More forests, please!
Hey fam,
I'm currently at the 9th American Forest Congress, meeting with and learning from leaders about how we improve & increase forests around the US.
The passion in these rooms, and the amazing stories everyone has, is quite inspiring. Bringing hundreds of people together to come up with a resolution and activate a new era of forests in the nation... sounds pretty good to me.
I'll report back what comes from this week!
In the meantime, enjoy stories about 150 "Bicycle Mayors", new frog species, the sun reaching number 1 in California, the first Indigenous-led ocean reserve, and more...
🤝
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Let's keep building a better world,
Jacob :)
Could half of all city transportation be on bikes? (watch)
🚴 150 Bicycle Mayors across 34 countries are helping bikes take over the world.
Anna Luten started biking on her older sibling’s hand-me-down, eventually becoming a racer, working at a bicycle company, and in 2016, getting appointed as the first Bicycle Mayor in the world at 28 years old!
Started by the nonprofit BYCS to get half of all city trips to be on a bike, she became the face and voice of cycling in her city of Amsterdam, using the symbolic position to represent her community and work with officials, businesses, and everyday people to improve safety, accessibility, and planning so more people could ride.
The successful program expanded to people like:
Maren Ahlers, the Bicycle Mayor of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who noticed no women were signing up for group rides so she started teaching free lessons to hundreds.
Santhana Selvan of Hyderabad, India who organized the first BicycleBus for children to safely ride to school as a group.
Mexico City’s Areli Carréon, who fixes and donates bikes to healthcare workers.
And hundreds more across all continents, as the Bicycle Mayor network continues to grow to make cities “more livable and fit for the future”.
DO SOME GOOD: Check out the Bicycle Mayor program 🚲
Tuesday, July 15 (watch)
🚗 New York City’s congestion pricing has been so effective after just 6 months that it might be the fastest “environmental improvement from any US policy in history”, with 2 million fewer cars per month slashing traffic, pollution, delays, accidents, noise complaints, and tracking to raise $500 million for public transit upgrades (Oliver Milman, Aliya Uteuova|The Guardian)
🐸 Three new frog species have been discovered high up in the isolated mountains of Peru, thanks to a team hiking moss-filled trails for three years looking for amphibian life, and finding these three on a cliffside, near a mountain stream, and nestled in a flowering plant (Kristine Sabillo|Mongabay)
☀️ Areas that had no electricity 5 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo have successfully connected a solar-powered minigrid to cheaply and cleanly power water treatment, internet service, and streetlights in a model that could be scalable around the country (Tammy Webber, Justin Kabumba, Moses Sawasawa|AP)
🏖️ Community win: nicoarg_52 has been having fun cleaning up plastic from beaches in Maui and thankfully, not finding too much litter!
DO SOME GOOD: Learn more about mini-grids 🔌
Wednesday, July 15 (watch)
🦌 Researchers exploring a remote area of Chile that will soon become Cape Froward National Park found ten rare huemul deer known for their large ears, short legs, and thick fur, allowing the team from Rewilding Chile to collect rare data to help strengthen protections (Daniel Graham|Discover Wildlife)
🚽 The number of public restrooms in New York City is doubling to 2,120 thanks to a city council measure that just became law after 30 days of inaction by the mayor, while 50 new public drinking fountains will be added across the five boroughs as well (Samir Ferdowsi|Gothamist)
☀️ Solar power is now California’s largest source of electricity for the past year, since its popularity continues to increase as it becomes cheaper, more reliable, and more battery storage gets built, making gas lose its spot at number 1 (John Fitzgerald Weaver|PV Magazine)
🪴 Community win: gracemcoleman spent 2 years as a ceramics instructor saving 2,000 pounds of clay for students to reuse.
DO SOME GOOD: Support Rewilding Chile 🇨🇱
Protecting our oceans, the way we have for millennia (watch)
🌊 The first-ever Indigenous-led international ocean reserve was announced to safeguard 2.3 million square miles of ancestral island nation waters the size of the Amazon Rainforest.
For thousands of years, the Indigenous Peoples of a region known as Melanesia, in the Pacific Ocean near Australia, have used their wisdom to protect some of the most biodiverse water and land on Earth, home to 75% of known coral species, 7% of frog species, and at least 3,000 plants found nowhere else.
So the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu governments teamed up to create a plan, elevating their Indigenous knowledge and stewardship to protect against overfishing, pollution, and extraction or exploitation of resources without concern for the planet.
The Melanesian Ocean Reserve will span the combined waters of the two nations plus Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, giving an unprecedented voice to Oceanic Peoples and an ability to care for the ocean in the way they’ve known is right for generations.
And while the final details are still being discussed, they’ll only permit activities consistent with planet-friendly values and Indigenous culture, showing we can come together across borders to uplift underrepresented voices and protect our planet.
DO SOME GOOD: Learn more about this exciting Ocean Reserve 🐟
What else?
🧑⚖️ There have now been at least 2,967 lawsuits filed across 60 countries on climate science, policy, and law.
🦊 Switzerland has banned the import of furs "that involve cruelty to animals".
🐦 Rare birds are thriving and breeding in Germany's solar parks.
🍂 Volunteers are removing invasive plants in Prospect Park AKA "Brooklyn's Backyard" (my favorite park in NYC!)
Spread this breath of fresh air🪴
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This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. Over 1 million people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com. See you next week for more :)