Can we agree on anything?

Hey fam,

What a week! I'm currently in DC coming off a partnership where I spent the day documenting 100 meetings with lawmakers to keep clean energy tax benefits in the budget (more on this below). It also rained all day but right when I started filming my video, the sky parted and the sun came out... I think that's a good sign.

This week features a recap of February's best stories before diving into what went right this week including National Park protests all around the country, better Mardi Gras beads that double as plants, a superpod of 2,000 dolphins spotted by chance, and so much more...

February 2025's best stories (watch here)

For the first and only time it was February 2025, and here's just a few things I reported that went right...

🍳 France voted to stop making or selling PFAs in non-essential products, a harmful forever chemicals that doesn't break down(France24)

🐅 India’s tiger population increased to 3,600 now living alongside locals who are protecting the iconic big cats (Soutik Biswas|BBC)

🌊 Hundreds of small dams were removed in the Northeastern US to restore flowing rivers, (Lela Nargi|Yale e360)

🍄 Swiss researchers 3D printed a battery made from fungi that decomposes when its out of power (Rupendra Brahambhatt|Interesting Engineering)

🚫 A UK court overturned its biggest undeveloped oil field after massive public opposition, ruling the proposal was illegal (StopRosebank)

⛰️ The Taranaki Maunga mountain in New Zealand was unanimously recognized as a legal person, gaining better protections for this ancestor to the Indigenous Māori people (Charlotte Graham-McLay|AP)

🐢 Over 20,000 threatened animals were rescued in a huge coordinated wildlife trafficking countdown called Operation Thunder across 138 countries (Mongabay)

💨 The first wind turbine made of wood started testing as a cheaper and less wasteful alternative (Jason Ross|Woodcentral)

🦬 540 more buffalo returned to their ancestral homeland in the US thanks to an Indigenous-led program (Marnie Cook|Native Sun)

🚄 The first high speed train line in Canada moved forward to the planning stage (Peter Zimonjic, Mathieu Prost, Stéphane Bordeleau|CBC)

And last but not least our community:

🏡 Turned their property into an open-source homeless shelter, 📞 overcame phone anxiety to call their elected officials, 🌱 built a veggie greenhouse out of salvage yard windows, and so much more.

People all over the world are still building a better future. Let's keep it going, fam!

Monday, March 3 (watch here)

🪧 I escaped into two stunning National Parks last week and came back to learn that 433 protests across all National Park sites took place and are still going on, standing up for the 4,400 illegally fired rangers, scientists, firefighters, first responders, and crews...

... Thousands of people were and are standing together to demand justice, protect our public lands from resource extraction, and remind elected officials that just 0.15% of the Federal Budget spent on these parks helped 325 million visitors in 2023 alone generate $55.6 billion in economic output that supported 400,000 jobs (Resistance Rangers)

🇺🇳 150+ countries just gathered to finalize a UN agreement to dedicate $200 billion a year to protect 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 (Steven Grattan & Sibi Arasu|AP)

🧑‍⚖️ At least 95 lawsuits have been filed against the current US administration with 35 already pausing various initiatives across pretty much every category you can think of (NYT, Just Security)

🗑️ Chase145_ (from our community) has been picking up trash in their local park for 2 years and seeing a significant reduction in litter.

Tuesday, March 4 (watch here)

🎭 In honor of Mardi Gras, two students named Alexis and Lauren invented a better version of those iconic purple, green, and gold beads using bio-based 3D printing with seeds embedded in the necklaces that look awesome, can be planted after use, and will help with faster breakdown in soil (Kamrin Baker|GoodGoodGood, LSU)

🔭 NASA is about to launch a new telescope aimed at uncovering the secrets behind the formation of the universe and how galaxies grew across cosmic history, capturing the entire sky in unprecedented color, and searching for water and the other essential ingredients for life across our galaxy (Deanne Fisher|The Conversation)

🔋 Some of the hundreds of thousands of abandoned coal mines around the world are getting repurposed into “gravity batteries”, where heavy weights generate power as they drop into the mine shaft, giving the empty holes a second life as renewable energy storage without needing big new construction (Natasha Khullar Relph|Reasons to be Cheerful)

🧑‍🦯 Elpida (from our community) convinced their municipality to put up safety bollards that prevent drivers from parking on guiding paths used by people who are blind.

Wednesday, March 5 (watch here)

🐬 When a 4-hour whale tour only came across one whale, they decided to stay out a little longer and ended up finding a superpod of more than 2,000 dolphins, with so many that the Monterey Bay water looked like it was boiling, likely caused by an abundance of food in the area, once again reminding us how many amazing creatures we share this planet with (Sara Ruberg|NYT)

🧪 530 alternatives to harmful forever chemicals called PFAs have been published in an open database, to help protect our health by ending these substances often used for waterproofing and stain resistance, with researchers finding alternatives for 40 use cases so far (Paige Bennett|Ecowatch)

🏞️ A planned airport near Toronto has been scrapped and will instead become a protected park after decades of backlash from citizens and Indigenous leaders who fought to protect the precious natural land and won, with the Rouge National Urban Park likely absorbing it (Emma McIntosh|The Narwhal)

🚌 usertaylor444 (from our community) is teaching elementary and middle school students how to grow their own food.

Thursday, March 6 (watch here)

*This was a paid collaboration just for social media, (my first partnership of the year, and a very meaningful one!) but I wanted to include it here as well to fill in today's gap and provide more interesting content that you may like :)

I was on the ground in Washington DC along with business leaders from 80 top companies having over 100 meetings to build pressure on lawmakers to protect crucial energy tax credits in their upcoming budget, something that has vocal bipartisan support and a real chance of working... If you wanna learn more, check it out!

Bonus!

🚘 Earthjustice is suing to keep NYC's congestion pricing (a plan that will generate billions of dollar for public transit upgrades) in place.

📸 The Underwater Photographer of the Year Awards will be the best pictures you've seen all week.

🌚 There's a new, private spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

🔋 Alabama retired a coal power plant and is turning it into a giant battery.

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This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. 900,000+ people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com.