a group of scientists, politicians, and citizens representing it as custodians.

But when a company was caught stealing water and dumping contaminants back in, the custodians filed a lawsuit seeking seven years in prison and €500,000.

It’s still ongoing, but when a group of citizens that were frustrated with companies getting away with destroying the natural world heard about it, they decided to build on this momentum and filed a formal petition with the EU that legally must be considered if it gets at least a million signatures, which they’ll start collecting in a few months.

And their demands are for a new law across Europe that officially lets polluted waterways and deforested woodlands to take their polluters to court, giving nature the same legal personhood rights as a company or you to hire a lawyer and sue.

They’re calling it Rights for Nature, and it might have the ability to transform the world, by legally requiring wilderness to be protected and enabling citizens to ensure that happens through the courts.

And although it’s just for Europe at the moment, powerful ideas like these should be supported by all of us, because maybe this is the future of truly protecting the natural world?

What else is going right in the world this week?

New York voted to pause large data centers

New York just voted to pause large data centers for the next year while new rules are developed around energy prices, water use, labor rights, and benefits for the communities they would impact. It passed despite Big Tech opposition, and now it just needs the governor’s signature. (Bianca Caputo|News10)

Minnesota banned prediction markets

While Minnesota became the first state to ban prediction markets, which are those gambling platforms that let people bet on literally anything and are highly susceptible to corruption like people betting on their own elections, insider tech information, pre-taped shows, and even classified military missions. So long story short, banning these is probably good. (Bobby Allyn|NPR)

Indigenous fishers went from facing jail to leading conservation

Two Aboriginal Australian divers were facing 10 years of jail for their cultural fishing practices until the case was abandoned after just 11 days. Now, in a complete turnaround, their Indigenous-led program got a $1.5 million grant to restore the damaged ocean by using their knowledge to clear invasive urchins and heal the barrens they left behind. (Vanessa Milton & Toby Hemmings|ABC)

The scientist who mapped the Wood Wide Web

When a woman realized, “we know more about space than the underground”, she decided to map the fungi network flowing beneath our feet called the Wood Wide Web.

Because despite soils being home to 25% of all species on Earth, they’re often forgotten about in conservation.

So Dr. Toby Kiers advocated for this hidden world of underground biodiversity, focusing on mycorrhizal fungi, which are huge networks of threads connecting plant roots to exchange nutrients, store carbon, and create forest cooperation.

Yet they’re vulnerable to the expansion of farming with pesticides, deforestation, and urbanization.

Which is why the global Underground Atlas she helped create is such a cool tool that uncovers some of the mystery and the positive differences fungi are making, including healthier soil, better food quality, and savings for farmers.

Her work is so impressive that she recently won the $250,000 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, letting her continue to bring together scientists, Indigenous communities, decision makers, and artists to protect fungi through education, the legal system, and policy.

TAKE ACTION WITH ME:

I’m starting a Chilli page to post actions we can take collectively to move the needle forward. Start by helping turn this Wood Wide Web knowledge into policy that protects our lands. It only take a minute!

take quick action with me🍄

Our community took action

👨 breadandonion’s spouse started a playground meetup for dads which has grown to 500 fathers in the group chat meeting up and making connections over the past 6 years.

+ Bonus stories!

• A lost parrot has returned.

• Solar is now generating more energy in the US than coal.

• New York doesn’t have the best record at keeping promises when it comes to renewables… but they just announced a big nuclear energy push,

Have a win or good story to share? Let us know! And have an amazing weekend.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Because Roni Nelson Batista Ramos used to hunt turtles to feed his family on Cabo Verde in West Africa, but he’s now one of a dozen former poachers working for conservation organizations to protect the endangered animals. And despite not even realizing this could be how they make a living, it’s working really well.

I originally found this story last year, but it’s worth retelling!

Decades ago, the turtles had been used for food, medicine, or sold to the black market, until increased awareness of their threat led to a big conservation push, and new laws criminalized the killing of threatened species.

Per Mongabay, there were 1,253 illegal catches of female turtles on Boa Vista island in 2007, which declined to just 20 in 2024. And over the same 16 years, loggerhead turtle nests increase more than 700%, making it the third largest nesting population in the world.

Five out of the seven known sea turtle species roam the Island, so these folks have a tough and important job, and their success is amplified through organizations like the Turtle Foundation using drones with night vision, getting dogs to help sniff out concerning scent trails, and involving the local communities to get the best information possible while creating these guardian jobs.

And while the threats are far from over, if these people completely changed their outlook to save their fellow species, and maybe others can too...

What else is going right in the world

Beavers stop London trains from flooding

A London tube station that used to flood from heavy rain, like many of New York City’s subway stations do, was fixed when beavers were re-released into a nearby park. The park actually used to be a golf course, and the beavers naturally dammed up a creek inside of it, creating a pond and wetland that absorbs rain like a sponge. In turn, it reduces nearby flooding. A win-win situation! (Lauren Frayer|NPR)

12 award-winning inventors

12 finalists were announced for the European Inventor Award for innovations including an effective malaria vaccine, a method of taking dead batteries and turning them into usable new ones, a living air biofilter, a magnetic propulsion upgrade for existing trains, and much more. (European Inventor Awards).

Transforming parking lots

Cities around the US are upgrading parking lots. moving away from heat-increasing asphalt towards better models like topping them with solar panels, adding enough trees to shade at least half the lot, painting reflective surfaces, and even using permeable pavement that absorbs water to reduce flooding. (Aya Diab & Alexa St. John|AP)

Our community took action (big time)

🌞 Mihkel recently had their building add solar panels and batteries which has reduced their power bill by about 70%.

🚫 Data center proposals are getting shut down and even banned by Egust4729, aiden_base123, and Susan who are joining their neighbors in signing letters, protesting, and making their opposition loud and clear.

🧵 Michaela Palladino is sewing clothes out of thrifted bedsheets

🎨 madeleine_of_the_woods and their friends started an art project to raise awareness and funds for local species at risk.

🐶 Justaharmlessfire is helping elders in their neighborhood bring their pets to the vet.

🌻 Yards are transforming into wildlife refuges thanks to loryntrail, juliegoodenough is planting milkweed to help butterflies, cmelansonauthor is making a food forest for their neighbors, divalea is using thrifted containers for theirs, oakheartnj planted natives at an elementary school, and Ashley Marie is growing stunning passion flowers to help the Gulf Fritillary species.

📦 Castle’s husband started a community shelf at work to take and leave food, hygiene, and clothes donations.

🌲 Hartstrings Creations is making a card game from scratch based on the life cycle of forest ecosystems

🗑️ Day is going on walks every day to pick up trash

🖼️ Fantasyfawn is hosting an arts and crafts night with strangers to get to know their neighbors.

🫵 And… what about you?

+ Bonus stories!

• Fathomverse, the game where you can discover real marine species by playing, just got a big update.

• Europe removed over 600 dams last year, a new record.

• Concrete towers are getting added to the ocean off of Cambodia to combat and stop bottom trawling (a method of fishing that drags against the ocean floor and destroys ecosystems).

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

If you close your eyes and imagine a better future, what does that looks like?

I asked myself that when I started this newsletter.

And now, as I read through hundreds of news stories each week, I choose the ones that are planting the seeds for the future I want, many of which are reflected in our guiding illustration I commissioned when we first launched The Hopemakers:

So as you read this week’s edition, think about what these stories mean for the future, and if you think of something you want to see, drop it in a comment. We build a better future together, after all!

What’s going right in the world?

Solar’s on track to be Earth’s main energy source

Solar power is growing even faster than predicted. It’s now on track to become the world’s leading energy source years ahead of schedule by 2032, as global markets have skyrocketed towards electrification amidst the clear fragility of fuel sources. Decision makers can no longer ignore the fact that the sun is always up there sending us free and clean energy! (BloombergNEF, Renew Economy)

Students now get €1 meals

Every student can now eat quality three-course meals for just €1 in France, alleviating financial strain and ending the fact that nearly half of students have had to skip meals for financial reasons in the past. This program had already existed for those within a certain income threshold, but is now expanded to include all students. (Agence France-Presse|The Guardian)

Native pheasants are back in Vietnam

Beautiful native species are returning to the wild: the Vietnam Pheasant has been missing from central Vietnam’s forests for decades due to habitat loss, illegal hunting, and war impacts. But that will no longer be the case, thanks to an alliance of conservationists that managed to grow a captive population until it was genetically viable to now carefully reintroduce 20 back into their natural habitats. They will continue to monitor and aim to grow these bird populations back to their former glory. (Zoo Berlin)

Plug-in balcony solar is taking the US by storm

I reported this story with paid support from my partners at Climate Power. You can watch it here, or enjoy the written form below for more good news!

Many of us are about to be able to pick up a solar panel from the store, leave it on our balcony or in our backyard, plug it into an outlet, and start generating free energy from our beautiful sun.

NYC is about to pass legislation to allow this, but it started when a Utah state representative learned about plug-in solar’s popularity in Germany where over 1 million have been installed already, so a bill was drafted and passed with unanimous support, making them the first US state to adopt them.

But dozens quickly followed and the bipartisan race to legalize plug-in solar across the country is now on, with 5 states already signing it into law, 8 advancing bills, and at least 13 more working on legislation to follow their lead.

Meaning the majority of states are working on letting us install plug-in solar ourselves on a balcony or backyard even if we don’t have access to a roof.

And this is especially important right now with the government entering wars, letting utility companies jack up electricity prices for Big Oil to make record profits, and gutting clean air and water protections, meaning every bit of energy we can cleanly generate ourselves will keep money in our pockets and away from the world’s worst polluters.

So, where does your state stand?

A bunch of new species were discovered, and here’s my 10 favorites

Scientists just announced 1,121 ocean life forms they found over the past year in a global expedition called the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, and here are five highlights:

• A burrowing sea anemone was found living alone, buried in sediment in a remote peninsula in Argentina, and honestly I understand the appeal.

• A beautiful dwarfgoby fish just a few millimeters long was found in a remote Australian reef, and it stands out since most relatives are green but this guy added splashes of peach, yellow, and orange into the mix.

• A toxic ribbon worm just 3 centimeters long was found in Timor-Leste and it has a potent chemical defense that could help treat Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.

• A Mystery Ridge sea pen was found in the South Sandwich Islands, which kinda looks like an antique quill and is actually a coral that sticks up like a tree from the bottom of the deep sea.

• The carnivorous “death ball” sponge was also found in the South Sandwich islands in a trench 3,601 meters deep, and as you can tell from the name, it’s a brutal predator lined with microscopic velcro-like hooks that snag prey to envelope and digest.

And here are five more from around the world:

• A nudibranch or sea slug (that might be the most unique and confusing animal I’ve ever seen) was found in Taiwan and named after the dots covering its body that sort of resemble sesame seeds.

• A flowering wintergreen was found in the Philippines and it likely only lives on one island. It was named after its flowers which researchers think resemble a bird’s beak, and I kinda see it.

• A tiny frog was also found in the Philippines but on a different island, was named after the tallest peak, has a call that sounds like a repetitive clicking, and measures about 15 mm… which is smaller than a US dime.

• A mesmerizing millipede was found in Madagascar, which yes I would probably freak out if I saw it in person, but the pictures show off how nature really likes geometry.

• And last but not least, a hairy ghost pipefish that looks almost angelic was found on a coral reef in Australia. It’s special trait is that it’s covered in long filaments that look like shaggy threads.

Our community took action

LunticaSystem is clearing invasive plants from their yard and seeing more native species and pollinators return.

+ Bonus stories!

🌳 What if every city had a tree charter to protect the beautiful green giants?

🪸 Underwater robots are aiming to help coral reefs with… cookies?

☢️ Chernobyl has really transformed from nuclear disaster into wildlife haven.

Have a win or good story to share? Join our community chat and let us know!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Welcome to the 21st Friday of the year! That’s means there’s 31 left, for anyone keeping count.

This week, the weather in NYC ranged from 95 degrees F and sunny, to 50 degrees F and rainy. Each day really is a mystery. Keeps us on our toes at least?

I hope you had a great week. Cap it off with the underrated good news stories I was able to find, and make the most of this weekend ahead!

What’s going right in the world:

The researcher saving native turtles in Yosemite

(I originally covered this story last year, but here it is again for those that missed it)

An invasion of bullfrogs that “eat anything that fits into their mouth” nearly took out an adorable native turtle species, until scientists got to work on saving them.

Sidney Woodruff saw a “constellation of eyes” from invasive American bullfrogs blinking back at her at night in Yosemite, with a call so loud that native species were completely drowned out. So she decided to lead a 7-year-study (while getting her PHD at UC Davis!) to see if removing the invasive frogs could help populations of the northwestern pond turtle recover.

With western pond turtles being the only native freshwater species in California, the area’s marine ecology depends on their natural cycling of nutrients that benefit all sorts of other species. Yet the non-native bullfrogs appeared to be preying on and threatening the survival of young turtles.

To confirm suspicions, Sidney and a team of scientists gathered research on what happens when thousands of frogs are removed, and found 2-100 times more abundance of turtles, slowly but surely hearing the chorus of native species sounds once again and publishing their results for other sites to learn from their methods.

Join me in thanking these researchers for their efforts, and choosing to protect the northwestern pond turtle!

Corporations are no longer “people” in Hawaii

Corporations in Hawaii can no longer spend unlimited money to sway elections. This was first allowed in a Supreme Court case known as Citizen United that essentially classified corporations as people, but a new Hawaiian Bill makes them the first state to clarify that: no, corporations are artificial entities, and maybe billions of dollars of dark money flowing into elections shouldn’t be allowed. (Michael Sherer|The Atlantic)

New Koala National Park

Back over 100 years ago, koalas were hunted in the millions by the fur industry in Australia, until strong public backlash stopped it in perhaps the nation’s first large collective conservation movement.

But even without directly hunting these amazing animals, their numbers kept decreasing due to development, mining, and forestry that divided and destroyed their home.

So grassroots groups and environmental organizations started a 13-year campaign to create the Great Koala National Park in New South Wales, with many people like Mark Graham facing threats to mind their own business and assaults that the police tried to ignore.

But they never gave up, showing the government the urgency of the situation, plus the economic incentives of ecotourism, until they were finally convinced in 2025 to link together existing reserves and forests connecting 1,900 square miles (5,000 square kilometers).

Yet even with these protections, land owners need to be educated, logging bans need to be enforced, and native trees need to grow back before koalas can use them. But the Indigenous people know it’s possible for humans and koalas, which are sacred to them, to live together in harmony, and are determined to share their knowledge for a unified path forward.

Showing that even when hope is lost, we can win when we come together and stay strong.

NYC home-battery pilot

A program is piloting in New York City with plug-in batteries that can hold enough charge to power air conditioners during high heat and peak demand. This is meant to save grid strain and costs, which is essentially acting like a microwave-sized version of those portable power banks we all have, and they look pretty cool too. (Kiki Sideris|AP)

Locals are beating 37 data centers

A monstrous project of 37 polluting data centers near a historic Civil War site in Virginia is losing to the local residents who oppose it. They sued for the project’s failure to adequately notify the public, which has won in court twice now (a lower court, and an appeals court). This has convinced one of the two developers to drop out, and it isn’t looking good for the other as locals aren’t backing down. (Joe Heim|Washington Post, Nick Paschal|The Cool Down)

Our community took action

svelte11 is growing a fruit hedge for their neighbors to pick from as they walk by!

How are you making the world better?

+ Bonus stories!

🌾 Last week, I talked about No Mow May, where people aren’t mowing their lawns in an effort to increase biodiversity. A reader (thanks, Paul!) graciously pointed out that this isn’t a good solution everywhere, so if you’re curious about your area, here’s more information to start you off.

🎒 Tiny backpacks are helping hedgehogs survive.

🛸 Can we finally bring airships back?

⚡️ BYD amazes again, rolling out electric cars that can charge from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes.

💨 Last year, China also installed three times more wind power than the rest of the world put together.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

I’m back! Welcome to the 20th Friday of the year.

Last week I was in Mexico City, eating amazing food, seeing beautiful architecture, meeting great people, and witnessing the stunning wedding of my friend Anushka and her now-husband Prateek.

Fun fact, Anushka was an original cofounder and cowriter of this newsletter back when it was called Climativity!

It was a beautiful time, but I’m excited to be back in action. Hope you had a good week, and let’s cap it off with some stories of progress:

What’s going right in the world

AI can’t legally replace workers

A court in China ruled that it’s illegal to fire and replace workers with AI just to cut costs, agreeing with a lower court that ruled the same way, which experts say is reassuring for labor rights protections, that hopefully show up in other areas too amidst the world’s widespread AI adoption. (Jennifer Pak|NPR)

59 countries say: goodbye fossil fuels

For the first time, 59 countries agreed to end the production and use of fossil fuels via unique national roadmaps to finally ramp up this new era of clean energy. While the top polluting countries were absent, this coalition represents over half of global GDP and they’re encouraging all nations to join them. (Fiona Harvey & Jonathan Watts|The Guardian)

Indigenous co-owned solar farm

An Indigenous Community was awarded a 50% stake in what will become Ontario’s largest solar farm, letting the Garden River First Nation have real power and a voice in the decision making as well as the economic benefits, training, and jobs associated with the project set to power 40,000 homes. (Alex Flood|CBC)

From incarceration to solar installation

A group of 50 formerly incarcerated, black, and low-income people are now solar installers thanks to a program in Texas called “Vulnerable to Vibrant” which trained, paid, and certified them to get back on their feet and protect their communities, finding a way to rally together to continue the program even after federal funding was cut. (Kamrin Baker|Goodgoodgood, Adam Mahoney|Capital B, BUFTx)

Teens create air filter from corn and coconuts

Two Kenyan teenagers named Fredrick and Miron created a filter to help clean up air pollution out of corn, coconuts, algae, and recycled batteries that traps pollutants from local minibuses called matatus, reducing airborne particles for a third of the cost, which just won them a cash prize and mentorship. (Malavika Vyawahare & Mary Mwendwa|Mongabay)

No Mow May, back again for more

No Mow May is underway for the 9th year, while thousands of people stop mowing their lawns this month to increase biodiversity, letting the underground seeds have a chance to flower and creating a better ecosystem for local birds and pollinators. (Isaaq Tomkins|The Guardian)

My three favorite new species discoveries

An adorable newly discovered jumping spider was discovered in India in a green belt called the Aarey Milk Colony, is just a few millimeters long, and experts believe the variety of these little guys is still underestimated with many more likely to be found in the future.

A flowering plant found in Guangdong, China and I mostly like it because this dissection image that cut it in half looks like a mouth with just a few bottom teeth but it also has really pretty purplish red flowers that turn into really scary looking fruit.

And a leopard gecko was found by researchers on the outskirts of a wildlife sanctuary in a poorly studied Indian plateau. It belongs to a family of geckos that have moveable eyelids and can blink, and the study authors are urging more assessment of the area to help conservation beat out the threats of mining, habitat degradation, and development.

We’ve discovered about 2 million species on Earth but there are millions if not trillions still out there, living alongside us! Much more to come…

Our community took action

🖼️ Betsy Marie is finding discarded materials on their afternoon walks and turning it into stunning artwork.

🌱 Beverly made a greenhouse out of recycled materials and planted hundreds of garden vegetable seeds that have sprouted.

🫵 What about you?

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Welcome to the 18th Friday of 2026! It’s officially May, and I’m on my way to Mexico City for a friend’s wedding. I’m taking the next week off, so no newsletter next Friday (or videos throughout the week), but I’ll be back before you know it!

Our lives are busy and full of noise, so it can be tough to hear and remember the good stuff. Here’s your reminder that it’s still happening all over:

10 stories of progress from April, 2026 (recap)

🎤 The last surviving speaker of a First Nations language called Thiinma started a band at 92 years old to help his culture live on after he’s gone.

🎟️ The parent company of Ticketmaster was ruled to be an illegal monopoly that might have to break up.

🦎 Many species were discovered including a crocodile newt that looks like it can firebend, a flowering herb sticking out a golden tongue, and a spider that uses biomimicry to look like a fungus.

🚫 A surveillance pricing ban on groceries is coming to Maryland as the first US state to block personal data from changing prices.

🌞 A roof tile with flexible solar cells built into it was invented.

🚀 The NASA Artemis II mission successfully sent four astronauts further into space than anyone has gone before.

🚌 Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is set to make buses free for all 10 million residents.

✈️ A fully electric airplane that recharges in half an hour started flying along Scottish mail routes.

📚 A new nature library is opening in Colorado letting people rent gear to get outside like fishing poles, tents, and night vision goggles.

🤝 And our community made a one-of-a-kind bag out of old buttons and their grandma’s dress, started growing their own food to share, learned how to repair their clothes with a tailor.

What was your favorite story from April?

Crash Bandicoot’s real life animal is bouncing back

Yes, Crash Bandicoot, the popular video game character, is a real animal called an eastern barred bandicoot. I also didn’t know this until now. But after being declared extinct in the wild in 1991, 100 are now being released back into the wild.

Here’s how:

Conservationists had a handful of survivors in captivity, but previous attempts to release them failed because of genetic inbreeding, causing something called an “undershot jaw” which makes it harder for them to dig, grasp, and chew food.

So they began a selective breeding program with some from mainland Australia and others from Tasmania, since the populations had been isolated for over 10,000 years, creating far more genetic diversity to strengthen the gene pool.

As the team built up a healthier population of the animals, they developed a new goal for a population of 500 living across five different locations, which increases their resilience and makes it much less likely they’ll be wiped out by their common threats of invasive predators, habitat loss, or climate disaster.

And this huge release is helping more than just the bandicoots, as they naturally dig through 3 tonnes of soil every year which spreads seeds and makes the ground more resistant to floods.

So the next time you play the video game, remember to thank these folks for ensuring the little species is recovering in real life.

+ Bonus stories!

🪧 Amsterdam is officially the world’s first capital city to ban the ads that are the worst for the planet (fossil fuels and meat) starting May 1.

🏷️ Etsy has decided to ban the sale of animal fur on its site starting in August.

💨 The largest clean energy project in the US is officially online and generating power for more than 1 million homes in Arizona and California.

Have a win or good story to share? Join our community chat and let us know!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity!

Welcome back to Friday!

This week, I competed in a climate game show hosted by the iconic Pattie Gonia. I didn’t win this time (mainly due to my inability to twerk), but with nonstop dancing, laughing, and great vibes with new friends, it really reminded me that we need to have more fun together… More game shows and shenanigans, and less panels. Who’s with me?!

I also came across a woman who finds shattered car windows and turns the shards into one of a kind jewelry. I reached out and got to hear more about her story, inspiration, and vision for the future:

Sydney Jones was walking her dog one day when she saw a pile of broken window glass, and since she’d already been experimenting with turning broken bottles into earrings, she wondered if these shards would melt in the same way.

Particularly because over 7 million metric tons of glass ends up in US landfills each year, wasting this material that deserves a second life.

So to turn an unfortunate event into something positive, she started listening in to reports of shattered car windows, known as bipping in the Bay Area, then heading over and sweeping up the rubble with a dust pan.

By bringing the little pieces home, throwing them in a kiln, and heating the glass up until it formed smooth little spheres, she created the perfect beads.

Which ended up becoming her “Street Revival Collection”, each piece uniquely made of reclaimed glass windows and windshields, joining the other Odd Commodity Shop crafts she upcycles like soda bottle candles and wine bottle vases

She told me “she aims to inspire people to repurpose materials that are already made, shift toward a more circular economy, and move away from that cradle to grave mindset.”

It might be a little strange, but maybe this is the future of reusing materials, even if they come from a crime scene?

What’s going right in the world

The beginning of the end for surveillance pricing?

Surveillance pricing, which uses personal data to change the cost of items, is set to be banned in Maryland. This new law would make them the first US state to prohibit using browsing history, location, and shopping behaviors to dynamically price necessities like groceries, in hopefully the first step toward completely banning these deceptive tactics. (Amanda Greenwood|Newsweek)

Songs to save a dying language

92-year-old Peter Salmon is the last surviving speaker of the First Nations language Thiinma (TEEN-mah), and teamed up with linguist and musician Rosie Sitorus to create songs in the language and even form a band to keep the language and his people’s culture alive. (Katherine Smyrk|ABC)

Earth Day 2026

This year for Earth Day, I teamed up with the world’s largest environmental nonprofit to tell their origin story. (Watch our sponsored collaboration post here!) A quick summary:

An old-growth forest living just outside of NYC was set to be destroyed in the 1950s to become suburban homes, until a scientist named Gloria Hollister Anable came across it. To protect life in the Mianus River Gorge, she rallied her neighbors, teamed up with a new group called The Nature Conservancy, sent scientists to document the land, and finally bought the 60 acres and made it accessible for everyone to enjoy.

With 160 preserves now in New York alone (and many more around the world), maybe we should all go together as a group some time soon? Let me know if you’d be interested in a nature social club!

A library aimed at getting you outside

A new nature library is opening up in Colorado which will let people rent gear like fishing poles, tents, and even night vision goggles in their “Tryit Kits” to get people outdoors. They’ll also have 35,000 books on the natural world and programming to learn hands-on from park rangers and interact with animals. (John Wenzel|The Denver Post)

More new species were discovered

First up we have this crocodile newt that looks like it can firebend, found in a roadside pond in China, and is surviving despite a habitat fractured from roads and development. The species has 11 distinct characteristics like only having orange on its tail and finger tips that extend beyond its snout, and it’s in the same genus as another new one found on the border between Vietnam and Laos.

Next up we have this flowering herb with a “golden tongue” found in moist and shady streams running through a forest in India’s Himalayas, which a team of botanists spotted clinging to rocks. It’s unique thanks to its bumpy yellow patch on the lower lip of its petals that I can’t decide if it looks like its mocking us or holding on to some magic powers.

And last but not least is this spiraling soft coral found on a ridge in the deep sea of the Indian Ocean. This is unique since most related species are found in the Atlantic or Pacific, yet researchers in this case discovered three similar ones together that will help increase understanding of the mysterious deep ocean.

Our community took action

🦦 We completed our third Community Mission! If you didn’t watch yet, check out the video and see what we’re funding together, fam.

👛 Becca Ross made a one-of-a-kind bag out of reclaimed materials, using buttons they played with as a kid and their grandma’s old dress.

+ Bonus stories!

• Spell your name (or any word) with real satellite images of Earth thanks to NASA!

• Solar power could be getting a huge tech upgrade.

• Is the future of skyscrapers actually wood?

Have a win or good story to share? Join our community chat and let us know!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Okay, if you disagree, then you have to at least admit they’re in the top 10, right? After spending two days with these fascinating keystone species and getting to break a world record inspired by their unique behaviors, I like them even more…

The story begins back in 2020 during the thick of Covid-19 lockdowns. I was bored and wanted to do something competitive from my room, so I ended up finding the most ridiculous world records and breaking 42 of them.

Fast forward to today, and I had the chance to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, meet their staff, and learn about the best sea otter rescue program in the world. Wanting to make the most of this opportunity, I decided to see if I could break a world record with them too, that somehow helped support their work. This turned into our third Community Mission!

Watch the latest episode to find out how it happened:

Community Mission #3 Impact Report

Your subscriber contributions make these Community Missions & videos possible! Please spread the word, and if you’re not a supporter yet, join our fam to be a part of the next Mission coming soon :)

Here’s the full breakdown of episode 3:

Read more

Over the weekend, I escaped into the woods with my partner. Waking up to birds chirping and trees swaying (and absolutely no honking or screaming) is not what I’m used to in NYC, so it was the perfect reset.

I also got to try out all sorts of fun activities, including cyanotype or sun printing!

We used leaves and flowers plus the power of the sun and some chemical reactions to create artistic prints. It turned out so well that I’m gonna figure out how to recreate it at home! If you’re interested in learning how too, let me know.

And now, enjoy some stories of progress from this week, and have a great weekend!

The scientist using mushrooms to eat toxic pollution

After growing up near a river that caught fire from oil spills and then seeing fungi growing in abandoned factories, scientist Danielle Stevenson connected the dots and started experimenting with mycoremediation (or bioremediation). This uses the natural process of fungi mycelium breaking down and absorbing toxic or dangerous chemicals to clean up polluted lands & waters, and turn them into something safe & useful for the community. Is this the future of cleaning up toxic areas…? (Lauren Oster|Smithsonian, Richard Schiffman|Yale e360)

Watch the full video I made on this for more! (I originally covered this story last year, but thought it was worth re-telling for most of you who haven’t seen it yet.)

Five new species worth knowing

Over 300 new species are discovered every week on average, and here’s five new standouts that are worth learning about:

A spider impersonating a fungus

In 5th we have a spider that impersonates a fungus, which is the first documented case of this type of biomimicry in the world. It was found in the Ecuadorian Andes, and the researchers actually thought it was a cordyceps mushroom until they touched it and it moved.

Fiery flowers

In 4th is this striking orange and yellow flowering plant which was discovered in Laos and had some hollowed out twigs with ants living inside them.

Two very similar songbirds

In 3rd is actually two yellow migratory songbirds found on two different Japanese islands which are quite similar physically but have different birdsong. After testing it was confirmed that they’re genetically distinct too, yet both are likely both vulnerable, partly since island species often go unnoticed.

Cave-dwelling crab with unusually long legs

Our runner-up is this cave-dwelling crab with unusually long legs in Malaysia, which likely belongs to a new genus and gives another reason why these caves must be protected from mining.

A glassfrog from a “hidden world”

Last but not least is this glassfrog that looks like it knows something we don’t. It was found in a “hidden world” along with many other unknown species in Ecuador back in 2017 but it’s now officially described, and likely evolved around 4.5 million years ago.

Which is your favorite?

What else is going right?

🎟️ Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, was found to be an illegal monopoly by a jury, meaning penalties and a potential breakup are on the horizon.

🍟 Norway has banned junk food ads to protect children’s health.

🚌 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s most populous with 14 million people, is making busses free for all.

🦬 Bison that have been released back into the wild in Romania have increased the plant biomass by 30% through grazing, trampling, and spreading seeds.

🌞 Watch out, solar panels. They developed roof tiles that have solar cells build right into them!

Have a win to share? Join our community chat and let us know!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

We’re over a quarter of the way through 2026… do whatever you want with that information :) Now that we’ve passed 10,000 subscribers (!) and started our community chat, I have a quick question to help this newsletter grow and improve.

The goal for The Hopemakers is to become a self-sufficient group of action-takers making the world more solarpunk. Meaning there’s enough value in this newsletter that by consuming more solutions reporting & inspiring stories, you’re also funding our Community Missions which directly contribute to & amplify real-world solutions.

I always want to keep the core of this community free, but if you have a spare 5 seconds, please let me know how I can provide more value that’s worth paying for:

Your answer is greatly appreciated, and feel free to email me any other thoughts you have!

This week’s underrated stories

6. The leading environmental law nonprofit is winning in court

This story is from a paid social media collaboration with Earthjustice. I only partner with those that I truly believe in & want their story to be told. Which is why I’m including it here for more content that you’ll enjoy :)

Sometimes I feel hopeless but then I remember that…

The government tried to open up 400,000 miles of protected waters to commercial fishing, but failed when they got blocked in court.

And then they tried to cancel 600 grants worth $34 million for farmers using sustainable agriculture, until they failed when they got blocked in court.

And then they tried to stop New York City’s congestion pricing despite the data showing its massive success, until, you guessed it, they failed when they got blocked in court.

Plus a toxic facility in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley had to suspend operations, a polluting oil storage tank expansion was forced to stop, a freeze of high-speed electric vehicle charging stations along highways was unfrozen, and hundreds of other lawsuits are currently underway to hold all of these lawless government activities accountable.

Each of these cases plus 150 more are brought by Earthjustice, representing all of their clients completely for free while fighting for the planet. And they’re winning!

Because the best way to counteract our despair and the relentless attacks on our environment is with legal expertise that won’t back down.

By supporting Earthjustice we can help them hire more lawyers and file more lawsuits that protect our home and lives, so join me here and together we can turn our dread into action and victory!

5. 100 old dams were removed

Last year across the US, 100 unsafe dams were removed, each one outdated, falling apart, and no longer serving a practical purpose. This is reconnecting a record 4,893 miles of rivers, allowing fish to swim freely for spawning while lowering flooding risks during storms. (Jessie Thomas-Blate|American Rivers)

4. Coral colony found in the deep sea

A coral colony bursting with life despite living in complete darkness was discovered a few kilometers down in the deep ocean off the coast of Argentina. Researchers are studying around 40 unidentified animals that could be new species, while also testing new ways to safeguard the health of this ecosystem that have never been tried before, like special artificial coral that attracts animals and acts as a home base. (K. R. Callaway|Scientific American)

3. UK money will feature native species

The UK’s banknotes are getting redesigned to feature native wildlife instead of historical figures. This serves the dual purpose of introducing new designs to reduce counterfeits while also raising wildlife awareness, and the featured species to be chosen later this year. (Angela Symons|Euronews)

2. How the world’s best sea otter rescue program happened

Two partnerships in one week?! Yes, it’s true. This is a paid partnership just for social media with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I include these disclaimers to be fully transparent with you, but again, I’m only including this here because it aligns with my normal free content and I’m sure you’ll love it!

After fur traders hunted Southern sea otters to near extinction for their thick pelts, the few remaining in remote areas (around 50 were left in California) were given legal protections as a threatened species.

Then in 1981, a concerned citizen brought a young pup that washed up on the beach to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, three years before it even opened.

Despite the best efforts of the nine staff members, the little one didn’t make it, yet they were determined to keep trying to find new ways to rescue orphaned pups. While researching the remaining wild population’s threats and behaviors, they tried helping an abandoned pup by introducing him to a mother who just lost her own.

And it worked! In time revealing that otters raising otters were more successful than humans raising otters, so they continued this surrogacy program, introducing orphaned pups to non-releasable mothers and bringing 300 back into the wild so far through this and other rescue methods.

Which is not only heartwarming but is also saving many more lives as the otters keep sea urchin populations in check, not letting them gobble up massive underwater kelp forests that are home to many ocean species and reduce the impact of storms on the coast.

These keystone species continue to bounce back and help others, but they are still vulnerable to a number of threats facing our ocean.

So if you love otters as much as I do and want to see them continue to grow and thrive, please join me in signing up for Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Ocean Action newsletter: they’ll alert us at key moments to use our voice on behalf of sea otters and the ocean!

1. Our community took action

🪡 reenee214 is working with a tailor to learn how to repair their own clothing instead of tossing it away for new pieces.

🙌 Liaya is going to finish their AA and apply for university at age 41, now that their kid is grown.

🫵 How about you?

+ Bonus stories

• Reintroduced toucans are dispersed endangered seeds over the Amazon.

• An epic spoof on Lululemon called “Mumumelon” is showing the popular clothing brand (one of my favorites) how they can operate without reliance on fossil fuels.

• Speaking of, at least 46 nations are planning to join a fossil fuel phase out summit later this month.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.

Happy April! Bring on the fleeting rainy days, blooming flowers, and new beginnings.

By the way, we just hit 10,000 subscribers of this newsletter!

I’m blown away as this community continues to grow. We’re elevating underrated stories & underreported solutions, we’re making our own positive impact through monthly community missions, and we’re reframing dread & fear into hope & action.

As promised, I opened up a subscriber-only chat on here so we can share good stories we find while celebrating each other’s wins.

Join the chat, and let’s keep building a better future together!

10 good things you probably forgot happened from March 2026 (recap)

🤝 7.5 million acres of lands and waters or about 7% of California will finally be given back to Indigenous Tribes 175 years after it was promised.

🏞️ No company placed any bids on an Alaskan oil and gas lease sale, showing no interest in destroying the 1 million acres of pristine land.

🎸 A basic income program for 2,000 artists became permanent in Ireland.

🌞 Virginia became the second US state to legalize plug-in balcony solar panels with 24 others working on similar laws for people to easily generate their own power.

🦑 38 new deep sea species were discovered off the coast of Japan, each one more bizarre than the last.

💰 A “millionaire’s tax” passed in Washington state as their first income tax at 9.9% for earnings over $1 million.

🐧 Vulnerable Humboldt penguins won in court again, blocking a huge mine in Chile which would have jeopardized their home and existence.

🇺🇦 Even in the middle of a war, Ukraine has rewilded 45,000 acres of land and waters around Lake Kartal with plants, fish, and birds returning in record numbers.

🧲 A plan to replace 10,000 gas stoves that leak asthma-causing pollutants with induction stoves that heat using magnets is starting in New York City public housing.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 And our community made a free seed board outside their home, went back to college at 35, sprouted 30 keystone species oak trees, and much more…!

This week’s stories of progress

5. What happens when your ideas actually make it out of the group chat

I originally shared this story last year, but it’s one of my favorites, and I thought you all deserved to hear about it again! Jo Leen Yap took an idea from a Facebook Group into real life, using old fire hoses to create bridges that connect tree canopies, allowing dusky langur monkeys to safely cross the road. And it’s working even better than expected! (Instagram)

4. The farthest a human being has ever traveled

Four astronauts are so sick of us that they hopped on a rocket ship and are flying farther away than any human in history! This is NASA’s Artemis II mission heading to the far side of the moon 252,000 miles away, to test equipment for future missions. Unlike this one, those missions coming later on will actually land on the moon for the first time after more than 50 years. (NASA)

3. Sperm whales work together for births

A new study found that sperm whales actually help each other out in ways we previously didn’t know. Researchers observed two female-led groups helping a baby calf being born, lifting and holding the newborn near the water’s surface. No one really knows why, but it’s maybe it’s so they could get a better view of that Artemis II rocket ship taking off? ;) (Jackie Flynn Mogensen|Scientific American)

2. Electric planes start delivering mail

A fully electric plane that recharges in about half an hour is now flying along mail routes in Scotland by using existing runways in a test to see if the mail service can use electric flights to deliver in the UK. (Press Release)

1. Our community took action

🫜 marcaleigh from our community is hurting the feelings of our corporate overlords by growing and making their own food from local ingredients to share and barter.

Let’s keep building towards a solarpunk future, together!

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by hitting reply. Brand illustration by Andrea Miralles. Thanks for helping spread some positivity, and see you next week for more.