no. 126: Six weeks left in '24

Hey fam,

How ya doing?

Another week come and gone. Only 6 left until 2025...!

A few quick personal wins to report:

• The good news videos I share on TikTok got a feature by the legendary brothers Hank and John Green in their newsletter (as pointed out to me by my brother)!

• Thursday night, I gave a presentation on 'The Social Media Solution to Climate Anxiety' to the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment (HACE) and Harvard Alumni for Mental Health (HAMH) in NYC, where I explained tactics to reduce doomscrolling and finding community through social media. Big shoutout to everyone reading this for being a part of the fam 💚
• I won an award! The proceeds will help scale, improve, and increase good news and stories of progress. While it's confidential for now, I'll let you know more about it in a few weeks :)

But enough about me, here are dozens of more things going right from the week:

Friday, November 8

🛰️ NASA just released the most stunning photos of the planet Jupiter that humanity has ever seen, taken by the solar-powered Juno spacecraft and actually only made possible thanks to citizen scientists who helped process the raw data of the largest planet in our solar system (Margherita Bassi|Smithsonian)

🦌 A critically endangered baby bongo antelope was just born in the UK which is not only adorable but also critical to the species survival as only 100 remain in the wild so this little guy could someday help repopulate and secure their future (Harriet Heywood|BBC)

🌳 A 1.38 million-acre protected area called the Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park has been established in Brazil to safeguard the tallest trees ever found in the Amazon rainforest including an Angelim Vermelho tree standing over 290 feet tall (Andes Amazon Fund)

❤️‍🩹 And today’s community win comes from Reddy M whose grandmother is now cancer free.

Monday, November 11

⛏️ Minecraft teamed up with The Nature Conservancy to create Minecraft National Park, an interactive map to experience the diverse natural world within the game with park rangers teaching players about habitats and proceeds funding real world conservation like wildlife crossings over busy roads (The Nature Conservancy, Minecraft)

🌱 Instead of neatly groomed grass lawns, nonprofit Crop Swap LA is successfully transforming front yards into gardens or microfarms that use 98% less water and bring fresh fruits and veggies to communities that often lack access to them, in a huge win-win for people and the planet (Cara Buckley|NYT)

🐦 The red-cockaded woodpecker found in Texas is no longer endangered after 54 years thanks to a conservation effort including better forest management and relocation to increase the gene pool, which has raised bird numbers enough to downlist the species to threatened (Ariana Garcia|Chron)

🪵 And today’s community win comes from speh.paul who’s repurposing wood and lumber that would end up in the trash to instead create frames for artwork.

Tuesday, November 12

🏥 When patients couldn’t afford electricity to power their breathing assistance machines, Dr. Anna Goldman from the Boston Medical Center launched a program which installed 519 rooftop solar panels and split the energy with 80 patients to help pay their utility bills and protect their health (Martha Bebinger|WBUR)

🦜 36 wild animals were rescued from the illegal pet trade, rehabilitated, and returned to their natural habitat in the Guatemalan jungle thanks to collaboration between NGOs that are combating the capture of wild animals and this time saved falcons, owls, coatis, and opossums (Karen Lapizco|WAN)

🚌 Students from 50 schools in 11 countries launched a coalition to pressure their High schools into ending fossil fuel investments and instead put their money into clean energy which is working, with recent wins in California and Seattle adding to the 260 schools divesting so far (Aliya Uteuova & Dharna Noor|The Guardian)

❤️‍🩹 And today’s community win comes from Katelyn who completed their Master’s in Health Administration and will work to restructure health care systems for the better.

Wednesday, November 13

👁️ Vision has been restored in four patients thanks to a world-first stem cell treatment that took blood cells from a healthy donor, reprogrammed then, and transformed them into a thin lens which was applied to damaged corneas and after two years the treatment had no severe side effects in anyone (Smriti Mallapaty|Nature, The Lancet)

🗑️ New York City’s trash-lined sidewalks will now be a thing of the past since new rules are officially in effect that require the use of secure containers for residential buildings with nine or fewer units which is about 88% of buildings across the city’s five boroughs or face written warnings and then fines (Liam Quigley|Gothamist)

🦬 Indigenous Nations across Canada are reintroducing buffalo to their native prairie habitats to restore this majestic keystone species that will substantially improve the ecosystem by spreading seeds and fertilizing soil while reconnecting these communities to their ancestral traditions (Kayla MacInnis|The Narwhal)

💍 And today’s community win comes from MagicalGirlMira who just got engaged.

Thursday, November 14

🦜 Crowds of people traveled to a small village in the UK called Shelf to spot a rare bird called the scarlet tanager that has likely never before been seen in the area, with immense excitement by these bird watchers who traveled hundreds of miles and waited for hours just to get a glimpse of this 1 ounce yellowish-green female (Elizabeth Baines|BBC)

🇧🇷 Brazil announced a plan to restore a massive 30 million acres of degraded land called the Planaveg 2.0 initiative which aims to further protect the most biodiverse country on Earth by regrowing and caring for half of their degraded land area (Shanna Hanbury|Mongabay)

🦠 While we absolutely should never try this at home, badass scientist Beata Halassy treated her own stage 3 breast cancer with viruses she grew in her lab that attacked the cancer cells and boosted her immune response and she’s now focusing on similar cancer treatments in domestic animals (Zoe Corbyn|Nature)

🦅 And today’s community win comes from breadofbasket who is officially earning their Eagle Scout rank after 11 years of dedication and commitment to improving society.

What else?

⚡️ A new nonprofit is empowering communities to get clean energy,

🌊 The North Atlantic's largest protected marine area has been approved,

🚗 Congestion pricing in NYC still has a chance!

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