This week's good news: the only spotless giraffe, Ecuador votes out Big Oil & the tree of the year
Hey, you. What a week!
Since the last time we talked, I had one of the best weekends in memory as my sister got married in a love-filled and perfect wedding in Chicago (as I gained another brother!).
Then, over the week I moved forward with some exciting New York Climate Week plans, a weeklong climate gathering in NYC which you should definitely attend if you're in the area September 17-24. More to come on the events I'll be at/in shortly!
I also started watching Tiny World, one of the most fascinating nature docuseries I've ever seen. Appropriately named, it focuses on the very small animals and insects that often go entirely unnoticed. The footage is insane. And it's narrated by Paul Rudd. I'm only two episodes in, but I highly recommend it.
But not as highly as I recommend you sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy this week's good news!
The good from Friday, August 18
Wildlife corridors continue to pop up around the world that allow animals to safely cross busy roads and prevent vehicle collisions.
13 trees are in the running to become the UK’s tree of the year, each hundreds of years old with fascinating stories, and we can all vote for the winner chosen in October.
$150 million is now dedicated to Washington State Ferries to convert their three largest vessels from diesel to hybrid electric power and dramatically reduce emissions by 95%.
Homes in the UK installed more heat pumps and solar panels in the first half of the year than ever before, with 17,000 homes installing solar every month.
Btw, there's no crown today because the winner of today's episode was my sister getting married <3
The good from Monday, August 21
đź‘‘ Ecuadorians just voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, forcing the state oil company to dismantle operations and leave the beautiful 2.5 million acres alone.
Tilos, Greece has become the world’s first zero-waste island with completely renewable energy and fully eliminating trash cans and landfills, by repairing or reusing almost everything and turning the rest into raw art supplies or building materials.
Mexico just created 13 new protected areas of nature, bringing their total up to 200 places where plants and animals within the country will be left unharmed.
A woman has turned her home into a hummingbird hospital, with about 60 injured, orphaned, or sick hummingbirds visiting every day as she nurses them back to health in Mexico City.
The good from Tuesday, August 22
👑 The world’s only spotless giraffe was born in a zoo in Tenessee that’s having a contest to name her right now and hopes the publicity will help with global giraffe conservation.
The 10-day annual Plastic Cup competition in Hungary just concluded with the winners filling 254 bags of garbage by hand and since 2013 the competition has collected 727,000 pounds of waste from Hungarian waters.
WindWings, which are giant 123-foot mechanical sails made from the same materials as wind turbines, have been deployed on a ship for the first time and are said to cut fuel and shipping emissions by about 20%.
Surprisingly, Sweden’s wine industry is starting to flourish due to warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, creating mostly high-end whites that have won multiple international competitions.
The good from Wednesday, August 23
If you think one person can’t make a difference, this will prove you wrong. Archaeologist Niéde Guidon fought for 50 years to preserve Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park full of prehistoric cave art, while developing local communities, and boldly challenging our understanding of the first humans in the Americas, facing backlash at the time yet wider acceptance today.
An Australian bird expert has been reintroducing the northern bald ibis to Europe 400 years after they were driven away by literally flying alongside them in an ultralight aircraft to steer their migration along a safe route.
👑 Brazil continues to prove they’re serious about ending deforestation by enacting a series of intense operations with 9 helicopters full of armed men and women raiding and destroying illegal mining equipment and driving out criminal groups on protected indigenous territories.
Montana has yet another major win as a judge halted a 95,000-acre logging project that failed to account for its impacts on the climate and a local group of grizzly bears.
The good from Thursday, August 24
40 animals spanning 14 different species including Kinkajous, Anteaters, and Howler Monkeys were rescued from illegal trafficking, rehabilitated, and just released in a National Park in Guatemala.
Non-fossil fuel energy sources like solar and wind will create an impressive 86% of new electric grid capacity in the US this year.
"Tiny forests” are on the rise around the world consisting of a few thousand native plants and trees on areas sometimes as small as basketball courts that reclaim and transform dusty highway shoulders, parking lots, and junkyards.
Over 1 million people in Paris have gone to a “Climate Fresk” which is a trendy workshop that teaches the scientific basics of global warming while highlighting possible solutions, which has now been translated into 50 languages and is educating hundreds of thousands of people abroad too.
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See you again soon,
Jacob
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