Did anything good happen in the world this week? (May 15)
Hey fam,
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.