no. 116: Say goodbye to August
Hey friend,
Yep, you read that subject line right, August is coming to a close. You may have missed it if you blinked, but we're about to enter the 9th month of 2024.
September is home to a lot of exciting happenings, perhaps most prominently in this world is New York Climate Week.
Last year I co-hosted a walking tour of some Manhattan offices of the world's biggest greenwashers, was kicked out of the main event programming for some light protesting (their threats to ban us for life from the venue didn't come true though 😄), and attended what felt like a thousand happy hour events with a million awesome people.
This year will be even bigger and better! Stay tuned for more info coming soon.
And in the meantime, enjoy some of the best stories of progress I found this week...
Good news report - Monday, August 26
Ying Ying has become the oldest panda to give birth for the first time at 19 years old, birthing twins in Hong Kong who both weigh just 4 ounces and were naturally conceived which is often a challenge for pandas (Ocean Park Hong Kong)
97% of US electricity capacity built this year has been carbon-free sources like solar, batteries, wind, and nuclear, which should end up about doubling the previous record if developers follow through on planned projects (Dan McCarthy|Canary Media)
Apparently healthy soil sounds like ‘an underground rave concert of bubbles and clicks’ according to university ecologists who developed a method of listening and monitoring soil health and the 59% of species that live beneath the ground (Cristen Hemingway Jaynes|Ecowatch & Flora Graham|Nature)
Our community win comes from Molly who’s in a clinical trial for a vaccine against stage 4 liver cancer that seems to be working.
How did this National Park end elephant poaching?
2023 marked the first year with no elephant poaching in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, but it wasn’t by accident.
Established in 1993, the stunning park now covers 4,334 square kilometers of pristine wilderness. But criminals have hunted elephants for their ivory each year… until now.
Thanks to extensive training for 90 'ecoguards' on defense, professionalism, and the law, as well as a health center & school to educate the next generation, they're in a better situation than ever.
But the park’s director cites the biggest factor being that almost all of these brave defenders are from local villages near the park which gives them extra familiarity, wisdom, and motivation to protect it.
The Wildlife Conservation Society and Ministry of Forest Economy co-manage the park and their years of efforts are moving in the right direction when they detected no elephants killed for the first time since they began collecting data, largely thanks to the power of a local community coming together.
📰: Wildlife Conservation Society
Good news report - Wednesday, August 28
National Parks in the US just received their largest grant in history, with $100 million going towards improving conservation, accessibility, and telling a more accurate history of their lands to improve the parks for 320 million annual visitors (Joe Hernandez|NPR)
A new study found that zig zag walls could keep a building substantially cooler and reduce air conditioning energy by up to 14%, which could be retrofitted onto existing walls to help deal with extreme heat (Adele Peters|Fast Company)
10,000 survivors of climate-driven disasters and their loved ones sent a letter to the US Department of Justice urging an investigation into Big Oil for knowing about the dangers they create since the 1950s and spending billions to mislead the public, building on a wave of lawsuits against climate crimes (Public Citizen)
And our community win comes from itsjokenotrich who normalized mental health days at work for those who need a break to destress
Good news report - Thursday, August 29
After vandals poisoned and destroyed trees to likely get a better view, Australian councils put up giant signs that completely block the view until the vegetation grows back in a beautiful instance of karma which also educates the community and helps catch these criminals (Earthly Education; Sunshine Coast Council)
Areas of Brooklyn are fighting future floods by getting permeable pavement installed which absorbs a lot of rainwater, letting it flow through into the ground instead of overflowing sewers or subways to make New York City more spongy and resilient (Valeria Morales-Soto|Reasons to be Cheerful)
Yuna is the first of five lions to arrive at The Big Cat Sanctuary in the UK after being rescued from the war in Ukraine and traveling 1,400 miles to safety while the sanctuary builds homes for Vanda, Amani, Lira, and Rori (WAN)
And our community win today is dancing_sunsets who proved themselves wrong by becoming an art instructor in LA
Good news report - Friday, August 30
If your boss texts you after hours, you now have a legal right to ignore them without being punished, if you live in Australia thanks to a new “right to disconnect” law focused on work-life balance, with fines up to nearly 100,000 Australian dollars for company violations (João da Silva|BBC)
The world’s most valuable toy is changing forever as LEGO announced they’re only using recycled and renewable materials by their 100th anniversary in 2032, which they say won’t change retail prices as they cover the cost to try to push the industry in the right direction (Sarah Butler|The Guardian)
One in nine students now attends a solar-powered school in the US which quadrupled in the past decade which is saving these schools money and letting them reinvest into better community education (Generation180)
Community win: _lanikari commented and told us their homeland of Taiwan banned euthanizing animals in shelters back in 2017
DO SOME GOOD: Tell us your community win in a comment on this post or social media to spread more stories of progress and to be featured!
Bonus stories
🌞 They're putting solar panels on abandoned mines
🌳 My friend Alex made a stunning documentary on the world's biggest trees and how we can protect them
✌️ Coal in the UK is effectively dead
🤤 Food banks are saving food from landfills and substantially reducing emissions
Spread this breath of fresh air🪴
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Support good news & independent publishingThis newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. 700,000+ people are in our community replacing dread & fear with hope & action across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and now YouTube. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com
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