June time
Hey fam,
Happy first Friday of June!
This week, I was in California for the Hollywood Climate Summit, an awesome gathering to discuss the intersection of climate & storytelling.
I met a bunch of cool people, learned about bringing movements to the screen, got inspiration for an exciting project (coming soon...), took a driverless taxi (which was really cool but also made me sad), brainstormed some big ideas to reforest the country, and even had time to chill on the beach.
Much more to come... Hope you had a good week!
In today's edition, we're recapping the best stories from May and covering the protection of a native turtle species, right to repair laws, wildlife underpasses, and more...
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May 2025 recap
🌼 Wildflowers began blooming along the Klamath River a year after the dam came down thanks to the Indigenous Yurok tribe’s planting project.
🍱 New York became the 10th state to give free meals to all 2.7 million schoolchildren.
💨 Germany built a wind turbine so massive that a single spin of the rotor powers four homes for a day.
🧑🔬 Community scientists recorded 3.3 million wildlife observations for biodiversity conservation.
🎟️ A US law banning hidden “junk fees” went into effect requiring upfront pricing for events and hotels.
🚄 Africa’s only high-speed rail approved a 270-mile extension in Morocco.
💰 Hawaii set up the first US tourism green fee adding 0.75% onto hotel bookings to protect their natural resources.
🌳 Colombia formalized Indigenous governments in the Amazon, giving self-governing authority over their forests.
🐶 Trained dogs sniffed out 200,000 invasive spotted lantern fly eggs to remove them before they hatch and destroy fruit trees.
🧑🧑🧒🧒 And our community planted 100 native food bearing trees, fixed up and donated thrown out college furniture, bought 5 acres of land and left it alone for the birds, and so much more.
Let's keep the good going in June and beyond, fam!
Tuesday, June 3
🗽 New York City announced a plan to transform dozens of abandoned and empty lots into small parks or playgrounds, giving an initial list of 44 underserved communities in Brooklyn and Queens access to green spaces within walking distance (Liam Quigley|Gothamist, NYC Gov)
🌊 The European union ratified the High Seas Treaty and is encouraging all other nations to do the same, which was agreed upon in 2023 to protect two-thirds of Earth’s oceans that are in international waters, now signed into law by 28 parties and will become legally binding and fully effective at 60 ratifications (EU Oceans and Fisheries)
🌳 A court in Peru recognized the Indigenous Kichwa People's territorial rights to their ancestral land within a protected area in the Amazon rainforest, bringing justice to the community by ruling they must be involved in conservation efforts which should substantially improve them (Steven Grattan|AP)
ChickenWing (from our community) started a garden-to-table program with a nonprofit to help feed their community.
DO SOME GOOD: No matter where you are, demand your leaders ratify the High Seas Treaty now ✍️
Wednesday, June 4
An invasion of bullfrogs that “eat anything that fits into their mouth” nearly took out this adorable native turtle, 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 led 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 marine ecology depends on their natural cycling of nutrients which benefits 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 to 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.
DO SOME GOOD: Watch this episode! 🐢
Thursday, June 5
🧑🔧 Two more states are getting right to repair laws which force manufacturers to make fixing tech easier by providing parts, tools, and documentation for electronics, with Washington’s law starting January 2026 and Texas unanimously passing their bill and just awaiting the governor’s signature (Richard Lawler|The Verge, Jake Goldstein-Street|Seattle Times)
🐸 A new study found wildlife underpasses (which are tunnels under roads) are surprisingly successful at saving the lives of amphibians like frogs, toads, and salamanders, reducing deaths by up to 80% as the little ones use the tunnels instead of crossing over dangerous roads (Cristen Hemingway Jaynes|Ecowatch)
🏝️ A small island nation called Samoa enacted a new plan to sustainably manage 100% of it’s ocean, along with nine marine protected areas which protect habitats and migration routes for humpback whales, with big punishments for violations like illegal fishing (Claire Turrell|Mongabay)
📚 And mayzedayzee (from our community) is keeping books and art alive in their community with their super cool Free Book Trailer.
DO SOME GOOD: Learn your repair rights 🛠️
Bonus!
🌈 Germany's soccer team is installing the world's-first rainbow solar panels.
🐢 How did the turtle cross the road? This new app, apparently.
🏞️ After months of backlash, Florida protects state parks from developments.
🌵 The Colorado hookless cactus is no longer endangered.
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This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. 900,000+ people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com.