no. 119: The start of New York Climate Week

It's the start of New York Climate Week, one of the busiest weeks of the year full of lots of great events, conversations, and hopefully, progress.

The end of today's newsletter has more info on what NYCW is and which events I'll be at, but it really is quite cool that thousands of people and organizations converge to chat about how we can make the planet better.

Ideas that are a continuation of the great stories I cover for you each week!

So enjoy all the progress I was able to find, and have a fantastic weekend.

Progress from Monday, September 16

The lives of 154 million children around the world have been saved over the past 50 years thanks to more access and use of vaccines, with the biggest protection from the measles, according to a massive new global study (Hannah Ritchie|Our World in Data)

The Hague just became the first city in the world to ban ads that promote fossil fuels and polluting activities like air travel which continues a massive trend after the UN Secretary General called for the end of these ads and over 1,000 agencies have signed the Clean Creatives pledge to decline fossil fuel work (Cagan Koc|Bloomberg)

A frog that was listed as “possibly extinct” since no scientist had seen it since 1922 was just rediscovered by a team of biologists in the Ecuadorian Andes Mountains which will strengthen their cause to protect the degraded forest (Humberto Basilio|Natgeo)

And today’s community win comes from dalton_beckman whose treatment for lyme disease and a brain tumor are finally working after 3 years of doctors visits

Progress from Tuesday, September 17

60,000 new upgraded US Postal Service vehicles are hitting the road that are strange, whimsical, and better in almost every way, being tall to prevent the need to hunch over and equipped with airbags, backup camera, and air conditioning for the first time (David Sharp & Ron Harris|AP)

Part of the ocean has been granted legal personhood status for the first time after a new law from Linhares, Brazil declared its waves have the right to exist, regenerate, and be restored, making the city clean up toxic waste and consider the waves in future decisions (Isabella Kaminski|Hakai Magazine)

A local fishing community in Finland successfully restored a stretch of barren land into a species-filled peatland that brought back at least 200 species and prevents the land from decomposing or releasing harmful emissions (Becca Warner|BBC)

And today’s community win comes from neutronsmom who’s maintaining a garden full of native plants that attract and feed stunning pollinators

How to protect the biggest trees in the US

If there’s magic in this world, it lives in old growth forests with trees as tall as city buildings, but how can we prevent these from being chopped down for profit?

My friend Alex visited the communities they’re growing in to find out, and it turns out our best chance is only possible for the next few days.

I’m always looking for stories of progress and watched the Crown Jewels documentary where Alex and his team traveled for 11 months to explore some of the 80 million acres of mature and old growth forests that span almost every US state. He chatted with locals who depend on the trees for their ways of life, safety, and health to build on over 500,000 people that sent the US Forest Service a letter last year asking them to protect these oldest and most beneficial trees for forest species, us, and the planet overall.

And after a lot of pressure, the Forest Service officially asked the public if they should end commercial logging of these trees.

"As of today 211,612 have sent letters. Combining that with last year means people have taken action to protect these forests over 740,000 times - that’s continued participation over multiple years and we’ve seen the government respond well to big numbers in public comment periods before, so every person that writes in genuinely does make a difference," Alex explained.

Progress starts with us, but we only have until September 21st before they review the letters and make a decision!

The Green Guide to NYC by Imagine5

*I made this video post/vlog as a part of a paid collaboration. Posting in this newsletter wasn't a part of the partnership, but I really liked making this piece and highlighting local planet-friendly spots so I figured I'd include it anyways for you!

A map showing planet-friendly spots in New York City just dropped, and as someone who walks around the city every day, I decided to report today's good news while visiting a few:

☕️ First up was Artshack, a plastic-free cafe where everything’s served on pottery they made in their own ceramics studio, a great way to end single-use plastic cups which also just happened in all of Taiwan's 22 cities as they also push for reusables instead.

📚 Then I headed to a used book store and bar called Molasses Books to pick up a physical Green Guide, and if you don’t live near a used book store yourself, a new platform just launched called Bookloop where you can still support local by trading in your titles for credit.

🍔 Seasoned Vegan Real Quick jumped out at me for lunch so I hopped on a Citi Bike which could soon cost the same as a subway ride in New York City to encourage more biking if a new piece of legislation gets approved.

🌲 I ended at Madison Square Park to read my new book in the trees and while this green oasis has been here since 1847, other cities are now addressing environmental inequality too like Louisville, Kentucky’s tree planting project in low-income neighborhoods which a study just found lowered inflammation in residents by up to 20%. 

My guide to New York Climate Week

I polled you all on Instagram, and 84% of you don't know what New York Climate Week is!

But I'm here for you.

Aside from being the busiest week of the year for me, it’s one of the largest annual gatherings of people & organizations focused on making the planet better, with thousands of events held at the same time as the UN General Assembly which focuses more on policy. (In other words it's a giant week-long climate-themed party).

And since there are so many things going on at the same time, I figured I’ll tell you about some of the events I'm going to in case you're gonna be in NYC!

Starting today actually (Friday, September 20) is a huge youth-led fossil fuel strike that had 75,000 people take to the streets last year to demand the phase out of fossil fuels.

Then Saturday, my friend AY is performing a free concert in Times Square that’s entirely powered by renewable energy, which I’ll be briefly speaking in.

Sunday is the last day of the Climate Film Festival with dozens of screenings covering all sorts of environmental topics and as a bonus I’m co-hosting a dinner with some really great people and organizations that I’ll document and share with y’all next week

Monday night is a giant party at Brooklyn Paramount by Climate Tech Cocktails that apparently has 2,500 people coming

Tuesday I’m speaking about Careers in Climate Media at the Nest Campus which is sort of the main stage of the week

Wednesday I’m chatting about the Content Creator Revolution with the Earth Public Information Collaborative before hanging out at Hope House for the rest of the day 

Thursday’s another fun night with the Earth Disco at The Public Hotel

Friday I plan on sleeping all day to recover :)

And one of my favorites is on Saturday called Marketplace of the Future, inspired by the world’s fair which I got a sneak peak of where I’ll be chatting with Clean Path New York on how to involve the public in renewable energy projects.

Hope to see you at some of these, but what do you have going on?

Bonus stories

🌱 The "plant messiah" is saving plants of all sizes

🧑‍🌾 Ever heard of agroforestry?

⚡️How California is switching from gas to electric.

This 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