Week 166 of reporting good news you haven't heard...
Which NY Climate Week events I'm going to, plus 22 stories of progress from this week!
Hey fam,
Every time I open social media recently, my mood almost immediately tanks. I’m sure I’m not the only one. The negativity is loud, abundant, and effective.
But if we’re gonna keep standing up for what’s right and fighting for a better future, let’s also take some time to remember good stuff is still happening too. Lots of progress from this week coming at you in a moment, but before we dive in…
Next week is New York Climate Week! In case you’ll be in town, here’s a quick recap of some of the NYCW events I’ll be at this year:
Sunday, Sep 21:
🎬 Climate Film Festival (I’m in a panel at 3:30pm about using stories to build movements!)
Monday, Sep 22:
🎤 Climate Film Festival’s Narrative Change Summit (I’ll be MCing and introducing panels from noon-3:45pm!)
Tuesday, Sep 23:
📰 Associated Press (AP) panel series (I’ll be in a panel at 11:00am about climate content creation!)
Wednesday, Sep 24:
💼 Green Jobs Pavilion (I’m speaking at 4:00pm about building your own climate job!)
Thursday, Sep 25:
🧑🧑🧒🧒 Clinton Global Initiative
Friday, Sep 26:
😴 Sleeping ;)
Saturday, Sep 27:
Hope to see you all at something! And now, enjoy your weekly drop of what’s going right in the world…
[BTW, if you want to support this work and help me tell more stories that replace dread with hope & action while elevating everyday heroes, you can upgrade your membership <3]
Monday, September 15
🐘 The last captive elephant in Argentina was just released as the nation closes down their zoos, with the 13,000 pound beauty named Kenya being the final one to move from living alone in a zoo to now exploring thousands of wild acres across an elephant sanctuary in Brazil (María de los Ángeles Orfila|National Geographic)
🏢 Boston has been converting abandoned office buildings into affordable homes with the first residents just moving in, thanks to a program offering tax incentives to convert these spaces which is helping use these empty spaces so thousands of locals can find housing (Kamrin Baker|GoodGoodGood)
☀️ The first canal covered by solar panels in California was just completed, which will create clean power without taking up any more land and should help both the panels be more efficient and the canals retain more water, which will now be tested to see if it can scale (Maria Gallucci|Canary Media)
Wednesday, September 17
🐟 A mesmerizing and kinda cute looking snailfish is one of three newly discovered species two miles underwater near California’s Monterey Canyon, with this bumpy snailfish plus the dark snailfish and sleek snailfish adding to the 300 deep sea species found by MBARI’s technology and team (MBARI)
🌞 Over 400 events are now planned for one of the biggest-ever celebrations of clean energy called Sun Day which is just a few days away on September 21st, where people all over the country and the world are coming together to build on the momentum that solar energy has and demand much more. If you don’t wanna have FOMO, join an event near you (I’m a Sun Day Partner, look for an event near you and I’ll see you at the celebrations!)
🛶 A man named Sam Shoemaker just traveled over 26 miles of open waters on a kayak made from mushrooms (more specifically, the root like structure of fungi called mycelium), marking the world’s longest journey of its kind from Catalina Island to San Pedro, once again proving how amazing fungi can be (Lisa Kwon|The Guardian)
Thursday, September 18
🪸 A new community science project is having people with aquariums at home send coral samples to researchers who are studying all the unique environments each aquarium has to better understand what causes coral disease or resilience, making their Project ReefLink data open source to let anybody help fight against threats (Kristin Toussaint|Fast Company)
🍬 Ultra processed foods are set to be banned from school meals in California per a new law swapping out foods full of additives, thickeners, stabilizers, sweeteners, dyes, and fats for more natural meals that will still be free for students across the state (Cecilia Nowell|The Guardian)
🐴 For the first time in about 10,000 years, wild horses have returned to central Spain, with 35 Przewalski’s horses now helping combat wildfires by eating tall grasses that many other animals can’t, transforming the landscape back towards a healthy state with more biodiversity (Jeremy Hance|Mongabay)
Community Wins
🌱 Leah has been helping organizations collect native seeds to restore their local prairies.
🇨🇺 langkaspam is studying abroad in Cuba and donating high-need items like school supplies and healthcare products to give back by leaving the country better than when they arrived.
🧣 aliverastyle is running a small business that rescues clothing from landfills and uses all natural fibers.
🌸 melguizovski.a let us know about a beautiful new orchid species just discovered in Colombia that’s found nowhere else on earth.
🌷 JellieGHope let their yard grow out or “go wild” and planted flowers to provide habitat for native species.
🧵 lazydaybakery made their renaissance faire costume with materials they already owned or got secondhand to prevent waste.
📖 Liz Gotauco has a library reading program that saw an increase in participating kids for the first time in four years.
💻 Peaceblast3r has been buying exclusively used electronics for years.
🧶 Charlie is making clothes for their local hospital, including hats, socks, and gloves.
👶 Rebecca Clinite chose almost all secondhand items for her baby including clothes, toys, books, and furniture.
What’s your story? 👆
What else?
🪫 Could car batteries actually be recycled?
🦎 New gecko just dropped, and they sound like… a thousand bouncing marbles?
☀️ Bordeaux, France is aiming to “solarize everything”.
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. Main illustration by Andrea Miralles.
See you next week for more!
You news thrills me every week and I always share it! Thank yiut